Snuff and the family of Robert Hamill Sr. of Hopewell Township

Snuff was once a luxury item among upper classes which was also prescribed by doctors before its’ less desirable potential side effects were known. As a luxury item it was taxable in the first US Federal tax of 1794. Snuff mills, were less common than fulling and other mills. For most counties they fell into the category of “other”. Such was the case with Robert Hamel/Hamill’s snuff mill in Hopewell Township, an area from which Shippensburg arose.

“About two weeks ago, a ftorekeeper [storekeeper] from the weftern [western] country …

said that before he left Philadelphia, he intended to purchafe [purchase]

fume [some] of L---r’s beft [best] Scots Snuff,

as it would ferve [serve] to clear the heads of the weftern [western] people …”¹

A sniffed product consisting of ground tobacco, snuff was first used by the indigenous people of Brazil. In 1561 Jean Nicot, French Ambassador in Lisbon, Portugal, introduced it to the Royal Court of Catherine de Medici where it seemed to have successfully treated her headaches. The Dutch had given the stuff its’ name the year before (1560). John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, introduced the Spanish sweet variety to North America in 1611 in the belief that it would aid the survival of the people of the Jamestown Colony. By 1650 the use of snuff had spread across the globe. After the Great Plague of London in the 1660s snuff was heavily consumed for what were believed to be its’ medical benefits.

Robert Hamel/Hamill (1745-1813), who at an early period owned a sawmill, became a tavern keeper and tobacconist in Hopewell Township who briefly held a snuff mill there. Much local snuff likely came from abroad, or from DeMuth Tobacco Shop of Lancaster, or, later, from Weyman & Bros. in Pittsburgh. Other folks may have favored the “Philadelphia snuff” manufactured from 1776-1794 at the mill of Gavin Hamilton of Chester County. Some local snuffers may have, during a certain period, favored the Garrett Snuff established along the Brandywine Creek, New Castle, Delaware. Later, some snuff may have come from the New Jersey snuff mill of George W. Helme (born 1822, Kingston, PA).

Closer to home, more local purchases were available thanks to the Carlisle snuff mill of tobacconist David Allen who had moved to Carlisle with his wife in 1777.² To meet the competition, Robert Hamill endeavored to manufacture his own local form of snuff, as indicated in the 1780 tax list for Cumberland County. Hopewell was first identified as a township in 1735 while yet a part of Lancaster County but by now had been divided, identifying areas as within Shippensburg (Cumberland/Franklin) and Antrim Township (Franklin). Cumberland County was formed from Lancaster County in 1750.

A member of Middle Spring Presbyterian Church, Hamill signed an Oath of Allegiance on 22 October 1777 before John Creigh, Justice of the Peace in Carlisle. He served as Private “Hamel” in the Pennsylvania Militia from 1777-1779 under fellow Presbyterian Captain Alexander Peebles during the Revolutionary War. His wife, Elizabeth “Hammil” (D: 1812) subscribed to the building of the Old Stone Church building of the Middle Spring Presbyterian, which was completed in 1781. It replaced two log structures of 1738 and the 1760’s attended by the Rippey family with whom Hamill descendants were to have a relationship by marriage.³ The Peebles family also attended the church.

In fact, the Hamill and Peebles names have a history which stretches back to their ancestral Scotland where the two families intermarried, as seen in the marriage of a Catherine Peebles and one Matthew Hammill (D: before 1720) of Roughwood, Ayreshire, where the Hamill family held the Baron Courts. More recently, the combined names appear in the form of Missouri Peebles Hamill, (1870-1953 Halifax, NC), wife of Marion Jackson Morris and daughter of John Hamill (1838-1907 NC) and his wife Martha Susan Sledge.⁴

The Hammil family harks back to Walter de Hammule who held lands in the Lothians during the reign of William the Lion. A variant form of the name was familiar to Thomas Penn who is reported to have given to an acquaintance a copy of “du Hamel’s [book on] ‘Husbandry’ in 1770.⁵ Of Norman origins, the family migrated to Germany, England, and Ireland, where the name was O’h Admaill after migrating from Scotland. During the 12^th century, Ruarcan O’Hamill was chief poet to O’Hanlon.

The history of Franklin County refers to Robert’s Irish heritage. In a biography of eldest child. George Hamill (1773-1849), husband of Mary (Molly) Rippey⁶, the author states that George was a “son of Robert Hamill, who came from the North of Ireland … [George] was for many years a prominent business man and leading citizen of Shippensburg.” Appointed Second Lt., 19^th Infantry in 1799, he was later Captain Hamill to the 5^th Regiment, U.S. Infantry. He was directed in 1808 “by Gen. Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, to recruit a company of fifty men …”.⁷ Later, George was a subscriber to the 1814 charter for Carlisle Bank.⁸

George’s marriage associates him with the oldest family in the Shippensburg area, Hugh Rippey (D: 1750) and sons John and Samuel.⁹ Capt. George and Mary (Rippey) Hamill’s daughter Elizabeth (D:1853) married Alexander Stewart, allowing them to be the grandparents of George Hamill Stewart Sr., whose home on West King Street, Shippensburg once belonged to the Rippey family as a tavern during the revolutionary war period. The building became the Shippensburg Public Library.¹⁰ His son, George Hamill Stewart Jr. (1888-1956), was a Cumberland County representative in the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania. He was the great-great-grandson of snuff maker Robert Hamill and his wife Elizabeth of Hopewell.

