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Note: Where was Mary Haight Leggett buried? We had thought Mary had been buried in the Leggett cemetery on Hunt's Point, and had engraved her name on the stone we placed there in 2001. This was a reasonable conclusion, as there was and is such an old cemetery there to this day, now known as Joseph Rodman Drake Park, and early landowners generally had family cemeteries. Later discovered documents show this to have been apparently incorrect, as her 1804 obituary clearly states that her remains were interred in the Friends Burying Ground. The location of publication is noted as New York.
Which such burying ground is intended? As noted below, Find-a-Grave thinks it is the one at the Flushing Meeting House. As of 2018, the Flushing Meeting House website does not list Mary Haight Leggett as being buried there. But she and Thomas Leggett were married there in 1781, as this was the Quaker congregation where the Haights were members, and one could customarily expect a marriage to take place in the congregation of the bride's parents.
The list of names on the website is termed a partial one. I am not sure if it is based only on a survey of the extant stones, or, as I suspect, a consultation with the written record of the Friends, as they were known to keep meticulous records, which if not subsequently destroyed, are valuable to us today. Another factor complicating this question is that the early Quakers did not use gravestones, as they thought them vain. Mary Haight Leggett likely never had a stone, as she died in 1804, long before Quakers became sufficiently "worldly" to start using them. The website contains names and death years, but the earliest death date is 1817, and the next oldest date is 1831 for several. Most are much later. So maybe it's just a listing of stones or family records?
But the nearest such cemetery to the Leggett estate in West Farms would have been the one now a part of the property of St. Peter's, Westchester, now in the Bronx, where Thomas himself is buried. But at the time, there were of course also Quaker cemeteries in Manhattan, and, at that time, New York meant Manhattan only.
Thomas Leggett married his second wife, Mary Underhill, in 1808 at the Westbury Friends Meeting House at Matinecock, well to the east of Flushing, as that is evidently where her parents were members. Thomas died in 1843 and was buried in the Westchester Meeting House cemetery close to home, where we saw his small marble stone, and supplemented it in 2001 with a large flat granite stone before the elements rendered the old one illegible.
One could explain differing burial locations for married couples if deaths occurred far apart in time and second marriages intervened. But one would think that reasonably contemporaneous deaths without any subsequent remarriages would result in married couples being buried together, but when Mary died just six years later in 1849, she was buried in the Quaker cemetery in Saratoga, where the sandstone marker is visible to this day.
<b>The Graveyard at Flushing Meeting House
137-16 Northern Boulevard
</b>Flushing, New York 11354
<b>Dear Visitor: We have a new website! Please click below to visit
www.flushingfriends.org.
And welcome!
</b>In 1676, before the Meeting House was built, John Bowne donated land and arranged for a burial ground on Northern Boulevard. The Meeting House was built on land purchased adjacent to the graveyard in 1694. Today, after a great deal of expense and volunteer effort, the graveyard is cleared and blooms with indigenous flowers and bushes. Old elm trees and oaks shade the perimeter and help set the quiet garden apart from its bustling neighbors. It is a startlingly beautiful, peaceful place in the midst of downtown Flushing, and it is a perfect place to remember the Quakers who lived here before us, and who lived such extraordinary lives.
The early Quakers did not use headstones and so it is difficult to say who was buried in the Meeting House graveyard before 1820. It is believed that John Bowne is buried here, as the Bowne family plot is in the graveyard, but there is no existent headstone marking his grave. When Quakers did begin using headstones, they were often small and plain with no more than a name or initials on it. Many of these small stones have sunk into the earth or shifted out of position over the years. At least one stone was stolen.
A number of prominent early Quakers are buried here. Noted abolitionists William Burling and Matthew Franklin are here, as is Samuel Leggett. Leggett, the founder of The New York Gas Light Company, was granted the first franchise to lay underground gas pipes in New York City, and his home was the first house in New York to be lit by gas lights. John Murray, Jr., known for his benevolence and as one of the founders of the Free School Society and The Society for the Manumission of Slaves, is buried here. A number of families prominent in Long Island history have plots here, including the Hicks, Farrington and Lawrence families. All burial records for Flushing Meeting are now at Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends.
