Lives of Anthony Wayne and Sir Henry Vane (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835. Excerpt: ... Anthony Wayne, the elder, was a native of England, who, under an impulse of character or of fortune, quitted the land of his birth, and, about the year 1681, established himself in Ireland, as an agriculturist. In the contest for supremacy between William of Orange and the exiled James, which took place in 1690, he entered the army of the former, and at the battle of the Boyne and the siege of Limerick rendered the state some important services; an obligation, which, though amply acknowledged at the time, was soon forgotten by the receiver. Displeased with this inattention of the government, and not satisfied with either the civil institutions or social habits of the country of his adoption, he at the advanced age of sixty-three years became an adventurer in a distant land. Arriving in Pennsylvania in 1722, and finding there a fruitful soil and temperate climate, a peaceful, industrious, and thriving population, and a government of mild and paternal character, he purchased and occupied a farm in the county of Chester; where, on the 1st of January, 1745, his namesake and grandson, the subject of our present notice, was born. Of the boyhood of the younger Anthony Wayne we have no information, other than that afforded by a letter written by his uncle and preceptor, Gilbert Wayne, who had formed some unfavorable prognostics of his nephew's capacity for literature. "I really suspect," says Gilbert, "that parental affection blinds you; and that you have mistaken your son's capacity. What he may be best qualified for, I know not; but one thing I am certain of, that he will never make a scholar. He may make a soldier; he has already distracted the brains of two thirds of the boys, under my direction, by rehearsals of battles and sieges, Sic. They exhibit more the...