781 to co-operate with the southern army, he
had the high satisfaction of taking part in the reduction of Yorktown
and of conducting the defeated army to the field, where they were to
lay down their arms at the feet of the illustrious Washington.
General Lincoln took the sword from Lord Cornwallis and delivered it
to his Commander-in-Chief, Washington.

[Illustration: Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, of the War of the
Revolution. He was the grandfather of Mr. George H. Blake and the
great-grandfather of George Lincoln Blake and William Ellery Blake,
sons of Mrs. Blake-Alverson.]

I feel justly proud with my sons, George Lincoln Blake and William
Ellery Blake, to claim such illustrious descendants of our great
republic, especially Lincoln, who gained such high recognition from
our government for his patriotism and diplomatic energy in the
beginning of our republic. He quelled the famous Shay's insurrection
in 1786-87. He held the post of Lieutenant-Governor, was member of the
convention called to ratify the new Constitution, and for years was
collector of port in Boston and besides filled many minor offices. He
received from Harvard University the degree of Master of Arts, was a
member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and was president of the Society
of Cincinnati from its organization to the day of his death. He closed
his honorable and useful life in the seventy-eighth year of his life
at Hingham, Mass., May 9, 1810.

This bit of history I have selected from the papers of Capt. Charles
Blake, who was the grand uncle of my sons, who died in 1859 during the
time I visited Boston with my husband to pursue my studies in music.
Capt. Charles Blake was the seventh captain of the Blake family, was a
man celebrated for his bravery and as a sailor was unexcelled in his
time. I also found among his papers a Masonic sheepskin (which perhaps
will be an interesting bit of information for the Masons of
California), the first one that was ever gotten for an American. It
could not be obtained in America, consequently it was secured in
England. It bears the faded marks of "Grand Lodge of Master Masons,
London No. 25, Registered on the books of the Grand Lodge in London,
the 11th day of September in the year of Masonry, 5011." The grand
seal is attached and signed by Robert Leslie, Grand Secretary: Edward
Harper, D. Gr. Sec. This is the oldest Masonic sheepskin of the grand
lo