NOTES on INDIVIDUALS
of the GOULD, HAMPTON and WESTCOTT
Branches of the Neergaard Family Ancestry
WESTCOTT's
Walter Westcott Hoke 1867-1932
Son of Susan Westcott and Walter Hoke, called Wessy, married to Dora M
Crawford, no children. An electrical engineer and patent attorney,
he worked for Bell Labs and held several metallurgical patents. He
was part of Bell's London team that installed the Atlantic Cable. He later
became chief patent attorney for General Foods at their headquarters in Hoboken,
New Jersey. [Reference: Obit].
Caroline Sackett Westcott 1869-1940
Daughter of Thomas Grant Westcott and Joanna Sackett Gould, second wife
(of three) of Clifford Jones de Neergaard, with whom she had one child, Clifford
Gould de Neergaard, who married Virginia Corcoran, had one child, Richard
Hampton Neergaard who married Lois Jeanne Gardner, had four children:
Susan Westcott, Arthur Hampton, Richard Corcoran, John Peter.
Hampton Gould Westcott 1867-1932
Son of Thomas Grant Westcott and Joanna Sackett Gould. Standard Oil
VP whose office was said to be adjacent to that of John D. Rockefeller,
Hampton Westcott was a major defense witness in Teddy Roosevelt's trust-busting
trial of Standard Oil.
After a harrowing week of testimony and cross examination, Westcott
was confronted by a surprise witness (Tarbell?), a secretary whose secretly
kept notes were introduced to demolish his statements, making Standard Oil's
guilt apparent. He is reputed to have cried "It's between God Almighty
and the Standard Oil Company" and collapsed on the witness stand (another
version: the evidence was stolen from Standard Oil's files by the
prosecutor).
Westcott never regained his sanity, and was sent to live with his Aunt
Caroline and her husband Keller in Waynesville North Carolina, where Keller
had a furniture factory (financed by Standard Oil?)
Handsome but never married, Westcott was said to have contracted syphilis
from a beautiful but licentious actress who entered his Pullman stateroom
one night, unbidden but ......unrepelled. He was on a long-term treatment
of gold injections for this ailment, which may have abetted his mental collapse.
Susan Gould Westcott 1863-1933
Daughter of Thomas Grant Westcott and Joanna Sackett Gould, married to
Walter Hoke; children: Hampton (married Charlotte, had a son
Hampton "Hampy" Hoke Jr); Walter, married Dora Crawford; Yolande
("Yoyo" married Gordon, children Jinx and Larry), and Virginia ("Nina",
who married William A Newcomb, had a son William A Newcomb who married Susan
Hester, children Geoffrey and Sylvia). There exists a letter dated
only "Brooklyn Sept 21", from her mother Joanna, in response to a letter
of Susan announcing her marriage in Chambersburg to to Walter Hoke,
which letter from Joanna says that Susan's marriage comes as a very welcome
surprise.
A newspaper article reports the suicide of Dr George W Curry, resident
of Red Bank New Jersey and a founder of the Monmouth Boat Club. He
killed himself after attempting to shoot "Miss Susie Westcott". The
article concludes: "Miss Westcott denied that she had claimed that
William H Stephens, of whom young Curry was jealous, was affianced to her
and said he was simply an acquaintance".
Walter Hoke was an American dentist practicing in Bordeaux. After
his marriage to Susan, they moved to France where their four children were
born, and where for several years around 1910, the couple took in her younger
sister Caroline and Caroline's son Clifford Gould, after Caroline's marriage
to Clifford Jones de Neergaard had broken up. Walter Hoke was said to
have been particularly successful at his profession through using American
dental treatment procedures then unavailable in Europe, once treating King
of Spain. Hoke was a fencing champion as well as a dentist, and wrote
a coffee-table book on famous fencers of Bordeaux which was reviewed in
the Bordeaux press as outstandingly elegant and beautiful, as well as gallant
inasmuch as it was dedicated to "The Ladies of Bordeaux".
Susan had five half-uncles in Trenton, the sons of her grandmother Elizabeth
Grant's second marriage, to William Grant Cook. Cook, much older than
Elizabeth, was a distant cousin whom her father had taken into his business;
the marriage was forced on Elizabeth by her father soon after she was widowed.
