By Elizabeth Porter Gould.
When Agassiz requested to go down the ages with no other name than
"Teacher," he not only appropriately crowned his own life-work, but
stamped the vocation of teaching with a royalty which can never be
gainsaid. By this act he dignified with lasting honor all those to whom
the name "Teacher," in its truest meaning, can be applied.
In this work of teaching, one man stands out in the history of New
England who should be better known to the present generation. He was a
benefactor in the colonial days when education was striving to keep her
lamp burning in the midst of the necessary practical work which engaged
the attention of most of the people of that time. His name was Ezekiel
Cheever. When a young man of twenty-three years, he came from
London--where he was born January 25, 1614--to Boston, seven years after
its settlement. The following spring he went to New Haven, where he soon
married, and became actively engaged in founding the colony there. Among
the men who went there the same year was a Mr. Wigglesworth, whose son,
in later years, as the Reverend Michael Wigglesworth, gave an account of
Mr. Cheever's success in the work of teaching, which he began soon after
reaching the place. "I was sent to school to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, who at
that time taught school in his own house, and under him in a year or two
I profited so much through y'e blessing of God, that I began to make
Latin & to get forward apace."
Mr. Cheever received as a salary for two or three years twenty pounds;
and in 1643, while receiving this salary, his name is sixth in the list
of planters and their estates, his estate being valued only at twenty
pounds. In the year following, his salary was raised to thirty pounds
a year. This probably was an actual necessity, for his family now
consisted, besides himself and wife, of a son Samuel, five years old,
and a daughter Mary of four years. Ezekiel, born two years before, had
died. This son, Samuel, it may be said in passing, was graduated at
Harvard College in 1659, and was settled as a clergyman at Marblehead,
Massachusetts, where he died at the age of eighty-five, having been
universally esteemed during his long life.
Besides being the teacher of the new colony, Mr. Cheever entered into
other parts of its work. He was one of the twelve men chosen as "fitt
for the foundacon worke of the church." He was also chosen a member of
the Court for the plantation, at its first session, and in 1646 he was
one of the deputies to the General Court. It is supposed that during
this time he wrote his valuable little book called The Accidence. It
passed through seventeen editions before the Revolution. A copy of the
eighteenth edition, printed in Boston in 1785, is now in the Boston
Athenæum. It is a quaint little book of seventy-two pages, with one
cover gone, and is surely an object of interest to all loving students
of Latin. A copy of the tenth edition is found in Harvard College, while
it has been said that a copy of the seventh is in a private library in
Hartford, Connecticut. The last edition was published in Boston in 1838.
In a prospectus, containing commendations of the work from many eminent
men of learning, the Honorable Josiah Quincy, LL.D., president of
Harvard College, said of it: "A work which was used for more than a
century in the schools of New England, as the first elementary book for
learners of the Latin language; which held its place in some of the most
eminent of those schools, nearly, if not quite, to the end of the last
century; which has passed through at least twenty editions in this
country; which was the subject of the successive labor and improvement
of a man who spent seventy years in the business of instruction, and
whose fame is second to that of no schoolmaster New England has ever
produced, requires no additional testimony to its worth or its merits."
A copy of this edition is now in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society. Dr. David W. Cheever, of Boston, a descendant of the
schoolmaster, also has one in his possession.
There is another old book in the Boston Athenæum, published in 1757,
containing three short essays under the title of Scripture Prophecies
Explained. The first one is "On the Restitution of All Things"; the
second is "On St. John's First Resurrection"; and the third, "On the
Personal Coming of Jesus Christ, as Commencing at the Beginning of the
Millenium described in the Apocalypse." These were written by Mr.
Cheever, but at what time of his life there seems to be some doubt. They
indicate his religious zeal, which at this time in New Haven was put
forth for the good of the church. Although he was never ordained to the
ministry, yet he occasionally preached. In 1649, however, he dissented
from the judgment of the church and elders in regard to some cases of
discipline, and for some comments on their action, which seemed to them
severe, they brought charges against him. Two of the principal ones
were: "1. His unseemly gestures and carriage before the church, in the
mixed assembly;" and "2. That when the church did agree to two charges
(namely, of assumption and partiality), he did not give his vote either
to the affirmative or the negative."