When the graveyard was closed at the end of the 19th century, Flushing Meeting bought one of the original plots at the Flushing Cemetery on 46th Avenue, and since that time Flushing Meeting members may be buried there.
The following is a partial listing of the individuals recorded buried in the Meeting House graveyard:
James Edwin Andrews died 1839
Nathaniel Weeks Andrews died 1842
White D. Andrews died 1839
William Henry Andrews died 1837
C.L.B. & R.L.B
F.C.E.W. Bank
Fannie Bassett, died 1885
Benj. C.B. (Probably Bowne)
Catherine Bowne, died 1848
Charles Bowne
Cornell Bowne, died 1864
Eliza F. Bowne, died 1870
Hannah Bowne
Hannah H. Bowne
Isaac W. Bowne
John W. Bowne
Philip Bowne
Samuel Bowne
Scott H. Bowne
Willett Bowne
Catharine Browne, died 1843
James and Elizabeth Byrd, died 1842
Phebe Byrd, died 1864
Samuell B. Byrd, died 1863
Elizabeth Chapman, died 1838
William B. Clement, died 1855
Susan W. Cock, died 1872
Sarah Cook, died 1863
William E. Cook, died 1868
Captain Leonard Dove, died 1848
Carrie Embree, died 1860
Deborah L. Embree, died 1821
John L. Embree, died 1850
ABA(rm) Farrington, died 1838
Maria Farrington, died 1857
Mary Farrington, died 1831
Walter Farrington
Joseph Fitch, died 1868
Anthony Franklin, died 1854
John L. Franklin, died 1863
Lydia Franklin, died 1837
Richard Franklin, died 1835
Mary Gilmore, died 1838
Edward Jenner
Elizabeth Jenner
Laura Hammond, died 1865
Anna D. Hicks, died 1891
Caroline Hicks
Charles Hicks
Elizabeth Hicks
Sarah T. Hicks, died 1874
Silas Hicks, died 1861
Scott Hicks
Elizabeth Jackson, died 1869
Lydia C. Kimber, died 1829
Joshua Kimber, died 1856
Rachel J. Kimber, died 1885
William C. Kimber, died 1827
Thomas King, died 1888
Margaret Kissam, died 1886
A.L., died 1843
Deborah Ann Lawrence, died 1886
Elizabeth W. Lawrence, died 1852
Esther Lawrence, died 1847
Gilbert Lawrence, died 1870
Harriet Lawrence & H.L.B.
Robert Lawrence, died 1847
William Lawrence, died 1893
Ann F. Leggett, died 1833
Caroline Leggett, died 1853
Elizabeth Leggett, died 1849
Margarete Leggett, died 1831
Margaret Leggett, died 1851
Samuel Leggett, died 1847
Thomas Leggett, died 1865
Elizabeth (Fowler) Lowerre, died 1844
Giles H. Lowerre, died 1850
John Lowerre, died 1831
Lewis Lowerre, died 1846
Hannah Matlock, died 1886
Timothy Matlock, died 1845
Henry Mitchell, died 1843
W.T.P.
Josiah Paine, died 1849
Adelia Pearsall, died 1839
Adeline Pearsall, died 1843
Catharine E. Pearsall, died 1837
Jacob Pearsall, died 1846
Mary E. Pearsall, died 1840
Sam... Persall, died 1841
Abigail Pinkham, died 1861
Juliett Powell, died 1856
Susan A. Powell, died 1863
George W. Quinby
Lydia F. Smart, died 1840
Abigail Smith, died 1843
Nathaniel Smith, died 1835
Alice Titus, died 1842
Elizabeth Titus, died 1856
Michael Titus, died 1837
Michael A. Titus, died 1859
Phebe L. Titus, died 1882
William L. Titus, died 1859
Abigail E. Thurston, died 1851
William R. Thurston, died 1855
Edward O. Townsend, died 1864
Louisa Tucker died 1841
Lewis Underhill
S.L.W. died 1848
Catherine J. White, died 1872
Jane White, died 1866
John White, died 1844
Abraham Whitson, died 1857
Ann Whitson, died 1869
Eugene Whitson, died 1867
Mary Whitson, died 1865
Sarah P. Whitson, died 1865
Thomas Whitson, died 1846
Abegail L. Willets, died 1865
Ann P. Willets, died 1851
Elizabeth T. Wines, died 1864
Edward S. Wines, died 1863
Jane L. Wines, died 1865
John Wines, died 1869
Robert S. Wines, died 1861
Amelia Wright, died 1863
Catharine Wright, died 1848
Caroline E. Wright, died 1864
D.D. Wright, died 1841
James B. Wright, died 1879
John D. Wright, died 1879
Jordan Wright, died 1837
Mary B. Wright, died 1843
Phebe C. Wright, died 1816
Rebecca Wright and her son Robert
What are the characteristics of a Friends' Meetinghouse? Comfort, quietness, simplicity. ... How does memory carry me back to those houses of Friends, nestled near a piece of woods, showing a love of the beautiful and useful combined; and those noble trees that were of the primeval forest when the country was settled. How they awaken thoughts of the bygone days, when the fathers walked or stood under their shade, and gave each other the kindly greetings that Friends so truly give.
