(03-30-2015 12:31 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Brophy was naturalized in 1880. Father Bernardin Wiget was his sponsor. He also officiated at Brophy's wedding to Elizabeth Warren (not Watts) Tyler in 1866. (Brophy and his sons published a little book about Mrs. Brophy's genealogy.)

John Surratt, who died in 1916, outlived Brophy.

Edit: I hadn't seen the naturalization document when I posted. I do wonder if that 1855 date is correct, though, because Brophy was only 12 at the time, and couldn't have been a teacher yet. Are there certificates for his parents and siblings from that year?

I do stand by the "Warren" for his wife, as that's the name she's called by in the family genealogy, published during her lifetime by her husband and her sons, and in her own obituary.

(03-30-2015 03:29 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I would still like to see the verification that Anna Surratt "lived with the Brophys for years." Several of the Tonrys and the Surratts told me years ago that they had never heard that.

There is some mention somewhere of the Holohans returning to the boardinghouse to help her clean up and to stay with her. When she couldn't take the crowds surrounding the home in D.C., they said she came to live with her grandmother Jenkins and Uncle Zadoc on what is now Joint Base Andrews. One of Zadoc's daughters was friends with my grandmother and said that the reporters found her even out in the sticks (she also said that Zadoc's family called Mary "Aunt Lizzie."

Anna also stayed for awhile with school friends in Baltimore. By 1869, she was married.

(03-30-2015 02:56 PM)Pamela Wrote:  

(03-30-2015 12:31 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Brophy was naturalized in 1880. Father Bernardin Wiget was his sponsor. He also officiated at Brophy's wedding to Elizabeth Warren (not Watts) Tyler in 1866. (Brophy and his sons published a little book about Mrs. Brophy's genealogy.)

John Surratt, who died in 1916, outlived Brophy.

Edit: I hadn't seen the naturalization document when I posted. I do wonder if that 1855 date is correct, though, because Brophy was only 12 at the time, and couldn't have been a teacher yet. Are there certificates for his parents and siblings from that year?

I do stand by the "Warren" for his wife, as that's the name she's called by in the family genealogy, published during her lifetime by her husband and her sons, and in her own obituary.

Maybe the newspaper obit confused her father's first name (wasn't it 'Wat') with her maiden name. The address on the record I found is for his school. I'll see what I can find about Brophy's family naturalizations tonight, hopefully. I want to get the book you mentioned.

(03-30-2015 04:11 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  During December 1870 John Surratt gave a second lecture at the Cooper Union in New York City and a third one at Concordia Hall in Baltimore. Has anyone ever seen the texts of those lectures? The only text I have seen is the one from Rockville. Also, does anyone know if Chase ever confirmed that his carriage was approached by strangers?

(03-30-2015 07:01 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  

(03-30-2015 03:29 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I would still like to see the verification that Anna Surratt "lived with the Brophys for years." Several of the Tonrys and the Surratts told me years ago that they had never heard that.

There is some mention somewhere of the Holohans returning to the boardinghouse to help her clean up and to stay with her. When she couldn't take the crowds surrounding the home in D.C., they said she came to live with her grandmother Jenkins and Uncle Zadoc on what is now Joint Base Andrews. One of Zadoc's daughters was friends with my grandmother and said that the reporters found her even out in the sticks (she also said that Zadoc's family called Mary "Aunt Lizzie."

Anna also stayed for awhile with school friends in Baltimore. By 1869, she was married.

If Anna stayed with the Brophys, it must have been for a very short period.

Anna testified at the Johnson impeachment hearing that she had remained in the boardinghouse for a few months (with the Holohans) after her mother's execution. She gave a Massachusetts Avenue address at the hearing.

Brophy didn't marry until September 1866, so Anna staying with him before that would have been grossly improper and out of the question.

There's a newspaper reference to Anna working as a governess for Mr. Gwynne (sp.?), apparently the same man whom Mary Surratt had consulted during one of her trips in April 1865.

Brophy was living in New York City in September 1868, when he wrote a letter (which I'm going to transcribe for the Courier) dated from there. He seems to have remained in that city for the remainder of his life, at addresses that most New Yorkers would kill for nowadays.

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(03-30-2015 02:56 PM)Pamela Wrote:  

(03-30-2015 12:31 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Brophy was naturalized in 1880. Father Bernardin Wiget was his sponsor. He also officiated at Brophy's wedding to Elizabeth Warren (not Watts) Tyler in 1866. (Brophy and his sons published a little book about Mrs. Brophy's genealogy.)

John Surratt, who died in 1916, outlived Brophy.

Edit: I hadn't seen the naturalization document when I posted. I do wonder if that 1855 date is correct, though, because Brophy was only 12 at the time, and couldn't have been a teacher yet. Are there certificates for his parents and siblings from that year?

I do stand by the "Warren" for his wife, as that's the name she's called by in the family genealogy, published during her lifetime by her husband and her sons, and in her own obituary.

Maybe the newspaper obit confused her father's first name (wasn't it 'Wat') with her maiden name. The address on the record I found is for his school. I'll see what I can find about Brophy's family naturalizations tonight, hopefully. I want to get the book you mentioned.

I have a photocopy of it I got from the Virginia Historical Society. It's rather dull, I'm afraid--next to nothing about Brophy himself, although it does have photographs of him and the missus in old age. I'll see if I can scan them.

(03-30-2015 07:20 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Didn't know about the governess to Mr Gwynn. If it was Bennett Gwynn, he lived a mile from Surratt House, and those of you who attend our conferences drive through his old farm to reach the museum. When you leave Colony South and go straight through the light at Route 5/Branch Avenue, you are on Surratts Road and Gwynn's property (even when I was a child). It is now a large housing development called Summit Creek. The farm was Mt. Auburn, and the house was still standing until about forty years ago -- along with a charming red barn that artists and photographers used to stop and commit to canvas and film.

(10-13-2017 12:44 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote:  "The press caught up with Brophy and Wiget at the naturalization ceremony and interviewed them about General Hancock and Mrs. Surratt's case. In the same interview, Brophy claimed that he had published and distributed a pamphlet to stir up sympathy for Mary Surratt--presumably the pseudonymous "Amator Justitiae" pamphlet distributed in June 1865."

While a minor point of history, no one seems to question John Brophy being the author of the June 14, 1865 pamphlet Amator Justitiae and the earlier June 5 letter to the editor of the Constitutional Union under the same signature. The 2008 book, The Catholics and Mrs. Mary Surratt offers a very convincing argument (Chapter Six) that Brophy was not the author but that someone much older and more learned than Brophy, such as Fr. Bernardin Wiget, was the likely. Brophy never confirmed nor denied authorship and neither did Fr. Wiget. To gain an understanding of what it took to write such a pamphlet, one needs to read the pamphlet in its entirety (also in the book). This is not the writing of a 22-year-old teacher but someone much more accomplished and educated. The June 5 letter to the editor states, "I know this child." Brophy and Anna were the same age. Why would he then us e such a term to describe Anna?

Given the harsh feelings against the Catholic Church at the time and from many quarters, it is understandable why someone like Fr. Wiget would want to avoid the publicity of being known as the author of the pamphlet. Perhaps between Fr. Wiget and Brophy they were comfortable letting the public think the latter was the author.
The thorough investigation presented in the book makes me think not.