Appendix E: Biographies

Maxwell1

John Stevenson Maxwell (see Appendix J)2 was born on 18 February 1817 in New York, the son of Agnes (Stevenson) Maxwell (5 January 1796 – New York 27 April 1866; see Image 54) and Hugh Maxwell (Paisley, Scotland 15 June 1787 – New York 31 March 1873; see Image 55) (married in New York 16 April 1812).3 He was one of four surviving children, the other three being Anne Eliza (New York 1816 – New York 4 May 1888), Hugh (New York 1824 – Saddle River, NJ 23 June 1898), and Agnes (New York 1834 – New York 2 July 1917).

Maxwell was an imposing and strapping specimen of a young man: a brilliant intellectual, well-educated, well-traveled, discerning, informed, cultivated, lively, a perfectionist, irritable, impatient, proud, gossipy, and at times somewhat of a popinjay. He wrote well and eloquently, indeed like an orator, in his letters, providing outstandingly candid sometimes even offensive descriptions of persons, scenes, and events. He was deeply attached to his family. He seemed to like women very much, but spoke of them with a certain tentativeness. He is described in a visa granted in Hamburg on 20 July 1843 as five feet eleven inches tall, with a high forehead, light blue eyes, light brown hair, and having a “common” nose, small mouth, round chin, oval face, and fresh complexion.4 He himself described his hair as a “doubtful” auburn,5 but at that point in his Middle East travels he looked in general very unkempt, sporting also a moustache and beard. On recovering from his bout of typhus fever in 1844, he described himself to his mother as

stouter and stronger than ever, and so ruddy as to be pronounced on all sides, a perfect specimen of John Bull. I eat and drink very moderately but it is of no use. The principle of life is so strong within me and nature has been so kind in her gifts and physical endowments, that I utterly despair ever becoming your slim and tender man of fashion. I am in truth a most happy compound of the Maxwell and Stevenson, Scotch, stout and strong. My illness upon the whole has been a benefit for my rapid recovery and my present health is an evidence of this.6

In contests with young Englishmen he and his traveling companions encountered, he won at lifting, attributing his back strength to the exercise he had had clearing stones from the Ramapo fields at home, but failed at hand-over-hand rope climbing.7 His heftiness is stressed again when he describes that he cannot allow himself to yield to dancing in a warm room or with a fat woman. In Paris, on the way home from his travels abroad, he took dancing lessons from the most famous dance master, Belarius, and learned the polka and the two-step waltz, but considered himself a failure because he simply could not control his sweating. He also took fencing lessons then, only to conclude that he was too old to have the necessary agility.8

Despite his liveliness, he had a darker side, which he at first alluded to rather cryptically. In his life prior to leaving the United States to take up his position in St. Petersburg, he appears to have on many occasions exhibited extremely bad behavior to family and friends, for in October of 1842 he alluded to such behavior without giving examples of specific instances, and apologized to his mother:

Could I only make you happy. Could I add an hour or a moment of pleasure to your life. Could I repay you for all your kindness and drive forever from my memory the ungrateful and unfortunate conduct of the past I would give the world. If I am now doing so – if by study and care and sincere affection for you and Father and all our friends and family I can do so you need give yourself no further unhappiness on my account. I ask forgiveness of God of you and all and every one whom I may have injured in moments of despondency or dejection and pray to rise superior to and to conquer every manifestation of that unhappy irritation which you have so often noticed and which must have pained you so much.9

On New Year’s Day 1843, a time of personal resolutions, he spoke openly of the only malady he felt he had, perhaps inherited from his maternal grandfather:

Sometimes I am in exceedingly good spirits and wish not to be better in mind or body and then again I am oppressed with a most indefinable melancholy or depression which nothing for a time can conquer. It is a weakness, and as such I should not perhaps mention it without the hope or determination to vanquish it, I try to do so and hope to do so, for the idea of suffering from so unpleasant a companion through life is awful indeed. It may be possibly increased by the peculiar atmosphere of these dreary regions, or it may be constitutional, for I know Grandfather Stevenson suffered from something of the kind. Whatever it may be nothing but perfect health of body and plenty of exercise can guard against it and these I wish to secure if possible.10

