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JOHN ALEXANDER LILLINGTON.

tion." Despairing of gaining funds to perfect his invention, in America, Fitch went to France and England, in 1792; but, disappointed and almost penniless, he returned home, and retired to Kentucky. He found a good deal of his land occupied; and in 1797, he commenced ejectment suits. Soon after this his mind and body began to give way under the pressure of long-continued excitements, and, though temperate through life, he determined to shorten his days by the excessive use of spirituous liquors. He foretold the time of his death by a mathematical calculation, and on the 2d of July, 1798, he died at Bardstown, Kentucky, and was buried there. Had his countrymen appreciated his inventions, and sustained his efforts, the glory awarded to Fulton would doubtless have been due to John Fitch, full twenty years earlier than the success of the former established his own fame.

JOHN ALEXANDER LILLINGTON.

THE Cape Fear region of North Carolina abounded with true Republicans, when the party lines between Whigs and Tories were distinctly drawn, just before the war of the Revolution was lighted up. John A. Lillington was one of the truest stamp. He was the son of a British military officer, who was a member of the royal council of Barbadoes, in 1698. His son John, captivated by the glowing accounts given of North Carolina, emigrated thither, and settled within the present limits of New Hanover county; and in 1734, built a fine mansion there, which he called Lillington Hall. It stands on the north branch of the Cape Fear river, about thirty miles from Wilmington. The proprietor inherited the military tastes of his father; and when the notes of preparation for the Revolution were heard all over the land, his skill was brought into requisition. He was also a member of the Wilmington committee of safety in 1775; and when the Scotch Highlanders and others in the vicinity of Cross Creek (Fayetteville), took up arms for the king, under Donald McDonald, in the Winter of 1776, Colonel Lillington commanded one of the provincial corps which marched against, and defeated them, at Moore's Creek, under the general command of Colonel Caswell. It was the initial battle of the Revolution in the South, and the victory was hailed with delight. Colonel Lillington was made a brigadier; and from that time, until the approach of Gates, in 1780, he was active in the council and field. Both he and his son joined the army of Gates, and participated in the disgrace of defeat at Camden.

General Lillington remained in service until the close of the war, when he withdrew from public life, and sought repose in the bosom of his family at Lillington Hall. There appears to be no record of the birth or death of General Lillington. The slab over his grave, near his mansion, has an appropriate inscription, but it bears no date, except that of his battle at Moore's Creek. It tells us, however, that "To intellectual powers of a high order, he united incorruptible integrity, devoted and self-sacrificing patriotism." Tradition avers, that he possessed a frame of Herculean proportions and strength, and that, in his generous kindness to all around him, must we find the reason of the salvation of Lillington Hall from the flames, when all others in the neighborhood were desolated. The Tories loved him for his goodness of heart; the Whigs revered him for his stern patriotism.

SOMEW

OMEWHERE, in the great city of Paris, rest the remains of one of the bravest naval commanders known in history, but, like the sepulchre of General Greene, its identity is lost to this generation, and the reproach of that oblivion rests upon the government of the United States. John Paul Jones is the naval hero of the elder war for American independence; and, like many of the patriots of that struggle, whom we delight to honor, he was born beyond the Atlantic. His birth occurred on the 6th of July, 1747, at Arbigland, on the Frith of Solway, Scotland. At the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to a ship-master in the Virginia trade. In 1766, he became mate of a Jamaica "slaver" (as vessels engaged in the importation of negroes, from Africa, were called), and two years afterward, while on his way to Scotland, in another vessel, he became master by the death of the two chief officers. In that position he was retained, though only twenty-one years of age. On the death of his mother, in 1773, he settled in Virginia. When the Revolution broke out, he offered his services to

1. He went there to take charge of some property belonging to a deceased brother. His original name was John Paul, but, for reasons not known, he added the name of Jones, after settling in Virginia.

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RICHARD CASWELL.

Congress, and received the commission of a lieutenant in the navy, near the close of 1775. He soon afterward became commander of a vessel, with which he took sixteen prizes. In 1777, he was ordered to Paris, to arrange some naval operations with the American commissioners there; and in the Spring of 1778, he was spreading universal alarm along the coasts of Scotland, by his bold exploits. At Whitehaven, he captured two forts with thirty cannon; and at another time, almost succeeded in making the Earl of Selkirk, at Kirkcudbright, a prisoner. After a very successful cruise in the British waters, he returned to Brest, with two hundred prisoners of war and much booty. At the close of the Summer of 1779, he made another cruise, with a little squadron, his flag-ship being the Bonhomme Richard; and on the evening of the 23d of September, he had an engagement with the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, two strong English vessels that were convoying the Baltic merchant fleet. He had already captured thirteen vessels during the cruise, and boldly attacked these. It was one of the most desperate sea-fights that ever occurred. At one time the Richard and Serapis were side by side, lashed together, and thus poured broadsides into each other, while with pike, cutlass, and pistol, the combatants fought hand to hand upon both vessels. After a conflict of two hours, the British vessel surrendered; but Jones' flag-ship was so shattered, that, sixteen hours after the victory, it went beneath the deep waters of Bridlington Bay. This victory gave Jones great eclat, both in America and Europe. King Louis of France presented him with an elegant gold-mounted sword, with appropriate emblems and motto upon its blade; and Congress then voted special thanks to the victor, and had a gold medal struck in his honor, and presented to him, eight years afterward. Captain Jones returned to Philadelphia, in 1781; and when peace was established, he went to Europe as agent for the recovery of prize money. He returned to America in 1787, and the following year he was solicited to join the Russian navy, with the commission of rear-admiral. He served against the Turks, in the Black Sea, for awhile, but disliking the position, he retired to Paris, on a pension from the Empress Catharine, in 1789. There he resided most of the time, until his death, which occurred on the 18th of July, 1792, a few days before the arrival of a commission for him, from President Washington, to treat with Algiers. Though the minute circumstances of his death have been related, and the French National Assembly noticed it by an eulogistic resolution -though it is said that his body was placed in a leaden coffin to be conveyed to the United States, if asked for, yet "the place of his sepulchre is not known unto this day."

