USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Historical catalogue of the Old South church (Third church) Boston > Part 15
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
PETER BURR, probably son of John Burr, of Fairfield, Conn .; Harv. Coll. 1690; taught school for two or three years after graduation. Became Judge of the Supreme Court of Conn., and died, 1724 or 5.
THOMAS PRINCE, youngest son of John Prince, who came from England, and was settled at Hingham. He was a kinsman of the Rev. Thomas Prince (1718). By his wife, Ruth (Turner), he had Job, baptized 21 April, 1695, who was an active member of the West Church, as was his son Job after him.
BENJAMIN PEMBERTON, son of James (1669), and an older brother of the third minister of this church. Free- man, 1690; a brewer. Married Elizabeth Dixie (1690).
March 9, 1708-9; " M' B. Pemberton dyes." March 12 ; "AF B. Pemberton buried : Bearers. Capt. Fitch, M' Harris ; M: Cutler, M' Noyes ; M' Ed" Winslow, M' Wentworth." --- Sewall.
He left a son, Benjamin, who joined the Third Church 1720.
JOSIAH FRANKLIN, ABIAN FRANKLIN.
"Josiah Franklin was a native of the village of Ecton, in Northamptonshire, in England, and, in consequence of the persecutions to which the nonconformists were exposed, emi- grated to this country in 16S5. Abiah, whose maiden name was Folger, was from Nantucket, and became the second wife of Josiah, after his settlement in Boston. Four sons and four daughters were born of this marriage, Benjamin being the youngest son. The father died in 1744, at the age of S9 ; the mother in 1752, at the age of $5."-Everett.
Josiah Franklin was first a member under the baptismal covenant, 1685, and so was Abiah Folger, who received adult baptism 19 Aug. 1688. After their marriage, they lived for many years on a small estate near the South
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THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
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Meeting House, belonging to Nathaniel Reynolds, on which Simeon Stoddard (1691) held a mortgage. Here . their distinguished son was born, and from hence he was taken across the street, 6 Jan. 1706, to be baptized by Mr. Willard or Mr. Pemberton.
Sept. 9. 170S ; " I speak to M' Pemberton that a Day of Prayer may be kept respecting his Health. It was mov'd last night at M' Josiah Franklin's at our Meeting, where I read the Eleventh Sermon on the Barren Fig-Tree. Tis the first time of Meeting at his House since he join'd [the circle that sustained these neighborhood meetings ]." -- Sewall.
In 1712, the family moved to a house at the corner of Union and Hanover Streets, bought of Peter Sergeant (1689). .
April 29, 1713 ; "I go to the Meeting at M' Franklin's. Pray, read M' Doolittle's Morning Lecture about Leading of the Spirit." Aug. 28, 1717; " Read an Excellent Sermon at M' Franklin's about Comunion with God; Sung the 4th part of the 73ª Psalm. Pray'd."-Sewall.
When Judge Sewall's voice began to fail him, in 1718, he wanted Mr. Franklin to take the præcentorship. When Mr. Green and M Henchman were chosen deacons, in 1719, several votes v. cast for Mr. Franklin.
Jan 17, 1744-5 ; "Last 1. · died Mr Josiah Franklin, tal- low chandler and soapmaker : By the force of a steady Tem- perance, he had male a Constitution, none of the strongest, last with comfort to the age of Eighty-seven years; and by an entire Dependence on his Redeemer, and a constant course of the strictest Piety and virtue, he was enabled to die, as he lived, with cheerfulness, leaving a numerous posterity the honour of being descended from a person, who thro' a long life supported the character of an honest man."-News Letter.
On the monument erected over the remains of Josiah and Abiah Franklin, by their youngest son, are these words : "He was a pious and prudent man ; she a discreet and virtuous woman."
OLIVER NOYES, son of John (1675) and Sarah (1670) (Oliver) Noyes. HIarv. Coll. 1695. Among his class-
305
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
mates were Simon Willard (1696), Ezekiel Lewis (1705) and Abijah Savage (1708). A physician ; very prominent in town affairs, and for many years a representative. He married, first, Ann, daughter of the Hon. Andrew Belcher (1697), whose name does not appear in the list of church members; and, secondly, Katharine (1713), widow of the second David Jeffries (1711).
