Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 44, 1888

Educational

Initial Status. - It has been said that the Plymouth Colony had only one University man, the Elder Brewster, while the Massachusetts Bay Colony was noted for its men of wealth, social position and education. Ipswich, in this respect, was a representative town - not a whit behind the metropolis in mental and educational influence and ability. She understood and appreciated the value of a varied learning practical and polite, of a thorough knowledge of home arts and social culture, and of the acquisition of ancient history, literature and tongues; and to this end she was willing to contribute, even to a sacrifice, to obtain them.

Why Latin ? - It may be asked why our forefathers so valued a knowledge of the ancient languages, especially the Latin, as to give them immediate attention. Doubtless they studied them for the same reasons we do to-day, but we apprehend that they did then chiefly because they were intensely English ; and on that ground anything that did not conflict with or savor of religious tenets must be intensely English also. The Latin language, at that time, was in its old age, only dead in the sense that it had passed the period of its growth. It may be said to have been the language of the time, the English tongue sharply vying with it for the supremacy. It embodied the laws of the realm and Biblical exegesis, and scientific essays and important documents were presented in it. The learned addressed their compeers in public assemblies, and statecraft was orally discussed in its elegant phrases. Queen Elizabeth spoke it, and Lord Bacon, " the great glory of literature," composed most of his writings in it. The devotion, benefactions and labors of our emigrant ancestors in the matter of schools excites not our wonder so much as our gratitude. The kind and degree of learning at their native homes must be the kind and degree here, so far as practicable; and while the exigences of the occasion made the family a school in the rudiments, and the mother the teacher, a grammar school, in the English sense, was early established for preparing young men for college.

The Grammar School. - According to the records, a grammar school was "set up '' in 1636, and Lionel Chute appears to have been the teacher. The record further states that the school did "not succeed." It began some two years after the incorporation of the town, and the young town doubtless made no appropriation for its support. Its success would have been phenomenal. Mr. Chute died in 1644 or '45.

The School Endowed. - This attempt of Master Chute was followed by "several overtures and endeavors among the inhabitants for settling a Grammar School," which failed to realize their object, as did he. The spirit of education, however, had taken possession of the public mind, and when about 1649, Robert Paine, the leading spirit in the endeavor, off"ered to " erect an edifice for the purpose, provided the town or any particular inhabitant of the town would devote, sett apart or give any land or other annuity for the yearly maintenance of such one as should be fitt to keep a Grammar School." The town accordingly, January 11, 1650, granted to Robert Paine, Mr. William Paine, Major Denison and Mr. Bartholomew in trust " for the use of schools all that neck beyond Chebacco River and the rest of the ground (up to Gloucester line) adjoining to it." Soon after this the Jand Avas leased to John Cogswell, his heirs and assigns, for the space of one thousand years, at an annual rental of fourteen pounds. The tenants began to build upon the land as early as 1723, and a part of the village of Essex now occupies a large portion of it, and the rent continues to be paid.

The citizens are now fully awake to the occasion, and give body, shape and purpose to the enterprise by ordaining, January 26, 1651, the following:

" The Feoffees. - For the better ordering of the school and the affairs thereof, Mr. Simonds, Mr. Roggers, Mr. Norton, Maj. Denison, Mr. Robert Paine, Mr. William Paine, Mr. Hubbard, Dea. Whipple, Mr. Bartholomew were chosen a committee to receive all such sums of money as have or shall be given toward the building or maintaining of a Grammar School and school-master, and to disburse find dispose sucli sums as are given to provide a school-house and school-master's house eitlier in building or purchasing the said house with all convenient speed. And such sums of mone3-, parcels of land, rents or annuities as are or shall be given towards to the maintenance of a school-master they shall receive and dispose of to the school-master that tliey sliall call or choose to that oflSce from time to time to his maintenance, which tliey have power to enlarge by appointing from year to year what each scholar shall yearly or quarterly pay or proportionately ; who shall also have full power to regulate all matters concerning the school-master and scholars, as in their wisdom they think meet from time to time ; who shall also consider the best way to make provisions for teaching to write and cast accounts."

In 1652 Mr. Robert Paine purchased a house, with two acres of land belonging to it, for the use of the school-master, and in 1653, at his own expense, as per agreement, erected an edifice upon the land for the grammar school, and October 4, 1683, he and his wife gave the house and land to the town for the school's use. About the same time Mr. William Hubbard gave about an acre of land adjoining the school-master's house. In 1650 Mr. John Cross " secured " on his farm near Rowley a perpetual annuity of ten shillings towards a free school in the town. In 1696 the town grants ten acres of marsh at Castle Neck. These gifts were sold by order of the General Court in 1836, and netted the ftoffees about three thousand two hundred dollars. In 1660 Mr. William Paine gave the land near the mouth of ihe river called Little Neck. In 1661 "the barn erected by Ezekiel Cheever and the orchard planted by him were, after his removal to Charlestown, bought by the feollVes,'' as the trustees were then and have since been called, and presented by them for the school-master's use or for rent.

We can hardly say too much in praise of the exertions, devotion, benefactions and leading spirit of the original donor of this school, Mr. Robert Paine. He was timely, efficient, provident, public-spirited, noble, wealthy, generous. Of a hundred and fiftyfive subscriptions " to encourage Major Denison in his military helpfulness," Mr. Paine's was the largest, to be paid annually. Pie was a ruling elder in the church, ranking next to the minister. He was representative three years. He was county trea>urer from 1665 till his resignation in 1683, the year before he died, at the age of eighty-three years.

William Paine, brother of the above, seems to have been wealthy and active for the public good. He removed to Boston about 1656, where he died October 10, 1660. He was buried in the Granary Cemetery, and his tombstone forms a part of the basement wall of the Athenseum. Besides his liberal bequest to our Grammar School, he gave twenty pounds to Harvard College.

Boston in 1630, and settled in this town in 1635. He was representative six years between 1638 and 1646. In 1651 he was commissioned to solemnize marriages, clergymen at that time being denied such authority. He removed to Boston in 1662, where he died in 1670. He left a large estate. Two of his children, Richard and William, the historian and colleague of Rev. Mr. Norton in our pulpit, were professors of the school.

