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The print practice of martyrology in British North America, 1688-1787

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The print practice of martyrology in British North America, 1688-1787

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The Print Practice of Martyrology in British North America, 1688-1787

by

John Whitaker Fanestil

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (HISTORY)

May, 2017

Not for Publication John Whitaker Fanestil

i

DEDICATION:

To Jennifer, for understanding that this was important to me, and for seeing me through.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

I am very grateful to have received fellowship support from the History Department at the
University of Southern California, the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, and the
USC Dana and David Dornsife School of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
My sincere thanks to faculty at the USC for their excellence in teaching – Lisa Bitel, Bill
Deverell, Phil Ethington, Richard Fox, Karen Halttunen and Jacob Soll in the History
Department, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo in Sociology and Andrew Cashner in Musicology.
Special thanks to my dissertation committee members Nathan Perl-Rosenthal (History) and
Cavan Concannon (Religion). All brought to mind excellent teachers from my earlier studies,
including Ann Taves, Bill Johnson, Marysa Navarro, among others, to whom I am also grateful.
In a like fashion, my student colleagues, especially those in the History Department at USC and
the many participants in the American Origins seminar convened so capably at the Huntington
Library by Carole Shammas, reminded me continually what good fortune is to be found in the
friendship and solidarity of peers.
Thank you to the ever-helpful members of the staff at the History Department of USC, the
Huntington Library and the Early Modern Studies Institute. I greatly appreciate your work and
thank you for it.
Thank you to Kevin Peterson for his excellent work as my occasional research assistant.
Most special thanks to Peter Mancall – for chairing my Dissertation Committee, for endless good
cheer, encouragement and wise counsel, and for making possible my unorthodox journey
through these doctoral studies.

iii

Table of Contents

Dedication

i
Acknowledgments

ii
Table of Contents

iii
List of Figures

iv
List of Tables

v

Introduction The Enduring Legacy of English Martyrology in the Print
Production of 18
th
-century British North America
1
Chapter One “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” – The Martyrological
Pedigree of Patrick Henry’s Speech to Virginia’s Second
Revolutionary Convention
28
Chapter Two “The Bloody Massacre” – The Martyrological Pedigree of
Paul Revere’s Engraving of the Boston Massacre
64
Chapter Three “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” – The Martyrological
Pedigree of John Dickinson’s Liberty Song
113
Chapter Four “One Life to Give” – The Martyrological Pedigree of the
Legend of Nathan Hale
143
Conclusion The Historiography of Early American Religion – A
Comment
176
Appendix A Notes on Sources

189
Appendix B Selected Works 200
Bibliography 239

iv

List of Figures

Figure I.1 Henry Grove, A Discourse Concerning the Nature of the Lord’s
Supper (Boston, 1766)

15
Figure 1.1 Calendars from The Book of Common Prayer (1701) 34
Figure 2.1 Paul Revere’s engraving, a copy of Henry Pelham’s original (1770) 65
Figure 2.2 Henry Pelham’s engraving, copied by Paul Revere (1770) 66
Figure 2.3 A Note “To the gentle Reader” from John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs 74
Figure 2.4 John Kneeland’s imprint of Samuel Stillman’s two sermons (1773)

81
Figure 2.5 Samuel Stillman’s Memorial Sermon to the Continental Congress
(1776)

82
Figure 2.6 Janeway’s Token as analogue to adult material (1676)

85
Figure 2.7 Janeway’s Token as a hand-me-down (1771)

90
Figure 2.8 Excerpt from Alphabet of New England Primer (1746)

92
Figure 2.9 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in John Foxe’s Book of
Martyrs (1597)

96
Figure 2.10 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in John Foxe’s Book of
Martyrs (1684)

97
Figure 2.11 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in The New England
Primer (1727)

99
Figure 2.12 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in The New England
Primer (1752)

100
Figure 2.13 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in The New England
Primer (1746)

101
Figure 2.14 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in The New England
Primer (1762)

102
Figure 2.15 The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in The New England
Primer (1770)

103
Figure 2.16 Paul Revere’s woodcut, reproduced in Isaiah Thomas handbill (1772)

109
Figure 2.17 Commemorative handbill for Boston Massacre (1863)

111

v

Figure 3.1 John Dickinson’s Liberty Song (1768)

119
Figure 3.2 Isaac Watts’ Divine Songs for Children as a hand-me-down (1760)

127
Figure 3.3 Excerpt from Isaac Watts’ Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1762)

134
Figure 4.1 First page of Samuel Gerrish’s Catalogue of Books for Sale (1718)

150
Figure 4.2 April Calendar from Ebenezer Watson’s Almanack (1776)

174
Figure 4.3 Listing of 19
th
Regiment from Ebenezer Watson’s Almanack (1776)

175

List of Tables

Table A.1 Selected works as a Sample from within Titles including mention
of Death, Extremis & Martyrdom in Titles and Contents, by
Quarter Century

191
Table A.2 Selected Works by Content in Titles and Quarter-Century 193
Table A.3 Individual Works Appearing Four or More Times
in Selected Works, by Category and Quarter-Century

195
Table A.4 Key Publishers, Authors & Works by Place of Publication,
Across Quarter Centuries

198

1

INTRODUCTION
The Enduring Legacy of English Martyrology
in the Print Production of 18
th
-century British North America

Like all who lived before the advent of modern medicine, English-speaking peoples
living in the early modern era experienced death as a palpable and constant threat throughout the
life-cycle. In 1651 Thomas Hobbes offered this summation of life in the London of his day:
“No arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent
death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
1
We should not misconstrue
Hobbes’ summation as an objective evaluation of life in the 17
th
century, but neither should we
fail to acknowledge that people found his encapsulation sufficiently apt that his words would
remain among the most famous in the English language for generations. English colonists in
North America were inheritors of this perpetual foreboding, and the early colonial experience
was marked by trauma and mortality on a monumental scale.
2

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the population in North America was growing at
an ever-accelerating rate, and – as John Demos first convincingly demonstrated in a demographic
study of the English colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts – English colonists and their
descendants were, on average, living longer than had earlier arrivals.
3
But, like other people

1
Thomas Hobbes and Noel Malcolm, Leviathan, 1st ed., Vol. 3-5 (Oxford England: Clarendon Press,
2012)., p. xxiii.
2
Edmund Morgan has described the death rate in early colonial Virginia as “comparable only to that of
severe epidemic years in England,” and cites a common saying that “the swamps and Tuckahoe marshes
breed into the air a something that makes both widows and widowers.” Edmund S. Morgan, American
Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia, Norton pbk ed. (New York: Norton, 1995;
1975), 454., pp. 153ff, 17.
3
Demos’ study was extraordinarily influential in establishing this narrative of increased longevity in the

2

living in the eighteenth century, the English in North America continued to experience life as
profoundly perilous and unpredictable.
4
Through the persistence of infant mortality, the vagaries
of routine disease and intermittent plague, and the perils of childbirth, travel and war, the
visitations of death remained fundamentally unpredictable and beyond their control, reinforcing
their inherited view of human life as characterized essentially by the peril of mortality. Even as
more and more of their own number lived longer lives, they were also very much aware of the
cataclysmic mortality being experienced by native peoples, and many were haunted by the notion
that the divine judgment, which they understood to be the source of this devastation, could at any
moment turn against them. At the intimate levels of family, church and town, the work of
contending with death remained woven into the very fabric of life and throughout the life cycle.
That these concerns remained pervasive in British North America through the end of the
eighteenth century and beyond is reflected clearly in the English-language print production of
the period.

Supplementing a market in books that was principally sourced by importation from

eighteenth century, but even he projected “a maximum of 25 percent mortality for the entire age span
between birth and maturity (age 21),” while acknowledging that “this is a difficult matter to study
systematically because some deaths among the very young were not recorded in the usual fashion.”
John Demos, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony, 2 , new 30th anniversary ed.
(Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 201., p. 66. More fundamentally, rapid population
growth cannot be correlated uniformly with diminished awareness of death, and neither can increases
in average longevity. Both measures obscure how deaths can appear randomly, on the one hand, and
cluster in specific times and places, on the other, both dynamics with far-reaching implications for how
people perceive the prospect of their own mortality. I reject the contention of many scholars that death
figured less prominently in shaping the cultural landscape of the 18th century than it had the early
colonial experience.

4
Today scholars of early American history are pushing beyond the practice of studying death only in the
context of war and epidemic and slavery, frames which in some ways reinforce the notion that
contending with death was something that people encountered in extremis, See, for instance, Erik
Seeman’s Death in the New World. Seeman defines “deathways” as consisting of “deathbed scenes,
corpse preparation, burial practices, funerals, mourning, and commemoration,” to which I would add
sermons, liturgy, hymnody, and popular literature, including children’s literature, novella, battlefield
narratives and obituaries. Erik R. Seeman, Death in the New World: Cross-Cultural Encounters, 1492-
1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 372., p. 1.

3

London, printers living in the English colonies of North America – and, later, in the newly
independent United States of America – produced print material addressing the reality of death
as a routine and ongoing matter of practice. Much of this material encouraged readers to esteem
– in fact, to emulate – characters representing archetypal confrontations with death. Publishers
in 18th-century North America printed primers, poems and stories extolling children who died
happily and went to heaven. They printed accounts of young women who died in pregnancy and
young men who died in battle as cautionary exhortation to readers who were coming of age
themselves. They printed tales of captivity, shipwreck, harrowing travel, and other
circumstances forcing extreme confrontations with death. They printed sermons and other
orations from popular clergy, warning people to make the preparations necessary to confront
their immanent mortality. They printed collections of psalms and books of hymns and “spiritual
songs,” elaborating on themes of life and death as these are treated in the Hebrew and Christian
scriptures. They printed essays and polemical works in which clergy argued over the true
meaning of death, and disputed the best strategies for confronting it. They printed almanacs
containing diverse material purporting to connect the deaths of both saints and sinners to the
movements of the sun and the moon and the stars. They printed “addresses” to rulers, pledging
their lives to causes they believed in, and declaring themselves ready to fight to the death to
demonstrate the sincerity of these pledges. They printed deathbed accounts encouraging readers
to look upon their own dying loved ones as translucent portals opening onto the dimension of the
divine. They printed funeral sermons and other works memorializing their dead. They printed
works of liturgy that addressed matters of death as a matter of course.
Across this vast and diverse array of publications in which early American producers of
print material addressed the subjects of death and dying, they frequently represented martyrdom

4

as the archetype of an ideal death. Printed material narrating or invoking stories of martyrdom
was employed in an enormous range of activities that were widely practiced, in varying
combination, across the entire landscape of 18th century British North America – not just
reading and reading aloud, but also praying, teaching, singing, preaching, worshiping, writing,
gazing, meditating, and so on.
Why, and toward what ends, did English colonists and their descendants living in 18
th
-
century North America produce, distribute and consume so much material imbued with
martyrological themes?

*****

The constellation of ideas we now associate with martyrdom is, in Elizabeth Castelli’s apt
summation, “hardwired into the collective consciousness of Western culture” and “one of the
central legacies of the Christian tradition.”
5
The following will serve as working definitions:
• A martyr is someone who dies willingly for a sacred cause, embracing
confrontation with the agents of death as an opportunity to bear witness;
• Martyrdom is a death deemed exemplary by others, because the dying
demonstrated successfully their willingness to die for a sacred cause;
• Martyrology is a catechetical practice of narrating or invoking stories of
martyrs and martyrdom to inspire and instruct;
• A Martyrology is a cultural representation of martyrs and martyrdom (such as
a collection of written or printed narratives);
• Martyrologists are those who narrate or invoke stories of martyrs and martyrdom to
inspire and instruct.
6

5
Elizabeth A. Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2004), 335., p. 33. For Castelli, martyrdom is, in its essence, a practice involving the
construction of collective memory.
6
These definitions do not depart significantly from the scholars cited here, nor from those found in the
Dictionary of Religious Terms at the Association of Religion Data Archives, according to which a martyr is
“someone who dies, typically prematurely and violently, for a sacred cause.”

5

The early Christian communities looked to Jesus’ suffering and death and resurrection, as
recounted in their sacred scriptures, as the foundation of an ideal death.
7
This does not mean that
the ideal of martyrdom held an exclusive claim on the early Christian imagination, nor that
notions akin to martyrdom were alien to other ancient traditions.
8
As Daniel Boyarin points out,
competing strategies for confronting persecution – “manfully provoking death,” on the one hand,
and evading death “through tricksterism,” on the other – can be found readily within Judaism,
and ancient Jewish debates over the relative merits of these two strategies were not always
resolved in favor of the latter.
9
And in the classical literature of ancient Greece and Rome, noble
deaths were routinely portrayed as a requirement for securing immortal fame.
10
Still, most

(http://www.thearda.com/learningcenter/religiondictionary.asp) I am simply placing more emphasis on
the constellation of definitions that emphasize the discursive dimensions of the practice.
7
Remarking on the description of Jesus as “the faithful witness” in Revelation 1:5, Jolyon Mitchell has
written: “Even though this is rarely translated as 'faithful martyr,' many scholars interpret this to mean
that Jesus is viewed here as the 'proto-' or even 'founding martyr,' who is then described as the 'first-
born from the dead.' From this point of view, Jesus is portrayed [in early Christian writings] as both the
pioneering martyr and the 'first' to overcome death.” Jolyon P. Mitchell, Martyrdom: A very Short
Introduction, Vol. 338 (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 141., p. 23
8
Boyarin sees the martyrs as competing with other ideal types for preeminence in early Christian
communities: "To Clement [of Alexandria, late second early third century] the Christian Gnostic was the
type of perfect Christian. To Tertullian [contemporary founding voice of Latin Christianity in Carthage] it
was the martyr." Daniel Boyarin and Moshe Lazar, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of
Christianity and Judaism (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1999), 247., p. 61
9
Ibid., p. 52. The most direct Jewish precedent for what we think of as the Christian notion of
martyrdom is found in the books of the Maccabees. Except in that he dies an old man, Eleazar’s dying
testimony is paradigmatic of what would become the normative standard of the martyr’s witness:
“"Even though for the moment I avoid execution by man, I can never, living or dead, elude the grasp of
the Almighty. Therefore if I am man enough to quit this life here and now I shall prove myself worthy of
my old age, and I shall have left the young a noble example of how to make a good death, eagerly and
generously, for the venerable and holy laws." (1 Maccabees 6:26)
10
Candida R. Moss, Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions (New
Haven Conn.: Yale University Press, 2012), 256., p. 26. Delehaye lists as exemplary of this tradition the
noble deaths of “Socrates, Anaxarque, Paetus Thrasea, Helvidius Priscus, Rubellius Plautas and Seneca.”
Hippolyte Delehaye 1859-1941, Les Passions Des Martyrs Et Les Genres Littéraires, 2e, revue et corrigée.
ed., Vol. no. 13B (Bruxelles: Soc. des Bollandistes, 1966)., pp. 114ff

6

scholars today adhere to the longstanding consensus that it was during the first centuries of the
Christian era that the Greek word martyrios (“witness”) came to be distinctly, indeed
inextricably, linked to the ideal of proving willing to die for one’s faith.
11

The French Jesuit Hipollite Delehaye was the first modern scholar to substantiate this
case. In his pioneering Les Passions des Martyrs et les Genres Litteraires, first published in
1921, Delehaye described the second and third centuries of the Christian era as an “epoch of
persecutions [that] witnessed the birth and development of a new branch of Christian literature,
having as its object the process and the death of the martyrs. The form became fixed little by
little, without all at once attaining a single profile."
12
Recent generations of scholars have

11
Castelli, Moss, Boyarin – the three scholars of martyrdom mentioned above – all share the view that
what we think of as martyrdom emerged as a distinctively Christian expression from within the
syncretistic cultural context of the ancient Mediterranean. Boyarin sees rabbinic Judaism and early
Christianity as “conversations” and argues that until the “parting of the ways” in the fourth century,
Jews and Christians were “not just confronting each other … [but] also listening to each other and
learning, indeed, sharing traditions.” Boyarin and Lazar, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of
Christianity and Judaism, 247., pp. 16-17. Castelli argues that Christians “positioned the historical
experience of persecution almost immediately within a framework of meaning that drew upon broader
metanarratives about temporality, suffering and sacrifice, and identity.” Castelli, Martyrdom and
Memory: Early Christian Culture Making, 335., p.25

And Moss emphasizes that in the first centuries of
the common era, “there were diverse theologies and practices of martyrdom, ideologies nurtured by
various intellectual, scriptural and cultural traditions." She concludes that when “Christian martyrs are
connected to a lineage of pre-Christian heroes, the similarities become increasingly blurred. A history of
martyrdom becomes a history of ideas, and the definition of martyrdom starts to lack definition." Moss,
Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 256., pp. 166, 5.
12
Delehaye, Les Passions Des Martyrs Et Les Genres Littéraires, pp. 109ff. For Delehaye this literary form
represented an improvisation of ancient Hellenistic literary forms of the panegyric (Greek) or encomium
(Latin). In these forms when one party to a confrontation threatens another with death, the threatened
is expected to respond courageously and in a way acknowledging both the significance of the moment
and the sense of destiny surrounding it. Delehaye cites the first-century example of the Stoic
philosopher and statesman Helvidius Priscus as emblematic of the immediate precursors to the new
literary genre of Christian martyrology: When the Emperor Ibid.(Delehaye 1966)Vespasien threatened
him with death, Helvidius Priscus responded: "When did I tell you I was immortal? You play your role
and I will play mine. Your role is to cause my death, mine is to die without trembling." According to
Delehaye, the literary accounts of the early Christian martyrs improvised on existing forms like these and
combined them with literary tropes of opposition in the face of persecution. The Christian accounts of
martyrdom, according to Delehaye, referred routinely to two paradigms: one is an “athlete,” who
surpasses all others to be “crowned” as if by the judges of the Olympic games; another is the “warrior”

7

expanded Delehaye’s literary framework by emphasizing dimensions of performativity and
practice. These scholars share several foundational views. Performances of martyrdom are
inherently “public” in nature – “even more than tragedy,” Daniel Boyarin has written, acts of
martyrdom are “deaths that are seen … a practice that takes place within the public and,
therefore, shared space.”
13
These acts are also intrinsically oppositional – every martyr requires
an agent of death (an enemy, an executioner, a tyrant) to fulfill his destiny.
14
While they can be
undertaken by women, they are most commonly understood to represent the fulfillment of
idealized expectations of masculinity.
15
And methods of transmitting or reporting them are
inherently “discursive”– every martyrdom, in Mitchell’s shorthand, is “both a death and a story
about a death.”
16

whose “tent is his tomb, whose armor is justice, whose shield is the faith; he wears the helmet of
salvation, the boots of the gospel and the sword of the spirit.” “… sa tene est son tombeau, sa cuirasse
le justice, son bouclier la foi; il porte le casque du salut, les cnemides de l’evangile, le glave de l’esprit.”
Ibid., pp. 153-154.
13
Boyarin and Lazar, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, 247., p. 21.
14
Moss, Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 256., pp. 39ff. She
writes: "Death comes to all, but the art of dying was a test of character. In the act of dying, identities
were exposed, values and virtues revealed, and claims to truth laid bare. A willingness to die proved the
purity of one's intentions and served as a guarantor of the veracity of one's claims."
15
Again, Moss: "The good death also provided an opportunity to prove, decisively, one's worth and
manliness. … This association of courage, virtue, death, and masculinity meant that the notion of dying
well was itself gendered. To die a good death, in or out of battle, entailed dying with self-control. In
other words, it meant taking it like a man." Ibid., pp. 28-29.
16 Alice Dailey’s phrasing – “Martyrdom is not a death, but a story about a death” – is true of all deaths
to which an audience attaches special meaning and significance. Alice Dailey, The English Martyr from
Reformation to Revolution (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012), 332., p. 332. Moss
considers martyrdom “a set of discursive practices that shaped early Christian identities, mediated
ecclesiastical and dogmatic claims, and provided meaning to the experience described by early
Christians as persecution, and in doing so produced a new economy of action.” For Moss the essential
question is not “what really happened,” but rather “how particular ways of construing the past enable
later communities to constitute and sustain themselves” and how communities “make sense of their
own present through recourse to constructed narratives of their past.” Moss, Ancient Christian
Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 256., pp. 17, 5, 10. Castelli, meanwhile,
describes the essence of this practice as “the production of Christian collective memory” and “the

8

The legends of their deaths passed down across generations in literary, dramatic or
liturgical forms, early Christian martyrs were widely seen by succeeding generations of the
faithful as the conquerors of death, and they came to function as go-betweens between the living
and God. As Peter Brown has observed, early Christians attributed a unique power to their
martyrs, a power that exceeded that of the gods and heroes of the Hellenistic pantheon:
… the martyrs, precisely because they had died as human beings, enjoyed close
intimacy with God. Their intimacy with God was the sine qua non of their ability
to intercede for and, so, to protect their fellow mortals. The martyr was the 'friend
of God.' He was an intercessor in a way which the hero could never have been.
17

This attribution to the martyrs of real power – or, better, the experience of the martyrs as
possessing real power – remained central to the identities and self-understandings of Christians
across the vast expanse of the Roman Catholic tradition. Rather than thinking of them as
wielding influence in “a merely 'symbolic' realm,” Brad S. Gregory has argued, early modern
Christians thought of their favorite martyrs’ deaths as:
… divinely revealed realities, and as such more real than the fleeting, temporal
aspects of their lives. To call the spiritual the 'symbolic', and then to contrast it to
the 'real' or the 'material.' far from helping us understand the martyrs, not only
distorts but essentially inverts their whole way of seeing things.
18

broader Christian project of producing a useable story – the project of mythmaking.” In her view the
Eucharist – “a ritual restaging of a purported historical event” – is central since it is "Through retelling -
whether narrative, performative, representational, even liturgical – [that] memory accrues meaning
through discursive and embodied repetition." Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture
Making, 335., pp. 25, 29. I am reminded of the musicologist Bruno Nettl’s struggle to identify what
constitutes a musical piece for the purpose of analysis: "… let's agree that in European folk
music, the piece is something that is created once, plus all the different ways in which it is performed.”
Bruno Nettl 1930, The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-One Issues and Concepts, New ed. (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 2005)., p. 114
17
Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Enlarg ed. (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 2015)., pp. 5-6. Brown elaborates: "We should not underestimate the gusto
with which the Christian communities of the western Mediterranean turned the celebration of the
memory of the martyrs into a reassuring scenario by which unambiguously good power, associated with
the amnesty of God and the praesentia of the martyr, overcame the ever-lurking presence of evil
power." Ibid., pp. 79ff
18
Brad S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe, Vol. 134

9

The durability, adaptability and mutability of this distinctly Christian tradition derived not just
from the practices of martyrdom themselves, but from the unique ways that these practices were
celebrated and promulgated with catechetical intent – that is, martyrology.
Rightful claim to this ancient tradition was hotly contested across the entire landscape of
early modern Europe, as the invention and spread of the printing press revolutionized practices
of martyrology. Noting that “doctrines were tightly linked to deaths,” Gregory has summed up
this perpetual contestation succinctly, writing: “Catholics, Anabaptists and Protestants celebrated
their respective heroes, creating mutually exclusive martyrological traditions that became woven
into their collective identities."
19
The ways adherents of these traditions engaged in what I am
calling the “print practice of martyrology” were not as distinctive as the leading clergy of each
would have wanted to admit. Protestants took to this practice with distinct fervor, but Catholics
did not leave this new field of ideological battle uncontested. As Dominic Janes and Alex Houen
have documented, Catholic Europe, too, was “awash in martyrological literature."
20
Protestant
practices of engaging with their printed martyrologies, meanwhile, were shaped not just by the
Biblical narrative, but remained powerfully influenced by Catholic devotional practices of
hagiography.
21
As Catholics had for centuries venerated the shrines and relics of their saints and

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), 528., p. 10.
19
Ibid., p. xx.
20
Dominic Janes and Alex Houen, Martyrdom and Terrorism: Pre-Modern to Contemporary Perspectives
(New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014)., p. 63. Janes and Houen also note that early modern
accounts of martyrdom are characterized by a common tone: "Protestant and Catholic characterizations
of martyrs frequently overlapped. Most sixteenth- and seventeenth-century martyrologists represented
martyrs as fairly passive (with allowance for occasional brief jeremiads) and patient in suffering; they
neither shunned nor sought death; they typically claimed to act according to their consciences and in
imitation of and in concert with Christian tradition.”
21
A “saint” is defined by ARDA as “a holy person who is venerated in life and after death.” Like the term
“martyrology,” the term “hagiography” can be understood as a specific written account of a saint or

10

martyrs as places where the presence of God was mysteriously palpable, so Protestants turned to
representations in print of noble deaths as sources of affective inspiration and divine revelation.

22

By the middle of the 16
th
century, the contentious ecclesial life of English-speaking
peoples was widely disputed in martyrological terms, with different traditions staking claim to
what Candida Moss has called the “connection between doctrinal correctness, divine
authentication, and martyrdom.”
23
With advances in print technology, the production,
distribution and use of print material with martyrological content became a near-universal
practice among English-speaking peoples. By the time a brutal decade of English Civil War
came to an end in 1651, all sides to the conflict declared themselves the rightful inheritors of
this legacy, including the followers of the vanquished King Charles I, who began to
memorialize their fallen hero as "King Charles the Martyr” after his execution in 1649.
Jolyon Mitchell has identified at least 50 works chronicling the persecution of Catholics

collection of saints, and the more general practice of venerating the saints in print.
22
For an excellent and more far-reaching discussion of Catholic-Protestant continuities in the early
modern era, see Cameron on Enchanted Europe. Among his central conclusions: "The evidence of
continuing Protestant belief in a meaningful cosmos is copious and indisputable." Euan Cameron,
Enchanted Europe: Superstition, Reason, and Religion 1250-1750 (New York: Oxford Univiversity Press,
2010), 473., p. 12.
23
As Candida Moss has observed, this connection is made across an extraordinary range of religious
traditions – “by Catholics, Anabaptists, Latter-day Saints, and Mennonites, to say nothing of Muslims,
Jews, Hindus, and Sikhs. Suffering is the process by which moral and doctrinal superiority can be
established.” Moss, Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 256., p.
163. Continental claims to have discovered the true martyrs included print publications by Jean Crespin,
the Genevan Calvinist printer whose French martyrology was published in various forms at least thirty-
seven times between 1554 and 1663, and Adriane van Haemsted’s History of the Death of the Devout
Martyrs, which was published in Dutch twenty-three times from 1590through 1671. Gregory, Salvation
at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe, 528., p. 3.

11

published in English between 1550 and 1650.
24
The strains of English martyrology that would
figure most powerfully in 18
th
-century American print production, however, were born from
three distinct, yet interrelated, movements in early modern England: the first, a movement of
radical Protestant resistance to the rule of Catholic monarchs during the periods of the English
civil wars; the second, an Anglican tradition that borrowed liberally from traditional Catholic
martyrology even as the Church of England distanced itself from Rome; and, the third, a multi-
faceted movement born from a lasting and pervasive culture of dissent within the Church of
England itself.
As part of transatlantic trade networks that included the prolific distribution of print
material, these several discourses of martyrdom were widely shared and contested across the
full range of English colonial movements in North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. In The Martyr’s Mirror, Adrian Weimer has demonstrated that the ideal-type of the
martyr, and the literary practices of martyrology, were foundational to the identify of
Anglicans, Separatists, Baptists and Quakers in early colonial New England. The leaders of
each of these ecclesial movements, Weimer argues, staked their claim to “the heritage of the
martyrs” as a way of attempting “to legitimize their status as the true church and their identity
as a pure, persecuted community.”
25
In the eighteenth century, others would join this crowded
field of contestation, including Baptists, German Moravians, proto-Methodist itinerants and
Enlightenment-minded Deists. Across cultures and generations, people living in England’s
North American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries believed that at the time

24
Mitchell, Martyrdom: A very Short Introduction, 141., 77ff. English Catholic literature heralded “the
likes of Bishop John Fisher (1469 - 1535), Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) and the Jesuit Edmund Campion
(1540-1581) … as genuine martyrs of the 'true' church."
25
Adrian Chastain Weimer, Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England (Oxford ;
New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 218., p. 49.

12

of their deaths all human beings would face a momentous transition from this life to another.
They also shared the belief that through certain kinds of deaths – noble deaths, deaths self-
sacrificed for a sacred cause, the deaths of martyrs – enormous spiritual power could be set
loose in the world.
As access to printing press technologies spread across the first decades of the eighteenth
century, authors and publishers in British North America expanded their share of the book-
market still principally sourced by importation from London. As part of this expansion, they
produced and distributed print material addressing matters related to human mortality as a
routine and ongoing matter of practice. The ideal type of the martyr can be found scattered
throughout this entire corpus of print material – and it must be judged pervasively present if it is
allowed that Christians from every tradition considered Jesus as the paradigmatic case, the
martyr of martyrs. The scriptural accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection served as the de facto
template for accounts of deaths of every imaginable kind. Extreme encounters with death – such
as those experienced in battle, shipwreck, plague, pregnancy and execution – were commonly
cast in martyrological terms, perceived to conjure the death of Christ himself, and portrayed as
having repercussions not just on a personal and familial, but on a social and even cosmic scale.
Even deaths that might otherwise be characterized as “ordinary” were commonly attributed
importance in these other dimensions, depending on the conduct of the dying and the
dispositions of those who witnessed the death.
To illustrate how English-speakers in the eighteenth century could consider any death,
even ordinary deaths, as reflective of the ideal-type of martyrdom, consider the appeal put forth
by Henry Grove, a prolific dissenting minister from the city of Taunton in southwest England, in
A discourse concerning the nature and design of the Lord's-Supper. The date of its first

13

publication is not known, but its second edition was published in 1738, the year of Grove’s
death, and its London publishers (R. Ford and R. Hett) appended to Grove’s discourse his own
“Devotional Exercises relating to the Lord’s Supper.” In the same year a third edition was
published in Dublin (for J. Smith and A. Bradley), an early indicator of its appeal across the
extended communications network that tied together what Carla Pestana has called a “Protestant
Empire.”
26
In this third edition – also printed in London, but by John Wilson in the year 1741 –
the contents of Grove’s original began to be entitled as consisting of two parts: the original
“DISCOURSE Concerning the Nature and Design” of the sacrament and now also a
“DISCOURSE on the Obligations to communicate, and an ANSWER to the usual pleas for
neglecting it.” The resultant three-part structure – discourse concerning nature and design;
discourse concerning obligations to communicate; devotional exercises – would be replicated in
future editions, including the eighth edition, which became the first to be printed in North
America when it was printed in Boston in 1766 by an unidentified publisher. (See Figure P.1) In
the ensuing fifty years Grove’s Discourse was printed at least seven times in the Massachusetts
towns of Salem, Andover and Dedham, as well as in New York and Dover, New Hampshire.
Grove’s Discourse exemplifies the multi-valence of many 18
th
-century prints. Is it an
“essay,” an ecclesiastically-minded argument similar in kind to the philosophical treatises on
matters of politics and government with which students of the American Revolution are so
familiar? Or can it be rightly classified as “catechetical,” since Grove’s clear intent is to instruct

26
Pestana offers the most comprehensive accounting to date of the diverse international networks that
gave shape to the “British Atlantic World.” Carla Gardina Pestana, Protestant Empire: Religion and the
Making of the British Atlantic World (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 302. Engel’s
work focuses on how what was an international movement at the time of the first Great Awakening
became fractured and leaders of different factions were established. Katherine Carté Engel and others,
"Empires of God: Religious Encounters in the Early Modern Atlantic," Church History 81, no. 2 (Jun 2012,
2012): 441-443, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1016165272?accountid=14749.

14

the faithful both in the importance of the Christian sacrament and in the proper modes of
participating in it? Or does it qualify as “liturgical,” since so much of the material, both the
original and appended, includes direct addresses to God or Jesus, intended to be prayed by
individual readers – either silently or “mouthed” while reading – and/or to be read aloud in
community? The answer to all these questions is clearly “yes.”

15

FIGURE I.1
Henry Grove, A Discourse Concerning the Nature of the Lord’s Supper
(Boston, 1766)
The dissenting clergyman Henry Grove wandered freely between theoretical and polemical
argumentation, catechetical admonition and devotional excursus throughout his “discourse.”

Grove, Henry. A Discourse Concerning the Nature of the Lord’s Supper. Boston: 1766.

16

Further complicating any attempt at categorizing works like these is the fact that in the
eighteenth century English-speaking clergy like Grove routinely wrote across the boundaries of
literary convention that modern authors would be expected to observe. The orderliness of the
title page might lead a modern reader to suspect that Grove’s Discourse contained three very
clearly demarcated sections: a polemical work against competing understandings of the
sacrament; catechetical material about the importance of participating in the religious observance
of it; and then, finally, devotional material aimed at preparing readers for participation in it. In
fact, in each of the three sections Grove wandered freely between theoretical and polemical
argumentation, catechetical admonition and devotional excursuses.
In the very midst of his opening argument about the proper theological consideration of the
Lord’s Supper, for instance, Grove inserted an extended prayer of acclamation, quoted but
without attribution and spanning three pages. This prayer began:
O Jesus, I now see what I have to do when I shew forth thy death in thy Supper! I
am to contemplate the heavenly virtues and graces that then shone forth in thee …
and to excite and oblige myself to imitate them ...
27

This language of “shewing forth” the death of Christ would recur again and again (by my count
at least a dozen times) in Grove’s Discourse, as its eighth edition was printed in Boston in 1766.
And Grove deployed the phrase in different modes – argumentation, instruction, devotion. In the
catechetical discourse about the “obligations to communicate,” for instance, he posed a series of
rhetorical questions to his readers:
Am I called to shew forth the death of Christ? And am I in a state of disposition
of mind for this sacred action? Have I clean hands and a pure heart? Am I under
no such disorders of body or mind, as would incapacitate me from attending upon
this Ordinance without distraction, and receiving advantage by it? Why then

27
Grove, pp. 25-26

17

should I banish myself from it?
28

And included in the section on “devotional exercises” are prayers like this:
And, O may the consideration of thy readiness to pardon fill me with an ingenious
hatred and detestation of all sin; and my abhorrence of sin, and care to avoid it,
and all the occasions of, and temptations to it for the future, be a satisfying proof
that all my sins are forgiven me, through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ
thy Son, whose death I have been shewing forth in his Supper!
29

For Grove, this notion of “shewing forth the death of Christ” is the very essence of the matter.
As emphasized in his title, Grove considered the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper most properly
understood “as a memorial of the death of Christ.” On the one hand, this framing of the matter
represented a polemical rebuke of Catholic doctrine, which professed there to be a “real
presence” of Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament. On the other hand, Grove’s intent was
more practical: by participating properly in the memorial feast of the Lord’s Supper, he
anticipated that the faithful would become more like Christ in their own lives and in their own
anticipated deaths.
In each of the three sections included in this single volume, then, Grove attempted to
instruct and inspire his readers to “shew forth” in their own living and dying the kind of death
they found exemplified in Christ. For Grove, this kind of death was, unequivocally, the death of
a martyr:
We may consider the death of Christ as that of a Martyr, or Witness; a Martyr, to
the truth of his own doctrine, the first, and the noblest. His death was entirely
voluntary, no man, saith he, taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself
… he that dares say the same in the face of the most threatening dangers … and
chooses rather to die for the truth, than to deny and forsake it; this all will allow to
be a real Martyr; and such a Martyr was Jesus Christ.
30

28
Grove, p. 70
29
Grove, p. 176
30
Grove, pp. 17-18

18

Grove’s appeal was that the faithful should align themselves with an ancient tradition of
martyrdom, reaching back to the very origins of the Christian movement. By conforming their
lives and deaths to that of Christ, he argued, his readers could become active participants
themselves in this tradition. Once again, in yet another extended excursus mixing catechetical
instruction and devotional acclamation, Grove asked his readers, “Was it usual in the primitive
church, when they commemorated the deaths of the Martyrs, to recite their laudable actions, and
worthy qualities?” He then answered the question, writing, “I will be thankful for their
examples, and those of all other good men, and be followers of them as far forth as they were so
of my Saviour, but no further.” He then broke immediately into prayer, in effect asking his
readers to join him:
Thy example, O most holy Jesus, is that which I intend to have continually before
me; and while I behold thy body hanging on the Cross, I will endeavour to copy
and describe the amiable virtues of thy soul upon my own! My aim shall be to be
crucified to the world by thy Cross and to have the world crucified to me; to be
zealously affected in that which is good, and meekly patient under affliction and
trouble; to be actuated by the same spirit, and to live and die like thee.
31

Appeals, incitements and encouragements like these – “to be actuated by the same spirit” as
Jesus and other Christian martyrs, to “copy their amiable virtues,” and “to live and die like” them
– are the common thread binding together the disparate works that were the fruit of the print
practice of martyrology.

****

. The production, distribution and use of printed material imbued with martyrological
themes was a catechetical practice aimed at instructing and informing right conduct in

31
Grove, pp. 25-26

19

individuals, and maintaining right order in communities, in the face of the prospect of death. All
who participated in the production, distribution and use of this kind of print material – authors,
printers, people involved in the sale and distribution of printed material, and consumers – were
engaged in a practice that can be rightly called the “print practice of martyrology.”
As suggested by this shorthand, the three elements of this practice were distinctive,
important and mutually reinforcing. First, print materials themselves were widely understood to
be instruments of divine power. As the prime mover of the tradition, John Foxe, put it in a
section of his landmark martyrology, Acts and Monuments: “… as Printing of Books ministered
matter of Reading, so Reading brought Learning, Learning showed Light; by the brightness
whereof blind Ignorance was Suppress'd, Error Detected, and finally God's Glory with Truth of
his Word Advanced. And thus much for the worthy Commendation of Printing."
32

Second, this practice involved the collaboration of many people playing distinct, if often
multiple, roles – authors, publishers/printers, booksellers and distributors, and consumers – who
appropriated and adapted this practice to their own circumstances. On the “consumer” end of
this collaboration, print material was used in many ways. When children in the eighteenth
century heard bedtime stories of other little children who died happy and went to heaven; when
youth and young adults read the latest tale of captivity; when written accounts were shared of a
young woman who died in pregnancy or a young man who died in battle; when people read a
sermon from their favorite preacher, or sang their way through a hymn tracing the story of Jesus’
birth, life, death and resurrection; when the devout surrounded the deathbeds of their loved ones
to read the Bible and looked upon the dying as translucent portals opening onto the dimension of

32
THE BENEFIT AND INVENTION OF PRINTING by John Fox, that Famous Martyrologist. Extracted out of
his Acts and Monuments, Vol. 1 pag. 803,804, Edit. 9. Anno 1684, pp. 803-804.