As showing some of the phases of a common humanity, the reading of the
trial is interesting. Mr. Cheever, who was then thirty-five years old,
was desired to answer these charges of unseemly gestures, which his
accusers had brought down to a rather small point, such as holding down
his head into the seat, "then laughing or smiling," and also "wrapping
his handkerchief about his face, and then pulling it off again;" and
still another, "that his carriage was offensively uncomely," three
affirming "that he rather carried it as one acting a play, than as one
in the presence of God in an ordinance."
In his answer to these, Mr. Cheever explained his actions as arising
from violent headaches, which, coming upon him usually "on the Lord's
day in the evening, and after church meeting," were mitigated by winding
his handkerchief around his head 'as a fillet.' As to his smiling or
laughing, "he knew not whether there was any more than a natural,
ordinary cheerfulness of countenance seeming to smile, which whether it
be sinful or avoidable by him, he knew not;" but he wished to humble
himself for the "least appearance of evil, and occasion of offence, and
to watch against it." As to his working with the church, he said: "I
must act with the church, and (which is uncomfortable) I must either act
with their light, or may expect to suffer, as I have done, and do at
this day, for conscience' sake; but I had rather suffer anything from
men than make a shipwreck of a good conscience or go against my present
light, though erroneous, when discovered."
He then went on to say that, while he did not wholly free himself from
blame as to his carriage, and as to his "want of wisdom and coolness in
ordering and uttering his speeches," yet he could not be convinced as
yet that he had been guilty of "Miriam's sin," or deserved the censure
which the church had inflicted upon him; and he could not look upon it
"as dispensed according to the rules of Christ." Then he closed his
address with the following words, which will give some idea of his
Christian spirit: "Yet I wait upon God for the discovery of truth in His
own time, either to myself or church, that what is amiss may be repented
of and reformed; that His blessing and presence may be among them and
upon His holy ordinances rightly dispensed, to His glory and their
present and everlasting comfort, which I heartily pray for, and am so
bound, having received much good and comfort in that fellowship, though
I am now deprived of it."
At about this time of his trial with the church he was afflicted by the
death of his wife. Three more children had been born to them--Elizabeth,
Sarah, and Hannah. Soon after this, in 1650,--and, it has been said, on
account of his troubles,--he removed to Ipswich, Massachusetts, to
become master of the grammar school there. His services as teacher in
New Haven must have been valued, if one can judge by the amount of
salary received, for, in the case of the teacher who followed him, the
people were not willing "to pay as large a salary as they had done to
Mr. Cheever," and so they gave him ten pounds a year.
After Mr. Cheever had been in Ipswich two years, Robert Payne, a
philanthropic man, gave to the town a dwelling-house with two acres of
land for the schoolmaster; he also gave a new schoolhouse for the
school, of which this man was the appreciated teacher; for many
neighboring towns sent scholars to him, and it was said that those who
received "the Cheeverian education" were better fitted for college than
any others.
In November of this same year he married Ellen Lathrop, sister of
Captain Thomas Lathrop, of Beverly, who two years before had brought her
from England to America with him, with the promise that he would be a
father to her. While living in Ipswich they had four children, Abigail,
Ezekiel, Nathaniel, and Thomas; two more, William and Susanna, were born
later, in Charlestown. Their son Ezekiel must have lived to a good old
age, at least seventy-seven years, for as late as 1731 his name appears
in the annals of the village parish of Salem, where he became heir to
Captain Lathrop's real estate; while their son Thomas, born in 1658, was
graduated at Harvard College in 1677, was settled as a minister at
Malden, Massachusetts, and later at Rumney Marsh (Chelsea),
Massachusetts, where he died at a good old age.