The Board of Feoffees consisted originally of nine members ; in 1662 the town voted that the number be "increased to nine." In 1664 the number was ten, but after the death of Robert Paine, Jr., the number never appears greater than nine. The town by vote, April 7, 1687, ordered the selectmen to obtain deeds of all the school lands, that they may know the power the feoffees have to order the schools ; and May 19th, of the same year, voted that the former feoffees now living (Rev. William Hubbard, Robert Paine and Elder and Captain John Appleton) with the selectmen shall manage the schools till further action by the town. If this vote was inoperative or effective we know not. Vacancies in the board seem to have been filled by the remaining members without reference to any action of the town. Their history for the colonial period seems to have been only the routine work of the school.

The First Master. - The first master of the school was Ezekiel Cheevei-. He kept it ten years. He then removed to Charlestown and afterwards to Boston, where he was master of the Boston Latin School. He was born in London, England, January 25, 1615, and died in Boston August 25, 1708, at the great age of ninety-three years and seven months, after seventy years of tedious labor as school -master.

In six years from the opening of the school this town had six students in Harvard College. They were Robert Paine, son of the founder of the school ; John Emerson, son of Thomas, and afterwards minister of Gloucester; Nathaniel Saltonstall, son of Richard, and afterwards minister of Haverhill ; Ezekiel, Rogers, son of Rev. Nathaniel; Samuel Cheever, son of the master ; Samuel Belcher, son of Jeremy, minister of the Isle of Shoals and later of Newbury. Other pupils of Master Cheever's, who were students in Harvard, vvere William Wittingham, son of John ; Samuel Cobbett, son of Rev. Thomas ; and Samuel Symonds, son of the deputy-governor.

Mr. Cheever's successor was Thomas Andrews, who began August 1, 1660, and kept it twenty-three years. During this time Ipswich sent to Harvard College Samuel Bishop ; Samuel and Daniel Epes, sons of Daniel ; John Norton, son of William and nephew of Rev. John; John Rogers, son of President John of Harvard ; John Denison, son of John and grandson of General Daniel, and pastor-elect of this church; Francis Wainwright; and Daniel Rogers? another son of the president, and many years master of the school. Mr. Andrews died July 10, 1683, and

Mr. Noadiah Eussell, of Cambridge, succeeded Mr. Andrews, and took charge of the school October 31, 1683. He was a graduate of Harvard in 1681. He continued master of the school till his resignation February 23, 1686-87, when he was succeeded by Mr. Daniel Rogers.

Mr. Rogers' mastership completed the colonial period and began the provincial, probably from 1687 to 1715. It was during his service, also, that the old school-house was abandoned, having been the subject of extensive repairs several times, and the new rooms in the court and town-house occupied, which change was made about 1704.

From Mr. Rogers' tuition fifteen pupils entered Harvard College, among whom were John Wade, son of Colonel Thomas; Francis Goodhue, son of Deacon William; Jeremiah and Henry Wise, sons of Rev. John ; John Perkins, son of Abraham ; William Burnham, who became a minister; Benjamin Choate, son of John; Francis and John Wainwright; John Denison, son of Rev. John ; Nathaniel Appleton, son of Colonel John, and afterwards minister of Cambridge; and Francis Cogswell, son of Jonathan.

Made a Free School. - The town and feoffees agreed April 8, 1714, to make the Grammar School for the present year " absolutely free to all such scholars belonging 10 the town." The town appropriated twenty-five pounds and chose a committee, who with the feoffees, provided a master, who shall attend "constantly in teaching grammar scholars and also English scholars, to perfect them in reading and instruct them in writing and ciphering." Master Rogers is sketched as registrar of probate.

Ebenezer Gay, who graduated at Harvard in 1714, was the next teacher for one year, and had a salary of fifty-six pounds. He was afterwards the celebrated Dr. Gay, of Hingham. He was followed by Mr. Thomas Norton, who was master in 1716. He was a deacon. His son, Thomas, graduated at Harvard in 1725, and taught this school ten years, 1729-39, under the direction of the selectmen.

Benjamin Crocker took the school June 4, 1717, at a salary of eighty pounds, old tenor, and left it November, 1719 [1718?]. He taught afterwards two years, 1746-47, at a salary of one hundred pounds, old tenor, and again two years, 1759-60. He graduated at Harvard in 1713. He was feoffee 1749-64; he occasionally preached. Deacon John, of the First Church, was his son.

Revolution in School. - At this date began the period of contention and revolution in the school. For the encouragement of the school the town voted, May 8, 1718, to make up sixty pounds to the school, if necessary, after the collection of rents and a tuition of twenty shillings per scholar, for that year. The selectmen, it was voted November 5, 1718, shall provide " with all convenient speed " a master for the rest of the present year. The town chose a committee February 9, 1719, to eject the tenants of the great farm, leased to John Cogswell, and release it for a period not exceeding twenty-one years. Rev. John Rogers and Rev. Jabez Fitch enter their protests. The dissatisfaction seems to be " especially of the younger sort." The town voted June 6, 1720, to hire a grammar school teacher; and also chose a committee to recover the great farm, and re-lease it for twenty-one years. The town thus took control of the school and the school property ; the feoffees entered their protest in their records and retired. The tenants of the great farm took advantage of the quarrel and refused to pay the rent till it might be determined who was entitled to receive it. The town January 4, 1720-21, constituted John Wainwright, Ens. George Hart and Mr. Thomas Boardman trustees, to eject all persons in l^ossession of school lands, but failed in the Court of Common Pleas March, 1722, to establish their claim. An inadvertence of the clerk failed to enter their appeal to the Superior Court, and Sarah, the widow of John Cogswell, still held possession.

In 1721 the town brought ati action at law against the tenants of the school farm, and in 1729 Gifford Cogswell is ordered to pay £100 in adjustment of the claims, which sum was apportioned to the several parts of the town according to their proportion of the Province tax, whence dates the beginning of the district school system.

Reading and Writing School. - The above appropriation of £100 probably lasted about three years ; but no other is recorded till after the town is required, April 26, 1739, to answer to the Court of General Sessions, for not maintaining a Reading and Writing School according to law. Then, March 4, 1739-40, the town appropriated £150 for both the grammar and the reading and writing schools, put them under one teacher and began the practice of moving them at the judgment of the selectmen. The appropriations were thus applied while the town had control of the school property.

