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JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
His Life, Genius, and Writings
BY W. SLOANE KENNEDY
Author of a "Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow," Etc.
REVISED AND ENLARGED
_INTRODUCTION BY REV. S. F. SMITH, D.D._
Author of Hymn "America"
Such music as the woods and streams
Sang in his ear, he sang aloud
_The Tent on the Beach_
For all his quiet life flowed on,
As meadow streamlets flow,
Where fresher green reveals alo
The noiseless ways they go
_The Friend's Burial_
CHICAGO NEW YORK
THE WERNER COMPANY
COPYRIGHT 1892
BY D. LOTHROP COMPANY
COPYRIGHT 1895
BY THE WERNER COMPANY
John Greenleaf Whittier
INTRODUCTION.
Who does not admire and love John Greenleaf Whittier? And who does not
delight to do him honor? He was a man raised up by Providence to meet an
exigency in human history, and an exigency in the experiences of the
United States. And he met the exigency with distinguished success. He
was a true exponent of New England life and the New England spirit. He
drew his inspiration from the soil where he was born, from the
necessities of the times, from the demands of human rights, from the
love of God and of man. He was a unique man. We knew not his like before
him. We shall see no other like him after him. He was the product of his
age; and the age in which he lived belonged to him, and he to and in it.
He was a unique literary man. He was so meek and retiring; he was so
keenly sensitive to the wrongs done by man to man; he was so devoid of
self-seeking; so pure and exalted in motive, and so sturdy a defender of
the rights of the oppressed; he was so full of trust in God that we seem
never to have seen his equal among men. His beautiful gentleness of
character and his inflexible and fearless advocacy of the cause of
righteousness--even when such advocacy involved persecution and
personal harm and loss, a rare combination of qualities--remind us of
the sentiment of Oliver Wendell Holmes,
"The gentle are the strong."
If ever in modern days the character of the apostle John has been
reproduced among men it was in John G. Whittier. See with what sweetness
and meekness the shy and loving Quaker moved through the ranks of
society in times of peace and prosperity, and with what an adamantine
boldness and bravery he stood up before the mob in Philadelphia when his
types and manuscripts were scattered, his printing office burned and
himself threatened with personal violence by the foes of human equality
and freedom. Did he quail before the storm? Not he. Did he abandon his
principles and retire from the arena? Oh, no; no more than did the
apostle John--the apostle of love--forsake his Christian faith when the
persecutors immersed him in boiling oil and exiled him to a desert
island in the AEgean Sea.
The poetry of Mr. Whittier is a complete autobiography. It is a
reflection, as in a polished mirror, of himself. We miss only the
accidents of dates and places, which are of merely external importance;
but we find in his works, amply displayed, the portraiture of the man;
even as the architect records himself and his thoughts in his plans, and
builds his own soul into his edifices. Read the poetry of Mr. Whittier,
and you have no need to ask what kind of man produced it. Behold the
portrait: a thorough New England man, a son of its soil and a legitimate
product of its institutions; a fruit of the simple education which was
open to the people in the times of his youth and manhood; a
philanthropist, loving all righteousness and all men, and scorning all
oppression, injustice and iniquity; a stern advocate of human freedom,
prepared to fight for it even "to the bitter end;" a bachelor, but
having always a sweet and tender side for women; petted by society, but
never tempted to swerve from the straight line of his principles;
holding the faith of his fathers as a birthright and the result of his
honest convictions, but with sympathies as broad as the universe and an
appreciation of the privilege of private judgment on religious matters
as the right and duty of all men; animated by a patriotism which took in
his whole country, but a yearning for his own New England, its people,
its scenery, its institutions and its honor; warmly attached to the
friends whom he met along the pilgrimage of this life, but preserving to
the last the memory and the love of the survivors whom he knew in his
school days in the Haverhill Academy; living very much apart from his
fellow-men, as he did in his latter days, on account of the increasing
infirmities of his age, and absorbed in the world of his own thoughts,
yet ever most affable, and as accessible as a most warm-hearted and
cordial associate; every inch a man, as in stature, so also in soul, but
exhibiting also the simplicity and the loving and confiding spirit of a
child ("of such is the kingdom of heaven"); conscious of his human
weakness and dependence on a higher Power, as he approached the goal of
life, but relying on that higher Power with a sublime courage and a firm
faith. How the man stands forth, like an orator on the stage, in the
presence of throngs of admiring and reverent spectators! Unconsciously
he sets forth in his works, whether they be prose or poetry, an example
of the beauty of righteousness, the charm of philanthropy, the power and
attractiveness of the broadest charity, the fervor of patriotism and the
controlling force of love. The century which is about to close has been
honored and made better, as well as gladder, by his presence in it. He
has enriched its literature. He has elevated its ethics. He has breathed
a divine life into its inspirations. He has warmed its heart.
