Plymouth memories of an octogenarianDavis, William T. (William Thomas)
History
Plymouth memories of an octogenarian
Davis, William T. (William Thomas)
Plymouth (Mass.) -- History
the “Young Ladies’ Arithmetic,” and a work on English Grammar. Until
1810 his religious views were unsettled, but in that year he joined
his father’s church, and after a short time at the Andover Seminary
was admitted to preach by the Orange Association of Congregational
ministers in Vermont. Having determined to enter the missionary
service, he sailed for England with the view of making the necessary
arrangements, and was captured by a French privateer, and after a
short imprisonment at Bayonne, reached England, returning in 1811,
and being ordained as missionary at Salem, February 6, 1812. He
married February 5, 1812, Ann Hazeltine, of Bradford, Mass., and
daughter of John and Rebecca Hazeltine, and sailed for Calcutta
on the 19th of that month. Soon after reaching India he became a
Baptist, and severing his connection with the American Board he was
baptized by Dr. Carey, the English missionary at Serampore. When
the war broke out between the East India Company and the Burman
Government, Dr. Judson was arrested for alleged complicity with the
English, and suffered a long imprisonment, during which a child,
Maria E. B. Judson, was born, who died April 24, 1827, at the age
of two years and three months. Mrs. Judson died at Amherst, Burman
Empire, October 24, 1826. In 1834 he married Sarah Hall Boardman,
widow of Rev. George Dana Boardman, and daughter of Ralph and Abiah
Hall of Alstead, N. H., who died on her way to America at St. Helena,
September 1, 1845. In the autumn of that year Dr. Judson made his
first and only visit to the United States, where he remained until
July, 1846. During that visit it was my privilege to meet him. At
that time the mail stage for Boston, leaving Plymouth at half past
ten, met the accommodation stage leaving Boston at eleven o’clock,
and the passengers dined together at the half way house in West
Scituate, and there I met and sat next to him at the dinner table. He
was rather above the average height, had brown hair, a smooth face,
and an expression indicative of a life of serious thought and sad
experience. He reminded me of portraits of Charles the First, and
also of the portrait now in Pilgrim Hall of Governor Josiah Winslow,
in both of which is depicted the expression to which I have referred.
During his visit he married in June, 1846, Emily Chubbuck, a native
of Eaton, N. Y., known in the literary world as Fanny Forester, and
sailed with her for India in the following month. By his second wife
his children were Adoniram, Elnathan, Henry, Edward and Abby Ann, and
by his third wife, a daughter, Emily, who married a Mr. Hanna. Dr.
Judson died at sea April 12, 1850, and his widow returning to America
in 1851, died June 1, 1854. His great literary works were a Burmese
translation of the Scriptures, and a Burmese English dictionary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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