by the Rev. Dr. William Jenks, of the Green
Street Church (Trinitarian Congregational).
Jean Japfiiies St. Pierre, father of John St. Pierre and grandfather of Mrs. Ruffin, came to Massachusetts from Martinique probably early in the nineteenth century, and, settling in Taunton, married Betsey Hill, of that town. She, Mrs. Betsey Hill St. Pierre, grandmotlier of Mrs. Ruffin, was the grand-daughter of an African prince, who, having been sent by his father to conduct a gang of slaves to the sea- coast, was himself kidnapped and brought to America. Landing in a Northern seaport, he escaped from his captors, and made his way to an Indian settlement in the vicinity of Taunton. Being kindly received, he married an Indian girl, became a land-owner, and, establishing a home, reared a family, which was called by the country people "the royal family."
This history, which has been handed down from former generations to the pi'esent, is attested in part by ancient land deeds and other papers, which Mrs. Ruffin has in her jxjsse.ssion. In one of these time-worn documents the re- quest is made that the original estate be kept as a safe refuge for such of the family as shall be living in the time of a great and bloody war, foretold by the African-born ancestor as surely coming to break the bonds of the slave.
It may here be added concerning the involuntary but, so far as appears, contented exile, that in "the sunset of life" he came to be looked upon as a seer and a prophet, and a collection of his prophecies was printed in a pamphlet, a copy of which is kept among the family papers. The original farm, "Rocky Woods," of which he was the owner, is still held and occupied by one of his descendants. On this farm is the family burial-place.
John St. Pierre was born in Boston. After his father's death his widowed mother removed with her little family to a farm, at Blake's Landing, near the Taunton River, in the town of that name. Mr. St. Pierre, as above men- tioned, was married in Boston, and subsequently for a number of years was engaged in business as a clothes dealer in this city. His sixth chiUl, the subject of this sketch, was named for the Empress Josephine (a native, be it remem- bered, of the island of Martinique) at the request of a French lady, her mother's friend, who gave her a christening robe.
The early education of Josephine St. Pierre, received mostly in the public schools of Salem, Mass., was supplemented later by instruction from private tutors in New York. For a few months she was a pupil in the Franklin School, Boston. While still of school age, she was married to George Lewis Ruffin, who has been described as "one of the handsomest and ablest colored men in Boston."
Mr. Rufiin was born December 16, 1834, in Richmond, Va., of free colored parents, who were eilucated and were possessed of some means. In 1853 the family removed to Bos- ton. He here attended the Chapman Hall School. Some years later he studied law in the office of Jewell & (laston, and in 1869 he was graduated from the Harvard Law School. He servetl as a member of the House in the State Legislature in 1870 and 1871 and as a Councilman of Boston in 1876 and 1877. In November, 1883, he was appointed by Governor Butler Judge of the municipal court of Charles- town, being the first colored man to be apjiointed on the bench north of Mason and Dixon's line. This position he held, "serving with fidelity and eflnciency," until his death on November 19, 1886.
To Mr. and Mrs. Ruffin were born four children: Hubert St. P., Florida Yates, Stanley, and George L. The death of Judge Ruffin was followed in a few years by that of his eldest son, Hubert St. P., who was a member of the Suffolk bar. Fitted for college at the Boston Latin School, Hubert St. Pierre Ruffin entered Harvard in the class of 1882, and on leaving college studied law with his father. At the Latin School, as testified by one who was in the same class with him, "his keen wit, genial disposition, and chivalric courage made him a favorite with the boys; while his high scholar- ship, displayed distinctly in the beauty and exactitude of his translations from the classics, won for him the admiration and esteem both of his classmates and instructors. Mr. Ruffin was in learning and natural abilities eminently fitted for the profession which he chose. Skilful and ready in debate, c[uick in repartee, and eloquent and logical in argument, he merited