20

the divine – in all these ways and more, people in 18
th
-century America engaged continually
with print material as a means of engaging age-old discourses about death and to as a means of
both offering and seeking counsel in how the faithful should prepare to die.
33

Third, the ideal-type of martyrdom – especially when Jesus Christ is rightly
acknowledged as the archetype of the form – is highlighted persistently and pervasively in the
vast and diverse corpus of North American print publication that survives from the eighteenth
century. Landmark catechetical materials from diverse religious traditions – re-issued
continually throughout the period, not to mention handed down from generation to generation –
were shot through with martyrological content.
34
Newspapers, almanacs and other more
ephemeral forms of print publication treated the subject routinely, as a matter of course. The
enduring power of the martyr as an archetype when confronted with the prospect of death can be
found in virtually every type of print material produced by English-speakers in the era.
In this dissertation, I will consider the print practice of martyrology in 18
th
-century
British North America through the lens of four well-known cultural artefacts from the
American Revolution – Patrick Henry’s “liberty or death” speech, Paul Revere’s engraving of

33
Many historians of religion consider talk of martyrdom as having functioned in colonial America as a
simple substitute for talk of suffering and, as a corollary, dismiss narrative traditions of martyrology as
mere exercises in rhetorical pleading. (My thanks to Susan Juster for this helpful articulation, presented
in a Dissertation Workshop at the American Origins Seminar of the USC-Huntington Early Modern
Studies Institute, March 2015.) Rather than characterizing early Americans who embraced
martyrological discourse as engaged in flights of rhetorical fancy, however, I believe we do better to
understand them as engaged in devotional practices that were foundational and formative to their
identities as religious people. This belief is central to my proposed project: we should treat
engagements with martyrological discourse in the early modern English world with the same
seriousness we treat other forms of indigenous religious practice. Rather than think of early Americans
as somehow merely “playing the martyr,” we will do better to conceive of them as participating actively
in a formative religious practice as they wrote themselves, read themselves, prayed, preached, sang
and, yes, imagined themselves into martyrological ways of orienting to the world.
34
Consider as salient examples in this regard The New England Primer, the captivity narratives, the
hymnals of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley.

21

the Boston Massacre, John Dickinson’s Liberty Song, and the legend that grew up around the
execution of Nathan Hale. Each of these familiar expressions of revolutionary fervor can be
seen to reflect distinctive and well-established, martyrological traditions in early American
print culture.
35
My focus will not be on the American Revolution, per se, but rather on the
print pedigree of these familiar cultural expressions, and the distinctive, yet intertwining,
streams of print production that account for them.
Patrick Henry’s legendary “liberty or death” speech – delivered on March 23, 1775
before the Second Virginia Convention – was born most immediately from the political
grievances the American colonies held against their mother country, England. But the roots of
Henry’s famous oration are to be found in disputed turf at the margins of Virginia’s Anglican
establishment in the middle decades of the eighteenth century. A longstanding tradition of
religious dissent in Virginia gave birth eventually to ecclesial movements that separated
formally from the Church of England. The Presbyterian Samuel Davies – renowned early in
his career for preaching and teaching to mixed-race gatherings in and around Virginia’s
Hanover County, and later for becoming the President of the College of New Jersey – left a
trail of print material that makes clear his commitment to provoking among his followers
primordial confrontations with the power of death. Chapter One, “Give me Liberty or Give me
Death,” will connect Henry’s speech, including its iconic conclusion, to this fertile liturgical
and oratorical environment, and to Davies’ widely distributed battle cry sermons of the period.
Three men were killed onsite – and two more were mortally wounded – during the

35
In a subsequent work, I intend to demonstrate that leading figures in the early American republic
embraced this inheritance with renewed vigor in their project of forging a national identity, that this
legacy continued to figure prominently in the 19th century American print production, and that it
figured prominently also in the ideological struggle for national unity that accompanied the U.S. Civil
War. These arguments, however lie beyond the scope of this dissertation.

22

conflict that erupted between British troops and residents of Boston on March 5, 1770. Within
weeks, accounts of the incident were circulating throughout the colonies, and in American lore
the “Boston Masacre” would become more commonly cited than any other as marking the onset
of revolutionary resistance. The most widely circulated print accounts of the event – Paul
Revere’s famous engraving, “The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated on King Street,” and the
memorial addresses delivered on each anniversary of the event – reflected well-established
norms for representing instances of martyrdom in Puritan New England. Chapter Two, “The
Bloody Massacre,” will trace the print pedigree of Revere’s to catechetical print materials like
The New England Primer, a staple of print production for generations of Boston printers, and the
print pedigree of John Hancock’s 1774 memorial address to the memorial sermons delivered be
generations of Boston preachers.
The Pennsylvanian John Dickinson is often described as “the Penman of the Revolution,”
for his authorship of familiar documents foundational to the American Revolution – from the
popular Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, published in 1768, to the Articles of
Confederation, approved by the Continental Congress in 1777. But the most widely circulated
fruit of Dickinson’s pen was the text to the revolutionary anthem, Liberty Song. Authored in
1768, the song was widely embraced as a challenge to British authority, and one of its lines –
“united we stand, divided we fall” – became a watchword of the Revolution. Popular songs like
the Liberty Song, replete with martyrological themes, paralleled the wide print circulation of
metered psalms, hymns and “spiritual songs,” especially those produced by the English lyricist,
Isaac Watts. The lyrics of “Dr. Watts” cut across religious and cultural fault-lines of every kind
in 18
th
-century Philadelphia, inspiring styles of singing and practices of argumentation in verse
that were embraced not just by dissenting Anglicans, but by Quakers like Dickinson and by the

23

city’s free black residents, too. Chapter Three, “United We Stand,” will trace the roots of
Dickinson’s Liberty Song to this evolving tradition of lyrical discourse.
The legend of Nathan Hale’s bravura performance before his execution by the British on
September 22, 1776, is the subject of Chapter Four, “One Life to Give.” The words attributed to
Hale – “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country” – were clearly adapted from a
popular tragedy, Joseph Addison’s Cato, and were revived in retrospective renderings of the
American Revolution precisely because they were emblematic of an 18
th
century masculinity that
took as its highest calling a readiness to die for a noble cause. While little detailed evidence
survives from Hale’s upbringing, a great deal can be known about it both because his pastor and
tutor, Samuel Huntington, left a substantial trail of print publication, and also because the kind of
curriculum and instruction in which Hale was inculcated at Yale College is well-known. The
vision of masculine virtue associated with Hale in the nineteenth century reflects longstanding
traditions of martyrology in which educated young men like Hale were immersed in
revolutionary America and in the early republican era of the United States.
These icons of the American Revolution – Henry’s speech, Revere’s imprint, Dickinson’s
song, and the legend of Nathan Hale – take on entirely new dimension when cast in the light of
the print practice of martyrology in 18
th
-century British North America. Consideration of this
practice does more than hearken back to an earlier, perhaps passé, “turn” in the study of early
American history – call it “the history of the book.” Thanks to the work of David Hall and many
others, this scholarly conversation has evolved to consider printed material as much more than an
instrument for the conveyance of information through networks of communication. More and
more, scholars have been examining carefully the different ways that people in the early modern

24

era engaged with printed texts.
36
This way of considering printed material encourages
consideration of the extraordinary variety of ways that English colonists in North America
engaged with specific kinds of texts – including, as is the focus of this study, texts imbued with
martyrological themes. As they embraced and employed print material in ways that were handed
down to them by their ancestors, English-speakers living in 18th-century British North America
naturally adapted these practices to their own circumstances. In so doing they created a
distinctively American print practice of martyrology … and they left a paper trail allowing us to
understand it.
A careful study of the production, distribution and many-dimensioned use of
martyrological print material in 18th-century North America holds the promise of providing a
corrective to several scholarly conventions. I will address these conventions in greater detail in

36
In his groundbreaking 1989 Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment, Hall searched “beyond the text” to
examine not just the beliefs, as these could be found articulate in printed works, but also the
experiences and practices of early New Englanders. In doing so he found evidence of a world in which
people were indeed influenced by questions of doctrine and the transatlantic book trade, but also by
folk wisdom and the occult, by preoccupation with the proper observance of the Christian sacraments
and by the rhythms of life rooted in rituals like fast days, confessions, and executions. David D. Hall,
Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England (New York: Knopf,
1989), 316. Hall’s history of publication tracks this evolution, from Worlds of Wonder to two edited
volumes – the 1996 Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the book and the 1997 Lived Religion in
America: Toward a History of Practice – to his own 2010 Lived Religion. David D. Hall, Cultures of Print:
Essays in the History of the Book (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), 195., David D. Hall,
Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997),
254., David Hall, Lived Religion, 2010), 1282-1289. What Hall and many scholars call “lived religion,” still
others call “popular religion,” expressions of which Peter Williams has characterized as "usually 1) found
outside formal church structures, 2) transmitted outside the established channels of religious instruction
and communication employed by these structures, and 3) preoccupied with concrete manifestations of
the supernatural in the midst of the secular world." Williams, Popular Religion in America, quoted in
Stephen Marini, "Hymnody as History: Early Evangelical Hymns and the Recovery of American Popular
Religion," Church History 71, no. 2 (2002): 273-306,
http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.usc.edu/stable/4146468., p. 302. Commenting on Hall’s “close anlaysis
of ‘meaning’ and … attention to ambivalence and contradiction,” Marini elaborates: "In such quotidian
contexts religious practice becomes less systematized and more eclectic, attaining coherence defined by
the practitioners themselves, rather than by ecclesiastical authority."

25

the body of this dissertation, and so will simply enumerate them here: first, that across the
eighteenth century contending with death became less and less an animating force in the lives
of English colonists and their descendants living in North America; second, that across the
eighteenth century talk of martyrdom in British North America became a mere metaphorical
substitute for the more general subject of human suffering; third, that Anglo-American attitudes
toward death and dying in the eighteenth century underwent a simple transformation from
“17
th
-Century Puritanism” to “19
th
-Century Romanticism”; and, finally, that in telling the story
of the eighteenth century in British North America, matters of religion can be quarantined from
consideration of other, more presumably “secular,” dimensions of life.
This last convention is a principal target of my assault. The distinction between “sacred”
and “secular” comes naturally to most modern Americans, especially those educated in
university settings, where academic disciplines have been built up around it. Generations of
historians trained to think in these terms found it right and natural to pose questions about “the
relationship between religion and …” other, presumably more secular, forms of human activity –
politics, revolution, war, the marketplace, race, class, gender and so on.
37
This distinction is not
indigenous to English-speakers in 18
th
-century British North America, however. By the early
nineteenth century, this distinction may have been coming into view for some, but the
correspondence and published writings of even the most enlightened revolutionaries – think of
the now-legendary correspondence between Jefferson and Adams – are shot-through with
expressions that betray a different way of thinking altogether.
38

37
See, for example: Edmund Sears Morgan, The Puritan Family; Religion & Domestic Relations in
Seventeenth-Century New England, New , rev a enl ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 196., Alan
Heimert, Religion and the American Mind (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), 668.
38
So John Adams could write to his wife, Abigail, just a few days after signing the Declaration of
Independence in July of that same year: "I am well aware of the toll and blood and treasure it will cost

26

This distinctively 18
th
-century American way of thinking is not unfamiliar to more recent
generations of historians. This year, for instance, historians will gather to celebrate the 50
th

anniversary of one the most important and lasting contributions to this conversation, Bernard
Bailyn's The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. In this landmark 1967 work,
Bailyn described the American Revolution as "above all else an ideological, constitutional,
political struggle" and traced the roots of this struggle to enlightenment philosophy, religious
revivalism and – most importantly, in his view – a “peculiar strain of anti-authoritarianism bred
in the upheaval of the English Civil War.”
39
More recently, in his 2005 The Glorious Cause,
Robert Middlekauf similarly recognized that the revolutionaries were at once committed to
political ideals of liberty and representative government, and simultaneously “marked by the
moral dispositions of a passionate Protestantism.” Of this latter inheritance, Middlekauf wrote:
They could not escape this culture; nor did they try. They were imbued with an
American moralism that colored all their perceptions of politics … [they] believed
that they had been selected by Providence to do great deeds. They had been
chosen, and their victory in the war and the achievement of independence
demonstrated the worth of their calling.

Attempting to reconcile what to modern minds appear contradictory impulses, Bailyn declared

us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the
rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of
deliverance."

And so Thomas Jefferson, looking back on the American and French Revolutions from his
position as the U.S. Ambassador to France could write in 1799, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

39
Writing against conventional historiography that considered the revolution “primarily a controversy
between social groups,” Bailyn argued that “intellectual developments in the decade before
Independence led to a radical idealization and conceptualization of the previous century and a half of
American experience, and that it was this intimate relationship between Revolutionary thought and the
circumstances of life in eighteenth century America that endowed the Revolution with its peculiar force
and made it so profoundly a transforming event." Ideological Origins of the American Revolution is
widely heralded as having transformed our understanding of the revolutionaries’ unique use of language
like “liberty” and “slavery,” “corruption” and “conspiracy.” Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the
American Revolution (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967), 335., pp. v-x.

27

the revolutions’ ideological cocktail a “surprising mix,” and Middlekauf labeled the
revolutionaries “children of the twice-born.”
40

A better understanding of the print practice of martyrology can help us understand this
discourse more completely. The cultural inheritance that Bailyn called the “strain of anti-
authoritarianism bred in the upheaval of the English Civil War,” and that Middlekauf called “the
moral dispositions of a passionate Protestantism,” is not “peculiar” at all. Print material
surviving from the period shows that a very specific idiom – the idiom of martyrdom – was
fundamental to the identity of English-speaking people in 18
th
-century British North America.
As had generations of their forebears, they authored, produced, and disseminated a bewildering
range of printed material representing archetypal confrontations with death, cast in
martyrological terms They used these materials across the entirety of their lives, and with
specific catechetical intent, training themselves and their children to hold in highest esteem those
who demonstrated their willingness to lay down their lives for a noble cause.

40
Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, Rev a expa ed., Vol. 3
(Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 736., pp. 52, 62.

28

Chapter One

“Give me Liberty or Give Me Death” –
The Martyrological Pedigree of
Patrick Henry’s Speech to Virginia’s Second Revolutionary Convention

On March 23, 1775, on the fourth day of meetings at what would come to be known as
Virginia’s second Revolutionary Convention, things were coming to a head. Having met for the
first time in August, 1774, delegates from across the English colony had returned to the city of
Richmond for a second multi-day gathering, and they had come well-prepared. Edmund
Pendleton, a respected judge from Caroline County, first urged the body to “petition” England’s
King George III. Modeled after a recent petition from the colony of Jamaica, Pendleton’s
proposal defended colonial rights but also renounced armed rebellion. Countering this more
compromising approach, Patrick Henry and a small group of more radical delegates introduced
three resolutions. The first stated simply that “a well-regulated militia, composed of gentlemen
and yeomen, is the natural strength and security of a free government;” the second asserted that
“the establishment of such a militia is, at this time, peculiarly necessary;” and the third
authorized that a Virginia militia be activated to assure that the colony be found in a state of
defense. Taken together, these resolutions came close to a declaration of war, and having
brought them to the floor of the Convention, Henry stood to speak in their support.
41

41
For recent biographies – from which the details of this opening vignette were drawn – see: Henry
Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic (New York: F. Watts, 1986), [7]-529.,
Harlow G. Unger, Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation, 1 Da Capo Press ed.
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2010), 322., Thomas S. Kidd, Patrick Henry: First among Patriots (New
York: Basic Books, 2011), 306.. These biographies, each excellent in their own way, show how readily
modern American scholars can squeeze figures from the revolutionary era into contemporary
frameworks of understanding. Mayer downplays Henry’s religious faith, declaring his “a political
biography because Henry was a political man.” For Unger, Henry is a forerunner of modern American

29

The content of Henry’s famous oration cannot be known with precision – in 1816
William Wirt, Henry’s first biographer, drew on the recollections of witnesses to reconstruct the
speech, and it is this retrospective version that has been handed down to posterity.
42
But how
Henry concluded his speech – with a call to arms and a pledge of devotion – is little disputed.
After making his case, as he had so often before as a trial lawyer in Virginia’s county courts,
Henry worked himself to fever pitch and concluded with words destined to be remembered as the
most celebrated rallying cry of the American War of Independence: “I know not what course
others may take,” he declared, “but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Apart from its iconic conclusion, Patrick Henry’s speech was remembered most
singularly for its repeated allusion to Biblical themes, especially themes drawn from the prophet
Jeremiah. Thomas Kidd, the most recent of Henry’s many biographers, is not the first to remark
on these allusions, but his summation of them is succinct: “Henry warned that British assurances
of benevolent intentions would ‘prove a snare to your feet’ (Jeremiah 18:22). He worried that
Virginians would become like those ‘who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not
(Jeremiah 5:21). And he warned that ‘gentlemen may cry peace, peace – but there is no peace’
(Jeremiah 6:14).” Whether these recollections are accurate in their precise detail, Kidd is right to
conclude of such scriptural allusions: “They are easily missed now, but they would have been
familiar to the audience at the Virginia convention.”
43

If in fact Patrick Henry delivered a jeremiad against the King of England, the other

libertarians. For Kidd, Henry is at root an evangelical Christian.
42
William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Philadelphia: James Webster, 1817),
427, xii., p. xii.
43
Kidd, Patrick Henry: First among Patriots, 306., p. 98. Kidd is among several biographers who lean
toward crediting the received version of Henry’s speech.

30

delegates to the convention would hardly have found it surprising. Ten years earlier, in May,
1765, Henry had made a notorious debut in Virginia’s colonial legislature, the House of
Burgesses, when he moved that the Burgesses refuse to enforce the “Stamp Acts” then recently
enacted by the English Parliament. As was true across the American colonies, many Virginians
had considered outrageous Parliament’s action to tax colonial commerce by requiring that goods-
for-sale and administrative documents be affixed with pre-paid stamps. Echoing sentiments
being widely expressed in several northern colonies, Henry and a group of younger Virginia
burgesses had drafted resolutions asserting that taxation only by representatives of the people
being taxed was “the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom,” and that therefore “the
General Assembly of this Colony have the only and sole exclusive Right and Power to lay Taxes
and Impositions upon the Inhabitants of this Colony.” Virginia’s older Burgesses, however,
were famously loyal to the British Crown, and on that day in May, 1765, they had found Henry’s
brazen challenge to the authority of the King unseemly and his manner of speaking positively
shocking. Though eyewitnesses differed in their precise recollections of this earlier incident,
legend has it that when Henry had reached a fever pitch, he declared, “Caesar had his Brutus,
Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third may profit by their example!” Met with
cries of “Treason! Treason!” from other Burgesses, Henry responded, “If this be treason, let us
make the most of it!”
44
Henry’s speech ten years later before Virginia’s second revolutionary

44
See Edmund S. Morgan, Helen M. Morgan and Institute of Early American History and Culture, The
Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American
History and Culture by the University of North Carolina Press, 1995; 1953), 327., pp. 88ff. In fact, Henry
had launched his career as a lawyer with this same kind of appeal. On December 1, 1763, in his first
case before the Hanover County court, Henry had argued to restrict the pay of the colony’s Anglican
clergy in a famous case that came to be known as the “Parson’s Cause.” Though the entire content of
Henry’s closing argument is not known, Rev. James Maury, the priest representing the cause of the
Anglican priests in the case wrote an account just ten days after the court date, in which he
remembered that Henry made extensive reference to what he called “the original compact between
king and people.” According to Maury, Henry suggested that such a compact had existed between the

31

convention brought to its logical conclusion a case that Henry had been building for over a
decade.
Whatever its precise content, Henry’s speech at the revolutionary convention on March
23, 1775 was remembered by all who recalled it as offering something more than a merely legal
or political argument. Standing before his fellow vestryman in the Richmond chapel, Henry
made clear that he was ideologically predisposed to fight for liberty, but he also declared himself
spiritually resolved to make it a fight unto the death.

*****

Unlike the New England colonies, founded by Puritans and others seeking to distance
themselves from the Crown and Church of England, the Commonwealth of Virginia was
established early in the 17
th
century as the first New World outpost of these twin authorities. In
The Transformation of Virginia, Rhys Isaac summarized the colonial strategy by which the
Church of England attempted to shape Virginia’s public landscape: “the delimitation of parishes,
the building of handsome brick churches, and the maintenance of beneficed clergy, all at public

American colonies and the English Crown and Church, but that the latter parties had violated the terms
of the relationship. He also argued that “a king, by disallowing acts of this salutary nature [the acts, that
is, of the colonial legislature], from being the father of his people, degenerated into a tyrant, and forfeits
all right to his subjects’ obedience.” At this point, according to Maury, “the more sober part of the
audience were struck with horror” and a number were heard to murmur, “treason! treason!” Although
Maury’s lawyer, Mr. Lyons, “called out aloud, and with an honest warmth, to the Bench, ‘that the
gentleman had spoken treason,’” Henry was allowed carry on “in the same treasonable and licentious
strain, without interruption.” For a good account of the Parson’s Cause, see Mayer, pp. 65ff. The
quotations from Maury’s letter are found in Moses Coit Tyler, Patrick Henry (Ithaca: Cornell University,
1887)., pp. 47-48.

32

expense.”
45
With the Book of Common Prayer, Virginia authorities sought to mark out the
spiritual landscape, too, providing the liturgical backdrop against which English colonists were
expected to pursue their vocations as faithful Christians.
46
As part of this vocation, those who
used the Book of Common Prayer in private devotion or public worship were encouraged to
consider their own preparations for death throughout the life-cycle. Priests and people were
instructed not only in how to collaborate in the burial of their dead, but also how to baptize their
children “into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ;” how to marry each other with vows to
be faithful “’til death do us part;” and how to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion as a
sacramental commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper and crucifixion. After receiving communion,
the faithful were led in common prayer, including this pledge: “… And here we offer and present
unto thee, 0 Lord, our selves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice
unto thee.”
47

45
Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 (Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early
American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA., by University of North Carolina Press, 1982), 451., p.
17
46
First produced in 1549 under King Edward VI, the collection of prayer books that would come to be
known as the “Common Prayer” were amended only modestly across its first century of use, before a
more substantial revision was commissioned in the aftermath of the English Civil War (1642-1651). The
resulting version of 1662, which remained in use throughout the entire Anglican communion through
the end of the 18th century, retained the overall architecture of its predecessor, but brought all the rites
of the Church under a single cover, often printed together with the Psalter “or the Psalms of the David,
Pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches.” The Psalms that commonly accompanied the 1662
edition were influenced profoundly by the lyricism of the King James Version of the Bible, which, after
its completion in 1611, had come to exert a powerful and lasting influence on the spoken language of
especially England’s literate classes. The 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer proved so
satisfactory that it was not revised until 1789, and thus represents the edition that would have been
widely available in North America during the entire period which is the subject of this dissertation.
47
Church of England. The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites
and ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter
or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. And the form and manner of
making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons. Cambridge, 1701.

33

The Common Prayer also guided the public life of Virginia’s parishes by providing
monthly calendars marking not just the liturgical cycles of the Christian year, but also a steady
supply of holy days and festivals. Calendars found at the front of the Book of Common Prayer
were organized differently in different editions, sometimes featuring as many as four months per
page. (See Figure 1.1) In all formats, the calendars featured martyrs prominently: January’s
calendar, for instance, marked the martyrdoms of Lucian (8
th
), Prisca (18
th
), Fabian (20
th
), Agnes
(21
st
), Vincent (22
nd
), and King Charles I (30
th
). The last week of each year presented a special
occasion for all to reflect upon their mortality – and the opportunity for witness that this
mortality represented – by commemorating the slaughter of the innocents as reported in the
Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 2), and by honoring Saint Stephen, the “first Martyr” as reported in
the Book of Acts (Acts 7:55ff). An alphabetical listing of “Notes on Festivals” concluded the
calendar section in most editions, reminding the faithful of how those included in the calendars
came to be honored. These notes make clear that true martyrdom encompassed different kinds of
conduct, ranging from pacifistic defiance to martial valor. So, Saint Stephen was memorialized:
Grant, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of thy
truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall
be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless
our persecutors by the example of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for
his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to
succour all those that suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

But on November 20 of each year, “Edmund, King and Martyr, a Saxon Saint, King of East
Anglia (855-870)” was also honored for having been “taken prisoner by the Danes after a brave
struggle, and, refusing life on condition of apostasy and vassalage, shot to death with arrows.”
48

48
Church of England. The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites
and ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the Church of England: Together with the Psalter
or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. And the form and manner of
making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons. Cambridge, 1701.

34

FIGURE 1.1
Calendars from The Book of Common Prayer (1701)

A four-month calendar from an early 18
th
-century edition of The Book of Common Prayer. January’s
calendar alone marks the martyrdom of Lucian (8th), Prisca (18th), Fabian (20th), Agnes (21st),
Vincent (22nd), and King Charles I (30th).

Church of England. The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites
and ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the Church of England: Cambridge, 1701.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale. University of Southern California. 7 Feb. 2017

35

The Church of England’s martyrological inheritance was most proximately grounded in
the memory of King Charles I, whose martyrdom was celebrated on January 30 each year, and
whose legacy was kept powerfully alive by the celebrated works of the Anglican cleric Jeremy
Taylor. Born in 1613, educated at All Souls College, Oxford, and a protégé of William Laud,
Archbishop of Canterbury, Taylor had served as chaplain in the Royal Army and was the
personal chaplain to Charles I, who was executed – “martyred,” his loyal followers insisted – on
January 30, 1649.
49
Taylor’s martyrological inclinations had already found expression in the
1649 publication of his biography of Jesus, The great exemplar of sanctity and holy life
according to the Christian institution described in the history of the life and death of the ever
blessed Jesus Christ the savior of the world, and would continue throughout his life, resulting in
the posthumous publication of Antiquitates christianae, or, The history of the life and death of
the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles: in two parts.
50
In the wake
of King Charles’s death, Taylor sought to extract from the example of Jesus – and the examples
of those who followed in his footsteps – the “means and instruments of obtaining every vertue.”
This quest resulted in the publication – in 1650 and 1651, respectively – of his celebrated twin
volumes, The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and The Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying. In
Taylor’s view, God had intended for human life to be “long and happy, without sickness, sorrow

49
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living, Edited and Modernized, ed. Hal M. Helms (Orleans, MA: Paraclete Press,
1988)., p. ix ff
50
Taylor, Jeremy. The great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the Christian institution
described in the history of the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus Christ the saviour of the world :
with considerations and discourses upon the several parts of the story and prayers fitted to the several
mysteries : in three parts. London: Printed by R.N. for Francis Ash, 1649. Taylor, Jeremy. Antiquitates
christianae, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of
his Apostles : in two parts. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour. Lives, acts and
martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour. London: Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston, 1765.

36

or infelicity,” but because of Adam’s fall, “man … fell from that state to a contrary.”
51
Taylor
believed that the essence of human life was therefore a preparation to die, and that the truly
faithful would pursue holiness, such that by the time they died they would be spiritually
equipped to share life with God for eternity.
52
As exemplified by the saints and martyrs,
fearlessness in the face of death, inspired by the promised joys of heaven, was for Taylor the
truest sign of a fully realized Christian faith:
God could not chuse but be pleased with the delicious accents of martyrs, when in
their tortures they cried out nothing, but Holy Jesus, and, Blessed be God. And
they also themselves, who with a hearty designation to the divine pleasure, can
delight in God’s severe dispensation, will have the transports of Cherubims, when
they enter into the joys of God. If God be delicious to his servants when he
smites them, he will be nothing but ravishments and ecstasies to their spirits,
when he refreshes them with the overflowings of joy in the day of recompences.
53

Sometimes printed separately and often combined under the same cover, Taylor’s Holy Living
and Holy Dying went through 25 London editions by 1739 and were widely circulated in

51
Taylor, Jeremy. The rule and exercises of holy dying: in which are described the means and instruments
of preparing our selves and others respectively for a blessed death; and the Remedies against the Evils
and Temptations proper to the state of Sickness: Together with prayers and Acts of Vertue to be used by
Sick and Dying Persons, or by others standing in their attendance. To which are added, Rules for the
Visitation of the Sick, and Offices proper for that Ministry. London: printed by J.L. for John Meredith,
1703, p. 59.
52
Taylor, Jeremy. The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments
of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the
resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of
devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities. London : Printed [by R. Norton] for
Richard Royston, 1650, p. 1. “And therefore as every man is wholly Gods own portion by the title of
creation; so all our labours and care, all our powers and faculties must be wholly imployed in the service
of God, even all the dayes of our life, that this life being ended, we may live with him forever.”
53
Taylor, Jeremy. The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and
instruments of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to
the resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the
parts of devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities. London : Printed [by R. Norton]
for Richard Royston, 1650, p. 87.

37

Anglican circles on both sides of the Atlantic.
54

Patrick Henry was very much a product of this Anglican tradition. His father, John
Henry, who emigrated from Scotland in 1727, settled in one of Virginia’s newest counties,
Hanover County, and six years later married Sarah Winston Syme, a young widow wealthy both
from her own family’s inheritance and from that of her deceased husband. Over time John
Henry would occupy every key position in Hanover County’s overlapping institutions: a
vestryman in the St. Paul’s Church, a judge in the County Court, a Colonel in the county’s
regiment of the Virginia Militia, a land surveyor for the county government. His social standing
was further enhanced when his brother, the Reverend Patrick Henry, arrived from Scotland in
1735 to become the priest of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the principal Hanover County parish.
When their first son was born the following year, on May 29, 1736, John and Sarah Henry
named him after his uncle. Romantic portrayals of him as an irreverent young man and
modestly-educated “forest-born Demosthenes” notwithstanding, Patrick Henry, the younger, was
formally educated through the age of 15 by his father, a devout Anglican and his name-sake
uncle, an Anglican priest.
55

The Church of England’s hold on the spiritual life of the Henry family was far from
complete, however, and in this respect, it was a microcosm of the colony.

*****

Ranging from indifference to absenteeism to anti-clericalism, expressions of dissent from

54
Evidence of their availability in North America is found in their regular listing in catalogues of books for
sale.
55
Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, [7]-529., pp. 34ff.

38

the Anglican Church were longstanding traditions in Virginia, expressions encouraged by a self-
perpetuating feedback loop that produced persistent clerical vacancies in the colony’s Anglican
parishes. Many Anglican clergy considered the colony to be a provincial backwater where
priests were given neither the respect nor the compensation their vocation warranted.
Meanwhile, many Virginians believed that only the least able of England’s priests would seek to
fulfill their vocations in American parishes.
56
In the early decades of the 18
th
-century, Virginians
dissatisfied with the established church began to organize themselves in a manner that many
Anglican clergy considered tantamount to insurgency. As early as 1724, James Blair, the Bishop
of London’s Commissary in the colony had reported that “the Presbyterians taking advantage of
the want of Ministers are very busy, fitting up meetings in many places where they had none
heretofore.”
57
That same year, Hanover County’s governors made an unprecedented concession:
hoping to prevent the spirit of dissent from simply running amok, they constructed a chapel for a
group of Anglican dissenters and funded a salary for their minister. This dissenting group was
led by the bricklayer Samuel Morris, and – at least by the time Reverend Patrick began his forty-
year tenure as the Anglican rector of St. Paul’s parish in 1736 – it included in its number Sarah
Henry’s father, Isaac Winston.

In 1744, Morris, Winston and others who had been previously
fined for the offense, finally persuaded the Hanover county leaders to abolish the law requiring
participation in the observances of their assigned Anglican parish – regular church attendance
remained the law of the land, but it was acknowledged that this could include any congregation

56
In 1727, James Blair, the Commissary or head of Virginia’s colonial church and the founding president
of William & Mary College, declared: “nothing was such a great disservice to Religion as the leaving of so
many Parishes destitute of ministers, and the Supplying of so many with indifferent ones, either as to
their ministerial talents or the good life.” Cited in Robert Douthat Meade, Patrick Henry, 1st ed.
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1957; 1969)., p. 115.
57
Patricia U. Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America,
Updat ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 291., pp. 57ff

39

of choice.
58
The strategy of accommodation did not put a stop to the growth of religious dissent,
however – in fact it seemed to foment this spirit, turning Hanover County into a virtual
laboratory for religious experimentation.

By the end of his first decade in Hanover County, the Rev. Patrick Henry concluded that
the itinerant preachers who routinely “invaded” his parish at the invitation of local lay leaders
were nothing short of a menace.

Writing in February, 1745 to William Dawson, Blair’s successor
as Commissary of the Bishop of London, Henry lamented:
They thunder out words and new coind phrases what they call the terrors of the
law, & scolding, calling the old people, Grey headed Devils, and all
promiscuously Damn’d, double damn’d whose souls are in hell, though they are
alive on earth, Lumps of hellfire, incarnate Devils, 1000 times worse than Devils
&c and all the while the Preacher elates his voice puts himself into a violent
agitation stamping & beating scar’d, cry out fall down & work like people in
convulsion fits to the amazement of Spectators, and if a few only are thus brought
down, the Preacher gets into a violent passion again, Calling out Will no more of
you come to Christ? Thundering out as before, till he has brought a quatum
sufficit of his congregation to this condition and these things are extolld by the
Preachers as the mighty power of God’s grace in their hearts, and they who thus
cry out and fall down are caressd and commended as the only penitent Souls who
come to Christ, whilst those who don’t, are often condemn’d by the lump as
hardened wretches almost beyond the reach of mercy, insomuch that some who
are not so season’d, impute it to the hardness of their own heart, and wish and
pray to be in the like condition.
Summarizing the doctrinal claim that these “younger Preachers” had “imbibd” from Gilbert
Tennent and other well-known evangelists, Henry wrote that they insisted an experience of

58
Until 1744, the law of the Commonwealth allowed county courts to fine residents who absented
themselves from Anglican services of worship, but by the early decades of the eighteenth century
members of dissenting sects were almost uniformly exempted from the imposition of these fines.
Instead the fines were reserved for non-compliant members of the Anglican Church – people whose
absence was perceived to be a direct affront to the properly established authorities of vestry and parish
priest. Lieutenant Governor Sir William Gooch acknowledged this reality in his 1728 inaugural address,
declaring, “If there are among you any dissenters from this Church with consciences truly scrupulous, I
shall think an indulgence to them to be so consistent with the genius of the Christian Religion that it can
never be inconsistent with the interest of the Church of England.”Arthur Pierce Middleton, "Anglican
Virginia: The Established Church of the Old Dominion 1607-1786," Colonial Williamsburg Library
Research Report Series 0006 (1954)., p. 150.

40

personal conversion – and one that was “sensible … as would be of a wound or a stab” – was
necessary to salvation. He further elaborated that some of these “Enthusiastick” dissenters were
“great boasters of their assurance of salvation,” so much so that “their Preachers publickly tell
their hearers, that they shall stand at the right hand of Christ in the day of Judgment, and
condemn all of them who do not come to him at their call.”
59

As many historians have told the story, evangelists came to Virginia in neat, ecclesial
waves – Presbyterians in the 1730s, Baptists in the 1760s, Methodists in the decades following
the American Revolution.
60
But these movements were not yet organized formally as
denominations, and the turmoil roiling Virginia’s Anglican parishes was not nearly so orderly.
“Dissenters” from Anglican orthodoxy had been present in Virginia from the colony’s inception,
and with the passing of each decade their presence was more and more accommodated by the
Anglican establishment. As had been true in the British Isles for generations, those who
championed “presbyterianism” – the view that the local elders, or “presbyters,” were the rightful
leaders of local congregations – came in many stripes, some championing formal separation from
the Church of England, others championing reform of it through practices described as “non-
conforming.” What they shared was a resistance to the notion that formal education was itself a
guarantor of effective Christian ministry. Rather, the essential ingredient to effective preaching
was a transformative experience of personal conversion.
This view had found an early and powerful expression in Richard Baxter’s A Call to the
Unconverted, to Turn and Live, a combined treatise and prayer book that ran through dozens of

59
Letters of Patrick Henry, Sr., Samuel Davies, James Maury, Edwin Conway and George Trask. The
William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Oct., 1921), pp. 261-281.
60
See, for instance, Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans; the Colonial Experience (New York: Random
House, 1958), 434., 135ff.

41

editions from the time of its first publication in London in 1651, and was widely imported to
North America before being first printed in 1731.
61
Baxter, an adherent of “non-separatist” and
yet “non-conforming” views, composed his Call “to be read in families where any are
unconverted,” and explained to any who would read or hear it that the task of their ministers was
“to Preach and be instant with you in season, and out of season, to lift up our Voice like a
Trumpet, & shew you your Transgressions and your Sins.” He counseled preachers to “say to
the wicked man, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die,” and explained that “The reason why so
few people escape [Hell], is, because they strive not to enter in at the strait Gate of Conversion,
and to go the narrow way of Holiness while they have time, and they strive not, because they
have not been awakened to a lively feeling of the danger they are in.” To Baxter it seemed
obvious that this message could not be delivered by a preacher who had not experienced
conversion himself, and for this reason he counseled his readers, controversially, to go to their
pastors “and acquaint them with your Spiritual Estate … Or, if you have not a Faithful Pastor at
home, make use of some other in so great a need.”
62
He elaborated:

61
Baxter, Richard. A call to the unconverted, to turn and live and accept of mercy while mercy may be
had, as ever they would find mercy in the day of their extremity. From the living God. To which are
added, forms of prayer for morning and evening for a family, for a penitent sinner, and for the Lord's
Day. Written at the request of the late Reverend and learned Archbishop Usher. By Richard Baxter. To be
read in families where any are unconverted. Boston: Printed for S. Kneeland & T. Green, for D.
Henchman in Cornhill, J. Phillips at the Stationers Arms, & T. Hancock at the Bible and Three Crowns in
Annstreet., 1731. That Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted was widely imported to the Americas is
evidenced by several facts: excerpts from it were translated into Algonquin and printed in Cambridge as
early as 1664; its extensive publication in North America after the importation of books was disrupted
by the revolutionary war, and also by the frequency with which American Presbyterian preachers
routinely and off-handedly mentioned it in their printed sermons, assuming a degree of familiarity
among their listeners/readers.
62
This view was famously propagated in North America by Gilbert Tennent, whose sermon, The Danger
of an Unconverted Ministry, was published multiple times in both Philadelphia and Boston. Tennent,
Gilbert. The danger of an unconverted ministry, considered in a sermon on Mark VI. 34. Preached at
Nottingham, in Pennsylvania, March 8. anno 1739,40. By Gilbert Tennent, A.M. and Minister of the
Gospel in New-Brunswick, New-Jersey. [Five lines from Jeremiah] Philadelphia: Printed by Benjamin
Franklin, in Market-Street, 1740. Nathan Hatch sees this dynamic as foundational to the "inversion of

42

For this the co-equal Son of God … endured the Hardships of Poverty, was
hungry, was thirsty, was weary, was reproached, was persecuted … for this the
Apostles were … sent forth to conquer the Nations to the Faith of Christ … For
this Martyrs have bled; saints have prayed … for this Our Ancestors in office
have exhausted their Strength, and worn out their Lives in painful Labours.
63

Beyond this emphasis on the necessity of a spiritual “new birth” for both preachers and
parishioners, itinerant (traveling) and upstart (local) preachers in Virginia worked independently
of any strict denominational affiliation or theological “program,” and they promoted – in varying
combination – a wide range of controversial doctrines and practices. The Reverend Patrick
Henry’s characterization of “enthusiastick” ministers propagating an “assurance of salvation,”
for instance, is entirely inconsistent with orthodox Presbyterian teachings, and is much more
suggestive of teachings associated with Baptists and Methodists – and yet Henry characterized
this teaching as prevalent among dissenters in Hanover County in 1745.
In the face of this exuberant and eclectic contestation of their authority, Virginia’s
Anglican clerics worked assiduously to defend their turf, both geographic and spiritual. As part
of this defense, they commissioned William Parks – since 1730 the colony’s official printer, and
possessor of an exclusive license to print the colony’s only newspaper, the Virginia Gazette
64
–
to make more widely available two landmark Anglican pamphlets, the first re-asserting the

authority” that characterized the era: “The fundamental religious quarrel of the late eighteenth century
was not between Calvinist and Arminian, orthodox and Unitarian, evangelical and freethinker, but
between radically different conceptions of the Christian ministry. … This virulent anticlericalism
resembled the kinds of dissent that were endemic to Protestants from the English Civil War through the
Great Awakening." Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1989), 312., 44.
63
Baxter, Preface, pp. D2 ff.
64
For a history of the Virginia Gazette, see http://www.vagazette.com/services/va-
services_gazhistory,0,5332906.story#col. Efforts to establish other newspapers in the years leading up
to the Revolution were only sporadically successful. Years later Thomas Jefferson would recall, "we had
but one press, and that having the whole business of the government, and no competitor for public
favor, nothing disagreeable to the governor could be got into it. We procured Rind to come from
Maryland to publish a free paper."

