1. The Duty of a People, to lay to Heart and Lament the Death of a Good King. A Sermon Preach'd August 20th. 1727. The Lord's-Day after the Sorrowful News of the Death of Our Late King George I. Of Blessed Memory. Boston, no date. A second edition was printed,

also undated.

2. The Death of the godly, and especially of the faithful gospel Ministers, the greatest loss to survivers. A Sermon Preached September 17th. 1727. The Lord's-day after the Funeral of the Reverend Mr. William Waldron. Boston, 1727.

3. Mr. Checkley's Sermons to a Condemned Prisoner.1 Boston, 1733.

4. Little Children brought to Jesus Christ. A Sermon Preached in private May 6. And afterwards in publick, June 14. 1741. upon a sorrowful Occasion. And published at the Desire of One that heard it. Boston, 1741.

5. Prayer a Duty when God's People go forth to War. A Sermon Preach'd Feb. 28. 1744, 5. Being a Day of publick Fasting and Prayer, To ask in particular, That it would please God to succeed the Expedition formed against his Majesty's Enemies, &C. Boston, 1745.

6. A Day of Darkness. A Sermon Preach'd before His Excellency William Shirley, Esq; The Honourable His Majesty's Council, and House of Representatives, Of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England: May 28th. 1755. Being the Anniversary for the Election of His Majesty's Council for said Province. Boston, 1755.

On Occasion of their going against the Enemy. By Samuel Checkley, A.M. Pastor of said Church. Boston, 1755.

The Christian triumphing over Death through Christ. A Sermon Preached November 10. 1765. At the second Church of Christ, in Boston; Upon a mournful Occasion. Published with some Enlargements. By Samuel Checkley, jun'r. Pastor of said Church. Boston, 1765. The "mournful Occasion" was the death of "Mrs. Mary Gallop, Widow, aged 37 Years."

1 The words in the text are those of the half-title, missing in some copies. There were three sermons, each separately paged, but with a continuous register. The titles are as follows:

Murder a great and crying Sin. A Sermon Preach'd on the Lord's-Day March 4th. 1732-3. To a poor Prisoner Under Sentence of Death for that Crime.

Mercy with God for the chief of Sinners. A Sermon Preach'd on the Lord's Day March 4th To a Prisoner Under Sentence of Death for Murder.

Sinners minded of a future Judgment. A Sermon Preached to, and at the Desire of, A Condemned Prisoner, March 18th. 1732-3. Being the Lord's-Day before his Execution.

In addition to the above sermons, Mr. Checkley's "Charge" at the ordination on October 29, 1746, of the Rev. William Vinal at Newport Rhode Island, was printed at Newport in 1747 in the Sermon preached upon the occasion by the Rev. Joseph Fish of Stonington; and his "Charge" at the ordination on April 30, 1766, of the Rev. Penuel Bowen as his own colleague-pastor at the New South Church was printed in the Sermon then preached by the Rev. Dr. Charles Chauncy.2

1

Mr. Checkley became distinguished through his posterity, since his daughter Elizabeth was the first wife of the patriot Samuel Adams and his son Samuel (H. C. 1743) was pastor of the Second Church in Boston, while a daughter of the latter married the Rev. Dr. John Lathrop, pastor of the same church, and from the last named was descended John Lothrop Motley.

Boston in 1735 had over 4,000 houses and about 17,000 inhabitants; there were nine Congregational and two Church of England churches, with a third (Trinity) just beginning; one Baptist, one French Protestant, and a Quaker Meeting. There were five weekly newspapers.*

In reading this Diary one is struck by the number of times the author exchanged pulpits, or had other ministers preach in his church, as well as by the distance from which many of them came. In those days it was something of a trip from Boston to Scituate, Barnstable, Haverhill, or Salisbury; yet ministers from all those places as well as from Hampton, New Hampshire; Biddeford, Maine; Lebanon, Connecticut; and from the Connecticut valley filled his pulpit. Of course, many of them had come to Boston on visits, drawn hither for various reasons, and it is only natural that they should have preached for some brother minister while here.

The Boston ministers, Thomas Foxcroft, Joseph Sewall, Mather Byles, Joshua Gee, Charles Chauncy, Samuel Mather, Benjamin Colman, William Welsteed, and William Cooper are too well known to need comment here. On March 16 we find the Rev. John Cotton

1 Pages 49-52.

2 Pages 33-36.

* New England Historical and Genealogical Register, i. 134, ii. 353; Drake, History and Antiquities of Boston, p. 820; Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, vol. xxii. p. iv.

• Publications of this Society, ix. 9.

in the New South pulpit. He was a son of the Rev. Roland Cotton of Sandwich and great-grandson of the famous Rev. John Cotton of Boston. He graduated at Harvard in 1710 and was settled in 1714 as the third minister of Newton, where he died May 17, 1757, in his sixty-fourth year. Jackson gives a long account of his youthful accomplishments and virtues and of the anxiety of the people of Newton to secure his services, and prints the laudatory inscription upon his tombstone, which is so long that it is difficult to see how one stone could hold it all.' Checkley returned this visit, for the entry is found on Friday, September 5: "wt to Newtown prd Mr Cotton's Lecture." On June 1 and 29 the Rev. Ward Cotton of Hampton preached in Boston. He was a younger brother of the Newton pastor, who had preached the sermon at his ordination in Hampton

in 1734.