Susan authored, evidently in support of a lawsuit, a document in which she
bitterly protests the bequest of the family fortune by the survivor of these
uncles to the Trenton YMCA. She recounts how much of the Grant family
fortune had found its way into Cook ownership over the course of William
Cook's involvement in the Grant business. Edward Cook, one of the sons,
was the lawyer that wrote William Grant's will, almost cutting out Grant's
grandson from his daughter's first marriage, Thomas Grant Westcott (Susan's
father), in favor of the five Cook grandsons.
None of the Cook uncles, all of whom were distasteful to Susan, had children.
She describes her uncle Edward as an overbearing, not-very-bright, unforgiving
snob who would not speak to his brother Hampton for years after Hampton's
marriage, leading to Hampton's remorse, separation from his wife, a stroke,
a reconciliation, and finally Hampton and his wife quitting Trenton permanently
for New York. Susan describes her uncle William as "not quite right"
(he married a very young woman late in his life; then as William was
dying, his brother Hampton, who handled the brothers' finances, took over
William's estate, leaving his widow with little, to die young and in want).
She characterized her uncle Henry as a morose troublemaker who left Trenton
under a cloud and died of drink; and her uncle Walter as likable and
artistic but bringing nameless "disgraces" on the family, being at one time
institutionalized. The last surviving uncle, Hampton, who dominated
his brothers' finances and had frequent "spells" after his stroke, developed
an obsession of guilt about having no heirs to carry on the Cook name, and
was persuaded by a Mr Dixon of the YMCA to bequest the family fortune to
the YMCA which in turn would provide a plaque to memorialize the Cook father's
name in perpetuity. The YMCA building (and plaque) were demolished
in the late 1980's.
Thomas Grant Westcott 1835-1875
Son of Lieutenant Hampton Westcott, USN. Married (2nd) Joanna Sackett
Gould, daughter of Isaac Gould and Susan Smith Sackett with whom he had
four children: Virginia, Susan, Hampton, and Caroline. (First
wife was Sarah Head). Was chief engineer for the South Mountain Railroad.
Wrote for Harper's Bazaar (as it was spelled it then).
Elizabeth Grant 1816-1858
Wife of Lt Hampton Westcott, mother of Thomas Grant Westcott. After
Lt Westcott's untimely death, the young widow was forced by her father William
Grant (owner of the Island of Melrose, near Trenton, NJ.) to marry his business
associate and distant cousin, the much older William Grant Cook, with whom
she then had five sons, naming her first son after her first husband.
She died at 43 of a stroke.
Lt Hampton Westcott 1803-1836
Son of Judge James Diamont Westcott and Amie Harris Hampton; married
Elizabeth Grant, had one child, Thomas. Entered Navy in 1823, warranted
Midshipman 5/10/1829, married 8/29/1832. Died aboard the USS John
Adams near Gibraltar and was buried at sea. [Reference: account
of his life given in The New Jersey State Gazette, Trenton, 5/12/1837. ("U.
S. Gazette" is also noted). Also obits and extended newspaper coverage
of notorious 1831 Hunter-Miller duel in which he was involved as second]
James D Westcott Jr
Son of Judge James Diamont Westcott and Amie Harris Hampton, married to
Rebecca B Sibley child James III. First governor of State of Florida
under Jackson, later Senator. Fought, and then negotiated a treaty
with, the Seminole chief Osceola. Served in Army in Mexican War.
A completely unreconstructed Southerner, he was banished from the United
States for having helped escape a father and son accused, falsely as it
turned out, of the assassination of President Lincoln. He was later
amnestied but unrelentingly furious, he remained in voluntary exile in Montreal
Canada for 18 years until his death at 79. He was a noted character
there, opinionated, eloquent, brilliant and flamboyant. His
hatred of Northern institutions was so intense that during a flirtation
occurring at that time with parts of Canada's coming into the US, he made
a friend pledge, should annexation come to pass after his death, to dig
up his bones and move them further north into what would still be the Dominion.
His son was a judge of the Supreme Court of Florida. [References:
Obits, and Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography in which James Diamont
Westcott is listed as Lawyer and US Senator from Florida, whose father is
James D Westcott, Secretary of State for New Jersey and whose son is James
D Westcott III, Confederate Army Officer and Justice of the Supreme
Court.]
Gideon Granger Westcott
Son of Judge James Diamont Westcott and Amie Harris Hampton, married to
Caroline Dare, descendent of Virginia Dare, first white child baptized in
Virginia. Children were Charles (married Annie Drake, had children Horace,
Charles and Caroline), Amie (married Clark), Mary (married Sylvester), Horace
and Hampton. Extract from the Philadelphia Ledger "Gideon Granger Westcott
was appointed Postmaster General of Philadelphia March 19, 1857. He
comes from an old American family; his father and brothers are highly
distinguished men.". [Reference: Progeny given in Susan
Westcott's notes of 1919].
