from the premature explosion of the priming of a cannon. Owing to these
military services he enjoyed and cherished a high reputation for bravery
and loyalty.

He was a descendant of a family of that name, who came to England with
William the Conqueror--and settled under grants from the crown in
Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire--three separate branches of the family
having received the honor of knighthood for their military services.

In the reign of George the Second, consequently after 1727, he embarked
at Liverpool in a detachment of veteran troops, intended to act against
Canada. He was present in the operations connected with the building of
Forts Anne and Edwards, on the North River, and Fort William Henry on
Lake George.

At the conclusion of these campaigns he settled in Albany county, N.Y.,
which has continued to be the residence of the family for more than a
century. Being a man of education, he at first devoted himself to the
business of a land surveyor, in which capacity he was employed by Col.
Vroman, to survey the boundaries of his tract of land in the then
frontier settlement of Schoharie. At the latter place he married the
only daughter and child of Christian Camerer, one of the Palatines--a
body of determined Saxons who had emigrated from the Upper Rhine in
1712, under the assurance or expectation of a patent from Queen Anne.[1]
this marriage he had eight children--namely, James, Christian, John,
Margaret, Elizabeth, Lawrence, William, and Helen.

[Footnote 1: Simms' Schoharie.]

For many years during his old age, he conducted a large school in this