Incorporation. - In 1749 Jonathan Wade was the only survivor of ihe feoffees, and February 10th, of that year, he filled the vacancies by appointments ; but in 1756, the General Court incorporated Thomas Berry, Daniel Appleton and Samuel Rogers, E«qs., with Mr. Benjamin Crocker, on the part of the private persons who granted lands for the school, together with Francis Wash, Esq., Capt. Nathaniel Treadwell and Mr. John Patch, Jr., three of the board of selectmen of the town, a Joint Committee, or Feoffees in Trust, with full power to grant leases, recover rents and annuities, appoint masters, regulate their salaries, appoint clerk and treasurer and if necessary, impose a tuition. The act was limited to ten years ; it was, at the end of the period, continued twenty-one years ; and at the end of that period, or February 14, 1787, it was made perpetual, the feoffees representing private persons filling vacancies in their

Masters. - Mr. Henry Wise was the first master in the employ of the selectmen. He accepted the trust June 20, 1720, and continued eight years. His salary was £55. Thomas Norton, Jr., before mentioned, succeeded and continued ten years. After him was Daniel Staniford, a graduate of Harvard in 1788, who continued five years, 1740-45. He was master of both schools, at a salary of £80. He was afterwards a successful merchant ; and also a Representative three years. His successor was Benjamin Crocker, above mentioned, who taught two years, 1746-47, at a salary of £150. John Dennis taught in 1753, for the school rents. In 1754 the town claimed to have conducted the affairs of the school for more than twenty years ; yet she practically relinquished the school at the close of Mr. Crocker's mastership.

Under the act of incorporation, the first master was Samuel Wigglesworth, son of Rev. Samuel of the Hamlet. He graduated at Harvard in 1752, and taught the school two years, 1757-58. His salary Avas £40. He afterwards practiced medicine. Benjamin Crocker, before mentioned, taught two years, 1759- 00. Joseph How succeeded and taught one year. 17G1. His salary was £33 (is. 8c/. He graduated at Harvard in 1758, married Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Thomas Berry and died March 26, 1762, at the age of twenty-five, and his wife May 6, 1759, at the age of twenty-two years. Daniel Noyes, who is sketched in " Registrars of Probate," kejit the school thirteen years, 1762-73 and 1780, at a salary of £46 13s. 4g?. Thomas Burnham, a graduate of Harvard, in 1722, kept the school five years from 1774, at a salary of £50, and than entered the army, where he attained the rank of major. After the war he taught six years, 178()-91 ; then one year, 1793 ; then eleven years, 1807-17, when, in 1815, the income was $205.- 78, a total service of twenty-three years. Nathaniel Dodge, a graduate of Harvard in 1777, taught two years, 1779 and '84. Jacob Kimball, a graduate of Harvard in 1780, taught one year, 1781. Rev. John Treadwell, a graduate of Harvard in 1758, taught two years, 1783 and '85. Daniel and Joseph Dana, graduates of Dartmouth College in 1788, taught two years, 1792 and '93 respectively, at a salary of £65. Samuel Dana, a brother of the above Daniel and Joseph, and son of Rev. Joseph, of the South Parish, and a grjiduate of Harvard in 1796, taught three years, 1797-99, when, in 1797, the income was $139.66. Joseph McKean, a graduate of Harvard in 1794, taught three years, 1794-96. His salary was £80. He became a minister and a professor in Harvard College. Amos Choate, a graduate of Harvard in 1795, taught seven years, 1800-6. He was afterwards registrar of deeds for the county. George Choate, a graduate of Harvard in 1818, taught four years, 1818-21. Richard Kimball taught nine weeks in 1822, " for the income of the school lauds." Charles Choate, son of Hon. John, taught in 1823-24 on the same terms. Stephen Coburn taught in 1825 ; Richard Kimball in 1826, when the income was $165.23 ; James W. Ward in 1827; Nathan Brown in 1828; Daniel Perley in 1829; David Tenney Kimball, Jr., in 1830; Joseph Hale in 1831-33, when, in 1831, the income was $163.61 ; TolmanWilley in 1834 ; Dan Weed, Jr., in 1835-40 ; Ebenezer S. Stevens in [1841 ; Dan Weed, Jr,, in 1842-45 ; George W. Tewks- HURY in 1846 ; Ezra W. Gale in 1847-48; Caleb Lamson in 1849. Arrangements were made) with Rev. John P. Cowles, of the Seminary, to instruct the grammar scholars, at forty cents a week, per capita, 1850 ; then with the town for a High School, wherein Benjamin P. Chute taught, 1851-52; Joseph A. Shores, 1853-56 ; Issachar Lefavour, of Beverly, 1856-74. In 1874, when the present Manning School was established, the feoffees arranged with the trustees and town, to meet the obligation of the enfeoflment, and pradicalhj have contributed since then three hundred dollars annually.

Present Value of the Fund. - The condition of this trust, March 28, 1887, according to the treasurer's report, was as follows: "26| old rights in Jeffrey's Neck, 2 house-lots in Revere, school-farm in Essex, Little Neck, deposit in Savings Bank, town notes, Lynn water-bond and cash, valued at $11,514, and yielding an income of about $500."

The school has been practically in the control of the town from a very early period, by right, assumption, or agreement, and since 1851 has been popularly called the Ipswich Nigh School. Along near the close of the first century, and again near the close of the second, it was less efficient than at other times ; and ]>erhaps, on the whole, has not attained to the very high distinction hoped for by its founders, yet it has been a permanent good always, and most of the time of excellent worth. The trust is now rapidly growing in pecuniary value, and wisely managed, as now, will be in the future a large and efficient educational support.

The Manning School

The Founder. - This school was established in 1874. Dr. Thomas Manning, from whom it took its name, was the founder. He was son of Dr. John Manning who died in 1824, at the age of eighty- six years, after a long, useful, public service, especially given - aside from his professional service - to the cause of education. Dr. Thomas inherited his father's sterlinao qualities, his generous public spirit, and perchance excelled him. He was devoted to the prosperity of the town, energetic in advancing her business interests, and, when in age he bethought him " to set his house in order," as a crowning service of his life, he devoted the greater part of his ample fortune to the purpose of establishing "a High School in the town of Ipswich, which should be free to the youth of the town of both sexes."

He was born February 7, 1774, and died February 3,1854. He gave the property to Richard H. Manning, of Brooklyn, Francis C. Manning, of Boston - brothers - and Francis H. Blanchard, of Waltham, in trust, and provided that the school-house should be built and the school begun in the year of the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, the cost not to exceed one-third of the devise.

improperly influenced the making his will, which made what was thought by many an inadequate provision for him, and he contested it, and it was disallowed. The son then paid all the minor bequests, and, to carry out the views of his father, generously gave the trustees, in 1857, about one-third of the remainder, the sum of $10,000.