After having thus lived in Ipswich eleven years, Mr. Cheever removed,
in 1661, to Charlestown, Massachusetts, to become master of the school
there at a salary of thirty pounds a year. The smallness of this salary
astonishes and suggests much to the modern reader; but when he is
informed that the worthy teacher was obliged during his teaching there
to petition the selectmen that his "yeerly salarie be paid to him, as
the counstables were much behind w'th him," the whole matter becomes
pathetic. Mr. Cheever also asked that the schoolhouse, which was much
out of order, be repaired. And in 1669 he is again before them asking
for a "peece of ground or house plott whereon to build an house for his
familie," which petition he left for the townsmen to consider. They
afterward voted that the selectmen should carry out the request, but as
Mr. Cheever removed in the following year to Boston, it is probable that
his successor had the benefit of it.
When Mr. Cheever entered upon his work as head master of the Boston
Latin School, in 1670, he was fifty-seven years old; and he remained
master of this school until his death, thirty-seven years later. The
schoolhouse was, at this time, in School Street (it was not so named by
the town, however, until 1708) just behind King's Chapel, on a part of
the burying-ground. It has been said that the building was of two
stories to accommodate the teacher and his family. This seems probable
when we read that Mr. Cheever was to have a salary of sixty pounds a
year, and the "possession and use of y'e schoole house." But if he
lived in the building at all, it was not very long, for he is later
living in a house by himself; and in 1701 the selectmen voted that two
men should provide a house for him while his house was being built. The
agreement which the selectmen made with Captain John Barnet with
reference to this house is given in such curious detail in the old
records, and suggests so much, that it is well worth reading. It is as
follows:--
"That the said Barnet shall erect a House on the Land where Mr. Ezekiel
Cheever Lately dwelt, of forty foot Long Twenty foot wide and Twenty
foot stud with four foot Rise in the Roof, to make a cellar floor under
one half of S'd house and to build a Kitchen of Sixteen foot in
Length and twelve foot in breadth with a Chamber therein, and to Lay the
floors flush through out the maine house and to make three paire of
Stayers in y'e main house and one paire in the Kitchen and to Inclose
s'd house and to do and complete all carpenters worke and to find all
timber boards clapboards nayles glass and Glaziers worke and Iron worke
and to make one Cellar door and to finde one Lock for the Outer door of
said House, and also to make the Casements for S'd house, and perform
S'd worke and to finish S'd building by the first day of August
next. In consideration whereof the Selectmen do agree that the S'd
Capt. Barnet shall have the Old Timber boards Iron worke and glass of
the Old house now Standing on S'd Land and to pay unto him the Sum of
one hundred and thirty pounds money, that is to say forty pounds down in
hand and the rest as the worke goes on."
Then follows the agreement for the "masons' worke" in all its details.
Later on, in March, 1702, there is some discussion as to how far back
from the street the house should be placed. But in June of that year the
house is up, for the worthy dignities order that "Capt. John Barnard do
provide a Raysing Dinner for the Raysing the Schoolmasters House at the
Charge of the town not exceeding the Sum of Three pounds." This was
done, for later they order the "noat for three pounds, expended by him
for a dinner at Raysing the Schoolmasters House," be paid him.
After Mr. Cheever's house had received all this painstaking attention
of the town, it was voted that the selectmen should see that a new
schoolhouse be built for him in the place of the old one; this to be
done with the advice of Mr. Cheever. The particulars of this work are
given in as much detail, and are interesting to show the style of
schoolhouse at that day. They are as follows, in the "Selectmen's
Minutes, under July 24, 1704":--
"Agreed w'th M'r John Barnerd as followeth, he to build a new School
House of forty foot Long Twenty five foot wide and Eleven foot Stud,
with eight windows below and five in the Roofe, with wooden Casements to
the eight Windows, to Lay the lower floor with Sleepers & double boards
So far as needful, and the Chamber floor with Single boards, to board
below the plate inside & inside and 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 petition Cross the house below, and
to make three rows of benches for the boyes on each Side of the room,
to find all Timber, boards, Clapboards shingles nayles hinges. In
consideration whereof the s'd M'r John Barnerd is to be paid One
hundred pounds, and to have the Timber, Boards, and Iron worke of the
Old School House."
