Thank you for sharing this with us! I always learn a great deal from your historical postings!
Best regards, Nancy Jean Baptista ________________________________ From: 'John Raposo' via Azores Genealogy <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 10:58:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AZORES-Genealogy] THOMAS HICKLING AND HIS WIFE SARAH FALDES - S. Miguel - Ponta Delgada Actually, Marilyn, you probably do but just haven't found him/her yet. Keep digging. John Miranda Raposo On Friday, April 28, 2017 11:46 AM, Marilyn Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: Thank you John for this wonderful and informative article. I wish I had someone important enough to have such a rich history of their lives. Call me green with envy Marilyn On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 9:43 AM, Margaret Vicente <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: John, Wonderful article and so complete. I will take me a while to digest it. May I email you privately as you may have the answer for my question with having all this background on the family? Thank you so much! Margaret On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 10:40 AM, 'John Raposo' via Azores Genealogy <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Margaret, This is from an article I wrote many years ago. Yankee Azoreans John Miranda Raposo This is not a work about the thousands of immigrants who have come to New England from the nine islands of the Azores. Rather, this work is primarily concerned with the descendants of Thomas Hickling, a Boston Yankee who settled on São Miguel and became the patriarch of a large clan on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas Hickling was born in Boston on 21-2-1744 into the prosperous merchant family of William Hickling of Nottingham, England and Sarah Townsend Sale. At the age of eighteen, his father arranged an apprenticeship for him with the prosperous Green brothers and in 1764 he married their sister, Sarah Emily Green, fifteen years his senior, in Boston's old Trinity Church.[1]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn1> There is some speculation that it was a marriage of convenience, arranged either for social or economic reasons, or both. In any event Hickling fulfilled his marital duty becoming the father of two children by his first wife. Catherine Green Hickling was born in Salem in 1768 and William Green Hickling was born in 1765. Their father soon left his family and located to the Caribbean where he traded in molasses which he shipped back to his father's distillery in Boston.[2]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn2> He must have been an enterprising sort, for he perceived the commercial possibilities in the Azores because in 1769 be was living in Ponta Delgada. Thomas Hickling never returned to America and never lived anywhere else. He became one of the principal developers of the orange trade, the export of oranges to England, which became the basis for the colossal fortunes of many of São Miguel's socially prominent families and paid for the construction of many a palácio, those grand manor houses with their lovely English and French gardens still seen throughout the island. In 1820 Hickling exported nearly 5,700 crates or oranges and 2,000 crates of lemons from Ponta Delgada. But the firm of his sons-in-law Ivens & Burnett exported over 11,000 crates.[3]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn3> At the height of the orange age 93% of the oranges produced in São Miguel were exported. But the Hicklings and many other "gentlemen farmers" were brought to financial ruin at the end of the century when the orange trade came to an end, victim of a blight that first attacked the orange groves in 1834, again in 1860 and finally destroyed the remaining groves at the end of the century. The financial ruin resulted in a reduced standard of living for these "gentlemen farmers", many of whom could no longer afford the upkeep on their lovely homes and gardens. Many can still be seen in the suburbs surrounding Ponta Delgada and Lagoa, their dilapidated state a silent witness to both the greatness and the misery of the age.[4]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn4> News traveled slowly and it must have been months before Hickling learned that Sarah Green, the wife he had last seen twelve years earlier, had died in Boston in May of 1774. He could not have mourned her death very much for not long after, in February 1778, the young widower married Suzanne Sarah Falder of Philadelphia, fifteen years his junior. It must have been love at first sight since the young Sarah just happened to be passing through Ponta Delgada in the company of her father, Thomas Falder. Between the time of their marriage and 1808 they produced 16 children, all born in São Miguel, including two sets of twins.[5]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn5> Thus, came into being the first generation of Yankee Azoreans. Throughout his lifetime on São Miguel, the Protestant Hickling was very ecumenical; whenever a Protestant minister was unavailable at the frequent arrivals of new Hicklings, he had them baptized in the Catholic Church.