Matthew Wright’s Will Interests Rambler During Visit to Old Estate
Provision Made for Liberation of Several Slaves Upon Their Consenting
To Go to Liberia, in Africa - Bequest Made for Orphan Asylums.

If you have followed the Rambler you have walked across the Marshall-Wright-Trimble farm which was patented in 1731 as Marshall’s Adventure. You have walked up and down suburban streets which now run across that tract, and the Rambler has shown you photographs of houses and persons appropriate to the story and has given you such facts as he could get without what he considers unreasonable exertion. If you have read preceding rambles you know that more facts relating to Matthew Wright, his legatees, Joseph and William Trimble, and the grant of Marshall’s Adventure have been printed in this series than had hitherto been published. It might make this installment more interesting to review some of the larger facts already write about Matthew Wright, but he space that would be taken up in that way is needed for other things.

The Rambler has among his notes this:

During the first week in May, 1910, there was a stir locally as to what had become of the Matthew Wright legacy and there were prominent headlines in the newspapers. In The Star were accounts under the headlines, ‘Looking for Legacy,’ ‘Repeort That $20,000 was Left to Schools in 1847,’ Matter Called to Attention of the Board of Education,’ and in The Star of May 6, 1910, was a news story under the heading ‘Doubt Cleared Up as to Matthew Wright Legacy.’

”Matthew Wright made a bequest of $20,000, then invested in 6 per cent corporate stock of the City of Washington in trust ‘To the Mayor and Board of Aldermen and Board of Common Council of the City of Washington to apply the income thereof o supporting the several now incorporated orphan asylums of the city of Washington, D.C., to the end of their corporate existence,’ and further providing that $60 of the income be paid annually to Ebenezer Station Methodist Sunday School during the existence of the congregation.

”The Washington City Orphan Asylum and St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum have profited by this bequest, being the only local incorporated orphan asylums at the death of the testator in 1847, and regularly the income thereof is paid to two said asylums and the Sunday school. The fund now amounts to $23,000. Ebenezer Station Methodist Sunday School is now the Sunday school of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, at Fifth and C streets southeast.”

The will of Matthew Wright was made May 19, 1847, witnessed by James Crandell, Robert M. Combs and John R. Queen, and recorded May 28, 1847. He devises “unto my nephews Matthew Trimble of Washington City, William Trimble of Tyrone, Ireland and Joseph Trimble of Prince Georges County, Md, as tenants in common and not as the tenants, all my land and ??? in Prince Georges County which is called Marshall’s Adventure, containing 186 acres, together with stock, farming utensils, crops, furniture and effects belonging to the premises, except negroes; also that parcel of land lying in the District of Columbia distinguished as lot 15 in the tract called Bayley’s Purchase, and part of Fortune Enlarged as subdivided and surveyed by James Dundas, surviving trustee of ‘Aggregate Fund,’ and by Lewis Carberry about the month of June 1845, which lot 15 contains about 95 acres.”

He also bequeathed “My lot and house on Water street, Georgetown, fronting on the north side of the street; also my three brick houses and ground on Seventh street southeast in Square 881, and also my land and houses in square 904, the devise as to he above store occupied by Thomas Thornley subject to the conditions that Thornley shall occupy the store two years after my death free of rent and charge, except Thornley keep the property insured, paying premiums and taxes.”

In previous rambles the location of these lots and houses has been pointed out, so that persons to whom square numbers mean nothing can identify them.

Among the personal property which Wright listed in his will was $500 in stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, stock in the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Georgetown, $2,500 having been paid on said stock, and $1,000 in stock of the Franklin Fire Insurance Co. of Washington. He leaves to James Blakely, “who intermarried in 1886, Elizabeth Trimball in Tyrone, Ireland for the benefit of their children, Joseph, Margaret and Mary Blakely, $2,000 to be equally divided between them. To his nephew, James Trimble, “now in Ireland, I leave $1,500; to Thomas Thornley, $1,000, to Thornley’s sister, Mrs. Gaitland, $200, and to my housekeeper, Ann Marchant, $300.”

It is in the provision for his slaves that the will of Matthew Wright is most interesting. He must have been associated with the Liberian Colonization Society, and the records of that old company would no doubt show something of the history of Matthew Wright. From one of his collateral descendants, the Rambler has heard that Wright liberated during his life fifteen of his slaves and sent them to Liberia. But, let us read the will:

”As regards my negroes,” he directs that two old men, Zeph and George, “be comfortably supported and maintained during their natural lives by his nephews, William Matthew and Joseph Trimble.” He gives the negro lad Isaac, “at the expiration of five years from my decease, his full freedom,” and directs the executors to furnish Isaac with the necessary legal papers. Then the testator says:

And I do order and appoint that my negro, Stephen and his wife, Nelly, and their eight or nine children, or more as the case may be at the time of my death, Emma with her child or children as the case may be, my negro, Lucy and two or more children as the case may be shall be liberated upon their consenting to go to Liberia in Africa, and if they shall not consent to go, but shall prefer to remain in this country, then they are to be sold by my executors as slaves for life.”

