USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 57
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pamphlets.1 He left also a great mass of manuscript, which few persons now living have had time or inclination to read. The manuscript of Biblia Americana, or The Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament illus- trated, is now in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, as are also portions of his diary. No other writer in America has been the sub- ject at once of so much praise and so much censure. His vanity, pedantry, and credulity were his undoing.2
Samuel Mather inherited the precocious vitality of his father and grand- father. He had an active though not an original mind. His best known books are The Life of Cotton Mather, 1729; Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in New England; sermons and discourses on the death of Cotton Mather, Queen Caroline, Thomas Hutchinson, and a few others; The Sacred Minister, a poem in five parts, respecting his qualifications for the ministry, and his life and death in it, by Aurelius Prudentius Americanus, 1773, and some historical and biographical memoirs. He was the last of a famous race, and with him the name disappears from our annals. He in- herited a taste for collecting books, and cultivated it to the end. He directed by his will that his "valuable library and manuscripts " should be kept as they were, till one of his sons became a settled minister. That time never came. His "French Works " were, by the same instrument, given to his son, whom he afterward disinherited for adhering to the Crown.3
Nearly contemporary with Increase Mather was Samuel Sewall, the light of his generation. His strong intellect and noble soul would have won dis- tinction in any age. In this sombre time they shone bright and clear. He was educated at Cambridge and entered the ministry. Coming into posses- sion of a large fortune by his marriage with Hannah, daughter of John Hull, a goldsmith in Boston, he turned his attention to business and public affairs. He was successively member of the Board of Assistants and of the Council, Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the same time Judge of Probate for Suffolk County, holding both these later offices till old age and infirmity disqualified him. The witchcraft trials were the most serious incidents of his official life. He shared at the time in the prevailing belief in that sad folly; but, unlike his stern associates, he early came to see the terrible mis-
1 North American Review, Jan. 1818, vi. 255- 72. Samuel Mather, Life of Cotton Mather. Thomas Prince's and Joshua Gee's Funeral Sermons.
2 " In regard of literature or acquaintance with books of all kinds, I give the palm to Dr. Cotton Mather. No native of this country, as I imagine, has read so much, or retained so much of what he has read. There were scarcely any books written, but he had somehow or other got sight of them. His own library was the largest by far of any private one on this continent. He knew more of the history of this country from the beginning to this day than any man in it, and could he have conveyed his knowledge with pro- portionate judgment, and the omission of a vain
show of much learning, he would have given the best history of it."- Dr. Chauncy to Dr. Stiles, Boston, May 6, 1768. Mass. Hist. Coll., x. 154, 1 56.
8 " My old friend, Mrs. Crocker, dead many years since, was daughter of Samuel Mather, and had many of his books, of which not a few derived value from former possession by Cotton and even Increase; and through her Isaiah Thomas obtained several very scarce works for his Antiquarian Society at Worcester. The kind-hearted old lady aided Dr. Eliot, and al- most everybody else, with recollections of the days of old." - Mr. James Savage to Rev. Wil- liam B. Sprague, D.D., Boston, October 27, 1854.
VOL. II .- 53.
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take he had made, and offered the remarkable confession, which, as it stands in our official records, bears most touching evidence to the purity and eleva- tion of his character.1 His gifts and charities were worthy of his great nature. To spread the gospel among the Indians, to mitigate the hardships of slavery, to relieve poverty and misfortune, equally enlisted his interest. His chief books included The Selling of Joseph, a powerful tract against slavery in America; Phenomena Quadam Apocalyptica, a striking essay toward a description of a new Heaven and a new Earth, containing the remarkable aspiration on which Whittier's Prophecy of Samuel Sewall2 was founded; Tabitha Curwin, an Invitation to Women; Proposals touching the Accomplishment of Prophecies, and several pamphlets.
The gentle and aspiring soul of Samuel Sewall is revealed in all that remains of his writing. He gave to a generation somewhat perverse in other things an example of the graces of life, and the beauty of modest and sincere thought. He was a great collector of printed and written works, almanacs, pamphlets, books, and manuscripts now widely scattered. His Diary, the best social record of the forty years covered by it, has been pub- lished by the Massachusetts Historical Society, in its Collections.
