“We cannot properly dedicate this building to the purpose for which it is intended without calling your attention briefly to James Blackstone, his life, his family, and his ancestors. He was born in Branford in 1793, in a house located nearly opposite that home which was during nearly his whole life his residence, and where he died on the 4th of February, 1886. His first ancestor in this country was the Rev. William Blackstone, a graduate, in 1617, of Emanuel College, Cambridge. He received Episcopal ordination in England after graduation, but, like John Davenport of New Haven, he soon became of the Puritan persuasion, left his native country on account of his non-conformity, and became the first white settler upon that famous neck of land opposite Charlestown, which is now the city of Boston. When the Massachusetts colony came to New England they found William Blackstone settled on that peninsula. He had been there long enough to have planted an orchard of apple trees. Upon his invitation, the principal part of the Massachusetts colony removed from Charlestown and founded the town of Boston, on land which Mr. Blackstone desired them to occupy. He was the first inhabitant of the town, and the colony records of May 18, 1631, show that he was the first person admitted a freeman of Boston. His house and orchard were located upon a spot about half-way between Boston Common and the Charles River. A few years passed by, and the peculiar notions of the Puritans of Boston on the subject of church organization and government, had satisfied William Blackstone that while he could not conform to the church of Archbishop Laud, neither could he conform to the Puritan Church of Boston, and when they invited him to join them he constantly declined, using this language: ‘I came from England because I did not like the lord-bishops; but I cannot join with you because I would not be under the lord-brethren.’