Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/28

20 letter soon was, and the former was again, translated into English, and both were published, with a clumsy explanation by the bookseller, by "D. Henchman, at the corner shop over against the Brick Meeting-House in Cornhill: MDCCXXIX." This corner shop, by the way, was the same building now occupied by A. Williams & Co., opposite the Old South Church, and was built in 1712. Both were re-printed in the eighth volume of the N. H. Historical Society's Collections; and the original correspondence is in the Boston Athenæum.

On the 18th of Oct., 1734, Mrs. Baker petitioned the Governor and Council of New Hampshire for leave to keep a "house of public entertainment," which was granted on the 9th of May the next year. In 1737, she petitioned Gov. Belcher and the Honorable Council "to grant her a tract of land in this Province [N. H.], of such contents as you shall in your wisdom and goodness see meet," setting forth that she was captured in her infancy, lived many years among the French in Canada, and that she had purchased her liberty "with the loss of all her estate, which was not inconsiderable;" that since her return to New England she had met with many misfortunes and hardships, and had several children, which she might find burdensome to maintain, "especially considering that she was not in such comfortable circumstances as she had formerly lived in." The petition was, March 16, 1737, "ordered to lie for consideration till next session," and does not appear to have been again taken up.

The "several children" above referred to were six. One of these was Col. Otis Baker of Dover, who died in 1801. He represented Dover in the State Legislature in 1770. '72, '73 and '75, and under the revolutionary government; was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 1773-1785. State Senator two years, member of the Committee of Safety, 1776, '77, and Colonel of the 2d New Hampshire Regiment.

Lydia, daughter of Col. Otis Baker, married Col. Amos Cogswell of Dover, whose daughter, also Lydia, married Paul Wentworth, Esq., of Sandwich, and was the mother of Hon. John Wentworth of Chicago.

Mrs. Christina Baker died in Dover, Feb. 23, 1773, having nearly completed her 84th year.

"The sky is clear, the air is cool,
 * The birds are full of glee,

The dew has dried from off the grass,
 * The hills are fair to see;

Come, leave your sewing, Martha Gray,
 * And roam the fields with me!"

"Ah, Mary. I would gladly go,
 * But see this work to do!

These yards and yards to baste and stitch,
 * And all this plaiting, too,

Before the dress I need so much
 * Will bear the critic's view."