Page images
PDF
EPUB

Than we in our Sententiæ had before.

We Learn't Good Things in Tullies Offices;

But we from him Learn't Better things than these.
With Cato's he to us the Higher gave

Lessons of JESUS, that our Souls do saye.
We Constru'd Ovid's Metamorphosis,

But on our selves charg'd, not a Change to miss.
Young Austin wept, when he saw Dido dead,
Tho' not a Tear for a Lost Soul he had :
Our Master would not let us be so vain,
But us from Virgil did to David train,
Textors Epistles would not Cloathe our Souls;
Pauls too we heard; we went to School at Pauls.
Syrs, Do you not Remember well the Times,
When us he warn'd against our Youthful Crimes :
What Honey dropt from our old Nestors mouth
When with his Counsels he Reform'd our Youth:
How much he did to make us Wise and Good;
And with what Prayers, his work he did conclude.
Concern'd that when from him we Learning had,
It might not Armed Wickedness be made!
The Sun shall first the Zodiac forsake,

And Stones unto the Stars their Flight shall make ;
First shall the Summer bring large drifts of Snow,
And beauteous Cherries in December grow;
E're of those Charges we Forgetful are

Which we, O Man of God, from thee did hear.
Such Tutors to the Little Ones would be

Such that in Flesh we should their Angels see;
Ezekiel should not be the Name of such;
We'd Agathangelus not think too much.

Who Serv'd the School, the Church did not forget;
But Thought, and Pray'd, and often wept for it.
Mighty in Prayer: How did he wield thee, Pray'r!
Thou Reverst Thunder: CHRIST's-Sides-piercing Spear?
Soaring we saw the Bird of Paradise ;

So Wing'd by Thee, for Flights beyond the Skies.

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,

Awful the Splendor of his Aged Face.

Cloath'd in the Good Old Way, his Garb 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,
Zealous; And in Truths Cause ne'r known to trim;
No Neuter Gender there allow'd by him.
Stars but a Thousand did the Ancients know;
On later Globes they Nineteen hundred grow:
Now such a CHEEVER added to the Sphere;
Makes an Addition to the Lustre there.

Mean time America a Wonder saw;
A Youth in Age, forbid by Natures Law.

You that in t'other Hemisphere do dwell,
Do of Old Age your dismal Stories tell.
You tell of Snowy Heads and Rheumy Eyes
And things that make a man himself despise.
You say, a frozen Liquor chills the Veins,
And scarce the Shadow of a Man remains.
Winter of Life, that Sapless Age you call,
And of all Maladies the Hospital:
The Second Nonage of the Soul; the Brain
Cover'd with Cloud; the Body all in pain.
To weak Old Age, you say, there must belong
A Trembling Palsey both of Limb and Tongue;
Dayes all Decrepit; and a Bending Back,
Propt by a Staff, in Hands that ever shake.
Nay, Syrs, our CHEEVER shall confute you
all,
On whom there did none of these Mischefs fall.
He Liv'd and to vast Age no Illness knew ;
Till Times Scythe waiting for him Rusty grew.

He Liv'd and Wrought; His Labours were Immense;
But ne'r Declin'd to Præter-perfect Tense.

A Blooming Youth in him at Ninety Four

We saw; But, Oh! when such a sight before!
At Wondrous Age he did his Youth resume,
As when the Eagle mew's his Aged plume.
With Faculties of Reason still so bright,
And at Good Services so Exquisite ;
Sure our sound Chiliast, we wondring thought,
To the First Resurrection is not brought!
No, He for That was waiting at the Gate
In the Pure Things that fit a Candidate.
He in Good Actions did his Life Employ,
And to make others Good, he made his Joy.
Thus well-appris'd now of the Life to Come,
To Live here was to him a Martyrdom.
Our brave Macrobius Long'd to see the Day
Which others dread, of being Call'd away.
So, Ripe with Age, he does invite the Hook,
Which watchful does for its large Harvest look ;
Death gently cut the Stalk, and kindly laid
Him, where our God His Granary has made.
Who at New-Haven first began to Teach,
Dying Unshipwreck'd, does White-Haven reach.
At that Fair Haven they all Storms forget;
He there his DAVENPORT with Love does meet.
The Luminous Robe, the Loss whereof with Shame
Our Parents wept, when Naked they became;
Those Lovely Spirits wear it, and therein
Serve God with Priestly Glory, free from Sin.
But in his Paradisian Rest above,

To Us does the Blest Shade retain his Love.
With Rip'ned 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 undo.
'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 have got.
'Why can you not to Learning find the way,
'But thro' 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.'
H'has said!