Here Mr. Blanchard declined to serve and Mr. Otis Kimball was elected to the vacancy. The board thus constituted made and declared the deed of trust. In 1869 Mr. F. C. Manning died, and Mr. Joseph Ross, of Ipswich, was elected to his place ; and in April, 1874, Dr. Y. G. Hurd was appointed a trustee in place of Otis Kimball, who had then died. About thi." time Otis Kimball, Jr., was elected.

Other Bequests. - When the century was nearly completed and the house was to be built, and the fund was fonnd too small to meet the desired end, providentially came to hand the generous bequest of $4000 from Dr. Joseph Green Cogswell, of New York and Cambridge, one of Ipswich's most distinguished sons and a gentleman of unusual scholarly attainments. About this time, too, one of the trustee Mr. Richard H. Manning, contributed the princely sum of $15,000. The present condition of the trust, exclusive of the buildings and land, which cost $32,000, is about $40,000.

The House and Appointments. - The school -house is a two-story, square structure, with mansard roof, and has rooms for cabinets, apparatus and recitations, and on the third floor, a spacious and serviceable hall. The architectural design was by Edward R. Brown; the interior design, by George W. Archer; the trustee supervision of the work, by Joseph Ross and Dr. Y. G. Hurd; and the design of the furniture, by Joseph L. Ross - all Ipswich men.

The cabinets illustrative of natural history and mineralogy, and the apparatus for chemical and philosophical experiments are excellent. In 1842 Mr. Abraham Hammatt donated to the school his pri - vate cabinet of minerals, which, with additions presented by friends of the school, is now large, choice and well arranged.

Its Dedication. - Thus the trustees were enabled to meet the desire of the founder in establishing the school. It was dedicated in the afternoon of Wednesday, August 26, 1874. The exercises were conducted by the trustees and the school committee of the town, and consisted of addresses, the reading of a paper on the Genealogy of the Manning Family, and music. The president of the trustees, in his opening addresses, remarked: "The noble legacies of the dead and more noble gifts of the living have completed and furnished a structure which the citizens of Ipswich may look upon with grateful pride and satisfaction."

Mr. R. H. Manning, secretary and treasurer of the trustees, on the same occasion said, that the equipments of the school were ample to prepare students for professional studies, but its special object was " to lay the foundation, and do what time and opportunity may allow towards the superstructure of a useful education of all the children of the town." " The school has but little to do with regularly organized religious matters." It was open for " all who are qualified to receive its instructions without distinction of sex, color, race or religion." " While, therefore, it will be quite within its province to do much for those who intend to make literary pursuits the business of their lives, its purpose will rather be to provide an education which, through its general influence as well as by its special teaching, shall tend to make all who receive it able to perform the common duties and enjoy the common blessings of life ; to make them better observers and thinkers, and consequently better farmers, engineers and men of business; and also, by laying a good foundation, better lawyers and doctors and ministers and statesmen ; and above all, better neighbors and citizens; better and manlier men and better and more womanly women."

The Principals. - The teachers have been Martin H. Fiske, 1874-80; George N. Cross, 1881-82; A. M. Osgood, 1883-84; and George M. Smith, the present incumbent. The school has graduated one hundred and twenty-three pupils, and is now, more than ever, growing in popular favor and influence.

The Trustees. - The Board of Trustees, as at present constituted, is Dr. Yorick G. Hurd, president ; Richard H. Manning, secretary and treasurer ; Joseph Ross, Otis Kimball and Theodore F. Cogswell.

Richard Henry Manning.^ - The subject of this sketch was born in Ipswich, February 1, 1809. His name at first was Henry. It was after his father's death, which occurred in 1815, that he assumed his name. His mother, whose maiden-name was Lydia Pearson, died when he was only a few months old, and soon after he was taken home by his grandfather. Dr. John Manning, and his wife, Lucy Bolles, with whom his father also lived until his death. The grandfather was a leading jiioneer of woolen manufacturing in Massachusetts, if not the first. The father also engaged in this business in the old building which stood where the " Caldwell Block" now stands. A good mathematician and surveyor, he was, for one winter at least, master of the district school, and his little son, six years old when his father died, was subject to his instruction. The death of his grandmother, with whom his early years were very happy, consigned him to the care of his paternal aunts, whose good intentions sometimes failed of meeting the requirements of the sensitive and growing boy. It was probably on this account that he acceded to their plan for sending him to Dummer Academy, in Byfield, where the preceptor was Nehemiah Cleavelaud, who had married his cousin, Abby P. Manning. But it was a heart-breaking business to leave his grandfather, who had been very kind to him and to whom he was verj'^ necessary, and he dared not trust himself to say good-bye, but stole away early in the morning. The experience entered on so painfully was very beneficial, Mr. and Mrs. Cleaveland proving admirable directors of his studies and helping the formation of his character with affectionate and judicious guidance of his habits and his tastes. To a period of repression succeeded a period of genial growth. " I have often thought," he wrote not long before his death, "that if I had grown up from early childhood with more sunshine and less wind, I should not have wrapped the cloak of reserve so closely about me, and might have been less censorious, of gentler and more considerate speech, and altogether a more agreeable member of society." But if he ever was censorious, harsh, or inconsiderate, it must have been at a period to which the memory of his later friends did not go back.

In 1825, after about eighteen months at Byfield, his school-days came to an end, and on the day before the laying of the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument, June 24th, he entered on his business life in Boston, which continued with a single change of employers till he removed to Philadelphia in 1831. At this time his intellectual tendency of mind and earnestness of character had already sensibly declared themselves. With no taste for dissipation, refusing the summer evening punch and winter Sunday toddy proffered by his employer, in whose family he lived, he devoted his leisure hours to the reading of wellchosen books and to various literary exercises under the auspices of the Mercantile Ijibrary Association, of which he was a director. He was a lover of the poets as well as of the historians and novelists, and could " drop into poetry " himself upon occasion, once keej)ing up for some time a tilt of verse, incognito, with Mrs. Frances Osgood, not unknown to fame; and he never got to be so practical or scientific but that he could revert to this early habit. He was fond of revising the hymns sung at church in accordance with his scientific predilections, and he often turned a graceful rhyme to bless some birthday festival or other happy anniversary of home and friends.

