PHILIP CURTIS was son of Samuel and Hannah Curtis, of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, where he was born, October 4th, 1717. He was admitted into Harvard College in July, 1734, and was the first of the name in that institution. He took his degree in 1738; was admitted into church fellowship January 6th, 1739; studied divinity with Mr. Bowman, of Dorchester, and kept school in this town two years. He preached his first sermon in Stoughtonham, now Sharon, in the month of May, 1741, and was ordained to the ministry in that place, January 5th, 1742. His salary was £60 per annum. He had the use of a meadow, and was supplied with wood. On this slender stipend, with the income of a small farm, he brought up a large family, and, during the war of the Revolution, liberally educated one of his sons. He married Elizabeth Bass, of Dorchester, September 6th, 1744. As Mr. Curtis taught his own children, he opened a school, gratuitously, for the children of his parishioners, and occasionally fitted scholars for the College. The children of Commodore Loring (who married his sister) were all educated by him. The late Christopher Gore. Esq., was also his pupil. After the war, his people purposed to build a new church, but their means were insufficient. He contributed his mite to their help, by giving up one quarter's salary. He also gave an acre of land through the middle of his farm, to accommodate them with a nearer road to the meeting.

THOMAS JONES, son of Ebenezer and Waitstill Jones, was born at Dorchester the 20th of April, 1721; graduated at Harvard College in 1741; taught the school this year-for the first quarter at the rate of £85 per annum, for the next three months at the rate of £95, probably old tenor money; he taught also in 1742. He was ordained as second pastor of the church in Burlington (then a precinct of Woburn) the 2d of January, 1751.

EDWARD BASS, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Breck) Bass, of Dorchester, and great-great-grandson of Samuel and Ann Bass, of Roxbury, was born in Dorchester, Nov. 23d, 1726. He entered Harvard College at the early age of thirteen, and graduated in 1744. From the time of taking his first degree till he received that of Master of Arts, he was engaged in keeping school-a part of the time in Dorchester-and also occupied himself in such studies as would qualify him for his contemplated profession. From 1747 to 1751, he resided at the College, making progress in theological studies and occasionally supplying vacant pulpits in the Congregational churches. In 1751, he was chosen assistant minister of St. Paul's Church (Episcopal) in Newburyport, and in 1752 went to England, where, on the 24th of May, of the same year, he was ordained by Dr. Thomas Sherlock, then Bishop of London. In the Autumn of the same year, he returned to New England, and soon after took charge of the church in Newbury, at that time vacant by the death of Rev. Matthias Plant. He married Sarah Beck, September 19th, 1754. She died on the 9th of May, 1789. In July of that year, the University of Pennsylvania conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. On the 18th of November following (1789), he married Mercy Phillips, who died, his widow, January 15th, 1832, in her 87th year. In 1796, he was elected the first Bishop of Massachusetts, and was consecrated to that office in Christ Church, Philadelphia, the 7th of May, 1797, by the Bishops of the Episcopal churches in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland. The Episcopal churches of Rhode Island afterwards elected him as their Bishop, as did those also of New Hampshire, in 1803, the year of his decease. He died on the 10th of September, aged 77, after an illness of but two days. He was a man of profound knowledge, accomplished and exemplary. He was also noted for his good humor and wit.

JAMES HUMPHREY, son of Jonas, who was the son of Hopestill, the son of Elder James, the son of Jonas Humphrey, was born in Dorchester the 20th of March, 1722; graduated at Harvard College in 1744; taught the school in 1748; and was ordained the first minister of Pequoiag, now Athol, November 7th, 1750. On the 9th of November, 1751, he married Esther Wiswall, of Dorchester, "a lady of high respectability and much energy of character," who lived to an advanced age, respected and beloved by the people of Athol. Mr. Humphrey commenced his labors at that place under very trying circumstances. Being a frontier town, it was greatly exposed to the incursions of the Indians. It was necessary to station sentinels at the entrance of the church, on the Sabbath, to avoid a surprise from "their devouring enemy, whilst others were worshipping God within." For three successive years "did the first minister of Pequoiag carry his weapons of defence into his pulpit, and preach with his gun by his side."