Samuel Willard was one of the renowned preachers and writers of this generation. He was a minister of the Old South Church from 1678 to 1707, and President of Harvard College the last six years of his life.3 His great work, the Body of Divinity, consisted of two hundred and fifty lectures, preached during twenty years of active ministry, in exposition of the As- sembly's Shorter Catechism. They were collected and edited nearly twenty years after his death by his successors, Joseph Sewall and Thomas Prince. It was the first miscellaneous folio volume published in America, and the largest book on any subject printed here, up to that time. In this large work Mr. Willard treats of the obligation of the Sabbath, the doctrine of divorce, the lawfulness of interest for money, and discusses many contro- verted theological points. During his life many of his regular and occa- sional sermons were printed and widely read. They were doctrinal and
1 Sewall's Diary, i. 445.
? "As long as Plum Island to guard the coast, As God appointed, shall keep its post ; As long as a salmon shall haunt the deep Of Merrimack river, or sturgeon leap : As long as pickerel swift and slim, Or red-backed perch, in Crane Pond swim ; As long as the annual sea-fowl know Their time to come and their time to go ; As long as cattle shall roam at will The green, grass meadows by Turkey Hill ; As long as sheep shall look from the side Of Oldtown Hill on marishes wide, And Parker river and salt-sea tide ; As long as a wandering pigeon shall search The fields below from his white-oak perch, When the barley-harvest is ripe and shorn, And the dry husks fall from the standing corn ; As long as Nature shall not grow old, Nor drop her work from her doting hold, And her care for the Indian corn forget,
And the yellow rows in pains to set, - So long shall Christians here be born, Grow up and ripen as God's sweet corn ! By the beak of a bird, by the breath of a frost Shall never a holy ear be lost ; But husked by Death in the Planter's sight, Be sown again in the fields of light! "
-The Prophecy of Samuel Sewall, by John G. Whittier.
3 " By his Printed Works He has Erected himself a Monument that will Endure when the Famed Mausoleums of the World shall Moulder down and be buried in their own Ruines. . . . He was a Judicious Textuary, - like Apollos, a man mighty in the Scriptures. His common public discourses were a demonstration of this, but especially his Judicious and Elaborate commen- taries, which remain as a lasting Monument of his skill." - Funeral Sermon, by Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton.
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expository ; funeral sermons and election sermons; sermons for times of civil peril or of great spiritual interest, written in the somewhat formal style of the period, but always clear, logical, earnest, and enlivened at infrequent intervals with passages of noble eloquence.1
The Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, colleague of Dr. Willard from 1700 to 1707, and minister there till his death in 1717, published several occasional sermons and discourses. After his death these were collected and printed. A Brief account of the State of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, left in manuscript, was added to them, and appeared in 1727, - the first volume of sermons published in America. Mr. Pemberton was zealous and popular, learned in many directions, and wanted nothing but vigorous health to have made him famous.2
It may be well, in passing, to mention some of the books not written in Boston which still hold a place in the meagre literature of this period, and were read with deep emotion by the passing generation. The story of Mary Rowlandson, of Lancaster, - a touching and pathetic narrative of her captivity among the Indians, and her restoration, - first printed in Boston in 1682, was many times reprinted. The Redeemed Captive, another thrilling story of Indian captivity, by the Rev. John Williams, of Deerfield, appeared in Boston in 1706, and was one of the exciting books of the season. Enter- taining Passages relating to Philip's War, by Thomas Church, of Plymouth, - a valuable contribution, - was first printed in 1716, and has been reprinted, with additions, again and again. The History of the Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians, by Samuel Penhallow, Chief-Justice of New Hampshire, a graphic narrative of Indian warfare, was published in 1726, and was the source from which many later histories have been drawn. Samuel Niles, of Braintree, author of several books of theology and church polity, and of a narrative in verse of the reduction of Louisburg, left in manuscript a voluminous history of the Indian and French wars, for which he could find no printer. The manuscript was buried in old trunks for nearly a century, when it came to light among the relics of the late Dr. Freeman.3
More distinguished than any of these was the Rev. William Hubbard, of
1 The religious literature of this time (1700-09) was enlivened by a vigorous and learned controversy between Increase Mather and Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, on "The Order of the Gospel,"- Stoddard main- taining that all baptized persons, not scandalous in life, might lawfully partake of the Commun- ion, though knowing themselves to be desti- tute of true religion. See funeral sermons by Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Colman, and Wil- liam Hatfield. Sprague, Annals of the Ameri- can Pulpit.
