Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Botanical Ancestry: Longwood Gardens
Some time ago I learned that I was tangentially connected with the Quaker Gentlemen who began an arboretum at their property which would eventually become Longwood Gardens. Just today, I learned that the house of the ancestor who connects me to these two men is up for sale. I merely need to acquire $12 million dollars to buy it.
If you're not interested in genealogy, you may want to stop reading right here. This is going to get messy.
I'm fortunate to have as my 9th great-grandfather a man named George Smedley. He emigrated to the United States about 1682. Much of my information about him and his descendants comes from a book - The Genealogy of the Smedley Family written by the esteemed Gilbert Cope and commissioned by Samuel Smedley. I normally would be suspicious of the information in a book of this type, but Gilbert Cope was a thorough and tireless researcher of the history of Chester County, Pennsylvania. I trust him. Much of the information in the book has been placed online by Lew Smedley.
George Smedley, the immigrant ancestor, had a grandson named George Smedley. (I told you this would get messy.) This grandson married a woman named Patience Mercer. It is their property that's currently up for sale. Patience Mercer was the daughter of Thomas Mercer Jr. and Hannah Taylor. Patience's aunt (sister of her father) was Ann Mercer, who married Joshua Peirce (yes, that's how they spelled it). Apparently Ann died before 1722, when Joshua Peirce was married to Rachel Gilpin. Joshua Peirce and Rachel Gilpin are the grandparents of Joshua Peirce and Samuel Peirce, the twin brothers who began planting at the future Longwood Gardens. So, sad to say, I'm not directly related to them, but I am distantly related to their half-aunts and half-uncles.
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| Joshua Peirce, twin brother to Samuel Peirce |
The Peirce-du Pont House at Longwood Gardens was built by the elder Joshua Peirce in 1730. Joshua first built a log cabin on the property sometime after 1709, and presumably that was where Ann Mercer and he lived. The brick house replaced the log cabin. I had no idea of my connection to the Peirces the last time I visited Longwood Gardens and have never toured the house. That must be remedied!
According to Tulip Trees and Quaker Gentlemen, a short book on the history of Longwood Gardens, a cousin of Joshua and Samuel Peirce, also named Joshua Peirce, was a nurseryman and collector of camellias at Linnaean Hill in Maryland. A bit of further online research this morning reveals that this was in present-day Washington DC, and that this Joshua Peirce's nursery supplied trees and shrubs to the growing capital. This is how it goes in studying family history - one thing leads to another and hours vanish.
Note 1: A lot of what I've just written here wouldn't pass genealogical scrutiny because I've relied on second-hand sources and haven't documented them except with links. I feel fairly confident that the information here is correct, but can't prove it. One of these days when I have a lot of free time...
Update, Note 2: I ought to have mentioned that Ann Mercer, the first wife of Joshua Peirce, was my 8th great-grandaunt, according to my genealogy database program. Patience Mercer, her niece, is my 7th great-grandmother. Thomas Mercer, their common ancestor and mine, is my 9th great grandfather.
Labels: genealogy, public gardens
8 Comments:
I have a cousin who has researched the maternal side of the family...she doesn't like to share the info! It makes me wonder what she has uncovered! It would be cool to discover my ancestors in County Cork from my paternal grandmother! Is this a long standing hobby of yours?
Gail
I love all this stuff, Entangled! My own researches only go back to the mid-1800's or early 1900's. I try to track down the lateral descendants from big immigrant families with lots of half-sisters and half-brothers - nothing like your connection to Longwood Gardens!
Although one uncle by marriage was a distant relative of Frederick Law Olmsted...think Central Park is for sale?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Gail: One of my great-aunts started off a genealogy discussion with me by saying that she "once knew some people who did this and they found out things they didn't want to know". She did go on to give us lots of information and pictures, but no scandal stories ;-) I've been lucky that most of my relatives are happy to share info.
I started researching in 1990, when I had a lot of free time. Would love to have Irish ancestors, but the closest I have are some English folks who went to northern Ireland (touchy subject).
Annie: We've frequently found clues to earlier generations through contact with other descendants. It seems that lots of family artifacts and stories flow through mother-daughter connections. The daughters seem more interested than the sons in preserving things that belonged to their mothers and grandmothers.
I'm really lucky to have some Quaker ancestors. They kept very good records, and have attracted a lot of research attention over the years. But most of my ancestors were 19th century immigrants from Germany, Poland, and Denmark.
Owning Central Park would be really nice...
Oh, I've been a bad blogger--sorry I've been away so long! Followed your pepper saga--did you salvage some of the peppers from the broken freezer? Anyway, my dad was trying to trace his dad's family (also from Cork, Gail, or so we hear), but we lost track at Ellis Island--and my last name is as common in Ireland as, say, Brown might be here. Sorry I've been away so long--I love following your exploits at Tangled Branches North and South. Best, Cosmo
No Dutch ancestors? ;-) I enjoyed reading your family history. It seems that an interest in growing things runs through your family. It's a great hobby tracing ancestors and it's amazing what you can find out.
What pleasant surprise. Johua Peirce is my 8th Grandfather.
I've visited Longwood Gardens - such a wonder place - and walking through Peirce's Grove was a nice connection with the past of my family.
Hi "entangled",
I'm an academic physician (formerly at Harvard and Stanford) who found your blog while looking for the best health writers. I think your writing is great! I would like to feature you in the Gardening Community on Wellsphere, a top 10 health website that has well over 2 million visitors monthly.
If you would like to learn more, just drop me an email to Dr.Rutledge@wellsphere.com
Cosmo: I'm running behind on blog-reading too - no need to apologize. I tossed all the peppers that thawed when the fridge quit, but fortunately had some stashed in another freezer. We won't be completely pepperless this winter, just not as many as I thought I'd have.
Yolanda: No Dutch ancestors that I know of (yet), but I've always wondered about my Wertmans. That sounds very close to Voortman, which I think is Dutch? Anyhow, I can't even connect my Wertmans with the other well-documented Pennsylvania Wertmans so don't have much hope of finding where they came from in Europe.
Michael: Hey, we're almost cousins! Or maybe we are cousins, if you're descended from the elder Joshua Peirce and Ann Mercer?
Dr. Rutledge: Thanks for the compliment. I haven't had time to look at your site in detail, but it appears to be a social networking site for health topics?
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