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140 The Natiotial Music of America.
wrote it thus himself, and his friend, Sir William Johnson, always wrote it the same. A New York paper (the New York Gazetteer) of Aug. 26, 1773, contains the following:
" Died, at Schenectady, last Monday, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a gentleman of a very genteel family, and of infinite jest and humour."
A granddaughter of Gen. Robert Van
Rensselaer writes thus regarding the story
of "Yankee Doodle," to Albert Matthews,
Esq., of Boston :
" The story of ' Yankee Doodle' is an authentic tradition in my family. My grandfather, Brig.-Gen. Robert Van Rensselaer, born in the Greenbush Manor House, was a boy of seventeen at the time when Doctor Shackbergh, the writer of the verses, and General Abercrombie were guests of his father, Col. Johannes Van Rensselaer, in June, 1758. The room which Doctor Shackbergh occupied was always pointed out to the children of the family, who felt a certain kind of proprietorship in the famous ' Yankee Doodle.' The school children in Albany know the old house and its story; teachers have long been in the habit of making it a place of pilgrimage for their classes. There is no room for doubt in my |
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