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Munroe Libbey Powell Richardson Rogers Smith Bennett Boston & Philadelphia
Edmund Munroe & Wife Sophia Sewall Munroe –
Edmund’s father, Died, at Lexington, on Monday, 29th ult. Col. William Munroe, aged 86. Col. M. was orderly sergeant in the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, the commencement of the revolutionary war. On the night of the 18th previous, when several British soldiers[who?] were seen proceeding on horseback towards the town, with the supposed intention of arresting John Hancock and Samuel Adams, Col. M. commanded the sergeant’s guard, stationed for their protection at the house where those prescribed patriots were resident in Lexington. On the receipt of intelligence that 800 British troops were secretly marching the same route, Messrs. Hancock and Adams were persuaded to retire to Woburn, and Col. M. with is party joined the Lexington company,who were immediately after attacked before sunrise of the 1st,by the whole British force, and about 20 of the Lexington militia killed or wounded. The company were ordered by their commander to disperse ; and the British troops proceeded to Concord, where they destroyed the provincial stores. Their triumph, however, was of short continuance ; the British guard of 100 men, stationed about a mile beyond Concord village, at the North Bridge, were attacked by the militia of Concord and the neighboring towns, and forced to retire upon their main body, leaving two killed, and the same number wounded. About two hours afterward, when the British commenced their return march to Boston, they were again assaulted by the militia, until they arrived at Lexington, where they were waylaid and harassed by the Lexington company, and would probably soon have been forced to surrender, had they not been reinforced by Lord Perry’s brigade of 1500 men. They were, however, beaten back to Boston. Col. M. participated with his company in the events of the day, leaving the care of his public house in the super-independence of a neighbor, whom the British killed on their retreat. Until within a year or two past, like Cincinnatus Col. M. labored on his farm. On the occasion of the visit of gen. Lafayette to Lexington, three years since, arm in arm these aged veterans reconnoitered the field of Battle, previous to the delivery of the address to Lafayette from the Lexington committee ; and he assisted at the laying the foundation stone of the Bunker Hill Monument on the 17th June 1825. Col. M. has been ever esteemed by his fellow townsmen as well as by strangers, for his urbanity of manners and hospitality. As a member of the Legislature and in municipal stations, he was respected for information, judgement, and rectitude; and as a military officer, from a subaltern to a colonel, to which grade he rose, he was distinguished as an able tactician. It is productive of a melancholy and heartfelt sensation, to follow to the grave “the house appointed for all the living,” one after another, those vast vestiges of “the times that tried men’s souls.” It seems like tearing from us our “household gods ;” like removing the “ancient landmarks” of our nation’s birth; the objects of all that is venerable and sacred, till the tale of revolutionary powers. But the consolation is, that they are gathered “like a shock of corn fully ripe,” blessed with the grateful recollections of their enfranchised countrymen, full of honors and good works, to a better and happier state of existence. More on William and his Munroe Tavern see this link. Munroe Tavern Lexington Massachusetts
William Munroe was married to Anna Smith and they had six children. After her death in 1781 he later married Polly Rodgers. And that is where the Rogers name comes from in this album.
Edmund was named after his uncle, Captain Edmund Munroe, Sr.
- Lieutenant: French and Indian War, 5 years service.(p. 137)[4]
- 1761: Served as Adjutant of the Massachusetts Forces : 6 months. (p. 359) [6]
- Member of the Committee of Correspondence and Safety. (p. 164)[7]
- April 19, 1775: Private on the alarm list; served in Capt. Parker’s Company (p. 137) [4] (p. 164) [7] Lieutenant Captain Miles’s company Colonel Reed’s regiment.
- May 16, 1775: June 17, 1775: Captain of the detachment at Cambridge. (p. 223) [8]
- July- Dec. 1776: Regimental Quartermaster, Thirteenth Continental Regiment, under Col. Reed at Ticonderoga; with the Northern army in the campaign ending with Burgoyne’s surrender. (p. 164) [7] (p. 359) [6]
- January 1777: Captain: Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment under Col. Thomas Bigelow at the Battle of Saratoga, wintering at Valley Forge. His brother William Munroe joined him at Saratoga.(p. 137) [4] (p. 164) [7]
- Struck down by a cannonball and killed in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse, along with his cousin George Monroe. (p. 139) [4]
Edmond (sometimes spelled Edmund) was born on 29 Oct 1780 in Cambridge and christened a week later in Lexington. He was the son of William Munroe and Anna Smith.
On 15 Jan 1804, Edmond married Harriet Downes in Boston. They had a daughter that they named Harriet Downes Monroe who died when about 3 months old in February of 1806. Edmond’s young wife, Harriet died four months later in June 1806.