Within a year after his going to Philadelphia he became a partner in the firm of Farnsworth & Manning? and the confidence with which he had inspired his employer in Boston was evidenced by his willingnesB to go security for him to the amount of several thousand dollars. In Boston he had not taken kindly to the Unitarianism of his employer, but in Philadelphia, coming under the influence of Dr. Furncss, he became an ardent Unitarian, and with increasing liberality and growing satisfaction in rationalistic and scientific methods, he remained a Unitarian until his death, connected for the last thirty-five years of his life with the Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., of which he was a trustee for several terms and in which he was always greatly loved and honored for the wisdom of his counsels and the goodness of his heart. It was during his stay in Philadelphia that he made the acquaintance of Frances Augusta Moore, who became his wife Jan. 15, 1835, and died in March, 1839 leaving a daughter Adeline. Mr. Manning was again married, Nov. 7, 1840, to Sarah P. Swan, who died leaving a daughter Sarah, Dec. 21, 1841. The domestic happiness, twice laid in ruins, was again renewed June 29. 1843, when he married Mary D. Weeks, who remained until his death the fit companion of his earnest purpose and generous heart. They never wearied in " devising liberal things" forthoseof their own household and for many far and near who were in need of such encouragement and help as they could give. The children of this marriage were Henry Swan and Mary Channing, and their children, with those of the daughter Sarah, were the crowning happiness of Mr. Manning's later life. Through all the vicissitudes of his domestic life, from 1835 until her death, in 1880, his sister Elizabeth was a member of his family, with a mother-heart for all his children and a helping hand for every needful work. Mr. Manning's business life in New York had hardly begun when the great fire of 1835 and the financial crash of 1836 gave a sudden check to his incipient prosperity. With a courageous heart he set out again, this time alone, as a dry-goods jobber, and he remained in the same business till 1851, with two or three different partners at different times. After a year of leisure, he entered into partnership with William C. Squier, of the New Jersey Zinc Company. In 1855, with the same partner, he took the selling agency of the Passaic Zinc Company, and made no further change for the remainder of his active business life, which terminated only four years before his death. His partner testifies, that in the thirtytwo years of their connection, they never had one hour's misunderstanding or one word of anger or reproach. His year of leisure, 1851, was marked by one of the most agreeable and characteristic episodes of his career. For some years he had been deeply interested in the teachings of Fourier and other writers upon social reorganization. With others, he had induced the Rev. William Henry Channing to come to Brooklyn as minister of a society wholly free from any conventional limitations. Mr. Channing was profoundly interested in social questions and stirred up a generous enthusiasm for them in the minds of his hearers. For two or three years there was a series of parlor meetings, at which the times and the eternities were discussed with equal warmth. To these meetings came many able men and women - Horace Greeley not the least among them, and Margaret Fuller, in Mr. Manning's estimation, the greatest ; or, at any rate, the ablest talker. For several months she was a member of his family, while on the staff of the New York Tribune. In the summer of 1850 Mr. Manning boarded at the North American Phalanx, the New York " Brook Farm," with several friends and their families. The doctrines of social reorganization which he had been brooding on so long, were thus practically tested, and the result was so assuring that in 1851 he built a cottage on the Phalanx grounds and spent the summer there. This was the episode to which we have referred. Mr. Manning always maintained that the failure of the movement was owing more to accidental circumstances than to intrinsic causes, and held to the necessity for changes in our present social order in the direction of co-operative life.

at all times relations of kinship and affection with many Ipswich Iblks ; but that which brought him into the closest and most gratifying contact with his former townsmen was his connection with the "Manning School." His uncle, Dr. Thomas Manning, dying in 1854, left nearly all his moderate fortune in trust to liim, his brother Francis and Francis H. Blanchard, of Waltham, for th-e establishment and maintenance of a High School in Ipswich. The will was contested by the only son of Dr. Manning and it was disallowed by the Probate Court. But after the son had paid all the minor beciuests of the will, he gave one-third of the sum remaining, about ten thousand dollars, to the trustees named in the will, with which to carry out his father's wishes. As only one-third could be spent for the building, it seemed best not to build until investment had considerably increased the sum in hand. The investment was made by Mr. R. H, Manning, and so successfully, that in 1874 the original sum had increased to more than forty thousand dollars, and then the bonds representing the whole amount were stolen by a thief, who had followed Mr. Manning into his ottice. The loss of no other money could have been so hard, but though his cheek was for a moment blanched, the next morning (New Year's day) he made his usual round 6f calls with his habitual cheerfulness. Of the stolen money, he at length recovered tlie larger part. What could not be recovered, he made up ; adding to this a sum which, with a bequest made in his will, constitutes an amount more than double that originally in hand. These were the benefactions of a man of moderate means, of whom a friend has said that "he was wisely economical, in order that he might be nobly generous." But he gave the school more and better than money. He gave a well-selected library, into the choice of which he put hundreds of thoughtful hours. He gave his constant oversight and private counsel, and several times some well-considered public word in furtherance of the cause he had so much at heart.

Mr. Manning apprehended his position as a citizen ill the most serious manner. He was always deeply interested in State and national politics and in questions of municipal reform. His anti-slavery sentiments dated from the beginning of the great debate. Horace Greeley had no more honored friend, and he made him one of the administrators of his will. He was a stanch Republican, and when the ordeal of battle succeeded to the strife of words, he was proud to have a soldier-son, and with the co-operation of his wife and sister, did what he could for the alleviation of the suffering and sorrow of the time. His connection with civil service reform was close and earnest from the start, and the last public duty he assumed (but did not live to perform) was that of an examiner under the civil service rules. His last illness began October 25th and he died Nov. 2d, 1887.

the fortunate and happy who could bring their health and cheer, but for those who had been bruised and maimed in life's hard fray. Madame Zulavsky, an exile from Hungary, the sister of Louis Kossuth, had her last sickness here. The gravity of Mr. Manning's mind and character attracted to him many wise and noble spirits. He had a genius for friendship, and his friends were often persons of exceptional ability and worth. Horace Greeley and Margaret Fuller have been already named. Samuel Johnson, the Salem thinker and reformer, was another. Professor E. Ij. Youmans, with whose scientific thought he was entirely sympathetic, was perhaps the closest of them all But he did not demand high culture and ability from all his friends. To be simple and sincere and kind was a sufficient claim on his regard ; or to be in need of any help that he could give. He had a gift for doing

An " advanced thinker '' always, he never lost the art of sweet, old-fashioned courtesy. He was remarkable for the comprehensiveness and balance of his powers. With great practical ability he united an admirable gift for speculative thought, and while thus profoundly intellectual, he was pre-eminently a "man of sentiment," without ever Iteing sentimental. His feelings were extremely sensitive and warm. And so it was that, however admirable in every wider sphere, it was in his home-life that he revealed his most essential character. He wrote such letters as men used to write when as yet there was no penny post. They were not often long, but they were always carefully considered and gracefully expressed. For other forms of literary expression he was well equipped. His printed speeches and addresses and the papers that he published upon various subjects, though but few, are evidence that if he had devoted himself exclusively to a life of thought and literary exja-ession, he might have won an enviable fame. But there is nothing to regret. He could have done no better than to show by his example that a life of constant and exacting business cares can be conjoined with intellectual pursuits and noble charities and genial fellowship, and such social usefulness as is still alive and operative when the places that have known us know us no more forever.

