Marblehead, removing from Ipswich in 1667.

Five children were born to Ezekiel and Ellen Cheever while in Ipswich: Abigail, Oct. 20, 1653; Ezekiel, July 1, 1655; Nathaniel, June 23, 1657, who died in July; Thomas, Aug. 23, 1658; and Susanna, who was baptized in 1660.

In Charlestown, Mr. Cheever met with the same difficulties with which he had become familiar in Ipswich. We find the following motion presented to the selectmen by Mr. Cheever: "First, that they would take care the schoolhouse be speedily amended because it is much out of repair.

"Secondly, that they would take care that his yearly salary be paid, the constable being much behind with him.

"Thirdly, putting them in mind of their promise at his first coming to town, viz., that no other schoolmaster should be suffered to set up in the town, so as he could teach the same, yet now Mr. Mansfield is suffered to teach and take away his scholars."

In 1670 Mr. Cheever removed to Boston.

At a meeting of the governor, several magistrates, the selectmen of Boston and Mr. Hezekiah Usher, it was agreed and ordered that "Mr. Ezechiell Cheevers should be called to and installed in the free schoole as head Master thereof, which he being then present accepted of." On the sixth day of November "there was delivered the key and possession of the schoolehouse to Mr. Ezechiell Cheevers as the sole Mastr thereof." "And it was farther agreed that the said Mr. Cheevers should be allowed sixtie pounds an. for his seruice in the schoole, out of the towne rates and rents that belonge to the schoole and the possession, and use of ye schoolehouse."

This school was the Boston Latin School. The schoolhouse was then situated on the north side of School Street, the east wall of King's Chapel standing on the site of the old building. An old vignette of the schoolhouse represents it as a small structure of one story, with three windows and a door on the side facing School Street, and three windows in the end, and a rail fence extending from it. However correct or incorrect

the picture may be, it was here that Mr. Cheever, at the age of fifty-six years, commenced his labors in Boston, which continued without interruption until his death, which occurred in 1708,a period of about thirty-eight years.

In the Selectmen's Minutes, I., 87, under date of July 24, 1704, an interesting description may be found of a new schoolhouse to be erected:

"Agreed with Mr. John Barnerd as followeth, he to build a new School House of forty foot Long Twenty five foot wide & Eleven foot stud, with eight windows below and five in the Roofe, with wooden Casements, to the eight Windows, to Lay the lower flowr with Sleepers & double boards So far as needfull, & the Chamber floor with Single boards, to board below the plate inside& out, to Clapboard the Outside and Shingle the Roof, to make a place to hang the Bell in, to make a paire of Staires up to the Chamber, and from thence a Ladder to the bell, to make one door next the Street, and a partition Cross the house & to make three rows of benches for the boyes on each Side of the room, to finde all Timber, boards, Clapboards shingles nayles hinges, In consideration whereof, the sd mr John Barnerd is to be paid One hundred pounds and to have the Timber, Boards & Iron worke of the Old School House." "Oct. 30. Ordered that mr John Barnerd do make House convenient for ye Laying of wood at the Easterly end of the School House and to advise wth mr Oliver, mr Fitch mr Dyer & Capt Clark or any three of them abt what remaynes to be done there."

Whether the above "mr Barnerd" was father of the Rev. John Barnard, one of Mr. Cheever's pupils, I do not know, but the latter has written some very interesting incidents in connection with his preceptor.

In the autobiography of the Rev. John Barnard is the following, giving one of the phases of school life under the venerable Mr. Cheever, then over eightyfive years of age. Mr. Barnard says:

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:

Though my master advanced me as above, yet I was a very naughty boy, much given to play, in so much that he at length openly declared 'You Barnard, I know you can do well enough if you will, but you are so full of play that you hinder your classmates from getting their lessons; and therefore if any of them cannot perform their duty I shall correct you for it.' One unlucky day one of my classmates did not look into his book, and therefore could not say his lesson, though I called upon him once and again to mind his book; upon which our master beat me. I told master the reason why he could not say his lesson was his declaring he would beat me if any of the class were wanting in their duty; since which

the boy would not look into his book, though I called upon him to mind his book as the class can witness. The boy was pleased with my being corrected and persisted in his neglect, for which I was still corrected, and that for several days. I thought in justice I ought to correct the boy and compel him to a better temper; and therefore, after school was done, I went to him and told him I had been beaten several times for his neglect; and since master would not correct him I would, and I should do so as often as I was corrected for him; and then drubbed him heartily. The boy never came to school any more, and so that unhappy affair ended."

