the death of Charles Peale his widow removed to Annapolis with her five children, where she was obliged to support herself and family. Charles Willson was put to school, but before he was thirteen was apprenticed to Mr. Waters, a saddler. As soon as his apprenticeship was at an end he started in business for himself, and on the 12th of January, 1762, when not quite twenty-one years of age, married Rachel Brewer". In addition to his business as saddler he made watches and clocks, and engaged in a variety of other enterprises. While on a trip to Norfolk to purchase supplies for his business he met a Mr. Frazier who had painted some landscapes and a portrait. This suggested to Peale the idea of taking up painting, although as a youth he had a fondness for pictures. When a schoolboy he used to draw pictures for ladies to "draw after," and had copied prints in pen and ink and had even attempted designs in colors. The following incident related by him indicates that he was supposed to have some abilty to draw while a child: "An uncle was dead and Charles' grandmother, a very aged woman, begged him to draw a picture from the corpse; the boy told his grandmoher that he did not know how to do it. She persisted that he could if he would try; all her entreaties were in vain, the task appeared too difficult."

After his visit to Norfolk, Peale took up painting with vigor, painting several landscapes and some portraits, at the same time entering into the sign painting business. Needing

was commissioned master of the sloop Black Joke, carrying ten guns, two swivels, and twenty-five men, and was killed in action during the latter part of that year.

James Peale, in July, 1776, was ensign in the Maryland Battalion, under Colonel Smallwood. March 27, 1777, he was commissioned captain in the First Battalion of Regulars, and on March 1, 1778, was commissioned captain in the First Regiment of the Maryland Continental Line, and resigned June 2, 1779. He was in the battle of Long Island, in the rear guard on the retreat from the North River in 1776, was at Trenton and Princeton, and at Valley Forge and Monmouth. He was a member of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati.

Rachel Brewer was a daughter of John Brewer and the great-greatgranddaughter of Colonel Henry Ridgely, who was a member of the Assembly of Maryland in 1690 and colonel commanding the militia of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, untill 1696, when he resigned on account of old age.

colors for his portrait painting he went to Philadelphia and visited the color shop of a Mr. Christopher Marshall, but not knowing just what to buy procured only a list of colors and their prices. He then went to a bookseller at the corner of Front and Market streets, and purchased the "Handmaid to the arts." After four days' constant study of this book he returned to the color shop, bought his paints and returned to Annapolis, to begin in earnest his new profession. Mr. John Hesselius was then living near Annapolis, and Peale, with the idea of obtaining instruction offered him a saddle if he would allow him to watch him paint a portrait. The offer was accepted by Hesselius, who not only allowed him to see him painting two portraits, but also painted half of a face, leaving Peale to paint the other half.

Partly as the result of entering into too many business pursuits, but mainly owing to the fact that he began with borrowed. capital, Peale soon found himself heavily involved in debt, and as he had joined the "Sons of Freedom" in opposition to the Court Party, to which most of his creditors belonged, he incurred political enmities which soon made it convenient for him to absent himself from Annapolis. This was in 1765, and after going to Virginia he sailed for New England on a vessel owned and commanded by his brother-in-law, Captain Polk. He visited both Boston and Newburyport and in both places did some painting. It was in Boston that he made his first. attempt at miniatures-a portrait of himself. While here he also had the opportunity of seeing some unfinished pictures of a Mr. Smibert who was then dead but who had studied in Italy. He thought them superior to anything he had previously seen. He also met Copley, who treated him "civilly," and gave him a "candle-light" to copy. He says, "Copley's picture room was a great feast to him."

Soon after Peale's return to Virginia affairs were arranged with his creditors and through the kindness of some of his friends and friends of his father he was enabled to go to London. He sailed in December, 1767, and after a rough passage of eight weeks, reached England, where he spent a little more than two years under the tuition of Benjamin West. His re

turn pasage occupied twelve weeks and in June, 1770, he was once more in Maryland. He remained in Annapolis until 1774 and soon had his debts all paid.

In the winter of 1774-75 Peale having many portraits to paint in Baltimore, rented part of a house in Market street in that city, where he remained about a year, after which he removed to Charlestown at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. Having twice visited Philadelphia after his return from London, and on each visit having obtained considerable painting to do, he began to think of settling in that city. He visited Philadelphia again in the winter of 1775-76 and painted a number of portraits, and made arrangements to take up his residence there, which he did in May, 1776.

