: L'île des rêves: Aventures d'un Anglais qui s'ennuie by Ulbach Louis - Short stories French; French fiction 19th century FR Nouvelles

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Editors: George Rex Graham Rufus W. Griswold

Contents

Fiction and Literature

Poetry, and Music

Wintemoyeh Bear On! The Smile The Return of Youth The First and Last Parting To A Lady Singing The Power of Religion To a Belle Who is Not a Blue Belle Song--"love's Time Is Now." To Almeda in New England The Playful Pets An Autumn Reverie To the Earth Rejoice The Summer Night

RICHARD SOMERS.

Few men in this country have left names as distinguished as that of Somers, around whose personal history there remains so much doubt. Had he not given up his life in the service of the republic, he would most probably have now been living, in a green old age. While many of his friends and shipmates still survive to bear testimony to his bravery and his virtues, yet no one seems to possess the precise information that is necessary to a full and accurate biographical sketch of more than his public services. The same mystery that has so long clothed the incidents of his death, appears to have gathered about those of his early life, veiling the beginning and the end equally in a sad and uncertain interest.

The family of Somers emigrated from England to America in the early part of the eighteenth century, establishing itself at Great Egg Harbor, Gloucester county, New Jersey. Here the emigrant became the proprietor of a considerable landed property, most of which still remains in the hands of his descendants, the place bearing the name of Somers' Point. This Point forms the southeastern extremity of the county, being separated from that of Cape May merely by the Harbor. Gordon, in his gazetteer of New Jersey, thus describes the spot, viz:--"Somers' Point, post-office and port of entry for Great Egg Harbor district, upon the Great Egg Harbor bay, about 43 miles S. E. from Woodbury, 88 from Trenton, and, by post-route, 196 from Washington. There is a tavern and boarding-house here, and several farm-houses. It is much resorted to for sea bathing in summer, and gunning in the fall season."

It is believed that the Christian name of the emigrant was John, and as this was also the baptismal designation of the celebrated jurist, who came from the middle class of society, the circumstances, taken in connection with the fact that the family was known to have been respectable in England, leaves the strong probability that the parties had a common origin. At all events, this John Somers, by his possessions and position, must have been of a condition in life much superior to the great body of the emigrants to the American colonies. Report makes him a man of strong English habits and character, while there is a tradition among his descendants of the existence of a mother, or of a mother-in-law, who was of French extraction, and a native of Acadie. This person may have been the mother of the wife of the emigrant, however; but the circumstance is not without interest, when it is remembered that the regretted Somers himself, like his intimate friend, Decatur, had more of the physical appearance of one descended from a French stock, than of one who was derived from a purely Anglo-Saxon ancestry.

The property at Somers' Point descended principally, if not entirely, to the two sons of the emigrant, John and Richard. John, the eldest, lived and died on the estate, where his descendants are still to be found. Richard, the youngest, married Sophia Stillwell, of the same part of his native province, by whom he had four children, Constant, Sarah, Jane and Richard.

Constant Somers married Miss Leaming, of Cape May county, and died young, leaving a son and a daughter. The former, who bore his father's name, was accidentally killed at Cronstadt, in Russia, while yet a youth, and the daughter married a gentleman of the name of Corsen, also of Cape May county, and has issue. These children are the only descendants, in the third generation, of Richard Somers, the second son of the emigrant.

Sarah Somers married Captain Keen, of Philadelphia, and still survives as his widow, but has no children. Richard, the youngest child, is the subject of our memoir.

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