PELATIAH GLOVER, Son of Nathaniel Glover, Jr., and Rachel (Marsh), was born in Dorchester, April 2d, 1716-a descendant in a direct line from John

Glover. He married Mary Crehore in June, 1740. They had two daughters, one of whom (Rachel) married William Blake, of Boston, the 29th of November, 1767. Mr. Lemuel Blake, of Boston, son of William and Rachel, is the only descendant now (1858) living, having attained the age of 83 years. In 1756, the subject of this notice was appointed by the town of Dorchester to keep school for "Squantum and the Farms."

JAMES BAKER, born at Dorchester, Sept. 5th, 1739, graduated at Harvard in 1760, and taught in the town while pursuing his preparatory studies for the ministry.

DANIEL LEEDS, the son of Hopestill and Sarah (Clap) Leeds, and a descendant in the fourth generation from Richard, was born in Dorchester on the 28th of May, 1739, and graduated at Harvard College in the year 1761. "Master Leeds," it is said, taught school in town about fifteen years-probably the most, if not all of that time, on "Meeting-house Hill."

WILLIAM BOWMAN was born January 8th, 1744; graduated at Harvard College in 1764; taught the school in 1765; was afterwards Town Clerk in Roxbury, and a Justice of the Peace.

SAMUEL COOLIDGE, the famous instructor, son of Samuel and Ruth (Clarke) Coolidge, and the fourth in descent from John, of Watertown, was born in W., August 8th, 1751. He graduated at Harvard College in 1769, in which year, at the age of eighteen, he appears to have commenced teaching school in Dorchester. He taught, subsequently, at various times, closing in 1789, the year previous to his death. He was of the board of Selectmen and Assessors ten successive years, from 1780 to 1789, inclusive, and for the last four years their chairman; was Town Clerk and Treasurer in 1787 and '88, being a successful competitor with Noah Clap, who for thirty-eight continuous years preceded him in both offices, and for ten years succeeded him as Town Clerk. Mr. Coolidge was also Treasurer for 1789. He was noted for his beautiful penmanship; was distinguished for his abilities as a teacher, and for his high classical attainments.

SAMUEL PIERCE, great-grandson of one of the early settlers, born March 25th, 1739, colonel in the militia, and "began to keep school February 1st, 1773, at £3 58. per week"-so says his diary.

ONESIPHORUS TILESTON, born in Boston, April 28th, 1755; graduated at Harvard College in 1774; taught the school about the year 1775; died October 6th, 1809.

EDWARD HUTCHINSON ROBBINS, Son of Rev. Nathaniel Robbins, of Milton, was born February 19th, 1758. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Edward and Lydia (Foster) Hutchinson. She was a descendant, in the fourth generation, from the celebrated Mrs. Ann Hutchinson. He graduated at Harvard College in 1775; married Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. James Murray, of Boston. He taught school at intervals before entering on the duties of his profession (law) in Dorchester. He was chosen a representative from Milton in 1781, and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1793, which office he held for nine successive years. In 1802, and for some years afterwards, he was Lieutenant-Governor of the State. He was subsequently engaged in public business, as Commissioner of the Land Office; was one of the committee of defence, &c. He was a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of many other useful and benevolent institutious. On the decease of Hon. William Heath, in 1814, he was appointed Judge of Probate for the County of Norfolk, which office he held until his death, which occurred in Milton, December 29th, 1829.

OLIVER EVERETT, son of Ebenezer and Joanna Everett, of Dedham, was born in that town, June 11th, 1752; graduated at Harvard College in 1779; taught the school about 1776; was ordained pastor of the New South Church Boston (on "Church Green," so called), January 2d, 1782, succeeding Rev. Joseph Howe, who died August 25th, 1775. Mr. Everett was dismissed, on account of ill-health, May 26th, 1792, "after a ministry of ten years, having acquired a high reputation for the extraordinary powers of his mind." His successor was Rev. J. T. Kirkland, D.D., ordained February 5th, 1794. Mr. E. was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Norfolk County, in 1799, which office he held until his death in Dorchester, December 19th, 1802. It is a singular fact that his elder brother Moses, for some years a cotemporary in the ministerial office (ordained in Dorchester in 1774), was compelled, for the same reason, to relinquish preaching in 1793, the year following his own resignation, and that, in the year 1808, Moses was appointed to fill the vacancy on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, occasioned by the death of his

brother Oliver. He married Lucy Hill, of Boston, November 6th, 1787. She was a daughter of Alexander S. Hill, of Philadelphia. Mr. Everett had sons -Alexander H., Edward, John. (H. C. 1806, 1811, 1818.) All of them were remarkable for their ability and scholarship, and the Hon. Edward Everett has achieved a reputation as an orator second to none of his cotemporaries.