[6]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn6> In 1776 Thomas Hickling was appointed American Vice Consul in Ponta Delgada, a post he held until his death some fifty years later. Hickling became socially prominent and popular for his sincerity and friendliness. His diplomatic and social positions on the island made him a natural good will ambassador who often received and entertained visiting foreigners. Over the years his business ventures made him a fabulously wealthy man and he built three magnificent estates on the island. In 1792 he was living on Rua da Misericórdia. His first manor house with a curved northern side and curved outer steps leading to what must have been a magnificent lawn, was built in Rosto do Cão in the parish of São Roque on the outskirts of Ponta Delgada.[7]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn7> In 1812 he began building the Palácio de São Pedro. Built in the Georgian colonial style, it cost Hickling nearly $30,000.00, a huge fortune at the time and it was considered the grandest private residence on the island well into the second half of the 19th century.[8]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn8> It still stands today at the water's edge in the eastern end of Ponta Delgada as the Hotel São Pedro, the grand dame of hotels, lovingly preserved and filled with period furniture, by its late proprietor, Vasco Bensaúde. But it is Hickling’s Terra Nostra park and botanical gardens in Furnas that stands as a perpetual monument to his memory. Hickling chose the Furnas valley to build his summer home in 1782, which he appropriately named Yankee Hall. Furnas is blessed with thermal springs of warm water and Hickling built his home on high land facing o Tanque, a natural pool fed by these warm springs. All around the house Hickling began developing what eventually became a magnificent botanical garden, planting many specimens from America and from other lands where he maintained commercial interests. For the rest of his life, Hickling divided his time among his three estates. Thomas Hickling died in Ponta Delgada on 31 August 1836 and lies buried in the protestant Cemetery. He was succeeded as vice-consul by his son Thomas, Jr. (1781-1875). Sarah Falder died in 1849 and was buried beside her husband. In 1848, with the financial crisis caused by the first attack of blight to the orange groves, Yankee Hall and the gardens were sold to the Marquês da Praia who restored and expanded Hickling’s masterpiece.[9]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn9> So grand an estate did it become, that his descendant put the house and estate at the disposal of the King and Queen during their visit to the island in 1901. In 1970 the island's government formally recognized Thomas Hickling’s place in Azorean history and horticulture by erecting a monument to his memory close by the entrance of his beloved Yankee Hall. The Azorean Hicklings: the descendants of Thomas Hickling §1 1 - Thomas Hickling was born in Boston on 21-2-1744 to William Hicking and Sarah Sale. He was married in Boston on 22-8-1764 to Sarah Emily Green, daughter of Rufus King and Katherine Stanbridge, who died in 1774. In February 1778 in Ponta Delgada, he married Sarah Falder, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Falder. He was Vice Consul of the United States in Ponta Delgada from his appointment in 1776 until his death on 1 Sept 1834. Sarah Falder died in Ponta Delgada in 1849.[10]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn10> By his first wife he had: 2 - Catherine Green Hickling (1768-1852) , visited her father and his estates in São Miguel from 1786 to 1788 and it is from her diaries, portions of which were published in Insulana[11]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn11> that we know about her father's activities and his projects as well as what the island's gardens looked like in 1786. She married William Prescott and they became the parents of several children, three of whom survived infancy. Among them was the celebrated author and historian William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859) who visited with his grandfather in 1815.[12]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn12> 2 - William Hickling was born in Boston on 14 June 1765. He died in 1794. Thomas Hickling and his second wife Sarah Falder were the parents of[13]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn13>: 2 - Mary Hickling (c. 1778-1805) married John Anglin of County Cork. After her death, John Anglin married his sister-in-law Ana Joaquina. 2 - Elizabeth Flora Hickling (1783-1832) married William Breakspeare Ivens, an armigerous English gentleman, in 1805, who was in the Azores with his friend William Shelton Burnett on a business venture. George III granted him a coat of arms in 1816. Both men fell in love with Hickling sisters. By the time he died in 1851, the orange blight and a financial scandal left him and his family in financial ruin.