By Mae Silver, secretary of the Bordentown Thomas Paine Society
In the past months, ideas have come together for me to explain Thomas Paine’s final year differently than most sources. My different perspective about his burial came from my own experience as principal caregiver to my mother and husband as they passed on in 1999 and when I read of the sale of Thomas Paine’s Bordentown property in 1808 at Mt. Holly, New Jersey Hall of Records. In that record, I read that Thomas Addis Emmet took over a power of attorney and sold the property for Thomas Paine. The circumstances of that act by Emmet took two pages of documents in the Mt. Holly records. Emmet had gone out of his way on behalf of Thomas Paine. Obviously, this was a person who had a close relation to him. But who was he? My continued research revealed that he was part of a circle of friends who cared for Paine. These caregivers acted sensitively and prudently as Thomas Paine passed on from this life to the next. But it was during my trip to Thomas Paine sites in England from March 6-13, 2005, that provoked my need to write about my different view of Paine’s last year on earth.
On the trip I heard English folk call Thomas Paine a traitor, which is technically correct since he was tried and convicted for treason in England. However, this comment was usually prefaced to the “fact” that he died penniless and without friends in America. This was Thomas Paine’s punishment for being a whistle-blower and traitor! Here is when I commented that neither is true. Both constitute soap opera history and ought to be corrected. Poor wealth is easy to dispute by simply reading Paine’s will in which he leaves property and stock to various heirs. This will, by the way, take three weeks for Paine and two caregivers to write. I suggested to folks it would be helpful to read Thomas Paine’s will and perhaps, also to buy a complete collection of his writings (that include his will) and donate them to their local library. Surprisingly, neither the library at Thetford or Lewes had a complete collection of his writings to show me.
To dispute “poor in friends” will take more words. Specifically, I believe, “poor in friends” relates to the fact that few people, i. e., five, attended his burial. That fact bothered me for a long time. Now I have an explanation to that which no one else has ever put forward. But, to understand why so few attended Paine’s burial one must learn more about his caregiver friends and the relationship between him and the deBonneville family.
The French connections between the deBonneville family and Paine began in Paris at the time of the French Revolution and the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte to power. The deBonnevilles, Marguerite, Nicholas and their three sons Louis, Benjamin and Thomas adopted Paine as a member of the family for the five years, 1797 — 1802, he stayed with them. In his lifetime this close relationship was equal to that he had with Mary and Joseph Kirkbride in Bordentown. As an itinerant revolutionary, Thomas Paine had really no family or household of his own. These adopted family ties were very important to his well-being.
Marguerite Bonneville, she dropped the de part when she arrived in America, and her three sons came to these parts in 1803 at Paine’s invitation. Parting from this Parisian family he loved was difficult for all of them including and so he offered to care for them should they accept his invitation to come to America. To compensate for his inadequate funds, he promised the Bonnevilles a share in his inheritance. He kept that promise. Marguerite, in turn, remained a faithful friend, indeed a primary caregiver to Paine through his final days on earth and stood with her two sons and gravediggers at his burial in New Rochelle in 1809. The story of their familial friendship began in Paris in 1792.
In 1792 Thomas Paine fled from England to France literally slipping by soldiers of the English Crown that had tried, convicted and readied to execute him for his treasonous writing, namely Rights of Man, against the English government. This was the time of the French Revolution and Paine’s writings were widely read and applauded. He received a hero’s welcome when he arrived in France. The French bestowed him with an “honorary citizenship”. However, as the two factions of the revolution vied for power, the violence became so great that persons of both sides, depending who was in power and when, were executed. Paine became ensnared in this struggle, was arrested, thrown into prison, and condemned to death.
Paine’s written efforts to gain his release by American intervention were dealt with in a roundabout way by Gouverneur Morris, America’s consul to France at the time. Morris knew Paine and chose to intervene in a diplomatic and rather circuitous way by wrestling with the issue of Paine’s citizenship. He was not a Paine fan and really was quite jealous of his reputation with his pen and disliked his personal lifestyle. Luckily, James Monroe replaced Morris, as America’s consul almost in the nick of time, for Paine was quite ill from his imprisonment by then. In fact, the rumour was that Paine had died. By the hand of luck or a sympathetic guard, his prison door, which was marked with a designation for the guillotine, somehow was positioned in such a way that the mark was unseen. Paine was never marched to his execution. Monroe knew he was a patriot and worked quickly to achieve his release. The Monroe’s took him to their home and nursed him back to health.