Mr. Whittier, like another Wordsworth, glorifies the scenes of common
life, and hallows the landscapes of his New England homes. His verses
speak in the dialect of the people, and deal with themes with which they
are familiar. He lifts toil above its drudgery, and sanctifies, as with
a sacred glow, the things with which men in common spheres chiefly have
to do. He admired nature as he saw in it the landscapes which surrounded
his several homes, the rolling green hills of Haverhill and Bradford,
the mighty trees of Oak Knoll, the flowing stream and graceful curves of
the Merrimack; the sober and quiet graces of Amesbury; and with his pen
he stamped upon them immortality.
The sun has set, but no night follows. The singer is gone, but his songs
remain, and will long be a power among men far beyond the places adorned
and honored by his personal presence. We love his poems which on account
of their helpfulness the grateful world will long continue to read. How
little he wrote--did he ever write anything--"which, dying, he could
wish to blot?" and his life was a poem. The seal of Death is on his
virtues, and the seal of universal approval is on his works.
S. F. SMITH.
CONTENTS.
Part I.--LIFE.
I. ANCESTRY 9
The Poet's Titles. Heredity. Spelling of the Name Whittier.
Whittier Ancestors. Greenleaf Ancestors. The Husseys and
Batchelders. Portrait of Whittier's Mother.
II. THE MERRIMACK VALLEY 24
Description of Essex County, Haverhill, Amesbury, Newburyport,
Salisbury Beach, and the Isles of Shoals. Extracts from the
"Supernaturalism of New England." The Spirit of the Age.
III. BOYHOOD 36
Birthplace. Kenoza Lake. Whitman and Whittier. The Old Homestead.
Members of the Household. Harriet Livermore and Lady Hester
Stanhope. The Poet's School Days. "My Playmate." Ellwood and Burns.
Old Stragglers. "Pilgrim's Progress." The Demon Fiddler. First
Poem. William Lloyd Garrison and the _Free Press_. Haverhill
Academy. Robert Dinsmore, the Quaint Farmer-Poet of Windham.
IV. EDITOR AND AUTHOR: FIRST VENTURES 83
Whittier as Editor of the _Boston Manufacturer_, the _Essex
Gazette_, and the _New England Review_. First Volume, "Legends of
New England." The Poet, J. G. C. Brainard. Ballad of "The Black
Fox." Whittier's Views on the Poetical Resources of the New World.
"Moll Pitcher."
V. WHITTIER THE REFORMER 97
Identifies Himself with the Anti-Slavery Movement. Publication of
his _Brochure_, "Justice and Expediency." Social Martyrdom.
Prudence Crandall and her Battle with the Philistinism of
Canterbury, Conn. Tailor Woolman and Saddler Lundy. Account of the
Philadelphia Convention for the Formation of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. Whittier's Account of the Convention. William
Lloyd Garrison draws up the Famous Declaration of Principles.
Samuel J. May Mobbed at East Haverhill. Whittier and George
Thompson Mobbed at Concord, N. H. Story of the Landlord and the
Flight by Night. The Poet's Account of the Mobbing of William Lloyd
Garrison. Letters of John Quincy Adams. Harriet Martineau on
Slavery. Attitude of Whittier toward the Quakers on the Slavery
Question.
VI. AMESBURY 123
Removal to Amesbury. Description of the Town and of the Poet's
Residence. The Study. Whittier Corresponding Editor of the
_National Era_. Various Works Written, including "Stranger in
Lowell," "Supernaturalism of New England," "Songs of Labor,"
"Child-Life," "Child-Life in Prose," "Introduction" to Woolman's
Journal, and "Songs of Three Centuries" (Edited). Whittier College
Established.
VII. LATER DAYS 141
Danvers. Oak Knoll. Summerings of the Poet at the Isles of Shoals
and the Bearcamp House. _The Literary World_ Tribute, and the
Whittier Banquet at the Hotel Brunswick. The Whittier Club. Various
Volumes of Poetry Published.