Prior to going abroad Peale had been a zealous patriot and on taking up his residence in Philadelphia, as he says, regularly attended the militia musterings. At the beginning of the American Revolution the militia of Pennsylvania was organized upon the plan adopted in 1747 at the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin, viz: that of associations in which the members pledged themselves to unite for the common defense. In Philadelphia, as throughout the State, they organized themselves into battalions, and it was as a member of the Second Associated Battalion of Philadelphia, that Peale went through the campaign of Trenton and Princeton. The Philadelphia Battalions formed the Philadelphia Brigade under Col. John Cadwalader. In the return made of the brigade in 1777 Peale is put down as one of the captains1 although he had started out in the latter part of 1776 as lieutenant. He was under the command of Col. John Bayard. The Philadelphia Associators were ordered enrolled December 2, 1776, and on the 9th or 10th of December left Philadelphia for Trenton. They numbered about 1,000 men and together with nearly 900 men under Col. Daniel Hitchcock, called the New England Brigade, were organized into a division which was commanded by General Cadwalader, who was the senior officer. The division was posted along the Delaware, Cadwalader's headquarters being at Bristol. On the first of January Cadwalader's command 'Archives of Pennsylvania, Vol. XIII, p. 585.

"The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, by Wm. S. Stryker, 1898.

joined Washington at Trenton, and at the battle on the 2d was posted in the line of battle in an open field on the south side of the Assunpink or Mill Creek about a mile from the bridge at which the main fight occurred. On the next day, the 3d of January, they took a prominent part in the fight at the Quaker Meeting House bridge near Princeton. Peale describes the entire campaign as follows:

"From the time in which Great Britain first attempted to lay a tax on America by the memorable Stamp Act, he (Peale) was a zealous advocate for the liberties of his country, and contributed his mite in those periods, by assisting in making the emblematical ensign used at Newburyport in New England,1 which showed with what unanimity of detestation the people viewed that odious act of Parliament. And when he was in England, the Parliament having suspended the charter of New York because they would not, under a law of Great Britain, find the British soldiers that were billeted on the inhabitants, with fire-wood, vinegar and salt, etc. The Assembly of New York, having declared that if the King could without their own consent, oblige them to find those articles, by the same parity of reasoning, he could oblige them to feed and pay the troops, etc. After this transaction, Peale would never pull off his hat, as the King passed by, and then he determined to do all in his power to render his country independent. His first step was not to purchase any clothing to bring with him to America; with these sentiments it may readily be imagined that he was not backward in testifying his approbation of the opposition then making by America to secure her freedom, he therefore punctually attended at the mustering of the militia, and at one of the first elections that was held after he had become a resident of Philadelphia, he was elected a lieutenant of a company, altho' but a stranger amongst them. He now applied himself in the best manner he was able to deserve the confidence of the men, who had reposed a trust in him.

"The battle of Long Island had been fought, Fort Washington and Fort Lee surrendered, and the affairs of America became gloomy.

'Peale also painted a flag for an independent company at Williamsburg, Virginia.

"The militia now being called out, he was obliged to attend to that duty, and he trusted to his friend Mr. Hollingshead to assist his family in their removal, in his absence. He then took paper, pen and ink, and went personally to every man whom he could find out, who had ever mustered in the company he belonged to; he promised the men to get everything they should want, and told their wives that they would be supplied with necessaries while their husbands were doing their duty in the field. On one paper he set down the number of the family, to supply their wants; on another paper, the wants of the soldier to make him comfortable in the field (it being in the month of December), and on another paper actually enlisted them, which increased their number to eighty-one men. And with this very respectable company, pushed off with all possible dispatch to join the army.

"As soon as they had reached Trent Town, orders came for them immediately to recross the river, with all possible haste, and General Washington's whole army followed that night and made a grand but dreadful appearance-all the shores were lighted up with large fires; the boats continually passing and repassing, full of men, horses, artillery and camp equipage. That night he lay with his company by a fire on the shore; the next morning they were ordered to an encampment about a half mile from the water. He now met his brother James, who had a commission in the Maryland line, and had been in the rear guard, through all the retreat of the American Army from the North River, and had lost his clothes; he was in an old dirty blanket jacket, his beard long and his face so full of sores that he could not clean it, which disfigured him in such a manner that he was not known by his brother at first sight.

"The militia just coming out had store of good things, and balm was shortly poured on the brother's sores. To shorten the tale he marched with the militia to Dunckers Ferry, that memorable night that General Washington crossed the river and took the Hessians at Trent Town. The city militia was intended to attack the detachments of Hessians at Burlington, at the same time, but the floating ice and a snow storm prevented their getting over their artillery, and the militia before