Page:The librarians of Harvard College 1667-1877.djvu/28

LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE. 20 May, 1787, he was elected Librarian at a salary of 25 per annum, and served until 1741. The following interesting action was taken during the first year of his connection with the Library : - 21 March 1737/8 voted : "That the Members of the Corporacon in Town wth Mr Stewd Boardman be a Comtee to provide Boxes for the Books in the Library, fitted wth handles &c wrby the said Library may be Speedily & Safely remov'd in case of Fire." In 1741 he received a unanimous call to become minister of the church in Rutland, but preferred to accept the position of tutor at Harvard. The duties of this office he performed very satisfactorily from 1741 to 1766. On January 6 of this year he married Hannah Sprague, and upon his marriage, according to the rules of the College, he sent in his resignation. At a meeting of the Corporation of the College 1 September, 1766, this acknowledgment of his services was placed upon the records : "The Time of Mr. Thomas Marsh's being Tutor of this House & Fellow of the Corporation, being now expir'd, Voted, That the Thanks of the Corporation be given to the sd Mr Marsh, for his long & Faithful Services in those Capacities, & That his Allowance as a Tutr be continued to the End of his present Quarter, being the Eleventh of this Instant." Mr. Marsh was a fellow of the College from 1755 to 1766. On the 14th of June, 1777, he purchased of John Stratton a dwelling-house, barn, and forty acres of land in Watertown. This estate he made his home, taking his nephew, John Marsh, into his family. At his death in Watertown, 22 September, 1780, he left a considerable estate, the use of which was given to his wife during her lifetime. His nephew, John, eventually inherited nearly all this property in Watertown, Westminster, Stoddard (New Hampshire), and elsewhere. The inventory mentions portraits of Newton and Montagne ; and fifteen sermons, these valued at one shilling and three pence, a rather discouraging estimate! The inscription on his tomb was written by "Mr Sewall." He left no children. His widow soon returned to Cambridge, where she died 24 October, 1788, aged 84. AUTHORITIES : Marsh, Geneal. of the family of George Jfursfi, 1887, p. 42. Reed, Hint, of Rutland, 1836, p. 83. Corporation record*. Middlesex County Deeds and Will*. 1741-1742. Belcher Hancock, the son of a Cambridge shoemaker, Nathaniel Hancock, and of Prudence Russell, his wife, was born 24 April, 1709. He took his degree at Harvard in 1727, but we have found no record of his life during the ten years following. In 1741-42 he acted as Librarian of the College, and for the next twenty-five years held the position of tutor. From 1760 to 1767 he was also a fellow of the Corporation. Sidney Willard, in his " Memories of youth and manhood," tells an amusing story of Hancock's last year at Harvard. When it was made known to the tutor in 1766 that he would not be reflected for another term of three years, he asked to be chosen again with the understanding that he should resign shortly after the appointment was announced. When reelected, however, Hancock deliberated a whole year before handing in his resignation. He died unmarried 8 November, 1771, aged 62.

ACTHOITIBS : Paige, History of Cambridge, 1877. Wil- lard, Memories, 1855, p. 34.

1742-1743.

Benjamin Prat was born 13 March, 1710-11, in that part of Hingham now called Cohasset, the fourteenth child of Aaron Pratt, a farmer and constable. He began life as a mechanic. When about nineteen years of age he fell from an apple- tree and was so badly injured that his leg had to be "taken off up to the hip." Incapable now of earning his livelihood in the ordinary ways open to a young man in a country town, he fitted for Harvard and graduated in 1737. He continued to suffer from this accident, and at times the pain was so great that the sweat stood out on his face as he bent over his books. He was accounted the lowest in social rank in his class. Three years later he received the degree of A.M. In 1742- 1743 he had charge of the Library. For a short time he went from one to another of the islands in Boston harbor, preaching to the Indians and teach- ing them. He studied law with Judge Robert Auchmuty, and opened an office on King, now State, street, north-east of the Old State House. He rose rapidly in his profession and associated himself with the leading men of the time. From 1757 to 1759 he represented Boston in the General Court (the second member of the legal profession, it is said, who attained to that position), and became advocate general for Massachusetts. He had a country house at Milton Hill, with 160 acres, where his love for historical study and poetry would have led him, had not his professional business kept him in the midst of affairs. Through Gov. Pownall's influence he was early in 1761 appointed chief justice of New York and a mem- ber of its council. In October, 1761, a group of his friends accompanied him as far as Dedham on his journey to New York, which was under- taken hastily on account of the unsettled condition of the courts there. His fellow-members of the