Just prior to his passing, James Perkins had made arrangements to gift his Pearl Street mansion to the
Boston Athenaeum to provide the private library with its first permanent home. The Athenaeum had a small collection of art at that time. Thomas Handasyd Perkins had helped local artists such as Washington Allston and Horatio Greenough travel to Europe to launch their careers and was a supporter of public monuments such as the Bunker Hill Memorial, for which he was supplying the granite stones. Wealthy merchants occasionally brought “old masters” home from Europe, but for the most part Boston in the early nineteenth century was a provincial backwater – a small port located an ocean away from the culture of the Old World, with few public galleries for the display of art, and no educational institutions where an aspiring artist might learn his craft.
In addition to Stuart’s paintings, John Doggett’s “Repository of the Arts” featured Samuel F.B. Morse's view of the U.S. House of Representatives and Thomas Sully's massive "Passage of the Delaware" that spring of 1823. In the summer he added an Egyptian mummy taken from the catacombs of ancient Thebes and in December a curiosity for the holidays - "Stollenwerk's Mechanical and Picturesque Panorama" - a machine-driven creation abounding with ships and wagons, merchants, mechanics, laborers, beggars and promenaders, all set in motion by hidden mechanisms.
There were a few other entrepreneurs who peddled culture to those seeking entertainment.
Visitors to the “Columbian and City Museum” on Tremont Street could admire wax figures of President Monroe and the King and Queen of England, or enjoy the amusing exercise provided by the Car of Diana which ran on a Patent Railway and was propelled by the person sitting in it. A superior painting by Sir Peter Leley hung alongside a curiosity brought back from St Helena - a branch of the weeping willow which Napoleon Bonaparte had planted and which now grew near his tomb. In the Lower Hall visitors could spend considerable time perusing “A Panoramic View in Turkey” as well as a dozen pieces of anatomical wax work representing different Dissections of the Human Body, executed by the esteemed local Doctor H. Williams. In addition, excellent music was provided occasionally on the Apollino. Admittance to the whole Collection was 25 Cents.
Two more letters from Sarah Perkins to Sarah Newton in Calcutta:
Pine Bank June 22, 1823
You see I once more date from Pine Bank, where I have been about ten days, my return to this dear spot, where I have been so happy, has revived all my sorrow, which did but slumber to break out with more bitter regret. . . Eliza has been gradually recovering from her confinement. Country air and riding on horse-back I flatter myself, will compleat her cure, she looks very delicate & is very thin – her child is one of the finest she has ever had, we have called him Charles Callahan – the other children are well and happy – Edward is much grown, and continues as handsome and as interesting as when you saw him…..
Boston, November 15, 1823
I am again set in my Town House, and as comfortable as a good establishment, kind children, and friends can make me – James’s family and mine make one at dinner every day, either at his house or mine, having a passage cut through the entry; this enables me to see them every hour in the day – the infant is the most lovely babe I ever saw, not really so handsome as Teddy, but enough so, healthy good natured and flesh like polished marble –
Master James has commenced dancing, Miss Sarah likewise attends a school for the same purpose, to say nothing of a course of lectures, Geographical & Astronomical which the former is attending, calculated entirely for children –To amuse myself I am erecting on the East end of the lawn, towards the Cove at Pine Bank a small neat cottage, containing on the ground floor a drawing room – two sleeping apartments, closet etc. – In the roof three chambers for my domestics, below, where if you recollect the ground falls very much, I have a kitchen cellar and store room – this will give me quite as much accommodation as I want for my family, and leave an open room for a friend you will perhaps ask why not enlarge the House, this my dear Sarah could not be done without great injury to the building, the proportions are so beautiful, I could not bring mind to consent, altho’ Eliza earnestly desired it, & after all we shall be quite as much together and if I wish to be retired, I shall have it in my power – James and his Wife must see company, I can never mix with world again all is therefore as it should be…..
