character has been the subject of much discussion. He was charged by his enemies with gross immo- rality, and the most bitter epithets have been applied to him. Of late years he has been estimated more favorably. Gov. Winthrop describes him as " a man of a very public spirit and singular activity for all occasions." He was said to have been " tall and thin, active and sprightly, and peculiarly forci- ble in language and speech." According to Dr. John Gr. Palfrey, his name should be written Peter. His publications are " God's Doings and Man's Duty opined in a Sermon preached before the House of Commons " (1646) ; " Peter's Last Report of the English Wars," in answer to the queries of a friend (1646) ; " A Word for the Army and Two Words for the Kingdom, to clear the One and cure the Other, Forced in much Plainness and Brevity from their Faithful Servant, Hugh Peters" (1647); " A Good Work for a Good Magistrate, or a Short Gut to a Great Quiet" (1651), in which he recom- mends burning the historical records in the Tower ; and notes of a sermon that he preached in New- gate on 14 Oct., 1660. See " The Tales and Jests of Mr. Hugh Peters " (1660) ; " The History of the Life and Death of Hugh Peters, that Arch Travtor, from the Cradell to the Gallowes " (1661) : " Eng- land's Shame : the Life and Death of that Grand Impostor, Hugh Peters," by Dr. William Yonge (1663); "An Historical and Critical Account of Hugh Peters," by William Harris (1751) ; and " History of Hugh Peters," by Samuel A. Peters (New York, 1807).— His daughter, Elizabeth, b. in Salem, Mass., in 1640, returned to New Eng- land after the execution of her father and was kindly received. She married a Mr. Barker, of New- port, R. I., with whom she removed to England. After his death she recovered from the crown her father's foreign possessions, which had been illegally confiscated. For several years previous to her death she was afflicted with a mental disorder, and suffered many years in extreme poverty. — Hugh's great-nephew, Samuel, clergyman, b. i^ Hebron, Conn., 12 Dec, 1735; d. in New York city, 19 April, 1826, was graduated at Yale in 1757, and travelled in Europe in 1758. In 1759 he took orders in the Church of England in London. Af- ter his return to Connecticut in 1760 he married, and in 1762 took charge of churches in Hartford and Hebron. He imitated the style of an English nobleman in his house, which he "built in a forest, kept a coach, and looked with scorn upon Republi- cans. " In his domestic and private relations he was all that could be desired." The Whigs accused him of communicating with England, 9,nd a com- mittee, accompanied by a threatening assemblage of 300 persons, visited him in August, 1774, and ob- tained from him a written declaration that he had not " sent any letter to the bishop of London, or the venerable Society for the propagation of the gospel, relative to the Boston port bill, or the tea affair, or the controversy between Great Britain and the colonies, and design not to, during my natural life, as these controversies are out of my business as a clergyman." He gave them also a copy of the " Thirteen Resolves " which he con- fessed that he had written for the press. They re- late principally to the tea question, and their pub- lication produced new difficulties. In September he was again visited by the people, who carried him to the meeting-house green, or parade-ground, and compelled him to sign another paper. Soon after- ward he fled to Boston with the intention of sailing for England to make a representation there of his treatment. It was feared that he would procure a withdrawal of the charter of Connecticut, and his letters to his family and others were interceptedo One, dated 1 Oct., 1774, and addressed to Rev. Dr. Samuel Auchmuty, of New York, proposed that Connecticut should be divided between New York and Massachusetts. Dr. Peters obtained a pension and a grant for his property that was afterward confiscated by the Americans, but, owing to a quar- rel with William Pitt, he lost this about 1803. In 1794 he was chosen bishop of Vermont by a con- vention of that diocese, but the archbishop of Can- terbury refused his consecration on the ground that the number of bishops for America were limited. In 1805 he returned to this country and travelled to the Falls of St. Anthony, where he obtained from Capt. Jonathan Carver (q. v.) a grant of a tract of land one hundred miles square. He spent several years in Washington petitioning congress for a confirmation of this grant. In 1817 he re- visited the land, and in 1818 settled in New York city, where he lived in obscurity and on charity. After the death of his brother Andrew he frequently wrote his name Samuel Andrew. Columbia gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1761. He was the author of a " General History of Connecticut, by a Gentleman of the Province " (London, 1781 ; 2d ed.. 1782 ; 3d ed., with illustrations. New Haven, 1829). This contains numerous anecdotes and is a satire independent of time, place, or proba- bility. In this book he originated the story of the so-called " Blue-Laws " of the New Haven colony. He also published a "Letter to the Rev. John Tyler concerning the Possibility of Eternal Pun- ishments and the Improbability of Universal Sal- vation " (London. 1785) ; a " History of the Rev. Hugh Peters " (New York, 1807) ; and a brief " His- tory of Hebron." John Trumbull, in his epic " McFingal," thus mentions him :
" What warnings had ye of your duty.
From our old rev'rend Sam Auchmuty ;
From priests of all degrees and metres.
To our fag-end man. Parson Peters?"
— Samuel's grandson, Samuel Jaryis, merchant, b. in York (now Toronto), Canada, 30 July, 1801 ; d. in New Orleans, La., 11 Aug., 1855, after spend- ing some time in a French counting-room in New York, removed to New Orleans in 1821 and became a merchant. In 1829 he was a member of the New Orleans city council, and chairman of its finance committee. He was an originator of the Pont- chartrain railroad, and the first president of the chamber of commerce, which office he held until his death. He was also president of the City bank, and the State bank of Louisiana, and in 1849 he was made collector of the port. He was instru- mental in introducing into New Orleans the com- mon-school system, in connection with which he founded a public lyceum and library.
PETERS. John Charles, physician, b. in New
York city. 6 July. 1819 ; d. in East Williston, L. I.,
21 Oct., 1893. He was educated at Nazareth Hall,
Pa., at the College of physicians and surgeons in
New York, and also studied abroad, receiving his
medical degree in 1842. On his return to New York
he devoted himself to homoeopathy, but finally
changed to the old school of practice, and endeav-
ored to reconcile the methods of the two schools.
He suggested the employment of alcohol in the
treatment of consumption, the use of phosphates
in medicine, the curative treatment of Bright's
disease with corrosive sublimate, and the use of
the salts of potassium in true membranous croup.
He founded with Dr. Middleton Goldsmith and
Dr. Lewis A. Sayre the New Y^ork pathological so-
ciety, of which he had been president. Dr. Peters
had also been president of the Medical society of