Adieu, a little while, Dear Saint, Adieu;

Your Scholar won't be Long, Sir, after you.

In the mean time, with Gratitude I must
Engrave an EPITAPH upon your Dust.
'Tis true, Excessive Merits rarely safe:
Such an Excess forfeits an Epitaph.

But if Base men the Rules of Justice break,

The Stones (at least upon the Tombs) will speak.

Et Tumulum facite, et Tumulo superaddite carmen. (Virg. in Daphn.)

[blocks in formation]

LUCERNA,

ad Quam accensa sunt,
Quis queat numerare,
Quot Ecclesiarum Lumina?
ET

Qui secum Corpus Theologiae abstulit,
Peritissimus THEOLOGUS,
Corpus hic suum sibi minus Charum,
deposuit.

Vixit Annos, XCIV.
Docuit, Annos, LXX.

Obiit, A.D. M.DCC. VIII.
Et quod Mori potuit,

HEIC

Expectat Exoptatq:

Primam Sanctorum Resurrectionem

ad

Immortalitatem.

Exuvijs debetur Honos.

Ezekiel Cheever was twice married. The surname of his first wife whom he married in New Haven, shortly after his arrival there, in the autumn of 1638, is not known. The New Haven Records* thus note her death: "Mary Cheever y wife of Ezekiel Cheever dyed The 20th of January 1649." His second wife, whom he married Nov. 18, 1652, was Ellen Lathrop, sister of Capt. Thomas Lathrop of Beverly. She died in Boston, Sept. 10, 1706. His children by his first wife were:

2. i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

Samuel, b. in New Haven, Sept. 22, 1639; bapt. there, 17:9: 1639.
MARY, bapt. in New Haven, 29:9: 1640; m. (1) 22 Nov. 1671, Capt.
William Lewist of Farmington, Conn., as his second wife.
She m.
(2) Thomas Bull of Farmington, Jan. 3, 1692, and d. Jan. 10, 1728.
Ezekiel, bapt. in New Haven, 12:4: 1642; d. young,
Elizabeth,

66

66

6:2 1645; m. in Charlestown, Sept.

6, 1666, Samuel Goldthwaite.
Sarah, bapt. in New Haven, 21:7: 1646.

v.

vi. Hannah,§

66

[ocr errors]

25:4: 1648.

His children by his second wife were:

vii. Abigail, b. Oct. 20, 1653; d. in Boston, Jan. 24, 1705, unmarried, aged 52 years.

* Vol. i. 5.

REGISTER, viii. 47; x. 97; xvii. 4.

Middlesex Births, Deaths and Marriages, L. 3, f. 128, in office of Clerk of Courts, East Cambridge. The Salem Records erroneously give the date of this marriage as Sept. 8, 1666. § John Wakeman of New Haven, in his will dated 18:4mo.: 1660, probated 24:8mo.: 1661, on file in the Probate Office in Hartford, and printed in the New Haven Colonial Records, ii. 447, says, "It. I giue vnto Hanna Cheeuers fiue pounds, to be set apart and improued for her at the end of one yeere after my decease as my ouerseers shall see meete vntill shee come to eighteene yeers of age (which is the tyme agreed vpon for her continuance with me or mine) or till the tyme of her marriage, prouided shee marry with the consent of my executors and ouerseers, or wth the consent of any two of them.'

The_dates of the birth and death of Nathaniel and birth of Thomas are from the County Records in the Office of the Clerk of the Courts at Salem, and the birth and death of William from the Charlestown Records. I find no record of any other. For them we must rely on the authority of Mr. Savage. He obtained them, Mr. Earnard says, from a manuscript memorandum belonging to Rev. Ezekiel Cheever Williams. Is not this the Rev. Ezekiel Cheever Whitman before mentioned? I found at New Haven no record of the births of any of the children by the first wife. For that of Samuel we must also rely on Mr. Savage. The dates of the baptisms were copied by me from the Baptismal Records of the First Church of New Haven.

viii. Ezekiel, b. July 1, 1655; m. in Salem, June 17, 1680, Abigail Lippingwell.

X.

XI.