George Clinton Westcott
Son of Judge James Diamont Westcott and Amie Harris Hampton, graduate of
West Point, married to Charlotte Jeffers of Philadelphia. Caroline
Westcott de Neergaard's notes state: ".....Captain John Westcott .....crossed
the Delaware in the same boat with Washington, holding the flag. A
painting by Weir in the Capital at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania of 'Washington
Crossing the Delaware', contains a portrait of his grandson Captain George
Clinton Westcott who sat for Weir to represent his grandfather Captain John
Westcott".
The State House archivist at Harrisburg does not know of such a painting,
but says there had been a fire early this century in which much art was
lost. What was left is now mostly either in private hands or in the
Pennsylvania State Museum, which also does not know of a Wier painting.
As far as can be ascertained, the senior Weir, Robert W (1803-1889), who
was a patriotic painter of note, did not do a painting of Washington crossing
the Delaware, nor did his artist relatives, two sons and a cousin.
Emanuel Leutz of course did the famous rendition of Washington Crossing the
Delaware, which the Pennsylvania State Museum did once have on long-term
loan, and which is now in the Met in New York. Leutz painted his version
in in 1850, so the timing corresponds with Caroline's notes, but in
Düsseldorf. Leutz however was supposedly quite keen to use as
authentic models as possible, and corralled an American for this purpose
whenever he could lay his hands on one. Might Clinton Westcott have
been in Europe at the time? Or, since Leutz's first version was damaged
(eventually destroyed) and he did a second, might he have done the replacement
in America where his determination for authenticity could be supported by
use of actual descendants as models?
William Westcott
Son of Judge James Diamont Westcott and Amie Harris Hampton. On the
back of Lt Hampton Westcott's obit is a hand-written note that states: William
- USA married Sarah Nucomb, sister of Nelson Nucomb, who married Mary
Westcott - 1828.
Richard D Westcott
Son of Judge James Diamont Westcott and Amie Harris Hampton. Only
notation in family archives: "Went to Texas".
Judge James Diamont Westcott 1775-1841
Son of Captain John Westcott and Sarah Diamont, married to Amie Harris
Hampton, had 13 children: Maria, Hampton, William. John, Gideon. Richard,
Emma, George, Beyser, Isaac, James II, Clinton, and Rachel. Secretary
of State of New Jersey from 1830-1840. Legend on back of Byzantine
silhouettes of Amie and James Westcott, says he was born January 25th, 1775,
in Bridgetown, New York. Caroline Westcott de Neergaard's DAR application
gives date of death as 1835. The couple had 14 children of whom two
died young.
Elizabeth Westcott
Grandniece of Captain John Westcott. At the time of the revolution,
when the Washingtons lived in the then capitol Philadelphia, they stayed
in the house of Robert Morris, a financial manager of the Revolution.
George Westcott, Elizabeth's father and brother of Judge James Diamont Westcott,
lived next door. A warm friendship sprang up between the two families;
Elizabeth was the same age as Martha Washington's Curtis grandchildren.
Author of 6/27/1796 letter home, a young woman reporting somewhat breathlessly
on her sojourn as a houseguest at Mt Vernon with the Washingtons (".....
rigorous and precise daily schedule"), and on another houseguest, the son
of the Marquis de la Fayette (....."one of the most pleasing young men I
have ever known").
Captain John Westcott 1741-1813
Son of Ebenezer Westcott and Barbara (another son was David). Ebenezer's
father was Daniel Westcott. Captain John was married to Sarah Diamont,
had children John, James, Rachel, Mary and George. Captain John was
listed as 1st Lt, Western Co., New Jersey Artillery, 1 March 1776;
made Captain-Lieutenant October 1776; Captain of West Jersey Seeley's
Brigade 1777, and fought in many battles in close association with George
Washington. Caroline Westcott de Neergaard's notes: "In the early
part of the Revolution, John removed his family from Philadelphia to the
old home in Bridgeton New Jersey. He joined Seeley's Brigade of West
Jersey Artillery, rising to the rank of Captain. He was commis-sioned
by General Washington, and crossed the Delaware in the same boat with Washington,
holding the flag. A painting by Weir in the Capital at Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania of 'Washington Crossing the Delaware', contains a portrait of
his grandson Captain George Clinton Westcott who sat for Weir to represent
his grandfather Captain John Westcott. [References: Stamford,
Conn records; Office of Sect'y of State, Trenton, NJ; "Officers
of the Continental Army" by FB Hutman p 582; "Officers and Men of New
Jersey in the Revolutionary War" by WS Stigher p 418.]