43

Church of England’s place of ecclesial privilege, and the second defending traditional Anglican
views of death and the afterlife.
65
In The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper explain’d, Edmund
Gibson, the Bishop of London, staked out the Anglican church’s case as proper administrators of
the sacrament, elaborated the “Obligations upon Christians to come frequently to it” and then
sought “to remove out of the Way whatever Scruples or Excuses may either hinder Men from
complying with these Obligations, or be made a Cloak to hide the Shame and Scandal of
neglecting them.” To Gibson’s treatise, Parks appended a listing of “The Holy-Days, or the
Feasts and Fasts, as they are observed in the Church of England, Explained, and the Reasons
why they are yearly celebrated.”
66

The second treatise Parks published for the Virginia clerics was A practical discourse
concerning death, authored by William Sherlock, the former Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in
London. In it Sherlock – who from his retirement had determined to “make the Press supply the
Place of the Pulpit” – reminded his readers of the “Certainty of Death” and shared instructions
“Concerning the Time of our Death, and the proper Improvement of it.” Again, and again, he
rooted his argument in England’s martyrological inheritance:
Holiness is the only Principle of Immortality, both to Soul and Body: Those love
their Bodies best, those honour them most, who make them Instruments of Virtue
… the highest Honour we can do these Bodies, and noblest Use we can put them
to, is to offer them up in a proper Sense a Sacrifice to God, that is, willingly and
cheerfully to die for God when he calls us to Suffering: First to offer our Souls to
God in the pure Flames of Devotion, and then freely to give up our Bodies to the

65
George F. Willison, Patrick Henry and His World, 1st ed. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969), 498., p.
26
66
Gibson, Edmund. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper explain'd: or The things to be known and done, to
make a worthy communicant. With suitable prayers and meditations. by The Right Reverend Father in
God, Edmund Lord Bishop of London. To which is added, the holy days, or the feasts and fasts, as they
are to be observed in the Church of England, explained: and the reasons why they are yearly celebrated.
Williamsburg: William Parks, 1740, pp. 2-3.

44

Stake or to the Gibbet, to wild Beasts, or more savage Men.” …
Since we must certainly die, it makes it extremely reasonable to sacrifice our
Lives to God, whenever he calls for them … There are Arguments indeed enough
to encourage Christians to Martyrdom, when God calls them to suffer for his
Sake: The Love of Christ in dying for us, is a sufficient Reason why we should
cheerfully die for him’ and the great Rewards of Martyrdom, that glorious Crown
which is reserved for such Conquerors, made the primitive Christians ambitious
of it. … And what Man then, who knows he must die, and believes the Rewards
of Martyrdom, can think it so terrible to die a Martyr?” …
“No Man ought foolishly to fling away his Life, nor to provoke and affront
Princes, who have the Power of Life and Death: This is not to die like a Martyr,
but like a Fool, or a Rebel. But when a Prince threatens Death, and God threatens
Damnation, then our Saviour’s Counsel takes Place, not to fear Men, but God.”
67

With their promulgation of classic works like Gibson’s and Sherlock’s, Virginia’s Anglican
clergy in the 1740s expressed their clear concern for maintaining good order, and resisting
disorder, within the body of Christ, which they understood to be singularly represented by the
Anglican parish. In their view, the most fundamental threat posed to this good order was the
misconduct of individuals in their observances of the sacraments, and in their spiritual posture
when confronted with death.
In this contentious context, the Reverend Patrick Henry confronted a genuine dilemma
when, in October, 1745, the celebrated itinerant evangelist George Whitefield requested to
preach in the St. Paul parish as part of his second preaching tour in America. The problem was
not that Whitefield would explicitly incite his parishioners to abandon the St. Paul’s parish and
seek to establish a free-standing congregation; he had no track record for doing that. But
Whitefield was a bona fide celebrity, notorious for his extraordinarily resonant voice and
theatrical presentation, and his emphasis on the experience of “new birth” was sure to inflame

67
Sherlock, William. A practical discourse concerning death. By William Sherlock, D.D. Late Dean of St.
Paul's. Williamsburg: William Parks, 1744, pp. 58-59, 107, 109

45

the religious passions of the already burgeoning forces of dissent.
68

Together with his Oxford classmates, the brothers John and Charles Wesley, George
Whitefield had first come to American as a missionary with the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, one of several “societies” organized by leaders from the Church of England at the
end of the seventeenth century with the express intent of revitalizing the American church.
69

John Wesley’s brief missionary sojourn in America was marked by failure – scarred by a broken
romance, the failure was as much personal as it was professional – but upon his return to
England, Wesley launched a grassroots movement that would, across the next half-century,
dramatically alter England’s ecclesial landscape. George Whitefield, meanwhile, enjoyed his
greatest success in England’s North American colonies. Having met a great response in his first
visit to America in 1737, he would return for a dozen preaching tours of the colonies across the
next thirty years.
Their theological differences and evangelistic rivalry notwithstanding, Whitefield and the

68
The most commonly cited account of Whitefield’s effect as a preacher was provided by Sarah
Pierrepont Edwards, the wife of Jonathan Edwards, who wrote after Whitefield visited her husband’s
famously “awakened” parish in Northampton, Massachusetts: “He is a born orator. You have already
heard of his deep-toned, yet clear and melodious voice. It is perfect music. It is wonderful to see what a
spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible. I have seen upwards of a
thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence, broken only by an occasional half-
suppressed sob.” Sarah Edwards also wrote to a friend after hearing Whitefield preach: “He makes less
of doctrines than our American preachers generally do, and aims more at affecting the heart.”

Cited in
Mark A. Noll, America's God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 640., 106.
69
“By 1700 there were than forty of these ‘little devotional cells’ in London and the surrounding towns.”
See Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, & Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to
James (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999), 449., p. 64. Among the most successful of
these socieities were the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). Founded by Thomas Bray, who had served in the 1690s as the
Church of England’s Commissary in Maryland, these organizations were dedicated to strengthening the
Anglican mission in North America – the SPCK by sending books and printed matter to the colonies and
the SPG by sending Anglican ministers. See Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the
American People (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), 360., p. 104.

46

Wesleys shared not just the designation, “Methodist” – a derisive nickname they had embraced
after it was first given to them during their student days at Oxford – but also a core set of
evangelistic practices.
70
While resisting calls to formalize a coherent theology or singular
“program,” they ignored parish lines and preached outdoor sermons to any who would listen.
Without entirely abandoning the tradition of corporate and patterned “common prayer,” they
encouraged people also to pray extemporaneously from the heart. Believing it the duty of all
Christians to “work out their own salvation,” they challenged lay people to read and interpret the
Bible for themselves, sanctioning some even to preach (or “exhort”) if the Spirit led them to do
so. Adopting popular styles of music, they wrote accessible hymns and encouraged that they be
sung with great enthusiasm. Most fundamentally, Whitefield and Wesley taught people to seek a
“new birth” in Jesus Christ, and they shared the conviction that this experience required an
openness to what they called “the religion of the heart.” Also called “experimental religion” (the

70
For more detail, see John Wesley and Albert Cook Outler, John Wesley (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1980; 1964), 516., p. 8. Because in the 1740s they publicly aired their theological differences,
most historians have tended to disassociate the American Methodism of George Whitefield from the
English Methodism of John Wesley, and to link Whitefield most strongly with the revivalism practiced by
Jonathan Edwards and Gilbert Tennent and other evangelists in early 18
th
-century America. Dee
Andrews’ conclusion, for instance, concentrates on their theological differences to the exclusion of all
else: “Whitefield dominated American evangelical networks for a period of thirty years, from the Great
Awakening in the 1740s to his death in 1770, effectively excluding Wesleyan influence and preserving a
distinctly Calvinist tone to the American revivals. Except on the occasions when an overwrought
Anglican establishment feared the return of the Wesley brothers, ‘Methodism’ in the colonies was
associated with the Calvinist evangelist.” Andrews, p. 31. But beginning in the 1750s, John Wesley and
George Whitefield set aside their doctrinal differences and from that time forward each spoke and
wrote enthusiastically about the other’s ministry (their reconciliation was so complete that Wesley
preached the sermon at Whitefield’s funeral in 1770). Through the middle decades of the 18
th
century,
the name “Methodist” was rightly understood to refer not to an independent “church,” and not to a
consistent theological agenda, but rather to a particularly enthusiastic way of practicing the Anglo-
Catholic faith. This movement was most strongly associated with the Wesleys in England and with
Whitefield in the American colonies. It was also most strongly associated in America with the Anglican
churches of the mid-Atlantic colonies – Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. See Dee Andrews, The
Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800: The Shaping of an Evangelical Culture (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000), 367., p. 3.

47

word “experimental” had much the same meaning in the eighteenth century as the word
“experiential” does today), the hallmark of this way of thinking was that the experience of the
faithful was decisive in giving shape to the Christian life. What Nathan Hatch and John Wigger
have said of Methodist preaching is true of both the Whitefieldian and Wesleyan variety:
“Rejecting the standard reformed sermon, a read discourse with a stiff theological spine,
Methodists crafted sermons that were audience-centered, vernacular and extemporaneous.”
71

Whitefield also shared with the Wesley brothers two controversial convictions – that
those who were converted could receive an inner witness of the Spirit by which they could
become confident of their own eternal salvation, and that they could be sanctified at the moment
of their death. These doctrines of “assurance” and “entire sanctification,” abhorrent to orthodox
Calvinists, were largely responsible for the charges of “enthusiasm” that were leveled against
followers of Whitefield and the Wesleys alike. After the publication in London of an anonymous
pamphlet entitled The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compar’d, Whitefield responded
with a letter to the author entitled Some Remarks on a Pamphlet, Entituled, The Enthusiasm of
Methodists and Papists compar’d. In this defense – first published in London in 1745, and then,
to facilitate its distribution, in both Boston and Philadelphia in 1749 – Whitefield defended the
teaching of assurance by pointing to the most potent evidence he could find, the holy Scripture.
“What says St. Paul?” Whitefield wrote. “Because ye are Sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your Hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The Spirit it self beareth Witness with our Spirit,
that we are Children of God.” Even as he defended himself for at times speaking with too much
in “ardent zeal,” he also defended his own ministry in distinctly martyrological terms: “But

71
Nathan O. Hatch and John H. Wigger, eds., Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture (Nashville:
Kingswood Books, 2001)., p. 37.

48

should the Methodists be called even to die for the Cause in which they are embarked, as I am
verily persuaded it is the Cause of God, so I doubt not but suffering Grace will be given for
Suffering Times, and the Spirit of Christ and of Glory rest upon the Sufferers Souls.”
72

There is no record of what George Whitefield preached in Hanover, Virginia in October,
1745. From Reverend Patrick Henry’s account of the event, though, we know that he struck a
compromise with the evangelist, granting Whitefield’s request to preach, but also securing from
him two promises – first, that he would not baptize anyone, and, second, that the “preaching
service” would include the customary corporate readings from the Book of Common Prayer.
Henry justified his decision to his superiors by writing, “If I had refused him access to the
Church, he would have preached in the Church yard, or very near it, and then the whole
congregation would have gone over to him.”
73
He also hoped that Whitefield’s blessing of the
Common Prayer would remind people that the Church of England was Whitefield’s true
ecclesiastical home.
Neither is there any conclusive evidence that the then nine-year-old Patrick Henry was in
attendance, although it seems unlikely that his grandfather would have allowed him to miss such
a significant event. It is all but certain, though, that Patrick Henry’s mother, Sarah, heard
Whitefield preach, for soon after she began to join her father in his religious “dissent.” As
Patrick Henry’s biographer Henry Mayer tells the story in his 1991 Son of Thunder, “there were

72
Whitefield, George. Some Remarks on a Pamphlet Entituled, The Enthusiasm of Methodists and
Papists compare’d. Philadelphia: Printed, and Sold, by W. Bradford in Second-Street, 1749, pp. 25, 34.
Whitefield was accustomed to seeking cover in the church’s martyrological tradition. In 1740, as he was
first coming under attack, his friend and colleague Jonathan Warne published in London a defense of
him on precisely these grounds. Warne, Jonathan. The spirit of the martyrs revived in the doctrines of
the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield, and the judicious, and faithful Methodists. ... To which are added,
some thoughts on pluralities, and non-residence. Part I. London: printed and sold by T, Cooper, 1740.
73
Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, [7]-529., p. 35.

49

immediate domestic consequences” to Sarah Henry’s personal awakening – she “withdrew much
of her participation in genteel social life [and] set herself against the drinking, gambling, and
dancing that comprised her husband’s chief diversions and the stuff of gentry political life.”
74

This dramatic change cut close to the hearts of both Henry brothers. As far as Reverend Patrick
Henry was concerned, Sarah was not just another sheep of his flock – she was also his sister-in-
law and the mother of his namesake nephew. And for John Henry the embarrassment and
inconvenience had to be enormous – his own wife was now in open rebellion against his
authority, both as the head of the family and as a member of the St. Paul’s vestry.
John Henry’s embarrassment was destined to grow yet more profound – in 1747, Samuel
Davies was commissioned by the Presbytery based in New-Castle, Delaware to organize a set of
preaching points in Hanover County, one of them at Fork Church, just a short distance from John
Henry’s estate and an easy carriage ride for Sarah Henry and her children.
75
Again Mayer shared
the story recorded in almost every Henry biography: “Sarah Henry, like everyone else, found
Davies’ preaching close to sublime. She took her little girls with her to the services and had their
older brother Patrick, now entering his teens, drive the carriage. On the way home she would
make Patrick repeat aloud the substance of the sermon.”
76

*****

Samuel Davies was born in New Castle County, Delaware and trained for ministry at

74
Ibid., p. 139.
75
Meade, Patrick Henry, p. 71.
76
Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, [7]-529., pp. 36-37.

50

Samuel Blair’s classical academy at Fagg’s Manor, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
77
Like other
adherents of the “New Side” philosophy that threatened to split the burgeoning Presbyterian
movement in North America in the 1730s, Blair was a champion of a style of preaching that
counseled preachers to drive their listeners unwaveringly to consider their mortality. By all
accounts, Samuel Davies was an exceptionally effective practitioner of this homiletical method.
In a 1753 sermon to his fellow clergy from the New-Castle Presbytery, Davies described their
“important End” as “to snatch perishing Sinners from everlasting Misery, and bring them to a
happy Immortality.” Describing those who had died in this pursuit as “Martyrs of the Pulpit,” he
reminded his colleagues that they, too, could be connected to a vast lineage of those who had
sought to save the unconverted.
78
And in correspondence with his colleague Thomas Gibbons,
Davies reflected on “the difficulty of the ministerial work,” lamenting:
Perhaps once in three or four months I preach in some measure as I could wish;
that is, I preach as in the fight of God, and as if I were to step from the pulpit to
the supreme tribunal. I feel my subject. I melt into tears, and I shudder with
horror, when I denounce the terrors of the Lord. I glow, I soar in sacred extasies,
when the love of Jesus is my theme, and, as Mr. Baxter was wont to express it, in
lines more striking to me than all the fine poetry in the world:
“I preach as if I ne’er should preach again;
And as a dying man to dying men.”
79

77
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volumes 16-17, p. 360. Downloaded on
2/1/2017 from:
https://books.google.com/books?id=poweAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA360#v=onepage&q&f=false. Blair’s son,
of the same name, would later assist Davies at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, and
become the second chaplain to the Continental Congress.
78
Davies, Samuel. A sermon preached before the Reverend Presbytery of New-Castle, October 11.
1752. By S. Davies, V.D.M. in Hanover, Virginia. Published at the desire of the Presbytery and
congregation. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, at the new-printing office, in Market-
Street., M,DCC,LIII. [1753], p. 27.
79
Gibbons, Thomas, “Operations of God Shown to Be the Operations of Wisdom … Preached at
Haberdahers-Hall, London, Mach 29, 1761, Occasioned by the Decease of the Rev. Samuel Davies …” In
Sermons on important subjects, by the late Reverend and pious Samuel Davies, sometime president of
the college in New-Jersey. In three volumes.; To which are now added, three occasional sermons, not
included in the former editions; memoirs and character of the author; and two sermons on occasion of
his death by the Rev. Drs. Gibbons and Finley. New York: Thomas Allen, 1792, p. xiv.

51

But Samuel Davies did not have to engage in flights of imagination to preach “as a dying man” –
his missionary endeavors were marked from the very outset by what his biographer William
Bland Whitley has called a “death-haunted sense of urgency.” Just one month after his arrival in
Virginia in the summer of 1747, Davies returned to Delaware suffering from symptoms
consistent with tuberculosis. While there, his wife, Sarah, died in childbirth. In his own Bible,
beside Sarah’s name, Davies wrote, “Sept. 15, 1747, separated by death, and bereaved of an
abortive son.” He returned to Virginia the following spring and, in Whitley’s estimation, “threw
himself into preaching, convinced that he, too, was about to die.”
80

Samuel Davies also pioneered new turf in the realm of Virginia’s print production,
becoming the first person to break through what had been, effectively, an ecclesial and racial
monopoly in the flow of printed material. For the most part, public life in early colonial Virginia
was defined by settings where oral expression reigned supreme – the church, the courtroom, the
town square, the marketplace, the battlefield. Until the mid-18
th
-century the dispersal of the
colony’s population among farmsteads, plantations and small towns made the distribution of
newspapers, flyers and pamphlets relatively impractical and unprofitable when compared to
northern cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia and the smaller colonies like New
Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In fact publishing had long been considered
something of a subversive activity by Virginia’s Anglican elite. The colony’s royal governors
had outlawed printing of any kind up through the year 1690, and even then they retained the right

80
The quotations from Whitley are found in his excellent Encyclopedia of Virginia biography:
http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Davies_Samuel_1723-1761. The inscription in Davies’ Bible is
described by Thomas Talbot Ellis in “Samuel Davies: Apostle of Virginia,” from The Banner of Truth
Magazine, no. 235, April 1983. Downloaded on 2/5/1017 from:
http://www.puritansermons.com/banner/sdavies1.htm

52

to license – and, conversely, forbid – all manner of publication. William Berkeley, the longest-
tenured of the colony’s 17th century governors, had expressed succinctly the prevailing
suspicions: "I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have
these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world,
and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both."
Berkeley’s wish would, for the most part, be fulfilled – until 1766, the officially-sanctioned
Virginia Gazette remained the colony’s only regularly published newspaper was
81

Samuel Davies was the first to successfully challenge the exclusion of dissent from
William Parks’ official colonial press. In 1747, the year of Davies’ arrival in Hanover County,
the colony’s Anglican clergy had published and distributed widely a pamphlet entitled, An
Impartial Trial of the Spirit, attacking dissident preachers as “a set of incendiaries, Enemies not
only of the Established Church, but also common Disturbers of the Peace.”
82
Arguing that he
and other dissenters had the right to defend themselves as heirs of England’s Glorious
Revolution of 1688, and “proving the(ir) Right … to the Liberties allowed to Protestant
Dissenters, by the Act of Toleration” of 1689, Davies convinced Parks to publish his response,

81
The Berkeley and Jefferson quotes are from Cynthia Z. and Gregory A. Stiverson, “The Colonial Retail
Book Trade: Availability and Affordability of Reading Material in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Virginia,” in
William Leonard Joyce and American Antiquarian Society, Printing and Society in Early America
(Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1983), 322., pp. 140, 148. For a history of the Virginia
Gazette, see http://www.vagazette.com/services/va-services_gazhistory,0,5332906.story#col. Efforts to
establish other newspapers in the years leading up to the Revolution were only sporadically successful.
Years later Thomas Jefferson would recall, "we had but one press, and that having the whole business of
the government, and no competitor for public favor, nothing disagreeable to the governor could be got
into it. We procured Rind to come from Maryland to publish a free paper."
82
Caldwell, John. An impartial trial of the spirit operating in this part of the world; by comparing the
nature, effects, and evidences of the present supposed conversion, with the word of God. A sermon,
preached at New London-Derry, October 14th, 1741. On I John iv, I. By John Caldwell, A.M. Published at
the desire of the old congregation in the said town. [Six lines of Scripture texts]. Williamsburg: William
Parks, 1747.

53

The Impartial Trial, impartially tried and convicted of partiality.
83
Building on this success,
Davies won other concessions from the from the Anglican vestrymen who staffed the Virginia
courts. Arguing that true faith was best cultivated by both hearing and reading the Word, he
secured permission for his practice of teaching all his congregants, black and white, to read. He
also secured licenses to build meeting houses in seven Virginia counties, a process resulting in
the establishment of the Hanover Presbytery in 1755 and rendering Presbyterianism a permanent
feature of Virginia’s public landscape.
84

The formal consolidation of Presbyterianism and the spread of dissenting print
production in the Church of England’s favored New World “Dominion” coincided, but not
entirely by coincidence, with the outbreak of formal hostilities in a near-global conflict that
would come to be known as the “Seven Year’s War.” In North America, the war represented the
culmination of decades of conflict between English and French colonists, and their respective
Indian allies, and would come to be known by English-speakers as, simply, the “French & Indian
War.” On ancestral native lands that Virginians considered their colony’s natural “frontier,”
English colonists and native peoples – who conceived of matters pertaining to land-use and
property in fundamentally different ways – had been fighting skirmishes for decades. When the
French succeeded in banding together a broad alliance with native tribes in the early 1750s,
Virginians suddenly found themselves facing a well-coordinated and newly-armed enemy. On

83
Davies, Samuel. The Impartial trial, impartially tried, and convicted of partiality: in remarks on Mr.
Caldwell's, alias Thornton's sermon, intituled, An impartial trial of the spirit, &c. and the preface of the
publisher in Virginia, To which is added, a short appendix, proving the right of the Synod of New-York to
the liberties allowed to Protestant dissenters, by the Act of Toleration. By Samuel Davies, Minister of the
Presbyterian Congregation in Hanover, Virginia. [Six lines of Scripture text] Williamsburg: William Parks,
1748.
84
Quoted in Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 382., p. 130.

54

May 28, 1754, a foray by Virginia militiamen under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George
Washington resulted in the death of French commander Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville,
in what would come to be known as the first battle in the war’s North American theater.
In the aftermath, as Virginia’s authorities sought to mobilize a colony-wide armed
response, local militia from the western-most counties seemed an obvious and natural first line of
defense. Having spent eight years building a network of congregations in Hanover and
surrounding counties, Samuel Davies was suddenly presented the rare opportunity to
demonstrate his virtue and patriotism to Virginia’s Anglican elite.
85
In August, 1755, preaching
to a volunteer company of the Hanover County militia, Davies delivered a sermon entitled
Religion and Patriotism the constituents of a good soldier, based on a lesson from the prophetic
book of 2 Samuel: “Be of good Courage, and let us play the Men, for our People, and for the
Cities of our God: And the Lord do that which seemeth him good.” (2 Samuel 10:12)
Caricaturing the early history of Virginia as “An Hundred Years of Peace and Liberty,” Davies
declared that “now the Scene is changed … Our Territories are invaded by the Power and Perfidy
of France; our Frontiers ravaged by merciless Savages, and our Fellow-Subjects there murdered
with all the horrid Arts of Indian and Popish Torture.” Lest his listeners and readers remain
uncertain about the nature of the threat confronting them, he went on to characterize Virginians
as innocent victims and their Indian enemies as demons:
The bloody Barbarians have exercised on some of the most unnatural and
leisurely Tortures; and other they have butchered in their Beds, or in some
unguarded Hour. Can human Nature bear the Horror of the Sight! See yonder!
The hair Scalps, clotted with Gore! The mangled Lims! The ript-up Women! The
Heart and Bowels, still palpitating with life, smoking the Ground! See the

85
Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America, 291., p. 183.
Bonomi’s characterization is apt, if not precise: “Presbyterianism did not secure a firm base in Virginia
until the outbreak of the French and Indian War, when the interests of Presbyterians – settled in
greatest numbers in the exposed western section – and those of the royal government converged.”

55

Savages swilling their Blood, and imbibing a more outragious Fury with the
inhuman Draught! Sure these are not Men; they are not Beasts of Prey; they are
something worse; they must be infernal Furies in human shape.

And he enjoined the Hanover militiamen to join the cause not for provincial concerns but as an
expression of their faith: “Shall Virginia incur the guilt, and the everlasting shame, of tamely
exchanging her liberty, British liberty, her religion, and her all, for arbitrary Gallic power, and
for Popish slavery, tyranny and massacre?”
86

Three years later, on May 8, 1758, Davies delivered another battle cry sermon, this one
entitled The Curse of Cowardice, to raise a company of militiamen for the Virginian Captain
Samuel Meredith.

Once again, Davies based his appeal on a verse from the Hebrew prophets,
this time Jeremiah: “Cursed be he that doth the Work of the Lord deceitfully; and cursed be he
that keepeth back his Sword from Blood.” (Jeremiah 48:10) Reminding his listeners yet again of
the “barbarities and depredations a mongrel race of Indian savages and French papists have
perpetrated upon our frontiers,” Davies declared the present generation to be living in so “corrupt
[and] disordered state of things” that “even the God of Peace proclaims by His providence, ‘To
arms!’ The sword is, as it were, consecrated to God, and the art of war becomes part of our
religion.” After rehearsing a long list of motives for enlisting – love of country, love of religion,
love of family, even love of money – Davies concluded by inviting his listeners and readers to
“mingle with the assembled Universe before the supreme Tribunal.” Addressing them “as
Sinners and as Candidates for Eternity,” he assured them that his invitation to enlist was a win-
win proposition: “God grant you may return in Safety and Honour, and that we may yet welcome
you Home, crowned with Laurels of Victory! Or if any of you should lose your Lives in so good

86
Religion and patriotism the constituents of a good soldier. A sermon preached to Captain Overton's
Independent Company of Volunteers, raised in Hanover County, Virginia, August 17, 1755. By Samuel
Davies, A.M. Minister of the Gospel there. Philadelphia: Printed by James Chattin., 1755, pp. 3-5.

56

a Cause, may you enjoy a glorious and blessed Immortality in the Region of everlasting Peace
and Tranquility!” Davies appealed to Hanover’s young men to enlist:
Can Protestant Christianity expect quarters from heathen savages and French
Papists? Sure in such an alliance, the power of hell makes a third party!” …
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! Must be done BY YOU! Therefore, instead of
assuming the state of patriots and heroes at home, TO ARMS! and away to the
field and prove your pretensions sincere. Let the thunder of this imprecaution
rouse you out of your ease and security – ‘Cursed be he that doth the work of the
Lord deceitfully; and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.’
87

Within a year of delivering his “curse of cowardice” sermon, Samuel Davies would finally leave
Virginia, to succeed Jonathan Edwards as President of the College of New Jersey, later to
become Princeton University. He died on February 4, 1761, and so did not live to see the
English prevail – as formalized in the 1763 Treaty of Paris – in the cause he so passionately
championed as a holy war.

*****

Samuel Davies was not the only dissenting minister in Virginia to preach the “new light”
philosophy of palpable conversion as necessary to Christian salvation, but across his twelve
years in the colony – years that coincided precisely with Patrick Henry’s coming of age – he
would prove, by far, the most successful.
88
By his own admission, among the reasons for this

87
The curse of cowardice. A sermon preached to the militia of Hanover County, in Virginia, at a general
muster, May 8, 1758. With a view to raise a company for Captain Samuel Meredith. By Samuel Davies,
A.M. [Boston] London: printed. Boston: re-printed and sold by Z. Fowle and S. Draper, opposite the Lion
& Bell, in Marlborough-Street., M,DCC,LIX. [1759], pp. 3, 4, 16ff, 26-27.
88
Davies’ ministry in Virginia coincided precisely with Patrick Henry’s coming of age – in 1747, when
Davies first began preaching in Hanover, Patrick Henry was eleven, and in 1759, when Davies left
Virginia to become President of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), Henry was 23
years old. See: http://www.pastwords.net/P222.pdf.

57

success was his formal admitting of negro slaves to his new congregations. In 1757, his tenth
year in Hanover County, Davies, while lamenting that the fervor of his early years in the colony
had subsided, offered this snapshot: “What little success I have lately had, has been chiefly
among the extremes of Gentlemen and Negroes. Indeed, God has been remarkably working
among the latter. I have baptized about 150 adults; and at the last sacramental solemnity, I had
the pleasure of seeing the table graced with about 60 black faces.”
89

In her 1987 The World They Made Together, the cultural historian Mechal Sobel
demonstrated convincingly that a new “worldview” most commonly associated with religious
revivalism in 18
th
century Virginia was in fact the product of “a long period of intensive racial
interaction” during which “blacks and whites lived together in great intimacy, affecting each
other in both small and large ways.”
90
Gathering together with Africans and their descendants,
Virginia’s English colonists embraced a range of ritualized expressions that were explicit

89
Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South, 382., p. 130.
90
Sobel’s lament about the portrayal of Africans and African-Americans in earlier scholarship – “blacks
are not generally treated as actors nor is their ‘divergent culture’ seen as having a wide-ranging effect
on whites,” she wrote – was ahead of the curve, foreshadowing today’s scholarly consensus that the
environment of the early modern Atlantic was characterized thoroughgoingly by multiracial and cross-
cultural encounter. The foundation of her analysis is worth quoting in detail: “"I am now convinced that
the Southern Awakenings were a climax to a long period of intensive racial interaction, and that as a
result the culture of Americans-blacks and whites-was deeply affected by African values and
perceptions. The interpenetration of Western and African values took place very early, beginning with
the large-scale importation of Africans into the South in the last decades of the seventeenth century. In
the eighteenth-century South, blacks and whites lived together in great intimacy, affecting each other in
both small and large ways. They lived in the same houses as well as in separate houses that were more
often similar than not; they did much the same work, often together; and they came to share their
churches and their God. Their interaction was intense and continued over the lifetimes of most blacks
and whites. In spite of a significant interpenetration of values between the two races, the whites were
usually unaware of their own change in this process. Nevertheless, in perceptions of time, in esthetics, in
approaches to ecstatic religious experience and to understanding the Holy Spirit, in ideas of the
afterworld and of the proper ways to honor the spirits of the dead, African influence was deep and far-
reaching." Mechal Sobel, The World they made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century
Virginia (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987), 364., pp. 2-3

58

affronts to the colony’s Anglican elite: “whites and blacks witnessed together, shouted together,
and shared ecstatic experiences at ‘dry’ and wet christenings, meetings, and burials … they had
an experience with the spirit, often marked by tears, moans and fainting.” Eye-witness accounts
of George Whitefield’s preaching to mixed-race gatherings – whether in urban Philadelphia, or
in Virginia’s “back country” – conform to the descriptions of the “enthusiasm” that Patrick
Henry decried in his 1745 letter to his superiors in London. Again and again, hearers are
reported to “gasp” or “gape in awe,” to be “struck as if by lightning” and to “stand in
amazement” at what they heard, or even fall to the ground.
91

The experience of conversion – dramatized as the death of an old self and a “new birth”
as one of God’s elect – functioned for both blacks and whites as a dress rehearsal of sorts for the
actual death, and promised resurrection, of the converted.

Conversions were marked by the ritual
of baptism by immersion, in which the one being baptized was lowered into and then pulled
from “a watery grave,” or by the approximate ritual of fainting (or falling down) and getting
back up. Sobel summarized the hybridization of “English Protestant” and “African” views of
death:
The English Protestant view left the individual in a far more unresolved state than
did the African. God knew human fate, and in fact many believed it was
predestined. … and there was little security about "life" after death." … African
beliefs about afterlife varied, but virtually all Africans believed that the spirit or
spirits in men and women lived on after death. They lived in some realm, perhaps
in the earth, or on it, or nearby. (Very rarely were they believed to be in the sky.)
In the afterlife, "Life continues more or less the same... as it did in this world."
However, that world is the better place, the real "home," where forefathers live

91
Accounts like these were not alien to England, either: consider this account from John Wesley his
experience at a society meeting in Bristol: “While we were praying at a society here …, the power of God
(for so I call it) came so mightily among us that one, and another, fell down as thunderstruck. In that
hour many that were in deep anguish of spirit were all filled with peace and joy.” Taves, Fits, Trances, &
Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James, 449., p. 72.

59

on. Dying is "going home."
92

Over time, English-speaking Virginians came to embrace a more optimistic vision of the afterlife
characteristic of African traditions, blending it with more traditional English conceptions of a
heavenly realm populated with angelic beings. Sobel’s explanation, grounded in first-hand
accounts from a particular location, colonial Virginia – does much to explain a transformation
that earlier historians had characterized as a somewhat amorphous transition “from Calvinism to
Arminianism” or as a reinvigorated “hope of heaven.”
93

*****

Patrick Henry’s contemporaries would have considered it implausible that there would
come a day when Henry would be excluded by many U.S. historians from the elite tier of the
American Revolution’s pantheon of heroes. Henry’s stature derived not so much from the formal
roles he played – a celebrated member of colonial Virginia’s House of Burgesses and the first
Governor of the state; a signatory to the Declaration of Independence and the principal author
and champion of the Bill of Rights. Henry’s place seemed secure on even the shortest list of
the nation’s most important founders because he was considered the Revolution’s premier orator,
a “son of Thunder” in the apt phrase of a contemporary, Roger Atkinson, which Henry Mayer

92
Mechal Sobel, The World they made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987), 364., p. 174, 180, 183.
93
For a classic example of the former, see: Perry Miller, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), 513.. For an example off the latter, see David E. Stannard, The Puritan
Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change (New York: Oxford University Press,
1977)., 94. Writing of Puritans in New England, Stannard had concluded “By the latter half of the 18
th

century …, the anxiety-riddled tension between death and dying that had so beset devout Puritans a
century earlier no longer appears to have been an active force.”

60

chose as the title for his 1986 biography, still the most complete and authoritative of Henry’s
many modern biographies.
94

Mayer’s opening sentence – “We don’t really know much about him,” he wrote in 1986 –
captured accurately the feeling, however, that by the end of the 20
th
century the sound of Henry’s
thunder no longer rang clear. Or perhaps the sound of it rang sufficiently faint that it was simply
encompassed by the clatter of more contemporary storms. So it seems to this day. A champion
of states’ rights in the making of the U.S. Constitution, Henry is embraced by 21
st
century Tea
Partiers as a kind of patron saint. An orthodox Christian who resisted the kind of Deism so
powerfully personified by his political nemesis, Thomas Jefferson, Henry is embraced by many
contemporary evangelicals a model of conservative religious faith. Historians of the American
Revolution reject these portrayals of Henry as reductionist, but – trained in secular institutions of
higher learning, as most are – don’t know exactly what to make of him. Perhaps for this reason,
as much as any, Henry has fallen from favor in many renderings of the history of the American
Revolution, his voice reduced to just one among a chorus of voices championing the
revolutionaries’ peculiar brand of liberty.
Henry’s biographers have long recognized that his appeal as a revolutionary firebrand
was born from a mix of brass-tacks political concerns and religious resentments that roiled
Virginia in the middle decades of the eighteenth century. Indeed, Henry was schooled in an

94
Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, [7]-529.Mayer’s 476-page volume,
itself the fruit of prodigious research, built on the earlier, two-volume biography of Robert Douthat
Meade. Meade, Patrick HenryThe sheer heft of these and other earlier biographies of Henry mean that
more recent biographies have tended to be briefer works aspiring more to reinterpretation than to
original research.

61

Anglican tradition that prized the pursuit of virtue above all else, as this was exemplified in the
lives of the early Christian martyrs and in liturgical accounts of Jesus’s life and death and
resurrection. From a young age he was exposed to preaching that suggested a dramatic spiritual
encounter with the power of death could change the course of life. “Different men see things in
different lights,” Henry is remembered as having said in March, 1775, as he launched into his
most famous speech. Coming of age, he had not had to go out of his way to learn about these
differences. In fact, to find evidence of them he had had to look no further than his own family’s
dining table. There, at one end, sat his mother, together with her father an enthusiast of
“dissenting” itinerant preachers. At the other end sat his father, a stalwart supporter of his own
brother, the resident Anglican priest.
Henry came of age in a period of dramatic religious transformation – famously
characterized by the historian Nathan Hatch as the “democratization” of American Christianity –
that seemed to offer ordinary people, black and white, a new “hope of heaven.”
95
The idea that
ordinary, everyday Christians could know that they were saved seemed to fit hand-in-glove with
the idea that ordinary, everyday men (and women, as we now happily recognize) could be
considered capable of self-governance. For the first time in western history great numbers of
faithful Christians were beginning to believe that both temporal self-rule and eternal salvation
were readily within reach of “we, the people.” British undersecretary of state William Knox
captured the relationship succinctly when, after the outbreak of the revolutionary war, he
complained: “Every man being thus allowed to be his own Pope, he becomes disposed to wish to

95
Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity, 312.. For more on the growth of the perceived
accessibility of heaven, see John Wigger, "Taking Heaven by Storm: Enthusiasm and Early American
Methodism, 1770-1820," Journal of the Early Republic 14 (1994): 167-194..