<i>Isaiah Hicks
</i>Old Westbury
The Old Quaker Meeting House has been used by the Flushing Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends as a house of worship for over 300 years. The house remains today much as when it was first built, with dark, warm floorboards, simple benches and hand-hewn timber ceiling beams. To step across the threshold is to leave the present behind and to enter a profoundly sacred space seasoned by centuries of devotion. To those who visit, the Meeting House is a peaceful reminder of an eventful and historic past.
Built in 1694 by John Bowne and other early Quakers, the Old Quaker Meeting House is, by all known accounts, the oldest house of worship in New York State and the second oldest Quaker meeting house in the nation. Visitors to the Meeting House have included George Washington, John Woolman and William Penn. The Meeting House is recognized as a rare example of ecclesiastical architecture and as a monument to an important event in the struggle for religious freedom in America, the Flushing Remonstrance, a document which is perhaps the earliest demand for religious freedom in America. The Meeting House also saw the beginnings of the abolitionist movement and the first school in Flushing. (For a more complete description of the Flushing Remonstrance and other important historical events, <i>see</i> Flushing Monthly Meeting History on this Web site.)
The Landmarks Preservation Commission described the Meeting House as "a prime example of medieval survival in its proportions and framing system. It is a plain rectangular building erected on a frame of forty-foot oak timbers, each hand hewn from a single tree. The architectural interest of the building is derived mainly from its unusually steep hipped roof; the roof is almost as high as the two stories below it. This feature can be traced to the high steep roofs of medieval Holland….it stands today as a reminder of New York City's earliest years and of the important contribution to the City made by the Society of Friends." In its 1970 National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings, the National Park Service wrote: " The Old Quaker Meeting House …is the only surviving example in New York State of a typical 17th century ecclesiastical frame structure of medieval design."
A lovely graveyard planted with indigenous trees and flowers is part of the Meeting House's grounds. Although it is no longer used for interments, the burial ground is the final resting place for individuals and families who were prominent in Long Island history, including John Bowne and his family, the Leggett, Hicks and Wright families. (<i>See</i> Historic Graveyard.)
A National Historic Landmark and an Individual New York City Landmark, the Old Quaker Meeting House is also listed on the National Register of Historical Places.
In addition to meetings for worship every Sunday at 11:00 a.m., the Meeting House is open every Sunday from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. for tours. All are welcome. Group tours can be scheduled for other days by appointment. The Meeting House is a popular stop along Flushing's Freedom Mile and is visited by tourists, school children and Quakers from all over the world.
Here, in midst of the ambitious and rapidly growing business district of Flushing, the Meeting House stands as a peaceful reminder that there is more to strive for than wealth and fame. For 300 years, Flushing Meeting members have made history struggling against religious intolerance, slavery, injustice and violence. And here Flushing Meeting continues to work, hope, and pray for a peaceful, just world.
