Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/91

Rh much as for his skill in his profession. After his retirement from the army he practised in Plym- outh, at the same time engaging in literary and scientific pursuits. He was a member of the Pil- grim society of Plymouth, and of the Massachu- setts medical society. Besides publishing works of a purely professional or scientific character, he wrote extensively on generai literature, especially on that of his profession. He published " Amer- ican New Dispensatory " (Boston, 1810) ; " Observa- tions on Hydrophobia " (Plymouth, 1812) ; " Amer- ican Modern Practice" (Boston, 1817); "Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War/' which is one of the most, reliable authorities on the Revolution, and completely vindicates the conduct of Washington toward Andre, from the aspersions of contemporary English writers (1823); '• Practical Treatise on the Management of Bees " (1829); "American Medical Biography" (2 vols., 1828) ; " Essay on Demonology, Ghosts, Appari- tions, and Popular Superstitions "(1831); "History of the Town of Plymouth " (1832) ; and "Obser- vations relative to the Execution of Major John Andre as a Spy in 1780 " (1834).

THACHER, John Marshall, commissioner of patents, b. in Barre, Vt., 1 July, 1836. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1859, and studied law. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the National forces and served as captain in the 13th Vermont regiment. He was appointed assistant examiner in the patent-office in 1864, and was promoted through the different grades until 1 Nov., 1874, when he became commissioner, which office he held until 1 Oct., 1875. Meanwhile, in 1870, he had been admitted to the bar in Vir- ginia, and on his resignation he removed to Chicago, where he has since practised his profession.

THACHER, Thomas, clergyman, b. in Salis- bury, England, 1 May, 1620 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 15 Oct., 1678. He was carefully educated by his father, a minister at Salisbury, who prepared him for entrance to one of the English umversities,.but the son declined to subscribe to the religious tests that were then a condition of matriculation, and resolved on settling in New England. He reached Boston on 4 June, 1635, and soon afterward entered the family of Rev. Charles Chauncy at Scituate, under whose guidance he studied mental philoso- phy and theology, and attained a remarkable knowledge of the oriental languages. He was es- pecially noted for the great beauty of his transcrip- tions of Syriac and other oriental characters, and also acquired a knowledge of medicine, practising occasionally with success. He was ordained at Weymouth on 2 Jan., 1644, and shortly afterward took charge of the congregation of that village. Here he remained till 1664, when he removed to Boston, possibly because the relatives of his second wife resided there, although he is said to have been dismissed by his congregation in Weymouth a little before that time. He practised as a physician in Boston for the next two years, but preached occa- sionally. On 16 Feb., 1699, he was installed pastor of the Old South church. He is mentioned in terms of high praise by Cotton Mather in the " Magnalia," who quotes an elegy, written partly in Latin and partly in Greek by Eleazar, an Indian student at Harvard, in which the virtues of Mr. Thacher are celebrated. He wrote " A Brief Rule to Guide the Common People of New England how to order Themselves and Theirs in the Small Pocks or Measels," which is supposed to have been the first work on medicine that was published in Massa- chusetts (Boston, 1677; 2d ed., 1702), and "A Fast of God's Chusing; Fast Sermon " (1674). — His son, Peter, clergyman, b. in Salem, Mass., in 1651 ; d. in Milton, Mass., 17 Dec, 1727, was graduated at Harvard in 1671, and was tutor there for several years afterward, having Cotton Mather as one of his pupils. He spent some time in England, where ineffectual efforts were made to induce him to con- form to the established church. After his return he was ordained pastor of the church in Milton in 1681, and labored there for the remainder of his life. He attained note as a preacher and was called on to speak on many important public occasions. His "Convention Sermon" (1711) is preserved in manuscript in the library of the Massachusetts historical society. He published " Unbelief De- tected and Condemned, to which is added the Treasures of the Fathers Inheritable by their Posterity" (1708); "Election Sermon" (1711); " Christ's Forgiveness a Pattern : A Sermon " (1712) ; " A Sermon on the Death of Samuel Man " (1719); "A Divine Riddle: He that is Weak is Strong " (1723) ; and " The Perpetual Covenant." — Peter's grandson, Oxenbridge, lawyer, b. in Milton, Mass., in 1720; d. in Boston, Mass., 8 July, 1765, was graduated at Harvard in 1738, and after- ward studied divinity, but abandoned it for law on account of his health. He was successful at the bar, and took an active part in opposition to the English government during the early stages of the Revolution, being at that time one of the four rep- resentatives of Boston in the general court. He published " Considerations upon reducing the Value of the Gold Coins within the Province" (1760) and " Sentiments of a British-American, occasioned by an Act to lay Certain Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations" (Boston, 1764). In the latter pamphlet he assailed the navigation act with great vigor. — Peter, eldest son of Oxenbridge, slergyman, b. in Milton, Mass., 21 March, 1752 ; d. in Savannah, Ga., 16 Dec, 1802, was graduated at Harvard in 1769, and, after serving as principal of a grammar-school for a few months, was ordained pastor of Maiden on 19 Sept., 1770. His gifts as an orator at once made him popular, and his active Eatriotism during the Revolution was of great benefit to the cause of American liberty. He published a "Narrative of the Battle of Bunker Hill," at the request of the Massachusetts committee of safety, and delivered at Watertown an oration against standing armies, which has been frequently republished. He was a delegate in 1780 to the convention that met at Cambridge and Boston to frame a constitution for Massachusetts, supported a motion for abolishing the office of governor, and took an active part in all the deliberations of the assembly. He was called to the Brattle street church on 12 Jan., 1785, and continued in this pastorate for the rest of his life. In 1791 he received the degree of D. D. from the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Thacher was for some time secretary of the Society for propagating the gospel among the Indians of North America. He was one of the earliest members of the Massachusetts historical society, a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, and actively engaged in humanitarian and religious movements. He was chaplain to one or both branches of the general court for fifteen years. He published about twenty-two of his sermons between 1776 and 1800. Dr. Thacher preached funeral sermons for three governors of the state of Massachusetts— Bowdoin, Hancock, and Sumner, all of whom belonged to his congregation during the seventeen years of his pastorate. He published a work entitled " Observations on the State of the Clergy in New England, with Strictures on the Power of dismissing them, Usurped by