Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/748

704 land, Ohio, where he studied law under Stephen A. Douglas and wrote tor the " PJaindealer." In 1867 he removed to San Francisco, where he continued his practice as a lawyer. In 1870-'5 he was U. S. consul in Bucharest, Roumania, where his influence was marked in securing civil and religious liberty. In 1876 he returned to the United States and took part in the presidential canvass in favor of Ruther- ford B. Hayes. In 1877 he declined the appointment of consul-general at St. Petersburg. He was subsequently made U. S. consul at Lyons, France, which post he held until 1885, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice of law. Mr. Peixotto was largely identified with educational and charitable movements among the Jews of this country, was favorably known as a lecturer, and edited the "Menorah," a montiily, established in 1886, de- voted to the interests of the Independent order of Benai Berith and Judaism and Jewish literature.

PELAGE, Magloire, West Indian soldier, b. in Martinique in 1769; d. there in 1840. He was of African descent. In the disturbances in Mar- tinique that followed the French revolution he took the side of the planters, and showed con- siderable military skill. He served in the colo- nial militia when the island was attacked by the English, and was wounded during the assault on Vert Pre. Rochambeau made him a lieutenant on the field of battle, and gave him the com- mand of a fort which he defended with ability, but he was obliged to yield to numbers and trans- ported as a prisoner of war to England. On his exchange he went to Prance, where he was named captain of the battalion of the Antilles, which had been raised at Brest. In 1795 his corps was sent to Guadeloupe to recover this island from the Eng- lish. In an attack on St. Lucia he won the grade of major, and he was appointed governor of this colony, where he remained until it was retaken by the English in 1796. He was wounded and again sent as a prisoner of war to England, but exchanged in 1798 and returned to Guadeloupe, with the rank of colonel, in 1799. When Admiral Lacrosse arrived in the island in 1801, commissioned to restore order in the colony and reduce the negroes to obedience, he was opposed by Pelage, and an attempt to arrest the latter resulted in an insurrection. A new government was organized and Lacrosse was compelled to fly. Pelage gov- erned the island till 1803, when Gen. Richepanse, having arrived with re-enforcements, defeated the negroes and seized Pelage with the leaders of his army. The negro leaders were taken to Paris, but, owing probably to the fact that their resistance was not without provocation, they were released, after a few months' imprisonment, in 1803. Pelage lived for several years in France in obscurity, but finally returned to the French colonies.

PELBY, William, actor, b. in Boston. Mass., 16 March, 1793 ; d. there, 28 May, 1850. He made his debut in the Walnut street theatre, Philadel- phia, Pa., in 1821, as Macbeth, and subsequently gained reputation as a successful portrayer of Shakespeare's characters. He became manager of the Tremont theatre, Boston, Mass., in 1827, and afterward built the Warren street theatre in that city. — His wife, Rosalie French, actress, b. in Kinderhook, N. Y., 17 March, 1793; d. at sea in June, 1857, had little early education, but possessed unusual intellectual gifts and powers of acquisi- tion. She made her debut at the Federal street theatre, Boston, Mass., as a chorus-singer in 1813, rose rapidly to leading parts in melodrama, and became one of the most popular actresses on the American stage. Her first husband was an Eng- lishman named Brown, who died about 1825, and afterward she married Mr. Pelby. In 1847 she sailed for England, but was wrecked, and returned to Boston. She went to California in 1853, estab- lished a wax-work manufactory, and subsequently an exhibition, which proved successful. She died on her way from San Francisco to New York.

PELHAM, Herbert, colonist, b. in Lincoln county, England, in 1601 ; d. in Suffolk county, England, 12 June, 1673. He was educated as a country gentleman, was interested in emigration, and in 1629 became a member of the Massachu- setts company in England. He visited this coun- try in 1638, resided in Cambridge, Mass., and was an assistant in 1645-'9. He was intrusted by the colony with some of its most important affairs, was active in the service of the Society for propa- gating the gospel among the Indians, and became first treasurer of Harvard in 1643. He was a com- missioner of the united colonies of New England, in making the treaty of 1646, with the Narragan- sett and Niantic Indians. Pelham returned to England in 1650, and engaged in the formation of a society for the religious instruction of the Indians. — His daughter, Penelope, married Gov. Josiali Winslow. of Plymouth colony.

PELHAM, Peter, artist, b. in England about 1684; d. in Boston, 14 Dec, 1751. He is supposed by some to have been a son of Peter Pelham, an English engraver, who was born, according to Michael Bryan, about 1684, but more probably he is the same man, Bryan's record of him and list of works being before he came to this country. He was the first engraver and earliest known artist in New England, and came f I'om London to Boston at the close of the first quarter of the 18th century. His earliest known work here is a portrait of Cot- ton Mather, dated 1727, and inscribed " P. Pelham, ad vivum pinxit, ab origini fecit et excud." He also engraved after his own originals portraits of Rev. John Moorhead (1731) and Rev. Mather Byles. His productions on copper are executed in the deep mezzotint so prevalent in the early part of the 18th century, closely resembling the woi'k of the well- known English scraper John Smith. Pelham, in addition to his labors as an artist, kept a school in Boston where he taught, as well as the ordinary branches, drawing, painting, and needlework. On 22 May, 1748, he married the widow of Richard Cop- ley, the mother of John Singleton Copley, to whom Pelham gave instruction. His known plates, be- sides those already named, are likenesses of Rev. Benjamin Coleman (1734), Rev. William Cooper (1743), and Rev. Joseph Sewall, all after Smibert ; " Plan of the Citv and Fortress of Louisburg," after Richard Gridley (1746), Gov. Shirley (1747), Rev. Edward Holvoke (1749), Rev. Thomas Prince (1750), and Thomas Hollis, after Highmore (1751).

PELLEPART. or PELLEPRAT, Pierre (pel-lay-par), French missionary, b. in Bordeaux. France, in 1606 ; d. in Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico, 21 April, 1667. He was admitted into the Jesuit order at the age of seventeen, and, after teaching and acting as rector in several colleges, went to Paris, where he gained reputation as a pulpit orator. He embarked for the American missions in 1639, visited the different Jesuit houses in the French islands, and then passed into Mexico, where he labored among the natives for eleven years. His works include " Relation des missions des PP. de la compagnie de Jesus dans les isles, et dans la terre ferme de I'Amerique Meridionale, divisee en deux parties ; avec une introduction a la langue des Galibis, sauvages de la terre ferme de I'Amerique" (Paris, 1655). This volume is very rare.