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Centenary Edition [of the Writings of Theodore Parker]
Centenary Edition - of the Writings of Theodore Parker Author:Theodore Parker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m JOHN ADAMS In 1634 the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay made a grant of lands at Mount Wol- laston (now in the town of Quincy) to enlarge... more » the town of Boston. In 1636 the inhabitants of Boston granted some of those lands in lots to individual settlers, and even to new residents, who presently formed a church, and settled their ministers. In 164.0 they were incorporated as a town, which bore the name of Braintree. I find forty acres of land granted to one Henry Adams. He died in 1646, and left an estate appraised at seventy-five pounds thirteen shillings. It consisted of the land, a barn, and a house, which had one kitchen, one parlor, and one chamber in the attic, where dwelt the eleven persons who made up the family. The inventory of his estate, taken after his death, catalogues " three beds," which must have contained them all at night. He left also one cow, one heifer, swine, some old books, and a silver spoon. He was grandfather's grandfather to the second President of the United States. It was not a conspicuous family in those times, though it has since borne two Presidents, and is still vigorous and flourishing, promising I know not how great future glories. On the other side of the water antiquaries and genealogists find that the family was old and baronial. Indeed, the name would justify a larger genealogical claim. The Adamses ought to be an old family and a great. According to the received accounts, it is the vi-7 97 first in the world. Look at the far-famed descendant of this Puritanic Henry of Braintree, and see what he did and suffered, and what extraordinary events he thereby brought to pass. To understand his life, divide it into six parts: — I. His childhood and youth, from birth till twenty- three. 1735 to 1758. II. His doi...« less