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MEMOIR
OF
HIS HONOR SAMUEL PHILLIPS, LL. D.
REV. JOHN  L. TAYLOR,
ANDOVER, MASS.
"'FINIS  ORIGINE  PENDET."
BOSTON:
CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, BEACON ST.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by
SEWALL HARDING,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Cnurt of the District of Massachusetts.




PR E F ACE.
TIHE effort to exhume from the past such relies as may
serve to portray, with any degree of justice, the character of
one whom his contemporaries rather admired than ventured
to describe, is unique. It may seem presumptuous as well as
arduous: yet with a fitting subject, it has some peculiar attractions. The antiquarian vein is struck; interesting historical reminiscences blend with it; incidents of the times
will reflect their light upon the subject to be sketched in the
foreground of the picture; facts worthy of note in topography interweave themselves with it; the causes of things are
laid open in the light of their effects; the study of " endless
genealogies" will beguile some passing hours; the writer and
reader will stand amid the scenes, and inhale the air of.ancestral virtues; the pure, the good, the true, will appear in
its fine essence, divorced by time from the passions and
prejudices to which it was wedded.
Yet, the expediency of such an undertaking must depend
upon the urgency of the occasion for it, and the aims with
(iii)




iV           -        PREFA CE.
which it is prosecuted. How far these considerations may
justly be considered as weighing in the case of this work,
the -work itself must witness. It has been prepared under
advantages of position and relation to the subject which it
would be ungrateful not to recognize, while yet impeded by
great embarrassments, froln incessant interruption and frequent suspension, under the continual pressure of numerous
other cares.
Much of the work has been of special delicacy, from its
connection with the living as well as the dead.  To the various members of the family of Judge Phillips's descendants,
and to some others, many acknowledgments are due for
their courtesy in furnishing the manuscripts which have
been used.
It may be thought that some chapters in the Memoir are
too full, and others too brief; or that in some other respect a
due proportion has not been preserved between the different
topics. It was, however, supposed that not only the proportion, but the order and sequence of the various points as
they appear, would on the whole best subserve the chief ends
of the volume. So great a departure from a strict chronological arrangement as will be here discovered, and such a
grouping of widely scattered facts to illustrate in succession
separate phases of the character and life, must be considered
in itself undesirable; yet no other method seemed fitted to
give such vividness as this, with its occasional repetitions, to
one's impression of the extraordinary man to be described, in
the great prominence and variety of his characteristics: and




PREFACE.                       V
no other would allow such freedom as was desired in the
occasional interweaving of collateral incidents, or in sketching contemporaneous and kindred personages, as well as
events.
Had the book been written for any one class, large portions of it might have been omitted, but as now completed,
what may seem a mere incumbrance to one, without interest
and worthless, may possibly be of some value to another;
there may be a local or a personal interest where it cannot be
general.  The utmost care has been taken to secure the copy
from errors, yet it is not improbable that some will be detected.
In the letter press and embellishments of the work, including the portraits of Judge Phillips and of Lieutenant-Governor William Phillips, the writer has been anxious to give
it a dress worthy of the subject, at whatever cost; and the
Board of Publication, in their liberality and good taste, have
left him nothing to desire, but that they may have their
reward.
ANDOVER, September 1., 1856








CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
ANCESTRY.
Rev. George Phillips of Watertown. - Rev. Samuel Phillips of Rowley. —
Samuel Phillips, Esquire, of Salem. - Rev. Samuel Phillips of Andover...   pp. 1-10
CHAPTER II.
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.
His parents, Samuel and Elizabeth Phillips. —The Old French War.Only surviving child. - Effect on his character. -Bias toward study.
- Amiableness. - Predominating seriousness                  11-16
CHAPTER III.
ACADEMIC LIFE.
Fitting for College. - Byfield Academy and Master Moody. - Frail health.
- Application. - Correctness of deportment. - Religious tendencies and
traits.   17-19
CHAPTER IV.
COLLEGE YEARS.
Enters College at Cambridge. — Character for studiousness and moral uprightness. - Class mates. - Rank according to family. - Curious ques(vii)




V111                      CONTENTS.
tion of priority. - Promoted. - Incessant application. - Ideas of time.
College journal. - Stamp Act and other political scenes. - Activity in
Societies. - Graduates.- Salutatory Oration.- Letter to his father on
entertaining his friends.                                 20-30
CHAPTER V.
MARRIAGE.
Acquaintance with Miss Foxcroft. - Their attachment.- Disparity of
years. — Opposition of his parents. — Severe illness. —" A wounded
spirit." — Objections waived. — Marriage.- Settlement at North Andover.31-34
CHAPTER VI.
PATRIOTISM.
Revolutionary impulses at Cambridge and Boston. —Interest in passing
discussions and contests. — British troops. — General Court in Cambridge. - Boston Massacre. - Patriotic dissertation. - Excitement in
the Colonies. — Effect of these influences on his mind and pursuits. -
Engages in the great struggle. — Elected Town Clerk and Treasurer.
— Town Meetings of Andover.- Resolves.- His father's interest in
the struggle. - Elected to the Provincial Congress at Watertown. —
Activity in Committees and in debate.- Notice of the Congress. -
Members. - Spirit.- Siege of Boston. — Great exigency for want of
powder. - Washington, Putnam, etc. - Arranges with the Government
to erect a powder-mill.- Importance of this aid.- Interest in retiring
soldiers. - Self-denial..  35-75
CHAPTER VII.
CIVIL SERVICE.
Member of the Constitutional Convention. -Notice of the Convention and
its labors. —His prominence. — On Committee to draft the Constitution. - Debates. — Constitution adopted.- Election under it as Senator.-Appointed Judge. —Time and importance of his judicial ser



CONTENTS.                              iX
vice. - Address to Grand-Jury. — Senatorial career. - President of
Senate. — Commission to treat with insurgents in Shays' Rebellion. —
Success of the embassy. - Elected Lieutenant-governor. - French
aggressions. - Letter to President Adams and Reply. —Extract from
an Oration by his son. - Inclination to military service in the exigency under Lieutenant-general Washington...   76-103
CHAPTER VIII.
BUSINESS.
Private affairs. - Tact and energy. - Vigilance. - Farms and wild lands.
- Stores. - Mills. - Night journeys. - Broken leg. - Exposure of
health. - Acquisition of estate.104-109
CHAPTER IX.
HOME.
Domestic life.  Removal to South Parish. -Mansion-house erected. —
Perils to his life. - Correspondence with Madam Phillips. - Characteristics of the writers. - His eldest son. - Letters. - College life and honors. - Graduation. - Salutatory Oration. - Marriage. - His younger
son. - Letters. - Character. - Death. - Social position and influence.
Visit of Washington to him in his Presidential tour. - Incidents and
reminiscences. - Letters at Washington's death..   110-184
CHAPTER X.
EDUCATION.
Love of learning in the Phillips family. - His special efforts in promoting
it. - Interest in schools of the town. - Master Foster's school. - Attention to school laws as Judge. - Overseer of Harvard University. -
Address to students. - Degree of LL. D. - Plans and originates Phillips Academy. — His favorite work. - Originated in the midst of war.
- Endowed by his father and uncle. - The site of the School. - The
Constitution. - Opening. - Act of Incorporation. - Arnold's Treason.
— Hard winter. -Dark Day. —" Andover Hill." - Influence in orig



X                         CONTENTS.
inating Phillips Exeter Academy.- Correspondence with Dr. Phillips.
— Founding and Opening of Phillips Exeter Academy. -New Academy building at Andover. - Further correspondence with Dr. Phillips.
- Charitable donation of Dr. Phillips. - Sketch of the Founders, Samuel Phillips, Esq., of North Andover, and Hon. John Phillips, LL.D.,
of Exeter; also of their brother, Hon. William Phillips, of Boston. —
Their donations. — Prosperity and celebrity of the Academy. - State
grants. - Sons of nephews of Washington. - Letter of Washington and
Reply. — Number of pupils in Judge Phillips's lifetime. — Later history of the Academy. — Notice of His Honor William Phillips, of Boston. - Character. - Donations. - Expansion of the Institution. - Theological students in it. - Theological Department endowed. - English Department originated. - Whole number educated in the various
Departments. - Religious spirit pervading the course of study in
all...........   185-264
CHAPTER XI.
RELIGION.
Religious education. - Church connections. - Letters to his cousin on
making a profession of religion. — Letters to his son on coming of age,
-on Family Prayer and other religious topics. —Charitable endowments. -Religious characteristics.                       265-312
CHAPTER XII.
DECEASE.
Decline. - Death. - Parting mementos. - Funeral. - Tributes. - Reminiscences.- Dr. Tappan, Dr. Dwight, Hon. Josiah Quincy, — this Memorial.                                                  313-331
APPENDIX.
Rev. George Phillips of Watertown.- Rev. Samuel Phillips of Rowley. -
Rev. Samuel Phillips of Andover and his children. - Samuel Phillips,




CO NTENTS.                             Xi
Esq. of North Andover and his children. - Social rank of Samuel Phillips, Jr., in College. - Extract from College records. - Addresses to
Washington. — Diploma as LL. D. - Abstract of Deeds of "Andover
Hill." - Act of Incorporation of Phillips Academy. - Phillips Exeter
Academy. - Lands in Maine. - Grant of General Court. - Constitution
of the Theological Seminary.333-391








M EM OIR.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANCESTRY OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
CTHE memory of the just is blessed:" whoever has
personally known the late Lieutenant-Governor Samuel Phillips, or has had occasion to study his character
and life with much care, must have often been impressed with the vigorous tenacity and freshness with
which his name still lives. During his comparatively
short but most active and useful life, he with so much
individuality, consistency, and symmetry, exhibited the
essential traits of an attractive and noble character,
that at his death the most affecting and emphatic tributes were paid to him, in every variety of form, from
men of all ranks and parties; and it is impossible now,
after the lapse of more than half a century, to speak
of him to a survivor of that generation, without exciting an outburst of enthusiasm in praise of his rare
virtue,.
1                    (1)




2                  MEMOIR OF
We need not attempt to explain under what influences we have, at this remote day, been drawn into
this deep current of interest in him as the study of our
leisure hours for many years, growing only more eager
as it has been protracted; -nor how strongly we have
come to feel that there is a manifest call of Divine
Providence pressing upon us from without.and from
within, to undertake, amid all its difficulties, the work
of preparing some suitable memorial of so extrabrdinary a man.
With no wish or design to add any lustre to his
name from the circumstance of his honorable lineage,
we find grouped prominently around him in the lifepicture before us, the portraits of several of his ancestry, and of his contemporary kindred, whom any just
view of his character and life would constrain us at
intervals in the current of our narrative to sketch, and
who are, in themselves, deserving of commemoration
with him; yet, in the necessity of selection, while so
many of the family name have distinguished them-.selves, we could properly mark only such for special
notice, as, besides their own great merit, stand in the
nearest connection with our chief aim, the delineation
of his character.
SAMUEL PHILLIPS, the late Lieutenant-Governor, was
the fifth Samuel in the line of descent from  the
young son, whom, with a daughter, the Rev. George




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                     3
Phillips and  his frail wife  brought with them  to
this country on board the ship Arbella, in company
with Governor Winthrop, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Rev.
John Wilson, Isaac Johnson, Simon Bradstreet, and others, in 1630, landing at Salem on the 12th day of June.
The mother of young Samuel, borne down by the
hardships of the long voyage, died soon after, and was
buried by the side of the Lady Arbella Johnson, in
honor of whom their little ship had received its name
when the company were setting sail.
In the annals of that early period of our history,
no man is honored with more uniform and emphatic
expressions of the high consideration in which he was
held, than the Rev. George Phillips; in many particulars he reminds us of his worthy descendant the Lieutenant-Governor. Educated at Cambridge, and admitted to holy orders in the Church of England, he
was yet so strongly imbued with the spirit of nonconformity as to be ill at ease in his work; and, at
the ripe age of thirty-seven, we find him enlisted,
heart and hand, in the congenial enterprise of planting the Massachusetts colony. From the moment
1 He appears to have come over at thb expense as well as the
solicitation of the company. Governor Winthrop, in rendering his
account to the Court of Assistants, September 25, 1634, says, "I disbursed also for the transportacion of 3Mr. Phillips and his ffamily,
which was to be borne by the Generall till hee should be chosen to
some particular congregation." - Records of Mass., Vol. I. p. 131.




4                  MEMOIR OF
when he stepped on board the Arbella with his heart's
treasures by his side to the day of his death, he was
a leader in the councils of the Church and the State.
During the voyage he made arrangements for catechizing and preaching regularly, as the virtual pastor
of the company; and at an early day after their arrival, notwithstanding his great bereavement in the
death of his wife, he went forth with the boldest and
hardiest to begin a new settlement at a place on
Charles River which they named Watertown. Here,
for fourteen years, he expended the wealth of his rare
learning, wisdom, and zeal, for the welfare of the town
and of the rising Commonwealth, until his sudden death
in 1644, at the age of fifty-one.
It is implied in various contemporary notices of him,
that in his views of church polity he was a pioneer, for
a time far in advance of his brethren in the ministry;
having by careful study of the Scriptures early been
brought to adopt the main features of Congregationalism, in distinction from the two extremes of Prelacy
and Independency.  These convictions in regard to
ecclesiastical polity made him also a zealous republican in civil affairs; in all the important deliberations
and decisions of the colony, in which the well-adjusted
fabric of our free government originated, his counsel
was sought, and had great weight. Thus, by the force
of his own independent and originating character, as
well as under the influence of a great popular move



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                    5
ment toward full civil and religious liberty, he not only
became eminent in his own day, but lives still in the
type which he gave to his wide spread and remarkable
family, and in the whole civil and religious order of
the State which he -was so active in founding.' At
his death, " he was much lamented by his church, who
expressed their respect to his memory by educating
his eldest son," 2 Samuzzel Plillips, who was born in
1625, at Boxted, England, the place of his father's
early labors in the ministry, and brought to this country when but five years old. He graduated at HIarvard College in 1650; and in 1651, was settled in the
ministry at Rowley, as colleague of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, where he continued to labor with great acceptance
and usefulness for a period of forty-five years, until
his decease, at the age of seventy-one, in 1696.
In 1678, he preached the election sermon before the
general court of the province. In 1687, his faithful
reproof of iniquity involved him in a temporary persecution, and he was imprisoned "for calling Randolph
a wicked man." His piety and talents are spoken of
as being "of no common order." His widow, though
they had been married from the very commencement
of his ministry in 1651, survived him nearly eighteen
1 See Appendix A.
2 Allen's Biog. Die. p. 476. This statement of Allen has been
lately questioned. See Bond's Genealogies and History of Watertown, p 874.
1*e




6                  MEMOIR  OF
years, so that their grandson, Rev. Samuzel Phillips of
Andover, preached her funeral sermon. The original
manuscript of this discourse is now in our hands.  Of
his revered grandmother, the preacher says, "she was
an early seeker of God, and spent much of her time
daily in reading the word and in prayer..... She took
great care of her chzildren's souls; she could say that
which one in ten of God's children could not, namely,
I kzno  thze tliee of nmy conversion. She was always humble and penitent; and as she lived, so she died, depending on Christ for righteousness and salvation."  This
incidental mention of her special religious watchfulness and solicitude in her children's behalf, in connection with the ornament of her own meek and quiet
spirit, shows with what unity of counsels and efforts
these most estimable parents transmitted to their posterity the type of character to which they had themselves been so carefully trained; so that not only
children, but children's children, were rising up and
calling them blessed.l
Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Andover, their grandson,
(in the line of descent from their elder son Samuel,
who had settled in business at Salem, while a younger
brother, George, devoted himself to study, and entered
the ministry,) whom we thus meet at their grave, paying his tribute of affectionate homage to their virtues,
1 See Appendix B.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                    7
here rises before us in characters and mien, and manner of life, which strongly impress us. In his individuality, simplicity, decision, energy, strength, and pristine
hardiness of character, he abated nothing from the
spirit of his worthy ancestors.  He was, like them, also
a model of industry, and frugality, and resolute selfrestraint, and order, in all that he did.  His portrait,
which hangs before us, bespeaks a man of authority,
born to command, and knowing his birthright; and
such was he, in an eminent degree, a conscious and
acknowledged leader wherever he was known. Born
at Salem, February 17, 1689-90; and graduating at
Harvard College in 1708, he was, at the early age of
twenty-two, ordained the first pastor of the second
church1 in Andover, on the 17th of October, 1711, the
church having been on that day organized in the
South Precinct.2   There is yet living a parishioner
of his, hale and vigorous, in the ninety-first year of
his good old age,3 who distinctly remembers the venerable pastor's calls on horseback at his father's door,
with madam on a pillion behind him, which was their
usual mode of making parochial visits in company. It
was his habit, in the regular services of the: sabbath,
The present Old South Church.
2 See Appendix C.
M8 r. Moses Abbott, born November 30, 1765, and baptized by
Rev. Mr. Phillips, the Lord's day following, December 1.




8                   MEMOIR  OF
to preach to the full hour's end, measuring his discourse by the sands of the glass at his side. One tenth
of his scanty income he regularly and religiously gave
to the poor, or to other objects of charity; and out of
his estate at his death he bequeathed one hundred
pounds in trust for the benefit of the poor in the
church of which he had been pastor, and one hundred
pounds " for ye pious and charitable use of propagating Christian knowledge among the Indians of North
America." His will, making bequests in detail to these
charitable objects, and to his wife, children, and grandchildren, and executed when he was seventy-four years
of age, is remarkably minute and exact in its specifications, closing with these characteristic words, expressive of the spirit which he had sought, and still wished,
to breathe into his children: -
" And now my desire and prayer is yt my sd three sons
may continue to live in love, and yt they still behave respectfully and dutifully towards their aged tender and good
mother, even unto the end; and yt they go on to shew kindness to ye motherless children of their beloved sister Lydia;
and, in a word, that they make it their care to be found in
Christ, and to serve their generation according to ye will
of God, by doing good as they shall have opportunity unto
all men, and especially to ye household of faith; as knowing
yt it is more blessed to give than to receive."
This " aged tender and good mother," the'"daughter of the worshipful John White, Esq., of Haver



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  9
hill," survived him  only about two years, expiring
in the bosom  of her son Samuel's family, January
7, 1773; the Rev. Mr. Phillips himself having deceased
June 5, 1771, at the age of eighty-one, after a pastorate but little short of sixty years, and a ministry of
nearly sixty-two years, with the same people, and without a colleague, retaining his vigor and his commanding hold upon the respect and affection of his people
to the last. During the course of his ministry, he published numerous occasional sermons, which evince his
ability and faithfulness. In accordance with his methodical exactness in every thing, his discourses, as
preached to his people year after year, were all carefully numbered and filed away in successive volumes,
large numbers of which are still preserved; his handwriting, even to the latest stroke of his pen, was remarkably neat and legible, though often in extremely
small characters, never giving any indications of haste
or of carelessness. In passing from the parsonage to
the meeting-house for divine worship on the sabbath,
as remembered now by eye-witnesses, flanked by his
black body servant on the left, and by madam and her
servant and the children on the right, his movements
were precise and stately, as became his ideal of the
ministerial office; and when he entered the sanctuary,
it was in meet reverence for the man of God, as well
as in compliance with the old custom of the day, that
the whole congregation rose and stood before him




10       MEMOIR  OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
until he had seated himself in the pulpit. So he lived
and passed away; worthy to be esteemed by his people, as Mather tells us his ancestor at Watertown was,
"the irrefragable doctor." 1
The three sons mentioned in his will, as referred to
above,  anzutel, John, and William,2 had already, even
before his decease, by their own energy and sagacity,
won for themselves a prominent place in society, and
were now, in the prime of life, showing the far-reaching
power of that exact yet liberal and high-toned discipline to which he had subjected them. The sketch
which these will successively claim  at our hands, is
reserved for a later stage of our narrative; and we
pass now to the chief subject of this memoir, the
grandson of Rev. Samuel Phillips of Andover, (in the
line of his eldest son Samuel, also of Andover,) His
Honor, SAMUEL PHILLIPS, the Liedlenant-Governor.
1 Magnalia, Book III. p. 84.
2 See Appendix C.




CHAPTER II.
HIS BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.
IT will be seen from the preceding brief statements,
that there descended upon his young spirit, at his birth,
the richest legacy of ancestral virtues and memories.
How far he was touched by the inspiration of such an
influence, and how worthily he reflected and transmitted it, not only undiminished but in even fairer
lustre, the story of his life will testify, though wanting
the breadth and power of that life itself as it was
everywhere impressed upon his times.
He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Phillips,
of Andover, born February 5, 1752; the youngest but
one of seven children, and the only one that lived to
adult age.' It was at the beginning of this year that
the change in our calendar was made by an Act of
Parliament, from the Old Style to the New Style,2
which may explain the discrepancies in different notices of the date of his birth. The house in which he
was born is still in the family, occupied by the widow' See Appendix D: -
2 Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 189.
(/11




12                     MEMOIR  OF
and daughters of his elder son; a spacious and venerable mansion, with few marks of the century of winters that have beaten upon it. At the birth of young
Samuel this home had just been completed; the family
having removed to it from their old house only two
or three weeks before. It was in a portion of this edifice that his father continued his business as a merchant, adding, year after year, to the very considerable
fortune which he had received with the hand of Miss
Barnard 2 as his bride.  At that time, this portion of
Andover could scarcely be called a village, and the
mansion and store of Mr. Phillips were the centre of
resort for a wide spread agricultural community in
the  region  which  embraces much  the  richest lands
of the ancient town. The native deer were then
1 Several months after these pages were written, and when they
were nearly ready for the press, Mrs. Phillips was called to her final
rest. It had been one cherished hope with us, that we might contribute to her gratification, in this effort to commemorate those whom
she so much revered and loved; but instead of this, her decease has
reminded us, as we have gone with others down to the family tomb
and gazed on the garnered dust of those whose names we seek to
honor, how soon every one who could aid us, as she did by invaluable
personal reminiscences, must be numbered with the dead. That the
work we have undertaken was begun before the last relic of that
generation was removed, is well; but we can never cease to regret
that it was commenced so late.
2 Elizabeth Barnard, daughter of Theodore Barnard, and granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Barnard.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  13
roaming abundant in the forests of the town, and
deer-reeves were annually appointed, as regularly as
the selectmen, as they were elsewhere in the province. It was amid such rural quiet, industry, thrift,
and beauty, with the variety and quickening stimulus
of merchant life at home, under the eye and borne
upon the chastened heart of the tenderest parental
watchfulness, that the early days of young Phillips
opened.
Yet in contrast with these  daily home scenes,
there was another current of influence pouring in
upon his child-life, which, as subsequent events show,
strongly impressed and tinged his character. The continued encroachments of the French were now precipitating a decisive rupture between them  and England; and soon the old French war, as it is commonly
termed, broke out. For ten years the excitement of
this contest continued to agitate the country, the citizens of Massachusetts being ever foremost in zeal for
the common liberty and safety. The summer of 1755,
when Samuel was a child of three years, was the era
of Braddock's defeat, of the capture of Nova Scotia
by the Massachusetts forces, and the repulse of Baron
Dieskau on the banks of Lake George,' so that the
earliest and most exciting stories which fired his imagination were of war, -war, not in the spirit of conHolmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 204-217.
2




14                 MEMOIR OF
quest or military glory, but in the calm energy of
patriotism, - war for the soil and the institutions of
his country, - for hearth, home, liberty, and life itself.
His father was every inch a patriot; a man to feel
strongly but calmly every great bearing of such a
struggle, and by word and deed to impart his spirit
to the son of his hopes. As the strife wore on with
varying fortunes through the whole period of his
childhood, the name of Washington was continually
heralded to him as the rising star of hope, to be cherished only with increasing veneration every succeeding year.
In these early but long continued impressions, we
find the origin and explanation of traits in his character, and of enterprises in his life, which had well nigh
made him simply a bold revolutionary statesman, or a
brave military leader. Yet the ancestral bias in the
family toward a literary life, together with his frail
constitution, which seemed unsuited to physical hardship, would appear to have countervailed, in a good
degree, all such attractions of the forum or the camp.
The fact, too, that his parents had been called to bury
all their other children, made him an object of special
tenderness.  While, therefore, by the whole force of
their own simple, exact, frugal, busy life, they were
training him up a gentle, amiable, active, winning boy,
fond of business and of books, the plan of giving him
a liberal education, as bis most congenial line of life,
was early matured.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 15
To be an only child, intent on manly studies, in
a family of the strictest method in all its life, could
hardly fail to make one sedate, grave, orderly, and
manlike beyond his years,-and least of all, a boy
of his temperament. Had the glee of brothers and
sisters rung often in his ears, to keep alive the
freshness of boy nature; had the goodly home been
more astir with childish chat and incident, — the
parents looking ever gladly on the full circle, instead
of meekly bowing to their desolate lot, - this darling
son would, we cannot doubt, have been longer a child
and later a man; he might also have been more robust,
under the stimulus of sports and gambols that invigorate the frame, as well as of emotions that swell every
nerve and muscle with the fire of their own life. But
the good hand of Providence had not so ordered his
path.
Growing up in comparative solitariness, - his companions not only in the main his elders, but his revered parents, who were now approaching the meridian of life, wearing the subdued expression of mourners, and proverbial for the strictness of their habits, —
it would have been little less than a miracle, if he had
not soon come to be spoken of as an uncommonly
grave and considerate boy; a remarkably systematic,
industrious, mature child, full of bright promise in kin.
dred virtues for the future.
With such marked traits, early germinating, and as




16       MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
rare in degree as in kind, he appears to have prepared
the way in his very boyhood for that self-consistent
ascendency, which, in his opening manhood, he had
gained over his father and other relatives. He had
not gone out from under the parental roof before the
elements of his character, as afterwards perfected, were
distinctly visible; and from what he was then, a boy
of a dozen summers, he never departed an iota, except
to add virtue to virtue.
From his father alone he might have received, in
both constitution and education, his early habits of
prudence and exactness, his deep sense of justice, his
patriotic impulses, his tenacity of purpose, and his admirable self-government; but from his mother, it is
said, he inherited the fire which glowed in all these
virtues, the nervous restlessness, which not only impelled but in the end consumed him, the enterprise,
the fertility of invention, the self-immolating spirit,
and withal the serenity and suavity of manner with
which he spent himself in the various plans of his life.
From both he drew the strength of a calm, practical,
devout, religious faith.








'!~~~~~i i
1.1?~ ~~     ~'.il~~,,..
~~'i




CH APTER III.
HIS PREPARATION FOR COLLEGE.
AT the age of thirteen, in the spring of 1765, he
repaired to Dummer Academy, in Byfield, (which had
been established in 1763, in accordance with the will
of Lieutenant-Governor William Dummer, devising his
estate for that purpose,) I and commenced fitting for
college under the instruction of Samuel Moody, Esq.
Here, one who had the best means of information
respecting him says, "his proficiency, his manliness
and sobriety and  regular  conduct, secured the esteem   and confidence of his instructor and fellowstudents." 2
His health, however, was not firm; in a letter to
his mnother, dated June 25, 1765, he speaks of a complaint under which he had suffered as subsiding, and
adds:1 This Academy was not incorporated until October 3, 1782, two
years later than Phillips Academy, at Andover, and more than a
year after Phillips Exeter Academy.
2 Mr. Abbot, in his History of Andover, p. 144.
2*                      (17)




18                   MEMIOIR OF
"'I have asked Mr. Moody about boarding with him, but
he is so full at present that he is not determined; shall depend upon your coming this week, or at farthest the beginning of next week; the horse is orderly, I should have sent
him by Jonathan Gage, but he camne in a chair and could
not lead him. I could have brought him home a Saturday,
but you said, if Oliver did not come, I need not concern myself any thing about it; should be exceeding glad to see you
as soon as possible. Mr. Moody gives his compliments to
father, and thinks that it is very necessary that I should have
a horse here, considering my health, and the heat of the
season."
This letter, which is the earliest we have been able
to obtain from his hand, is subscribed Samuel Phillips
3d, his aged grandfather having lived until a few
weeks before he graduated from college. The handwriting is here unformed, but plain, and it is interesting to notice how by an occasional erasure or interlineation the diction is improved, showing at what
an early period he began to pay special attention to
his style.
While connected with the Academy his religious
character, as well as his mental discipline, was maturing rapidly; so that, when admitted to college, it was
with the best safeguard against its temptations, and
an eager desire to profit by its advantages; although
his public profession of religion was deferred until his
Junior year in college, when he was admitted to the




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                19
church of which his father was then deacon, in North
Andover, February 3, 1770.  When this step was
taken, as it was the result of long deliberation, so as
the record shows he did not shrink from standing
alone in it, before all who had known him from his
birth.




CHAPTER IV.
HIS COLLEGIATE LIFE.
FROM the Academy he was transferred directly to
the University at Cambridge, when but fifteen years
old, where his father, his uncle John, his grandfather
Samuel, his great-great-uncle George, and his greatgreat-grandfather Samuel Phillips, had been educated
before him. "He entered college," we are assured, as
we should have predicted, "with a habit of application and order, and with a high sense of moral feeling and love of learning."' 
When his class graduated in 1771, it was much
the largest that had ever gone forth from the institution, and none so large left it again until 1810. It
was also distinguished, then and afterwards, as a class,
for talent as well as numbers. Hon. James Bowdoin,
afterwards United States minister to Spain, David Parsons, David Tappan, Zedekiah Sanger, David Osgood,
Jonathan French, all of whom became eminent as ministers of the gospel, Winthrop Sargent, subsequently
governor of Mississippi, and John Warren, the first
History of Andover, p. 144.
(20O




MEMOIR  OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.              21
Hersey Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the College, were among his class mates, and some of them
his most intimate friends.
In those days the members-of a class were arranged,
at their exercises and on the catalogue, not alphabetically, nor according to their relative scholarship, but
in conformity with the current family rank of the
students. It is an honorable testimony to the consideration in which his father was held, that in a class
of sixty-three the name of his son should stand, as it
does, the seventh; evidence, too, of the weight which
was then attached to the question of rank, as also of
this father's tenacity in maintaining his rights, is given
in the circumstance that the Faculty of the College
who had at first made young Phillips's grade the eighth,
were constrained by his father's energetic protest and
appeal, to modify their decision by a formal vote, and
place him one name higher Tl-a transaction so peculiar and alien to the then dawning republicanism of
the times, as to have led to the disuse of this artificial
system of designating rank, soon after he graduated,
when a new President of the College had been inaugurated.
During the college life of young Phillips, there is
abundant traditional and documentary testimony to his
1 See Appendix E. Also Quincy's Hist. H. U. Vol. II. p. 157158.




22                  MEMOIR  OF
great diligence, and his eminent position as a scholar.
It is reported to us, as the unanimous testimony of his
school mates in early life, that he was naturally slow
to learn, but incessant in his application, and of an
exceedingly tenacious memory; so that his studiousness made ample amends for any want of native
quickness of parts. The fragment of a brief journal,
mainly religious, which he kept, covering more than
two years of his collegiate course, is still preserved,
in which there are frequent references to the value
which he set upon his opportunities, but especially
upon timne; expressed, ordinarily, in the form of humble self-reproach, thus: —
"February 25, 1768. — I am confounded when I think of
my misimprovement of my time."
" April 3, 1769. - Have improved my time better than
sometimes, tho' have misspent a vast deal of it, espe.
cially evenings by sleeping; but with deeper concern I may
inquire, how I have neglected my soul's concern. The children of Christ can be known only by their fruits; and what
fruit have I brought forth? have I not great reason to fear
that I am not a Christian, that I have nothing but a profession? Let me be fervent in my petitions for the Divine assistance, and diligent in my watchfulness to guard against sin."
" May 13, 1769. - Time once gone, is gone for ever. We
take no notice of it, but by its loss; how short! and of what
vast importance is a diligent improvement of it."
"4 November 25, 1769. - I am very thankful I went to Bos.
ton, for by that means, I escaped being in a great confusion




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   23
in the hall; such revelling is most unfit for a day for offering
the sacrifices of thankful hearts to the Great Benefactor.
" This week I have been more diligent than any other
before since I came down, but have let slip many precious
moments unimproved."
These reiterated and intense upbraidings, instead
of being evidence of any special misimprovement of
his time and opportunities, show us rather how keenly
he had already learned to feel the loss of a single
golden hour, -how resolutely he was holding himself
to the best possible use of every moment, —and we
shall see that this high sense of the worth of time
grew ere long into a consuming passion with him.
When chastening his spirit and desponding under
his sense of defect in this manner, a line from his gentle mother would sometimes come to calm him, by directing him to the true source of rest. She writes,
March 7, 1768:-'" I hope your various employments won't take your mind
from the things of the greatest moment; there is no compare
between time and eternite, between the favour of God and
the friendship of the world. You are in the midst of temptations, enemies within as well as enemies without. I commit you to the care of a kind Providence, - keep your mind
easy, it will be much for your advantage upon all accounts;
endeavour to conduct so as to lay no foundation for uneasiness.
" I remain your ever affectionate mother,
ELIZABETH PHILLIPS."




24                   MEMOIR OF
His intense jealousy of himself in regard to the use of
time, although one of his most prominent characteristics
at this period, was blended with a kindred self-scrutiny
in regard to his manners, his morals, his interior religious life, his controlling aims and motives, which in
on'e yet so young are very extraordinary. How much,
for example, is indicated by the following brief paragraphs in his journal.
"August 28, 1768. —I am now beginning another week;
may I be enabled to perform in the best manner (for a frail
creature) my duty to God, my fellow-creatures, and myself."
"September 17, 1768. —The week past my father and
mother were at Boston, and on Thursday I went to Boston,
when my father bought for me several books; how thankful
should I be for these favors! How ought my soul to expand with gratitude, and in what better manner can I demonstrate it than by a virtuous, studious life! How can I
answer it, if I neglect these golden seasons; now is the time,
and the only time, to gain those accomplishments, on which
my future usefulness will in a great measure depend."
"December 10, 1768. - I have heard my grandfather this
week was so indisposed that it was not supposed he would
get about again; may I make it my business to be prepared
for the agonies of dissolving nature."
"December 17, 1768. - This week I have seen my father;
it refreshed my spirits. What an affection there is between
father and son, which nothing but death can dissolve! but
is my soul so attached to my Heavenly Father? My heart
often expands with gratitude for his liberality, but do I meditate on imy continual uninterrupted obligations to the Father




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   25
of lights-? It is to him I am indebted for the favors I receive from my earthly parents."
"February 25, 1769. — Have enjoyed less tranquillity of
mind since I left home than any term before. My great
foible is a readiness to open my soul; to-day my chum and
I had some variance about his birthday, but I hope that
maxim, in this instance, will prove true,' the falling out of
lovers is the renewing of love."'' "March 11, 1769.- How cautious should we be of giving
causes of offence to one another! Whereby can the children of God more distinguish themselves than by a meek,
loving, forgiving temper towards each other?"
" March 25, 1769. - Last Monday evening was observed
here as the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act; but
the fatigue that I experienced therefor is folly; I have misspent a vast deal of precious time."
"August 19, 1769. - I have spent this vacancy very differently from my purpose; made no addition to my little stock
of knowledge, only gained a little farther knowledge of the
world."
" December 9, 1769. - Many valuable thoughts are gone
entirely, for want of proper care to lay them up or fix them
in the noble repository of the soul."
What various and pithy utterances for a youth of
seventeen years! But young and self-distrusting as he
was, in that large class he held at this time an acknowledged ascendency. In a notice of him, written
soon after his death, it is said' of his character and
influence in college, —
Eliot's Biog. Die. p. 378, 379.
3




26                  MEMOIR OF
"His conduct was peculiarly correct and exemplary. He
was much esteemed by his fellow-students, as well as by the
officers of the society. Among the ingenuous youth of the
University, were certain associations for practical improvement and usefulness.  They consisted generally of good
scholars, who combined good principles and pure morals,
with an ambition to shine as sons of knowledge. At the
head of these, and among the most active, was Phillips,
whose name and character were often mentioned to stimulate others to adorn their own lives."
His intimate friend and class mate, Dr. Tappan, in
his discourse at the funeral, says: —
"- While a member of the University, he was a model and
patron, not only of literary industry, dignified manners, and
the purest morals, but of devout, ardent, yet rational piety.
He there displayed that capacity and zeal for useful projects,
which remarkably distinguished his future life. He was
either a founder or leading member of three select associations, devoted to scientific or patriotic pursuits. He also
earnestly promoted, and ably assisted in a society formed for
religious and moral improvement. In the meetings of the
society, he gave striking proofs. of his proficiency in divine
wisdom, especially in the gift and spirit of prayer."'
The end of such a diligent, exemplary, and useful
collegiate course, could not well be unnoticed or unhonored. It was, as indeed the entire period of his
University life had been, an era of alarm and agita1 Page 10.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 27
tion. The established round of college exercises had
been often disturbed, and so far as can be learned, if,
on taking his degree and in the previous years, he
was specially honored in the exhibitions, there is no
record of the appointments; yet, as in the case of his
college journal, the fragment- evidently nearly the
whole — of a salutatory oration in Latin is preserved,
which he appears to have delivered on his Commencement day. The oration is carefully composed, and in
its graceful references to President Holyoke, then deceased, but filially commemorated, to Professors Winthrop, Wigglesworth, and Sewall, and to his tutors and
class mates, spoken after his manner, with a calm earnestness and sincerity, together with the hearty encomium which, both in his exordium and his peroration,
he bestows upon the College itself, must have been
warmly applauded.
In anticipation of his most honorable appearance
in this part, as well as on other grounds connected
with the custom of the day and with his social
position, we find him, in the following letter, conferring with his father in reference to providing an
entertainment for his friends upon the occasion. The
highly deferential tone of the letter, on his part,
is not less honorable to him, than the evidence it
furnishes of his rank as a scholar, and of his father's
unwillingness to determine the question, without first
obtaining his own considerate views.




28                  MEMOIR  OF
"CAMBRIDGE, May 27, 1771.
"HONORED SIR,- That period is just at hand which I
have been looking for with trembling this long time, but its
nearer approach raises a greater solicitude concerning the
event. You, sir, at our last interview, seemed undetermined
in what manner to conduct my Commencement, and repeatedly inquired my opinion. I found the same difficulty of
proposing any thing that I feared would not be perfectly
agreeable to my father, that I always did; indeed, in this
case I could not offer so much violence to myself as to do it.
But concluding it would give him pain not to know his son's
inclination, I can't excuse myself, if I do n't acquaint him of
it with some of my reasons, that he may have an opportunity, should he disapprove of my sentiments, to show the
impropriety of them by the suggestion of those more weighty
arguments, which his superior wisdom shall dictate. You
asked me, sir, whether we could be accommodated in town?
I would answer, there is no doubt of it; and further, it is
generally (I do n't know but universally) imagined that there
would be no difficulty from the government of the College;
for instances of the kind were taken no notice of last year.
And now, sir, if I could be persuaded this would be agreeable to my father, I would make no hesitation to inform him
it would be agreeable to his son's wish.
"And, in the first place, I can't discern but there is a propriety in the nature of the thing, for in any joyful event
there seems to be great fitness in calling in our friends to
rejoice with us, as well as to desire their attendance when
under the cloud, to impart the tear of sympathy; of this
opinion have been the most- venerable of our fathers, as they
have evidenced in similar circumstances, and, indeed, in the




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   29
very same; and among the many respectable characters that
I might mention under this class, whom could I better place
at the head, than the former worthy Judge Foxcroft, my uncle
Phillips, Mr. Bromfield, and the like?
"That this is a time to rejoice I think I may venture to
say; for (thro' the goodness of God) I don't know how I
could have made a more honorable egress, than I have a
prospect of making, if we take into consideration the whole
term of my residence. Many instances present themselves in
Holy Writ, of eminent servants, who assembled their friends
to partake with them in the happiness of any prosperity.
Some of the other sex seem to be so connected, that it is
hardly possible to avoid inviting them, but it is clear that
they cannot be made comfortable in College; then if a place
is provided in town on their accounts, others seem to expect
it upon good grounds, and, indeed, will upon their own accounts; those, especially, who have so often and so handsomely repeated their invitations on the same occasion. (The
bearer waits.)
Whether your circumstances don't raise such an expectation in the minds of all your connections? - especially,
as this is the only opportunity you can have to show regard to friends on the same occasion:- I do n't mention the
advantage to myself, just at entering the world. The cost,
I know, will be great; but why is wealth given, but to be
used in a lawful and proper way? After all, sir, with all the
duty and veneration that a son can show, this subject is
rested with that wisdom which is ever a rule to him who infallibly wishes to act agreeably to his kind father.
"Duty and love, sir, if you please.
"S. P."
3q




30      MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
We know not what response was made to this representation; but a discerning father could not fail to
be pleased with such a letter from his only son, so
filial in every line, expressed with so much carefulness
and tact, and so winning in its modest tone, at an hour
when the ardor of youth might without censure have
written in a more eager, if not imperative, strain.
With such propitious auguries, he went forth from
his literary home at the age of nineteen years, bearing
with him not only the mental discipline of which he
soon began to make such use in public, but impressions
and impulses derived from the peculiar circumstances
of his college life, as well as deep-seated traits of character, which at once gave direction to all his plans.




CHAPTER V.
HIS MARRIAGE.
BEFORE his sun had set in Cambridge one star shone
out in the clear sky, which was to his eye evermore
the brightest and best. It was here that, for term
after term, he had met Miss Phoebe Foxcroft, the
youngest daughter of Hon. Francis Foxcroft. Their
Sabbath worship was at the same church, under the
ministry of the venerable Dr. Appleton; they were
soon personal friends, intimate friends; but who would
have anticipated that they could have any interest in
each other beyond this? She was nearly nine years
his senior,l highly cultivated in mind and manners,
the very centre of an attractive and courted circle,
sprightly, ardent, sanguine: he was sedate, considerate,
intent on preparation for full manhood, rather than
conscious of his manliness, and must have deemed
himself extremely youthful before her, notwithstanding her constitutional vivacity. Yet, in spite of this
great disparity, their acquaintance ripened into a devoted and lasting mutual affection.
1 She was born August 12, 1743.
(31)




32                 MEMOIR OF
It does honor to her sagacity, that she should have
so soon seen in that frail youth, the type of rare manliness which she could respect and honor in him as
her husband; and our confidence in his discernment,
which falters at first when we see him thus early even
so much as entertaining the question of such an alliance, is not abated but enhanced, as we find him
calmly setting every adverse consideration aside, and
reaching the conclusion that she was preeminently
fitted to be.his wife. For in truth the disparity was
rather apparent than real. When he was but eighteen
and she nearly twenty-seven, she was, in every thing
but years, the younger of the two; and so she always appeared after their union; while, with much
diversity in their distinguishing characteristics, they
were eminently congenial spirits.
The knowledge of this attachment fell heavily upon
the heart of his parents. They saw and felt keenly
the objections, on the score of age, —and these were
the only objections,- to such a connection, while he
who had weighed them all and set them aside, was
now hoping for an early marriage. A steady refusal
to consent to the union, and even a demand that the
connection should cease to be thought of, was all that
he could obtain from his father; and he was too dutiful not to yield, however great the sacrifice.
It was with this bitter weight on his spirit, in other




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 33
respects so glad, that he left the college. For a time,
he struggled against the deep current of his feelings
and judgment, if so be he could possibly ere long forget her, and she him; but in health his spirits were
depressed, and in sickness his wounded heart was his
worst malady. It was in an hour of deep solicitude for
him, when there were but faint hopes of his life, that
his parents, who had not been sensible, till his physician then told them, how deeply he had suffered on
account of their opposition, consented to yield; and
after two years delay, the marriage was consummated, in 1773. The correspondence by which they
gladdened or solaced each other during these years
of trial, prior to their union, is still, to a large extent,
preserved in the family, full, it is said, of the incident
and the romance of their unique position, but so religiously kept, as it should be from all eyes, that we
have not even asked to see it.
Without any more interior view of the case than
is here given, it is easy to see that he was, in all this
experience, drifting upon a strong current away from
the life of study, which, as an educated, scholarly
young man, we should say, now opened before him.
He seems to us, as his words ring out upon the stage
on that Commencement day, the very model of a candidate for the bench, if not the bar, or for the pulpit.
He will surely, we think, be eminent, too, in his profession; and so he might have been, nay, probably




34      MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
would have been, Notwithstanding any thing we have
yet seen, had not other influences also here been pressing as strongly upon him, to throw him upon a widely
different career.




CHAPTER VI.
HIS PART IN THE REVOLUTION.
DURING the whole period of his college life, Cambridge was the very focus of all patriotic sentiment
and agitation in the country; as it had been indeed
prior to this, and continued to be afterwards. Mr.
Everett says:" If, in any other quarter of the globe it has been objected
to seats of learning, that they nourish a spirit of dependence
on power, such has never been the reproach of our Alma
Mater. Owing much, at every period before the Revolution,
to the munificence of individuals in the mother country, it
never was indebted to the Crown for a dollar or a book. No
court favor was ever bestowed, and no court lesson ever
learned. Generation after generation went forth from her
lecture-rooms, armed in all the panoply of truth, to wage the
battles of principle, alike under the old charter and the new;
and, when the fulness of time was come, and the great contest approached, the first note of preparation was sounded
from Harvard Hall.
" Yes, before the Stamp-Act was passed; yes, before Committees of Correspondence were established throughout the
colonies; before Otis had shaken the courts with his forensic
(35)




63                  R~MEMOIR  OF
thunders; before a breath of defiance had whispered along
the arches of Faneuil Hall, a graduate of Harvard College
announced in his Thesis, on Commencement day, the whole
doctrine of the Revolution. Yes, in the very dawn of independence, while the lions of the land yet lay slumbering in
the long, shadows of the throne, an eaglet, bred in the delicate air of freedom which fanned the academic groves, had
from his' coigne of vantage' on yonder tower, drunk the first
rosy sparkle of the sun of liberty into his calm, undazzled
eye, and whetted his talons for the conflict.
"Within the short space of twenty-three years, there were
graduated at Harvard College six men, who exercised an
influence over the country's destinies, which no time shall
outlive. Within that brief period, there went forth from
yonder walls, James Otis, John Hancock, Joseph Warren,
Josiah Quincy, besides Samuel and John Adams,'geminos
duo fulmina belli.' Yes, fellow-students, if our college had
done nothing else than educate Samuel Adams, who in
1743, on taking his second degree maintained the thesis, that
it is lawful to resist the chief magistrate, if the State cannot
otherwise be preserved; — or James Otis, who by his argument on Writs of Assistance, in the words of one i well authorized to express an opinion,' first breathed the breath of
life into the cause of American freedom;'- or John Hancock, the patriot merchant, who offered his fortune a sacrifice to the country, and placed his name first to the Declaration of her Independence; - or John Adams,'the colossus
who sustained the Declaration in debate;'- or Josiah Quin.
cy, (your honored father, Mr. President,) who in 1774, wrote
1 The elder President Adams.




JUDGE PHiLLIPS.                   37
to his countrymen from London,' that they must seal their
testimony with their blood;'- or Warren, who, on yonder
sacred heights, made haste to obey that awful injunction;had Harvard College done no more than train up any one
of these great men to the country's service, what title could
it need to the world's gratitude and admiration?" 1
When the troops were paraded on the Common at
Cambridge, on the evening of the 16th of June, 1775,
prior to their marching to occupy Bunker Hill, Presiident Langdon offered " a fervent and impressive
prayer," invoking the Divine favor upon the momentous expedition. At the inauguration of President
Willard in 1781, when the issue of the great contest
was no longer doubtful, Governor Hancock in his
speech, called the College S"in some sense the parent
and nurse of the late happy Revolution in this Commonwealth; 2 and while the struggle was in progress,
the entire college community, officers and students,
became, in a remarkable degree, identified with it.
We find this entry in the journal of Mr. Phillips,
among other indications of the prevailing college
spirit.
"October 2, 1768. — Last Tuesday night the Senior an(d
Junior classes met, and voted to use no tea of foreign produc.
tion, till they should see fit to recall the vote. On Wednes.
1 Address to the Alumni, at the Centennial Celebration, 1836.
2 Quiricy's History of Harvard University, Vol. II. p. 244.
4




318                 MEMOIR  OF
day night the Sophomores and Freshmen voted the same,
though there were some in each class that dissented and
were very resolute."
When the legislature, in 1769, could not longer,
with due regard to its own dignity and freedom, sit in
Boston, because of the presence of the king's troops,
it was promptly adjourned to Cambridge, and held its
sessions in the College Chapel.
In the journal of Mr. Phillips, who was then in the
second year of his college course, repeated references
are made to these sittings of the General Court.
"June 17, 1769. - Thursday, the General Court was adjourned to meet on Friday at Cambridge." -   July 1. - My
father got to court some time before it sat, which was to
have been at 9 or 10 o'clock. The Court received a message
from JHis Excellency, specifying the business which he advised the House to proceed upon, that so their inactivity
might not by any means be charged upon him; at the head
of the particulars, the necessity that care should be taken for
the administration of government; after long debates upon
it, they voted unanimously (the speaker not excepted) not to
grant his salary." -" July 8.- This week the Court have
continued sitting; voted not to grant the governor his salary
for the present, not to chuse an agent in America or Great
Britain, - passed a number of spirited Resolves, etc."
It was at just this period, when the patriot legislature was here making its stand for freedom, that President Holyoke died, (of whose funeral Mr. Phillips




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  39
gives a minute account,) and President Locke was
chosen in his place, partly, if not mainly, because he
was " a friend to liberty;" as we are assured that " at
this period no individual, not known to be favorable
to the popular cause, could have been elected President, whatever might have been his literary qualifications." 1 In fact the Provincial Congress had, in September, 1775, ordered a committee to bring in a resolve,
recommending to the Corporation and Overseers of
the College,  not to appoint any person as Governor
or Instructor, but such whose political principles they
can depend upon, and to inquire into the principles
of such as are now in office, and dismiss those who
are not friendly to the country;" and the Resolve
passed.2
The year previous to this election, according to Mr.
Quincy, (1768,) "when the patronage of American
manufactures was the test of patriotism, the students
of the senior class unanimously voted'to take their
degrees in the manufactures of the country.' This
resolution was publicly applauded in the journals of
the day, as reflecting the highest honor on the College;
and at the ensuing Commencement, in July, the class
came dressed accordingly, in American manufactures,
and were permitted by the governors of the College
I Quincy's History Harvard University, Vol. II. p. 150, 151.
2 See Journal of the Congress, p. 134.




40                  MEMOIR  OF
to appear in them on the stage, when they took their
degrees." A letter from Rev. Andrew Eliot to Thomas
Hollis, gives the following account of the effects of the
political excitements of the times on the students.
" The removal of the General Court to Cambridge hinders
the scholars in their studies. The young gentlemen are already taken up with politics. They have caught the spirit
of the times.  Their declamations and forensic disputes
breathe the spirit of liberty. This has always been encouraged, but they have sometimes been wrought up to such a
pitch of enthusiasm, that it has been difficult for their tutors
to keep them within due bounds; but their tutors are fearful
of giving too great a check to a disposition which may, hereafter, fill the country with patriots, and choose to leave it to
age and experience to check their ardor." 1
In 1770, also, as well as in 1769, the legislature sat
in Cambridge, thus continuing to fan the patriotic
flame with which it had fired the students; and
through all this period, the insolence of British tyranny in Boston, which had driven the General Court
to this dignified retreat, was kindling the spirit of indignation, as well as the spirit of liberty; every pulsation of which throbbed quick through the college
artery, as it beat strong in the city heart.
In June, 1768, Governor Bernard had summarily
dissolved the General Court because of its patriotic
1 Quincy's History Harvard University, p. 163.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   41
firmness in resisting the encroachments of the Crown;
the selectmen of Boston instantly concerted measures
to secure a convention of delegates from the several
towns in the Commonwealth, "to deliberate on constitutional measures to obtain redress of their grievances;"  in September this assembly, composed of
"committees" from ninety-six towns and eight districts, met, and after disclaiming all legislative authority, "petitioned the governor; made loyal professions;
expressed their aversion to standing armies, to tumults
and disorders, their readiness to assist in suppressing
riots and preserving the peace; recommended patience
and good order; and, after a short session, dissolved." I
The father of Mr. Phillips was an active member of
this convention, stimulating his son's zeal in the cause
of liberty, not less than his own, by his participation
in such counsels. It was on spirits already so excited
and sensitive, that the news of an approaching British
armament fell like an electric shock. The very next
day after the convention rose, "two British regiments
escorted by seven armed vessels, arrived at Boston
from Halifax." 2 Dr. Holmes says: —
" The fleet having taken a station which commanded the
town, the troops, under cover of the cannon of the ships,
1 Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 285.
2 Works of John Adams, by his grandson, Charles Francis Adams,
Vol. II. p. 213.
4*




42                  MEMOIR  OF
landed without molestation, and to the number of upward
of seven hundred men, marched with muskets charged, bayonets fixed, martial music, and the usual military parade, into
the Common. In the evening, the selectmen of Boston
were required to quarter the two regiments in the town; but
they absolutely refused. A temporary shelter, however, in
Faneuil Hall, was permitted to one regiment, that was without its camp equipage. The next day, the State house, by
order of the governor, was opened for the reception of the
soldiers; and, after the quarters were settled, two field-pieces
with the main guard were stationed just in front. Every
thing was calculated to excite the indignation of the inhabitants. The lower floor of the State house, which had been
used by gentlemen and merchants as an exchange, the representatives' chamber, the court house, Faneuil Hall, —places with which were intimately associated ideas of justice and freedom, as well as of convenience and utility,were now filled with regular soldiers. Guards were placed
at the doors of the State house, through which the council
must pass in going to their own chamber. The Common
was covered with tents. Soldiers were constantly marching
and countermarching to relieve the guards. The sentinels
challenged the inhabitants as they passed. The Lord's day
was profaned, and the devotion of the sanctuary disturbed,
by the sound of drums and other military music." 1
Mr. Phillips's account of this exciting event, as entered in his journal, is: -
1 Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. 285-86. Also, Memoir of Josiah
Quincy, Jr., by his son, p. 17, 18.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   43
" October 1, 1768. —This week two regiments came to
Boston. The governor called the council together, that there
might be provision made for the regiments in Boston; but
the council told him it was in the face of an Act of Parliament, to make any provision for his majesty's troops before
the barracks at the castle were full, and that they imagined the
barracks sufficient to contain all that were coming; -- which
occasioned warm words, but the council would not yield.
This day about one thousand men came ashore prepared
in the best manner for a fight, after the men-of-war had
surrounded the town, their great guns charged with chainshot."
It will be seen, by comparing dates, that on the
Tuesday and Wednesday following, the students passed
their spirited votes already cited, not to use any more
tea. Later in the month, Mr. Phillips says, C I saw the
regiments and heard of their hardships;" so impossible
was it for the royal governor to enforce his demands
for their accommodation.
In November a portion of two other regiments arrived. The Legislature, as we have already seen, indignantly refusing to sit during the two succeeding
years in the State house thus invaded, and in the
vicinity of troops marshalled to overawe the people,
had been convened at Cambridge; and with continual
collision and exasperation, growing out of this highhanded step of quartering the soldiers in the city,
the catastrophe of the massacre on the evening of




44                 MEMOIR OF
March 5, 1770, at last threw the town instantly into
the greatest commotion; the drums beat to arms,
the alarm-bells rang, thousands of the inhabitants
thronged the streets.  Early the next morning the
citizens, by a unanimous vote, formally notified the
Lieutenant-Governor and Council, who were deliberating upon the event, "that nothing can rationally be
expected to restore the peace of the town, and prevent
blood and carnage, but the immediate removal of the
troops," which was at once stipulated. The funeral
of the four men who had fallen in this tragedy, and
were buried together, was a memorable spectacle in
honor of them personally as martyrs, but still more of
the cause in which they had died. The immense procession was fobrmed in ranks six abreast, closed by a
long train of carriages belonging to the principal persons in the town.
Yet, exasperated as the people were to the last degree, John Adams and Josiah Quincy - the very oracles
of popular liberty —consented to act as counsel for
Captain Preston and the soldiers when arraigned, lest
it should be thought that in such a tumult they could
not have a fair trial; and the jury, with equal courage
and justice, calmly rendered their verdict according
to the law.'
1 Works of John Adams, by his grandson, Charles Francis Adams, Vol. II. p. 230, 231; also Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr., p. 31-64.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   45
Who can wonder that c" the removal of the General
Court to Cambridge," in times like these, "disturbed
the scholars in their studies;" or that "their declamations and forensic disputes breathed the spirit of
liberty! "  Their fathers and brothers were inaugurating a REVOLUTION, whose master-spirits had gone forth
from  those very halls.  The crisis touched them personally, and not merely nationally.  This was especially
true of Mr. Phillips, so many of whose relatives were
in Boston, sharing in these agitations and suffering
from them.  Josiah Quincy -" the Boston Cicero "whose flashing eye and clarion voice everywhere mneet
us in this opening of the great drama, was his cousin
by marriage; his uncle, Hon. William Phillips, and his
cousin, the late Lieutenant-Governor William Phillips,
whom he often visited, were conspicuous in the struggle then, and still more so afterwards; while his steadfast father, as a member of the General Court, and of
the convention of 1" committees," was often forsaking his
rural home to come down and share in the conflict.
In a college theme on Liberty at this crisis, Mr. Phillips
writes in the following strain --
" Let this truth be indelibly engraved on our breasts, that
we cannot be happy without we are free, and may it have a
desirable effect. The cause requires our utmost vigilance;
we should watch against every encroachment, and with all
the fortitude of calm, intrepid resolution oppose them, lest




46                  MEMOI R OF
the burden should become too great, or from length of time
acquire such a force that the difficulty will become insurmountable. It is a matter of very great importance. The
consequences will not only be great, but very lasting. Unborn generations will either bless us for our activity and magnanimity, or curse us for our sloth and pusillanimity. But
let an Englishman forever keep silence (a reflection which I
can't forbear) when he can't pass the streets without seeing
instances of the cruel usurpation of those rights and privileges, for the defence of which whole kingdoms are ready to
sacrifice their lives and fortunes. Happy, thrice happy, would
it be for us, if all, in their several spheres, would lend a helping hand for this grand enterprise, so that every man may sit
down under his own vine and fig-tree."
It was not merely the natural influence of these
Boston experiences on Cambridge, nor the influence
of that spontaneous and universal enthusiasm  in the
cause of liberty which thrilled the College, that was
impressing itself deeply on the young student. He
had come to the University, the representative of a
patriotic family, now more than ever aglow with a
self-sustained enthusiasm  in the popular cause; he
could not remember a year in which wars and rumors
of wars were any but the most familiar sounds in his
ear. If the patriotic excitement of his childhood in
the Old French War could have subsided in any degree,
as he gave himself to study, the passing of the Stamp



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                47
Act with kindred measures by Parliament, had served
to keep it alive. War itself could not have agitated
him, or the country, more.
The Act was passed in January, 1765, when he was
about to enter the Academy at Byfield, to take effect
on the first of November following. These months
were a most eventful interim. The legislatures of several of the colonies, at their sessions, passed spirited
resolves denying the right of Parliament thus to tax
his majesty's loyal subjects; the General Court of
Massachusetts, besides passing such resolutions of the
strongest character, proposed a congress of deputies
from all the colonies, which was held in October, at
New York, composed of delegates from Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina,
(the assemblies of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia being prevented by their governors from sending
deputations,) and at which the most determined stand
was made in defence of their rights.
Nor did the spirit of freedom take on these orderly
forms alone. Riots and excesses broke out in spite of
every restraint. At Boston, especially, there were repeated and alarming tumults, in one of which, the
house of Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson was sacked,
-"the plate, family pictures, most of the furniture,
the wearing apparel, about nine hundred pounds sterling in money, and the manuscripts and books which




48                 MEMOIR OF
he had been thirty years collecting, besides many
public papers in his custody, being either carried off or
destroyed." 
With such exciting antecedents in every direction,
the first of November drew near. The demonstrations
of sorrow and scorn with which the day was greeted
when it dawned, were of the most emphatic character.
At Philadelphia, when the vessels which brought the
stamps came in, all the colors of the shipping'in port
were hung at half mast, and the bells of the city were
muffled and tolled till sunset. In New York, there
were no bounds to the violence of the mob, countenanced by thousands of the less reckless citizens; the
Lieutenant-Governor, who had received the stamps and
made extraordinary exertions to have them secure,
was first hung and then burnt in effigy, his own coach
having been dragged from his stable to bear the effigy
in the mock procession, and at the close cast into the
bonfire and consumed. Early in the morning, at Boston, there was a general tolling of the bells, and
through the day many of the stores were shut, while
effigies of such as favored the Act were paraded about
the streets, and at last torn in pieces by the frantic
populace.
1 Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 272.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   49
In Portsmouth and several adjacent towns an unique
pageant was concerted.
" All the bells," in the words of our annalist, " were tolled
to denote the decease of Liberty; and, in the course of the
day, notice was given to her friends to attend her funeral.
A coffin, neatly ornamented, and inscribed with'LIBERTY,
aged CXLV years' was prepared for the funeral procession,
which began from the State house, attended with two unbraced drums. Minute-guns were fired until the corpse arrived at the grave, when an oration was pronounced in honor
of the deceased. Scarcely was the oration concluded, when,
some remains of life having been discovered, the corpse was
taken up. The inscription on the lid of the coffin was immediately altered to'LIBERTY REVIVED;' the bells suddenly
struck a cheerful sound, and joy appeared again in every
countenance." 1
Throughout the length and breadth of the country
the stamp distributers were execrated, threatened, compelled to resign, and in every way made to feel the
determination of the people not to tolerate the obnoxious Act. And when, after struggling in vain for a
year to enforce the Act, Parliament repealed it, in
March, 1766, the joy of the colonies. was expressed
as tumultuously as their indignation had been, by the
ringing of bells, and by illuminations, festivals, and
processions suited to the occasion. The anniversary
1 Holmes's Annals, Vol., II. p. 273.
5a