He continues, regretting that he had not years earlier “cultivated my naturally good constitution by a course of manly exercise.” He seems also to have had an unhappy love affair before coming to Russia that made him afraid to be serious about women.11

He read incessantly from the time he was a child. He attended The Lawrenceville School12 and graduated from Princeton University in the Class of 1836.13 He received a classical education and his letters, especially from the Mediterranean area, abound in classical allusions.14 He was also well-versed in French and English literature and his letters about his travels in Western Europe and England demonstrate this. He was very scholarly, and, while he enjoyed the companionship in his travels of mercantile young men (Lewis and Thompson), he expressed his preference for the ones (Starke and Rev. Mason) who carried in their coat pockets books in Greek and Latin, as he did.15 He also knew a great deal about artists and theorized on art imitating nature when he visited art collections in all the Western countries he passed through.16 For example, viewing in Rome the neo-classical works of Canova and Thorvaldsen, he commented: “The latter is in many respects my favorite of the two and his bas reliefs are decidedly superior to those of any modern.”17 He “pursued the whole term of his professional studies” in law in New York in the office of Elijah Paine (1796–1853).18 Nevertheless, he felt that he had done nothing in the six years between leaving Princeton and 1842, when he went to Russia.19

He was a colonel in the militia.20 He asked his family to get him a commission immediately, if war between the United Stated and Great Britain over the Oregon Territory should be announced, and pointed out that he had been aide-de-camp to Seward and noted: “with a little study I flatter myself I could be of some service.”21

In speaking of Maxwell’s relationships with women, it is necessary to point out that although he asked some of his correspondents to keep his letters, because he planned to publish them, the bulk of his extant letters was addressed to his mother, to whom he described all of his travels and revealed all aspects of his life. In the case of Deborah Delano Whistler, he described her because he was describing the entire Whistler family. He was not writing about a girl he was falling in love with, but a group of people who had made him a member of their family, eventually even saving his life. He honored Major Whistler’s preference that his daughter marry an officer in the United States Army22 by not himself becoming a suitor. While his mother’s letters are not extant, his responses indicate that she liked what he said about Debo and kept asking for more and more detail, because she wanted him to follow the usual path: to meet a suitable girl, marry her, and produce children. She apparently then passed his enthusiastic comments about Debo on to others, although he had asked her not to, resulting in the rumor of possible matrimonial plans in the Whistler family.23 He wrote to his mother frankly, but with humor, about the women he met, partly to tease her because she must have harped on his finding a wife, whenever he mentioned a woman. He mentioned a woman in Lancashire who had invited him to visit her on his journey home, but decided to tantalize his mother by withholding the woman’s name.24 He jokingly asked Major Whistler whether the latter knew his Russian acquaintance, Agaphia Lubenski, in which case he, Maxwell, would ask him to translate a serenade into Russian and sing it to her some dark night, all totally out-of-keeping with the Major’s temperament and an imposition on his generosity.25 He wrote his mother of the attractiveness of the widowed Mrs. Nichol Baird:

I have enjoyed the society of Mrs Baird very much … I [sic] very fine looking woman she is, very ambitious and as usual with ladies of family in Russia, speaks four languages perfectly. We are in the same Hotel together and the people here think we are of one family travelling party, while some very wicked youngsters are disposed to imagine it is a prize I have carried out of Russia – 26

but controlled himself when writing of the latter to Major Whistler.27 He described to his mother, with evident distaste, the lascivious dancing girls he and his male companions met at one of their stopovers in the Middle East.28 Being a gentleman, he accepted the consignment to him of a single woman, Miss Richardson, traveling alone, even when chaperoning her was inconvenient.29 He also alluded, with feigned consternation, to the fate of a future wife and himself, if Roslyn, which his mother seemed at one point to be losing a taste for, were to be sold.30 Once, with more muted humor, he touched on the future possibility of marriage for himself:

I must find consolation in the fact that I am will arrive at maturity later than most men, that I will live longer and grow wiser and handsomer and better every day. I have never trifled with my health and in this respect if in none other I feel myself worth a dozen of your milk and water gentry affected with premature decay. If I am ever so happy as to have a wife I love, I sometimes flatter myself she will love me, for if I know myself, I promise better for the future than for the present or the past. And then, when a son is mine, bless me, but I’ll make him something or kill him in the effort. Pardon a bachelors anticipations and remember that my fluent flattery is to please ourselves alone.31

