, entered the army in 1836 as 2d lieutenant in the 2d dragoons, did efficient service in the Semi- nole war, and captured and brought to the camp as a prisoner. King Philip, the principal chief of that nation. He was promoted captain in 1846, and served under Gen. Zachary Taylor as his chief of cavalry throughout the Mexican war, command- ing the cavalry at the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and Buena Vista. In the second-named engagement he turned the fortunes of the day by charging a battery that was intrenched and protected by an earthen breastwork that com- manded the only road through the almost impene- trable chaparral on either side, and captured Gen. La Vega, who commanded the battery. For his services and for gallantry, he was brevetted major for Palo Alto, lieutenant-colonel for Resaca de la Palma, and colonel for Buena Vista.. He resigned in 1860, removed to New York city, and became vice-president of the Eighth avenue railroad.
MAY, John Wilder, lawyer, b. in Attleborough,
Mass., 29 Jan., 1819; d. in Boston, Mass., 11 Jan.,
1883. His father, Lemuel, was a representative to
the general court of Massachusetts, and a member
of the executive council. The son was graduated
at the University of Vermont in 1846, and, after
spending several years in farming, read law, and in
1851 was admitted to the Norfolk, Mass., bar. He
was subsequently solicitor for Roxbury for several
years, served in the legislature in 1867, and was
elected district attorney for Suffolk county in the
same year. After six years he became judge of the
municipal court of Boston. He published " The
Law of Insurance as applied to Fire, Life, Accident,
Guarantee, and other Non-Maritime Risks" (Bos-
ton, 1874-'82) ; " The Law of Crimes " (1881) ; and
edited Angell on " Limitations " (1876) ; Greenleaf
on " Evidence " (1876) ; and Stephens's " Digest of
the Law of Evidence " (1877).
MAY, Samuel Joseph, reformer, b. in Boston,
Mass., 12 Sept., 1797 ; d. in Syracuse, N. Y., 1 July,
1871. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, stud-
ied divinity at Cambridge, and in 1822 became
pastor of a Unitarian church at Brooklyn, N. Y.
He was early interested in the anti-slavery cause,
wrote and preached on the subject, and in 1830 was
mobbed and burned in effigy at Syracuse for advo-
cating immediate emancipation. He was a mem-
ber of the first New England anti-slavery society
in 1832, and, when Prudence Crandall {q. v.) was
proscribed and persecuted for admitting colored
girls to her school in Canterbury, Conn., he was her
ardent champion. He was also a member of the
Philadelphia convention of 1833 that formed the
American anti-slavery society, and signed the •' Dec-
laration of Sentiments." of which William Lloyd
Garrison was the author. In 1835 he became the
general agent of the Massachusetts anti-slavery
society, for which, by a union of gentleness and
courage, he was peculiarly fitted, and in this capaci-
ty he lectured and travelled extensively. He was
pastor of the Unitarian church at South Scituate,
Mass., in 1836-'42, and became at the latter date,
at the solicitation of Horace Mann, principal of
the Girls' normal school at Lexington, Mass. He
returned to the pulpit in 1845, and from that date
till three years previous to his death was pastor of
the Unitarian society in Syracuse, N. Y. Mr. May
was active in all charitable and educational enter-
prises, and did much to increase the efficiency of
the public-school system in Syracuse. He pub-
lished '* Education of the Faculties " (Boston, 1846) ;
" Revival of Education " (Syracuse, N. Y., 1855) ;
and "Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict "
(Boston, 1868). See "Memoir of Samuel Joseph
May." edited by George B. Emerson, Samuel May,
and Thomas J. Mumford (Boston, 1873).
MAY, Samuel Passuiore, Canadian educator,
b. in Truro, Cornwall, England, in 1828. He was
educated privately, and on arriving at Quebec in
1853 was engaged by the literary and historical
society of that city to rearrange their museum and
to prepare a scientific catalogue. He soon after-
ward became connected with the education depart-
ment of Upper Canada, had charge of the educa-
tional exhibit at Kingston in 1856. and in 1857 was
appointed to establish meteorological observatories
at senior county grammar-schools, and to give in-
structions in the use of instruments. He was
graduated as a physician at Victoria college in
1863, and was for a time curator of its museum
and lecturer on pharmacy and microscopy. He
gave the first of a series of lectures on chemistry
under the auspices of the Pharmaceutical society
of Toronto in 1869, and in 1876 was appointed to
take charge of the Ontario educational exhibit at
the Centennial exhibition at Philadelphia. In 1878
Dr. May was appointed secretary for the Dominion
at the Paris exposition of that year, and was
awarded the gold medal for the food exhibit, which
won the grand prize. He also received the decora-
tion of the Legion of honor, that of an officer of the
Academy of Paris, and subsequently a medal from
the French government. He received the appoint-
ment of superintendent of art-schools in connection
with the Ontario department of education in 1880,
and represented the Ontario government at the
colonial exhibition in London in 1886. When Dr.
May was put in charge of the art department there
were only two public art-schools ; now (1888) there
are five, with more than seventy branch schools
throughout the province.
MAYER, Brantz, author, b. in Baltimore, Md.,
27 Sept., 1809; d. there, 21 March, 1879. He was
educated at St. Mary's college, Baltimore, and
studied law during a long voyage to the East in
1827-'8. On his return home he entered the law
department of the University of Maryland, and
was admitted to the bar in 1829. After practising
for several years he visited Europe in 1833, and in
1843 was appointed secretary of legation in Mexico.
When he returned home he published his first
work, “Mexico as it Was, and as it Is” (Philadelphia,
1844), which was accused of unfairness and
gave rise to animated controversy. In the winter
of 1844 Mr. Mayer founded the Maryland
historical society, the original object of which was
“the collecting the scattered materials of the early
history of the state, and for other collateral
purposes.” From a membership of twenty it has
steadily increased to the present membership of
two hundred, including many professional men as
well as merchants. During the civil war Mr. Mayer
was an active Unionist, and in 1861 was appointed
president of the Maryland Union state general
committee, and did much to aid the National cause.
In February, 1863, he was appointed a paymaster
in the U. S. army, and was retained in the service
after the close of the war. He served in Maryland,
Delaware, and California until his sixty-second
year, when he was retired from active service with
the rank of colonel. Besides the work mentioned
above, he published “Mexico, Aztec, Spanish, and
Republican” (2 vols., Hartford, 1851); “Captain
Canot, or Twenty Years of an African Slaver,”
founded on fact (New York, 1854); “Observations
on Mexican History and Archæology” in
“Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge” (Washington,
1856); “Mexican Antiquities” (Philadelphia, 1858);
“Memoir of Jared Sparks” (1867); and “Baltimore