"I remember once, in making a piece of Latin, my master found fault with the syntax of one word, which was not so used by me heedlessly, but designedly, and therefore I told him there was a plain grammar rule for it. He angrily replied, there was no such rule.' I took the grammar and showed the rule to him. Then he smilingly said, 'Thou art a brave boy; I had forgot it.' And no wonder, for he was then above eighty years old."

Although Mr. Cheever was strict and conscientious with his pupils, "his venerable presence," one has said, was accompanied by an agreeable mixture of majesty and sweetness both in his voice and countenance, and he secured at once obedience, reverence and love. Among his pupils were future "governors, judges, ministers, magistrates and merchants."

A school similar to his was established at Cambridge, and conducted by Elijah Corlett for "more than forty years." Mather says:

"Tis Corlet's pains and Cheever's we must own That thou New England art not Scythia grown." "They bridged over the wide chasm between the education brought with them by the fathers from the old country, and the education that was to be reared in the new."

Mr. Cheever's "Latin Accident," which he wrote while in New Haven, and was considered "the wonder of the age," passed through eighteen editions before the Revolution and several editions afterwards, and was considered the best book for beginners for two centuries. He was also the author of another little book on "Scripture Prophecies Explained."

Mr. Cheever died Aug. 21, 1708, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, after he had been a "faithful, skilful, painful schoolmaster for some seventy years, and had the singular favor of Heaven that

though he had usefully spent his life among children, yet he was not become twice a child, but held his abilities in an unusual degree to the very last,

his intellectual force as little abated as his natural." Mr. Barnard says: "He lived among the very founders of New England, of Boston, Salem and New Haven, and taught their children and their children's children unto the third and fourth generation; and lingered in the recollections of his pupils and their children, the model and monument, the survivor and representative, of the Puritan and Pilgrim stock down almost to the beginning of the present century." Judge Sewall says: "He has labored in that calling skilfully, diligently, constantly, religiously, seventy years a rare instance of Piety, Health, Strength and Serviceableness. The welfare of the province was much upon his spirit."

Mr. Cheever went out for the last time on Aug. 12, to hear Cotton Mather preach. He was taken sick the 13th, and Mr. Sewall visits him, but is not at first recognized. Mr. Sewall in going away asked for his blessing for himself and family. "He said I was Blessed and it could not be Revers'd. Yet at my going away he prayed for a Blessing for me." At another visit on the 19th, Mr. Cheever said God afflicted his people to perfect, not to punish them. "God by them did as a Goldsmith, Knock, knock, knock; knock, knock, knock, to finish the plate: It was to perfect them not to punish them." On the 20th he was much weaker, and his speech very low. He called for his daughter and asked her if the family were composed. Mr. Sewall prayed and told him "the last Enemy was Death, and God had made that a friend too." Mr. Cheever held up his hand in assent, and afterwards ate a little piece of orange. Mr. Sewall went again after dinner and carried him "some of the best figs he could get and a dish of Marmalet," but did not disturb him, and that night he died.

His wife Ellen died Sept. 10, 1706, nearly two years before him. Six children survived him, mentioned in his will. His son Thomas was ordained

first at Malden, and afterwards at Chelsea. He lived to the same age as his father. Samuel lived to be eighty-five, and Ezekiel must have been over seventy-seven. A grandson, Rev. Edward Cheever, and a granddaughter of Michael Wigglesworth were united in marriage in 1739.

Nothing remains to mark his old home in Boston, and the only clew, if it is indeed any clew at all, is found in the following, copied from old records:

"January 7, 1703. Thomas Davis and others testify, That about Twenty Yeares agoe these Deponents being with Richard Cheever of Boston Cordwainer in his house next adjoining to ye house and Land now in the Occupacon of Mr. Gyles Dyer neare the Drawbridge in Boston & Doe well remember that the Northerly Corner of said Cheevers Land then ran upon a bevelling line as it doth now, and that the said Cheevers had then a house & office standing upon that angle."