50                 MEMOIR OF
of this repeal was observed, it will be remembered, by
the students at Cambridge, in 1769, three years afterwards, recalling to every mind, not only the Act itself, but
the spirit with which it had been successfully resisted.
The revolutionary impulses received while in College merely, surrounded by ardent spirits like himself,
might have died out of Mr. Phillips's heart when he
went forth into the world, had they not been grafted
upon these anterior and life-long excitements, in the
same direction; — had not the calm, intelligent patriotism of principle been a part of his mental growth, as
really as his ideas of virtue, or his estimate of time.
But when we trace this long and varied process,
which had so well served to exercise his mind upon
the great questions at issue, and when we consider that
every month after he graduated was filling the country with increasing alarm, it no longer seems surprising that all plans for a professional career, if any had
been matured, were at once abandoned. Indeed, it is
very remarkable that he should, through all these disturbances, have been such a model as he was of successful application to study; clearly showing that no
reasons but such as he deemed the nmost imperative,
would have led him to relinquish so congenial a life.
Yet in the question between study and action, equally
fitted as he was for either, the scholar yielded to the
patriot; and he -threw himself with the utmost ardor
into the Revolutionary struggle. "I never saw him,"




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                    51
says one who knew  him  well, "I never saw him  so
much interested in any thing else, as he was in the
Revolution, unless it was the Academy."
He had been out of College less than two years,
when in the spring of 1773 - three months before his
marriage- his fellow-citizens elected him  town clerk
and treasurer, in place of his father, who had filled
these offices in the town continuously for fourteen
years previous. At this period, as the records amply
witness, every thing else in the frequent town meetings
of Andover was secondary to its spirited action upon
the state of the country. As early as October 21, 1765,
the year of the Stamp-Act, the town had by a unanimous vote addressed the following "instructions" to
their Representative, the elder Mr. Phillips:[To Samuel Phillips, Esq., Representative for the town of Andover in his
Majesty's province of the Massachusetts Bay.]
SIR, - We, the fireeholders and other inhabitants of said
town, legally assembled in town meeting on said day, to
consider what may be proper on our part to be done at this
critical conjuncture, being a time, we apprehend, that we and
the rest of his majesty's subjects of this province, as well as
those of the other provinces and colonies in British America,
are by sundry acts of Parliament of Great Britain, especially
by an act commonly called the Stamp-Act, in danger of
being not only reduced to such indigent circumstances as
will render us unable to manifest our loyalty to the Crown
of Great Britain, as upon all occasions we have hitherto
done, by cheerfully exhibiting our substance for the defence




52                 IMEMIOIR OF
of the British dominions in this part of the world, but of
being deprived of some of our most valuable privileges which
by charter and loyalty we have always thought, and still
think, ourselves justly entitled to;
"Therefore, we take it to be a duty justly due to ourselves
and posterity to instruct you, that you do not give your assent to any act of Assembly that shall signify any willingness in your constituents to submit to any internal taxes that
are under any color imposed, otherwise than by the General
Court of this province, agreeable to the Constitution of this
government; that you join in such dutiful remonstrances
to the King and Parliament, and other becoming measures,
as shall carry the greatest probability to obtain a repeal of
the Stamp-Act, and an alleviation of the embarrassments
the commercial affairs of this province labor under by the
rigorous execution of the acts of Parliament respecting the
same; and we also desire you to use your utmost endeavors
that all extraordinary grants and expensive measures may
upon all occasions, as much as possible, be avoided; and we
would recommend, particularly, the strictest care and the utmost firmness to prevent all unconstitutional draughts upon
the public treasury; that you would use your best endeavors,
in conjunction with the other members of the General Court,
to suppress all riotous unlawful assemblies, and to prevent
all unlawful acts of violence upon the persons and substance
of his majesty's subjects in this province."
In May, 1768, Mr. Phillips, senior, as chairman of a
committee appointed by the town, had presented a
report, which  was adopted  unanimously, in  these
words:




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                       53
"In order to securing to ourselves and transmitting to posterity those invaluable rights and privileges both civil and
religious, which have been dearly purchased by our predecessors, the first settlers of this country, the loss of which is
greatly threatened by the great and growing imprudences
and immoralities among us, the committee are humbly of
opinion, that it is absolutely necessary that the inhabitants
of this town use their utmost endeavors, and that they enforce their endeavors by their example, for the suppressing of
extravagance, idleness, and vice, and for the promoting of industry, economy, and good morals; and by all prudent means
endeavor to discountenance the importation and use of foreign
superfluities, and to promote and( encourage manufactures
in the town." 1
1 It is exceedingly interesting to notice how much prominence is
given at this crisis, not only in the action of this town, but of various
other bodies in the country; to this important point in political economy; nor were these views of self-support in so important a respect,
the fruit of revolutionary tendencies merely. They had prevailed
to a very considerable extent, twenty years earlier, the development
of its internal resources being regarded of great moment to the prosperity and thrift of the country then, as it now was to its independence. Among the illustrations of this fact, which we have collected,
we give the following. In 1753, "the anniversary of a society in
Boston for encouraging industry and employing the poor, was celebrated with extraordinary attention. In the afternoon, about three
hundred young female spinsters, decently dressed,, appeared on the
Common at their spinning-wheels. The wheels were placed regularly in three rows, and a female was seated at each wheel. The
weavers also appeared, cleanly dressed, in garments of their own
weaving. One of them, working at a loom on a stage, was carried
5:jR




54                    MEMOIR OF
Two years later, May 21, 1770, we find the following record: 
"The town, taking into consideration the distresses this
province is laboring under by the operation of a late Act of
Parliament imposing duties on tea, paper, glass, etc., made
and passed for the express purpose of raising a revenue in
the American colonies without their consent, which Act we
apprehend is oppressive; repugnant to the natural and constitutional rights of the people; contrary both to the spirit
and letter of the royal charter, granted by their majesties
King William  and Queen Mary to the inhabitants of this
province, whereby are ordained and established the having
and enjoying all liberties and immunities of free and natural
born subjects; and subversive of the great and good designs
of our most worthy ancestors, who crossed the ocean, willingly exposed themselves to every danger, parted with their
blood and treasure, suffered hunger, cold, and nakedness, and
every other hardship human nature is capable of, to purchase
and defend a quiet habitation for themselves and posterity:
" Therefore, Voted, nemine contradicente; 1. That it is the
duty of every friend to liberty and to the British constitution to use all legal measures to prevent, if possible, the exon men's shoulders, attended with music. An immense number of
spectators was present at this interesting spectacle."
"Rev. Dr. Cooper preached a discourse, and a collection was
made for the benefit of the institution. A manufactory house, a large
and handsome brick building, was erected about this time on Longacre street; and an excise, laid by the General Court on carriages
and other articles of luxury, was appropriated to it." - Holmes's
Annals, Vol. II. p. 196.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   55
ecution of said act; and would embrace this opportunity to
express our warmest gratitude to the merchants and other
gentlemen of Boston and other trading towns in this province, for the regular, constitutional, and spirited measures
pursued by them, from principles truly noble and generous,
for repelling tyranny and oppression, and establishing those
rights for themselves and country which they are entitled to
as men and as Englishmen.
" 2. That we will by all legal and constitutional measures
in our power, support and encourage the non-importation
agreement of the merchants; and that we will have no commercial or social connections directly or indirectly with those
persons, who, as enemies to the country, divested of every
public virtue, and even of humanity itself, regardless of, and
deaf to, the miseries and calamities which threaten this people, preferring their own private interest to the liberty and
freedom of the community, are sordidly endeavoring to counteract such benevolent and salutary agreement.
"3. That we will encourage frugality, industry, and the
manufactures of this country; and that we will not make
use of any foreign tea, or suffer it to be used in our families
(cases of sickness only excepted) until the Act imposing a
duty on that article shall be repealed, and a general importation take place."
Such was the spirit of the town, when Mr. Phillips,
Jr., began to take part in its deliberations, and to bear
its offices; and here, with his honored father, he at
once became conspicuous.  Early in the year 1774, he
was appointed, in town meeting, at the head of a corn



56                  MEMOIR OF
mittee to draft a series of resolutions expressive of the
temper of the times; his report embodied, with slight
modifications, the resolves which had then recently
been passed at Philadelphia, as a declaration of principles, and added the following for practice:"Resolved, That no person in this town, who has heretofore been concerned in vending tea, or any other person, may
on any pretence whatever, either sell himself or be in any
way accessory to selling any tea of foreign importation, while
it remains burdened with a duty, under penalty of incurring
the town's displeasure."
At a subsequent meeting in June, he was one of a
committee to report a covenant to be signed by the
citizens, and on its adoption, was upon the committee
to see that it was strictly enforced.
In December, his father, as chairman of a similar
committee upon the resolves of the Provincial Congress, made a report to the town, which there is reason
to believe *the son had assisted in carefully drafting,
from which we quote the following words: —
" Resolved, That it is the indispensable duty of this town
strictly to conform and firmly adhere to the Association of
the Grand American Continental Congress, and to the resolve of the Provincial Congress of the fifth of December,
thereto relating; and, in order that this may be thoroughly
effected, that the inhabitants of the town, of the age of
twenty-one years and upwards, subscribe the following agreement, namely: We, the subscribers, having attentively con



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  57
sidered the Association of the Grand American Continental
Congress, respecting the non-importation, non-exportation,
and non-consumption of goods, etc., signed by the delegates
of this and the other colonies on the continent, and the resolve of the Provincial Congress of the fifth of December
thereto relating, do heartily approve the same, and every part
of them; and in order to make said association and resolve
our own personal act, Do by these presents, under the sacred
ties of virtue, honor, and love of our country, firmly agree
and associate fully and completely to observe and keep all
and every article and clause in said association and resolve
contained, according to the true intent, meaning, and letter
thereof, and will duly inform and give notice of every evasion, or contravention of either, as far as we are able; and
we further covenant, that if any person or persons, of the age
of twenty-one years and upwards, shall neglect or refuse to
subscribe this agreement when tendered to him or them, we
will withdraw all commerce, trade, or dealing from such, so
long as they shall continue thus inimical to the public good,
and that their names shall be entered on the records of this
town, and published in the Essex Gazette as enemies to their
country."
Upon the adoption of this report, — which made
Andover a community of " Covenanters," - Mr. Phillips, senior, was made chairman of a large Committee
of Safety, charged with the duty of executing the measure proposed; while the record of all these doings was
kept by his son, who, in these and many kindred
movements, was not less active. That oft summoned




58                 MEMOIR OF
town meeting was a noble spectacle; a determined
assembly of sturdy freemen, who knew their rights
so well, voting again and again without one dissenting
voice, while the young scholar, just from his college
groves, was their clerk, and his tried father their moderator,-for during this entire period, the elder Mr.
Phillips was almost invariably called to the chair, —
both helping to clothe all their resolute doings in the
convincing words of truth and soberness.
It was thus that the town, when the war at last
broke out, directed a portion of its militia to enlist in
the army, at the same time voting their pay and supplies; established its night-watch as a precaution against
fires, and the regulars, upon which all the citizens from
sixteen to sixty years of age were liable to serve at
forty-eight hours' notice; organized, in addition to the
Committee of Safety, its Committees of Correspondence
and of Inspection; engaged to supply the families of
those who were serving in the army with the necessaries of life; and took measures to forestall disturbances of the peace, and to enforce the laws among
such as seemed inclined to be lawless. NAor did these
citizens hesitate when the progress of the war had
brought on the issue of separation fronm the mother
country.
At a meeting June 12, 1776, three weeks before the
ever memorable 4th of July, the records inform  us
that, -




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                        09
"The question being put, whether should the Honorable
Congress, for the safety of the colonies, declare them  independent of the kingdom of Great Britain, you will solemnly
engage with your lives and fortunes to support them in the
measure, - it passed in the affirmative, unanimously." 1
1 All of these resolves of the citizens of Andover in the great contest, were amply seconded by both means and men devoted to the
war. In February, two companies were raised under the command
of Capt. Benjamin Farnham, and Capt. Benjamin Ames. -" On the
19th of April, 1775, the alarm drew these companies into the field,
and they were stationed at Cambridge. They were detached to take
possession of the heights of Charlestown on the 16th of June, and
were in the battle of the next day. There were fifty-eight belonging
to Capt. Ames's company, more than fifty of whom, belonging to the
South Parish, were in the battle of Bunker Hill. Three were killed
and seven wounded. Two in another company, under command of
Capt. Furbush, were killed. Capt. Farnham was wounded, and some
of his company."  "The day following the battle, the Lord's day,"
says Rev. Mr. French, " our houses of worship were generally shut
up. It was the case here. When the news of the battle reached
us, the anxiety and distress of wives and children, of parents, of
brothers, sisters, and friends, were great. It was not known who
were among the slain or the living, the wounded or the well. It was
thought justifiable for us, who could, to repair to the camp, to know
the circumstances, to join in the defence of the country, and prevent
the enemy from pushing the advantages they had gained; and to
afford comfort and relief to our suffering brethren and friends." In
the siege of Boston following this, another company of more than
fifty men, under Capt. Lovejoy, served, being stationed, at different
times, on Prospect Hill, at Cambridge, and at Roxbury.- See Abbot's
History of Andover, p. 174, 175, etc.




60                    MEMOIR  OF
It was to represent such a town, in this critical era,
that our Mr. Phillips, the younger, was elected, with
great unanimity, to the Provincial Congress, which
met at Watertown in 1775, at the age of only twentythree years! Whether this reflects most honor upon
him or upon his fellow-citizens, we need not inquire.
They certainly were not men to be blinded by the
young patriot's ardor in the cause merely. It required
something besides zeal for liberty to speak and act for
them in that assembly; yet without this enthusiasm
in the contest, neither he nor any other deputy could
have truly represented them. Young as he was, and
the more because of his youth, this election intimates
to us their confidence in his judgment, his probity, and
his firmness, not less than in his courage and devotion.
The Congress to which he was thus sent, convened
in sight of his venerable ancestor's grave, was near
the head-quarters of the army at Cambridge,' acting
1 The very aspect of Cambridge and its vicinity at this time, must
have added to the zeal of the patriot scholar: " Thousands," writes
Rev. Mr. Emerson, a chaplain in the army, "are at work every day,
from four till eleven o'clock in the morning. It is surprising how
much work has been done. The lines are extended almost from
Cambridge to Mystic River, so that very soon it will be morally impossible for the enemy to get between the works, except in one place,
which is supposed to be left purposely unfortified, to entice the enemy out of their fortresses. Who would have thought, twelve months
past, that all Cambridge and Charlestown would be covered over




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                     61
in daily concert with it, and animated by its spirit.
There was no longer a "'Great and General Court"
elected in the king's name, and legislating under the
eye of the king's governor; but in its place this Revolutionary Legislature, in which, beyond all other subjects, the Revolution itself was the great theme.  General Warren said of a similar body in November, 1774.
" About two hundred and sixty members were present.
You would have thought yourself in.an assembly of Spartans or ancient Romans, had you been a witness to the ardor
which inspired those who spoke upon the important business
they were transacting." 1
In this and each succeeding legislature during the
war to which Mr. Phillips was elected, he took a very
active part.  He soon came to be regarded as one of
the best speakers in the House, and to the various
important measures proposed in aid of the common
cause, he brought the most effective support. For
mere rhetorical declamation, he had no aptness and
no  taste.  His was the practical and  solid oratory
with American camps, and cut up into forts and intrenchments, and
all the lands, fields, orchards, laid common, - horses and cattle feeding on the choicest mowing land, whole fields of corn eaten down to
the ground, and large parks of well-regulated locusts cut down for
firewood and other public uses?" - Frothingham's Hfstory of the
Siege of Boston, p. 221.
1 Frothilrgham's 1History of the Siege of Boston, p. 42.
6




62                 MEMOIR OF
of a calrn, far-seeing mind, deeply moved, yet never
swayed by simple emotion. Knapp, in his fiction of
"Marshal Soult's Journal," says of him in this respect,
"he was in the first grade of eminence; his speeches
were clear, concise, logical, direct, and nervous; but
he made no effort to amuse the fancy, and never
sacrificed any thing to mere rhetoric." I
And the qualities which made him so convincing in
debate, gave a corresponding weight to his suggestions,
and his action, on the various important committees of
the House upon which he was placed. In whatever
pertained to the war, or to the important questions of
state connected with the war, a large amount of this
committee service was assigned to him year after year;
and in it all he distinguished himself, not only by his
zeal, but by his sagacity and despatch, and by his untiring industry. It is seldom that such capacity for
the dry minutia of business is united with such ability
in persuasive speaking in our legislative halls.
We have taken pains to examine the journals of
these successive legislatures with some care, to obtain
a view of Mr. Phillips's labors, and have been surprised
at the number and variety of his committee services.
The Provincial Congress at Watertown, assembled in
the meeting-house July 19, 1775.  The proscribed
patriots, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, were both
I Pages 103, 104.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 63
members, and with them many others who had already
distinguished themselves in the great contest.  This
memorable Congress held four protracted sessions before it was finally dissolved on the 10th of May, 1776.
During this period, Mr. Phillips was twice on (a committee to confer with General Washington upon points
connected with the war; he was also in rapid succession upon committees to countersign the colony notes
emitted by the Continental -Congress, and the notes
of the Receiver-General; to direct the mustering and
paying of one militia company, and to muster and
pay another; to procure a suitable person to attend
the Muster-Master-General, and obtain a return of the
Massachusetts forces; to superintend the delivery of
powder to the several towns, and to the CommissaryGeneral; to view the defences of Boston harbor, and
report their condition, etc.
In subsequent legislatures, he was appointed on committees, upon the petition of certain persons taken
by one of the cruisers; to bring in a bill to punish
deserters; to see what should be done with men c" who
enlist or are drafted into the army, but have not
marched;" to report upon the remonstrances of a
large number of towns against Bills of Credit, and to
revise the Address of the House to the inhabitants
of the State, setting forth the reasons for the Act for
calling in these bills; to confer with the Faculty of
Harvard College respecting grants to the officers; to
consider a Resolution of Congress respecting the ad



64                 MEMOIR OF
ministration of justice; to bring in a bill for encourag.
ing the manufacture of steel; to draft a letter to Congress upon the subject of the embargo, etc. In many
of these appointments, he was made chairman of the
committee raised; in numerous instances the persons
appointed by the House were a joint committee, with
such as the honorable Council might designate to
the same duty.  All of these legislatures, like the
Congress at Watertown, held repeated sessions, usually
three or four, varying from one to two and sometimes three months in length, relieved by intervals
of adjournment.
But while exerting himself thus in the legislature
for the liberties of his country, his interest in the
Revolution stimulated  him  to  serve the cause in
other modes. There were junctures when he made
efforts to  procure loans from  his friends for the
government, becoming himself, to the extent of his
ability, not only the negotiator, but the surety, with
the parties.   His daily conversation, too, with all
classes, and in all circles, was perpetually touching upon
the great theme, eliciting, by well-timed questions, the
views of others, and breathing out the convictions of
his own full heart. He is remembered to this day by
some, with remarkable distinctness in this respect, as
conversing everywhere upon the war, full of questions
and of comments, both in a style peculiar to himself.
And his deeds were in unison with his words.
In the winter of 1775-76, while serving in the




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  65
Congress at Watertown, and intent still upon practically aiding in the struggle, he erected, at great expense, a powder-mill, commencing and prosecuting the
enterprise in a manner most characteristic of himself.
The exigency which prompted him to this enterprise was great. By a proclamation of the king, the
year prior to the rupture with the Colonies, the exportation of all military stores from Great Britain had
been prohibited;  and early in the contest, the efforts
of the British troops had been specially directed to
the seizure or destruction of all kinds of ordnance
and ammunition. For this purpose, a detachment had
marched to Salem  and Danvers in February, 1775;2
and this was the chief object of the expedition to Concord, which brought on the battle at Lexington on the
19th of April.  The battle of Bunker Hill might have
been still more disastrous to the British, had not the
Americans been compelled to retreat in the very hottest of the conflict for want of cartridges.3 So early
did the scanty supply of powder especially begin to
embarrass the patriot forces.
When General Washington took the command of the
army on the 3d of July at Cambridge, his first care,
1 Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 316.
2 Ibid. p. 324. See also Firothingham's History of the Siege of
Boston, p. 48.
8 Ibid. p. 147, 148, 153.
6.,




66                 MEMOIR OF
after a rapid survey of his own and the enemy's works,
was to ascertain the amount of the various military
stores at his service for the campaign.  The returns
showed that more than three hundred barrels of powder had been collected by the Province, but did not
state how much had been expended. Without a suspicion of any important deficiency, therefore, the Com-.mander-in-Chief at once arranged to complete the investment of Boston, and press the siege vigorously,
hoping before winter to dislodge or capture the British,
and return to Virginia.
On the issue of an order, however, in August, for a
new supply of cartridges, the startling fact came to
light, that there were not more than about thirty barrels of powder in the whole camp, barely enough to
furnish nine or ten rounds to each man! Letters were
instantly despatched by Washington to Rhode Island,
the Jerseys, Ticonderoga, and elsewhere, urging immediate supplies of both powder and lead; he suggested,
also, the expedient of fitting out an armed vessel to
sieze if possible upon a magazine in Bermuda; and
for a fortnight the army remained in this critical state,,apprehending an attack every hour, when at length
a partial supply was received from the Jerseys; but
even with this, there was not ammunition enough to
serve for more than a single day in a general action.'
1 Irving's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 25-27; also Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston, p. 232, 233, 255.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  67
Even as late as December, after every effort to increase
the stores, Washington spoke of the stock as "fearfully
small" 1 and in January, General Putnam, who had
just constructed a new battery on Lechmere Point,
was still roughly praying for powder.'The bay is
open," writes Colonel Moylan, in allusion to the mildness of the season, " every thing thaws here except
Old Put. He is still hard as ever, crying out for
powder - powder - powder, - Ye Gods, give us powder!" 2  Yet with this appalling defect, month after
month, to check him, Washington began to be thought
too cautious in his movements.  "Why does he not
bombard the town and drive the enemy out?" it
was asked.  "Why is the army kept fortifying or
parading and not fighting?"
The  General-in-Chief was himself mortified  and
chafed beyond measure by this necessity for apparent
inaction, when some great and decisive blow was expected, and when, to explain the real cause, would be
to insure disaster. January 14th, he wrote: —
" Few people know the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows. I have often
thought how much happier I should have been if, instead of
accepting of a command under such circumstances, I had
Irving's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 35.
2 Ibid. p. 117.




68'       MEMOIR  OF
taken my musket upon my shoulder, and entered the ranks;
or, if I could have justified the measure to posterity and my
own conscience, had retired to the back country, and lived
in a wigwam.
" If I shall be able to rise superior to these, and many
other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most
religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it."
On the 9th of February, he stated:" That two thousand of his men were without firelocks,
and that he was obliged to conceal the state of his army
even from his own officers."
On the 10th, he wrote: —
" I know that much is expected of me. I know that without men, without arms, without ammunition, without any
thing fit for the accommodation of a soldier, little is to be
done."
February 18th, he again wrote:"To have the eyes of a whole continent fixed with anxious expectation of hearing some great event, and to be restrained in every military operation for want of the necessary means to carry it on, is not very pleasing; especially as
the means used to conceal my weakness from the enemy,
conceal it also from our friends, and add to their wonder." 1
He waited, therefore, in hope; but it was hope deferred; and it was not until March, 1776, eight months
l Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston, p. 286, 290, 292.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                      69
after his arrival at Cambridge, that he felt justified in
acting more summarily. On the night of the 2d, 3d,
and especially the 4th of that month, the town was
bombarded in good earnest, mainly with a view of
covering  his occupancy  of Dorchester Heights that
evening, where, as on Bunker Hill in the preceding
June, the labor of a night threw  up a redoubt, which
the next morning filled the enemy with amazement.
That evening, Mrs. John Adams, writing of the cannonade to her husband, said, "I hope to give you joy of
Boston, even if it is in ruins, before I send this away." 1
A few days now sufficed to drive the British to their
shipping. Early in the morning of Sunday the 17th,
they evacuated the town; and a siege which might
have been ended in eleven weeks as well as in eleven
months, had there been no want of ammunition, terminated in a complete triumph.2
In reverting to their struggles for this great victory,
Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston, p. 305, 306.
2 Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 348. While Washington was in the
midst of his embarrassments here, Dr. Franklin, Mir. Lynch, and
Colonel Harrison came on as a committee from Congress, " to settle
the plan for continuing and supporting the army;" and Dr. Franklin, who had recently returned from Europe, at this time paid over
to a committee of the Provincial Congress at Watertown, ~100,
which had been sent to him, as a charitable donation from persons in
England, for the relief of those who had been wounded in the battle
of Lexington, and of the widows and orphans of those who had been
slain. - See Sparks's Washington, Vol. III. p. 133, 134.




701               MEMOIR OF
WTaishington writes to Congress: "1 It is not in the pages
of history, perhaps, to furnish a case like ours.  To
maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy for
six months together zuilhout acmmntnition, and at the same
time to disband one army and recruit another within that distance of twenty odd British regiments, is
more, probably, than was ever attempted."1 The army
had not been alone, however, in efforts to meet the
exigency. The Congress at Watertown exerted itself
strenuously for the same object. At first all the towns
in the Province, where powder even in the smallest
quantity was stored, were called upon to send it to the
Commissary with the utmost despatch; and the amount
which each town should endeavor to send in was specie
fled. Andover was to send fifty pounds, which were
promptly forwarded; so Haverhill, Danvers, Rowley,
were to send fifty pounds each, and other towns in
proportion.
But this was a temporary expedient; something must
be done to insure a more permanent supply. On the
12th of December, 1775, a Resolve was therefore passed
for the erection of two powder-mills, one in Sutton,
and the other on the site of an old mill in Stoughton.
On the 23d, however, a committee was appointed to
visit Stoughton and Andover, and see in which of these
towns the manufacture could best be commenced; and,
on the 3d of January, Mr. Phillips made a proposal
1 See Appendix F.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                71
to the House, to erect a mill in Andover with their
concurrence and coiperation. A Resolve was accordingly passed, with the sanction of the Council, on the
9th, encouraging him to proceed with all convenient
despatch; engaging to supply his mill for a year with
saltpetre and sulphur for the manufacture, and to pay
him a bounty of eight pence per pound for all the good
powder he should deliver to the Commissary; with the
express stipulation that he was to sell only to the
Government, or to such other parties as they should approve for the public use; and that he should maintain
a night guard at his mill, 1" to prevent any wicked and
designing person from destroying the same." l On the
13th of February; a bounty of ~50 was offered also
by the Congress to the person who should first erect
a powder-mill capable of manufacturing fifty pounds
per day; and ~30 for the second mill of the same
capacity. The mills at Stoughton and Andover being
already begun, were not included in this offer.
It was with these preliminaries to stimulate him,
and under the influence of such a general feeling in
the body to which he belonged, that Mr. Phillips, who
not only shared in the feeling, but had done much to
increase it, hastened home in January, 1776, and set
on foot his enterprise.
1 See Journal of the Provincial Congress, 1775.




72                 MEMOIR OF
Having purchased his mill-seat, where a canal was
needed for some distance, he called together his neighbors in considerable numbers, and spread before them
the project. "Now," said he, "I want your help, and
will engage to pay you, if the business pays; but if it
fails, you must consent to lose your labor; the powder
is needed for the common cause, and we must work
together." At once his appeal was responded to with
enthusiasm, and in that inclement season, ground was
immediately broken by the spirited citizens, and the
mill-race dug as a volunteer work; Mr. Phillips himself, in his farmer's frock, working from morning till
night with the company, and superintending  their
labors. It has been said that this was the first powder-mill erected in the country, which appears to be
an error, as the mill at' Stoughton was to be an old one
repaired; but certainly this was a most timely enterprise; for as early as the 10th of May, 1776, Mr.
Phillips began to deliver from his mill to the several
towns the quotas of powder which they had furnished
according to the directions of the Provincial Congress;
and in the summer and autumn, large supplies were
drawn from it for the use of the army, and of the
vessels engaged in cruising.
Mr. Phillips, as we have stated, had entered into an
arrangemnent with the Government of the Commonwealth, to sell powder only as they should consent,
and for the public service.  Accordingly, we find an




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  73
order of the Council, then sitting in Watertown, August 31, 1776, permitting the sale of one thousand six
hundred pounds to three several parties at six shillings
per pound, the Commissary-General of the State being
responsible for the payment; September 6th, an order
for one thousand five hundred pounds more; September 24th, for five hundred pounds; October 4th, for
four tons; October 9th, for four thousand pounds,' etc.
From the amount and frequency of these drafts, it will
be seen that the mill was doing a great work. At this
time, the Hon. William Phillips of Boston was a member of the Council, and his son, the late LieutenantGovernor William Phillips, was part owner of one of
the schooners which drew its stores of powder from
this manufactory of their kinsman. While thus supplying munitions, of war, Mr. Phillips, as chairman of
a committee of the Legislature, was writing to the
towns in the vicinity, to send in their supplies of wood
and other necessaries to the army.2 A letter of his to
the selectmen of Concord is preserved, in which he
states that they are recommended by the Legislature
to send three cords of wood daily, and urges the importance of their doing it promptly.
Before the close of this year, powder-mills had been
built, partly with the aid of the State, at Stoughton,
1 American Archives, 5th Series, Vols. II. and III.
2 Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston, p. 275..7




74                 MEMOIR OF
at Sutton, and at Springfield; but for a considerable
period the mill at Andover was the leading manufactory. Before it had been half a year in operation a
Resolve was passed in the Legislature, to pay Mr.
Phillips ~2,800 to meet his purchases of saltpetre'
merely.' The scarcity of this article was his principal difficulty in the enterprise; and at first, in the
urgency of the demand, floors were, in many cases,
taken up from kitchens and sheds in the vicinity, to
obtain the earth beneath, and extract the saltpetre
which it contained. The business, thus begun, proved
sufficiently remunerative, notwithstanding an explosion
in 1778, which destroyed a portion of the establishment, with the loss of three lives; and was continued
until 1796, when a similar catastrophe brought it to
a close, as, at that time, Mr. Phillips had a variety of
other less hazardous business on his hands.
When the war, which he had been so zealous to
sustain, was nearly terminated, the claims of the suffering army upon the country enlisted his warmest
sympathy. "This is the day," he writes, to Mrs. Phillips, from  Boston, under date of March 4th, 1780,
" when I usually enjoyed the satisfaction of setting my
face homeward; but duty forbids my enjoyment of
that pleasure to-day; the importunity of hundreds of
1 American Archives, Vols. II. and III.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.              75
poor soldiers who have been suffering much and hazarding life for my defence, and who are asking only
for that which they were assured they should have
received the first of last January, requires me to put
on self-denial."
As the Revolutionary drama unfolded, too, in all its
magnitude, the great problem of reconstructing the
fabric of civil government in new forms, and with
new doctrines underlying the whole, began to occupy
his mind; thus launching him upon a career of varied
civil service, which it is now time for us to trace.




CHAPTER VII.
HIS AGENCY IN THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF
THE STATE GOVERNMENT.
WITH their early partiality which had chosen him
to honorable offices in the town, and for several successive years elected him as their Representative to
the Legislature, his fellow-citizens cast their united
suffrages for him as one of the four delegates from
Andover to the Constitutional Convention which commenced its sessions in Cambridge, September 1, 1779.
The independence of the Colonies had been solemnly declared; the tide of war, though not yet spent,
was rolling away westward and southward, and all
looked for its speedy and triumphant termination; it
was time to enter upon the work of inaugurating a
Republican Government, upon the basis of the great
Republican Revolution. Indeed, one effort had already
been made, by the citizens of Massachusetts, in this
direction, but without success; the new constitution
proposed by the Legislature of 1777-78, acting as a
(76)




MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.              77
convention, not being approved by a majority of the
people. It might have been inferred from this circumstance, that the patriotism of the times was better fitted
to break down than to build up; more radical than
progressive. It was the more important, therefore,
that the second effort should be the best work of our
best men. At the opening of the Convention in Cambridge, in the meeting-house of the first society, three
hundred delegates presented their credentials, among
whom stand the names of John Adams, Samuel Adams,
John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Levi Lincoln, John
Lowell, Theophilus Parsons, John'Pickering, Robert
Treat Paine, Caleb Strong, and scores of others who
had distinguished themselves in the struggle for
liberty.
In two days after it had assembled, the Convention
was organized, and passed, as properly preliminary to
its work, the following Resolutions:" Resolved, unanimously, That the Government, to be
framed by this Convention, shall be a FREE REPUBLIC.
" Resolved, That it is of the essence of a free Republic,
that the people be governed by FIXED LAWS OF THEIR OWN
MAKING."
Proceeding upon this platform, a committee of thirtyone members, carefully selected and chosen by ballot,
was then appointed to prepare "a Frame of a Constitution and Declaration of Rights," to be reported to
7 *




78                MEMOIR OF
the Convention; upon which committee, Mr. Phillips
was placed as one of three from his county, being associated in this important service with both the Adamses, Mr. Bowdoin, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Paine, and other
names of the highest distinction.
After six continuous weeks of arduous labor in
scanning, and accepting or rejecting, the report of this
committee, sentence by sentence, the Convention adjourned for a recess until January, during which interval, John Adams sailed for Europe, leaving to his associates the task of finishing what he and they had so
well begun. The journal of the Convention in its first
sitting shows that the discussions were often protracted;
questions are spoken of as "largely debated," as having been decided after "I an extensive debate," or after'" a long debate;" on some topics the first draught of
the committee was finally recommitted, and an entirely new one presented, so that much the largest part
of their important work yet remained to be done when
they adjourned.
The attempt to reassemble in January failed at first,
the severity of the ever memorable hard winter of
1780 rendering it nearly impossible for the country
members to get to Boston, where they now proposed
to meet; and the smallpox having broken out in the
city, so that there was great unwillingness to convene
there; but after a week's delay, the new session began
in the Representatives' Chamber, with the galleries




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.'79
opened to spectators. In February, after several weeks
of close application to the details of their work, a motion was passed, " that a committee be appointed to
form a declaration, or test, wherein every person, before he takes his seat -as a representative, senator, or
governor, or enters upon the execution of any important office or trust in the Commonwealth, shall renounce every principle, (whether it be Roman Catholic, Mahometan, Deistical, or Infidel,) which has any
the least tendency to subvert the civil or religious
rights established by this Constitution." Mr. Phillips
was placed among the first on this committee, in connection with Mr. Pickering and Samuel Adams.'
1 The test, reported by this committee, as finally incorporated
into the Constitution, is as follows: —" Every person chosen to
either of the places or offices aforesaid, as also any person appointed or commissioned to any judicial, executive, military, or
other office under the government, shall, before he enters on the discharge of the business of his place or office, take and subscribe the
following declaration, and oaths or affirmations, namely, -
"I, A. B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify, and
declare, that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is, and of right
ought to be, a free, sovereign, and independent State; and I do swear
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the said Commonwealth,
and that I will defend the same against traitorous conspiracies, and all
hostile attempts whatsoever; and that I do renounce and abjure all
allegiance, subjection, and obedience to the King, Queen, or govern
ment of Great Britain, (as the case may be,) and every other foreign
power whatsoever; and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state,
or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, superiority, pre



80                     MEMOIR OF
By the 2d of March, the Convention had so far nlatured the proposed Constitution, as to adjourn again,
meanwhile submitting their work to the suffrages of
the people.
During these two months, the debates are represented as "very full," and the care with which every
paragraph and phrase was adjusted, step by step, is
exceedingly interesting to'notice. At the third and
very brief session, which was held in the Brattle Street
Church in June, it appeared from the returns, that the
Constitution had been adopted by the votes of more
than two thirds of the people, and the Convention formally declared it to be " the Constitution of Government established by and for the inhabitants of the
State of Massachusetts Bay." 1
In all this work, of nearly four months in the aggreeminence, authority, dispensing or other power, in any matter, civil,
ecclesiastical, or spiritual, within this Commonwealth; except the
authority and power which is or may be vested by their constituents
in the Congress of the United States: And I do further testify and
declare that no man or body of men hath or can have any right to
absolve or discharge me from the obligation of this oath, declaration,
or affirmation; and that I do make this acknowledgment, profession,
testimony, declaration, denial, renunciation, and abjuration, heartily
and truly, according to the common meaning and acceptation of the
foregoing words, without any equivocation, mental evasion, or secret
reservation whatsoever. So help me GOD."
1 See Journal of the Convention, p. 1-225.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 81
gate, Mr. Phillips, though not entitled by age and experience to hold so eminent a place as some of the
master-spirits of the Convention, is represented as having labored effectively, both in the committee rooms
and in the House, supporting earnestly and often in
the public discussions the matured propositions of his
own and other committees, which were finally adopted.
It is to be here remembered, that no such Republican
Constitution had ever before been written; these men
were to construct, not copy; and their position made
them continually learners, while they were so acting
as to be also the teachers of the land, in the science of
government.
When they had so well done the work committed
to them, therefore, they had acquired the best possible
fitness to serve their fellow-citizens in the various civil
offices which the Constitution established; and we accordingly find the prominent men of this Convention
called at once, by the people, to the chief posts in the
government which they had adopted. Mr. Hancock
was the first Governor, succeeded in a few years by
Mr. Bowdoin, and then in turn succeeding him. Mr.
Samuel Adams was the first President of the Senate, and
afterwards Lieutenant-Governor, and Governor. Messrs.
Lowell, Lincoln, Pickering, Greenleaf, Holton, and others were called to the bench as judges in the various
courts; yet others of the Convention became conspicous as members of the Governor's Council, or as leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate.




82                 MEMOIR OF
At the very first popular election under the new
Constitution  in  September, 1780, Mr. Phillips was
chosen a member of the Senate, which became thenceforth his home as a legislator. In this canvass, his
father also was upon the same ticket for councillors
and senators with himself; but the son received, in
his native place, treble the number of votes thrown
for the father.
Early in the succeeding year, although not professionally versed in the law, and not yet thirty years of
age, he was also appointed by Governor Hancock and
his Council one of the justices of the Court of Common
Pleas for the county of Essex, which office was the
occasion of his being from this time conveniently distinguished from others of the family name, as Judge
Phillips. It will best serve our purpose to speak of
him briefly first as judge rather than as a senator,
since his long judicial service, running parallel with
his career in the Senate, was the more brief of the
two.
He entered upon his duties as judge, not without
careful preparation, we are assured, at a court holden
in Newburyport, September 25, 1781, being associated
in the office with his friends, the Hon. Benjamin
Greenleaf, Samuel Holton, Esq., and John Pickering,
Esq., all of whom had been with him in the Constitutional Convention, and subsequently in the General
Court.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 83
The uniform arrangement, for many years, was for
this County Court to hold four terms annually; the September term in Newburyport, the December and July
terms in Salem, and the April term in Ipswich; but in
1790, a change was made to three terms, September,
April, and July. At the April term in Ipswich, 1782,
about one hundred and fifty cases were tried; in July,
there were one hundred and thirty cases at Salem; in
September, one hundred and seventy-five at Newburyport; and the records for this year alone, cover nearly
two hundred and forty folio pages.
It will be seen from this, that the business of the
court in this large county was exceedingly onerous,
consuming from three to four months yearly, and involving every variety of experience in the justices.
Mr. Pickering served as one of the justices only two
or three years; but Judge Greenleaf was in the office
till 1796, and Judge Holton still longer. Judge Phillips held his office until 1798, appearing upon the
bench for the last time in April of that year; and
never having been absent, except in two cases, when
serving the public in other duties, during the whole
period of more than sixteen years! When he resigned,
only Judge Holton was his senior in office. The high
character of all these justices, and their long continuance in office, made this a model court for the times.
Of Judge Phillips, one who knew him well has said,
"his wisdom, justice, and patriotism, were for a long




84                  M- EM OIR OF
time exercised in one of our judiciary departments;
in which his ability and integrity, his patient, candid,
and diligent attention, were universally approved." 1
From a copy of one his addresses to the grand-jury
at one of the terms, which is preserved in his handwriting, we quote the following, as an illustration of
his judicial tone: -
" You having been chosen grand-jurors for the body of
this county, and having taken the oath which has been administered, it is incumbent on the Court, to specify several
parts of your duty in this capacity; -and as some of you have
served the public in this office before, and most, if not all of
you, must have been acquainted with the nature of it, it is
hardly necessary to inform you, that it is your duty not only
to receive complaints which may be made to you, when together or apart, of the offences against divers laws of the
Commonwealth which are cognizable by this court, (some of
which will be particularly enumerated,) but to make observations yourselves of those offences when they shall fall
within your notice; and when convened at any term of the
court, to communicate to each other any such observations
as you may have made, and the informations you may have
received, as well as the evidence to support them, - and also
to judge of all such communications, whether made by any
of your own number, or by any other person; in the first
place to consider whether the complaints before you are cognizable by this court, and proper to be noticed by them, if
found to be fact; in the second place, whether the evidence
1 Dr. Tappan, Funeral Discourse, p. 9.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   8J
produced to support the complaint be sufficient for that purpose: - Thus you may be considered as the eye and the ear
of the public, which the law has provided, to notice those
offences that come within your knowledge, and which the
public welfare requires should be corrected and suppressed.
" The laws which demand your attention, are those which
require towns to provide and maintain schools within their
limits, to keep their highways and bridges in repair, etc.; all
these laws are important in their nature, and the execution
of them necessary to the well-being of the community; but
unless those who constitute the inquest of the County, are
diligent and faithful in the discharge of their office, the labor
and pains of the Legislature are worse than lost, and the
people are deprived of that benefit which they have a right
to expect, and which we, so far as the duties of our several
stations extend, are solemnly bound to confer; for it ought to
be remembered that every law, unexecuted, is a standing
monument of the imbecility of government, and tends to
bring its authority into disrepute and contempt. It may not,
however, be amiss to caution you against the influence of
prejudice and passion, as well as every undue bias whatever
in all your inquiries and determinations, - wherever there is
just reason to suspect that private animosities are promotive
of public complaints, in such cases, you will exercise double
vigilance."
" There is one object to which we would point your particular notice, I mean the laws which provide for the maintenance
of grammar schools in our several towns. These laws are
upon a subject which our venerable ancestors and fathers
viewed to be of vast consequence to the welfare of their
8




86                   MEMOIR  OF
country' and to their views of it, under the smiles of Heaven,
is in a great measure owing that degree of success, which
has attended their posterity.  To their salutary regulations
of this kind may be ascribed, in a great measure, the improvements of various kinds which have been made in our
country; and the effect of them has been remarkably conspicuous in the late surprising Revolution, from its commencement through the various stages of its progress, and
especially in the very advantageous termination of it.
" These effects have been no less manifest in the formation
and adoption of those excellent Constitutions of Government
under which we live; but the harvest of benefits which are
now opening to our view, and for which so high a price has
been paid, will hardly be realized, or if realized, will be of but
short continuance, without an unremitted care to instruct the
youth of the community generally, in useful knowledge; to
inculcate just principles, and form good habits, at that period
of life which, if not the only one, is incomparably the most favorable for those purposes.
"In  some instances, it may be found the lasw  I am
speaking of has been disregarded in all its parts; in others,
where respect has been paid to the number of schools required to be kept, and to the periods for supporting them,
another provision, which prescribes the qualifications of the
instructors, and the judges of those qualifications, it is to be
feared, has been greatly neglected; and this, perhaps, for the
sake of obtaining cheap instructors; a parsimony this that is
pitiable indeed; for, after all our pains, if we could leave posterity possessed of the wealth of the Indies, without virtuous
principles and good habits, the habits of industry and economy particularly, the possession would not be very lasting;




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   87
and while it might continue, would not produce any considerable degree of rational enjoyment. Those who will undertake to cultivate and regulate the minds of youth, and are
qualified for the undertaking, do well deserve an honorable
reward; and by employing others, upon any terms whatever,
we deceive ourselves, and do our children an injury which,
in most instances, will never be repaired.
" I doubt not, gentlemen, you will discharge the duties of
this office in such a manner as to afford satisfaction to your
own minds, in reflection, and promote the peace, good order,
and respectability of the county in which we have the happiness to live."
Admirably, as such sentiments, clothed in so lucid
a style, show him to have been fitted for this station,
and congenial as it was to his natural tastes and habits
of mind, his other multiplied public cares, together
with frequent illness, compelled him at length to resign the office. We turn, therefore, to view him now
in other civic toils and trusts.
After his first election from his district to the Senate
of the Commonwealth, in 1780, he continued to be
annually returned to that body during nearly the whole
period of his remaining life. For the first five years,
Mr. Samuel Adams was President, as already stated,
and Judge Phillips was prominent only as his talents,
weight of character, admirable business habits, and ripe
experience in legislation, gave him influence. But




88                 MEMOIR OF
when M~ir. Adams " was persuaded to resign the chair,"
Judge Phillips succeeded him at once as President of
the Senate, in which office he became more widely
known, and is perhaps better remembered, than in anyv
other that he ever filled. Once raised to this chair, it
seemed thenceforth to be his by a sort of inalienable
right, though he was too humble so to regard it, and
at times, as we learn from letters to Madam Phillips,
was disposed to decline it.
For fifteen years he was the choice of all parties,
being elected President usually by a unanimous vote.
Dr. Tappan, in the funeral discourse, already referred
to, delineates him as a presiding officer, in the following
words: - "In this high and delicate situation, he equally
honored himself and benefited the Commonwealth, by
his punctuality and assiduity, by his correctness and
despatch, by his mild, impartial, and dignified conduct."
In other notices of his senatorial life which appeared
in the papers at the same period, special mention is
made of "his singular and unremitted attention to
business, and his facility in transacting it," and of his
"known independence and integrity of character;"
and Governor Strong, in a message to the Legislature,
bears testimony to "his distinguished merit," characterizing him as "one of the best and ablest " men in the
Commonwealth, who had long presided over the deliberations of the Senate "with candor and dignity."
Indeed, though there were every year much older




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  89
men than he on that floor, he was for many years
officially the senior member, and was regarded as the
father of the Senate, having more personal consideration by far than any other, in addition to the authority
of his position.
By this long continued activity in the legislation of
the Commonwealth, under such advantages of office
and experience, he contributed largely to the dignity,
as well as the stability, of the new civil order which
his hand had helped to originate.
"c The late surprising Revolution," as he.terms it, had,
however, left behind it some deep-rooted discontents,
as in its origin and progress it had been marred by
some excesses.  There were men, in all these years,
who sought not so much well-regulated liberty, as unrestrained license. The final, and much the most general, as well as dangerous exhibition of this lawless
spirit, was the memorable Shays' Rebellion.
With many previous local disturbances, this wide
spread concert to resist the Government of the Commonwealth, had become alarming in the summer of
1786, especially throughout the counties of Berkshire,
Hampshire, Worcester, Middlesex, and Bristol. The
administration of justice in the courts had been obstructed by the insurgents at Northampton, at Springfield, at Worcester, at Concord, at Taunton. A body
of the conspirators, fifteen hundred strong, were under
8*




90                 MEMOIR OF
arms in the vicinity of Northampton, and smaller parties
elsewhere, committing numberless outrages upon the
supporters of the government. The same riotous spirit
in New Hampshire, menaced the Legislature in session
at Exeter, and was only quelled by the prompt rallying of the citizens. Contiguous portions of Vermont
and of New York, were becoming in like manner disaffected. The collection of taxes was especially resisted, and loud demands for a redress of alleged grievances were made in every quarter.l
The General Court of Massachusetts had exerted
itself to avert the impending storm, by conciliatory
and temperate legislation; but its lenity was mistaken
for timidity. The more it sought to win the turbulent
populace, the more infuriated and insolent they became. The military were, therefore, at last called out
in strong force, and civil war began in earnest. The
chief command of the troops was committed by Governor Bowdoin to General Benjamin Lincoln, "whose
reputation and mildness of temper rendered him doubly capacitated for so delicate and important a trust."
About three quarters of the whole force were to be
raised in the counties most disturbed, and the remainder in Suffolk and Essex.
A brief, but arduous winter campaign of two or
x Holmes's Annals, Vol. II. p. 471-477. Also Mlinot's History of
the Insurrection.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 91
three months, in 1787, sufficed. Such forces as Shays
and his confederates could muster, in different localities, as at Springfield, Pittsfield, and their vicinities,
were soon dispersed. There was little actual fighting,
but much severe marching, the insurrectionists everywhere fleeing, and the troops pressing hard upon them
in pursuit.
While the army were thus summarily dispersing the
rebels, Governor Bowdoin issued his Proclamation,
dated February 9th, setting a price of ~150 upon the
head of Shays and of ~100 upon each of the other
three leaders, Wheeler, Parsons, and Day. On the
16th of the same month, the Legislature passed an
Act, defining the terms upon which pardon and indemnity might be extended to all who had borne arms
against the State, excepting these; and, on the 10th
of March, pursuant to this Act, a Resolve was passed,
appointing a special commission to treat with the disaffected, and receive their submission, as there was
now evidence that large numbers were anxious to be
reconciled to the government.
The Commissioners were General Lincoln, the commander of the troops called out, Judge Phillips, President
of the Senate, and Samuel Allyne Otis, Speaker of the
House of Representatives, who immediately addressed
themselves to their responsible work. Repairing first
to Berkshire, and then to Hampshire, and other counties in succession, they in the brief space of a month,




92                 MEnMOIR OF
succeeded in effectually extinguishing the last hope of
the conspirators. Scattering everywhere freely printed
copies of the Act and Resolve, under which they were
deputed, they invited applications for the offered
amnesty.
All applicants were required, by them, to bring a
certificate, signed by two persons of known attachment to the government, that they were believed to
be really penitent; and were also obliged to subscribe
a confession that they had been concerned in the rebellion, that they were sincerely penitent and wished
to return to their allegiance to the State; and to engage
that they would defend the government and comply
with the laws as faithful citizens, and exert themselves
to induce others to do the same.' As an illustration of
the solicitude and gloom which now prevailed, as well
as of the self-sacrificing devotion with which Judge
Phillips participated in this commission, we cite here
an extract from a letter of Madam Phillips to him
while he was at Northampton.
After referring to two or three previous letters which
she had written, without asking or expecting him to
reply while so absorbed with cares, she says --
" April 3, 1787. — I feel exceedingly for you, judging you
must be anxious, very anxious, on account of the aspect of
public affairs, which is truly alarming! - but I trust you will
1 See Journal of General Court, 1787. Also Acts and Resolves.




JUDGE PIIILLIPS.                 93
not suffer your thoughts to make long visits to your family.
I wish you to exert every faculty for the public good. I sincerely wish the Divine blessing may attend your consultations. I am very willing to make any sacrifice, might tranquillity be restored to our deluded States; - Heaven only
knows where it will end! "
It was not long, however, that such forebodings continued. Moving, as the troops had done, with great
celerity from point to point, the Commissioners had the
address to conciliate and win the disaffected in great
numbers.  In their report to the government, dated
April 27, they stated that seven hundred and ninety
persons had returned to their allegiance; and that on
the most careful inquiry into the various causes of the
insurrection, they had found the chief cause to be
" private debts," and " an undue use of articles of foreign growth and manufacture, the principal cause of
these debts."
Meanwhile, many who had been involved in the insurrection quietly withdrew from the contest with the
government, before the crisis came, and the leaders
fled from the State. It was in consequence of Judge
Phillips's service in this high commission, that in the
State election for this year, 1787, he was not one of
the senatorial candidates, and in the organization of
the Senate Mr. Adams was again chosen President;
but the next year Mr. Phillips was reinstated in the
chair, while General Lincoln was chosen Lieutenant



94                 MEMOIR OF
Governor; both, with  their associate, having won
golden opinions in the Commonwealth for their great
success in this trust.
Year after year now glided away with no marked
change in his position; he was still the indefatigable
judge, as well as the eminent senator, and many were
beginning to cast their suffrages for him for yet higher
offices. At the very next election, after his mission
to the western counties during the insurrection, he received several votes in his native town for Governor;
and from this time, his friends, in increasing numbers,
continued to vote for him either as Governor or Lieutenant-Governor annually, while invariably giving him
a full vote for senator also. Indeed, for several successive years, his name was upon their ticket, at the
same time, for all three of these offices; and in the
year 1796, he had more votes in the town for Governor
than any other candidate.
Yet, instead of desiring promotion, or even continuance, in the public service, except as a public duty, he
sometimes intimates, during these years, his settled distaste for many of the scenes through which he is called
to pass. "If our son John;" he writes, March 2, 1795,
" could be a witness to what has fallen within my notice in the four last weeks, public life, or rather General Court life, would be the last object of his wish;"
- his allusion here is, to the protracted delay of busi



JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                       95
ness in the Legislature, in consequence of the tampering of interested parties with the committees, and
" an uncommon degree of manceuvring by certain gentlemen."
While his fellow-citizens were thus, not without some
reluctance on his part, holding him to his fitting station in the Senate, until he seemed a fixture there, and
were intimating their wish to raise him  to other dignities, the Commonwealth had borne its full part in
the great work of consolidating the national government; the Constitution of the United States had taken
the place of the old Articles of Confederation; party
spirit had run high - and nowhere higher than in
Andover, hitherto so united — in the debates connected with the adoption of this great Republican form
of government.'
1 The vote in the Massachusetts Convention upon the question of
adopting the Federal Constitution stood, Yeas 187, Nays 168. In
the other States there was a similar conflict of judgment, and of
party feeling, so that as State after State finally adopted the great
instrument the rejoicing of its advocates was enthusiastic.
The decisive vote in Massachusetts was taken February 6, 1788,
and the Chronicle of the next day, in communicating the event to
the public, introduces it with this exulting caption:" Hail the DAY, and MARK it well,
Then old ANARCR'S kingdom fell,
Then our dawning GLORY shone,
Mark it, FREEMEN,'t is our own."




96                    MEMOIR OF
For this instrument itself, and for the great men
who had devised it, Judge Phillips entertained the
highest veneration; and when in 1797-8-9, our amicable relations with France were interrupted, and intrigues
of every description were disaffecting many towards the
government, he was not content to remain silent.  Ulnder his influence, a town meeting of the old type was
held; the earnestness and unanimity of Revolutionary
days again appeared, notwithstanding the federal and
anti-federal lines had been so distinctly drawn. In the
church where he now  statedly worshipped,' before a
very full assembly of the citizens, specially convened
for the occasion, on the 14th of May, he as chairman
of the committee, reported, and they unanimously
adopted the following address: 
[To the President of the United States.]
SIR, - We, the freeholders and other inhabitants of the
town of Andover, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
beg leave to join the multitude of our fellow-citizens, in preArrangements were promptly made by the citizens of Boston for a
splendid pageant, which, in a few days, was celebrated with every
sign of joy;- and when, a short time after, the news came that
New Hampshire had also adopted the Constitution, this being the
ninth State, the number required to consummate the national Act,
the whole town was thrown into a fever of excitement, and the
bells rang for hours, as they had done when the Stamp-Act was repealed.
1 The present Old South Church.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  97
senting you our warmest gratitude, for that wisdom, vigilance,
integrity, and patriotism which have marked your administration; and in particular, for your persevering solicitude to
preserve to these States the blessings of peace and neutrality,
upon such terms as would consist with the preservation of
our essential rights and interests.
"Although repeated attempts to accommodate subsisting
differences with the French Republic have not produced the
effect which might have been reasonably expected, they may
prove essential means of our political salvation, by unfolding
the designs and enormous demands of that government,
which we have been unwilling to conclude our enemy. This
disclosure must produce universal conviction, that no hope
of safety is left for us without our own united virtuous exertion.
"We therefore again thank you, sir, for your solemn and
repeated calls on the proper departments to make the most
speedy and effectual provision against the worst events; -
for your firm resolution that you will never surrender the independence or essential interests of the country; - and for
summoning the people to unite with you in supplicating the
direction and blessing of that Almighty Being, under whose
patronage, if not criminal ourselves, we have nothing to fear
from any power on earth. In the same resolution, we hold
it to be our duty, with that of every American, cordially to
concur.
"Every attempt to detach us from our government, which
is the work of our own hands, and from whence we have
already derived blessings far surpassing the highest expectations of its warmest admirers, we repel with indignation.
To abandon such a government, and the invaluable privi9




98                   MEMOIR  OF
leges, civil and religious, enjoyed under it, from any consideration whatever, would be acting a part unworthy the descendants of our renowned ancestors, bring indelible infamy on ourselves, be an act of treachery to our posterity,
and betray the basest ingratitude to, and distrust of, that
Supreme Being, who gave us these blessings.
"With an humble reliance therefore on this Being, whom
we do, and ever will, acknowledge as the Arbiter of nations;
and confiding in the wisdom, patriotism, and firmness of the
constituted authorities of our country, we are determined, at
every hazard, to support those measures which they shall prescribe for the defence of these blessings."
The cordial and very complimentary reply of the
President to this letter, — which breathes alike the
spirit of patriotism and of religion, — is interesting
not only as showing his gratification in being thus addressed, but his large indebtedness to the diction of
the address, for the very language of his answer.  We
copy it, as entered at large upon the town records.
[To the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Andover, in the
State of Massachusetts.]
"GENTLEMEN, — Your address, unanimously adopted at a
legal and very full meeting, has been presented to me by
your Representative in Congress, Mr. Bartlett, and received
with great pleasure. VWhen you acknowledge in my administration wisdom, vigilance, integrity, patriotism, and persevering solicitude to preserve to these States the blessings of
peace and neutrality, upon such terms as would consist with




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   99
the preservation of our essential rights and interests, you
command my sincere gratitude.
" The unfriendly designs and unreasonable demands of
that government, whom we have been unwilling to conclude
our enemy, have been long suspected by many, upon very
probable grounds; but never so clearly avowed and demonstrated as of late. May the discovery prove the essential
means of our political salvation.
" The conviction appears now to be nearly universal, that
no hope of safety is left for us, without our own virtuous
exertions.
" The indignation with which you repel every attempt to
detach you from that government, which is the work of your
own hands, and from whence you have derived blessings far
surpassing the highest expectations of its warmest admirers;
and, in short, all the sentiments of this excellent address, do
you great honor.
"JOHN ADAMS.
"PHILADELPHIA, May 25th, 1798."
At the very time of the date of this letter, the aspect of affairs had become so threatening, that Congress authorized the President to raise a provisional
army without delay, and a few weeks later, General
Washington was appointed Lieutenant-General and
Commander-in-Chief.  The old Revolutionary fire was
kindled in all hearts.  A letter from  Judge Phillips to
his son, at this time, shows that even he, the life-long
civilian, had determined to serve personally in the
army, and to encourage his only son to volunteer also,




100                 M-EMOIR  OF
if the exigency should require it; so deeply did he
feel the peril of his country.  "No tine," he writes
August 3d, 1798, "ought to be lost in providing yourself and me with arms and accoutrements complete;
the prospect of our needing them increases; it would
not be very surprising to me, if we should be called
on to use them much sooner than is generally expected."  It was not a mere profession of patriotism
in words, which he addressed to the Executive, but
the sober language of one who meant to act as well
as to speak.
The son, too, was animated by the same spirit. We
cannot forbear to quote a few paragraphs from an
oration delivered by him in Charlestown at this period: -
"Americans! The present is a momentous crisis! To the
present actors on the stage is assigned the arduous and honorable task to determine whether man is capable of a Republican Government, or must ever be the passive subject of
arbitrary power..... After sustaining aggressions and depredations unprecedented, with a forbearance and longsuffering
which have encouraged the enemy to add insult to rapine;
after reiterated attempts at explanation and accommodation,
with a condescension and patience that have wellnigh excited their contempt; every question about the justice of our
cause is solved, and the only alternative is submission or resistance.
" Are not a commerce, the source of our wealth and glory;




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  101
a liberty, purchased in fields of blood; a constitution, the
fortress of our safety, worthy to be defended? Shall we behold freedom, humanity, virtue, public faith, morality, and
religion trampled in the dust, and by our silence and inaction, become accessories to the crime? Rather let us sprinkle
the mountains, and crimson the waves with our most precious
blood!
"We have before our eves those statesmen and warriors,
who have acted a conspicuous part in conducting us through
the Revolution, whose heads are silvered in their country's
service, who anxiously mark what estimate their SONS place
on the inheritance purchased for them, and are ready to lead
them once more to victory or death. At the head of a host
of experienced heroes, stands the man acknowledged by the
oldest general in Europe to be the greatest general in the
world; the beloved, the revered, the illustrious WASHINGTON
still lives; and, at his country's call, has again unfurled the
banners of freedom; has already, as with electric fire, inspired
with redoubled ardor every American breast; and will confound with dismay the hearts of our enemies. Under such
a leader, no American will refuse to become a soldier, and
no soldier will dare to be a coward.'
The crisis, however, was a bloodless one. This universal determination to maintain our neutrality at all
hazards, convinced the French  authorities of their
mistake, if not of their injustice; and negotiation,
after repeated failures, finally terminated in a treaty
of peace.
9*




102                MEMOIR OF
In Judge Phillips's career as a civilian, only one other
point now remains to be noticed. It has already been
stated, that for many years his friends had, in considerable numbers, voted for him as Governor or Lieutenant-Governor in the canvass for State officers.
At the election in April, 1801, his name was, by
general consent, placed upon the ticket of the Federalists for Lieutenant-Governor, with  that of Caleb
Strong for Governor; and, although the contest between the two parties was spirited, these candidates
were elected by a large vote. In Andover, Judge
Phillips polled a larger vote by far than had been
thrown for any previous candidate, and much larger
than was cast for the able and popular Governor.
We have chanced to obtain a copy of a private
letter inclosing a confidential circular, prepared with a
view to secure his election, which incidentally discloses
his own feeling and that of his friends at the time. "It
is well understood," they say, 1" that Mr. Phillips will not
decline, though he is incapable of soliciting the office; "
and they now recount, in glowing terms, his many public services, together with the traits of character which
he had exhibited in them all, as presenting the strongest possible plea for his election. "Those who were
witnesses to his conduct," in the Revolution, they urge,
"can testify, whether any honest exertions in his
power were ever spared by night or by day, for attaining the object of that conflict;" then glancing at




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                103
his career in the Constitutional Convention and in the
General Court, they say of him as President of the
Senate, "the members of that Honorable Board can
testify with what punctuality, assiduity, fidelity, impartiality, and despatch, he has discharged the duties of
that office;" and in conclusion, they add, "that his uniform practice has been to make his private concerns
give place to his public duties."
Coming to this honorable station with these gratifying antecedents, and associated in the executive
department now with a Governor and Council of distinguished ability, he adorned the office which thenceforth became associated with his name.
But though so long engaged in the public service,
under such a variety of civic cares, which occupied his
time and tasked his energies, he was not wholly a public man; and we must now return, to follow him
through other less conspicuous, but not less useful
scenes, that may give us a nearer and more full insight into his character.




