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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��vincial papers. In 1756 he was made one of his majesty's councillors under Benning Wentworth. Of his two sons, Nathaniel, the youngest, died early, of a disappointment in love, according to the gossippy author of " Rambles about Portsmouth." Jon- athan lived to inherit to the prestige of his great name and to win a rank and fame that exceeded even his father's. He married for his first wife Miss Mary Nelson, who died ten years afterwards, in 1758, leaving a daughter, Mary, who married in due time Col. Samuel Sherburne, and died childless one year after.
His second marriage was a fortu- nate thing to Jonathan Warner. It lifted him at once into the front rank of colonial nabobs. His wife's wealth with his own made him second to only a few in the province in point ot property. Lady Warner's connection with the Wentworths, being a neice to Governor Benning, and a cousin to the second Governor John, was still a greater feather in his cap. Warner was undoubtedly a man not of inferior abilities, his own birth was high, but he could never have risen to the prominence that he did but for his brilliant marital alliance. It did as much for him as Washington's mar- riage to "Widow Custis," or Benjamin Thompson's marriage to the VVidow Rolfe. In a list of the principal tax- payers of Portsmouth for the year 1770, there are only two others who are assessed for larger sums than Warner. His tax for town and prov- ince expenses is ^27, a large sum in those days.
Hon. Jonathan Warner was one of the large slaveholders of the province. He owned at least eight or ten. Among them was one named Peter, of whom the following story is told by Mr. Brewster in his "Rambles :" One day, feeling the need of a better cov- ering for his head, Peter asked his master for a new hat. "Well," said Mr Warner, " I will get one if you will make a rhyme." Verse-making, though a passion with some negroes,
��was not one of Peter's accomplish- ments, but he was not discouraged. In his dilemma he sought the assist- ance of Wyseman Claggett, the attor- ney-general. He found that gentle- man in kis office, and at once stated his errand. "What is your name?" asked the counsellor.
"Peter Warner, massa," answered the darkey.
" Peter Warner — threw his hat in the chimney corner. There is your rhyme," said Claggett, laughing. "Now go get your new hat."
The delighted negro did not allow the grass to grow under his feet. He burst into the Warner parlor, his black face radiant with success and the prospect of a new hat. " Massa Warner, Massa Warner, I've got the rhyme," he cried.
" Well, let me hear it," said his master.
Peter scratched his head and rolled his eyes triumphantly : " Peter War- ner — took off his hat and threw it — in the fire-place."
Mr. Warner was greatly amused, but he gave Peter his hat, remarking that he really did better than he had expected.
In 1767, upon the accession of John Wentworth as Crovernor of New Hampshire, Jonathan Warner was ap- pointed one of the royal councillors of the province — a position to which he was every way entitled — still it was a great honor. Most of the mem- bers of the council were much older men than Mr. Warner. There was Theodore Atkinson, the Appias Clau- dius of the colony, reputed to be one of its wealthiest citizens, and who had held a larger number of offices of trust than any other man in New Hampshire, who was now upwards of seventy years of age. There was Col. Peter Oilman, of Exeter, one of the proudest of the blue bloods, also a septagenarian, and there was his own father who was seventy that very year. George Jaffrey, whose step-mother was Mrs. Warner's mother, the former Lady Macpheadris, was ten years his
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