Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

1797] NEW TORK SOCIETY. 283
" I send copies of two printed invitations, found by me in one of the
many drawers of a once elegant writing-desk, imported from France by my
great-grandfather, in the last century :
"'Commemoration Ball,
The honor of
Company is requested on Wednesday evening, the 22d
of February, to celebrate the Birth of GEORGE WASHINGTON,
President of the United States.
Managers :
James Farquhar, William Seton,
James Scott, Aquila Giles.
New York, 1797.'
"It is a stiff piece of white pasteboard card, five inches long by three
wide. All the lettering and scroll border are conspicuously in red. The
other is of same size and material, but the lettering and elaborate border are
in plain black. It reads as follows :
" 'CITY ASSEMBLY.
ADMIT FOR THE NIGHT.
Managers :
James Farquhar, W. M. Seton,
Jacob Morton, J. R. Livingston,
Aquila Giles, Will. Armstrong.
.1797.
New York.'
" It is remarkable that five of these six names, most prominent in New
York society one hundred years ago, are of Scotch origin. The first invita-
tion was of a mixed or politico-social character, and the red scroll border is
1 broken ' at rare intervals — as if anything heraldic were a delicate subject
by tiny stars — in compliment to the chief of the nation, and by fleurs-de-
lys in compliment, perhaps, to the France of the Bourbons which had passed
away, but which Federalist gentlemen would still recognize, were it only in
protest of the insolent Jacobin Citizen Genet and his faction in our country :
for New York was, at this period, the refuge of many P'rench emigres — and
these exiles were generally nobles. The second invitation was of a purely
social character, and I discover in it one of the first faint efforts to introduce
again to society the family arms of colonial days, and an attempt moreover
to blend, in doing so, the two social elements — Patriots and Loyalists —
which had been recently very much estranged from one another.
" Of these six managers the two recognized social leaders were Living-
ston and Seton, both descended from Scotch titled families ; but one the
social representative of the victorious party, the other of the defeated adhe-
rents of the British government. Hence we find large gilly-flowers, the