VIII. PERSONAL 153
Whittier's Personal Appearance Described by Frederika Bremer, Geo.
W. Bungay, David A. Wasson, and others. Incident of his
Kind-heartedness to a Stranger. Dom Pedro II. and Whittier at Mrs.
John T. Sargent's Reception. Letter to Mrs. Sargent. Humor. Love of
Children. Offices of Dignity and Honor.
Part II.
ANALYSIS OF HIS GENIUS AND WRITINGS.
I. THE MAN 169
The Moral in Whittier Predominates over the AEsthetic. Love of
Freedom the Central Element of his Character. Freedom, Democracy,
and Quakerism, links in one Chain. Quakerism Described; Freedom and
the Inner Light; Quakerism is Pure Democracy or Christianity, and
Pure Individualism, or Philosophical Idealism; it Resembles
Transcendentalism; the Details of the Quaker Religion Considered;
Quotations from William Penn, Mary Brook, and A. M. Powell;
Objections to Quakerism; Beautiful Lives of the Quakers; Whittier's
Attitude Toward the Religion of his Fathers. His Religious
Development, Doubt, and Trust. Patriotism. Has Blood Militant in
his Veins. A Representative American Poet. Summing Up.
II. THE ARTIST 196
Little or no _Technique_. More Fancy than Imagination. The Artistic
Quality of his Mind a Fusion of that of Wordsworth and Byron. His
Bookish Lore. The Beauty and Melody of his Finest Ballads. His
Strength and Nervous Energy. Culmination of his Genius. His Three
Crazes. Letters to the _Nation_, and to the American Anti-Slavery
Society. Illustrations of the Predominance of the Moral in his
Nature. Taine Quoted. Pope-Night. His Over-religiousness. Love of
Consecutive Rhymes. Minor Mannerisms. Originality.
III. POEMS SERIATIM 217
Mr. David A. Wasson's Classification of Epochs in the Poet's
Development. The Author's Classification. Four Periods: 1st,
_Introductory_; 2d, _Storm and Stress_; 3d, _Transition_; 4th,
_Religious and Artistic Repose_. General Review of Earlier
Productions. The Indian Poems. "Songs of Labor." The Ballad Decade.
"Prophecy of Samuel Sewall." John Chadwick on "Skipper Ireson's
Ride." The "Barbara Frietchie" Controversy. The Romance of the
"Countess." Winter in Poetry. "Snow-Bound." "The Tent on the
Beach." Various Poems.
IV. THE KING'S MISSIVE 254
Joseph Besse Quoted. Story of the Quaker and the King of England.
The Debate of Whittier and Dr. Geo. E. Ellis of Boston. Humorous
Specimen of Quaker Rant from Mather's _Magnalia_. Terrible
Sufferings of the Quakers.
V. POEMS BY GROUPS 272
The Anti-Slavery Poems Reviewed. Poems Inspired by the Civil War.
Hymns. Children's Poems: "Red Riding-Hood," "The Robin," etc.
Oriental Poems and Paraphrases.
VI. PROSE WRITINGS 279
Much of his Prose of Historical or Sectarian Interest Only.
Charming Nature- and Folk-Studies and Sketches. "Margaret Smith's
Journal." "Old Portraits and Modern Sketches." "Literary
Recreations and Miscellanies." Specimens of Whittier's Prose.
Part III.
TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL.
I. TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL 301
Whittier's death at Hampton Falls, N. H. Celebration of his
birthdays. Funeral and memorial services. Personal reminiscences.
Fac-simile of letter to Oliver Wendell Holmes.
APPENDIX.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 375
* * * * *
PART I.
LIFE.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY.
The Hermit of Amesbury, the Wood-thrush of Essex, the Martial Quaker,
the Poet of Freedom, the Poet of the Moral Sentiment,--such are some of
the titles bestowed upon Whittier by his admirers. Let us call him the
Preacher-Poet, for he has written scarcely a poem or an essay that does
not breathe a moral sentiment or a religious aspiration. What effect
this predetermination of character has had upon his artistic development
shall be discussed in another place.
The present chapter--which may be called the propylaeum or vestibule of
the biographical structure that follows--will deal with the poet's
ancestry, and the information afforded by it, and the two chapters that
succeed will afford unmistakable evidence of the truth that a poet, no
less than a solar system or a loaf of bread, is the logical resultant of
a line of antecedent forces and circumstances. The fine but infrangible
threads of our destiny are spun and woven out of atom-fibres indelibly
stamped with the previous owners' names. Their characters immingle in
our own,--the affluence or the indigence of their intellects, the sugar
or the nitre of their wit, the shifting sand or the unwedgeable iron of
their moral natures.
