Aquila Giles

Aquila Giles (1758 – April 1822) was an American lawyer, politician and soldier from Brooklyn who served in the New York State Assembly.

Aquila Giles
Born1758 
Died1822  (aged 63–64)
OccupationPolitician 
ChildrenHenry Giles, George Washington Giles 
Parent(s)
  • Jacob Giles 
  • Joanna Paca Giles 
Position heldmember of the New York State Assembly 

Early life

Giles was born in Maryland in 1758. He was the son of Jacob Giles (1703–1784) and Johanna (nee Paca) Giles (1720–1805), who stayed in Maryland during the Revolutionary War.[1] His maternal grandfather was Maryland governor William Paca.[2]

Career

Giles, an attorney who owned land on the Susquehanna River,[3] was a "keeper of military stores" and the "taker of First Census."[4]

During the Revolutionary War, he served with the Patriots, first on the staff of Gen. Arthur St. Clair.[4] Giles eventually became a General.[5] Giles served alongside George Washington,[6] and "participated in all the battles of that war."[7] Upon Giles' marriage to Elizabeth Shipton, his father-in-law (who had made Elizabeth his chief heir), who was commissioned by the British as a colonel for the corps of Long Island Loyalists,[8] "entirely shook her off, and withheld every friendship & attention from her" due to Giles' support of the Patriots.[6]

From July 1, 1788, until June 30, 1791, Giles served in the New York State Assembly, representing Kings County (Brooklyn) alongside Peter Vandervoort,[9] in the 12th through the 14th New York State Legislatures.[10] He again served in the Assembly during the 16th New York State Legislature from July 1, 1792, to June 30, 1793.[10]

From May 1792 to March 1801, he was a United States marshal for the District of New York.[11]

Personal life
Elizabeth Shipton Giles
Giles' father-in-law, British merchant William Axtell, painted by John Wollaston, c. 1749-1752.

In 1780, Giles was married to Elizabeth Shipton (1757–1822).[1] Elizabeth was the niece,[6] and adopted daughter, of British born William Axtell,[lower-alpha 1] a prominent West Indian merchant who had a country place called Melrose Hall in Flatbush in what was then Long Island (but today is Brooklyn).[8] Axtell's holdings in America were confiscated in 1784 after he fled to England where he died at Beaumont Cottage in Surrey in 1795.[8] Giles petitioned Governor George Clinton and the New York State Legislature to vest the confiscated estate to Giles and his wife.[6] Through the assistance of Alexander Hamilton,[11] Giles was allowed to purchase the estate for $4,500.[12] Together, they were the parents of:[3]

  • William Axtell Giles (1781–1815)
  • Jacob Edward Giles (1784–1813)
  • St. Clair Giles (1787–1822)
  • Mary Ann Baker Giles (1789–1815)
  • Alexander Hamilton Giles (1791–1791), who died in infancy.
  • Charles Augustus Giles (1792–1823)
  • Helen Thorold Giles (b. 1793)
  • Henry Theory Giles (1795–1877), who was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and who married Maria Smither (1807–1865).[7]
  • George Washington Giles (1800–1840), an attorney who was admitted to the bar in 1824 and who married Elizabeth Ogden (1801–1880),[1][3] the daughter of William Ogden and Susan Murray Ogden and niece of John and Hannah Murray of Murray Hill.[2]
  • Elizabeth Giles, who married Daniel Thorne (b. 1784).

Giles and his wife both died in 1822.[1][5] Both Giles and his wife were buried at the Trinity Church Cemetery.[4]

Descendants

Through his son George, he was the grandfather of William Ogden Giles (1827–1906)[13] who lived in Yonkers and married Mary Beers Curtis.[1] After her death, he married Catherine Chambers Darlington.[4]

References
Notes
  1. William Axtell (1720–1795) was also a brother-in-law to fellow Loyalist James DePeyster (brother of Arent DePeyster and grandfather to Frederic de Peyster).[12]
Sources
  1. Genealogical Record. The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1916. p. 23. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  2. "Guide to the Giles Family Papers 1750-1851 MS 248| Biographical Note". dlib.nyu.edu. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  3. "Guide to the Giles Family Papers 1750-1851 MS 248". dlib.nyu.edu. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  4. Association, American Art (1920). Illustrated Catalogue of the Remarkable and Widely Known Collection of Early American and British Portraits. Lent & Graff Company. p. 111. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  5. "DIED". Evening Post. April 9, 1822. p. 2. Last evening, Gen. Aquilla Giles, an old officer of the Revolution. His funeral will take place from his late residence No. 70 Varick-st. at 4 o'clock, Thursday afternoon.
  6. "To George Washington from Aquila Giles, 28 August 1783". rotunda.upress.virginia.edu. The University of Virginia Press. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  7. Perrin, William Henry; Battle, J. H.; Kniffin, G. C. (1887). Kentucky: A History of the State, Embracing a Concise Account of the Origin and Development of the Virginia Colony, Its Expansion Westward, and the Settlement of the Frontier Beyond the Alleghanies : the Erection of Kentucky as an Independent State, and Its Subsequent Development. F.A. Battey. p. 802. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  8. "William Axtell Artist: John Wollaston (Anglo-American, active 1733—67)". www.metmuseum.org. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  9. Stiles, Henry Reed (1884). The Civil, Political, Professional and Ecclesiastical History, and Commercial and Industrial Record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y. from 1683 to 1884. Munsell & Co. p. 374. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  10. Hough, Benjamin Franklin (1858). The New York Civil List: containing the names and origin of the civil divisions, and the names and dates of election or appointment of the principal state and county officers from the Revolution to the present time. Weed, Parsons and Co. pp. 164–167. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  11. Hamilton, Alexander; Goebel, Julius; Smith, Joseph Henry (1964). The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary. Columbia University Press. p. 389. ISBN 9780231089296. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  12. McKito, Valerie H. (2015). From Loyalists to Loyal Citizens: The DePeyster Family of New York. SUNY Press. p. 28. ISBN 9781438458120. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  13. "Residence of Wm. Ogden Giles. Yonkers". digitalcollections.nypl.org. NYPL Digital Collections. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
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