62

be his own King.”
96
In America this particular brand of Christian faith took its deepest root in
the reform-minded sectors of the Anglican Church, the precise cultural context from which
Patrick Henry derived both the content and style of his legendary oratory.
It cannot be proven that Patrick Henry heard Samuel Davies deliver a battle-cry sermon
during the years of the French and Indian War.
97
If he did hear them, Henry did not heed Davies’
call to join the Hanover county militia. The reason why is not known – as the father of small
children, he may have been exempt from any social pressure to volunteer, according to his
biographer Mayer. Henry was an intimate, however, of countless men who did do battle against
Virginia’s “popish” and “savage” enemies in the French and Indian War – included in this
number were his older half-brother, John Syme, Jr., his uncle William “Langloo” Winston and
his brother-in-law William Christian.
98
As he watched his contemporaries muster and then
march off to battle, a lesson that was delivered to him throughout his coming of age would have
been directly and powerfully reinforced: there was no surer sign of virtue than to demonstrate

96
Kevin P. Phillips, The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America (New York:
Basic Books, 1999), 707., p. 97.
97
He certainly had access to them in print. In 1755, Religion and Patriotism the constituents of a good
soldier was published by the Philadelphian James Chattin. And in 1759, Dennys de Bert, a London
merchant of Dutch descent who maintained a wide network of correspondents on both sides of the
Atlantic, came into possession of Davies’ sermon, The Curse of Cowardice. Persuaded by its “just
Indignation against a base, cowardly Neglect to defend the Civil and Religious Liberties of British
America,” De Bert saw to the sermon’s publication not just in London, but in Boston, New York and
Woodbridge, New Jersey. Both sermons were also included in the three-volume edition of Davies’s
collected sermons, first published in 1792, seven years before Patrick Henry’s death on June 6, 1799.
The collection of sermons offers countless examples of Davies’s basic homiletical strategy of compelling
his listeners to consider that the very purpose of human life was forged in archetypal confrontations
with the power of death. Sermons on important subjects, by the late Reverend and pious Samuel Davies,
A.M. sometime president of the College in New-Jersey. In two volumes. The sixth edition. To which are
now added, three occasional sermons, not included in the English editions; memoirs and character of the
author; and two sermons on occasion of his death, by the Rev. Drs. Gibbons and Finley. Volume I[-II].
New York: Printed for T. Allen, 1792.
98
Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic, [7]-529., pp. 47ff.

63

your willingness to lay down your life for a sacred cause.
The one constant throughout Henry’s life, shared by loyal Anglicans and devout
dissenters alike, was an idealized vision of a noble death, the death of a martyr. Henry’s rhetoric
tapped a deep wellspring of resentment that had fed generations, indeed centuries, of
oppositional movements among English-speaking peoples. Perhaps Edmund Randolph – who
succeeded Henry as Governor of Virginia after the American Revolution – said it best, when he
recalled Henry’s notoriety for “sometimes descanting with peculiar emphasis on the martyrs in
the cause of liberty.”
99
In this respect, Henry’s root appeal was spiritual – his rhetoric resonated
across America’s revolutionary generation precisely because it was easily and intuitively
recognizable as the utterance of a spiritually accomplished man, a man prepared to die.

99
Meade, Patrick Henry, II, p. 6.

64

Chapter Two

“The Bloody Massacre” –
The Martyrological Pedigree of
Paul Revere’s Engraving of the Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770, three young men were killed onsite and two more were mortally
wounded when British troops newly-headquartered in Boston opened fire on a protesting crowd.
Just three weeks later, on March 26, Paul Revere placed an advertisement in the Boston Gazette,
announcing the sale of prints from an engraving he entitled, “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated
in King-Street, Boston.” (See Figure 2.1)In fact, Revere did not create this image himself.
Rather, he copied it from an engraving shared with him by the young Boston artist, Henry
Pelham. (See Figure 2.2) Pelham, who made prints from his own engraving available to the
public one week after Revere’s, accused Revere of copying his work without permission or
attribution, but it was too late.
100
The first to hit the market, Revere’s image was widely
circulated – first, throughout Boston, then throughout the colonies. Over time, it would become
one of the most famous images from the period of the American Revolution, and what came to
be known simply as “The Boston Massacre” would be commonly cited as representing the onset
of open revolutionary resistance.
101

100
According to the Paul Revere Heritage Project, “Pelham publicly accused P.R. in Boston Gazette of
copying his drawing without permission. In Revere’s defence we could note that copying somebody’s
work at that time was not considered a crime and the feud was probably more about the silversmith not
sharing the proceeds from selling the print with Pelham.” See: http://www.paul-revere-
heritage.com/boston-massacre-engraving.html
101
For a recent biography of Revere, from which some details in this opening vignette are drawn,
include: Joel J. Miller, The Revolutionary Paul Revere (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010). For a concise
summary of the Revere/Pelham controversy, see:
https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/about/publications/selections-acquired-tastes/bloody-massacre.
For more on Revere’s engraving, see: http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/boston-massacre-
engraving.html.

65

FIGURE 2.1

Paul Revere’s engraving, a copy of Henry Pelham’s original.

The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston
On March 5, 1770 by a party of the 29
th
Regt
(Boston: Paul Revere, 1770)

66

FIGURE 2.2

Henry Pelham’s original engraving, copied by Paul Revere.

The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or The Bloody Massacre
(Boston: Henry Pelham, 1770)

67

Revere made very few changes to the image he copied from Henry Pelham’s original
engraving. He labeled the Boston Customs House (the building behind the line of soldiers) the
“Butcher’s House,” and in the sky, he added storm clouds, stirring over the soldiers’ side of the
frame. He did, however, alter substantially Pelham’s header and footer. Revere’s title, “THE
BLOODY MASSACRE perpetrated in King Street,” was an abbreviation and alteration of
Pelham’s “THE FRUITS OF ARBITRARY POWER, OR THE BLOODY MASSACRE.”
102

And at the foot of the image, where Pelham had quoted verses from the 94
th
Psalm, as these were
found in the King James Version of the Bible, Revere placed a poem of his own composition.
The poem closed with lines declaring that if the British Crown’s colonial courts (“the venal C---
ts”) did not deliver the soldiers their just penalty, fate would summon them eventually to stand
before a judge who surely would:
But know FATE summons to that awful Goal
Where Justice strips the Murd’rer of his Soul.
Should venal C—ts the scandal of the Land,
Snatch the relentless Villain from her Hand,
Keen Execrations on this Plate inscrib’d
Shall reach a JUDGE who never can be brib’d.

Revere’s rhyme was certainly more strident than the excerpt from the 94
th
Psalm, which Pelham
had placed beneath is original image:

102
The inspiration of Pelham’s title cannot be known for certain, but a likely candidate would be a 1763
sermon by the Reverend Thomas Barnard, delivered to the members of the Masschusetts Bay Colony
Council in 1763, and then printed by Richard Draper: “The Tyrant’s Nod, the Caprice of his Minions and
Parasites, have disposed of Liberty, Property, Life, in spite of the most venerable Rights, descended from
distant Ages; the Voice of Reason; the Maxims of Equity and Claims of Conscience. … O that for the
human Species, the horrible Fruits of arbitrary Power were Matter of Theory only, or the painting of a
lively Imagination.” Barnard, Thomas. A sermon preached before His Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq;
governor and commander in chief, the Honourable His Majesty's Council, and the Honourable House of
Representatives, of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, May 25th. 1763. Being the
anniversary for the election of His Majesty's Council for said province. By Thomas Barnard, A.M. Pastor of
the First Church in Salem. Boston: Richard Draper, 1763.

68

Long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast
themselves. They break in pieces thy people, O Lord and afflict thine heritage.
They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say the
Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. – Ps. XCIV

But perhaps Revere consulted the entirety of Psalm 94 as he copied Pelham’s image.
While it opens in tones of lament, the psalm concludes with the same sentiment Revere
struck in his composition:
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee,
which frameth mischief by a law?
They gather themselves together against the soul of
the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge.
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their
own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off

Paul Revere and Henry Pelham would chart entirely different courses through the coming
revolution. Revere would continue as a champion of American Independence, his ultimate fame
as a patriot hero secured in 1860, when the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned a poem,
Paul Revere’s Ride, taking literary license to dramatize the role played by Revere in spreading
word of the coming war through the Massachusetts countryside on April 18, 1775. Pelham
would remain loyal to the British crown, abandoning Boston for England in 1776 and dying in
Ireland 30 years later.
103
Upon learning that young men had died at the hands of British soldiers
in March, 1770, however, Pelham and Revere reacted in much the same way. They also shared a
spiritual conviction: whatever the outcome of the coming public trial, the judgment in the matter
of the tragedy on King Street would ultimately belong to God, and this judgment would be right
and true.

103
For a biography of Pelham, see: John William Wilkes, A Whig in Power: The Political Career of Henry
Pelham (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964), 298..

69

*****

The spread of Reformation movements across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries provoked an unprecedented commitment to the education of the young.
104
The value
placed by leading reformers on the printed word, and especially their belief that the faithful
should have access to the Bible in their vernacular tongues, inspired an array of catechetical
innovations. Reform-minded Christians in England and New England were very much a part of
this broader movement, and – especially as translations of the Bible in common English became
more and more widely available in the seventeenth century – many began to teach their children
to read at the earliest possible age.
105
They also taught their very young that they might be
called soon to their deaths; and that if they were so called, theirs could prove important deaths,
deaths that would be meaningful in the eyes of others and meaningful in the eyes of God.
Over time, English-speaking Christians shaped by this reformation ethos came to self-
identify by a host of names – dissenting, non-conforming, puritan, congregational,
Presbyterian, each bearing subtly different connotations.
106
They shared, however, a deep

104
Philippe Ariès, CENTURIES OF CHILDHOODAFLRED A. KNOPF, 1962), 447,
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.usc.edu/docview/60608240?accountid=14749., 411-412.
According to Ariès: “This preoccupation [with childhood] was unknown to medieval civilization …
because as soon as he had been weaned, or soon after, the child became the natural companion of the
adult … The great event was therefore the revival, at the beginning of modern times, of an interest in
education. This affected a certain number of churchmen, lawyers and scholars, few in number in the
fifteen century, but increasingly numerous and influential in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
when they merged with the advocates of religious reform.”
105
James Raven, The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade, 1450-1850 (New Haven
Conn. ; London: Yale University Press, 2007), 493., pp. 34ff.
106
The terms colonial Americans used to describe their religious identities and affiliations were
sometimes theological or philosophical (Calvinist, Arminian, Anabaptist, New Light, Deist, etc.),
sometimes denominational or factional (Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Quaker, Methodist, etc.), and
sometimes reference positions on a spectrum of ecclesiastical disobedience (nonconforming, dissenting,
separatist). Sometimes adherents of these theological and ecclesial movements clustered neatly into

70

mistrust of the hierarchs of the Church of England and a visceral enmity to the Roman Catholic
Church and its prelate, the Pope. In the English-speaking world, the most celebrated print
expression of this foundational anti-Catholic sentiment was John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments
of These Latter and Perilous Days, touching matters of the Church.
107
First published in 1563,
what came to be known as simply Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, was inspired by the over 280
instances of Protestants being burned at the stake during the brief, five year rule of England’s
Catholic Queen Mary I (1553-1558), a reign of terror for which her opponents nicknamed her
“Bloody Mary.”
108
Foxe crafted his tales as substitutes for the Roman Catholic legends of the
medieval saints, piling them one on top of the next, casting them always against a scriptural
backdrop. Among the most familiar profiles was that of William Tyndale, famously burned at
the stake by King Henry VIII in 1536 for translating the Bible into English. Foxe attributed to
Tyndale the dying words, “Lord – open the King of England’s eyes,” conjuring countless
stories from scripture.
109

Unwavering in his portrayal of martyrs like Tyndale as “witnesses to the truth,” Foxe

alliances that look to modern observers like contemporary battles between “religious right” and “secular
left,” but they did not cluster this way neatly or consistently.
107
Foxe, John. Actes and monuments. London: John Day, 1563. As Brad S. Gregory summarizes: "John
Foxe's Acts and Monuments, first printed in 1563 (following his two Latin contributions to the genre),
went through nine folio editions by 1684, including six by 1610. Jean Crespin's martyrology [L’histoire
des vrays tesmoins] was published in some form at least thirty-seven times, beginning with thirteen
installments and editions in French between 1554 and 1563. Adriane van Haemsted's History of the
Death of the Devout Martyrs was published in Dutch twenty-three times from 1590 through 1671 …
Catholic Europe, too, was awash in martyrological literature." Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian
Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe, 528., 3.
108
Janes and Houen put the number of burnings under Mary at 284. Janes and Houen, Martyrdom and
Terrorism: Pre-Modern to Contemporary Perspectives, p. 63
109
John N. King, Foxe's Book of Martyrs and Early Modern Print Culture (Cambridge ; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2006), 351., p. xi. For an example of the scriptural references conjured by
this story see, to cite just one example, Isaiah 42:2 -12.

71

drew explicit connection between his accounts and the stories of early Christian martyrs, like
Papylus and Carpus, who were portrayed as emulating the crucifixion of Christ himself as they
were tortured and crucified by the Roman proconsul of Pergamum near the year 170:
First of all Papylus was nailed to a stake and lifted up, and after the fire was
brought near he prayed in peace and gave up his soul. After him Carpus smiled as
he was nailed down. And the bystanders were amazed and said to him, “What are
you laughing at?” And the blessed one said, “I saw the glory of the Lord and I
was happy. Besides I am now rid of you and have no share in your sins.” A
soldier piled up wood and lit it, and the saintly Carpus said to him as he was
hanging: “We too were born of the same mother Eve, and we have the same flesh.
Let us endure all things looking forward to the judgment seat of truth.” After he
had said this, as the fire came close he prayed aloud saying, “Blessed are you,
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, because you thought me, a sinner, worthy of
having this share in you!” And with these words he gave up his spirit.
110

In another of his most familiar stories, Foxe portrayed the English Bishops Nicholas Ridley and
Hugh Latimer as exchanging these words while being burned on a pyre at the instruction of the
Tudor Queen “Bloody Mary” in 1555:
Then brought they a fagot kindled with fire, and layd the same downe at D. Ridleys feete.
To whome Maister Latymer spake in this maner: Be of good comfort maister Ridley,
and play the man: wee shall this day light such a candle by Gods grace in England, as (I
trust) shall neuer be put out.
111

The exhortation Foxe attributed to Latimer echoed precisely the account of the martyrdom of
Polycarp, one of the early Christian martyrs Foxe heralded in his “first Booke conteyning the
first persecutions of the Primitiue Churche”:
And when there was such vprore in the place of execution, that he could not be heard but
of a very few, there came a voyce from heauen to Polycarpus,Marginaliaas he was going
into the Stage or appointed place of iudgement, saying: be of good cheare Polycarpus and

110
Foxe, John. Acts and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable happening in the Church
with an vniuersall historie of the same : wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the
church from the primitiue age to these later times of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and
great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ ... now againe as it was recognised, perused,
and recommended to the studious reader. London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1632, p. 27.
111
John Foxe, The Unabridged Acts and Monuments Online or TAMO (1583 edition) (HRI Online
Publications, Sheffield, 2011). Available from: http//www.johnfoxe.org [Accessed: 02.22.17], p. 1794.

72

play the man. No man there was, which saw him that spake, but very many of vs heard
his voice.
112

This phrasing would prove sufficiently popular that it would shape the 1611 version of the Bible
that came to be known as the King James version, appearing in two places. In the second book of
Samuel, Joab challenged his fellow Israelites with these words as they prepared for battle against
the Syrians: “Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our
God …” (2 Samuel 10:12, KJV); and in the account of the Maccabean revolt as found in the
deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees, the elder Mattathias exhorts young Jewish rebels with
these words: “Wherefore you my sonnes be valiant, and shew your selues men in the behalfe of
the law, for by it shall you obtaine glory…” (1 Maccabees 2:64, KJV)
With an unending stream of tales like these, Foxe conjured a martyrological tradition
dating back to the earliest days of Protestant opposition in England and beyond that to the very
foundations of the Christian tradition. Foxe marked the transition from ancient examples of
martyrdom to present-day histories of ordinary people like “Wylliam Taylor an Englishman,”
who was burned at the pyre for his faith, with this note “To the gentle Reader,”:
When as it hath of long time been received and thought of the common people
(gentle reader) that this religion now generally used hathe sprong up and risen but
of late ... we have thought good at this present to advertise thee how that not only
the actes and monuments heretofore passed, but also histories hereafter following,
that manifest and declare that this profession of Christes religion hathe bene

112
John Foxe, The Unabridged Acts and Monuments Online or TAMO (1583 edition) (HRI Online
Publications, Sheffield, 2011). Available from: http//www.johnfoxe.org [Accessed: 02.22.17], p. 65. The
source of Foxe’s account was Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History: “When the hour for departure had come,
they set him on an donkey and led him into the city on a great Sabbath. Herod, the chief of police, and
his father Nicetes met him and transferred him to their carriage. Sitting beside him, they tried to
persuade him: 'What harm is there in saying "Lord Caesar" and sacrificing - and so be saved?' At first he
did not answer them, but when they persisted, he said, 'I will not do what you advise.' … When Polycarp
entered the stadium, a voice from heaven said, 'Be strong and play the man, Polycarp!' No one saw the
speaker, but many of our people who were there heard the voice." See Pauline Maier, From Resistance
to Revolution; Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776
(New York: Vintage Books, 1974; 1972), 318, xxvi., p. 156.

73

spread abrode in England across the space of almost of CC [two hundred] yeres,
yea and before that time, hath oftentimes sparkled although the flames thereof
have never so perfectly burnt out ....
113

In multiple and ever-expanding editions of his Acts and Monuments, Foxe and the printers who
abridged, appended, altered and promulgated his work staked their claim to this spiritual
inheritance, and sought to demonstrate that the Protestant martyrs, not the Roman Catholic
saints, had inherited the true faith.
Foxe’s martyrology would remain among the most widely printed books in the English
language for over two centuries. The Book of Martyrs went through four folio editions before
Foxe’s death in 1587 (1563,1570, 1576, 1583), each more expansive and elaborate than the one
before, but its reach grew exponentially in the ensuing century as it passed into the hands of
other printers. Two more unabridged editions were published by 1610, at which time publication
rights for the work were retained by the London Company of Stationers, affording wide access to
both Foxe’s text and its famous woodcuts. Three more complete editions were printed by 1684,
but more affordable abridgements by Clement Cotton, Thomas Mason and John Taylor made its
contents available to the widest possible audience of English-language readers. Cotton's 240-
page The Mirror of Martyrs alone went through at least nine editions – and an unknown number
of print-runs – between its first publication in 1613 and 1685.
114

113
Foxe, John. Actes and monuments. London: John Day, 1563, pp. 154-157.
114
For the most detailed account of this extraordinary literary legacy, see King, Foxe's Book of Martyrs
and Early Modern Print Culture, 351., pp. 133ff.

74

FIGURE 2.3
A Note “To the gentle Reader” from John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
John Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs” combined narrative accounts and woodcut illustrations of
Protestant martyrs, along with interpretive comments throughout.

Foxe, John. Acts and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable happening in the
Church with an vniuersall historie of the same …
(London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1632, p. 347)

75

In John N. King’s estimation, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs came to “exert a greater influence
upon the consciousness of early modern England and New England than any other book aside
from the English Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.”
115
This influence is most clearly seen
in the work of generations of Protestant clergy, who collaborated with printers to couple printed
sermons with detailed accounts of deaths. Like other orations from the period, sermons
delivered at funerals, interments, executions and memorials routinely included a great variety of
material – poems, aphorisms, quotations and allusions drawn from scripture, devotional and
liturgical material, and so on. By concluding their sermons with vivid portrayals of episodes
from the deaths of the deceased – or by appending these portrayals to their printed sermons –
clergy from across the spectrum of Anglo-American Protestantism connected their loved ones’
deaths to this age-old tradition of noble dying, effectively writing and printing them into the
enduring legacy of English-language martyrology.
Among the most prolific practitioners of this craft in early colonial America were the
Mathers – Increase, Cotton and Samuel – who together presided over Boston’s Second Church
(the “Old North Church”) from 1664 to 1741. Cotton Mather’s lifetime literary product –
estimated to have consisted of over 600 books, one of the most voluminous diaries surviving
from the colonial era, sermons delivered across over 40 years of pastoral ministry, countless
poems, incessant correspondence, and a monumental, never-published commentary on the Bible
called the “Biblia Americana” – has long been one of the most treasured resources in the study of
colonial New England.
116
What Karen Halttunen has said of Mather’s Magnalia Christi

115
Ibid., xi.
116
E. Jennifer Monaghan, "Family Literacy in Early 18th-Century Boston: Cotton Mather and His
Children," Reading Research Quarterly 26, no. 4 (Autumn, 1991): 342-370., p. 350.

76

Americana – the sprawling and byzantine seven-volume project in which Mather attempted to
summarize “The Ecclesiastical History of New England” – is an apt summation of the entire
corpus: the works were “bound together by one dominant theme: the personal suffering of New
England’s greatest saints, the communal suffering of the New England people, and the
martyrdom of Cotton Mather himself.”
117

Some scholars have seen the fanatical preoccupations of Puritan ministers like Cotton
Mather as a form of psychological withdrawal from the very suffering they so assiduously
chronicled. In this view – often associated with their participation in the witch trials of late
seventeenth century – Puritan clerics like Mather came to occupy an obsessive-compulsive, even
delusional, world of phobia and paranoia. More commonly, modern interpreters see orthodox
Puritan theology as having produced a perfect, self-perpetuating feedback loop of emotional
angst, first generating unrealistic expectations, both personal and collective, and then declaring
the suffering resultant from inevitable failure to be “akin to godliness.” Indeed, it does seem
clear that Mather – who inherited a pastoral calling not just from his father, Increase, but also
from his paternal grandfather Robert Mather and his namesake maternal grandfather John Cotton
– felt personally responsible for the fate of the Puritan experiment in the New World.
118
Neither
was he alone among his contemporaries in perceiving this experiment to be suffering a grand,
even epochal, decline. In this light, it is understandable that so many modern scholars have been

117
Karen Halttunen, "Cotton Mather and the Meaning of Suffering in the Magnalia Christi Americana,"
Journal of American Studies 12 (1978): 311-329,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/53839435?accountid=14749., p 314.
118
Butler argues that contrary to Cotton Mather’s “well-known (and well-justified) fears, the story of
religion in America after 1700 is one of Christian ascension rather than declension – Christianization
rather than dechristianization – and of a Christianity so complex and heterogeneous as to baffle
observers and adherents alike.” Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, 360.,
p. 2.

77

content to imagine Mather and his peers trundling off each day to their personal libraries – with
3000 volumes, Mather’s was the largest in early colonial America
119
– to engage in a form of
literary self-flagellation.
But little psychoanalysis is required of English-speakers living at turn-of-the-18
th
-century
America if, instead, they are simply understood to be struggling with the incessant and
immediate threat of death. Consider Cotton Mather’s personal experience: preceded in death by
three wives, Mather fathered fourteen children, but seven died in infancy, one at the age of two,
and of the six who reached adulthood, five died in their twenties.
120
Samuel Mather, who
succeeded his father in the pulpit, was the only one of Cotton’s fourteen offspring to live past his
father’s death in 1728. In the particularly cruel fall of 1713, measles swept through the city of
Boston, and within a few short weeks Mather lost his second wife, Elizabeth, her recently
delivered twins, a maid servant from the household and his two-year-old daughter, Jerusha.
Mather described it in his diary as the “Month which devoured my family,” and penned for his
“pretty little Daughter” both a tombstone epitaph – “Gone, but not lost” – and a poem with this
first stanza:
The dearest Lord of heaven gave
Himself an offering once for me:
The dearest thing on earth I have,
Now, Lord, I'll offer unto Thee.
121

Little wonder that Mather – faced with this experience of sustained and repeated loss, and
convinced that nothing less than the eternal salvation of his loved ones and readers was at stake –

119
Monaghan, Family Literacy in Early 18th-Century Boston: Cotton Mather and His Children, 342-370.,
p. 348
120
Cited in Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change, p. 56.
121
Cited in Monaghan, Family Literacy in Early 18th-Century Boston: Cotton Mather and His Children,
342-370., p. 357.

78

was anxious to assert that England’s martyrological inheritance had survived the passage to the
New World.
The inspiration for a great proportion of Mather’s astonishing literary production can be
traced to the deaths of relatives, parishioners and clerical colleagues. Of the 80 or so surviving
Mather poems, for instance, at least two dozen were occasioned by the deaths of relatives and
friends – “On the Death of a Son,” “Go, then, my dove, no longer mine” – and other intimates –
“Some offers to Embalm the Memory of the truly reverend and renowned JOHN WILSON;”
“Lamentations for the Death, and Loss of the every way admirable Mr. URIAN OAKES,” “An
ELEGY Upon the DEATH of Mrs. MARY BROWN; Who Dyed in Travail, (with her Unborn
Child),” and so on.
122
And of the 80 sermons published by Mather that can now be found in the
digital archive, twenty can be readily identified as “funeral sermons,” and of these half were
printed together with a separately-titled account of the departed’s death.
123

122
Mather, Cotton. Maternal consolations. An essay on, the consolations of God; whereof, a man whom
his mother comforteth, receives a shadow; and all the children of God, enjoy the substance. Made on the
death of Mrs. Maria Mather, the consort of the Reverend Dr. Increase Mather, and the daughter of the
renowned Mr. John Cotton, who expired on, 4 d. 2 m. 1714. In the seventy third year of her age. By
Cotton Mather, D.D. & F.R.S. and a son of the deceased gentlewoman. [Three lines from II Corinthians].
Boston: Printed by T. Fleet, for Samuel Gerrish, 1714.
Mather, Cotton. Memoria Wilsoniana. Or, Some dues unto the memory of the truly Reverend &
renowned Mr. John Wilson, the first Pastor of Boston: who expired August. 7. 1667. Aged, 79. Paid by
Cotton Mather. [Two lines of Latin quotation]. Boston: Michael Perry, 1695.
Mather, Cotton. A poem dedicated to the memory of the Reverend and excellent Mr. Urian Oakes, the
late pastor to Christ's flock, and praesident of Harvard-Colledge, in Cambridge. Who was gathered to his
people on 25d 5mo 1681. In the fifty'th year of his age. [Seven lines of quotations] Boston: John Ratcliff,
1682.
Mather. Cotton. Eureka. The vertuous woman found. A short essay on the memory of Mrs. Mary Brown,
late consort of Benjamin Brown Esq. in Salem. [Three lines from Ruth III]. Boston: Printed by
Bartholomew Green, 1704.
123
See Appendix B. Included in these are: A devout and humble enquiry into the reasons of the divine
council in the death of good men (Boston: Thomas Fleet, 1715); A brief enquiry into the reasons why the
people of God have been wont to bring into their penitential confessions (Boston: Thomas Fleet, 1716);
The death of God's saints precious in his sight (Boston: Bartholomew Green, 1723); The prophet's death

79

This Boston tradition of publishing funeral sermons and accounts of deaths extended
through the eighteenth century and beyond. So, for example, of the fifty-five surviving sermons
published by Benjamin Colman, pastor of Boston’s Brattle Street Church from 1699 until shortly
before his death in 1747, fifteen were occasioned by funerals, interments, or executions and five
of these included separately-titled accounts of deaths. And of the 22 surviving sermons of
Samuel Stillman – who from 1765 until the time of his death in 1807 was the pastor of Boston’s
First Baptist Church – six were occasioned by funerals, interments or executions. Among these,
three are of distinctive (if not extraordinary) character. The year after the death of his own
mother in South Carolina in 1767, Stillman preached a sermon in her honor in Boston, an extra-
ordinary tribute.
124
Stillman’s 1773 collection of two sermons “occasioned by the condemnation
and execution of Levi Ames … a Penitent Thief,” ran through (at least) four editions and an
unknown number of printings in the hands of two Boston printers, John Kneeland and Ezekiel
Russell.
125
Kneeland’s imprint of the sermons included a striking cover in a “tombstone” format,
topped by a “death’s head” image of a skull. That this format was chosen by a Boston printer in
the year 1773 offers striking evidence that motifs related to death and dying remained a part of
American print culture straight through the revolutionary era. (See Figure 2.4) And in 1776,
Stillman preached a sermon, “Death, the last enemy destroyed by Christ,” before the Continental
Congress upon the death of one of its members, the Rhode Island delegate Samuel Ward. (see

lamented and improved (Boston: Thomas Fleet, 1723); The faithful ministers of Christ mindful of their
own death (Boston: Daniel Henchman, 1729); Dying in peace in a good old age (Boston: Samuel
Kneeland, 1730).

124
Stillman, Samuel. A sermon occasioned by the decease of Mrs. Mary Stillman (Boston: Philip
Freeman, 1768).
125
Stillman, Samuel. Two sermons occasioned by the condemnation and execution of Levi Ames (Boston:
John Kneeland, 1773, 1773; Boston: Ezekiel Russell, 1773, second edition; 1773, fourth edition);

80

Figure 2.5).
In his sermon to the Continental Congress, Stillman consoled his listeners at the loss of
their colleague, and counseled them that their “strongest Consolation, under this heavy
Affliction, must arise from the Confidence You have, That He is now with God; in whose
Presence is Fulness of Joy: And at whose Right Had are Pleasures forever.” But he also
encouraged them to find satisfaction by placing the loss of Ward within a longer sweep of
death’s devastation and within a still-accessible lineage of noble responses to it:
Sometimes [the grand destroyer, death] acts with a mores sparing hand; at other
times he threatens totally to depopulate. In 1665, it was thought there died of the
plague, in the city of London¸ sixty-eight thousand persons; and in a single week
of that time, not less than seven thousand one hundred and sixty-five persons.
And what havoc he has made amonst us! – Crowds on crowds unnumbered, who
once appeared in life to great advantage, after having served their generation,
have fallen asleep. Among the band of WORTHIES, whom death’s rapacious
hand hath snatched from the bosom of their friends and country, we place, with
deepest sorrow, a WARREN, that Proto-Martyr to the Liberties of America – a
MONTGOMERY – a MACPHERSON – a CHEESMAN – a HENDRICKS; -
with all those worthy heroes, who have fought and bled, and died in freedom’s
glorious cause. – To the venerable catalogue, with deep felt anguish, I am forced
to place the honorable name of RANDOLPH, that distinguished patriot, and
friend to God and man. For the loss of whom, we have scarce had time to dry our
weeping eyes, before all the avenues of grief again are opened, by the present
mournful providence, the untimely death of the no less honorable WARD; over
whose remains, with undissembled sorrow, we now perform the solemn
obsequies! – Thus death destroys, - or WARD had still lived to bless his family,
to serve his country, and make the people happy. – But stop my soul! – It was
heaven ordained the blow by which he finished life; and therefore it must be
right!
126

126
Stillman, Samuel. Death, the last enemy, destroyed by Christ. Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1776,
pp. iv, 14-15.

81

FIGURE 2.4
John Kneeland’s imprint of Samuel Stillman’s two sermons (1773)
The tombstone format on the cover of John Kneeland’s imprint of Samuel Stillman’s two
sermons memorializing Levi Ames demonstrates that motifs related to death and dying
remained a part of American print culture straight through the revolutionary era. I venture that
most historians of early America would guess that this piece was published in the early
eighteenth century (if not the late seventeenth).

Stillman, Samuel. Two Sermons, Occasioned by
the Condemnation and Execution of Levi Ames
(Boston: John Kneeland, 1773)

82

FIGURE 2.5
Samuel Stillman’s Memorial Sermon to the Continental Congress (1776)

The long-standing tradition of the funeral sermon was embraced by members of the
Continental Congress, who invited Boston’s Samuel Stillman to memorialize their fallen
colleague, Samuel Ward, in March, 1776.

Stillman, Samuel. Death, the Last Enemy
(Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1776)

83

*****

Cotton Mather embraced and extended another longstanding tradition of English
martyrology, the tradition of compiling tales from the deathbeds of children. First published in
1673, the book commonly referred to as Janeway’s Token was the dissenting Anglican
clergyman James Janeway’s attempt to reach young readers with the same message he was
successfully communicating to an adult audience through essays and funeral sermons.
127
(See
Figure 2.6) Subtitled “Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives,
and Joyful Deaths, of several young Children,” Janeway’s Token offered young readers
something analogous to Foxe’s chronicles of adult martyrdom.
128
The first edition included six
accounts, organized in numbered paragraphs, each presenting an episode in the child’s life and
together comprising a brief biography. The accounts, or “Examples,” moved quickly to the
matter at hand, and – whatever their conduct before falling ill – the subjects became holy as they
approached their deaths, died happily, and went on to heaven.

Janeway’s very first account, entirely representative of the others, was “Of one eminently
converted between Eight and Nine years old, with an account of her Life and Death.” A
protracted illness at the age of fourteen took her repeatedly to the edge of death, giving her ample

127
Janeway, James. A token for children The second part. Being a farther account of the conversion, holy
and exemplary lives, and joyful deaths of several other young children, not published in the first part. By
James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel. London: printed for D. Newman, 1673. Janeway’s Token was
published over two dozen times in New England in the middle decades of the 18
th
century, and by the
end of the century had been published over a dozen times in Philadelphia, as well.
128
Mather, Cotton, and James Janeway. A token, for the children of new-england. or, some examples of
children, in whom the fear of god was remarkably budding, before they dyed; in several parts of new-
england. Boston, in N.E.: Printed by Timothy Green, for Benjamin Eliot, at his shop, under the west-end
of the Town House., 1700.

84

opportunity to demonstrate her faith and her preparedness to die:
32. Upon Friday, after she had had such lively discoveries of Gods [sic] love, she
was exceeding desirous to die, and cryed out, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly
conduct me to thy Tabernacle; I am a poor creature without thee: but Lord Jesus,
my soul belongs to be with thee: O when shall it be? Why not now, dear Jesus?
Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, but why do I speak thus? Thy time dear Lord is
best; O give me patience.
Her death “on the Lords Day” did the same:
34. … she scarce spoke any thing, but much desired that Bills of Thanksgiving
might be sent to those who had formerly been praying for her, that they might
help her to praise God for that full assurance that he had given her of his love; and
seemed to be much swallowed up with the thoughts of Gods free love to her Soul.
She oft commended her spirit into the Lords hands, and the last words she was
heard to speak, were these, Lord help, Lord Jesus help, Dear Jesus, Blessed Jesus
--- and thsu upon the Lords Day, between Nine and Ten of the Clock in the
Forenoon, she slept sweetly in Jesus, and began an everlasting Sabbath, February
19, 1670.
129

129
James Janeway, A Token for Children: Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary
Lives, and Joyful Deaths, of several young Children. London: Printed for Doman Newman, 1676, pp. 16-
18.

85

FIGURE 2.6
Janeway’s Token as analogue to adult material (1676)
This 1676 edition of “Janeway’s Token” shows how the compendium of tales from the
deathbeds of faithful children served as an analogue to the kind of catechesis that adults were
expected to receive through sermon and essays addressing the subject matter of death.

Janeway, James. A Token for Children.
(London: Printed for Dorman Newman, 1676)

86

Before he shared these stories with his young readers, though, Janeway offered extended
introductory advice “To all Parents, School-masters and School-Mistresses, or any that have any
hand in the Education of Children,” and he also admonished young readers with “A Preface:
Containing Directions to Children.” The preface spanned 13 pages of the small book and
consisted principally of catechetical questions like these:
… 8. Did you never hear of a little Child that died? And if other Children die,
why may not you be sick and die? And what will you do then, Child, if you
should have no grace in your heart and be found like other naughty children?
9. How do you know but that you may be the next Child that may die? And
where are you then, if you be not God’s Child?
What to the modern reader seems a cruel mix of scolding torment and maudlin sentiment was
embraced by Puritan families on both sides of the Atlantic for its presentation to children of
sound advice connecting their earthly conduct to their eternal salvation: “Resolve to continue in
well-doing all your dayes,” Rev. Janeway counseled his young readers, “then you shall be one of
those sweet little ones that Christ will take into his Arms, and bless, and give a Kingdom, Crown
and Glory.”
130

Janeway’s Token met with sufficient response that a second and expanded edition was
published in 1676, offering Janeway’s readers yet more tales from the deathbed, as did his
subsequent work, A Token for Mariners containing “many famous and wonderful instances of
God’s providence in sea dangers and deliverances.”
131
By the time the second and expanded

130
James Janeway, A Token for Children: Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary
Lives, and Joyful Deaths, of several young Children. London: Printed for Doman Newman, 1676, pp. 14,
18.
131
Janeway, James, 1698. A token for mariners containing many famous and wonderful instances of
God's providence in sea dangers and deliverances, in mercifully preserving the lives of his poor creatures,
when, in humane probability, at the point of perishing by shipwrack, famine, or other accidents. much
enlarg'd, with the addition of many new relations, one whereof happening this present year, and never
before printed. Mostly attested by the persons themselves. Also The seaman's preacher, being a sermon

87

edition of A Token for Children went to press, critics had called into question the veracity of
Janeway’s accounts.
132
In the preface to his supplemental material, he chose to address these
doubts by conjuring once more the direct lineage of his subjects to England’s age-old
martyrological tradition:
Doth not credible History acquaint us with a Martyr at seven years old, that was
whipped almost to death, and never shed one tear nor complained, and at last had
his Head struck off? I do not speak of these as common matters, but record them
amongst those stupendious Acts of him that can easily work Wonders as not …
And lest the reference be lost on his readers, the first supplemental account – “Of a child that
was very serious at four years old, with an Account of his comfortable Death when he was
twelve years and three weeks old” – included this telltale biographical detail: “7. He was hugely
taken with the reading of the Book of Martyrs, and would be ready to leave his Dinner to go to
his Book.”
133

Until the revolutionary war disrupted transatlantic commerce, including the transatlantic
market in books, most “steady-sellers” found their way into the hands of New England readers
exclusively by way of importation. Janeway’s Token, however, came to be re-printed in North
America as early as 1700, when Cotton Mather collaborated with the Boston printer Timothy
Green to produce a version that was supplemented by Mather’s own collection of tales from the
deathbed of New England children.
134
Introducing his contribution to Janeway’s martyrology,

on the right improvement of such mercies. And prayers for seamen on all occasions. London: printed by
Hugh Newman, and sold at his shop at the Grashopper in the Poultry, 1698.
132
For another excellent summary of Janeway’s Token see: Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study
in Religion, Culture, and Social Change, 44ff.
133
James Janeway, A Token for Children: Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary
Lives, and Joyful Deaths, of several young Children. London: Printed for Doman Newman, 1676,
supplemental p. 4.
134
Mather, Cotton, and James Janeway. A token, for the children of new-england. or, some examples of
children, in whom the fear of god was remarkably budding, before they dyed; in several parts of new-
england. Boston, in N.E.: Printed by Timothy Green, for Benjamin Eliot, at his shop, under the west-end

88

Mather expressed concern that the children of New England know that “they will be condemned,
not only by the Examples of Pious Children in other parts of the World, the Publish’d and
Printed Accounts whereof have been brought over hither,” but also by “Exemplary Children in
the midst of New England it self, that will Rise up against them for their Condemnation.” As a
first example proving that the faithfulness Janeway had documented in England was attainable
also in New England, Mather offered an account of John Clap of Scituate, who was “little more
then Thirteen years Old … when he Dy’d.” According to Mather, the young master Clap “began
to seek after the God of his Father” when he was “yet Young,” and was blessed “about a Year
and a half before he Dyed … with yet more thorow Conviction of his Misery by reason of Sin,
both Original, and Actual; whence tho he had been such a Pattern of Innocency, yet he would
aggravate his own Sinfulness, with Lamentations extraordinary.” A week before he died “He
told his Mother, I Love you as dearly as my own Life, yet I had rather Dy, and be with Christ.”
And then the march to death:
He continued Six Days, with his Teeth so shut as that they could not be opened;
and for the first Three Days and Nights, he took no Sustenance; afterwards,
though this but seldom, he sucked in between his Teeth, nothing but a little Cold
Water: in which Time, they that laid their Ears to his Lips, could over-hear him
continually Expressing his Comfort in God. But just before his Death, his teeth
were opened; when he would often say, “Oh! How precious is the Blood of
Christ, it is worth more than a Thousand Worlds! And at last, he give himself to
God, in those words, Jesus receive my Spirit.”
Mather cited as his sources “the Account Written and Printed, by Mr. Witheril, and Mr. Baker
Minsters of Scituate; and Prefac’d by Mr. Urian Oakes, who takes that Occasion to say, of this
John Clap, He was a Young Old Man, full of Grace, though not full of Days.”
135

of the Town House., 1700.
135
Janeway, James and Cotton Mather. A token for children. Being an exact account of the conversion,
holy and exemplary lives and joyful deaths of several young children. By James Janeway Minister of the
Gospel. To which is added, A token for the children of New-England. Or, Some examples of children, in

89

James Janeway’s Token for Children was printed over two dozen times in New England
in the middle decades of the 18th-century – almost always with Mather’s tales appended – and
editions with supplemental accounts from other New Englanders continued to be published at
least through the 1770s. (See Figure 2.7) By the end of the century it had also been published in
Newark, New Jersey, New York, and over a dozen times in Philadelphia. Like Foxe’s Book of
Martyrs before it, Janeway’s Token became a living document, as English-speaking residents of
England’s North American colonies continued to write themselves and their children into an
ever-unfolding martyrological tradition.

whom the fear of God was remarkably budding before they dyed; in several parts of New-England.
Preserved and published for the encouragement of piety in other children. With new additions. Boston in
New-England: Printed for D. Henchman, over-against the Brick Meeting-House in Cornhill., 1728, pp.
86ff.