On Friday June 17, 1825, the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Bunker's hill, the sun arose over the town of Boston in full radiance, saluted by the sounds of bells and artillery reports from the harbor.
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| Marquis de Lafayette by Ary Scheffer |
At seven o clock in the morning Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, passed through a huge welcoming crowd in the final leg of his farewell tour and entered the grand lodge of Masons. At ten o clock two thousand free masons, sixteen companies of infantry, a corps of cavalry, and a cluster of civil and military authorities assembled at the capitol. At half after ten, seven thousand persons took up the line of march; two hundred soldiers of the revolution marched at the head, forty veterans of the battle of Bunker's hill followed in open carriages; behind them marched a long array of subscribers (most notable Col. T. H. Perkins), followed by two thousand Masons covered with rich ornaments and symbols of the order.
Finally, General Lafayette appeared in a superb coach drawn by six white horses, followed by carriages carrying his son George Washington du Lafayette, his secretary, and the governor of Massachusetts.
The column advanced through a crowd of two hundred thousand citizens and arrived at Bunker's hill. When silence was established, the Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge, Senator Daniel Webster, and Solomon Willard, the principal architect, proceeded to lay the first stone to the new monument commemorating the Revolutionary War battle. They placed medals, pieces of money, and an engraved silver plate into an iron box. Over the box they laid a stone on which the grand master poured corn, wine, and oil, while the chaplain of the day pronounced the benediction.
An artillery salute completed the ceremony, and the procession marched to a vast amphitheater set up on the northeast side of the hill where Daniel Webster thanked the veterans and General Lafayette in the name of the people. A signal gun sounded, and the procession ascended the hill and then, under an immense pavilion, four thousand persons feasted at a splendid banquet. General Lafayette toasted the throng, and as the guests dispersed the brilliance and heat of the clear summer's day subsided into a delicious evening cooled by a gentle sea breeze.
General Lafayette’s son George mingled with the crowds that were slowly descending the hill, and he savored his return to the town and the Perkins family that had sheltered him in 1795 when he was a boy and his father was in prison and terror was sweeping through Paris. General Lafayette and his son remained several days in Boston after the ceremonies. On Sunday evening they accepted an invitation to dinner at T. H. Perkins’s country house. As they drove out to the farm in Brookline clusters of ladies and children offered them flowers from the streets. Colonel Perkins proudly showed Lafayette and his son about his gardens and the great greenhouses where he grew his fancy grapes and peaches. Dinner was served in the grand dining room; the table was set with monogrammed silver and the blue china from Canton with the pineapple motif, Chinese wallpaper festooned with peacocks adorned the walls, and much of the colonel’s extensive family gathered about to welcome their illustrious guests.
In a letter to India written less than two weeks later, Sarah Perkins made no mention of any of the recent festivities in her town. Her first grandson, James Amory Perkins, was dead at the age of ten, the boy’s grieving parents had fled to Europe, and now the infant Charles who had been left in her care, was ill as well….
It would take several more months before she could recount all her recent travails:
January 16, 1826
My dear Sarah,
Since we parted my dearest friend, many and severe have been my trials, may you never be called to encounter scenes I have witnessed – The loss of my kindest husband as followed the next year by the sudden death of my dear grandson James, promising and lovely, at an age highly interesting, the fond object of a doting Mother, his loss nearly destroyed Eliza – everything became indifferent to her – Children, Husband, Mother, all, all ceased to hold any place in her heart. O! how heavily the hours weigh – The recollection even now, when brighter prospects glad my sight, make me shudder – Such was the state of things that in March James determined to take his wife to Europe, hoping a change of scene & the voyage might change the tenor of her thoughts – my kind and truly excellent Emma F consented to accompany them.