AARON SMITH, son of Joseph, was born in Hollis, N. H., November 3d, 1756; graduated at Harvard College in 1777, about which time he taught the school in Dorchester, having tarried a while, it may have been, in Sudbury. "He was afterwards master of the North Latin School," North Bennet street, Boston.

PHILIP DRAPER, son of Timothy and Hannah Draper, was born in Dedham, March 2d, 1757; graduated at Harvard College in 1780; taught one of the schools, it is believed, the same year, and for some years subsequently; afterwards practised as a physician in South Dedham. He married Mehitable, daughter of Jeremiah Kingsbury, of Dedham, and died March 21st, 1917. They had sons, Jeremiah and Moses, both graduates of Harvard College in 1808. SAMUEL SHUTTLESWORTH, Son of Samuel and Abigail (Whiting) Shuttlesworth, was born in Dedham, November 1, 1751; graduated at Harvard College in 1777; taught school, and was ordained at Windsor, Vt., June 23d, 1790. After a few years, he left, and entered the profession of the law.

SAMUEL CHENEY, son of Ebenezer and Elizabeth, was born in Roxbury, March 9th, 1745-6, graduated at Harvard College in 1767, taught the school in Dorchester, and was for some time a teacher in the "Eliot School," in Boston. JONATHAN BIRD, son of Jonathan, Jr., and Ruth Bird, was born in Dorchester, March 30, 1761; graduated at Harvard College in 1782, about which time he probably commenced teaching school in town, in a dwelling-house on the corner of what is now Sumner and Cottage streets, near the "Five Corners."

THEOPHILUS CAPEN, a descendant in the fifth generation from Barnard and Jane Capen, was born in Stoughton, June 5th, 1760, graduated at Harvard College in 1782, and married Rachel Lambert in 1784. Soon after his graduation, he taught the school in Dorchester, but the time thus spent by him is uncertain. It was not long, however, as we find him in Bath, Me., for a while previous to 1787, and in that year preceptor, also, of a school in Sharon. It was his father's intention to educate him for the ministry; and accordingly he began to study divinity with Rev. Mr. Adams, of Stoughton, and spent much time in the composit.on of sermons, &c. This plan was finally relinquished, however, on account of the weakness of his voice. He again went to Bath, settled there, and was many years engaged in trading in that place; also in Vassalborough and Augusta. He removed to Pittsford, Vt., in 1811, and resumed his former profession as teacher, which was continued for several years. In the latter part of his life Mr. C. was chiefly engaged in farming. He died in 1842, aged 82, at Chittenden, Rutland County, Vt., his wife having died six weeks previously, in her 76th year.

DANIEL LEEDS, JR., son of Daniel (one of the schoolmasters before mentioned) and Abigail (Gore) Leeds, was born in Dorchester, on Monday, May 7th, 1764; graduated at Harvard College in 1783; taught at different times, and in various parts of the town, commencing as early, probably, as 1784. He was the first teacher in the school-house built at the Lower Mills Village, in 1802. One of his pupils thus describes this house and its surroundings. "It was perhaps 20 feet by 30-a half moon entry-a dignified desk-boys one side (the right, going in), girls the other-old fashioned seats for one and two each-a cast-iron wood stove midway the aisle, in winter-a trap-door with a ring to lift, to go down cellar for wood-abundance of smoke sometimes, but none too much fire-open front yard down to the road, with rocks, apple trees, and pathways, as one might say, in primitive state. Here was fun, play, and plenty of exercise, and in the house, no doubt, some good teaching and scholarship."

MOSES EVERETT, JR., son of Rev. Moses and Lucy (Balch) Everett, was born November 25th, 1775; graduated at Harvard College in 1796; taught school "on the upper road," in the now Gibson School District; removed to Ohio in or about the year 1800, and died at Gallipolis, in that State, November 30th, 1814, aged 39.