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From a handwritten family history by E. Howard Leggett, New York Oct 2nd 1889:
Copy of the obituary of Mary (Haight) Leggett:
On Monday evening last, after a short but severe illness "Mrs. Mary Leggett, wife of Thomas Leggett, Merchant of this City; on the day following a numerous concourse of relatives and friends with unfeigned anguish, attended her remains to Friends Burying Ground. To say that in the different relations of Wife, Mother and friend she was conspicuous for conjugal affection, maternal kindness and sincere friendship will be doing of but impartial justice to this excellent woman. She has left a husband and eight children to lament her irreparable loss; Time, which wears out the traces of the deepest anguish, will pass over them in vain; the recollection of such a Wife and such a Mother must, while life remains, call forth the tears of regret. New-York
December 1st 1804
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Unbelievable, but the estate of Thomas Leggett, the administration of which was undertaken upon his death in 1843, was still producing court action in 1956!:
_______________________________________________________________________
CITATION
_______________________________________________________________________
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, FREE AND INDEPENDENT.
TO: Sanford D. Foote, as Executor under the Last Will and Testament of Margaret L. Foote, deceased, Sarah R. Belden, Fannie M. Porter, Anna L. Paine, Mary L. Briggs, Margaret L. Bingham, Edward D. Thurston, Jr., Edward D. Thurston, as executors under the Last Will and Testament of Sarah L. Thurston, deceased, Laura L. Leggett, Margaret W. Leggett, Kate S. Leggett, Isabel W. White, Susan B. Shirley, Anna E. Legget, Lester Leggett, Susan B. L. Martin, Edward H. Leggett, Clinton H. Leggett, Florence H. Leggett, Kate B. Leggett, as Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of William T. Leggett, deceased, Mortimer A. Leggett, John W. Leggett, Fred C. Leggett, Lucille L. Howell, Augustus W. Leggett, Margaret L. Ives, Anna S. Randall, Adolph Barthel, James Whittemore, as Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Augusta Pease, deceased, Addie V. Leggett, Edward C. Smith, as Executor of the Last Will and Testament Ada L. Smith, deceased, Deborah W. Gafill, Hattie W. Utter, Elizabeth Leggett, Thomas L. Sturtevant, Robert S. Sturtevant, Harriett S. Everitt, Thomas J. Sturtevant, Martin L. Hoffman, Emily H. Leakin, Virginia H. Gerrard, Sarah M. Tiffany, as Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of Lyman Tiffany, deceased, Columbia Trust Company, as Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Henry D. Tiffany, deceased, Clarence M. Trowbridge, Warner B. Matteson, Guion Trowbridge, as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Charlotte M. Trowbridge, deceased, Benjamin M. Tucker, Charles L. Perry, Lyman Perry, Estelle T. Moore, Francis T. Perry, Egbert P. Perry, Arthur C. Perry, Reginald Perry, Mary M. Tilton, Thomas L. Moore, George H. Moore, Frederick P. Moore, Frederick P. Moore, as Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Mary L. Parsons, Margaret C. Bancroft, Robert H. Brooke and George H. Brooke, as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Caroline L. Brooke, Anna F. Nesbit, Frederick L. Thomas, Helen L. Hallowell, Ernest F. Tucker, Austen G. Fox, Rebecca F. Riggs, Central Union Trust Co., as Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Anna M. Schell, Lawrence Atterbury, as Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Charlotte P. Walker, George H. Church, and Farmers Loan & Trust Co., as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Paul S. Pearsall, Chester Thorne, Oakleigh Thorne, Harold W. Thorne, Bertha G. Barker, Franklin M. Ring, Dorothea Leggett, Grace Sturtevant, Chester Thorne and Oakleigh Thorne, as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Thomas P. Thorne, deceased, and Blanche I. Whittemore, if living and competent; if not living, or not competent, their heirs, executors, administrators, successors, assigns, legal representatives, committees or guardians, as the case may be.
Attorney-General of the State of New York.
SEND GREETING. Upon the petition of THE CHASE MANHATTAN BANK, a banking corporation having its principal place of business at No. 11 Broad Street, in the Borough of Manhattan, City County and State of New York. You and each of you are hereby cited to show cause before our said Surrogate's Court of the County of Westchester, at the Surrogate's office in the City of White Plains, on the 30th day of October 1956, at 10:30 o'clock in the forenoon of that day, why a judicial settlement should not be had of the account of THE CHASE MANHATTAN BANK, the above named petitioner, as Substituted Trustee under the Last Will and Testament of THOMAS LEGGETT, deceased, who, at the time of his death, resided at West Farms, County of Westchester and State of New York.
