Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/37

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PIERREPONT
PIERREPONT

induced to desert and to join the buccaneers. He attached himself to the fortune of Jaques Nau, called L'Olonnais (q. v.), in 10(13, became his most trusted lieutenant, participated in the expeditions against the Spanish main, and commanded also a division of the fleet under Sir Henry Morgan that pillaged the Isthmus of Panama. When L'Olon- nais proposed to attack Guatemala, Pierre refused to accompany him, and, going to the coast of Costa Rica, ravaged the Spanish establishments on Chagres river, took and burned the city of Veragua. but in tin 1 iutrrior he was defeated and compelled to re-embark with little booty. In the following year he attacked the coast of Campeche, and in 1672 landed at Leogane, pillaging the surrounding country. In 1GT4, with Moyse Van Vin, he at- tacked Mai-acaibu, but without success, and during the following years, either alone or in association with cither chiefs, he pillaged the Bay of Honduras and the coasts of Venezuela and Santo Domingo, and amassed enormous riches. lie purposed to re- turn to France, when in a last cruise he was ship- wrecked off the coast of Costa Rica and perished with all his crew.


PIERREPONT. or PIERPONT, James, clergyman, 1). in Roxbury, Muss., in 1059 ; d. in New Haven. Conn., 14 Nov., 1714. He was the grandson of James Pierrepont, of London, who died in Massachusetts while on a visit to his son John, who came to this country before the Revolution and set- tled in Roxbury, was a representative to tin' general court in 1672, and died, 30 Dec., 1090, leav- ing James his son. James was gradu- ated at Harvard 111 HiSl, and in July, 1685, became pas- tor of the church New Haven. In

1698 he was one of

three ministers that concerted the plan of founding a college', which took effect in the establishment of Yale in 1700. He was one of the original trustees of that institution, and it was principally through his influence that Elihu Yale was induced to make the college the object of his liberal benefactions. He wasamemberof the synod at Suylirook in 1708, for the purpose of forming a system that would better secure the ends of church discipline and the benefits of communion among the churches, and is reputed to have drawn up the articles that were adopted as the result of the synod which constitute the "Say- brook platform." He was thrice married, and his daughter by the third wife married Jonathan Ed- wards. Among the clergymen whose names be- long to the early history of New England he was the most distinguished for nobility of character, the purity of his aspirations, and the spirituality of his temper. Sereno Edwards Dwight, in his life of Jonathan Edwards, says that Mr. Pierrepont read lectures to the students in Yale college, as profes- sor of moral philosophy; but this statement is doubted by other authorities. His only publica- tion was a sermon that he preached at Boston, in Cotton Mather's pulpit, in 1712, entitled " Sundry False Hopes of Heaven Discovered and Decryrd." In 1887 his portrait, which is shown in the illustra- tion, was presented to Yale by his descendant, Edwards Pierrepont. His grandson, Hezekiah Beers (Pierrepont), merchant, b. in New Haven, Colin., in 17'iS; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1838, was educated for commercial pursuits by his un- cle, Isaac Beers, spent several years in the New York custom-house, and then became agent for Messrs. Watson and Greenleaf, of Philadelphia, in the purchase of the. National debt, realizing a for- tune- thereby. In 1793 he established the commer- cial house of Leffingwell and Pierrepont, in New York city, and did a large business in shipping provisions to France during the Revolution. The seizure of American vessels by England led him to abandon the shipment of food. In 1802 he mar- ried Anna, daughter of William Constable, a mer- chant of New York city, who had been associated with Gen. Alexander Macomb in the purchase of over 1.000,000 acres of wild land in the northern part of New York from the state in 1787. Through tli is marriage he came into possession of about 500.000 acres of these lands. In 1804 he bought the Benson farm of sixty acres on Brooklyn heights, with the house that had been Washington's head- quarters during the campaign on Long Island. In 1819 he gave up all other business and thereafter devoted himself wholly to the improvement of his vast estate. The city-hall, academy of music, Brooklyn library, five churches, and many public buildings and residences, now cover his old farm. Hezekiah's eldest son. William Constable, b. in New York city, 3 Oct., 1803; d. in Pierrepont Manor, Jefferson co., N. Y., 20 Dec., 1885, was educated iu mathematics, surveying, and convey- ancing, with a special view to taking the manage- ment of his father's property in the northern coun- ties. In 1820 he was appointed superintendent and director of the' agents that were employed in set- tling the lands, and opened an office in Jefferson county on the site of the present Pierrepont Manor. On tin' death of his father he was given charge by will of the lands in Jefferson and Oswego counties, and to the day of his death was employed solely in their development. He was a profound mathematician, and numbered among his friends and correspondents several of the most distinguished scholars of Europe, including Prof. Piazzi Smyth, as- tronomer royal of Scotland, who acknowledged the high value of his calculations concerning the great pyramid in Egypt. In 1840 Mr. Pierrepont was elected a member of the legislature, but he declined all other political offices. He was a liberal adher- ent of the Protestant Episcopal church, building and endowing a church edifice near his residence, endowing scholarships in the General theological seminary, New York city, and Hobart college, Geneva,N. Y., building and endowing a church at Canaseraga, N. Y., as a memorial to a son. and aid- ing the interests of the church in Minnesota. He re ! -i iM'd the degree of LL. D. from Hobart college in 1871. Another son, Henry Evelyn, b. in Brook- lyn, N. Y.. 8 Aug., 1808; d. there, 28 March, 1888, after receiving an academic education, spent several years in assisting in the management of the estates. In 1833 he went to Europe. During his absence the village of Brooklyn was incorporated as a city, and he was appointed one of the commissioners to pre- pare plans for laying out public grounds and streets. He made a thorough study of the topography of all the large cities of Europe, and prepared plans that were in substance adopted by the legislative commission in 1835. He also submitted plans for converting the Gowanus hills into a rural cemetery. On his return he employed Major David B. Doug- las to work out the details of his cemetery scheme, and in 1W38 obtained a charter from the legislature for the Greenwood cemetery company, with which