By his second wife Mr. Rand had also three children, who are all living. Thorndike is a clerk in the Suffolk bank, Boston, and married Hannah P. Nourse of Beverly. Charles Asa is clerk in a bookstore at St. Louis, Mo. Anna Thorndike is the wife of John F. Nourse, Principal of Beverly Academy.
While Mr. Rand resided at Gorham, a quarterly religious Magazine was published at Portland, of which David Thurston, Edward Payson, Asa Rand, and Francis Brown were joint conductors. In the "day of small things" among the churches of Maine, it did good. It was published five years, from 1814 to 1818, inclusive.
The publications of Mr. Rand are, a Sermon to Children; a Sermon at the Ordination of Rev. Francis Brown at North Yarmouth, Jan. 11, 1810; a Sermon before the Maine Missionary Society, 1815; two Sermons on Christian Fellowship; "A Word in Season in behalf of the Holy Scriptures," (reviewing Quaker principles;) a pamphlet on the Controversies in the First Church of North Yarmouth; a volume entitled "Familiar Sermons"; a review of Finney's Sermon on making a New Heart, entitled "New Divinity tried"; a "Vindication of the same, in reply to Rev. Dr. Wisner"; and a "Letter to Rev. Dr. Beecher, in relation to his ministerial course in Boston."
HON. OLIVER WENDELL OF BOSTON.
Oliver Wendell was born in Boston, March 5, 1733, [N. S.] His father, Hon. Jacob Wendell, was born in Albany in 1691, and was a descendant of the first of the name and family in America, that has been transmitted to us. Evart Janson Wendell came from Embden[X] to the New Netherlands when possessed by the Dutch, and settled at Beverwyck, the site of Fort Orange, afterward called Albany, on Hudson river. The arms of the family were painted on nine panes of glass in the east window of the ancient church in Albany; namely, a ship riding at her two anchors. By an engraved copy of these arms, in possession of the family, it appears that Evart Janson Wendell was an officer in that church the same year in which New Amsterdam, afterwards called New York, was laid out in small streets eight years before the Dutch garrison at Fort Orange capitulated to the English. The inscription is, Regerendo Dijakin, 1656.
Evart J. was the father of John, who was the father of Jacob. This grandson of Evart J., the father of Oliver, was placed, while in his minority, under the care of Mr. John Mico, an eminent merchant in Boston, and was trained up to mercantile business. He afterwards became settled in Boston as a merchant, and was very prosperous. He was highly respected in the town and province; and, among other offices, was repeatedly employed by the government in the negotiation of treaties, and exchange of prisoners, with the Indians. He married Sarah Oliver, the daughter of Dr. James Oliver of Cambridge, and lived in School street, near the Episcopal church. He possessed a handsome estate in Oliver street, where, after the destructive fire of 1760, he built a brick house, (still standing,) in which his son Oliver lived. Since the incorporation of the city, a street leading from Oliver street, and passing by this place, has been named Wendell street. Mr. Wendell had several children. His son Oliver, after finishing his education at Harvard College, entered into mercantile business with his father, from whose experience and counsels he may have derived no less benefit, than from his stock in trade.
Mr. Wendell possessed a rare combination of talents and virtues, alike adapted to the offices of public and of private life. Mild in temper, benevolent in disposition, upright in principle, and resolute in action, he was conciliatory in address, and exemplary in life; and uniformly had the esteem and confidence of his friends and of the community. He was in the consultations of the early patriots of the American Revolution, and contributed to the acquisition and maintenance of the liberty and independence of the Commonwealth and country. After the Constitution was settled, he was often a member of the Senate, and of the Council, in the government of the Commonwealth. During his public life, he was Judge of Probate for the county of Suffolk; President of Union Bank; a Fellow of the Corporation of Harvard College; President of the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America; and a Trustee of Phillips Academy, Andover. Retiring from the city, he spent several of his last years in Cambridge, where he died, January 15, 1818, aged 85.
The evening of his days was serene and tranquil. While conscious of uprightness, he relied not on his integrity as meritorious, but founded his hope of future happiness on the propitiation made for sin by Jesus Christ; this hope was a steadfast anchor to his soul. Religious contemplation, and devotional exercises, habitual to him in public and active life, were cherished by him in secrecy and the stillness of retirement. Easy and gentle, at last, was his descent to the grave, and the observer might "see in what peace a Christian can die." His remains were deposited in the family tomb, in the Chapel burial-ground in Boston.
To the public notice of his death was annexed the following sketch of his character, written in the Council Chamber at the State House, on the reception of the intelligence of his death, by a highly respected friend,[Y] who, by long intercourse with him in public and private life, was a competent judge of his character. "In all relations of life, as a man, citizen, and magistrate, Judge Wendell was distinguished for uncommon urbanity of manners, and unimpeached integrity of conduct. During the course of a long life he had been successively called to fill many high and responsible offices. The punctuality and precision with which he fulfilled all the duties connected with them, were highly exemplary. Full of years, he has descended to the grave regretted and beloved by all who knew him; happy in the consciousness of a life well spent, and rejoicing in the prospect of felicity in a future state, of which a firm faith in his Redeemer gave him the assurance."
Judge Wendell married, in 1762, Mary, a daughter of Edward Jackson, who graduated at H. C. 1726, married Dorothy Quincy, and was a merchant of Boston. He was the son of Jonathan, who was a brazier and nail-maker, and married Mary Salter, March 26, 1700, lived in Boston, and left an estate of about £30,000. He was the son of Jonathan, who married Elizabeth—— and settled in Boston. He was born in England, and was the son of Edward, born in 1602, who emigrated from White Chapel, a parish in London, to this country about 1642, took the freeman's oath, May, 1645, and in 1646 purchased of Gov. Bradstreet a farm of 500 acres of land in that part of Cambridge which is now Newton, for £140. For his second wife he married March 14, 1648, Elisabeth Oliver, widow of Rev. John Oliver, the first minister of Rumney Marsh, (Chelsea,) and daughter of John Newgate of Boston. He was one of the most respectable men of the Colony, and was much engaged in public life. He died July 17, 1681, aged 79. Judge Wendell had several children, most of whom died young. Oliver and Edward never married, and have deceased. Sarah married the Rev. Dr. Abiel Holmes of Cambridge, by whom she had five children; namely, Mary Jackson, who married Usher Parsons, M. D., of Providence, R. I.; Ann Susan, who married Rev. Charles W. Upham of Salem; Sarah Lathrop, who died 1812, aged 6 years; Oliver Wendell, M. D., of Boston, who married Amelia Lee Jackson, daughter of Hon. Charles Jackson of Boston; and John, an Attorney at law, living in Cambridge.