A proposition was made in 1710, by Oliver Noyes, Dan- iel Oliver, James Barnes, John George, John Gerrish and Anthony Stoddard, to build a wharf where Long Wharf now is. At a town meeting in 1716, a committee was ap- pointed to consider the expediency of erecting a market house, consisting of Addington Davenport, Thomas Fitch, Elisha Cooke, Oliver Noyes and Samuel Keeling .-- Drake.
March 14. 1720-1 : " D' Oliver Noyes is seized with an Apoplexy, at to at night." March 16; " Mr Foxcroft preaches [Thursday Lecture], prays for D' Noyes, who died at 4. p.m." March 20; "DE Noves is buried in his New Tomb in the South-Burying place. Bearers. Davenport, Clark ; Winthrop, Cooke ; Palmer, W" Clark of the North [Church]. Great Funeral. Neither Gow nor L' Gov there. I suppose not invited."-Sewall.
Hutchinson writes of him, that he was of a very humane, obliging disposition, and very strongly attached to the popular party .- Eds. Sewall. His daughter, Anna, mar- ried the Rev. Mather Byles, first minister of Hollis St. Church.
MARY Gibbs, daughter of Jonathan Shrimpton, by his wife Mary (Oliver), and wife of Robert Gibbs (1691). On the zoth March, 1722, she was married to Samuel Sewall, as his third wife, by the Rev. William Cooper. Her mother's (1670) second husband was Deacon Nathaniel Williams (1675).
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306
THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
SARAH TUDMAN-BATT. Sarah Tedman, or Tudman, was married by the Rev. Mr. Willard, 3 Aug. 1699, 10 Timothy, son of Timothy (1674) and Abigail Batt.
1694.
EDWARD WILLIS, freeman, 1673 ; capt. ; bore a part in . the ceremonies at the funeral of Governor Leverett, March, 1679; in April, 1690, was chosen a commissioner for the town of Boston, with Theophilus Frary (1669), John Joyliffe (1673), Peter Sergeant (1689) and others. Judge Sewall was present at his death, 11 Dec. 1698.
"Capt. Edw. Wyllys buried in the new burying place, at the uper end. Bearers, Maj" Gent Winthrop, Sewall, Col. Phillips, L' Col. Lynde, M' Oakes, M' Eyre. Cold blustering day."
He left a wife, Ruth (1670), daughter of the Rev. Zechariah Symmes, and a daughter Elizabeth, wife of Richard Willey, who had a daughter Ruth.
ELIZABETH SERGEANT, daughter of Henry Shrimpton, and second wife of the Hon. Peter Sergeant (1689).
Nov. 10, 1700 ; "Lord's-day. Madam Elizabeth Sergeant died in the Afternoon, half an hour past three. Was taken last Thorsday Senight at night." . Nov. 14; " Madam Eliza. Sergeant is entombed, Bearers, Cooke, Hutchinson Elisha, Sewall, Addington, Foster, Walley. She was born April II, 1660. Maj' Gen1 Winthrop was at the Funeral. He came last night from New London."-Sewall.
SARAH BUMSTEAD, daughter of Jeremiah Bumstead (1684) by his first wife, Anne.
JOHN COLE, MARY COLE.
Joined by letter of dismission from the church in Stonington, Conn. John Cole married Mary, "daughter
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307
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
of the brave John Gallop, killed in the decisive battle of Philip's war."-Savage.
JOHN BORLAND, had been a merchant in England, and was a prominent merchant here. He married Sarah, daughter of Andrew Neal. Their only son, Francis, married Jane Lindall (1739). He died, 30 March, 1727, aged 67. Mr. Borland, with Samuel Vetch and others, was charged with having supplied stores and ammunition to the French in Canada; Governor Dudley was also suspected of having been engaged in the same treasonable traffic; and the controversy growing out of these charges and suspicions was a very bitter one, involving on the one side or the other nearly all the prominent men in the Province.
JOHN MAXWELL, freeman, 1669.
There was a messenger of the Council named Maxwell, often mentioned in Sewall's Diary.
1695.
JAMES SMITH, mentioned by Sewall as one of the bearers at the funeral of Roger Lawson, 12 April, 1709.
MARY CUTLER, joined by letter of dismission from the church in Hingham.
CHRISTOPHER KILBY, brother of John (1691) ; by wife Sarah, had son Christopher, and daughter Miriam who married Benjamin Clark (1724). Benjamin and Miriam Clark had daughter Miriam (1741) ; she married Jonathan Mason (1742), deacon ; and their daughter, Miriam (1774), married the second William Phillips (1772), deacon.