CHAPTER VIII.
HIS ENTERPRISES AND PURSUITS AS A MAN OF BUSINESS.
WHEN his admiring friends tell us "c that his uniform
practice has been to make his private concerns give
place to his public duties," they state the exact truth;
for no man was more ready than he to forego all personal advantage in order to benefit the community,
and none was ever apparently less ambitious than he
of public distinction. Yet, to infer from this, or from
any thing which has been said of his eager and manifold devotion to the general good, that his private
affairs suffered disastrously in consequence, or that he
had no careful oversight of them, and no marked interest in them, would be a great mistake. It is true
that very few men, with such constant public engagements, would have found time to prosecute important
private enterprises systematically; but in just this
respect he was an uncommon man. " In every pursuit," says Knapp,' "he was distinguished for prompt.
ness, punctuality, and practical good-sense; and his
short life, by order, exactness, and method, was filled
1 1Marshal Soult's Journal, p. 103.
(104)




MEAIMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.            105
with incredible attentions to business."  There was
not, in fact, a year of all his crowded civil labors,
much as they demanded of his time and strength in
preparing for them and performing theme in which he
had less private engagements on his hands than most
men of mere business.
It would be of little interest for us, of this generation, to trace out the details of his different enterprises, but enough may be seen at a glance to verify
this statement. In addition to his effective cooperation with his father, in various affairs, soon after leaving College, he became at an early period the purchaser of several estates on his own account, which
made him  an extensive farmer; and the tradition is,
that there was not in all the region a better farmer
than he. His lands were constantly improving under
his hand, and yet in a high degree, not only productive, but remunerative, although cultivated entirely
by hired labor.
He was hardly settled in life, too, it will be remembered, when in the public crisis, he with so much tact
and energy undertook the manufacture of powder in
large quantities, not relinquishing the business till it
had well repaid him, and the occasion for it had passed
away, and not in the least impeded by it in his agri'
cultural pursuits. In connection with his powder-mill,
a grist-mill also was for a considerable period run by




106               MEMOIR OF
him, and a saw-mill, and finally a paper-mill; over all
of which he exercised such supervision, as to know
their condition accurately, and obtain a revenue from
them. The paper-mill, especially, became, for a time,
a leading branch of his business.
At the same time he owned and superintended two
stores, one near his residence in Andover, and another
in Methuen; and those who served him in them felt
that, while he was not unreasonably distrustful or inquisitive, his practised eye was upon every part of the
business, and his scores of questions ever and anon
must be satisfactorily answered.
By various negotiations, too, at different periods, he
obtained possession of large tracts of wild land in
Maine and New Hampshire, amounting in all to about
three thousand acres, which frequently required his
care; while upon his various estates in Andover, he
superintended the erection or repair of numerous
buildings, including his own mansion-house, - the
materials for which were drawn chiefly from his
timber lands in New Hampshire.
In consequence of these numerous engagements in
business, which centred in Andover, while his duties
as judge and senator kept him very much from home,
he was in the habit of making frequent journeys, especially from  Boston to Andover, and usually in the
night, on horseback, from  which, neither his frail




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                107
health, nor the urgency of his friends, could dissuade
him. Sometimes in the darkness he missed his way,
and did not reach home till nearly morning. Often,
through weariness, he slept in his saddle, and was
awakened only by the sudden stopping or starting of
his horse.
Late in the winter of 1794, in one of these night
excursions, he fell from his horse and fractured his
leg; but fortunately, he had a riding companion, and
was near the residence of his friend, Mr. Brooks, in
Medford, where' he was immediately carried.
The instant his accident was known to Mr. Brooks's
family, their negro servant hastily dressed himself,
hurried off with a sleigh to the spot, lifted Judge Phillips into the conveyance, and when they reached the
house, took him in his arms and bore him carefully in,
showing, in every motion, the greatest alacrity and
tenderness. "What makes you so eager to help the
Judge?" he was asked. "Help him!" was the reply,
"I'd like to do any thing for him; he always touches
hUs hat to me when he goes by here."
This disaster, convinced him at last of his mistake
in so exposing himself. The fracture did not prove to
be a severe one. A few weeks of confinement, in
which Madam Phillips and his cousin, Miss Sally Phillips,' were alternately with him, ensued; and then, long
1 Married afterwards to Deacon Mark Newman.




108                MEMOIR OF
before he could lay aside his crutches, he was busy at
his work again in the Senate and at home. But another and more disastrous consequence of his ill-timed
journeys, was already becoming apparent. His friends
saw with deep pain, that his exposures were hastening
toward a crisis the general debility under which he
labored, and especially a chronic asthma, which had
now become exceedingly distressing to him. In fact,
many supposed that the foundation of this disease
was laid in these very imprudences. When it was
too late, therefore, he yielded to their entreaties, and
spared himself; but through his whole life, his aptitude
for business of every kind, and his interest in it, were
such as to insure the full success of any enterprise in
which he engaged, however remote apparently from
all his usual tastes and toils it might be.
Much of all that he did, in carrying on his various
private enterprises, was effected by correspondence
chiefly. His letters to his son and others on business,
of which we have examined large numbers, evince
great sagacity and forecast, with the minutest attention to details, and a habit of applying principles of
taste, or science, or political economy, or patriotism, or
Christian morality, to one and another branch of his
affairs, which any man might safely imitate.
The fruit of so much tact and effort was an ample
estate, accumulated by his own hands, besides the
liberal patrimony which he finally inherited from his




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                     109
father, and the ample fortune of Madam  Phillips in
her own right;1 and with such a family as his, who had
both witnessed and shared his successful efforts in so
many branches of business, his property added largely
to the attractions and enjoyments of his honored mansion, as the scene of his own domestic life, and of his
fitting hospitalities toward others, to which we will
now pass.
1 Exclusive of the portion of Madam Phillips, the estate of Judge
Phillips, as inventoried by the appraisers and administrator, amounted,
at his decease, to nearly $150,000; a large proportion of the property being valuable real estate, in Andover and elsewhere.
10




CHAPTER IX.
HIS DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE.
WVE have already alluded to the embarrassments
connected with his early marriage. It was a somewhat inauspicious commencement of his household
history; for though consent to his marriage was fully
given, several years elapsed before it was heartily approved by his parents. But the brilliant and yet solid
virtues of their new daughter, blended with the mild
but commanding demeanor of their son, "like apples
of gold in pictures of silver," gradually won them over
to the heartiest satisfaction. For nearly four years
the two families lived virtually as one, in contiguous
dwellings, and for a portion of the period under the
same roof, in daily contact and sympathy, and engaged, much of the time, in joint labors.
But the plans of the son soon led him to remove
from the old homestead, with the entire concurrence
of his father.  He was already, as we have seen,
serving his native place as town clerk and treasurer.
His fellow-citizens had elected him to the Provincial
Congress. He had snatched an interval in which he
(110)




MEMOIR  OF JUDGE PHILLIPs.            111
could be absent without blame, to hurry homeward
in mid-winter, and set on foot the powder-mill enterprise, which could be most advantageously located
in the south village of the town; another long
cherished scheme, too, the founding of an Academy,
was fast maturing now in his mind, and, after some
unavailing efforts to perfect this satisfactorily in his
native village, the prospect of greater success in the
South Parish invited him to change his residence.
Indeed, it was this latter cause which mainly influenced him, as we shall presently see.
The precise date of his removal to the South Parish,
it has not been found possible accurately to determine, but it is supposed to have been in the spring
of 1777, about six months subsequent to the birth of
his son John; such is the tradition in the family. In
April, 1778, there is positive evidence, that he was
already located here, in the occupancy of a house
which has since then been invested with more historic
interest than any other in the village; namely, the
old dwelling on the estate of George Abbott, then
recently purchased with the view of here founding
the Academy. To some interesting reminiscences connected with this house, there will be occasion to refer
more particularly hereafter. As connected merely with
the home life of Mr. Phillips, we need only say of it,
that the period of his residence here was eminently
the type of all his subsequent career, both public and
private.




112               MEMOIR OF
It was here that Madam Phillips began to be left,
in her self-relying dignity and energy, to act as sole
head of the family, in his frequent and long absences,
as she was obliged to do in all subsequent years.
Here, his own and her cheerful self-denials and sacrifices, to accomplish great objects on which their hearts
were set, first became a part of their daily experience.
The house could furnish no elegances, or even conveniences, such as both of them had always enjoyed;
yet they chose it, and gave it at once dignity and
attractiveness. Tradition still points us to the western
window in the attic, at which she loved to sit, in his
absence, and gaze upon the extended landscape before
her, and lift up her heart to the Heavenly One for
strength according to her day. Taste and piety were
here cultivated together.
It was most fortunate for him, that in her he had
found one so willing to bear the great family cares
and responsibilities thrown upon her in consequence of
his many absences and absorbing engagements. This
she appears to have cheerfully done, not only from
the strength of her regard for him, but from her deep
interest in the objects to which he was devoted. We
have already seen how ready she was "to make any
sacrifice," if she could thereby aid him in serving the
public; with the same high appreciation of his other
endeavors; she was daily not only encouraging him but
cooperating with him.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.              113
While he was digging with his men in the trenches
for his powder-mill, she was sitting up, sometimes till
midnight, to prepare lint and bandages for the wounded
soldiers in the army. When he could not personally
be at hand to inspect the work which he had planned
on the farm or elsewhere, she received his suggestions
by letter, and saw that they were carefully followed.
If any repairs of the house, or changes of furniture,
were to be made, what he could not be present to
superintend she procured to be done promptly; just as
before their removal to the South Parish, she had with
her own hand kept the records for him as town clerk;
and done not a little of his business for him as town
treasurer! We have carefully examined the town
records, covering the period for which he was clerk,
and find every page written by her; the marginal
notes, or indices, only, being entered by his pen,
although this was the period in which the town was
so often acting upon revolutionary questions, and the
records cover a very large space.
The manner of life, thus begun, in this their first
residence here, was continued in the same spirit, when
after a few years, this house was relinquished to the
principal of the newly founded Academy, and they
removed to another, still more retired and less commodious.
In this dwelling, now occupied after some material
improvements by Mr.' Moses Abbott, the admiring friend
10*




114                MEMOIR OF
of Judge Phillips, and long his confidential clerk, the
family remained until at last their new and spacious
mansion-house was erected.  The aged mother of
Madam Phillips, Mrs. Judge Foxcroft, was now a member of the family, and died here, and here the second
son, Samuel, was born. The earliest recollections of
the family by some now living, are of their residence
in this secluded home, of which Judge Phillips obtained
possession by purchasing the thirds of the widow of
David Chandler, the interest of the heirs not being
included. It was necessarily, and intentionally, doubt,
less, a temporary expedient, as we find from deeds of
various lots purchased by him, that in April, 1782, he
was already preparing to erect a mansion, suited to
his taste and position.
With a numerous group of relatives, drawn toward
them by no common attachments; with a wide and
rapidly increasing circle of intimate friends, and general acquaintances in his public stations, to all of whom
they wished to extend a generous hospitality, it had
been hardly possible for them, in any good degree, thus
far to realize their ideal of social life. They could
willingly, year after year, incommode themselves, and
move from place to place as if dwelling in tents; but
to be habitually unable to entertain, in due style, their
many valued friends, was a constant occasion of regret.
The building of the mansion-house was an era in the




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  115
village, not less than in their family history. Planned
on a scale beyond any thing then known in the town,
the massive timbers and much of the lumber coming
from his New Hampshire lands, it was framed to be
raised in sections in a manner entirely novel to the citizens, and requiring all the force that could be assembled; and the  raising  was a memorable  occasion.'"The whole town was present," says one who was
there. When all the preparations for raising the first
section had been made, the pastor, Rev. Mr. French,
offered a solemn prayer; and then the strong arms
grasped the ropes and pikes, and all was reared without accident. In due time the stately edifice was
completed; the grounds were laid out; the elms, in
front, were planted, Judge Phillips setting most of
them with his own hand; and every thing about the
premises was arranged, as the structure and furnishing
of the house itself had been, upon a most liberal scale.
It was not till the autumn of 1785 that the house was
entirely finished, although it was so far done, that the
family moved into it in the latter part of the year
1782.
From  this date, their natural style of life at home
commenced, -the style to which they had been born,
and for which they were specially fitted, not more by
culture than by their native tastes. The characteristic
spirit of each is now associated with them, as seen in




1]16              MEMOIR OF
this house rather than from any other point of view.
The scholars, who recall him, think of him as he used
to meet them at the -south door and impress some
timely hint upon their minds. The people of the town
describe him as they saw him in one or another room.
Madam Phillips and the children are, in like manner,
associated in their minds, and in the memory of guests,
with this or that apartment, and with their place at
the table, or their seat in the family group.
The period through which Judge Phillips had now
passed, since his marriage in 1773, had been in the
highest degree exciting. The incessant demands which
it had made upon him for the sacrifice of his home
society and enjoyments, together with his repeated
removals from house to house, had not only been a
severe self-denial to him, but a great perplexity to her.
In addition to the double responsibility thrown upon
her, by his engagements and absences, she could not
-be free from anxiety for him. He was continually overtasking himself. At times he was in the immediate
vicinity of the seat of war. In June, 1775, the Provincial Congress had directed the removal of the college
library and apparatus from Cambridge to Andover,
under his supervision.1 In a letter, without date,
written while he was engaged in this work, he says: —
"Half a moment only is indulged to a heart that is too'Quincy's Hist. H. U. Vol. II. p. 164-166.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  117
full to open itself in a short period..... Amid all the
terrors of battle I was so busily engaged in Harvard Library
that I never even heard of the engagement, (I mean the
siege,) till it was completed..... We have got near the
conclusion of that arduous, and I hope useful service. Matters of so great importance are constantly urging, that I
find myself impelled to control a very urgent desire of seeing my best self this night."
To this she replies, late in the evening of the next
day: —
" I am now pleasing myself with the prospect of spending
a little time immediately with my best friend. I wrote you
to-day,'t is true, but what I wrote I am uncertain, as I was
in the utmost agitation, - may you be preserved from every
unhappy circumstance, exclusive of absence from your sincere friiend."
The British were finally compelled to evacuate Boston, in March, 1776; and after this, there was little~
ground for any such anxieties respecting him.
In June, 1778, he narrowly escaped being blown up
with his powder-mill, when it exploded, and three persons were killed.  It was his intention to go down to
the mill from his house that morning, early, and give
some directions, prior to his leaving in the afternoon
for Boston; but a gentleman unexpectedly called on
business at his house, and detained him for an hour or
two, and in this interval the explosion took place.




118                   M EMIOIR OF
With deep gratitude, both he and his friends marked
this as a signal interposition of Providence to shield
him.l
It was a part of Madam Phillips's womanly nature
to be in a high degree sensitive to every thing which
affected his public character; she was gratified — who
would not have been -when he was _promoted or
eulogized; she shrank from  the very thought of his
being censured. A life-long solicitude thus pressed
upon her spirit, in connection with the elections, the
parties, the acrimonies of the times, linked as his cherished name was with them all at some point continually.
Yet with all these checks, their home was to both
the central attraction. To him it was the more gladdening, because of his many exiles from it. To her
it shone in a new lustre, whenever he could return to
it. The compensatory law of life, which brings blessing out of trial if the trial be borne aright, intensified
and  elevated  their enjoyments.   The very  reasons
which parted them so much were stimulating in their
power. It gave a richer tone to the character of each,
1 In October, the General Court by a Resolve, requested Mr.
Phillips to repair his mill without loss of time, and made him a
grant of ~400 in consideration of his losses, besides increasing for
a time the bounty upon all powder manufactured by him, and engaging to bear half the loss should a similar disaster be again incurred.




JUD GE PHILLIPS.                119
to be thus enduring and acting for others' interests,
at the cost of temporarily sacrificing their own.
Their correspondence became, for long periods, a
substitute for conversation, both wielding a ready and
accurate pen.  Notwithstanding her remarkable conversational powers, she preferred to write rather than
to speak. Her "beloved pen," as one of her admirers
has called it, could best express her feelings. Her
fondness for writing was a strong passion, whether it
were her own or others' thoughts, which would grace
the manuscript.  His letters and other papers were
prepared with much less facility. With her it was an
exercise of spontaneous taste and tact; with him, it
was careful labor. One of the peculiarities of all his
manuscripts, not excepting his most familiar and confidential letters, is the careful revision which he bestowed on them, as shown in erasures and changes
without number. Of the scores of letters written by
them to each other, to which we have had access, there
is scarcely one from either which will not illustrate
these characteristics of their style; and from the first
line to the last in them all on both sides, we have been
surprised and gratified beyond expression, not to find
a word that has detracted from our respect or our
admiration for them.
Their letters are not in the style of books to be
printed, it is true; if they were, they would not be
letters. But while, in a thousand ways, they let us




120                 MEMOIR  OFr
into the secret; of their daily spirit, familiarly and
freely, the individuality of each is preserved with remarkable distinctness; whether the subject of their
letters for the time be conjugal sentiment mainly, or
business, or the transient news of the hour, or the aspect of public affairs, or some religious theme.
Still, in such family communications, incidents and
facts of every description: always find a place, which
no one would be expected to make public; even
though their omission may be expedient, on no other
ground. We must be content with mere extracts.
Recalling them now as installed in their new mansion, emerging from a long period of anxious self-denial,
let us listen to them for a few moments, as they move
along their prosperous and honored career. The following extracts are taken from letters written by him
at Boston, and from her replies: —
"February 9, 1785. - I will write one line to my dear
friend, if it be only to. thank her for the kind favor indulged
me by Mrs. B —; I was rejoiced to find that you did not
hesitate to say that you was well, with an emphasis....
I am sorry you take so much pains to excuse the delay of
copying the constitution.1... I hope my mother is still
with you, and that she will protract her visit as long as she
can. Do give my duty to her, and tell her I think much of
her advice; I wish I may make nearer approaches daily to
1 The Constitution of Phillips Academy.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  121
her; wishes, and that I shall have the advantage of that most
powerful argument to induce a serious attention to my health;
namely, the example of those for whose society I should be
most desirous of a continuance here. This I hope will be!
noted by my best friend..... Do be religiously attentive to
your eyes, if you love me.
"With the tenderest attachment,
" S. P. JR."
"-February 18, 1785. -- Between twelve and one o'clock,
the Governor took his leave of the General Court in form;
the ceremony was in the Representatives' room; but after a
message had gone to acquaint his Excellency that the Legislature- were ready to receive him, a flutter ensued, which
well nigh brought us into a disagreeable situation indeed.
After the above-mentioned joint message, the House sent
one to the Senate, informing that the body of seats in the
south-west part of their chamber would be assigned to the
Senate; (now the seats they had usually taken were the front
seats, on the right and left of the chair). The Senate, after
two or three propositions being made and rejected in a hurry,
returned an answer to the House, that they did not agree to
the proposal of the House respecting seats, but would take
those which had been usually assigned them, or would accommodate themselves.
" Another message was soon returned, informing that the
House had previously reconsidered their proposition before
made, and voted to assign the usual seats; the two Houses
then met. The Governor soon appeared, preceded by the
sheriff, supported under one arm by the Messenger of the
Governor and Council, and succeeded by his: Council and a
11




122                 MEMOIR  OF
number of spectators, and was introduced by the President
and Speaker to the Chair; then all sat down; after remaining seated a few minutes and the Governor had refreshed
himself with some reviving drops, he arose, and, addressing
the President and Senate, the Speaker and House of Representatives, told them the design of that meeting; thanked
them and the people whom they' so worthily govern,' for
all their kindness; that however unfortunate he had been
in the execution of the various important offices to which
he had been elected, he was conscious that he had been uniformly actuated by the sincerest intentions to serve them;
that his health made it his indispensable duty to retire for
the present, but if he should ever be able to render therm
further service, he should be ready to afford it; then, after
addressing himself to the Lieutenant-Governor, whom the
Constitution assigned to the chair as his successor, and
wishing his administration might be easy to himself and
happy to the people, he addressed the executive and legislative branches, with the heads of each separately; and
wished them the smiles of Heaven here, and that they
might be introduced'to characters of honor' hereafter."
"June 28, 1785.... After this week, I hope to take
some burden from your shoulders; the court are determined
to meet at eight in the morning, and last night they sat till
after eight in the evening; you will, therefore, send a horse
on Friday to Swan's on the neck, for your affectionate husband,                               "S. PHILLIPS, JR."
"October 2S, 1785. - Not a word more about the new professorship, saving some conversation that took place at club,
at Cambridge, last Sabbath evening; our brother offered to




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 123
pledge himself that neither my father or I would ask him
to tarry, if he should choose to remove..... I hope my father
tarries with you night as well as day; travelling back and
forth morning and evening, must be considerable addition to
his toil, and he is wanted as much at those seasons as any.
I hope the little sons are well, and that they do n't haunt
their mamma as sometimes; give my love to them, with a kiss
for the younger, and tell him, if he intends to have one from
his papa when he comes home, he must let me hear a good
account of him."
" October 28, 1785. -.. I can't content myself without
catching a moment in the hurry of Senate to acknowledge
your kind favor by Thornton, though it is pretty plain from
the appearance of your letter, that you are too much pressed
with care and business for your health, comfort, and usefulness, all of which we are bound to consult by the duty we
owe to God, our country, our family, our neighbors, and ourselves;... hope to see you to-morrow, and to try the effect
of personal solicitations for a visit to Boston."
" November 18, 1785. — I am very happy that things go
on so smoothly with the new neighbors; may every agreeable circumstance continue, and every bright scene grow
brighter and brighter..... Love to our children, and duty
to parents. No farther light yet from any quarter respecting
the newly elected Professor; I rejoice exceedingly that your
mind is in so agreeable a state relating to that matter."
"March 2, 1786. — Mr. Bingham had better attend the
Academy only as health will permit, though it should be
but half the time, than to overdo and render himself unable
to attend at all.
" Your parting with Mr. Pearson will be, or has been, a




124                 MEMOIR  OF
grievous one, but perhaps the parting will not be a final one,
and that all your good days are not over..... When you
can without too much inconvenience, do let me hear from
you.             Adieu, your nmost affectionate
"S. P. JR."
" March 23, 1786. - I thank my dear friend for her favor
by our good neighbor; it must be something very extraordinary to prevent my being at home on Saturday. Your account of the smoke and cold1 with which our friends have
been visited, is very gloomy; such an evil must be remedied
by some means or other, —I should propose one, if I did
not expect to be at home before any alteration would probably be made. - Cousin John I have not seen this week, and
shall be happy to deliver your message; advice from you
will have great weight with him, though by no means so
great as it would if received immediately from your own
pen or lips; often have I wished that an epistolary intercourse was to take place between you and some of our most
promising young gentlemen, after they have left us. I firmly
believe such a measure would, in many cases, be a happy
security from vice, and would be the means of very useful
improvements; and this, not only from the letters themselves,
but those letters and that correspondence would be a powerful incentive to improvements in knowledge, solid and
ornamental; for I am very confident that a desire of appearing to advantage with the other sex will oftentimes influence
minds, that are unmoved by other considerations; but I must
run, after I have assured you of the ardent affection of your
unworthy husband.                         S. P. JR."
1 In the Academy.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  125
" June 2, 1786. - Mr. Wardwell is so -kind as to give me
an opportunity to convey a line to you, which will not be
unacceptable, if it only serves to evidence that my attention
is employed upon an object whose distance does not remove
the power of attraction..... Have you employed Dinah
yet, and will you do it? by your conduct in this instance, I
shall judge of your regard for my enjoyment, for as you
lately said, actions speak louder than words. Please to tender duty, love, regards, etc., as due, and believe me to be in
sincerity yours in the bonds of genuine affection.
"S. P. JR."
Such expressions of his watchful solicitude for her
happiness in the arrangements at their home, are constantly occurring in his letters, while she as uniformly
manifested a deep interest in the great public exigencies which occupied his thoughts. Often her replies,
in the correspondence, adverted to some such topic,
more than to incidents of family or personal interest;
so that while involved in his manifold public cares, he
was never oppressed with the feeling that she would
have him leave them for her sake.
Indeed, the predominant tone of her letters has
seemed to us, in this respect, not less remarkable than
his. He writes little of the times, or of measures to
meet them, or even of his own part in public affairs,but more of the kindnesses shown him by his friends,
and of the pains he has taken to find some rare article
to send her, and of some uneasiness which he feels, lest
II*




126                 MEMOIR  OF
she should suffer from inadequate servants or excess
of company. She touches upon all such matters lightly,
and pours out the fear, the hope, the prayer of her
generous heart for the suffering, distracted country,
and for his welfare in its service.
Among her letters, we find one without date, which
appears to have been written in the autumn of 1786,
from which we copy a few paragraphs: —
" I find Mr. Holbrook is going to Boston in the morning,
and as you mentioned my writing, (which looks as if it gave
you pleasure to hear from me in this way,) I throw aside my
tatterdemalions a few minutes to enjoy myself; believe me't is the greatest pleasure I can have when absent from you;
but here a gloom strikes my mind! I almost wonder that
you can advert to me, at such a time of public trouble. I
think it a pleasing proof of your affection, such a proof as I
feel myself most sensibly affected by..... Trouble still at the
westward! What will become of us? from present appearances, I fear little ought we dare to hope for better times..... Surely, we have no right to expect the interposition of
Heaven in our behalf, till we can act from better motives.
You seem to have some faith that we shall see better times.
Heaven grant that we may; that virtue may be the pursuit
of every mind; that every one may study and be convinced
that the chief end and happiness of man is to glorify God
and enjoy him forever..... Accept my best wishes, and
ask Mrs. Phillips's acceptance of affectionate inquiries after
her health; love to the family, - pray don't ride late in the
evening, if you love your best friend. Mr. Pemberton's respects to Judge Phillips.                   PHCEBE."




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  127
Subsequently she writes to encourage, and yet restrain him':
" Do not suffer your mind to be unduly engrossed by any
thing; soon it will be said of us, that we are gone! Let
this consideration weigh with us, to incline us to enjoy what
we can in the line of duty, without distressing ourselves as
to the accomplishment of future scenes. By endeavoring to
accomplish too much, experience teaches us, we often fall far
short of a mark we might reach, if our wishes were not extravagant. I most ardently wish, my dear friend, that you
may be so happy as to obtain such direction, assistance, and
support, as shall finally set you above the reach of all trouble.
Do not suffer yourself to be anxious about coming home;
should you, you may lay a foundation for illness, which may
prove fatal, for a time, to your active powers. I know there
is much business to attend to here, but it will answer no
purpose to hurry and distress yourself to get home; do enjoy what you can, and take as good care of yourself as possible. All happiness attend you.
"Yours,        P.' P."
A few months after this, in reply to a similar letter,
he writes -
"May 31, 1792. —I thank you kindly for your acceptable
favor by Mr. Pemberton. I am bound to gratify you if I
can in return.
" As to the transactions of yesterday, the paper will show
you the elections. What you said and looked, determined
me before I came from home to accept the office I had held,
if offered again, unless something unexpected should turn up




128                 MEMOIR OF
to prevent; but had it not been for this determination, the
unanimity and cordiality of my brethren would have had
great weight. The sermon was excellent as well as the
prayer. The Governor gave me an invitation to dine, which
I accepted, and was treated very politely.
" As the weather is so exhausting and the family larger
than it was, let me entreat you to procure some other female
help, - Moses' sister, Happy, or anybody, rather than none.
Will you be so good as to desire with freedom the attendance of Betsy Whitwell?  If you will gratify me in these
matters, you will lay me under additional obligations to
gratify you in your requests respecting my health.
"Your affectionate friend,    S. P."
ToVTward the close of the succeeding General Court,
under date of "February 13, 1794," he says:"I was much obliged by your favor by Mr. Abbott, and
for the opportunity you gave me of presenting your acknowledgments to my aunt. I presume my uncle has been made
acquainted with and gratified by the contents, as he has
been more than commonly cheerful and pleasant since their
receipt; although he preserves so uniform an appearance
of good-humor that I have not seen the resemblance of a
frown since I first came down. I was also pleased with:our little son's remembrance of my aunt, and with the handsome manner in which he expressed his acknovwledgments.
He must have had the aid of some good friend, and such
he will never want while he retains the disposition which he
now discovers. Knowing hovw much you enjoy in Miss Sally,
you will hardly thank me for dispossessing you of her on
-Saturday eve..... As she sometimes inquires for news,




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  1129
when people go from below, I hardly know what to sayunless that the Prince went to Cambridge to-day with Mr.
Russell to visit the College, —that he did not go to the
theatre on Monday night, though the public papers announced to us that he would be there - that the House
have voted to impeach William Hunt, Esq., in which case
a solemn trial will be had before the Senate- that Mr.
Kirkland has united a pair in the bonds of matrimony,
though he remains single and disengaged -and that, now'Governor Hancock is dead,' and Lieut. Gov. Adams has
made a speech, the two Houses cannot agree on an answer to
it. A detail of General Court proceedings would not, it is
presumed, afford much gratification.
"Please to present the book, herewith sent, to Miss Sally.
"Yours, in sincerity,
i S. PIIILLIPS."
A few weeks later the Judge writes from  his con,
finement in Medford, of which we have spoken in
the preceding chapter:
"April 16, 1794. - MVIr. Abbott has been waiting while I
have been writing on necessary business, and left me only
time to tell you that I am as well in health as usual, (I
was going to say, for Miss Sally and Moses have got into
so high a gale, that I hardly know what I write,) —it is
more doubtful what particular day I shall go up than it was
yesterday; not that my leg is worse, but we receive many
cautions about going too early. We are greatly pleased
with the idea of seeing you to-morrow, and hope you will




130                 MEMOIR  OF
have a comfortable ride.... Pray make my love to the
children, and suitables to all inquiring friends.
"Yours sincerely and affectionately,   S. P."
Although disabled by this casualty and but partially recovered, he does not fail, notwithstanding the
anxiety of friends, to appear upon the bench at the
spring session of the County Court. In a letter dated
Ipswich, May 19, 1794, he says: —
" On the presumption that my best friend will be willing
to hear from me, one line is offered to inform her that my
kind uncle conveyed and drove for me in his phaeton to
Major Perley's,- then I took the chair, and arrived about
six o'clock. The limb which has given you so much trouble
was not worried so as to occasion me any uneasiness that
is worth mentioning; — had not worry of mind prevented,
my ride would have been pleasant; — the expression of your
countenance at our parting gave me concern. I hope you
have not suffered so much since as I have, and that you will
always enjoy as much superior happiness as you are more
deserving.    Very affectionately yours,
"SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
From his duties as judge, though still by no means
strong again, he hurries to his post in the Senate,
from which he sends the following:"June 18, 1794. - I am much indebted to my dear friend
for her favor by Esquire Abbott, and am sorry you had
such a puzzle in hunting for papers, especially as you met




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   131
with so poor success; however, I do n't wish you to give
yourself further trouble on this head. As to the limb, it is
gaining; — the crutches are still found very convenient, if not
necessary. I believe I could walk with a cane, but a fear
of meeting with the disaster which befell neighbor Town
deters me. You will conjecture that I have doubts about
seeing Andover this week: —it is true, I have; for the
court will probably rise next week, and business crowds at
this time, as usual, when the session is approaching a close.
" Yours, with sincere affection,
"S. PIILLIPS."
"June 26, 1794. —  Mr. Abbott having hinted that there
is some probability he shall leave town to-day, I must steal
a moment in the hurry that attends the close of the session,
to thank you for your last favor, which I do very sincerely;
and to tell you that I hope on Saturday once more to
revisit my best friend; for, unless something unforeseen prevents, the court will terminate their session to-morrow, if
not this day. I still feel much concerned on the subject of
help, but hope Mrs. Mack's arrival will afford you some
relief. I am not a little rejoiced with the comfort you
have in Mr. Newman.
" Yours, with sincere affection,
"S. PHILLIPS."
From  this time the letters of Judge Phillips make
frequent mention of his shattered health.  The more
sensible he became of his own infirmities, the greater
was his solicitude to relieve her in every possible
way; and her letters were prized more highly than




132                  MEM OIR OF
ever, as he could not so often visit her. Thus he
writes from  Boston:"February 7, 1795. — The good things you sent me demand my gratitude..... Your advice to defer going to Andover, comports with that of all my friends here, though it
seems very strange indeed to tarry within twenty-three
miles of my best friend, a whole session, without seeing
her; but you can hardly realize the difference of my feelings in regard to journeying, especially in the winter and
on frozen ground, even between last winter and this. When
the court will be up is quite uncertain; I fancy at least
that the effect of the theatre may be discerned, in an
increased disinclination to labor and close application to
business.... Pray thank Mr. Newman, presenting my regards, -will endeavor to write him as soon as I can.
"Yours, with sincere affection,
" S. PHILLIPS."
"February 10, 1795. - Very unexpectedly this morning,
when I stepped into Mrs. Phillips's, was told that Mr. N.
was in the other room; finding that he brought a letter from
your hand and had delivered it to Mr. Cooper, I went immediately in pursuit of it, and received a pleasure in the
perusal of it, which amply rewarded me for leaving the
company of good friends very abruptly....  Sammy will
be obliged to lose his class if he attends French now: —
English, Latin, and Greek, etc., seem enough for a child
of his years to attend to at once:  but of this Mr. N. will
say more to you.
" Mrs. M. Phillips says it will be very agreeable to go up




IJ D GE PHILLIPS.                 133
with me at Thanksgiving, if court, health, weather, and
travelling should favor.
"Your affectionate husband,   S. P."
"February 7,. 1797. - One line written during the debate
of Senate, will be acceptable to my dear friend, if it only
informs her that we arrived safe.... Just before the Senate rose, Mr. Harding sent in your favor of this day, which
was very grateful to me....  To-day Mr. March gave me
a letter for Miss Greenleaf; — as to her going to Haverhill
in the stage, it must not be; whenever she chooses to go
over, Mr. Moses or Cassius will wait on her. Some small
token of remembrance I wish you could give her: would
Doddridge's Rise and Progress be acceptable?  I hope you
will be able to write a line by her to her mamma, expressive
of the pleasure and comfort she has given us.
"By the next opportunity you will write to Mrs. Phillips,
if you can; she feels so deeply interested in your happiness, I wish she may receive all the attention from you
which you can find it convenient to give. Wishing you
every support and comfort, which can result from the daily
cultivation of all the Christian virtues, I am, with sincere
affection, your unworthy                 S. PHILLIPS."
" February 13, 1797. - The sight of your letter this afternoon gave me much pleasure, and the perusal still more.
I am glad to hear that Miss Greenleaf had so agreeable
a conveyance to Haverhill - hope you gave the honest girl
a letter for her mamma, expressive of our sense of her
benevolence, and our gratification by her visit. The idea
would be highly pleasing to her parents, and conveyed in
your manner would be a feast to them. If you could not
12




134                  MEMOIR OF
write when she left you, won't you let a letter overtake
her at Haverhill? I had rather pay ten postages, than that
our good friends should miss of the pleasure. As to Miss
French I am quite willing she should be noticed, and wish
you to inclose ten, fifteen, or twenty dollars to her father,
with our regards; subjoining those wishes which your pen
will dictate better than I can prescribe."
" February 17, 1797. - I thank you for your kind favor of
the 13th, and am much gratified by the information that you
have honest Timothy again with you.  His fidelity is
remarkable; indeed I don't recollect that I ever hired any
person, on the farm or in the house, in whose fidelity I
placed more confidence.
" I had some conversation to-day with our son respecting
his situation.  It must be considered unfavorable to the
object intended; our intention was that he should be under
the instruction of a gentleman most eminent in his profession. Mr. Dexter was thought to be such an one; but
instead of having the advantage of Mr. Dexter's instruction,
he is at Philadelphia..... On considering all circumstances
he seemed convinced it was best to remove, and if so, the
sooner the better. Your opinion, however, on this point is
essential, for if it meets with your disapprobation I can't be
willing to take measures to effect the change. If the proposition should appear to you as it does to us, the next question
is, what place is most advantageous? - and here Mr. Reeve
comes into view again. Mr. Bacon still speaks of him, and
that frequently, as a man under whom more advantage is
to be obtained than any other that he knows of. This is
undeniable: that a man who makes the business of instruction his object, and gives his attention wholly to that, is




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   135
much to be preferred to one of the same abilities and acquirements whose attention is employed other ways, or
divided among a variety of pursuits..... In this case, as in
all others, we have need to ask direction from the Fountain of wisdom, and may He graciously impart it unto us.
"Thus prays your affectionate,
" S. PHILLIPS."
" March 26, 1798. — I arrived at Page's about a quarter
before seven. The travelling was much better than I had
any idea of. Our son came in about three quarters of an
hour after I arrived, and we have spent as agreeable an
evening as the melancholy tidings he brought me would
admit of.
" Upon inquiry after our friends, he soon informed me
that Mrs. Quincy was no more!1 Last night, she departed
this transitory scene.  She had been considered by her
physician, some days past, to be in a critical situation; on
Saturday was pronounced by Dr. Danforth to be much better,
and her friends were greatly encouraged; but soon, alas!
was the prospect changed, and in a few hours was her account closed. What an affecting lesson of the uncertainty
of this world and all that it contains! - of the delusive
nature of the brightest prospects! Just arrived or arriving
at the highest point of enjoyment, which she could ever
expect or rationally desire, in the present life, and the irrevocable sentence is pronounced,'time' (with you)' shall be
no longer!'  How solemnly is the sacred admonition enforced by such events,' to rejoice as though we rejoiced not!'
How much brighter has been her prospect for continuance
in life than mine has been these several years! And she is' Mother of Hon. Josiah Quincy.




136                  MErMOIR  OF
suddenly separated from the dearest connections, and from
one in whom she lately promised herself a large increase
of enjoyment, and with as much reason, too, as the uncertainty of sublunary joys would admit of; — while I am still
spared, a wonder to myself, and a monument of the Divine
forbearance and benignity! What an obligation to greater
purity and fruitfulness than in time past I have exhibited!
What a warning this to cease from depending on any thing
on this side of the grave!
" My uncle must be deeply affected with this shock. The
rest of the family will feel it very deeply; but his age and
infirmities will render him more susceptible of the anguish.
I think this is an hour to express sensibility for and sympathy with him. Is it too much to ask you to come down and
join in paying our last respect to the memory of our friend,
and expressing our condolence with the afflicted family?
I can't forget her attention, on similar occasions, when we
were bereaved of father and mother.
"'Perhaps there is no occasion on which the attention of
friends is more sensibly felt; and few, very few indeed, are
the friends to whom we are under so great obligations as to
my uncle and aunt. I have, also, at this moment, fresh in
my mind the uncommon sensibility my uncle expressed for
the notice, when I attended the funeral of his consort. But,
although I should be uncommonly gratified by your presence, if it can be granted consistently with your welfare, 1
shall be as much grieved, if you indulge me at the expense
of that...            Yours, sincerely,
"S. PHILLIPS."
To all such communications, year after year, Madam




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 137
Phillips, as we gather from his frequent acknowledgments, and from specimens of her letters which have
been preserved, sent replies worthy of herself and
of him; and with these delightful interchanges of
thought, sentiment, plans, and incidents, they relieved
the tedium of their separations; revealing more and
more to each other in all the process, the rare virtues
which composed their character.
We have chosen to give these copious extracts,
continuously, for the purpose of showing, in their
own words, the tone of their domestic life, as it
affected each in their circumstances.  That two persons could well have shown more mutual respect or
confidence, or have felt a more fresh and gladdening
attachment to each other, will not, we are sure, be
imagined by any one. And when we think of him
as consuming his life so fast, amid his many cares, it
is a relief to turn and see how by word and deed
she unfailingly cheered him.
It will be noticed that in all this correspondence,
so free and frequent, there is a certain air of dignity,
(of stateliness, we might be tempted to say, especially
on his part,) which seems to check that familiarity
for which we naturally look. He addresses her uniformly as his best " friend," or his invaluable "partner," not as his "wife."  He subscribes himself, ordinarily, her sincere, affectionate, devoted friend, but
seldom her husband. His suggestions and requests
12*




138                 MEMOIR OF
are, usually, in  diffident and  guarded  terms; and
often there is a tone of modesty, bordering upon
despondency, pervading his letters, which contrasts
strongly with her exuberant vivacity and hopefulness; a result doubtless of his jaded and diseased
state, rather than of any trait in his character.
These guarded courtesies and deferences between
them, however, serve to show us the type of their
family in a strong light. It was eminently a family
of refined manners, —refined even to punctiliousness
in forms, as well as in its inner spirit. The children
were trained to address them  as their "honoredpapa,"
and "honored mamma."  Scholars, who were inmates
of the family, could never enter or leave the room,
in their presence, without a respectful recognition;
a rule which she enforced as habitually in his absence
as when he was at home.
Yet they were the farthest possible from that affectation of gentility which shuns labor and vaunts itself
in a ceremonious display. A simplicity that was almost
severe, a steadfast frucgality, and a diligence that scarcely spared time enough for necessary rest or relaxation,.marked their life; and yet a most generous hospitality,
and an open-handew  charity to the poor, which shows
that their frugality was not parsimony.
Indeed, no house in all the region was more frequently resorted to than theirs by the needy, and
none were more anxious than they, not only to supply




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                139
the wants thus made known to them, but to search out
and befriend the poor who were too modest or sensitive to ask for aid. Habits of quiet beneficence which
reached to many a family around them, at various
seasons in the year, are still remembered with blessings on their name. One of the most common features in their correspondence is the suggestion, on the
part of one or the other, of some such kindness to be
shown to those in whom they had become interested;
a book or a garment to be given, a sum of money to
be sent, a quantity of wood, or flour, or vegetables to
be left; and the mnanner of doing the favor is studied as
carefully as the deed itself. In these numberless little
ways, their just ideas with regard to the use of property were constantly illustrated, as we shall hereafter
see they were in other modes on a more extended
scale.
We cannot persuade ourselves to pass now to the
notice of his domestic and social life in other aspects,
without pausing to add a few words here to what has
already been said of the character of Madam Phillips. In every relation, she more than justified his
early and sagacious judgment of her rare worth. The
virtues which had won his devoted regard, in spite of
the disparity in their years, failed not, as we have
seen, to win also his reluctant parents to her heart.
Her children loved and revered her with a boundless




140               M EMO IR OF
homage. The admiring terms in which all who were
ever members of her family, whether before or after
her husband's decease, speak of her as a queen among
the sex, testify to her commanding influence. The
heartiness and intelligent appreciation with which she
fostered the interests of learning, especially in connection with the plans of Judge Phillips for the Academy, or in continuation of them by founding the Theological Seminary, have served to give a wide spread
distinction to her name which is most richly deserved.
The religious zeal which, as years glided away and
trials multiplied, she increasingly evinced, became in
the end her prominent characteristic, and endeared
her to the good of every name. Much of her time,
for the last ten years of her life, was spent in private
devotional exercises, with a zest peculiar to herself.
One little work, entitled "A  Choice Drop of Honey
from the Rock Christ," she carried daily in her pocket
through this whole period, and when a moment of
leisure occurred, she quickened her meditations by
some line from it.  The Contemplations and Letters
of Dorney were so prized by her, that a large part of
the entire volume was copied by her hand and sent to
one and another of her friends. Whenever she met a
striking sentence or paragraph from any religious
work, she was in the habit of thus copying it, either
to be retained for her own use, or to be sent to others.
With these habits of religious reading and reflection,




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  141
she cultivated, in a remarkable degree, also, the spirit
of prayer; until communion with God, and cordial
submission in all things, however dark, to his will,
seemed to be as habitual as her breath.
Yet every sensibility of her ardent nature remained
keenly alive to the last.  It was not callousness nor
stoicism, but piety, which reconciled her to the sharp
and varied discipline of life. In tears she would often
say, with a radiant smile, cc Ah, thi.s trial is one of the all
things which skhall work toyether for good!"
At her death, when the lips of her admiring friends
were unsealed, and the heart spoke freely, the language
of eulogy was exhausted in commemoration of so rare
a combination of virtues; the strain of every encomium reminding us of Robert Hall's remark to William
Jay respecting a friend: "Sir, she has the manners of
a court, and the piety of a convent."
"Formed," said Professor Pearson,1 "by the dignity of her
person, and the virtues of her mind, to move in the higher
walks of life, and destined by Providence for extensive usefulness, she commanded the esteem and affections of the
man, whom, while memory lasts, we who knew him shall
delight to honor....  Gratitude to Heaven, and justice to
her, oblige us to say, that a very rare assemblage of virtuous
qualities, improved by reading, matured by reflection, sanc1 Funeral Discourse, p. 11.




142                 MEMOIR OF
tified by grace, tried and brightened by afflictions, constituted
her character..... Nearly fifty years a professed disciple of
Christ, she was a constant, punctual, and devout attendanit;
on the public institutions and ordinances of the Gospel. On
the Sabbath, also, to all within it, her house was converted
into a sanctuary..... To her honor, it will be long said by
strangers as well as by friends, that her house continued to
be the same mansion of hospitality which it ever had been
during the life of her noble consort.  Of them  both it
may be said, that their hearts were not more united by
mutual esteem and affection, than by acts of charity and
munificence."
0)tie of the many public notices of her in the papers,
embodying recollections of her some years subsequent
to her death, gives the following portraiture: 
" To her intimate acquaintance with the Faculty of Harvard University from childhood, may, in some measure, be
attributed her elegant style of conversation, which surpassed
that of any one male or female in this country. She saw the
subject under consideration in all its bearings, and clothed it
in the most felicitous language. There was no redundancy,
no stint, no singularity except that of superior refinement;
nothing to excite surprise in her conversation, but the most
learned listened with profound admiration at her taste and
skill in language. She was fond of her pen, and took delight in keeping up an extensive correspondence with literary
and religious persons. She wrote with great ease and rapidity, in a chirography at once plain as a printed page, and
whose beauty was only exceeded by the thought it contained.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                   143
"She was married to Samuel Phillips of Andover, a young
man at that period most zealously engaged in the cause of
his country, anxious for its political prosperity, and for its
advancement in learning, and he found a most admirable
coadjutor in his wife. During the dark period of the Revolution, she sat up until midnight with the females of her
household, to make garments for poor, destitute soldiers, and
in scraping lint and cutting bandages for the hospitals. The
sick in her neighborhood of all classes were inquired after,
and every thing that could administer to their comfort was
sent from her hospitable mansion. The Academy, founded
by her husband's father and uncle, was in the immediate
vicinity of her residence, and every pupil's health was the
subject of her attention; and to those who had come from
a distance, and had no natural guardian near, she acted the
part of a parent at all times.
" Devoted to religion with more than a' cloistered maiden's zeal,' she had not a particle of bigotry in her disposition,
and one might have lived with her for years without knowing
her sentiments upon any particular point in divinity....
Her person was striking; tall above most women, her mien
was majestic without awkwardness from  her height, her
features were prominent, but softened by a mild expression,
and her large blue eye was full of sweetness of temper,
while it beamed with genius."
As we read such enthusiastic eulogies, we are ready
with Milton to exclaim:
"0! when meet now
Such pairs, in love and mutual honor joined?
With goddess-like demeanor forth she went,




144                 MEMOIR OF
Not unattended; for on her, as Queen,
A pomp of winning Graces waited still,
And from about her shot darts of desire
Into all eyes, to wish her still in sight." 1
Favored by Providence with such a wife, as the chief
light of his home, Judge Phillips needs to be seen with
her now in his relations to their children.
The early training of the elder son, in the troubled
era of the Revolution, was the earnest care of both the
parents, their skill making the best possible amends for
the disadvantages of the times, and of their own unsettled state as a family moving from house to house.
This child was physically and mentally in the especial likeness of his honored mother, and every year,
with every form of culture under her hand, only added
to the striking resemblance in manners, person, telnperament, and aims.  Both in childhood and later
years, that ardor of spirit which characterized her,
carried him along in his course with eager enthusiasm,
which it was their study to check, as the chief source
of danger to the character and prospects of a young
man. Every thing was done by him heartily, generously.
After a careful preparation in the Academy for the
University, he entered Harvard College in the autumn
of 1791, pursued his studies with great assiduity
1 Paradise Lost, Book VIII. 57-63.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   145
through the course, and graduated in 1795 with dis.
tinguished honor; the salutatory oration in Latin
being assigned to him, as it had been to his father
before him.  Many of the family letters while he was
in College and afterwards, are worthy of being here
cited, (omitting only such portions as relate to unimportant or strictly private matters,) although we shall
reserve a part of the correspondence  between  the
father and son for another chapter in our narrative.
We quote, nearly entire, first a letter of Judge Phillips,
dated,
" ANDOVER, Sabbath Evening, August 19, 1792.
" MY DEAR SON, - I have received yours of the 16th, and
hope you got down safe and found all well, as you did not
inform us to the contrary. The vacation has expired before
I had performed that duty to you which I intended, and
probably before you had executed what you had purposed, -
a specimen this of what will be the case with most if not
all future periods of your life.
"Your term at College will expire before you are aware of
it, and you will probably then find that you have not acquired all you designed, - life itself will soon be closed,
while many of its schemes and plans will remain unaccomplished, but dreadful beyond expression will it be for
us, if we shall have neglected the great business of life —
that of making our peace with God. At every stage of
our existence here, this is too little thought of; at your
time of life and in such a situation as you are, there is
great danger that it will be criminally neglected, though in
13




146                 MEMOIR  OF
all probability a more favorable opportunity will never afterward offer for attending to it. It will be of great use to
inquire of ourselves at the close of every day, how our improvement of that day will appear at the great closing
scene.
" After giving a due attention, in the first place, to this
greatest of all duties, you will, I trust, give all the diligence
that is consistent with health to the acquirement of useful
knowledge.  Your collegiate exercises will grow  more
numerous, or trying, or both, as you advance, and the ease
with. which you will go through those which are before you
will depend much on the manner in which you perform
present duty; - any deficiency in the foundation will affect
every part of the superstructure;- besides, one neglect or
omission will lessen your reluctance to another, and a third
will not be so painful as the second, till presently a habit
may be formed which will not only bring you out a lean
scholar, but prove an effectual bar to your usefulness and
happiness in life.  Obsta principiis, be your motto, whenever feeling a propensity to neglect a duty or perform an
action, or even when entering on a train of thinking, which,
if formed into a habit, would injure your peace or reputation
as a Christian, a scholar, or a gentleman.
"I mentioned your health as necessary to be consulted; —
this may be preserved with very close application, if due
regard be paid to exercise and temperance. The example
of your friend Peele, gives full proof of this truth; as to
exercise, I used to practise it by walking in my chamber,
especially when I had any thing to commit to memory.
Sitting or standing in an erect posture, when at your desk
or table, is of great importance; — probably more scholars




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   147
have injured their health by bending over a table or desk than
in any other way. Walking, too, will be a favorable situation, while recollecting what you have read or learned, and
the business of recollecting or reviewing will be of great
use to you, especially at the hour of scrutiny at those
serious examinations. I was much pleased with the account given of your performance at the last trial; — I hope
it will be your ambition, at least to maintain your ground,
and to advance forward as far as you can;-to acquit
yourself with honor before so respectable a committee of the
Board of Overseers and Corporation, and to be thus reported by them to the whole board, is not a small object;
but to be recorded in the library, there to stand for the
inspection of the numerous gentlemen and ladies who visit
that place, and are disposed to inform themselves on that
subject, must be a powerful stimulus to exertion.
"Mr. Pearson's exercises will be of great use to you;for in every sentence that you speak and write the knowledge
of grammar is concerned, and to be able to write and speak
with propriety, correctness, and elegance, is of great and
daily use, and a rich accomplishment. Connected with this
branch is that of mathematics, as it will assist you in thinking clearly and methodically, both which are essentially
necessary to good composition; for you must have pertinent,
clear, and connected ideas, before you will have any use for
clothing for them.... Adieu, my son; be wise and be happy.
"So prays your affectionate parent,
"SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
A letter from  Madam Phillips, dated "February 18,
1793," contains the following:



148                 MEMOIR  OF
" Your letter, my dear son, afforded me much pleasure.
You say you are alone; I am pleased to find you can enjoy
yourself without a chum; but, can you forbid the dissipated
to enter your apartment with so good a grace as if you had
a companion? - excuse the hint, my dear; be assured every
caution I give you I mean should promote your happiness;
while in the world we are all liable to be led astray, and
need be constantly upon the watch lest our feet slip. I
would have given much for so kind friends as you have to
point out the dangers of the road I travelled;- at your time
of life I had a thousand difficulties to encounter which you
know nothing of. I hope, my dear son, heaven will assist
you to keep your heart with all diligence, since out of it
are the issues of life, - yea, everlasting life.
"I am much pleased with your present taste for reading;...
believe me, every good maxim you store your mind with in
youth will yield you satisfaction hereafter.  May you be
directed to the happiest mode of acquiring that learning
which shall make you useful here, and be enabled to adopt
and practise those virtues which shall secure you an interest
in that blissful region where nothing is admitted which can
cause a sigh."
In June, of the same year, she writes:" I am happy, my dear son, that it is in my power to spend
a few moments with you this evening, and pleased at having
so good an opportunity to forward some necessaries to you.
"I hope, my dear son, if it be in the Divipe plan for you
to continue on earth, till and after you arrive at manhood,
you will be steadily employing the interim for enriching your
mind with the most valuable stores which will be of use to




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  149
you, and indeed conzstitute the happiness of your life. 0!
never forget what your dear papa has a thousand times
repeated, that'youth is the seed-time of life!'... I cannot
express to you the pleasure it gives me to find you are desirous of walking in the right path.  May the good Spirit lead
your mind ever to make the wisest choice, strengthen you
in the performance of your virtuous determinations, and continually effect the most pleasing emotions; surely I can have
no higher delight than your happiness would bring.'To
be good is to be happy; angels are happier than mankind
because they are better.'"
At the College Exhibition, in September of this year,
an English colloquy was assigned to young Phillips
with two others of his class; and Judge Phillips, in a
letter soon after, dated September 9, 1793, writes:"Yours of the 2d instant I received on the 7th, and was
much pleased with the contents generally. I am  much
gratified, my dear child, by finding the honor which is done
you in the late assignment for exhibition; — I hope you
will spare no reasonable pains to acquit yourself with honor
to your instructors, your parents, and yourself. Do n't delay
your preparations. To be ready in season will afford your
mind great ease, and will give you opportunity to correct
errors and make improvements.
"You will have excellent friends in Messrs. Tappan, Pearson, and Kirkland, to advise and assist you, though it is
doubtful whether they will do more than correct; and nothing will tend so much to free you from embarrassment in the
delivery, as a confidence that you are master of your subject.
13 *




5) 0                MEMOIR  OF
Do n't forget to guard against precipitancy; due moderation
is very graceful.  As to entertaining your class I shall not
hesitate at the expense, if it can be conducted in such a manner as won't give offence to the government.  You will be
careful not to exceed what has been customary, only handsomely to conform to general practice.  Those who come
after may be fond of imitating your example.
" The subject of your forensic is excellent, and you have the
best side of the question; I hope you will do it justice. You
will naturally remark on the labor and risk of acquiring an
estate, - the care in preserving and the anxiety about losing
it, — the evil effects that affluence often produces on the
mind, in nourishing pride and ambition, accompanied with
insolence toward, and contempt of, the lower classes of society, - the shafts of envy that are often levelled against the
possessor, though his character may be irreproachable. Further; is not a state of mediocrity or competency the lot of
the great bulk of mankind, - and has not the Father of the
great family, who is unerring in wisdom and infinite in goodness, assigned to the largest class of them, that condition
which is most friendly to their happiness? It is true, where
affluence is improved to communicate happiness to others, it
affords the highest enjoyment; but a disposition for this improvement of wealth rarely accompanies the possessor of it,
and where it does, to determine on the proper objects of liberality, and to decide the quantum requisite, and the best
mode of granting it, is a work of care and labor to him who
wishes to acquit himself with fidelity in his stewardship.
" Where great wealth is accompanied with great corruption of heart, which it often produces and still oftener increases, how melancholy are the effects to the possessor, —




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  151
how distressing to those within its influence:- a striking instance we have in the famous, or rather infamous, Duke of
Orleans, said to be the richest prince in Europe, and if the
crimes laid to his charge are well founded, distinguished no
less for his vices than he is for his wealth; had this miserable
man been blessed with a state of mediocrity, he might have
lived an innocent life, and met a peaceful death. From a
critical observation of human life, we shall find reason to
subscribe to the wisdom  of Agur's prayer, and supplicate
Heaven only for a competency. I hope your own mind has
suggested the above, or better arguments on the subject.
Your mamma and brother join in affectionate salutations
with your anxious parent.               S. PHILLIPS."
A few days later he reiterates some of the cautions
in the preceding letter, respecting the proposed entertainment:
"September 19, 1793. - My dear son, I think it of consequence that you should endeavor, by all prudent means, to
prevent disorder and noise at the approaching interview of
your class at your chamber, by securing the influence of the
more influential and considerate for this purpose; those who
wish to preserve order, are furnished with an argument of
weight, from the late conduct of the government, which you
observe has been as towards'young gentlemen.' Shall they
not be encouraged to continue this line of conduct by the experience of its advantages? I had rather you should give your
class two temperate'treats,' (as they are called,) than one
that should be attended with noise or disorder."
This occasion appears to have passed off satisfacto



152                MEMOIR OF
rily, and without any unusual excesses. But somewhat
later in the season, the spirit of disorder became rife
in the College, to which we find allusions in the following letters.
In a long and most interesting communication, dated
December 17, 1793, Madam Phillips closes with these
earnest words: -
" The troublesome scenes you have been witness to make
me blush for human nature; and we cannot but look up to
that Divine power who superintends throughout the universe, with peculiar gratitude, that while so many have fallen
a sacrifice to the dominion of vile passions, you have been
preserved. Boast not, my son; nor think your own strength
has given you the advantage; remember that is but weakness, without aid from on high; therefore, bend low, let me
conjure you, to that Divine power which has been protecting
you when in danger of delusion from the path of virtue.
"Now, my dear son, most resolutely determine to give
yourself up, soul and body, with all their several important
interests, to that God who made you, and has thus far preserved you; to him you owe every thing; own him for your
sovereign, and accept that invitation, founded on the highest
benevolence to wretched man, to embrace him whom he has
announced his well-beloved Son as the Saviour of the world,
- give yourself up to this Almighty Saviour,- put your
name to the covenant, and may God strengthen you to perform all the requisites to prove your sincerity."
A brief note from Judge Phillips, dated December
31, 1793, suggests, in reference to the vacation:




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  153
"You will be very careful to leave every thing as safe as possible..... The winter vacation is the time when the mischievous are most apt to bestir themselves, and it is possible
that the reforming club may be more exposed than others.
You may mention, as you have opportunity, that Mr. Abiel
Abbot, of Wilton, has been written to by a friend, (not one
of the electors,) to know whether he would accept the Tutorship if offered, -but he and his friends have great doubt on
account of the treatment tutors have met with. It is of
consequence that collegians should see how much they injure
themselves in discouraging and depriving themselves of some
of the best of men, by insulting those in office. I hope to see
you with sound limbs and a pure mind in a healthful body."
In the college honors for the junior exhibition, the
succeeding year, an oration in Latin was assigned to
Phillips, just after he had borne off one of the prizes in
his class. At the exhibition, the next spring, 1795, he
was honored with a mathematical exercise; and on graduating, as already mentioned, he pronounced the Salutatory Oration. As this era drew near, gratified to the
utmost with his deportment and proficiency, and with
his honorable rank in his class, his parents were eager
to give him such a Commencement, as the judge had
sought for himself at the close of his college course.
" I forgot," says his father, June 15, 1795, "' in my hurry on
Saturday, to ask you respecting your cloths for Commencement, what color you would choose..... I hope you have
tried and ascertained what can be done about obtaining one