Daniel Westcott
Son of Richard Westcott, married Abagale, sons Samuel, Daniel and Ebenezer.
Notes by Caroline Westcott de Neergaard: "Daniel Westcott represented
his constituents in the General Court at Hartford, three different times.
He was also a founder of Fairfield, New Jersey. His name appears frequently
in the history of Stamford, Ct. Termed 'First Colonist of Stamford'.
In 1676, Daniel Westcott was voted town lots and land for his aid against
the common foe, the Pequot Indians. He later sold out his property
in Fairfield Township (which included Stamford in 1694), and with a few followers
moved to New Jersey. These settlers called their new home Fairfield
after the old New England settlement and after the Fairfield in England,
their mother country". Other family notes: "Daniel Westcott was
an Indian fighter. He represented his constituents in the General Court
at Hartford three different times. He died in 1702 leaving three sons....(who)....were
among the founders of Salem, New Jersey and also Cumberland County (after
it was cut off from Salem) and their record is an enviable one. Many
Westcotts were incorporated in, and supporters of, the founding of the First
Presbyterian Church in Fairfield."
Richard Westcott
Son of Thomas de Westcott and Elizabeth Syttleton whose father Sir Thomas
Syttleton of Worchestershire, was author of Treatisease Tenures. Sir
Thomas emigrated to Plymouth Colony from which in 1636 he was expelled,
going to Rhode Island.
A town map of Weathersfield shows Richard Westcott's residence with land
of 3 acres. Records attest he took an active role in public affairs.
He was also a founder of Fairfield, New Jersey. His name appears frequently
in the history of Stanford, Connecticut. Sons were Daniel and John,
who was a founder of Westchester, New York. [Reference: notes by Caroline
Gould in Sackett book]
GOULD's
Joanna Sackett Gould 1843-1896
Daughter of Isaac Gould and Susan Smith Sackett, married to Thomas Grant
Westcott in 1863 by William Boswell. Their children were Virginia,
Susan, Hampton, and Caroline. Several letters of family correspondence
exist, from her husband to her, and from both of them to their daughter
Susan. Joanna is the subject of one of the pair of oil portraits hanging
in the Neergaard dining room; the other is of her mother.
The book "Sacketts of America" contains on page 184 a harrowing contemporaneous account Joanna
authored of the Hickory Dam flood of 11/1/1849, in which two of her
siblings were killed. (The author of the account is identified in
print as "Mrs Gould's daughter Josie Truesdell" but there is no "Josie" daughter,
and the associated dates are right for Joanna. "Truesdell" is crossed
out in faded ink, and "Westcott" is written in (was Truesdell a previous,
or subsequent, marriage? Her husband Thomas Grant Westcott died in
1875 when she was but 32, and evidently she remained social; she saved
an ardent letter written to her by one Geo K Tozer(?), a previous acquaintance,
in which he asks permission to pay court, as his wife had recently died).
Her name was also spelled "Johanna"; she was also called "Josie".
Isaac Gould 1805-1864
Son of Elijah Gould, who a family note says was the son of Moses Gould,
Revolutionary War General. Isaac Gould, was married to Susan Smith Sackett,
had children Susan born 1832, Elijah '34, William '37, Elisabeth '39, Joanna
'43, Caroline '45, Winfield '48, Robert '49, Isabella '50. Isaac owned,
jointly with his brother Stephen and at least one other brother, several
large tracts of timberland mainly in Carbon and Lycoming Counties, Pennsylvania.
When Isaac and Susan Smith Sackett married, the newlywed couple lived on
one of these tracts in a pioneer cabin by the bank of a mountain stream
called Hickory Run. A hamlet two miles downstream was also called
Hickory Run; four miles further along the stream emptied into the Lehigh
River. Isaac's brothers lived nearby; all were there to manage
their lumber business. (The Sackett family had long owned extensive tracts
of real estate in the northeast, which eventually led them into the lumber
business, undoubtedly laying the scene for Susan and Isaac to meet, marry
and move into the cabin at Hickory Run).