The District Schools

Origin. - This system has been the growth of years and exigencies. In 1642 the town voted that there be a free school. Such a school was to teach " reading, writing and cyphering." In 1664 Mr. Andrews was invited to teach. In 1695 Nathaniel Rust, Jr., taught at Chebacco, and the following year was invited to settle as master. la 1702 Chebacco was allowed to erect a school-house on the common, and in 1713 William Giddings was master there. In 1714 the town voted to have a school in the watch-house, and in 1719 it was used for the same purpose. William SoNE, a fisherman, by reason of sickness, was granted a room in the Almshouse for a school. The

Hamlet voted March 10, 1730, to build a school-house for their accommodation ; and on the 30th the town appropriated one hundred pounds for three masters for the First, Chebacco and Hamlet Parishes. This was the sum paid by Giffbrd Cogswell in settlement of the Grammar School claim. The First Parish had £41, the Hamlet committee £20, the Chebacco committee £20, Mark How for West Parish (afterwards Linebrook) £4 18s. 9(1, Moses Davis for his neighborhood £6 lis. 10c?., and Deacon Fellows for his neighborhood £2 4.?., thus outlining the present district system. The selectmen, May 22, 1732, engaged Henry Spil- LAR to teach, and granted him the use of one end of the Almshouse for that purpose.

;: Supervision. - The committee of the First Parish agreed with him to teach a quarter for eight pounds. No further appropriation was made till ordered by the Court of General Sessions, when, 1740, the Grammar School (which see) and the reading and writing schools were served together. In 1742 eighteen pounds of the school rents, old tenor, were "adjudged " to each Chebacco and Hamlet, and twentyeight pounds of said rents, old tenor, " to those jxirts of the First Parish as have least benefit from the Grammar School," and the same year the selectmen were to visit the schools once a quarter, and invite the minister to attend with them, the germ of our present committee supervision.

In 1743 a committee of five were chosen to visit the schools, as often as they thought proper, and inquire into the conduct of the master and the behavior of the scholars, and report to the town. In 1756 the town appropriated two hundred and fifty pounds, old tenor, for a master who was to be employed three months and two weeks at Chebacco, three months and two weeks at the Hamlet, two months at Linebrook, and otherwise as directed by the selectmen. This amount and plan of appropriation continued a number of years.

In 1761 the General Court authorized the sale of school rights in Birch Island, Bush Hill, Bartholomew Hill and Chebacco Woods, and the next year rejected pi-oposals to sell the school farm. A school house was built at Linebrook, on land two rods front and four rods deep, enfeofied by Jeremiah Smith October 30, 1765, so long as used for the purpose of a school. In 1783 the town employed two masters, and raised one hundred and forty pounds for schools, and granted land for a school-house near Joseph Fowler's lane.

In 1791 the visiting committee consisted of forty members ; eleven in the body of the town, seven at Chebacco, nine at the Hamlet, five at Linebrook, two

The Studies. - The variety, extent and relative importance of the studies a century ago, may best be learned from perusing the committee's instruction from the town April 2, 1792, viz.: "To go with the Latin scholars to the Grammar School, are those who study English grammar, those who are to be taught in book-keeping and after them, the foremost in reading and spelling, until the number in the Grammar School shall rise to a third part of the whole existing number in both. To read well in the Bible and spell should be necessary qualifications for entering as students in English grammar. To be taught in bookkeeping, the pupil must have gone through the four first rules of arithmetic, simple and compound ; Reductions in both parts ; the Eules of Proportion, direct, inverse and compound ; and the rules of Practice. The master of the English school shall attend upon all in Arithmetic except the Latin scholars and those in book-keeping as aforesaid. In both schools the Catechism of the Assembly of Divines with Dr. Watts' explanatory Notes and the Catechism by the same author be constantly used as much as three or four times a week according to the different grades of the scholars, until the same are committed to memory." The practice of teaching the Catechism lasted till 1826.

Covimittees Chosen. - In 1794 a committee of seven was chosen to consider the subject of schooling. They recommended a committee "to regulate and visit the schools, as it is thought it would be an encouragement to the masters and scholars, and consequently would be beneficial to the education of the youth." A committee of nine were chosen. In 1795 five were chosen; in 1796, nine; in 1798, seven ; and the same in 1800. The number now is three.

Districts. - Shortly after 1800 the school districts were defined by metes and bounds. Some twentyfive years later, prudential committees were employed. This plan was probably the remains of the old system of parish committees respectively. Still later, by some ten years, the prudential committees were empowered to hire their respective teachers. The prudential system was abolished in April, 1869, when the district property was appraised and purchased by the town.

Expense. - The present number of pupil? enrolled is six hundred and eighty, distributed in seven ungraded schools, three primary, three intermediate and one high. The total cost for the year is seventy-six hundred dollars, making a per capita cost of eleven and eighteen-one-hundredths dollars.

Our Schools Free. - The existence and importance of schools was inbred in our ancestors, and the first and leading thought in relation to them was that they should be free. Their first vote declared the sentiment, and along the years circumstances have been made subservient, and pecuniary ability has been pledged to hasten tlie grand consummation. With free text-books in the hands of the scholars, as has been the case for the last year or two, our schools are absolutely free. If the spirits of the departed are conversant with the affairs of men, there is a multitude of our citizen benefactors with tlie Paines, and Hubbard, and Cross, and Burley, and Manning, and Cogswell at their head, uniting with the generous living in one glad acclaim for the fruition of their hope - absolutely free schools for all our sons and daughters.

