So I’ve done a little sleuthing about the characters mentioned in my last post who appear on the mysterious inscription in my 1750 edition of Cicero.

I had looked on the British DNB, thinking these folks lived in England. I had been misled by London place of publication of the book and the use of shillings in the price (acc. to Wikipedia, “Due to ongoing shortages of US coins in some regions, shillings continued to circulate well into the 19th century.”)

But in fact, the story all seems to center on society in Glastonbury, CT, and at Yale.

Elias W Hale

Information from Find A Grave

Genealogical excerpts from the 1886 book “The History of the Susquehanna & Juniata Valleys” – page 466:

Elias W. Hale was born in Glastonbury, Conn., April 18, 1775. He graduated at Yale College in 1794, and soon after began the study of law…..after completing his studies he removed to Lewistown and was admitted to practice in May, 1798. He died February 3, 1832 and is buried in St. Mark’s Cemetery. Mr. Hale was married to Miss Jane Mulhollan, who survived him many years. Their children were George G., Reuben C., John M., Elias W., Mary and Caroline. Mary became the wife of Gideon Welles, of Hartford, Conn., and Caroline married George D. Morgan of New York. Dr. Elias W. Hale is now living at Bellefonte.

Source is book “Hale, House and Related Families” by D. Jacobus.

Elias Hale was born at Glastonbury, Hartford County, CT on 11 April 1775, son of Gideon and Mary (White) Hale. Married 26 Feb 1810 to Jane Mulhollan. Died at Lewistown, Mifflin County, PA.

Gideon Welles who was his son-in-law was Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War.

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Samuel Welles

Information from Find A Grave

Connecticut Courant (Hartford, CT), November 17, 1834
DEATHS
At Glastonbury, Samuel Welles, Esq, aged 80 years,”

New England Historical and Genealogical Register 85:306

Samuel Welles, was the son of Capt. Samuel and Lucy (Kilbourn) Welles. Married first, at Glastonbury on 2 May 1782 to Anne Hale. Five known children. Married second, on 8 Nov. 1816 to her sister, Hannah Hale.

“Hale, House, and Related Families”, Donald Jacobus

On this tombstone, it’s interesting to note that his name is spelled “Samuel Wells Jr”

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Elijah Smith

Find A Grave doesn’t have anything on the ne’er-do-well Elijah Smith, but there is this notice from Franklin Bowditch Dexter’s Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College: May 1745-May 1763 (Holt 1896) p. 771:

It seems likely that this is the man who owned my copy of Cicero’s Orations. The connection with Yale, Glastonbury CT, and the notice of his insolvency, all seem to cohere with the portrait sketched out on the flyleaf of my book.

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Septimius G. Huntington

Lastly, what of Septimius G. Huntington, whose name also appears on the flyleaf, though it seems to be of later date (1795)? This person too has Connecticut connections, and my guess is he went (as his brother Samuel, later the governor of Ohio, had) to Yale. According to The Huntington Family in America: : a genealogical memoir of the known descendants of Simon Huntington from 1633 to 1915 (Privately printed, Hartford CT 1915) p. 594: 

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Postscript to the Postscript. My friend Betsy has gotten very interested in this mystery, and adds the following.

I looked around a little bit out of interest and I have it all figured out. I believe you have the wrong Gideon Hale in your postscript. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense that when Elijah Smith skipped town between the ages of 27 and 51 as per our evidence, he would’ve been indebted to someone that was a teenager. It seems that the Gideon in your book, Elias’s dad, was born 1736 as per my other sources (and 2 yrs older than Elijah). See my illustration.. 🙂