* * * * *
The name Whittier is spelled in thirty-two different ways in the old
records: a list of these different spellings is given in Daniel Bodwell
Whittier's genealogy of the family. The common ancestor of the Whittiers
is Thomas Whittier, who in the year 1638 came from Southampton, England,
to New England, in the ship "Confidence," of London, John Dobson,
master. It is recorded of Thomas Whittier, says his descendant, the
poet, in a half facetious way, that the only noteworthy circumstance
connected with his coming was that he brought with him a hive of bees.
He was born in 1620. His mother was probably a sister of John and Henry
Rolfe, with the former of whom he came to America. His name at that time
was spelled "Whittle." He married Ruth Green, and lived at first in
Salisbury, Mass. He seems afterward to have lived in Newbury. In 1650 he
removed to Haverhill, where he was admitted freeman, May 23, 1666.
It was customary in those days, says the historian of Haverhill, for the
nearest neighbors to sleep in the garrisons at night, but Thomas
Whittier refused to take shelter there with his family. "Relying upon
the weapons of his faith, he left his own house unguarded, and
unprotected with palisades, and carried with him no weapons of war. The
Indians frequently visited him, and the family often heard them, in the
stillness of the evening, whispering beneath the windows, and sometimes
saw them peep in upon the little group of practical 'non-resistants.'
Friend Whittier always treated them civilly and hospitably, and they
ever retired without molesting him."[1] Thomas Whittier died in
Haverhill, November 28, 1696. His autograph appears in the probate
records of Salem, Mass., as witness to a will of Samuel Gild. His widow
died in July, 1710, and her eldest son John was appointed administrator
of her estate. Thomas had ten children, of whom John became the ancestor
of the most numerous branch of the Whittiers. Joseph, the brother of
John, became the head of another branch of the family, and is the
great-grandfather of our poet. Joseph married Mary, daughter of Joseph
Peasley, of Haverhill, by whom he had nine children, among them Joseph,
2d, the grandfather of the poet. Joseph, 2d, married Sarah Greenleaf of
Newbury, by whom he had eleven children. The tenth child, John (the
father of the poet), married Abigail Hussey, who was a daughter of
Joseph Hussey, of Somersworth,--now Rollinsford,--N. H., a town on the
Piscataqua River, which forms the southern part of the boundary line
between New Hampshire and Maine. The mother of Abigail Hussey (the
poet's mother) was Mercy Evans, of Berwick, Me. John Whittier, the
father of the poet, died in Haverhill, June 30, 1830. His children were
four in number: (1) Mary, born September 3, 1806, married Jacob
Caldwell, of Haverhill, and died January 7, 1860; (2) John Greenleaf,
the poet, born December 17, 1807, in Haverhill; (3) Matthew Franklin,
born July 18, 1812, married Jane E. Vaughan; (4) Elizabeth Hussey, born
December 7, 1815, died September 3, 1864. From this statement it will be
seen that Matthew is the only surviving member of the family, besides
the poet himself. Matthew resides in Boston, and has sons, daughters,
and grandchildren.[2]
[Footnote 1: "The History of Haverhill, Mass.; from its first settlement
in 1640 to the year 1860. By George Wingate Chase, Haverhill. Published
by the author, 1861."]
[Footnote 2: The foregoing statements are taken from the Whittier
genealogy. But the author finds that there are a few slight
discrepancies of date between this book and the inscriptions on the
family tombstones in Amesbury. The tombstones say that John Whittier
died "11th of 6 mo., 1831," and that Mary died "1st mo. 7, 1861."]
The name Whittier constantly appears in important documents signed by
the chief citizens of Haverhill. The family was evidently respected and
honored by the community. In 1669 a Whittier was chosen town-constable.
It is recorded that in 1711 Thomas Whittier--probably a son of Thomas
(1st)--was one of a militia company provided with snow-shoes in order
the better to repel an anticipated attack of the Indians. But, in spite
of civil honors, it is well known that, down to comparatively recent
times, the family suffered considerable social persecution and slight on
account of their religious belief. For example, when the citizens built
a new meeting-house, in 1699, they peremptorily refused to allow the
Quakers to worship in it, although petitioned to do so by Joseph Peasley
and others, and although they were taxed for its support. It was not
until 1774 that an act was passed by the State exempting dissenters from
taxation for the support of what we may call the State religion. It is
important to bear this in mind, if we would know all the influences that
went to form the character of the poet.