Ebenezer, his brother, who graduated at Harvard College in 1806, taught school in Dorchester, commencing in the autumn of that year. The school in the second district, where he taught, was at that time kept for six months, in the cold season, on the lower road, now Adams street, and the remainder of the year in the brick school-house, on Meeting-house Hill.

Rev. Enoch Pratt, Griffin Child, and Hon. Ebenezer Everett, are among the few of the early teachers who now survive. Mr. Silas Randall, a native of Stow, Mass., who graduated at Brown University in 1804, was the immediate predecessor of the last-mentioned Mr. Everett in District No. 2.

LEMUEL CRANE, born in Milton in 1757, and removed to Dorchester in 1782. He taught the first school (1790-1797) in the school-house erected on a lot given by himself to the town for that purpose. It was one story in height, fourteen feet long, twelve feet wide, with no plastering inside or clapboards outside, and was only comfortable in Summer. It had four small glass windows, and one without glass, closed with a wooden shutter. A door was in one corner, with no porch or entry. It was filled in, or lined, with brick, in the year 1791, but not plastered, and was sold for twenty-five dollars, in 1802. Mrs. Hawes, wife of Joseph Hawes, Miss Gillespie, and other female teachers, taught here in the Summer season. In the Winter of 1790 and 1791 Mr. Lemuel Crane kept school in his own dwelling-house, and afterwards in the school-house in Winter, the building having been made more comfortable by the filling in before mentioned. Mr. Crane also kept an evening school, to teach the apprentices and other boys in the fundamental branches of reading, writing and arithmetic. He also taught a singing school, and was devoted to fruit culture,-apple trees of his planting were in bearing in 1859.

FRANCIS PERRY taught the South School in Dorchester, previous to the 11th of June, 1791. He states, in a letter from Hallowell, Me., of the above date, that he is out of health-has had but £45 salary in Dorchester-that his expenses were £1910s. for board, and for clothing £12-leaving him only 13s. 10d. He would like to renew his services as teacher in town, but wishes the compensation increased to £56.

JOSEPH GARDNER ANDREWS, born in Boston, February 7th, 1768, graduated at Harvard College in 1785. He was a physician. In a letter, written May 16th, 1792, to Ebenezer Tolman, one of the Selectmen of Dorchester, he says, "By reason of an appointment in the Federal army, I shall be necessitated to give up the school in the course of a few weeks;" but requests "a dismission this day."

Dorchester Influence on Connecticut and Georgia.*

It seems to have been thought extremely desirable, in the first settlement of the country, to be seated either on the sea-coast or the banks of a river. The inhabitants of the Bay had been early made acquainted by those at Plymouth with Connecticut river, although the court declined an application from that quarter, to join them in anticipating the Dutch in their attempts to get possession of it. Three or four individuals, however, from Dorchester, had as early as 1633 crossed the intervening wilderness, and explored this magnificent

stream.

Influenced by their reports of the noble range of pasturage to be found on its banks, aided, it must be confessed, by discontents in the Bay, an emigration was contemplated in 1634 by the inhabitants of Dorchester and Newtown. Mr. Ludlow, of Dorchester, it was said, was of opinion that some other persons, himself included, would fill the chair of State as well as Governor Winthrop; and the star of Mr. Hooker in the church at Newtown, it was thought, was not wanted so near the light of John Cotton. The emigration was warmly debated in the court. Fifteen out of twenty-five of the infant house of deputies, first elected that year, were for the removal; a majority of the magistrates placed their veto on the measure, and great heats ensued. It was opposed on various grounds, but the "procatarctical" reason (as Hubbard somewhat learnedly expresses it) was, that so many of its inhabitants could not safely be spared from the Bay. The next year the Rev. Messrs. Richard Mather and Thomas Shepherd, with numerous associates, arrived in the colony. Mr. Mather's company being prepared to fill the places of those desiring to leave Dorchester, and Mr. Shepherd's to succeed to their brethren at Newtown (Cambridge), the court gave way and permitted the undertaking. A portion of the emigrants went in the Autumn of 1635, the residue in the following Spring Great were the hardships and severe the sufferings endured in this early American exodus through the wilderness, first faint image of that living tide of emigration which in all subsequent time has flowed westward from the Atlantic coast, till in our day it has reached the boundless west; and is even now swelling over the Rocky Mountains, and spreading itself on the shores of

