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CAREY, John.
‘Of Fredericksburg ’ Born August 1729, in Westmoreland
County, Virginia; died June 2, 1842, in his 114th year. He was
of purely African descent, free-born, His mother, a slave, was emancipated before his birth. In a memoir of him by Rev. O.
B. Brown, of Washington, D.C., appeared in the Baptist Memorial,
published in New York for September 1842.
General Washington, who was born in
the same county and was two years and a half younger than John,
was much pleased with him from his youth, for his energy, his
fidelity and his decision of character. Traits, which
Washington knew how to appreciate as well in a humble African,
as in one of his own complexion; and in his earliest military
campaigns, employed him as his personal servant. In this
capacity, he was with General, then Colonel Washington, on the
battlefield of Monongahela on the 9th of July 1755, when General
Braddock was defeated and slain, and where Washington, by his
ability and prudence, saved the wreck of the British army, and
laid the foundation of his future military fame. He continued
with Washington to the close of his military services in that
war.
When Washington was appointed
commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army, the faithful John
Carey accompanied him to the field, and was with him in all his
military career as generalissimo of the republican forces.
Sometimes he served in the ranks of the army, and sometimes he
was the personal attendant of his revered General. He loved
General Washington as a child loves his father and until within
a short time of his death, he would talk of scenes and battles
of both the wars, with a memory as perfect as of events just
past. In such minute accordance with the records of history, as
to show that he had been a close observer of the deeds of the
great Washington.
 At the close of the revolutionary
war, when taking leave of his commander, General Washington
presented him one of his military coats, the same which he had
worn in the siege of Yorktown, when he consummated his military
glory, as a token of his approbation and esteem of the fidelity
of this devoted servant and patriot. This coat, John often wore
to church, until within the last fifteen years. He set a value
upon it above all price, as a memento of his beloved general;
and though reduced to extreme poverty, no offers of money could
induce him to part with it John was full six feet high, about
the size of the general he had served, and the coat suited him
quite well. He died in its possession, and the coat is quite a
curiosity. It is of a coarse texture, & fair sample of the
times in which it covered the greatest national chieftain that
ever lived, in the person of the commander of the armies of a
new republican empire, struggling for existence. It is of blue
cloth with buff facings and large flat gilt buttons; in the same
fashion of that in the National Institute, which he wore when he
resigned his commission.
After the war, John Carey resided
in Westmoreland County, Virginia, for many years, where he
became a hopeful subject of divine grace, and was baptized by
the late Rev. Henry Toler. He afterwards removed to Washington;
and for the last twenty-eight years of his life, he has been an
exemplary member of the first Baptist church in this city. His
piety has never been doubted by those who knew him. He was
always clear in the doctrine of salvation by the grace of God,
and the Lord Jesus Christ; and as he advanced in years, that
Saviour who first taught him to hope in his mercy, became more
and more precious to his soul. If martial scenes which
engrossed a full portion of his earlier manhood, often recurred
to the memory of his declining years with enlivening interest,
the manifestation of our Saviour's love, and the prospect which
it opened to him of brighter scenes than mortal vision could
endure, would often kindle his soul into rapture.
He retained his faculties
remarkably well for his age, though infirmities of such a weight
of years necessarily weakened the powers of his mind; and to
the last period of his mortal life, he manifested an unshaken
confidence in God his Saviour, which bore him triumphantly
through the vale of death. Since the decline of life deprived
him of strength to labor, he has subsisted partly on the
bounties of the benevolent, but in a great measure upon the
regular allowance made him by the Church to which he belonged.
The military roll in which his name
stood during the revolutionary war, believed to have been
destroyed when the war office was burnt in 1801: and for want of
the evidence required, he was never placed on the pension list.
At an early period of the late session of Congress, the Hon. G.
V. Briggs, of Massachusetts, becoming acquainted with his
character and condition, brought forward a joint resolution to
grant him a pension for the remainder of his life, which passed
the House of Representatives, but in the Senate, it was lost.
When that resolution was pending,
the writer of this told him what Mr. Briggs was doing. He
responded with a prayer, that the Lord would reward Mr. Briggs
for his kindness to a poor unworthy servant of God; but, added
he, "I need but little, and but for a little time." The Lord
however raised him friends, and he did not suffer while he
lived. He left a wife aged about threescore years and ten, who
gave all the assistance he needed in his infirmity. The last
Sabbath of his life he walked out and attended the public
worship of God. On Monday morning, he told his wife he should
leave her this week, for his Lord had called him, and he should
cheerfully obey the summons. Monday night, he was taken with a
chill, which proved the cessation of vitality. He continued
however until Friday night, when he fell asleep.
While on earth he lived obscurely
great; for he glorified God in his body and spirit; in the depth
of poverty he enjoyed the blessing of royalty; for God his
Saviour resided with him and lived in his heart. In the
confidence of faith, he realized that he was born a prince of
the Kingdom of God. God was his Father; Christ his brother;
angels were his ministers; and heaven was his destination. In
the assurance of this hope, he lived above the world, waiting
for the happy moment which should change his faith to vision,
and consummate his hope in glory. |
