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
