The writing prompt for 52 ancestors this week is OOPS. 52 ancestors in 52 weeks is a writing challenge by Amy Johnson Crow
This is more like a tragic oops or perhaps a wrong time, wrong place oops. The story I am about to tell is about a very shirttail relative to me. It would be a first cousin 6 times removed. I was interested in her story because she was born in Boston but died in Italy. She married up and ran in very influential social circle.
When Eliza Greene Perkins Doane was born on November 21, 1789, in Boston, Massachusetts, her father, John, was 43, and her mother, Lucretia, was 41. She married James Perkins and they had four children together. She then married George Washington Doane and they had two children together. She died on November 10, 1860, in Firenze, Firenze, Italy, at the age of 70, and was buried there. - Ancestry
Eliza was born to in 1789 to John Callahan and Lucretia Greene. Her father was a ship captain. His ship was Lucretia named after his wife. Eliza married James Perkins who most likely was a merchant. The Perkins family was considered a upper class 19th Century Boston family known in social, literary and political circles. They had 4 children, 1 girl and 3 boys. Of this marriage, her son Charles was an eminent writer on sculpture and paintings. Eliza was remarried to the Reverend George Washington Doane who was a Espicolplian Bishop, the first Bishop of New Jersey, and they would have 2 boys. George Hobart Doane, who became a Roman Catholic Priest and William Croswell Doane, who became a Espicolplian Bishop. Here children from her first marriage to James Perkins remained with her parents.
Eliza travels to Italy in 1858/1859. In June 1859, the inhabitants of Perugia rebelled against the temporal authority of the pope and established a provisional government, but the insurrection was quashed bloodily by Pius IX's troops. Eliza was in Perugia with her oldest son, Edward, daughter, Sarah, granddaughter Eliza. They are attacked by local revolutionaries, and it causes a diplomatic incident. She dies November 10,1859 at the Villa Capponi, following the trauma of the sack of Perugia from which she never recovered.
The Villa Capponi was owned by her son, Charles. She receives a very elaborate temporary burial, encased in lead, as if intended to be shipped back to America, partly paid for by her sons of her earlier marriage, Edward Perkins, residing in Florence, and Charles C. Perkins.
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF MRS ELIZA DOANE WHO WAS BORN/ IN BOSTON USA DEPARTED THIS LIFE/ NOVEMBER 10, 1859, AT THE VILLA CAPPONI/ AGED 70/ BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART/ FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD/ . . . MATTHEW [5.8] / THIS TABLET IS PLACED BY HER LOVING CHILDREN
Above is the inscription on her grave in Italy. She is never shipped back. Oops
Research Questions
Why was Eliza in Italy?
Why was her body never shipped back?
I am going to assume money was why she was not shipped back. On find a grave she has two separate find a graves - here and here These find a grave records indicate differing years of death. It is indicated that son's from her first marriage paid for the burial. Her sons from her second marriage were both clergy. George Hobart Doane, Msg was a Roman Catholic Priest and her other son, Rev William Croswell Doane who was a Bishop in the Episcopal Church like his father.
INTERESTING FACT
John Callahan, Eliza's father, has a portrait in Massachusetts Historical Society Online Collection. Below is his biography.
Additional Resources
Cleveland Perkins Papers, New York Public Library
Villa Cappponi - current state of the Villa
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