On November 1st 1849 the dam of a neighboring lumber business upstream
of the Gould home burst, washing the house away and killing two of the children.
(See "The Sacketts of America", page 184). A few years after the Hickory
Run disaster, the Goulds "purchased a beautiful home in Trenton, New Jersey,
where they spent the remainder of their lives".
There's a family story that our Gould family is related to the financier
Jay Gould (b1836 Roxbury NY-d 1892) through bastardy. The story goes
that Jay Gould's mother fell in love with someone her family considered
socially unacceptable, prohibiting her marriage to him. She left the
family defiantly and bore her man a child, whom she then had to bring up
in poverty, which was the basis of the source of Jay's anger at the world
(the father's fate is not explained). The story goes on to say, as
if it were relevant, that the custom of the time was that a female giving
birth out of wedlock would give the child her own surname, and a first name
from the bible. Likely scenarios of the potential relevance of this
to any of the published facts of either Isaac or Jay Gould's family, are
however elusive. Jay Gould's immediate family, including a father
named Gould, seems well accounted for by contemporaneous accounts.
Perhaps a sister or aunt of Isaac was Jay Gould's father's mother.
The fact that Susan Smith Sackett Gould's grand-daughter Caroline Westcott,
who lived in Trenton, somehow became a childhood sweetheart of Clifford
Neergaard, who lived in Manhattan, supports the family lore that Caroline
and her mother Joanna Gould Westcott were frequent visitors to the Gould
mansion, on 5th Avenue in Manhattan (the Neergaard family lived and ran
their pharmacy on 28th Street just east of Fifth Avenue, a half mile south
of Jay Gould's residence). Carrie's relationship with Clifford which,
after a ten-year hiatus, ended in marriage, adds credence to the story that
there was indeed an Isaac-Jay Gould family connection which led to frequent
and extended visits between Joanna Westcott née Gould, and Jay Gould,
and consequently to contact between Joanna's daughter Caroline and the Neergaard
Pharmacy, where Caroline met Clifford and their relationship began.
Family lore is that Caroline and her mother
Joanna Gould Westcott were frequent visitors to the Gould mansion on 5th
Avenue in Manhattan. Carrie's relationship
with Clifford Neergaard, which after a ten-year hiatus ended in marriage,
adds credence to this story. Carrie and
Joanna lived in Trenton, not a casual journey from Manhattan in those days,
but the Gould residence was only a half mile
north of where the Neergaard family lived and
ran their pharmacy on 28th Street just east of Fifth Avenue. a proximity
which quite probably provided the occasion for the couple to meet.
This supports this piece of family lore and by extension, the story that there was indeed an Isaac-Jay Gould family
connection.
HAMPTON's
Amie Harris Hampton - d 1849
Daughter of Dr John Hampton and Mercie Harris; wife of Judge James
Diamont Westcott, had 13 children: Maria, Hampton, William. John,
Gideon. Richard, Emma, George, Beyser, Isaac, James II, Clinton, and Rachel.
Colonial Dames' headquarters in Georgetown was Amie's home. Legend
on Byzantine silhou-ettes of Amie and James Westcott, done 1803 in Washington
DC, says she died Oct 19 184(7?).
Mercie Harris
Wife of Dr John Hampton, child Amie Harris Hampton. A note from an
unidentified writer says: "There exists a snuffbox with the engraving
'Mercy Westcott'. A letter found inside the box from Aunt Nina [whose
aunt is not stated, but the handwriting of the note is relatively contemporary,
so it probably was written to Nina Westcott, daughter of Thomas Grant Westcott]
says: 'This snuff box made by my grandfather, Lt Hampton Westcott,
for his grandmother". But Mercy Harris married a Westcott, not a Hampton.
The implication is that the records are somehow crossed: or,
Lt Hampton made the box as a kid and got his grandmas' names switched.
Dr John Hampton
Son of William T Hampton (whose father was Sir Adrian Hampton) and Amie
Du Val. Married to Mercie Harris, had daughter Amie Harris Hampton.
Was a surgeon in Colonel Seeley's Battalion during the Revolution [Reference:
"Jerseymen in the Revolution"]. His daughter's husband's father, Captain
John Westcott, was also in Seeley's Battalion.
Sir Adrian Hampton
Colonial governor of New Jersey, married to Lady Margaret Cummins, son
Dr John Hampton. Data on Hampton Family descendants are taken from
"History of Fairfield, NJ".
Compiled by R H Neergaard,
12/1/91