11. Sat off for Framingham with Eliza, H. Frazier, Levi & Charles in a Coachee & Chaise.

12. Sat off from Framingham with 2 of the Directors of Worcester Turnpike, surveyors and chainmen to review the proposed road, and arrived at Worcester 14th day at sun down.

18. Directors of Worcester Turnpike & Gen. Court's Commee met at Worcester.

19. Directors & Comee went on the Route to view the road.

Salem in July, and the next week was asked to supply the pulpit of the church in Worcester, during the illness of its minister, Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty. He preached there for eight weeks, and was then immediately engaged in several vacant parishes. Mr. Maccarty died in July, 1784, and in October Mr. Bancroft returned and preached again for five or six weeks, but this time his Arminian views caused great excitement; great differences of opinion arose, and the parish was so divided that even social intercourse was interrupted.

Meanwhile the committee for supplying the pulpit had been vainly endeavoring to find a successor to Mr. Maccarty, and at the town meeting 22 November, 1784, it was "Voted that their be a Day Set apart for fasting & Prayer in this Town for calling on the Divine for assistance for the re-establishment of the Gospel ministry in this Place." A week later it was voted that "Mr. Haven" preach four Sundays and after him Mr. Bancroft four. Mr. Bancroft accordingly occupied the pulpit again 10 January, 1785, and three days later fifty-four members presented a petition that the town-not the church-settle him as Mr. Maccarty's successor; and at the meeting 1 March, 1785, "It was Moved, that the Town agree to Settle Mr. Bancraft in the work of the Gospel Ministry, and Such other Person as may be agreable to and chosen Solely by those who are desierous of hearing further and the Settlement and Salaries of both to be at the Expence of the Town at Large." This being passed in the negative, Mr. Bancroft's followers asked permission to form a new Society, and this was also refused. A voluntary association was then formed, a covenant adopted and a church organized under the corporate name of the "Second Parish in the town of Worcester." Among those most influential in its formation were Levi Lincoln, Joseph Allen, Edward Bangs, Timothy Paine, Timothy Bigelow and Isaiah Thomas. According to usage, the sixty-seven associates, of whom only two men and four women had been communicants, not having been dismissed from any other church for that purpose, were not competent to form a new one; so they devised the novel expedient of a public lecture," at which the covenant was read, explained and signed.

Services began on the third Sunday in March in the Court House, and on 7 June, Mr. Bancroft consented to become the minister, with a salary of five hundred dollars.

20. Finished viewing the road, and arrived at Boston this Evening.

21. Directors met at Boston. I sat off this afternoon for Worcester in a chaise alone.

22. Arrived at Worcester.

27.

Thanksgiving. My son & family dined with me.

December, 1806.

1. Went to form Association for Assemblies.

At his ordination, 1 February, 1786, the feeling was so strong against his doctrines that only two ministers in the vicinity could be found to assist,-Rev. Timothy Harrington of Lancaster and Rev. Zabdiel Adams of Lunenburg. The new parish was incorporated 13 November, 1787, and was a poll and not a territorial parish, that is, it was composed of those of similar opinions without regard to local habitation, and was probably the first of the kind in Massachusetts outside of Boston. Dr. Bancroft was the minister of the Second Parish until his death in 1839, a period of fifty-three years, during the last twelve of which Rev. Alonzo Hill, the second minister, was his colleague.

Outside of his parish Dr. Bancroft took an active part in general educational and religious matters. In 1810 he received the degree of D.D. from Harvard. He was trustee of Leicester Academy from 1800 to 1831, and its president for many years; president of the Worcester County Bible Society, of the American Unitarian Association from its formation in 1825 to 1836 and of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; vice-president of the Worcester and Middlesex Missionary Society and of the American Antiquarian Society from 1816 to 1832; and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1807 he published a "Life of Washington," which was twice reprinted; and in 1821 a series of doctrinal discourses, of which President John Adams wrote to him, "I thank you for your kind letter of Dec. 30th, and above all, for the gift of a precious volume. It is a chain of diamonds set in links of gold. I have never read, nor heard read, a volume of sermons better calculated and adapted to the age and country in which it was written. How different from the sermons I heard and read in the town of Worcester from the year 1755 to 1758 You

may well suppose, that I have heard controversies enough; but, after all, I declare to you, that your twenty-nine sermons have expressed the result of all my reading, experience, and reflections, in a manner more satisfactory to me, than I could have done in the best days of my strength."

He also published many sermons in pamphlet form.

[Born, Reading, Mass., 10 November, 1755. Died, Worcester, 19 August. 1839.] See entry and note, 28 February, 1810.

5. Sat off for Boston in stage. Lodged with Mr E. T. A[ndrews].

6. Attended in Comee Agents of Portland and Ancient Land Mark Lodges.

7. Went to Mr Murray meeting.1

8. Attended Grand Lodge.

9. Do. Grand Chapter.

11. Attended an encampment of K. Templars.

12.

Severe snow storm. Arrived at Worcester with Miss H. Weld from Boston in 7 hours-half way in stage, and half way in my sleigh.

