Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/303

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MAWE
MAXEY

(now East Boston), of which he received a grant from the general court, 1 April, 1633. Thomas Prince's "Chronology" (1630) says: " On Noddle's island lives Mr. Samuel Maverick, a man of very loving and courteous behavior, very ready to enter- tain strangers ; on this island, with the help of Mr. David Thompson, he had built a small fort with four great guns to protect him from the Indians." In 1631 with others he held a patent for land in Maine under the president and council of New England, which was deeded to him in 1638 by the council and Ferdinando Gorges. In 1635 he went to Virginia to purchase corn and stock, and re- mained there nearly a year, returning, as Gov. John Winthrop says in his journal, " with two pinnaces, and brought some fourteen heifers and about eighty goats (having lost about twenty goats by the way). One of his pinnaces was about forty tons, of cedar, built at Barbathes, and brought to Virginia by Capt. Powell, who there dying she was sold for a small matter." Maverick was one of the earliest slave-holders in Massachusetts, having purchased negroes in 1638. In 1640 he received a grant of 600 acres from Boston and an additional grant of 400 acres in Braintree. He was a stanch Episcopalian and royalist, and having suffered much persecution on this account went to England to complain to the king. On 23 April, 1664, he was appointed by Charles II. one of four commissioners to settle the difficulties with the New England colonies, and also to " reduce the Dutch at the Manhadoes," the other commissioners being Col. Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr. and George Cartwright. They were intrusted with full power in all matters military and civil, but they were un- successful in Massachusetts, and Maverick relin- quished his possession of Noddle's island and removed to New York. The exact date of his death is not known. The last trace of him is a letter from his hand dated 15 Oct., 1669, thanking Col. Nichols for procuring for him " the gift of a house in the Broadway " for his fidelity to the king. In his autograph his name appears as Mavericke. See William H. Sumner's " History of East Boston " (Boston. 1858).


MAWE, John, English mineralogist, b. in Derbyshire in 1764 ; d. in London, 26 Oct., 1829. He opened a curiosity-shop in Piccadilly, and in 1804 went to South America on a business trip, but on his arrival at Montevideo was imprisoned as an English spy. He obtained his liberty soon after- ward, but was sent to the interior of the country, where he remained several months. When the English under Beresford occupied Montevideo (in 1806), Mawe returned to the latter city and was attached to the staff of Gen. Whitelocke, accom- panying the latter in his unsuccessful expedition against Buenos Ayres. On his return to Monte- video he bought a schooner and sailed to Brazil, 11 Sept., 1807, making various explorations on his way. He was well received by the prince regent, who gave him permission to visit the diamond- mines of Minas Geraes, and also gave him access to the government archives, permitting him to take copies of charts and documents. Mawe returned to London in 1811 and became a well-known prac- tical mineralogist there. He published " Travels in the Interior of Brazil, including a Voyage to the Rio de la Plata, and an Historical Essay upon the Revolutions in Buenos Ayres " (London, 1812) ; " Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones, and particularly those of South America" (1813 ; 2d ed., revised, 1823) ; and several less important works.


MAXCY, Jonathan', educator, b. in Attleborough, Mass., 2 Sept., 1768; d. in Columbia, S. C., 4 June, 1820. He was graduated at Brown in 1787 with the highest honor in his class, and was at once appointed a tutor, remaining in this office for four years. In September, 1791, he was ordained to the ministry after accepting a call from the first Baptist church in Providence. On the same day he was elected both a trustee and professor of divinity in the college. Though his pastoral rela- tion was brief, it was long enough for him to estab- lish a reputation for ability and eloquence as a preacher. Dr. James Manning, president of the college, having died suddenly in 1791, Mr. Maxcy was appointed in 1792 to succeed him. He at once resigned his pastoral charge and accepted the appointment, though but twenty-four years of age. The college under his administration grew rapidly in popular favor. When he was only thirty-three years of age the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Harvard. In 1802 he was elected to the presidency of Union college. In 1804 he was chosen first president of South Carolina college, which had been just established at Columbia. In the hope that a southern climate might benefit his health, he accepted, and over this institution he continued to preside until his death, a period of sixteen years. His service in this office was marked by great popularity and success. His brilliant and attractive powers gave him distinction and influence, not only in South Carolina, but throughout the southern states. Many competent witnesses testify that as a pulpit orator he had few equals in his generation. Dr. Maxcy's publications comprised numerous occasional sermons, orations, and baccalaureate addresses. See " The Literary Remains of the Rev. Jonathan Maxcy, D. D. ; with a Memoir of his Life," by Romeo Elton, D. D. (New York. 1844).— His brother, Virgil, lawyer, b. in Attleborough, Mass., about 1785; d. on Potomac river, 28 Feb., 1844, studied law with Robert Goodloe Harper, of Maryland, and settled in the practice of his profes- sion in that state, where he soon became eminent as an advocate. He also took an interest in politics, was a member of the Maryland legislature, serving at different times in both houses, became solicitor to the U. S. treasury, and afterward was charge d'affaires in Belgium from 1837 till 1842. He was one of the victims of the explosion of a heavy gun on board the steamer " Princeton " during a visit to the ship of President John Tyler and his party. (See Tyler.) Mr. Maxcy's publications include a valuable '• Compilation of the Laws of Marvland from 1692 to 1809 " (4 vols., Annapolis, 1809), and an '• Oration" before the Phi Beta Kappa society (1833).

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MAXEY, Samuel Bell, soldier, b. in Tompkinsville, Ky., 30 March, 1825 ; d. in Arkansas, 16 Aug., 1895. His family was of Huguenot descent, and came to Kentucky from Virginia, and his father was clerk of the circuit court and county court of Clinton county. Samuel was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1846, and assigned to the 7th infantry. During the Mexican war he served at the siege of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro Gordo, was brevetted 1st lieutenant for gallant conduct at Contreras and Churubusco, and was also at Molino del Rey and the capture of the city of Mexico. He was made commander of a picked company in the city guard by Gen. Winfield Scott. After the war he was stationed at Jefferson barracks, but resigned on 17 Sept., 1849, and in 1850 began the practice of law at Albany, Clinton co., Ky. He married in 1853, and in 1857 removed to Paris, Tex., where he practised until 1861. He had been brought up a Whig, but voted for John C. Breckinridge, and afterward for the recession of the state. He was elected to the state