Scope and Contents: The materials in this collection were donated by Jaqueline Terry Gaylord Mock. The inclusive dates of this collection are from 1815-1983; the predominate dates being 1815-1848.
The bulk of this collection is made up of Joseph’s letters to his wife, which showcase his travels, life in the Navy during the early 19th-century, the ships that he was assigned to, and his duties as a purser. There are three documents signed by Benjamin Homans, who was Chief Clerk of the Navy between 1813 and 1823. It is believed that Homans assisted Dolly Madison in rescuing Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington on the night of August 24, 1814, when the British invaded Washington, D.C. and set fire to the White House. There is one letter signed by George Bancroft, who was selected as Secretary of the Navy by President James K. Polk in 1845. The collection also contains human hair, Naval books, a sword, a cockade hat and box, silk curtains, paintings of Joseph and Mary, and photographs of the family plot and mausoleum.
It should be noted that there are two men buried in the Terry plot that have notable family connections. Mary Monroe (Joseph and Mary’s daughter) married Renselear (also spelled Rensselaer) Ten Broeck, a descendant of Brigadier General Abraham Ten Broeck, who served as the mayor of Albany, New York during the 1790s. Camilla Gaylord Clark (Joseph and Mary’s granddaughter) was married to William Hancock Clark, who was the grandson of explorer William Clark of the 1804 Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Joseph Hazard Terry Collection
| Historical Collections
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