[14]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn14> They were the parents of eight children, among them: 3 - Robert Breakspeare Ivens was born in Ponta Delgada on 9 Mar 1822 and died in Lisbon on 20 Feb 1889. He was married to Luisa Soares Borralho by whom he had two children. By Margarida Júlia de Medeiros Castelo Branco, born in Água de Pau in 1832 to José Jacinto Raposo do Rego Castelo Branco and his wife Ana Jacinta Matilde, he had two illegitimate children:[15]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn15> 4 - Roberto Ivens was born in Ponta Delgada on 12 June 1850 and died in Lisbon on 28 Jan 1898. He was a famous geographer and explorer of the African continent. The expedition to the African continent by Ivens and Brito Capelo, ranks with the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase by the Americans Lewis and Clark. A monument to his memory stands in Ponta Delgada near the Esperança Convent. 4 - Duarte Ivens was born in Ponta Delgada on 31 Aug 1852. 2 - Sarah Clarissa Hickling (1783-1849) married her brother-in-law's friend, William Shelton Burnett. 2 - Ana Joaquina Hickling (1785-1824) and John Anglin have descendants in the United States as well as in the Azores. A grandson, Dr. João Hickling Anglin, was the rector of the local lyceum and was a respected researcher who published many scholarly works. 2 - Charlotte Sophia Hickling (1787-1877) married Jacinto Soares de Albergaria. 2 - Frances Hickling (1789-1867) married Joaquim António de Paula Medeiros, a local physician. They have many descendants in São Miguel, some of whom have married into the local nobility. 2 - Frederick Hickling was born on 1 Oct 1791 and died in August 1794. 2 - Harriet Frederica Hickling (1793-1853) married John White Webster, a Harvard professor. He met Harriet while doing some research on the geological formation of the island.[16]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn16> The salary of a Harvard professor was more an honorarium in those days, than a decent salary. Harriet aspired to social prominence and entertained lavishly at their Cambridge, Massachusetts home, spending well beyond her means. Professor Webster went into debt to support his wife's lifestyle. One of his creditors, Professor George Parkman, pressed Webster for repayment and threatened to take legal action which would have ruined Webster. Professor Webster murdered Parkman and dismembered and incinerated the body. Nevertheless he was discovered, tried, condemned and was hanged in August 1850. Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. John White Webster, became one of the most famous cases in American jurisprudence because of the missing corpus delicti.[17]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn17> Two of their daughters went on to marry Dabneys from Faial, another Yankee family established in the Azores. Harriet Wainright Webster married Samuel Wyllys Dabney, who was United States Consul in Horta.[18]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn18> The Consulship of Horta passed on to succeeding Dabney generations, as did the Vice-consulship of Ponta Delgada to succeeding Hickling generations. The Dabneys resigned their consulship in 1891 when a new State Department rule prohibited consular officials from engaging in commercial enterprises in their posts. Wyllys and his family returned to the United States and established Fayal Ranch in California.[19]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn19> 2 - Samuel Hickling (1795-1799). 2 - Amelia Clementina Hickling (1796-1872) married Hugh Chambers in 1822 and settled with her husband in New Bedford where he died in 1823. She was pregnant and returned to the Azores where her daughter Emmeline was born in 1823. Amelia then married Thomas Nye in New Bedford in 1827 and had several more children. 3 - Emmeline married Edward Coffin Jones of Nantucket in 1844 and they lived in the magnificent Rotch-Jones-Duff mansion, today a house and garden museum open to the public in New Bedford. 2 - Mary Anne Hickling (1800-1888) married her brother-in-law, William Ivens, in 1833 in the Protestant Chapel in Ponta Delgada. They had several children. One daughter, Catherine (1836-1933) married Ricardo Júlio Ferraz and they are the ancestors of a very numerous Ivens-Ferraz family, including Generals, Admirals, Finance Ministers and a Prime Minister of Portugal.[20]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftn20> Senator John Forbes Kerry: the Hickling Connection Edward Coffin Jones and Emmeline Hickling Chambers were the parents of Sarah Coffin Jones (1852-1891) who married John Malcolm Forbes (1874-1904), a railroad company executive and a great-grandson of the Reverend John Forbes (1740-1783) and Dorothy Murray. They had several children. After Sarah’s death, John Malcolm Forbes married Emmeline’s cousin Rose Dabney (1864-1947) and they had three children. Rose Dabney was the granddaughter of Harriet Frederica Hickling and the ill fated Professor John White Webster. Senator John Forbes Kerry (1943- ) is the son of Richard Kerry and Rosemary Forbes, maternal grandson of James Grant Forbes (1879-1955), and great grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes (1839-1908). Francis Blackwell Forbes is also a great-grandson of the Reverend John Forbes and his wife Dorothy. Thus, Thomas Hickling’s descendants by his great granddaughters Rose Dabney and