The poet's paternal grandmother was Sarah Greenleaf, of Newbury. The
genealogist of the Greenleafs says: "From all that can be gathered it is
believed that the ancestors of the Greenleaf family were Huguenots, who
left France on account of their religious principles some time in the
course of the sixteenth century, and settled in England. The name was
probably translated from the French _Feuillevert_.[3] Edmund Greenleaf,
the ancestor of the American Greenleafs, was born in the parish of
Brixham, and county of Devonshire, near Torbay, in England, about the
year 1600." He came to Newbury, Mass., in 1635. He was by trade a
silk-dyer. Respecting the family coat-of-arms the genealogist gives, on
page 116, the following interesting statement:--
"The Hon. William Greenleaf, once of Boston, and then of New
Bedford, being in London about the year 1760, obtained from an
office of heraldry a device, said to be the arms of the family,
which he had painted, and the painting is now in the possession of
his grand-daughter, Mrs. Ritchie, of Roxbury, Mass. The field is
white (argent), bearing a chevron between three leaves (vert). The
crest is a dove standing on a wreath of green and white, holding in
its mouth three green leaves. The helmet is that of a warrior (visor
down); a garter below, but no motto."
[Footnote 3: Whittier has thus alluded to this surmise:--
"The name the Gallic exile bore,
St. Malo! from thy ancient mart,
Became upon our Western shore
Greenleaf for Feuillevert."]
What more appropriate emblazonment for the escutcheon of our Martial
Quaker poet than a warrior's helmet, and a dove holding in its mouth the
emblem of peace!
Jonathan Greenleaf, born in Newbury, in 1723, is described as possessing
a remarkably kind and conciliatory disposition. "Even the tones of his
voice were gentle and persuasive, and he was very frequently resorted to
as a peacemaker between contending parties. His dress was remarkably
uniform, usually in his later years being deep blue or drab. He seldom
walked fast, his gait being a measured and moderate step. His manners
were plain, unassuming, but very polite. He was very religious, and a
strict Calvinist. Nothing but absolute necessity kept him from public
worship on the Sabbath, and he was scarce ever known to omit regular
morning and evening worship."
Of Professor Simon Greenleaf, the Harvard Law Professor (1833-1845), the
family genealogist says: "For the last thirty years of his life he was
one of the most spiritually-minded of men, evidently intent on walking
humbly with God, and doing good to the bodies and souls of his
fellow-men; scarce ever writing a letter of friendship even, without
breathing in it a prayer, or delivering in it some good message."
Professor Greenleaf published some dozen works, both legal and
religious. It is a curious fact that his son James married Mary
Longfellow, a sister of the Cambridge poet, thus making Whittier and
Longfellow distant kinsmen.[4]
[Footnote 4: It may be added that the ancestral home of the Longfellows
is still standing in Byfield, about five miles distant from the Whittier
homestead in Haverhill. (See the author's Life of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, p. 15.)]
Another English Greenleaf--contemporary with Edmund, being a silk-dyer
as well as he, and in all probability a near kinsman--was a lieutenant
under Oliver Cromwell, and served also under Richard Cromwell, and was
in the army of the Protector under General Monk, at the time of the
restoration of Charles II.
It is hardly necessary to call the reader's attention to the significant
fact, elicited by the foregoing researches, that, in tracing down two
hereditary lines of the poet's paternal ancestors, we discover that for
many generations those ancestors suffered religious persecution for
loyalty to their religious convictions, and that many of them were
remarkable for their sensitive piety.
* * * * *
Turn we now to the maternal ancestry of Whittier.
In 1873 the poet wrote to Mr. D. B. Whittier, of Boston, as follows:--
"My mother was a descendant of Christopher Hussey, of Hampton, N.
H., who married a daughter of Rev. Stephen Bachelor, the first
minister of that town.
"Daniel Webster traces his ancestry to the same pair, so Joshua
Coffin informed me. Colonel W. B. Greene, of Boston, is of the same
family."[5]
[Footnote 5: The name of Daniel Webster's paternal grandmother was
Susannah Bachelor, or Batchelder.]
In the light of the preceding note, the following letter of Col. W. B.
Greene explains itself:--
"JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS., Sept. 24, 1873.
