Page:The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877.djvu/22

16 LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. his mental Powers, in the various kinds of useful Learning, by an earlier Admission and longer Con- tinuance than common in that Society, over which he has since for many Years so laudably presided. . . . Idleness and Sloth was an Abomination to him, so that he took Care to fill up his Time with some useful Service or other : Some for the Health of his Body ; others for the Improvement of his Mini ; some for the gratifying a particular Genius, and others for the accomodating his Family, or for the public Good."

AUTHORITIES : Appleton, Thr crown of eternal life, 1789. pp. 52. Essex inst. lli*t. collection*, 1841, iii. 69. Mass. hint. goo. Collection*, viii. 70-73; x. 168; 3d series, v. 217- 222. Peirce, Hut. of Harvard, 1833, pp. 174-316. Quincy, Hut. of ffitrtant, 184J, ii. 1-136. Roads, Xarblehead, 1880, pp. 42, 50, 359, 379. Sewall, Oratio funebrit, 1769. pp. 2, 8. Smith, C. C., in llarrnrd graduate? magazine, 1896, iv. 365-372 (portrait). Sprague, Annul* Amer. pulpit, 1857, i. 293.

1712-1713.

Thomas Robie, the son of William and Eliza- beth (Greenough) Robie, was born in Boston 20 March, 1689. Graduating in 1708, and obtaining his A.M. in 1711, he acted the next year (1712-13) as Librarian. In April, 1714, he was chosen "fellow of the House," as tutors at that time were called; and eight years later (7 April, 1722) was elected "fellow of the Corporation." This was the time, under President Leverett, of the contro- versy over the right of the resident fellows, or tutors, to be also members of the Corporation. It may have been partly this controversy that led Robie to resign his position in the College in February, 1722-3. He had preached occasion- ally, but a report "that his sermons were only heathenish discourses, no better Christianity than was in Tully," caused him finally to withdraw from the pulpit. He then became a physician and settled in Salem. He was married to Mehitable Sewall, daughter of Major Stephen Sewall and sister of Chief Justice Sewall, who was Librarian, 1726-28. Three children were born to them. Mr. Robie died in Salem, 28 August, 1729, at the age of 41.

Thomas Robie was a man of good scientific attainments : many of his papers on mathematical and physicial subjects were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. He was " a handsome writer ; speci- mens of his scientifick abilities, and his manner of composing, may be found scattered in the maga- zines and newspapers during 20 years of the 18th century." President Leverett wrote of him : "It ought to be remembered that Mr. Robie was no small honor to Harvard College by his mathematical performances, and by his correspondence (hereupon with Mr. Durham and other learned persons in those studies abroad." Besides his contributions to periodicals and societies, Robie published little. He edited several numbers of an almanac and a few years before his resignaion printed a "Sermon preached in the College at Cambridge, to a society of young students" (1721).

AUTHORITIES : Eliot, Biog. dictionary, 1809, p. 404. Felt, Annul* of Salem, 1827, p. 392. Peirce, Hint, Hiirninl, 1833, pp. 113-118. Quincy, Hist, llarturd, 1840, i. 281, 294-5, 306, 309-10. Savage, Geneal. Dictionary, 1861, iii. 549. Winsor, Memorial hit. of Boton, 1881, iv. 492.

1713-1714. John Denison, the son of John and Elizabeth (Saltonstall) Denison, and the nephew of Nathaniel Saltonstall (Librarian, 1697-1701), was born in 1688. His father was for many years the minister at Ipswich. Graduating in 1710, he took the degree of A.M. in 1713. He was Librarian for a year from 1713 to 1714. He studied for the ministry, but, on account of poor health, gave up preaching after a year or two, and settled in Ipswich as a lawyer. In this profession Denison appears to have been very successful ; his Latin epitaph in the old grave-yard at Ipswich speaks of him as most skilled in jurisprudence. For three years (1716-18) he was the representative from Ipswich to the General Court, and later he was lieutenant colonel and high sheriff of Essex county. In 1719 he married Mary, daughter of President Leverett of Harvard ; by this marriage he had two children. He died at the age of 35, on 25 November, 1724.

AUTHORITIES : Antiquarian paper*, Ipswic/i, Feb., 1880. Baldwin and Clift, Record of descendent* of Capt. Geo. Denison, 1881, p. 332. Felt, Hittory of Ipswich, Js*ez,and Hamilton, 1834, p. 175.

1714-1718.

John Rogers, born in 1692 (?), was the oldest son of Rev. John Rogers, minister of Ipswich, and Martha Whittingham. His grandfather was president of Harvard 1682-1684. John took his first degree in 1711 and his A.M. three years later. He served as Librarian from 1714 to 1718, and on 16 October of the latter year was married to Susannah, sixth child of Major John Whipple of Ipswich.

As early as 1715 Mr. Rogers was invited to Kittery, Maine, to preach on probation. "His labours proving acceptable he was continued among them from year to year until suitable materials were found for constituting a Church." On the 22d of June, 1721, a church was organized at Sturgeon Creek, the north or second parish of Kittery, and Mr. Rogers, having accepted an invi-