154                  MEMOIR OF
or more upper chambers; also the fourth chamber on the
floor you have already secured three upon, if not, do n't delay
this matter, and let me know your prospect. Let me know
also what you wish for in Boston, that I can procure you.
If there must be a curtailing of your oration, I should like to
have a copy of the whole in English, so as to form a better
opinion what part to omit, unless you are well satisfied yourself on that head. You will devote yourself to the business
of your oration this week, as much as you can. If you can't
be secure from interruption at your chamber, you had better
retire where nobody can find you; the largest edition of
Ainsworth may be useful."
In arranging for the entertainment of his class, Mr.
Phillips was not only thus liberally aided by his father,
but as generously also by his mother, many things
being prepared by her own hand, and many by others
under her eye at Andover, and sent to Cambridge
for the joyful occasion.
It may have been the foreshadowing of this parental
zeal for his especial gratification at this juncture, as
well as his uniform past experience of their kindnesses,
which prompted him, in May of this year, to dwell
upon s" parental affection" as his theme at a class exercise, a portion of which we here quote:" Omnis in Ascanio chari stat cura parentis."
"Parental tenderness is a source of the most refined
pleasures to the heart of sensibility. It arises from benevolence directed to its favorite objects. It is an instinctive




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  155
tenderness impressed on the human mind by the hand of
nature, and an emanation from the great fountain of benevolence. It is that tie which holds together society and
makes man the friend of man. The full strength of these
impressions is only felt by that tender parent whose sublunary happiness or woe depends on the good or ill conduct
of his favorite offspring. If, allured by the deceitful charms
of vice, they follow in her train, the darts of anguish sink
deep within his soul; but if they pass regardless by her
tempting doors, and fly to that best retreat where iodest
virtue stands with open arms for their embrace, language
cannot portray the ecstatic feelings of his heart. To such
a parent, do not our youthful bosoms burn with desire to
express their emotions of filial gratitude? Yes, while he
retains the powers of sensibility we will strive to make his
joys more exquisite by our obedience; and when impatient
angels shall beckon for their long-wished companion, when
time shall have poured her richest honors on his head, let
ours be the grateful office to soften the pillow of declining
age, until relentless death shall cut the knot, and Heaven
reward its votary in the bosom of parental affection."
The copy of his Salutatory, in English, which his
father desired him to send, is preserved, as is also the
original in Latin, together with various other comnpositions of his in the same tongue, of which he was
a great admirer, - and from this we extract a few paragraphs. After suitable addresses to the patriot, Samuel Adams, then Governor, and to President Willard,
and others of the Faculty, he suddenly apostrophizes




156                  MEMOIR OF
the University, as if the spirit of a past generation
were glowing in his breast:-'" Ye sacred, venerable walls, thou school of ancient heroes,
thou monument of the magnanimity of our ancestors, we bid
you our last, solemn farewell! Thou hast been the guide, the
delight of our youth, thou shalt have the support and the
filial affection of our riper years. May thy sun continue to
ascend till time itself shall die!"
To his class mates he says, in a strain worthy of
his Revolutionary father:"Let us duly appreciate the inheritance before us, and
never forget the toils, the hazards and sufferings of those
patriots and heroes by whom it was purchased; despising a
life of inglorious ease, let us be ever awake to preserve, and
active to improve our glorious patrimony; and, whatever be
our station, the happiness of the great whole be our object -
fidelity, our motto!"
Then with a manly pride and exultation he lingers,
in conclusion, upon the present and prospective glory
of the nation: -
"While other nations are doomed to distress in various
forms, we hail America the favorite of Heaven.  While
the land and the ocean conspire to our happiness, the city
and the country, with the various inhabitants of both, rejoice
in their bounties. Behold the forest daily yielding to the
hand of culture, and every part of our land bearing marks
of improvement. See colleges, and institutions for increas



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  157
ing the knowledge and happiness of mankind, multiplying
and progressing. All these are guarded by constitutions and
laws, founded on the principles of reason and the rights of
man. These constitutions and laws are committed to guardians, whose ability and fidelity their country has proved.
Behold at the head of them all that man, who is the ornament, the pride, the glory of his species. Almighty Parent,
suffer us to implore but one blessing more: that Thou
wouldst teach us the worth of thy mercies, and learn us to
improve them, that they may continue as long as time shall
endure!"
Graduating from College with such high promise,
Mr. Phillips became for a time an assistant teacher
in the Academy at Andover, where he united with the
church under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. French,
in April, 1796; the assiduous religious culture of his
early life, and his own mature convictions, together
with the influence of a severe affliction under which
the family were then bowed down, conspiring to give
a salutary spiritual bias to his feelings. But it had
been his own and his parents' settled expectation, that
he would devote himself to the legal profession. Accordingly, arrangements were mnade for his entering
upon his professional studies in the autumn of 1796,
with the Hon. Samuel Dexter at Charlestown.
A letter from his hand, dated March 22, 1797, when
his parents, as we have seen, were consulting for his
removal, will give us some idea of his position and
promise at this period.  We give the letter entire:
14




158                 MEMOIR OF
"MY HONORED FATHER, — Nothing remarkable has happened since you left Bos.ton. Mr. Dexter returned Saturday
night and is well; his future destiny is uncertain. I had
yesterday two hours agreeable conversation with him; in the
course of which he observed, to my surprise, that I came very
near going to Holland as Secretary to Mr. Murray, the new
Plenipotentiary. Mr. Dexter was good enough to represent
me to Mr. Murray in such a light that had not General
Washington obliquely hinted at his former secretary, Mr.
Dandridge, who is now out of business, I should have had
the appointment.
"I feel grateful to Mr. Dexter for his partiality to me in
this instance, especially as his exertions in my favor were
used without my request or even previous knowledge. I suspect that Mr. Murray and Mr. Dexter were the two candidates for the office. I have conversed with Mr. Hurd about
our business, and he says we may do as much business as we
please, with a handsome capital, on a safe foundation. I
have been told he says that he wishes I would live in
Charlestown; I thank him for his politeness. If the weather
be pleasant on Saturday I hope to visit Andover.  Please,
sir, to give my duty to my honored mamma.
"From, honored sir, your dutiful son,
" JOHN PHILLIPS."
In consequence chiefly of the failure of his health
in study, his long-cherished plans for professional life
were soon after this interrupted and finally abandoned;
and he engaged in mercantile pursuits at Charlestown,
where he was married, December 22, 1798, to Miss
Lydia Gorham, daughter of Hon. Nathaniel Gorham.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                    159
From  this time, during his residence there, and afterwards at the paternal homestead in North Andover,
the intercourse of the two families was so constant in
person, that there was less occasion for correspondence,
although we propose yet to introduce in another place
some further letters which passed between them.
To both his father and mother, this residence of
their son, near them, so happily settled in life, was a
source of rich enjoyment; and the filial veneration
and love which he so admirably expresses for them in
the preceding correspondence, it was his study and
joy to manifest, while they lived to be gladdened by
it. As a citizen here, he was eminently public-spirited,
devoting a large portion of his time and fortune to
one and another enterprise for the general good, with
little regard for the effect of such a course upon his
own interests. It was in this spirit, as well as in the
love of Christian learning and in his filial devotion to
his mother's wishes, that he joined with prompt magnanimity and zeal in her enterprise of founding a Theological Institution here, and so connected his name
with hers in the memory of all who shall ever read
its history.1
1 Many of the manuscripts of Col. Phillips in our hands, especially his orations delivered on various occasions, would tempt us to
dwell more largely upon his literary history, as affording evidence of
rare genius, and felicity of expression; but this would draw us too
far aside from our general aims in this memoir. He died at North




160                    MlEMOIR  OF
But while, through his early years of promise upward to his full manhood of honor, the gratified parents had so well done their duty to this son, and been
so well rewarded, they had been called to a far different experience in connection with their younger son
Samuel.
Andover, September 10, 1820, aged 44, leaving a family of thirteen
children, all of whom are yet living.
To his widow, whose recent decease, June 3, 1856, has been already mentioned, we have been under special obligations in these
labors. Her delineation of incidents in Judge Phillips's life, and of
traits in his character, with her portraiture of his person, his manner,
his whole appearance, has contributed to give distinctness to our conceptions of him; and the affectionate reverence which she has often
expressed for him has served to bring down to us, over the wide
chasm of years, with vivid freshness the quality as well as the
strength of those impressions which he everywhere made. He was
embalmed in her memory with all that was gladdening in the palmiest days of her home, before the great shadow of her bereavement
fell upon the old mansion, and hid from her sight the husband of her
early and ardent love.
The devoted filial reverence of her numerous family, whose training devolved upon her so great a responsibility, at Col. Phillips's
decease, is now her best eulogy. Her extraordinary tact and energy,
evinced in directing their education and in the oversight of whatever
pertained to the family, her quick and affecting sympathy, whenever
any of them have been called to taste the bitter cup of afflictioin,
together with her unrivalled social qualities, and her genial beneficence of spirit toward all, guided by her religious habits, have not
only enshrined her in the hearts of the family, but made her to others, of every class, an unfailing attraction in the old family centre to
the last.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                161
The Junior oaf his brother by nearly six years, he
knew nothing ot the disquiets of the early family experiences. Thougil' born in one of their transient residences, his earliest recollections of home clustered
about their spacious mansion-house, with its ample
grounds and commanding site. He grew up amid a
style and order of family life, now in the full meridian
of its salutary, ennobling refinement. His very nature
too, physical and mental, was of the most exquisite
mould.
If he resembled either parent more than the other,
his was the image of his calni, sedate, considerate father;
yet in his deep and tender sensibility, the noble heart
of his mother could be seen, reproducing its taste and
tone in every winning form. Indeed, there was a peculiarly feminine grace and sweetness in his spirit, and
in his manner, which gave a charm to his boyhood,
without essentially marring it.
Though often merry and eager in boyish sports,
therefore, he would as often suddenly withdraw from
these out-of-door scenes, and nestle fondly by his moth
er's side, to pour into her ear his accents of pity fol
the poor of whomn he had become informed, or of sadness at the misconduct of some playmate that had
come to his notice, adding often the exclamation,  0!
mamma, how much better it is to be a good boy, than
a naughty boy, is n't it!"  At any time, if she was at
leisure to talk with him, he would hasten to converse
14'




162                MEMOIR OF
upon a variety of subjects with a solidity of views and
a forecast far beyond his years, but especially upon
plans of doing good, as his favorite theme. Such desires as he would express to make every one happy,
such suggestions about denying himself or taking upon
himself the charge of some charity in order to relieve
a needy one, such strains of pensive sentiment in regard to usefulness in his subsequent life, often surprised the listening mother's heart, and made it throb
with strange emotion. If ever he lapsed into any
childish error of conduct, it seemed so slight in comparison with what is to be expected of every child,
that none would have marked it; yet he was quick to
see it, and to confess it with ingenuous self-reproach.
There was a considerable period when he usually slept
with his teacher, Mr. Newman; and his gentle heart,
on retiring for the night, would habitually first confess
the faults of the day unasked, and then with a child's
prayer sink to rest.
His education was carefully planned and prosecuted,
and his proficiency correspondingly great. At the
Academy exhibition, when he was about thirteen years
of age, Mr. Newman proposed his reciting upon the
stage the lines of Selkirk, "I am monarch of all I
survey," etc.; after suitable private drilling, he appeared and rehearsed the verses with so much grace,
dignity, and pathos, that his father wept for very joy,
which he had too much heart to repress. The child




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 163
was, at this time, shooting rapidly up to the stature of
manhood, and was in every trait so much a man in
the type of the father's high ideal, that Judge Phillips
weighed every new question respecting his education
with especial care.
Of all the long guarded relics in our hands, none
appear to have been so often perused in the family,
until worn almost to shreds, as a few simple letters
from his pen, which we here give entire.
"BOSTON, November 2, 1794.
"HONORED MAMMA, — I have been trying for some time to
form an acquaintance with the Muses, but they are afraid to
come nigh me, as it were, for fear I should abuse them. On
Saturday, I went with my honored aunt to Cambridge,
and attended the funeral of our beloved Russell, - hope that
instance of mortality will prove a happy lesson to me, and
the occasion of my being also ready. I dined at Mr. Gannet's, -just as I had dined I saw my brother, who informed
me you was well, which news rejoiced the heart of him who
is constantly thinking of you and that last farewell, which I
was very sorry was not agreeable to my honored papa; but
hope I shall conduct in such manner as ever to merit the
approbation of both my parents.
" Please to give my respects to Mr. and Mrs. Newman, and
duty to my papa.       From your dutiful son,
"S. PHILLIPS."
"BOSTON, November 5, 1795.
" HONORED PAPA,- Yesterday afternoon I received the
news that you should send a chaise; I went to my uncle's




164                IMEMOIR  OF
immediately and delivered the message; my aunt was very
glad because she was not ready.
" Please to give my duty to my honored mamma, respects
to Mr. and Mrs. Newman, love to brother, and please to receive duty from him who feels the warmest affection towards
his parents, who is sincerely sorry for all his missteps, and
who hopes, by the assistance of Almighty God, that his conduct will ever recommend him to his parents.
From your dutiful son,      S. PHILLIPS."
"ANDOVER, January, 1796.
"HONORED PAPA,- A week has elapsed, and I have not
had the pleasure of hearing from you; therefore I conclude
it is my duty to remind you of a subject which has been
under your consideration for some time, but through the
multiplicity of your business may perhaps have at this time
escaped your attention,- I mean Greek, sir. On deciding
which subject, I suppose depends the part which I am to act
on the theatre of life; and therefore must be the result of
cool deliberation, and not the hasty effusion of a moment.
By means of its not being determined whether I was to go
to College or not, you may naturally suppose I have not
pursued my studies with that eagerness I otherwise should
have done; imagining that the study of the dead languages
would be of little or no use to me, unless I put them into
execution.'Riches,' says Dr. Enfield,'instead of increasing our benevolence in proportion as they enlarge our opportunities of doing it (as might reasonably be expected), how
often do they swell the heart with pride, that unsocial and
unfriendly passion, and minister to the flame of contention.'.' These, however,' says he,' are not the necessary con



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  165
sequences of wealth. In the heart which has been carefully
cultivated by the hand of wisdom, it produceth far different
effects, - it produceth the fruits of piety towards God, and
good-will towards man.'... And, my honored papa, if fortune prosper me, I hope I shall learn of the good old patriarch,
Abraham, not to forget the God who giveth power to get
wealth. Till I hear from you, I shall continue to spend my
leisure time in writing, not to neglect my other studies.
Please to give my duty to my uncle and aunts, and accept
the same from your dutiful son.         S. PHILLIPS."
Some expressions in this last letter, are supposed to
refer to an inquiry, which in some previous communication he had submitted to his father, whether it
would not be best to appropriate the money which it
would cost to give him a collegiate education to some
other useful object, and let him turn to a life of business, as. his sphere of usefulness. He is said to have
written with great interest and artlessness, to convince
his father that so much money would do more good
if given to the poor or to some other such use, than
if expended on him.
But how soon and suddenly often are the plans of
both parents and children dissipated by an all-wise
Providence!  On the back of this very letter, the
date of which he had omitted, is the following memorandumn in the handwriting of Judge Phillips: —
"Son Sam'l; say Jan'y 25,'96, abt studying Greek; the




0 6                MEMOIR OF
last communication to his father, before he was seized wift
the fatal fever which deprived him of reason, and finished
his temporal existence Feb'y 8, 1796."'
The stroke fell with stunning force upon every heart
in the family. It was this great affliction to which we
have alluded as having so salutary a religious effect
upon the mind of his elder brother.
When first attacked by the prevailing epidemic,
which he was supposed to have caught at a funeral,
and which, in the short space of three months, swept
about twenty others into the grave, the fears of his
parents were at once aroused, as he was soon quite
disordered in mind, and for a week they were scarcely
absent from  him  an hour; in his aberrations, the
loving ascendency of his teacher, Mr. Newman, could
recall him, and win him  to take his medicines, when
he seemed to recognize no other voice.
But there was no "power to retain the spirit" in
that fair form. He was to be numbered evermore
with the children that are too good for earth; and,
drowned in tears together, his parents bowed to the
deep affliction, and laid him  in their tomb. Those
who saw  them  on that day of sorrow, will never
forget how  they trembled and sobbed, yet, in  all
their anguish of spirit,:murmured not, but prayed for
grace to drink their bitter cup.
Let the voice of the sorrowing father, first break




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 167
the silence in which we bow with them in this grief
at his death. We extract a paragraph from a brief
letter to his wife, dated Boston, February 17, 1796: —
"I feel anxious to hear of your health and state of mind,
and of our son's. If it be your present apprehension that
you was not thankful enough for the enjoyment of our dear
departed son; may we not be hereafter reminded that our
grief for his loss produced a forgetfulness of the importance
of remaining mercies?  These are surely very many and
exceeding great, and the general affectionate sympathy of
friends ought by no means to be reckoned among the smallest of them."
Two days later, he adds the following: —
"BOSTON, February 19, 170
"I am much obliged by your favor of yesterday, and the
useful reflections which it contained; — I have no desire thai
you should forget the dear object of our affections, which we.
have been lately called to surrender t ck to the God who
lent him to us. It would be in vain, if I were to desire it,
because it would be impossible; and I believe it would be
wrong to do it if we could.
" Much advantage may be derived to ourselves, and at the
iarne time honor may be done to religion, and the divine
object of it, by a suitable remembrance of this precious LOAN
OF HEAVEN,- a LOAN, I call it, because I think all our richest
temporal comforts may be more properly considered in this
light than as gifts. The Author of this mercy never relinquished his right in it; we from his birth, recognized this




L68                 I MEMOIR OF
right, and took the first opportunity, in the presence of the
congregation, as well as in the view of Heaven, to surrender
tack the lovely visitant to its Creator, acknowledging his
perfect right to dispose of him as should seem best to him.
We must be fully convinced that the best possible disposition is now made of our dear child; and should not this conviction produce entire resignation? Should we be willing
to oppose and disappoint the purpose of Infinite Wisdom, if
it was in our power? The very idea excites horror!
" Let us, then, in humble, filial submission, acknowledge
that the Supreme Ruler has done perfectly right, and entreat
that we and others may learn those lessons of wisdom which
this dispensation is designed to teach us.
"Perhaps one of the first of these lessons is our entire,
absolute, universal dependence on the Infinite Lord and
proprietor of all; we are extremely apt to consider the enjoyments we possess as our own, as having a complete right in
them; whereas, we are only tenants at pleasure; and every
day which the rightful owner protracts our possession of any
of his favors, he increases our obligation....
" I am yours, with sincere affection,    S. P."
In a letter to his only surviving son, he says:" BOSTON, February 24, 1796.
"MY DEAR SON,- -... The dispensations of Providence
seem plainly to admonish me, that it is time to abstract my
attention more from the concerns of time, and to direct it to
nigher objects; within a few years, I have followed to the
grave both my parents, a beloved uncle, who was as a father,
and a very desirable child; the last bereavement speaks an




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                     169
emphatic language to the afflicted parents and brother in particular; and it ought to be our daily study and prayer to
learn the intention of Heaven in respect to us personally;
if every instance of mortality is a loud call to the living, as
it undoubtedly is, what careful heed is to be given to the
solemn messenger when he comes into our chamber to our
bed and takes a part of ourselves! It is proper on such an
occasion to recollect what was amiable in the deceased, and
to endeavor to transcribe into our lives whatever was conformable to our divine Exemplar.  I was pleased to find you
employed in writing a character of your dear brother; and
though the kindness of friends rendered your care unnecessary for the particular purpose for which it was intended,
yet I think a part of your time would be well employed in
making a delineation of his character somewhat particular;
it would afford much satisfaction to us and his particular
friends in the review, and might be useful to youth who
might be made acquainted with it; for it would be difficult
for us to name the youth whose character might with more
propriety be held up as a model for imitation.'
x The following paper, in the handwriting of Mr. John Phillips, but
without signature, is preserved in the family, and is doubtless the
"character" which his father found him engaged in writing: —
"Died, at Andover, February 8th, 1796, Samuel Phillips, Jr.,
iEt. 14; the youngest son of the Hon. Samuel Phillips, Esq."
"He'remembered his Creator in the days of his youth;' while tenderness and filial gratitude marked every feature of his countenance;
his every action was dictated by benevolence. Seldom does the age
of childhood exhibit the actions of a man; but here the age of manhood would have been adorned by the virtues of a child.
"The young were ever happy in the embraces of his friendship;
15




170                   MEMOIR  OF
" It is natural for us, also, to inquire how far we discharged
our duty to the object of our affections, who is separated
from  us; and would to Heaven I had less cause for regret
on my part than I have upon this review! I desire, on this
account, to humble myself in the presence of my Maker;
to implore his forgiveness, and to supplicate his grace to
quicken me in the discharge of remaining duty.  The time,
my dear son, is short - how short, is known only to Omniscience! How greatly does it concern us to have our hearts
formed to the love - the Supreme love — of infinite perfection! - and what depravity must possess those hearts that are
so averse to the love of such an object! What cause for
humility! What cause for earnest importunity for purifying and renovating grace! What will kingdoms avail without it! In that situation where I lately beheld my dear
child, how trifling is every object compared with the favor
of the Eternal MAJESTY OF HEAVEN! and this favor is to be
obtained in the days of health and ease, rather than at any
period; it is hazardous in the extreme to depend on securing
it at any other."
As an illustration of "the general affectionate symthe aged viewed with fond anticipation his conduct, which fairly
warranted future usefulness. His parents flattered themselves with
hopes, founded upon the strength of his mind, and on the goodness
of his heart. But alas! the tender heart of youth must weep; old
age must shed a tear over his sleeping ashes; and the well-founded
hopes of an anxious father andl  a tender mother must be in a moment blasted. Early his Heavenly Father called him to his bosom.
He with joy obeyed, smiled duty to his earthly parents, then gave
his heart to Heaven."




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 171
pathy of friends," to which Judge Phillips refers, we
will here insert a letter written now to the only son,
by Professor Pearson, of Harvard College: —
" CAMBRIDGE, 15th February, 1796.
"My young friend, son of my friend,' permit me to express
on paper, what words failed me to utter when I last met you.
Believe me, my dear sir, my heart was wrung with anguish
for you, as well as for your most excellent, most afflicted
parents. Though urged on by an irresistible impulse, it was
the first time I ever approached your papa's hospitable dome,
but with lively emotions of pleasure. But on that sad, that
mournful day, my fortitude forsook me, and a strange reluctance and dread of meeting my distressed friends had seized
my mind. This I offer as an apology for my not being able
to address you as I wished, on that melancholy occasion. Nor
am I now able to express how much I feel for your situation.
Suddenly bereaved of a beloved, an only brother, possessed
of every quality that could render him dear and amiable, the
wound without doubt appears incurable. Your high expectations are instantly disappointed, and every purpose of your
heart concerning him broken off. But you will remember
that this is the good pleasure of your Father in heaven, who
knows what is necessary and best for us, whose object is
invariably the same, both when he gives and when he takes
away. To unerring wisdom it has seemed good, that you
should bear the yoke in your youth. God grant you every
needed support, and by this dispensation teach you thus
early to realize the danger of depending on any of the
objects of time and sense!
"You are just entering, mry dear young friend, upon the




172                 MEMOIR OF
giddy theatre of the present life; such a visitation is admirably adapted to curb our ambition, to moderate our desires,
and to tarnish in our view the dazzling objects of this vain
world. Should this be the happy consequence of this event;
should you be enabled hereby to adopt with sincerity the
language of David,'whom have I in heaven but thee, and
there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee,' you
would have reason to bless God for this early chastisement
all the days of your life. Your dear brother, I trust, is
happy. Prepare to meet, and enjoy him forever. Be on
your guard against the snares of this delusive, enchanting
world; and daily seek the protection and blessing of heaven.
Forget not to pray for your afflicted parents; and be all that
to them, that the best of parents can wish, or that affectionate gratitude can dictate. Not that I suspect the goodness
of your heart; for with unspeakable satisfaction have I
frequently noticed your filial respect and anxiety; but
because I feel every thing for your bereaved parents, that
the sincerest friendship can suffer; and because I have loved
you from the moment of your birth to this instant. As a
pledge of this, accept these hasty lines, with my best wishes
for your real happiness in the present and the future life.
I shall always be happy to see you, but especially at my
own house; let me request this pleasure soon, and believe
me as ever, your affectionate and now your tenderly sympathetic friend and humble servant,       E. PEARSON.
"Mr. JOHN PHILLIPS."
In the filial tenderness of their first-born son and
especially in his deep religious sympathy with them,
the parents, in this crisis, had a rich solace; but no




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  173
balm, human or divine, could at once heal their deep
wound; nor did it ever, especially in her heart, fail to
bleed afresh, at the mention of Samuel's name. She
could never hear him alluded to, years afterwards, even
to the last day of her own life, it is said, without
bursting into tears, though she loved still to talk of
him, and disciplined herself in all her sensibility to
speak not only submissively but cheerfully.
The room where~ he had studied and slept, was not
allowed to be disturbed in the slightest particular for
nearly fifteen years, until the removal of the family
compelled it. His little slate, and writing-book, his
pen, and sealingwax, his half-burned candle, his violin,
of which he was very fond, his daily text-books in
study, his child's bed, his clothing, every thing lay or
hung precisely as he left it, a sacred memento; and so
he, though dead, spoke daily to their hearts, lingering
in their memory and tinging all their habitual life.
While thus sharing in the various experiences of his
strictly domestic life, with his rare treasures in his wife
and children, Judge Phillips and his family held a
social position, in his town and in the country, of no
less interest.  It will be remembered how early he
was the people's candidate for public offices and trusts,
and with how much steadiness through all changes
they showed their partiality for him, by their full votes
year after year.  This was,he result of his personal
15'




174                MEMOIR OF
popularity, not less than of the unlimited confidence
which was reposed in his ability and integrity. Even
the exasperated partisan strifes of the Federalists and
anti-Federalists did not alienate from him the cordial
good-will of his fellow-citizens, although he was incapable of trimming between the two parties, or of concealing, in the least degree, his own political preferences. The popular feeling toward him, as a man and
a friend, was always stronger than any merely political prejudice, throughout the length and breadth of
the town.
In the village around his mansion, especially, the
vwilling deference paid to him was acknowledged with
so much simplicity and grace of manner as to make
him a universal favorite. On the Sabbath and other
days of public concourse, as he passed to or from the
church, no bow was made to him which he did not
cordially return, and men have repeatedly told us that
in these exchanges of village courtesy they have
seen him with his hat off half of the time from the
church door to his own.
His more general connections, socially, with various
classes of eminent individuals or families in the Commonwealth, were in part a necessary consequence of his
own civil labors in such a variety of stations, but still
more of the attractiveness and weight of his character. Judges and senators, clergymen, and all men of
letters, eminent merchants, and honored patriots,




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                175
officers in the army, and distinguished strangers from
other lands, received his highbred civilities without
stint, and returned them without measure. When he
was in the meridian of his long civil career, if any
had a higher social position, no man in the State had
a wider or more elect circle of honored and honorable
personal friends.
He was among the few whom Washington, in his
Presidential tour, honored with a visit at his mansion
in 1789. The personal acquaintance of Judge Phillips
with this illustrious Father of his country, began, as
we have already stated, in July, 1775, at Cambridge.
During the sessions of the Provincial Congress, at
Watertown, he had been repeatedly appointed on a
committee to confer with the Commnander-in-Chief, and
from this period all his early impressions respecting
this great man were intensified. With him, as with all
others, the nearest intercourse with Washington only
served to deepen his admiring reverence for him. At
every turn in the fortunes of the war, Judge Phillips
watched his consummate generalship with eager interest; and when upon the reconstruction of the form
of government, Washington was elected to the Chief
Magistracy by acclamation, Judge Phillips was filled
with exulting confidence in the success of the great
republican experiment.
With a succession of greetings, which made his




176                   MEMOIR OF
journey  from   Mount Vernon  a triumphal  march,
Washington had repaired to New York, where he was
inaugurated on the 30th of April.  After thoroughly
organizing the  new  government, and  setting  all its
wheels in motion, lie deemed it due to himself and the
country to make a tour through the Eastern States in
the autumn.  His arrival at Boston was on Saturday,
October 24th, mounted on a milk-white charger, and
escorted by a long and brilliant military and civic procession, which had met him on the Neck in Roxbury.
"'The number of people collected to see their beloved
President," says the Centinel of October 31st, "it is almost
impossible to compute. The streets were crowded, -
You would have thought the very windows moved,
To see him as he passed; so many young and old
Through casements darting their desiring eyes."'
When he reached the Old State House, and stepped
out upon the temporary balcony in view of the people,
a select choir instantly sang an original Ode in several
stanzas, of which the first was, -
"Great Washington the hero comes,
Each heart exulting hears the sound,
Thousands to their Deliverer throng,
And shout him welcome all around,
Now in full chorus join the song,
And shout aloud Great Washington."'
1 The streets through which Washington rode from the Neck were
then called Orange, Newbury, Marlborough, and Cornhill, but were
henceforth named collectively Washington street.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.              177
On the Sabbath he left his quarters, on the corner
of Tremont and Court streets, where the store of
Pierce now stands, only to attend divine worship both
parts of the day in company with the Hon. James
Bowdoin.
On Tuesday he received formal complimentary addresses from Governor Hancock, in the name of the
Commonwealth, from President Willard on behalf of
the University at Cambridge, and from the Society of
the Cincinnati, to all of which he made replies; and
on Wednesday, he sat down to a public dinner with
the elite of the city in Faneuil Hall.
On Thursday morning Washington pursued his journey to Salem, where he was met, escorted, addressed,
and entertained with the same enthusiasm. An incident here occurred which greatly pleased him. On
being introduced to the selectmen, their chairman, a
sturdy Quaker, "being covered, took him by the hand
and said, Friend Washington, we are glad to see thee,
and in behalf of the inhabitants, bid thee a hearty
welcome."  On his way from Boston to Salem, a corps
of horse from Andover, under Captain Osgood, joined
his escort at Lynn, consisting of upwards of fifty men,
in red uniforms faced with green; and this company,
which had rallied at the instance of Judge Phillips,
continued to escort the President on his tour as far
as Portsmouth.
When he left Salem on Friday, to please the citizens,




178               MEMOIR OF
he rode out on horseback, crossing the Essex bridge,
then recently erected between Salem and Beverly;
and it is chronicled as an illustration of his practical
inquisitiveness, that after passing the draw at the channel, he dismounted and went back to examine carefully
its mechanism, which had struck him as very ingenious.
Proceeding through Beverly, he halted at Ipswich, and
was duly welcomed by an address, to which he replied;
and in the afternoon he reached Newburyport, where
he was received with the same ceremonies.
On Saturday he was welcomed to Portsmouth by
Governor Sullivan, who had served under him as a
General in the Revolution; the civic and military array here, at his reception, surpassing any thing that
had yet been collected, except at Boston; and the
enthusiasm  of all classes being at the very highest
pitch, as they had been hearing day after day of his
progress in state from Boston eastward.
Here, as at Boston, he sacredly observed the Sabbath, the Rev. Mr. Ogden at Queen's Chapel in the
morning, and Rev. Mr. Buckminster at the Congregational church in the afternoon, having the illustrious
guest for a hearer, and both, in the style of the times,
"felicitating " their audience upon the great occasion
of his visit. At Boston he had sat for his-portrait to
the artist Johnson, at the request of the selectmen,
who designed the painting for Faneuil Hall. A rival
Boston artist, Gullaher, followed in his train to Ports



JUDGE PHILLIPS.              179
mouth, and there the President did him the honor to
sit to him also.
But here despatches reached him which led him to
cut short his tour, and hasten to the seat of government. On Wednesday, November 4th, he reached
Haverhill, where he lodged for the night. Thursday
morning he drove early to Andover and breakfasted
at Deacon Isaac Abbott's tavern, in the house now
owned by Hon. Amos Abbott and lately occupied
by Capt. Edward West. Here, as he stood in front
of the house, some of our most aged citizens remember to have seen him.
While tarrying here, he asked the little daughter
of Deacon Abbott to mend his riding glove for him;
and when she had done it, took her upon his knee
and gave her a kiss, which so elated Miss Priscilla,
that she would not allow her face to be washed again
for a week!
Leaving the inn now, the President, escorted by
Judge Phillips, and many others, passed along by the
Old South Church up what is now School street, to the
mansion of his friend, in the south-east parlor of which
he was entertained for half an hour or more by the
Judge and Madam Phillips with their children and
guests. The moment he left the house, Madam Phillips tied a piece of ribbon upon the chair which he
had occupied during the interview, and there it remained ever afterwards until the day of his death,
when she substi;tted for it a band of crane.




180                MEMOIR OF
Before leaving the village, General Washington sat
a while upon his horse, on the common opposite the
mansion-house, receiving the greetings of the crowd,
and gratifying them by a full view of his majestic person; and then, accompanied still by Judge Phillips and
the cavalcade which he had collected, the party passed
down what is now Phillips street westward, and taking
the old Wilmington road across the plain, drove to Lexington, where they dined. Here with Judge Phillips
and a few others, General Washington went leisurely
over the Revolutionary battle ground; and the General,
among other things related, it is said, "c with a degree
of good-humor,"  an anecdote of Dr. Franklin. " The
British," he said,'complained to Dr. Franklin of the
ill usage their troops met at Lexington, by the Yankees getting behind stonewalls and firing at them;
- the Doctor replied, by asking them, woelher there
were not two sides to the wall!"
Parting from the Judge here, the General hastened
onward in his return, lodging at Watertown that night;
the place of so many interesting reminiscences to them
both; the next night he was at Uxbridge, and on Saturday of the next week he reached New York. These
reminiscences of the first President's tour, in connection with his visit to Judge Phillips, prepare us to appreciate the feelings which both he and Madam Phillips so fully expressed, in letters which they exchanged
at the death of Washington. We find a letter from
his pen, in these words: —




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   181
"BOSTON, January 9, 1800.
"This day has been devoted by the town of Boston to
commemorate the virtues of that eminent benefactor of his
country, and distinguished ornament of his species, whose
death we all deplore. The orders of procession and of performances, which will be herewith forwarded, will give you a
better idea of the plan projected than I can communicate in
other words; and it was executed to admiration. Were I to
undertake to describe which of the performances was most
excellent, the task would be difficult. The prayer by Dr.
Eckley was not exceeded by any of the other exercises. The
eulogium, by Judge Minot, was composed and spoken in a
manner that did honor to himself and to the town, as well
as justice to the occasion.1 The hymn, the ode, and the concluding lines will speak for themselves, and the music was
equal to the compositions.
" The whole commanded the undiverted, solemn attention
of a crowded audience; and the countenances of thousands
expressed, more forcibly than language can describe, that unfeigned grief of heart, which is an higher encomium upon
the virtues and services of our deceased Father than ten
thousand eulogies. Happy will it be for us, if the people of
the United States act consistently with themselves. But
how absurd will they appear, if, after these high professions
of sorrow, they should trample underfoot those important
instructions of wisdom, which he gave to us with the solemnity of a dying man. You will probably soon have an op1 This eulogy may be found in a volume of " Eulogies and Orations on the Life and Death of General George Washington," published in Boston in 1800, p. 19-29.
16




182                 MEMOIR  OEF
portunity of reading the eulogium; and I wish I could obtain a copy of the prayer; they would afford you a pleasing
and profitable repast."
From  a letter of hers, dated February 23, 1800, we
select the following: —
"Yesterday being fine, I attended the performance of
those resolutions made by the town to meet at the North
Parish, for the purpose of testifying sorrow for the removal
of so great and good a man as General Washington from
the world.'" We had two excellent prayers by Messrs. Symmes and
French, and an oration by Son, who behaved with dignified
composure and respect for his subject and the numerous audience. I do n't pretend to judgment in composition, - have
seen but few; those seemed pleased, and't is said, all were
gratified. Mr. B. will be in town soon, and if opportunity
favors, will be better able to give you the truth than I am.
The music was very pleasing. I believe Son is very glad
it is over, and I hope it may be of advantage to him, by giving him a hint not to lay aside valuable books, and may lead
him to attend still more to the improvement of his mind, as
he must find it necessary, that he may step forth on any public occasion, with confidence in his abilities to do justice to
his subject, and thereby produce good and pleasing effects to
the world.
" I am sorry you could not have been here, but suppose
you was agreeably employed at the time at the church in
Brattle street...... Here allow me to request you would
be particularly careful on your return; doubtless, as you have




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  183
been so long absent, this air and our accommodations may
affect you disagreeably, therefore think it will be wise in you
to fortify yourself as to clothing, and be seasonable in your
return if possible; you will excuse me, I am very loth you
should suffer by giving us pleasure.
" Mr. French has given us two good sermons to-day, on
the subject of the loss of near friends, with some good directions for our improvement under afflictions; and we have
had an affecting scene in the baptism of the good doctor's
babe, whom he has given the name of Samuel Moody.l This
will gratify you very much; for this I mention it. I am
rejoiced you are so well; pray be careful; certainly, you must
have very strong inducements when you reflect how much
pleasure you afford your friends, and what benefit your services are to the public.
" Present my duty, if you please; I am very glad friends
enjoy so much as they do; and pray when the times of suffering come, support from an Almighty God and All-sufficient
Saviour may be their portion."
These eager listenings, on the part of Madam Phillips, to every new suggestion for the comfort or profit
of the afflicted, coupled with such significant cautions
respecting his health, were not wholly retrospective.
They had, it is true, gone down together often into the
valley of the shadow of death, with departing friends
of public fame, and with beloved ones from the circle
of their family kindred; and the thought of death
1 The name of Judge Phillips's early instructor at Dummer
Academy.




184     MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
could never now come up without reproducing the fair
image of that dear son for whom they were still grieving. But already the dim presentiment of another
and yet greater sorrow in reserve for them, was at
times flitting across their minds.
Before we proceed to speak of this, however, we
must return again, and trace the life of Judge Phillips
in other aspects, as connected with enterprises and
characteristics which distinguished him, even more than
all we have yet mentioned, from his earliest manhood
to his latest age.




CHAPTER X.
HIS INTEREST AND AGENCY IN THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION.
IT has been shown in a former chapter, with what
zeal and ability Judge Phillips contributed, in every
practicable way, to the great work of the Revolution,
and how persistently, year after year, he discharged
the various civic trusts committed to him. Yet, however useful, or honored, or interested he was in such
spheres, it was his sense of duty in obedience to the
calls of Providence and in his desire to promote the
public good, more than his natural taste, or any exist,
ing inclination, which riveted him to these various engagements. The times had made him a man of business; had associated him with powder and politics;
had agitated him with public cares, and consumed him
with public toils; but in all this he had shown how
completely a far-seeing patriot scholar can sacrifice his
predilections in great public exigencies. Neither " General Court life," as we have seen, nor life on the bench,
was entirely congenial to him; although at a time, and
amid a generation of statesmen, which made any such
station a high honor, especially for a young man.
1 fi *c.          O(185)




186                MEMOIR  OF
While faithful to all such trusts, therefore, and unrivalled for his industry and efficiency, he was continually indulging other impulses, more akin to his native
temperament and his purely intellectual and moral
affinities.
There was, as we have seen, a hereditary love of
learning in the Phillips family. The father and one
of the uncles of Judge Phillips had not only received
a collegiate training, but on graduating had successively taught the grammar-school, for a time, in his
native village, while his revered grandfather was exerting his commanding influence over the schools in the
south precinct of the town. Yet, when he came to fit
for College, he had sought the advantages of the infant
and unincorporated Academy at Byfield, as the best
within his reach. Nothing had yet been devised in
the town to meet the wants of its youth, in a course
of liberal study. The town grammar-school was, however, sustained with various success, year after year;
and on completing his college curriculum, Judge Phillips became at once conspicuous for the interest which
he manifested in this school and the others throughout
the town. His influence was constantly exerted to
procure the best instructors, and to enlist the zeal of
both the children and their parents in improving the
standard of scholarship. He was himself a frequent
visitor at the schools; and, to the end of his life, with
all his deep interest in other forms of education, he




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                187
continued to watch over the common schools here, and
to devise methods of improving them, with a solicitude
which could scarcely have been greater, if each one
of them had been sustained at his own cost, as his personal enterprise.
Some years after his removal to the South Parish,
Mr. William Foster proposed to open a select school for
a limited number of young lads, most of whom were to
be also members of his family. To this effort Judge
Phillips gave the aid of his personal inspection, as well
as his hearty recommendation, and for a period of many
years, "Master Foster's school" was widely known.'
Nor was it in his own town merely, that his habitual
zeal in the cause of education manifested itself. In
his address to the grand-jury, from  which we have
quoted, it will be remembered how sagaciously he
watched for the welfare of the public schools in the
county; calling attention to the demands of the law,
and enforcing legal obligation by the lessons of reason
and experience. His office as senator, also, placed him
for twenty years upon the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, where his pertinent addresses at the close
of the class examinations, from time to time, are still
remembered by his surviving friends. "It was a rare
thing," says Dr. Eliot, 1"to find him absent from the
Board of Overseers of the University. He was often
1 Records of Phillips Academy, p. 117.




188                  MEMOIR OF
on committees, and improved the opportunities to
render essential services to the place of his education."' An outline of one of his addresses to the
Senior Class at their final examination, is preserved.
"We have received," he says, " much satisfaction in the
examination which has now closed; not only in the evidence
given of your improvement in the various branches of study
you have pursued, - evidence which at once bears honorable testimony of the ability and fidelity of your instructors,
as well as of the docility and application of the pupil; but,especially from observing that order, regularity, and decorum,
which have done credit to the first class of the first University in the United States.
"Your last examination in the ancient and respectable
seat of science being closed, it may not be deemed improper
for those who sustain the office, and ought to possess the
affection of guardians, to make some expression of that affection at this last opportunity of the kind they will have for it.
After closing your collegiate life, it will be natural to make
a solemn pause, and take a serious review of the scenes you
have passed, and at the bar of your own breasts to decide
impartially upon the several parts of your characters and
conduct, so far as you can recollect them; those of them
which receive the honest approbation of cool, unprejudiced
reason, will prove a fruitful source of enjoyment through
life, and afford a powerful incentive to the practice of wisdom
in future.'If, in the course of your scrutiny, you find occasions for
1 Eliot's Biog. Die. p. 379, 380.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                   189
regret, (and you will be fortunate beyond the lot of other
mortals if you do not,) it will be natural to place a double
guard against those dispositions or habits which furnished
these occasions, and to caution others against the errors
which may have marred your comfort.
" You will soon enter upon the broad theatre of active
life; and fortunate, indeed, will you be, if you each select
that part to act, which you are qualified to perform, with
most advantage to the public, and reputation to yourselves.
" The field for usefulness is immense; the number of skilful, faithful laborers is small. Perhaps at no period has your
country had larger claims on the abilities and virtue of its
present citizens, and of those who will soon cooperate with
or succeed them. Those who are the best husbands of time
and opportunities for improvement, will never have occasion
to complain of redundant qualifications for any important
department; multitudes have lamented their deficiency in
them.
"As the season for acquiring these qualifications is short,
it is important that your attention should be mainly directed
to those studies which are best adapted to qualify you for
your intended profession; and let your intended profession
or pursuit be what it may, we feel ourselves authorized to
say, that no book will so well recompense your study of it,
as the Holy Scriptures; nay, that a whole life spent in the
closest researches to all other books, will leave you essentially
wanting, if you neglect this treasury of Divine knowledge."
In these labors connected with the University, Judge
Phillips not only had opportunities for imparting such
well-considered counsel to the students, but was kept




190                IMEM OIR OF
in constant intercourse with the Faculty, and -with a
large circle of literary friends of which Cambridge
was the centre.  It was here that "the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences" originated in 1780,
of which he was one of the members named in the
Act of Incorporation, which was passed on the 4th of
May, before the new Constitution of the State had been
completed.  Besides the President and Professors of
Harvard College, and distinguished clergymen in Boston and the vicinity, many of his associates in this
society were the same eminent men with whom he
had labored in the Constitutional Convention of that
year, and in the Legislature during the previous five
years.'
During the collegiate course of his son, in the year
1793, the University conferred upon him the honorary
degree of Doctor of Laws, as a just tribute to his various public services, and to his zeal in promoting the
cause of learning through so many years, and in such
a variety of forms; an honor which, at that day, was
enjoyed by but few among all the eminent Alumni
of the College.
It was not, however, by any such general services
in connection with Harvard or elsewhere, that he
earned a title, above others, to special consideration
as a patron of learning, although in every such agency
1 Acts and Laws of Massachusetts, 1780, Chap. XVI.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                191
he was second to none. Another and more lasting
work in the cause was also occupying him, as we have
already intimated, from his early manhood, through
his entire career. HE WAS THE PROJECTOR AND CHIEF
PATRON OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY.
His plans and efforts to establish this Institution
were the favorite work of his life.  We have seen
with what ardor he enlisted in the great Revolutionary struggle; how laboriously he discharged his various civic trusts; how carefully he inspected his numerous private affairs; with what watchfulness he
sought the welfare of his family, and with how much
interest he identified himself for the time with every
other work, however transient, in which he engaged;
yet in all this he did not once forget his foster-child,
the Academy; but bore it on his heart and in his
hand, with an intensity of devotion to its interests
greater than he ever manifested for any other object.
His zeal here was like the life-long enthusiasm of an
inventor, watching the machinery which he has constructed, and meditating every possible improvement
upon it; or the glow of an artist in his studio, admiring and retouching the best productions of his creative
mind. We should, therefore, do special injustice to
him, and to our own aims in this Memoir, if we did not
enter with some degree of minuteness into the history
of his connection with so great a work.




192                 MEMOIR OF
It will be remembered that when he graduated from
College, it was with such distinction as gave the highest promise of future eminence in professional life.
His talents, scholarship, character, and social rank, all
justified the highest aspirations. He was, moreover,
an onlr son, the heir to ample estates, which parental industry and frugality were still augmenting;
and his childless uncle, Dr. John Phillips, at Exeter,
had conceived a special fondness for him, and had
intimated his intention of making him the chief heir
to his large fortune also. If the prospect of wealth,
enriched by the  kindliest attachments, could have
dazzled him, it was here. There was an affair of the
heart, too, exerting its full influence over him; and
because of this, the dark cloud of parental displeasure
was hanging over his head, and reflecting its shadow
into his heart; while, to crown all, the liberties of
his country were in extreme peril, and he was drawn
irresistibly into the vortex of war.
Yet it was in the very midst of influences within
and without so alien from any new literary project,
that he gradually developed the plan of establishing
a Classical Academy in his native town! and the
mode in which he proposed to execute the enterprise,
was especially in conflict with these obstacles. His
plan was first to persuade his exact and frugal father,now in a measure inclined to distrust his judgment,
since the rlatrimonial misstep, as he considered it,







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JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 193
and then his partial uncle, to endow the school as its
joint FOUNDERS; thus diverting from himself, as their
prospective heir, the property which they should consent to devote to this object. These proposed founders
were men to appreciate his plan, but not to have originated it; although in his modesty, he was inclined
sometimes to ascribe this honor to his uncle, whose
zeal in prosecuting the enterprise was especially conspicuous.
It was a great era in their lives, when they took
his project into serious consideration.  Trained  to
habits of rigid economy, their energy in business had
hitherto expended itself chiefly in the work of accumulating and investing property successfully; now the
greater work of using, or rather of appropriating their
property wisely, was to be decided. With what misgivings or modifications they at first encouraged the
enterprise, and finally committed themselves fully to
it, we are unable to state; but it is well ascertained,
that, in their minds and his own, there were very
material changes from the inception of the project to
its completion; especially in respect to the character
and location of the contemplated School, if not as to
its existence. Doubtless the solid judgment and enlarged experience of two such liberally educated men,
both of whom had been teachers, helped to give some
valuable features to the proposed effort; but there is
abundant evidence, that the originating process was
17




194                MEMOIR  OF
distinctively his; and that in the ultimate enibodying
of their combined counsels, he had a leading agency
to which they deferred.
At first, as we learn from one of the documents in
our hands, the proposed Institution was designed by
the Founders to be rather a private establishment,
under his personal supervision, than a public High
School. The entire endowment, in lands, buildings,
and funds, was to be made over to him personally
in trust, and to vest in him; and the Founders with
seven others, were to be Trustees of the School, under
a Constitution in many important particulars like
the one finally adopted; while he, in the language
of the -Indenture which was drawn between the parties,
covenanted to "stand seized forever of the lands and
monies aforesaid to and for the uses and purposes, and
upon the trusts aforesaid, and for no other purpose
whatsoever."
The manuscript of this Indenture before us, in his
hand, is a literary curiosity. It embodies, almost as
fully as the subsequent Constitution of the Academy
does, and to a large extent in the same phraseology,
his long-pondered and thoroughly matured ideas of
the character of his School, while the hundreds of
changes in its diction, page after page, from the first
forn  of expression used, show that every sentence
was most carefully elaborated, every word repeatedly




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 195
weighed.  The instrument is without date, but was
written some time in 1777.
While thus digesting his views and approximating
his ideal of the projected Institution, the question of
its location was agitated. Earnest and repeated efforts
were made to obtain a suitable site for it in the North'Parish, near his own and his father's residence. It was
a wise point entirely settled in the plan of the founders to have ample grounds, even if they should not
have at first an expensive building. But no negotiation could procure the locality which they were most
anxious to have, —the present site of Dr. Kittridge's
house, and adjacent grounds, -and with deep regret
they were compelled to look elsewhere.
In January, 1777, - a single year only subsequent to
the first movement in the powder-mill enterprise,the first purchase of lands for founding the Academy
was made of Solomon Wardwell,' in the South Parish;
in March another tract was bought, and in January,
1778, still another, making together about one hundred and forty acres.2 Upon the tract included in the
second purchase, was the old dwelling, to which Judge
Phillips first moved from the North Parish; taking
possession, so far as can be ascertained, very soon after
the purchase, as it was his wish to be constantly able
1 Father of the late Dr. Daniel Wardwell of Andover.
2 A tract of 200 acres in New Hampshire was also added.




196                MEMOIR OF
to direct in person the arrangements for the opening
of the school.' Soon after completing these purchases,
all of which were made in his father's name and at his
father's expense, he obtained from his uncle at Exeter
a bond for the payment of his proposed share of the
endowment in money. This bond is dated May 29,
1777, and is in Judge Phillips's handwriting, together
with the various indorsements of payments on it; as,
indeed, is nearly every other paper also connected with
the whole transaction.
An old joiner's shop, included in the first purchase,
was immediately removed and fitted up as the first
school-room for the Institution, standing on the corner
of our present Main and Phillips streets, upon the south
side of Mr. Farrar's door-yard. It was a rude building, of one story, about thirty-five by twenty feet, done
off temporarily in the plainest manner for the purpose,
and not intended to accommodate more than thirty or
forty scholars. Meanwhile the proposed constitution
of the Academy was again and again retouched, until,
as the time for opening the Institution drew near, the
plan of vesting the whole directly in the Board of
Trustees, rather than in Judge Phillips personally, was
adopted; and the deed of gift and constitution were
modified in conformity with this view.
There is one most important paragraph of consid-' See Appendix G.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 197
erable length in the constitution as finally adopted,
which appears in the draught of the Indenture already
referred to, not as it was first written, but inserted on
a separate leaf as an after-thought. It is the passage
commencing with the words, "and whereas many
of the students in this Seminary may be devoted to
the sacred work of the Gospel ministry" -toward the
end of the instrument, in which so much prominence
is given to the anticipated religiots character of the
institution, and which embodies a summary of the doctrines which were to be inculcated. This paragraph,
a fac simile of which, as originally written, we here
insert, not only gave emphasis to the entire religious
tone of the constitution, but was the germ of a course
of Theological study which was, at a later day, introduced into the Academy, and led, at last, to the founding of a separate Theological Department.
Yet with all this slow growth, and these many revisions, the copy of the constitution, as engrossed and
adopted at the founding of the school, shows an occasional erasure or interlineation, by the careful hand
that had drawn it, in order to make its diction still
more perfect. This document, written by Judge Phillips, with even more than his usual neatness, was preserved as a keepsake, after his decease, by Madam
Phillips, until, at her death, it was, by her request, deposited in the Archives of the Institution. With these
statements respecting it, we here insert it in full.
17*
x(I             j  6 
x  W'  ~6v~ ~~zJ' 




198                 MEMOIR  OF
CONSTITUTION OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY.
"A short reflection upon the grand design of the great
Parent of the Universe in the creation of mankind, and
the improvements of which the mind is capable, both in
knowledge and virtue, as well as upon the prevalence of ignorance and vice, disorder and wickedness, and upon the direct
tendency and certain issue of such a course of things, must
occasion, in a thoughtful mind, an earnest solicitude to find
the source of these evils and their remedy; and a small acquaintance with the qualities of young minds, -how susceptible and tenacious they are of impressions, evidences that
youth is the important period, on the improvement or neglect
of which depend the most important consequences to individuals themselves and the community.
" A serious consideration of the premises, and an observation of the growing neglect of youth, have excited in us a
painful anxiety for the event, and determined us to make, in
the following conveyance, a humble dedication to our Heavenly Benefactor of the ability wherewith he hath blessed
us, to lay the foundation of a public free School or Academy
for the purpose of instructing youth, not only in English and
Latin Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, and those sciences,
wherein they are commonly taught; but more especially to
learn them the great end and real business of living.
"Earnestly wishing that this Institution may grow and
flourish; that the advantages of it may be extensive and
lasting; that its usefulness may be so manifest, as to lead the
way to other establishments on the same principles; and that
it may finally prove an eminent means of advancing the interest of the great Redeemer, to His patronage and blessing
we humbly commit it.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   199
"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that we, Samuel
Phillips of Andover in the County of Essex and State of
Massachusetts Bay, Esquire, and John Phillips of Exeter in
the County of Rockingham and State of New Hampshire,
Esquire, for the causes and considerations, and for the uses
and purposes, hereinafter expressed, have granted, and do by
these presents grant unto the Hon. William Phillips, Esq.,
Oliver Wendell and John Lowell, Esquires, of Boston in the
County of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts Bay, the Rev.
Josiah Stearns of Epping in the County of Rockingham aforesaid, Elias Smith of Middleton, William Symmes and Jonathan French, Clerks, Messrs. Samuel Phillips, Jun., and Eliphalet Pearson, Gentlemen, and Mr. Nehemiah Abbot, Yeoman, all of Andover aforesaid, and to their heirs, all the Right,
Title, and Interest, either of us have in certain parcels of land,
hereafter mentioned, namely.
" In three several pieces of land, situate in Andover aforesaid; the first of which contains about twelve acres, the second piece contains about twenty-eight acres, the third piece
contains about thirty acres, being lately part of the estate of
George Abbot, Esq., deceased, and conveyed by Capt. Joshua
Holt, Administrator on said estate, to Samuel Phillips, Esq.,
aforesaid, March first, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven;-likewise two other parcels of land in said
Andover, situate near the two first-mentioned pieces, containing about thirty-nine acres, conveyed by Solomon Wardwell
to said Phillips, January twenty-fourth, one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-seven, together with all the buildings
on said lands; —likewise two other pieces of woodland, sit.
uate in said Andover, containing about thirty-two acres, conveyed by Nehemiah Abbot to said Phillips, January twelfth,




200                 MEMOIR  OF
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight; - likewise
about two hundred acres of land in the town of Jaffrey in
the county of Cheshire and State of New Hampshire, conveyed by Johnl Little to said Phillips, September fourth, one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven.
" And the said Samuel Phillips and John Phillips do also
further give, assign, and set over unto the said William Phillips, Oliver Wendell, John Lowell, Josiah Stearns, William
Symmes, Elias Smith, Jonathan French, Samuel Phillips, Jr.,
Eliphalet Pearson, and Nehemiah Abbot, and to their heirs,
the sum of one thousand six hundred and fourteen pounds, to
have and to hold the same land and the same sum of money
to them and to their heirs, to the use and upon the trust,
hereafter mentioned.
"The lands shall be let out on proper terms, and the said
sum of money put to interest on good security, or both improved in such way as shall be found on the whole most
beneficial; and the whole of the Rents, Profits, Issues, and
Interest of said land, and of said sum of money, shall be for
ever appropriated, laid out, and expended, for the support of
a public free School, or Academy, in the south parish in the
town of Andover aforesaid, in manner and form following.
"The said Samuel Phillips and John Phillips shall, together
with the before-named William Phillips, Oliver Wendell,
John Lowell, Josiah Stearns, William Symmes, Elias Smith,
Jonathan French, Samuel Phillips, Jr., Eliphalet Pearson,
and Nehemiah Abbot, be Trustees of said School; and hereafter the Master, for the time being, shall ever be one of the
Trustees; a major part shall be laymen and respectable freeholders; also a major part shall not consist of the inhabitants
of the town where the Seminary is situate.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   201
"The Trustees shall meet on the last Tuesday of April
instant; and ever after, once in every year, on such day as
they shall appoint; also, upon emergencies, when called
thereto, as hereafter directed; and a major part of the Trustees shall, when regularly convened, be a quorum; of which
quorum a major part shall have power to transact the business of their trust, except in cases hereafter excepted; and
their first meeting shall be at the dwelling-house on the
lands purchased of Captain Joshua Holt, where Samuel
Phillips, Jr. now resides, at which shall be chosen the officers of the Trust; a name shall be given to this Seminary
and its principal Instructor; and such other business relating
to this Institution transacted, as the Trustees shall think
proper.
" There shall be chosen annually a President, Clerk, and
Treasurer, as officers of the Trust, out of their own number,
who shall continue in their respective offices till their places
are supplied by a new election; and, upon the decease of
either of them, another shall be chosen in his room at the
next meeting. The Master shall not be chosen President,
and no member shall sustain the office of Clerk and Treasurer
at the same time.
" The President shall, in all cases, give his voice and vote
in common with any other member; and, whenever there
shall be an equal division of the members on any question, it
shall determine on that side, whereon the President shall
have given his vote; and in his absence, at any meeting of
the Trustees, another shall be appointed, who shall be vested
with the same power, during such absence; — he shall call
special meetings upon the application of any three of the
Trustees, or upon the concurrence of any two of the Trus



202                 MEMOIR  OF
tees in sentiment with him on the occasion of such meeting.
And upon the decease of the President, a special meeting
may be called by any three of the Trustees. All notifications for special meetings shall express the business to be
transacted, if convenient; and be given at least one month
previous to such meeting, if not incompatible with the welfare of the Seminary; and, when a special meeting shall be
called for the appointment of an Instructor, or to transact
other business of material consequence, information shall be
given by leaving a written notification at the house of each
Trustee, or in such other way, as that the President, or members notifying, shall have good reason to believe that each
member has received the notice.
" The Clerk shall record all votes of the Trustees, inserting the names of those present at every meeting. He shall
keep a fair record of every donation, with the name of each
benefactor; the purpose, to which it is appropriated, if expressed; and of all expenditures; and a true copy of the
whole shall be taken, and kept in the Seminary, to be open
for the perusal of all men; and, if he shall be absent at any
meeting of the Trustees, another shall be appointed, to serve
in his room, during such absence.
"The Treasurer shall, previous to his receiving the interest
of the Seminary into his hands, give bond for the faithful
discharge of his office, in such sum as the Trustees shall
direct, with sufficient sureties, to the Trustees of the Seminary for the time being by name; said bond to express the
use both in the obligatory part and in the condition. He
shall give duplicate receipts for all monies received, countersigned by one of the Trustees; one to the donor, the other
to be lodged with such member as the Trustees shall from




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  203
time to time direct; and the Trustees shall take such other
measures as they shall judge requisite, to make the Treasurer
accountable, and effectually to secure the interest of the
Seminary.
" The Trustees shall let or rent out the lands in such a
manner, as they shall find on the whole most profitable.
They may make sale of any kind of estate, make purchases,
or improve the property of the Seminary in any way, which
they judge will best serve its interest.
"Upon the death, resignation, or removal of the Master,
appointed by the said Samuel Phillips and John Phillips, the
Trustees shall appoint another in his stead; and ever after
from time to time, as there shall happen any vacancy in this
office, they shall supply it.
"Whereas the success of this Institution much depends,
under Providence, on a discreet appointment of the principal
Instructor, and the human mind is liable to imperceptible
bias; it is therefore required, that when any candidate for
election, as a principal Instructor, is so near akin to any
member of the Trust, as a nephew or cousin, in determining
that election, any member, to whom the candidate is so related, shall not sit.
"The Trustees are empowered to appoint such assistant
or assistants in and for the service of the Seminary, as they
shall judge will best promote its usefulness, and as may be
duly encouraged.
" No person shall be chosen, as a principal Instructor, unless a professor of the Christian Religion, of exemplary
manners, of good natural abilities and literary acquirements,
of a good acquaintance with human nature, of a natural
aptitude for instruction and government; and, in the appoint



204                  MIEMOIR OF
ment of any Instructor, regard shall be had to qualifications
only, without preference of kindred or friend, place of birth,
education, or residence.
" The Trustees shall make a contract with each Master
and Assistant, before their entrance upon, office, as to salary;
of which there shall be no alteration but in their favor;
which the said Trustees are empowered to make, as to them
shall appear reasonable, and as the income of.the Seminary
will admit.
"' It shall be their duty, to inquire into the conduct of the
Master and Assistant, or Assistants; and, if they or either of
them be found justly chargeable with such misconduct, neglect of duty, or incapacity, as the said Trustees shall judge
renders them, or either of them, unfit to continue in office,
they shall remove the Master or any Assistant, so chargeable.
"The Trustees shall determine the qualifications, requisite
to entitle youth to an admission into this Seminary.
" As the welfare of the Seminary will be greatly promoted
by its members being conversant with persons of good character only; no scholar may enjoy the privileges of this Institution, who shall board in any family, which is not licensed
by the Trustees.
" And, in order to preserve this Seminary from the baneful
influence of the incorrigibly vicious, the Trustees shall determine, for what reasons a scholar shall be expelled, and the
manner in which the sentence shall be administered.
" The Trustees, at their annual meeting, shall visit the
Seminary, and examine into the proficiency of the scholars;
examine and adjust all accounts relative to the Seminary;
and make any farther rules and orders which they find necessary, and not inconsistent with any rule that is or may be
established by the Founders.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                    205
"They shall, as the funds will permit, without affecting:he support of the Master or any assistant, have power to
erect such buildings as they may think necessary; and, at a
convenient season, when of sufficient ability, shall erect a
large, decent building, sufficient to accommodate at least
fifty scholars with boarding, beside the master and his
family; unless it shall be the determination of a major part
of the Trustees, that the true design of this Institution may
be better promoted by the scholars boarding in private families, and by some other improvement of the interest of the
Seminary. They shall, from time to time, order such repairs
as they shall judge necessary.
" Upon the death, resignation, or incapacity for the service,
by reason of age or otherwise, of any of the Trustees, the remaining Trustees shall supply the vacancy by a new election.
" In settling the salary and perquisites of the Master, and in
the consideration of every other question, in which the Master
is particularly interested, he shall not sit.  And, if any question shall come before the Trustees, wherein the town or
parish, where the Seminary is situate, may be a party or particularly interested, and any minister belonging to such town
is a Trustee; in the consideration of such question he shall
not sit.
" At the meetings of the Trustees, there shall be made
decent, not extravagant, entertainment. Economy is to be
ever viewed by the Trustees and Instructors in their respective capacities, as an object worthy their particular recommendation.
" The Master, when appointed, shall receive applications
for the admission of scholars, and determine them agreeably
to the rules respecting the same.
18




206                  MEMOIR  OF
"He shall conform himself to the Regulations established
by the Founders and Trustees, and have power, from time to
time, to make such other consistent Rules and Orders, as he
shall find necessary for the internal management and regulation of the Seminary; which Rules and Orders shall be
subject to the examination, amendment, or discontinuance
of the Trustees, at their discretion.
-" It shall be ever considered as the first and principal duty.of the Master, to regulate the tempers, to enlarge the minds,
and form the morals of the youth committed to his care.
"There shall be taught in this Seminary the English,
Latin, and Greek Languages, Writing, Arithmetic, Music, and
the Art of Speaking; also practical Geometry, Logic, and
any other of the liberal arts and sciences, or languages, as
opportunity and ability may hereafter admit, and as the
Trustees shall direct.
" The Master is to give special attention to the health of
the scholars, and ever to urge the importance of a habit of
industry. For these purposes it is to be a. part of his duty,
to encourage the scholars to perform some manual labor, such
as gardening, or the like; so far as it is consistent with cleanliness and the inclination of their parents; and the fruit of
their labor shall be applied, at the discretion of the Trustees,
for procuring a Library, or in some other way increasing the
usefulness of this Seminary.
" But, above all, it is expected, that the Master's attention
to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth, under his charge, will exceed every other care; well considering
that, though goodness without knowledge (as it respects
others) is weak and feeble; yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous; and that both united, form the noblest




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  207.character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to
mankind.
" It is therefore required, that he most attentively and vigorously guard against the earliest irregularities; that he frequently delineate, in their natural colors, the deformity and
odiousness of vice, and the beauty and amiableness of virtue;
that he spare no pains, to convince them of their numberless
and indispensable obligations to abhor and avoid the former,
and to love and practise the latter; of the several great
duties they owe to God, their country, their parents, their
neighbor, and themselves; that he critically and constantly
observe the variety of their natural tempers, and solicitously
endeavor to bring them under such discipline, as may tend
most effectually to promote their own satisfaction and the
happiness of others; that he early inure them to contemplate the several connections and various scenes, incident to
human life; furnishing such general maxims of conduct, as
may best enable them to pass through all with ease, reputation, and comfort.
"And whereas many of the -Students in this Seminary may
be devoted to the sacred work of the gospel ministry; that
the true and fundamental principles of the Christian Religion
may be cultivated, established, and perpetuated in the Christian Church, so far as this Institution may have influence; it
shall be the duty of the Master, as the age and capacities of
the Scholars will admit, not only to instruct and establish
them in the truth of Christianity; but also early and diligently to inculcate upon them the great and important Scripture doctrines of the existence of One true God, the Father.
Son, and Holy Ghost; of the fall of man, the depravity of
human nature; the necessity of an atonement, and of our




208                   MEMOIR  OF
being renewed in the spirit of our minds; the doctrines of
repentance toward God and of faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ; of sanctification by the Holy Spirit, and of justification by the free grace of God, through the redemption,
that is in Jesus Christ, (in opposition to the erroneous and
dangerous doctrine of justification by our own merit, or a
dependence on self-righteousness,) together with the other
important doctrines and duties of our Holy Christian Religion.
" And, whereas the most wholesome precepts, without frequent repetition, may prove ineffectual; it is further required
of the Master, that he not only urge and re-urge; but continue
from day to day, to impress these instructions.
" And let him ever remember that the design of this Institution can never be answered, without his persevering, incessant attention to this duty.: Protestants only shall ever be concerned in the Trust or
Instruction of this Seminary.
"The election of all Officers shall be by ballot only.
"This Seminary shall be ever equally open to Youth, of
requisite qualifications, from every quarter; provided, that
none be admitted, till in common parlance they can read
English well, excepting such particular numbers, as the Trustees may hereafter license.
"And in order to prevent the smallest perversion of the
true intent of this Foundation, it is again declared, that the
first and principal object of this Institution is the promotion
of true Piety and Virtue; the second, instruction in the English, Latin, and Greek Languages, together with Writing,
Arithmetic, Music, and the Art of Speaking; the third, practical Geometry, Logic, and Geography; and the fourth, such




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  209
other of the liberal Arts and Sciences or Languages, as oppor.
tunity and ability may hereafter admit, and as the Trustees
shall direct. And these Regulations shall be read by the
President, at the annual meetings of the Trustees.
1" Whereas, in the course of human events, the period may
arrive, when the prosperity of this Institution may be promoted by removing it from the place where it is founded; if
it shall hereafter be judged, upon mature and impartial consideration of all circumstances, by two thirds of the Trustees,
that for good and substantial reasons, which at this time do
not exist, the true design, herein expressed, will be better
served, by removing the Serrinary to some other place; it
shall be in their power to remove it accordingly; provided,
that if this event shall ever take place, there shall be fairly
and truly entered on the Clerk's records all the reasons,
whereon the determination was grounded; and the same
shall be subscribed by the members, who effected the determination; but unless the good of mankind shall manifestly
require it, this Seminary shall never be removed from the
South Parish in the town of Andover.
"And we hereby reserve to ourselves, during any part of
our natural lives, the full right, jointly to make any special
Rules for the perpetual Government of this Institution; which
shall be equally binding on those, whom they may concern,
with any clause in these Regulations; provided, no such
Rule shall be subversive of the true design herein expressed.
We also reserve to ourselves a right, jointly to appoint one
person, to succeed in the Trust after our decease or resignation; to whom shall be transferred the same right of appointment, and to his Successors in the said Trust for ever.
" In witness whereof we, the Subscribers, have hereunto set
18*




210                  MEMOIR  OF
our hands and seals this twenty-first day of April, in the year
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and severity-eight.
" Signed, sealed, and delivered  SAMUEL PHILLIPS (S.)
in presence of
"JOHN ABBOT,
"HANNAH HOLT.                    JOHN PHILLIPS   (S.)"
It is now nearly eighty years since this constitution
was written, yet scarce a word in it is obsolete; and
there is not a paragraph nor a phrase which it would
be desirable to alter. The purity, the ease, the perspicuity and precision of the style, and the sagacious drift
and scope of the plan here embodied, have been the
admiration of all who have ever been concerned in the
oversight or administration of the Academy.' The
Institution has continued to be, in all its distinctive
features, precisely what its revered projector intended
it to be, with no change but expansion, and this such
as he anticipated might ensue.  To appreciate the
honor due to him here, it should be noticed that, in
this case, as in the form of civil government which
he was helping to construct, there was nothing to copy,
but every thing to originate. No such school was then
known; no such constitution had ever been seen. He
was planning a model classical school, for boys only,
1 One who was for forty years a trustee of the Institution has
often been heard to remark, that as the constitution was read year
after year at the meetings of the Board, its language seemed to him
more like inspiration than any thing else, except the Bible!