Dated, Attested and Sealed Sept. 13th 1956. Hon. Samuel Faile, Surrogate, Westchester County. L. S. James S. May Clerk.
9*-19, 26
10*-3, 10-1956 W-16
From an unknown publication. Transcribed on 27 February 2003 by David John Leggett, b. 1961, the 4th great grandson of Thomas Leggett, 1755-1843.
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FROM THE 2000-2002 NEW YORK CITY LEGGETT TOMBSTONE PROJECT
Six granite markers placed by David John Leggett and John Milton Leggett:
I. AT THE OCTAVE OF ALL SAINTS':
Four 2' x 3' x 4" gravestones in the Bronx, the first one in Drake Park, the next two in St. Peter's Church Yard, Westchester, the last in the William H. Leggett Plot, Woodlawn Cemetery, were placed in November 2001, the one in Woodlawn on the 5th, and the remaining three on the 6th;
II. ON CHRISTMAS EVE:
2. Two smaller reference stones (1' x 2' x4") in the Pittsburgh area, the first in the William T. Leggett / Corbett Plot, Homewood Cemetery, the last in the Joseph Baltzell Showalter / Leggett Plot, North Cemetery, Butler, were placed on the 24th of December, referring to the New York City stones and to each other.
Following is the inscription on the Drake Park stone, which is placed by the eroded marble obelisk marking the graves of the Ebenezer Leggett family, the only legible Leggett stone as of 2001:
LEGGETT
OF ELY, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND
AND WEST FARMS (BRONX), NEW YORK.
IN MEMORY OF
GABRIEL LEGGETT, 1637 - 1700,
WHO CAME TO AMERICA IN 1661; HIS WIFE,
ELIZABETH RICHARDSON, c. 1656 - 1724,
AND THEIR KINDRED, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN,
BURIED HERE, INCLUDING THREE SONS:
JOHN, 1677 - 1707, CICILY HUNT, d. 1732,
HIS WIFE, AND THEIR DESCENDANTS, INCLUDING SON:
JOHN, 1700/1 - 1777; HIS WIFE, ANNA HUNT, AND SON:
JOHN, 1742 - 1780; HIS WIFE, MARY HAVILAND, AND SON:
EBENEZER, 1763 - 1833; HIS WIFE, MARY, 1769 - 1851,
AND THEIR THREE CHILDREN:
CORNELIA, 1792 - 1820, NANCY, 1794 - 1852, AND
ROBERT, 1797 - 1816.
THOMAS, 1678 - 1707/8.
GABRIEL, 1698 - 1786, BRIDGET WILLIAMS,
HIS FIRST WIFE, AND THEIR DESCENDANTS, INCLUDING SON:
THOMAS, b. 1721; HIS WIFE, MARY EMBREE, b. 1723, AND FIRST
WIFE OF THEIR SON THOMAS, 1755-1843, MARY HAIGHT, 1762-1804.
THIS LINEAGE CONTINUES AT ST. PETER’S, WESTCHESTER,
THEN WOODLAWN CEMETERY, L. 522-523, S. 9, SPRING LAKE.
THE NEARBY GRAVES OF FOURTH SON, WILLIAM, 1691-1763,
AND HIS FAMILY, WERE REMOVED TO ST. PETER’S, 1891.
A. D. 2001, J. M. L. +
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St. Peter's Episcopal Church
Westchester Square
2500 Westchester Avenue - Bronx
St. Peter¹s Episcopal Church was founded in 1693 in the Village of Westchester. The grand English Gothic edifice it now inhabits is the third building to occupy the site. It was built in 1853 by Leopold Eidlitz, a Czech architect known best for the old Metropolitan Opera and St. George¹s Episcopal Church on Stuyvesant Square. The nave peaks at seventy-five feet above the floor and is complete with transepts. The church, with its several acres of cemetery and detached chapel, is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The copper-spired bell tower contains a ten-bell chime by the Meneeley Bell Company of Troy, New York.