While preparation was making Edward had the misfortune to fall and break his arm! The feeling of that moment I never can obliterate from my recollection, for I feared it would derange all our plans – but a week placed him in a situation to render all anxiety about him needless – On the 7th March they embarked on board the Amethyst, bound to Liverpool, and I removed the family into my House, I closed theirs – this was a heartbreaking house for your poor old friend- but that being who knew my sorrows & supports me under this severe affliction.
Then my dear little Charley, Eliza’s youngest child, had the measles (as had the other children) on the second day a Lung Fever attacked him and his life was despaired of, it continued twenty two days, and for thirty nights he had two constantly devoted to him – to paint my suffering , my grief is utterly impossible, I lost all my flesh sleep, forsook my eyes and I wandered about in my house more like a specter than a human being, at this fearful crisis ‘twas thought advisable to write to his parents, who had in the interim arrived after a very tempestuous passage – They were in London when this intelligence reached them, it awoke all the maternal feelings of my daughter’s heart and opened it to a new object of solicitude at the moment the effect was dreadful, and for fifteen days they were in suspense – respecting the life of this dear infant.
As vessels were sailing from New York every eight days I was enabled to keep them informed of every change, I Blessed be God, I had it in my power to say he was out of danger altho’ remaining weak & feeble, & I did not remove him into the Country till June, the change was beneficial to him, and when I brought him into Town the 10th of October he was quite recovered.
When James and his wife left home I advised them to pass the summer in traveling through England, Wales, and Scotland, and to go over to the Continent in the autumn, but the desire they both felt to be united with their family, and other circumstances determined them to return immediately. Their passage was bad enough, and Eliza suffered from seasickness severely, which was probably increased by her condition since her return which was about the middle of Nov, she has recovered in part, interesting herself about her children & family , and I trust will be herself again, altho’ I think her views of life have changed….
The “other circumstances” referred to in the letter was likely the fact that Eliza was pregnant again. She gave birth to her fifth child, another son, on April 8, 1826. She and her husband had not yet recovered from the loss of their firstborn, and in a small act of consolation again named their child “James” – this time “James Henry Perkins”.
November 9, 1826
Your kind letter my dear Sarah of Oct 29 I have duly rec’d, altho’ I have no eyes to answer it as I wish, I thank heaven I have a heart to feel your kindness and attention, and to thank you for it.-
I left Pine Bank a week since, reluctantly enough I assure you – the quiet and tranquility of the Country is better suited to my feelings than the noise of a City as I partake of none of its pleasures, I was much happier in my little cottage looking on the beautiful blue lake below its bank.-
My son’s family removed a fortnight before I did, my house not being ready to receive me, as I have had my drawing rooms painted – I am happy to say dear Sarah that Eliza is in better health and spirits than when you saw her last, she continues to nurse her precious infant who is very dear to us all, he has been through the blessing of heaven, the instrument of much good to his dear Mother -
James Perkins, Jr. did his best to follow in his father’s footsteps. He looked after his mother and his wife and saw that all five of his children were baptized at Trinity Church. He doled out money to the family philanthropies (the Boston Athenaeum, Harvard College, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Asylum for the Insane). But while his father and uncles had taken steps to set him up in business, he found he had other interests which mostly included fast horses and a lively social scene. By 1827, his cousin Tom Forbes would note that James was “daily disgracing himself – it is a melancholy subject to all his friends.”
In the third week of June in 1828, James went on a ride with his cousin Ben Winslow. The two stopped in Lincoln to water their horses, and James complained that he felt sick and went to lie down for a bit. A doctor came by but did not think he was in any danger, but then about 4 o’clock he was struck with terrible convulsions and all the muscles of his face clenched rigidly. His wife and mother were sent for, but by the time they arrived he had lost all consciousness.
Charles Francis Adams, the young Boston lawyer, and son and grandson of presidents, recorded the event in his diary entry for June 23, 1828:
“Morning at the Office reading Kent’s Commentaries. Found them dull and myself sleepy. Heard of the death of James Perkins, the richest man of his age in Boston. No loss however.”
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