The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

Gen.] GENEALOGY. 87
Their children were
:
704-1. Apollos Earle, b. Feb. 22, 17S6; d. June 9, 1794.
705-2. Lucius Earle, b. Feb. 18, 1788; d. June 17, 1794.
706-3. Arethusa Earle, b. March 1, 1790; d. Feb. 9, 1792.
707-4. Lewis Earle, b. April 30, 1793; left Hardwick, unm.,
about 1S41, and never since heard from.
708-5. Arethusa Earle, b. July 7, 1799; m. Bradford Spooner.
709-6. Luke Earle, b. Oct. 11, 1801 ; m. 1st, Hannah B. Lane;
2d, Abigail Hunt.
710-7. John F. Earle, b. Aug. 8, 1804; m. Chloe Keith (b. June
13, 1807; d. April 1, 1886, in Springfield, Mass.) ; no
issue.
P
[300-1] . Ralph
6 Earle (Ralphs William,* Ralphs William*
Rafy/1 1
), son of Ralph and Phebe (Whittemore) Earle,
b. May 11, 1751, in Leicester, Mass. ; m. about 1773,
Sarah Gates; d. Aug. 16, 1801, in Bolton, Conn., the
death being recorded in the church records of that town.
The following notice of him is taken from Washburn's History of
Leicester
:
" Ralph Earle deserves to be remembered as a man of fine genius
as a painter. He was the son of Ralph, and a great-grandson*
. of the first Ralph Earle who settled in Leicester, the ancestor of
most of the families which have borne that name in the town.
In Dunlap's work upon the ' History of the Arts of Design in the
United States,' is a notice of Mr. Earle as an artist, in which he is
spoken of as ha zing painted portraits in Connecticut in ; 1775 and
among his works were 'two full-lengths' of Dr. D wight, painted
in 1777. * * * Mr. Earle executed, from sketches taken upon the
spot, four historical paintings, believed to be the first historical
paintings' ever executed by an American artist ; one, the battle of
Lexington ; one, a view of Concord, with the royal troops destroying
the stores ; one, the battle of the North Bridge, in Concord ; and
one, the south part of Lexington, where the first detachment was
joined
lished
by Lord Percy. These paintings were engraved, and pub-
by Amos Doolittle, of New Haven, Conn. It is certainly no
slight distinction to have been the first American historical painter.
Soon after the peace, we find him in England, pursuing his art
under the instruction of his countryman, Sir Benjamin West; and
such was his success that he was elected a member of the Royal
Academy in London. He returned to this country in 1786, and
continued to pursue the business of a painter in different parts of
* Washburn says " grandson," which is not correct.