Maj. Thomas Melvill

Major Thomas Melvill

Major Melvill's daughter Nancy was engaged to marry Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, but died before the wedding. Justice Shaw's daughter Elizabeth married Melvill's grandson ... author Herman Melville.

DAR Ancestor #: A077344
Service: MASSACHUSETTS
Rank(s): MAJOR
Birth: 1-16-1751IN BOSTON, SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS
Death: 9-16-1832 IN BOSTON, SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS
Pension Number: *S5086
Service Description: 1) CRAFT'S REGT OF ARTILLERY

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174666432/thomas-melville

Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

"...Thomas Melvill or Thomas Melville (1751-1832) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a merchant, member of the Sons of Liberty, participant in the Boston Tea Party, a major in the American Revolution, a longtime fireman in the Boston Fire Department, state legislator, and paternal grandfather of writer Herman Melville.."

"...Born in Boston to Scottish-born merchant Allan Melvill (d.1761) and Jean Cargill, Thomas Melvill attended New Jersey College. In July 1773 he was awarded an honorary MA degree by Harvard College. He married Priscilla Scollay in 1774. Friends included Samuel Adams..."

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'Thomas Melvill (American patriot)', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 May 2011, 10:51 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Melvill_(American_...> [accessed 15 September 2011]

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He was a descendant of that ancient noble family, in Scotland, at the head of which is the present Earl of Levan.

Biography

Major Thomas Melvill served with Col. Thomas Crafts' Regiment of Artillery, Massachusetts Militia during the American Revolution.

Thomas Melvill (1751–1832) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a merchant, member of the Sons of Liberty, participant in the Boston Tea Party, a major in the American Revolution, a longtime fireman in the Boston Fire Department, state legislator, and paternal grandfather of writer Herman Melvill.

"Thomas, b. 27 Jan. 1751; d. 16 Sept. 1832; m. Priscilla Scollay of Boston in 1774. Thomas was a colorful figure around Boston just before the Revolution and for many years afterward. He was an associate of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams and was an active participant in the "Boston Tea Party." He served three years as Major in the Continental Army and in 1789 George Washington appointed him naval officer of the Port of Boston, an office he held until his retirement in 1824. He served as fire warden in Boston for 46 years. Oliver Wendell Holmes used him as the subject of his poem, "The Last Leaf," because of his appearance on the streets of Boston in knee-pants and cocked hat long after they had gone out of style. "[1].

"Major Melville’s son Allan, m. Maria Gansevoort, daughter of Gen. Peter Gansevoort of Albany, N. Y. in Boston in 1774.[2] Their son Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick."[3].

Thomas Melvill died 16 September 1832 in Boston at the age of 81. His remains were buried at Kings Chapel burying Ground in Boston.[4]

Obituary Notice Of Major Thomas Melvill[5]

He was a descendant of that ancient noble family, in Scotland, at the head of which is the present Earl of Levan.

His father, Allen Melvill, was a son of Thomas Melvill, a highly respectable clergyman of Scoone, in the village of Leven, and county of Fife. He left his native land, after completing his mercantile education and arrived in Boston in 1748, where he established himself in business, and was distinguished for that industry, enterprise, integrity and rectitude of deportment, so characteristic of his adventurous countrymen. In 1750 he married Jean, the daughter of david Cargill, who came from Ireland in company with the Rev. Mr. McGregor, who settled at Londonderry, in the State of New Hampshire.

Thomas, their only so, was born in Boston on the 16th of January , 1751,[6] and, was left an orphan at the tender age of ten years under the maternal care of his grandmother. Having attended the best schools in the country until he was in his fifteenth year, he was sent to Princeton in New Jersey, where he completed his collegiate education in 1769. His relatives being dessirious that he should enter the ministry, he devoted himself to the study of divinity, for more than a year, but finding his health impaired and considering his constitution too delicate for such a sedentary profession, he determined to become a merchant. Deeming it important that he should previously make a voyage to England, for the purpose of acquiring practical information, as an importer, and establishing a correspondence with such commercial houses as might be considered expedient; he went to London, traveled over a large portion of the Island of Great Britain and during his tour visited the land of his ancestors.

Melville was in England at that memorable period, when the celebrated John Wilkes was expelled from the House of Commons and committed to the Tower, for writing the famous 45th number of the North Britain; and as the enthusiastic partisans of "Wilkes and Liberty" emplazoned No. 45 in the most conspicuous situations, as well as affixed it to innumerable articles of a personal and public character; young Melvill participated in the universal excitement, and evinced that ardent love of liberty and hatred of tyranny, which characterized his whole life by having a watch made with those figures engraved upon the case, and it was ever highly valued, as commemorative of an early devotion to the rights of man, and of that glorious struggle in the cause of freedom, which forms such an important epoch in the history of England.

