Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/768

he retired from business the richest man in the colonies. He is said to have been worth £200,000 sterling, from which he contributed liberally to the expense of the Louisburg expedition. His estates were so large that he could travel more than thirty miles on his own territory. His style of living was baronial. He entertained hospitably in his house .at Kittery, which was elegantly furnished. (See illustration.) He had a retinue of servants, kept a •coach-and-six, and had a barge on the river which was manned by a black crew in showy uniform. He dressed in the fashion of the period in a suit of scarlet cloth richly trimmed with gold lace, and wore a large powdered wig. He was always gen- •erous. and particularly so in his donations to the Congregational church at Kittery, of which he was for many years a devout member. In 1749 Sir Will- iam made a visit to London, where he was cordially received, and marks of distinguished favor were paid to him by George H. and the Prince of Wales. After his return, in 1751, a great sorrow fell on him in the loss of his only son, Andrew, a graduate of Harvard, who died at the age of twenty- four. His only remaining child, Elizabeth, married Col. Na- thaniel Sparhawk, who carried on the business after his father-in-law retired. The baronet was often employed in negotiations with the Indians, and •during the French war of 1755 was active in rais- ing and equipping troops for the service. In that year he was commissioned major-general in the British army, and commanded the forces that were charged with the protection of the frontier of

Maine and New Hampshire. He was acting governor of Massachusetts in 1756-8, and in the year of his death he was made a lieutenant-general. The greater names of Washington and the Revo- lutionary generals have eclipsed that of Pepperrell, but it should not be forgotten that he did more than any other man to prepare the army that was afterward to achieve American independence. Three portraits are known to have been painted of Sir William Pepperrell. Of these, one was de- stroyed by Are in New York in 1883, of which the artist was unknown. The Essex institute, of Sa- lem, Mass., possesses a full-length painting. The third and most valuable, supposed to have been painted by Smybert. is now owned by a descendant, of New York, and is represented in the accompany- ing illustration. It is in full court costume, aiid was taken shortly after he was created baronet. Sir William published an account of a " Conference with the Penobscot Tribe" (Boston, 1753). See his life by Usher Parsons (Boston, 1855), and a sketch by Everett P. Wheeler in the New York " Genealogical and Biographical Record " for July, 1887. — His grandson. Sir William, b. in Kittery Me., 30 Nov., 1746; d. in London, England, in December, 1816, the second son of his daughter. Mrs. Sparhawk, was his grandfather's residuary legatee, and inherited a large estate. He dropped the name of Sparhawk by act of legislature on coming of age, and by a subsequent act assumed his gi-andfather's title. He was graduated at Har- vard in 1766, and became a member of the council of Massachusetts. Subsequently he embraced the royal cause, went to England in 1775, and in 1778 was proscribed and banished, and his estates were confiscated. He kept open house for his fellow- exiles, was allowed a stipend by the British gov- ernment, and in 1779 became president of an asso- ciation of loyalists in London, which drew up an address to the king, assuring him of the fealty of the majority of his American subjects, and organ- ized a similar board of loyalists in New York. Sir William also extended aid to many American pa- triots that were held captive in England. He was of irreproachable private life, and one of the founders of the British and foreign Bible society. His only son, William, who was born in 1775, died in 1798, and the baronetcy thus became extinct.

PERALTA, Gaston de (pay-ral'-tah), Marquis de Falces, viceroy of Mexico, b. in Navarre about 1520 : d. in Valladolid about 1580. He was de- scended from the ancient royal family of Navarre. After the death of the second viceroy, Luis de Velasco. in 1564, the audiencia was governing New Spain when the so-called conspiracy of the Marquis del Valle began. As the audiencia was proceeding illegally and condenmed many of the conspirators to death without sufficient proofs. King Philip II. appointed Peralta viceroy, and hurried his depart- ure to arrange the difficulties in Mexico. The viceroy arrived in Vera Cruz, 17 Sept., 1566, and, being of kind and just desposition, dispatched a messenger at once to suspend the execution of Luis Cortes. He entered Mexico on 19 Oct., and after hearing much testimony was convinced that the judges of the audiencia had acted with undue haste. He therefore sent to Spain the principal persons that were under sentence to be judged there. One of his first measures for the benefit of the country was the establishment of a hospital ; but he had in- curred the hatred of the supreme judges, and, sup- pressing the viceroy's despatches for Spain, they accused him of partiality toward the Marquis del Valle, and even of an intention to usurp the crown of New Spain. The king at once despatched the judges Munoz and Carrillo as visitors to Mexico, with an order to Peralta to deliver the government to Muiioz and appear at court to justify his con- duct. Toward the end of 1567 Peralta gave up the executive to the commissioners, and went to San Juan de Ulna to arrange his afliairs. Mufioz im- mediately began such a series of cruelties that, in consequence of universal complaints, the king ordered him to deliver the government to the audi- encia within thirteen hours after the receipt of the order, and return to Spain. Peralta and Munoz sailed on the same vessel in May, 1568, and the latter was badly received, and died soon afterward, while Peralta fully justified his conduct and was appointed lord constable of Navarre.

PERALTA, Mannel Maria de (pay-ral'-tah), Costa Rican diplomatist, b. in Cartago, Costa Rica, 4 July, 1847. He received an academic education, studied law, served in the Costa Rican legations in London and Paris, and in 1875 became minister to the United States. While in Washington he was empowered to sign a treaty by which the neutrality of the Nicaragua canal and its control by a board of directors were stipulated, in January, 1877. In 1878-'87 he served in Europe, except in 1884-'6, when he was again minister to this country. In October, 1887, Mr. Peralta returned to Washington as special counsel for the republic of Costa