e was Miss Jane
Jeffrey Renwick, who was a sister of Professor James Renwick of Columbia
College, and after her death he married Mary Lynch, a daughter of Henry
Lynch of New York and the widow of Captain William Compton Bolton of the
Navy. This, of course, was previous to his naval achievements, which are
such well known events in American history. In after life Admiral and
Mrs. Wilkes moved to Washington, D.C., where I renewed my friendship of
early days and where members of his family still reside, beloved and
respected by the whole community.

Mr. Thomas S. Gibbes of South Carolina, whose wife was Miss Susan
Annette Vanden Heuvel, daughter of John C. Vanden Heuvel, a wealthy
land owner, lived on Hudson Street, facing St. John's Park. Their elder
daughter Charlotte Augusta, who married John Jacob Astor, son of William
B. Astor, was an early playmate of mine, and many pleasant memories of
her as a little girl cluster around St. John's Park, where we romped
together. When I first knew the Gibbes family it had recently returned
from a long residence in Paris, an unusual experience in these days, and
both Charlotte Augusta and her younger sister, Annette Gibbes, sang in a
very pleasing manner French songs, which were a decided novelty to our
juvenile ears. Mrs. Gibbes's sisters were Mrs. Gouverneur S. Bibby and
Mrs. John C. Hamilton.

Directly opposite St. John's Park, on the corner of Varick and Beach
streets, was Miss Maria Forbes's school for young girls, which was the
fashionable school of the day. I attended it in company with my sister
Fanny and my brother James who was my junior. Miss Forbes occasionally
admitted boys to her school when accompanied by older sisters. Our life
there was regulated in accordance with the strictest principles of
learning and etiquette, and a child would have been deficient indeed who
failed to acquire knowledge under the tuition of such an able teacher.
School commenced promptly at eight o'clock and continued without
intermission until three.

The principal of the school was the daughter of John Forbes, who for
thirty years was the librarian of the New York Society Library. He was a
native of Aberdeen in Scotland, and was brought to this country in
extreme youth by a widowed mother of marked determination and piety,
with the intention of launching him successfully in life. He early
displayed a fondness for books, and must have shown an uncommon maturity
of mind and much executive abi