[ . . . ] engaged and while [ . . . ] him in his
Writings learned his Trade. My Father by his Industry and Enterprize soon became a Person of more Property and
Consideration in the Town than his Patron ever was had
been. He became a Select Man, a Militia Officer and a Deacon in the
Church. He was the honestest Man I ever knew. In Wisdom, Piety, Benevolence and
Charity In proportion to his Education and Sphere of Life, I have never seen
his Superiour. My Grandmother was a [illegible] Bass
ofMendonBraintree: but as she died many
Years before I was born, I know little of her History except that I have been
told by an ancient Lady the Relict of our ancient
Minister Mr. Marsh a Daughter of our more ancient
Minister Mr. Fiske, that she was a Person possessed of
more Litterature than was common in Persons of her
Sex and Station, and a diligent Reader From her. and
a most exemplary Woman in all the Relations of Life. She died of a
Consumption and had Leisure to draw up advice to her Children, which I have
read in her handwriting in my Infancy, but which is now lost. I know not that I
have seen it for sity Years, and the Judgment of a Boy
of seven Years old is not worth much to be recollected,
but it appeared to me then wonderfully fine. From his Mother probably my
Fatherderived received an Admiration of Learning as he called it,
which remained with him, through Life, and which prompted him to his
unchangeable determination to give his first son a liberal Education.
My Mother was Suzanna Boylston a Daughter
of Peter Boylston of
Brooklyne, the oldest son
of Thomas Boylston a Surgeon and Apothecary who came from
London in 1656, and married a Woman by the Name of
Gardner of that Town, by whom he had Issue Peter my Grandfather, Zabdiel the
Physician, who first introduced into the British Empire the Practice of Inocculation for the Small
Pox,Richard, Thomas and
Dudley and several Daughters.
[My Grandfather] married Ann [White, a daughter of
Benjamin] White who lived on the South Side of the Hill in
Brooklyne as you go to
little Cambridge, known by the name of
Whites Hill, which he owned. My Grandmother was the Sister
of Edward White Esqr. the Father
of Benjamin White,a Councillor and Representative for several Years,
both of whom possessed in succession the Family Estate. She had several
Sisters, one of whom married a Minister of
Rochester of the name of Ruggles, who
was by whom she had Timothy Ruggles a
Lawyer,and Judge, aMember of the Legislature and a
Brigadier General in the Army in the Warwith the French of 1755 in
which he conducted with Reputation. Another of her Sisters married a
Mr. Sharp and was the Mother of Mrs. Sumner of
Roxbury the Mother of the late Governor Sumner,
whose praises are justly celebrated by this whole People in this
State.
