The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1884Various
History
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 6, June, 1884
Various
Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
Samuel died on January 1, 1856, aged ninety-six years and four months.
His widowed sister, Mrs. Anna Goodhue, died on August 2, 1858, at the
age of ninety-five. Memories of their wholly pleasant and beneficent
lives, abounding in social amenities and Christian graces, still linger
about the old mansion.
Levi Willard was three years the junior of Abijah. He had been collector
of excise for the county, held the military rank of lieutenant-colonel,
and was justice of the peace. With his brother-in-law Captain Samuel
Ward he conducted the largest mercantile establishment in Worcester
County at that date. He had even made the voyage to England to purchase
goods. Although not so wealthy as his brother, he might have rivaled him
in any field of success but for his broken health; and he was as widely
esteemed for his character and capacity. At the outbreak of hostilities
he was too ill to take active part on either side, but his sympathies
were with his loyalist kindred. He died on July 11, 1775. His partner in
business, Captain Samuel Ward, cast his lot with the patriot party, but
his son, Levi Willard, Jr., graduated at Harvard College in 1775, joined
his uncle Abijah, and went to England and there remained until 1785,
when he returned and died five years later.
Abel Willard, though equally graced by nature with the physical gifts
that distinguished his brothers, unlike them chose the arts of peace
rather than those of war. He was born at Lancaster on January 12,
1731-2, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1752, ranking third in
the class. His wife was Elizabeth Rogers, daughter of the loyalist
minister of Littleton. His name was affixed to the address to Governor
Gage, June 21, 1774, and he was forced to sign, with the other justices,
a recantation of the aspersions cast upon the people in that address. He
has the distinction of being recorded by the leading statesman of the
Revolution--John Adams--as his personal friend. So popular was Abel
Willard and so well known his character as a peacemaker and well-wisher
to his country, that he might have remained unmolested and respected
among his neighbors in spite of his royalist opinions; but, whether led
by family ties or natural timidity, he sought refuge in Boston, and
quick-coming events made it impossible for him to return. At the
departure of the British forces for Halifax, he accompanied them. A
letter from Edmund Quincy to his daughter Mrs. Hancock, dated Lancaster,
March 26, 1776, contains a reference to him: ... "Im sorry for poor Mrs
Abel Willard your Sisters near neighbour & Friend. Shes gone we hear
with her husband and Bro and sons to Nova Scotia P'haps in such a
situation and under such circumstances of Offense respecting their
Wors'r Neighbours as never to be in a political capacity of returning to
their Houses unless w'th power & inimical views w'ch God forbid should
ever be ye Case."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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