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Writers, not knowing that Colonel Montrésor in 1774 was already married to Miss Frances Tucker, have been led into taking Julia Franklin for a real person, identifying her with the family from which Franklin Square got its name.

Attempts made in several directions to trace the authorship of these lines to some well-known poet or hymn writer have not succeeded. Mrs. Rowson may have written them herself.

Some of the later editions do not contain the first stanza of this poem, the omission of which must have been due to carelessness rather than design, inasmuch as the reader is left without knowledge of the noun to which the pronoun "thy" refers in the line "In vain thy glories bid me rise."

Many editions have had for this chapter the interpolated title, "A Benevolent Visit."

It will be observed here that Mrs. Rowson gives to Montraville the same Christian name that was borne by Montrésor.

So printed, instead of St. Eustatia, as on a previous page.

Heading omitted from late editions.

These lines are Goldsmith's.

The identity of the house which Charlotte was now leaving with a house shown on the Ratzen map has already been referred to in the Introduction. It is interesting to note further than in Watson's "Annals," published in 1846, its location is given as what was then No. 24 Bowery, the edifice being described as "a low wooden house." Watson gives Dr. John W. Francis, the author of "Old New York," as his authority for the statement that Charlotte lived in this house. Dr. Francis, at the time when Watson wrote, was 57 years old, and had spent his life in New York, where he was born in 1789.

The Bowery at that point is now accessible from the west, not only by Pell Street, but by another street, called Doyers, which turns northerly and soon enters Pell, thus making a small triangular block bounded by Doyers, Pell, and the Bowery. Within this enclosure originally stood the two houses shown on the Ratzen map, Charlotte's house being subsequently removed to the northwest corner of Pell and the Bowery, where, as already stated, it was known as "The Old Tree House."

In attempts heretofore made to establish the identity of this house, two famous Colonial homes have been brought into the discussion — the Franklin and the Walton. The former was perhaps first suggested in consequence of its name, but, as already pointed out, the Julia Franklin episode in "Charlotte Temple" never occurred in real life.

The Franklin house stood at the northwest corner of Franklin Square and Cherry Street, the site being now overshadowed by one of the arches of the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was built in 1770, and few, if any, private houses in America at that time, were more imposing. During Washington's residence in New York as President, beginning in 1789, it was his first home.

The Walton house, of which the Franklin house was a rival, stood a little further south on Pearl Street, near Franklin Square, and had been built twenty years earlier, when no home in America was quite its equal in architectural splendor or in furnishings. Its owner William Walton, was a commercial magnate who, in the late Colonial times, entertained with such exceptional munificence, that his expenditures were cited in Parliament as evidence of the ability of people in the Colonies to bear the burden of the Stamp Tax.

By mistake this chapter is numbered XXXVII in the first American edition.

These stood upon the highway which was long known as Chatham Street. It is now that part of Park Row which extends from Brooklyn Bridge to Chatham Square.

Colonel Montrésor, it will be recalled, sailed from New York with his family in the autumn of 1778, never to return.

Mrs. Rowson, in "Lucy Temple," says Colonel Franklin (that is, Montraville) "returned to his own country, which he had left nine years before a captain of artillery, with little besides his pay, an honorable descent, and fair character, to receive the thanks of royalty for his intrepidity [an honor which, as a matter of fact, Colonel Montrésor is known to have received], and to dash into the world of splendor and gaiety. Promoted to the rank of colonel of artillery, and having had the office of Chief Engineer during his service abroad [the exact office, be it remembered, which Colonel Montrésor held in America], he stood in an elevated rank and associated with the first personages in the kingdom." After Colonel Franklin's early death, his widow, discontented in England, "embarked for New York with the whole of her family," and later "purchased a beautiful seat on the banks of the Delaware," where she continued to live "in the enjoyment of all the happiness which was to be derived from the society of her family and the delightful serenity of nature."

In "Lucy Temple'' the death of Colonel Blakeney is said to have occurred when Lucy was ten years old. By the "particular business" above referred to, Mrs. Rowson may have had in mind the settlement of his will under which Lucy came into possession of £20,000.

Lieutenant-Colonel Grice Blakeney, of the British army, who died about 1785, as already stated in the Introduction, has been identified as the original of the Blakeney of "Charlotte Temple" and "Lucy Temple." He belonged to an ancient English family long settled in Norfolk, where they possessed a considerable landed estate, but in the reign of Queen Elizabeth removed to Ireland. In Galway they still have their seat, which is called Castle Blakeney. Colonel Blakeney's direct connection with the family in Ireland is indicated in Burke's "Landed Gentry." He is described there as an army officer "who died unmarried."