"The Deposition of John Cunnable aged ffifty Two yeares or thereabout Testifieth and saith that some yeares before Mr. Gyles Dyer came & lived in his house in Conduit street next adjoyning to ye house and Land of Richard Cheever, he well remembers that ye northerly Corner of the sd Cheevers Land then ran upon a bevelling line as it doth now," etc., etc.

46

Jan. 7th, 1703. Sworn in Court, attest, Ad: Davenport Cler."

Where the "Drawbridge," and "Conduit street" above mentioned were located is matter of question, although it is thought to be in the vicinity of Blackstone Street.

In 1702 a new house was completed by the town of Boston for the occupancy of the "Lattin Schoolmaster." Mr. John T. Hassam gives a very interesting description of it which he finds in the town records :

"At a Council held at the Council Chamber in Boston upon Friday the 20th of June, 1701, A Certificate being presented, of the aprobation of the major part of the Justices and the Selectmen of the Town of Boston for the erecting a Timber Dwelling house for the accomodation of the Master of the Latin Free school in Boston, on the land where Mr. Cheever, the present School Master, now dwells, of forty foot long, twenty foot wide and seventeen foot stud, with a convenient kitchin adjoyning. License is hereby granted to erect the sd Building of Timber accordingly."

Nov. 6, 1701,

"Ordered that a noat be given mr John Alden Junr. for £4: 10: 0: for his halfe years rent of the House in wch mr Ezcekiell Chever dwells. 9br: 6th."

Nov. 24 the agreement is recorded which was made between the selectmen and Capt. John Barnet to build the house as above, with

"four foot Rise in the Roof," "to make a cellar floor under one half of Sd house, and to build a Kitchen of Sixteen foot in Length and twelve foot in bredth with a Chamber therein, and to Lay the floors flush throughout the main house and to make three paire of Stayers in ye maine house & one paire in the Kitchin and to Inclose sd house & to do and compleat all Carpenters worke and to finde all timber boards Clapboards nayles, glass and Glasiers worke & Iron worke and to make the Casemts for Sd house, and performe Sd Worke and to finish Sd building by the first day of August next."

Capt. Barnet was to have the old timber, glass and iron of the old house and one hundred and thirty pounds, forty pounds down and "the rest as the work goes on." John Goodwin was to do the "mason-work," including a "good stack of chimneys," and the plastering, for which he was to receive ninety pounds, twenty pounds down. Further orders require that the house shall "be set twelve foot farther back then the Old House and five foot off from Henry Tites fence," to have "two windows in each room, one in the front and the other at the end," that the "n: west end be five foot from Docter Cooks Garden fence," that "Capt. John Barnerd provide a Raising Dinner for the Raysing of the School Master's House, at the Charge of the Town not exceeding the Sum of Three pounds," that "mr John Barnet take the Care of geting a fence & gate made," that "mr Thomas Child finish the gate and prime the fence, to finish the Outside work and prime Inside work and to be paid what is reasonable." And so the house was finished and the old master spent the remainder of his years in comfort.

While absolute proof is wanting, there are good reasons for believing that Mr. Cheever was laid to rest in the Granary Burying-ground. Dr. Mather said he was laid "where our God His Granary has made." Daniel Cheever and wife and Richard Cheever and wife are buried here, and both were his cousins. far from them is a footstone with the initials "E. C.," but there is no headstone to correspond, so that uncertainty must continue. Not very far away is the tomb

Not

of another member of the family, William Downes Cheever. With but one exception the name does not occur in other cemeteries of that period, and it is therefore reasonable to conclude that somewhere within this enclosure the old schoolmaster's ashes repose.

Dr. Mather could not let his death go by without preaching a funeral sermon. Mr. Cheever had been " buried from the schoolhouse," the governor, councillors, ministers, justices and gentlemen attending, and Mr. Williams, his successor in the school, making a "handsome oration in his honor." Dr. Mather's sermon was printed with a lengthy title-page and a "Historical Introduction." The sermon abounds with good advice to people generally on the "inexpressible consequence of the right education of children." Pastors must not neglect the children of the flock: :

"A part of their charge is ' feed my lambs.' . Oh, Men of God, Awake; and let the Cares of our Elliot for his Roxbury, be a pattern for you. It is a stately work; I had almost call'd it, A work for Angels. It is an Hard work to keep a School; and hardly ever duly Recompensed. I suppose, It is easier to be at the Plough all day than in the School. But it is Gods Work: It is Gods Plough; and God speed it! . . . A work though very Tiresome and Troublesome to the Flesh, yet most highly Acceptable to God. Go on with it Chearfully, And often Teach the Children something of the Holy Scriptures; often drop some Honey out of that Rock upon them.