After the death of his first wife, Harriet, Edmond married her younger sister, Lydia on 8 Dec 1808. This union produced one child, a daughter Mary Caroline, born on 12 Dec 1810. Like her sister, Lydia died not long thereafter. On 30 Apr 1815, Edmond married Sophia Sewell of Maine, the widow of Hartley Wood, with whom she had no children. Sophia was married to Edmond until his death in 1865. Together, they had eight children. 1789 George Washington visited the Munroe Tavern owned by Edmund’s father, William. His sister, Anna helped serve food to Washington. I would imagine that Edmund at 9 years old would have been nearby or in the Tavern.
On 16 Feb 1818, Edmond and his partners, Amos Binney, Daniel Hastings, and Deming Jarves founded the New England Glass Company, now the Libbey Corporation. By the mid-1800s, the company was known for its cut glass and was a premier glass producer in the country. Mr. Munroe became very wealthy, as evidenced by the combined value of his real estate and personal estate estimated at $110,000 in the 1860 census, a huge sum for that time.
Edmond Munroe died of pneumonia in Cambridge, MA on 16 Apr 1865, the day after Abraham Lincoln died. (See Research Note) He is buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Cambridge, MA with his wife, Sophia.
Dr. Edmund Munroe Smith – Edmund Munroe Smith was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Horatio Southgate Smith and his wife, Susan Dwight Munroe. He received his A.B. from Amherst College in 1874 and his LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1877. In 1879, Smith returned to Amherst to earn an A.M. degree. He received the degree of J.U.D. from the University of Göttingen in 1880.
In 1890, Smith married Emma Gertrude Huidekoper, daughter of General Henry S. Huidekoper. They had one daughter, Gertrude Munroe Smith, born in 1891. Smith’s brother, Henry Maynard Smith (he changed his name to Henry Smith Munroe), was also a professor at Columbia, and served as Dean of the School of Mines from 1891 to 1915. His great-granddaughter is Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and candidate for Governor of California.
Per SAC he was called Ned as a child
Henry Munroe Rogers – Henry Munroe Rogers (1839-1937) was a Boston lawyer, best known as a patron of local theater. Born in Boston, he was one of six children of John Hicks Rogers and Lucy Catherine Smith. He attended Harvard College (A.B. 1862; L.L.B. 1867) and served as a paymaster in the United States Navy during the Civil War. He became a successful Boston lawyer and a charter member in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. After his marriage in 1878 to the English opera singer Clara Kathleen Barnett (daughter of the English composer John Barnett), the couple entertained many theatrical, literary and musical luminaries in their home.
Henry and Clara had no children, and as none of his siblings had married, he left no close relatives. However, he was known to many by the affectionate nickname “Uncle Harry.” In later years, Rogers was a regular speaker at patriotic events, where he often recounted the story of his private meeting with Abraham Lincoln in 1862. At the time of his death in 1937, Rogers was the oldest living graduate of Boston Latin School and of Harvard University.
Ruth Stetson – Was a stage actress in the Boston and very well could have been friends with Henry Munroe Rogers and wife, Opera Singer Clara Kathleen Bartlett who were patrons of the theatre and friends with many people of notoreity.
William Langdon Libbey – As New England Glass struggled to compete in the 1870s, barely managing to survive the depression of 1873, the Libbey family became involved with the company. William L. Libbey joined New England Glass as agent in 1870. He had been part owner of Mount Washington Glass and shared New England Glass’s commitment to quality. In fact, when the business began to operate at a loss and the directors voted in 1874 to close the company, Libbey convinced them to continue. Despite cutbacks, New England Glass continued to post losses, and in 1878 the directors elected to lease the properties to Libbey. Until 1880 the company continued to operate as New England Glass, then changed its name to W.L. Libbey and Son, Proprietors. The son was Edward Drummond Libbey, who had gone to work for his father at New England Glass in 1872 as a chore boy, apparently as a way for the father to convince the son to enroll at Harvard University, which young Libbey had refused to do. Eventually Edward enrolled at Maine’s Kent Hill Academy with the intent of becoming a Methodist minister. A throat infection, however, permanently impaired his voice and destroyed his ability as a public speaker. As a result, he returned to New England Glass in 1874, taking a position as a clerk and learning firsthand the financial difficulties that the company now faced. By 1880 he was made a partner, precipitating the change in the name of the business, and when his father died in 1883 Edward, at the age of 29, assumed control.
Louise C. Muzzey wife of Dr. Milton Powell was the granddaughter of Anna Munroe Muzzey. Anna Munroe was a daughter of Col. William Munroe and Anna Smith and older sister to Edmund Munroe.
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