One would think that by that time Paine was more than ready to return to America. However, he faced a dilemma. He was a wanted man. If word reached the English that a certain ship carried him, the English would stop the ship and take him back to England to face execution. He had to be careful. As he stayed in Paris, Paine soon became acquainted with Nicholas deBonneville, a young publisher of a liberal newspaper, Bien Informe. His publishing company, Cercie Social, named after a club he helped to found a few years earlier, was very liberal and idealistic. DeBonneville was a freemason and believed by reshaping the world to its ideals, peace and freedom would result. This coupling of deBonneville and Thomas Paine seemed very natural and moved from a friendship of family dinners to one of accommodation at their home. An offer to house Paine for a few weeks turned into a stay of five years. He became an “adopted” family member. Marguerite carefully screened which persons were invited to her salons for Thomas Paine. The children doted on him and the servants adored him. Nicholas and Marguerite polished his writings into acceptable French for Nicholas’ publications.
The atmosphere outside the deBonneville household was not so amicable. It was tense. Social forces that quelled the violence of the French Revolution now fertilised an environment where Napoleon gradually climbed to his dictatorship. One evening General Bonaparte rapped on the door of the deBonneville’d 4 rue du Theatre Francaise, to ask for Thomas Paine. They chatted
together and went off to dine at a restaurant. Their conversation was amicable, even flattering to Paine, but soon, in watching Bonaparte’s subsequent moves Paine suspected that he should be wary of him. In 1798, the government shut down Nicholas’ newspaper. Through the efforts of Paine and other supporters this suppression was rescinded, however, the family became subject to surveillance and when this happened, Paine became so uncomfortable he left for Belgium. As Bonaparte’s rise to power deepened, Nicholas responded with a satirical editorial. He was arrested and imprisoned.
Marguerite informed Paine that should he return to Paris he would also be subject to surveillance and so he remained away until 1800 when Nicholas’ release seemed imminent. As soon as his return became known, the government let him know that he was a suspect. If he wrote against the government he, and perhaps also the deBonnevilles would suffer imprisonment. This threat alone might explain Paine’s relatively quiet pen during this time. He
now focussed on securing passage to America. President Thomas Jefferson offered him a place on the Maryland, which he refused. His funds were low but fortuitously friends of the Rights of Man from England paid him a call and offered him such a handsome appreciation that he was able to settle his debts in Paris and book passage home.
Leaving the deBonnevIles was especially painful and he offered the family his patronage should they wish to move to America. Given the political situation in France, it was no surprise that Marguerite agreed to the offer. On November 1, 1802 Paine landed in America. Warmly received by President Jefferson, Paine also received attacks in the press from the Federalists who used every trick, exaggeration and mud slinging to smear Jefferson by way of Paine. This was now a different United States of America where thirteen individual colonies worked to mesh their rights with that of the new national government. No easy task. No models to imitate. At times they were just “winging it”. Undoubtedly a painful but important experience to effect, these two major political parties, embodying this struggle, strove to find a way to be the United States of America and balance their individual and states rights.
In September 1803, Paine learned that Mm. Bonneville and her three sons had arrived in New York. While his tiny place in Bordentown could hardly handle four people, this is where the Bonnevilles stayed until larger quarters in New Rochelle were ready. Marguerite must have shivered from culture shock. Accustomed to a household of servants, large quarters, ample funds and a cosmopolitan atmosphere, she was now in a pastoral village, as it were, in the middle of nowhere. Help from the Kirkbrides might have come except for the fact that Thomas Paine’s good friend Joseph died in October of that same year. Such a death probably eclipsed possible assistance from Nary Kirkbride. When the expanded quarters in New Rochelle were ready, Mm. Bonneville found these objectionable, too. Paine was mystified at her objections and reactions. He quipped in a July 31 letter to John Fellows, she could…. “not even make an apple dumpling for her own children” (French women don’t make apple dumplings, English women do). But, in truth, Paine had little understanding of running a household, as he usually had none to run. He often was the guest in a household run by somebody else. When Marguerite’s oldest son Louis declared he did not wish to live in America and wanted to return to his father in Paris, Mm Bonneville agreed reluctantly and Paine booked his passage home. Benjamin stayed with his mother in New York city and Thomas Paine stayed with his namesake in New Rochelle. The family came together on weekends. Marguerite became a French teacher.