90

FIGURE 2.7
Janeway’s Token as a hand-me-down (1771)
This 1771 edition of “Janeway’s Token” shows how “new additions” continued to expand this
collaborative work of martyrology, straight through to the revolutionary era.

Janeway, James. A Token for Children
(Boston: Z. Fowle, 1771)

91

*****

Janeway’s Token and Cotton Mather’s supplement of it exemplified the literary and
catechetical traditions which encouraged young readers of Puritan stock to prepare themselves
for death, but New England parents did not wait until their children could read on their own to
introduce them to their martyrological inheritance.
136
No book beyond the Bible was more
widely distributed in colonial America than the New England Primer, prints of which Jerome
Griswold has estimated at six million between 1680 and 1830.
137
Designed for parents to
introduce both basic literacy and moral instruction to their children, the Primer is perhaps most
famous for the pictured alphabet with accompanying rhymes that began with “In Adam’s fall /
We sinned all.” (See Figure 2.8) Representative of the entire content of the Reader, this alphabet
demanded that young New Englanders confront their own mortality, as suggested by the rhymes
accompanying these letters:
G – As runs the Glass, Man’s life doth pass. …
R – Rachel doth mourn For her first born. …
T – Time cuts down all, Both great and small. …
X – Xerxes the great did die, And so must you and I.
Y – Youth’s forward slips, Death soonest nips.

136
See: Kathleen Connery Fitzgibbons, "A History of the Evolution of the Didactic Literature for Puritan
Children in America, 1656-1856" (Ed.D., University of Massachusetts), .. While its entire provenance is
not known, the New England Primer was most directly adapted from Benjamin Harris’s primer called the
“Protestant Tutor,” first published in Boston sometime before 1686. Ford, Paul Leicester. The New
England Primer. A History of Its Origin and Development. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1897. Cited in
“A Famous Book – The ‘New England Primer,’” New York Times, November 14, 1897. Downloaded from:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-
free/pdf?res=9D02E1D81330E333A25757C1A9679D94669ED7CF
137
Ibid., p. 119.

92

FIGURE 2.8
Excerpt from Alphabet of New England Primer (1746)
The content of The New England Primer challenged young readers to confront their mortality
through a variety of material, including a pictured alphabet.

The New-England primer improved.
(Boston: Gamaliel Rogers, 1746)

93

Almost all editions of the New England Primer included standard catechetical material like the
Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Westminster Short Catechism. Most also
included selections from Isaac Watts’s popular collection of children’s songs, and this prayer,
arguably the most familiar prayer in the English language beyond the Lord’s Prayer:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I shall die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
138

Generations of New England children went to bed each night with a prayer emphasizing they
might not survive to see the next morning, and inviting them to ponder what kind of death they
ought aspire to die.
Formal catechetical material presented in the form of questions and answers – most
commonly the Assembly of Divines Catechism and some variation on John Cotton’s Milk for
Babes – was typically appended to the Primer. Puritan catechisms promoted a distinct
interpretation of the Bible by taking their readers through a series of doctrinal questions and
answers in a format which encouraged memorization. The catechisms drove their young readers
relentlessly to the doctrine of the final judgment, as found, for instance, in the concluding
questions of John Cotton’s A Spiritual Milk for American Babes, one of the earliest examples of
the genre:
Q. What is the judgment, which is sealed up to you in the Lord’s supper?
A. At the last day we shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to
give an account of our works, and receive our reward according to them.
Q. What is the reward that shall then be given?
A. The righteous shall go into life eternal, and the wicked shall be cast into
everlasting fire with the Devil and his angels.
139

138
The New-England primer improved. For the more easy attaining the true reading of English. To which
is added, the Assembly of Divines catechism. Boston, MA: 1750, p. 20.
139
The New-England primer improved. For the more easy attaining the true reading of English. To which
is added, the Assembly of Divines catechism. Boston, MA: 1750, p. 38

94

If the concluding catechisms intended for older, more mature children represented
something of a supplement to The New England Primer, the essential material aimed at early
readers concluded in almost every edition with an excerpt from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs,
sometimes labeled simply “martyrology.” The martyr most commonly featured was “Mr. John
Rogers, Minister of the Gospel in London … the first Martyr in Queen Mary’s Reign, and was
burnt at Smithfield, February 12
th
, 1552.” These renderings of Rogers’s martyrdom invariably
included details of his family, approximating the account rendered in the Book of Martyrs: “His
Wife, with nine small children, and one at Her Breast, following Him to the Stake, with which
sorrowful Sight He was not the least daunted, but with wonderful Patience died courageously for
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Rogers was also typically presented as having left “Advice to his
Children,” which The Primer presented to its young readers in the form of a poem, often
spanning several pages. The poem posed to New England children the essential challenge of
whether they would prepare themselves adequately for their death. It concluded:
… When I am chained to the Stake,
And Faggots gird me round,
Then pray the LORD by Soul in Heav’n
May be with Glory Crown’d,
Come welcome Death, the end of Fears,
I am prepared to die,
Those earthly Flames will send my Soul
Up to the LORD on high.
Farewel my Children to the World,
Where you must yet remain,
The LORD of Hoss be your Defence,
‘till we do meet again.
Farewel my true and loving Wife,
My Children and my Friends.
I hope in Heaven to see you all,
When all Things have their Ends,
If you go on to serve the Lord,
As you have now begun,
You shall walk safely all your Days,
Until your Life be done.

95

God grant you so to end your Days,
As he shall think it best,
That I may meet you in the Heavens,
Where I do hope to rest.
140

It is no surprise that John Rogers was given a place of such prominence by publishers of The
New England Primer. As the first to be martyred under the reign of the notorious Bloody Mary,
Rogers had also been given special treatment in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, and the illustrations of
his martyrdom were among the most elaborate in each edition of Foxe’s martyrology. (See
Figures 2.9 and 2.10). In Foxe’s rendering, when he was confronted by one of the sheriffs,
demanding that he recant his “abominable doctrine,” Rogers replied: “That which I have
preached I will seal with my blood.” When he was set ablaze, Foxe reported, Rogers washed his
hands in the flames of the fire as they consumed him.

140
The above quotations are from: The New-England primre [sic] improved. For the more easy attaining
the true reading of English. To which is added, the Assembly of Divines catechism. Boston, MA: Samuel
Kneeland, 1727.

96

FIGURE 2.9
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1597)
With advances in print technology, the illustrations in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs become more
sophisticated over time, as can be seen in the renderings of Roger’s martyrdom in the editions
printed by Peter Short in a 1597 and by the London Company of Stationers in 1684.

Foxe, John. The seconde volume of the Ecclesiasticall historie conteyning the acts
and monuments of martyrs, with a generall discourse of these latter persecutions,
horrible troubles and tumultes, stirred vp by Romish prelates in the Church, with
diuers other things incident, especially to this realme of England and Scotland, as
partly also to all other forreine nations appertaining, from the time of King Henry
the VIII to Queene Elizabeth our gracious ladie now raigning. Newly recognised
and inlarged by the authour Iohn Foxe.
(London : Printed by Peter Short, dwelling on Breadstreete hill at the signe of the Starre
[by the assigne of Richard Day], Anno Domini 1597), p. 1357.
Henry E. Huntington Library, Pasadena, CA

97

FIGURE 2.10
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1684)

Foxe, John. Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable,
happening in the church with an universal history of the same : wherein is set
forth at large, the whole race and course of the church, from the primitive age to
these later times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great
persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by
heathen emperors, as now lately practiced by Romish prelates, especially in this
realm of England and Scotland : now again, as it was recognized, perused, and
recommended to the studious reader / by the author, Mr. John Fox ; whereunto
are annexed certain additions of like persecutions which have happened in these
later times ; to which also is added the life of the author both in Latine and
English.
(London : Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1684), p. 108.

98

Woodcut images of John Rogers’s martyrdom were featured in almost every edition of
The New England Primer, their sophistication and artistry varying over time, reflecting the
resources and skills brought to bear by different printers at different times and places. The
characters included in the portrayal remained largely constant, however – Rogers, his wife and
children, and the executioner or executioners. But different editions of the Primer featured
different scenes from Rogers’s martyrdom, as this was recounted in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, and
so presented the characters in slightly different configurations. In some, Rogers was portrayed as
standing between the executioners and his family, refusing to recant (see Figure 2.11, from a
1727 edition). In others, Rogers was portrayed as offering a farewell blessing to his wife and
children (see Figure 2.12, from a 1752 edition). A third variation, which over time came to be
the most common, portrayed Rogers as engulfed in flames, with the executioners standing tall
and proud and his family huddled humbly to the side, powerless to intervene. The scene in this
third variation is dominated by billowing smoke from the fire, billows replicated in stormy skies
(see figures 2.13, 2.14 and 2.15, from 1746, 1762 and 1770, respectively).

99

FIGURE 2.11
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in the New England Primer (1727)

Woodcut portrayals of John Rogers’s martyrdom in the New England Primer varied over time,
both in artistry and in the scene portrayed.

The New-England primer enlarged.
(Boston: Samuel Kneeland, 1727)

100

FIGURE 2.12
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in the New England Primer (1752)

The New-England primer enlarged.
Boston: Printed and sold by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1752

101

FIGURE 2.13
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in the New England Primer (1746)

The New-England primer improved with additions.
(Boston: Gamaliel Rogers, 1746)

102

FIGURE 2.14
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in the New England Primer (1762)

The New-England primer improved.
(Boston: Printed and sold by S. Adams, 1762)

103

FIGURE 2.15

The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in the New England Primer (1770)

The New-England primer improved.
(Boston: William M’Alpine, 1770)

104

*****

The iconic image of the Boston Massacre – created by Henry Pelham, and adapted by
Paul Revere – bears striking resemblance to images of John Rogers’s martyrdom, as it had been
rendered across several centuries in multiple editions of John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Consider
the Revere image and the representation of Rogers’s martyrdom in the edition of Foxe’s Acts and
Monuments produced by the London Company of Stationers in 1684 (compare Figures 2.1 and
2.10, repeated below).
Each image is presented in a bordered frame, and beneath a banner headline. In Foxe’s
image, the scene of Rogers being burned at the pyre is framed against the backdrop of a three-
story courtyard, the stately buildings conveying the significance of the venue and adding to an air
of solemnity … and so, in Revere’s image, the scene of the massacre is framed by a view of
King Street, with Boston’s State House in the background, the dome and steeple of Boston’s
historic First Church looming over it. In Foxe’s representation, a uniformed soldier lights the
fire of Rogers’s pyre at the command of his superiors … and so, in Revere’s image, red-coated
British soldiers are portrayed as firing on the order of a commanding officer at innocent and
unarmed Bostonians. In each instance, the “attack” comes from the right side of the scene and
the respective weapons are extended horizontally and angled slightly downward, making clear
the position of dominance of the men portrayed as executioners. In each image the commanding
officers stand erect and behind their soldiers, their own weapons pointing vertically toward the
sky. In each composition, the center of the frame is dominated by billows of smoke, rising from
the fire of Rogers’s pyre in the image from Foxe, and from the rifles of the British soldiers in
Revere’s engraving. In each, a crowd of onlookers (or bystanders) surround the scene, the

105

collective tilting slightly away from the scene of violence. In each the indisputably innocent
occupy the ground near the bottom of the frame – lamenting women in Foxe’s image, the
bleeding victims and a loyal dog in the Revere engraving.
Paul Revere also produced a woodcut image as a composition-in-miniature of his larger
engraving. The woodcut image, too, echoes the composition of block woodcuts representing
Rogers’s martyrdom as these had appeared across decades in multiple editions of The New
England Primer. In these images the dominant and still-central plumes of smoke are echoed in
storm-clouds which hover only over the executioners, standing erect on the right side of the
frame. The clearly innocent are portrayed as children and youth, clustered to the lower left of the
frame, where they are watched over by would-be custodial adults. (Compare Figures 2.14 and
2.15, repeated on the next pages.)

106

FIGURE 2.1 (Repeated)

Paul Revere’s engraving, copied from Henry Pelham (1770)

107

FIGURE 2.10 (repeated)
The martyrdom of John Rogers as portrayed in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1684)

Foxe, John. Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable,
happening in the church with an universal history of the same : wherein is set
forth at large, the whole race and course of the church, from the primitive age to
these later times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great
persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by
heathen emperors, as now lately practiced by Romish prelates, especially in this
realm of England and Scotland : now again, as it was recognized, perused, and
recommended to the studious reader / by the author, Mr. John Fox ; whereunto
are annexed certain additions of like persecutions which have happened in these
later times ; to which also is added the life of the author both in Latine and
English.
London : Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1684, p. 108.

108

FIGURE 2.14 (repeated)

The New-England primer improved.
Boston, MA: Printed and sold by S. Adams, 1762.

109

FIGURE 2.16

Paul Revere’s woodcut, reproduced in Isaiah Thomas handbill (1772)
Like the more elaborate engraving, Paul Revere’s woodcut illustration of the Boston Massacre
retains the basic composition found in John Foxe’s representation of John Rogers’s martyrdom
in the Book of Martyrs, and passed on in the New England Primer – executioners on the right,
victims on the left, plumes of smoke in the center of the frame, echoed in stormy skies.

Revere Woodcut excerpted from “A Monumental Inscription ON THE Fifth of March Together with a
few LINES On the Enlargeemnt of EBENEZER RICHARDSON, Convicted of MURDER.” Boston:
Printed by Isaiah Thomas, 1772. Downloaded from Massachusetts Historical Society:
http://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=2726&mode=small&img_step=1&

110

Revere’s woodcut appeared, among countless other places, in the handbills used to
advertise anniversary commemorations of the massacre, a tradition that continues to the present
day. These commemorations afforded some of Boston’s most influential citizens the opportunity
to stake their claim to New England’s martyrological inheritance. In the 1774 address, for
instance, John Hancock declared “’tis immortality to sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of our
country. We fear not death.” Conjuring the familiar motif of “playing the man,” and asserting
the ultimacy of divine judgment, as Pelham and Revere did in the inscriptions to their engraving,
Hancock continued:
I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty
will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play the man for our God, and
for the cities of our God while we are using the means in our power, let us humbly
commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the universe, who loveth
righteousness and hateth iniquity.
141

Over time, the place of highest privilege in the memory of the Massacre was transferred to one of
the five victims, Crispus Attucks, a young man of African and Wampanoag descent. Attucks
would come to be celebrated by generations of Bostonians as “the first martyr” of the American
Revolution, as he was in the handbill printed by C.C. Mead in 1863, advertising the 93
rd

anniversary commemoration of the historic event. (See Figure 2.16)

141
An oration delivered March 5, 1774, at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston; to
commemorate the bloody tragedy of the fifth of March, 1770. By the Hon. John Hancock, Esq. P 19

111

FIGURE 2.17
Commemorative handbill for Boston Massacre (1863)

Martyrdom of the colored American Crispus Attucks, March 5th, 1770, the day which history selects as
the dawn of the American Revolution. The 93d anniversary will be commemorated on Thursday eve'g,
March 5th, 1863. At Tremont Temple, by exercises of speaking and music, in which the following friends
are expected to participate ... Boston: C.C. Mead, 1863

These visual and oratorical representations of the victims of the Boston Massacre as

112

innocent youth martyred at the hands of British soldiers were the fruit of a pervasive print
practice by which English-speakers in 18th-century New England made available to their young
a distinctly martyrological catechism. This catechism taught children to consider their mortality
from the time they first began to read. It also taught them that as part of their coming of age,
they might be called soon to their deaths, and, if they were so called, theirs could prove an
important death, a death that would be meaningful in the eyes of others and meaningful in the
eyes of God. As James Janeway concluded the introductory remarks to his Token for Children,
addressing himself directly to his young readers: “… that you may be your Parents joy, your
Countrey’s honour, and live in Gods fear, and dye in his love, is the prayer of your dear Friend.
J. Janeway.”
142

142
Janeway, James. A token for children The second part. Being a farther account of the conversion, holy
and exemplary lives, and joyful deaths of several other young children, not published in the first part. By
James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel. London: printed for D. Newman, 1673.

113

Chapter Three

“United We Stand, Divided We Fall” -
The Martyrological Pedigreee of
John Dickinson’s Liberty Song

Convinced that life in the England’s North American colonies was ideologically
contentious, profoundly multicultural and intrinsically “trans-Atlantic,” historians today are
reconsidering the question of American origins through a new and spectacularly kaleidoscopic
lens.
143
On the one hand, the bewildering diversity of this early American experience would
seem to preclude the possibility of constructing cohesive, overarching narratives about the
originating causes of the American Revolution. As Kevin Phillips has aptly summarized, “no
single thesis can satisfactorily include the behavior within all thirteen provinces, given the
importance of sectarian, factional or ethnic variations.”
144
And yet the Revolution came.
Somehow, leading colonists from places as diverse as New Hampshire and Virginia, New York
and South Carolina, found sufficient common ground to reject the political authority of their
mother country, and to join in armed opposition to King George III, the personification of the
British Crown.
In many ways, this process of consolidation was generations in the making. As early as

143
Papers presented at May 2014 “AGE OF REVOLUTION” conference hosted by EMSI and WMQ, placed
the American Revolution in the context of “the age of revolution” and “from the perspective of an
ethnically variegated, multi-imperial North American continent that shared neither the borders nor the
agenda of the future United States.” Any rendering of early American history must take into account
the breadth and depth of resources surfaced by this recent scholarship. As Gary Nash has written, “In
the last few decades a remarkable flowering of an American history sensitive to gender, race, religion
and class, which is to say a democratized history, is giving us an alternative, long-forgotten American
revolution.” Gary B. Nash, The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the
Struggle to Create America (New York: Viking, 2005), 512., p. 10.
144
Phillips, The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America, 707., p. 7.

114

the seventeenth century, English colonists in North America had envisioned binding together
what had been founded, in Katherine Grandjean’s apt depiction, as an “archipelago” of isolated
and disconnected English settlements.
145
The English accomplished a great deal in this regard
during first half of the eighteenth century – by many and varied means, sometimes by design,
sometimes by happenstance, but in ways that were mutually reinforcing. An aggressive policy of
colonization, combined with the dramatic expansion of the slave trade, led to rapid population
growth and an ever-expanding geographic footprint. Improved roads and more routinized
networks of communication facilitated more efficient intercolonial exchange of goods and
material of every kind, and the spread of ever-more efficient printing presses enabled more
prolific production and distribution of diverse print materials. The practice of itinerancy among
preachers refusing to conform to established boundaries of parish and denomination birthed
networks supporting and opposing new forms of religious expression. Aggressive policies of
forcible expansion into what the English called “Indian Country;” the rapid growth and
racialized hardening of the system of chattel slavery; near-continual conflict with their colonial
competitors, the French – all these things compelled English colonists at different times and
places to seek common cause with one another.
In the summer of 1754, representatives from seven of the nine northern British colonies
in North America gathered in Albany, New York, to confront the outbreak of formal hostilities
with the French and their Indian allies. In support of a proposal for a limited form of
intercolonial government presented at the Albany Congress, Benjamin Franklin created the

145
Katherine Grandjean, “Paper Pilgrims: Letter Writing and Communication in the Early Modern
World,” presentation to the Early Modern British History seminar, University of Southern California,
January 16, 2016.

115

image of a segmented snake, and captioned it JOIN, OR DIE. After the culmination of the Seven
Year’s War in 1763, the quest for intercolonial solidarity took an unexpected turn, as British
attempts to recoup some of the war’s expense provoked a visceral response among American
colonists. After the Boston Massacre of March, 1770, Paul Revere re-purposed Franklin's image
as a symbol of resistance to British colonial policy, re-captioning it, “UNITE OR DIE,” and
emblazoning it on the masthead of his newspaper, The Massachusetts Spy.
146
By the time
delegates gathered for the First Continental Congress in 1774, they were aware that the
generations-old quest for improved communication and collaboration was being rapidly
transformed into a much more fundamental endeavor – that of creating a new sense of national
identity.
147

As much as any other person – including Thomas Jefferson, lionized for his authorship of
the Declaration of Independence, and the trio of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John
Adams, most widely credited for crafting the United States Constitution – the Pennsylvanian
John Dickinson produced the words on which this national identity was forged. As his
biographer Jane Calvert has noted, only at the end of the 19
th
century did historians dub
Dickinson “the Penman of the Revolution,” but the rationale for the nickname is easy to
understand. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Dickinson was “the author of, in addition
to many other … documents, the First Petition to the King (1774), An Address from Congress to
the Inhabitants of Quebec (1774), the Olive Branch Petition (1775), the Declaration for Taking
Up Arms (1775) and the first draft of the Articles of Confederation (1776).” In Calvert’s

146
Copeland in Carol Sue Humphrey and Medill School of Journalism, The American Revolution and the
Press: The Promise of Independence (Evanston, Ill.: Medill School of Journalism/Northwestern University
Press, 2013), 241., p. xi
147
Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, 1st ed. (New York:
Knopf : Distributed by Random House, Inc., 1997), 304., pp. 7ff.

116

estimation, while Dickinson first earned a colony-wide reputation in 1765 as the “de facto leader
of the Stamp Act Congress, and the draftsman of the Resolutions of the Congress,” his true
renown came when his identity was revealed as the Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.
148

First published anonymously in Philadelphia in 1768, and then reprinted multiple times in
Philadelphia, Boston, and New York before the end of the next year, Dickinson’s Letters from a
Farmer in Pennsylvania laid out in accessible language a rationale for a united, inter-colonial
opposition to the Townshend Acts, a series of revenue-enhancing measures the English
Parliament had approved as an intended compromise after Americans had so loudly protested the
Stamp Act. Dickinson understood the essential concern shared across the colonies, and in his
Letters from a Farmer, he articulated this concern in terms that represented increasingly common
discourse among colonial elites, terms derived from the English moral philosopher, John Locke:
Let these truths be indelibly impressed on our minds --- that we cannot be
HAPPY, without being FREE --- that we cannot be free, without being secure in
our property --- that we cannot be secure in our property, if, without our consent,
others may, as by right, take it away ---- that taxes imposed on us by parliament,
do thus take it away ----
For those less philosophically inclined, Dickinson, summarized the case more bluntly: "Those
who are taxed without their own consent, expressed by themselves or their representatives, are
slaves. We are taxed without our consent, expressed by ourselves or our representatives. We are
therefore ---- SLAVES."
149

Commonly mentioned but rarely analyzed – even by historians who refer to it as
America’s “first hit song” – is the song which Dickinson authored as companion piece to his

148
Jane E. Calvert, Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson (Cambridge ;
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 382., p. 38.
149
Ibid., p. 67

117

Letters from a Farmer.
150
Like the Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, Dickinson’s A New
Song was first published anonymously in early 1768 on a broadside by the Philadelphia printer
David Hall. By year’s end, it had come to be known as the “Liberty Song” and had been so
widely circulated that it could be casually mentioned in Connecticut as “so justly admired thro’
all North-America” and in Virginia as “so much admired in America.”
151
As indicated on the
original broadside, Dickinson wrote the lyrics to be sung to the tune, Hearts of Oak, the anthem
of the British Royal Navy (See Figure 3.1), and with their pledge of willingness to die for the
rightness of their cause, they struck a familiar note:
Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty’s call;
No tyrannous acts, shall suppress your just claim,
Or stain with dishonor America’s name.

CHORUS: In freedom we’re born, and in freedom we’ll live;
Our purses are ready, Steady, Friends, steady,
Not as slaves, but as freemen, our money we’ll give.

Our worthy forefathers – let’s give them a cheer –
To climates unknown did courageously steer;
Thro’ oceans to deserts, for freedom they came,
And, dying, bequeath’d us their freedom and fame.
CHORUS
….
Then join hand in hand brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall
In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed,
For Heaven approves of each generous deed.
CHORUS

150
For an exception, including analysis, see: Arthur M. Schlesinger, "A Note on Songs as Patriot
Propaganda 1765-1776," The William and Mary Quarterly 11, no. 1 (1954): 78-88,
http://www.jstor.org.libproxy2.usc.edu/stable/1923150..
151
Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post Boy (Boston, MA) August 12, 1768, p. 2. America’s
Historical Newspapers. Web. 24 February, 2017. Virginia Gazette (Charlestown, VA) December 8, 1768,
p. 1. America’s Historical Newspapers. Web. 24 February, 2017. For an example of the broadside
advertised see: "Advertisement." Boston Chronicle (Boston, MA) From Monday, December 12, to
Monday, December 19, 1768. America’s Historical Newspapers. Web. 24 February, 2017.

118

All ages shall speak with amaze and applause,
Of the courage we’ll show in support of our laws;
To die we can bear, - but to serve we disdain,
For shame is to freedom more dreadful than pain.
CHORUS

It is no coincidence that Dickinson’s Liberty Song spread so readily through the colonies,
nor that its signature line – commonly shorthanded as “united we stand or divided we fall” –
would become one of the revolution’s most famous slogans. Across preceding generations, a
handful of popular meters, including meters with repeating 11-syllable lines, came to dominate
popular English song. Tunes composed for these meters – like the tune to “Hearts of Oak” –
came to sound natural in the ears of English-speakers on both sides of the Atlantic, and lyrics
written for these tunes became easy to memorize and sing. Christopher Boyd Brown has
documented that “Singing the Gospel” was part and parcel of the popular religious upheaval that
culminated in the Protestant Reformation, and Laura Mason has shown that French peasants in
the 1790s were “Singing the French Revolution.”
152
So, too, American colonists in the 1760 and
1770s went singing their way to independence from the British Crown – and the beat of their
revolutionary song was distinctly martyrological.

152
Christopher Boyd Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation,
Vol. 148; 148. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).; Laura Mason, Singing the French
Revolution: Popular Culture and Politics, 1787-1799 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996)..

119

FIGURE 3.1

John Dickinson’s Liberty Song (1768)

John Dickinson’s “New Song,” a counter to the anthem of Great Britain’s Royal Navy,
came to be known as the “Liberty Song.”

A new song. To the tune of "Hearts of oak, &c."
(Philadelphia: David Hall, 1768)

120

*****

As a part of their larger project of separating from the Church of England, many reform-
minded Christians in 17
th
-century England – and their wayfaring kindred spirits in Holland,
North America and elsewhere – rejected the liturgical practices enshrined in the Anglicans’ Book
of Common Prayer. The Puritans’ absolutist devotion to the authority of scripture gave them
warrant for singing in worship, but restricted their repertoire almost exclusively to the Book of
Psalms. As Glenda Goodman has explained: “This required that psalms be translated into
English metrical form, and this effort began in mid-sixteenth century England with the Sternhold
and Hopkins psalter (1562). This psalter went through innumerable editions and was used in
New England until a desire to produce a more accurate translation of the psalms led to the
publication of the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book printed in North America.”

According
to Goodman, the Sternhold & Hopkins and Bay Psalm psalters remained the standard for
Puritans on both sides of the Atlantic through the end of the 17
th
century, until Nahum Tate and
Nicholas Brady produced the popular A New Version of the Psalms of David.
153

Across these many generations, Puritans sang their psalms most commonly without
instrumental accompaniment, for which they could find no warrant in the Bible. Instead a leader
would sing a metrical psalm line-by-line, with the congregation trailing along in the leader’s
wake, picking up the words and tune as they sang along. This practice, known as “lining out”
the psalms, resulted in a manner of singing that had much more in common with Catholic
medieval chant than the Puritans would have wanted to admit. It also induced a corporate,

153
Glenda Goodman, "“The Tears I Shed at the Songs of Thy Church”: Seventeenth-Century Musical
Piety in the English Atlantic World," Journal of the American Musicological Society 65, no. 3 (2012): 691-
725., p. 700.

121

almost trance-like, experience in which the singers were encouraged to imagine that they were
joining a heavenly chorus.

According to Goodman, "Puritans believed psalmody created a
channel between the singer and God: by singing, the devout glorified and praised God, but,
through singing, the worshiper was also brought closer to the divine. The soul was lifted."
154

Born in Southampton, England, in 1674, Isaac Watts was immersed from childhood in
this musical tradition and became its most prolific innovator. Raised in a devout and
nonconforming family, and educated at institutions established by Christians dissenting from
Anglican orthodoxy, Watts’s first collection of metered rhyme was published in London in 1706
– a collection of poetry entitled Horae y Lyricae. The following year he published Hymns and
Spiritual Songs.
155
In the preface to this latter work, Watts lamented the status of congregational
singing: “To see the dull Indifference, the negligent and thoughtless Air, that sits upon the Faces
of a whole Assembly, while the Psalm is on their Lips, might tempt even a charitable Observer to
suspect the Fervency of inward Religion; and ‘tis much to be feared, that the Minds of most of
the Worshippers are absent or unconcerned.” As a remedy, Watts restricted himself to an
accessible vocabulary and to a handful of basic meters, to which, over a lifetime, he would set
thousands of poems, psalms and popular songs. As he explained in the same preface: “The
whole Book is written in four Sorts of Metre, and fitted to the most Common Tunes … The
Metaphors are generally sunk to the Level of vulgar Capacities … Some of the Beauties of Poesy
are neglected, and some wilfully defaced … lest a more exalted Turn or Thought or Language

154
Ibid., p. 692.
155
Watts, Isaac. Horæ lyricæ: Poems, chiefly of the lyric kind. In two books. ... By I. Watts.
London: printed by S. and D. Bridge, for John Lawrence, 1706.

122

should darken or disturb the Devotion of the weakest Souls.”
156
A committed agnostic when it
came to denominational disputes, Watts was equally determined to avoid controversial or
sectarian language. Again, he explained himself in the Preface to his Hymns and Spiritual
Songs: "I have avoided the more obscure and controverted Points of Christianity, that we might
all obey the Direction of the Word of God, and sing his Praises with Understanding, Psalm xlvii,
7. The Contentions and distinguishing Words of Sects and Parties are secluded, that whole
Assemblies might assist at the Harmony, and different Churches join in the same Worship,
without Offence." With few exceptions, Watts produced lyrics not with specific tunes in mind,
but rather so that they could be sung to different tunes, according to different contexts and
preferences, and he employed rhetorical devices intended for the widest possible audience.
Christopher Phillips has credited Cotton Mather, one of Isaac Watts’s many intimate
North American correspondents, with first introducing Watts’s hymns to New England readers.
Mather regularly included excerpts of these hymns in the extra pages of his published sermons,
beginning in 1712, with the publication of a sermon entitled, Seasonable Thoughts upon
Mortality: A SERMON Occasioned by the raging of a Mortal Sickness in the COLONY of
Connecticut, And the many DEATHS of the BRETHREN there.” (See Figures 35 and 3.6)
Mather’s selections to conclude this dreary publication included Watts’s reflection on Revelation
14:13, “The Dead which Dy in the Lord”:
Hear, What the Voice from Heav’n proclaims
For all the Pious Dead.
Sweet is the Savour of the Names,
And soft their Sleeping Bed.

They Dy in JESUS and are Blest
How kind their Slumbers are!

156
Quotes are from Watts, Isaac. Hymns and Spiritual Songs in Three Books …The Thirty Third Edition.
London: Longman and Ware, 1771.

123

Fro Suff’rings and from Sins releast,
And freed from ev’ry Snare.

Far from this world of Toyl and Strife,
They’re present with the Lord;
The Labours of their Mortal Life
End in a large Reward.
157

Mather’s practice of using Watts’s hymns to reinforce his sermonizing, and to supplement his
printed works, was replicated through the middle decades of the century by settled preachers in
New England, and by itinerants including the celebrated George Whitefield.
158

The popularity of Watts’s metered lyrics in America is difficult to overstate – and their
ascendance parallels almost precisely the rise of America’s revolutionary generation.
Commenting on the lasting impact of Watts’s most celebrated work, William Dargan has
observed: “When Watts died in 1748, his Hymns and Spiritual Songs had appeared in eighteen
editions, thousands of copies had been sold, he had become renowned in England and abroad,
and his paraphrase of Psalm 90, 'Our God, Our Help in Ages Past,' had become a signal moment
in the English Puritan epoch."
159
Copies of Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs were imported
from England to America from the time of its earliest publication in London, and a first
American edition was published in Boston in 1720. By 1787 it was printed by at least 17 North
American publishers in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and

157
Mather, Cotton. Seasonable thoughts upon mortality. A sermon occasioned by the raging of a mortal
sickness in the colony of Connecticut, and the many deaths of our brethren there. Boston: Sold by T.
Green, 1712.
158
See, for example: Whitefield, George. A further account of God's dealings with the Reverend Mr.
George Whitefield, from the time of his ordination to his embarking for Georgia. By George Whitefield,
A.B. late of Pembroke College Oxon. Boston: Printed by Rogers and Fowle in Queen-Street, next to the
prison., 1746, pp. 37-38.
159
William T. Dargan, Lining Out the Word : Dr. Watts Hymn Singing in the Music of Black Americans :
William T. Dargan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006)., p. 94.

124

Connecticut.
160
By the end of the century, Watts’ Hymns and Songs was such standard fare that
new printers commonly included their own print runs of the songbook when they attempted to
break into established markets.
161
By 1812 the volume had been reprinted in one form or another
in America at least 84 times.
162

Beginning in 1740, when Benjamin Franklin printed The Psalms of David, becoming the
first American publisher outside of Boston to re-print Watts’s work, the publishing house of
Franklin and Hall became a leading purveyor of Watts’s works in America’s “First City.” In
1744 Franklin published Watts’s catechism, A preservative from the sins and follies of childhood
and youth, written by way of question and answer.
163
In 1760 Franklin and his apprentice, David
Hall, published Watts’s Divine Songs … for the use of children. And in 1764 Hall, now running
Franklin’s publishing house with William Sellers, released a first Philadelphia imprint of Watts’s
Hymns and Spiritual Songs. By 1812 Divine Songs … for the use of children was re-printed at
least six times in Philadelphia, the Psalms of David was re-printed at least 9 times, and Hymns
and Spiritual Songs at least 17 times.
Of course, this record of print captures only a fraction of the audience who embraced
Watts’s work. By the 1760s, when Watts’ works began to be republished in significant number

160
Watts, Isaac. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Boston: ????, 1720? The only known copy, held by the
Massachusetts Historical Society, lacks the title page and is otherwise imperfect. Title, edition
statement, and imprint supplied by Bristol.
161
Examples of this include the Connecticut printers Alexander Robertson of Norwich and Nathaniel
Patten and Bavil Webster of Hartford, whose prints of Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs appear in my
sample of works. (See Appendix B)
162
See Appendix B. Again, as argued earlier, the dramatic increase in its American publication during the
early national era may be accounted for – at least in part – by disrupted importation from London.
163
Watts, Isaac. A preservative from the sins and follies of childhood and youth, written by way of
question and answer. To which are added, some religious and moral instructions, in verse. Philadelphia:
Printed and sold by B. Franklin, in Market Street., 1744.

