Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/308

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
280
VERMONT
VEROT

1850-'7, and in the latter year became professor of theology in East Windsor theological institute, which chair he retained till his death. He pub- lished a few sermons and addresses, and left in manuscript his courses of theological lectures.


VERMONT, Eloi Lemercier Beausoleil (vair-mong), Marquis de, West Indian soldier, b. in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, in 1762; d. in Paris, France, 21 Sept., 1832. He became ensign in the Santo Domingo regiment in 1778, and served in the war of 1778-'83, being at the capture of Tobago and in the division of the Duke de Saint Simon at Yorktown in 1781. He was promoted colonel, commanded the French forces in Guadeloupe from 1788 till 1793, and repressed with the utmost sever- ity the revolutionary troubles in the island. Being besieged in Pointe a Pitre by the insurgents, he sustained their attacks for several months, but when he fell short of ammunition the city was taken. Vermont and his principal officers were to be shot on the next day, when a British squadron appeared off the coast and the admiral demanded their surrender. After much discussion this was agreed to by the chief of the rebels, Gen. Pelagaud ; but, as the feeling of the negroes ran extremely high against Vermont, extraordinary precautions were taken to prevent his murden lie was dis- guised and placed on board a boat entirely covered with black cloth, which was towed through the French fleet. Armed boats lined the way, and the sentries repeated the cry, " By order of the republic, let the covered boat pass." This dramatic episode has been selected as a subject by both English and French painters and poets. Vermont was trans- ported to England, where he rejoined the royal family. He returned to Guadeloupe in 1812, was promoted major-general and commander-in-chief of the island in 1815, lieutenant-general in 1826, and appointed governor of Guadeloupe in 1827, but declined. He died unmarried, and his enor- mous fortune was divided among his numerous heirs, thus scattering one of the largest estates in South and Central America.


VERNON, Edward, British naval officer, b. in Westminster, England, 12 Nov., 1684; d. at his seat of Nacton, Suffolk, 29 Oct., 1757. His father, James Vernon, had been secretary of state under William and Mary from 1697 till 1700. Edward was educated at Westminster school and at Oxford, and obtained a commission in the navy in 1702. He was engaged in the expedition under Admiral Hopson which destroyed the French and Spanish fleets off Vigo, 12 Oct., 1702; in the capture of Gibral- tar, 23 July, 1704; and in the sea-fight off Malaga on 13 Aug. of the same year. He became a rear-admiral in 1708, and was in ac- tive service till 1727, when he was elected to parliament for Penryn. In the suc- ceeding parliament, lasting from 1734 till 1741, he repre- sented Portsmouth.

He distinguished

himself in the ranks of the opposition, and. declar- ing in parliament, in 1739, that Puerto Bello, on the Spanish main, could be taken with six ships, the ministry took him at his word and gave him the command of six men-of-war, with the rank of vice-admiral of the blue. He appeared before Puerto Bello with his small fleet, 22 Nov., 1739, which he captured after an assault of one day, with a loss of only seven men. This success secured him unbounded popularity. He next took and destroyed Fort Chagres, on the Isthmus of Darien, and in January, 1741, sailed from Jamaica with twenty-nine ships of the line and eighty smaller vessels, having on board 15,000 sailors and 12,000 soldiers, four battalions of which were from the British colonies north of Carolina. After cruising in search of the French and Spanish fleets, Vernon determined to attack Cartagena, the most strongly fortified port in South America, and, appearing before it on 4 March, was repelled with great loss, which was augmented by a pestilence. He attrib- uted the failure of the expedition to the fact of his not being in sole command, which opinion the public evidently shared, as the disaster did not seem to diminish his popularity in England. He planned an expedition against Panama in 1742, was made an admiral in 1745, and was charged with guarding the coasts of Kent and Sussex against an expected attack by Prince Charles Ed- ward Stuart. His name was stricken from the list of admirals, 11 April, 1746, in consequence of a quarrel with the admiralty. In 1741 he was elected to parliament from Penryn, Rochester, and Ips- wich, but chose to stand for the last-named place, for which he was again returned in 1747 and 1754. Tobias George Smollett served in the Cartagena expedition as a surgeon's mate, and gave a graphic description of it in M Roderick Random " and in his " History of England." Lawrence Washington, elder brother of Gen. Washington, who also par- ticipated in the expedition, regarded Admiral Ver- non with great friendship, and named his estate in Virginia, Mount Vernon in his honor. The word " grog " is said to have been first applied by the sailors of his fleet to the diluted rum with which they were served, in allusion to his grogram trou- sers. During the closing years of his life he lived in retirement. He published " New History of Ja- maica, from the Earliest Account to the Taking of Porto Bello " (London, 1740) ; " Original Papers relating to the Expedition to Panama" (1744); and pamphlets on naval subjects (1746). See " The Life of Admiral Vernon by an Impartial Hand" (London, 1758), and " Memorial of Admiral Ver- non, from Contemporary Authorities," by William F. Vernon (1861).


VERNON, Jane Marchant Fisher, actress, b. in Brighton, England, in 1796; d. in New York* city, 4 June, 1869. Her maiden name was Fisher. She made her debut at Drury Lane theatre, Lon- don, in 1817, in " Lilliput," and, coming to the United States in 1827, made her first appearance on 11 Sept. at the Old Bowery theatre, New York, as Cicely Homespun in " The Heir at Law." She afterward became attached to the Old Chat- ham theatre, and in 1830 to the Park, where she remained till 1847, and gained great popularity. She was long connected with Wallack's company, making her last appearance as Mrs. Sutcliffe in "School," 5 April, 1869. She was a favorite, an excellent personator of old women, and possessed a cultivated mind. On 6 Oct., 1827, she married George Vernon, who died, 13 June, 1830.


VEROT, Augustine, R. C. bishop, b. in Le Puys, France, in May, 1804; d. in St. Augustine, Fla., 10 June, 1876. He received his preparatory education at a classical school in Le Puys and in 1820 entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris.