potatoes, cotton, flax, etc.; my price is $25,000. I would sell also, at a fair valuation, one hundred head of horned cattle, fifty sheep, horses, and all farming utensils, and about one hundred negroes."

It was during this visit to England that Mr. Burgwin saw and became engaged to his second wife, Miss Eliza Bush, a lovely lady, then living with her parents at Ashley Downs, one of the beautiful suburbs of Bristol. He married her in 1782, and in 1783 they came to reside at the Herm tage, with one child who had been born to them, the late John Fanning Burgwin, of Newbern, North Carolina. Her married life was short, she having died shortly after giving birth to her third child, the late George W. B. Burgwin of the Hermitage. In 1801, Caroline, the only daughter, then seventeen years of age, who had lived with her mother's relatives since her childhood, returned from England to take charge of her father's household at the Hermitage; she married, June, 1802, Dr. George C. Clitherall, United States Army. Having had access to various papers and documents, through a member of the family, her lively description of her arrival in Wilmington, and her first impressions of the place and people, is copied for the reader.

"We were expected by this packet, and had instructions to go, on our arrival, to the house of my father's old friend, Mr. London. It was about ten o'clock at night, and there were only a few solitary lights gleaming from dwellings as we passed along. We were much amused by the soft sand, and by the remarks of the negro who was our guide to Mr. London's house. At the breakfast-table, next morning, Mr. London told me my father's horses and servants were in town to take us to the Hermitage after we had breakfasted. The chairs, or gigs, as they were called (there were no carriages then in Wilmington), came to the door. Holder* rode in one, driven by a negro boy, I in another. The road was narrow, and led through a pine forest; we thought we were in a lane, and expressed to our astonished driver our fears of an attack by wild beasts. An eight-mile ride brought us to the dear old Hermitage. Several of the house servants ran out to welcome us, and faithful old Robert led me to my father, who was confined to his room by his old enemy the gout.

"I was struck with the handsome appearance of my younger brother, George, who at my father's direction showed us about the gardens. These were extensive and beautifully laid out. There were alcoves and summerhouses at the termination of each walk, seats under trees in the more shady recesses of the Big Garden, as it was called, in distinction from the flowergarden in front of the house. There were many evergreens, and a creek * Her English maid.

winding its way through the grounds. The house was large and convenient, and bore a strong impress of the olden time, the furniture being the same as during my dear mother's life. Her room, high bureau, curtainstand, and dressing-table were as she had left them, and were reserved for me. It was dining hour, 2 P. M., and the table had been set in my father's room. The string of five servants, with old Robert leading them, each bearing a dish, greatly amused me. Our meal was quite English—a nice dessert, and a finish with cheese and porter. The cloth removed, nuts, apples, and wine, with the old-fashioned call for a toast, and we cordially drank to our English friends. In a small brick building called the Study, on a high mound in the Big Garden, was a fine collection of books, writingdesk, and tables.

"The first two weeks I received many calls and invitations, but did not go to town. A ticket for the Assembly, inclosed in a polite note from Mr. Giles, engaging me as a partner for the evening, was handed me by my brother. My father had a furnished house in town (subsequently the residence of the late Dr. Thomas H. Wright, corner Third and Market Streets), and we all went off in the same style in which we came up. Judge and Mrs. Wright were my chaperons, and I went from their house escorted by Mr. Giles. I was determined to be pleased, and the contrast between the splendid chandeliers, fine band, elegant assemblage, and gay military of Bristol and Clifton, though they drew forth sad reminiscences, did not destroy the cheerful enjoyment I partook of, in the ill-lighted room and violin scrape of the sable musician. The style of dressing was quite strange, the ladies' dresses particularly so. Powdered curls down the back, morocco shoes, and cotton stockings, colored under-dresses, over them stiff plain and figured muslins. My own dress was a sprigged India muslin with a drapery trimmed with lace, an ostrich feather festooned by a silver bandeau, my hair curled short all over the head, à la Britte, a gold chain, and no other ornament."

There has been an improvement in the style of ladies' dresses since then in this ancient borough, particularly at balls and assemblies, and more brilliant displays of lights, but it is doubtful whether there is as much real enjoyment or unalloyed pleasure. Wilmington then contained. about twelve hundred inhabitants.

Mr. John Burgwin died in the year 1803, at the Hermitage, and the two plantations became the property of his oldest son, John, who, with his family, resided there for some years. In 1811, however, he exchanged them both, together with the slaves who cultivated them, for the plantation and slaves of Mrs. George Burgwin, the wife of his younger brother,

daughter of Governor Nash, of Pembroke, near Newbern, and sister of our late Chief-Justice Frederick Nash. Castle Haynes was settled on her and her children, and the Hermitage on her eldest son, the late Captain John Henry King Burgwin, of the United States Army. This gallant young officer was a graduate of West Point, and was assigned to duty in the dragoon branch of the service. At the breaking out of the war with Mexico, he was ordered with his command to New Mexico, and participated in several engagements, in which he displayed great skill and bravery, and would unquestionably have risen to a high rank in his profession but for his untimely death in 1847. While gallantly leading a forlorn hope at the battle of Pueblo de Taos, on February 4 of that year, he received a wound of which he died three days after. A young man of great promise, skilled in his profession, a chivalric soldier, a high-toned gentleman, brave as a lion, yet refined and gentle as a woman, his death was mourned as a loss, not to his family and friends alone, but to his country. He was unmarried, but at the time of his death was engaged to a lady of great accomplishments, and his last act, ere his life terminated, was to take from his finger a ring and give it to a friend who bent over him, to deliver to her with farewell messages of tenderness and love. His remains were brought to Wilmington and received with imposing honors. A vast concourse of people stood with uncovered heads in Front Street as the mournful cavalcade approached. It stopped in front of the Cape Fear Bank building, from the portico of which the late Joshua G. Wright, a prominent member of the bar, and a gentleman of rare oratorical powers, pronounced a eulogium touching, eloquent, and beautiful. The body was borne to the Hermitage under an escort of the first citizens of Wilmington, and deposited in the family burying-ground, but was subsequently removed to Oakdale Cemetery; a stately marble monument marking the spot where his ashes repose.