Thomas Paine could not work the New Rochelle farm successfully and soon he was back in the city, then back to New Rochelle as his funds dwindled, then back to the city, etc., as he tried to work this new life and commitment to the Bonnevilles. When his friend William Carver seemed to offer him room gratis, Paine accepted only to find he was mistaken. Soon Carver wanted rent and this caused a rift between them that escalated into a lawsuit. When Carver became so incensed at Paine’s refusal to pay $150 back rent, he conjured a tale of a romance between Mm Bonnevile that explained the child Thomas Paine de Bonneville as Thomas Paine’s child. He spread this “story” to James Cheetham, supposedly Paine’s friend, who published a scurrilous Thomas Paine biography that included this “story” in the spring of 1808. Paine responded with a lawsuit citing libel. Imagine this, Thomas Paine, now actively dealing with illness and death, must now mount a lawsuit to defend his honour and the Bonneville’s!
As Paine’s health deteriorated, Marguerite remained nearby. Gradually it became clear that while, at first, when she came, Paine was her protector, however, now these roles were reversed. She had behaved like a dutiful daughter in Paris, but now she had become his protector, his principal caregiver. She was not alone in her caregiving to Thomas Paine. There were other friends who gathered together and offered assistance as caregivers. It is reasonable that they all knew each other and they knew Marguerite. Two were Thomas Addis Emmet and Walter Morton. Emmet, a well-known and respected attorney from Ireland, viewed his friend not only through the eyes of an attorney but a physician as well. His first education was a medical degree from Edinburgh before he turned to the law. With these two skills, his caring involvement with Paine was invaluable. His younger brother Robert achieved icon status in Irish patriotic history days when he led an Irish revolt against the English and paid the ultimate price, his life. Thomas left Ireland so that he too would not lose his life. Emmet’s love of liberty and freedom drew him to Paine who wrote so passionately about it.
With the eyes of a physician and an attorney, Thomas evaluated Paine’s surroundings at one point, and he prevailed upon Paine to move to better rooms for better, cleaner care. Then as good caregivers might well do, he and Walter Morton one day took matters into their own hands, scooped Paine up in a chaise, piled his belongings on top and took him to a better place. Likely, Paine complained all the way. Sensitive to Paine’s sense of pride, Emmet offered himself with power of attorney to sell Paine’s Bordentown properties to provide him with fresh money of his own to cover the cost of these new accommodations. Documents at Mount Holly show that on July 6, 1808, as Thomas Addis Emmet with power of attorney John Sturdyvant, Thomas Paine’s Bordentown cottage and seven acres were sold to John Oliver for eight hundred dollars. His Bordentown property that had provided him with so much joy and comfort in the past, now gave him funds to maintain him for his last days on earth.
Emmet and Walter Morton helped Paine get his affairs in order by spending three weeks with him to craft a new will. They were friends who performed with grace, kindness and skill that anyone would want. Walter Morton, a former custom’s officer, now ran the Phoenix Assurance Company. He arranged in February, 1809, for a rent increase to cover the new intensive care that Paine required. He became an executor of Paine’s estate. Another friend, John Fellows, then manager of New York City waterworks, dated back to the bathe of Bunker Hill, where he fought and achieved the rank of colonel. Fellows had published the first American edition of The Age of Reason. As a deist and Freemason, his thoughts on life fit easily on the same page as Paine’s, who often turned to him with ideas about further publications and gave him articles to pass on for publication But for matters personally close, he also called on Fellows by way of letters to him. In his 1805 letter Paine said, in effect, help the boys, the Bonneville boys, with some of your good advice. And, by the way, please retrieve my favourite penknife and blanket from where I left them last and send them up to me. Fellows helped with business also when in 1804 he arranged the state of some sixty New Rochelle acres to balance Paine’s cash flow problems.
