[Mr. Wilbur's notes here become entirely fragmentary.--C. N.]
{a}. Unable to procure a likeness of Mr. Biglow, I thought the curious
reader might be gratified with a sight of the editorial effigies. And
here a choice between two was offered,--the one a profile (entirely
black) cut by Doyle, the other a portrait painted by a native artist of
much promise. The first of these seemed wanting in expression, and in
the second a slight obliquity of the visual organs has been heightened
(perhaps from an over-desire of force on the part of the artist) into
too close an approach to actual _strabismus_. This slight divergence in
my optical apparatus from the ordinary model--however I may have been
taught to regard it in the light of a mercy rather than a cross, since
it enabled me to give as much of directness and personal application to
my discourses as met the wants of my congregation, without risk of
offending any by being supposed to have him or her in my eye (as the
saying is)--seemed yet to Mrs. Wilbur a sufficient objection to the
engraving of the aforesaid painting. We read of many who either
absolutely refused to allow the copying of their features, as especially
did Plotinus and Agesilaus among the ancients, not to mention the more
modern instances of Scioppius Palaeottus, Pinellus, Velserus, Gataker,
and others, or were indifferent thereto, as Cromwell.
{b}. Yet was Caesar desirous of concealing his baldness. _Per contra_, my
Lord Protector's carefulness in the matter of his wart might be cited.
Men generally more desirous of being _improved_ in their portraits than
characters. Shall probably find very unflattered likenesses of ourselves
in Recording Angel's gallery.
* * * * *
{g}. Whether any of our national peculiarities may be traced to our use
of stoves, as a certain closeness of the lips in pronunciation, and a
smothered smoulderingness of disposition, seldom roused to open flame?
An unrestrained intercourse with fire probably conducive to generosity
and hospitality of soul. Ancient Mexicans used stoves, as the friar
Augustin Ruiz reports, Hakluyt, III., 468,--but Popish priests not
always reliable authority.
To-day picked my Isabella grapes. Crop injured by attacks of rose-bug in
the spring. Whether Noah was justifiable in preserving this class of
insects?
{d}. Concerning Mr. Biglow's pedigree. Tolerably certain that there was
never a poet among his ancestors. An ordination hymn attributed to a
maternal uncle, but perhaps a sort of production not demanding the
creative faculty.
His grandfather a painter of the grandiose or Michael Angelo school.
Seldom painted objects smaller than houses or barns, and these with
uncommon expression.
* * * * *
{e}. Of the Wilburs no complete pedigree. The crest said to be a _wild
boar_, whence, perhaps, the name. (?) A connection with the Earls of
Wilbraham (_quasi_ wild boar ham) might be made out. This suggestion
worth following up. In 1677, John W. m. Expect ----, had issue, 1. John,
2. Haggai, 3. Expect, 4. Ruhamah, 5. Desire.
"Hear lyes y^e bodye of Mrs Expect Wilber,
Y^e crewell salvages they kil'd her
Together w^th other Christian soles eleaven,
October y^e ix daye, 1707.
Y^e stream of Jordan sh' as crost ore
And now expeacts me on y^e other shore:
I live in hope her soon to join;
Her earthlye yeeres were forty and nine."
_From Gravestone in Pekussett, North Parish._
This is unquestionably the same John who afterward (1711) married
Tabitha Hagg or Rag.
But if this were the case, she seems to have died early; for only three
years after, namely, 1714, we have evidence that he married Winifred,
daughter of Lieutenant Tipping.
He seems to have been a man of substance, for we find him in 1696
conveying "one undivided eightieth part of a salt-meadow" in Yabbok, and
he commanded a sloop in 1702.
Those who doubt the importance of genealogical studies _fuste potius
quam argumento erudiendi_.
I trace him as far as 1723, and there lose him. In that year he was
chosen selectman.
No gravestone. Perhaps overthrown when new hearse-house was built, 1802.
He was probably the son of John, who came from Bilham Comit. Salop.
circa 1642.
This first John was a man of considerable importance, being twice
mentioned with the honourable prefix of _Mr._ in the town records. Name
spelt with two _l_-s.
"Hear lyeth y^e bod [_stone unhappily broken_.]
Mr. Ihon Willber [Esq.] [_I inclose this in brackets as doubtful. To
me it seems clear._]
Ob't die [_illegible; looks like xviii._] ... iii [_prob. 1693._]
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... paynt
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... deseased seinte:
A friend and [fath]er untoe all y^e opreast,
Hee gave y^e wicked familists noe reast,
When Sat[an bl]ewe his Antinomian blaste,
Wee clong to [Willber as a steadf]ast maste.
[A]gaynst y^e horrid Qua[kers]...."
It is greatly to be lamented that this curious epitaph is mutilated. It
is said that the sacrilegious British soldiers made a target of this
stone during the war of Independence. How odious an animosity which
pauses not at the grave! How brutal that which spares not the monuments
of authentic history! This is not improbably from the pen of Rev. Moddy
Pyram, who is mentioned by Hubbard as having been noted for a silver
vein of poetry. If his papers be still extant, a copy might possibly be
recovered.