ACCORDING to his own account, was born in Malden, Massachusetts. "I was
born," says he, (in his celebrated work, A Pikel for the Knowing Ones,)
"1747, Jan. 22; on this day in the morning, a great snow storm in the
signs of the seventh house; whilst Mars came forward, Jupiter stood by
to hold the candle. I was born to be a great man."
Lord Dexter, after having served an apprenticeship to a leather dresser,
commenced business in Newburyport, where he married a widow, who owned a
house and a small piece of land; part of which, soon after the nuptials,
was converted into a shop and tan-yard.
By application to his business, his property increased, and the purchase
of a large tract of land near Penobscot, together with an interest which
he bought in the Ohio Company's purchase, afforded him so much profit,
as to induce him to buy up Public Securities at forty cents on the
pound, which securities soon afterwards became worth twenty shillings on
the pound.
His lordship at one time shipped a large quantity of _warming pans_ to
the _West Indies_, where they were sold at a great advance on prime
cost, and used for molasses ladles. At another time, he purchased a
large quantity of _whalebone for ships' stays_,--the article rose in
value upon his hands, and he sold it to great advantage.
Property now was no longer the object of his pursuit: but popularity
became the god of his idolatry. He was charitable to the poor, gave
large donations to religious societies, and rewarded those who wrote in
his praise.
His lordship about this time acquired his peculiar taste for style and
splendor; and to enhance his own importance in the world, set up an
elegant equipage, and at great cost, adorned the front of his house with
numerous figures of illustrious personages.
By his order, a tomb was dug under his summer-house in his garden,
during his life, which he mentions in "A Pikel for the Knowing Ones," in
the following ludicrous style:
"Here will lie in this box the first lord in Americake, the first Lord
Dexter made by the voice of hampsher state my brave fellows Affirmed it
they give me the titel and so Let it gone for as much as it will fetch
it wonte give me Any breade but take from me the Contrary fourder I have
a grand toume in my garding at one of the grasses and the tempel of
Reason over the toume and my coffen made and all Ready In my hous panted
with white Lead inside and outside tuched with greane and bras trimings
Eight handels and a gold Lock: I have had one mock founrel it was so
solmon and there was so much Criing about 3000 spectators I say my hous
is Eaqal to any mansion house in twelve hundred miles and now for sale
for seven hundred pounds weight of Dollars by me