MARY PITTOMS, wife of John Pittoms. .
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THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
SARAH HARRIS, probably daughter of Richard Crispe and his wife, Sarah (1672), afterward wife and widow of Deacon Nathaniel Williams (1675). Sarah Crispe married, successively, William Harris, John Leverett, Dr. John Clark and the Rev. Benjamin Colman.
LYDIA GEORGE, joined by letter from the church in Bristol. She was a daughter of the Rev. Samuel Lee, who was born in London in 1623, bred at Oxford, and a proctor there in 1651. He was settled at Bristol, R. I. ; . embarked for home in 1691, and was taken by a French privateer, and carried to St. Malo, where he died soon after .- Eds. Scwall. Lydia Lee married, first, John George (1697), a worthy -merchant of Boston, who died in 1714; she married, secondly, 5 July, 1715, the Rev. Cotton Mather as his third wife, and, surviving him, died 22 Jan. 1733-4. Her daughter, Katharine George, widow of Nathan Howell, married Samuel Sewall, a nephew of Judge Sewall, I Jan. 1716-7.
1696.
SIMON WILLARD, son of the Rev. Samuel Willard, by his first wife (Abigail) ; born in Boston, after the Indian destruction of Groton, 1676; Harv. Coll. 1695. His sec- ond wife was Elizabeth (Alden) (1709), widow of John Walley, Jr., who died abroad. His will was proved by his widow, Elizabeth, Jan. 1713.
MARY BRADING -- LEWIS, probably Mary Breadon, first wife of Ezekiel Lewis (1705).
Feb. 20. 1703-4; "Mrs. Lewis dies at Boston." Feb. 22 ; "A great funeral for Mrs. Lewis."-Sewall.
She had been married less than two years.
309
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
MARY BROMFIELD, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Dan- forth, of Roxbury, and second wife of Edward Bromfield (1698). Her daughter, Frances (1711), married the Rev. John Webb. Her son, Edward (1729), married Abigail Coney.
ABIAH FITCH, posthumous daughter of the Rev. Samuel Danforth, and wife of Col. Thomas Fitch (1691). Their daughter, Martha, was married, 30 July, 1725, to James Allen, by her cousin, the Rev. John Webb. Their daugh- ter, Mary (1722), married Andrew Oliver (1752).
ELIZABETH JEFFRIES, daughter of John and Elizabeth Usher, and wife of the first David Jeffries, who was born in Wiltshire, 1658, and came to Boston, 1677. Their son, David, joined the church 1711, and their grandson, David, 1740, and was afterward deacon.
June 12, 1698 ; " Mrs. Elizabeth Jeffries dieth, and the shop of her Father, M' John Usher, is shut up upon it. It is affect- ing that an only child should be snatched away so soon. Has left 8 children."-Sewall.
MARY BRATTLE, joined by letter of dismission from the church in Marblehead; daughter of John Legg of that town, and wife of Edward Brattle. Her husband's name does not appear on the list of church members ; but as we find there the names of his father (1669), his brother, William (1684), and his three sisters (1683 and 1689), as well as of his wife, and as we know the list to be imper- fect, it is quite probable that he also was a member.
JOHN CLOUGH,. MARY CLOUGH.
He owned the land where the Hotel Boylston now stands ; and what is now Tremont Street, between
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THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Boylston and Hollis Streets, is called Clough Street in Price's map of 1743.
There was a John Clough among the founders of the New South Church in 1717, and also of the Hollis Street Church in 1730.
ALICE MASON --- SHEPARD, daughter of Arthur (1704) and Joanna (1674) Mason, and wife of Samuel Shepard.
1697.
MEHETABEL COOPER-SERGEANT-STODDARD. Mehe- tabel Minot married, successively, Thomas Cooper, Peter Sergeant (1689) and Simeon Stoddard (1691). She was a niece of Governor Stoughton, and inherited from him the Green Dragon Tavern property in Union St., famous in our local annals.
JOHN GEORGE, "a worthy merchant" of Boston, and one of the founders of Brattle St. Church. He married Lydia (1695) Lee, who was afterward the wife of Dr. Cotton Mather.