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                211
which should be in the highest sense FREE,- not as
the word is now used, and as some still understand it,
free from all charge for tuition or other costs; for his
own action immediately after the opening of the school
disproves this, — but open to all, and furnishing ample
facilities for a wide range of study, especially in the
first years of a liberal education; not a sectarian
school, and not a mere scientific school; but a classical
and Christian gymnasium, in close alliance with the
University and the learned professions. It was his
distinct aim and hope, so to shape this Academy, that
it would soon lead to others of a similar character, as
it in fact did. He was thus to be the parent not of
Phillips Academy alone, but of its many imitators and
co-workers in the cause of learning elsewhere.
With such antecedents, the formal act of founding
the Academy took place, as will be seen from the date
of the deed of gift, on the 21st of April, 1778. The
first meeting of the trustees, as prescribed by the constitution, was held on Tuesday, April 28, at which the
organization of the Board took place, and the name of
Phillips School was given to the institution. The number of scholars to be admitted was limited to thirty,
preference being given to those who were "to be instructed in the learned languages," and no others to be
received unless the full number should be incomplete
for a month. Mr. Eliphalet Pearson, one of the trus.
tees, who was then teacher of the town grammar



212                 MEMOIR  OF
school, and had been freely consulted in the whole
process of drafting the constitution, was elected Preceptor; and it was decided that there should be two
vacations a year, one in April, the other in October,
of three weeks each.
At this very meeting, the war was also before their
minds; for a vote was passed to apply to the General
Court for an appropriation of books to the school,
from the libraries 1 "of the absentees;" referring to persons who had withdrawn from the country and joined
the British in the contest. There was another formality, also, connected with the organization.  The Rev.
Mr. French preached a sermon upon the occasion, the
manuscript of which is still preserved by his son. On
the morning of Thursday, April 30, the school was
opened in due form, with an attendance of tlhirteen
pupils, and in less than a month the full complement of
thirty was made up.
In all this organic period, Judge Phillips was the master-spirit of the enterprise, as he had been in the various preliminary steps. The meetings of the Board
were at his house; he suggested their course of action,
and was made chairman of most of their committees.
He began at once to keep their records, although
another was nominally clerk; and with these, a, complete catalogue of all the pupils admitted, with their
place of residence, age, etc. etc.: he acted in like manner as treasurer, taking upon himself the: labor, while
another person held the seal of the office.




JU D G E PHILLIPS.               213
We have, before alluded to the historic interest with
which the old house, in which he now resided, became
in:this way invested.  It has the honor not only of
having been: his. residence for a period, but of'being
the birthplace of the Academy. - While, he lived in it,
the'meetings of the trustees continued to-be held here,
as the. first had been, in the west room; now used as:
a.. dining-room  by the:?Academic, Club.  When he removed from it, it became the residence of the successive preceptors of the school, Mr. Pearson, Mr. Pemberton; and Mr.,Newman.  When the Theological iSeminary was founded,:this: house was occupied byJ -Dr.
Woods;. and hekre, in Athe same room, his. first course of
Lectures in Divinity was delivered.
The only other- buildings at this; time, on.all the territory now known as 1";Andover Hill," were the-'new
academy on the corner of the same street, and two old
dwelling-houses, belonging to ithe estates of Stephen
Abbott' and Samuel.Abbott, deceased; one.near the
site of the Abbott Professor's house,' and the other a
few rods south of the printing house. We give, in
this'connection, the best representation which we haver
been able to:sketch of "'the Hill," as it then appeared.
The very first term  of the school' not only confirmed, but enlarged the views of- its indefatigable pro.
1 Lately occupied by Dr. Woods.'N~ ~                        He~   A< - 




214               MEMOIR OF
jector respecting it. Such numbers pressed for ad.
mission to its privileges, that the opening arrangements
were soon materially modified; and at the close of the
term a charge was, by vote of the trustees, at his suggestion, made upon each scholar, to pay the salary of
an assistant, and other necessary expenses incident to
an enlargement of the plan:1 a practice which was
continued, with various modifications, through his lifetime; and is still, as then, found necessary, for the
want of more ample endowments.
With the rapid expansion of the school, another
question began now to occupy his thoughts, — the
question of obtaining for it an act of incorporation;
and in October of this year a committee was appointed
to apply, at such time as they should judge best, to
the General Court for such an act. In connection with
this application, it was also voted to change the name
of the Institution from Phillips School to Phillips Acadc
ern/y; under which title it was incorporated on the 4th
of October, 1780.
There are some circumstances connected with this
Act which deserve to be mentioned. By it, Phillips
Academy had the distinction of being the first incorporated academy in the Commonwealth. The Act had
to be drafted without any aids from precedent. On
examining the original paper as engrossed, now in the
1 Academy Records, p. 30, etc.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  215
archives of the State, we find that the preamble is in
the handwriting of Judge Phillips, and a portion of
the first enacting clause; the remainder of the document appears to have been copied by a different hand;
but that the composition of the whole was his work
there can be no question.' In a letter to his uncle at
Exeter, dated Andover, September 6, 1780, speaking
of various hindrances to his being at Dartmouth College, of which he had been chosen a trustee, at the
ensuing commencement, as Dr. Phillips desired, he
says              -
"I am under a still further difficulty on account of an act
of incorporation for Phillips School, which I am solicitous to
get through this session, by reason of Mr. Lowell's being a
member of the General Assembly, as well as for other
reasons; — this school is in a flourishing state, in the estimation of those who have children here; and I trust you will
give yourself opportunity, this fall, to acquaint yourself in
person with the situation of it."
The Act, thus originated, was the last legislative act
of the General Court, under the old regime, the new
State Government, under the Constitution which Judge
Phillips had assisted to frame, being organized early in
the November following, thus reminding us again of
the Revolutionary scenes in the midst of which the
Institution was evolved: and, as if to make the recollection still more vivid, the act next preceding this
1 See Appendix, H.




216                    MEMOIR OF
related to a powder-house in Boston, and the newspa,
pers of the very next day contained the startling intelligence of Arnold's treason! Nor can we omit to
notice here, in passing, the fact that the ever memoraable hard winter had  ushered  in this year; when for
forty days from the first of January the cold was most
intense; and the no less memorable dark day had occurred in the spring, on the  19th  of May.'  At the
1 Rev. Mr. French, one of the trustees, gives the following account of this phenomenon: "The morning was ushered in with a
very dark cloud hanging over the west and north-west, attended
with thunder. It settled into the north. The wind'at south-west,
brought over a'number of clouds from that quarter. The darkness
began about nine, and at twelve o'clock it was as dark as evening.
Candles were lighted; domestic fowls repaired to their roosts; fiogs
peeped; night birds appeared; cattle,repaired to their- barns. Objects could be discerned at a small distance only. The clouds put on
a strange kind of brassy, copper color, and every thing conspired to
make the appearance exceedingly gloomy.
"It abated after twelve, and after three in the afternoon the appearance was no other than a dark, cloudy day. Though the moon
fulled the day before, and was at a considerable height, in the evening the darkness returned, and soon became total, as if there had
been no such thing as vision, and continued till about midnight.
"The darkness of the day and evening lasted about fourteen hours.
Concern and terror seemed to sit on the countenances of the people.
"The darkness extended over all the New England States; westward, it reached to Albany; at the southward, it was observed all
along the sea-coast; and to the north, as far as the settlements extend,
though not in all places equally dark." - Abbott's History of Andover,
n. 189'3. 190.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 217
date of its incorporation, the academy had received in
all ninety seven scholars, and the number then in attendance was about sixty.
An exceedingly interesting and important aspect of
this academy enterprise now began to present itself.
In the constitution the projector of the school represents it as one of the earnest wishes of the founders,
"that its utsefulnzess may be so mantifest, as to lead the way to
other establishments on the same principles." In this respect,
as well as in others, its history outran his prophecy.
It had been only two or three years in operation, and
was but just formally incorporated, when his uncle at
Exeter began to confer with him upon the subject of
founding another academy like it, at that place.
It has been said that Judge Phillips was the prime
mover in this project also; but we are inclined rather,
on the ground of various evidences in the case, to
ascribe the honor to his uncle. That Judge Phillips
took the most eager interest in it, and rejoiced over it,
and cooperated with Dr. Phillips in it at every step,
we have abundant proof; but in the communications
which passed between them, Dr. Phillips seems nat.
urally to speak of the enterprise as moving forward
under his hand, very much as Phillips Academy had
done under the eye of Judge Phillips; while the lat.
ter, as naturally, writes of the satisfaction which he
derives from his uncle's plans and efforts,: as they -are
19




218                MEMOIR  OF
from time to time made known to him. The truth
was, Judge Phillips had, in the process of originating
Phillips Academy, so infused his spirit into his uncle,
that he needed no other stimulus to such a work. He
saw that his nephew would have no need of his fortune, except to consecrate it to some such public use.
He had no children on whom to bestow it. He could
alone most amply endow a school, which would be a
lasting monument of his zeal for Christian learning,
and in the few years since his attention had been first
called to this great subject by his nephew he appears
to have already matured his noble project. The first
allusion to this topic, which we find in their letters, appears in the following:"ANDOVER, February 26, 1781.
"IHONORED SIR, - As I have so good a conveyance, I can't
vonsent to its passing unimproved, though the bearer can
tarry but little longer than while I acknowledge the receipt
of your very valuable favor of the 24th ultimo; for which I
beg your acceptance of my warmest acknowledgments:- the
contents are important, and if I was capable of returning an
answer which would be worth your perusal, it is out of my
power to do so now.... Mrs. Phillips and the little boy
join in a tender of duty to our uncle and aunt, with
"Your for ever obliged and most dutiful nephew,
" S. PHILLIPS, JR."
Two months later, in a letter from Boston, April 23,
1781, he writes, in connection with other business: —




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  219
"HONORED SIR, -.. Since receiving your last favor, I
have been chiefly from home, and when at home have been so
unfortunate as not to obtain Messrs. French's and Pearson's
opinion of the dimensions of a building that would be most
convenient for an Academy: —this I hope for speedily, and
shall with great pleasure transmit it. The joy I felt, on finding that you had it in contemplation to lay the foundation
of another Academy, was great indeed: so great, that I
hardly know of any thing within human reach that could
have given me more satisfaction, save the intelligence that
your purpose was executed. May my honored uncle long'
enjoy the fruits of his pious cares and projections, in seeing
those who are furnished with the best principles filling the
most important places in Church and State, and doing
worthily for the kingdom of our glorious Saviour. The
impatience of the bearer forbids my adding more than my
dutiful addresses to my honored aunt, and that I am,
"With the warmest sentiments of gratitude and respect,
"Your very dutiful nephew,      S. PHILLIPS, JR."
To this his uncle replied:", EXETER, April 27, 1781.
"DEAR SIR: -... Your concurring sentiments and warm
expressions respecting another Academy, are very refreshing
and highly animating; and will greatly endear you to my
friends here, who were encouraged to expect the help of
your advice, and such assistance as might, in a course of
time, when you shall have more leisure especially, greatly
increase the benefit of such an institution. The motion was
exceedingly agreeable to the General Court, who have incor.




220                 MEMOIR  OF
porated the Academy, by the name of the Phillips Exeter Academy, for the purposes mentioned in yours; and
the trustees nominated and appointed (besides myself) are,
Daniel Tilton and Thomas Odiorne, Esquires, of this town,
John Pickering, Esq., of Portsmouth, David Maclure, of
Northampton, Clerk, the Hon. S. Phillips, Jr. Esq., Andover, and the Preceptor, Mr. Benjamin Thurston-the estate
allowed the same with yours - and might have been
twice so much (I doubt not) had it been asked; and
the Act concludes thus:''And whereas the said Institution
may be of very great and'general advantage to this State,
and deserves every encouragement; be it therefore enacted,
by the authority aforesaid, that all the lands, tenements, and
personal, estate, that shall be given to the said Trustees for
the use of said Academy, shall be and hereby are forever exempted from all taxes whatsoever;' which very encouraging
clause concludes me,     Most affectionately' yours,
"J. PHILLIPS.
"Hon. S. PHILLIPS, JR., Esq."
The "purpose" of Dr. Phillips, it appears, C'was executed." The Act of Incorporation bears date the third
of April, 1781; the school, which was so carefully in
all respects taking its predecessor at Andover for a
model, being endowed by his munificence as its sole
FOUNDER. Fifty thousand dollars were given by him at
the outset for this purpose.
The opening of the school, however, was.deferred
until a suitable building could be erected and a pre.
ceptor found: and was still further delayed by some




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  221
opposition to his wishes in regard to its location; concerning which he writes freely as follows to Judge
Phillips -
"ExETER, September 13, 1781.
"' DEAR KINSMAN, —The Trustees in town met soon after
you left us, and could agree no better than before. I recollected a word you dropped, - that if people in town
insisted on building upon the spot first proposed, and would
convert the building to some other purpose if it was found
by experience not to answer this, it might put an end
to the present difficulty; I ventured to propose the question
as a thought of my own; the twao gentlemen were so confident that it would answer the purpose, that they manifested
a willingness to take that risk: upon themselves: it must lie
there, for all the other Trustees are differently minded. Mr.
Pickering, indeed, says he did not give his opinion, when in
town before, officially; and upon reading the Act, said it was
not the Trustees' business to determine the matter — suppose he meant without a trial- I sent for Mr. Maclure. He
was fully of your opinion, - spake his mind with great freedom and solemnity. Mr. Thurston and I have often repeated
our own sentiments, and have continued our endeavors to
obtain another spot more suitable. The gentleman who owns
the land, where you were pleased to say it might give the
pleasure of inspecting to some advantage, has been waited
on, and consented to sell half an acre, with the addition of a
convenient way to the finest spring in town, within about
eight or ten rods of it; but- the two gentlemen with a number of others to the west of the town, say't is an inconvenient place, and pay little or no attention to it. They have
19'




222                 MEMOIR OF
treated with General Folsom for half an acre bordering upon
the Common, but say his price is very unreasonable. They
have again treated with the man whose land joins upon mine
at the little precipice; he will not spare the quantity which I
insist upon as necessary in that very confined situation.
They can have half an acre at three fold the value, and are
so attached to the spot, I hear, they mean to purchase it;
hoping it may reconcile the Trustees to continue it there.
They know it (the school) must be opened in town; and if
they will run the hazard of its removal, what shall - what
can we say more!....
" I wish to know in time, this fall, when you suppose you
can attend a Trustee meeting here; if you judge it necessary
there should be one. The frame was ready to be erected
iast Friday. I suspect they will purchase the additional half
acre to-day; if they proceed, one room, at least, will, they
say, be in readiness by the first day of November..... In
tenders of love to you and your other self and Johnny, your
aunt joins with your uncle                   JOHN."
Another letter soon followed.
" EXETER, October 5, 1781.
"DEAR KINSMAN, — Having a favorable opportunity by
Mr. Thurston, I write, hoping he will more fully communicate matters respecting himself and the school here.....
The building is erected where the builders pleased; and suppose one room may be finished this month. But whether it
would be best to desire a gentleman so out of health as Mr.
Thurston really is, to enter for so short a time, or to wait till
spring in order to procure an Instructor who might be em



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 223
ployed and settled to his own and others' advantage, is the
question.
" Your sentiments herein would lay a fresh obligation upon
your loving uncle,                  JOHN PHILLIPS."
The opening of the school, which had been retarded
by these obstacles, finally took place on the 1st of May,
1783, and from this time its Founder had the satisfaction of watching its prosperity and usefulness for many
years, parallel with the history of its earlier compeer
at Andover.' During these conferences of Judge Phillips with his uncle in reference to this Academy in
1781, he repeatedly alludes, in his letters, to the subject of building a house, at last, for his own family
residence; such a step as he now felt had become a
necessity. And here we shall see how his deliberation
and forecast, in planning for his own home, resulted, ultimately, in important advantages to his cherished school.
Early in the spring of 1782, he purchased of one of
the heirs of Samuel Abbott, deceased, a tract adjoining
the lands of the Trustees on the south, on which the
residence of the late Professor Stuart was afterwards
built. A few days later he concluded a contract made
nearly a year before, with William Foster, for a tract
of several acres, now included in the Seminary grounds,
upon the southerly side on Salem street, and extending around a short distance upon Main street; and on
1 See Appendix I.




224                MEMOIR  OF
the same day he obtained, of Asa Holt, a small tract
more remote from the Academy, near the southerly
section of its lands obtained from the estate of George
Abbott. By these purchases nearly the whole of "Andover Hill" came into his own and the Trustees' hands.
Soon after this he negotiated with the Trustees for the
site of his mansion-house, adjoining his recent purchases, on the south-east corner of the tract originally
obtained of Solomon Wardwell, exchanging for an acre
and a half here about three acres on the corner where
the new Academy was soon erected. A little later he
purchased for his father and uncle, in the name of the
Trustees, the "old training field," on the corner opposite.l  After he had erected his mansion-house here,
as described in a preceding chapter, and had taken
possession of it, his uncle, in a long communication respecting the affairs of his Academy, greeted him in
these cordial words:"EXETER, January 14, 1783.
"4 DEAR KINSMAN, — Your very kind favor of the 31st of
December I received, and heartily congratulate you on your
removal into your new habitation, after the uncomfortable
situation you have lately been in. Heaven grant the devout
wishes of your heart respecting this residence, -a heart
which is, I trust, the habitation of God, through the Spirit,
and rejoiceth in Him more than in: all worldly accommoda.
1 See again Appendix G.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  225
tions and successes, which justly merit and happily excite
your dutiful and grateful acknowledgments.....
"I am, with love to your whole self,
"Most affectionately yours,
" JOHN PHILLIPS."
In this connection we give also an extract from another letter of later date, as both give important intimations of the freedom with which Judge Phillips suggested his characteristic views to his uncle, and of the
great weight which was attached to them.
C' EXETER, August 18, 1783.
" DEAR SIR, - Your favor of the 16th I received; am sorry
to hear of our dear sister's illness..... May Heaven continue so great a blessing with us; her dearest connections in
particular.
" Your very rational, generous, and religious plan of improving moneys for the advantage of the public, in promoting
education, must meet my fullest approbation; and in consequence, command my future, as well as present, attention, -
how to come at the means is the only obstacle. The agreeableness of your neighbor gives me pleasure. Under your
very many cares and labors, kind Heaven affords you many
comfortable enjoyments, —his name be praised, and Himself
will doubtless be the supreme object of your confidence and
joy. Oh, pray that it may be so with your poor unworthy
uncle, whose love to yourself and the whole family is most
cordially returned.                  JOHN PHILLIPS."
In speaking of the erection of his mansion, we have




226                 MEMOIR OF
stated that one reason for his building so large a house
was Judge Phillips's desire to show suitable hospitality
to his numerous friends. Another reason was his wish
to have a few members of the Academy in his family
from  term to term.  For the sake of the school generally, and in the hope of special usefulness to such
as became members of his family, though so much
absent himself, he cherished this as a favorite feature
of his work, and Madam Phillips warmly seconded
his views. From this date, therefore, a few of the
scholars found a home  here year after year.  A
sketch of "Mayor" Phillips of Boston, in 1825, from
the pen of S. L. Knapp, in the Boston Monthly Magazine, incidentally shows us how admirably this arrangement sibserved the great ends of the school. After
speaking of the Academy itself, he says:"Young Phillips had other high advantages for improving
his mind and manners, for he lived in the house of his kinsman, Samuel Phillips, which was also an admirable school
for youth. The master of the mansion was truly a great
man, distinguished not only for the numerous offices he held
in civil and political life, but for his ardent desire to promote
the cause of religion and learning in the land, believing that
the permanency of our freedom depended upon the diffusion of
knowledge amongst the rising generations..... Many young
men were permitted to live in his house, and he took so
deep an interest in the pupils of the Academy, as constantly
to keep in view their course of study, and frequently to
question them on the subject.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                 227
"In these dialogues he used the choicest language himself,
and was careful to correct the youths who suffered a low,
inappropriate, or equivocal word or expression to escape
them. In all this his manner, though solemn, was kind, and
encouraged the most timid to answer his inquiries, and put
interrogatories with freedom.
"Mrs. Phillips, his lady, was of still more importance to
those under their care than her husband. She possessed a
mind cultivated by extensive reading, and manners refined
by early advantages, and a long acquaintance with the best
society. She was blest with a fine flow of spirits, a rich imagination, an affectionate heart; and acted the fond mother
to all under her roof, or within the reach of her care. It was
impossible for any one to live with her a month, without
understanding the value of a pure, elevated, and polished
woman in the education of men." 1
Still another reason for a large edifice was, the wish
of Judge Phillips always to have the Trustees meet
at his house and share in his hospitalities. This practice of entertaining them, gratuitously, at their various
official meetings, he introduced at the founding of the
School, and continued while he lived, as Madam  Phillips did afterwards during her lifetime.
And once fairly in the occupancy of his new residence, with such views and aims in reference to the
Academy, he was soon engaged in another effort to
improve the Institution.
1 Pages. 282, 283.




228                 MEMOIR OF
The first Academy building, even if it had been
intended for permanent use, was too small for the
enlarged work now done in it. Indeed, it had been
apparent, after only two years' trial, that such would
be the case, and as early as 1780, the subject of erecting a new edifice began to be agitated; in 1784, the
plan and location of it were determined, and a committee was instructed to build it as soon as the necessary means could be procured; during the year 1785,
the building was completed; and, on the 30th of January, 1786, the school was removed to it, in the last
week of Mr. Pearson's service as Principal, his election
as Professor at Cambridge having been already accepted.1  This " New Academy," as it was then called,
stood near the south-west corner of the present Seminary lawn, opposite the Abbott Professor's house. It
was a two-story edifice of wood, with recitation rooms
and a study room on the lower floor, arranged for one
hundred pupils, and a spacious hall for exhibitions and
other public purposes on the second floor. The old
Academy remained for many years on its original site,
where it was for a time used as a singing-room, then
as a store-room for paper rags, etc., until, in 1803, it
was sold and removed about half a mile eastward, to
be fitted up for a dwelling-house,2 in which formn it
1 Academy Records, p. 40, 45, 53, 55, 60.
2 The residence for many years of widow Hannah Berry.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.               229
remained until it was torn down, about ten years since,
to make room for a new house on the same spot.
The "New Academy" was worthy of the growing
reputation of the School. But how were the means
obtained to erect and furnish it? It was located on a
portion of one of Judge Phillips's recent purchases,
which he had transferred to the Trustees in exchange
for the site of his mansion-house; the building was
erected under his direction, at the joint expense of the
two original Founders, and their brother, Hon. William
Phillips of Boston; "they," as the entry in the Journal states,'having given the same to the Trustees in
equal parts," together with the training field on the
south: side of the road. The whole cost was three
thousand one hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixtysix cents; for which the Institution was not only
indebted to their liberality, but to the influence of
Judge Phillips in eliciting it. Prior to the erection of
this commodious building, the exhibitions of the
School had been held in the village church. In 1788,
two years after it was completed, the use of the Hall
on the Sabbath was tendered by the Trustees to the
Parish as a place of worship, while the old meetinghouse could be demolished and a new one built, Judge
Phillips being appointed to communicate the vote.'
While these changes were in progress, both in connection with the school and with his private affairs, he
I Appendix, J.
20




230                 MEMOIR  OF
had erected a store, East of the old Academy, on the
opposite side of the highway, near the present front
entrance to the Seminary grounds. In this state 1" the
Hill" remained now for a considerable period, the mansion-house, the new Academy,' and the store being the
only additions as yet to the buildings which were in
existence at the opening of the School. Such was the
aspect of things here, at the time of Washington's visit.
An old stone wall inclosed the tract now in front of
the Seminary buildings in which the rocks, birches,
alders, bushes, and briars of every sort were still undisturbed; the lands south and north of the old Academy
were occupied as a farm for tillage and pasturage; there
was a plain face wall along the front line of Judge
Phillips's house lot, and the area in front of his mansion
was an open common, as.seen in the accompanying
outline.
Before the new Academy was completed, Dr. Phillips had often expressed the desire that Judge Phillips
would do him the favor to sit for his portrait, respecting which we insert the following extract as an illustration of their mutual regard:"BoSTON, February 7, 1785.
"HONORED SIR, —.. Your repeated mention of a subject, which is a farther evidence of your partiality for your
1 The" New Academy," which is remembered by large numbers
of the Alumni of the School as their literary home, was destroyed
by fire on the night of January 30, 1818.
if ~'5o  -              /




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                      231
unworthy nephew, demands my warmest acknowledgments.
To comply with your desire while the Court is sitting is not
in my power, being constantly taken up from ten in the
morning till nine at night, with only a short intermission at
noon; and I hope to obtain my uncle's consent for a delay,
for the present at least. The hurry of the gentleman who
will carry this to Haverhill, gives me only time to add that
we have the prospect of a permanent bridge of Charles
River,1 that friends at Boston are well, and that I am,
"With the most dutiful respect,
" Your obliged nephew,    S. P., JR."
1 "This was the first effort," says Dr. Dwight, "to erect a bridge
over a broad river in the American States. A brief account of its
origin will not be destitute of interest.
"Judge Russell, the gentleman whom I have already respectfully
mentioned, was long and ardently desirous that a bridge should be
erected between these towns. As he advanced in years he became
more and more solicitous to see the work accomplished. His son,
the late Hon. Thomas Russell, and his son-in-law, the late Hon.
John Lowell, District Judge of Massachusetts, together with several
other gentlemen connected with them, were earnestly desirous to see
the wishes of this venerable man realized. At that time it was universally believed, that for a river so wide and a current so strong, a
floating bridge was the only practicable structure of this nature.
They, therefore, engaged a gentleman to obtain for them a correct
account of the construction, expense, convenience, and security, of
the floating bridge, then lying on the Schuylkill at Philadelphia.
Several other persons, at that time bound for Europe, they requested
also to furnish them with similar information concerning bridges in
that quarter of the globe. While this business was in agitation, both
the gentlemen being on a visit at Cambridge during the session of




232                    MEMOIR  OF
Not unwilling to gratify his uncle, he is yet so intent
on other cares that he cannot find the time for an act
so personal!  And it was this absorbing devotion to his
life's work, which drew the heart of his uncle toward
him  with so much affectionate confidence.
After a brief interval, therefore, we find them again
the Supreme Judicial Court, they made the projected bridge a subject of conversation with the Hon. David Sewall, one of the judges.
In the course of this conversation, the designs mentioned above were
particularly stated. On his return to York, the place of his residence, Judge Sewall communicated this information to his brother,
Major Sewall, a gentleman distinguished for peculiar mechanical talents. After being informed that the difficulties presented by the
stream furnished the only reason for erecting a floating bridge, Major
Sewall observed that a fixed bridge might be constructed, as easily
and certainly, to be secure from the dangers of the current. His
brother requested him to state his views to the gentlemen concerned.
Accordingly he formed, and communicated, a scheme for the intended
structure. After this scheme had been thoroughly examined, the
original design was relinquished, and the present bridge begun. At
the request of the undertakers, Major Sewall came to Boston, and
continued to superintend the work, until he had completely possessed
the builders of the principles on which it was to be accomplished.".. "Charlestown bridge was finished in 1787. It is built on
seventy-five wooden piers, and is forty-two feet in breadth, and one
thousand five hundred and three in length; the river being here two
hundred and eighty feet wider than the Thames at Westminster, and
six hundred and three feet wider than the same river at London
bridge. It is also deeper."... "The bridge was built by two able
and ingenious American artists, Messrs. Cox and Stone, and cost fifty
thousand dollars.'"- Dwight's Travels, Vol. I. p. 495-497.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  233
interchanging letters in reference to the Academy at
Andover, which resulted in giving it an entirely new
and most important feature.  The Institution was now,
for the time, amply furnished with lands and buildings;
but Judge Phillips, who had from  the first wished to
make it as far as possible an inexpensive school, was
specially interested to connect with it every practicable aid to the indigent, and particularly to candidates for the gospel ministry; nor had Dr. Phillips, in
all his efforts at Exeter, lost sight of this great want at
Andover.  We introduce here a portion of their correspondence on this subject.
" EXETER, March 15, 1789.
"DEAR KINSMAN, — I thank you for your kind concern for
my health, expressed in polite and endearing terms; may
your pious wishes with respect to any future usefulness be
answered: and particularly with regard to our Academies.
Gracious Heaven bless them both, in this and future generations! And may your cares, labors, and experience, be eternally and most bountifully rewarded; your numbers exceed
those here- and of Latin pupils especially. I think Mr.
Abbott has forty-five this spring, and proves a faithful instructor.
"President Wheelock was with me about five weeks.
The Court allowed payment of my donation in State notes..  As for obtaining help from Government, towards support of a Professor of Divinity, there is no prospect of it. I
purchased of the President five hundred acres of College
land, at an easy rate, and promised to quit it, provided the
20*




234                 MEMOIR  OF
Trustees would appropriate this, and all other lands 1 had
given them, to the support of a Professor of Divinity."
"EXETER, April 20, 1789.
"MY DEAR SIR,- I received your kind favor of the 16th
instant, and am much obliged by your just and useful observations with respect to Academy instructors. I have had
your Bradford scholar much in my mind; but upon your
recommendation shall turn my attention more upon Dana.
"' With regard to your acceptance of an office, you may
very soon be elected to, what shall or can I be expected to
say? especially as I am ignorant of the salary. Your great
and constant attention to the public interest, since you entered upon the stage of business, has, it seems, exposed you
to losses and embarrassments in your private concerns, —and
you are now become more sensible of the importance and
even the necessity of providing for your family, making payments, etc. etc. In this you are undoubtedly right: — what
very clear and indisputable tendency your closing with a
certain offer would have hereto, all circumstances considered,
yourself, and your nearest and most dear connections are
much better judges than I can be; especially in my present
weak state of body and mind, which forbids any very intense
thought.
"' With respect to our Andover Academy, your personal
oversight was what I had in view, at the first; and have
hitherto rejoiced in the peculiar benefit of it. The expense
arising from the late elegant building, you will be so good as
to acquaint me with. I have long been thinking whether
the donation for pious and charitable uses might not be best
secured by the whole number of Trustees, because they are a




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 235
body politic; and may very judiciously order and improve
that part of the Academy estate, as may best answer the
design. Ten years are past since I first wrote about such a
donation; and'tis likely as many more may pass, before payments on the notes of hand will be generally obtained.
What will you and your judicious father and uncle William
object to the admitting into the Academy a number of poor
children of good morals, and a very promising genius, and
support in part or wholly till they are sufficiently proved?
"As to a college education,'tis what I never had in
view, —some, however, will not be contented without it; and
those of ability will act their pleasure. The very best Academical education may surely answer some of the best and
most valuable purposes. And if the Trustees of our Acadermies, in some future time, employ a very sound Theological
Professor, why may not some of the most orthodox and
pious preachers proceed from them? or why may not charity
scholars be expected to obtain a degree, if well qualified
therefor, at some of our Colleges?... May you, my dear
and loving kinsman, be under the Divine direction. As duty
appears, you will act. If God calls you, his presence will go
with you, and this shall be my comfort!
" I am, with our love to your whole self and the children,
" Most affectionately yours,    J. PHILLIPS.
"Hon. SAMUEL PHILLIPS, JR., Esq."
" BOSTON, May 30, 1789.
" HONORED SIR, - I have attempted repeatedly to write to
you, but have been as often prevented by one means and
another..... Will it not be best that charity scholars should,
in all cases, be required to do what they can for themselves?




236                 MEMOIR  OF
I mean without interfering with their studies, in order that
the Academy Fund may be made as extensively useful as
possible? Some precaution of this nature I had in my
mind to suggest the expediency of, now you are putting your
donation for pious and charitable uses into the hands of the
Trustees: — and one more I will venture to hint; where a
charity scholar, after having obtained a competent share of
knowledge, shall from inclination pursue any other study and
Profession than that of Divinity, -or where a person, after
having received the benefit of this donation, shall engage in
trade or any other lucrative business, and thereby advance
his interest, or be guilty of any foul immorality, - in either
of those cases, should not the favored person be held to repay
the money expended for his benefit, in whole or in part, and
with or without interest, according as his circumstances may
enable him? Will it not be proper to require, that none
shall enjoy the benefit of this donation but persons of truth
and fidelity, and such as give good evidence of their piety
and virtue?
": Will it not be desirable to empower the Trustees to expend part of the income for some other special purpose, when
two thirds of them shall judge that the great objects in view
will be better promoted by, any other particular appropriation
of such part than by the support of charity scholars? Your
own consent, where the opinion of the majority shall be in
favor of such other appropriation, should authorize it; important advantages might arise from such a liberty, if due
care be taken to prevent misapplication.
"Would it not have this tendency, if you should reserve
the right of naming some person, before your decease, whose
consent afterwards should be necessary, in order to justify




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 237
such different appropriation, —he to have no power in the
case, unless one half or two thirds of the board should be in
favor of the measure?  Such person, being the object of
special confidence, would, if deserving it, feel a special obligation to vigilance, and to see that the intention of the donor
was executed. I hope the right will be reserved of making
any such other special appropriation of such part of the interest as you shall judge proper, during your lifetime, perpetual.
"Will not the state of your health admit of your affording us the pleasure of your company at the Trustee meeting
of your Andover Academy? I presume my uncle William
will be there; -your meeting the brethren would be very
pleasing, and the other Trustees will be highly gratified, but
none more than he who has received so many expressions of
affection, though so unworthy of them; — you doubtless remember that the meeting is to be on Tuesday, in the week
before Commencement at Cambridge, which will be the 7th
of July. If the proposed transfer of your donation should
take place at this meeting, that will afford a further reason
for your being present;... but any or all the reasons together will not be sufficient to justify your exposing yourself....
"Please to present my duty to my aunt.
"I am with unfeigned gratitude,
" Your much obliged and dutiful nephew,
" S. PHILLIPS, JR."
The donation to the Andover Academy referred to
in these letters, amounting to more than twenty thousand dollars, was finally made in October, 1789, and
communicated in due form  to the Trustees at their




238                 MEMOIR  OF
next annual meeting in July, 1790. As the deed of
gift, conveying this munificent sum, is not now to be
found among the files of the Institution, his aim in
the donation, and the connection of Judge Phillips
with it, must be inferred from their letters, and from
the following record.
On receiving the donation, the Trustees immediately
"Voted, That the Honorable Samuel Phillips, Jr., Rev.
Mr. Tappan, and Mr. Pearson be a committee, to draft
a vote of thanks to the Honorable John Phillips, Esq.,
for his very generous donation to the Academy." Their
draft, which was reported and adopted, was in these
words:-'" The Board, having been made acquainted by a legal instrument, bearing date the 16th day of October, 1789, this
day communicated, that the Honorable John Phillips, Esq.,
of Exeter, one of the founders of this Academy,' for and in
consideration of further promoting the virtuous and pious
education of youth, (poor children of genius, and of serious
disposition especially,) in Phillips Academy, founded in Andover, in the State of Massachusetts,' has given and granted
to the Trustees of said Academy and their successors, or
their order, certain notes of hand, therein described, to a very
large amount, under certain reservations, therein mentioned,
" Voted, That the thanks of the Board be presented to the
Honorable John Phillips, Esq., for his before-cited pious and
liberal donation, whereby he has still further manifested his
generous and ardent zeal for the promotion of knowledge,
virtue, and piety, and conferred an additional and lasting obligation upon the Academy.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  239," Upon this occasion, the Trustees cannot but add their
fervent wish and prayer, that the DONOR, the distinguished
Friend and Patron of science and religion, may live to behold,
with increasing joy and satisfaction, the happy fruits of this,
and of all his other pious liberalities; and at a very remote
period, his numerous acts of benevolence may receive that
reward, which original and infinite goodness can bestow."'
We have thus far been the more particular in our
statements of the varied agency which Judge Phillips
had in enlisting the cooperation of this uncle, and also
of his father and other relatives in his plans, because,
while ascribing so high an honor to him, we have
wished also to do ample justice to them.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that this noble donation of his uncle at Exeter was communicated to the
Board at the last meeting which his father, the elder
brother, ever attended; and we cannot so well pay the
tribute, which we have contemplated, to these three
brothers, at any other stage of our narrative, as by
presenting them in a group in this connection.
The eldest of this distinguished trio, Sanmuel Phillips,
Esq., of North Andover, has been already somewhat
distinctly brought before the reader, by our incidental
references to him in the progress of this memoir.
After graduating at Harvard College in 1734, he for a
1 Academy Records, p. 77, 78.




240                MEMOIR OF
short period instructed the grammar-school in his native town; but soon devoted himself mainly to mercantile pursuits, in the North Parish, where he continued to reside for more than fifty years.
Of his college life or his earlier years, we have
learned no important particulars, except that from his
childhood upward his intellectual and moral traits
bore a remarkable resemblance to his revered father's;
and as these became stereotyped in his full manhood,
the other sons, who were several years his juniors, honored him with a deference similar to that which they
all felt for their father.
He had more of the reverend clergyman's exact,
rigid, inflexible, commanding spirit, than they; and less
opportunity or disposition to temper it, by an enlarged
intercourse with the world; yet, with the advantages
of his home education and his collegiate course, he was
in mind and manners, a man of letters, not less than a
man of business. There is not, in the entire gallery
of the family portraits, one which catches the eye
sooner than his, for its courtly and dignified mien. He
has been sometimes represented as unduly precise and
exacting, both as a merchant and a magistrate; as insisting too tenaciously upon mere rights, to the neglect of
expediencies and amenities. If this was ever the case,
it may have been as justly chargeable to the times as
to the man; or it may have resulted from the very virtues for which, he is to be honored; his exalted love




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                241
of justice, his high-toned patriotism, his primitive simplicity and frugality, his fervent religious faith and
zeal.
In the great struggle of the country for its liberties,
no man was more steadfast, or more ardent than he.
Other civil services he appears to have carefully performed, from a sense of duty chiefly, and not from
any special interest in them, - but in the Revolution
his whole heart became enlisted. The entire action
of the town in the contest, so much of which we have
in a former chapter detailed, was spontaneous, —it
was such action as a community of patriots would most
naturally have taken, -yet it was specially stimulated
by him, as an acknowledged leader. When they gave
him "instructions" how to act as their representative,
it was at his suggestion; and with his own pen the
instructions were carefully drafted, which he was as
careful to obey. Even the ever active zeal of his son
here did not surpass the heartiness and energy of the
father's patriotic impulses; and it has seemed to us
that all of his strongest characteristics shine out with
more lustre here than anywhere else.
One can read, without special note, of his having
been long a Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum,
of his being chosen Representative to the General
Court and tile Convention of Deputies, of his election
as one of the Governor's Council, of the various civil
and religious offices which were conferred upon him
21




242                MEMOIR OF
in his native town, and which he discharged with acceptance, as well as of his unsullied probity and great
success in business; but when we see how eagerly his
best efforts were put forth, year after year, among the
very foremost of the Revolutionary patriots, we most
heartily admire and revere him.
His connection with Phillips Academy, however, as
one of its founders, is the fact in his history, which, more
than any thing else, will give him a lasting name.
Though so deeply involved in the Revolutionary struggle, like his son, he found time and inclination minutely
to scan this literary project in all its bearings; and, as
it came to maturity, devoted to it his time and counsel
and money, with an intelligent interest commensurate
with its importance. Residing so near the Institution,
however, and in almost daily conference as he was
with his son, there are few memorials of his agency
left in letters or other manuscripts, except the Records
of the Board of Trustees.
At the organization,of this Board he was unanimously chosen President, and was annually reelected
to this office until his decease. Scarcely a meeting of
the Trustees was held, for this whole period of more
than twelve years, which he did not attend; although
the details of service in various particulars were usually assigned to the younger members, under the lead
of his son. No feature of the school appears to have
interested him so much as. its religious aims and ten



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   243
dencies; devoted as he had ever been in his attachment to the sound and vital faith of his fathers.
Coiperating thus actively with his son in plans and
efforts to benefit the Academy, and often renewing his
gifts to relieve its exigencies or to augment its usefulness, he had the great joy, at last, of seeing its endowments munificently reinforced by the ample donation
of his brother and co-founder; and then he could well
say, "Lord, now  lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace." He died shortly after this donation was tendered to the Board, August 21, 1790, aged seventy-five
years and six months; and as his death thus began to
dissolve the band of the;Academy's originators and
patrons, all who were connected with the Institution
united in paying their tribute to his memory.
An obituary notice in the "Centinel" states that, —
"His funeral was attended with great solemnity. The order of procession was as follows:The Students of the Academy.
The Assistant and Writing Instructor.
The Principal.
The Trustees, all with the usual badge of mourning.
The Corpse,
Followed by the mourners, and a numerous train of respectable
friends and acquaintances.
In this order they proceeded from the late mansion of the
deceased to the meeting-house; where, after a very pertinent
prayer by the Rev. Mr. Symmes, a judicious and pathetic




244                  MEMOIR  OF
oration was delivered by Mr. Pem.berton, Principal of the
Academy..... The solemnities were introduced by a hymn
and closed by an anthem, excellently adapted to the occasion.
In the same order the procession moved from  the meetinghouse to the place of interment..... It is but a just tribute to uncommon merit to observe, that if integrity of heart,
and purity of morals, an exemplary conduct in private life,
a conscientious, faithful discharge of the various offices he
sustained, and singular liberality in the cause of religion and
learning, constitute a good and great character, it was eminently his." 1
The second of the three brothers, Hon. John Phillips, LL. D., of Exeter, now claims our notice. Of
his connection with the chief subject of this memoir, in the founding and endowment of Phillips Academy, and also of Phillips Exeter Academy, we have
spoken at large heretofore. His regard for Judge
Phillips, which so often throws its fascination around
us, was doubtless the incentive with him to not a little
of all this varied generosity. Yet the more we have
studied and admired them together, the more have
they seemed to us to be linked with each other in
such deeds by a strong native congeniality of spirit.
1 His wife, 3Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips had died, the previous autumn,
aged seventy-one; an obituary notice of whom, at the time, closes
with these lines:"Think what the mother, Christian, friend, should be,
You've then her character, for such was she."




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 245
We do not conceive it possible to say any thing more
just or honorable to Dr. Phillips, than to characterize
him as eminently like his nephew, the Judge.
Dr. Phillips, like his elder brother, had obtained a
liberal education; and after graduating from Harvard
College, in 1735, but one year later than his brother,
had engaged in teaching for a short period, when, with
such preparation as the times afforded, he began to
preach the Gospel. Numbers of the sermons which
he wrote are still preserved; and it could not have
been from any want of regard for the profession, or
any want of encouragement in it, that he finally relinquished it; for in subsequent years, after settling in
business at Exeter, and teaching a classical school there
for a time, when the church in that village, in which
he was a ruling elder, was seeking a new pastor, he
was unanimously invited to accept that office. He is
said to have often stated, and especially after he had
repeatedly listened to the preaching of Whitefield, that
he did not feel qualified for the ministry.
Turning, therefore, to pursuits for which he deemed
himself better fitted, he became distinguished not only
for his hearty sympathy with the clergy, but for his
zeal in fostering institutions to educate them. It was
with the most liberal and far-reaching views that he
dispensed his gifts in this great work. Instead of withdrawing his aid from Andover, after he had undertaken
21'




246               MEMOIR OE
so much at Exeter, he added donation to donation,
until his gifts to Phillips Academy, including a legacy
by his will, amounted to more than thirty thousand
dollars. To his Academy at Exeter his donations were
much larger. With other friends of learning in New
England, he contributed also liberally to the funds of
Princeton College. In Dartmouth College, of which
he was for twenty years a trustee, he endowed a Professorship of Theology; and wherever his money was
thus bestowed, his heart went with it.
Had he not left these various monuments to his
memory, his rare capacity and success as a merchant,
his aptness as a teacher, his honors as colonel of the
militia, or as one of the special justices of the Superior
Court, might have been thought worthy of note; but
it is as the liberal patron of institutions of learning
that he has been, and deserves to be, especially honored.
After the decease of his elder brother, he was chosen
President of the Board of Trustees at Andover, which
office he held until his death, April 21, 1795, at the
age of seventy-five years and eight months; and the
inscription which Professor Pearson is said to have proposed for his monument, has seemed to us an admirable expression of the spirit in which so beneficent a
life was closed at last. By his will, two thirds of his
estate was bequeathed to the Exeter Academy, and




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                     247
one third to the Academy at Andover; and this was
the proposed epitaph: —
"Without natural issue, he made posterity his heir." 
The younger brother, Hon. William  Phillips of Boston, had already begun to catch the spirit of the others, with reference to the endowment of institutions
of learning, but was for the most part engaged in prosecuting other enterprises.  Without the advantages of
a liberal education, he had so much native force.of
mind, and so much practical culture from his intercourse with men of eminence in every profession, that
there were few in our metropolis who exerted a more
marked or salutary influence.  Repairing at the early
age of fifteen to the city as a clerk to Edward Bromfield, Esq., and subsequently marrying the daughter of
his employe,2 he became a partner with him  in the
firm, and rapidly amassed a large fortune.
As a representative- from. Boston in the General
Court, as a member of the Senate and of the Governor's Council, as a delegate to the Convention for rat1 This epitaph reminds one of the memorable'saying in regard to
Washington, "Heaven wrote him childless, that millions might find him
a Father!" - Knapp's Sketches, under the signature of Ignatius Loyola Robinson, LL. D., p. 253.
2. By this marriage a great-great-grandson of the first minister of
Watertown, was united to a great-great-granddaughter of- the first
minister of Boston, Rev. John Wilson, who had come from England,
it will be remembered, in the same company.




248                 MEMOIR  OF
ifying the Constitution of the United States, and in
other offices, he had a long and honorable career of
civil service; in every stage of which he was prominent among the men of the period, especially in those
emergencies which called for the highest judgment and
resolution. Throughout the entire period of the Revolution, his name will be found constantly associated
with the Adamses, and Bowdoin, and Hancock, and
other leading patriots.l His eldest daughter was married to Josiah Quincy, Jr., and had taken refuge with
the family in Norwich during the siege of Boston,
when that heroic young orator died on his return
voyage from England. With the firmest and stoutest
of heart, he bore the very brunt of the conflict with
Governor Gage; boldly protesting, in person, against
his arbitrary measures, and resisting him at every step.
But as these scenes, which so well elicited his zeal
and decision, passed away, the current of his life moved
on again calm and clear in its old channels; and from
spending his fortune freely in the cause of liberty, he
began to make it more directly tributary to the cause
of education and religion. Retaining still his carefulness and exactness in all the daily details of business,
his house was the hospitable home of the clergy from
1 The "Committee of Safety," for example, chosen in Boston,
July 26, 1774, were James Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
John Hancock, William Phillips, Joseph Warren, and Josiah Quincy.
- Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston, p. 29.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                249
every quarter; and whenever they or others sought
the aid of his hand in any work of charity, it was
freely bestowed.
It was at his house that Judge Phillips usually stayed,
year after year, during his long service in the General
Court; so unwilling were the family ever to have him
go elsewhere. There are numerous passages in the letters of Judge Phillips, in which, with a touching fulness
of heart, he expresses his sense of the kindness which
he here received. One of these acknowledgments we
cannot forbear to extract. "January 26, 1795," he
writes, when suffering from  illness: "My uncle and
aunt are very cautious of my doing any thing that
may hazard an exposure. They show me all the attention care, and affection that they could, if I was their
child, and an only child."... In the same letter he
says, in reference to the devoted attentions of his
aunt: "I can hardly realize that the disciple who
washed the feet of our Divine Saviour and wiped them
with her hair, had a better heart than this Christian."... "This instance of condescending goodness in the
lady of a gentleman of the first fortune in New England, and one of the first in the United States," as he
characterizes it, he gives "as a specimen of that unwearied kindness which is shown" him.
To the Academy at Andover, which his beloved
nephew was ever fostering, this uncle had already
made liberal donations; having, besides other gifts,




250                  MEMOIR  OF
borne his third with the other brothers of the expense
of erecting the new building. On the 12th of March,
1797, Judge Phillips writes in haste to Madam Phillips:"MY DEAR FRIEND, - If this reaches you before you have
sent a horse and chaise for me, please to omit it till Tuesday. My uncle has desired me to assist him about a piece
of business this week that I know you will be pleased with.
Indeed, it is doubtful whether I shall be able to get home
before Thursday.
" I am affectionately yours,       S. P."
The explanation of this hint is found in the codicil
to his uncle's will, dated April 18, 1797, devising, with
other charitable bequests, the sum of four thousand
dollars to Phillips Academy, as a fund for aiding indigent scholars.
With many such works of beneficence in the use of
his large fortune, he was now preparing to leave both
his estate and his Christian munificence of spirit to be
inherited by his honored son. On the'15th of January,
1804, "he died, in a good old  age, full of days, riches,
and honor."
Thus lived and died the "three sons " of our venerable clergyman, in the very spirit of that religious
injunction in his will, " to serve their generation according to ye will of God, by doing good; as they shall
have ye opportunity, unto all men, and especially to




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                251
ye household of faith; as knowing yt it is more blessed
to give than to receive!"
Excellent portraits of these three distinguished patrons of learning, and of Judge Phillips, presented to
the Institution which they had originated by His Honor
Willian Phillips, of whom we shall hereafter speak, now
adorn its halls; and at every annual exhibition of the
school, these four are seen together, as if in. mid life
yet upon the stage, watching the ever growing success
of the great enterprise in which they so long labored.
After the decease of Dr. John Phillips, Hon. William
Phillips was chosen President of the Board of Trustees, until his age and infirmities led him to decline the
office, when Judge Phillips was elected.
The Academy was now in the full tide of a most
gratifying prosperity: well endowed, though less amply
so than the school at Exeter; well instructed, and already widely known as a model institution. Having
with so much perseverance and success concentrated
upon it the good-will of its family of patrons, Judge
Phillips sought also now to enlist in its behalf the
patronage of the State. His brother-in-law, Hon. John
Foxcroft, had, through his agency, made a donation to
the Academy of some lands in the District of Maine,
valued at several hundred dollars. - Judge Phillips was
himself largely concerned in various operations connected with the lands of the Commonwealth in this




252               MEMOIR OF
District. The State had for a succession of years
honored him with important commissions, pertaining
to its lands, so far as they had become a subject of
dispute, or were to be offered for sale. The Records
of the General Court show, that, from 1783 to the
year of his decease, he was seldom free from trusts
of this kind.'
Connecting with his own Academy others of a
similar character which had already sprung up, he
succeeded now in obtaining, amid these labors, from
the General Court, a grant of a half township of these
lands to each institution, estimated at the time to
be worth nearly $2,000;2 and the tract which was
finally conveyed to Phillips Academy, was selected
under his own eye; but though it was a new proof of
his deep interest in the school, this grant has never
realized his expectations, and has been of comparatively little advantage to the Institution. During his
lifetime, no income was received from this source;
but the school was sustained, and year after year enlarged, from the income of its various endowments
by his relatives, and by means of its regular charges
for tuition, while its advantages were made free to
indigent young men from all sections of the country,
by means of its beneficiary funds.
Before it had been a score of years in operation, it
had attained so wide a celebrity that not only the sons
l See Appendix K.            2 Ibid. L.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   2o3
of gentlemen from  the various New England States,
but from  the South, and from  the West Indies, and
from France and other foreign countries, resorted to it;
and Judge Phillips, who was now President of the
Board of Trustees, was so identified in the public mind
with the Institution, that his personal correspondence
and intercourse with the young men and with their
parents became very extensive. A few years after
Washington's visit to Andover, and while he was President of the United States, at his suggestion his nephew,
William Augustus Washington, sent two sons to the
Academy, and Charles Lee sent the two sons of his
deceased brother, Richard Henry Lee; after a brief
interval, three more of the Washington family joined
the school. When Colonel Washington and lady came
on with their sons, Judge Phillips wrote to Madam
Phillips: -
" I hope you will be able to make their time agreeable; I
feel powerfully inclined to show every token of respect that
is proper to the representative of that eminent instrument of
political salvation to his country. It is not improbable that
the General means to adopt one or both of the youths bearing his name, if worthy of it."
Occasionally remittances were made through the President, who had interested himself so much in the arrangement. Among the letters now in our hands, is
one from his pen, which we here insert, with the reply
22




254                  MEMOIR  OF
of Judge Phillips, a memorandum of which is entered
upon the same sheet: —
"MOUNT VERNON, 28th Sept., 1796.
"SIR.
The enclosed letter, from my Nephew to me, accompanying one from him to you (which have been to Philadelphia
and back), must be my apology for giving you the trouble
of reading this address.
I shall only add, that if there are arrearages yet due to
you, and you will let me know the amount, it shall be remitted from Philadelphia; at which place I expect to be by
the first of November.
I am, Sir,
Your Most Obedt Hble Servt,
As Go WASHINGTON.
The Honble SAM'L PHILLIPS, Esqr."
"Oct'r 28'96.
"SIR.
I have been honored with your favor of the 28th Ultimo,
enclosing a letter friom Col~ Washington, in which were
received one hundred and fifty dollars, and take the liberty
to enclose an answer.
You are pleased to authorize me to give you notice of
any arrears on account of the sons of your Nephew; it gives
me pleasure to say, there are none of any consequence now
due to me.
With the highest respect,
I am Sir
Your Most Obedt
And very hble Servt,
SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
To the President of the United States."