The Ipswich Female Seminary

The Academy. - The institution now or lately known by the above title was incorporated February 28, 1828, by the name of the Proprietors of Ipswich Academy. The incorporators' names were Nathaniel Lord, Jr., Joseph Farley, Ammi E. Smith, George W. Hart and Charles Kimball. They could hold a personal estate of ten thousand dollars and a real of eight thousand dollars. The building was completed early in 1826, fifty-six feet long, thirty-five wide and two stories high, at a cost of four thousand dollars. The last Wednesday in the following April, Rev. Hervey Wilbur opened the school and with a female assistant taught one year. In his advertisement he called the school a Classical Seminary for Young Ladies. In May, 1827, James W. Ward began, and he continued to March, 1828.

The Seminary. - In 1818 Rev. Joseph Emerson, a descendant of Thomas, of Ipswich in 1642, opened in Byfield the pioneer school for educating young ladies. Two of his assistant pupils. Miss Grant and Miss Lyon, went out and opened schools on the same plan. These designs were not long in maturing; female schools soon became a settled fact, and the proprietors of the Ipswich Academy, imbibing the sentiment, made their school a seminary, and, in the well-chosen words of another,

" Ipswich was favored for nearly balf a century with a celebrated school for young ladles. A large and commodious edifice, erected in 1825, was in April, 1828, placed without rent in the hands of Miss Z. I. Grant, then already well and widely known as an instructor. Many of her scholars followed her from the Adams Female Academy in Derry, N. H., where she had taught with great success, and her Ipswich School became at once the resort of young ladies from all parts of the country. Her able associate, Mary Lyon, and other competent assistants helped her to make it one of the best in the land. She arranged a course of study, liberal for the times, established regular classes - junior, middle and senior - to which students were admitted on examination, and introduced the custom of conferring diplomas on those who completed the course. She made education the handmaid of religion, the Bible a daily study, and the school a nursery of character and scholarship. Her scholars were in great demand as teachers, and so known and prized for purity of intention and active usefulness that wherever they went their presence was a recommendation and advertisement of the Seminary.

"Miss Grant's hope of founding a college for ladies at Ipswich was frustrated more by the delicate state of her health than by the want of funds, but her ideas were happily incorporated in the Mt. Holyoke Seminary by her associate, Mary Lyon, its eminent founder. Miss Grant resigned the charge of the school in 18u9, having had during her eleven years at Ipswich 1458 scholars, of whom IHO were full graduates, and to that date twenty hftd become missionaries of the American Board, and 488 teachers in various parts of our own country.

buryport ; she survived in honor and usefulness till 1874. Her memory is preserved in an e.\cellent volume, "The Use of a Life," printed by the American Tract Society.

" In the spring of 1844 the trustees, after various changes and disappointments, installed Rev. and Mrs John P. Cowles as principals. Mr. Cowles was a graduate of Yale College, class of 1826, and has been professor of Hebrew in the Oberlin Theological Seminary, while Mrs. Cowles, for ten years before her marriage, had been iissociated either as pupil or teacher with Miss Grant or Miss Lyon. They brought to their work industry, energy and zeal, and with the aid of vigorous and accomplished assistants, mostly of their own training, they not only kept up the previous moral and religious tone of the institution, but raised its classical and literary character to equal, if not surpass, the general advance in the country. Young ladies, from one to two hundred, according to the accommodations for boarding in the village, soon gathered around them, often continuing with them three, four or five years before graduation.

" Although the stochholders had granted the use of thair property rent free, yet, for the sake of miich needed improvements, the principals bought it and added to it the adjacent Dutch estate, thus extending the grounds to the river, and by means of fencing, terracing, grading and planting fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs and vines, they transformed it into one of the fairest, as it had always been one of the airiest and healthiest, sites of the village. For thirty-two years they continued their onward and upward way, ever teaching and training minds in the lino of natural development, faithful study, careful investigation and unshackled freedom and independence of thought. Their students, no less than Mrs. Barrister's, have enrolled themselves as thinkers, toilers, teachers and writers, whose names their countrymen and country-wo men will not soon nor willingly let die."

Sunday-Schools. - One of the most powerful educational agencies of the present time is the Sundayschool. Our schools enroll as many scholars as the day schools and even more. They embrace all ages, and although they have one grand central theme there is a correlation of themes, which gives breadth and scope to their work and enhances their influence and importance. The youngest are taught to talk, to read, to memorize ; others study geography, history, biography, and still others comparative ethics, and the methods and principles of Christian living, preparing the mind and heart and soul for an intelligent reception of the gift of eternal life. As reported, there are 8,034,478 scholars thus engaged in the United States, seven millions of whom are children and youth. The same report estimates nine million children and youth not yet reached - a glorious work and opportunity. The schools here were organized in the First and South Churches in 1816, and at Linebrook about 1818. In 1832 or 1833 the First Church school had two hundred scholars and three hundred and eighty-four volumes in the library ; the South Church school had two hundred scholars and four hundred and fifty volumes; the Methodist Church school one hundred and thirty scholars and three hundred and ninety volumes. The First Church school now has two hundred scholars and three hundred and fitly volumes. The Line Brook Church school fifty scholars and two hundred and fifty volumes. These teachers labor without pay ; they give their time and exertions for the love they bear the cause. Their influence upon the moral and social condition of the town is great, and their office deserves a more helpful public recognition.

Libraries. - There were two libraries in town in 1833. They were called the social and the religious, and had each about three hundred volumes. They are now out of remembrance. One was kept in the town house, and unpaid fines and dues excluded one and another of the proprietors till only two or three remained, when the books were divided to each, and the library closed.

The present " Free Public Library " was founded in 1868 by the munificence of Captain Augustine Heard. It was opened to the public, March 1, 1869. Captain Heard donated the building, three thousand volumes, and an endowment fund of $10,000, making a grand total of about $40,000. This gift was supplemented by Prof. Daniel Treadweli, of Harvard College, who gave his private library, some valuable paintings and a fund of $20,000. These princely gifts have made the lives of these gentlemen a perpetual blessing. The trustees are Hon. George Haskell. Zenas Gushing, Joseph Ross and ex officio, the principal of the Manning High School and the pastor of the First Congregational Church. Miss Lydia Caldwell has been the librarian from the very first and has proved herself very efficient. The library contains some more than ten thousand volumes, Avhich have been selected with great care, especially the works of fiction, which are scrupulously standard, and which constitute three-fourths of the books loaned.