Everett's "Oration delivered at Dorche ter on the 4th of July, 1855-full of proud and affectionate memories of his native town.

the Pacific. Still may it swell and still may it flow; bearing upon its bosom the laws and the institutions, the letters and the arts, the freedom and the faith, which have given New England her name and praise in the world! The adventurers from Dorchester,-men, women, and children,— -were fourteen days in making the journey now daily accomplished in three hours, and reached the river weak with toil and hunger, and all but disheartened. Both the Dorchester ministers, though it is said reluctantly, agreed to join their emigrating church. Mr. Maverick, the senior, died in Boston before starting; Mr. Warham conducted his flock to East Windsor, where they formed the first church in Connecticut, as they had been in Massachusetts second to Salem alone. Thus from our native town of Dorchester, and from Cambridge, not yet bearing that honored name, within five years from their first settlement, went forth the founders of Connecticut.

Two generations later, namely, in 1695, application was made to our minister, Mr. Danforth, both personally and by letter, from South Carolina, setting forth the spiritual destitution of that region, and asking aid from us. A missionary church was forthwith organized, in compliance with this request from the remote sister plantation. A pastor, Mr. Joseph Lord, was ordained over it; it sailed from Dorchester in the middle of December, and arrived at its destination in fourteen days. The little community established itself on Ashley river, in South Carolina, and fondly assumed the name of Dorchester. Here, for more than half a century, the transplanted church and settlement enjoyed a modest prosperity. But the situation proving unhealthy, and the quantity of land limited, a removal to Georgia was projected in 1752. The legislature of that colony made a liberal grant of land, where the emigrants from Dorchester founded the town of Midway, as being half-way between the rivers Ogeechee and Altamaha. This settlement constituted a considerable part of the parish of St. John's, afterwards honorably known as Liberty County in Georgia. Its inhabitants, in the third generation, retained the character and manners, the feelings and principles, which their ancestors brought from our Dorchester eighty years before. On the assembling of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia in 1774, Georgia as a colony not having chosen delegates, the parish of St. John's addressed themselves directly to that body, and received from them a copy of the "General Association." The convention of Georgia declining to join it without modification, the Parish of St. John's subscribed it on their own account, and sent one of their number, Dr. Lyman Hall, a native of [Wallingford] Connecticut, a member of the little DorchesterMidway church, to represent that parish in the congress at Philadelphia. this period," says Dr. Stevens, the intelligent historian of Georgia, "the parish of St. John's possessed nearly one-third of the entire wealth of the province; and its inhabitants were remarkable for their upright and independent character. Sympathizing, from their New England origin, more strongly with the northern distresses than the other parts of Georgia, and being removed from the immediate supervision of the Governor and his council, they pressed on with greater ardor and a firmer step than her sister parishes. The time for action had arrived, and the irresolution of fear had no place in their decisive councils. Alone she stood, a Pharos of liberty in England's most loyal province, renouncing every fellowship that savored not of freedom, and refusing every luxury which contributed to ministerial coffers. With a halter around her neck and a gallows before her eyes, she severed herself from surrounding associations, and cast her lot, while as yet all was gloom and darkness, with the fortunes of her country, to live with her rights or to die for their defence. Proud spot of Georgia's soil! Well does it deserve the appellation (Liberty county) which a grateful State conferred upon it; and truly may we say of its sons, in the remembrance of their patriotic services, "nothing was wanting to their glory, they were wanting to ours."

"At

Dr. Hall appeared at Philadelphia on the third day of the session of 1775 (13th May), and was admitted as a delegate. On that day Congress was composed of the representatives of the twelve United Colonies, and Dr. Lyman Hall, the deputy from the Parish of St. John's. The patriotic example was soon followed by the colony, and four delegates, of whom Dr. Hall was one, were in the course of a few weeks deputed to Philadelphia. In this way, and by the strange sequence of events which pervades our history, the pious zeal of a few humble Christians of our ancient town, in 1695, was the remote cause that the great empire State of the south, then in its infancy, was represented at the opening of the Congress of 1775.