Nov. 24, 1714; " Very cold day. M' George laid in my Tomb till Madam George have an oportunity to build one. Bearers, Tho. Hutchinson esgr. Tho. Palmer; Tho. Fitch, Dan1 Oliver ; Jnº Colman, Grove Hirst. Was a Well-accom- plish'd merchant, and apears to have been a good Christian, desirable, usefull man. All the ministers had scarvs." ___ Sewall.
RUTH ROYCE, daughter of William Davis (1669) by his second wife, Huldah (Symmes), and wife of John Royce (1711).
JABESH, or JABEZ SALTER, son of William Salter (1669) ; sea-captain.
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
ELIZABETH JACKSON, may have been daughter of John Jackson, house-wright.
JANE TAPPAN, daughter of Jacob and Hannah (Sewall) Tappan, and niece of Judge Sewall, in whose family she lived for many years. In one of the prayers recorded in his Diary, he says : "Requite the Labor of Love of my Kinswoman, Jane Tappin, Give her health, find out Rest for her." In a letter to the Rev. Edward Taylor, he men- tions that Mr. Bartholomew Green is likely to marry Mrs. Jane Tapp[an], 30 Nov. [1709]; and in the Diary, August, 1710, and later, she is spoken of as cousin Jane Green. Her husband was elected deacon, 1719; after his death, 1732, the church voted some money (27 March, 1734) to Mrs. Jane Green, wife of Bartholomew Green, late deacon, on account of loss by fire.
ANDREW BELCHER, son of Andrew, the emigrant ; of Cambridge, Hartford and Boston ; one of the committee of safety at the time of the insurrection against Andros, and a councillor. .
" Was the most opulent merchant in the town of Boston, a man of integrity and honour, a friend to religion and learning." --- Eliot.
His first wife was Sarah, daughter of Jonathan Gilbert, marshal of the colony of Connecticut; his second was Hannah (1682), widow of Isaac Walker (1674), and daugh- ter of Deacon Frary (1669). Several of his children were members of the South Church,
Nov. 6, 1717; " Midweek, Capt. Belcher Buried. Bearers, L' Gov" Dumer, Col. Hutchinson : Sewall, Eliakim Hutchin- son ; Addington Davenport, Col. Fitch esq". Scarfs, Rings, Gloves, Escutcheons. What three sad Wednesdays have these been !" [Sewall's son in law, Grove Hirst, had been buried on the Wednesday preceding, and his wife, Judith, on the Wednesday before that. ] Dec. S; "Lord's Day. P.m. M' Jonathan Belcher comes to the Assembly and very pathe- tically acknowledges God's distinguishing mercy towards him."-Sewall.
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THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Many years after (7 July, 1748), this same son, Jonathan (1706), then Governor of New Jersey, wrote thus of his father to the Rev. Thomas Prince :
"My Father was as great a Genius as his Country could boast of, but wanted an Education to Improve and polish it. Governor Dudley (who was a good Judge) used to say that M' Commissary Belcher would make a good Minister of State to any Prince in Europe, Especially in the Article of Finance. His late Farewell and Blessing of me show'd his strong thoughts and great modesty. It's fresh in my Memory and will be till the Frost of Age seals up that Faculty : he called me to his Bedside, took me by the hand and said -- Son you may expect me to bless you in a better manner and style than I am able to do, for God did not put it into your Grandfather's power to give me the Education he Inabled me to give you, but remember my Last Words to you are- May the Blessing of the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob rest upon you and your seed for Ever. Amen. Farewell. Neither. the Patriarchs nor Apostles could have done it better."
Mr. Belcher left a legacy of £500 for the uses of the South Church.
SILENCE ELIOT, daughter of John Baker, and wife of Joseph Eliot, son of Deacon Jacob (1669), and grand- nephew of the Rev. John Eliot.
Nov. 14, 1700 ; " About 1-2 hour past one in the Afternoon, M' Joseph Eliot dieth. He was abroad on the Lord's day at Meeting." Nov. 16; " M' Joseph Eliot was buried. Bearers, Capt. Alford, Capt. Checkley, ME Dan1 Oliver, M' Benet, M' Cutler, ME Gibbs. 38. years old."-Sewall.
His wife, Silence, died 8 June, 1744, aged 78 .- Eds. Scwall.
Their son, Jacob, baptized just after his father's death, I Dec. 1700, Harv. Coll. 1730, was ordained first minister of the Third Church, Lebanon, Conn., 26 Nov. 1729, and died, 12 April, 1766.