Hamill’s snuff mill is not mentioned in the 1779 tax list, although it appears in the one for the following year. By 1781, Robert is only taxed on 1 house and 3 lots (down from 4 lots) valued at 400 pounds, 1 Negro, 2 cows, and 1 horse. The snuff mill is not recorded here, nor in 1788 when just 2 lots, 1 horse, and 1 cow are noted. By 1789 he is down to just 1 lot. Apparently, his snuff mill was quite short lived. In 1793 Hamil is listed as a tavern keeper and in 1807 as a tobacconist. He may have had stiff competition from Carlisle tobacconist and snuff miller David Allen (1734-1792) who is already noted here.

“Cephalic London Snuff, for difeafes [diseases] of the head – 50 cents per bottle.”¹¹

In 1816, just three years after his own death, Robert’s youngest son Captain William Hammill (1778-1846) and his first wife, Dorcas, became the parents of a boy named for William’s father. The boy was to become physician Robert Hamill (1816-1844) long before the adverse side effects of snuff and tobacco were known. William, husband of (1) Dorcas Galbraith (who bore three children)¹², later married (2) Rebecca Ashman¹³ who bore him at least six more children including another physician, Dr. Edward Bell Hamill (1827-1882). Capt. William seems to have eventually found himself in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. His own namesake seems to have been a shoe and boot maker in Gettysburg during the Civil War period.

The snuff maker’s son William had been but two years old and his older brother George seven years old when the Hamill snuff mill was itemized in the 1780 tax lists for Hopewell Township. Between them were siblings James (B:1774) and Robert Jr. (B:1775) who were youngsters of five and six years old, all of whom surely kept their mother, Elizabeth, busy during that time. The marriages of both George and William (to his 1^st wife) were in August and October 1812, the same year as the death of their mother. Her widowed husband, Robert Hamill, passed away the following year.

His snuff mill was part of an American tradition that began in Virginia in about 1730, fifty years before his own mill was taxed. The mills, producing either dry or moist snuff, processed dried leaves through larger to progressively smaller gears which were capable of grinding faster than the waterwheel was turning. Snuff went out of fashion in the 1850s. Along with it went the beautiful snuff boxes in which customers had kept the ground leaves infused with fragrant oils.

In the 21^st century snuff boxes may still be found available in the antique market. Common versions may sell for less than $1,000. More precious snuff boxes of gold encrusted porcelain can sell for over 1-2 million dollars. Some snuff boxes were acquired by museums such as the Winterthur Museum and thus inspired articles such as Bethany McGlyn’s which describes the seductive charms of these once fashionable boxes favored by the likes of Connecticut Senator Oliver Ellsworth, whose excessive snuffing habits Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay’s journal made note.

At one period in history the floor of the U.S. Senate made sure to have several large amply filled snuff boxes from which senators were able to refill their personal snuff boxes without having to leave the room. They seemed to enjoy the floral scents. Snuff could act as a stimulant and perhaps ease any headaches arising during senate proceedings.¹⁴ We find two Hamill Congressman who may have imbibed: Patrick Hamill (1817-1895) and James Hamill (1877-1941), relationships unknown.

Advertisements for snuff were common in Carlisle and other newspapers and sometimes included its recommendation for dental pain as well as for headaches. Snuff has also historically been used as a topical salve for inflamed skin. One article, reprinted in Carlisle from the “Philadelphia True American” offered a bit of joviality and verse on the topic, declaring that:

“A snuff maker observed the other day, very soberly, that the Snuff Tax Alexander was as great a man as was ever produced in any nation for inventive faculties; and far exceeded Mr. Redheiffer in his ‘perpetual motion’ …

We could not at first discover the meaning of this snuffy’s assertion but … that Mr. Snuff Tax Alexander

possessing too great a mind to comprehend small things for taxation, and therefore could only perceive

great national objects – such as snuff, nails, tacks … see[ing] us smile pleased this snuff maker who said –

Gentlemen, I’ll sing you a verse of a song I have been making on Dallas’ Tax Law [:]

I take snuff myself, and by Jabers it won’t do [sung to the tune of “Done over Taylor”].¹⁵

Twelve years after the tax listing for Hamill’s snuff mill in Hopewell Township, the Lorillard brothers of New York purchased (1792) a grist mill along the Bronx River, innovatively damming the river to increase its water flow. By about 1800 they were infusing their snuff with finely ground dried rose petals. The mill, with its two large grinding stones, later became associated with the New York Botanical Garden.