125

in other centers of population in the mid-Atlantic colonies, their popularity spread across
divisions not just of geography, but also of age, class, race and religious tradition.
164
As William
Dargan has compellingly demonstrated, Watts’s lyrics became a bedrock of African-American
worship, to such an extent that an entirely unique and distinctively American style of signing was
born, which would come to be known across the African-American landscape as, simply, “Dr.
Watts.”
165
During the period of the American Revolution, the Hymns and Spiritual Songs came
to be used widely in the corporate worship of congregations from many different denominations,
and Watts’s Psalms of David became a staple of worship in Anglican congregations and
Methodist communities as these separated formally from the Church of England. And yet, for all
this, some scholars judge Watts’s works written for children to have been the most influential of
all.
166
Watts’s formal catechetical books were printed at least 52 times in America between

164
Christopher Phillips, "Cotton Mather Brings Isaac Watt's Hymns to America; Or how to Perform a
Hymn without Singing it," The New England Quarterly 85, no. 2 (2012): 203., p. 203. Phillips' chronicle of
the proliferation of Watts’s work in the American colonies across the 18th century – from catechetical to
homiletical to liturgical – is only partially supported by my analysis of surviving imprints from the period
(see Appendix B). Watts’s catechetical works were indeed the first to be widely reprinted in New
England, coming off the press in significant numbers in the middle decades of the 18th century. It is also
true that his Hymns and Songs began to be reprinted in significant numbers in America only in the pre-
Revolutionary period, and that his metrical psalms enjoyed wide American reprinting only beginning in
the 1790s. But imprints of all these publications would have been imported to North America from the
time of their first publication in London, and after each item was first printed in America, the demand
for it always grew. Moreover, by the turn of the 19th century American publishers were also expressing
new-found interest in Watts’s philosophical writings, a fact rarely considered by scholars of the
celebrated hymnodist. In short, Watts’s popularity in 18th century America was persistent, multifaceted
and far-reaching – the overall record of publication spreads more like a prolific weed than it does unfold
like an orderly row of falling dominoes.
165
Dargan, Lining Out the Word : Dr. Watts Hymn Singing in the Music of Black Americans : William T.
Dargan, p. 4. In Dargan’s estimation, "The practice of lining out Dr. Watts hymns was foundational to a
variety of worship traditions in antebellum slave communities; it was encouraged by white missionaries
in the early 1800s … and it can be seen in retrospect as the most fitting pre-Emancipation repository for
unresolved contradictions between slaves as children of God and the dehumanization of slavery." To
hear contemporary renditions of Dr. Watts style singing: *Wade in the Water* vol. 2 CD.
166
Phillips, Cotton Mather Brings Isaac Watt's Hymns to America; Or how to Perform a Hymn without
Singing it, 203., p. 203. "Bringing hymns into the family setting opened the way for attracting a new class

126

1730 and 1812, and his Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children was
printed at least 79 times in America across the same period, its audience multiplied many times
over by their popularity as “hand-me-downs.”
167
(See Figure 3.2)

of hymn readers, one that would have a profound influence on the hymnbook market throughout the
century: children."
167
Watts, Isaac. Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language, for the Use of Children … The Sixteenth
Edition. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, at the New-Printing-Office, 1760.
Phillips writes that Watts’s Divine Songs … for Children treated the hymns “as pedagogical texts, tools for
teaching morality to young people,” and this assessment is true in as far as it goes. But Phillips goes too
far in concluding: “… in yoking hymns to children's religious and linguistic literacy, the collections treated
them above all as texts, not as liturgical performances." While Divine Songs … for the Use of Children is
packed with catechetical material, to be sure (“The Ten Commandments,” “Our Saviour’s Golden Rule,”
etc.) and while many of the songs are didactic in the extreme (including a long sequence of songs
entitled “Against …” behaviors such as “… Lying,” “… Quarrelling and Fighting,” “… Scoffing and Calling
Names,” and so on), it is clear that Watts imagined his young readers singing at least the opening and
closing sequence of songs:
A general Song of Praise to God …
I. Praise for Creation and Providence …
II. Praise to God for our Redemption …
III. Praise for Mercies Spiritual and Temporal …
IV. Praise for Birth and Education in a Christian Land …
V. Praise for the Gospel …
…
XXV. A Morning SONG …
XXVI. An Evening SONG
XXVII. For the Lord’s Day Morning
XXVIII. For the Lord’s Day Evening.
And what parent would read, rather than sing, THE CRADLE HYMN which closed the volume?

127

FIGURE 3.2
Isaac Watts’ Divine Songs for Children as a hand-me-down (1760)
The inside cover and title page of this issue of Isaac Watts’s Divine Songs … for the Use of
Children bears inscriptions showing it passing down through the hands of Polly, Harry, Eli and
Eliza Wheeler (presumably siblings) during the 1770s and 1780s.

Watts, Isaac. Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language, for the Use of Children …
(Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, at the New-Printing-Office, 1760)

128

*****

Whether he was writing songs for children or adults, Isaac Watts aspired to connect the
lives of those who would sing his songs to the majesty of God as he perceived this majesty to be
evidenced in the entire created order. Fittingly, one of Watts’s earliest songs for children reflects
precisely this aspiration. Originally entitled “Praise for Creation and Providence” it appeared as
the second song in Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children, and would
become best known by its opening line:
I Sing th’Almighty Pow’r of GOD,
That made the Mountains rise,
That spread the flowing Seas abroad,
And built the lofty Skies.

I sing the Wisdom that ordain’d
The Sun to rule the Day;
The Moon shines full at his Command,
And all the Stars obey.

I sing the Goodness of the Lord,
That fill’d the Earth with Food:
He form’d the Creatures with his Word,
And then pronounc’d them good.

Lord, how thy Wonders are display’d
Where e’er I turn mine Eye:
If I survey the Ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the Sky.
…
168

The song’s popularity endures to the present day, reflecting the extraordinary gift for
encapsulation that rendered Watts, in Erik Routley’s apt phrase, the “master of the enormous

168
Watts, Isaac. Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children … The Sixteenth
Edition. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, at the New-Printing-Office, 1760.

129

conception.”
169

In Watts’ view, however, the orderliness of creation was not intrinsically self-sustaining –
rather, it depended on the continual renewal of the divine covenant that God had fashioned with
humankind in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The historian Perry Miller long ago
famously described the concept of covenant as “the marrow of Puritan divinity,” an especially
apt metaphor because it conjures the metaphor of a body with blood and marrow needing
constantly to be replenished.
170
Dissenting Protestants like Watts conceived of human life as
organized in covenantal fashion at every level – cosmic, national, ecclesial, familial,
individual.
171
And just as the restoration of God’s covenant with creation required the supreme
sacrifice of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, so the covenant of the church required continual
renewal through the remembrance of this sacrifice in the preaching of the gospel in the
celebration of the sacraments of baptism and communion. Likewise other covenants – including
the covenants that individual Puritans understood themselves to have consecrated with God –
required continual renewal through their own, appropriate, forms of self-sacrifice. For those who
embraced them on both sides of the Atlantic, Watts's hymns became not just texts to be rationally

169
Erik Routley, Christian Hymns Observed: When in our Music God is Glorified (Princeton, N.J: Prestige
Publications, 1982)..
170
Perry Miller, "Errand into the Wilderness," The William and Mary Quarterly 10, no. 1 (Jan., 1953): 3-
32.. For an early Puritan exemplar, see: Ames, William,. 1642. The marrow of sacred divinity drawne out
of the holy scriptures, and the interpreters thereof, and brought into method / by william ames ... ;
translated out of the latine ... ; whereunto are annexed certaine tables representing the substance and
heads of all in a short view ... as also a table opening the hard words therein contained. London: Printed
by Edward Griffin for Henry Overton.
171
John Witte offers a helpful summary: “The Puritans regarded themselves as a covenant community, a
people bound together by a variety of covenants. … Each covenant had a place in God’s providential
plan, a purpose for which it existed. Each was modeled on one of the covenants of grace described in
Scripture. At least four such communal covenants were distinguished by the Puritans: a natural or
national covenant; a political or governmental covenant; an ecclesial or church covenant; and a marital
or family covenant.” Jr Witte John, "Blest be the Ties that Bind: Covenant and Community in Puritan
Thought," Emory Law Journal 36 (1987): 579-601..

130

contemplated; by singing them the faithful understood themselves to be joining mind and body,
individual and community, and to be participating actively in what they believed to be the
unceasing divine action of covenantal renewal.
172

Just as he considered Christ’s crucifixion to be the paradigm for all divinely ordained
covenants, Watts considered the moment of death to be of paramount importance to every
individual, and his hymns exhorted the faithful to seek deaths that conformed to Christ’s pattern
of self-sacrifice. As a supplement to his own sermon on 1 Corinthians 16:13 (“Be on your guard;
stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong”), for instance, Watts first published this hymn:
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord.
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith’s discerning eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine

172
Gary L. Ebersole, Captured by Texts: Puritan to Postmodern Images of Indian Captivity
(Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995), 322..

131

In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
173

In this hymn and countless others, Watts challenged people not merely to sing “about Christ,”
but rather to embody the ideals of Christ’s martyrdom in the very act of singing, and to bear
witness to their personal conviction through song as they prepared for their own deaths.
174

That the question of proper Christian conduct in the face of death stood at the center of
Watt’s concern is evidenced by the way he put together his collections of verse. His original
collection, Horae and Lyricae, included countless poems touching on these themes - “Sickness
Gives a Sight of Heaven,” “The Day of Judgment,” “Death a Welcome Savior,” “The Happy
Saint and Cursed Savior,” “Longing for Heaven,” to name just a few of countless examples.
Also included is this common-meter poem entitled “A Prospect of the Resurrection”:
How long shall death, the tyrant reign,
And triumph o’er the just,
While the dear blood of martyrs slain
Lies mingled with the dust?
…

O may my humble spirit stand
Amongst them clothed in white!
The meanest place at His right hand
Is infinite delight.

How will our joy and wonder rise,
When our returning king
Shall bear us homeward through the skies
On love’s triumphant wing!
175

173
Watts, Isaac. Sermons on various subjects, divine and moral: with a sacred hymn suited to each
subject. Designed for the use of Christian families, as well as for the hours of devout retirement. By I.
Watts, D.D. Formerly publish'd in two volumes, and now reduced into one. Boston: Gamaliel Rogers,
1746.
174
My thanks to Andrew Cashner for this helpful articulation.
175
Watts, Isaac. Horae lyricae. Poems chiefly of the lyric kind. New York: James Parker, 1750, pp. 79-80.

132

The nearly 500 pages that comprised his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, meanwhile, were
organized in three parts, and in each part the themes of death and martyrdom figured
prominently.
176
The first part, consisting of songs for which Watts “borrowed the Sense, and
much of the Form of the Song, from some particular Portions of Scripture,” included back-to-
back hymns drawing direct historical connection between “the business and blessedness of
glorified saints” to “the martyrs glorified” (see Figures 3.3) For Watts, this spiritual connection
projected forward to a time foretold in the Book of Revelation:
Great Babylon, that rules the Earth
Drunk with the Martyrs’ blood
Her crimes shall speedily awake
The Fury of our God.
177

To English Protestants in 18th-century North America, lyrics like these stood out as a powerful,
and scripturally grounded, endorsement of their struggle against the “Romish” Catholic Church,
and its earthly agents, the French and Spanish.
The second and largest part of Hymns and Spiritual Songs contained hymns, the “form”
of which Watts described as “of mere human Composures,” but the “sense and Materials” of
which he hoped “will always appear Divine.” After an introductory “Song of Praise to God from
Great Britain,” Watts opened this second part with this series of songs:
II. The Death of a Sinner
III. The Death and Burial of a Saint
IV. Salvation in the Cross
V. Longing to Praise Christ Better
VI. A Morning Song
VII. An Evening Song
VIII. A Hymn for Morning or Evening
IX. Godly Sorrow arising from the Sufferings of Christ

176
Watts, Isaac. Hymns and Spiritual Songs in Three Books …The Thirty Third Edition. London: Longman
and Ware, 1771.
177
Watts, Isaac. Hymns and Spiritual Songs in Three Books …The Thirty Third Edition. London: Longman
and Ware, 1771, p. 37.

133

X. Parting with Carnal Joys
XI. The Same

Death is mentioned explicitly in every single one of these opening songs and then reappears
continually throughout the remainder of the Second Part of the collection, as it does, inevitably,
in the Third Part containing songs for the celebration of what is, for Christians, the memorial
feast of the Lord’s Supper.

134

FIGURE 3.3
Excerpt from Isaac Watts’ Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1762)
Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs conjure themes of death throughout.

Watts, Isaac. Hymns and Spiritual Songs
(Boston: Re-printed and Sold by Z. Fowle and S. Draper, 1762), page 27

135

These themes are central, too, to Watts’s Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for
the Use of Children, which was first published in 1715 in London, and excerpted that same year
for publication in Boston by Thomas Fleet under the title Honey out of the rock flowing to little
children that they may know to refuse the evil and chuse the good. Ten of its twenty-eight songs
included explicit mention of death and the promises of the afterlife. Representative is “Song V,”
which opens and closes with these verses:
GREAT GOD, to thee my Voice I raise,
To thee my youngest Hours belong;
I would begin my Life with Praise,
Till growing Years improve the Song.
…
Thy Praise shall still employ my Breath,
Since thou hast mark'd my Way to Heav'n;
Nor will I run the Road to Death,
And waste the Blessings thou hast giv'n.
178

The importance of preparing for death was impressed on its intended audience of young singers
in a central sequence of songs, entitled “Song IX. The All-Seeing God … Song X. Solemn
Thoughts of God and Death. … Song XI. Heaven and Hell … Song XII. The Advantage of Early
Religion … Song XIII. The Danger of Delay.” The twelfth song on the advantage of early
religion concluded with this verse:
Let the sweet Work of Prayer and Praise
Employ my youngest Breath;
Thus I’m prepar’d for longer Days,
Or fit for early Death.

In both of these songs can be heard one of Watts’s central beliefs – that in singing the faithful are
best able to maintain God’s favor, even unto death. As he captured this thought in what would
become one of his most enduring spiritual songs: “I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath / and

178
Watts, Isaac. Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children … The Sixteenth
Edition. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, at the New-Printing-Office, 1760.

136

when my voice is lost in death / praise shall employ my nobler powers.”
As suggested by this brief summary of his published works, Isaac Watts was more than a
hymn-writer. His works ranged from catechetical manuals for children to sweeping
philosophical treatises with titles like Discourses on the Love of God, and its influence on all the
Passions; with a Discovery of the Right Use and Abuse of them in Matters of Religion.
179
In
recent decades, Watts has received considerable attention from historians, literary critics,
philosophers and musicologists.
180
But only recently have scholars begun to treat Watts’s oeuvre
as a whole, rather than parsing his works into categories conforming to the conventions of the
modern academic disciplines.
181
This development is altogether fitting, as Watts did not
conceive of his life’s work as fragmented, but rather as all-encompassing in scope and all-
embracing in reach. In William Dargan’s view, the common thread which bound these works
together was Watts’ "way of speaking on behalf of God's embattled people … fashioned in the

179
Watts, Isaac, Discourses on the Love of God … Philadelphia: Woodward, 1799.
180
For a sampling of recent works about Watts from a diversity of disciplinary approaches, see: Richard
Arnold, Trinity of Discord: The Hymnal and Poetic Innocations of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and
William Cowper (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), 162., John Knapp, "Isaac Watts's Unfixed Hymn Genre,"
Modern Philology: Critical and Historical Studies in Literature, Medieval through Contemporary 109, no.
4 (2012): 463-482., J. F. Maclear, "Isaac Watts and the Idea of Public Religion," Journal of the History of
Ideas 53, no. 1 (1992): 25-45..
181
Most promising in this regard would seem to be the forthcoming from Graham Beynon: Graham
Beynon, "Isaac Watts: Reason, Passion and the Revival of Religion" ProQuest Dissertations Publishing), ..
The abstract of Beynon’s presently embargoed dissertation says: “In particular there has been little
attempt to find coherent patterns of thought in his works. We examine Watts’s view of the role of
reason and the place of passion in the Christian life. These are shown to be foundational themes in his
thought. In particular they lie behind his more practical works which attempted to bring reformation
and revival to the church of his day. On reason Watts in many ways followed Enlightenment thought as
expressed by John Locke. However he departed in significant ways which echo his Puritan background.
As a result Watts is shown to be an ‘Enlightenment Puritan’ on this topic. On passion Watts accepted
some of the view of the new sentimentalist thinkers but again continued significant elements of Puritan
thought. Hence on both these areas Watts is shown to hold a modified Puritan position, modified that is
in the light of the new thinking of his day.”

137

crucible of Nonconformist persecutions."
182

Nonetheless, Watts’s most lasting influence was as a lyricist. By combining elements in
ways that seemed to match perfectly the emerging 18th-century sensibility – reason and passion,
an enlightened wonder at the natural world and affective pietistic expression – Watts became the
undisputed leader of a tradition of corporate hymn-singing that swept across the English-
speaking world in the 18th-century.
183
At the same time he clung with great enthusiasm to his
ancestral religious roots, persistently evoking ancient themes of suffering, persecution and
resistance, and encouraging all who sang his hymns to summon courage and confidence in the
face of the prospect of death.
184

Because they were rooted in the catechetical practice of children and the spiritual
formation of even modestly educated adults, and because they appealed to people from a wide
range of religious backgrounds and traditions, Watts’s metered lyrics helped to constitute a
distinctive musical discourse which permeated England’s North American colonies in the middle
decades of the 18th-century. This discourse was rooted in direct use of language and a core set
of simple meters, facilitating the practice of interchanging lyrics and tunes, and inspiring the
creation of new lyrics that could be sung to a variety of tunes, in a variety of styles, and to a
variety of instrumentations. One expression of this common practice was to parody familiar
songs, especially those associated with a specific religious denomination, or to directly counter
the message of a song championing an opposing cause. Sometimes these intentions were

182
Dargan, Lining Out the Word : Dr. Watts Hymn Singing in the Music of Black Americans : William T.
Dargan, p. 95.
183
Charles Wesley, William Cowper and others who left important marks were, by their own estimation,
following in Watts’s footsteps.
184
My thanks to Andrew Cashner for this helpful articulation.

138

reflected in the new song’s title, but at other times, the response was made evident by the simple
re-purposing of a familiar and easy-to-sing tune.

*****

When John Dickinson’s Liberty Song was first published in 1768, champions of
American independence and loyalists to the British Crown alike recognized it instantly as a
brazen contestation to British authority, and a back-and-forth in song broke out in response to the
composition’s wide circulation. The September, 1768 of the Boston Gazette included a “Parody
on the Liberty Song,” written by one of its loyalist readers, which opened with this verse and
chorus:
Come shake your dull noodles, ye pumpkins, and bawl,
And own you’ve gone mad at fair Liberty’s call;
No scandalous conduct can add to your shame
Condemned to dishonor, inherit the fame.
In folly you’re born and in folly you’ll live
To madness sill ready, stupidly steady,
Not as men, but as monkeys, the tokens you give.
185

The next month another Bostonian fired back in the Boston Evening Post with “The Parody
Parodized”:
Come swallow your Bumpers, ye Tories & roar,
That the Sons of fair Freedom are hamper’d once more;
But know, no such Furies our Spirits can tame,
Nor a Host of Oppressors shall smother the flame.
In Freedom we’re born, and like Sons of the brave,
Will never surrender, but swear to defend her,
And scorn to survive, if unable to save.
186

185
Cited in Carolyn Rabson and Nancy V. A. Hansen, Songbook of the American Revolution (Peaks Island,
Me.: NEO Press; 1974)., p. 9.
186
The Parody Paradized. Boston Evening Post. (Boston, MA) October 3, 1768, p. 3. America’s Historical
Newspapers. Web. 24 February, 2017.

139

This kind of rhyming back-and-forth continued to build as tensions between the colonists and the
English crown escalated in the ensuing years. As Carolyn Rabson has summarized:
American colonists from every walk of life were moved to poetic commentary,
however unpolished at times, by the developing events of those troubled years.
The frankly partisan verses were set to well-known tunes of the day, and could be
quickly learned, savored and passed on from one sympathizer to another. At a
time when methods of communication were severely limited and a large part of
the general population was barely literate, the political ballad was unexcelled as a
vehicle for factional propaganda.
187

When delegates to the Second Continental Congress gathered for the first time in
Philadelphia on May 11, 1775, less than one month after the first formal military engagements
between British troops and American militia near the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and
Concord, the challenge of intercolonial solidarity stood out in stark relief. Through their opening
sessions, the delegates to Congress continued to profess their hopes of reconciling with the
British Crown, most directly by approving the Olive Branch Petition, a conciliatory
communication drafted by John Dickinson that King George III would later refuse even to
consider. Across the course of the summer, though, the escalation of hostilities seemed more and
more inevitable, and before adjourning on August 1 for a month-long recess, the delegates placed
“the army in Massachusetts Bay under the direction of the Virginian George Washington and
resolved that an unprecedented sum of five hundred thousand dollars be “immediately forwarded
from the continental Treasury, to the paymaster general, to be applied” to the army’s equipping
and support.
188

187
Ibid., p. 1.
188
See Journals of the Continental Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-
bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(jc00276)) also July 1, 1775: “That in case any Agent of
the ministry, shall induce the Indian tribes, or any of them to commit actual hostilities against these
colonies, or to enter into an offensive Alliance with the British troops, thereupon the colonies ought to
avail themselves of an Alliance with such Indian Nations as will enter into the same to oppose such
British troops and their Indian allies.”

140

The work of forging a new national identity did not cease while Congress was in recess,
and revolutionary songs continued to spread through the colonies. On Monday, August 7, the
week after the Congress broke for the summer, Thomas Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet – the
weekly newspaper which had distinguished itself as the revolution’s de facto journal of record
through its consistent publication of Congressional minutes and notes – published this song on its
penultimate page:
We are the troop that ne'er will stoop,
To wretched slavery,
Nor shall our seed, by our base deed
Despised vassals be;
Freedom we will bequeath them,
Or we will bravely die;
Our greatest foe, ere long shall know,
How much did Sandwich lie.

CHORUS
And all the world shall know
Americans are free;
Nor slaves nor cowards we will prove,
Great Britain soon shall see.

We'll not give up our birthright,
Our foes shall find us men;
As good as they, in any shape,
The British troops shall ken.
Huzza! Brave boys, we'll beat them
On any hostile plain;
For freedom, wives, and children dear,
The battle we'll maintain.
CHORUS

What! Can those British tyrants think,
Our fathers cross'd the main,
And savage foes, and dangers met,
To be enslav'd by them?
If so they are mistaken,
For we will rather die;
And since they have become our foes,
Their forces we defy.

141

CHORUS
189

While the Packet’s readers were instructed to sing the “Pennsylvania March” to the tune of a
Scottish folk song, Pennsylvanians of almost any heritage would have been able to hear this
march in their ear, and to any of innumerable tunes. So, too, would residents of other British
colonies when it was re-published in their newspapers in ensuing weeks.
190
The song’s verses
were written in the “common meter” of 8.6.8.6 (eight syllables in the first line, six in the second,
eight in the third, six in the fourth) and the chorus in an almost equally familiar 6.6.8.6.
Revolutionary songs like John Dickinson’s Liberty Song and the Pennsylvania March
was the product of a lyrical practice that rose to prominence in the 18
th
-century English-speaking
world. This practice played a significant role in raising up generations of Americans within a
distinctly martyrological ethos. Countless residents of England’s North American colonies – and
from a tremendous diversity of backgrounds and social positions – sang the lyrics of Isaac Watts
and his imitators and successors, preparing their ears and tongues for easy reception and
propagation of simple tunes and lyrics, set to a small number of familiar meters. As Americans
went singing their way to revolution, they witnessed again and again, individually and
collectively, that that their struggle to lead faithful lives might require them someday to die
faithful deaths. The defining challenge of life was to face down what Isaac Watts called “the
tyrant Death.” In this way of thinking, there was no more faithful way to die than to conform to
the model of Christ’s crucifixion, a death self-sacrificed for a noble cause.
Those who read the catechetical works of Isaac Watts, or who sang his psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, had also been trained to think it natural that the transcendent tyrant Death

189
Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser, Monday, August 7, 1775, p. 5.
190
See, for instance, New-York Journal, August 24, 1775, p. 4 and The New-Hampshire GAZETTE AND
HISTORICAL CHRONICLE, September 12, 1775, p. 2.

142

would be in league with earthly rulers. Generations of English colonists in North America had
grown accustomed to thinking of the Pope as a beastly tyrant who must be opposed at all costs,
along with the French and Indian allies who the English considered especially susceptible to the
Pope’s demonic influence. But English kings were not immune from inciting the opposition of
those inclined to cast all their struggles in stark, martyrological terms. It had happened before in
the years of the English Civil Wars, and reminders of these battles still coursed through the
popular culture. And so, as it became increasingly evident that no peaceful resolution would be
found to their unfolding conflict with the British magistrates in North America, revolution-
minded Americans turned their rebellious sights on their King.

143

Chapter Four

“One Life to Give” –
The Martyrological Pedigree of
The Legend of Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale, the American spy executed by British soldiers on September 22, 1776, long
ago ceased to be considered an important figure in serious scholarship about the American
Revolution. A number of surviving firsthand accounts of Hale’s hanging by British troops under
the direction of the General William Howe suggest that British soldiers who attended the young
American’s capture and execution were impressed by his fearlessness in facing death.
191
But the
attribution to him of the dying declaration, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my
country,” did not begin to circulate widely until decades after his death. In 1799 an early
chronicler of New England history named Hannah Adams (unrelated to then-President John
Adams) could write: “So far … Hale has remained unnoticed, and it is scarcely known such a
character ever existed.”
192
Not until after Jedidiah Morse featured Hale in his popular 1824
Annals of the American Revolution was the unsuccessful American spy routinely included in the

191
Phelps cites three witnesses: the first commented on Hale’s “great composure and resolution,”
reported that Hale expressed regret that he “had not been able to serve my country better,” and
encouraged his captors “to be at all times prepared to meet death in whatever shape it presented
itself;” General Howe’s chief engineer, Captain John Montresor, reported later that Hale was “calm, and
bore himself with gentle dignity, the consciousness of rectitude and high intentions;” and another
soldier wrote later that “the frankness, the manly bearing, and the evident disinterested patriotism of
the handsome young prisoner, sensibly touched a tender chord of General Howe’s nature.” M. William
Phelps, Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy, 1st ed. (New York: Thomas Dunne Books,
2008), 306., pp. 187ff. The relative weight that should be given to different first-hand accounts is not
relevant to the argument I am making here, and so I have chosen to acknowledge the question without
pretending to try to answer it.
192
Adams, Hannah, The History of New England, quoted in Ibid., p. 232.

144

pantheon of revolutionary heroes.
193
And as even Charlotte Molyneux Holloway, one of Hale’s
countless sentimental and uncritical 19
th
century biographers, would acknowledge in 1899, “It
was not until 1837 that patriotic sentiment in Connecticut demanded that there be fitting
recognition of his great service, and the Hale Monument Association was formed.”
194

More recently, Hale’s military career – and what it might tell us about the state of
espionage in the revolutionary war – has garnered the attention of military historians, who have
charted Hale’s eighteen months of service in the Continental Army by cross-referencing his diary
with the known itinerary of his company and the larger unfolding of the Revolutionary War.
Kenneth Daigler has summarized the consensus view:
As is often the case with individuals singled out by history for symbolic reasons,
Hale's legend is more drama than fact. Nevertheless, it should be clear that he was
a true patriot and in this sense deserved to be honored for his willingness to die
for his country. He is a hero in this regard. However, from an intelligence
perspective, he was a lousy spy. … If he had been a successful spy, history might
never have heard of him, and it is doubtful that he would have statues about the
country honoring him.
195

While of course it is possible that Hale conjured them or even quoted them at the time of his
execution, it appears all but certain that only in retrospect did Hale came to be associated with
his purported “last words,” so clearly drawn from Joseph Addison’s Cato, the popular 18th

193
Morse, Jedidiah, Annals of the American Revolution, quoted in Kenneth A. Daigler, Spies, Patriots, and
Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press,
2014)., p. 93.
194
Charlotte Molyneux Holloway, Nathan Hale. the Martyr-Hero of the Revolution with a Hale Genealogy
and Hale's Diary (New York: A. L. Burt, 1899)., pp. 165-166.
195
Daigler, Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War, 95, 108. Paul
Misencik chooses simply to acknowledge the tradition of Hale’s purported last words, citing George
Dudley Seymour’s 1941 collection of primary source material. Paul R. Misencik, The Original American
Spies: Seven Covert Agents of the Revolutionary War (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company,
Inc., Publishers, 2014)., p. 21. George Dudley Seymour, Documentary Life of Nathan Hale: Comprising all
Available Official and Private Documents Bearing on the Life of the Patriot, Together with an Appendix,
Showing the Background of His Life ... (New-Haven: Priv. printed for the author, 1941), [2], 627, [5]..

145

century play in which the title character, Cato the Younger, chooses to commit suicide rather
than submit to Julius Caesar, declaring: “How beautiful is death when earned by virtue. Who
would not be that youth? What pity it is that we can die but once to serve our country!”
196

That the oral tradition of Hale’s comportment as he faced execution remained so long in
circulation, however – long enough for it eventually to take on legendary form – is telling.
Whatever he said in the moments before his execution, Nathan Hale came to be embraced over
time as a hero of the American Revolution because he was seen to exemplify the way that young
men who went to war in early America ought to have faced their deaths and were remembered
as having faced their deaths. In other words, Hale was seen in retrospect to have embodied a
powerful expectation passed down by their English-speaking forebears to generations of
American men. Today some Americans would call this expectation “manning up.” People living
in America’s revolutionary generations called it “playing the man.”
197

****

Born on June 6, 1755 in the farming village of Coventry, Connecticut, Nathan Hale was
the son of Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong, each descended from families with generations of

196
Addison, Joseph. Cato. A tragedy, by Mr. Addison. [Seven lines from Seneca]. Boston: Printed by Mein
and Fleeming, and sold by J. Mein at the London Book Store, north side of King-Street,, MDCCLCVII.
[1767], p. 60.
197
Anne Lombard has written: “Seventeenth and eighteenth century New England ministers, evidently
unaware of the irony in their choice of a theatrical metaphor, often exhorted their listeners to ‘play the
man.’”Anne Spencer Lombard, "Playing the Man: Conceptions of Masculinity in Anglo-American New
England, 1675 to 1765" (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles), ,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/304429427?accountid=14749., p. 6. While building off Lombard’s
very helpful analysis of the construction of masculinity in 18
th
-century New England, I aim place this
phrase in what I believe to be more accurate (which is to say, a martyrological) context.

146

history in New England.
198
While there exists no record of it, the library of devout Puritan
families like the Hales would have included some of the same “early readers” that were found in
the homes of more modestly educated families, like the family of Paul Revere. Nathan Hale, and
his 11 siblings would have immersed themselves in The New England Primer while learning to
read. If John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs itself was not on the family bookshelf, one its many
abridgments would have been – or, at a minimum, the children would have been introduced to
their martyrological inheritance through the already-mentioned compendium of deathbed tales,
Janeway’s Token.
But from an early age, Nathan and his older brother Enoch were set by their parents on a
course to enroll in Yale College, an institution dedicated at its founding in 1701 to “educate and
train up youth for the ministry, in the Churches of the Colony, according to the doctrine,
discipline and mode of worship received and practice in them.”
199
This expectation –
unsurprising given that Richard Hale’s family tree was dotted with Congregationalist ministers
and Elizabeth Strong’s densely populated with them – means that the young Hale boys would
have been exposed to a much more rigorous and formal education than most New England
children.
200
As part of this preparation, Nathan and Enoch Hale would have been introduced to a
more expansive body of literature, much of it reinforcing martyrological themes.

198
Phelps, Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy, 306., p. 11. Unless otherwise noted, I
have drawn biographical facts about Hale’s life from Phelps, Hale’s most fastidious biographer, whose
portrait is imaginatively (if sometimes cloyingly) presented, but built on a solid foundation of
documentary evidence extracted from the dozens of hagiographic Hale biographies published in the
19th and early 20th centuries.
199
The quote is from the minutes of a 1753 meeting of President Thomas Clap and the Fellows of Yale
College. Ebenezer Baldwin, Annals of Yale College, from its Foundation, to the Year 1831, 2d ed. (New
Haven: B. & W. Noyes, 1838), 348., p. 68.
200
For a genealogy of Nathan Hale, see: Holloway, Nathan Hale. the Martyr-Hero of the Revolution with
a Hale Genealogy and Hale's Diary, pp. 179ff.

147

For the bulk of the colonial period, books known to be “steady-sellers” were not printed
in British North America, because they were so readily available via importation from
London.
201
This list includes many prominent martyrological titles that will be discussed in
this project – Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living and Holy Dying, John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and
its many abridgements, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, to name just a few. Seth Perry
has suggested that perhaps the best approximate measure of the flow of Bibles via importation
from England can be found by extrapolating backward from the period after the American
Revolution, when American printers began to produce their own Bibles as a substitute for
importation: “No English bibles were printed in America prior to the 1780s, but the period
between 1790 and 1840 saw nearly 1800 editions of New Testaments and full bibles.”
202
This
same approach to other popular titles suggests a similar pattern – works by John Bunyan, for
instance (principally, but not exclusively, The Pilgrim’s Progress) were printed in North
America just 16 times in the century between 1688 and 1787, and 54 times in the quarter
century between 1788 and 1812.
203

The esteem with which several of these works were held in 18th-century America is
confirmed by the frequency with which they were mentioned in works from my selected sample,
and by the frequency of their appearance in published catalogues of books for sale in British

201
Rosalind Remer, Printers and Men of Capital: Philadelphia Book Publishers in the New Republic
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 210., pp. 4-5.
202
Seth Perry, "The Endless Making of Many Books: Bibles and Religious Authority in America, 1780--
1850" (Ph.D., The University of Chicago), ., p. 10. Perry refers to figure 46 on page 182 of Paul C. Gutjahr,
An American Bible: a history of the Good Book in the United States 1777-1880 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1999).
203
This explosion in the printing of popular titles which until the Revolutionary era had been routinely
imported from London may help to explain the dramatic increase in the percentage of works that
included martyrological content in the early national era.

148

North America. Of the 54 such catalogues found in a quick search of the America’s Historical
Imprints Digital Archive, 28 included Foxe’s martyrology – listed variously as “Fox’s Acts and
Monuments of the Church,” and “Fox’s Ecclesiastical History,” and sometimes simply “Book of
Martyrs” – or one of the works that abridged or excerpted Fox’s martyrology like Thomas Mall’s
The History of the Martyrs Epitomised, Ellis Hookes’s The Spirit of the Martyrs Revived, and
Samuel Clarke’s General Martyrology.
204
These catalogues of books were frequently organized
by subject matter or alphabetically, but when they were not so organized, Foxe’s martyrology
was often granted important place of privilege in the listings – for example, it received top
billing in the 1718 catalogue printed by Samuel Gerrish of Boston.
205
(See Figure P.3) Other
martyrological titles referenced frequently in the works that compose my sample also figure
prominently in these American catalogues of books for sale. Of these same 54 catalogues, 10

204
For just a few examples of catalogs featuring different listings of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs see: Gerrish,
Samuel. A catalogue of rare and valuable books ... Massachusetts: Boston, 1717; Logan, John: Catalogus
Bibliothecae Loganianae: being a choice collection of books … Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1760; Cox &
Berry: A catalogue of a very large assortment of the most esteemed books in every branch of polite
literature, arts and sciences. ... Massachusetts: Boston, 1773; Friends’ Library: Catalogue of books in
Friends' Library … Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, 1787. See also: Mall, Thomas, [The history of the martyrs
epitomized] A cloud of vvitnesses, or, The sufferers mirrour. made up of the swan-like-songs and other
choice passages of several martyrs and confessors to the end of the sixteenth century, in their treatises,
speeches, letters, prayers, &c. London: Robert Boulter, 1665. See also: Hookes, Ellis, The Spirit of Christ,
and the spirit of the Apostles and the spirit of the martyrs is arisen, which beareth testimony against
swearing and oaths, for which the martyrs suffered in the time of the ten persecutions and some since,
which we also, the people of God called Quakers, do suffer … London: Giles Calvert, 1661. See also:
Clarke, Samuel, A general martyrologie, containing a collection of all the greatest persecutions vvhich
have befallen the church of Christ, from the creation to our present times wherein is given an exact
account of the Protestants sufferings in Queen Maries reign … London: William Birch, 1677.
205
Gerrish, Samuel. A catalogue of curious and valuable books, (which mostly belonged to the Reverend
Mr. George Curwin, late of Salem, deceased) consisting of divinity, philosophy, history, poetry, &c.
Generally well bound. To be sold by auction, at the house of Mr. Elisha Odlin, on the south side of the
Town-House in Boston, on Tuesday the second day of September, 1718. Beginning at three a clock
afternoon. The books will be shewn by Samuel Gerrish bookseller, near the Old Meeting House in Boston,
from Thursday the 28th day of August, until the day of sale, where catalogues may be had gratis, and at
the Sign of the Light House the place of sale. N.B. A parcel of pamphlets will be then also to be sold.
Massachusetts: Boston, 1718.

149

included works by Jeremy Taylor, and 19 included works by John Bunyan (almost always
Pilgrim’s Progress). While no grand conclusions can be drawn from such a small sample, the
practice of importing landmark martyrological titles from London is confirmed, as is the place of
works like these in the larger book trade.

150

FIGURE 4.1
First page of Samuel Gerrish’s Catalogue of Books for Sale (1718)
John Foxe’s two-volume martyrology received top billing
in the Bostonian Samuel Gerrish’s 1718 catalogue of books for sale.

Samuel Gerrish, Catalogue of Curious and Valuable Books, p. 1.
(Boston: Samuel Gerrish, 1718)

151

*****

Much like the diverse corpus of works produced by Isaac Watts, the sprawling literary
production of John Bunyan is illustrative of the “dissenting” backdrop against which so much of
18th-century American print production can be best understood. John Bunyan, a former soldier
and nonconformist preacher, was imprisoned multiple times across fifteen years during the era of
the English Civil Wars, specifically for violating the Conventicle Act, the 1664 Act of
Parliament forbidding “conventicles,” or religious gatherings, outside the auspices of the Church
of England. While in prison he wrote a theological tract, Grace Abounding to the Chief of
Sinners, and also Pilgrim’s Progress, for which he would become most well-known.
206
Formally
entitled The Pilgrim’s Progress from this World to That which is to Come, Bunyan’s epic
allegory tells the story of an ordinary man named Christian, who – convicted of his own sin by
the book he carried in his hand – embarks on a perilous journey from his hometown, the City of
Destruction, in search of a rumored Celestial City. En route Christian meets up with Faithful,
another refugee from the City of Destruction, and soon the traveling companions are arrested and
put on trial for their rebellion against Beelzebub, the ruler of an emporium-like town called
Vanity Fair. Interrogated by a duplicitous Judge, Faithful refuses to admit a crime, encouraged
by an omniscient narrator:
Now, Faithful, play the Man, speak for thy God:

206
Bunyan, John. Grace abounding to the chief of sinners: or, A brief and faithful relation of the
exceeding mercy of God in Christ to his poor servant, John Bunyan. Namely, in his taking of him out of
the dunghil and converting of him to the faith of his blessed son, Jesus Christ. Here is also particularly
shewed, what sight of, and what trouble he had for sin; and also, what various temptations he hath met
with, and how God hath carried him through them. Corrected, and much enlarged now by the author, for
the benefit of the tempted and dejected Christian. Boston: Printed by J. Allen, for Nicholas Boone, at the
Sign of the Bible in Cornhill,, 1717. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is
to Come (London: Printed for Robert Ponder, 1693)

152

Fear not the Wicked's Malice, nor their Rod:
Speak boldly, Man, the Truth is on thy Side:
Die for it, and to Life in Triumph Ride.
207

After entrusting Christian to the care of Hopeful, another sojourner, Faithful is executed at the
stake, only to be whisked away in an angelic chariot, his martyrdom having earned him free
passage to the Celestial City. Pilgrim’s Progress proved enormously popular in England and
America, running through more than twenty-five editions in its first quarter century of
publication, and would remain among the most widely printed books in the English language
straight through to the early nineteenth century.
208
The wandering Christian’s struggles to
survive in hostile territory were embraced so widely in New England that generations of
preachers could reference Pilgrim’s Progress almost as casually as they referenced the most
familiar stories from the Bible, taking for granted that their listeners would know instinctively its
principal characters and themes.
209

The publication of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress coincided with the emergence of what is
widely considered to be the first unique genre of American print literature, the Indian captivity
narrative. Warfare and ritualized violence were ubiquitous among the vast diversity of peoples
on all three continents – Europe, Africa, North American – that comprised the trans-Atlantic

207
Ibid., 123.
208
Phillips, Cotton Mather Brings Isaac Watt's Hymns to America; Or how to Perform a Hymn without
Singing it, 203., p. 12. Phillips cites as the most compelling evidence of the popularity of Pilgrim’s
Progress its rapid publication in Boston: “"While most books, especially those of ten sheets or more,
were imported rather than printed in New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Boston
editions of Pilgrim's Progress had appeared as early as 1681, just three years after the London original
…”
209
For one discussion of this lasting influence, see: Ruth K. MacDonald, Christian's Children: The
Influence of John Bunyan's the Pilgrim's Progress on American Children's Literature (New York: Peter
Lang, 1989)..

