At a meeting of the Cambridge (Mass.) Historical Society held in
Cambridge in 1906, a paper was read by William Coolidge Lane, Esq., in
which he devoted some attention to the career of Nehemiah Walter. The
matter is of so interesting a nature that we here reproduce a portion of
the paper, the title of which is “The Nehemiah Walter Elegy on Elijah
Corlet.” Walter was born in Ireland in 1663 and came to New England in
1679. Mr. Lane tells us that he became a minister highly esteemed here.
At the age of thirteen he is said to have readily conversed in Latin. He
had been apprenticed to an upholsterer in 1674, but it was found that
his tastes were altogether literary. After coming to this country, he
was at first placed under Ezekiel Cheever, the Boston schoolmaster, but
entered college almost immediately, in 1680. He was butler in 1683, and
graduated in 1684. Soon after, he made a voyage to Nova Scotia, where he
became proficient in French, but returned to study in Cambridge, and was
often employed by Corlet as his assistant. “It reflected a luster on his
character that the memorable Mr. Elijah Corlet, master of the Grammar
School in Cambridge, used to express a distinguishing value for him by
employing him to officiate at times in the care of his school when
obliged to be absent himself, always esteeming his place well supplied
by Mr. Walter, and fully confiding in his skill, prudence and
diligence.”
The Elegy was composed when he was but three years out of college, and
was still studying for the ministry in Cambridge. In 1688 he was
ordained as a colleague with John Eliot in Roxbury, Mass., then 84 years
old. His people in Roxbury, and Eliot himself, showed a deep affection
for him, and the liveliest satisfaction at having secured him for their
minister. Walter continued as the minister of the church in Roxbury up
to 1750, so that his ministry and Eliot’s together covered a period of
one hundred and eighteen years. He was for many years a member of the
corporation of Harvard College, and sided with Increase Mather, his
father-in-law. After Mather’s exclusion from the presidency, he attended
no more meetings of the corporation, and was considered to have
abdicated his office.
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