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Rh danger, nor disaster could extinguish. One of his daughter's strongest recollections was of being told, on his return from the first general meeting of the Patriots of New Jersey for a declaration of rights, an incident relating to himself and highly characteristic of the times. Many of the most distinguished royalists were his personal and intimate friends and when it became evident that a crisis in public feeling was about to occur, great efforts were made by some of those holding office under the crown to win him to their side. Tempting promises of ministerial favor and advancement were made to induce him to at least withhold his influence from the cause of the people, even if he would not take part in the support of the King. Such overtures were in vain, and at this meeting he rose and was one of the first boldly to pledge "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor," in defence of the rights of freemen against the aggressions of the throne. The attorney-general, approaching and extending his hand, said to him in saddened tones, "Farewell, my friend Charles, when the halter is about your neck, send for me. I'll do what I can to save you." Colonel Stewart eventually became one of the Staff of Washington, as Commissary General of Issues, by Commission of the Congress of 1776.

Thus, Mrs. Wilson, who again became the head of her father's household, when her young husband, Robert Wilson, himself an ardent American adherent, died after barely two years of married life, was given an opportunity for more favorable observation and knowledge of important movements and events than that of any other woman certainly in her native state. Her father, at the head of an important department, from necessity became acquainted with the principal officers of the army, and headquarters being most of the time within twenty or thirty miles of her residence, she not only had constant intercourse in person and by letter with him, but fre-