153

“triangle trade” of the early modern era.
210
And as cross-cultural encounters devolved invariably
into armed conflict in the Americas, the threat of captivity – or, at minimum, the perceived threat
of captivity – came to be a defining part of life for all peoples caught up in the violent enterprise
that was European colonization. The actual experience of captivity was most common, of
course, for people being trafficked in the Atlantic slave trade, a commercial system structured by
design to separate slaves – especially young slaves – from their next of kin.
211
Along the eastern
seaboard of North America the taking of captives was understood to be a legitimate act of war by
all parties to the conflict, but the customs surrounding the practice were a source of perpetual
controversy. English practices of war – rooted in conceptions of private property that were alien
to North America – were perceived by native peoples as nothing less than mass slaughter.
Likewise English colonists found abhorrent long-established native practices of raiding enemy
settlements, killing adult males and selectively capturing women and children. Caught in the
crossfire of profound misunderstandings like these, native and English captives alike routinely
faced life-and-death decisions – or had these choices made for them – between execution, on the
one hand, and conforming to their captors’ expectations, on the other.
212

By the time the English began aggressively to expand their colonization of North
America in the late 17
th
century, French Catholic priests had been telling tales of their captivity

210
Richard Chacon and Ruben Mendoza write: “Our collective assessment of the data clearly indicates
that armed conflict and ritual violence are of considerable antiquity in North America. Warfare was
ubiquitous; every major culture area of native North America reviewed herein has produced
archaeological, ethno-historical, osteological, or ethnographic evidence of armed conflict and ritual
violence.” Richard J. Chacon and Ruben G. Mendoza, North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual
Violence (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007), 283., p. 4.
211
Vincent Brown, The Reaper's Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008), 340., pp. 17ff.
212
See for instance: Harold E. Selesky, War and Society in Colonial Connecticut (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1990), 278..

154

at the hands of native peoples for generations. In part to counter the influence of these
compelling legends, New Englanders began to produce and publish their own tales of Indian
captivity, much as John Foxe and his imitators had, a century earlier, proliferated tales of
Protestant martyrs as an explicit counter to claims made by Catholic hagiographers. Mary
Rowlandson’s The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, first published in 1682, enjoyed
unprecedented popularity for a book authored in North America, and so launched a publishing
trend.
213
Captivity narratives remained among the most widely distributed forms of American
literature through to the early 19th century, with the stock of republished favorites being
continually replenished by new additions, and their popularity spiked predictably on the many
occasions that the near-perpetual conflict between the English and French in North America
broke out into formal hostilities.
Scholars are not entirely of one mind about the precise role played by the captivity
narratives in American cultural history, but Teresa Toulouse has aptly summarized what amounts
to a broad consensus that the narratives served to codify gender expectations for colonial women
and to allegorize the experience of the English people as a whole: "Given the New English
Puritan reliance on typological exegesis, ministers could point to the representative quality of the
woman captive's experience; she did not stand for women's experience alone, but, viewed in
scriptural terms, for the experience of the entire colony."
214
The captivity narratives read
somewhat differently, however, when placed in the larger context of the catechetical habitus in

213
Rowlandson, Mary White, and Joseph Rowlandson. A true history of the captivity & restoration of
mrs. mary rowlandson, a minister's wife in new-england [Soveraignty & goodness of God]. London:
Printed first at New-England, and re-printed at London, and sold by Joseph Poole, 1682.
214
Ebersole, Captured by Texts: Puritan to Postmodern Images of Indian Captivity, 322., p. 2. Teresa
Toulouse, The Captive's Position: Female Narrative, Male Identity, and Royal Authority in Colonial New
England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 255., p. 11.

155

which, as we have seen, devout New England parents raised their children.
Sounding universal themes of danger and bravery, loyalty and betrayal, the captivity
narratives served to orient older New England girls and boys to gendered expectations attendant
to their coming of age. It is true, as Toulouse rightly notes, that the archetypal captivity narrative
portrayed a devout Puritan woman who, after being separated brutally from her family,
“manifested culturally valorized qualities of religious acceptance, humility, and obedience until
she was 'redeemed' eventually to her local community."
215
And the captivity narratives did
indeed convey the message to young girls that the essential challenge they would face in their
coming of age would be that of preserving their purity and chastity in a hostile world, with the
desired outcome being not only their moral triumph and communal redemption, but also their
safe passage to the rites of marriage and childbearing. But young men were also featured as
protagonists in many celebrated captivity narratives. In 1707 the Deerfield, Massachusetts
minister John Williams published the harrowing account of his family’s captivity, The Redeemed
Captive, returning to Zion, and later narratives of male captivity included the autobiographical
accounts of John Norton, Nehemiah How and David Brainerd, the latter famously distributed by
the revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards, who appended an elaborate preface and concluding
remarks.
216
In 1758, to cite just one more example, at the height of what the English in North
America called the “French and Indian Wars,” Robert Eastburn’s “faithful narrative” of his own
captivity in Canada was first published in Philadelphia and then in Boston. Eastburn’s chronicle

215
Ibid., p. 1.
216
Williams, John. The redeemed captive, returning to Zion. Boston: B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1707.
Norton, John. The redeemed captive. Being a narrative of the taking and carrying into captivity the
Reverend Mr. John Norton … Boston: Printed & Sold opposite the Prison, 1748. How, Nehemia. A
narrative of the captivity of Nehemiah How… Boston: Printed & Sold opposite to the Prison, 1748.
Edwards, Jonathan. An Account of the Life of … David Brainerd. Boston: Henchman, 1749.

156

included this appeal:
I may, with Justice and Truth observe, That our Enemies leave no Stone unturned
to compass our ruin; they pray, work, and travel to bring it about, and are
unwearied in the Pursuit … O that we may be of good Courage, and play the Man,
for our People, and the Cities of God.
217

To young boys, narratives like these suggested that spiritual trials associated with coming of age
invariably required demonstrations of valor and the endurance of physical pain and
psychological torment. The way these narratives of male captivity told the story, the masculine
passage to adulthood was a demonstrated willingness and readiness to go to war.
218

From the New England Primer to Janeway’s Token, from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress to
captivity narratives like Robert Eastburn’s Faithful Narrative, printed works widely circulated
among young readers in colonial New England were bound together by a central theme – they
focused the attention on the challenge of preparing to die a noble death. Of course, they also
shared the foundational literary backdrop of the Bible. To say that the Bible was their “favorite
book,” however – or even to call their worldview “Bibliocentric” – is to miss something essential
about the ways devout Puritans in colonial New England immersed themselves in their sacred
text. Jennifer Monaghan, for instance, has described Cotton Mather’s Bible commentary – the
lifelong project which Mather called the Biblia Americana – as having “forever languished
unpublished in his study.”
219
But this way of framing Mather’s endeavor assumes that he valued

217
Eastburn, Robert. A faithful narrative, of the many dangers and sufferings, as well as wonderful and
surprizing deliverances of Robert Eastburn, during his late captivity among the Indians. Boston: Green &
Russell, 1758, p. 10.
218
Ruth Bloch has argued that even some of the narratives featuring female captives were intended
primarily to communicate expectations of the male gender. She sees Hannah Dustin and Mary
Rowlandson, for example, as having been celebrated as exceptional women, who "went so far beyond
expectations: they proved themselves neither weaker nor less capable of absorbing and retaining the
standards of civilization than men." Ruth H. Bloch, "The Gendered Meanings of Virtue in Revolutionary
America," Signs 13, no. 1 (1987): 37-58., p. 42.
219
Monaghan, Family Literacy in Early 18th-Century Boston: Cotton Mather and His Children, 342-370.,

157

the commentary only insofar as it might be read by others. Whether or not Mather aspired to see
his commentary published someday, his daily practice of transcribing the Bible and inserting into
the transcription his own personal experience, and the experience of his people in New England,
was foundational in its own right. For Mather, this daily engagement with the Bible represented
a devotional appropriation of Scripture that went well beyond what modern readers might think
of as “reading” or even “interpretation.”
In the evocatively titled Captured by Texts, Gary Ebersole has offered this description of
what happened when devout Puritans in early New England read their Bibles:
… when a Puritan adopted a prayerful attitude upon opening a Bible, his or her
bodily posture (inclined head, eyes closed, folded palms) was unconsciously
assumed, based on the thousands of times this ritualized activity had been
performed from childhood on. Moreover, this posture and attitude predisposed
the individuals to patterned thought processes and so to specific affective states …
somatically invoked.”
220

This way of considering the incarnational literary practices of devout Puritans in colonial New
England invites a more nuanced understanding of their persistent talk of martyrdom, which some
scholars have wanted to reduce to a merely “vicarious” way of talking about “a more capacious
category of suffering.”
221
Rather than thinking of the Puritans as merely reading the Bible, or
even studying the Bible, we do better to conceive of them as engaged in devotional practices that
were foundational and formative to their identities. Through an unending cycle of lived

p. 350.
220
Ebersole, Captured by Texts: Puritan to Postmodern Images of Indian Captivity, 322., p. 35.
221
My thanks to Susan Juster for summarizing this view so eloquently in her response to my dissertation
proposal as shared with participants in a EMSI-sponsored seminar at the Huntington Library in March,
2015. The Reformation, Juster commented, "redefined martyrdom as a more capacious category of
suffering," a "corollary to the Reformation's redefinition of a saint as an ordinary Christian rather than a
spiritual intercessory. For Quakers, for instance, "martyrdom came perilously close to meaning
persecution of any kind, no matter how mild or unspectacular." According to Juster, David Hall once
succinctly summarized this view: “to read about the martyrs was not the same as becoming one.”

158

experience, prayerful and improvisational reading, and oral and written reflection, devout
Puritans sought to participate in what they conceived of as a divine action of incarnation. They
understood themselves to be partakers in what they called the “living Word,” a Word they
experienced to be powerfully present not just in the Bible, but in many kinds of texts.
222223
What
Brad S. Gregory has observed of life for European Christians in the early modern world is also
true for devout Protestants living in 18
th
-century America – martyrs remained enormously
influential not because they were “statistically representative” of the population, but rather
because they represented an ideal-type:
There was nothing esoteric about the martyrs - their beliefs and worldview are
stated or implied in the period's most elementary catechisms. Accordingly, the
extremism of martyrdom should be understood not as the fanaticism of the fringe,
but as exemplary action. Martyrs were exceptional in their behavior, but not in
their beliefs or values. Were this not the case …attitudes linked to martyrdom,
such as the importance of setting aside temporal concerns in the hope of eternal
reward, would not have found such widespread expression; and fellow believers
would not have championed so enthusiastically their martyrs as examples for
others to follow.
224

This is how English colonists and their descendants living in 18th-century America engaged

222
This “hermeneutic” was not unique to the Puritans, by any means, but they were distinctly devoted
to it.
223
Ibid., p. 35. As Ebersole has concluded about American captivity narratives, the central focus of his
work: "By the employment of meditative practices popular in Christianity for centuries, readers were
invited to enter imaginatively into the events and the experience of the captivity through an act of
literary anamnesis.” He continues: “This is the key issue in any attempt to reconstruct how such texts
were read and employed by Puritan readers. Consequently, it would be a grave mistake to ignore the
clear indications that this narrative was intended primarily as a record of the author’s spiritual
experiences and as a goad to others to adopt similar religious practices and to assume a specific
existential and moral stance in the world.”
224
Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe, 528., p. 8. Candida Moss
makes a similar point about martyrdom in the early Christian era: martyrdom, Moss writes, was “a set of
discursive practices that shaped early Christian identities, mediated ecclesiastical and dogmatic claims,
and provided meaning to the experience described by early Christians as persecution, and in doing so
produced a new economy of action.” Moss, Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies,
and Traditions, 256., p. 256.

159

with representations of martyrdom in print – as representations of exemplary action to which,
no matter their own immediate circumstances, they could aspire.
Rather than thinking of them as somehow merely “playing the martyr,” then, we do better
to conceive of Puritan youth like Nathan and Enoch Hale as participating actively in a formative
religious practice as they wrote themselves, read themselves, prayed, preached, sang and, yes,
imagined themselves into martyrological ways of orienting to the world. Like other young men
preparing for the Christian ministry in colonial New England, the Hale brothers would have been
immersed by their devout Puritan parents in an all-consuming, catechetical process of spiritual
formation. This catechetical process was anchored by printed text and grounded in a Biblical
habitus in which suffering and sacrifice, perdition and redemption, death and resurrection were
understood to be the central and defining characteristics of a divinely orchestrated drama in
which they were expected actively to participate. When Puritan children read tales from the
deathbed like those found in Janeway’s Token; when as youth they read tales of captivity like
Mary Rowlandson’s The Sovereignty and Goodness of God or entered the allegorical world of
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress; when as adults they heard or read funeral sermons dedicated to a
fallen hero; when they gathered around the deathbeds of their loved ones to read or sing psalms
about death and life after death – in all these ways and more, people in 18th-century New
England were doing as generations before them had done: they were using printed texts as the
means by which they could incorporate themselves actively into what was for them an ongoing
and living tradition.
Parents like Richard and Sarah Hale immersed their children in this martyrological way
of orienting to the larger world precisely because they believed it uniquely suited to meeting the
kinds of challenges that had confronted their forebears in colonizing what they called “the New

160

World.” A practice of not just reading the Bible, but in fact seeking to embody it; habits of daily
study which embedded an ethos of self-sacrifice in the very acts of reading and writing; an
abundance of devotional literature providing both guidance for preparing to die and inspiring
models suitable for emulation in the work of dying itself; and a perpetual reaffirmation of the
Biblical narrative, with Jesus’ own martyrdom presented as the very crux of human history – in
all these ways, devout Puritan parents raised their children to prepare themselves for that
moment, which could be any moment, when they might be called to their deaths.
225

*****

William Phelps, Nathan Hale’s most fastidious biographer, records the first months of
1767 as momentous ones for the Hale family: Richard and Elizabeth’s “twelfth child, Susannah,
was born in February, 1767, but died a few weeks later. Then on April 2, 1767 – just two
months before Nathan Hale’s twelfth birthday and six months before Enoch’s fourteenth –
Elizabeth lost her life due to the complications from giving birth."
226
Elizabeth Hale’s death
would have cast in dramatic relief a series of rites marking the passage of her sons to adulthood.
No surviving records detail the precise sequence of these events, but – if they had not already
done so – within a year of their mother’s burial, Nathan and Enoch would have made their own
professions of faith before their father and the other men who served as Deacons at the Coventry
Congregational church; they would have submitted to the ordinance of baptism, in which,
standing before the entire congregation, they would have pledged to unite themselves spiritually

225
Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change, pp. 44ff.
226
Phelps, Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy, 306., p. 13.

161

with the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and they would have announced a
calling or “vocation,” committing themselves to a course of study that would prepare them for
admission to Yale College.
227
The dream that Richard and Sarah Hale had long held for their
sons was realized two years later, when, in the fall of 1769, Nathan, then just 14, and Enoch,
turning 16, enrolled at Yale.
228

By far the most influential person in this coming-of-age phase of the Hale brothers’ lives
was the young clergyman who presided at Elizabeth Hales’ funeral, the Rev. Joseph Huntington,
pastor of Coventry’s First Congregational Church. A Yale graduate himself, Huntington was the
only person rightly situated and qualified to shepherd the boys through their schooling in the
years following their mother’s death, overseeing the preparations for the exams that would earn
them admission to Yale. The central thrust of the Hale brothers’ educational formation as
“Yalensies” (as graduates of the college in the 18
th
-century called themselves), can be readily
extrapolated from Huntington’s own formation and from his own substantial trail of publication.
No record survives of what the Rev. Huntington preached on the occasion of Elizabeth
Hale’s funeral in the spring of 1767, but the sole surviving of his funeral sermons – delivered
some twenty years later on the occasion of the death of the spouse of a clergy colleague –
suggests that he would have memorialized Elizabeth Hale only insofar as this demonstrated “the
great goodness of God to her.”
229
The bulk of the sermon consisted of an extended theological

227
Gerald F. Moran and Maris A. Vinovskis, "The Great Care of Godly Parents: Early Childhood in Puritan
New England," Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 50, no. 4/5, History and
Research in Child Development (1985): 24-37., pp. 24-37.
228
According to George Dudley Seymour, " the Strong family tree bore many ministers, all, of course, of
the 'Standing Order,' and all graduates of Yale College." Seymour, Documentary Life of Nathan Hale:
Comprising all Available Official and Private Documents Bearing on the Life of the Patriot, Together with
an Appendix, Showing the Background of His Life ..., [2], 627, [5]..
229
According to David Stannard, Puritan funerals in England remained austere to the point of stark
simplicity through the 16
th
and 17
th
centuries – no liturgy or ceremony of any kind, and perhaps not even

162

reflection on the hope of heaven, including the promises a bodily resurrection, and it would have
concluded with series of direct addresses. After expressing his commiserations to the surviving
spouse, the Rev. Huntington would addressed the surviving children:
The blessing of such a parent … is one of the greatest blessings God ever bestows
in the kingdom of providence … You will never forget the tender care your
departed mother has taken of you; her love, her kindnesses innumerable, her
counsels, her pious example, in which she ever walked before you. Her many
fervent prayers poured out in her closet for you, tho’ you have not heard them,
your God has both heard and answered them, by many signal blessings conferred
on you, and will remember, and continue to answer them, when your mother is
sleeping in the silent grave.
And he concluded with words like this directed to “the audience at large”:
Let all hear the solemn voice of God – careless souls awake, and make your peace
with God. Inquiring souls, fly to Christ and be at rest, be quickened oh! Ye
children of God. Time flies on swift pinions and will soon waft us all over into
the eternal world. … Let none rest contented until they have the moral image and
likeness of God, by the power of regenerating and sanctifying grace; by living
union with an everlasting Saviour. None of you will ever find satisfaction for
your souls in this world or in creatures’ your bodies must all soon go down to the
grave, and sleep in the silent dust; may you all so improve the day of your
probation, that then your souls may awake in the likeness of God.
230

That Huntington would choose the occasion of a loved one’s death to issue cautionary counsel to
the surviving should come as no surprise – this approach had been standard fare in New England
sermonizing for generations. Indeed, Huntington shared with almost all New England clerics of
the eighteenth century an abiding concern with one fundamental question - “what must one do to
be saved?” – and so remained fundamentally preoccupied throughout his life with the

spoken prayers, the rejection of anything that smacked even remotely of ritual being a legacy of the
Puritans’ disdain for all things Catholic. In America, however, “the New England Puritans ritualized
death as only the most non-Puritan of pre-Restoration Englishmen would have dared to do.” Chief
among these New England rituals was the funeral sermon, delivered typically on the day of burial.
Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change, pp. 101ff.
230
Huntington, Joseph D.D. A Sermon Delivered at Coventry, at the Funeral of Mrs. Esther Strong, Late
Consort of the Reverend Nathan Strong, Pastor of the Second Church in that Town. October 21
st
, 1793.
Hartford: Printed by Hudson and Goodwin, 1793.

163

implications of human mortality.
231

This preoccupation did not provoke the attention of clerics like Huntington only late in
life, nor only on funereal occasions. While a student at Yale in the early 1760s, Joseph
Huntington published an annual “College Almanack,” containing a compendium of useful
information for each month of the year. As was customary for almanacs of the period,
Huntington’s almanac imparted formal catechetical information to faithful Christians –
devotional prayers, hymns, poems and the like – alongside basic astrological, meteorological and
historical information, laid out in the form of monthly calendars. As was also typical for the
genre, Huntington squeezed a collection of aphorisms and “miscellany” into what little space
might have otherwise remained in the calendars. Huntington’s Almanack for 1762, for instance,
included quotations like these:
• “One eye on earth; and one full fix'd on Heaven, becomes a mortal and
immortal man." (March)
• "Death treads in pleasure's footsteps round the world!" (April)
• "To trifle, is to live (say the gay and fashionable) and is it likewise a trifle to
die ? (August)
• "The funeral of all nature, which we see every winter, ought, methinks, to
admonish of our own." (December)
232

Joseph Huntington’s mélange of Christian orthodoxy, astronomical investigation and
reflections on human mortality were entirely reflective of the latest intellectual trends in mid-

231
Christopher Grasso and Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, A Speaking
Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut (Chapel Hill: Published for
the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University
of North Carolina Press, 1999), 511., 96. This emphasis is most commonly associated with some of the
18
th
-century’s most celebrated revivalists, thanks to sermons like Jonathan Edwards’s Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God, George Whitefield’s The Eternity of Hell, or Samuel Davies’ This Year You May
Die. As I will elaborate in the Conclusion to this dissertation, I am arguing that the preoccupation with
death, not revivalism, was the definitive concern of the era and by placing the efforts at evangelical
revival in this context is more instructive than the other way around.
232
Huntington, Joseph. An Astronomical Diary; or an ALMANACK for the Year of our Lord Christ, 1762.
New Haven: Parker, 1762.

164

18
th
-century America. In his Almanack for the year 1761, the young seminarian Huntington
expounded in an introductory note to the “Courteous Reader” on the organization of the solar
system, offered an extended defense of “Copernican calculation” and “Newtonian philosophy,”
and protested the “incrudility [sic] of the vulgar, who pretty generally (with great confidence,
and assurance) deride and explode it.” But Huntington did not perceive astronomy and physics
and mathematics to be a challenge to his faith. As he summed up after counting the staggering
multitude of bodies known to exist in the solar system:
What then is earth, with regard to the whole? Like a miserable hospital, amidst
unnumbered, stately palaces! Bot to conclude. What lessons of humility do these
considerations teach us? Sure, man is by the Poet fitly stiled, “An atom, of this
atom world.” Shall he then fight against the whole universe? Shall he propose
his own good to the good of the whole? Be still then my complaining spirit;
remember that that the common PARENT OF ALL has large provision to make
for infinite numbers of far, far greater conference.”
233

Like other learned and orthodox preachers trained at Yale in the middle decades of the
eighteenth century, he neither perceived – nor sought to perceive – any contradiction between
faith and reason.
Even as they were being introduced to the latest discoveries of the Copernican and
Newtonian revolutions, students of Yale College in the 1760s were simultaneously immersed in
the practices of devotion that would prepare them for careers as preachers and teachers of the
Christian gospel. They were also schooled in ancient languages, opening to them the worlds of
the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek, and to the world of the classics in the original Latin.
This classical curriculum is reflected clearly in the holdings of the extracurricular reading
society, Linonia, to which Joseph Huntington and Nathan and Enoch Hale all belonged while

233
Huntington, Joseph. An Astronomical Diary; or an ALMANACK for the Year of our Lord Christ, 1761.
New Haven: Parker, 1761, 16.

165

students at Yale College.
234
Among the works featured in the Linonian Library were a six
volume set of Plutarch’s lives, in which they would have found the biography of Cato the
Younger, the story that had inspired Joseph Addison’s 1713 play. Scattered throughout what
they would have called “the classics,” they would have found countless examples of martyrdom
from Greek and Roman antiquity – accounts of the deaths of Socrates, Anaxarque, Paetus
Thrasea, Helvidius Priscus, Rubellius Plautas and Seneca, to name just a few. When Helvidius
Priscus, for example, was threatened with death by the Emperor Vespasien, the Stoic philosopher
responded: "When did I tell you I was immortal? You play your role and I will play mine. Your
role is to cause my death, mine is to die without trembling."
235

At Yale College in the 1760s, preachers-in-training like Joseph Huntington and Enoch
Hale – and even students like Nathan Hale who were uncertain of a clerical vocation – were
taught to seek to reconcile their many intellectual commitments: to the central doctrines of what
they understood to be Christian orthodoxy; to the great truths they believed could be found in the
annals of antiquity; and to the early discoveries of what we would now call modern science.
Yalensies were taught to resist the notion that these great streams of thought ran at cross-currents
to each other – rather, they were encouraged to identify how these diverse streams were being
channeled in a common direction by Providential design. As Joseph Huntington had put it to the
“Courteous Reader” of his 1761 Almanack: “As the great design of all curious science,
astronomical, philosophical, or of any other denomination whatsoever, is to subserve and

234
"Yale into the 1740s and 1750s reflected an eclectic mixture of old and new learning in place of what
had once been thought of as a coherent body of knowledge. … As New England opened to the new ideas
animating the larger European world, … genteel, cosmopolitan attitudes toward cultural life and a liberal
acceptance of the new learning merged to produce the Anglicization of the colonial American gentry in
the eighteenth century." Ibid., 187.
235
Cornelius Tacitus and Centre Traditio Litterarum Occidentalium, HistoriaeBrepols Publishers, 2010),
iv. 5.

166

promote the interest of religion, & good morals amongst mankind; so there is a wonderful and
wise concerted aptitude and fitness in every kind of liberal science, to accomplish this grand, this
important effect.”
236

Almost twenty years later – on September 29, 1779, three years after Nathan Hale’s
dramatic death – Joseph Huntington preached on the occasion of Enoch Hale’s ordination and
installation as the pastor of the Congregational Church of West-Hampton, Connecticut. Still
affirming that Providential design called for cooperation and collaboration from human beings in
the form of “moral virtue” or “holiness,” Huntington used the terms interchangeably in the
installation sermon:
Moral virtue, the love and practice of it, as we have opportunity in the world, is as
necessary to salvation as the atonement of Christ, or faith in his blood, and is as
much urged and insisted on in the word of God; the peace of moral virtue is
distinct from the other, in the oeconomy of our salvation, but no less necessary.
‘Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.
237

For Huntington, this task of preparing to “see the Lord” was not metaphorical – to the contrary,
this very real encounter was the logical and necessary conclusion of every human life. For
precisely this reason, Huntington encouraged Enoch Hale – and the larger audience of listeners
and readers to whom his sermon was ultimately addressed – to “take a more distinct view of the
death of Christ” and to “consider the death of Christ in all its glorious connections and
consequences.” As he had throughout his career, he returned to the theme that dominated the
preaching and teaching and writing of New England preachers straight through to the end of the
eighteenth century:
It were indeed well for us, had we all the learned accomplishments of the most

236
Huntington, Joseph. An Astronomical Diary; or an ALMANACK for the Year of our Lord Christ, 1761.
New Haven: Parker, 1761, pp. 2, 16.
237
Huntington, Joseph. A Discourse, at the Ordination of … Enoch Hale. Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin,
1780., p. 19.

167

eminent legislators, philosophers and orators of Greece and Italy, of Athens,
Corinth and Rome, in the most shining period of their days; these qualifications,
sanctified, may be of great use to us, and the greatest degree of learning is to be
sought by us: But in the sacred and important character of preachers of the gospel
and guides of precious and immortal souls, we have nothing to do with any other
theme, than JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified.
238

Just seven days earlier Enoch Hale had marked the third anniversary of his brother Nathan’s
noble death.

*****

After graduating from Yale in September, 1773, Nathan Hale worked for some 18
months as a schoolteacher in two Connecticut towns. In the spring of 1775, he enlisted in
Connecticut’s colonial militia, which at the start of 1776 was incorporated into the newly
established Continental Army under the command of George Washington.
239
Sent behind the
enemy lines of British-occupied New York on September 16, 1776, Hale was captured on
September 21 and executed the next day. Hale’s biographers have reconstructed this basic
timeline of events by triangulating independent sources (news articles, battlefield accounts and
so on) with Hale’s own diary, which consists largely of routine notations of his company’s
comings and goings. Hale also made occasional mention of the Sunday sermons he heard while
soldiering. Most of the notations are brief and unadorned – these two examples from October,
1775 are typical:

238
Huntington, Joseph. A Discourse, at the Ordination of … Enoch Hale. Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin,
1780, p. 21.
239
“Nathan Hale enlisted in the 7th Connecticut Regiment on Thursday, July 6, 1775, and six months
later, on January 1, 1776, received his commission, signed by the president of the Congress, John
Hancock, as a regular captain in the Continental Army.” Misencik, The Original American Spies: Seven
Covert Agents of the Revolutionary War, 11-12.

168

"8th. Sab. A.M. rainy - no meetg. Mr Bird pr. Watertown P.M. Went to meetg on
the hill. Mr. Smith pr."
"Sab., 15th. Mr. Bird pr. P.M. After meeting walked to Mystick."

On rare occasion a sermon merited Hale’s special praise. On Sunday, November 5, 1775,
a “Mr. Learned” preached from the scripture John 13:19 and earned a notation of
“excellentissime.” Two weeks later, Hale made the following entry in his diary:
"Sabbath Day, 19th. Mr. Bird pr. - one service only, beginning after 12 o'cl. Text
Esther 8th, 6: "For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my
people, or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" The discourse
very good, the same as preached to Genl Wooster, his officers and Soldiers, at
Newhaven, and which was again preached at Cambridge a Sabbath or two ago.
Now preached as a farewell discourse."
240

We do not know exactly what Rev. Samuel Bird, Pastor of the Church of Christ in New Haven,
preached to Nathan Hale’s company of Continental Army soldiers on November 19, 1775. But
we know from Hale’s notation that Rev. Bird liked to recycle his sermons – Hale had apparently
heard this sermon several times – and we also know the kind of “farewell sermon” Bird liked to
preach to those preparing for battle. Some sixteen years earlier, on an unspecified date at the
height of the French and Indian War, Bird had preached to a company of Connecticut soldiers at
the request of their Colonel David Wooster. The sermon was based on Exodus 33:15 – “And he
said unto him, if thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” – and was entitled, The
Importance of the divine Presence with our Host. Brought to press in 1759 by the New Haven
publisher James Parker, Bird’s sermon opens with a perfunctory caveat – “War is in itself very
undesirable; but nevertheless, it is some Times an indispensable Duty, of absolute Necessity, and
of great Importance to undertake it.” Ostensibly, the sermon is designed to assert “our absolute
Dependence on the over-ruling Providence of God, for Success in all our Undertakings,” and

240
Holloway, Nathan Hale. the Martyr-Hero of the Revolution with a Hale Genealogy and Hale's Diary, p.
228. Downloaded from: https://archive.org/details/nathanhalemartyr00holl.

169

toward this end, Bird admonishes his listeners to “Consider by what Means we should endeavor
to secure the divine Presence with us.” The heart of the sermon, though, is a clear vindication of
the English cause and a clear and rousing call to arms:
241
Having noted that “A just War is rather
to be chosen than an unjust peace,” Bird exhorted his listeners:
May a noble Spirit of martial Courage and good Conduct, united with a divine
Blessing, attend our Armies in the Field, and may sneaking Cowardice, and a
dastardly Temper be banish'd from every Breast, and be abhorred by every New
England Man. … Surely an honourable Death, in the Defence of our Country, is
much rather to be chosen, than a Life of most wretched Slavery."

The militiamen were to fight, Bird tells them, “for King GEORGE, the best of Kings” and they
were to “draw the Sword in the Cause of King JESUS, the King of Kings” and “against the
Emissaries and Incendiaries of Hell and Rome.” He concluded:
Put your trust in God, then may you stand intrepid amidst the hideous Terrors of
Death: and if it should be your Log to fall among the Slain in Battle, holy Angels
will be your kind and faithful Convoy to the Regions of undisturbed Tranquility,
where the Noise of War shall be heard no more. Brave Soldiers, Farewell, be
strong and of good Courage, and may the Presence of God be with you.

More than anything else, it is this idealized vision of masculine virtue that resulted, many
decades later, in Americans’ embrace of Nathan Hale as a hero of the American Revolution. The
tale of his bravura performance before being executed by British troops conformed readily – or,
at least, the tale of it could be made to conform readily – to cultural norms of masculinity that
celebrated demonstrations of bravery when confronted with immanent death. These norms were
not invented by 19
th
century Americans – they were roundly embraced by diverse participants in
the American War of Independence, just as they had been in earlier conflicts in English North

241
Bird, Samuel. The Importance of the Divine Presence. New Haven: James Parker and Company, 1759,
pp. 3,13, 5, 16

170

America.
242
Armed conflict with native peoples and colonial competitors had characterized the
experience of generations of English colonists and their descendants – from King William’s War
(1689-1697) and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) to King George’s War (1744-1748) and the
Seven Year’s War (1754-1763, in North America), to the War of Independence (1775 – 1787).
In many respects the English quest for colonial supremacy in northeastern North America had
never been disengaged.
243

Nathan Hale and his peers were direct descendants of this martial tradition, a tradition
derived, both consciously and unconsciously, from ancient customs of martyrdom and
martyrology. The ideal of dying willfully and self-sacrificially for a noble cause had been
transmitted across centuries among English-speaking peoples – including through the multi-
faceted process which I have called the English print practice of martyrology. This tradition had
been embraced with gusto by parties to many sides of the conflicts in the era of the English Civil
Wars, and bequeathed to their descendants on both sides of the Atlantic. In this sense, what
Bernard Bailyn famously described as that “peculiar strain of anti-authoritarianism bred in the
upheaval of the English Civil War” is not peculiar at all – it is a distinctively American
appropriation of a very specific cultural inheritance, the inheritance of English martyrology.
244

Rhetorical expressions of support for the American Revolution can be understood neither as
purely political rhetoric nor as purely religious oration, but as a blend that is characteristic of
early American life.

242
TO BE EXPLORED: Across this period, English settlers in North America were encountering analogous
traditions of warfare among America’s native peoples and among other Europeans with whom they
were engaged in near continual conflict.
243
Peter Mancall, History 566, University of Southern California, Fall 2014.
244
Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, 335., pp. v-x.

171

Consider just one simple construction of this ancient cultural impulse – the construction
calling on youthful Americans to “play the man.” While there is no proof that he did, there were
abundant opportunities for Nathan Hale to have come across this articulation of masculine virtue
in a wide range of printed material circulating freely in 18
th
-century North America. He could
have read it in John Hancock’s 1774 speech to the crowd assembled at the annual
commemoration of the Boston Massacre, published that same year in Boston, New Haven,
Newport (Rhode Island), and the following year in Philadelphia.
245
He could have read it in any
of dozens of “farewell sermons,” including Samuel Davies’ sermon, The Curse of Cowardice,
delivered in 1755 to the militia in Virginia’s Hanover County, first published in London the
following year and reprinted in Boston, New York and Woodbridge, New Jersey.
246
He could
have read it in Robert Eastburn’s chronicle of his Canadian captivity, first published in
Philadelphia in 1758 and re-printed the same year in Boston.
247
He could have read it in the
climactic scene of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, imported widely throughout the colonies.

245
Hancock, John. An oration; delivered March 5, 1774, at the request of the inhabitants of the town of
Boston: to commemorate the bloody tragedy of the fifth of March 1770. By the Honorable John Hancock,
Esq; [Five lines in Latin from Virgil] – Boston: Printed by Eddes and Gill, in Queen Street, 1774; Newport,
Rhode Island: Reprinted and sold by S. Southwick, in Queen-Street, 1774; New-Haven: Re-printed by
Thomas and Samuel Green, 1774; Philadelphia: Printed by J. Douglass M’Dougall, in Chestnut-Street,
1775.
246
Davies, Samuel. The curse of cowardice. A sermon preached to the militia of Hanover County, in
Virginia, at a general muster, May 8, 1758. With a view to raise a company for Captain Samuel Meredith.
By Samuel Davies, A.M. London: printed. Boston: re-printed and sold by Z. Fowle and S. Draper,
opposite the Lion & Bell, in Marlborough-Street, 1759; Woodbridge, N.J.: Re-printed and sold by James
Parker, 1759; New-York: re-printed and sold by Samuel Parker, at the New-Printing Office in Beaver-
Street, 1759.
247
Eastburn, Robert: A faithful narrative, of the many dangers and sufferings, as well as wonderful and
surprizing deliverances of Robert Eastburn, during his late captivity among the Indians: together with
some remarks upon the country of Canada, and the religion and policy of its inhabitants; the whole
intermixed with devout reflections. By Robert Eastburn. Published at the earnest request of many
persons, for the benefit of the public. With a recommendatory preface, by the Rev. Gilbert Tennent. [Six
lines from Psalms]. Philadelphia: Printed by William Dunlap., 1758; Boston: re-printed and sold by Green
& Russell, opposite the probate-office in Queen-Street, 1758.

172

He could have read it in the King James Version of the Bible, and he could have read it in the
famous account of the Bishops Ridley and Latimer that was found not just in John Foxe’s
original Book of Martyrs, but in every abridgement of it.
In fact, Nathan Hale could have come across this expression in the very almanac that
listed his position in the 19
th
Regiment of George Washington’s Continental Army. (See Figures
4.1 and 4.2) Published in 1775, Watson’s Register for the year 1776 listed all of Connecticut’s
officers serving in the war. The almanac’s April calendar – four months before Hale would
volunteer for service as a spy for General George Washington – was introduced with this poem:
With public Spirit let each Bosom glow,
And love of Liberty direct the blow:
Rouse, patriot Heroes, and pursue the Plan,
Teach listless Souls what ‘tis to play the Man.
248

This enduring legacy of English-language print martyrology makes it possible to understand
how, across cultures and generations, demonstrations of bravery like Nathan Hale’s came to hold
such a unique place of esteem in early American life. They did so precisely because they were
emblematic of a masculine virtuosity that takes as its highest calling the demonstrated
preparedness to die for a noble cause. Such demonstrations were encouraged by the deep-held
belief that through such deaths young men may find their lasting fame and eternal glory.
Casting the American War of Independence in this light helps us to see it not as a
singular event, but instead as part of a long chain of events, spanning generations, centuries,
millennia. In representing noble confrontations with death, producers of print material in 18th-
century British North America alluded routinely to martyrdom, and not infrequently made

248
Watson, Ebenezer. Watson's register, and Connecticut almanack, for the year of our Lord, 1776. ...
Calculated for the meridian of Hartford, lat. 41 deg. 56 min. north: long. 72 deg. 54 min. west ...
Hartford, Connecticut: Ebenezer Watson, 1775, pp. 8, 24.

173

explicit mention of it, joining an age-old discourse. These representations, allusions and
mentions were profoundly influenced by print material that had circulated widely across
centuries in England and her colonies, material which in turn drew on ancient martyrological
traditions. Undergirding this entire corpus was the archetypal martyr’s story, the story of Jesus’
birth, life, death and resurrection as found in the Bible’s New Testament. Young men coming of
age in America’s revolutionary generation understood their immediate forefathers and ancient
heroes to have embraced this inheritance by going to war to defend their honor as a rite of
passage to manhood. As the rebellion against King George gained momentum and took on
revolutionary form through the 1770s, the Americans’ War of Independence represented a
perfect opportunity for a new generation of English colonists to likewise demonstrate their
masculine determination and devotion. It was their turn to “play the man.”