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 255
The young Washingtons were in the family of Rev.
Mr. French; the Lees were with Judge Phillips, for
whom, with Madam Phillips and their son, they had
the warmest regard. The elder of these brothers died
soon after entering College at Princeton, and in the
last lines he ever wrote, after speaking of his wishes
respecting several other friends, he said: -' My friendship for the Phillips family cannot be buried with me
in the grave, but it will live with me in the immortal
life. Perhaps some little article presented to each of
them, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips and their son, as at my
request, would please them."  A copy of the paper
left by him containing these parting messages, which
was sent by his uncle with an account of his last hours
to Judge Phillips, was carefully preserved, and bears
this touching indorsement by his hand — pretious!"
- so deeply was his heart affected by such expressions
of attachment. In a letter of Judge Phillips to Mr.
Lee, written after he had received this paper, there is
a passage which shows with what spirit in this case,
as in many others, he interested himself in the pupils
of the Academy: —
" The observation," he says, " expressed in your introductory letter, that' one of your principal inducements in sending him and his brother so far from Virginia and their
friends, was that they might be brought up in the purest
principles of religion, morality, and virtue,' accorded so perfectly with my ideas of the essential part of education, that




256                 MEMOIR  OF
I took more pleasure in urging remarks tending to that
object; the unremitted and serious attention with which
these remarks were received by our departed friend, heightened the pleasure of the duty; the satisfaction you are
pleased to express in the conduct of his education is highly
grateful; and the cordial expressions of attachment to our
family in his last letter to you, will be among the sources
of our most pleasing reflections through the remainder of
life."
Hlad Judge Phillips been the acting Principal of the
Academy, and the daily teacher of the pupils, instead
of a Trustee merely, he could not have used language
more expressive of his personal activity in guiding
those who were thus sent to enjoy its advantages.
And this accords perfectly with his whole habit toward the students.  He had not taken more interest
in originating the Academy than he now continued to
take in its daily work. The instructors were selected
by him with the greatest care, and were stimulated in
all their duties by his aid. The pupils revered and
loved him, remembering well, for long years afterwards, his kindly looks and paternal counsels, and repeating incidents, without number, illustrative of his
intercourse with them. It was emphatically his Academy, the favorite work of his hand, fashioned and animated in the highest possible degree by his spirit;
and as such it stands his noblest monument.
More than seven hundred pupils were admitted to its








iJnJ!




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                257
course of study, during his own lifetime, among whom
he could number many who were called to the highest
stations. And it is but continuing the sketch of his
enterprise, to add here, that the Academy, thus originated and prosperous under his eye, has moved onward from strength to strength in its career, for a half
century since he passed away. Largely indebted to
the later as well as the earlier patronage of the Phillips
family, and especially to the liberal hand of His Honor
the late Lieutenant-Governor, William Phillips, and
attracting to itself a full attendance of pupils, the Institution has been singularly prosperous.
We cannot, as we surely would not, here pass over
the name of His Honor, William Phillips, without a
brief notice of the impulse which his liberality imparted to the school. The only surviving son of his
honored father, he succeeded not only to his large fortune, but to his virtues. Of frail constitution and delicate health in early life, he rose above the consequent
defects of his education, by the force of a sagacious,
well-balanced mind, animated by steady religious impulses. He was the senior of his distinguished cousin
at Andover by about two years; and between the two
there were some strong points of resemblance, as well
as an affectionate intimacy; both were intensely patriotic, and made strenuous efforts to promote the Revolution; both were specially distinguished for soundness
22*




258                MEMOIR OF
of judgment. Governor Brooks, with whom, as well as
with Governor Strong, His Honor William Phillips
was long associated, is said to have remarked, "that in
all their consultations and deliberations, he had nevei
known him to give an erroneous opinion:" both were
mild and winning in manners, while yet of inflexible
firmness in their principles; both were eminently sincere and unpretending, showing everywhere their real
character with no glosses; both were eager patrons of
sound learning, and of a most devout, religious spirit.
In 1773, as the Revolutionary contest was thickening,
while one was entering upon his long career of civil
service at Andover, the other set sail, from Boston, for
England. After an extended tour through Great Britain, and various countries on the continent, he returned,
in 1774, in one of the tea ships, and immediately began
to take part in the councils of the patriots.
At a later period, he was called to a large experience
in legislative life: for many years a representative
from Boston, he was finally chosen Lieutenant-Governor
of the State in twelve successive elections, during
which period he was also repeatedly one of the Presidential electors.
But, conspicuous as he was as a civilian, both for his
offices and for the qualities by which he honored every
office more than it could honor him, he was yet more
eminent for his leading participation in all the great
philanthropic and religious enterprises of his day. It




JUDGE PHILLIPS.               259
was not his money only, nor chiefly, which he freely
bestowed upon such enterprises. They were aided as
constantly by his far-seeing counsels, and by the whole
weight of his personal influence.
At Andover, his very name was a tower of strength.
Early elected a Trustee, and entering with all his heart
into the views of his cousin, which he had known minutely from the first, he began also early to be a most
liberal donor to the Institution; and the long catalogue
of his gifts is a most animating record. For a period
of nearly fifteen years he gave five hundred dollars
annually to aid needy students in the Academy. Prior
to this, he had made repeated donations in lands and
books, valued at more than a thousand dollars; and
while making such large charitable contributions to aid
the young men, he gave also five thousand dollars
toward rebuilding the Academy, after it had been
burnt, and then, in his will, left the Institution a bequest of fifteen thousand dollars.
Nor were his liberalities at Andover confined to the
Academy. The Theological Seminary, which the widow
and son of his revered cousin, with others, had founded
under the same Board of Trustees with the Academy,
he also largely aided in his lifetime, and at his death
left it a legacy of ten thousand dollars. The whole
amount of his gifts to these institutions, not including
the invaluable portraits already mentioned, was more
than forty thousand. dollars. With the same liberal




260                    MEMOIR OF
hand he dispensed his wealth, through'a long life, in
aid of every good cause.
"I confess," said Dr. Wisner at his funeral, after glancing
at his career, " that when I consider all these circumstances,
I look with wonder- and I hope with gratitude to God,
whose grace made him  what'he was- at-the variety and
the amount of his charities.' They have been for a series of
years from eight to eleven thousand dollars a year. And by
his will he has contributed to various benevolent objects, most
of them religious charities, sixty-two thousand dollars." 1
At his death, which did not take place until a quarter of a century after Judge Phillips's' decease, in'May,
1827, when he was in his seventy-eighth year, there
were, in every section of the Commonwealth, expressions of the most hearty sorrow and of the highest
eulogy.2  An engraving of his portrait, which hangs in' the Library of the Seminary, is here presented.
1 Dr. Wisner's Funeral Discourse, p. 31, 32.
2 It is due to the memory of the four, whose donations have created
and sustained so important an institution as Phillips Academy, to
state here summarily, the amount of their several gifts. These are
as follows, in round numbers: 
Hon. Samuel Phillips, of North Andover....  $6,000
Hon. John Phillips, LL. D., of Exeter             31,000
Hon. William Phillips, of Boston.........  6,000
His Honor, William Phillips, of Boston, to the Academy.. 28,000
cc"   "    "     "        "   to the Seminary..'14,000
$85,000
Others of the family name havei'also made donations -of considJ-<   i o
/ dv           S 7 -ie~;  ~~-~:




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                    261
The plan of Judge Phillips originally contemplated
the possible, and indeed probable, outgrowth of a College, or of some equivalent institution, from the Academy; and the Constitution was drafted with this point
distinctly in view; but especially with reference to an
institution, or to a development of the classical Academy itself; which would provide special facilities for
the study of Divinity.
One memorable conversation especially which he
once held with his clerk, Mr. Moses Abbott, as they
sat under the old oak, now standing just in the rear
of the Seminary Chapel, is still narrated by his surviving friend; in which Judge Phillips pointed out the
very site of the present Seminary buildings, as the
probable location of the future College. Treatises upon
Christianity had long been regular text-books in the
Academy. Arrangements had also been made for the
separate instruction of a class of students in Divinity,
so that, what was not realized until after his death,
the distinct endowment and opening of a Theological
Department, was at last most naturally inaugurated by
his widow and son, as if moved yet by an impulse from
his own living spirit.
erable amount, to one or the other of these Institutions, besides the
large endowment of Madam Phillips and her son, in founding the
Theological Seminary, which, of itself, was nearly $20,000; so that
a sum total of more than $100,000 has been concentrated here by this
family; and its wide spread results are carrying their name to the
remotest lands, as benefactors of the race.




262               MEMOIR OF
But while in its growth, after itself receiving about
twenty students in Theology, the Academy threw out
its vital and vigorous offshoot in that direction, its
genius was so elastic, and its foundation' so broad, that
the germ of yet another department in a different
direction was beginning to appear; and, in process of
time, after the legacy of his Honor William Phillips,
who regarded the project with especial favor, an
English Department, designed as a Teachers Seminary
or Normal High School, was organized. The intention
at first was to keep this Department distinct from the
Classical School, as had been done with the Theological
Department, and a commodious building was erected
for its use. But with no endowments, and with an
inadequate support from its term-bills, although largely
attended, experience wrought a change in the plan,
and the Academy has for many years embraced an
extended course of both Classical and English study
under one regime, while it continues to give especial
prominence, as it did when first opened, to instruction
"in the learned languages."
Such have been the natural, and almost necessary,
unfoldings of the comprehensive plan of the Founders
of the Institution. Calling it at first a School merely,
and not aspiring ever to term it more than an Academy,
they virtually originated little less than a University
of the highest type.  Not attempting too much at
once, their sagacious scheme has led especially to a




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                263
course of Classical and Theological instruction, nowhere
surpassed now, if equalled, in thoroughness or in
scholarly symmetry, or in the earnest religious life
which electrifies it all.
In the Classical Department a careful register of all
who have ever been admitted has been kept, and is
now a volume of very great interest. Nearly four
thousand pupils have, for a longer or shorter period,
been thus connected with the Institution, among whom
are many of the most eminent names of the past
half century; while not less than twenty-seven zhundred have been members of the English Department,
and from the Theological Department, besides the
many who have pursued their studies here for a part
of their professional course, nearly thirteen hundred
have regularly graduated.' The spirit and drift of
the Academy, which after a quarter of a century
from' its origin gave birth to the first Theological
Seminary in the world, must be ascribed to Judge
Phillips, more than to any other person, however far
from  even his best thoughts so broad a scheme as
was ultimately adopted may have been, and whatever other issues or interests may have arisen to
modify it.
As we thus contemplate his life-long efforts for the
Academy, so persistently prosecuted, so nobly seconded
I See Appendix, M.




264     MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
by his family, so successful in all their immediate aims,
revealing at last in this new form the strong undercurrent of religious power, which had visibly animated them from the very beginning, we come naturally to notice his character and life in yet one more
essential aspect.




CHAPTER XI.
HIS RELIGIOUS SPIRIT AND EFFORTS.
To his careful religious training, with its consequent
early religious tendencies, repeated reference has been
incidentally made already. He was constitutionally
susceptible, in a remarkable degree, to such culture,
whether it sought to mould his conscience or his feelings. None would accept with more reverence and
sympathy the heritage of ancestral piety which dis.
tinguished the family with the race of Puritans to
which they belonged. What these old New England
Fathers thought and did was always a stirring consideration with him, to which he often alluded when
stimulating himself or others. He admired their type
of character. It was one of his most cherished aims,
not only to be himself of the same spirit with them,
but to do whatever was in his power toward perpetuating such a spirit in society.
We have never studied the character of one, among
the living or the dead, in whom the various forces of
religion seemed more symmetrically blended. He was
religious in study, in trade, in neighborly kindness, in
(265)




266                MEMOIR OF
domestic life, in politics, in every civil office, and in his
zeal to promote learning, as well as in public worship or
public charities. It was emphatically a religious institution, which he was intent upon establishing; a religious vitality which he sought to breathe into all education within its atmosphere. Such we are sure must have
been the inference of the reader from his various
papers as they have been here cited: and we have nowhere found a line in all his manuscripts, or heard a
word from any who remember him, that does not
tend to confirm this impression.
In the place of his residence — from his birth to his
death - he has left a name for genial, consistent, winning, zealous piety, more fresh than the memory of his
highest honors. As the result in part, doubtless, of
that discipline of sorrow through which the family
passed in his childhood, and partly of the reiterated
bereavements afterwards which he so keenly felt, together with his own frequent illness, there was a subdued tenderness of sensibility in his religion, which
added to its impressiveness.
It was with such a charm about him, that he drew
near to the students, as in the case of -younrg Lee, and
opened to them the treasures of Heavenly wisdom,
seeking, in the spirit of a pastor, or a father, to guide
their feet into the way of peace. WVith the same ever
wakeful tact, he often made his correspondence almost
entirely religious in its tenor; seizing with avidity




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  267
upon occasions of every kind, which would help him
to pour out his full heart with the best effect.
We have stated that during his confinement at Medford with his fractured leg, his cousin, Miss Sally Phillips, was much with him. It appears from the following
letters, that on their return to Andover together the
subject of her uniting with the church was suggested
to her, and the time of her taking this step was soon
decided. We give now his letters to her on this occasion, as worthy of special note, not only for their delicate aptness, as addressed to her, but for the justness
with which they at the same time commend this duty
to the young generally.
Soon after reaching his home he writes, -
"ANDOVER, May 4, 1794.
" MY DEAR MISS PHILLIPS, — You have this day made a
public declaration of your belief in, and regard for, the religion of the blessed Jesus. Will you permit me in the sincerity of my heart to congratulate you on this joyful event, —
an event which has, beyond all doubt, caused much joy in
heaven as well as on earth. Openly and explicitly to declare
on the ILord's side, and in the face of the world to subscribe with your own hand to his covenant, cannot fail of
pleasing that Almighty Being, who hath declared,'before all
the people I will be glorified:' —for the same reason, it
must give joy to all good beings who come to the knowledge
of it; —and among the inhabitants of this globe, those who
feel most interested in your happiness, will feel most gratified




268                  MEMOIR  OF
and delighted; — for, by the same act which does honor to
religion, and the glorious Founder of it, you take the most
effectual measure to promote and secure your own peace and
comfort, usefulness and happiness in this world, and bliss
everlasting.
"Such a transaction, duly performed (as I doubt not yours
has been) by persons of any age or class, tends directly to
subserve both the important purposes above expressed; - but
when it is performed, in the early part of life, by a person in
the midst of gay and pleasing scenes, whom friends caress
and the world flatters, surrounded with objects and under circumstances calculated to rivet the affections to the present
state, and obscure the realities of futurity; —when this person is of the tender sex, (who are sometimes restrained by
mistaken delicacy or unjustifiable diffidence,) possessing an
uncommon share of sensibility; — then is signal honor and
benefit derived to the best of all causes, and peculiar joy
afforded to all its friends and advocates; at the same time, a
foundation is laid for a rich and increasing harvest of blessings; to the happy possessor.
"These blessings are great and numerous; — the satisfaction derived from a reflection on the consequences above
hinted at is not inconsiderable; an early public dedication is
expressive of a consideration and thoughtfulness which does
credit to any character, and of that filial love and reverence
which are the best affections of the heart; it affords a longer
opportunity of usefulness to mankind, and by example, that
most powerful of all persuasives, may allure many to simhilar
reflections and resolutions.
"'May-such be the happy consequence of this day's transaction, and, when your days of usefulness on earth shall be




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   269
finished, may your spirit be frequently delighted, in the regions of immortality, with the glorious tidings of the increasing happy fruits of this example among the children of men!
With these wishes (in which Mrs. Phillips very cordially
joins me) for the present I will bid you adieu, after begging
you to believe that I am
"Truly your affectionate friend,
" SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
"ANDOVER, May 14, 1794.
" MY DEAR MISS PHILLIPS, — Your very obliging favor of
the 10th instant, afforded me a degree of pleasure that will
not suffer me to rest easy in delaying to return you my
hearty thanks for it....  After perusing your favor repeatedly, and with increasing satisfaction, it was difficult to determine which part was the most pleasing, unless it was that
in which you say,' upon a late compliance with duty I have
the most reason I ever had to congratulate myself;'-and
surely the declaration was founded in the highest reason; for
to comply with the charge - the dying charge -- of a Father
and a friend, who claims (and most justly too) an infinite
superiority to every other friend, must afford to the heart of
pious sensibility, a joy which beggars the power of language
to describe; — and how is this joy enhanced, when, by the
same act which expresses our obedience and fidelity to our
Divine Master, we receive a most affecting token of his love
and friendship for us? for, (according to the author you entertained me with at Medford,)'when my Lord at the table
says, Take and eat, this is my body, this is infinitely more and
better than if a rich man should say to me, take my estate;
or than if an emperor should say to me, take my crown and
23 *




270                 MEMOIR  OF
diadem; or than if all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them were offered me.'
" The gratitude you express to me on this occasion is too
generous; my reward was abundant, and of the highest possible value, in the welcome reception you gave to my proposition and the consequences which have followed.
" Will you allow me to suggest a caution, which I have constant need to have more forcibly impressed on my own mind,
- that wle do not ascribe to the instrument that honor and praise
which are due to the power which actuates it. Let us not in the
present case, overlook that overruling Providence, which gave
so favorable an opportunity for entering on such a subject, in
our journey to Andover —which overcame an embarrassment on my mind that prevented my introducing it till near
the close of the journey, although a desire of doing it had
existed for months before, and particularly at the commencement of that journey - and which inclined you to give such
a cordial entertainment to the proposal. Neither should we
overlook the same universal Ruler, who guided the operations of your mind in contemplating the subject, who influenced it to the happy result, and smiled on the first attempt
for executing your purpose. Indeed, every encouraging and
animating consideration which preceded and attended the
weighty transaction, and every happifying reflection which
followed it, are so many claims on our fervent gratitude to
that all-pervading Spirit, which inspired, sustains, and reguXates the vital principle....
" I am yours, with great esteem and affection,
"S. PHILLIPS."
In all the family correspondence, it is most instruc



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 271
tive to notice with what spontaneous ease his pen
turned often from the business or news of which he
was writing, to some high religious view or use of his
topic, or was diverted to some kindred strain of ethical
discussion. Very many of his letters to Madam Phillips contain passages with regard to the religious instruction of their children, the spirit of which she was
transfusing into their hearts, while to the children
themselves, early and lIte, he was often writing upon
the same great themes. A most touching letter to his
younger son, on the occasion of his fifth birth-day,
which we feel restrained from citing, shows at what a
tender age that young and pure spirit was preparing
for its early exit from earth.
To the elder son he frequently gave invaluable religious hints, as he wrote upon other topics; and on many
a special occasion, religion, in some of its most important aspects and claims, was the only theme of his
communications. Through the entire period of his
minority, and even after his connection with the
church and his marriage, the son was thus with the
tenderest affection kept near to the father's heart.
The following letters, in addition to those which we have
cited heretofore, of the same general tenor, may serve
as an illustration of the spirit of this correspondence;
the facts which some of them incidentally disclose in
his personal and family history, will not be regarded
as detracting from their excellence, but rather as enhancing it.




272                 MEMOIR  OF
"ANDOVER, November 24, Sabbath evening, 1793.
" MY DEAR SON, - Your letter of the 12th and 15th instant
has been received, and the contents gave me pleasure....
We have this morning been much affected by the information of the sudden and unexpected death of Deacon Abbott;... thus we are deprived, in a very affecting manner, of one
of the best men the town afforded-:  what a shock to his
poor distressed wife and beloved children, to the neighborhood, to the church, to the town and the public; — when a
man of exemplary piety, integrity, prudence, virtue, and general goodness is taken from among us, how universally is
the loss felt and lamented. In many instances the rich, the
mighty, and the honorable leave the stage, while few regret
the loss of them, and some are glad to succeed them; but
when a good man departs, we read sadness in every countenance, and the serious who survive are prompted to exclaim,'Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, and the faithful fail
from among the children of men.' What a call to survivors,
to double their diligence in their Master's service, when we
see the uncertainty of the event of an hour!
" Such a family as his was rarely to be met with; —not
only the heads of it exemplary for the Christian character,
but all the children treading in their steps; at every communion, how pleasing to behold parents and children all
approaching the altar of the Lord, and with one heart and
one voice commemorating that wonderful love of the glorious Saviour which astonishes angels! Is it not strange that
these instances are so rare? Does the blame lie with the
parents or the children? probably in most cases with both!
" I take it to myself, that I have omitted to urge this great
duty upon the child to whom I am now writing. Let me,




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  273
then, without losing another hour, seriously ask, my dear
son, do you not believe your lost and undone condition by
nature, your misery without a Saviour, that the Son of God
has undertaken the mighty task, that he condescended to
take iour nature, that he obeyed the whole law, that he suffered and died to purchase your ransom from endless misery?
Do you believe the necessity of repentance, love, and new
obedience, in order to be qualified for enjoying the benefits
of Christ's purchase? and is it not your daily prayer and
labor to obtain these gifts and graces? If not, what will all
your other cares, studies, and labors amount to? How infinitely light and trifling will every attainment, without an
interest in the blessed Redeemer, appear at the hour of death,
that honest hour, which speaks a language that must be
heard by all the children of Adam, a language which is frequently sounding in our ears!
" That you and I and all of us may be prepared for our
own. turn, which will soon arrive, is the fervent prayer of
your affectionate parent,          SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
"ANDOVER, IDecember 17, 1793.
" MY DEAR SON, - I received your letter of a late date and
was much pleased with it.... In this hour of danger,
remember that " soft words turn away anger;" and whatever
provocation you may receive, do n't lose the perfect command
of yourself....You will not be safer in any situation,
than in your chamber or study, with your door fastened, and
your mind intent on your book, unless when you are on your
knees imploring your infinitely wise and good Father in
heaven, to direct, preserve, strengthen, and defend you: - what
a blessed privilege to be admitted to solicit such high favor of




274                 MEMOIR OF
the King of Kings, with hopes of success, if the supplicant have
the true spirit of prayer; and when nearest the throne of
grace, forget not to return humble, fervent thanks, that you
have been preserved from the vices which have plunged others into so much misery, and also to pray for their repentance
and reformation.... We think much of you and pray for
you, and hope these trials will issue in your final advantage.
"I am your affectionate, anxious Parent,
" S. PHILLIPS."
The occasion and the effect of such letters as the
preceding, are indicated by the following brief note
from an intimate friend of the family, alluding to
scenes of which we have spoken heretofore, as will be
remembered, in connection with another portion of the
family correspondence:" CAMBRIDGE, January 1, 1794.
" DEAR SIR, —After fervently wishing a happy new year
to you and yours, I take the liberty to thank you for your
friendly advice....
"You have doubtless heard of the uncommon scenes, both
of irregularity and of public censure, which have distinguished the last term at College. The immediate government has exercised the greatest industry, patience, and impartiality in their inquiries, deliberations, and decisions upon
these painful subjects; and we flatter ourselves that our conduct will be sanctioned by the approving voice of the sober
public, and particularly of the Board of Overseers.
" I congratulate you on the manly, honorable, and virtuous




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   275
part which your son, as well as many of his fellow-students,
has acted, amidst the late scenes of temptation and trial.
"With sentiments of great esteem, I am, Sir,
"Your affectionate friend and servant,
"D. TAPPAN.
" Honorable Mr. PHILLIPS."
Amid all his anxieties respecting the religious state
of his son, Judge Phillips was cheered by many hopes;
and, as in the case of Miss Sally Phillips, endeavored
to lead him to a full and public consecration of himself to God, as we see in the ensuing earnest appeal: —
"BOSTON, January 26, 1794.
" M DEAR CHILD, - I have been this day celebrating the
stupendous love of the Divine Saviour, at the feast of the
supper; and my thoughts were exercised, in no inconsiderable
degree, for the dear youth to whom I stand in one of the
nearest relations, and whose spiritual as well as temporal
happiness I am under the most solemn obligations to promote by all proper means in my power; —I then felt, and
still feel, a solicitude to know whether any, and if any, what
effect has been produced by some remarks lately made in
writing, on the subject of taking upon yourself the bonds of
the covenant; to these remarks you replied, that the subject
of them was under consideration; -do they still remain so,
or are they dismissed for others of trifling moment, as all
temporal concerns must be when compared with those which
respect our future existence?  If not dismissed, how does
the subject appear to you? Does it not appear reasonable
to obey the command of our Sovereign - of a SovereigD




276                 MEMOIR  OF
who has given himself up to the sufferings of death to save
us from everlasting misery? -especially to give the readiest
obedience to his dying charge? You feel yourself under
obligations to obey the commands of your earthly parents,
and a concern when any instance of disobedience comes to
our knowledge; and it is right you should; but any human
authority is of little force, compared with that which exists
with that Supreme Being, who gave us existence, is continually upholding us, and withheld not his own most precious
life to save us.
" Do you believe, my dear child, that Christ died to save
sinners? that endless misery must have been your and my
portion, inevitably, had it not been for this infinitely costly
sacrifice? Do you believe that this sacrifice, costly as it was,
will be of no avail, unless we become qualified to receive the
blessings which the Saviour died to purchase, by repentance
for all our sins, and that faith in the Redeemer and his Gospel which shall have a commanding influence over the heart
and the life, the temper and conversation, the powers of the
body and affections of the soul, and, in short, over the
whole man? This repentance and this faith are God's gift;
but he must be sought to, and inquired of, to grant it;
if it is not worth praying for, and striving after, it is not
worth giving. If these graces of repentance and faith are
not worth praying for, then heaven and the happiness of it
are not worth praying for. You have every encouragement
to beg the bestowment of these blessings, for your Heavenly
Father is perfectly ready and willing to bestow them, if you
ask aright; more ready than any earthly parent can be to
bestow the good things of this life on his dear offspring. If
you do not possess them, and do n't even desire them, how




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                 277
awfully hazardous your state! What must be your position,
if called out of time, in such a situation! A serious consideration of this question is of infinite moment; no subject of
consideration is of any moment, compared with this. Therefore let me entreat and conjure you, by all the affection and
authority of a father, to dwell upon the thought, till you find
the stream of genuine contrition and pious affections to flow
plentifully.
" If you do possess these graces, you have the highest reason to give praise, humble, fervent, unceasing praise to that
infinitely merciful God, who has redeemed you with the blood
of his own Son, and hath given his blessed Spirit to apply
his redemption.
" How can you do enough to show forth your gratitude to
such a Saviour? Among other tokens of this gratitude, is
it not highly becoming to commemorate the last tragical
scene of his sufferings, with his disciples, in the sacrament of
the supper? - especially, considering this duty was given in
command by himself, among the last orders which he delivered while on earth.
" I was charmed to-day with the sight of a young family
of Mr. Salsbury's, all joining with their dear parents in celebrating this feast. How happy, thought I, if our dear children would enable their anxious parents to say to the Almighty, HERE ARE WE AND THE CHILDREN THOU HAST GIVEN US!
If you have difficulties on your mind open them to me freely,
and I shall delight to assist; and rejoice that you have a
mighty Counsellor, who invites you to his throne for advice,
at all times: improve this exalted privilege diligently, and do
not forget to return some of the prayers which are frequently
poured out for you by your anxious parent,  S. PHILLIPS."
24




278                 M:EMOIR OF
The occasion of the two following letters is indicated
in the letters themselves.  The first, we regret to say,
is incomplete; the manuscript in our hands being
evidently the original outline of the communication,
without the final revision and concluding paragraphs.
It is in these words:
"ANDOVER, October 17, 1797.
"'Finis origine pendet.'
"MY DEAR SON, —To-morrow will complete twenty-one
years of your life. As, at that period, youth are generally
considered as released from that parental authority which
they are the subjects of before, it may not be improper to
offer at this moment some hints, and give you some advice
dictated by the feelings of a parent, whose affection gives
rise to much anxiety for your welfare.
" You will consider them with that attention which is due
to the last counsel you will ever receive while (in a legal
sense) in a state of minority, from one standing in the class
of relations which is nearer to you than any other on
earth.
" As this may be considered one of the most memorable
eras of your life, I would recommend to you to set apart
Wednesday, the 18th of October, 1797, for the purpose of
serious recollection, meditation, humiliation, thanksgiving,
and prayer; and for adopting those resolutions which that
occasion will dictate as proper.
"Although the state of your business may render it inconvenient to comply with this advice, yet I can hardly
realize it to be such as would prevent you from absenting




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  279
yourself from the store on occasions far less important than
this.
" It has been the practice of the best men that ever lived,
to set apart every anniversary of their birth, as well as other
days in the year, for purposes similar to those I have mentioned; and they have given full testimony to the advantage
they have experienced from the practice.
" After humbly presenting yourself before the heart-searching God, and earnestly imploring his direction and benediction
in the duties before you; it will be highly proper on that day
to take a careful and minute review of the past years of your
life; and, in doing this, it will be useful to inquire, how you
have discharged the various duties which have resulted from
the various relations you have sustained to God as your Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, constant and unwearied Benefactor;
to your parents and other dear relatives; to your Instructors
and governors; to your superiors, equals, and inferiors; what
duties in these several relations have been wholly omitted
or carelessly performed; and what obligations have been
violated; what improvement you have made of time, especially of holy time; of the various advantages you have
enjoyed for improving your mind and storing up useful
knowledge; for correcting the disorders of your temper, and
any vicious and irregular propensities; how far you have
been influenced by the counsel and instruction that have
been given to you from the Sacred Volume by your parents,
by godly ministers, and by friends; what improvement you
have made of your various opportunities for getting and
doing good; how you have regarded the providences of God,
not only those of a public nature, but those which respect
the family of which you are a member, and yourself per



280                MEMOIR  OF
sonally. If, on such a review, you don't find the humiliation
I recommend, will there not be reason to fear you have not
been sufficiently thorough in the examination?
" On that day, it will be proper to review the distinguished
mercies you have received, in your preservation in life to this
time, in the health you have enjoyed; and may you not
reckon it in the number of your mercies, that your parents
have been spared to watch over, to advise and counsel you,
through the precipitate years of youth, even unto manhood.
"You will consider, my dear son, the circumstances of
your lot have been uncommonly favorable; your life thus
far has been devoted to improvement; you have had a succession in general of uncommonly able and faithful Instructors from your early childhood; you have had no material
avocations to divert your attention from useful studies. Your
advantages have been great, and (except in a father who
this day laments, in tears, his numerous defects in duty toward you, both in precept and example) may I not say they
have been equalled by few, and surpassed scarcely by any;
and forget not the goodness of Heaven in preserving you
from gross immoralities, amid the snares and temptations
that have attended your youth, and the situations of danger
in which you have been placed, and which have proved fatal
to others. Restraining and rescuing influences are too little
thought of by most.
" That you have been disposed, at an early period, to make
a public surrender of yourself to your Maker, and subscribe
with your hand to his Covenant, is a further cause of thankfulness. As your cup has overflown with mercies, let your
heart overflow with gratitude to the infinite Source of them
all. Much fruit, then, may justly be expected from you by




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  281
God and man, and your own conscience will justify the
demand.
" After spending a suitable portion of time in reviewing
the past, and in those exercises of mind which that review
will suggest, you will judge whether it is not a very seasonable duty to make a renewed, solemn, and unreserved dedication of yourself, and of all your powers and faculties, of
all that you have and are to your Heavenly Father; and to
implore his direction and guidance in forming suitable resolutions for the time to come.  The 17th chapter in Doddridge's Rise and Progress, will be of great use to you in
such a work.
" You will remember, my son, that all your pursuits must
be regulated by a supreme regard to the Divine honor. Let
the fear and love of Jehovah possess your heart, dictate
every purpose, and influence every action. This fear, we
are taught by inspiration, is the beginning of wisdom; without this foundation all your superstructure will be as wood,
hay, and stubble. Possessing this filial fear, you will seriously resolve to begin and close every day of your life with
the most solemn acts of devotion. If the blessings of Providence and grace are not worth asking, they are not worth
bestowing; and what day of your life is there in which you
do not need them.:' You will, doubtless, judge it reasonable to make it part
of your plan, to read some portion of Scripture at those
stated periods; and, that you may read them to more advantage, I now present you with Henry's Exposition of the
Old and New Testament, and Doddridge's Exposition of
the latter. The first of these books was estimated by a late
pious deceased friend and relative, (from whose prayers you
24*




282                 MEMOIR OF
and I have doubtless reaped unknown benefits,) to be of
more value than gold, yea, than much fine gold. In these
volumes,.if read in a proper temper of mind, will be found
inestimable treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Let them
be the man of your counsel at all times. The proverbs of
Solomon can't be too often consulted; they will form the
richest furniture with which your mind can be stored, for
every situation, condition, and relation of life. They contain, as Mr. Henry observes, in a little compass, a complete body of Divine ethics, politics, and oeconomics: and
whensoever reading the sacred Scriptures, we ought to
consider ourselves as in the more immediate presence of the
great God; and if we don't pay a serious regard to him,
when speaking to us in his word, how can we expect him to
regard our petitions to him? These books, my son, are the
best estate I can give you.
"'If the want of time be offered as an objection to the execution of such a plan, may it not be asked whether we can
justify the denial of a small portion of our time to the service of him who gives us all the time we enjoy, and who can
with the utmost ease cut short or protract our days, according to his own sovereign pleasure? and what benefits can
result from any business, that will counterbalance the advantages to be hoped for from the appropriation of a small portion of our time to such a purpose?
"If company at any time interfere, what company will
make amends for the loss of a humble, solemn interview with
the Sovereign of the universe, who exercises infinite condescension in inviting us into his presence? By husbanding
our time properly, we shall not find it difficult to gain a
small portion of it, at the beginning and close of each day,




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 283
for the discharge of this important duty: and here let me
recommend a careful perusal of the 19th chapter in Dr.
Doddridge's'Rise and Progress,' containing directions how
we should be in the fear of God all the day long, with a
serious resolution to come as near to the plan there proposed
as possible.
" But of all your time, be persuaded, my son, to entertain
the firmest resolution, that you will pay the strictest regard
to the holy Sabbath. The injunctions of Scripture are often
repeated, and very solemn, on this head; and your improvement in the most valuable of all knowledge, your progress
in virtue and piety, and your usefulness to others, will depend
much, very much indeed, on your discharge of this duty.
On account of your vicinity to the metropolis, you will be a
witness to a melancholy disregard of holy time. On this
account, your guard ought to be much increased, to prevent
your respect for that day being insensibly diminished, and in
order that your example may contribute to stem the torrent
of impiety, which is breaking in upon us like a flood, and
threatens the judgments of Heaven upon our country.
"To regulate your dealings with others, you can't propose
to yourself a better rule than that of our Saviour, in Matthew
vii. 12, — all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them;' you will often call to
mind that comprehensive injunction in Micah vi. 8, -' to do
justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God,'- and
what more' doth the Lord require of thee?'
" Let me earnestly recommend the cultivation of a meek
and humble frame of mind. The more attention will be
necessary to acquire and preserve these virtues, if a state of
worldly prosperity should attend you; because the natural




284                >MEMOIR  OF
tendency of such a state is to inflate the mind with pride.
We ought to remember that a state of prosperity very often
proves unfriendly to virtue; and the Divine caution,'let him
that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall,' should be
ever in mind. What higher inducement can be given us to
cultivate meekness, than to be assured that'the meek he
(the Lord) will guide in judgment; the meek he will teach
his way,'- and that'the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit is, in the sight of God, of great price.' The highest
reason have we then to labor, that we may be clothed with
humility.... "
"MY EVER HONORED AND BELOVED FATHER, - The eighteenth
of October, 1797, has introduced a set of ideas which I never
before felt. Your letter, which I esteem the most valuable
fortune you can give me, while it impresses on my mind an
idea of the importance of the era which I have now reached,
and with a firm belief that my future happiness and usefulness will depend on my setting out, inspires me with increased
affection and respect for the hand that penned and the heart
that dictated it. May the precepts it contains be indelibly
engraven on my mind! for they only can insure my present
and future happiness.
"My intention has been to endeavor on this day to express
my filial gratitude for the former unremitted care, tenderness,
and anxiety of my parents, who are nearer and dearer to me
than any other beings on earth; but my feelings will not permit me. The only alteration that the day produces in my
situation is, that it devolves on me an increased responsibility.
Hitherto I have leaned on my parent's reputation, and have
in every instance wherein I could know his will, been guided




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  28.5
thereby. Now I only am answerable for my every action, -
but shall ever feel the same veneration for their opinion I
ever have done, and still feel in a state of minority as far as
relates to them. This day I have been engaged in the manner which you recommended: I have received Dr. Doddridge's Exposition of the New Testament, and one volume
of Mr. Henry, for which I am thankful, and promise that
want of time shall not be an excuse for my neglecting a daily
application to them.
" I have now, sir, to make one earnest request; which is,
that you would not consider me as freed from your authority
until I shall cease to be the object of your parental affection,
-that I may still have those rules of conduct repeated, which
had so much influence in helping me to avoid the almost
fatal temptations of a college life.
"I will conclude, at present, by earnestly praying, that the
lives, happiness, and usefulness of my earthly parents, may
be the peculiar care of my Father in Heaven, and that his
assisting grace may enable me to follow through my life
the precepts of their lips exemplified by their conduct.
" I am, with increasing respect, your dutiful son,
"JOHN PHILLIPS.
" The Honorable SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
"ANDOVER, January 1, 1800, 3 o'clock in the morning.
" MY DEAR SON, - On this first morning of a New Year,
I awoke early; and the activity of my mind having banished
sleep from my eyes, I rose and betook myself to such exercises as are proper for the season.
"Influenced by the example of those whose characters I,severe, as well as by a conviction of the utility of the prac



286                 MEMOIR OF
tice, I have heretofore aimed to appropriate a more than
usual share of the first day of the year, as well as the anniversary of my birthday, to such exercises as were adapted
to qualify me better to answer the end of my creation. I
hope I have derived some advantage from the practice; it
would doubtless have been greater, had not I been too remiss
in performing the duty, and too unmindful afterwards of the
purposes formed at these seasons.
" The present period appears to call for more close attention to every religious duty than any we have seen; and one
object of this letter, is to invite you to join me this day in
the exercises I have mentioned; and though we are not in
the same house, or in the same society, let us kneel before
the same Throne to lament and beg forgiveness for our past
defects, neglects, and transgressions; and to implore Divine
mercy for ourselves and each other, for our families, for our
friends and connections, for our mourning and threatened
country, and for a convulsed world.
"We shall find ample field for a long day's close, uninterrupted employment; and though cares and business may
strive to intrude and divert our attention from the duty proposed, let us summon up a holy resolution to appropriate
this day to the more immediate service of the all glorious
Being who is Lord of all our time.
" Let us begin with imploring the Divine presence, direction, and benediction on the exercises of the day; then read
some portion or portions of the Sacred Scriptures that are
proper for the occasion; afterwards apply ourselves solemnly
to the duty of serious meditation and reflection, self-examination, humiliation, and prayer. This will be a proper season,
also, to renew our dedication of ourselves to the special




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 287
service of our Divine Master; and let us not fail, in his
strength, to form such resolutions as a review of our past
lives suggests to be needful, such as shall tend to make us
better men, better husbands, better parents, better heads of
families, better members of society, and better Christians.
" It will increase the solemnity and utility of the work,
if we commit as many of our thoughts as we can to writing.
This will be quite necessary for our resolutions, that we may
frequently review them, and see how far we have fulfilled
them.
" An agreeable and profitable variety may be made by reading some pertinent sermons or other tracts; the sermons of the
pious Mr. Foxcroft, on the last and first day of the year, which
I put into your hands yesterday, I have repeatedly read with
much satisfaction, and, hope with some profit. Doctor Doddridge's Rise and Progress furnishes more chapters than one
that may be useful on this occasion. The Book of Psalms
abounds with matter, admirably adapted to excite, direct, and
animate our devotion. An observation of the day by fasting is recommended by the experience and example of many
worthies; at least, an abstinence from our usual quantity
of food and drink appears to me will be highly proper and
beneficial.
" If you approve of my proposition, you will probably
order a fire in the most retired chamber, and give notice to
suitable persons in your family, that your engagements today don't admit of interruption, unless upon some very
special occasion. And let us engage in these exercises with
a seriousness and devotion becoming those who are utterly
uncertain whether we shall have leave to unite in similar
duties on another New Year's day ever again on earth.




288                 MEMOIR OF
"'Wishing you and your dear consort may enjoy many
years more useful and happy than any that have passed,
with best wishes for your mamma and beloved offspring,
"I am your affectionate father,   SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
"ANDOVER, January 1, 1800.
" MY HONORED FATTIER,- I have received your excellent
letter of this morning. It witnesseth that the virtues and
piety of the fathers have descended to the offspring; and O
that the example of both might be imitated by the children's
children! To this end I will endeavor to pass this day in
the manner recommended in your letter.
" May He who giveth the increase so bless our endeavors,
so strengthen us, and all who this day form virtuous purposes, to perform them in such a manner that harvests of
honor may arise to himself, and our own happiness and
usefulness be increased.
" Be pleased, Sir, to offer our duty to my honored mamma,
and accept the same through your ever dutiful son,
"JOHN PHIILLIPS, JR."
"ANDOVER, January 4, 1801. Sabbath Eve.
"MY DEAR SON, - Having arrived to the first Sabbath of
a New Year and of a new century, I have been reviewing
some of the past scenes and occurrences of my life; and
the review affords me ground for deep humiliation, as well
as for admiration, gratitude, and praise.
"Among the numberless causes for unfeigned self-abasement, I may enumerate neglects of duty to my Maker, my
fellow-creatures, especially my family, and to myself; and
have great reason to lament, that I have improved time to no




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  289
better purpose, and that I have no better answered the design
of my creation.
"Without being particular under each class, I might state
a long catalogue of family duties which have not been discharged, as they ought to have been; and I here record my
hearty regrets, therefore, to you, my dear son, that you may
take warning from my errors, and lay a foundation for more
agreeable reflections in the future periods of your life. To
this end, let me urge you to remember that the duties of
heads of families are numerous and very solemn.
"Their duties to each other,- to love, comfort, support,
and encourage each other in every thing virtuous and praiseworthy, as well as to watch over, admonish, advise, and guard
against every thing unbecoming the Christian profession, are
solemn indeed. Those whom Providence has brought into
the tender relation of husband and wife, have far greater
advantages for promoting each others' spiritual as well as
temporal felicity, than any other created beings. They ought
frequently to bear in mind that sooner or later they must
part; not unfrequently they are called to this distressing trial
much sooner than they expected, and sometimes suddenly.
What anguish must fill the mind of the survivor, if the reflection should arise that any thing has been neglected to
preserve or reclaim from error, or to stimulate and encourage
in duty!
" When Heaven bestows the blessing of children, new obligations, and those of the most serious nature, are brought
with them. To provide for their comfortable support is not
the greatest, although this calls for our industry, care, and
economy, and the necessity for these increases with the increase of our families; but to use our utmost vigilance and
25




290                 MEMOIR OF
diligence to regulate their tempers, to instruct them in the
principles and duties of the Christian religion, and duly to
impress them with a sense of their infinite moment, is as
much more important than any thing which relates merely
to the present life, as eternity is longer than time.
" For the discharge of these duties, the Author of our nature has given to parents special advantages, - particularly
by impressing on the minds of children that awe, reverence,
and respect for their parents, which they feel toward no other
mortal. Indeed, the Creator seems, in some sort, to have
made parents his substitutes, to form, mould, and train up
their offspring for glory.' This remarkable and universal impression upon the minds
of children, and which rarely ceases, especially through the
years of minority, where the precepts, deportment, and example of parents are such as to justify it, proves more forcibly
than a thousand arguments their obligation to improve this
influence for the honor of its Author, and their high accountability for the manner of their using it. Next to our children, those of our household claim our inspection, instruction,
and example, to restrain or recover them from the paths of
sin, and to guide and establish them in the ways of piety
and virtue.
" To discharge these duties to the tolerable satisfaction of
our own minds, we have need to labor, and watch, and strive,
and pray, not only in private, but with our families, without
ceasing.
"Indeed those who neglect a regular, daily, and devotional
acknowledgment of the Supreme Being, with their families,
not only forfeit the Divine direction, support, and blessing,
where they most need it, but deprive themselves of the best




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  291
argument to enforce any religious or moral instruction. May
I not add, that those who live in the neglect of this duty expose themselves to the charge of hypocrisy in the view of
their children and domestics, whenever they inculcate any
virtuous instructions? For may they not with reason ask,
in their own hearts, if they do not openly state the question,
with what propriety do you urge upon us duties under the
authority of a Being whose authority you do not acknowledge?
" Indeed, those who neglect family prayer, seldom subject
themselves to this charge, for with this they generally fall
into the neglect of most other religious duties of the family.
And for these neglects, among other sins, it is my serious belief the Almighty has been, and is now, holding the
rod of his anger over us, and that we shall feel the weight
of it, unless we reform.
"It affords me unspeakable satisfaction to be a witness,
that yours was not in the dark catalogue of prayerless families. Having begun well in this respect, it is my humble,
fervent prayer, that no considerations of business, pleasure,
ease, or company, may ever tempt you to omit this daily acknowledgment of our dependence on the Supreme Being.
Business has sometimes so incumbered me, that I' have found
it difficult to command time for the performance of the duty;
but let us carefully weigh the importance of that business
which will justify our neglecting the best interests of our
own souls, and the souls of our children and domestics, and
risking their everlasting perdition.
" Order in our arrangements, so essential for every other
purpose, is particularly so to prevent disappointment or ermbarrassment here. Until the close of life, or very near it, my




292                   MEMOIR  OF
honored parents devoted their first attention, after the family
had risen, to this duty; and always rose at an early hour
when they were well. But if no opportunity offered before,
the family were generally collected together immediately after
breakfast, and it is easier to retain than to collect them after
they are dispersed. It is, however, far better to perform the
duty with a small portion of the family, when more cannot
be obtained, than to omit it. If people are waiting on business, they will think it as reasonable to allow a little time to
pay your acknowledgments to your Maker, as for refreshing
your nature. If they do not, it is no matter how little concern you have with such characters. If the duty or the refreshment must be omitted, is it not far safest to deny ourselves, at least curtail, the latter? Sometimes persons in
waiting have been invited to join in this devotion, and have
been glad of the opportunity; and whether they join or not,
who can tell what blessed effects may result from the example!
" The presence of visitors, particularly those of respectability in the view of the world, and especially if they were
disposed to think lightly of the duty, has sometimes, in the
earlier part of my life, put my fortitude to the trial;- but
that awful denunciation of our Saviour in the 38th verse of
the 8th chapter of Mark,'whosoever shall be ashamed of
me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels,' has
caused me to shudder at the thought of being restrained by
the fear of man.
"The venerable ancestor from whom our family proceeded,
the Reverend George Phillips, (who arrived in Charlestown




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 293
in the year 1630, and afterwards settled and died in the ministry in the town of Watertown,) was eminent for piety, and
has been handsomely spoken of for his literature. It is written of him, that he commonly read the Bible through six
times in a year, and through four generations from him to my
father, and including him, I trust that a good portion of the
spirit of their progenitor descended. I can fully testify that
the two last, namely, my father and grandfather, with their
consorts, were remarkably constant in their devotions, both
of the family and closet; and my mother informed me that
she never knew imy father to omit family prayer, when he
was well and at home, but once from the time he began to
keep house, although he was for many years much engaged
in business both public and private.
"Who can tell how many blessings the prayers of our
pious ancestors have procured for their descendants! Let us,
my dear son, be equally faithful even unto death, to our
God, to ourselves, and to those who shall be born after us.
Greatly aggravated will be our condemnation, if we should
degenerate with such examples before us. Should we ever
be left to such a woful defection, (which God forbid!) what
reason will our posterity have to upbraid us therefor!
"December 5, 1801.
"The foregoing was written at the time of its date, but
want of health and unforeseen events prevented my finishing
the letter, or even copying what was written. Fearing longer
to delay communicating the thoughts which were penned
upon a subject which has excited many painful reflections on
my pillow, and at other times, I have asked your honored
mother to finish copying what I had begun.
25*




294                  MEMOIR  OF
"When I began the copy, I left a margin, with a view, if
I should communicate my thoughts on other subjects, that
you might easily connect the letters, if you judged them
worth preserving; but as it is very doubtful whether I shall
ever be able to write you again on any subject of moment,
you will pay such regard to this as the importance of the
subject demands.
A With most anxious solicitude for the happiness of yourself, your beloved spouse, and dear offspring, both here and
hereafter, I am      Your affectionate parent,
"SAMUEL PHILLIPS."
The spirit of Christian solicitude and fidelity which
thus, to the last, poured out its full tide around his
son, as it did in other forms about the daily path of the
students in the Academy, made Judge Phillips also a
pillar in the church of which he was a member. After
his removal to the South Parish, and the transfer of
his connection from the North to the South Church,
his hand and heart were with his pastor in every good
work. It was through his influence that Mr. French
had settled here. They were not only class mates, but
congenial spirits; and it was with a warm personal regard, as well as Christian interest, that Judge Phillips
cooperated with him in his ministry.
For many years he was active in sustaining the
practice of reading to the people at noon on the Sabbath; even after his health became greatly enfeebled,
he would still tarry and read for the hour from some




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 295
favorite doctrinal or devotional treatise, and by his
zealous example and his dying requests he left such an
impression of the importance of this exercise, that it
was continued for a long period afterwards. So when
perplexing cases of discipline occurred, or when exciting discussions in the church or parish arose, though
never a partisan, but always a peacemaker, his course
was uniformly a rebuke to the lax and the factious.
The building of the new church soon after Mr. French's
settlement, was so hotly contested, that it came near
dividing the parish; yet with friends in both parties,
Judge Phillips, little leisure as he had for such work,
was made chairman of the building committee, and
managed the whole affair so dispassionately as to satisfy all with himself, if not with the project.
In bhis day ministers were usually "settled for life."
But with all his conservatism  he was an innovator.
His fertile mind was intent upon improvements; upon
discussing principles and devising schemes, which would
break in salutarily upon the old order of things.
Sometimes his best friends, and especially his father
and uncles, who were yet sure to second his projects,
would hint that he had a little too much of the spirit
of what we, in our day, term "Young America." Proverb
as he was for caution, his foresight seemed to them a
species of adventurousness. Thus, as early as the year
1788, we find him elaborately discussing with his uncle
at Exeter, the question whether "the interests of re



296                MEMOIR  OF
ligion and the general good might not be advanced, by
removing gentlemen of the clergy from places of less
to those of greater consequence in particular cases."
The views which he expresses are intermingled with so
many personal matters, that we cannot properly quote
them; hut they show with what care he was accustomed, like a judge, to sum up such cases of interest to
the public, and state all their important bearings, far in
advance of any existing public sentiment. When a
council was convened in 1792 at Newbury, in the case
of his friend Dr. Tappan's call from that church to the
Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge, he attended as
delegate with his pastor, and assisted in adjusting the
very delicate questions which were mooted.
Among the schemes which are most characteristic of
him, and which show in the strongest light how his
mind would link the future with the present, or his
growing country with his native village, the Charitable
Donations which were made by him, in the following
instruments, stand conspicuous: —
"Wishing to contribute to the promotion of Christian
knowledge and piety a part of the substance wherewith God
has blessed me, and out of respect and affection to my native
town, I, Samuel Phillips, of Andover, in the county of
Essex, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Esquire, do
make the following donation, for the purposes hereinafter
mentioned, and I do hereby direct my heirs, executors, and




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  297
administrators, within one year after my decease, to pay to
the Trustees of Phillips Academy in Andover, or their successors in office, the sum of one thousand dollars, in trust for
the purposes hereinafter mentioned; to the payment of
which, well and truly to be made, I bind my heirs, executors,
and administrators firmly by these presents:
" The said sum to be by the Trustees aforesaid and their
successors always kept out at interest upon good security,
and the interest thence arising to be disposed of in the manner following, namely: one sixth part to be annually added
to the principal sum for ever; and the other five sixth parts to
be laid out in the purchase of the following books, namely:Dr. Doddridge's Address to the Master of a Family on Family Religion, the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism,
Dr. Watts's Divine Songs, Dr. Hemmenway's Discourse to
Children; and, when the income shall permit, Dr. Doddridge's
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and other like
pious writings, to be by the said Trustees and their successors as aforesaid, or by a committee of their appointment,
distributed among the inhabitants, who do now  or may
hereafter reside within the present boundaries of the said
town of Andover.
" That is to say, the aforesaid Address to the Master of a
Family on Family Religion to be given to every young man
who may be about to enter into the family state, and to such
others being already heads of families, as to them shall seem
best; and the other books aforesaid to be annually distributed in such manner as to the said Trustees shall appear
best calculated to promote the pious design of said Treatises,
and the real object of this appropriation; and in the said
distribution, it is desired, that the friendly advice and assist



298                   MEMOIR OF
ance of the Congregational Ministers within the limits aforesaid may be requested.
" And whenever, in process of time, the income of said fund
shall, in the judgment of the said Trustees or their successors
as aforesaid, be more than sufficient to supply the several
families within the limits aforesaid, and the said families shall
in fact have been so supplied, the surplus of said income to
be applied, at the discretion of the said Trustees and their
successors as aforesaid, to the use of Phillips Academy aforesaid, and the further promotion of the pious designs of the
honorable Founders thereof.
" And it is requested that the aforesaid sum, when paid,
and the interest thereon from time to time received, together
with the whole disposition and distribution of the same be
fairly entered in a book of record, for this purpose provided,
and ever open to the inspection and perusal of all men.
"In witness of all which I have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this twelfth day of December, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and one.
"Signed, sealed, and delivered,      SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
in presence of
"FRANCIS L. LEE,
"AMOS BLANCHIARD, JR."
"Being desirous, in addition to the appropriation made
in an instrument, bearing date December twelfth, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, of contributing still farther of the substance wherewith God hath
olessed me, to the pious education of young children in my
native town; and also to a more extensive diffusion of religious knowledge and Evangelical piety, I, Samuel Phillips of




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                  299
Andover, in the County of Essex, and Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, Esquire, do now make another donation for
the purposes hereinafter mentioned; and I do hereby direct
my heirs, executors, and administrators, within one year after
my decease, to pay to the Trustees of Phillips Academy in
Andover, or their successors in office, the sum of four thousand dollars in money or in private notes of hand, with such
securities as the said Trustees shall fully approve, in trust for
the purposes hereinafter mentioned; to the payment of
which, well and truly to be made, I bind my heirs, executors,
and administrators firmly by these presents.
" The said sum to be by the Trustees aforesaid and their
successors always kept out at interest on good security, and
the interest thence arising to be disposed of in the manner
following; to wit: one sixth part to be ever hereafter annually added to the principal for an increasing capital sum;
and the other five sixth parts of the interest of the said
capital sum to be laid out in the manner following'; that
is to say, the five sixth parts of the interest arising from
one fourth part of the aforesaid capital sum, to be appropriated and applied, according to the best judgment of the
said Trustees, partly for rendering those females who may
be employed as instructors in the several District Schools,
within the aforesaid Town of Andover, better qualified for
the discharge of their delicate and important trust; and
partly for extending the term of their instruction in such
districts within the said town, as, notwithstanding the provision therefor annually made by said town, may stand
in most need of additional aid; provided always, that this
additional aid shall in no one year be given to more than
one third part of the whole number of districts within the
present boundaries of the aforesaid town of Andover; and




300                 MEMOIR  OF
tne five-sixth parts of the interest, arising from the other
three-fourth parts of the aforesaid capital sum, to be appropriated and applied in the following manner, to wit: for
procuring the following books, namely, Bibles, Testaments,
and Psalters;. the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, Dr. Watts's Divine Songs for Children, Dr. Hemmenway's Discourse to Children, Dr. Doddridge's Address to the
Master of a Family on Family Religion, his Sermons on the
Religious Education of Children, his Rise and Progress of
Religion in the Soul, Law's Serious Call to a Devoted and
Holy Life, Mason's Treatise on Self-Knowledge, Henry's
Discourse concerning Meekness, and Orton's Discourse to
the Aged, together with other like pious books, as the income
of the said capital sum, agreeably to the aforementioned apportionment may permit; to be distributed by the said Trustees and their successors, or by a committee or agents of
their appointment, among poor and pious Christians not
belonging to the aforesaid town, to whom such writings may
be peculiarly grateful, and also among the inhabitants of
new towns and plantations or other places, where the means
of religious knowledge and instruction are but sparingly
enjoyed, in such manner as the Trustees in their wisdom and
prudence may think best calculated to promote the object
of this donation.
" And to enable the said Trustees and their successors in
office to form the most correct opinion of the proper object
of this donation, they are respectfully desired to request the
necessary information of pious ministers of religion in different parts of the country. It is also requested, that the
said sum first above mentioned, when paid, and the interest
thereon from time to time received, together with the whole
disposition and distribution of the same, be fairly entered in




JUD GE PHILLIPS.                     301
a book of record, for this purpose provided, and ever ospen to
the inspection and perusal of all men.
" And it is farther requested, that the said Trustees and
their successors, as aforesaid, in all future time, may ever
bear in mind that the principal object of this donation, is the
preservation of the essential and distinguishing doctrines of
the Gospel, as professed by our pious ancestors, the first settlers of New England, and of such writings as are consentaneous thereto; above all, it is ardently hoped and expected,
that in their selection of books for the distribution aforesaid,
all possible care will be taken by the Trustees aforesaid, to
guard against the dissemination of the least particle of Infidelity, or Modern Philosophy; and also against the dispersion of such Theological treatises, or speculations, as tend
to undermine the fundamental principles of the Gospel plan
of salvation, or to reduce the Christian religion to a system
of mere morality; without which guard there will be great
reason to fear that the object of this donation will be totally
frustrated.
" Confiding, however, in the wisdom  and fidelity of the
said Trustees, I cheerfully commit the execution of the design of this donation, as herein expressed, to their pious care,
and the success of it to the blessing of Almighty God,
whose gracious smiles are, through the Mediator, humbly
implored on it and them.
"In witness of all which, I have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and two.
"Signed, sealed, and delivered         SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
in presence of
"SAMUEL FARRAR,
"AMos BLANCHARD, JR."
26




302               MEMOIR OF
In these unpretending donations, we have the whole
system of our modern tract societies and systems of
colportage for the circulation of religious volumes in
miniature, long before such organizations were thought
of. Nor has this pioneer enterprise of his sagacious
mind done of itself a trivial work, although in some
measure overshadowed by these associations.
The trust has been most religiously discharged.
The schools of Andover are every year materially
aided from the income of his fund. Valuable books
have been often distributed to every family in the
town, at as short intervals as the fund would allow, and
over large sections of New England, and of the territory westward, the work of scattering a great variety
of religious volumes has been and continues to be
prosecuted, sometimes by private agency, sometimes
through the channel of other religious associations,
while the fund itself has been steadily augmenting for
a similar mission in the future.
We speak of these donations, so carefully directed
with a view to the attainment of such a variety of
objects, present or remote, as eminently ciiaractlerstic
of him. So in fact was every project in which we find
him engaged. Few men would have struck the golden
veins which he so assiduously worked, — fewer still
would have pursued his method, or have breathed the
spirit which stirred him, in his chosen life-work. For,




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                303
although he was one of the most symmetrical of men,
having nothing in excess and no glaring defect, his
individuality was remarkable in many particulars; and,
in all, it was but the many-sided bodying forth of his
deep religious principle.
We have not been able to discover a trait or an
incident in his career, which has not seemed to us the
product of his religion more than of any thing else.
He was not the great and good man whom we revere
by the force mainly of rare circumstances, or of genial
impulses, or of a mechanical conformity with models
before him; but, with the help of God, "by patient
continuance in well doing." Frail in childhood, amid
the graves of all his brothers and sisters, and an invalid
ever afterwards, he seemed daily to hear the admonition, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
nmzht:" and it is in the light of his religious faith, or
as the forms in which his religious principle clothed itself, that we must weigh his peculiarities.
Thus, he was intensely mnethodical and careful. Men who
attempt to do so much are usually negligent of minutise; but if he had measured all the ground he ever
went over, inch by inch, he could not have been more
particular. Any one of his hundreds of manuscripts
now extant, taken up at random, would be an illustration of this trait. He erased, he interlined, he changed
the collocation of words or paragraphs, he put in after



304                MEMOIR OF
thoughts and side-thoughts, in a common family letter,
with as much painstaking as in the draft of a State
paper. In writing the most familiar communications to
his son or his wife, he would copy, or give an apology
for not copying:, as if he would not consent to do any
thing which he was not anxious to do well; and the
same scrupulous exactness was shown by him through
the whole circuit of his labors, not more as a habit,
than as a purpose.
So, too, lie was a prodigy of activity: not of haste and
bustle, but of rapid, effective labor, in a quiet, unruffled
spirit. His equilibrium was one secret of his momentum. Serene and sunny in temperament, he sang with
the morning and the evening birds. Men everywhere
said, 1" he is too busy," "he will soon be spent," but he
heard them not; work had a charm for him- any
work, all work, if so be it were only good.
And, then, he had a most vivid senzse of the valule of
tzme: in this respect he has made a stronger impression
on us, than any man of whom we ever heard. He is
perpetually recurring to the subject in his letters, and
no less constantly acting as he writes. Take, for example, the following sentences, from a succession of
letters to his son in college:" Remember that time is a most invaluable talent; be cov



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  305
etous of every parcel of it; "-" bar your doors, and secure
your eyes, your ears, and your heart against all who would
rob you of your treasure; I mean, your time;" - " you can
hardly have a better security against vice, next to the grace
of God, than uniform diligence in the pursuit of useful
knowledge; be, therefore, more covetous of your hours, than
misers are of gold;" -" a more favorable opportunity for
improvement it is not probable you will ever see — perhaps
never another equally so —and the motto of our Academy
seal still applies, as you are beginning a new year, new
studies, and in a new situation,' Finis origine pendet;'"'-" I
cannot persuade myself to omit any opportunity of expressing my solicitude that you should participate of my feelings,
respecting the importance of time, especially of holy time;
next to this the importance of governing the passions;" —
"let no day be barren of improvement, but even at those
seasons when close application to study is not expected,
recollect the past and make some useful reflections on whatever you see and hear, that'you may give for every day some
good account at last; "'-" realize more and more the worth
of time - of the present moment in particular - and make it
your invariable rule, not to defer any duty till the next hour
or moment which can be performed in the present; a religious observation of this rule will be of immense advantage to
you through life; advice of more importance is not in the
power of           Your affectionate parent,
" S. PHILLIPS."
"A religious observation of this rule:" - how exactly
does this describe his own habit I
26*




306                MEMOIR OF
And as his religion thus exalted his estimate of
time, so it made him, in the words of one of his admirers, "an enthusiastfor virtue."  Whenever he touched
upon "virtue"  in its abstract oneness, or upon "the
virtues" as a sisterhood of graces, his spirit always
kindled. Like the "aliquid immensum infinitumque"
of the old Roman sage, toward which he was ever struggling, his ideal of virtue fascinated him. She stood
before him, you would think, in the grace of a living,
personal beauty; she breathed into him the spirit of
her own serenity; he sat at her feet to learn, to admire, to love; she thrilled him with -thoughts of what
he might be and do as her votary. It was not a poetic
fancy of virtue, as above God or apart from God, but a
moral perception of virtue in and from God, that was
such a sunbeam in his soul. And, therefore, with persistent devotion, he gravitated toward her as the needle
does to the polar star, and the charm of her presence
irradiated his whole character and life.
But even this characteristic was, if possible, less
prominent in him, than his intensely ethical vein. ~ Had he
lived in the age of Seneca or of Socrates, he would
have rivalled them. But in a better day he was a
wiser moralist. The strong tendency in his nature to
that clear, concentrated method of reflection which is
apt to express itself pithily in the form of maxims, was
so wedded to his vital religious experience, that, with




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                307
their advantages, he would have written as a Christian
philosopher better than Paley or Butler; less coldly,
with less intellectual force, perhaps, but not less clearly,
and far more evangelically. He cannot allude in a
letter to a slight trouble with a domestic, without dignifying the occasion by the exclamation,-"how dependent the highest upon the lower classes! and all upon
each other! " If he writes upon some matter of business, he must enforce discretion in it, by the broad precept, -" let catdion be your motto."  When he commends a friend for kindnesses to the poor, in sickness,
he makes it a deed of heaven rather than earth by the
saying, -" to pour the balm of comfort into the bosom
of the afflicted is a Godlike employment."  As he expounds to a jury their duty, the law becomes suddenly
personified and present, providing them 1"as the eye
and the ear of the public." When he elaborates the
constitution of an academy, its entire preamble is a
cluster of ethical utterances, and its delineation of a
teacher's duties is in the richest strain of ethical suggestion. Everywhere, amid the memorials which he
has left, we encounter such gems of thought, and of
diction fitly clothing it.
With this ethical mind he united an impressive sedateness. Sallies of wit in others he could appreciate and
enjoy richly.  His wife and his cousin, Miss Sally Phillips, were especially gladdening to him in their exu



308                 MEMOIR OF
berant vivacity at their fireside; but though he was
habitually cheerful, he could not be drawn into the
mirthful vein.  It was a study, as well as an instinct,
with him to be serious, yet not sombre. "1 He was the
gravest man I ever saw," says one; " he had a most
beni'mant countenance," says another, " and slclh a smile!"
The gravity which so awed, and yet won both old and
young, was doubtless the more characteristic, because
of his attenuated figure and the pallor of disease,
which at fifty gave him the air of a man of seventy
years. But it was, after all, a mental more than a
physical peculiarity. It was the deep inner habit of
the man, intensely reflecting, constructive, utilitarian,
and devout, — impressing its image and superscription
upon his tall form and pale face.
And the more noticeably so, as to this was added a
profotund humiility.
"Should it not," he writes to Madam Phillips when a new
chapter in their experience was opening, "give us complete
satisfaction and the highest joy, that this, as well as every
other change, is in the hand of that perfect Being, to whom
the future is as clear as the present or past; who thoroughly
comprehending the whole chain of events at one glance, can
with complete certainty order every occurrence as shall be best
on the whole, and most assuredly will do it; should not we
consider ourselves as little atoms, moving in that part of the
scene which he has assigned us; and when events appear
at hand which are contrary to our wishes, should we not




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   309
remember how entirely ignorant we are of what is behind
the curtain? and that when events appear most against us,
they are oftentimes followed with consequences highly beneficial."
Ever appreciative of others' excellence, concerning
himself he often speaks in a desponding tone —
" I feel, more than ever, my barrenness and insufficiency to
discharge that mighty debt of gratitude, which I owe to
Heaven and those benefactors, granted me by Divine bounty,
at the head of whom stands the dear partner of my life, ever
ready to bless me with her tender care and kindness."  " In
the early part of life, I fondly pleased myself with the expectation that I should do some good and communicate some
happiness to others; - how strangely have I been disappointed!... if I have been so useless in the prime of life,
what can be expected when declining, and that so fast!..
when you are nearest the throne of grace, be entreated earnestly to supplicate the inexhaustible source of all good, in
behalf of your unworthy partner, -that his multiplied offences
may be forgiven him, -that he may be enabled to discharge
all duty far better, in time to come, than in the days that are
past; and next to those he owes his Maker, those which are
due to his nearest friend and their offspring." —
" Forty and five years of my pilgrimage are now completed,
and to very little purpose, either for the honor of my Maker
or the benefit of mankind; consequently I have hardly learned
the true end of living. The time that is past seems but a
span! and although a very poor account can be rendered of
it, the best part of life is gone irrecoverably; upon the most




310                 MEMOIR OF
favorable calculation much cannot be expected from the remainder, and no dependence can be placed on any thing
future; were it not for the hope of Divine mercy how
wretched would be my lot! But what ground for hope in
this mercy without a life of repentance, faith, and new obedience! Let us daily, whether together or apart, unite our
supplications at the throne of grace, that we may be disposed
to live that life; that the remaining part of our life may be
more fruitful of service to others, and comfort to ourselves."
Such, year after year, are his pensive words, until
we are ready to say, "he must have been a sad man;"
no! he was a self-tasking man; and his standard was
so high that he seemed, to himself, immeasurably below it. His was not the humility of indifference, nor
of dejection, but of greatness in thought and deed, as
Newton compared all his researches to the gathering
of a few pebbles on the shore of the wide ocean of
truth. He thought so much less of himself than other
men do, because he saw so much more than others do
in virtue, in duty, in every thing good.
In apparent contrast with these characteristics, yet
in admirable proportion to them, there was one which
adds a charm to his memory; he cherished a special fondness for the yotng.  His sensibilities were attuned to this
affection; his whole character was touched by its magnetism. Companion of statesmen as he was, and a
proverb for his gravity, he was never more in his ele



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 311
ment than when conversing with a little child, or dropping his goodly maxims, like the gentle dew, into the
heart of some listening youth. It was not a patronizing,
but a parental interest, which he exhibited, especially
when  through his prolonged efforts the Academy
brought him into such contact with the sons of his
friends and countrymen from all points of the compass.
But all these traits would not have completed his
type of Christian symmetry, without his rare estimate of
the uses of wealthli, as the handmaid of learninz and religion.
There was a disinterestedness, a loftiness of virtue, in
the strength with which he grasped the idea of consecrating large estates to such ends, which commands our
reverence. And the form which this idea took, is especially to be admired. It sought an embodiment in
far-reaching plans, - in works for the great future, —
in permanent institutions. It concentrated and accumulated in one focus, the best efforts of a lifetime.
It did not refuse daily bread to the poor, nor any other
transient charity; neither did it scatter all its stores
in such infinitesimal subdivisions. It pursued the
golden via media, proposing to itself prominently ONE
GREAT WORK to be accomplished, while not neglecting
such others as were consistent with it; and therefore
it "Ctook root downward and bore fruit upward;" it
gave to his own spirit breadth and versatility; it
linked to itself, as with a chain of gold, all his other




312      MEMOIR OF JUDGE PHILLIPS.
schemes: it subsidized a family of kindred spirits, and
unlocked their hoards and hearts; it reached out, first
in the faith, and then in the vision of its fruits, to the
very ends of the earth; and "by it, he being dead yet
speaketh."




