Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife with three
children into New England about 1682. The conventicles having been
forbidden by law and frequently disturbed, induced some considerable
men of his acquaintance to remove to that country, and he was
prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy
their mode of religion with freedom. By the same wife he had four
children more born there, and by a second wife ten more, in all
seventeen; of which I remember thirteen sitting at one time at his
table, who all grew up to be men and women, and married. I was the
youngest son and the youngest child but two, and was born in Boston,
New England. My mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of
Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom
honorable mention is made by Cotton Mather in his church history of
that country, entitled 'Magnalia Christi Americana,' as "_a goodly,
learned Englishman_," if I remember the words rightly. I have heard
that he wrote sundry small occasional pieces, but only one of them was
printed, which I saw now many years since....
My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was
put to the grammar school at eight years of age, my father intending
to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church.
My early readiness in learning to read (which must have been very
early, as I do not remember when I could not read), and the opinion of
all his friends that I should certainly make a good scholar,
encouraged him in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin too approved
of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of
sermons,--I suppose as a stock to set up with,--if I would learn his
character. I continued, however, at the grammar school not quite one
year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the
class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into
the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at
the end of the year. But my father in the mean time,--from a view of
the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he
could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were
afterwards able to obtain,--reasons that he gave to his friends in my
hearing,--altered his first intention, took me from the grammar
school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a
then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his
profession generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him
I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic,
and made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken home to
assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler
and soap-boiler,--a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on
his arrival in New England, and on finding his dyeing trade would not
maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly I was
employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping-mold and
the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc.
I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my
father declared against it: however, living near the water, I was much
in and about it, learnt early to swim well and to manage boats; and
when in a boat or canoe with other boys I was commonly allowed to
govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions
I was generally a leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into
scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early
projecting public spirit, though not then justly conducted.
There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge
of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much
trampling we had made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a
wharf there, fit for us to stand upon; and I showed my comrades a
large heap of stones which were intended for a new house near the
marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the
evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my
playfellows, and working with them diligently like so many emmets,
sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built
our little wharf. The next morning the workmen were surprised at
missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made
after the removers; we were discovered and complained of; several of
us were corrected by our fathers, and though I pleaded the usefulness
of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not
honest.
I continued thus employed in my father's business for two years, that
is, till I was twelve years old; and my brother John, who was bred to
that business, having left my father, married, and set up for himself
at Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I was destined to
supply his place and become a tallow-chandler. But my dislike to the
trade continuing, my father was under apprehensions that if he did not
find one for me more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as
his son Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He therefore sometimes
took me to walk with him, and see joiners, bricklayers, turners,
braziers, etc., at their work, that he might observe my inclination,
and endeavor to fix it on some trade or other on land. It has ever
since been a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools;
and it has been useful to me, having learnt so much by it as to be
able to do little jobs myself in my house when a workman could not
readily be got, and to construct little machines for my experiments,
while the intention of making the experiment was fresh and warm in my
mind. My father at last fixed upon the cutler's trade, and my uncle
Benjamin's son Samuel, who was bred to that business in London, being
about that time established in Boston, I was sent to be with him some
time on liking. But his expectations of a fee with me displeasing my
father, I was taken home again.
From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came
into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the 'Pilgrim's
Progress,' my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate
little volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's
'Historical Collections'; they were small chapmen's books, and cheap,
40 or 50 in all. My father's little library consisted chiefly of books
in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often
regretted that at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more
proper books had not fallen in my way, since it was now resolved I
should not be a clergyman. Plutarch's Lives there was, in which I read
abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage.
There was also a book of De Foe's, called 'An Essay on Projects,' and
another of Dr. Mather's, called 'Essays To Do Good,' which perhaps
gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the
principal future events of my life.
This bookish inclination at length determined my father to make me a
printer, though he had already one son (James) of that profession. In
1717 my brother James returned from England with a press and letters,
to set up his business in Boston. I liked it much better than that of
my father, but still had a hankering for the sea. To prevent the
apprehended effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient to
have me bound to my brother. I stood out some time, but at last was
persuaded, and signed the indentures when I was yet but twelve years
old. I was to serve as an apprentice till I was twenty-one years of
age, only I was to be allowed journeyman's wages during the last year.
In a little time I made great proficiency in the business, and became
a useful hand to my brother. I now had access to better books. An
acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes
to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon and clean.
Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when
the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the
morning, lest it should be missed or wanted.