Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger / Fourth Edition

by E. G. Holland

Hundreds, into whose hands this volume will fall, will never forget the promptness and the courageous efficiency with which Rev. Joseph Badger met every public duty, and every great emergency; and though his field was the ministry, and his soldierly skill that which referred to the Cross, none who ever knew him can cease to remember the ready, natural, and commanding generalship by which his entire action and influence in the world were distinguished. He did not float with the wave of circumstance, but carefully laid out his labors into system, always having a purpose and a plan; and not unfrequently did his active energy and position in life, amidst many difficulties, remind one of a campaign. No mind, acting in the same sphere, was ever more productive in ways and means. Though a clergyman, he was a general, and one, we should say, of no common tact and skill.

His father, Major Peaslee Badger, with whom the writer of this memoir was acquainted, was a man of strong mental powers, quick perceptions, and of great vivacity. The quality last named, for which the subject of these biographical sketches was so generally distinguished, is readily traceable to his father; and the same remark in regard to quickness of perception might also apply, but for the fact that the mind of the son was more intuitive, and that he possessed both the qualities spoken of in a greater degree. Joseph Badger, though at heart deeply imbued with the solemnity and importance of all that belongs to the Gospel of human salvation, was no anchorite in spirit, no desponding meditator on man or his lot; he wore no formalities of a pretending sanctity. He had the good fortune never to have lost his naturalness; and I think I never saw one in whose nature was treasured a greater fulness of social life. It was apparent that Major Badger had a memory that was strong even in advanced years; that he was a general reader, and had reflected very independently; that, though capable of tender emotions and kindness of heart, the intellect had pretty full ascendency over his sympathetic nature; and that, in social feeling, in affection, in fineness of nature, and in general sympathy, his son possessed the richer inheritance.

His mother was a Christian, and judging from her letters, was an affectionate woman, of good plain sense, and rich in sympathy and maternal care. Father, mother and son are now in the spiritual world.[1]

As there are several public men wearing the family name of Badger, and as there are different branches of the same original family that in an early day exchanged their home in England for the then comparative wilderness of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in obedience to the spirit of adventure that drew, in those times, the most earnest and enterprising persons to the New World, I have thought it proper briefly to present the lineage of Rev. Joseph Badger from the settlement of the first family of this name in Massachusetts; in doing which I shall not rely on uncertain tradition, but on the published history of Gilmanton, N. H., and on the Memoir of Hon. Joseph Badger, both of which are now before me. From these authorities it appears that the Badger family is of English origin, that its founder was Giles Badger,[2] who settled at Newbury, Mass., previous to June 30, in 1643, only twenty-three years after the landing of the Pilgrims. His son, John Badger, a man of much respectability in his day, was by his first wife, the father of four children, only three of whom, John, Sarah and James, lived to arrive at years of responsibility, the first having died in infancy. His first wife, Elizabeth, died April 8th, 1669. By his second wife, Hannah Swett, to whom he was married February 23d, 1671, he had Stephen, Hannah, Nathaniel, Mary, Elizabeth, Ruth, Joseph, Daniel, Abigail and Lydia. Both of the parents died in 1691. John Badger, Jr., a merchant in Newbury, married Miss Rebecca Brown, October 5, 1691; their children were John, James, Elizabeth, Stephen, Joseph, Benjamin and Dorothy. Joseph was born in 1698.

Joseph Badger, son of John Badger, Jr., was a merchant, in Haverhill, Mass.,[3] and married Hannah, daughter of Col. Nathaniel Peaslee. Among his seven children was General Joseph Badger, whose usefulness and excellence of character are strongly expressed in the pages before me. He married Hannah Pearson, January 31st, 1740; their children were twelve in number, among whom was Major Peaslee Badger, the father of the subject of this memoir, and the Hon. Joseph Badger, Jr., the father of Hon. William Badger, late Governor of New Hampshire. Several of this name have been distinguished for ability, and have held important positions of public duty. Some have been active in the defence of their country, some in the cause of education, the administration of justice, and the affairs of political life; and like the distinguished men of New Hampshire generally, they mostly seem to have had strong natures, with characters marked by native vigor and original force.

South of the White Mountains some fifty miles, and near the Lake and River Winnipiseogee, is the old town of Gilmanton. As the mind of Mr. Badger, during his childhood in this place, was lastingly impressed by the society and instruction of his uncle, I have thought best to copy the presentation of his character as found in the published history of Gilmanton.

"In the early settlement of Gilmanton," says Mr. Lancaster, "no individual was more distinguished than Gen. Joseph Badger. He was born in Haverhill, Mass., Jan. 11, 1722; and was the eldest child of Joseph Badger, a merchant in that place, who was one of the wealthiest and most influential men of that town. In the time of the Revolution, he was an active and efficient officer, was muster-master of the troops raised in this section of the State, and was employed in furnishing supplies for the army. He was a member of the Provincial Congress, and a member of the Convention that adopted the Constitution. He was appointed Brigadier General June 27th, 1780, and Judge of Probate for Strafford county, December 6th, 1784. He was also a member of the State Council in 1784, 1790, and 1791.

"He was a uniform friend and supporter of the institutions of learning and religion. He not only provided for the education of his own children by procuring private teachers, but he also took a lively interest in the early establishment of common schools for the education of children generally. Not content with such efforts merely, he did much in founding and erecting the Academy in Gilmanton, which has been already a great blessing to the place and the vicinity. He was one of the most generous contributors to its funds, and was one of its Trustees, and the President of the Board of Trust until his death. Instructed in his childhood, by pious parents, in the principles of religion, he early appreciated the blessings of the Christian ministry. Having become the subject of divine grace, he publicly professed religion, and espoused the cause of Christ. As he was a generous supporter of the institutions of the Gospel, so to his hospitable mansion the ministers of religion always found a most hearty welcome. While the rich and great honored him, the poor held him in remembrance for his generous liberality. His whole life was marked by wisdom, prudence, integrity, firmness, and benevolence. Great consistency was manifested in all his deportment. He died April 4th, 1803, in the 82d year of his age—ripe in years, ripe in character and reputation, and ripe as a Christian. The text selected for his funeral sermon was strikingly characteristic of the man. 'And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor, and he was a good man and a just.'"

Rev. Joseph Badger had indeed a noble ancestry; and, in natural ability, in creative and executive intellect, in force of character and in general usefulness, he is probably unexcelled by the worthy examples that in past time may have shed honor upon the name. I have dwelt thus long on the parentage and ancestry of Mr. B., not because I regard the tenacity of the Jewish race on the subject of lineage, nor the general excess of oriental homage to departed fathers, but because we appreciate the law of cause and effect, as it is manifested in the course of hereditary descent, which forbids that any man's written history shall begin like the priesthood of Melchizedek, successionless and without descent.