John Wesley Jarvis, a young artist whom Paine met through James Cheetham, became part of his caregiving circle. Looking for a new place to stay, Paine arrived at “Bachelor’s Hall” where Jarvis resided and decided to accept the offer to move in. Jarvis was a bon vivant, a marvellous storyteller, an inveterate partygoer, and often was the life of any party. While he knew of Paine’s view on religion, John Wesley Jarvis took no offence that his old friend’s views were different from his Wesleyan Methodism. From January through April 1807, these storytellers enjoyed each other’s company. Jarvis’ famous quote about Paine to Charles King in a letter of spring 1807 was classic: “I have had Tom Paine living with me for these past five months. He [sic] is one of the most pleasant companions I have met with for an old man”. Jarvis seemed neither intimidated by Paine’s cantankerous outbursts nor overly concerned but accepted Paine as the superb storyteller he was and joined him at it! Some portraits of Paine are attributed to Jarvis but have not been found, instead, the death mask and a silhouette of Paine survive. Two prominent New Yorkers, Dr. Alexander Anderson, a wood engraver, and John Pintford accompanied Jarvis to take Paine’s death mask. The plaster cast of the head and a plaster bust of the mask were donated to the New York Historical Society.
During the last months of his life Paine did not want to be left alone, and so it was arranged. Dr. Manley, a physician, who worried as much about Paine’s soul as his body, came daily. In addition to his caregivers, there was a host of women who actually administered care, feeding, changing of linens etc. Also there were many visits from many religious people who wanted to save Thomas Paine’s soul. To say that Paine was without friends and visitors during his last days is utterly wrong. Marguerite was almost always there. Finally he prevailed upon her to allow him to stay with her in her place and she agreed. As he came nearer death, he became more afraid and did not want to be alone. Anyone who has cared for a dying one knows that such a request is not unusual. After he moved to her place at 49, Grove Street on May 4, he felt immediately better and received more friends. He was only one month short of his death. Many, many friends came. Soon after his death on June 8, 1809, Jarvis came and created his death mask.
As Marguerite’s role shifted from being protected to that of Paine’s protector, she, of course, was part of the circle of Paine’s caregivers. She probably exerted the major role among his caregiving friends. After his death, her grief for his passing may have engendered in her an acute protectiveness regarding his reputation. Such a reaction to grief is not unusual. Aware that the lawsuit against Cheetham still was not resolved, I believe Marguerite wanted the burial to be dignified, private and quiet. Cheetham’s scandalous biography of Paine still had its share of lively believers and lip smackers. Zealots could use his burial as an event for a bizarre demonstration. It is not unreasonable to think that his caregiving friends agreed to keep his burial private and even keep the time and place a secret. We all know that a request for a private burial is not an unusual one. I believe the absence of his close friends at his burial was because these good friends desired to protect and honour Thomas Paine with a private, dignified burial.
Continuing her role as protector after Paine’s death, Marguerite pursued the lawsuit against Cheetham and the court found in Paine’s favour in 810. In court, at least three friends, Robert Fulton, John Wesley Jarvis and Thomas Addis Emmet rose as her character witnesses along with many parents of children who had learned French from Marguerite. The reputations of Thomas Paine and the Bonnevilles were cleared. History now records that. Afterwards, still in her rote as his protector and likely, dealing with her grief for him, Marguerite destroyed some of Paine’s unpublished papers he left to her, mostly dealing with religious matters.
Thomas Paine did not die in poverty or without friends. I sincerely hope that my readers on both sides of the pond will correct this “historical” mistake, whenever they hear it, let us set the record straight for Thomas Paine and history.
1. Paine was charged with seditious libel not treason — ed.
Sources
The major source is John Keane’s excellent biography of Paine.
The Jarvis information is from Harold Dickson’s biography published by the New York Historical Society in 1949. The Bordentown property sale information is at the Hall of Records and Deeds, Mount Holly, New Jersey, Book S, pp.675-677.
Emmet material is from Patrick M. Geoghegan, Robert Emmet, Montreal. Queen’s University Press, 2002.