When Maxwell did marry on 11 June 1853, his bride was eight months pregnant. Their daughter was born on 2 July 1853.32

Hugh Maxwell’s family emigrated to New York in 1790. He grew up there and graduated from Columbia College in 1810, with an MA in 1816, and became a very successful lawyer. He was district attorney of New York County in 1817–1818 and again from 1821 to 1829. An active member of the Whig Party, in 1849 he was appointed collector of the Port of New York by President Zachary Taylor (1794–1850; see Image 51), a position he held until 1853, throughout the administrations of Taylor (1849–1850) and his successor (1850–1853), Millard Fillmore (1800–1874).33 John Stevenson Maxwell also considered himself a Whig.34

John Stevenson Maxwell’s family lived on Wall Street in New York City, but also had a country estate, called Roslyn,35 at Nyack-on-Hudson in Rockland County, New York (see “Maps”). Family legend has it that “such distinguished personages from abroad as Thackeray, Victor Jacquemont, the French naturalist, and Dickens were frequently entertained” at Roslyn.36 Writing his mother during his summer tour of Western Europe in 1844, Maxwell recalled, in his entry of July 4th, with deep homesickness “the beautiful young lindens before my Father’s door … on the green shores and bright waters of the Hudson.”37

He was secretary of the American Legation in St. Petersburg from July 1842 to November 1844. He lived throughout his tour of duty in the house of Count Aleksei Alekseevich Bobrinskii on the corner of Galernaia Street and the New Admiralty Canal (see Images 86–94). When Colonel Charles S. Todd (see Image 278) chose to move the Legation from the Bobrinskii house to Tsarskoe Selo in April 1843, Maxwell and Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) remained in the Bobrinskii house, and, when Major Whistler rented the entire house for his family, Maxwell remained as their tenant. His letters to his mother reveal his respect and deep love for both Major and Anna Whistler (see Images 1–5). While living with them, he became dangerously ill with typhus fever. His life was saved chiefly through the ministrations of Anna Whistler. Having been told by Major Whistler that he would relinquish Debo (see Images 17–19, 21) easily and gladly only to an officer of the United States Army, he limited himself to a platonic attachment to her. He also had a great affection for James (see Images 24–29) and Willie (see Images 27, 30).

He described his rooms before Major Whistler took over the entire mansion as follows:

My private rooms are two in number – and the Major and myself have two in common to see company etc – Then I have my Chancery which I now write in a large fine room and the office of the legation – His Excellency has all the other rooms of a very large fine house to himself – The whole is delightfully warm so much so that I fear I shall be spoiled as foreigners generally are –38

He also described his day as it was for most of his sojourn in Russia:

I get up about seven (just light now) and take a cold bath (an idea of my own here) dress – read two chapters in the Bible etc breakfast at nine – in the office generally from ten to two – visit etc from two to four & dine at four (now nearly dark) at six go to reading, writing or the theatre, until ten – and at ten either go to bed or to a party –39

Maxwell detested Russia and made this clear the first time he traveled to Scandinavia, in the summer of 1843:

You cannot imagine how I dislike the idea of returning to that dark and dismal land. If I were going any where else I would not care so much, but Russia to me now that I am out of it and dare say what I think is a horrible country and nothing but one vast prison house whose inmates are watched night and day by the most infamous police that ever existed.40

While in Russia, he wrote frequent, long, loquacious, detailed letters home, chiefly to his mother, but also to his father; his uncle, Dr. John Stevenson; and a few friends. His intention was to have them published later by Harper’s. He was persuaded instead to write a book based on them. In 1848, The Czar, His Court and People: Including a Tour in Norway and Sweden appeared and was well received. He sent a copy to Major Whistler with a great display of modesty.41 Deborah (Whistler) Haden also read it and considered parts of it to be in bad taste, having known or known of a number of the personages in it. The book is not important in a discussion of Anna Whistler’s diaries, while the detail of his letters is.

