Rev. James Kendall, the successor of Mr. Robbins, was ordained January 1, 1800, and occupied the parsonage until his death, which occurred March 17, 1859, and it was sold the next year to Mr. Weston. Of Dr. Kendall, whose pastorate extended through a period of sixty years, I cannot forbear to speak, as his life was one of the most important passages in the history of our town. It is difficult to realize that more than a generation has been born, and has lived to nearly middle age, without a knowledge of his personality and a daily observation of his character and virtues. He was born in Sterling, Mass., in 1769, and after graduating at Harvard in 1796, occupied the position of tutor in Latin at Harvard until he received an invitation to settle in Plymouth. At his ordination the sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. French of Andover, and the other parts of the ceremony were performed by Rev. Dr. Peter Thatcher, Rev. Dr. Tappan, Rev. Mr. Shaw and Rev. Mr. Howland. In 1825 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard, by whose government he was esteemed one of the distinguished incumbents of the ministry. I was in my early youth impressed by the benignant traits in his character and the purity of his life, as it was my fortune when nine years of age to be for a few weeks a member of his family, while my mother was passing a summer with her father in Nova Scotia. I remember him sitting in his study in the back west room, where if I happened to enter I was always greeted with a kindly smile and a cheerful word; I remember him in the front east room on a chilly day sitting by a Franklin stove, and often in the garden, which he tended with loving and faithful care. There was a vein of humor in his composition, which, unlike that I have often seen repressed on the Sabbath by ministers of the olden time, was too much the overflow of a contented and joyful spirit to be concealed on a day to him the happiest of the week. As long as I can remember he always carried a cane, which had descended to him through James, his father, James, his grandfather, and Samuel, his great-grandfather; from Thomas, son of Francis, who was born in 1649 in Woburn. This cane is now owned by his grandson, Arthur Lord of Plymouth, and represents an ownership by seven generations of the same family.