In late years, descendants of this family rendered the name illustrious, by devotion to the cause of the South, on many a bloody battle-field in the civil war. At Antietam, a field-officer of the race, General George Burgwin Anderson, and at Spottsylvania Court-House, Robert Walker Anderson, his brother and one of his staff, grandsons of Mr. George Burgwin, sealed that devotion with their life's blood. Another grandson, Captain George Burgwin Johnston, a gallant young officer, after swimming a swollen stream in a vain attempt to induce his company to follow him, as the only means to escape capture by the victorious enemy in the field before Richmond, deliberately broke his sword, formerly that of his uncle, Captain John H. K. Burgwin, threw it into the swift waters, and swam

VOL. XVI.-No. 5.—30

back to surrender himself with his men. He returned from prison wrecked in health, and sank into an early grave.

Colonel Harry King Burgwyn,* a grandson of Mr. John F. Burgwin. was killed at the head of his regiment in attempting to storm the Federal breast works at Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg. Colonel Burgwyn was probably the youngest colonel in the Southern army, scarcely twenty-one years of age, and had gained his promotion in many previous bloody engagements. At Gettysburg he went into the charge with a splendid regiment, eight hundred strong. Three color-bearers were shot down. After the third had fallen he grasped the colors himself, and with them mounted the breast works, where he was shot down, falling with the colors in his hand. At roll-call, after the battle, only eighty men answered to their names. The rest were dead on the field, wounded, or captured. Mr. George Burgwin, with his family, took up his residence at the Hermitage about the year 1812, and it has remained the home of themselves or their children till the present day. To those who knew that gentleman, it is unnecessary to say that the oldtime hospitality of the place was well sustained. He was a gentleman of the old school (alas, that there are so few left!), and delighted in having his house filled with guests and in sharing their enjoyment. Did a visitor wish to indulge in the pleasure of the chase, a horse and hounds were at his service without delay; would he fish, implements were furnished, and a guide to point out the shady spots in streams, where the angler's skill would be rewarded. In fact, everything was done to make a visit there a most pleasurable remembrance. Mr. Burgwin had eleven children; three died in infancy; the eldest, Eliza Bush, was married to the late Wm. E. Anderson, cashier of the Bank of the State at this place; Margaret was married to the late Rev. Samuel I. Johnston, D.D.; Caroline was married to the Hon. Thomas S. Ashe, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of North Carolina; Maria was married to the late Mr. Parker Quince; Sallie, unmarried; Hasell W., a resident of Virginia, and Hill Burgwin, the eminent lawyer. About ten years ago, Mr. Hill Burgwin acquired sole title to the property, and it is pleasant to know that the site of the old mansion, with two hundred acres around it, will not for generations to come pass out of the possession of the descendants of a family who were identified with our early history, and who have left behind them such an honorable record.

*It seems that this branch of the family, a good many years ago, made a slight change in the spelling of the name. The historic home, the Hermitage, was burned in 1881.

THE FIRST AMERICAN ANARCHIST

The leaven of freedom that, in times just prior to the Revolution, stirred the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies into tumult and ultimately into rebellion, brought into public notice James Few, a man who may be designated as the first American anarchist. There have been theoretical anarchists among us ever since those pre-revolutionary days, and not a little of the political economy of the past (and of the present also) seems, to the casual reader, to incline to anarchy. The teachings of Garrison and of a few of his associates have, to the rising generation of students, at least, a tinge of anarchistic theory, and something, though fortunately but little, which foreshadows the doctrine of the present anarchists as defined by the Pittsburgh manifesto of 1883. It is, however, only within a few years that the anarchists have become sufficiently numerous to be a party. Previously they were isolated individuals, who formulated their theories crudely and imperfectly by themselves, from what they had read or heard, or from their own distorted imaginations and reasonings.

Of such a class as these latter was James Few. He was a sober, industrious mechanic, a carpenter by trade, who had, by diligence, skillful workmanship, and economy, earned sufficient money to purchase a few acres of land, upon which he had built himself a house. His personal character seems to have been beyond reproach. He was a dutiful son-the sole support of his aged parents. History had no concern with him until the troubles in North Carolina brought him, in 1771, under arms, into the field, as captain in the little army which the Regulators opposed to British tyranny. Volumes have been written to prove the true purpose of the Regulators, but neither space nor inclination permits more than a casual reference to them here. Whether they were merely rioters, or whether they were patriots, thrice armed by a just quarrel—whether to them does or does not belong the credit of having shed the first blood in the cause of American freedom-we do not now undertake to decide. They were oppressed, and they took up arms against their oppressors.*

Tryon was the royal Governor of Carolina in those days, and though

* Those who are desirous of studying the history of the Regulators are referred to Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution, to Bancroft's History of the United States, and to the various histories of North Carolina. There is also a lecture by the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, bearing on this subject.