The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-19
HISTORIC SWORDS
A Pair That Did Duty at the Bat
 tie of Bunker Hill.
ENEMIES IN THAT CONFLICT.


 Now They Are ciasped In Peace In the
 Massachusetts Historical Society
 BuiIdins-A Legacy From, the His j torian Prescott and His Wife.
 The most impressive memorials of the battle of Bunker Hill are the huge shaft over in Charlestown and a pair of swords which hang crossed like pair of clasped hands over the door of the building of the Massachusetts His toricaE society.
 Both these swords were used in the heroic duel of June 1T. 1775, the one by the. commander Of the patriot forces, the other by the captain of one of the British war vessels which bonn barded Chariestown and protected the cross ing of the English troops. And for many years these swords, which had not been beaten into plowshares after the Scriptural prophecy. but which had become. the symbols of peace neverthe- less, hung upon the wall of a great American historian whose father was the son of the American commander and whose wife was the granddaugh- ter of the British captain.
 It was to these weapons that Thack- cray referred in the very first para graph of his novel tThe Virginians," which reads thus: ---1se,5-z-.g, = :
 ssOn the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America there hang two crossed swords, which his relatives wore in the great War of In- dependence The one sword was gall. lantiy drawn in the service of the king. and the other was the weapon of the brave and honored republican sol dier. The possessor of the harmless trophy has earned for himself a name alike honored in his ancestors country and his own. where genius such as his has always a peaceful welcome
 William Hickling Prescott, author of ''The Conquest of Mexico,'' Ferdinand and Isabella.'' and other fascinating histories. the grandson in his paternal line of Colonel William Prescott, who held the hill against the British grena- diers and gave the world the first taste of the valor of the Continentals and whose wife was the granddaughter of Captain John Linzee of the royal navy, who commanded the sloop of war Fa1- con duFing the battle. was the writer to whom Thackeray referred.
 The only son of Colonel Prescott of Bunker HiII, named for his father, was born thirteen years before the battle was fought in Charlestown. This son was educated at Harvard, graduating with the class of 17S3. Admitted to the bar in -1787. he became eminent in his profession and accumulated fortune His wife was Catherine Green Hiek- ling. the daughter of a Boston mer- chant who was afterward consul in the Azores. The future historian was their son. ---
 -S1 day in 1775 was charged with the duty of cannonading the rebels and cover l ing the passage of the British soldiers. The British ships -of-war were moored at various points in. front of the Chariestown peninsula.
 Three years after the battle, on Aug. 8, IT'S, the Falcon was sunk off Newport, R. l., to prevent its capture by the. French feet, under Admiral D'Estaing. -s- e.e.
 This Captain Linzeeis daughter. Han nah Linzee, became the wife of one of the leading merchants of Boston, Thomas c. Amory, and it was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Amory. Susan Amory. whom William H. Prescott married. Thus the two swords came into the possession of one family.
 The historian had degree of pride in his ancestry and liked to discourse upon occasion about these swords In this respect he fesembled Sir Walter Scott. The weapons used to hang over the recess of the great window in his library used commonly as a reception room, where they were the more con- spicuous because of the thousands of books. the busts and the pictures by 6o6 from the room of the scholar that these ancestral memorials were removed to the quarters of the historical society. That happened in this wise:
 Upon the death of the historian it was found that the thirteenth item in his will read. thus The sword; of Colonet William Prescott worn by him in the battle off Bunker HHl, I 1 give to the Massachusetts Historical society as a curiosity Suitab to be preserved among their collections, and the sword which belonged to my wife's grandfather, Captain Linzee of l the British royal navy. who command ed one of the enemy's ships during the same battle. give to my wife,
 When William H. Gardiner on April IA, 1859, sent a letter to Robert c. Winthrop. president of the, Historical society, formally conveying the infor- nation that the swords were to be- come the property of the institution he said as to the Linzee sword, Mrs. Prescott and the other heirs of Cap tain Linzee unite in requesting me to present at the same time in their be 1 half the sword of their ancestor also. 1 that the two. enriched by all the mem ories which now belong to them, may l still hang together on it's walls.'. tE The letter read. 8 cover was re- moved from a packet on the officers table. and there were the swords, l crossed presumably as they had been | on the library wall and as they are |