Some interesting reminiscences are given, by some of his pupils, of
these school-days in Boston. The Reverend John Barnard, of Marblehead,
who was born in Boston in 1681, speaks of his early days at the Latin
School, in his Autobiography, which is now in the Massachusetts
Historical Society. Among other things he says: "I remember once, in
making a piece of Latin, my master found fault with the syntax of one
word, which was not 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." President Stiles of
Yale College, in his Diary, says that he had seen a man who said that he
"well knew a famous grammar-school master, Mr. E. Cheever, of Boston,
author of The Accidence; that he wore a long white beard, terminating in
a point; that when he stroked his beard to the point, it was a sign for
the boys to stand clear."
Judge Sewall, in his Diary, often refers to him. He speaks of a visit
from him, at one time, when Mr. Cheever told him that he had entered his
eighty-eighth year, and was the oldest man in town; and another time,
when he says: "Master Chiever, his coming to me last Saturday January
31, on purpose to tell me he blessed God that I had stood up for the
Truth, is more comfort to me than Mr. Borland's unhandsomeness is
discomfort." He also speaks of him as being a bearer several times at
funerals, where, at one, with others, he received a scarf and ring which
were "given at the House after coming from the Grave." A peculiarity of
the venerable schoolmaster is seen where Judge Sewall says: "Mr.
Wadsworth appears at Lecture in his Perriwigg. Mr. Chiever is grieved at
it." In 1708, the judge gives in this Diary some touching particulars as
to the sickness and death of Mr. Cheever. They are valuable not only for
themselves, but as preserving in a literary form the close friendship
which existed between these two strong men of that day. Hence they are
given here:--
"_Aug_. 12, 1708.--Mr. Chiever is abroad and hears Mr. Cotton Mather
preach. This is the last of his going abroad. Was taken very sick, like
to die with a Flux. _Aug_. 13.--I go to see him, went in with his
son Thomas and Mr. Lewis. His Son spake to him and he knew him not; I
spake to him and he bid me speak again; then he said, Now I know you,
and speaking cheerily mentioned my name. I ask'd his Blessing for me and
my family; He said I was Bless'd, and it could not be Reversed. Yet at
my going away He pray'd for a Blessing for me.
"_Aug_. 19.--I visited Mr. Chiever again, just before Lecture;
Thank'd him for his kindness to me and mine; desired his prayers for me,
my family, Boston, Salem, the Province. He rec'd me with abundance of
Affection, taking me by the hand several times. He said, The Afflictions
of God's people, 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. I went and told Mr. Pemberton (the Pastor of Old South) who
preached.
"_Aug_. 20.--I visited Mr. Chiever who was now grown much weaker,
and his speech very low. He call'd Daughter! When his daughter Russel
came, He ask'd if the family were composed; They aprehended He was
uneasy because there had not been Prayer that morn; and solicited me to
Pray; I was loth and advised them to send for Mr. Williams, as most
natural, homogeneous; They declined it, and I went to Prayer. After, I
told him, The last enemy was Death, and God hath made that a friend too;
He put his hand out of the Bed, and held it up, to signify his Assent.
Observing he suck'd a piece of an Orange, put it orderly into his mouth
and chew'd it, and then took out the core. After dinner I carried a few
of the best Figs I could get and a dish Marmalet. I spake not to him
now.
"_Aug_. 21.--Mr. Edward Oakes tells me Mr. Chiever died this last
night."
Then in a note he tells the chief facts in his life, which he closes
with,--
"So that he has Laboured in that calling (teaching) skilfully,
diligently, constantly, Religiously, Seventy years. A rare Instance of
Piety, Health, Strength, Serviceableness. The Wellfare of the Province
was much upon his spirit. He abominated Perriwiggs."
"_Aug_. 23, 1708.--Mr. Chiever was buried from the Schoolhouse. The
Gov'r, Councillors, Ministers, Justices, Gentlemen there. Mr. Williams
made a handsome Latin Oration in his Honour. Elder Bridgham, Copp,
Jackson, Dyer, Griggs, Hubbard, &c., Bearers. After the Funeral, Elder
Bridgham, Mr. Jackson, Hubbard, Dyer, Tim. Wadsworth, Edw. Procter,
Griggs, and two more came to me and earnestly solicited me to speak to a
place of Scripture, at the private Quarter Meeting in the room of Mr.
