JOHN DAVENPORT.

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merchant in the city of New York. The following reveals the story of his conversion while in college: "The year 1802, will ever be remembered in the history of the college for the extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the institution. . . . Among those who shared in this blessed work of salvation, was John A. Davenport."

THOMAS DAWES.

REPRESENTATIVE IN MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL COURT, 1777.*

THOMAS DAWES was born in Boston in 1731; died there January 2, 1809.

He received a common school education, and became an architect.

By a full vote of the inhabitants of Boston, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in the General Court in the year 1777; was advanced to a seat in the Senate; finally was elected a member of the Council, and held this position a long term of years. By the death of Lieutenant-Governor Gill, then the Chief Magistrate of the State, he became President of the Council, and for a time was the first acting Magistrate in the Commonwealth. He was an Elector at the three first elections of President of the United States.

"At the age of threescore years and ten, he saw fit to decline being a candidate for office, and gave public notice of the intention. He gradually withdrew from many other public engagements, observing among other reasons, that at such an advanced age, it was fit that the business of the present world should give way to the more interesting concerns of the future." By the Records of the Old South Church, Boston, "Mr. Dawes was baptized by the Rev. Dr. Sewall in that church in August, 1731. He was admitted as a member in full communion in 1749, being in his nineteenth year. In 1787, he was chosen a Deacon, in which he continued upwards of twenty-one years."

* Address by Rev. Dr. Eckley; " Panoplist," 1809; Drake; Allen.

The interior of the Old South Church being destroyed by British troops during the Revolutionary war, Mr. Dawes drew the plan for repairs.

His son, Thomas, graduated at Harvard College, entered the law, and in 1802, received the appointment of Judge of the Municipal Court of Boston, which he held twenty years.

JEREMIAH DAY.

REPRESENTATIVE IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF CONNECTICUT, 1766 AND 1767.*

ROBERT DAY, early ancestor of Jeremiah, emigrated from England in 1634; settled first in Cambridge, Mass., and removed to Hartford, Conn. His wife was Editha, sister of Deacon Edward Stebbins. Both were exemplary members of the church in Hartford under the pastoral care of Rev. Thomas Hooker, and Rev. Samuel Stone.

Thomas Day, father of Jeremiah, married Mary Wells, of Colchester, Conn., removed to Sharon in or about the year 1755, engaged in farming, and lived to the age of eighty-two.

Jeremiah Day was born at Colchester, January 25, 1737, died September 12, 1806.

When a boy he worked on his father's farm, and attended school during the winter months. He graduated at Yale College in 1756, taught school in Sharon for a year, and then commenced the study of Divinity with Rev. Joseph Bellamy. After studying a year and a half, he again taught school.

In 1763 he inherited a valuable farm on Sharon Mountain, where he settled and divided his time between study and agricultural labor.

He became Selectman of the town of Sharon, and in October, 1766, again in May, 1767, he represented the town in the General Assembly of the Colony.

Afflictions came, and he renewed his attention to theological studies under the direction of Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Sharon, and was ordained pastor of the church at New Preston,

*"Sprague's Annals," v. 1; Appleton.

January 31, 1770. In the fall of 1788 he made a missionary tour to Vermont. Here he found the home of Thomas Chittenden, now Governor of the State, with whom he had twenty years before been associated in legislative duties. He kept a journal, which is still preserved, and may hereafter be considered a valuable document in the history of missions. In the fall of 1794 he made a tour to New York and Pennsylvania; was absent nine weeks, and preached fifty times. "Though not an animated orator, he was a solemn and impressive preacher. Always humble and exemplary, he appeared to be filled with love to the souls of men." He was a fair man in his deal.

He was three times married. First to Sarah Mills, of Kent, sister to the clergymen, Samuel, John and Edward, and sister to the wife of his college classmate, Rev. Joel Bordwell, of Kent; second, to Lucy Wood, of Danbury; third, to Abigail, daughter of Stephen Noble, of New Milford, and widow of Rev. Sylvanus Osborn. By her he had five children, four sons and a daughter. Jeremiah graduated at Yale College; was President of that institution from 1817 to 1846; was the author of important mathematical works which found place as text-books in schools and colleges. Thomas, another son, is brought forward in the following sketch.

Mr. Day published several sermons, among them, "The Wisdom of God in the Permission of Sin," 1774.