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THOMAS HICKS
Portraits of Thomas Leggett (1755-1843) and his second wife
Mary Underhill (1770-1849), oil on canvas, 1843.
New York Historical Society's
Dictionary on Artists in America, 1564-1860, by Groce and Wallace:
Born 18 October 1828, in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, died 8 October 1890, in Trenton, New Jersey.
First cousin of Edward Hicks, (1780-1849), who gave him his first instruction in painting.
studied in France, painted first portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
Portrait of a T. Leggett is on record, National Museum of American Art, 202-357-1886, 8 Feb 1996.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Mccurdy [mailto:kalamc@ameritech.net]
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:53 PM
To: Leggett, David
Subject: Another interesting article
Thought you might like to see this as well
Kathy & Larry
Title: Westchester County, New York: biographical
Authors: Spooner, W. W.
Publisher: New York History Co., New York 1900 pages 195-198 - William Woolley Fox, one of the most conspicuous New York merchants and citizens of his time, was born in New York City September 26, 1783, and died at his residence in West Farms (then a portion of this county) March 1, 1861. By his marriage to Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Leggett, of West Farms, and by individual purchase, he became the owner of a portion of the Leggett estate. Mrs. Fox was a direct descendant of John Richardson, one of the original patentees (1666) of West Farms; and the estate of her father which her husband, Mr. Fox, acquired, was a portion of the ancient Richardson lands. More over, a part of this Leggett and Fox estate still continues in the possession and occupancy of a descendant of John Richardson-Mr. Henry D. Tiffany, grandson of William W. and Charlotte (Leggett) Fox. Thus, for nearly two and a half centuries, the descendants of the original West harms patentee, Richardson, have continued as proprietors and residents of ancestral lands. As this is a circumstance of interest in the local annuals of a section where old associations are rapidly passing away a brief history of the Leggett estate may appropriately precede our biographical notice of William W. Fox.
The West Farms patent was confirmed on the 25th of April, 1666, to Edward Jessup and John Richardson, by Richard Nicolls, the first English governor of the Province of New York. In the letters-patent it was stated that the two grantees had previously satisfied the original Indian owners by regular purchase, these documents being still in existence. The West Farms lands, like the Eastchester patent and the borough Town of Westchester, were never erected into a hereditary manor, but were parceled out to the various heirs of the first proprietors, and gradually transmitted to numerous descendants or sold to strangers. The continued existence at the present day of a considerable landed ownership in the hands of a direct descendant of one of the patentees is on this account even more a matter of interest.
John Richardson left two sons and three daughters. One of the daughters, Elizabeth, married Gabriel Leggett, who emigrated to this country from England, about 1661. By the right of his wife he became possessed of a large portion of what was then known as the Great Planting Neck, a part of which was subsequently called Leggett's Point, and is now called Oak Point. One section of this property (lot No. 11 of the original West Farms subdivision) passed uninterruptedly to 'Charlotte Leggett, the wife of William W. Fox.
Thomas 'Leggett, of the fourth generation from Gabriel, was the father-in-law of Mr. Fox. He was a man of mark, both in West Farms and New York City. He added very largely to his individual inheritance by the purchase from Ebenezer Leggett of the whole of lot No. 9 of the original subdivision, by purchases of adjacent portions of the old Manor of Morrisania, and by other acquisitions. His estate in West Farms and Westchester ultimately comprised more than a thousand acres. He also had a city house, at No. 308 Pearl Street, and when he came up to his country place he used to make the trip by sloop to his own dock on Leggett's Creek. He was engaged in the wholesale dry goods and importing business in New York, and few New York merchants of his day were more successful or respected. He was noted for activity, energy, and fearlessness of character. Soon after the breaking out of the Revolution, his father being known as an ardent supporter of the patriot cause, the family were driven from their home by the British. Thomas was at that time a youth. He went to Saratoga, where his father had lands, and there he was taken captive by the Indian allies of Burgoyne, but escaped with a companion, swam the Hudson River, and after many hardships returned to his home. He died October 10, 1843.
