Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/205

 CHEVES.

CHEW.

Yoiuag De Cheverus pursued liis studies at May- enne, and assumed the tonsure at the age of twelve years. He was made prior of Torbechet in 1771, and was admitted at the college of Louis Le Grand in Paris. In 1786 he entered the seminary of St. Magloire and attended lectures at the Sor- bonne. He was made a deacon in October 1 790, and ordained a priest in December of the same year. The bishop of Mans having procured a dispensation on account of his being under the required age. he acted as assistant to his uncle, the curate of Mayenne, and was made a canon of the cathedral. On the death of his uncle, he was appointed to suc- ceed him, but refusing to take the oath of the revo- lution he was driven from Mayenne, kept under surveillance at Laval, imprisoned in the prison of Cordelier, and, after incredibly narrow escapes from death, managed to break prison in June, 1792. He fled in disguise from Paris to Calais, and reached England, where he studied the language, taught French and mathematics in a school, and organized a congregation of Catho- lics to whom he preached in English. He was invited by Abbe Matignon to join him in Boston, Mass., and arrived there, Oct. 3, 1796. Arch- bishop Carroll tendered him the pastorate of St. Mary's church, Philadelpliia, which lie refused, preferring his missionary work. He encom- passed the erection of the first Catholic church in Boston, the Church of the Holy Cross. He was one of the most prominent encouragers of art, science, and literature in Boston, and was one of the instigators and founders of the Athenaeum. Abbd De Cheverus was consecrated first bishop of Boston by Archbishop Carroll at Baltimore. Nov. 1, 1810. He was held in very high esteem in Boston by Protestants as well as Catholics, and performed the duties of his position with dignity and urbanity. In 1800 the Grand Almoner of France conveyed to Bishop De Cheverus the desire of Louis XVIII. that he should accept the bi.shopric of Montauban, which at first he was unwilling to do. The solicitations of the king at length pre- vailed, and he left Boston for France, Oct. 1, 1823. In 1826 he was made Archbishop of Bordeaux and a peer of France. In 1830 he was appointed a councillor of the order of the Holy Ghost. He founded many charitable institutions, and when the cholera broke out in France he opened a hospital in his palace with the inscription, "House of Succor." He was proclaimed cardinal, Feb. 1, 1836, and on March 9 received the hat at the hands of the king, at Paris. He died Cardinal Arclibishop of Bordeaux, July 19, 1836.

CHEVES, Langdon, statesman, was born in Abbeville district, S. C, Sept. 17, 1776, son of Alexander and Mary (Langdon) Cheves. His father was a native of Scotland and his motlier a Virginian. He engaged in mercantile business

in 1786-'95; was admitted to the bar in 1797, and in a few years had acquired a competence through the practice of his profession. He was elected to Congress in 1808 as a representative from South Carolina, serving through the 11th, 12th, and 13th congresses. He was a vigorous supporter of the war with Great Britain and served as chair- man of the naval committee in 1812, and of the ways and means committee in 1813. He was elected speaker to succeed Henry Clay, Jan. 19,

1814, by the Federalists and anti-restriction Demo- crats. His position as speaker enabled him to defeat the Dallas scheme for re-chartering the United States bank. He declined re-election in

1815, resumed the practice of law, and was made judge of the superior court of South Caro- lina the next year. He was elected president of the board of directors of the United States bank in 1819, and resigned in 1823, after liaving placed the bank in a firm financial condition, to accept the position of chief commissioner of claims under the treaty of Ghent, to which President Monroe liad appointed him. He returned to South Caro- lina in 1829, where he occupied himself in the cultivation of his extensive plantation for twenty- eight years. He published a notable letter in the Charleston Mereunj, Sept. 11, 1844, on the political issue of the times. He condemned the nullification scheme of 1832, but supported the secession movement, and as a delegate to the convention of the Southern Rights association at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 14, 1850, in a powerful speech, declared himself friendly to the scheme of a separate southern Confederacy. He was married to Mary Dallas of Charleston, in 1806. He dieil in Columbia, S. C, June 25, 1857.

CHEW, Benjamin, jurist, was born at AVest River, Md., Nov. 29, 1722; son of Dr. Samuel and Mary (Galloway) Chew; grand.son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Benson) Chew; great-grandson of Samuel and Anne (Ayres) Chew, and great- great-grandson of John and Sarah Chew. John Chew is said to have been a cadet of the family of Chew of Chevvton, Somersetshire, England, and came over from England in 1622; was a member from Jamestown to the Virginia house of assembly in 1623, was afterwards a bvirgess from Hogg's Island in the assembly until 1643, and had two sons, Samuel and Joseph. Ben- jamin's father. Dr. Samuel Chew, born Cct. '60, 1693, was at one time chief justice of the three lower counties of Pennsylvania, now included in the state of Delaware. Benjamin Chew read law in Philadelphia and in London, settled on the Delaware river in 1743. and in 1745 removed to Philadelphia. He was recorder of the city from 1756 until 1776, and reeister of wills and attorney-general until 1776. He renresented the three lower counties of the state in the house of