When Maxwell left Russia permanently, he traveled some eighteen months in the Middle East and Western Europe. He had intended to go from Alexandria, Egypt, to Western Europe, but the two young Americans whom he met and was traveling with, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Thompson, persuaded him instead to extend his Egyptian stay by several weeks. Lewis had been at the Lawrenceville School at the same time as Maxwell; Thompson was acquainted with many of Maxwell’s close friends. Both were from Philadelphia, the sons of merchants there. They had gone to Canton, China, as supercargoes and made fortunes. Maxwell felt he should seize such an opportunity, assured by them that the expenses would be trifling. The fact that he had not ridden a horse in a long time, much less a camel, or fired a pistol for quite a while, did not seem to make him hesitate. This trio was together for four months. Their adventures included more than one encounter with robbers and the possibility of being murdered. Sometimes they themselves angrily and rashly pursued the robbers and sometimes were able to retrieve their possessions. Maxwell was provided for by members of both the American and British diplomatic corps at any site where a diplomat, usually a consul but sometimes an envoy or ambassador, was maintained. The three young men spent their evenings in card games, conversation, and entertained by female dancers, some of whom engaged in the most lascivious antics, which Maxwell chose not to record. The culmination of their Middle Eastern travels was the further extension of their trip by six weeks, taking them into Syria and Palestine, and included participation in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.42 Maxwell was moved when viewing the Holy Sepulchre, although he doubted that any of the locations insisted upon by their guides as connected with specific events associated with Christ’s death were really based on sufficient evidence, except for the location of Calvary.

He described visits on his own to the Mount of Olives, both on 18 and 19 April 1845, that show his excellent knowledge of scripture. He also described a group visit on 19 April 1845 to the Holy Sepulchre that is quite moving:

Preceded by Ali, and the guide and the Sexton we appeared quite formidable and the way was cleared quickly, to enable us to reach the entrance to the Sepulchre. I was sorry that I had not been prepared to follow the example of those who took off their boots or shoes, before treading upon a spot, which the faith of those around me invested with a holy character, even though my own investigations had led me to doubt, the truth of the tradition which represented this to be the Sepulchre of our Lord, I was sorry to enter with covered feet, and I thought I heard a murmur of surprise from those around me when I did so. I entered within the railing, surrounding the superstructure; – a step or two brought me near the low door way, and through this I descended about two feet and found myself in a small room or vault, filled with images encased in gold and silver, and before which burned many lights, lights I am told which are never permitted to expire, Before me was a white slab of marble, and upon this they told us, the body of our Lord was laid. It is not necessary for me to state the emotions I experienced when I looked at this – this which millions have looked upon with veneration, this which the millions of the Crusades had died to recover from the Infidels, this which was the object of the adoration of the thousands of Pilgrims around me and which ten’s of thousands would suffer much to see. I, at least, had made the Pilgrimage and with all the consolation this could afford me I retired from the Holy Sepulchre –43

In Great Britain at the culmination of his travels, Maxwell visited relatives of his father in England and Scotland, members of the Ranken family. In London he met his cousin John Smith Ranken, who was in business and had lost $35,000 on uninsured goods lost at sea. John’s brother Alexander, who had just been in London, had gone home to Glasgow. Their father expected Maxwell to stay with him when in Glasgow.44 This uncle lived at No. 187 West Bath Street in Glasgow with his wife and eight children, who, together with those not living at home, numbered twelve. Maxwell also met Alexander Ranken’s wife, Octavia (Gibson) Ranken, whose mother was a Nyack neighbor. He arrived at the Rankens’ about 23 March and was still with them on Friday 27 March. Maxwell found Mr. Ranken “an amiable quiet, calm person, and how like my father, although not so handsome.” He was “a gentleman of great wealth and lives in some style” in a very large, fine house. Maxwell so enjoyed himself that he regretted not having known the Rankens sooner.45

In all, Maxwell did not see his family in New York for over four years: from June 1842 until the end of summer 1846.

During his travels and after his return to America, he corresponded with Major Whistler. Unfortunately, he did not keep the latter’s letters once he himself had published his book. This was also the fate of the letters Anna Whistler wrote him. He took on the task of seeing that the body of John Bouttatz Whistler was given proper burial in Stonington, Connecticut, in 1847, according to the wishes of Anna and Major Whistler.

