He held the office of secretary from the time of its organization until 1866, when he was elected presi- dent, and remained in office till his death. Under his direction the company furnished bonds, bank- notes, revenue-stamps tor the governments and banks of Spain, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, South and Central America, as well as for the govern- ment of the United States. He took an active interest in astronomy, and aided in establishing the Dudley observatory in Albany. At the time of his death he was president of the Microscopical society of New York, and he had made numerous investigations in this branch of science.
GAY, Claude, French naturalist, b. in Dra-
guignan, 18 March, 1800 ; d. in Paris, 6 April, 1863.
In 1822 he went to Paris to assist at the course of
lectures in the museum, in order to study zoology
and prepare himself for voyages that he projected.
After a preliminary excursion to Greece and Asia
Minor, he went to Chili to study the flora of South
America, arriving at Valparaiso in March, 1828.
The results of this expedition were so important
that the Chilian government commissioned him, in
1829, to take astronomical observations and pre-
pare a scientific survey of the republic. But he was
greatly hampered in his work by want of proper
instruments, and in 1832 went to Paris, where,
during a stay of six months, several instruments of
his own invention were constructed for him. He
returned to Chili in 1833, and began a ten-years'
exploration of the republic, in which he visited
every province and the islands of Juan Fernandez
and the archipelago of Chiloe. He made also the
most detailed bibliographic investigations, taking
copies of every important document, and soon had
gathered an enormous collection of historical facts
and an herbarium of over 4,000 species. The gov-
ernment bestowed the highest honors upon him,
and in 1841 congress appropriated the means to
publish his work. He also explored Peru and the
course of the Ucayali river, and visited Euenos
Ayres and Rio Janeiro, and in 1843 returned to
France, where he prepared for publication his great
work " Historia Fisica y PoUtica de Chile " (Paris
and Santiago, 1843-'51, 24 vols., with an atlas in 2
vols.). In May, 1856, Gay was elected a member of
the Academy of sciences in the botanical section.
He made a journey through Russia and Tartary in
1856-'8, and toward the end of the latter year was
sent by the academy to study the mining system of
the United States, returning in 1860. He published,
besides his great work mentioned above, •' Conside-
raciones sobre las Minas de Mercurio de Andacolla
e Illapel con su posicion Geologica" (Valparaiso,
1837 ; Paris, 1851) ; " Noticias sobre las islas de
Juan Fernandez " (Valparaiso, 1840) ; " Origine de
la Pomme de terre " (Paris, 1851 ; a translation of
an article in " La Araueana " of Santiago in 1834) ;
" Triple variation de I'aiguille aimantee dans les
parties Quest de I'Amerique " (1854) ; " Carte ge-
neral e du Chili" (1855); "Considerations sur les
Mines du Perou, comparees aux mines du Chili "
(1855) ; " Notes sur le Brésil, Buenos Ayres, et Rio
de Janeiro " (1856) ; and "Rapport a I'academie
des sciences sur les mines des Etats-Unis" (1861).
GAY, Ebenezer, clergyman, b. in Dedham,
Mass., 26 Aug., 1696 ; d. in Hingham, Mass., in
1787. He was graduated at Harvard in 1714,
taught school at Hadley and Ipswich, at the same
time studying theology, and in 1718 became pastor
of the church at Hingham, Mass., where he re-
mained till his death, preaching in the same pulpit
within three months of seventy years. He was a
man of great learning, and celebrated for his wit.
Bis theology was liberal, and he is regarded by
some as the father of American Unitarianism. Ex-
President John Adams said, on the first distinctive
announcement of Unitarian principles in this coun-
try, that he had heard the doctrine from Dr. Gay
long before. Savage speaks of him as " the hon-
ored patriarch of our New England pulpit in that
age." He was a Tory during the Revolution, and
suffered some persecution at the hands of his own
parishioners. He married Jerusha Bradford, a
granddaughter of Gov. Bradford, of Plymouth
colony, and by her had a large family. Dr. Gay
published many sermons, among them one delivered
on his eighty-fifth birthday, from the text " Lo, 1
am this day fourscore and five years old," which
became widely known under the title of " The Old
Man's Calendar," and went through several editions
both here and in England, being also translated
into some of the continental languages of Europe.
— His son, Jotliam, b. in Hingham, Mass., in 1733 ;
d. there in 1802. was a colonel in the Continental
army, served through the old French war, and was
part of the time governor of Fort Edward in Nova
Scotia. At the beginning of the Revolution he left
the army, being a Tory, and was a refugee in Nova
Scotia during the war. He resided for the rest of
his life in Hingham.— Ebenezer's grandson, Sam-
uel, b. in Boston in 1755 ; d. in Fort Cumberland,
New Brunswick, 21 Jan., 1847, was graduated at
Harvard in 1775, and emigrated to Nova Scotia in
1776 with his father, Martin, who was formally
banished from Massachusetts as a Tory in 1778.
The son afterward settled in New Brunswick, was
a member of the first house of assembly of that
province, and chief justice of the court of common
pleas. — Ebenezer's great-grandson. Martin, physi-
cian, son of Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham, b. in Boston,
Mass., 16 Feb., 1803; d. there, 12 Jan., 1850, was
graduated at Harvard in 1823. He had a high rep-
utation as an analytical chemist, and his frequent
testimony as a witness in courts of justice, in cases
of death "by poisoning, marks an era in the history of
medical jurisprudtMice in this country. — Martin's
brother, Sydney Howard, author, b. in Hingham,
Mass., in 1814; d. in New Brighton, Staten Island,
25 June, 1888, entered Harvard, but was obliged
to give up study on account of his health. The
degree of A. B. was
afterward conferred
upon him. After
some years, spent part-
ly in travel, partly in
a counting-house in
Boston, he began the
study of law in his
father's office in Hing-
ham. But he soon
abandoned it from
"conscientious scruples
concerning the oath to
support the constitu-
tion of the United
States; for he came
to the conclusion that,
if one believed slavery
to be absolutely and
morally wrong, he had
 | An image should appear at this position in the text. A high-res raw scan of the page is available. To use it as-is, as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/652}}". If it needs to be edited first (e.g. cropped or rotated), you can do so by clicking on the image and following the guidance provided. [Show image] .djvu-652.png) | |
no right to swear allegiance to a constitution that recognized it as just and legal, and required the return of fugitives from bondage. Of the "Garrisonian abolitionists," with whom he thereafter cast his lot, he says: "This handful of people, to the outside world a set of pestilent fanatics, were among themselves the most charming circle of cultivated men and women that it has ever been my lot to know." In 1842 he became a lecturing
