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smith, which was perpetuated in the family down to my uncle's time, the eldest son having been uniformby brought up to this employment: a custom which both he and my father observed with respect to their eldest sons.

In the researches I made at Eaton, I found no ac count of their births, marriages, and deaths, earlier than the year 1555; the parish register not extending farther back than that period. This register informed me, that I was the youngest son of the youngest branch ni une family, counting five generations. My grandfather, Thomas, was born in 1598, lived at Eaton till he was too old to continue his trade, when he retired to Banbury, in Oxfordshire, where his son John, who was a dier, resided, and with whom my father was apprentice. He died, and was buried there: we saw his n.onument in 1758. His eldest son lived in the family house at Eaton, which he bequeathed, with the la..d belonging to it, to his only daughter, who, in concert with her husband, Mr. Fisher, of Wellingborough, afterwards sold it to Mr. Estead, the present proprietor.

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My grandfather had four surviving sons, Thomas, John, Benjamin, and Josias. I shall give you such particulars of them as my memory will furnish, not having my papers here, in which you will find a more minute account, if they are not lost during my ab

sence.

Thomas had learned the trade of a blacksoftn under his father; but, possessing a good natural understanding he improved it by study, at the solicitation of a gentleman of the name of Palmer, who was at that time the principal inhabitant of the village, and who encouraged, in like manner, all my uncles to cultivate their minds. Thomas thus rendered himself competent to the functions of a country attorney; soon became an essential personage in the affairs of the village; and was one of the chief movers of every public enterprise, as well relative to the county as the town of Northampton. A variety of remarkable in. cidents were told us of him at Eaton. After enjoying the esteem and patronage of Lord Halifax, he died January 6, 1702, precisely four years before I was

born. The recital that was made us of his life and character, by some aged persons of the village, struck you, I remember, as extraordinary, from its analogy 1 to what you knew of myself. "Had he died," said you, "just four years later, one might have supposed a transmigration of souls."'

John, to the best of my belief, was brought up to the trade of a wool-dier.

Benjamin served his apprenticeship in London to • silk-dier. He was an industrious man: I remem ber him well; for, while I was a child, he joined my father at Boston, and lived for soine years in the house with us. A particular affection had always subsisted between my father and him; and I was his god-son. He arrived to a great age. He left behind him two quarto volumes of poems in manuscript, consisting of little fugitive pieces addressed to his friends. He had invented a short-hand, which he taught me, but, hav. ing never made use of it, I have now forgotten it He was a man of piety, and a constant attendant on the best preachers, whose sermons he took a pleasure in writing down according to the expeditory method he had devised. Many volumes were thus collected by him. He was also extremely fond of politics; ton much so, perhaps, for his situation. I lately found in London a collection which he had made of all the principal pamphlets relative to public affairs, from the year 1641 to 1717. Many volumes are wanting, as appears by the series of numbers; but there still remain eight ir. folio, and twenty-four in quarto and octavo. The collection had fallen into the hands of a second-hand bunkseller, who, knowing me by hav ng sold me some books, brought it to me. My uncle, it seems, had left it behind on his departure for Ameri ea, about fifty years ago. I found various notes of his writing in the margins. His grandson, Sammel, s aow living at Boston.

Our humble family had early embraced the Refor. mation. They remained faithfully attached during the reign of Queen Mary, when they were in danger of being molested on account of their zeal against popery. They had an English Bible, and, to conceal it the more securely, they conceived the project of

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apprentices to myself, I was se mar-school. and already Amily. The pro y, I had learne ve been ever wi uragement of hi ld one day cer rined him in th d also of the sch volumes of serm short-hand of h

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fastening it, open, with pack-threads across the leaves, on the inside of the lid of the close-stool. When my great-grandfather wished to read to his family, he re versed the lid of the close-stool upon his knees, and passed the leaves from one side to the other, which were held down on each by the pack-thread. One of the children was stationed at the door, to give notice if he saw the procto. (an officer of the spiritual court) make his appearance: in that case, the lid was restored to its place, with the Bible concealed under it as before. I had this anecdote from my uncle Benjamin.

The whole family preserved its attachment to the Church of England till towards the close of the reign of Charles II. when certain ministers, who had been rejected as nonconformists, having held conventicles in Northamptonshire, they were joined by Benjamin and Josias, who adhered to them ever after. The rest of the family continued in the episcopal church.

My father, Josias, married early in life. He went, with his wife and three children, to New-England, about the year 1682. Couvent.cles being at that time prohibited by law, and frequently disturbed, some considerable persons of his acquaintance determined to go to America, where they hoped to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and my father was prevailed on to accompany them.

My father had also, by the same wife, four children born in America, and ten others by a second wife, making in all seventeen. I remember to have seen thirteen seated together at his table, who all arrived at years of maturity, and were married. I was the last of the sons, and the youngest child, excepting two daughters. I was born at Boston, in New-Eng landi. My mother, the second wite, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first colonists of New-England, of whom Cotton Mather makes honourable mention, in his Ecclesiastical History of that province, as "a pious and learned Englishman,' if I rightly recollect his expression. I have been told of nis having written a variety of little pieces; but there appears to be only one in print, which I met with many years ago. It was pubijshed in the year 1675,

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