Sarah Coffin Jones, and the descendants of Francis Blackwell Forbes and his wife Isabel Clark, are cousins. Former presidential candidate Senator John Forbes Kerry, like his Hickling cousins, is a great-grandson of Francis Blackwell Forbes. If there is an after life, Thomas Hickling must have an enormous grin on his patrician face. ________________________________ [1]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref1> José Manuel Bela Morais, “Descendants of Thomas Hickling”, MS, Lisbon, n.d. [2]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref2> Isabel Soares de Albergaria, Quintas, Jardins e Parques da Ilha de São Miguel, Lisbon, Queluz Editores: 2000. [3]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref3>Sacuntala de Miranda, O Ciclo da Laranja e os gentlemen farmers da Ilha de S. Miguel: 1780-1880, Ponta Delgada: Instituto Cultural de Ponta Delgada: 1989. [4]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref4>Sacuntala de Miranda. [5]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref5> Francis Millet Rogers, “Boston Brahmins in the Azores” Atlantic Islanders of the Azores and Madeiras, North Quincy: The Christopher Publishing House: 1979. [6]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref6> Bela Morais,“Descendants of Thomas Hickling”. [7]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref7> Francis Millet Rogers, “Boston Brahmins in the Azores” Atlantic Islanders of the Azores and Madeiras, [8]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref8> Bela Morais,“Descendants of Thomas Hickling”. [9]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref9> Isabel Soares de Albergaria. [10]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref10> José Manuel Bela Morais, “Descendants of Thomas Hickling”, MS, Lisbon, n.d. Francis Millet Rogers, “Boston Brahmins in the Azores” Atlantic Islanders of the Azores and Madeiras, North Quincy: The Christopher Publishing House: 1979. [11]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref11> Catherine Green Hickling, Diário: 1786-1789 in Insulana, Ponta Delgada, Instituto Cultural de Ponta Delgada: 1993. [12]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref12>Author of The Conquest of Mexico, The World of the Aztecs, The World of the Incas, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, The Conquest of Peru, The Rise and decline of the Spanish Empire. [13]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref13>These are the children which this author has been able to document. [14]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref14> José Manuel Bela Morais, et al, Ivens Ferraz: Origens e sua Descendência, Lisbon: 1999. [15]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref15>Francisco de Simas Alves de Azevedo, in Centenário: Hermengildo Capelo e Roberto Ivens, Conferências e Comunicações. Comissão das Comemorações do Primeiro Centenário da Travessa da África por Hermengildo Capelo e Roberto Ivens, Academia Portuguesa da História. Lisbon: 19-6-1985. Carlos Maria Machado, Genealogias, MS, Biblioteca e Arquivo Regional de Ponta Delgada, n.d. [16]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref16>John White Webster, A description of the island of St. Michael, comprising an account of its geological structure. Boston: 1821. [17]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref17>Helen Thomson, Murder at Harvard, Boston, Houghton Miffin: 1971. Robert Sullivan, The Disappearance of Dr. Parkman, Little, Brown, Boston: 1971. [18]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref18> He was the son of the second consul, Charles William Dabney and grandson of the first consul, John Bass Dabney. (see Joseph C. Abdo, "The Dabney Family of Faial" and Francis Millet Rogers, “Boston Brahmins in the Azores”) [19]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref19> Bela Morais, “Descendants of Thomas Hickling”. [20]<https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8hm7pjej0es4g#_ftnref20> Ibid. On Friday, April 28, 2017 9:18 AM, Margaret Vicente <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hello, Does anyone in the list have a complete list (including deceased children) of the well known - Thomas Hickling and of his 2nd wife Sarah Faldes? who lived and died in Ponta Delgada, island of S. Miguel? Mr. Hickling was from Boston, USA. His 2nd wife was from Philadelphia. Because they were not Catholics their marriage is not in the Church records. Hoping some savvy research may be able to help. I'm also looking for a correct timeline of when his first wife died in Boston. Trying to reconcile the the two marriages. Thank you. -- Margaret M Vicente -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscribe@googlegroup s.com<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/grou p/azores<https://groups.google.com/group/azores>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscribe@googlegroup s.com<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/grou p/azores<https://groups.google.com/group/azores>. -- Margaret M Vicente -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/ group/azores<https://groups.google.com/group/azores>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
