I believe they were
inherited from some ancestor who was a smuggler, or perhaps even an old
pirate. In his investigation of sin he was expiating the sins of his
progenitors." There is reason for believing that Alcott was not far
wrong in this conjecture.
Julian Hawthorne, in the biography of his father, says of their
ancestors: "His forefathers, whatever their less obvious qualities may
have been, were at all events enterprising, active, practical men, stern
and courageous, accustomed to deal with and control lawless and rugged
characters; they were sea-captains, farmers, soldiers, magistrates; and,
in whatever capacity, they were used to see their iron will prevail, and
to be answerable to no man."
A man who does not subordinate his will to the common law and the common
good must eventually become a lawless man; unless restrained by such
natural refinement and rare sense of propriety as we meet with in
Hawthorne himself. It is not necessary to suppose that any of them were
pirates, which was probably a mere flourish of Alcott's rhetoric.
* * * * *
There is another legend that Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate and Nathaniel
Hawthorne were all distantly related through the Batchelder family.
There are said to be red and black Batchelders, like the Douglas family
in Scotland; and the black Batchelders have a rare gift of intellect
which only comes to the surface when united with some other stock.
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