When the citizens of Boston began to evince a determination to resist the arbitrary offensive and onerous exactions of the British government, Melvill was conspicuous among the ardent and gallant young men of the capital, for his zeal and intrepidity, during that momentous advent of our national independence. He was a member of the company which constituted the Governor's Guard of Honor, and when Gen. Gage left Boston and established his headquarters in Salem, the more effectually and securely to execute his desperate plans of coercion, the officers of those high and patriotic soldiers immediately tendered their resignations, and the corps was disbanded.

The ever prompt and fearless Melvill was one of that immortal band, which, on December 1773 in presence of the Royal fleet, boarded the Tea ships in Boston Harbor, and threw their rich cargoes into the ocean. That bold and memorable deed was the first overt act of the revolution.

When the first Regiments were raised in Massachusetts, Melvill was appointed a Captain in Col. Thomas Craft's corps of artillery, and commanded a detachment, which was sent down to Nantasket height, to watch the movements and hasten the departure of the British fleet, at the time Washington compelled the Royal army to evacuate Boston. He was in the expedition to Rhode Island, with the rank of Major. After the enemy's forces abandoned Newport, the troops of this commonwealth returned and the regiment to which Major Melvill belonged was employed in garrison and other duties until the close of the revolution.

On the organization of the customs under the State authority at the conclusion of the war, he was appointed naval officer; and after the establishment of the Federal government, he received a commission as surveyor, which he held until the death of James Lovell, Esq. the naval officer, when he was appointed his successor. For more than 40 years he was constant, active and faithful in the discharge of his duties; but the reign of terror and proscription came, and neither his integrity, his unimpeachable reputation, his venerable age, being nearly 80 years old, nor his patriotic services could save him from the vindictive wrath of President Jackson. He--a soldier in the war for independence, for freedom of speech, and of action--one of the foremost who dared to expose his character, his fortune and his life in the cause of civil liberty--that honored and honorable patriot of seventy-five--that respectable citizen, was hurled from office, because he presumed to exercise those rights, for which he braved the privations and dangers of the battle field, in times that emphatically tried men's souls.

The estimation in which Maj. Melvill was held by his fellow citizens, was evidenced, immediately after his ejection from office by his being chosen a Representative to the Legislature, to which station he was annually re-elected until his death.

He possessed in an eminent degree all the social and domestic virtues. As a citizen he was ever ready to aid by his munificence, in all measures which were intended for the advancement of intelligence, religion, morality, and the prosperity and happiness of his country men. His beneficence was universal, for 'he had had a hand open as day to melting charity.' As a husband, father and friend, he was an example worthy of all commendation; as a Christian, his whole life bore testimony to his sincerity and his confidence in the mediation of the Son, and a firm reliance on the mercy of his Heavenly Father, and as a patriot, he was of that glorious school where a Hancock and Adams and a Warren were the illustrious apostles. Boston Messenger.

WLNK Family Search. Note: https:/www.familysearch.org/tree/person/detailsL4H8-2T4. Famous Kin. Note: https:/famouskin.comfamily-group.php?name=53352+herman+melville&ahnum=4. WikiTree Note: https:/www.wikitree.com/wikiMelvill-8.

File @O1811@.

External Files

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Melvill-8

Thomas Melvill (1751 - 1832)

Maj. Thomas Melvill

Born 16 Jan 1751 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay

Son of Allan Melvill and Jean Cargill

[sibling%28s%29 unknown]

Husband of Priscilla (Scollay) Melvill — married 1774 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Father of Thomas Melvill Jr., Mary Melvill, Allan Melvill and Nancy Melvill

Died 16 Sep 1832 at age 81 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

Profile last modified 20 Mar 2023 | Created 25 Feb 2014

Sources

↑ "The Cargill Family By John and Helen Cargill". Cargill, John and Helen. New England Genealogical and Historical Register, 1963. page 9. https://archive.org/details/cargillfamilybyj00carg. Edited for readability by Wikitree user McCann-1412.
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-PMNV : 29 November 2018), Thomas Melvill and Priscilla Scollay, 1774; citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011047.
↑ "The Cargill Family By John and Helen Cargill". Cargill, John and Helen. New England Genealogical and Historical Register, 1963. page 9. https://archive.org/details/cargillfamilybyj00carg. Edited for readability by Wikitree user McCann-1412.
↑ Find a Grave Memorial for Thomas Melville.
↑ Dover Enquirer Tuesday, Oct 16, 1832 Dover, NH Page: 1 .
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4JH-16P : 10 November 2020), Thomas Melbin, 16 Jan 1751; citing Birth, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004276276.
See also:

Wikipedia

Grandson Herman Melville on Wikipedia

Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/), "Record of Thomas Melville", Ancestor # A077344.
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Wright & Potter Printing Co., Boston, 1896); Vol. 10, p. 625