If they should choose Liberia instead of the United States, the testator willed $200 to help pay the cost of their passage.

The Rambler wonders whether those poor negroes chose freedom in Africa or slavery in the United States. It was a hard choice but I am of the opinion that Stephen and Nelly, Emma, Lucy and their children elected to go to Africa. It may be that some of the old colored folk who live on or near Marshall’s Adventure today are children and grandchildren of these old servants.

* * * * *

We come now to the Matthew Wright bequest to the orphan asylums. This is taken from the will: “I give and bequest after the payment of all the foregoing bequests, unto the mayor, board of Aldermen and the board of common council of he City of Washington in their corporate character and as a body politic the sum of $20,000 out of the 6 per cent stock of that corporation, in trust, interest to be applied to the supporting the several now incorporated orphan asylums in Washington.” He directs that, at expiration of the time for redemption of the stock, the proceeds shall be reinvested and the interest paid as before, and that out of the income $60 shall be paid annually “for he support of the Sunday school of the church called ‘Ebenezer Station,’ near the navy yard.”

A tombstone in Congressional Cemetery tells that the plot of earth it covers is “sacred to the memory of Matthew Wright, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, but for the last 51 years a resident of the United States, who departed this life May 24, 1847, aged 80 years.”

The Rambler gave you in a preceding story the names of the children of William Trimble, who inherited part of the Wright lands and whose house stood until 8 years ago in the grove of oaks where the Bradbury Heights Public School stands. On November 26, 1855, Adam Gaddis was married at Oak Grove, the name of the Trimble home, to Miss Margaret Trimble. The marriage service was performed by Rev. William Pinkney, who at that time was rector of the Episcopal church a Bladensburg and at Addison Chapel, at what is now Seat Pleasant, who later became the rector of Epiphany Church, Washington, and was long Bishop of this diocese. Those present at the marriage were of the families of the bride and groom and the families of Dr. Manning, Robert Marshall and John Brown, neighbors of the Trimbles.

Margaret Trimble Gaddis died October 6, 1878, and on June 12, 1883, Adam Gaddis married Miss Mary A. Trimble, a sister of Margaret. Mary is living at 503 A street southeast. The children of Adam Gaddis and Margaret Trimble were Edgar T. Gaddis, Adam H. Gaddis, James P. Gaddis, William L. Gaddis and Mary Gaddis. Mrs. Mary Gaddis Walters died July 29, 1893, survived by four children, Bessie, Mary, Margaret and Raymond. William Gaddis died in 1917, unmarried. Edgar T. Gaddis married Addie W. Thompson and they have one daughter, Miss Margaret. Adam H. Gaddis married Elizabeth L. Dalton and their daughter was Elizabeth. James P. Gaddis married Edith E. marr and their children were Adam M. Gaddis, Mary T. Gaddis and Trimble B. Gaddis.

* * * * *

Adam Gaddis was a prominent man in Washington. He was born in East Washington in 1829, the second son of Adam Gaddis, a Scotch-Irish immigrant, who settled in Washington in 1820 and for 45 years was foreman of the galley shop at the navy yard. Adam Gaddis died late in December 1915, at his home, 225 A street southeast. He was a trustee of Naval Lodge, No. 4, F.A.A.M., in a continuous term of office from 1869 to 1911, and was treasurer of the lodge from 1889 to 1910. He was treasurer of Washington Naval Royal Arch Chapter, No. 6, from 1889 to 1911. Other masonic bodies to which he belonged were DeMolay Commandery, Knights Templar; Almas Temple, and the Masonic Veterans’ Association. He was also a member of the Oldest Inhabitants’ Association. In his youth he was a drug clerk for two years, and a grocer’s clerk for five years. Then he went into the grocery business and later established the firm of A. Gaddis, Jr., & Co., with his brother Lemuel. Their old stand at the southwest corner of Eleventh and M streets southeast, became the grocery store of B.B. Earnshaw & Bro., and the building is still standing.

Lemuel Gaddis died in this city in 1909, aged 84. Lemuel married Leonora Speiser, who died in 1889, survived by a daughter, Mrs. Jessie Gaddis Hersey. Other brothers of Adam and Lemuel Gaddis were William Gaddis who married Margaret L. Young, and George H. Gaddis, who married Josephine Beasley. The sisters of Adam Gaddis were Mrs. Rosella Gaddis Otterback, Julia Gaddis and Mrs. Joana Gaddis Speiser.