Chiever."
Cotton Mather, who had been a pupil of his, preached a funeral sermon in
honor of his loved teacher. It was printed in Boston in 1708, and later
in 1774. A copy of it in the Athenæum is well worth a perusal. Some of
Mr. Cheever's Latin poems are attached to it. Cotton Mather precedes his
sermon by An Historical Introduction, in which, after referring to his
great privilege, he gives the main facts in the long life of the
schoolmaster of nearly ninety-four years. In closing it, he says: "After
he had been a Skilful, Painful, Faithful Schoolmaster for Seventy years;
and had the Singular Favours of Heaven that tho' he had Usefully spent
his Life among children, yet he was not become Twice a child but held
his Abilities, with his usefulness, in an unusual Degree to the very
last." Then follows the sermon, remarkable in its way as a eulogy. But
the Essay in Rhyme in Memory of his "Venerable Master," which follows
the sermon, is even more characteristic and remarkable. In it are some
couplets which are unique and interesting.
"Do but name _Cheever_, and the _Echo_ straight
Upon that name. _Good Latin_ will Repeat.
"And in our _School_, a Miracle is wrought:
For the _Dead Languages_ to _Life_ are brought.
"Who serv'd the _School_, the _Church_, did not forget,
But Thought and Prayed & often wept for it.
"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.
"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 _Declined_ to _Præter-perfect Tense_."
He closes this eulogy with an epitaph in Latin.
Mr. Cheever's will, found in the Suffolk probate office, was offered by
his son Thomas and his daughter Susanna, August 26, 1708, a few days
after his death. He wrote it two years previous, when he was ninety-one
years old, a short time before his "dear wife," whom he mentions, died.
In it his estate is appraised at £837:19:6. One handles reverently this
old piece of yellow paper, perhaps ten by twelve inches in size, with
red lines, on which is written in a clear handwriting the last will of
this dear old man. He characteristically begins it thus:--
"In nomine Domini Amen, I Ezekiel Cheever of the Towne of Boston in the
County of Suffolk in New England, Schoolmaster, living through great
mercy in good health and understanding wonderfull in my age, do make and
ordain this as my last Will & Testament as Followeth: I give up my soule
to God my Father in Jesus Christ, my body to the earth to be buried in a
decent manner according to my desires in hope of a Blessed part in y'e
first resurrection & glorious kingdom of Christ on earth a thousand
years."
He then gives all his household goods "& of my plate y'e two-ear'd Cup,
my least tankard porringer a spoon," to his wife; "all my books saving
what Ezekiel may need & what godly books my wife may desire," to his son
Thomas; £10 to Mary Phillips; £20 to his grandchild, Ezekiel Russel; and
£5 to the poor. The remainder of the estate he leaves to his wife and
six children, Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Ezekiel, Thomas, and Susanna.
One handles still more reverently a little brown, stiff-covered book,
kept in the safe in the Athenæum, of about one hundred and twenty
pages, yellow with age, on the first of which is the year "1631," and on
the second, "Ezekiel Cheever, his booke," both in his own handwriting.
Then come nearly fifty pages of finely-written Latin poems, composed and
written by himself, probably in London; then, there are scattered over
some of the remaining pages a few short-hand notes which have been
deciphered as texts of Scripture. On the last page of this quaint little
treasure--only three by four inches large--are written in English some
verses, one of which can be clearly read as, "Oh, first seek the kingdom
of God and his Righteousness, and all things else shall be added unto
you."
Another MS. of Mr. Cheever's is in the possession of the Massachusetts
Historical Society. It is a book six by eight inches in size, of about
four hundred pages, all well filled with Latin dissertations, with
occasionally a mathematical figure drawn. One turns over the old leaves
with affectionate interest, even if the matter written upon them is
beyond his comprehension. It certainly is a pleasure to read on one of
them the date May 18, 1664.
Verily, New England should treasure the memory of Ezekiel Cheever, the
man who called himself "Schoolmaster," for she owes much to him.
* * * * *