CHAPTER XII.
HIS DECEASE.
THE best life must end; often the very virtues of
the good are presages of their early translation to a
brighter world. As his years glided swiftly away, with
increasing debility Judge Phillips redoubled his activity, until he completed his self-immolation in midlife. For some years prior to his death, he distinctly
foresaw it approaching.  His chronic asthma began
to be ominous of fatal consumption. Often, for weeks
in succession, it prevented his enjoying an hour's invigorating sleep, and oppressed him with an insatiable
thirst. With unflagging persistency, therefore, he "'redeemed the time," not thinking how to relieve his
over-tasked system, but how to fill out the measure
of his life-work in every relation. Had he consented
at a much earlier date to relax the tension of his
zeal, the shadow on his dial might have returned ten
degrees backward, as it did for a sign to the good
king Hezekiah.
But his election was made; of the two, he preferred
to live fast rather than long; to do his utmost to-day
27                    (313)




314               MEMOIR OF
and not count upon to-morrow; to do as many things as
possible, and all as well as possible, though the fire of
such a devotion might soon consume him. This seems to
most minds an error - a morbid zeal; and for ordinary
men it would be so, but there is little hazard of their
being infected with it. In any case, it is "a fault that
leans to virtue's side." But in his case, we shrink on the
whole from pronouncing it a fault, or even a mistake.
To live a single year as he did, is more than ten years
of ordinary activity; and, in the words of Burke, "we
must pardon something to the spirit of liberty," with
which such a soul is fired in its work. It cannot be
mechanically moderate; it cannot gauge every thing
by the canons of mere reason, uninfluenced by its
ruling passion. Trim it and tame it by such processes
and you extinguish it. The extraordinary man is
made "altogether such an one as ourselves."  What
makes him so remarkable; what has given him such
power, and made him accomplish so much, until you
feel what a pigmy you are by his side, is the very
peculiarity out of which you must see his life-springs
flowing so fast and full, that they cannot flow long.
Let us see him, then, at fifty c" setting his house in
order."  In the summer of 1801, he makes a last
effort to recruit his strength, by journeying in company with Madam Phillips and his friend Dr. Pearson,
who exclaims, in reporting their progress: "may gradious Heaven still smile on the undertaking, and pre



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                 315
serve a life so dear to his friends, so important to the
public."   Their tour extends through the western
counties of the Commonwealth as far as Albany; but
no skill or assiduity can avail, and he returns to his
home, resigned to the will of God in the blighting of
their hopes.
The postscript in that long New Year's letter to his
son, added when his own hand has become too feeble
to copy it, completes his work for him; so in every
direction, and to all classes of friends, he sends now
his final words of counsel or of adieu; he gathers
the Trustees about him, and "particularly requests
that a select committee be chosen to meet once in a
quarter or oftener, to inquire into the state of the
Academy, the proficiency of the scholars, and the conduct of the instructors, that the core of the Institution may be attended to;" thus, with his latest breath,
planning for its welfare;' he remembers the church
of his choice in his prayers and gifts, directing that
a massive silver flagon be presented to them, "as a
memorial of his sincere affection and esteem, and his
earnest request that the laudable practice of reading
in the house of public worship between services on
Lord's Day may be continued, so long as even a small
number shall be disposed to attend the exercise;" 2
and then, amid the tenderest endearments of his be1 Records of Phillips Academy, p. 155.
2 Records, South Church.




316                 MEMOIR  OF
loved family, he calmly expires; meeting death, as he
had ever met his duty, in the serenity of Christian
hope and faith. The friends who know him, and feel
his death, now lead us again over the circuit of his
life, and pay such tributes to his character as nothing
but the heartiest homage could ever call forth; we
accept their words, and repress our own.
In the Centinel, February 13, 1802, we read:"Died, at his seat in Andover, at 2 o'clock on Wednesday
afternoon, his Honor SAMUEL PHILLIPS, Esquire, AEt. 50, Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
"A loss deeply to be deplored by every friend of his State
and country. It is the lot of few to acquire a reputation so
bright and unspotted as that which he possessed, and of
fewer still to take an active and decided part in all political
events, and yet preserve integrity unimpeached, and talents
uncontroverted. He graduated at Harvard College in 1771.
While yet a youth, the qualities which made eminent his
riper years, rendered him beloved and conspicuous. At this
early period of his life, he was distinguished for that solidity
of judgment, deep penetration, strict moral principle, active
virtue, and stable Christian piety, which constituted the
striking features of his character, and attained for him the
notice of his instructors, and the attachment of his equals.
He had scarcely reached manhood, when his fellow-townsmen, with a readiness which does honor to their sagacity,
elected him their Representative; and, by their suffrages and
that of his district, he was raised to a seat in the House and
Senate of the State for twenty-five years successively, until




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                   317
the public voice elevated him to the high station in which
he died.... The Academy which bears his family name,
and which is indebted principally to his patronage for its
existence and celebrity, witnesses his love of literature and
his ardent exertions in its cause. An enthusiast in his attachment to virtue, a Christian in sentiment and the strictest
profession, eminent for piety, private friendship, and zeal
for the public, what good breast which knew his worth,
is not wrung at his loss; what lover of his country does not
lament one of the firmest pillars of the State, and of private
worth one of the brightest examples?"
In the Journal of the Legislature, we read:"HousE, Thursday, February 11.
"The Secretary delivered the following Message from the
Governor:
" GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE, AND GENTLEMEN  OF THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,- The Commonwealth has lost
one of its best and ablest friends by the death of the Lieutenant-Governor. He died yesterday about two in the afternoon; and his family propose that his funeral shall be
attended on Monday next at two o'clock. A long and intimate acquaintance with him, enables some of us to bear testimony to his distinguished merit. He was solicitous to
preserve the good order of society, and to exhibit to his fellow-citizens a pattern of every civil and moral virtue. Without any solicitation on his part, he was many years elected a
member of the Senate, and presided in their deliberations
with candor and dignity. In the office of Lieutenant-Gov27*




318                 IEMOIR ()F
ernor, he secured respect by mild deportment, resulting from
the testimony of a good conscience. He was firm and inflexble whenever the interests of the Commonwealth were concerned; and he acquitted himself with honor in all the
offices confided to him by the public, and in all the relations
of private life. I shall be ready to join with you, gentlemen,
in any tribute of esteem and respect, which you may think
due to the merit of his public services.
" CALEB STRONG.
"COUNCIL CHAMBER, February 11, 1802.
The Centinel of February 17, continues the narration -
" In conformity to the Resolutions of the Legislature, the
tribute of esteem and respect so justly due the deceased, was
paid on Monday last, in this town and at Andover. In this
town the members of the Legislature moved in procession to
the old brick meeting-house, where the Rev. Mr. Baldwin,
Chaplain of the House, delivered a very pertinent and
pathetic discourse from John i. 47,'Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile.' The Rev. Dr. Thatcher, Chaplain of the Senate, concluded the solemnity with prayer.
At two o'clock, all the bells in town commenced tolling, and
continued until four o'clock, during which time minute guns
were discharged by Captain Johonnot's company.
"At Andover the remains of the deceased were entombed
with those demonstrations of esteem, respect, and affection,
which his singular worth demanded. The procession moved
from the late mansion-house of the deceased, in the following
order to the meeting-house -




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                     319
The present pupils of the Academy,
Those who have heretofore received instruction in that Institution,
The Trustees of the Academy,
Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy,
The Corpse,
The pall was borne by His Excellency the Governor, three of the
Council, the President of the Senate, and Speaker of the
House'of Representatives,
The Relatives, and a very long train of mourning fellow citizens
followed the Corpse.
"At the meeting-house, a select choir of singers performed
an anthem. The throne of grace was pertinently and fervently addressed by the Rev. Mr. French, whose fast flowing
tears testified his sincere grief for the loss of his most excellent parishioner and beloved friend. The Rev. Dr. Tappan
delivered an affecting discourse from the words, -' help,
Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from
among the children of men;' in which he delineated in just
and glowing colors the character of the illustrious deceased
Christian, Patron of Science, and Patriot. An anthem suitable to the solemn occasion closed the service.  His Excellency Governor Gilman, and other eminent characters from
New Hampshire, paid a just tribute to departed worth, piety,
and patriotism, by attending the funeral rites of this highly
venerated and esteemed magistrate.
" The Committee of the Legislature omitted to recommend any military escort on the occasion, in consequence of
the earnest request of the deceased expressed a few days before his death, he being apprehensive that the health of his
fellow-citizens at this season of the year might be affected
by the service."'




320                 ME MOIR  OE
A mourning sheet, on which one of the anthems
here referred to was printed for the occasion, lies
before us, the only copy we have seen: and it is easy
to imagine ourselves listening to the pathos with which
the choir sings, —'Th' enlightened FRIEND of human kind,
The MAN of uncorrupted mind,
Whose only fault was too much zeal
And ardor for the public weal;
" Whose spotless life has ever stood,
A living monument of good;
Best model for a virtuous age,
And glory of the historic page;
"Though lost to earth, is blest above,
Arrayed in robes of peace and love,
Convened amid the choir divine,
In realms of endless day to shine.
"PARENT OF ALL! whose sovereign will
Obedient cherubim fulfil,
Oh, teach us, in the hour of death,
With tranquil hope to yield our breath;
"On wings of faith with transport rise,
To meet thy welcome to the skies;
Enjoy thy rest, receive thy crown,
And at THY SON'S right hand sit down."
While Dr. Baldwin, in his sermon at Boston, gives a




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  321
rapid sketch of the deceased, in which every paragraph is a eulogy, and of which one sentence is a summary, -" he was the accurate scholar, the enlightened
statesman, the accomplished gentleman, and the exemplary Christian," - Dr. Tappan, before his vast auditory at Andover, pays a more elaborate and lofty tribute
to his worth. In addition to what has been already
quoted from this discourse, we would gladly cite whole
pages here, but must confine ourselves to mere sentences.  Portraying him as "a distinguished ornament
and pillar both of the church and the Commonwealth,"
he says:" The Author of nature had bestowed on him many eminent gifts," which " were early and constantly devoted to the
best ends by a sublime spirit of benevolence and godliness;"
" the piety of our illustrious citizen was equal to his patriotism; his religion supported and exalted both his private virtues and public energies;" "he was a distinguished pattern
of virtuous diligence and resolution;" "both his solitary and
social hours were intensely devoted to some object of utility;"
" his cordial and extensive hospitality, his tender and zealous
patronage of friendless or indigent merit, his eager sacrifices
of private business and interest to public exigencies, his
efforts to rouse, direct, and encourage the charity and public
spirit of others, his distinguished contributions of time, influence, and property to seminaries of learning and religion,
loudly attest his PURE AND EXALTED PHILANTHROPY;"'" the history of man does not often furnish a character so full of
various, well directed, and useful energies. It does not often




322                 MEMOIR  OF
illustrate the art of living so much in so small a compass of
years;" "his soul was on the stretch to do good almost to
his latest breath."
The immense concourse, the presence of so many
distinguished civilians, the universal sensibility, and the
impressive exercises, with which her favorite son was
thus laid in his tomb, made this a most memorable day
to Andover; such as she had never seen before, and
will never see again. Even her own town records,
where deaths are not usually noted, appear to throb in
sympathy with the scene; on one of the pages, a deep
mourning border is drawn, enclosing this entry: --
"The Honorable Samuel Phillips, Esquire, was elected
Lieutenant-Governor, qualified for that office agreeable to
the Constitution, and continued therein, until Wednesday,
the tenth day of February, 1802, about two o'clock, P. M.,
when he departed this life, aged fifty years and five days,
universally lamented."
To these garlands, showered upon his tomb at the
hour, and which a whole Commonwealth laid, with the
insignia of her seal, upon his coffin, we add some passages from a later encomium - the more remarkable,
because they show how little a score of years could do
to efface his image from the memory of one who had
fully known him. It is from the pen of Dr. Dwight'
in 1821, in these words: —
X Dwight's Travels, Vol. I. p. 399, 400.




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                  323
"To the memory of Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, I would
willingly pay that tribute of respect, which would be challenged as due to him by all his countrymen, acquainted either
with his private or public character. In the year 1782 and
1783, I lodged in the same house with him in Boston, for
three months; and being occupied in the same concerns, had
every opportunity of learning his character which I could
wish; particularly as he treated me with the most entire
frankness and intimacy.
" The mind of this gentleman, by nature vigorous and discerning, was early strengthened by habits of industry, and
expanded by a liberal education.".... "The learning and
science to which he chiefly addicted himself, was that which
most usefully affects the great interests of man. Of a character eminently practical, knowledge merely speculative, presented few allurements to his eye; action, he considered the
end of thinking. He thought, therefore, and read, not merely
that he might know more, but that he might become better;
not that he might display his knowledge to his fellow men,
but that he might do them good. A species of ethical cast
marked his conversation and life, and distinguished him from
all other men whom I have known."...
"He who is able and willing to do much business, will
have much to do. Accordingly, he had a primary agency in
all the measures of the State in which he lived, for near
thirty years. Without exaggeration it may, I believe, be
said, that the man is not remembered, who, in the same
offices, was more able, industrious, faithful, or useful."..
" In his mind Christianity flourished. In his life its fruits
were genuine, fair, and abundant. Whether Mr. Phillips was
a Christian, in the evangelical sense, is a question which, I




324                 M MEMOIR OF
suspect, has never been asked by any man acquainted with
his character.
" His person was tall and slender, and his manners were a
happy combination of simplicity with refinement, of modesty
with dignity. His countenance was grave, mild, and commanding; his features were fixed in the sedateness of thought,
and gentle with the amenity of virtue."
The character which, after the lapse of twenty years,
could be painted so vividly and with such nice discrimination, is yet again portrayed for us, from memory,
with graphic distinctness, at the close of half a century,
by one from whom it is our good fortune to have elicited the tribute in the following letter:" REV. J. L. TAYLOR -
"DEAR SIR, — Your favor of the 10th ultimo has lain by
me without reply; but when you approximate your eightyfourth year, you will find that, though the spirit is willing,
the flesh is weak; and that time, when he sees gray hairs on
the head, will often amuse himself with rubbing out impressions on the brain, so that they become feeble and at times
obliterated. Though I have omitted to reply, I have at no
moment lost my sense of gratification at the information
your letter contains, that, at this late day, you have undertaken to do such justice to the memory of Lieutenant-Governor Samuel Phillips, as the lapse of time and the scanty
documents at your command permit. It would give me
great pleasure to contribute to your design, as you request,
but I fear I can do little justice even to my own impressions
concerning his character, and far less than his merits and his




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                  325
efficient influence on the period in which he lived, deserve.
I have already, in reply to letters addressed to me by President Woods and Dr. Sprague of Albany, probably exhausted
all the few reminiscences at my command. I will not, however, on that account, refuse briefly to contribute to your purpose, though at the danger of repeating myself.
"'Samuel Phillips, known the greater part of his life, in
consequence of the life of his father, by the addition of Junior, was an extraordinary man; but it is very difficult to give,
at this day, a just impression of his character. The religious
and moral element in it was mixed so intimately, and yet so
unaffectedly, with the business of the world and the habits
of active life, that he seemed to be a perfect embodiment of
the Christian statesman, scholar, and philanthropist. I had
opportunities of observing him from the year 1778, when I
joined the Academy, being then but six years of age, and
occasionally, until the time of his death in 1802. I was a
frequent visitor in his family, though never a member of it.
My mother was daughter of his father's brother, and always
stayed in his house when she visited Andover, which broughtme to be almost a daily inmate. I have heard his addresses
to the school as a Trustee, to the College as an Overseer,
and, as a boy and a man, my opportunities for personal intercourse with him have been many; and I can truly say that
I have never met, through my whole life, with an individual
in whom the spirit of Christianity and of good-will to mankind were so naturally and beautifully blended with an indomitable energy and enterprise in active life. He was a
leader in the church, a leader in the State; the young loved
and listened to him, the old consulted and deferred to hieo
advice.
28




326                 M EMOIR OF
" I have travelled with him from Boston to Andover alone,
then a journey of the chief part of a day; his discourse,
adapted to a boy as I then was, full of sweetness and instruction.
"His love of the young was intense. He delighted in the
poetry of Watts, which he seemed to have, all of it, by heart;
so readily and appositely he introduced it in conversation,
accompanied by a never ceasing flow of wise maxims, given
not with an air of authority, but as the natural outpouring
of a good and kind heart.
" I cannot, in language, do justice to the interest and affection with which, on these occasions, he excited the young
mind.
" In his capacity for business, there was, as it were, an
universality or ubiquity. In the town, in the Senate, in the
courts of justice, in committees of the legislature, as a referee
in cases of great importance, in all other associations on
affairs of business, his influence was, as far as was possible
in respect of any one man, paramount. For twenty years he
was a member, and for fifteen President of the Senate of the
State, at a period when statesmen were not made out of
every sort of wood. He was judge of the Essex Court of
Common Pleas, a member of every important committee, on
like occasions a referee, and, at the same time, owned and
took a general superintendence of two stores, one at Andover, another at Methuen, of a saw-mill, a grist-mill, a
paper-mill, and a powder-mill, on the Shawshine, giving to
each a sufficient and appropriate share of his oversight; with
a spirit subdued by the predominancy of the religious sentiment, he was as earnest, active, and indefatigable in this
multitude of his engagements, as though this world was
every thing.




JUDGE  PHILLIPS.                      327
" In fulfilling business duties, difficulty did not repress his
ardor, nor dangers deter. Boston and Andover were the
chief seats of his labors. The business of one sometimes
interfered with that of the other.  In such cases, to him no
obstacle was formidable. It was not uncommon for him to
leave Boston at sunset and travel to Andover, a distance of
twenty-two miles, on horseback, and sometimes not reaching
home until midnight. On one occasion falling asleep, his
horse took a wrong path in passing through woods, and
he became lost in them, and reached home not until nearly
morning. At another time his horse fell in the dark; a
broken leg, and three weeks' detention at a friend's house,
in Medford, was the consequence. His friends remonstrated,
on these occasions, at his imprudence. But it was his nature
to be unmindful of every thing but his duty. He undoubtedly, by thus exposing himself, laid the foundation of the
asthma and of other disorders, which brought him to his grave
when but little past the meridian of life.
" Samuel Phillips (junior) was, probably, in the general
opinion of the period, the efficient founder of Phillips Academy.' He was, indeed, a young man, not yet thirty years
1 In addition to our own statements, on this point, in a previous
chapter, of the same tenor with Mr. Quincy's, we here insert the
formal and explicit testimony of Dr. Tappan and Dr. Pearson to the
same effect. Dr. Tappan, who was his class mate and a Trustee of
the Academy, speaks of him in the discourse at his funeral as " its
earliest projector;" Dr. Pearson, his confident, a resident in the
place, with whom he conferred often while writing the Constitution,
and the first Preceptor, in his historic sketch delivered at the opening of the Theological Institution, says of the Academy, " the tribute
of justice has not been paid to the prime mover, as well as active




32 q                  MEMOIR  OF
old, but there was a maturity of mind, an impressive gravity
in his demeanor, to which the old as well as the young bowed
down. He was equally the favorite of the three brothers;
while they found the means, he selected the locality, wrote
the Constitution, and appointed the Instructor.
" I have thus, Sir, with a rapid hand, endeavored, as well
as I could, to come in aid of your purpose. Its success
lies near my heart; and I shall be happy to reply to any
questions in relation to him or the Academy you may
submit.         With respect, I am your servant,
" JOSIAH QUINCY.
"BOSToN, December 13, 1855."
In the freshness and fragrance of such reminiscences,
lingering longer in the minds of his survivors than the
whole term of his life, we see with what force his character projected itself into the future, for which he lived.
And as we thus gather up evidence of the impressions
which he had made, in the spontaneous homage of all
classes of minds, uttered at his death and afterwards,
we look upon it all as prophetic of his destiny here.
patron, of that Seminary. Let it then for once be publicly announced, and this without diminishing the merit of the generous
Founders, that to the sagacious, originating, and disinterested mind
of the late patriotic Lieutenant-Governor PHILLIPS, is the world indebted for the conception of an Institution, from which so many blessings have already flowed to the community;" and, at the close of
his testimony, he crowns the eulogy, by the deep utterance of "regret, that this paragon of public spirit so early took his upward
flight!"




JUDGE PHILLIPS.                329
It cannot be that such a character will ever be forgotten. It was formed to live on, like the works it
produced, in such perpetuity as earth can give, as well
as in the immortality of Heaven. The gratitude of
men, and the providence of God, must conspire to bear
along its image, parallel with the history of his favorite Institution, and beaming forth, at intervals, in new
lustre, as its great career expands. Yet, aside from the
brief obituary, or the discourse of an hour, or some
scanty page in a biographical dictionary, or a passing
tribute in a journal of travels, such as have here been
cited, there has been no written memorial of him!
The surviving members of his immediate family, we
are assured, had so profound a reverence for his character, that they always shrank from the proposal to
sketch it, as an impossible achievement; and so they
passed away, with other admiring friends, who longed
to see his biography written, but had not the courage
to undertake it, lest it should prove unworthy of him.
And with them have glided into oblivion countless incidents, and memories, and impressions, which, at an
early day, might have helped to daguerreotype him
more perfectly than is now possible.
But if we must acquiesce in this long delay, and in
all that it has detracted from the fulness of his portraiture, it was at least our duty to have done what we
could now to commemorate the grand distinguishing
outlines of a character and life so extraordinary, both
28*




330               MEMOIR OF
as a monument to his own memory, as well as to the
name and fame of his family, and for the honor of the
Institution in which he is held in deep gratitude and
veneration by all.
In one important respect the delay, which we lament,
has not been an evil. It has given time to see, on a
broad scale, the real magnitude of his good deeds by
their fruits. It has shown us in history, what an earlier
memoir could only have prophesied in hope. And
having spared no labor in the collection or use of our
materials, sustained in the effort by an interest which
has made it all a pastime, yet the more we have toiled
growing only the more conscious that no memorial can
equal his desert, but with devout gratitude for the opportunity to study him so intimately, and to contribute
any thing toward holding him up as an example to the
young, the enterprising, the educated, the wealthy, the
honored, - who, with special advantages, may be stimulated by his influence to special activity in fostering
our institutions of learning, with every other good work,
-we now make this offering to his memory, in the
hope that, as successive generations shall continue to
reap their golden harvests from seed sown by him in
love to God and man, yet other tongues and pens will
join to honor him with ampler tributes, while time
shal last.
We are not uninfluenced by the further hope, that
inaugurating the organic era of our Andover institu



JUDGE PHILLIPS.                331
tions as he did, such a memorial of him may give him
now his fitting position in the historic era to which the
lapse of years has brought us.  Whoever may be
moved to write of the gifts, or the doctrines, or the
names, which a grateful world shall associate with Andover in the work of education, must, in his measure,
touch upon some aspect or feature of this rare character. From the beginning, Andover, in all this work,
has drawn to itself the devoted zeal of men worthy to
second the plans of so disinterested and sagacious a projector: the names of Abbot, and Bartlet, and Brown, and
Norris, and Pearson, and Spring, with their elect compeers and successors, will be immortal here amid the circle of the PHILLIPSES; but among them all he must ever
stand conspicuous, our admiration, as he was theirs; to
be copied, if he cannot be equalled; to be commemorated, if not reproduced: to be honored, loved, revered,
wherever learning shall find a friend, or religion a
votary.








AP P E N DIX.
A.
REV. George Phillips was the son of Christopher Phillips,
of Rainham, St. Martin, Norfolk county, England, " mediocris fortunEe."  He entered Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge, April 20, 1610, aged seventeen years; graduated
B. A. 1613, and M. A. 1617; giving there indications of
deep piety, uncommon talents and love of learning, and distinguishing himself by his remarkable proficiency:  the
name was written by him with one L, " George Philips," but
by all his descendants with the two L's.
The original name of the Arbella was the Eagle, " a ship
of 350 tons."
1630. - On Wednesday, the 7th of April, before the company had taken their final leave of the country, although
they had been several days on shipboard, their remarkable
letter was addressed "to the rest of their brethren in the
Church of England," subscribed by Winthrop, Dudley, Johnson, Saltonstall, Fiennes, Coddington, and Phillips.
"Tuesday, the 27th. - We  appointed  Tuesdays and
Wednesdays to catekise our people, and this day Mr. Phillips began it."
"Lord's day, May 2. - Through God's mercy, we were
1 Genealogies, and History of Watertown, by Henry Bond, M. D. Vol.
II. p. 872.
(333)




334                   APPENDIX.
very comfortable, and few or none sick, but had opportunity
to keep the Sabbath, and Mr. Phillips preached twice that
day." 1
" August 23.- The first court of assistants, held  at
Charlestown. Present, Governor Winthrop, Deputy-Governor Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Ludlow, Rossiter,
Nowell, T. Sharp, Pynchon, and Bradstreet; wherein the first
thing propounded is, how the ministers shall be maintained?
Mr. Wilson and Phillips only proposed; and ordered, that
houses be built for them with convenient speed at the publick charge. Sir R. Saltonstall undertook to see it done at
his plantation for Mr. Phillips; and the Governor at the other
plantation for Mr. Wilson." 1' Ordered, that Mr. Phillips should have allowed him 3
hogsheads of meale, 1 hogshead of malte, 4 bushells of Indean come, ]. bushell of oatemeale, half an hundred of salte
fishe; for apparell and other provisions, XXI, or els to have
XL~ given him in money per annum, to make his owne provisions, if hee chuse it the rather, the yeare to begin the first
of September nexte.' 2
" September, 30.- Mr. Phillips, the minister of Watertown, and others, had their hay burnt." 1
" November 30, 1630. -' It is ordered, that there shall be
60~ collected out of the severall plantacions following, for
the maintenance of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips, namely:
out of Boston, 20~; Waterton, 20~; Charlton, 10~; Rocksbury, 6E; Medford, 3~; Winett-semett, 1..'"   2
1631. "July 21. — The Governor and deputy, and Mr.
Nowell, the elder of the congregation at Boston, went to
Watertown to confer with Mr. Phillips, the pastor, and Mr.
Brown, the elder of the congregation there, about an opinion
which they had published, that the chhs of Rome were
true chhs.." 3
1 Winthrop's Journal, Vol. I. p. 1, 5, 14, 15, 30, 36.
2 Records of Massachusetts, Vol. I. p. 73, 82.
3 Winthrop's Journal, Vol. I. p. 58; see also p. 67, 68, 81, 95.




APPENDIX.                     335
"February 17.- The Governor and assistants called before them, at Boston, divers of Watertown; the pastor and
elder by letter, and the others by warrant. The occasion
was, for that a warrant being sent to Watertown for levying
of ~8, part of a rate of ~60, ordered for fortifying of the
new town, the pastor and elder, etc., assembled the people
and delivered their opinions, that it was not safe to pay
moneys after that sort, for fear of bringing themselves and
posterity into bondage."' Commenting on this transaction,
Dr. Bond says, "it is not now easy to estimate the extent
and importance of the influence of Mr. Phillips in giving
form and character to the civil and ecclesiastical institutions
of New England;" and he refers, besides Winthrop's Journal,
to Hubbard's History, p. 186; Richard Brown, p. 117; John
Oldharn, p. 863; Francis's History, p. 13-38, etc.; see Bond's
Genealogies and History of Watertown, p. 873....
1644. "5.. 2. - Mr. George Phillips was buried. [He
died the day previous, July lst.] He was the first pastor of
the church of Watertown, a godly man, specially gifted, and
very peaceful in his place, much lamented of his own people
and others." 2
Referring to the estimation in which he was held in
England, Cotton Mather says, -" He found much acceptance
with good men, as being a man mighty in the Scriptures.
But his acquaintance with the writings and persons of some
old Non-Confornmists, had instilled into him such principles
of Church Government as were like to make him unacceptable unto some who then drove the world before them....
And as for Mr. Phillips, the more he was put upon the study
of the Truth in the matter controverted, the more he was
confirmed in his own opinion of it..... When the spirit of
persecution did at length with the extremest violence urge a
conformity to Ways and Parts of Divine worship, conscientiously scrupled by such persons as our Mr. Phillips, he with
1 Winthrop's Journal. Vol. I. p. 70.    2 Ibid. Vol. II. p. 171.




336                  APPENDIX.
many more of his neighbors, entertained thoughts of transporting themselves and their families into the Deserts of
America;... here quickly after his landing he lost the desire of his eyes, in the death of his desirable consort, who,
though an only child, had cheerfully left her parents to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ, in a terrible wilderness. At Salem
she died, entering into the Everlasting Peace..... Mr. Phillips, being better acquainted with the true church discipline
than most of the ministers that came with him into the country, their proceedings about the gathering and ordering of
their church were methodical enough, though not in all things
a pattern for all the rest. Upon a day set apart for solemn
fasting and prayer, the very next month after they came
ashore they entered into this Holy Covenant:" July 30, 1630. - We whose names are hereto subscribed,
having through God's mercy, escaped out of the pollutions of
the world, and been taken into the society of his people, with
all thankfulness do hereby with heart and hand acknowledge,
That, his gracious goodness and fatherly care towards us:
and for further and more full declaration thereof, to the present and future ages, have undertaken (for the promoting of
his glory and the churches good, and the honor of our blessed
Jesus, in our more full and free subjecting of ourselves and
ours, under his gracious government, in the practice of, and
obedience unto all his holy ordinances and orders, which he
hath pleased to prescribe and impose upon us) a long and
hazardous voyage from East to West, from Old England in
Europe, to New England in America: that we may walk'before him, and serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives; and being safely arrived here,
and thus far onwards peaceably preserved by his special
Providence, that we may bring forth our Intentions into
Actions, and perfect our Resolutions in the beginnings of
some just and meet Executions: We have separated the day
above written from all other services, and dedicated it wholly
to the Lord in divine employments for a day of aaflicting our




APPENDIX.                     337
souls, and humbling ourselves before the Lord, to seek him,
and at his hands, a way to walk in, by fasting and prayer,
that we might know what was good in his sight; and the Lord
was intreated of us.
"For in the end of that day, after the finishing of our public duties, we do all, before we depart, solemnly, and with all
our hearts, personally, man by man, for ourselves and ours,
(charging them before Christ and his elect angels, even them
that are not here with us this day, or are yet unborn, that
they keep the promise unblameably and faithfully unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus,) promise, and enter into a sure
covenant with the Lord our God, and before him with one
another, by Oath and serious Protestation made, to renounce
all idolatry, and superstition, and will-worship, all human traditions and inventions whatsoever, in the worship of God;
and forsaking all evil ways, do give ourselves wholly unto
the Lord Jesus, to do him faithful service, observing and
keeping all his statutes, commands, and ordinances, in all
matters concerning our Reformation; his worship, administrations, ministry, and government, and in the carriage of ourselves among ourselves, and one towards another, as he has
prescribed in his Holy Word; further swearing to cleave
unto that alone, and the true sense and meaning thereof, to
the utmost of our power, as unto us the most clear Light and
infallible Rule, and all-sufficient Canon, in all things that concern us in this our way.
" In witness of all we do ex animo, and in the presence of
God hereto set our names or marks, in the day and year above
written. About forty men, whereof the first was that excellent knight, Sir Richard Saltonstall, then subscribed this instrument, in order, unto their coalescence into a Church estate..
" A church of believers being thus gathered at Watertown,
this reverend man continued for divers years among them,
faithfully discharging the duties of his ministry to the flock
whereof he was made the overseer; and ais a faithful steward
29




338                  APPENDIX.
giving to every one their meat in due season. Herein he demonstrated himself to be a real divine; but not in any thing
more than in his most intimate acquaintance with the Divine
Oracles of the Scripture..... He had so thoroughly perused
and pondered them, that he was able on the sudden to turn
to any text, without the help of concordances; and they were
so much his delight, that as it has been by some of his family
affirmed, he read over the whole Bible six times every year;
nevertheless lhe did use to say that every time he read the Bible,
he observed or collected something, which he never did before.... He was indeed —among the first saints of New England - a good man and full of faith and of the Holy Ghost;
and for that cause he was not only in public, but in private
also, very full of holy discourse on all occasions; especially
on the Lord's day, at noon, the time intervening between the
two exercises he would spend in conferring with such of his
good people as resorted unto his house, at such a rate as marvellously ministered grace unto the hearers.".
The preceding extracts from Mather's enthusiastic and discriminating tribute to the memory of Mr. Phillips, fill us with
surprise that, by any sudden freak of his unique genius, he
could have penned the following whimsical and ambiguous
Epitaphium.
Hic jacet GEORGIUS PHILLIPPI.
Vir Incomparabilis, nisi SAMUELEM genuisset.
B.
Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Rowley, had a numerous family;
his third child, Samuel, who was his eldest surviving son,
born March 23, 1657-8, engaged in business as a goldsmith
in Salem, married, in 1687, Mary Emerson, daughter of Rev.
1 Magnalia, Book III. p. 82, 83, 84.




APPENDIX.                        339
John Emerson, of Gloucester, and died October 13, 1722,
aged sixty-five. It is through this son that we connect his
ancestry with most of the Phillipses named in this memoir.
Another son, George, his seventh child, named after the
family patriarch at Watertown, was born in 1664; graduated
at Harvard University, 1686, and labored in the ministry,
first in Jamaica, L. I., until 1697, and afterwards in Brookhaven, until his death in 1739. " His character and qualifications were of a high order." 1 Thus the family connection
with the ministry and with liberal learning was continued.
One of his sisters was also married to Rev. Edward Payson,
of Rowley, the colleague of his father. At the decease of
the father, he was greatly lamented.  "In 1839," says Dr.
Bond, "a chaste and handsome marble monument was placed
over the remains of Mr. Phillips and his wife, in the burialground of Rowley, by Hon. Jonathan Phillips of Boston,
their great-great-great-grandson.  Upon it is an inscription to
their memories, and likewise to several of their honorably
distinguished descendants."2 Various manuscripts of this
venerated man are still preserved in the family, especially his
sermons and lectures. The handwriting is extremely minute,
so as to be deciphered with difficulty,- more so than that
of any of the family, which we have had occasion to examine; yet there is a characteristic neatness and symmetry,
which one would not fail to admire.
C.
Mr. Phillips began to preach in this precinct April 30,
1710; and after gathering about him, in the true spirit of a
1 See Winthrop's Journal, Vol. II. p. 171.
2 Bond's Gen. and Hist., p. 875, etc.; the inscription in full, as referred to
above, may be seen in Gage's History of Rowley, p. 73, 74; together with
other interesting statements respecting Rev. Mr. Phillips and his descendants.




340                  APPENDIX.
pioneer missionary, a little band, he united with them in the
formation of the Church, his name being the first subscribed
to their covenant, followed by thirty-four others. This covenant as recorded, and doubtless drawn up by his own
hand, is as follows:" A Covenant for the Gathering and Settling of a Church in the
South Precinct of Andover.
"We, whose names are hereunto subscribed,' apprehending
ourselves called of God to join together in Christian communion (acknowledging our unworthiness of such a privilege,
and our inability to keep covenant with God unless Christ
shall enable us thereunto), in humble dependence on free
grace for Divine assistance and acceptance, we do, in the
name of Christ Jesus our Lord, freely covenant and bind
ourselves, solemnly, in the presence of God himself, his holy
angels, and all his servants here present, to serve the only
living and true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, whose
name alone is Jehovah, cleaving to him as our chief good,
and unto our Lord Jesus Christ as our only Saviour, the
Prophet, Priest, and King of our souls, in a way of Gospel
obedience: Avouching the Lord to be our God, and the God
of our children, whom we give'unto him; and resolve that
we and our houses will serve the Lord, counting it as an
high favor, that the Lord will accept of us, and our children
with us, to be his people.
" We do also give ourselves one to another in the Lord,
covenanting to walk together as a Church of Christ in all
the ways of his worship, according to the Holy Rules of his
Word; promnising, in brotherly love, faithfully to watch over
one another's souls, and to submit ourselves to the discipline
and power of Christ in his Church; and duly to attend the
seals and censures, or whatever ordinances Christ has commanded to be observed by his people, so far as the Lord by
his word and spirit has or shall reveal unto us to be our duty,




APPENDIX.                    341
adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, avoiding even the very appearance of evil.
" And that we may keep our covenants with God, we
desire to deny ourselves, and to depend wholly on the free
mercy of God, and upon the merits of Jesus Christ; and,
wherein we shall fail, to wait on him for pardon, through his
name, beseeching the Lord to own us as a Church of Christ,
and to delight to dwell in the midst of us."
It is now nearly a century and a half since this Church
was thus in due form constituted; and few churches in any
community have been more prosperous or useful; or have
with more hearty unanimity continued to cherish the memory of their first pastor. To this day the Church reminds
itself of Covenant obligations, and of its early spiritual guide,
by printing in its catalogues his comprehensive answer to
the question, -
" What shall we do that we may keep in mind our Covenant?
"1. Very diligently and devoutly attend to the Covenant,
whensoever it is publicly propounded to any person; and
yield your assent and consent to every article and tittle of it.
" 2. Not only wait upon Christ at his table on all opportunities, but always eye the Lord's Supper as the SEAL of the
Covenant. And every time you partake, realize that you
have bound yourselves afresh to keep Covenant with God;
for, to take the Sacrament, is to take the oath of obedience
and loyalty.
"3. Look upon the Holy Scriptures, in your daily reading
of them, as the book of the Covenant; for so it is, inasmuch
as it exhibiteth our duty towards God and man; and also
what we may hope and expect to receive from the hand of
God if we keep his statutes. Exod. xxiv. 7.
"4. Labor to have it impressed and fixed upon your minds,
that heaven and earth are witnesses of your covenanting with
the great God; and that God, angels, and men will certainly
29 *




342                  APPENDIX.
appear as such, either for or against you, in the day of reckoning.
" 5. Discourse frequently together of the things pertaining
to the kingdom of God, and particularly of the Covenant;
namely, the precepts, prohibitions, promises, and threatenings;
of the vows which you have made, and the comfortable experience which you and others have had of God's gracious
presence, etc. This practice will be of eminent service to
help the memory, as also to quicken unto obedience.
"6. Frequently renew your Covenant with the Lord in
secret, as becomes those who resolve to stand to what they
have said; this is not only the duty, but I should think will
be also very much the delight of a sincere soul; and a choice
help it is, to revive our remembrance of the Covenant, and
to excite our affections, and to quicken us to mend our pace.
"7. Keep your Covenant by you as a memorial of the
solemn transactions which have passed between God and
you, and frequently review the same.
"8. And, lastly, prayer must be always one direction.
And this duty must be attended and performed not only in
public, and in and with the families which you respectively
belong unto, but also in secret.  Thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thly closet, and when thou lhast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father, which is in secret. - Matth. vi. 6. This duty
of secret prayer I hope you do not dare to neglect; you cannot, I think, ordinarily omit it, if you have a living, holy,
principle within you. Well, and you must pray especially
for spiritual blessings; and in particular, that the Lord would
please to put his law in your inward parts, and write it in
your hearts;'that He would make it ready and familiar to
you, at hand when you have occasion to use it, as that which
is written in the heart; that He would work in you a strong
disposition to obedience, and an exact conformity of thought
and affection to the rules of the Divine law, as that of the
copy to the original.' You have a disposition this way already; pray that it may abide and grow, and plead that




APPENDIX.                    343
precious promise in Jer. xxxi. 33; and the more you are disposed this way, the less danger will there be of your forgetting the Covenant of the Lord your God.
" USE. - From what has been said, let professors be exhorted to put one another in mind of their Covenant duties and
obligations. It is true, we may not watch over others and
neglect ourselves, as some to their great reproach are said to
do; neither may our charity end at home; for the law of
God obliges us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And
again it is written, Exhort one another daily. And it is remarked concerning those that fear the Lord, that they spake
often one to another. - Mal. iii. 16. And have we not expressly bound ourselves by Covenant to watch over one another?  Yes, verily. How then shall we dare to neglect it;
especially considering that a great deal of sin and sorrow
might probably be prevented, if professors would in this way
be kind and faithful to one another? Thus, for instance,
when a neighbor or brother is observed to be going into
temptation, or in present danger of falling into some transgression, it is not improbable that these words, spoken in a
suitable manner, in his hearing, remember your Covenant,
would prevent his fall; or, if he has already fallen, it may
be those words would be the means of recovering him out
of the snare of the devil; and of bringing him unto unfeigned repentance. And so, if you see a brother backward
to any good work, respecting either God or man, perhaps
this memento would shame and quicken. Now we are undoubtedly obliged to do this, and much more, to prevent
each other's hurt, and to promote each other's good. O let
us not be negligent."
Under what influences Mr. Phillips was led to devote
himself to the ministry we are not informed; but his mother
was the daughter of a clergyman, Rev. John Emerson, of
Gloucester; his uncle George was then a useful pastor; his
venerable grandfather, at Rowley, lived to be quite distinctly




344                    APPENDIX.
remembered by him, as a vision of his childhood, and the
names of both the grandfather at Rowley, and the greatgrandfather at Watertown, were cherished with affectionate
veneration in the family..... Such influences, united with
his own self-relying character, and his decisive religious convictions and experience, were adapted to make him cling
with ardor to the profession of his choice, and with somewhat of the spirit of a champion, in defence of his tenets.
"Being sincerely attached," says Allen, "to those views of
religious truth, which were embraced by the first fathers of
New England, he could not quietly see the efforts that were
made to pervert the faith, which he was persuaded was once
delivered to the saints. He exerted himself both by his
preaching and his writings, to guard his people against the
intrusion of error." 1 "His anxiety on the subject," says the
compiler of the History of. Andover, " may be easily seen in
some of his last publications," 2 his zeal growing more intense
with his years.  It may be a matter of interest to some of
the readers of this Memoir, to state that among his manuscript sermons which we have examined, are two preached
by him upon which he wrote the following memoranda:"' Andover, May 12th, 1734: Being the last Sabb: of our meeting in our
old meeting-house; which had been improved 24 years and almost 4 mo:
John 14, ult; - Arise: let us go hence.''"' Andover, May 19th, 1734: Being ye First Sabb: of our meeting in our
new meeting-house. I Chron: 29, 13, 14: Now yrf; our God, we thank
thee and praise thy glor: N. But wo am I, and wt is my pp, &e.'"
The language of his will in the bequests to charitable objects, referred to in the text, and which illustrates his great
discrimination and carefulness, is as follows: —" I give the
just sum of ~100 L. M'Y, as an abiding fund for ye relief of
indigent Persons in the South Parish of Andover, aforesaid;
namely, proper objects of charity, and such as receive no help
Allen's Biog. Diet. p. 477.
2 History of Andover, by Abiel Abbot, A. M. 1829, p. 106.




APPENDIX.                     345
from the town, more especially those of ye chh, in the said
Parish, standing in need of relief; the said sum of money to
be paid by my executors to ye ministers and deacons of said
society or parish after my decease; namely, at the resettlement of a pastor of ye congregational persuasion; the principal always to be kept out upon interest on good security,
never to be disposed of, and only ye interest thereof to be
given away; and when there is not occasion for ye whole of
ye interest, then ye remainder to be added to ye principal, and
to be put out upon interest also; and the whole to be conducted
as ye said ministers and deacons of ye said Parish, for ye time
being, to ye end of time, shall, in their wisdom, judge best:
and a fair and just account to be taken and preserved by ym
in a book for that purpose, of their disposal of the same
from year to year, to be produced for ye information of any
who may desire it. I give the like sum of ~100 L. M'Y, for
ye pious and charitable use of propagating Christian knowledge among ye Indians of North America; and to be disposed of for that intent, at such times, and to such person or
persons, as my exectrs shall think best." These executors
were his three sons.
The children of Rev. Samuel Phillips, were: —
1. Mary, born November 30, 1712, 0. S.; baptized the next
Lord's day; admitted to the church, July 8, 1734; married
to Samuel Appleton, of Haverhill, October 12, 1736, and
died in 1737.
2. Samuel, born February 13, 1715; baptized the same
day; admitted to the church on the same day with his sister
Mary, July 8, 1734; dismissed to the North Church in Andover, April 1, 1739, where he resided till his death, August
21, 1790.
3. Lydia, born June 10, 1717; baptized the next Lord's
day; married Dr. Parker Clark, May 18, 1742; died Novem.
ber 4, 1749.
4. John, born December 27, 1719; baptized the same day;




346                 APPENDIX.
recognized his baptismal covenant, April 27, 1735; graduated
at Harvard College, 1735; died August 21, 1795.
5. William, born June 25, 1722; baptized July 1; recognized his baptismal covenant, December 5, 1736; died January 15, 1804. See Bond's Gen. & Hist.; Records of the
South Church, Andover, etc. The date of William's birth,
as here given, differs from Dr. Bond's, perhaps from an error
in connection with the change of style; as the addition of
eleven or twelve days would bring our date forward to his,
July 6th.
D.
Mr. Phillips and Miss Barnard were married July 11, 1738;
their children were:
1. Theodore, born May 2, 1739; baptized May 6; died
January 25, 1740.
2. Hannah, born January 20, 1742; baptized January -;
died June 15, 1764.
3. Samuel, born November 6, 1743; baptized November
6; died December 24, 1744.
4. Theodore, born September 6, 1745; baptized September
-; died December 1, 1758.
5. Elizabeth, born October 31, 1747; baptized October -;
died June 24, 1748.
6. Samuel, born February 5, 1752; baptized February -;
died February 10, 1802.
7. Elizabeth, born October 18, 1755; baptized October -;
died April 19, 1757.
See Bond's Gen. & Hist. of Watertown, p. 881. Records
of First Church in Andover; Abbot's History of Andover,
etc. etc.; in the date of the last Samuel's birth, as here given,
according to the various records in Andover, which we consider decisive, there is a slight variance from Dr. Bond, and




APPENDIX.                    347
also from other notices of him; the day of the baptism of
these children is not usually entered in the records of the
church, but only the month. It will be noticed from these
dates, that three' of the children died subsequent to his birth,
and that but one, except Samuel, lived beyond early childhood, and that one many years his elder, rather than a child
with him in age and sympathy.
E.
Under date of August 19, 1769, he writes in his Journal, -
"Came to Cambridge Wednesday, and found I was put with
Osgood in chamber No. 26, Hollis Hall; very good chamber.
This afternoon I received a copy of a vote wherein I was ordered to sit between Vassal and Murray; it occasions considerable talk. Some say I bought it, others, I have tried for
it; but promotion always breeds enemies, and envious ones
are the most spiteful; let me be interested in the Lord, and
no matter who is against me."
The remonstrance of his father to the College government
upon the subject, is referred to in the Records of the Faculty,
as follows, -" At a meeting of the Tutors of Harvard College, August 18, 1769, present Mr. Eliot, Mr. Scales, Mr.
Hillyard, Mr. Willard; Samuel Phillips, of Andover, Esquire,
having some time ago entered a complaint to the President
and Tutors, that his son, Samuel Phillips, a student at the
College, had not his proper place in the class; particularly,
that he did not rank with the sons of those gentlemen who
were Justices of the Quorum, when he himself had been in
the Commissions of the Peace and Quorum unus, a longer
time than any of them, - and having had, from the late President Holyoke and others in the government of the College,
a promise, that the records at the Secretary's office should be




348                 APPENDIX.
consulted, and if it did appear that there was a mistake, it
should be rectified: —the Secretary's book having been accordingly consulted, it appeared, that Mr. Phillips was put
into the Commission of the Peace in the year 1752, and that
he was made Justice of the Quorum, November 19, 1761;
that John Murray, Esquire, (whose son is placed at the head
of the sons of the Justices,) was put into the Commission
of the Peace January, 1754, and was made Justice of the
Quorum in 1762.
" Therefore, Voted, That Phillips, son to the above-mentioned Samuel Phillips, Esquire, do for the future take his
place between Vassal and Murray —and ordered, that Mr.
Eliot, tutor to the class in which Phillips is thus placed, do
deliver a copy of the above vote to him."
F.
In connection with the termination of the siege of Boston, we here insert some of the congratulations with which
Washington was honored, as a fit contrast to his own
and others' long-continued discontents while it was in progress.
"The selectmen of Boston waited upon the General and
presented the following address: —
" May it please your Excellency, - The selectmen of
Boston, in behalf of themselves and fellow-citizens, with all
grateful respect, congratulate your excellency on the success
of your military operations, in the recovery of this town
from an enemy, collected from the once respected Britons,
who, in this instance, are characterized by malice and fraud,
rapine and plunder, in every trace left behind them.
" Happy are we that this acquisition has been made with




APPENDIX.                     34t
so little effusion of human blood, which, next to the Divine
favor, permit us to ascribe to your excellency's wisdom, evidenced in every part of this long besiegement.
" If it be possible to enhance the noble feelings of that
person, who from the most affluent enjoyments, could throw
himself into the hardships of a camp, to save his country,
uncertain of success,'t is then possible this victory will
heighten your excellency's happiness, when you consider you
have not only saved a large, elegant, and once populous city,
from total destruction, but relieved the few wretched inhabitants from all the horrors of a besieged town, from the insults
and abuses of a disgraced and chagrined army, and restored
many inhabitants to their quiet habitations, who had fled for
safety to the bosom of their country. May your excellency
live to see the just rights of America settled on a firm basis,
which felicity we sincerely wish you; and at a late period,
may that felicity be changed into happiness eternal!
" To his Excellency, GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq.,
" General of the United Forces in Atmerica."
On the 29th of March, the Provincial Congress sent in from
Watertown, a joint committee of the Council and Representatives, with a long and flattering testimonial. It alluded to
the early resistance of this Colony to the tyrannical policy
"impelled by self-preservation and the love of freedom:"
to the satisfaction at the appointment of Washington to be
commander-in-chief; to the wisdom, and prudence, and success of his measures; and it concluded as follows -:~  May
you still go on, approved by Heaven, revered by all good
men, and dreaded by those tyrants who claim their fellow
men as their property. May the United Colonies be defended
from slavery by your victorious arms. May they still see
their enemies flying before you; and (the deliverance of your
country being effected) may you, in retirement, enjoy that
peace and satisfaction of mind which always attend the good
and great; and may future generations, in the peaceable en30




350                 APPENDIX.
joyment of that freedom the exercise of which your sword
shall have established, raise the richest and most lasting monuments to the name of Washington."
The Continental Congress heard of the evacuation of
Boston on the 25th, and "immediately, on the motion of
John Adams, passed a vote of thanks to Washington, and
the officers and soldiers under his command, for their wise
and spirited conduct, and ordered a gold medal to be struck
and presented to the General; - also appointed a committee,
consisting of John Adams, John Jay, and Stephen Hopkins,
to prepare a letter of thanks. This letter was reported to
Congress and adopted April 2, namely:" PHILADELPHIA, April 2, 1776.
"SIR, - It gives me the most sensible pleasure to convey
to you, by order of Congress, the only tribute which a free
people will ever consent to pay, - the tribute of thanks and
gratitude to their friends and benefactors.
" The disinterested and patriotic principles which led you
to the field, have also led you to glory; and it affords no little consolation to your countrymen to reflect, that as a peculiar greatness of mind induced you to decline any compensation for serving them, except the pleasure of promoting their
happiness, they may, without your permission, bestow upon
you the largest share of their affection and esteem.
" Those pages in the annals of America will record your
title to a conspicuous place in the temple of fame, which
shall inform posterity that, under your directions, an undisciplined band of husbandmen, in the course of a few months,
became soldiers; and that the desolation meditated against
the country by a brave army of veterans, commanded by the
most experienced generals, but employed by bad men, in the
worst of causes, was, by the fortitude of your troops, and the
address of their officers, next to the kind interposition of
Providence, confined for near a year within such narrow lim



APPENDIX.                     351
its as scarcely to admit more room than was necessary for
the encampments and fortifications they lately abandoned.
"Accept, therefore, Sir, the thanks of the United Colonies,
unanimously declared by their delegates to be due to you,
and the brave officers and troops under your command; and
be pleased to communicate to them this distinguished mark
of the approbation of their country.
" The Congress have ordered a gold medal, adapted to the
occasion, to be struck, and, when finished, to be presented
to you.
" I have the honor to be, with every sentiment of esteem,
Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant,
"JOHN HANCOCK, President.
" To His Excellency, GEORGE WASHINGTON."
The medal, which was struck in Paris, from a die cut by
Duvivier, contains on the obverse a head of Washington in
profile, exhibiting an excellent likeness, and around it the
inscription,
"GEORGIO WASHINGTON, SUPREMO DUCI EXERCITUUM ADSERTORI
LIBERTATIS COMITIA AMERICANA."
On the reverse is the town of Boston in the distance, with
a fleet in view under sail. Washington and his officers are
on horseback in the foreground, and he is pointing to the
ships as they depart from the harbor. The inscription is:" HOSTIBUS PRIMO FUGATIS BOSTONIUM RECUPERATUM, XVII. MARTII,
MDCCLXXVI." 1
Among other testimonials which he received at this time,
the Corporation and Overseers of Harvard University conferred upon Washington the Honorary degree of Doctor of
Laws, " as an expression of the gratitude of this College for
his eminent services in the cause of his country, and to this
society." He was the first person on whom the College con4 Spark's Works of Washington, Vol. I. p. 175; Vol. III. p. 533, 534;
also Frothingham's History of the Siege of Boston, p. 316-320.