RICHARD CASWELL.

THE first victory of republican troops in North Carolina, was won by those bent of the chair of chief magistrate of that State, after it became a sovereign commonwealth by the act of the people, was that same lawyer, Richard Caswell. He was a native of Maryland, where he was born on the 3d of August, 1729. In 1746, he went to North Carolina, where, through influential letters of introduction, he found employment in one of the public offices. He became deputy-surveyor of the colony; and in 1753, was made clerk of the county court of Orange. He studied law with William Heritage (his second father-in-law), obtained a license, and practiced with great success. He was chosen a member of the Colonial Assembly from Johnston county, in 1754, and continued to rep

resent that district until 1771. During the last two years of his legislative duties in the Colonial Assembly, he was Speaker, and at the same time he held the office of colonel of the militia of his county. In that capacity he commanded the right wing of Governor Tryon's forces at the battle of the Allamance, his regard for law and order causing him to condemn the rebellious movements of the Regulators. He was one of the delegates of North Carolina, in the Continental Congress, in 1774, and was re-elected the following year; but being chosen treasurer of the southern district of his State, he resigned his seat in the Autumn, and returned home.

In February, 1776, Colonel Caswell was the commander of the provincial forces who defeated the Scotch Loyalists in a battle upon Moore's Creek, in New Hanover county, North Carolina; and in April following, the Provincial Congress gave him the commission of a brigadier, for the district of Newbern. He was chosen president of the Provincial Council, which framed a constitution for the State, in the Autumn of 1776, and was elected the first governor under that instrument. During the stormy period of the three succeeding years, he held that office, performed his duty with rare faithfulness and ability, and refused compensation for his services. He led the troops of North Carolina, under Gates, in 1780, and was a participant in the disastrous defeat of the Americans at Camden. From 1782 to 1784, he was Speaker of the State Senate, and controllergeneral. Then he was again elected governor of the State. He filled that office until 1786, when he became ineligible, according to the provisions of the constitution. The following year, he was chosen a delegate to the convention which formed the Federal Constitution in the city of Philadelphia; and when the General Assembly of his State met, he was chosen Speaker of the Senate. But his course on earth was nearly finished. Domestic bereavements had clouded his life with melancholy; and while presiding in the Senate, on the 5th of November, 1787, he was prostrated by paralysis. He lingered in almost insensibility, until the tenth, when he expired, in the sixtieth year of his age.

JOHN LOVELL.

"THE HE Master" of many of the leading men of the War for Independence, in New England, was John Lovell, a descendant of one of the first settlers in the Massachusetts colony. He was born in 1708, and was graduated at Harvard College, at the age of twenty years. He succeeded Jeremiah Gridley as assistant in the South Grammar School of Boston, and in 1738, was placed at its head, where he exercised pedagogue authority for almost forty years. He wrote several political and theological pamphlets; and in 1743, he delivered a funeral oration, on the death of Peter Faneuil, the founder of Faneuil Hall, which was published. Unlike a great proportion of his earlier pupils, Master Lovell was a Loyalist, and left Boston, with other refugees, when the British were driven from that city in March, 1776. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1778, at the age of seventy years.

1. The people of the interior of North Carolina, were chiefly of Scotch-Irish descent, and thoroughly imbued with independence of spirit. They warmly sympathized with their brethren of the sea-board in opposing the Stamp Act; and in 1771, an association of the principal inhabitants of Orange and adjacent counties, was formed to resist the growing rapacity of office holders, and regulate the political affairs of their section. They called themselves Regulators. Tryon, then governor of the colony, led an armed force against them, and in May, 1771, they had a bloody skirmish on the Allamance Creek. The Regu lators were overpowered, and six of the prisoners then captured, were hung at Hillsborough. There, really, the first blood of the Revolution was shed.

[F being a hero in two wars, with a long interval of useful service in civil life, should command the reverence of posterity, surely Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky, may worthily make claim to such reverential regard. He was born a few miles from Hagerstown, Maryland, on the 11th of December, 1750, and inherited from his Welsh ancestors that courage and perseverance for which he was so distinguished. He became a professional surveyor; and, at the age of twentyone years, he settled in Western Virginia. He was with his father, Evan Shelby, in the battle at Point Pleasant, in 1774, and was afterward employed by Henderson and others, as a surveyor, in Kentucky. In July, 1776, he was appointed to the command of a company of minute-men, by the Virginia committee of safety; and the following year, Governor Patrick Henry appointed him commissary of supplies. In 1778, he was attached to the Continental commissary department; and in the Spring of 1779, he was elected to a seat in the Virginia Legislature, from Washington county. Governor Jefferson gave him the commission of major, in the Autumn of that year, about which time he was engaged in defining the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, which