2 " He had a great natural capacity, a large and comprehensive genius, and by hard study and great industry had amassed a rich treasure of learning. I suppose few in these corners of
the earth have been better acquainted with books and men."- Dr. Joseph Sewall, Funeral Sermon. After his death a catalogue of his library, to be sold at auction at the Crown Coffee House, July 2, 1717, was printed, "and may be had gratis at the shop of Samuel Gerrish, book- seller, near the Old Meeting-house," showing 1,000 lots. It is "perhaps the first instance in New England of a printed catalogue of books at auction." Brinley Catalogue, No. 1669.
3 It is printed in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., vi. 154- 279; and 4 Mass. Hist. Coll., v. 309-589. Some of the books in this paragraph have been further described in the notes to Colonel Higginson's chapter in this volume, and in the note in Vol. I. P. 327.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Ipswich, whose Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New England was first printed in Boston in 1677, and was licensed and printed in London the following year. He also left in manuscript a General History of New England, from the discovery to 1680, for which the times were not worthy. He waited more than a century for a publisher. His manuscript was sub- mitted to the General Court, and a gratuity of fifty pounds was awarded to him. This manuscript, also in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, was first published in its Collections in 1815, and again in 1848.1 Mr. Hubbard died in 1704, at a great age. His learning was extensive and varied, his style was simple, modest, and clear. His publications were not numerous. The last - his Dying Testimony to the Order of the Churches - written jointly with Mr. Higginson, of Salem, was printed in Boston just before his death.
In 1697 Governor Simon Bradstreet, "the youngest of all the Assistants who came over with the first charter,"2 and the last survivor of those who came in 1630, died at Salem. Three years before (1694) Joshua Scottow had published A Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusetts Colony,3 and dedicated it to Governor Bradstreet, " as the only Surviving Antiquary of us Nov-Angles, the Prime Secretary and Register of our Civil and Sacred Records, and the Bi-fronted Janus who saw the Closure of the Old, and the Overture of this New Albion World." Mr. Scottow was a mer- chant of much respectability, nearly contemporary with the Governor, and during his early life took an active interest in all the affairs of the town. But he grew despondent as he grew in years; the change of dress, manners, and social customs from those of the first generation seemed to him the sure presage of destruction, and he poured out his sorrow in a book of lamenta- tions called Old Men's Tears for their own Declensions, first printed in 1691, and reprinted in 1745, probably as a curiosity.4
Ezekiel Cheever, the schoolmaster, passed away in August, 1708, at a great age. Besides his labors as a teacher of the children of nearly three generations, he published a book on Latin Accidence, of which there were twenty editions. It was long an authority in the whole country, and as late as the beginning of this century was in high credit as one of the best books for children in the rudiments of Latin.5 He published also an essay on the Millennium, or Scripture prophecies, which was somewhat less sought after, though he was a devout Christian and an able champion of the faith.6
1 The manuscript of the History of New Eng- land passed through many perils after Mr. Hub- bard's death. Upon a hint from the General Court, he caused to be made a more legible copy than the original, which came at last into the hands of Governor Hutchinson, who used it freely in his own historical labors. See Intro- duction to Vol. I. p. xvii.
2 Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts Bay, ii.
3 See Vol. I. p. 97.
4 Edward Ward visited Boston in 1699, and wrote a book, after his return to England, full of
outrageous scandal, which made some commo- tion at the time, and is occasionally remembered now, like Mr. Scottow's lamentation, as a curi- osity. Pope knew the fellow well, and pilloried him in the Dunciad.
5 Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 66.