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
1698.
BENJAMIN EMMONS, son of Benjamin and Mary (1674). He took dismission to "the Old Church," -- the First-of which, when his wife died in 1740, it was said she had been a member for forty years. She was Mary, daughter of Captain Simon Amory; he, "a worthy gentleman, member of the First Church."
SUSANNA BAILEY-THACHER, daughter of Richard Wil- kins, wife and widow of the Rev. John Bailey, and then second wife of the Rev. Peter Thacher (1673), of Milton. - . She married Mr. Thacher, 25 Dec. 1699, and died, 4 Sept. 1724, aged 59.
ELIZABETH DAVIS. Perhaps this should read Elizabeth Lavis, wife of William (1693).
EDWARD BROMFIELD, born at Haywood House, Hants, England, bred a merchant in London, went to Jamaica, came to Boston, 1675. For many years was a member of the council. The late Bromfield House marked the site of his mansion. He was a trustee of the "Evangelical Treasury " of the church ; "a gentleman of great integrity and singular piety." He died, 2 June, 1734, aged 85. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of James Brading ; she had only Elizabeth (1700), who died unmarried, 1718. His second wife (4 June, 1683) was Mary (Danforth) (1696), granddaughter of the Rev. John Wilson of the First Church. Their son, Edward Bromfield (1729), was also a very useful member of the South Church. Their grandson, Edward Bromfield (1741), Harv. Coll. 1742, died in 1746; of this young man it has been said :
" He lived long enough to develop a character and to ex- hibit tastes and talents which have embalmed his name in the memory of succeeding generations, and he might have achiev- ed great distinction in science if his life had been spared."- Lovering.
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314
THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
There is a portrait of him, after John Smibert (1730), in the possession of the Bostonian Society.
FRANCIS BURROUGHS.
Dec. 10, 1713 ; " M" Francis Burroughs buried after Lecture. Bearers, M' Winthrop, Townsend ; Belcher, Bromfield ; Checkley, Ballantine. He is Lamented as having been an intelligent Exemplary Christian. Buried in M' Heath's Tomb, New burying place."-Sewall.
This was the merchant from London, whom John Dunton found here, and who furnished the necessary security that Dunton should not "be chargeable to the town." He married here, as his second wife, 29 Dec. 1709, Elizabeth (Gross), widow of - Heath. His daughter, Sarah, married Captain John Brown, of Salem. -- Eds. Sewall.
JOHN CAMPBELL.
" The Boston News-Letter, the first anglo-American news- paper, appeared on Monday, April 24, 1704, and continued to be published until 1776, on the evacuation of Boston by the British troops. Its first publisher and proprietor was John Campbell, a bookseller, and also postmaster, in which last office he continued till his death in 1728. Nicholas Boone was associate publisher. Bartholomew Green, John Allen, and again Green, were successively its printers."-Eds. Scwall. " Campbell was not a brilliant genius. He wrote little, and that awkwardly and with effort. His patrons were few and sparing, and he wrestled with them continually on account of their delinquencies. The London newspapers were then in the early summer of their prosperity, and the News Letter was largely dependent on them, though it copied little of their enterprise or spirit."- Goddard.
Mr. Campbell's daughter, Sarah, married James Bow- doin, and died in 1713, in her 26th year ; the father died, 4 March, 1728, aged 75.
ELIZABETH GOOSE.
Isaac Goose, son of Peter and Susanna Vertigoose, Vergoose or Goose, married for his second wife, Elizabeth
315
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
(Foster), by whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth (1728), who married Thomas Fleet, the printer.
1700.
JOHN ADAMS; this is probably the man of whose death in Nov. 1702, Judge Sewall twice speaks. Nov. 2; " John Adams, a very good man," dies of the small pox. Dec. 8; " His death [that of Mr. Robert Gibbs (1691)], and the death of Jnº Adams, the Master, Isaac Loring, and Pey- body, is a great stroke to our church and congregation."
JOHN POOLE, son of William; merchant; married Elizabeth (1677), daughter of Governor Brenton.
Nov. 10, 1711 ; " M" John Pole died Novr 7th, Was buried this day in a. Tomb in the old Burying place. Bearers, Win- throp, Sewall ; Addington, Corwin; Walley, Higginson. The Gov' and many of the Council, there."-Sewall.