66

66

ix. Nathaniel, b. in Ipswich, June 23, 1657; d. there July 12, 1657.
Thomas,* b.
Aug. 23, 1658; Harvard College 1677.
William, b. in Charlestown, Jan. 23, bapt. Jan. 29, d. there Feb. 5,
1664. (The record erroneously gives the name of the mother as
Abigail.)

xii. Susanna, m. in Boston, June 5, 1693, Joseph Russell.

Samuot Choovor.

1668.

2. SAMUEL (Ezekiel1), Rev., born in New Haven, Sept. 22, 1639, bapt. there 17:9: 1639, graduated at Harvard College in 1659. He went to Marblehead in November, 1668, where he preached for sixteen years before being regularly ordained. His is the second name on the petition† of the inhabitants of Marblehead against imposts, 1668. He took the oath of freeman May 19, 1669. In a depositions taken at Marblehead Feb. 18, 1705-6, he testified to his "being minister of yt Sd place thirty Seven years and liuing next door to m1 Maverick" and "keeping in his almanack a register of y Anual Occurences in the Towne." June 28, 1671, he married Ruth Angier, daughter of Edmund Angier of Cambridge. "Mr John Hubberd" and "m" Samuell cheeuers" were admitted to full communion with the church in Ipswich¶ Jan. 25, 1673. He was ordained Aug. 13, 1684, as the first settled minister of Marblehead. In the same year, 1684, he preached the Artillery Election sermon** from Heb. ii. 10. He was one of the ministers who were consulted in relation to the witchcraft troubles in Salem Village in 1694,†† and one of those who petitioned the General Court‡‡ in 1703 in relation to

*Some of the descendants of the Rev. Thomas Cheever are shown on a tabular pedigree, herein before referred to, prepared by William B. Trask, Esq., for Prof. David W. Cheever, M.D., of Harvard College, of which a copy may be found in the Library of the New England Historic, Genealogical Society. See REGISTER, XXXii. 443. Besides the pedigree, the chart contains a photo-electrotype of the fac-simile of the Carmen Genethliacon, several autographs, the will of Ezekiel Cheever, and other interesting memoranda.

† Mass. Archives, lx. 39. This petition was printed in the REGISTER, ix. 81. Mass. Colonial Records, iv. (part 2) 583.

Notarial Records, i. 57, in Office of Clerk of Courts, Salem.

Journal of Rev. William Adams in Coll. of Mass. Hist. Soc., 4th series, i. 13.

Church Records on last leaf but one of an old volume of records of the Feoffees of the Grammar School in Ipswich.

** Transcript of the Records of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company deposited in the Boston Athenæum.

++ Coll. of Mass. Hist. Soc., 3d series, iii. 180. REGISTER, X. 363; xi. 317.

Mass. Archives, cxxxv. 124. "To his Excellency the Governour, Council and Representatives of the Province of the Massachusets Bay, in Generall Court Assembled June 1703. The Address of severall Ministers of the County of Essex.

"Whereas in the year 1692 some of our neighbours of a good conversation, were apprehended and imprisoned upon Suspition of Witchcraft, upon the complaint of some young persons under Diabolicall molestations; and vpon their Tryall at the Court at Salem were condemned; great weight being layd vpon the Evidence of the Afflicted persons, their Accusers. Sentence of Death was Executed on severall of them, but others were Reprieved. "But since it is apparent and hath been Acknowledged, that there were Errors and mistakes in the aforesaid Tryalls; and notwithstanding the care and conscientious endeavour of the Honorable Judges to do the thing that is right: yet there is great reason to fear that Innocent persons then sufferred, and that God may have a controversy with the Land vpon that account.

"We would therefore humbly propose to the consideration of this Honored Court, whether something may not, and ought not, to be publickly done to clear the good name and reputation of some who have sufferred as aforesaid, against whom there was not as is supposed Sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of such a Crime, and for whom there are good grounds of Charity. Some of the condemned persons aforesaid, and others in behalf of their Relations who have suffered, have lately Petitioned this Honoured Court upon this Account. We pray that their case may be duely considered. Thomas Barnard, Samuel Cheever, Joseph Green, Zech. Symmes, William Hubbard, Joseph Gerrish, Benjamin Rolfe, John Rogers, Jabez ffitch, Jn° Wise, Joseph Capen, Thomas Symmes."

« PreviousContinue »