Maxwell met Anna Whistler and the boys at the dock in Jersey City in August 1849, when they returned to America after Major Whistler’s death.46 Anna Whistler referred to him in a letter to James as an appropriate role model for her son.47 Her 1850 diary shows that she and Maxwell were still in touch at that time.48 There is also some question as to whether she ever met his parents, who both verbally and through the gift of a dress and candy thanked her after she had nursed their son back to health. Maxwell had also proposed while still in Russia that his mother attempt to make the acquaintance of Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22), Anna Whistler’s mother. Scholarship places stress, rather, on a relationship between Anna Whistler and an Anne (Young) Maxwell (Coldstream, Berwick 1784 – Nyack, NY, 20 October 1867), who was possibly related to Maxwell’s father. Anne (Young) Maxwell had known Eliza and Alicia McNeill when they were growing up in Berwick. It is with her that Anna Whistler took the waters at Richfield Springs, New York, in 1857.49

In 1846, Maxwell “had an office in the Mortimer Building, 11 Wall Street.”50 In 1846, like his father and male members of his mother’s side of the family before him, he became a member (no. 1156) of the philanthropic St. Andrew’s Society of the State of New York.51

In 1848 or 1849, he decided to request consideration for the post of United States minister resident in the Ottoman Empire and was very favorably endorsed by his former superior, Colonel Charles S. Todd, who praised the “vigorous mind and … cultivated taste” of his “inestimable friend.”52 Other supporting letters were written by referees such as Elijah Paine, in whose office Maxwell had pursued his training as a lawyer.53 John S. Hamilton, whom it has not been possible to identify, wrote in his letter of reference that Maxwell wanted to be accredited to Constantinople because “having been there, & his mind having been earnestly directed to the situation of the Ottoman Empire, he proposed to use the facility of access to authentic sources of information in preparing a work on this subject.”54 W. Pinckney Starke (d. 12 October 1886), with whom Maxwell had traveled in the Middle East and spent several months in Paris, wrote from Charleston, South Carolina, in favor of his appointment, saying: “Though a Northern Man he is as sound on the question of Southern rights as any man living.”55 The appointment, however, was given to George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882), a highly qualified career diplomat.56 In 1850, Maxwell became “Cashier in the Custom House” in New York.57

On 11 June 1853, Maxwell married Caroline Ely Mulligan (May 1823 – Brooklyn 10 November 1889), daughter of Catherine (Roberts) Mulligan (d. between March and September 1859) and the Rev. John Mulligan (d. April 1861), in New York in the Presbyterian Church at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth Street.58 They had one daughter: Caroline Ross Maxwell (New Jersey 2 July 1853 – New York 19 May 1936).59 In 1874, she married William Conselyea Traphagen (Jersey City, NJ 30 November 1837 – 1894), “son of Sarah (Conselyea) and Henry Mackaness Traphagen, President of the Fifth Ward Savings Bank of New Jersey.”60

John Stevenson Maxwell died suddenly at Nyack, New York, on 2 March 1870, of heart failure. He was buried from his father’s home in Upper Nyack on 5 March 1870.61 He was eulogized as having a “genial smile, and frank, affable manner” that “made him a favorite with all with whom he came in contact,” “progressive in his ideas, and thoroughly identified with the interests of our village.”62

The Traphagens’ daughter, Ethel Traphagen (1882–1963) (whose married name was Leigh), founded the Traphagen School of Fashion (1923) in New York.63 Ethel Traphagen had “won first prize in The New York Times contest for Original American Designs in 1913.” She designed a “blue-green gown with gold accents and modified obi, recalling elements of the ancient Grecian toga and stola and the kimono of the beautiful women of the ukiyo-e. The inspiration for her design was a painting by an artist she admired, James McNeill Whistler … Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge” (see Images 211–212).64

