"AMERICA 250"

The Generals and the Bastard  

(Author's note: For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be continuing my search for family stories that celebrate America's 250th birthday. My hope is to find real stories about real Americans that are both relevant, considerate, and personal- and not shrouded in ego or too much of anyone's or my own vanity.)

As always, unapologetically, unedited.

I.

I’ve always been proud that I was a Sage. No, not like that kind of "a sage," but proud to be a part of the extended Sage family—which is comprised of the descendants of David Sage of Wales, who immigrated and settled in Middletown, Connecticut, in the mid-seventeenth century. You see, my maternal grandmother was "a Sage," so those particular Connecticut roots have always been near and dear to me. Heck, even the official name for this dang blog site is A Troubled Sage, so I think you can see where my allegiance falls.

Yes, this is the family I like to think I most "identify" with—though I admit that is all likely in my head. It is, after all, a special vanity and hubris that cherishes my Sage connections. It's the kind of pride that lets me trace my bloodlines to my Gateway Ancestor, Obadiah Bruen, and backward into archaic royalty through my ancestor Abigail Blinn Sage, while completely betraying my very remote connection to nineteenth-century robber-baron financier Russell Sage. Yeah, when you come from an overall "mutt-ish" background like me, you have to cling onto those rare silver strands that may shake out of Ye Olde Branches, indeed, however rare they may be.

Above: Genealogical record of the descendants of David Sage... p. 31 - my great grandfather, "Sam."

But I have to tell you, as much as I loved my grandmother and relish her Sage family connections, there are a couple of other things about the Sage clan that endear me to the people they were—and hopefully still are. So, in my personal effort to celebrate "America 250" in a way that doesn’t involve garish displays of gold leaf and overwrought, neo-classical roadblock arches between the Lincoln Memorial and the rest of us, I thought I’d go back and take another look at my Sage family connections. For me, these are real American stories and connections that, hopefully, underlie the people we truly are, or at least aspire to be.

I guess that brings me to the General. Well, two of them actually—two generals during the Revolutionary War. One was my grandmother’s kinsman, General Comfort Sage, and the other was none other than that near and dear traitor to all of our Revolutionary causes. You might recall him from school. And yes, his name was General Benedict Arnold.

You see, they kinda hung out together back in the day. Word has it they liked to talk business ventures, combining Arnold’s New Haven merchant fleets with Comfort Sage’s extensive maritime trade networks out of Middletown. It seems like a pretty normal and, (sorry, Benedict) a very "American" thing to do.

Not to digress too much, but as the story goes, when General Benedict Arnold was found out and discovered for the traitor he was in September 1780, the public crowds went absolutely wild. Effigies were burned, and anger boiled over into the streets. General Sage’s wife, the amiable Sarah Hamlin Sage, fearing for the innocent children of Benedict Arnold who were stranded in Connecticut, hid his three young sons in her home. She instructed that the windows all be shuttered and that the children be kept away from the riotous mobs so they should be protected from any possibility of violence, and spared from hearing the horrific news of their father’s treachery.

 

Yep, those were my kinsmen—protecting the kids despite it all. That makes me proud. American proud.

I guess a few years later, when General Sage died in 1799, his wife laid down beside him to rest. When they came in later to check on Mrs. Sage, they found that she had passed away, too. Local rumor has it she died of a broken heart.

What great folks to call family!

II.

There’s a lot here to unpack, and where to even begin in terms of speculation is beyond my ken. Personally, I think the whole mess of it is screaming for a DNA test of in-line direct descendants, as surely there must be some out there. But hey, it’s not for me to say.

I mean, who’d a thunk that my Sage kin would have anything to do with General Benedict Arnold?

So, color me surprised when I learned a few years back the name of Benedict Arnold’s illegitimate son:

"JOHN SAGE ARNOLD"

Say what???

         

Yes, the old, celebrated (?) American traitor managed to father a boy around 1786 while operating a gritty post-war shipping business in the loyalist haven of Saint John, New Brunswick. Now, this wasn't just some random kid who claimed he was "an Arnold." Nope, Old Benny explicitly acknowledged that the boy, first called simply "John Sage," was his son. I guess General Arnold’s second wife, the lovely and leggy Peggy Shippen, even knew about it and eventually helped settle the estate. In fact, General Arnold explicitly provided financial support for his bastard son (sorry, tough choice of words) in his Last Will & Testament, bequeathing young John a massive 1,200 acres of land in Upper Canada along with a steady annuity.

Above: "I give devise and bequeath to John Sage now in Canada living with my sons there being about fourteen years of age ) Twelve hundred acres of land being part of a Grant of Thirteen thousand four hundred acres of land made to me as one half pay Officer for myself and family by Order of the Duke of Portland by his letter directed to Peter Russell Esquire President 12th of the Council in Upper Canada dated the June 1798 which said 1200 acres of land I give to him to be located altogether in one place out of the before mentioned Grant as my Executrix may judge equal and fair I also do hereby give and bequeath to the said John Sage Twenty pounds per annum to be paid to my sons Richard and Henry for his use for board clothing and Education until he shall be of the age of Twenty one years to be paid out of the Estate I may die possessed of I also give and bequeath to the said John Sage Fifty pounds to be paid to him when he shall attain the age of Twenty one years"

The young man would grow up and have a full life, eventually moving to Ontario to claim his land near his half-brothers, where he became known as "John Sage Arnold."

 

Now, my question in all of that isn’t so much "Who was the baby mama?" but more so, "Why did they call him 'John Sage'?"

Given that the Sage family were friends with Old Benny from back in the day, and given that General and Mrs. Sage hid Benedict Arnold’s other children behind shuttered windows when news of Arnold’s treason broke out, is it just me, or does it seem a little weird that Benedict Arnold names his illegitimate son John Sage?

          

Above: The grave of John Sage Arnold at Lehigh Corners, Ontario, Canada

Did the boy take his mother’s name, as was the strict custom for out-of-wedlock births back then? If so, did Arnold have a mid-winter fling with a Sage woman handling family shipping business up in Nova Scotia? 

Is Benedict Arnold's bastard son a cousin of mine?

Hey, works for me.

There is some information about each of these things out there—that is, the Sages hiding the Arnold kids, and the birth of and bequests to young John Sage Arnold—but truly, much of this remains shrouded in time and remains a mystery. I just think these are cool America 250 stories—stories of individuals doing the right thing. Stories of people who make mistakes and maybe who don’t agree with each other, but still, people who have a moral compass and a code to live by.

That feels pretty darn American.

I like to think I’m a part of that. I guess I am.

After all, Grandma was a Sage.

Wink!

☮