[366] The Rev. Joseph Sewall, D.D., was son of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and was ordained minister of the Old South Church, in Boston, in the year 1713. He died in 1769, aged 80, having been the pastor of the Old South Church for fifty-six years.
[367] The Rev. William Cooper, having graduated at Harvard College, became the colleague of Dr. Colman in 1716. He died in 1743, at the early age of 49; and declared, just before his death, that "since the year 1740, more people had come to him in concern about their souls" than had come during the whole of his previous ministry.
[368] The Rev. Thomas Foxcroft was ordained minister of the first Congregational Church in Boston, in the year 1717. No minister was more universally admired. He was the author of a large number of publications, including a sermon occasioned by the visit and labours of Whitefield in 1740, and an apology for Whitefield in 1745. After a ministry of more than half a century, he died in 1769, aged 72.
[369] The Rev. John Webb was ordained the first minister of the New North Church, in Boston, 1714. He died in 1750, aged 62. His colleague pronounced him "one of the best of Christians and one of the best of ministers."
[370] The Rev. Samuel Checkley was the first minister of the New South Church, in Summer Street, Boston. He died in 1769, in the fifty-first year of his ministry, aged 73.
[371] The Rev. Nehemiah Walter was born in Ireland. In 1688, he was ordained, as colleague of the apostolic Eliot. He married the daughter of Increase Mather; and, after a ministry of sixty-eight years, died in 1750, aged 86.
[372] The Rev. Joshua Gee was ordained pastor of the Old North Church, Boston, as colleague with Cotton Mather, in 1723. He possessed a strong and penetrating mind, but "preferred talking with his friends to everything else." He died in 1748, aged 50. The Old North Church was demolished, by the British army, in 1776, and the timber of it used for fuel.
[373] As early as 1708, Oldmixon wrote: "Cambridge is a university, and has two colleges—Harvard College, and Stoughton Hall."
[374] Whitefield preached under an elm at Cambridge; and beneath the shade of the same tree Washington first drew his sword in the cause of the revolution, on taking the command of the American army. From this circumstance, the tree was ever afterwards called "Washington's Elm." It may also be added, that, one of the students, converted by Whitefield's sermon, on this occasion, was Daniel Emerson, who was ordained, in 1743, first minister of Hollis, New Hampshire, the pastorate of which place he retained until his death in 1801. "He was truly a son of thunder, a flaming light; and was almost incessantly engaged in preaching, attending funerals, etc., far and wide. He was made the means of extensive revivals of religion." (Belcher's "Biography of Whitefield.")
[375] The governor was the Honourable Jonathan Belcher, a native of Massachusetts, where his father was a wealthy merchant. After an academical education in his own country, he came to Europe, was twice at Hanover, and was introduced to the Court there when the Princess Sophia was the presumptive heiress to the British crown. The gracefulness of his person, his talents, and property, procured him considerable notice. In 1730, he was appointed Governor of New England, and continued in that office until the year 1740, the time of Whitefield's visit. He lived in great state, was hospitable, fond of splendid equipages, and of an aspiring turn of mind. In 1741, he became Governor of the New Jerseys, and was succeeded in New England by Governor Shirley. To enable the reader to estimate the value of some of Whitefield's collections for the orphans, it may be added that, when Belcher left New England, the currency was so much depreciated, that £100 sterling was equal to £550 Massachusetts currency. Belcher, to the end of his life, was one of Whitefield's most faithful friends. (Milner's "Life of Dr. Watts," and Johnston's "History of Bristol and Bremen.")