Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/490

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462
SERCEY
SERGEANT

societies, including the Antiquaires de France, the Historical institute of Rio Janeiro, and the Archieo- logical society of Madrid. Septenville's works in- clude, besides numerous valuable articles in his- torical magazines, " Victoires et conquetes de i'Kspagne depuis 1'occupation des Maures jusqu'a nos jours " (3 vols., Paris, 1862) ; " Decouvertes et conquetes du Portugal dans les deux mondes " (2 vols., 1863); " Le Bresil sous la domination Por- tugaise " (1872) ; and " Pastes inilitaires et mari- times du Portugal " (2 vols., 1879).


SERCEY, Pierre Cesar Charles Guillaiime, Marquis de. French naval officer, b. near Autun, 26 April, 1753; d. in Paris, 10 Aug., 1836. He entered the navy in 1766, was commissioned ensign in May, 1779, and served under the Count de Guiehen. For his participation in several danger- ous enterprises during the siege of Pensacola, Fla., he was made lieutenant and given the cross of St. Louis. On his return to France he was ordered to the command of " La Surveillante " in 1790, and sailed for Martinique. He was promoted captain in 1792, and in January, 1793, was ordered to con- voy to France all the merchant vessels in those waters. He had collected more than fifty ships laden with valuable cargoes, when the rising of the negroes in Santo Domingo occurred. He res- cued 6,000 of the colonists. As his scanty supply of provisions and the feebleness of his naval force did not permit of his attempting to cross the At- lantic, he set sail for the coast of New England, where he arrived in safety. On his return to France in December he was imprisoned for six months for being of noble birth. In December, 1795, he was given command of the naval force that was detailed to accompany the two civil com- missioners that were charged with the execution of the decree giving liberty to the blacks in Mau- ritius and Reunion. Sercey, fearing that scenes similar to those he had witnessed at Santo Domingo might be enacted there, warned the colonists of the nature of the commissioners' errand, and they were in consequence not allowed to land. In 1804, at his earnest request, he was placed on the retired list, and sailed for the Mauritius, which he gallantly defended against the English in 1810. On the declaration of peace in 1814 he was appointed president of the commission to negotiate in Eng- land for the exchange of French prisoners. On his return to France he was promoted vice-admiral, again placed on the retired list in April, 1832, and became a member of the house of peers.


SERGEANT, John, missionary, b. in Newark, N. J., in 1710; d. in Stockbridge," Mass., 27 July, 1749. His grandfather, Jonathan, was a found- er of Newark in 1667. John was graduated at Yale in 1729, and served as tutor there in 1731-'5. He began to preach to the Indians at Housatonic, in western Massachusetts, in 1734, and the next year permanently settled among them and taught them in their own language. In 1736, when the genrral court purchased of the Indians all the land at Skatehook, and in return granted them the tovn- sliip which is now called Stockbridge, he was made owner of one sixtieth part, and ordained " settled missionary to the Indians" there and at Kaunau- meek. A short time before his death he estab- li>ln'.l a manual-labor school at Stockbridge that was in successful operation several years. He translated into the Indian language parts of the Old Testament and all of the New except the book of Revelation, and published a "Letter on the In- dians " (1743) and " A' Sermon " (1743). His son, Erastns, physician, b. in Stockbridge, Mass., 7 Aug., 1742; d. there, 14 Nov., I'M I, IM i-d two years at Princeton, and studied medicine with his uncle. Dr. Thomas Williams, in Decrfield, Mass. He then settled in Stockbridge, and was the first practitioner in that town. He was a skilful sur- geon, and the principal operator within a circle of thirty miles radius. He entered the Revolutionary army in 1775 as major of the 7th Massachusetts regiment, and served with it on Lake Champlain from December, 1776, till April, 1777, and subse- quently till Burgoyne's surrender. Another son of John, John, missionary, b. in Stockbridge. Mass., in 1747; d. there, 8 Sept.. 1824, studied at Princeton two years, was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational church, and in 1775 took charge of the Indian part of the Stockbridge congregation. When they removed to New Stockbridge, N. Y., he followed them and labored among them until his death. One of his daughters established a temperance society for Indian women. Mr. Ser- geant possessed little worldly wisdom, and was bet- ter known for his useful and blameless life than for his intellectual gifts, but he exercised great in- fluence among the Indian tribes, and, on hearing of his expected death, one of the chiefs said : " We feel as if our sun was setting, and we do not know what darkness will succeed." The first John's nephew, Jonathan Dickinson, lawyer, b. in Newark. N. J., in 1746 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa.. 8 Oct., 1793, was the grandson of Jonathan Dickin- son, the first president of Princeton. He was graduated there in 1762, studied law, and began prac- tice in his native state. He took his seat in the Conti- nental congress a few days after the signing of the Dec- laration of Inde- pendence, served in 1776-'7, and in July, 1777, became attorney - general of Pennsylvania. In 1778, congress having ordered a court-martial for the trial of Gen. Arthur St. Clair

and other officers

in relation to the evacuation of Ticonderoga. he was appointed by that body, with William Patterson, of New Jersey, to assist the judge-advocate in the conduct of the trial. He resigned the office of attorney-general in 1780, settled in his profession in Philadelphia, was counsel for the state of Pennsylvania in the controversy with Connecticut concerning the Wyoming lands in 1782, and was conspicuous in the management of many other important cases. When the yellow fever visited Philadelphia in 1793 he was appointed one of the health committee, and in consequence refused to leave the city. He distributed large sums among the poor, nursed the sick, and was active in sanitary measures, but fell a victim to the epidemic. Jonathan Dickinson's son. John, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, 5 Dec., 1779; d. there, 25 Nov., 1852, was graduated at Princeton in 1795. and, abandoning his intention to become a merchant, studied law, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 17!M. For more than half a century he was known throughout the country as one of the most honorable and learned members of his |>ro|Vion and its acknowledged leader in Philadelphia. He