"Mr. D. B. WHITTIER, Danville, Vt.
"DEAR SIR,--Yours of September 20 is just received, and I reply to
it at once. My grandfather, on my mother's side, was the Rev.
William Batchelder, of Haverhill, Mass. In the year 1838 I had a
conversation, on a matter of military business, with the Hon.
Daniel Webster; and, to my astonishment, Mr. Webster treated me as
a kinsman. My mother afterwards explained his conduct by telling me
that one of Mr. W.'s female ancestors was a Batchelder. In 1838 or
1839, or thereabouts, I met schoolmaster [Joshua] Coffin on a
Mississippi steamboat, near Baton Rouge. The captain of the boat
told me, confidentially, that Coffin was engaged in a dangerous
mission respecting some slaves, and inquired whether my aid and
countenance could be counted on in favor of Coffin, in case
violence should be offered him. This he did because I was on the
boat as a military man, and in uniform. When Coffin found he could
count on me, he came and talked with me, and finally told me he had
[once] been hired by Daniel Webster _to go to Ipswich_, and there
look up Mr. W.'s ancestry. He spoke of Rev. Stephen Batchelder, of
New Hampshire, and said that Daniel Webster, John G. Whittier, and
myself were related by Batchelder blood. I did not feel at all
ashamed of my relatives. In 1841 or 1842 Mrs. Crosby, of Hallowell,
Me., who had charge of my grandfather when he was a boy, and knew
all about the family, told me that Daniel Webster was a Batchelder,
that she had known his father intimately, and knew Daniel when he
was a boy. At the time of my conversation with her, Aunt Crosby
might have been anywhere from seventy-five to eighty-five years of
age. When I was a boy, at (say) about the year 1827 or 1828, I used
to go often to the house of J. G. Whittier's father, a little out
of the village (now city) of Haverhill, Mass. There was a Mrs.
Hussey in the family, who baked the best squash pies I ever ate,
and knew how to make the pine floors shine like a looking-glass.
"This is, I think, all the information, in answer to your request,
that I am competent to give you.
"Yours respectfully,
"WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE."
In a note addressed to the New England Historical and Genealogical
Society, the poet says: "On my mother's side my grandfather was Joseph
Hussey, of Somersworth, N. H.; married Mercy Evans, of Berwick, Me."
Some of the genealogical links connecting the Husseys of Somersworth
with those of Hampton have not yet been recovered. But this much is
known of the family,[6] that in 1630 Christopher Hussey came from
Dorking, Surrey, England, to Lynn, Mass. He had married, in Holland,
Theodate, the daughter of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler, a Puritan minister,
who had fled to that country to avoid persecution in England. The author
was told by a local antiquary in Hampton, N. H., that there is a
tradition in the town that Stephen Bachiler would not let his daughter
marry young Hussey unless he embraced the Puritan faith. His love was so
great that he consented, and came with his bride to America, where two
years later his father-in-law followed him. Stephen Bachiler came to
Lynn in 1632, with six persons, his relatives and friends, who had
belonged to his church in Holland, and with them he established a
little independent church in Lynn. The progenitive faculty of this
worthy divine must have been highly developed: he was married four
times, and was dismissed from his church at Lynn on account of charges
twice preferred against him by women of his congregation. The recorded
dates show that both he and his son-in-law, Hussey, came to Hampton in
the year 1639. The Hampton authorities had the previous year made Mr.
Bachiler and Mr. Hussey each a grant of three hundred acres of land, to
induce them to settle there. When and how the Husseys became Quakers is
not known to the author. But in Savage's Genealogical Dictionary, II.
507, it is recorded that as early as 1688 a certain John Hussey of
Hampton was a preacher to the Quakers in Newcastle, Del. The mother of
the poet was a devoted disciple of the Society of Friends. That she was
a person of deep and tender religious nature is evident to one looking
at the excellent oil-portrait of her which hangs in the little parlor at
Amesbury. The head is inclined graciously to one side, and the face
wears that expression of ineffable tranquillity which is always a
witness to generations of Quaker ancestry. In the picture, her garments
are of smooth and immaculate drab. The poet once remarked to the writer
that one of the reasons why his mother removed to Amesbury, in 1840, was
that she might be near the little Friends' "Meeting" in that town.
[Footnote 6: See histories of Lynn and Newbury, _passim_.]
Thus among the maternal as well as the paternal progenitors of our
Quaker poet we find the religious nature predominant.