ELIZABETH BROMFIELD, daughter and only child of Edward Bromfield (1698), by his first wife, Elizabeth. She died, 8 July, 1718.
July 10, 1718 ; " M' Cooper preaches. Between 6 and 7. p.m. Mrs. Elizabeth Bromfield, a very vertuous and pious Gentlewoman, was buried, ZEtat. 40. Bearers. M. John White, M' Elijah Danforth ; Mr Wn Cooper, M' John Boy- dell ; M' Henry Franklin, M' Hugh Hall. I went with the Governour." -- Scwall.
JEREMIAH BUMSTEAD, son of Jeremiah and Sarah Bumstead (1684) ; born 14 Oct. 1678. He married, 1704, Elizabeth Bridges ; 1726, Bethia Sherrar; 1729, Sarah Howard ; but we do not find any one of these names in the roll of membership. His daughter, Elizabeth,, wife of John Bulfinch, joined the church 1727, and his son, Jeremiah, 1730. He kept a diary for the years 1722-27, which the late Mr. S. F. Haven edited, and which was
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THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
printed in the New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register of 1862, with the following introduction :
"The writer seems to have been a mechanic in moderate circumstances, but blessed with numerous and very respect- able ' Cuzens.' He was a staunch and active member of the Old South Church,-attending all the extra services, and faith- fully noting the name of the preacher and the text of his discourse. He appears not to have been ambitious of office, and when chosen tything-man, or constable, obtained his re- lease on the plea of 'having no hand except his own,' or by paying the fine.
JOHN ADAMS, HANNAH ADAMS.
Brought letters from the church in Braintree. John Adams, merchant, son of Joseph of Braintree, married Hannah, daughter of Christopher Webb; and secondly, Hannah, daughter of Anthony Checkley. It was the latter who became a member of the South Church. , By his first wife, John Adams had Hannah (1707), John, and Samuel (1706), father of Samuel (1789), the patriot. He was grand-uncle of John Adams, the second President of the United States.
ELIZABETH SAVAGE, probably Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Norton, of Charlestown, who married, first, Timothy Symmes ; and secondly, Ephraim Savage (1672), as his third wife.
April 13, 1710; " Capt. Ephraim Savage's wife dyes, about an hour after Lecture, to our great Surprise. She was at our Meeting at Capt. Hill's." April 16; "About Sunset Mrs. Elizabeth Savage is buried. . Bearers, Winthrop, Sewall ; Addington, Sergeant ; Walley, Belchar." -- Sewall.
MATTHIAS SMITH, ELIZABETH SMITH.
Matthias Smith kept a tavern not far from Judge Sewall's house. An Indian preacher arriving from Sand-
تعيد؟
317
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
wich on his way to Natick, the Judge says : "Bespeak a Lodging for him at Matthias Smith's : but after they sent me word they could not doe it. So I was fain to lodg him in my Study." See an interesting foot-note in the third volume of the Diary, pp. 212, 213.
1701.
JOSIAH WILLARD, son of the Rev. Samuel Willard (1677), by his second wife, Eunice (Tyng) (1681). Bap- tized 29 May, 1681 ; Harv. Coll. 1698. After graduation, he became a tutor at the college, pursued study in divinity and began to preach, but in consequence of an uncon-' querable diffidence he soon relinquished the ministerial profession. He travelled abroad, and is said to have commanded a vessel at one time in the London trade. He was twice taken by privateers in West India waters, and was imprisoned at Martinique. After his return. home, he became secretary of the Province, and held this position for forty years. His first wife was Catharine Allen (1711), who died in 1725, "much lamented"; his second, Hannah, widow of William Clark (1704). He died, 6 Dec. 1756; and the funeral sermons preached by his pastors, Dr. Sewall and Mr. Prince, show the estimate in which he was held both in state and church. After re- ferring to his long service as secretary, as a member of the council, and as Judge of Probate, Dr. Sewall said :
"He discharged the Duties of these important offices with a laudable Capacity, great Diligence and Integrity, as a good and faithful Servant of God, his King and Country ; " and he added : "This Flock of Christ, of which his excellent Father was an able and faithful Pastor, is bereaved of an exemplary and faithful Christian, who walk'd humbly and closely with God, in a firm Adherance to the Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel : One that was zealous for the Day and House of the Lord, and constant in his Attendance on the public Worship, even when his bodily Infirmities might urge him to spare himself."
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