17. 1st assembly this evening for the season.

25. Dined with Isa.

27. Anson Whipple went to Hardwick.

31. 2 Assembly. Anson W. returned from Hardwick. 21 persons died in Mr Bancroft's society, or 2a parish this year.

January, 1807.
Worcester.

8. Drew 500 dolls in Amoskeg Lott".

10. My Dog, Cupid, died aged about 16 years.

12. Rec. 400 dollars from Boston Co.2

1 Rev. John Murray founded the first Universalist Church in Boston in 1793, and was its minister until his death in 1815. The church was a wooden building which had been erected by the seceders from the Old North under Rev. Samuel Mather, and stood at the corner of North Bennet and Hanover streets.

2 The firm of Thomas and Andrews, which Mr. Thomas had established with Ebenezer T. Andrews in Boston, in 1788, rapidly grew through their enterprise and energy, and at the beginning of the century had become one of the most extensive publishing houses in the country, with branches in Baltimore and Albany. Five presses, employing ten persons, were kept constantly running in Boston, and there were five or six young men or boys as apprentices, the whole being under

13. Officiate this week at the Bank for Judge Paine.1

14. 3d Assembly for the season. Mr. Penniman arrived from Troy.

the superintendence of William Manning, who, in 1814, began to publish the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester. In 1804 Manning was succeeded by Joseph T. Buckingham, the founder of the Boston Courier.

In the preceding thirty years a great revolution had been brought about in the art of printing, greatly lessening the labors of the journeyman; the power press had come into use, and rollers for inking the forms had succeeded the old mode of beating the type by balls. The force of a printing office at that time consisted of journeymen and apprentices. The wages of the former were not more than six or seven dollars a week; and for piece work, sixpence a token (ten quires of paper) at press, and a shilling for composing a thousand ems were the highest prices paid. The apprentices, who served until they were twenty-one, ranked in the order of their seniority in the office, not by age, the elder boys being employed chiefly on book-work, their juniors working at the press, while the youngest were the printers' devils.

From 1789 to 1793 inclusive, Thomas and Andrews published the Massachusetts Magazine, a monthly, illustrated with engravings, which was quite popular in its day. In the publication of school-books they had almost a monopoly, and for more than a generation the greater part of those in use in the United States bore their imprint. The forms of several of these were kept standing. "Webster's Spelling Book" kept one press, and often two or three, constantly employed, and two or three large editions of the duodecimo Bible were printed every year. Other books which gave constant employment to the journeymen and apprentices were Rev. Jedidiah Morse's geographical works, the "Gazetteer," 2 vols., the "American Geography," the "Geography made easy" and the "Elements of Geography"; "Beauties of the Bible" for schools, then just coming into extensive use; "Pike's Arithmetic"; "Perry's Dictionary"; Dr. Belknap's "Sacred Poetry"; the "Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony"; the "Bridgewater Collection"; the "Union Harmony"; and numerous other musical works "printed typographically." Many text-books were also printed for Harvard College.

Their store in Boston was at 45 Newbury street (now Washington), "at the Sign of Faust's Head," which was the same sign formerly used by the occupants of the birthplace of Franklin.

See also entry, 20 August, 1820.

1 Nathaniel Paine, the son of Timothy and Sarah Chandler Paine, was graduated from Harvard in 1775 and read law with John Sprague of Lancaster. After his admission to the bar in 1781 he practiced in Groton for five years and then returned to Worcester. He was a representative to the General Court from 1798 to 1800, and County Attorney for the same period; and Judge of Probate from 1801 to 1836. He was one of the founders and councillors of the American Antiquarian Society and a fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen. His house and office were at first on Lincoln street but he later removed to the

15. Museum burnt in Boston a 2a time and 6 Boys

killed.

Samuel Johnson died suddenly-a man killed by

falling a Tree.

17. 2 funerals.

22. 2 funerals.

24. Made a new will.

27. Had company to supper.

28. 4th Assembly night.

31. Rain, violent S. E. storm. Great freshets. Water higher over Worcester bridge the morning following than ever I knew it to be.

February, 1807.
Worcester.

1. Worcester bridge impassable. Very great freshet. 6. Went to Boston in Stage to meet turnpike Directors. 7. Went with the Worcester Directors of the Turnpike to view the road at Newton. Very cold. Dined at Mr. Peck's.

9. Slept at Mr Weld's in Boston. Company settled with Mr. Penniman.

10. Left Boston this morning past 9 °Clock and arrived at Worcester at past 4 °Clock.

11. Last assembly this Evening.

13. Heavy rain began this Evening.

14. Rain continued all this day & night.

north corner of Main and Pleasant streets, his estate consisting of about one hundred and fifty acres and extending westward over the hill. Judge Paine married, 18 December, 1785, Elizabeth, daughter of Gardiner Chandler, of Worcester. [Born, Worcester, 5 August, 1759. Died, Worcester, 7 October, 1840.]

1 The Columbian Museum, which at this time was on the site later occupied by the Boston Museum, had been previously destroyed by fire 15 January, 1803.