Charlotte Leggett, his eldest daughter, was married to William W. Fox on the 9th of June, 1808. He built, as his country place, the residence now called Foxhurst, which is occupied by his grandson, Henry D. Tiffany, at the intersection of Westchester Avenue and the West Farms Road, the junction of these roads having been called Fox's Corners since the old hunting days of the de Lancey hounds. The Southern Boulevard afterward was cut through. The house was completed in 1840.
William W. Fox, although born in New York, was descended from Philadelphia ancestors who belonged to a collateral branch of the family of the founder of the Society of Friends. Mr. Fox inherited the principles of his forefathers, and throughout his life was a consistent member of the sect. He built for the use of the society a meeting-house in Westchester village.
At an early age he engaged in business occupations. He bought a small sailboat, with which he used to meet incoming vessels, and, making purchases from their cargoes, sold the goods in the city be-fore the ships could be unloaded. Later he established with John K. Townsend the dry goods firm of Townsend & Fox; and after the death of Mr. Townsend he went into partnership with his father-in-law, Thomas Leggett, under the firm name of Leggett, Fox & Co. From his mercantile enterprises he built up a very ample fortune.
Mr. Fox is perhaps best remembered from his connection with the early use of illuminating gas in New York City. To his brother-in-law, Samuel Leggett, belongs the credit of taking the first steps toward lighting the city with gas; but it was Mr. Fox who put the project on a practical basis and carried it to complete success. Samuel Leggett, conceiving a strong interest in the new English method of lighting, went to London and made a thorough study of the subject. Returning to New York, he undertook to put the knowledge thus obtained to substantial use, and began the manufacture of gas in a small way. As an object lesson of its advantages he introduced it in his own house, No. 3 Cherry Street, and the novel illumination was a matter of much public curiosity.
After the organization of the New York Gas Light Company, in 1829, Mr. Fox took hold of the matter. The enterprise was by no means a promising one, but by able and economical management Mr. Fox made it eventually so successful that at the time of his death in 1861 a surplus of more than a million dollars had been accumulated. He had a keen prevision of the enormous future growth of the city, and he practiced the greatest prudence in the direction of the company in order that it might be at all times able to follow the progress of population northward without calling on the capital.
Mr. Fox was one of the five original commissioners appointed by Governor Marcy, in 1833, to solve the long-debated question of establishing a water-supply system for the City of New York adequate to the needs of future generations. Previous to that time various plans had been discussed, and although the best expert - opinion favored the selection of the Croton River as the source of supply, the matter was far from settled even in its elementary phase. Mr. Fox was one of the most indefatigable members of the commission, on which he served throughout its whole period of existence, some seven years. Before consenting to sign the report of the commission, handing over the Croton Aqueduct to the city, he traversed the entire length of the aqueduct, over forty miles, making a.. careful inspection of every portion of it. His name is engraved on the High Bridge, as well as on the tablet at the entrance of the " distributing reservoir " at Fifth Avenue and Fortieth Street, now being torn down in the march of improvement, commemorating the men to whom the city is indebted for this immortal work.
He was one of the founders of the New York House of Refuge, and was for many years one of the ten governors of that institution.
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Found online, 16 February 2006, DJL:
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles14/new-york-67.shtml
Slave Burials In New York
( Originally Published 1921 )
Directly on the line of Tenth Avenue near its junction with 212th Street in the fields of Inwood about thirty rude stones may be seen projecting a few inches above the sod. These stones are partly enclosed by a semi-circle of wild pear trees which have been permitted to grow and furnish shade for the cattle which represent Manhattan Island's last herd. The regularity with which these stones have been placed is not at first apparent, and a careless observer might easily pass them with-out notice; indeed, few residents of Inwood know of their existence ; yet they mark human graves—and real slave graves at that. Within a stone's throw of this burial place is another where lie the masters of these poor blacks. It was a custom, more forcible than law—though laws there were, too—that the servant could not be consigned to consecrated ground. For further proof of this one need only stroll out the Hunt's Point Road to where that thoroughfare first reaches the Sound, and there where rest other ancient lords and masters of the soil in the "Hunt and Legget burial ground" may be seen the usual adjunct—a slave plot—just across the roadway.