But Lastly and yet First of all, O Parents Arise; This matter chiefly belongs to you. King Elfred procured a Law, That every man who had but as much as Two Hides of Land, should bring up his children to Learning, till Fifteen Years of Age at least. . . . I am to press it, That Parents give their Children all the Learning they can; especially that which will bring them to Know Christ and Live Happily. . . Worthy of Honour are the Teachers that Convey Wisdom into our Children. School-masters that have Used this Office well, purchase to themselves a Good Esteem to outlive their Death, as well as merit a good Suport while they Live. 'Tis a Justice to them that they should be had in Everlasting Remembrance; And a Place and a Name among the Just Men, does particularly belong to that Ancient and Honourable Man, a Master in our Israel; who was with us the last

Time of my Standing here, but is lately Translated into the Colledge of Blessed Spirits in the Mansions, where the First Resurection is Waited and Longed for. . . . He was my master seven and thirty years ago, but also master to my betters no less than seventy years ago; so long ago that I must mention my fathers tutor for one of them " [referring to Michael Wigglesworth].

My Master was an Old New English Christian and was as Venerable a Light, as the World since the Days of Primitive Christianity has looked upon. He was well Studied in the Body of Divinity. . . . He Dy'd, Longing for Death, mourning for the Quick Apostacie which he saw breaking in upon us; very easie about his own Eternal Happiness, but full of Distress for a poor People here under the Displeasure of Heaven, for Former Iniquities, he thought as well as later ones. ... He Dyed A Candidate for the first Resurection. And Verily our Land is Weakened, when those Fly away, at whose Flight we may cry out, My Father, My Father, the Chariots of New England and the Horsemen thereof." "How oft we saw him tread the Milky Way,

Which to the Glorious Throne of Mercy lay;
Come from the Mount, he shone with ancient
Grace;

Aweful the Splendor of his Aged Face.
Cloath'd in the Good Old Way, his God did wage
A war with the vain Fashions of the Age.
Fearful of nothing more than hateful Sin,
Twas that from which he laboured all to win.

But in his Paradisian Rest above,

To Us does the Blest Shade retain his Love.
With Ripened Thoughts Above concern'd for us,
We can't but hear him dart his Wishes thus;
Tutors, be Strict; But yet be Gentle too :
Don't by fierce Cruelties fair Hopes undoe.
Dream not that they who are to Learning Slow,
Will mend by Arguments in Ferio.
Who keeps the Golden Fleece, Oh let him not
A Dragon be tho' he Three Tongues has got.
Why can you not to Learning find the way,
But through the Province of Severia?
'Twas Moderatus, who taught Origen:
A youth which prov'd one of the best of men.
The Lads with Honour first, and Reason Rule;
Blowes are but for the Refractory Fool.

But Oh! First Teach them their Great God to fear;

That you like me, with Joy may meet them here."

while they scorn the other heathen writings, yet read the poems of Terence all too frequently." The consequences of this pernicious practice she proceeds (in) her preface) to describe, and notes the advantages of her purified imitations, which were on biblical and martyrological subjects. It is not asserted that any of her pieces nor of those which they were to supersede were really played in her convent or elsewhere; but the fact that these plays of Terence are singled out especially, when plays are of all literature the least adapted to reading, taken with the subsequent history of such

F

OR the performance of a Latin play by the students of Harvard College

there have certainly been a plenty of precedents, inasmuch as the custom of such representations in schools, both for instruction and entertainment, is traceable far into the Middle Ages.

About 980, Roswitha, a Benedictine nun of Gandersheim, a most learned lady, wrote six comedies in imitation of Terence, because, as she says, "There are many good Christians who prefer the empty show of heathen works to the advantages of the Holy Scriptures on account of the superiority of a more cultivated language. There are besides others also, diligent Bible readers, who,

1 This illustration and those on pages 498 and 502 are reproduced from the libretto of the play, by permission of the Latin Department of Harvard University.

PROLOGUS (0. B. ROBERTS).