When Your Hamilton Connection Is... Samuel Seabury?

Portrait of Samuel Seabury by Ralph Earl, 1785. National Portrait Gallery.

I've been doing some research on early American lines that branch off from my Smith tree. Those surnames include the following:

• Hall (immigrant ancestor: Edward Hall, 1636 arrival in Massachusetts)
• Capen (immigrant ancestor: Bernard Capen, abt. 1633 arrival in Massachusetts)
• Barsham (immigrant ancestor: William Barsham, 1630 arrival in Massachusetts)
• Seabury (immigrant ancestor: John Seabury, bef. 1639 arrival in Massachusetts)

As I was working on these lines, I thought to myself, "Where have I heard the name Seabury?" It rung a bell but I couldn't quite place it. Then, as my daughter was singing along to the Hamilton soundtrack in the car the other day, it hit me. Oh no. Of all the heroic, larger than life personalities featured in that brilliant musical, is our connection the pompous loyalist Hamilton derides in The Farmer Refuted? With some level of disappointment, this turned out to be the case. Samuel Seabury is my second cousin 9x removed. Our common ancestors are my 11th great-grandparents, John Seabury and his wife Grace. They were Samuel's second great-grandparents. When I told my mother she laughed and said it wasn't really such a surprise. Our Smith line is full of loyalists, colonists who sided with England during the Revolutionary War. 

John Adams wrote that approximately one-third of the American population supported the move for independence (Patriots), one-third of the population supported the king (Loyalists), and one-third supported neither side (neutral).

There were many reasons for people to remain loyal to the government of King George. Some of the Loyalists expected to be rewarded at the end of the war. Some wanted to protect their vast amounts of property. Many were professionals such as clergymen (who were dependent on the Church of England for their livelihood), lawyers, doctors, and teachers. [nps.gov]

Our loyalist ancestors tended to be wealthy and religious. It seems to be those things that caused them to cling to the crown. They feared the loss of their position in a free America. At the time of the Revolutionary War, Samuel Seabury was a prominent religious leader, on his way to becoming the first American Episcopal bishop. He was a conservative with deep ties to the Church of England.

Born in Connecticut in 1729, Seabury was the fourth and final Church of England minister who presided over the St. Paul’s parish through appointment by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in Foreign Parts, the missionary wing of the Anglican Church in the colonies. Honoring his oath to the King, a pivotal commitment of Anglican ministers, Seabury was a strident Loyalist, providing political and religious leadership to the Crown’s cause in New York, and was partially responsible for the sizable number of Tories in the St. Paul’s parish. Seabury followed his father, also named Samuel Seabury, into the church, and shared his commitment to the Anglican faith. nps.gov

The elder Samuel Seabury, who had begun life as a Presbyterian, renounced this faith while a student at Yale University and joined the Episcopal Church. This was seen as so radical that Yale threw him out, and he finished his education at Harvard. After graduating, he sailed to England, where he was ordained as a minster of the Church of England by the Bishop of London. 

His son, Samuel Seabury the younger, was raised with the religious fervor of his father, and grew to be an even more impassioned church leader. He was a talented writer and orator. In his church, he had a captive audience with whom he could share his loyalist message. He also expressed his feelings in writing, with a vehemence that brought him to the attention of revolutionary leaders.

Seabury was one of the signatories of the White Plains Protest of April 1775 against all unlawful congresses and committees and, in many other ways, he proved himself a devoted Loyalist. He wrote "Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress" (1774) under the pen name A. W. Farmer (standing for "a Westchester farmer"), which was followed by "The Congress Canvassed" (1774). Alexander Hamilton responded to these open letters in "A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, from the Calumnies of their Enemies". Seabury wrote a third "Farmer's Letter" entitled "A View of the Controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies" to answer Hamilton, and Hamilton completed the exchange by writing "The Farmer Refuted" (1775). The three "Farmer's Letters" are forceful presentations of the Loyalist claim, written in a plain, hard-headed style. wikipedia.org

Lin-Manuel Miranda, left foreground, as Alexander Hamilton and Thayne Jasperson as Samuel Seabury in the musical “Hamilton” at the Richard Rodgers Theater. Credit: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

In November 1775, with tensions at a fever pitch, Seabury was arrested by revolutionary forces and spent six weeks in prison. Undeterred, Seabury returned to New York City after his release and volunteered to serve as chaplain to the The King's American Regiment, a militia of loyalists who later joined the British Regular Army. In April 1783, just months before the war ended, Seabury was named bishop of the Episcopal church in America.

When the British lost the war, many loyalists returned to England or escaped to Canada, still a British colony. They faced the loss of status, wealth, and respect in America, having backed the losing side in the war, and potentially even execution as traitors. Samuel Seabury did not leave. He moved to New London, Connecticut, where he became the rector of St. James Church. In 1790, he also took over leadership of the Diocese of Rhode Island. It is not clear why Seabury was spared the loss of status that other loyalists endured, especially when he had been such a prominent opponent of American independence. Perhaps his status in the church protected him. After the war, Seabury proved loyal to his new country.

I will also add that the Seaburys were slave owners, a reality that never fails to send my heart into my stomach. This is our history; we must not look away. 

Samuel Seabury grew up in a colony and family shaped by the slave economies and human enslavement. Seabury’s father owned at least one slave, named Newport, whose existence is marked in his father’s will. Two weeks before Seabury married Mary Hicks on October 12, 1756, his eventual father-in-law gifted Mary the slave who had served and would continue to serve as her personal servant. The Seabury-Hicks marriage, therefore, meant that yet again Samuel Seabury lived in—and this time managed—a household bound to human enslavement. Trinity College - The Primus Project

We rewatched Hamilton after making this discovery and my daughter said, "Mom, are we related to anyone better in this movie?" I grimaced and said, "Well, on your father's side you're related to British Admiral Howe, the guy with all the troops on the water." This did not go over well. I tried again. "I'm distantly related to John Jay." She said, "The one who bailed out after only writing five Federalist Papers?" "Well, he was sick," I reminded her. She was unimpressed. "At least we aren't related to Aaron Burr," I said. We were both satisfied with that.