6 "Venerable not merely for his great age (ninety-four), but for having been the school- master of most of the principal gentlemen in Boston who were then on the stage. He is not the only master who kept his lamp longer lighted than otherwise it would have been, by a supply
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Robert Calef, merchant, gave to literature, in 1700, More Wonders of the Invisible World, - a collection of wild phenomena, calculated to win the ad- miration of the most incredulous,-which he proceeded ruthlessly to discredit by a remarkable array of rebutting testimony and ingenious reasoning. It was directed with sharp satire against the belief in witchcraft, and especially against the credit and standing of the eminent men who had been deluded by it. Dr. Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College, paid it the un- merited honor of burning it in the college yard. Cotton Mather also wrote a pamphlet denouncing it.1 Calef and the younger Mather survived their bitter animosities more than a quarter of a century; and near the close of their lives stood side by side in the inoculation controversy, which for the time provoked hostilities hardly second in bitterness to those of the witchcraft period.
William Douglas, the Scotch physician and historian, began his practice in Boston (1718) a little before this social convulsion. He was a man of strong prejudices, and the magistrates and the clergy were especially odious to him. Having some literary tastes, with a craving for notoriety, he wrote much for the newspapers, and was a lively pamphleteer. He was a bitter foe of Cotton Mather and Dr. Boylston in their championship of inoculation, and fought them to the end. His acknowledged writings at that time bear so striking a resemblance to some of the anonymous contributions to James Franklin's newspaper on the same subject as to make it probable that he was one of the " respectable characters " who composed Franklin's club of " Couranteers." Besides his medical writings, Dr. Douglas published in numbers a Summary or Historical Account of the British Settlements in North America (Boston, 1749-1753). It is an untrustworthy narrative, and was incomplete at the time of his death. He was a man of extensive read- ing and varied information, heavily overcast by prodigious egotism, and a morose and ugly spirit.2.
Thomas Brattle, merchant, contributed papers to the Royal Society on astronomical subjects, and was a liberal patron of letters and learning. He also wrote an intelligent Account of the Delusion called Witchcraft, which
of oil from his scholars." - Hutchinson, Mass. they had been in; but in his account of facts Bay, ii. 175, 176.
" A mighty tribe of well-instructed youth Tell what they owe to him, and tell with truth. All the eight parts of speech he taught to them They now employ to trumpet his esteem. Magister pleased them well because 't was he ; They say that bonus did with it agree. While they said amo, they the hint improve, Him for to make the object of their love. No concord so inviolate they knew As to pay honor to their master due ; With interjections they break off at last, But ah is all they use, wo and alas !" REV. COTTON MATHER.
1 "Calef, by his narrative, gave great offence, having censured the proceedings at a time when in general the country did not see the error
which are so evidenced by records, he appears to have been a fair relator." - Hutchinson, Hist. of Mass. Bay, ii. 54. [Mr. Poole has characterized this and other books of the witchcraft times, in his chapter in this volume. - ED.]
2 " The town of Douglas in this State was so called to perpetuate the name and deeds of Wil- liam Douglas, M.D., of Boston, originally from Scotland ; educated there, a famous physician in his day, and who also wrote a history of New England in two volumes, a proprietor and con- siderable benefactor." - Whitney, Hist. of Wor- cester County, 203. [There is a notice of Doug- las in Tyler's American Literature, ii. 151. - ED.] Governor Hutchinson also points out many errors in his history.
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was left in manuscript and printed long after his death.1 The name of Matthew Adams 2 survives in the annals of this time as that of the first liter- ary friend of Franklin. He was by trade a mechanic, with a taste for books, which the young printer borrowed freely and read diligently. Mr. Adams himself sometimes indulged a passion for writing, and was a con- tributor to the Courant and the Weekly Fournal. His essays were not wanting in merit, but they died with the occasion for which they were writ- ten. The political tracts of Elisha Cooke - the younger of the stalwart re- publicans of that name, who made the seat of the royal governors, from Dudley to Belcher, a thorny one - deserve to be mentioned in the annals of this period.3
Jeremiah Dummer, one of the most highly educated men in New Eng- land, made a brilliant but ephemeral reputation at the beginning of his career.4 He published, in 1704, A Discourse on the Holiness of the Sabbath Day, with an admiring preface by the elder Mather, whose predictions of the glory of its author were not fulfilled. He also published in his youth several learned theological books in Latin, but he was never appreciated here at the high value his admirers placed upon him. He went to England in 1707, where he fell from grace through his intimacy with the frivolous and dissolute circle surrounding the court of Queen Anne in its last days. Yet he was still useful as the agent of Massachusetts from 1710 to 1721; and his essay (London, 1728), A Defence of the New England Charters, won for him the gratitude of that and later generations.5
Benjamin Colman, the first minister of Brattle-Street Church, and for nearly half a century (1701-1747) one of the famous preachers of the Province, published a great number and variety of sermons. He wrote with remarkable grace and facility; the General Court often called upon him to draft special letters on the affairs of the colony; and the clergy looked to him when they had occasion to address the king or his ministers. Dr. Cooper gives him the high credit of contributing more than any other clergyman of that day to elevate the literary character of the New England pulpit.6 Dr. Colman was a good citizen as well as a clergyman, and had no
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., v.61-79; Quincy, Harvard University, i. 410, estimates Brattle's character.