Of Maxwell’s siblings, the most interesting was his younger sister, Agnes, who is mentioned as a child eight to ten years old in his letters to his mother from St. Petersburg. In 1853, in Paris, Agnes met and mutually fell in love with Major Philip Kearny (New York 1 June 1815 – Chantilly, VA 1 September 1862) of the United States Army. A married man, he was unable to obtain a divorce from his Catholic wife, and Agnes Maxwell chose to live with him openly. They had three children: Susan Watts Kearny (b. Paris 1856), Archibald Kennedy Kearny (25 January 1860 – 21 February 1862), and Virginia De Lancey Kearny (b. November 1860). In early 1858, Philip Kearny’s wife finally agreed to a divorce. Agnes Maxwell and Major Philip Kearny were married on 21 April 1858 at St. Matthew’s Church in Jersey City, New Jersey.65 Kearny died in 1862 on active duty during the Civil War. Agnes (Maxwell) Kearny married, as her second husband, Admiral John Henry Upshur (Northampton County, VA 5 December 1823 – Washington, DC 30 May 1917). Agnes (Maxwell) (Kearny) Upshur and both her husbands were buried in Arlington National Cemetery.66

John Stevenson Maxwell reminded Major Whistler in a letter that he had a pencil portrait of himself executed by James and said that James would have to make an oil portrait of him some day.67 The whereabouts of this pencil drawing and an oil portrait of Maxwell are unknown to me.

* * * * *

Given Maxwell’s love for the Whistler family, his parting with them when he was leaving Russia permanently must be described. Although he would correspond with Major and Anna Whistler, he would never see the former again, but did see Anna Whistler, James, and Willie again when they arrived in New York after Major Whistler’s death in 1849.

Maxwell made two farewells to the Whistlers at Ritter’s house on consecutive nights, 1 and 2 November 1844, thinking that the visit of 1 November was his last. On that visit, he spent the entire day with them and was showered with gifts, by them and others.

Last evening was one of the most delightful and yet one of the saddest I have ever passed here. My friends the Whistler’s [sic] old and young gave me the hours of yesterday for the purpose of saying my last adieus, may God bless and preserve them and may I see them again in my own dear country – Major W. presented me with a beutiful [sic] silver tobacco box and M Whistler with a rich gold pencil case – In fact yesterday the presents came in quite fast and unfortunately I have no place to put them in or no way to carry them all upon my journey. A decanter etc of blue Moscow glass I leave with Mrs Whistler to take care of and an image of the Emperor and Empress, made of iron, out at the Alexandroffsky works by the proprietors and presented by them to me, I will send you by M Manson who will leave here for America two weeks hence68

On 2 November 1844, having done all his packing, he decided to go to the Whistlers’ home again to spend the few hours before the post coach left.

After a few brief visits I repaired to the Whistlers, and dined with them for the last time in Russia. The time flew rapidly. We spoke of the years that would have to pass ere we should meet again. Mrs Whistler told me I should be remembered in her prayers, and again and again was I assured of the undying memory of our friendship. The clock struck 5, my old servant told me the carriage was at the door, little Willie slipped into my hand a little book as a parting gift, I said farewell, and accompanied by the Major drove to my rooms. I said goodbye to Miss Bensons, fees were paid the servants of the house, and I put on under the supervision of Whistler, the dress intended for my journey. Next my person was a good warm covering of woolen, over this I placed the Persian coat, the last gift of my dear and experienced friend, made of silk wadded with cotton, containing watch pocket etc, serving for vest and dress coat, and fastening with hook and eyes across the chest. Over this was my summer surtout, and then came my fur coat, which fortunately I had not parted with. To protect my feet I drew on an enormous pair of furred boots, covering my ordinary one’s [sic] and reaching up to my knees. Around my neck was a monstrous shawl, upon my head a good warm cap with lappets for the ears, and my hands were protected by a pair of rabbit skin mittens. In addition to all this I carried upon my arm, a my thick warm morning gown to use as occasion might require. Thus dressed, we stepped again into the carriage, the luggage was fastened on behind, and off we went to the Post house … At 7 o’clock the coach for Kovno on the frontier of Poland was announced and after one more adieu to those who had come to see me off, after one more greeting from and to my dear friend the Major, I took my seat … The night was very cold and dark. We soon passed Dom Drury the last summer residence of Whistler, and at 9 o’clock it began to snow tremendously.69

Notes