352                   APPENDIX.
ferred this degree.  The diploma "was signed by all the
members of the Corporation, except John Hancock, who was
then in Philadelphia, and it was immediately published in
the newspapers of the period, with an English translation." 1
The diploma is as follows: —
" Senatus Academim Cantabrigiensis in Nov. Anglia omnibus in Christo fidelibus, ad quos literie proesentes pervenerint,
salutem in Domino sempiternam.
" Cum  eurn in finem  Gradus Academici instituti fuerint,
ut Viri Scientia, sapientia, et virtute insignes, qui de Re literaria et de Re Publica optime meruerint, honoribus hisce laureatis remunerarenter; maxime decet ut honore tali afficiatur
Vir illustrissimus Georgius Washington, Armiger Exercitfis
Coloniarum  in America Foederatarum Imperator praeclarus.
cujus scientia et arnor patrim undique patent; qui propter
eximias virtutes tam civiles quam militares, primlum, a civibus suis Legatus electus, in Consessu celeberrimo Americano
de Libertate ad extremum periclitata, et de Salute publica,
fideliter et peritissime consuluit; deinde, postulante Patria,
sedem in Virginia amoenissimam et res proprias perlubenter
reliquit, ut per omnes castrorum  labores et pericula, nulla
mercede accepta, Nov-Angliam ab armis Britannorum iniquis
et crudelibus liberaret, et Colonias czeteras tuereter; et qui,
sub Auspiciis Divinis maxime Spectandis, ab Urbe BostoniA
per undecim  menses clausa, munita, et plusquam  septem
millium militum presidio firmata, naves et copias hostiurn in
fugam  praecipitem  et probrosam deturbavit; adeo ut cives,
plurimis duritiis et seevitiis oppressi, tandem salvi laetentur,
villae vicine quiescant, atque sedibus suis Academia nostra
restituatur.
" Sciatis igitur, quod nos Prmeses et socii Collegii Harvardini in Cantabridgia Nov-Anglorum  (consentientibus honorandis admodum et reverendis Academie nostra Inspectoribus) Dominum  supradictum, summo honore dignum, GeorQuincy's History of Harvard University, Vol. II. p. 167.




APPEND IX.                      353
gium Washington, Doctorem  Utriusque Juris, tum  Naturee
et Gentium, tum Civilis, statuimus et creavimus, eique simul
dedimus et concessimus omnia jura, privilegia, et honores ad
istum gradurn pertinentia.
" In cujus rei testimonium nos, communi sigillo Universitatis hisce literis affixo, chirographa apposuimus die tertio
Aprilis, anno salutis millesimo septingentesimo septuagesimo
sexto." 1
G.
To assist any who may feel an interest in tracing out the
localities of so early a period here, we insert brief memoranda of the deeds, not only of the territory first purchased
by the Founders of the Academy, but of various later purchases, covering together the entire tract on " Andover
Hill." The references are to the Treasurer's files in Phillips
Academy: —
I. January 24, 1777: Deed A, copy.
Solomon Wardwell to Samuel Phillips, Esq.
This deed covers two tracts; the first, of about twentytwo acres, on which was an old house and a joiner's shop,
lying on the west side of our Main street, and extending
along the line of the old road, as the large elms now stand,
from the corner of Phillips street, southwardly, nearly to the
old well on the common, south-east of the Printing-house;
and westwardly on Phillips street, to a point nearly opposite
the old house, west of the Latin Dormitories:- the second,
of about seventeen acres, lying on the east side of the old
road, and including the whole space from a point by the
road nearly opposite the President's House, so-called, north1 Quincy's History of Harvard University, Vol. II. Appendix, No. XIX.
p. 506, 507.
30*




351                 APPENDIX.
westerly down to the double-brick house, thence easterly by
the Stone Academy, around to a point near Bartlett Hall;
and thence, by an irregular line westerly, across the Seminary Lawn to the road again.
II. March 1, 1777: Deed B, copy.
Joshua Holt, Administrator on Estate of George Abbott, to Samuel
Phillips, Esq.
This deed conveys three parcels; the first, of twelve acres,
lying north of Phillips street, and west of Main and School
streets, extending northerly toward the Village nearly to the
English Dormitories, and westerly a short distance beyond
the old house, by the Latin Dormitories. This old house
was the dwelling of George Abbott, and was occupied as
mentioned in the text, for some years, by Judge Phillips,
after its purchase for the school: -the second, of twentyeight acres, lying across the road from this old house,
and west of the first piece obtained from Solomon Wardwell: -the third, of thirty acres, lying beyond the Hill on
the south, and extending from  a point near Mrs. Flagg's
east, about forty rods, then south to the old cross road, then
westerly along this road to a point near Samuel Abbott's,
then northerly to the road near Moses Abbott's, and then
northeasterly by this road to the point of beginning.
IIL October 9, 1784: Deed No. 9.
Isaac Blunt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed describes the common opposite the Mansion
House, called the "Old Training Field," twenty-two rods
southerly from the corner by the old road, eighteen and threequarter rods easterly on the Salem road. The deed in this
case is to the Trustees, but an entry in the Academy journal
shows that the land was bought by the three brothers, Samuel, John, and William Phillips, in connection with the
building of the " New Academy" about this date, and was




APPEND IX.                    355
given by them, with the building, to the Trustees. See Old
Academy Journal, p. 6, where the language is "the Academy
and land south of the same, etc."
IV. September 1, 1792: Deed No. 11.
Samuel Phillips to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed of Judge Phillips, covers three and one-quarter
acres in the southwesterly portion of the present Seminary
lawn, being the lot on which the second Academy building, above referred to, was erected by his father and uncles in 1785. Mr. Phillips had obtained this land, with
a section east of it, from William Foster, January 15, 1782,
as referred to in the text (see Deed C, copy). The portion conveyed by him to the Trustees, extended from the
corner northwesterly about twenty rods, and east twenty
rods; an entry in the Academy Journal, p. 1, shows that he
deeded this lot to the Trustees in exchange for the site of his
mansion-house, one and a half acres.
V. January 10, 1801: Deed No. 16.
Asa Towne to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed describes the site of the Adams House, so-called,
etc., an acre and a half, on which a small dwelling-house was
standing, which is now the IL of the Adams House, bounding on the Common twenty rods, and on the Salem road
twelve rods. The Adams House, as now standing, was
erected here in 1805, and was first occupied by Dr. Pearson
in the spring of 1806.- Academy Records, p. 198.
VI. April 15, 1809: Deed No. 21.
Isaac Blunt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed conveys the site of the Brick Academy and the
lot south, about two and one fifth acres, bounded on the Salem road eleven and a half rods.




356                   APPENDIX.
VII. June 9, 1812: Deed No. 24.
Phcebe Phillips to the Trustees of Phillips Academny.
This deed conveys the mansion-house of Judge Phillips
with about nine acres of land adjoining the same, extending on the street southerly to the premises occupied by
the late Professor Stuart; also the Blanchard Lot and
House, so-called, now in the Seminary lawn, containing
about three acres, extending northward to include the
present site of Bartlett Hall, being the remainder of the
tract obtained by Mr. Phillips of William Foster (Deed C,
copy).  All the land now common between the Mansionhouse, Printing-house, etc., and the row of large elms in
front, then within the fence, was thrown out by Mr. Farrar
at a later date, in connection with the building of the houses
for Dr. Griffin and Dr. Woods.
VIII. July 8, 1814: Deed No. 26.
The Trustees of the Ministerial Fund in the South Parish in
Andover to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of a piece of land, sixty square rods, lying
between our Main and School streets, north-west of the Stone
Academy; in the change of the old road now School street,
a portion of this tract was cut off; the deed bounds it fourteen rods on the turnpike now Main street.
IX. April 1, 1815: Deed No. 29.
Samuel Farrar to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of "the Chandler Pasture," as it was long
termed; a tract of seven and a half acres, north and east of
the Stone Academy, bounded on Main street northerly nine
rods, and on the private way easterly about thirty-six rods,
including the sites of the Samaritan House and Professor
Stowe's residence. Mr. Farrar had purchased this lot a year
or two previous on his own account, but with a view to its
passing finally to the Trustees.




APPENDIX.                      357
X. August 30, 1815: Deed No. 27.
Benjamin Gleason to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed conveys the Gleason House, so called, now occupied by Dr. S. C. Jackson, with the land, bounded on
Main street northerly from the corner of the Chandler Pasture, 23 rods.  This was Lot No. 1 of the Parish lands, sold
at auction April 18, 1810.
XI. April 20, 1818: Deed No. 30.
Hannah Poor and Daniel A. Poor to the Trustees of Phillips
Academy.
This deed conveys a tract of a little more than eight acres,
westward of the original Phillips purchase from the estate of
George Abbott, and on the northerly side of Phillips street,
bounded on Academy street forty-two rods: this section includes the present site of the West House, so called, and the
three adjoining lots north and west of the same.
XII. April 29, 1818: Deed No. 31.
MAar]k Newman to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed covers the Brown Professor's house and lot, and
the site of the book bindery and store beyond; containing
about two acres, being the same lot of land obtained by
Mr. Newman of Isaac Blunt, March 13, 1805, on which Mr.
Newman had erected the dwelling-house and store as now
standing. The dwelling-house was assigned to the Brown
Professor, by vote of the Trustees in 1843, in connection
with a donation by Miss Banister of $4,000, as an equivalent for the same. — Seminary Records, Vol. II. p. 22.
XIII. May 8, 1818: Deed No. 39.
William Bartlett to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed, conveys, (lst) the President's House, so called,
with the land adjoining, which Mr. Bartlett had bought of
the Trustees in order to build on it: (2d) the Stuart Houses




358                   APPENDIX.
and twelve and a half acres of land which he had bought of
Madam Phillips, May 8, 1810, in order to build on it also;
bounded on the street in front fourteen and three fourths rods.
This land was part of a purchase by Judge Phillips of
Ebenezer Jones and wife, heirs of Samuel Abbott, made
March 19, 1782, as he was arranging to erect the mansionhouse (see Deed D, copy); (3d) a small piece back of the
Seminary, which Mr. Bartlett bought of Isaac Blunt, August
29, 1809; and (4th) the Chapel.
XIV. August 16, 1820: Deed No. 36.
Isaac Blunt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of a small lot of two and a half acres back
of the Seminary, now included in the Garden and Cemetery.
XV. September 6, 1823: Deed 38.
Isaac Blunt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of about two and a half acres northerly of
the Seminary.
XVI. March 23. 1824: Deed No. 37.
Amos Holt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed covers the narrow strip of land between the
two streets beyond the Printing-house, which is to be kept as
a common, upon which Mr. Holt was preparing to erect a
cooper's shop: and also a small section nearly in front of the
double brick house, between the turnpike and the line of the
old road, on which Levi Davis attempted at one time to
build a three story house with brick ends, but a violent wind
prostrated the building, when Mr. Davis sold the lot to Mr.
Holt.
XVII. December 1, 1829: Deed No. 44.
Jonathan Clement to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed conveys the Clement House, so called, and land




APPENDIX.                       359
adjoining, about three and a half acres, on which the English
Dormitories now stand, including the avenue in front of them
to the road, and the lot north and west.
XVIII. March 25, 1831: Deed No. 46.
Isaac Blunt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed conveys fifteen and a half acres east and northeast of the Seminary, adjoining lots previously sold by Mr.
Blunt to the Trustees.
XIX. December 24, 1825: Deed No. 68.
Leonard Woods to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of two and a third acres, north-east of the
Seminary, which Dr. Woods had bought of Mr. Blunt,
September 7, 1819.
XX. October 12, 1830: Deed No. 51.
Isaac Blunt to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of " the gravel pit," being the tract directly
south of the Cemetery and Garden, about an acre and one
third.
XXI. March 15, 1833: Deed No. 55.
David Hidden to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This is a deed of a pasture, upwards of nine acres, back
of the premises occupied by the late Professor Stuart, and is
appropriated to the Brown Professorship.
XXII. September 22, 1853: Deed No. 71.
Henry J. Gray to the Trustees of Phillips Academy.
This deed conveys the Gray House, so called, on the point
between Main and School streets, opposite the Gleason
House; and completes the title of the Trustees to all lands
adjoining the highways across the hill in every direction.




360                 APPENDIX.
The remaining portions of the tract of pasturage north
and north-east of the Seminary along the line of Pike street
including the woodland, in that region, came to the Trustees,
through the estate of Henry Abbot, under a mortgage of
Samuel Abbott, Esquire, which had been foreclosed.
H.
One peculiarity of the Act, incorporating the Academy, is
the summary rehearsal of its Constitution which it embodies,
while the whole is made to conform so exactly to Judge Phillips's style as well as to his views, that no other evidence of
its authorship is needed. We insert the Act with the various
signatures.
1 780- Oct. 4.
STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY — AN ACT TO INCORPORATE AN
ACADEMY IN THE TOWN OF ANDOVER, BY THE NAME OF
PHILLIPS ACADEMY.
Preamble.
WHEREAS the education of youth has ever been considered by the wise and good, as an object of the highest consequence to the safety and happiness of a people; as at that
period the mind easily receives and retains impressions, is
formed with peculiar advantage to piety and virtue, and directed to the pursuit of the most useful knowledge: and,
whereas the Honorable Samuel Phillips of Andover, in the
County of Essex, Esq., and the Honorable John Phillips of
Exeter, in the County of Rockingham, and State of New
Hampshire, Esq., on the first day of April, in the year of our
Lord, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, by a
legal Instrument of that date, gave, granted, and assigned to




APPENDIX.                    361
the Honorable William Phillips, Esquire, and others, therein
named, and to their heirs, divers lots and parcels of land, in
said Instrument described, as well as certain other estate, to
the use and upon the trust following, namely, that the rents,
profits, and interest thereof, be forever laid out and expended
by the Trustees in the said Instrument named, for the support of a Public Free School or Academy, in the town of
Andover: — and, whereas the execution of the generous and
important design of the grantors aforesaid will be attended
with very great embarrassments, unless by an act of incorporation, the Trustees, mentioned in the said Instrument, and
their successors, shall be authorized to commence and prosecute actions at law, and transact such other matters in their
corporate capacity, as the interest of the said Academy shall
require: —
Academy Established.
I. Be it therefore enacted by the Council and House of
Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same; that there be and hereby is established
in the Town of Andover, and County of Essex, an Academy,
by the name of Phillips Academy, for the purpose of promoting true piety and virtue, and for the education of youth, in
the English, Latin, and Greek languages, together with Writing, Arithmetic, Music, and the Art of Speaking; also practical Geometry, Logic, and Geography, and such other of
the liberal Arts and Sciences, or Languages, as opportunity
may hereafter permit, and as the Trustees, hereinafter provided, shall direct.
Trustees Appointed and Incorporated.
II. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that
the Hon. Samuel Phillips of Andover aforesaid, Esq., the
Hon. John Phillips of Exeter aforesaid, Esq., the Hon. William Phillips and Oliver Wendell, Esqs., and John Lowell,
Esq., of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State of Mas31




362                  APPENDIX.
sachusetts Bay, the Rev. Josiah Stearns of Epping, in the
County of Rockingham aforesaid, the Reverend William
Symmes of said Andover, the Reverend Elias Smith of
Middleton, in the said County of Essex, the Reverend Jonathan French, Samuel Phillips, Jun'r, Esq., Mr. Eliphalet
Pearson, gentlemen, and Mr. Nehemiah Abbot, yeoman, all
of Andover aforesaid, be, and they hereby are nominated and
appointed Trustees of said Academy; and they are hereby
incorporated into a body politic, by the name of the Trustees
of Phillips Academy; and that they, and their successors,
shall be and continue a body politic and corporate, by the
same name forever.
Lands Confirmed to the Trustees.
III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
that all the lands and monies, which, by a legal Instrument,
bearing date the first day of April, in the year of our Lord,
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, were given,
granted, and assigned, by the afore-mentioned Samuel Phillips and John Phillips, unto the said William Phillips, Oliver Wendell, John Lowell, Josiah Stearns, William Symmes,
Elias Smith, Jonathan French, Samuel Phillips, Jun'r, Eliphalet Pearson, and Nehemiah Abbot, and to their heirs, be,
and they hereby are confirmed to the said William Phillips
and others, last named, and to their successors, as Trustees
of Phillips Academy forever, for the uses and purposes, and
upon the Trust, which in said Instrument are expressed:
and the Trustees aforesaid, their successors, and the officers
of the said Academy, are hereby required in conducting the
concerns thereof, and in all matters relating thereto, to regulate themselves conformably to the true design and intention
of the said grantors, as expressed in their instrument above
mentioned.
Trustees to have one common Seal. -May Sue and be Sued.
IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,




APPENDIX.                      363
that the said Trustees and their successors, shall have one
common Seal, which they may make use of in any cause or
business that relates to the said office of Trustees of the said
Academy; and they shall have power and authority to break,
change, and renew the said Seal, from time to time, as they
shall see fit; and that they may Sue and be Sued in all actions real, personal, and mixed, and prosecute and defend the
same unto final judgment and execution, by the name of the
Trustees of Phillips Academy.
Empowered to Elect their Officers, and Ordain Rules, etc.
V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
that the said Samuel Phillips and others, the Trustees aforesaid, and their successors, the longest livers and survivors of
them, be the true and sole Visitors, Trustees, and Governors
of the said Phillips Academy, in perpetual succession forever;
to be continued in the way and manner hereafter specified,
with full power and authority to elect such officers of the
said Academy, as to them, the said Trustees, Governors, and
Visitors aforesaid, and their successors, shall from time to
time, according to the various occasions and circumstances
seem mbst fit and requisite; all which shall be observed by
the officers, scholars, and servants of the said Academy, upon
the penalties therein contained: provided notwithstanding,
that the said rules, laws, and orders be no ways contrary to
the laws of this State.
Number of Trustees not to exceed thirteen.
VI, And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
that the number of the Trustees aforesaid, and their successors, shall not at any one time be more than thirteen nor
less than seven; seven of whom shall constitute a quorum
for transacting business, and the major part of the members
present at any legal meeting, shall decide all questions that
shall come before them, except in the instances hereinafter
excepted.




364                   APPENDIX.
The principal Instructor to be one.
That the principal Instructor for the time being, shall ever
be -one of them; that a major part shall be laymen and respectable freeholders; also, that a major part shall consist of
men who are not inhabitants of the town where the Seminary is situate. And to perpetuate the succession of said
Trustees.
Vacancies of Trustees, how supplied.
VII. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that
as often as one or more of the Trustees of said Phillips
Academy shall die or resign, or in the judgment of a major
part of the other Trustees be rendered by age or otherwise,
incapable of discharging the duties of his office, then, and so
often, the Trustees then surviving and remaining, or the
major part of them, shall elect one or more persons to supply
the vacancy or vacancies.
The Trustees to be deemed capable in the law to take and receive by gift,
grant, etc.
VIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
that the Trustees aforesaid, and their successors, be and they
hereby are rendered capable in law to take and receive by
gift, grant, devise, bequest, or otherwise, any lands, tenements,
or other estate, real and personal; provided that the annual
income of the said real estate shall not exceed the sum of
five hundred pounds, and the annual income of the said personal estate shall not exceed the sum of two thousand
pounds, both sums to be valued in silver at the rate of six
shillings and eight pence by the ounce; to have and to hold
the same to them, the said Trustees and their successors, on
such terms and under such provisions and limitations, as
may be expressed in any deed or instrument of conveyance
to them made; provided always, that neither the said Trustees, nor their successors, shall ever hereafter receive any




APPENDIX.                      365
grant or donation, the condition whereof shall require them
or any others concerned, to act in any respect counter to the
design of the first grantors, or of any prior donation. And
all deeds and instruments, which the said Trustees may lawfully make, shall, when made in the name of the said Trustees, and signed and delivered by their Treasurer, and sealed
with the common seal, bind the said Trustees and their successors, and be valid in law.
Two thirds of said Trustees empowered to remove the Seminary.
IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid,
that if it shall hereafter be judged, upon mature and impartial
consideration of all circumstances, by two thirds of all the
Trustees, that, for good and substantial reasons, which at this
time do not exist, the true design of this Institution will be
better promoted by removing the Seminary from the place
where it is founded, in that case it shall be in the power of
the said Trustees, to remove it accordingly, and to establish
it in such place within this State as they shall judge to be
best calculated for carrying into effectual execution the intention of the founders.1
In the House of Representatives, October 4, 1780.
This Bill having been read several times, passed to be
enacted.                       JOHN HANCOCK, Speaker.
In Council, October 4, 1780.
This Bill having had two several readings, passed to be
enacted.                    JOHN AVERY, D. Secretary.
We consent to the enacting of this bill.
S. CUSHING,     T. DANIELSON,    SAMUEL NILES,
J. FISHER,      BENJ. AUSTIN,    A. FULLER,
MOSES GILL,    N. CUSHING,        JNO. PITTS,
H. GARDNER,    WM. WHITING,   STEPHEN CHOATE.
1 Acts and Laws of Massachusetts, 1780, p. 327-329.
31I




366                  APPENDIX.
The above subscription, and also the caption to the Act
Incorporating the Academy, is copied from the original document on file in the office of the Secretary of State in Boston.
The Preamble there stands in the handwriting of Judge
Phillips, and also the first enacting clause in part. The remainder of the manuscript is partly in his hand, and partly
in that of two others.
The following letter from the present Principal of the
Exeter Academy, in reply to inquiries recently addressed to
him, will be read with interest for the information it summarily presents, in regard to the history and the present condition of this Institution.
" PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY, Exeter, June 22, 1856.
"DEAR SIR,- I have been prevented from attending sooner
to the inquiries contained in your letter; I must now be brief
in my answers.
"' 1. The Act of Incorporation of the Phillips Exeter Academy is dated April 3, 1781.
-" 2. A meeting of the Trustees was held on the 31st of
April, 1783; and Benjamin Thurston was' appointed to address the Preceptor on his induction to his academical function,' and the meeting was adjourned till the next day, when,
May 1st, 1783, I suppose the Preceptor, William  Woodbridge, entered upon the duties of his office. There is a
tradition that the school had been in operation some weeks
before, conducted by one of the Trustees, but no record of it.
" 3. I am not able to say what was the cost of the original
Academy buildings. The first building was sold; and the
present must have cost from seven to ten thousand dollars.




APPENDIX.                    367
In 1821, wings were added to this building at a cost of
about twenty-five hundred dollars.'Abbot Hall,' a substantial and exceedingly convenient building, has been erected
within the last year. This building is for the accommodation of the poorer class of students. It is a boarding-house,
accommodating fifty students with very good rooms without
rent. The cost of this building was about eighteen thousand
dollars. The amount expended for buildings, up to the present time, must be nearly thirty thousand dollars, including
the house occupied by the Principal.
" 4. Nothing has been received, in addition to the original
endowment, for the general purposes of the Institution. One
thousand dollars was left by the late Nicholas Gilman for
instruction in sacred music; and one hundred dollars by the
late Leverett Saltonstall of Salem, Massachusetts, for the
Library.
" The present amount of productive funds may be stated,
in round numbers, at one hundred thousand dollars, perhaps
a little less.
" 5. Whole number of pupils, twenty-nine hundred.
" 6. A marble slab, with an appropriate inscription, covers
the grave of the Founder. There is no written memorial of
him. Neither the Act of Incorporation, nor the Constitution
of the Academy, has ever been printed.
" In great haste, very respectfully,
"GIDEON L. SOULE."
J.
The record of the action of the Trustees on this occasion,
dated March 29, 1788, is as follows:
" Understanding it is proposed that the meeting-house in
this place should be taken down, -
" Voted, That the inhabitants of the South Parish be in



368                 APPENDIX.
formed, that they shall be welcome to the use of the Academy chamber for the purpose of public worship, after the
present meeting-house shall be taken down, until the meeting-house, that shall be erected in its place, can be fit for use,
if agreeable to the parish.
" Voted, That the Honorable Samuel Phillips, Jr., be a
committee to communicate the above vote to the parish." 1
The old meeting-house, as appears from the church records,
was occupied for the last time April 2.0, 1788, when Rev. Mr.
French preached from Haggai i. 7 and 8: " Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways; go up to the mountain
and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord." The new
house was raised on the 26th and 27th of May; and, after
occupying the Academy Hall thirty-two Sabbaths, the pastor
preached a discourse at the opening of this new church, on
the Lord's day, December 7th, from the text John x. 22, 23:
" And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and
it was winter; And Jesus walked in the Temple."
K.
In the Chronicle of June 19, 1788, and in succeeding issues
of that paper, the following advertisement was printed, and
is here inserted as an illustration of the care and thoroughness of Judge Phillips in such services:" Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
" The subscribers, appointed a committee to sell unappropriated lands belonging to the Commonwealth, and lying
within the counties of York, Cumberland, and Lincoln, do
hereby notify the public: -
Academy Records, p. 69.




APP ENDIX.                   369
"' That there are for sale large and valuable tracts of land,
situated between the Highlands and the Atlantic Ocean, from
north to south; and between the river St. Croix and the
State of New Hampshire, from east to west. The many
fine rivers which have their sources in that tract, among
which are the rivers Kennebec and Penobscot, running nearly
parallel, at about forty miles distance, above one hundred and
fifty miles within the country above described, and navigable
for vessels of almost any burden for fifty miles; the great
number of excellent harbors on the sea-coast, their neighborhood to the fishing-banks of Newfoundland; the large quantities of salmon, shad, and alewives in the rivers, and the
great plenty of valuable pine and other timber, give the fairest prospect that this country will, in a very few years, become
the principal source from whence the West India Islands will
draw their supplies. No country is better calculated for grazing, and the great improvements made in agriculture within
the last ten years, evidence that the soil is exceeding good,
and capable of producing wheat, rye, Indian corn, flax, peas,
potatoes, and every species of vegetables which grow in any
of the New England States. Besides lumber, fish, and potashes, beef, butter, peas, and flax-seed have already become
articles of exportation, and in a few years will be added
thereto cheese, barley, hemp, and flax. The above lands will
be laid out in townships of six miles square, and will be
sold by the township, half township, or mile square, as may
best suit the purchaser, and the consolidated notes of this
Commonwealth received in payment.
" When it is considered that a township of six miles square
between the Kennebec and Penobscot, is ordered by Government to be laid out and appropriated for the building and
supporting a public Seminary of Learning; that in each
town there are reserved four lots of three hundred and twenty
acres each for public uses, and that the lands are exeenpted
from all State taxes for ten years; the committee flatter themselves that the most valuable tracts will find a ready sale.




370                  APPENDIX.
" Every application will be duly attended to, and every person inclined to purchase, as far as possible, accommodated by
applying to
" SAMUEL PHILLIPS, Jun., at Andover, County of Essex.
"NATHANIEL WELLS, at Wells, County of York.
"LEONARD JARVIS, at Boston, County of Suffolk.
"JOHN REED, at Roxbury, County of Suffolk.
" DANIEL CONY, at Hallowell, County of Lincoln.
" N. B. Any of the above lands will be sold to any foreigner who shall contract to settle thereon, in three years
from the purchase, one or more families to every mile square.
"BOSTON, June 18, 1788."
The Resolve of the General Court, making the grants of
land to the several Institutions, was as follows: —
"' February 27, 1797.
" Resolved, That in pursuance of a report of a joint special Committee, which has been accepted by both branches
of the Legislature, there be, and hereby is granted to the
Trustees of Dummer Academy, to the Trustees of Phillips
Academy, to the Trustees of Groton Academy, and to the
Trustees of Westford Academy, respectively, and to their respective successors, one half township of six miles square,
for each of their Academies, to be laid out or assigned by the
committee for the sale of Eastern lands, in some of the unappropriated lands in the district of Macine, belonging to this
Commonwealth, excepting all lands within six miles of Penobscot River, with the reservations and conditions of settlement which have usually been made in cases of similar
grants; which tracts the said Trustees, respectively, are hereby




APPENDIX.                    371
empowered to use, sell, or dispose of as they may think most
for the benefit of their respective Institutions.
" SAMUEL ADAMS, Governor.
" SAMUEL PHILLIPS, President of the Senate.
"EDWARD H. ROBBINS, Speaker.
"JOHN AVERY, Secretary."
M.
As this Memoir may, in some cases, fall into the hands of
those who are not familiar with the character and history of
the Theological Seminary, we here insert the Instrument by
which it was founded, and which connects it so closely with
the origin and progress of the Academy. It would be digressing too far front our proper work in this Memoir, to give
other documents and statistics of great interest pertaining to
the Seminary; nor have we sought to trace in so very minute
detail as may be desired by some, the forecastings of such
an Institution, in the life-long projects of Judge Phillips or
his associates, lest we should, in so doing, possibly appear
to incumber our narrative too much, or to appropriate ground,
which it is expected will be carefully covered by another
work - Dr. Woods's History of the Seminary. Some interesting documents, relating to the historical and doctrinal connection of the two Institutions, we have not had opportunity
to use, as they were previously tendered to Dr. Woods, and
many incidents which have come to our knowledge, we have
refrained from using, that our work might not in any way
supersede the most elaborate treatment of these interesting
topics in his, although our field is, at some points, unavoidably the same.
The Instrument by which the Seminary was founded,
drafted by the careful hand of Dr. Eliphalet Pearson, the first
Principal of the Academy and the intimate friend of Madam




372                 APPENDIX.
Phillips, in consultation sentence by sentence, not only with
her and her son, but with Rev. Mr. French, and Samuel
Abbot, and Samuel Farrar, Esquires, is as follows:"CONSTITUTION OF THE THIEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
"It having pleased the Father of lights and Author of all
good to inspire the late Honorable SAMUEL PHILLIPS of Andover in the County of Essex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts Esquire, and the late Honorable JOHIN PHILLIPS of
Exeter in the County of Rockingham and State of New
Hampshire, Esquire, with the pious determination to make'a humble dedication to their Heavenly Benefactor of the
ability, wherewith He had blessed them,' by laying, in the
year 1778, in the South Parish in Andover aforesaid, the
foundation of a public Academy, for the instruction of youth,
not only in the learned Languages and in various useful Arts
and Sciences, but principally for the promotion of true PIETY
and VIRTUE; — it having also pleased the INFINITE MIND,
at subsequent periods, to excite the said JOHN PHILLIPS, and
likewise the late Hon. WILLIAM PHILLIPS of Boston in the
County of Suffolk and Commonwealth aforesaid, Esquire,
to make liberal provision, not only for' promoting the virtuous and pious education of indigent youth of genius, and of
serious disposition, in said Academy;' but'more especially
for the benefit of charity Scholars of excelling genius, good
moral character, hopefully pious, and designed for the great
and good work of the gospel ministry, who, having acquired
the most useful human literature, may be assisted in the
study of Divinity, under the direction of some eminent Calvinistic Minister of the gospel, until such time, as an able,
pious, and orthodox Instructor shall be supported in the said
Academy, as a Professor of Divinity, by whom they may be
taught the important and distinguishing tenets of our HOLY
CHRISTIAN RELIGION;'
" In pursuance therefore of the same benevolent and pious




APPENDIX.                    373
object, and. with a desire to devote a part of the substance,
with which Heaven has blessed us, to the defence and promotion of the Christian Religion, by making some provision
for increasing the number of learned and able Defenders of
the gospel of CHRPIST, as well as of orthodox, pions, and zealous Ministers of the New Testament; being moved by the
same Spirit, which actuated the Founders and Benefactors
aforesaid, and influenced, as we hope, by a principle of gratitude to God and benevolence to man; —
" We, PHCeBE PHILLIPS Of said Andover, Relict of SAMUEL
PHILLIPS Esq., late Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth aforesaid, and JOHN PHILLIPS, son of the said SAMUEL
PHILLIPS and PHCeBE PHILLIPS do hereby jointly and severally
obligate ourselves to erect and finish, with all convenient despatch, two separate buildings; one of which to be three stories high, and of such other dimensions as to furnish convenient lodging rooms for fifty Students; and the other
building to be two stories high, and of such dimensions as
to furnish, in addition to a kitchen and private rooms necessary to a Steward's family, three public rooms, one for a
dining Hall, one for a Chapel and Lecture room, (each sufficiently large to accommodate sixty Students) and the third
for a Library, the said buildings to be located by direction
of the TRUSTEES OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY; — and I, SAMUEL
ABBOT of Andover aforesaid, Esquire, with the same views,
and in furtherance of the same design, do hereby give, assign,
and set over unto the TRUSTEES aforesaid the sum of twenty
thousand dollars, in TRUST, as a Fund for the purpose of
maintaining a professor of Christian Theology (reserving to
myself the right of appointing the first Professor on this
Foundation) and for the support and encouragement of Students in Divinity; both the said buildings and the interest or
annual income of the said sum of money to be forever appropriated and applied by the TRUSTEES aforesaid for the use
and endowment of such a public THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION in
PHILLIPS ACADEMY, as is hereinafter described, and on the
32




374                   APPENDIX.
following express conditions, namely, that the said INSTITUTION be accepted by the TRUSTEES aforesaid, and that it be
forever conducted and governed by them, and their Successors,
in conformity to the following general Principles and RegulaIions, which we unitedly adopt and ratify as the CONSTITUTION
of the same, reserving to ourselves, however, during our natural
lives the full right, jointly to make any additional Regulations, or to alter any Rule herein prescribed; provided such
Regulation or Alteration be not prejudicial to the true design
of this Foundation.
" ART. I. This INSTITUTION or SEMINARY shall be equally
open to Protestants of every denomination for the admission
of young men of requisite qualifications.
"' ART. II. Every candidate for admission into this Seminary
shall produce satisfactory evidence, that he possesses good
natural and acquired talents, has honorably completed a
course of liberal education, and sustains a fair moral character. He shall also declare that it is his serious intention to
devote himself to the work of the gospel ministry, (unless in
certain peculiar cases it appear to the TRUSTEES, or a Committee of their appointment, that the object of this INSTITUTION will be promoted by excusing a pious Applicant from
making this declaration) and exhibit proper testimonials of
his being in full communion with some Church of CHRIST;
in default of which he shall.subscribe a declaration of his
belief of the Christian Religion.
" ART. III. The Students in this Seminary shall be aided in
their preparation for the ministry by able Professors; whose
duty it shall be, by public and private instruction, to unlock
the treasures of divine knowledge, to direct the Pupils in their
inquiries after sacred truth, to guard them against religious
error, and to accelerate their acquisition of heavenly wisdom.
"ART. IV. The public instruction shall be given in Lectures
on Natural Theology, Sacred Literature, Ecclesiastical History, Christian Theology, and Pulpit Eloquence.
" ART. V. In the Lectures on Natural Theology, the exist



APPENDIX.                     375
ence, attributes, and providence of God, shall be demonstrated; the soul's immortality and a future state, as deducible from the light of nature, discussed; the obligations of
man to his Maker, resulting from the divine perfections and
his own rational nature, enforced; the great duties of social
life, flowing from the mutual relations of man to man, inculcated; and the several personal virtues deduced and delineated; the whole being interspersed with remarks on the coincidence between the dictates of reason and the doctrines of
revelation, in these primary points; and notwithstanding such
coincidence, the necessity and utility of a divine revelation
stated.
" ART. VI. Under the head of Sacred Literature shall be included Lectures on the formation, preservation, and transmission of the Sacred Volume; on the languages, in which
the Bible was originally written; on the Septuagint version
of the old Testament, and on the peculiarities of the language
and style of the new Testament, resulting from this version
and other causes; on the history, character, use, and authority of the ancient versions and manuscripts of the old and
new Testaments; on the canons of biblical criticism; on the
authenticity of the several books of the sacred Code; on the
apocryphal books of both Testaments; on modern translations of the Bible, more particularly on the history and character of our English version; and also critical Lectures on
the various readings and difficult passages in the sacred
writings.
" ART. VII. Under the head of Ecclesiastical History shall
be comprised Lectures on Jewish antiquities; on the origin
and extension of the Christian church in the first three centuturies; on the various sects and heresies in the early ages of
Christianity; on the character and writings of the Fathers;
on the establishment of Christianity by Constantine, and its
subsequent effects; on the rise and progress of popery and
Mohammedanism; on the corruptions of the church of Rome;
on the grounds, progress, and doctrines of the reformation;




376                  APPENDIX.
on the different denominations among Protestants; on the
various constitutions, discipline, and rites of worship, which
have divided, or may still divide the Christian church; on the
state and prevalence of Paganism in our world; and on the
effect which idolatry, Mohammedanism, and Christianity
have respectively produced on individual and national character.'" ART. VIII. Under the head of Christian Theology shall be
comprehended Lectures on divine revelation; on the inspiration and truth of the old and new Testaments, as proved by
miracles, internal evidence, fulfilment of prophecies, and historic facts; on the great doctrines and duties of our holy
Christian Religion, together with the objections made to
them by unbelievers, and the refutation of such objections;
more particularly on the revealed character of GOD, as
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; on the fall of man and the
depravity of human nature; on the covenant of grace; on
the character, offices, atonement, and mediation of Jesus
Christ; on the character and offices of the Holy Spirit; on
the Scripture doctrines of regeneration, justification, and
sanctification; on evangelical repentance, faith, and obedience; on the nature and necessity of true virtue or gospel
holiness; on the future state, the immortality of soul and
body, and the eternity of future rewards and punishments, as
revealed in the gospel; on the positive institutions of Christianity; on the nature, interpretation, and use of prophecy;
and on personal religion, as a qualification for the ministry;
each Lecture under this head to be preceded and followed by
prayer.
" ART. IX. Under the head of Pulpit Eloquence shall be delivered a competent number of Lectures on the importance
of oratory; on the invention and disposition of topics; on
the several parts of a regular discourse; on elegance, composition, and dignity in style; on pronunciation, or the proper
management of the voice and correct gesture; on the immense importance of a natural manner; on the rules, to be




APPENDIX.                     377
observed in composing a sermon, and on the adaptation of
the principles and precepts of ancient rhetoric to this modern
species of oration; on the qualities in the speaker, in his
style, and in his delivery, necessary to a finished pulpit Orator; on the methods of strengthening the mernory, and of
improving in sacred eloquence; on the character and style
of the most eminent Divines and best models for imitation,
their respective beauties and excellences in thought and expression; and above all, on the transcendent simplicity,
beauty, and sublimity of the SACRED WRITINGS.
" ART. X. It shall be the duty of the Professors, by private
instruction and advice, to aid the Students inl the acquisition
of a radical and adequate knowledge of the sacred Scriptures in their original languages, and of the old Testament
in the Septuagint version; to direct their method of studying
the Bible and all other writings; to superintend and animate
their pursuits by frequent inquiries and examinations, relative
to their progress in books and knowledge; to assign proper
subjects for their first compositions, and to suggest a natural
method of treating them; frequently and critically to examine their early productions, and in a free, but friendly manner, to point out their defects and errors, in grammar, method,
reasoning, style, and sentiment; to improve them in the important art of reading, and to give them opportunities of
speaking in public, favoring them with their candid remarks
on their whole manner; to explain intricate texts of Scripture, referred to them; to solve cases of conscience; to watch
over their health and morals with paternal solicitude; and by
every prudent and christian method, to promote the growth
of true piety in their hearts; to give them friendly advice
with relation to their necessary intercourse among men in
the various walks of life, and especially with respect to the
manner, in which it becomes a minister of the meek and
lowly JESUS to address both GOD and man, whether in the
assembly of his saints, or in the chamber of sickness and of
death.
32*




378                  APPENDIX.
"ART. XI. Every Professor in this Seminary shall be a
Master of Arts, of the Protestant reformed religion, in communion with some Christian Church of the Congregational
or Presbyterian denomination, and sustain the character of a
sober, honest, learned, and pious man; he shall moreover be
a man of sound and orthodox principles in Divinity, according to that form of sound words or system of evangelical
doctrines, drawn from the Scriptures, and denominated the
Westminster Assembly's shorter Catechism, and more concisely delineated in the CONSTITUTION OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY.
" ART. XII. Every person, therefore, appointed or elected a
Professor in this Seminary, shall on the day of his inauguration into office, and in the presence of the said TRUSTEES,
publicly make and subscribe a solemn Declaration of his
faith in divine revelation, and in the fundamental and distinguishing doctrines of the gospel of Christ, as summarily expressed in the Westminster Assembly's shorter Catechism;
and he shall furthermore solemnly promise, that he will open
and explain the Scriptures to his Pupils with integrity and
faithfulness; that he will maintain and inculcate the Christian faith, as above expressed, together with all the other
doctrines and duties of our holy religion, so far as may appertain to his office, according to the best light GOD shall
give him; and in opposition, not only to Atheists and Infidels, but to Jews, Mohammedans, Arians, Pelagians, Antinomians, Arminians, Socinians, Unitarians, and Universalists,
and to all other heresies and errors, ancient or modern, which
may be opposed to the gospel of CHRIST, or hazardous to the
souls of men; - that by his instructions, counsels, and example, he will endeavor to promote true PIETY and GODLINESS;
that he will consult the good of this INSTITUTION and the
peace of the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ on all occasions; and that he will religiously observe the Statutes of
this INSTITUTION, relative to his official duties and deportment,
and all such other Statutes and Laws, as shall be constitutionally made by the TRUSTEES OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY, not repugnant thereto.




APPENDIX.                    379
"ART. XIII. The preceding Declaration shall be repeated
by every Professor in this Seminary, in the presence of the
said TRUSTEES, at the expiration of every successive period
of five years; and no man shall be continued a Professor in
this INSTITUTION, who shall not continue to approve himself,
to the satisfaction of the said TRUSTEES, a man of sound and
orthodox principles in Divinity, agreeably to the system of
evangelical doctrines contained in the aforesaid Catechism.
Accordingly, if at any meeting regularly appointed, it should
be proved to the satisfaction of a majority of the whole number of the said TRUSTEES, that any Professor in this INSTITUTION has taught or embraced any of the heresies or errors,
alluded to in the Declaration aforesaid; or, should he refuse
to repeat the same, as herein required, he shall be forthwith
removed from office.
" ART. XIV. Every Professor in this INSTITUTION shall be
under the immediate inspection of the said TRUSTEES; and
by them removed, agreeably to the will of his Founder, for
gross neglect of duty, scandalous immorality, mental incapacity, or any just and sufficient cause.
" ART. XV. Whenever a Professor in this Seminary shall
be removed by death or otherwise; the said TRUSTEES shall
elect a Successor within twelve months.
" ART. XVI. The TRUSTEES aforesaid, in conformity to the
Statutes of every Founder, shall assign to the Professors in
this Seminary their respective departments of instruction,
the times for reading their lectures, and their several public
and private duties, in such manner, as, after consultation
with the said Professors, shall to the said TRUSTEES appear
most convenient and useful; provided, however, that the
course of lectures in each department be always completed
within the space of three years.
" ART. XVII. The necessary expenses of indigent Students
at this Seminary, for board, lodging, washing, fuel, and light,
will be defrayed out of funds, appropriated to this purpose,
agreeably to the Regulations, in such case provided, and as
said funds may permit.




380                  APPENDIX.
" ART. XVIII. No person shall be admitted a Student on
the charitable Foundation who is not distinguished by natural abilities, literary acquirements, unblemished morals, and
hopeful piety; a certificate of which qualities will be required
from known and respectable characters in order to the enjoyment of this charity.
" ART. XIX. To be entitled to the maintenance aforesaid,
each Student on the charitable Foundation, unless prevented
by sickness, must reside at this Seminary eight months at
least in each year, regularly attending the exercises aforesaid,
as well as diligently prosecuting the studies prescribed, and
in all respects conforming to the Rules of this Constitution,
and to the Laws and Orders of the said TRUSTEES.
" ApT. XX. Whatever may be the number of vacations, the
aggregate thereof shall not exceed twelve weeks in any one
year; and the constant presence of the Professors and Students will be expected in term time.
"ART. XXI. Every Student in this Seminary shall constantly, punctually, and seriously attend the religious exercises of the chapel morning and evening, and all the public
lectures of the several Professors; and, to increase the reverence, due to religious institutions, as well as to give weight
to public instruction, it is expected, that the Professors not
only frequent the chapel at morning and evening prayers, but
that they constantly attend each other's public lectures.
" ART. XXII. Every Student in this Seminary is required to
devote so much time to the study of the learned languages,
as shall increase his knowledge of them, especially of the
Greek and Hebrew languages; to pay due attention to
Philology, Rhetoric, and Oratory; to read the best treatises
on natural and revealed Religion, and on the fundamental
doctrines of the Gospel; to make himself master of the
principal arguments and evidences of the truth of Christianity; to pay due attention to ecclesiastical History, and to the
canons of biblical Criticism. But above all, it is required,
that he make the BIBLE the object of his most attentive,
diligent, and prayerful study.




APPENDIX.                      381
"ART. XXIII. It will be the duty of the Professors in this
Seminary to prepare a list of such books, and to point out
such a course of study, as in their opinion may be the most
congenial to the true design of this Institution, and most
beneficial to the Students in it; which list of books and
course of study, being approved by said TRUSTEES, said Students shall pursue; they shall also frequently ask the advice
and assistance of the Professors with reference to their
studies; and often submit their theological compositions,
especially their first essays, to the friendly inspection and
faithful remarks of one or more of the said Professors.
" ART. XXIV. Each Student, once at least in every year,
shall acquaint the Professors with the books he has read, and
with his course of study during said year; and shall also be
examined in the original languages of the Old and New
Testament, and in the Septuagint version of the former; also
with reference to the leading sentiments and arguments of
the principal authors he has perused; but especially with
respect to the style, character, and design of those sacred
writers, which agreeably to direction he has particularly
studied.
" ART. XXV. If upon due and impartial examination it be
found, that any Student on the charitable Foundation aforesaid, has not made reasonable proficiency in the studies prescribed him, he shall be continued thereon no longer; and, if
any Student whatever in this Seminary shall be guilty of any
gross immorality, or of any insult or oppugnation to the
said TRUSTEES, or to any Professor or Officer of this Seminary, he shall be cut off' from all the advantages and benefits
of this INSTITUTION, unless he make reasonable and immediate
satisfaction for his offence.
4" ART. XXVI. Whenever a Student shall have honorably
finished his term and course of study under the direction of
the Professors, and such Student shall request it; a Certificate, signed by the Professors, specifying how long such Student has studied under the direction, and attended the lec



382                  APPENDIX.
tures of the Professors, that he has prosecuted his studies
with diligence, and sustained a good moral character, shall be
given him; provided always, that his conduct, and proficiency in theological knowledge be such, as to merit the
same.
" ART. XXVII. After the expiration of the first three years
from the opening of this INSTITUTION, it will be required of
all persons, who may wish to enjoy the advantages of the
same, that they statedly reside at the Seminary three full
years, vacations excepted; a period scarcely sufficient for
acquiring that fund of knowledge, which is necessary for a
minister of the gospel. No Student, therefore, after the expiration of the first three years of the INSTITUTION, shall be entitled to the Certificate aforesaid; nor can any one leave the
Seminary in an honorable manner, within the term of three
years of such residence, except by permission, specially obtained of the TRUSTEES, in case of necessity.
"'ART. XXVIII. Every morning and evening, during the
term time, religious exercises shall be performed in the chapel,
and these exercises shall usually be, as follows. The divine
assistance and blessing shall be first implored in a short
prayer; a devotional chapter or psalm shall then be read, accompanied with pious and practical reflections; or, instead
of this, once at least in every week, an exposition shall be
given upon some deeply interesting passage of scripture; to
this shall succeed a piece of genuine psalmody; and the
services be concluded by an appropriate prayer. In these
exercises the Professors shall preside, and ordinarily officiate;
but Students of two years standing may occasionally perform them in whole or in part, according to the desire and
direction of the Professors. Moreover as soon as circumstances will permit, a regular Church will be formed in this
Seminary, consisting chiefly of the Professors, Students, and
families, connected with this Seminary and PHILLIPS Academy; after which, if not before, divine services will be publicly celebrated in the chapel of the Seminary, in the fore



APPENDIX.                      383
noon and afternoon of every Lord's day during term time.
These services shall be usually performed by the Professors;
but sometimes by such senior Students as may have obtained
permission of the Professors to preach occasionally; and
they shall be attended by all the Students of this INSTITUTION,
and by as many of the families of the Professors and Officers, connected with it, or with PHILLIPS Academy, as may
wish for this privilege, and by as many pupils of said Academy as may be deemed expedient by the TRUSTEES aforesaid.
" ART. XXIX. The senior Students will be required, not
only to prepare sermons, but occasionally to deliver them in
public, both in the Seminary and in neighboring congregations, as may be judged expedient by the said Professors.
No Student, however, shall presume to preach, before,
upon thorough examination of his qualifications and motives
for preaching, he shall have obtained a written permission
therefor, subscribed by the Professors, or a major part of
them. This permission, however, is never to supersede the
customary approbation or license of some regular Association
or Presbytery.
"' ART. XXX. Sacred Music, and especially Psalmody, being an important part of public, social worship; and as it
is proper for those, who are to preside in the assemblies of
God's people, to possess themselves of so much skill and
taste in this sublime art, as at least to distinguish between
those solemn movements, which are congenial to pious
minds, and those unhallowed, trifling, medley pieces which
chill devotion; it is expected that serious attention will be
paid to the culture of a true taste for genuine Church Music
in this Seminary; and that all Students therein, who have
tolerable voices, will be duly instructed in the theory and
practice of this celestial art; and whenever it shall be in the
power of either of the said Professors, it shall accordingly
be his duty to afford this necessary instruction; and whenever this shall not be the case, it is expected that an Instructor will be procured for this purpose.




384                  APPENDIX.
"ART. XXXI. All Professors, Officers, and Students in this
Seminary, and all other persons employed in its service, together with the Lands, Buildings, Library, Funds, and all
other Property, thereto belonging, shall be under the immediate inspection and government of the TRUSTEES aforesaid;
and be regulated and managed by them in strict conformity
to this Constitution, and to the Statutes and Will of every
FOUNDER of a Professorship or Benefactor of this INSTITUTION.
And the said TRUSTEES are hereby authorized and empowered
to make such additional Regulations (not inconsistent with
the Regulations established in this Constitution, nor with
the Statutes or grill of any Founder or Donor, nor with the
object of this Institution, nor in any degree avoiding them,
or either of them), as they in their wisdom shall deem necessary to give the fullest efficacy to these provisions, or to the
consistent provisions of future BENEFACTORS; whether such
Regulations may relate to the conduct of the Professors, the
government of the Students, their various duties and exercises, their lodgings and diet, the prevention and punishment
of offences, the preservation of health, the promotion of
order, peace, and harmony, to the safety of the Buildings, or
to the security of the Funds, which last are to be effectually
guarded against all loss and diminution; in a word, to do
every thing, under the foregoing limitations, which, upon serious and mature deliberation, may appear to them necessary
to secure and promote the true object of this INSTITUTION.
",ART. XXXIT. Notwithstanding this Seminary is placed
by this Constitution under the immediate care and government of the TRUSTEES of PHIILLIPS ACADEMY; it is always to
be understood, and it is hereby expressly declared, that every
FOUNDER of a Professorship, Scholarship, or any other Living
whatever in this INSTITUTION, will have the exclusive right
of prescribing the Regulations and Statutes, to be observed
by the said TRUSTEES in conducting the concerns of the same,
said Regulations and Statutes being always consistent with
the principles and object of this INSTITUTION; and also the




APPENDIX.                     385
right, for the term of his life, of appointing in the original deed
or grant, such local VISITOR or VISITORS, as he may think
proper, and to endow him or them with all visitatorial powers and authorities, necessary to secure and enforce due observance and execution of his said Regulations and Statutes.
"ART. XXXIII. Whereas the necessary business of this
Seminary will be sufficient to employ the said TRUSTEES one
day at least in every year; they are requested to hold an annual meeting for transacting the same, on such day in each
year, as they may appoint; and likewise to meet as much
oftener as the good of said Seminary may require; and at
each annual meeting to read this Constitution. The rules
and modes of doing business at all such meetings shall be
the same, moutartis mutandis, which are prescribed in the Constitution of PHILLIPS ACADEMY. Decent, not extravagant
entertainment shall be made for the TRUSTEES, while attending such meetings; reasonable compensation made to the
Treasurer of said Academy for his services; and other necessary expenses of this INSTITUTION defrayed out of the
income of its Funds. It is also particularly requested, that
all the transactions of the said TRUSTEES, relative to the said
THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, be recorded in a distinct book; and
likewise that all property given, devised, or bequeathed for
the support of this Seminary, be separated and for ever kept
distinct from all other property, to the TRUSTEES aforesaid in
any way or for any other purpose intrusted, being never
blended therewith, in any part or degree, by loan or purchase;
and that the said Treasurer accordingly keep all his accounts
and entries, relative to these Funds, in distinct books; and
all moneys, evidences of property, receipts, papers, and books
of account, appertaining to this INSTITUTION, in a separate
trunk or chest, prepared for prompt removal on any emergence; and that the accounts of said Treasurer be annually
audited by a Committee, for this purpose appointed, who
shall report to the said TRUSTEES in writing.
" ART. XXXIV. Confiding in the wisdom and fidelity of
33




386                  APPEND IX.
the said TRUSTEES and their Successors in office, and with
the pleasing hope and expectation, that they will religiously
appropriate the aforesaid Buildings, and the income of the
aforesaid Fund, and of all fiuture Donations for the same
pious purpose, to the great object of supporting a Theological Seminary, such as herein contemplated and described,
agreeably to the Principles and Regulations contained in
this Constitution; we do now under GOD cheerfully commit
this our Foundation to their pious and watchful care; trusting that no exertion on their part will be wanting to the success of an INSTITUTION, SO intimately connected with the
glory of GOD, the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom,
and the salvation of their fellow-men.
" But, while we thus express our conviction of the necessity
and utility of this INSTITUTION, it is our earnest prayer, that
our own minds, and the minds of the TRUSTEES, Professors,
Students, and all connected therewith, may be ever penetrated by a deep sense of the necessity of the DIVINE direction, influence, and blessing, to render even the wisest provisions and the best human instructions ultimately successful.
" To the SPIRIT of truth, to the Divine AUTHOR of our faith,
to the only Wise GOD, we desire in sincerity to present this
our humble offering; devoutly imploring the FATHER of
lights, richly to endue with wisdom from above all his servants, the TRUSTEES of this SEMINARY; and with spiritual
understanding the Professors therein; that, being illuminated
by the HOLY SPIRIT, their doctrine may drop as the rain, and
their speech distil, as the dew; and that their Pupils may
become trees of renown in the courts of our GOD, whereby
HE may be glorified.
" In witness whereof wve, the Subscribers, have hereunto set
our hands and seals this thirty-first day of August in the
year of our LORD one thousand eight hundred and seven.
" Signed, sealed,                   e and deliveredPS,   (S.)
in presence of             PHEBE PHILLIPS,   (S.)
*"SAMUEL STEARNS,               JOHN PHILLIPS, Jun. (S.)
" JOSEPH PHELPS,
" AMos BLANCHARD.               SAMUEL ABBOT.    (S.)"




APPENDIX.                     387
The Foundation of the Theological Seminary originating
in the Phillips family, in connection with the Academy, as
set forth in the preceding Constitution, was, after the lapse
of a few months, enlarged by a union with the Associate
Founders, Messrs. Bartlet, Brown, and Norris, on the basis of
the Associate Statutes, and of additional Statutes by Madam
Phillips and son, and Mr. Abbot; in both of which, provision was made for a Board of Visitors to act with the Board
of Trustees, and a more full and elaborate Creed was prescribed. This Creed we here give, as adjusted to the original
Constitution in these additional Statutes. After a brief preamble, the Founders say: -
"' Having provided in the twelfth Article of our said Constitution, that'every person, appointed or elected a Professor
in the said Seminary, shall, on the day of his inauguration
into office, publicly make and subscribe a Declaration of his
faith in Divine Revelation, and in the fundamental and disfinguishing doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, as summarily
expressed in the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism:'
We now ordain the following addition, to be inserted in said
Article, in connection with the said clause, namely,'and as
more particularly expressed in the following Creed, to Nwit,
"' I believe that there is one and but one living and true
God; that the word of God, contained in the Scriptures of
the Old and New Testament, is the only perfect rule of faith
and practice; that agreeably to those Scriptures GoD is a
Spirit infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; that in
the Godhead are three Persons, the FATHER, the SaON, and the
HOLY GHOST; and that these THREE are ONE GOD, the same
in substance, equal in power and glory; that GOD created
man after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and
holiness; that the glory of GOD is man's chief end, and the
enjoyment of GOD his supreme happiness; that this enjoyment is derived solely from conformity of heart to the moral
character and will of GOD; that ADAM, the federal head and




388                  APPENDIX.
representative of the human race, was placed in a state of
probation, and that, in consequence of his disobedience, all
his descendants were constituted sinners; that by nature
every man is personally depraved, destitute of holiness, unlike
and opposed to GOD; and that, previously to the renewing
agency of the DIVINE SPIRIT, all his moral actions are adverse to the character and glory of GOD; that, being morally
incapable of recovering the image of his CREATOR, which was
lost in ADAM, every man is justly exposed to eternal damnation; so that, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of GOD; that GOD, of his mere good pleasure, from
all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, and that he entered into a covenant of grace, to deliver them. out of this
state of sin and misery by a REDEEMER; that the only REDEEMER of the elect is the eternal SON of GOD, who for this
purpose became man, and continues to be GoD and man in
two distinct natures and one person forever; that CHRIST, as
our Redeemer, executeth the office of a Prophet, Priest, and
King; that, agreeably to the covenant of redemption, the
SON Of GOD, and he alone, by his sufferings and death, has
made atonement for the sins of all men; that repentance,
faith, and holiness are the personal requisites in the Gospel
scheme of salvation; that the righteousness of CHRIST is the
only ground of a sinner's justification; that this righteousness is received through faith; and that this faith is the gift
of GOD; so that our salvation is wholly of grace; that no
means whatever can change the heart of a sinner and make
it holy; that regeneration and sanctification are effects of the
creating and renewing agency of the HOLY SPIRIT, and that
supreme love to GOD constitutes the essential difference between saints and sinners; that by convincing us of our sin
and misery, enlightening our rminds, working faith in us, and
renewing our wills, the HOLY SPIRIT makes us partakers of
the benefits of redemption; and that the ordinary means, by
which these'benefits are communicated to us, are the word,
sacraments, and prayer; that repentence unto life, faith to




APPENDIX.                     389
feed upon Christ, love to GOD, and new obedience, are the
appropriate qualifications for the Lord's Supper; and that a
Christian Church ought to admit no person to its holy communion, before he exhibit credible evidence of his godly sincerity; that perseverance in holiness is the only method of
making our calling and election sure; and that the final perseverance of saints, though it is the effect of the special open
operation of GOD on their hearts, yet necessarily implies their
own watchful diligence; that they, who are effectually called,
do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits, which do either accompany
or flow from them; that the souls of believers are at their
death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into
glory; that their bodies, being still united to CHRIST, will at
the resurrection be raised up to glory, and that the saints will
be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of GOD to all
eternity; but that the wicked will awake to shame and everlasting contempt, and with devils be plunged into the lake
that burneth with fire and brimstone forever and ever.  I
moreover believe that God, according to the counsel of his
own will, and for his own glory, hath foreordained whatsoever
comes to pass, and that all beings, actions, and events, both
in the natural and moral world, are under his providential
direction; that GOD'S decrees perfectly consist with human
liberty; GOD'S universal agency with the agency of man;
and man's dependence with his accountability; that man has
understanding and corporeal strength to do all that GOD requires of him; so that nothing but the sinner's aversion to
holiness, prevents his salvation; that it is the prerogative of
GOD to bring good out of evil, and that he will cause the
wrath and rage of wicked men and devils to praise Him;
and that all the evil which has existed, and will forever exist
in the moral system, will eventually be made to promote a
most important purpose under the wise and perfect administration of that ALMIGHTY BEING, who will cause all things
to work for his own glory, and thus fulfil all his pleasure.'"




390                  APPENDIX.
In pursuance of the stipulations embodied in this Constitution, buildings were promptly erected, larger even than was
contemplated at first, and in September, 1808, the Institution
was in due form opened for the reception of students. After
the sale of the mansion-house to the Trustees, Madam Phillips removed to the house of Samuel Farrar, Esquire, then
recently erected; where in full view of the noble work upon
which she had concentrated her gifts and prayers, she passed
the evening of her life, and finally rested from her labors,
October 31, 1812, in the seventieth year of her age.
It deserves to be here added, as a fact of special interest,
that the family tie of blood and sympathy which through her
and her son linked the later as well as the earlier Institution
with the name of Phillips as one ever morein their aims and
destiny, has been still further strengthened by the congenial
efforts of other distinguished donors of the same genealogy.
Lieutenant-Governor William  Phillips, of Boston, who
was the honored President of the Board of Trustees for many
years, added to his earnest counsels and prayers for the Seminary, as mentioned in the text, his frequent gifts while he
lived, and his legacy for the library and for the aid of indigent students at his death.
Samuel Abbot, Esquire, of Andover, who united with
Madam Phillips and her son, in the founding of the Seminary, by endowing the Abbot Professorship of Christian
Theology, was a grandson of Samuel Phillips, Esquire, the
goldsmith at Salem.'
The wife of Moses Brown, Esquire, of Newburyport, the
founder of the Brown Professorship of Ecclesiastical History,
was a great-grand-daughter of the Salem goldsmith also,2
and the Seminary is not only largely indebted to her munificent husband, but to her own benefactions, and especially to
the liberality of her granddaughter, Mrs. Sarah W. Hale,
widow of Ebenezer Hale, M. D., who a few years since
Bond, Gen. and Hist. of Watertown, 902.    2 Ibid.




APPENDIX.                    391
added to the original endowment of the Brown Professorship a donation of four thousand dollars to provide a house
for the Professor.
Mrs. Sarah Abbot, also, (widow of Mr. Nehemiah Abbot,)
who was the chief founder of our Abbot Female Academy,
as well as a zealous friend of the Seminary, was a great-greatgranddaughter of the same Mr. Phillips at Salem.'
1 Bond, Gen. and Hist. of Watertown, 888.