Books. - New England's first book of poetry was by Mrs. Anna Bradstreet, early of Ipswich. One of the first histories of New England was by an Ipswich clergyman, William Hubbard. The first Latin book printed in America was by Rev. John Norton, of Ipswich. The " Body of Liberties," containing the essence of our civil rights to-day, and the " Simple Cobbler of Agawam," long to be remembered as an old-time classic, were the work of the author, preacher, jurist and scholar, Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich. These are a few of the most illustrious names. For two centuries, Ipswich clergymen and scholars issued many publications ; but now the profession of authorship precludes the double vocation that formerly obtained, and clergyman and scholar and author have each his respetive province. A little volume of poems, from the pen of Mr. Edward G. Hull, was issued in 1886. Mr. John Patch has published a volume of poems. He was a poet of very high, if not the highest rank. He had genius of a marked character. His compositions evince poetic fervor and keen appreciation of both moral and physical beauty. He had warm partialities for the sea and all that concerns it, and for nature in all her varying moods. Many of his best poems are sea pictures and descriptions of rural scenes. His versification is noble, and his poems in general have worthy completeness. A tone of calm elevation and hopeful contemplation is well sustained throughout. The rhythm is well modulated, and in some of his shorter

Neavspapers. - One of the best popular educators is a carefully edited family newspaper. The first newspaper started Lere was The Ipsivich Journal. It was issued weekly by John H. Harris, who began its publication in July, 1827, and discontinued it August, 1828. The next venture was The Ipswich Register, edited by Eugene F. W. Gray, and published by Gray & Smith. It was a weekly ; it began June 1, 1837, and, we presume, was issued last, May 25, 1838. The next was The Ipswich Clarion, begun February 23, 1850, and issued fortnightly by Timothy B. Ross. It was folio and very newsy. The first Saturday in January, 1868, the Ipswich Bulletin first appeared. It continued till about August 1st. The proprietor, Mr. Charles W. Felt, of Salem, proposed to furnish a paper to each of several towns, cheaply, by having local correspondents who were to manage their respective localities, and by changing the name of the print to correspond. Thus the Rochport Quarry and the Ipswich Bulletin were the same with change of name. The plan was new, an advance thought, and had merits, besides being the first deviation from the old method. Soon after came the " patent" sheets, then sterotyped stories and news. The next was The Ipswich Advance with Mr. Edward B. Putnam as editor and proprietor. He began July 3, 1871, and continued till March 16, 1872, when Edward L. Davenport and Frederick W. Goodwin, having purchased the establishment, began its publication as The Ipsivich Chronicle. They ran it about ten months, and Mr. Goodwin sold his interest to his partner, who alone began January 4, 1873, and continued four years, when Lyman H. Daniels bought it and began its publication January 6, 1877. Mr. Daniels associated with him, January 1, 1881, Mr. I. J. Potter, who purchased Mr. Daniels' interest, June 4th, of the same year, and September 9, 1882, changed the large, unwieldy folio to the present neat quarto. Within a year or two, Mr. Potter has associated himself with his brother, J. M. Potter, and is now joint proprietor of the Ipsivich Chronicle, the Amesbury Villager, the Lynn Reporter, the Lynn Bee, and the Yankee Blade, Boston. Recently, September 10, 1886, began The Ipswich Independent, a sizable folio, edited by Mr. Charles G. Hull.

The Burley Fund. - Captain William Burley was a native of Ipswich, born January 6, 1750. He died in Beverly December 22, 1822, and left to his native town a bequest of fifty dollars to be paid annually for ten years " for the sole purpose of teaching poor children to read and instructing them in the principles of the Christian religion." The town voted, April 7, 1823, " expressive of their respect to his memory." The executors agreed with the town that the equity should be liquidated in one payment. Accordingly, an act of incorporation, dated June 18,

1825, was obtained, and "Nathaniel Lord, Jr., and William Conant, Jr., Esquires, Josiah Brown and John Kimball, gentlemen, and Daniel Cogswell, merchant," became a "body politic" by the name of "The Trustees of the Burley Educational Fund in Ipswich." The amount of the trust vVas five hundred dollars, but the Sunday-schools and the Bible societies, and our admirable system of free schools and school-books, are performing the mission of this bequest almost entirely, and the fund only labors to grow. It is now seven thousand five hundred dollars. Some future Legislature may reappropriate it, when, in a maturer growth and strength, it will perform a wider range of service, and the generous thoughtfulness of the donor build wiser and better than he planned.

Abraham Hammatt. - Among the men who have fostered the educational growth of our town, and deserve a warm sentiment of regard, is Mr. Hammatt. He was born in Plymouth in 1780 of Puritan ancestry, and there learned the trade of rope-making. In 1800 he removed to Bath, Me., and began business for himself. Years of industry and frugality gave him a competence. He then devoted his time and talents to literature and science, for which he had a fine taste. He was said to have been the best scholar in Bath, not excepting the men of any of the learned professions. He died August 9, 1854, aged seventyfour years. About eighteen years before, he removed to this town. He was a member of the New England Historical-Genealogical Society, and was by them considered a true antiquarian and an accurate genealogist. In his death they sustained a severe loss. He was for a long time feoffee of the grammar school and member of the Town School Board. He was an earnest and efficient officer, and his genial presence was always welcome in the school-room. In his later years he prepared "Early Inhabitants of Ipswich," copied the ancient inscriptions in the High Street Cemetery, and wrote a bi-centennial history of the grammar school - all noble, serviceable labors. His death closed a blameless, benevolent and useful life.

Anne Bradsteeet was born in Northampton, England, in 1612. She married at the age of sixteen, and in 1630 came to this country. Her father was Governor Thomas Dudley, her husband Governor Simon Bradstreet. She resided in Ipswich about twenty years, and then removed with her husband to Andover. She was the earliest poet of New England, and was noble and gifted. Rev. Cotton Mather wrote, - " Her poems, divers times printed, have afforded a grateful entertainment unto the ingenious, and a monument for her memory, beyond the stateliest marble." Rev. John Norton calls her " the mirror of her age and the glory of her sex." The second edition of her poems is said " to be the work of a woman honored and esteemed where she lives for her gracious demeanor, her eminent parts, her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in her place, and discreet managing of her family occasions ; and, more than so, these poems are the fruit of but some few hours curtailed from her sleep and other refreshments." She was as much loved for gentleness, discretion and domestic diligence as she was admired for her genius, wit and love of learning. Her death occurred September 16, 1672.