On May 25 Checkley preached in the Hollis Street Church and "Mr Eliot" preached for him; and again on October 12 we find Mr. Eliot in his pulpit. This was probably the Rev. Jacob Eliot, who graduated at Harvard in 1720 and was ordained in 1729 as the first pastor of the Goshen Church at Lebanon, Connecticut. His first wife was a daughter of the Rev. John Robinson of Duxbury. Eliot died April 12, 1766, in his sixty-sixth year."

On June 15 Mr. Green of Barnstable preached in the New South in the afternoon. This was the Rev. Joseph Green, a classmate of Jacob Eliot at Harvard. He had been settled over the East Church at Barnstable in 1725, and continued his ministry there till his death in 1770 at the age of 70. The long inscription on his gravestone ends with the lines:

Think what the Christian minister should be,
You've then his character- for such was he.

Four times during the year members of the Cushing family preached for Checkley, and fortunately he has given a designation to each one so that they can be identified, for they were all near relatives. On 1 History of Newton, p. 252.

* Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 322 note; Hine, Early Lebanon, p. 153.

Allen, American Biographical and Historical Dictionary; Freeman, History of Cape Cod, i. 362, 566.

June 8 came "Mr Cushing (of Dover)." This was the Rev. Jonathan Cushing of the Harvard Class of 1712, who, like Checkley, had had a call (in 1716) to a Haverhill church and declined it,' and had taught school for a year or two at his boyhood home in Hingham. On September 18, 1717, he was settled over the parish at Dover, New Hampshire, at a salary of £90 a year, and in the following month he married his second cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Cushing of Boston. He was minister of that church for fifty-two years and until his death March 25, 1769, and for the last two years had as his colleague the Rev. Dr. Jeremy Belknap. In personal appearance he is said to have been "a large, stout man of dignified appearance," and also that he was "a grave and sound preacher, a kind, peaceable, prudent and judicious pastor, a wise and faithful friend." 2

On July 6 is found the entry in the Diary "Mr Cushing (of Salsbury)," on August 3 "Mr Cushing (of Haverhil)," and on November 16 "Mr James Cushing." The last two items refer to the same man- the Rev. James Cushing (H. C. 1725), who became pastor of the North parish of Haverhill in 1730 and died there May 13, 1764. He was a second cousin of the Dover minister and the son of the Rev. Caleb Cushing of Salisbury, who had filled Checkley's pulpit on July 6. The latter was the ancestor of Caleb Cushing, the well-known lawyer and statesman.

The note under July 20, "Mr Hinsdel p. m.," recalls an interesting character, Ebenezer Hinsdale of the Harvard Class of 1727. He was ordained a missionary to the Indians in 1733, when the Rev. Joseph Sewall preached the ordination sermon. He seems to have gone at once to the Connecticut valley, where he entered with zeal into the work of a pioneer. He was chaplain of the troops stationed at Fort Dummer, and later built a grist mill near by. In 1753 the town of Hinsdale was incorporated and he was its first town clerk. He died January 6, 1763, at the age of 57, and on his gravestone he is called "Col." The Rev. Paul Coffin (H. C. 1759) of Wells,

1 Mirick, History of Haverhill, p. 138.

J. S. Cushing, Cushing Genealogy, p. 34; J. Scales, Historical Memoranda of Dover, N. H.

3 Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 280 note.

H. Child, Gazetteer of Cheshire County, New Hampshire; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ii. 208.

Maine, kept a journal of a tour to the Connecticut River in the summer of 1760, and on July 25 of that year wrote:

Rode alone to Deerfield dined with Rev. Ashley, then waited on Col. Hinsdale. This man with Joseph Seecomb and Mr. Parker, was ordained a Missionary in Boston, Hinsdale was sent westward; the other 2 went East. All this must have been done long before the war of 1755. Hinsdale did not preach long. The Town and Fort near Fort Dumma, is now called Hinsdale, after the said Hinsdale. The Fort he built at his own Cost. ... Col. Hinsdale has 30 acres english grain fit for the Sickle.1

Coffin staid over night at the house and next day Madam Hinsdale and he went in a row boat three miles to hear Mr. (afterwards Judge) Simeon Strong preach.

On December 7 another man from western Massachusetts preached for Checkley, the Rev. Robert Breck. Son of the Rev. Robert Breck 2 of Marlborough, he graduated at Harvard in 1730 and was settled for two or more years at Windham, Connecticut, when he received a call to the church at Springfield. This he declined because certain rumors and stories regarding his belief were rife in the parish; but in 1735 he was again called, accepted, and was installed, and continued as pastor till his death April 23, 1784, at the age of 71, by tact and judicious conduct of life living down all prejudices and becoming much loved.3

This

One famous Middlesex County minister officiated for Checkley, for on November 23 is found the item "old Mr Hancock." was the Rev. John Hancock, who was settled over the parish in Lexington from 1698 to 1752, the latter part of the time having as his colleague his son, the Rev. Ebenezer Hancock. He was familiarly known as "Bishop Hancock," because he had presided over so many ministerial councils and ordinations in Middlesex County. 4

On November 9 is the entry "Mr Willord (of Biddiford)." This was the Rev. Samuel Willard of the Harvard Class of 1723, long settled at Biddeford. He was the father of Joseph Willard, the President of Harvard College.

1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ix. 340, 341. See p. 214, above.

Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 385.

Paige, History of Cambridge, p. 572; Hudson, History of Lexington, pp. 53, 71, 84.