By a singular coincidence these two reminders of slavery days in New York are most inappropriately situated. The fields of Inwood encircled by the surrounding heights are like a vast amphitheater in whose arena was fought one of the most disastrous battles in the struggle for American Independence. The human chattels interred subsequently in the blood-bought soil were not the property of Loyalists. There is quite a touch of irony in the fact that in the Hunt's Point burial plot, which excluded the sable representatives of our race, rests Joseph Rodman Drake, one of freedom's best friends.
The Hunts and Leggets, for whom the little cemetery at Hunt's Point is named, were descended from the Jessups and Richardsons, the original patentees of the country thereabouts. To the present representatives of these old families one must go to obtain what little information of a positive character there is concerning the occupants of the slave plot at Hunt's Point.
Mr. Henry D. Tiffany, who resides at "Foxhurst" at the junction of the Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue, is the son of Mary L. Fox, whose mother was Charlotte Legget, who was descended from John Richardson, the original patentee of Hunt's Point—or the planting neck of West Farms, as the point was known in Colonial times. Mr. Tiffany's mother, who died in 1897, had a clear recollection of the last black interred in the slave plot. This was an old negress named "Aunt Rose." She had formerly been a slave in the Legget family, but she and her children had been manumitted. Aunt Rose was something of a character in her way and a memory of her has consequently survived to the present time in Mr. Tiffany's family. She was buried in the slave plot some time away back in the forties.
Slavery in New York was the subject of much legislation in old times, and the laws in relation to the burial of slaves were strictly enforced. Some of these laws were peculiar. In 1684 the burial of slaves was first legislated upon. The private burial of a slave by his master was forbidden, and a citizen of Albany who interred his slave in a "private and suspicious manner" was fined 12 shillings. The object of this law was of course to prevent the concealment of a murder, either by or at the instigation of his master.
Thirty-eight years later the Corporation of New York ordered that all Negro and Indian slaves dying within the city should be buried by daylight. The penalty for infraction of this law was ten shillings, to be paid by the masters or owners. Under the laws of 1731 not more than twelve slaves were to attend a funeral, under penalty of being publicly whipped, unless the master pay a fine of 12 shillings. No pall, gloves or favors were to be used. A slave who had held a pall, or wore gloves or favors, was to be publicly whipped. The object of these laws was to prevent conspiracy and sedition. The two things which New Yorkers dreaded most apparently were fires and slave insurrections. By an ordinance passed March 10th, 1712, all slaves, whether Negro or Indian, were forbidden to appear in the streets an hour after sunset. Statistics prove that from 1698 to the Revolution the slaves stood to freemen in the proportion of only one to seven.
The marriage of slaves was made legal in 1813. One or other of the parties might be free, but the children followed the condition of the mother. Those familiar with the dusky "hot corn" vender of the present time will be interested to know that by an ordinance passed 160 years ago, blacks were forbidden to sell boiled Indian corn on the streets of New York.
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<b>Mary <i>Haight</i> Leggett
</b>Birth 2 Feb 1762 Philipse Manor, Westchester County, New York, USA
Death 26 Nov 1804 (aged 42) New York, USA
Burial Quaker Meeting House Cemetery Flushing, Queens County, New York, USA
Memorial ID 33907013
Obituary
On Monday evening last, after a short but severe illness "Mrs. Mary Leggett, wife of Thomas Leggett, Merchant of this City; on the day following a numerous concourse of relatives and friends with unfeigned anguish, attended her remains to Friends Burying Ground. To say that in the different relations of Wife, Mother and friend she was conspicuous for conjugal affection, maternal kindness and sincere friendship will be doing of but impartial justice to this excellent woman. She has left a… Read More husband and eight children to lament her irreparable loss; Time, which wears out the traces of the deepest anguish, will pass over them in vain; the recollection of such a Wife and such a Mother must, while life remains, call forth the tears of regret. New-York.
December 1st 1804
Mary Haight was the ninth child eleven children born to Samuel Haight (1720-1808) and Rebecca Fowler.
Mary married Thomas Leggett on 06 May 1781 in Phillipse Manor, Mt Pleasant, Westchester, New York, son of Thomas Leggett and Mary Embree. Mary and Thomas had eleven children.
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