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| Lafayette about 1820 Wikipedia Commons |
Harriette Howard Hart, the second child of Richard Philip
Hart and Betsey Amelia Howard Hart, was born on May 11, 1818 in Troy, New York.
She, like her sister Mary, attended the Troy Female, but from 1827 to
1834. At the age of eighteen, on September 29, 1836, she married the naval
lieutenant, Ezra Thompson Doughty, who was seven years her senior. They had
three children, William Howard Doughty, born 1837, and it seems that the last
two children were twins--Ezra Thompson Doughty Jr. and Richard Hart Doughty, both
possibly both born on February 14, 1839. Harriette and Ezra appear to have made
Troy their residence their whole lives. Ezra died at the young age of
thirty-one on April 27, 1843, and Harriette passed away on September 10, 1870
at the age of fifty.
Harriette’s husband Ezra T. Doughty’s naval career is of
interest to us for two reasons, first that he wrote a journal of his voyages, and
that he was aboard the USS Brandywine
when it transported General Lafayette back to France after his 1824/1825 visit
to the United States.
Ezra’s diary is now located at the William L. Clements Library
at the University of Michigan. According to the website,
“Ezra T.
Doughty's diary entries pertain to his experiences onboard the USS St. Louis and
USS Grampus during
the ships' voyages in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in 1832 and 1833.
Doughty, a midshipman who became sailing master of the Grampus in
December 1832, recorded detailed descriptions of Haiti; Veracruz, Mexico; and
Havana, Cuba, and reflected on several aspects of navy life”. It also
gives the following biography for him: “Ezra
T. Doughty became a midshipman in the United States Navy on May 3, 1824, and
was stationed at the Norfolk Training School in 1830. In the fall of 1832, he
sailed on the St. Louis from
New York City to Pensacola, Florida, via Haiti and Cuba. In December 1832, he
became sailing master of the schooner Grampus for
its cruise from Pensacola to Norfolk, Virginia, via Veracruz, Mexico, and
Havana, Cuba. On March 3, 1835, Doughty was promoted to lieutenant, and he
later served onboard the Vandalia”.
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| USS Brandywine about 1831 Wikipedia Commons |
When Ezra was a midshipman in 1825, and aboard the USS Brandywine with the Marquis de Lafayette,
he and the other midshipmen signed an address which was made to the aging
general as he was about to disembark at Le Havre. Many of the of the sailors on
board had apparently been chosen to be there due to one of their ancestors’ distinguished
service during the Revolutionary War. Lafayette’s verbal response was as
follows: “My dear young friends; I am unable to express my feelings towards
you. Before I had the pleasure of your acquaintance, I considered it an honor
to belong to the United States’ navy—since then my knowledge of you, as
individuals, had added to my admiration of the chivalry of your profession, and
rendered sanguine my expectations of its future achievements. Your country has
reason to be proud of you; I part from you with regret—but should your duties
or inclinations bring you again to France, remember that Lagrange is the home
of every American. Farewell”.
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