2 Franklin, Autobiography (Bigelow's edition), P. 107.
3 Judah Monis, for nearly forty years (1722- 1760) Hebrew instructor at Harvard College, published in 1735 a Hebrew grammar, the first on the continent, printed in Boston by Jonas Green, from the Hollis types, and "sold by the author at his house in Cambridge." Of the number sold there is no record; but scholars held the book in high esteem. [There is among the manuscripts in the Historical Society one inscribed : "Jonathan Belcher his grammar, Com- posed by Rabbi Judah Monis. A.D. 1725."-ED.] 4 " Mr. Jeremiah Dummer, a native of Boston, but an inhabitant of London the greater part of
his life, Mr. John Bulkley, minister at Colches- ter, Conn., and Mr. Thomas Walter of Roxbury, I reckon the three first for extent and strength of genius and powers New England has yet pro-
duced. Mr. Dummer I never saw, that I re- member, but entertain this thought of him from the character I have had of him from all quarters. Few exceeded him in England, perhaps, for sprightliness of thought, ease, delicacy, and fluency in speaking and writing."- Dr. Chauncy to Dr. Stiles, in Mass. Hist. Coll., x. 155.
5 [See Tyler, American Literature, ii. 116. His family connections are traced in Sewall Papers, iii. 53. - ED.]
6 " Though his manner of preaching was dis- tinguished for persuasiveness, he sometimes - especially in his appeals to an ungodly world -
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hesitation in participating in civil affairs. He stood loyally by Dr. Boylston in his contest for inoculation; he was the channel through whom Holden and Hollis gave their large favors to the college; he resisted with all his Benjamin Colman Thomas Prince William Cooper Charles Chauncey might the animosities growing out of the Whitefield revivals; and, in a word, threw his influence into the scale for the public good whenever there was opportunity. His funeral sermons, of which he printed a large number, are remarkable for their clearness and strength, and for what is more rare in funeral literature, - their truth- fulness. He sometimes turned aside SIGNATURES, 1739. from worthier labors to express himself in rhyme. Two or three specimens only remain. Of these, one on "Elijah's translation," occasioned by the death of the reverend and learned Samuel Willard, has much rhythmical skill, and is refined in thought and expression.1
Benjamin Wadsworth, minister of the First Church, President of Harvard College, a man of sound and serious rather than of brilliant parts, printed thirty or more sermons on occasional or conventional pulpit topics. He con- fined his studies to theology, and was not a man of extensive erudition or much acquainted with the sciences. "The general opinion was that he was better fitted for the pastorate of the church than to be ministering to the school of the prophets."2 He was a singular contrast to his successor, President Holyoke, who entertained so profound a distrust of the printers, that, dur- ing the thirty-two years of his presidency, he left almost no printed trace of his existence.
Nor should we pass wholly by the less illustrious contributors to theo- logical literature, - James Allen, forty years minister of the First Church, a stalwart defender of the ancient order of the New England churches as expounded by Dr. Mather; Thomas Bridge, also of the First Church, " dis- tinguished for integrity, piety, diligence, modesty, and moderation; " Peter Thatcher, minister of the North Church, "a man of strong and masterly genius; " the pious and worthy John Webb; William Cooper, minister of Brattle Street, a zealous and impressive preacher,3 and Samuel, his son; Timothy Cutler, rector of Christ Church, endowed with native gifts of a very high order, to which he added profound and varied learning; being esteemed the best Oriental scholar ever educated in America,4 and also
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