Allan Melville

Allan Melville

• The Melvilles, Albany Rural Cemetery
• Find A Grave Memoriał ID # 13264062
• The Melvilles, Schenectady History

(VI) Allan (2), second son and fourth child of Major Thomas and Priscilla (Scollay) Melvill, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, April 7, 1782. He was well educated and became an importer of silks and French goods of rare and superior quality. In pursuit of his business he spent a great deal of time in journeying at home and abroad; was with his brother Thomas in the French Capital. Between the brothers, though not connected in business, existed a warm and commendable intimacy. He first went to Europe in 1800, and made his last visit in 1822. He visited the principal capitals and manufacturing centers in search of attractive and saleable goods for his trade and made heavy purchases.

Once during the second war with England the vessel on which he was a passenger was captured by a British frigate and all made prisoners. He was soon released and returned to the United States. He was a most methodical man and a daily record of all his travels, home and abroad, at sea or on land, was faithfully kept and is carefully preserved. It records travel by sea of forty-eight thousand four hundred and sixty miles in the twenty-two years.

He closed up his Boston business and for a time was in the wholesale dry goods business in Albany, New York, but about 1818 located at 123 Pearl Street, New York City, where he dealt in wholesale imported silks and dry goods; also, as his advertisement says: "Acting as commission merchant for others." He was one of the early importers of French goods and prospered. He kept up a constant correspondence with his distinguished father, whose advice and counsel he sought and followed. His letters to his wife, many of which are preserved, show the deepest devotion and love, breathing an exquisite tenderness that charms the reader, although a century has elapsed since some of them were written.

He died about 1835. He was a man of deep religious sentiment, as shown by his letters, and constantly invoked the Divine blessing upon his beloved wife and children to whom he was devoted. He married Maria, daughter of General Peter Gansevoort, Jr., of revolutionary fame. She was born 1791, died 1872.

Children:

• 1. Gansevoort, born on December 6, 1815, died in London, England on May 2, 1846. He was an accomplished scholar, possessed of unusual powers of oratory, a gift that was employed with good result by the Democratic party, particularly during the campaign that resulted in the election of James K. Polk to the presidency. He was appointed secretary of legation at the Court of St. James, dying in London, 1846. His body was returned to his native land and buried with honors in the Albany Rural Cemetery. He was a young man of great promise and brilliant prospects.
• 2. Helen Maria, born on August 4, 1817; married on January 8, 1854, George Griggs.
• 3. Herman, born in 1819, married on August 5, 1847, Elizabeth, daughter of Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw of the State of Massachusetts, in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.
• 4. Augusta, born in 1821.
• 5. Allan, born in 1823, married (first) on September 22, 1847, Sophia E. Thurston; (second) Jane Dempsey.
• 6. Catherine, born 1825; married on September 15, 1853, John C. Hoadley.
• 7. Frances Priscilla, born in 1827.
• 8. Thomas, born in 1830.

Melville Arms: "Bears gules three crescents argent with a bordur