174

FIGURE 4.2
April Calendar from Ebenezer Watson’s Almanack (1776)
The April calendar in Watson’s Register is introduced with a poem challenging young
Connecticut soldiers to show others what it means to “play the man..”

Watson, Ebenezer.
Watson's register, and Connecticut almanack, for the year of our Lord, 1776.
(Hartford, Connecticut: Ebenezer Watson, 1775), page 8

175

FIGURE 4.3
Listing of 19
th
Regiment from Ebenezer Watson’s Almanack (1776)
The last pages Watson’s Register for the year 1776 lists officers from Connecticut in George
Washington’s Continental Army, including Captain Nathan Hale.

Watson, Ebenezer.
Watson's register, and Connecticut almanack, for the year of our Lord, 1776.
(Hartford, Connecticut: Ebenezer Watson, 1775), page 24

176

Conclusion –
The Historiography of Early American Religion and
The Print Practice of Martyrology

“The tendency to consider religion as consisting mainly in scenes and periods of special
fervor, and the intervals between as so much void space and waste time, [has] combined
to deepen the dark tints in which the former state is set before us in history.”
- Leonard Woolsey Bacon, A History of American Christianity, 1897
249

A powerful ring of truth still echoes from the lament Leonard Woolsey Bacon issued one
hundred and twenty years ago about the state of historical inquiry into the subject matter of early
American religion. The framework of “revivalism” no longer dominates conversations among
specialists in the field, but evidence abounds that we still lack a compelling and accessible
alternative frame of interpretation: non-specialists continue to hang banners inscribed with the
words “Great Awakenings” over the period; the convention of capitalizing this inscription
without interpretive comment remains commonplace across the discipline and in popular
renderings of early American history; and high school, undergraduate and graduate curricula
introducing students to early American history – when, that is, they address the subject matter of
religion at all – continue to focus on “scenes and periods of special fervor” and continue to treat
the “the intervals between as so much void space and waste time.”
Recent generations of scholars have shot these banners full of holes, to be sure. In a

249
Bacon, p. 155. Bacon, an iconoclastic and prolific Congregational clergyman, was commissioned to
write the last of 13 volumes in The American Church History Series, a compilation of denominational
histories produced under the leadership of Philip Schaff, Professor of Church History at Union
Theological Seminary in New York City. Schaff, P., American Society of Church History. (1893-98). The
American church history series: consisting of a series of denominational histories published under the
auspices of the American society of church history. [New York: The Christian literature co.]

177

landmark Journal of American History article in 1982, Jon Butler declared the whole notion of
Great Awakenings an “interpretive fiction,” arguing that generations of scholars had taken the
theological and ecclesial disputations of localized religious revivals in New England and
generalized them onto the whole of the American colonial experience.
250
The impact of Butler’s
essay was far-reaching – “Rarely in the space of one essay has so much damage been done to so
many historical reputations,” wrote Allen C. Guelzo in 1997 – and a spirited response to it
effectively polarized the field.
251
In an early response to Butler’s article, William G. McLoughlin
– a student of Alan Heimert, whose 1966 Religion and the American Mind had become the
standard in the field – enumerated some of the benefits afforded by the traditional framework:
… the construct [of “revivalism”] has helped us to understand the shifts from a
Calvinistic to an evangelical world view in the eighteenth century; it has helped
us to understand the new sense of American identity which emerged after 1735; it
has thrown new light on the basic question of separation of church and state, on
the shift from a corporate ideal of the state to an individualistic ideal, and from a
top-down, deferential theory of politics toward a bottom-up, government-by-
consent theory of politics and from admiration of England to anxiety over its
corruption.
252

More recently, the prolific Thomas Kidd has embraced the frame of “Great Awakening” in a

250
Jon Butler, "Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretative Fiction," The
Journal of American History 69, no. 2 (Sep., 1982): 305-325., p. 309. Butler did not deny the reality of
18
th
and 19
th
century revivals, but called on his colleagues to consider them in proper perspective – in his
view, for instance, the “so-called First Great Awakening” was more accurately characterized as “a short-
lived Calvinist revival in New England during the early 1740s.”
251
Guelzo, Allen. C., “God’s Designs: The Literature of the Colonial Revivals of Religion, 1735-1760,” in D.
G. Hart and Harry S. Stout, New Directions in American Religious History (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997), 502., p. 146.
252
William G. McLoughlin, "Timepieces and Butterflies: A Note on the Great-Awakening-Construct and its
Critics," Sociological Analysis 44, no. 2 (1983): 103-110., p. 103. Heimert’s Religion and the American
Mind had made the case, through copious narrating of accounts, that the mid-18
th
century religious
revivals helped to lay a cultural foundation for the American Revolution. Heimert, Religion and the
American Mind, 668. Just a few years before Butler’s article, McLaughlin had brought brevity and clarity
to Heimert’s thesis. William Gerald McLoughlin, Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion
and Social Change in America, 1607-1977 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 239..

178

series of books, adding new dimension to traditional characterizations of the revivalists and those
who embraced the fervor they promoted, while identifying them correctly as the forerunners of
an authentically American movement, “evangelicalism,” that remains active today in every
corner of the globe.
253

These defenses notwithstanding, today few scholars specializing in the field are satisfied
with a focus on revivalism as a frame for considering the spectacularly eclectic religious
experience of people living in 18
th
-century British North America. Few, if any, would contest
Butler’s essential claim, at least as he articulated it in expanded (and less rhetorically-charged)
form in his 1990 book, Awash in a Sea of Faith:
Since its first elucidation in Joseph Tracy’s The Great Awakening, which was
published in 1841 to provide historical support for America’s nineteenth-century
revivals, its interpretive significance has multiplied a thousandfold. … [And yet]
an obsessive concern with it distorts important historical subtleties and obscures
other crucial realities ....”
254

The themes of “enthusiasm” and “democratization” have perhaps come closest to supplanting
revivalism from its place of interpretive privilege in telling this story. , by chronicling the
explosion of Methodist, Baptist and other movements between the American Revolution and
1845 in his 1989 The Democratization of American Christianity, Nathan Hatch has persuaded

253
Thomas Kidd: Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial
America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 392., Thomas S. Kidd, God of Liberty: A Religious
History of the American Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 298., Kidd, Patrick Henry: First among
Patriots, 306., Thomas S. Kidd, George Whitefield: America's Spiritual Founding Father (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2014).. For an excellent critical review of Kidd’s attempt to rehabilitate the framework
of “Great Awakening,” albeit based only on his earlier work, see: Christopher Grasso, "A “Great
Awakening”?" Reviews in American History 37, no. 1 (2009): 13-21..
254
Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, 360., pp. 164-165. Butler
attributes the creation of this historiographic frame to Joseph Tracy’s 1841 The Great Awakening, in
which Tracy chronicled revivals in early 19th-century America by aligning them with Jonathan Edwards’s
now-famous 1737 account of a spiritual revival in his Congregational parish in Northampton,
Massachusetts, entitled A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God.

179

many that what most sharply distinguished the American experience from that of the European
nations to which most Americans traced their ancestry was the rise of a “democratic religious
culture.” Seeking to identify “common developments rather than those characteristic of a given
region ... or of a local town or county,” Hatch effectively rehabilitated Alan Heimert’s thesis
linking religious fervor and republican politics, but in a way that suggested correspondence more
than causation: “America’s non-restrictive environment,” he wrote, “permitted an unexpected
and often explosive conjunction of evangelical fervor and popular sovereignty.”
255
In Fits,
Trances and Visions, Ann Taves has charted the evolution of religious experience in America
across a wider span of time (“from Wesley to James”) than is customary for studies of early
American religion, characterizing the essential religious tension in revolutionary and republican
America as one between “formalism” and “enthusiasm.”
256

Working in this cleared space, many talented historians have put forth interpretive
frameworks other than revivalism in telling a religiously-inflected story of life in 18
th
-century
America. Susan Juster has highlighted prophetic streams of thought and practice that cut across

255
Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity, 312., pp. 24ff. In the end, Hatch’s attempt to
characterize early American religious experience by a single pattern of “democratization” suffers the
same fundamental limitation as traditional scholarship on revivalism, with its suggestion of what
Kathryn Long helpfully describes as a “sine wave” pattern of ascension and declension. Kathryn Long,
"The Power of Interpretation: The Revival of 1857-58 and the Historiography of Revivalism in America,"
Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 4, no. 1 (Winter, 1994): 77-105.. Put simply,
the enormous regional, cultural and ethnic diversity of religious expression in early American cannot be
made to conform to any uni-linear process of historical change. For a helpful counter-point to Hatch’s
thesis of democratization, for instance, see Christine Heyrman’s portrayal of ascendant paternalism and
authoritarianism in the early 19
th
century American South. Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The
Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 336., cited in Richard
Wightman Fox, Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession, 1st ed. (San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), 488.. The same criticism could be levelled at any of a number of
alternate descriptions of the period as characterized by “secularization” or “individualism” or
“evangelicalism” or “romanticism.”
256
Taves, Fits, Trances, & Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James,
449.

180

regional and denominational lines in America’s revolutionary and republican generations – and
she is now preparing to do the same in a project organized around the theme of “iconoclasm.”
257

Carla Gardina Pestana and Katherine Carte Engel have emphasized the pervasively transatlantic
and frequently trans-denominational nature of religious movements in 18
th
and 19
th
century
America, charting a network of relations that can be described as “international Protestantism,”
even as they and countless others have also focused on the inner complexities of specific
populations and specific encounters between adherents of different ecclesial traditions.
258
As
noted in the Introduction, Sarah Knott and other cultural historians have tracked the growing
influence of enlightenment motifs, describing the inner lives of Americans in the revolutionary
and republican eras using actor’s categories like “sensibility” and “passion” and “spirit.”
259

257
Susan Juster and Timothy D. Hall, "Doomsayers: Anglo-American Prophecy in the Age of Revolution,"
American Historical Review 109, no. 4 (Oct 2004, 2004): 1197-1198,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/37990200?accountid=14749..
258
Pestana, Protestant Empire: Religion and the Making of the British Atlantic World, 302., Engel and
others, Empires of God: Religious Encounters in the Early Modern Atlantic, 441-443., Katherine Carté
Engel, Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2009), 313., Andrews, The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800: The Shaping of an
Evangelical Culture, 367., Sobel, The World they made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-
Century Virginia, 364., Mechal Sobel, Trabelin' on: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith, Vol. 36
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), 454..
259
For Sarah Knott, whose work centers principally on Philadelphia, the political and economic
transformation of the revolutionary and republican eras was accompanied by “a certain kind of social
revolution: the reconstitution of self and society together,” as diverse Americans across this same span
of time embraced a “distinctive mode of self … [that] eschewed traditional dichotomies of reason and
feeling, mind and body by means of sensation and perception.” Sarah Knott, Sensibility and the
American Revolution (Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and
Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 338., pp. 3,5. In Passion
is the Gale, Nicole Eustace has attempted to present a portrait of revolutionary America based “not [on]
the internal experience of emotion, but rather the external expression of emotion through language.”
Nicole Eustace, Passion is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution (Chapel
Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
by University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 613., p. 12. And in A Republic of Mind and Spirit, Catherine
Albanese has argued for a “metaphysical” understanding of religion in revolutionary republican America,
in which “religion turns on an individual’s experience of ‘mind’ (instead of ‘heart’).” Catherine L.
Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 628., p. 6. See also:

181

For all this scholarly ferment, though, the central concern articulated so clearly by
Leonard Woolsey Bacon in 1897, and so powerfully reiterated by Jon Butler in 1982, still holds.
The evangelical revivals of the 18
th
and early 19
th
centuries, well-promoted and well-documented
as they were, continue to be over-privileged in scholarship about early American religion. The
lens of “Awakenings” still obscures more than it illumines. And no alternative frame enjoys wide
consensus as a way of considering the early American experience in intrinsically religious terms.
To receive wide embrace, this alternative frame would need to prove compelling in many
different regards. It would need to encompass a long view, chronologically, and a wide view,
geographically and culturally, encouraging students of early American history to consider
English-speakers not in isolation, but as connected to both their own ancestors and also to other
people living in 18
th
-century North America – indigenous Americans, Africans and African-
Americans slave and free, colonists, explorers, and invaders who traced their heritage to other
European nations. It would not seek to dismiss the revivals of the 1730s and 1740s from
consideration, but it would seek to place the revivalists and those who responded to their call in
their rightful place, as historical actors on a crowded stage filled with a spectacularly diverse cast
of characters. It would need to produce – or at least hold the promise of producing – novel
explanations for fundamental dynamics in 18
th
-century American life – the consolidation of an
American national identity; the growing resistance to the authority of the British Crown; a
growing optimism attached to American visions of possibilities both in this life and in the life to
come. It would need to make possible the construction of an alternate architecture of
chronological periodization, and one sufficiently memorable that non-specialists could find it

Ruth H. Bloch, "Changing Conceptions of Sexuality and Romance in Eighteenth-Century America," The
William and Mary Quarterly 60, no. 1, Sexuality in Early America (Jan., 2003): 13-42..

182

useful in teaching students at all levels. Most fundamentally, as a purely pragmatic matter, it
would need to facilitate an unexpected, if not entirely novel, story of the American Revolution,
still without question the most decisive moment – or movement – of the century. The hurdles are
high indeed.

*****

To move beyond the “revivalism” of Heimert, the “enthusiasm” of Butler and Taves, and
the “democratization” of Hatch as frames for considering religion in the early American period,
future generations of scholars will need to abandon the deeper conceptual frame that
distinguishes between “religious” and “secular” dimensions of human life. A profound dualism
does characterize the writings of English-speakers living in 18
th
-century America, but this
dualism was not between sacred and secular dimensions of human experience. Rather, they
distinguished between two different dimensions of human life altogether - one lived in the form
of flesh and blood and walking the face of the earth; and the other lived in the form of spirit,
pervading the present in every dimension and yet also residing mysteriously in the dimension of
eternity. It is for this reason that characterizations of early American life that address head on
the dimensions of the supernatural have proven so instructive – works as diverse as David Hall’s
World of Wonders and Vincent Brown’s The Reaper’s Garden come to mind.
The fundamental spiritual question confronting people living in 18
th
-century British
North America was the fate of one's soul in the afterlife, and in that light the fundamental
spiritual challenge became that of how best to prepare to die. This way of thinking about
religion in early American life invites a new kind of conversation about the religious experience

183

of early Americans. When the celebrated revivalists of 18
th
-century British North America are
seen as responding to the fundamental challenge of human mortality, they are not banished from
the stage. Rather, they are placed alongside others who shared with them a fundamental human
concern about the afterlife, and who therefore cast their living in the light of the prospect of
death. This way of framing the matter does not dismiss the revivals as inconsequential – rather,
it brings them into even sharper focus by casting them as unique responses to the distinctive
challenges of mortality that confronted all peoples in 18
th
-century British North America.
The famed religious innovators in 18
th
-century America shared a deep and abiding
concern for the eternal fate of their listeners and readers, and for this reason, they focused
incessantly on the question of proper human conduct in the face of the prospect of death. This is
the concern that compelled George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennent, Samuel
Davies and other evangelists to pursue their religious insurgencies, to provoke the revivals, and
to make the “New Birth” the focus of their preaching. They believed that they – and all those
who composed their audiences – could die at any moment, and this belief was reinforced
repeatedly, if periodically, by their personal experience. For them, no other matter was of
remotely comparable import. As Samuel Davies so succinctly put it, “This Year You May Die.”
Christopher Grasso’s concise assessment is instructive: "The Awakening had been dominated by
a single question: 'What must I do to be saved?' The Awakening ended as factions formed that
proclaimed different answers."
260
Note that the end of the Awakening did not put an end to the
question, nor the struggle to find the best answer to it.
While the subject matter of human mortality is not unfamiliar to historians of early

260
Grasso and Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, A Speaking Aristocracy:
Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut, 511., p. 96.

184

American religion, the notion has not caught on that it might serve as a fruitful organizing frame
for studying the eighteenth century. There remains a peculiar historiographic gap between
scholarship about death and dying as experienced by the earliest English colonists in the North
America (in the seventeenth century) and the catastrophic experience of mortality resulting from
the U.S. Civil War (in the nineteenth century).
261
Re-framing the telling of 18
th
-century British

261
When first conceiving of this dissertation, I came to think of David Stannard’s 1977 The Puritan Way
of Death and Drew Gilpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering as symbolic “bookends” defining this
historiographic gap. Stannard’s careful examination of changing Puritan attitudes toward death and
dying demonstrates the centrality of death to the experience of childhood, childbearing, war and urban
violence in 16
th
and 17
th
century England and America. The Puritan Way of Death was a cutting-edge
example of the cultural “turn” in early modern studies at the time of its publication 37 years ago, but of
course it was not informed by other turns (cross-cultural, Atlantic, race and gender, to name just a few)
which characterize more recent scholarship. Stannard’s work was limited (by design) to a specific
population and religious tradition, and one which has long since been abandoned as a “stand in”
representative of the peoples of the early modern world. Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study
in Religion, Culture, and Social Change With its unwavering focus on both the “incidence and
experience” of death, Faust’s volume is widely and rightly recognized as having made a lasting
contribution to the historiography of the U.S. Civil War. Faust marshals a tremendous array of evidence
– battlefield reminiscences and photographs, personal correspondence, popular literature and poetry,
sermons and hymnody, cemetery records and more – to demonstrate that the Civil War did not just
affect the millions of families who lost loved ones, but transformed American customs of burying the
dead and accounting for death, and in fact caused Americans to question fundamental beliefs about
death and the afterlife. Its method alone – which takes seriously that people occupying different social
positions, including the dying themselves, play an important role in “the work of death” – makes This
Republic of Suffering an important and inspiring contribution. Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of
Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, 1st ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), 346., pp. xii ff.
The overall excellence of Faust’s book makes all the more surprising the relative shallowness with which
she treats the point of departure for her narrative – her analysis of those American attitudes toward
death and practices of dying which prevailed before the Civil War. In her opening chapter, entitled
simply “Death,” she hangs a single banner over these antecedents, writing, “The Good Death proved to
be a concern shared by almost all Americans of every religious background.” (p. 7) But this label – to
which Faust returns repeatedly throughout the book – is an anachronistic one and the reader is left to
wonder why, on the one hand, she chose to capitalize it, and, on the other hand, did so little to unpack
it. I am convinced that the many changes Faust rightly associates with the experience of Civil War – an
increasing preoccupation with the spiritual state of the dying, an expanding vision of the eternal realm
that awaits the souls of the deceased, a growing commitment to chronicling dying moments and
utterances, a deepening horror at the idea that remains would go untended, to name a few – are in fact
parts of a much larger arc of history. If not on the same scale as they experienced in the Civil War,
Americans of diverse racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds knew well the realm of suffering long
before white Northerners and Southerners turned their sights on each other. Among the countless
works that could be set on a shelf between these two bookends, Erik Seeman’s 2010 Death in the New
World represents perhaps the most comprehensive attempt to analyze the central role played by death

185

North America in these terms invites us to re-examine celebrated religious revivals, to be sure.
More importantly, though, it invites us to re-consider them as just a few among many strategies
embraced by people living in 18
th
-century North America as they struggled to answer
fundamental questions about the nature of human mortality and offered competing counsel
regarding right conduct in the face of the prospect of death.
Paying careful attention to perceptions of death and practices of dying makes possible
new ways of talking about the early American religious experience. By focusing on
circumstances of extremis in which these perceptions and practices are brought to the fore –
war, slavery, travel, captivity, plague – a traditional historiography of religion in 18
th
-century
British North America is thrust into dialogue with other bodies of scholarship touching on
diverse themes: the decimation of Native peoples;

the catastrophic experience of African slaves
and their descendants; the pervasiveness of ethnic (or tribal) conflict and the varied practices of
warfare; and the conveyance of perceptions of death and practices of dying beyond those parts of
North America settled by English colonists.
262
This framework can be embraced by scholars

and dying in the cross-cultural encounters foundational to the creation of European colonies in the
eastern seaboard of North America and the Caribbean. Seeman, Death in the New World: Cross-Cultural
Encounters, 1492-1800, 372.. As Seeman is quick to acknowledge, the title of the volume amounts to an
over-generalization, as in fact DEATH IN THE NEW WORLD “focuses only on the eastern third of North
America and the Carribean, and even within that limited range the coverage is not encyclopedic.” (p. 10)
While the title to each of the chapters would seem to suggest a comprehensive view of vast terrain,
each is limited – and in ways which at times seem haphazard – to a short collection of cross-cultural
encounters in specific venues constrained by time and space and limited by available data. Seeman
engages his stories with great effect, but – lacking a more coherent conceptual architecture – he leaves
his readers feeling scattered as each chapter requires a re-orientation to different parameters.

262
With this litany, I am conjuring some of the works already cited in this dissertation: Colin G. Calloway,
One Vast Winter Count (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 631., Brown, The Reaper's Garden:
Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery, 340., Martina Will de Chaparro and Miruna Achim,
Death and Dying in Colonial Spanish America (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011), 276., Martina
Will de Chaparro, Death and Dying in New Mexico (Albuquerque; Dallas: University of New Mexico
Press; Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern

186

who continue to consider evangelical revival an essential part of the early American experience.
It can also be embraced by many who resist referencing religion altogether for their frustration
with the undue influence given to traditional narratives of revivalism and “Great Awakenings.”

*****

This analysis can also add dimension to the central thrust of scholarship that has poured
forth in recent generations about the origins of the American Revolution. Through the course of
the 18
th
century changes ideological, cultural and spiritual came together in England’s North
American colonies in ways that were dynamic and mutually reinforcing.
The cross-cultural turmoil of early American life did not eradicate “fear and trembling” in
the face of death, but it did generate for many a more expansive “hope of heaven.” In the middle
decades of the 18
th
century, this cultural and theological movement converged with an emerging
democratic spirit. The idea that ordinary, everyday people could know with true confidence that
in the next life they would be received by favor with God seemed to fit hand-in-glove with the
idea that ordinary, everyday citizens should be considered capable of self-governance. Across

Methodist University, 2007), 261., John W. Shy, A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the
Military Struggle for American Independence, Rev ed., Vol. 2A (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1990), 356., Dustin A. Gish and Daniel Klinghard, Resistance to Tyrants, Obedience to God: Reason,
Religion, and Republicanism at the American Founding (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2013).,
Mary Terrall and Helen Deutsch 1961, Vital Matters: Eighteenth-Century Views of Conception, Life, and
Death (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012).. No one has yet mounted a truly comprehensive
comparison of martyrological traditions within the different North American colonial enterprises of the
major European powers (Spanish, French and English). Much less does current scholarship consider how
these diverse European traditions were affected by encounters with native peoples and with African
slaves and their descendants, all of whom brought to these encounters their own traditions of noble
dying.

187

the crucial decades of growth in Revolutionary sentiment, more and more Americans came to the
conclusion that both temporal self-rule and eternal salvation were rightly understood to be within
the purview of “the people.” As British undersecretary of state William Knox complained after
the outbreak of the revolutionary: “Every man being thus allowed to be his own Pope, he
becomes disposed to wish to be his own King.”
263

But champions of American independence were also steeped in generations of print,
including an age-old tradition of martyrology reaching back to the English civil wars of the
seventeenth century and beyond. This tradition represented for revolution-minded Americans –
both as actors who gave shape to historical events, and as the makers of the legends that grew up
around them – a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it inspired in them a profound sense of
purpose and destiny, imbued with the dimension of the divine, rendering them capable of
extraordinary sacrifice for a cause greater than themselves. It also predisposed them to
absolutize their cause and demonize their enemies, to take what might have been more rightly
considered a political protest and convert it into a holy war.
Seen in this light, the mix of motives that inspired the American revolutionaries is neither
“surprising” nor “peculiar.” An increasingly belligerent commitment to newly-articulated
political ideals, a surging sense of optimism born from an expanded “hope of heaven,” and the
appropriation of an age-old tradition that placed near-ultimate value on demonstrations of
fearlessness in the face of death – this combination fueled not just intellectual fires and heartfelt

263
Quoted in Phillips, The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America, 707., p. 97.
As Carla Gardina Pestana has summarized this view: “the American Revolution reprised the very issues
that had been at stake a century before … As colonies moved fitfully toward separation and the creation
of the United States, disloyal individuals, many of them religious dissenters, failed to respect their duty
to God and King, and instead participated in revolt.” Pestana, Protestant Empire: Religion and the
Making of the British Atlantic World, 302., p. 220. Of course, the way the revolutionaries came to think
of it, it was precisely their duty to God that led them to reject their obligations to kings.

188

passions, but deep spiritual longings in countless Americans. Their revolution was born from a
distinctively American passion for liberty, and a distinctly American ideal of death.

189

APPENDIX A – Notes on Sources

To establish a foundation for my investigations, I carefully selected for close examination
a sample of 606 printed works from the Readex America’s Historical Imprints database.
264
I
selected them, in the first place, by imposing strict chronological and geographic parameters – all
were published in North America between the years of 1688 and 1787. Next, I searched both
titles and contents, applying two basic sets of content criteria: first, works that contained mention
of death, extremis or martyrdom in their titles and included mention of martyrdom in their
contents; and, second, works of special types that I knew from browsing routinely included
mention of martyrdom in their contents, and yet within which a simple title search could not be
taken as representative of their content. The special types I identified for this latter purpose
included catechetical works, song books, liturgical works and almanacs. A detailed listing of
these selected works can be found in Appendix B, “Selected Works.”
Of course, this selection of parameters imposed certain limits on my investigation. By
picking 1688 and 1787 as my chronological parameters, I removed from close consideration
both print material published in Boston before 1688 – material that has received intense
scrutiny from generations of scholars – and the less thoroughly examined surge of American
print production in the early national era. By limiting my search to imprints found in the
America’s Historical Imprints database, I side-stepped for the most part the question of how the

264
See: http://www.readex.com/content/americas-historical-imprints The corpus of over 150,000
imprints contained in the America’s Historical Imprints database is in fact drawn from six different
databases, and is advertised on the Readex website as an “incomparable digital collection [which]
contains virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America over a 160-year period.”
While of course this digital archive is not exhaustive of print production from the early American period,
it is sufficiently robust that useful conclusions can be drawn by taking it as a representative sample.

190

subject of martyrdom was treated in American newspapers in the colonial era.
265
By limiting
my search to word searches of the database, I will have missed many instances in which
traditions of martyrology were conjured by other means. (Some unknown percentage of
almanacs printed in 18th-century America, for instance, referenced martyrs in their monthly
calendars.) Perhaps the most consequential parameter I embraced was to sample only works
printed in America, a decision that directed me away from any attempt to assess in quantitative
terms the importation of martyrological titles to England’s North American colonies. This did
not remove from consideration, however, the many works that were printed in multiple editions
in London (and presumably imported to English colonies in North America) before finally
being printed for a first time by an American printer. Examples of this pattern include not
only the many works of Isaac Watts, but also works like Richard Sault’s The Second Spira,
Richard Baxter’s A Call to the Unconverted, and John Mason’s Spiritual Songs, among many
others.
As can be seen in Table A.1, these 606 works represent less than three percent of the
digital archive of American print production for this 100-year period (21,597 total works). As
suggested by the highlights in Table A.1, however, I think of this sample as nested within larger
sets of prints: 1,721 works that included some explicit mention of martyrdom (8 percent of the
total); 9,300 works that included some explicit mention of circumstances of extremis with which
death was commonly associated (43 percent of the total); and 16,134 works that included some
explicit mention of death and dying (75 percent of the total).

265
For an excellent overview of the emergence of newspaper publication in colonial America, see:
Charles E. Clark, The Public Prints (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 330..

191

TABLE A.1
Selected works as a Sample from within Titles including mention of Death, Extremis &
Martyrdom in Titles and Contents, by Quarter Century

• “DEATH,” referring to death in general (death* OR die* OR dy* OR dead*)
• “EXTREMIS,” referring to extreme kinds of deaths or encounters with death that were
commonly specified in early America (captiv* OR battle* OR shipwreck* OR plague* OR
execution*)
• “MARTYRDOM,” (martyr*)

Digitized
Imprints
1688 – 1712 1713-1737 1738-1762 1763-1787
1688-1787
(entire period)
All
1261 100% 2652 100% 4953 100% 12731 100% 21597 100%
TITLES include mention of …
Death, Extremis
or Martyrdom
(no duplicates):
123 10% 325 12% 407 8% 815 6% 1670 8%
Death 107 8% 302 11% 366 7% 661 5% 1436 7%
Extremis 18 1% 34 1% 53 1% 184 1% 289 1%
Martyrdom 0 - 3 - 7 - 7 - 17 -
CONTENTS include mention of …
Death, Extremis
or Martyrdom
(no duplicates):
994 75% 2177 82% 3957 80% 9006 71% 16134 75%
Death 972 77% 2121 80% 3818 77% 8466 66% 15377 71%
Extremis 521 41% 1182 45% 2241 45% 5356 42% 9300 43%
Martyrdom 148 12% 303 11% 445 9% 825 6% 1721 8%
SELECTED WORKS
Selected 42 3.3% 117 4.4% 131 2.6% 316 2.5% 606 2.8%

192

SELECTED WORKS – THE CHALLENGING QUESTION OF GENRE

Because so many 18th-century imprints combined different kinds of material,
categorizing these selected works by genre presented a daunting challenge. In the end, I judged
the “genre” field in the America’s Historical Imprints database to be insufficiently narrow for
this task. Rather than thinking of my selected works as belonging to rigid categories, I instead
classified them by identifying up to two types of content that were highlighted in their titles. As
can be seen from the results presented in Table A.2, this liberal approach to categorization
allowed for substantial overlap, producing 260 “double-counts.” Works containing mention of
catechetical content or songs in their titles predominated in my sample of selected works, each
representing almost a third of the total. Works containing mention of oratorical content in their
titles, essays, and works containing mention of accounts of events in their titles comprised a
second rank, each close to 20 percent of the total selected. Finally, almanacs and works
containing mention of liturgical content in their titles represented 10 percent and 9 percent of the
total respectively. 14 of the 606 works, just over two percent of the total, were catalogues of
books available for sale. Only 7 works, barely one percent, fit none of these categories.

193

TABLE A.2
Selected Works by Content in Titles and Quarter-Century

• CATECHISM = Catech* OR Primer* OR Token* OR Devotion* OR poe* OR verse*
OR epitaph*
• SONG = Hymn* OR Psalm* OR Song*
• ORATORY = sermon* OR eleg* OR eulog* OR lamentation* OR speech* OR address*
OR oration*
• ESSAY = essay* OR dialog* OR treatis* OR reflection* OR meditation* OR discours*
OR enquir* OR contemplation*
• ACCOUNT = account* OR narrat* OR relation* OR report* OR “last words” OR “dying
words” OR observation* OR sketch* OR travel* OR journal* OR memoir* OR letter*
• ALMANAC = Almanac*
• LITURGY = Liturg* OR Pray* OR Rite*

1688 – 1712 1713-1737 1738-1762 1763-1787 1688-1787

ALL
IMPRINTS
1261 100% 2652 100% 4953 100% 12731 100%
21597 100%

ALL
SELECTED
42 3.3% 117 4.4% 131 2.6% 316 2.5% 606 2.8%

TITLES with
CONTENT

Catechetical 6 14% 30 25% 36 27% 125 40% 197 33%
Song 5 12% 32 27% 46 35% 108 34% 191 32%
Oratorical 14 33% 40 34% 29 22% 48 15% 131 22%
Essay 18 43% 29 25% 25 19% 37 12% 109 18%
Account 9 21% 24 21% 22 17% 50 16% 105 17%
Almanac 2 2% 3 3% 9 7% 44 14% 58 10%
Liturgical 9 21% 14 12% 15 11% 16 5% 54 9%

None of the
Above
3
7%
6
5%
2
2%
10
3%
21
3.6%

More than one
of the Above
24

61

53

122

260

194

SELECTED WORKS BY AUTHOR, TITLE, THEMES, PLACE OF PUBLICATION &
PUBLISHER

Over 150 authors are represented in my sample. Many authored single works that
appeared multiple times in the sample, and many authored multiple works, some of which
appeared only a single time. Works by James Janeway, Cotton Mather and Isaac Watts dominate
my sample with 12, 34 and 81 imprints, respectively. Other notable authors producing multiple
works included Benjamin Colman, William Dyer, John Mason, Increase Mather, Samuel Mather,
Samuel Stillman, John Wesley, and Edward Young. Also notable were certain titles
representing singular or serial works that appeared multiple times in my sample (song books,
catechetical works, and almanacs, especially). These are listed in Table A.3, and, again, are
dominated by the works of Isaac Watts.
To further explore the relationship between martyrdom and “extremis” in the selected
works, I examined which kinds of extremis appeared most frequently, broadening the search
terms slightly (to include key actors like “soldier” and “sailor,” for instance.) Some mention of
battle, execution and captivity appeared in over 50 percent of the selected works. Mention of
shipwreck (or seafaring) appeared in 44 percent of the selected works, and mention of plague or
pestilence appeared in 31 percent. A scan of the 89 titles in which none of these kinds of
extremis were explicitly mentioned show a preponderance of sermons, eulogies, or accounts of
otherwise ordinary deaths, but in which the author chose to conjure the motif of martyrdom.

195

TABLE A.3
Individual Works Appearing Four or More Times
in Selected Works, by Category and Quarter-Century

1688-
1712
1713-
1737
1738-
1762
1763-
1787
1688-
1787

SONG BOOKS

The psalms hymns, and spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament (Bay Psalm Book)
2 6 0 0 24
A new version of the Psalms of David
(Nicholas Brady)
0 2 7 14 23
The Psalms of David, imitated in the language of the
New Testament … (Isaac Watts)
0 1 10 32 43
Spiritual songs: or, Songs of praise with penitential cries
to Almighty God, upon several occasions. (John Mason)
0 0 2 3 5
Hymns and spiritual songs
(Isaac Watts)
1 0 3 19 23

CATECHETICAL WORKS

The day of doom: or, A poetical description of the Great
and Last Judgment. (Michael Wigglesworth)
1 1 0 2 4
A token for children. Being an exact account of the …
joyful deaths of several young children. (James
Janeway)
1 2 0 6 9
New England Primer 0 1 4 26 31
Horae lyricae. Poems, chiefly of the lyric kind, in three
books. (Isaac Watts)
0 0 3 2 5

ALMANACS

Abraham Weatherwise’s Father Abraham’s Almanac
(PA, MA)
0 0 2 6 8
John Tobler’s The Pennsylvania Town and Country
Almanac (PA, DE, SC, FL)
0 0 0 8 8
Nathaneal Low’s An Astronomical Diary [Pocket
Almanac] (MA)
0 0 0 7 7

196

The geographic spread of print production including martyrological content conformed in
significant measure to the overall spread of print production in 18th-century America. Works
from my selected sample first appeared in the following locations and on the following timeline:
• before 1688:
o Boston, Massachusetts
• near the turn of the 18th-century (1688-1712):
o New York, New York
• early in the 18th-century (1713-1737):
o Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
o New London, Connecticut.
• during the era of the French & Indian Wars (1738-1762):
o Portsmouth, New Hampshire
o Providence, Rhode Island
o Newport, Rhode Island;
o New Haven, Connecticut
o Woodbridge, New Jersey
o Williamsburg, Virginia;
o Charleston, South Carolina.
• during the revolutionary era (1763-1787):
o Massachusetts (Salem, Worcester, Plymouth)
o Burlington, New Jersey
o Albany, New York
o Wilmington, Delaware
o New Bern, North Carolina
o Savannah, Georgia.
Once this practice was established in a colonial settlement in English North America, almost
without exception it retained its foothold and expanded, sometimes gradually (for instance,
New York or New London) and sometimes dramatically (for instance, Philadelphia).
Finally, a survey of publishers of selected works reveals how much the publication of
these kinds of works was dominated by key printer/publishers, including many who handed
down their business through generations of family. Bartholomew Green stands out as the
dominant publisher of my selected works near the turn of the 18th-century. He is joined in the
early eighteenth century by fellow Bostonian John Allen; by his own nephew Samuel
Kneeland, who would pass the business on to his own son, Daniel; and by Thomas Fleet,

197

whose sons Thomas Jr. and John would carry on after their father’s death. In the era of the
French and Indian Wars, the Benjamin Edes family joined this cadre of Boston printers, and
in the revolutionary era the printers William M’Alpine and Isaiah Thomas did the same.
Outside of Boston, the Bradford family inaugurates the printing of my selected works in
Pennsylvania and New York, followed in the early eighteenth century by Benjamin Franklin
in the former and James Parker in the latter. The Dunlap family entered the market in
Philadelphia in the era of the French and Indian War, as did Hugh Gaine in New York and
Timothy Greene in New London, Connecticut. In the era of the American Revolution, the
Philadelphia printers Joseph Crukshank and Robert Aitken joined Franklin’s partner David
Hall and the Bostonians M’Alpine and Thomas as the only printers to crack the threshold of
double-digit imprints from among my selected works.
What emerges from this heterogeneous pattern of publication is a list of core works
containing martyrological content, which a core group of American printer/publishers
produced at different times and places in 18th-century North America.
266
Table A.4 displays
these core works and shows their distribution across both quarter century and geographic
location, beneath a listing of most important printers in each of four geographic locations –
Massachusetts (principally Boston); New York/New Jersey (principally New York City);
Pennsylvania/Delaware (principally Philadelphia); and Southern New England (Connecticut
and Rhode Island).

266
A word is needed here about publishers, printers, booksellers, etc.

198

TABLE A.4
Key Publishers, Authors & Works by Place of Publication, Across Quarter Centuries

1688-
1712
1713-
1737
1738-
1762
1763-
1787
1688-
1787

BOSTON

Green, Bartholomew/Timothy & Kneeland,
Samuel/Daniel

Allen, John
Draper, John
Fleet, Thomas/John
Rogers, Gamaliel
Edes, Benjamin/Peter
M’Alpine, William
Thomas, Isaiah (Worcester)

Cotton Mather’s Sermons 15 19 - 1 35
The Bay Psalm Book 2 6 - - 8
Increase Mather’s Sermons 2 4 - - 6
William Dyers’ collection of sermons, The Golden Chain 1 3 1 - 4
James Janeway’s Token for Children 1 2 - 3 6
Samuel Mather’s Sermons 1 - 2 1 4
William Tufts’ Introduction to Psalm-Singing - 3 1 - 4
Benjamin Colman’s Sermons - 6 1 - 7
Works of Isaac Watts - 2 12 44 59
The New England Primer - 1 3 15 19
Nicholas Brady’s New Version … of the Psalms - 1 7 14 22
John Mason’s Spiritual Songs - - 3 1 4
Samuel Stillman’s Sermons - - - 5 5
Nathaneal Low’s Low’s Almanac - - - 6 6

NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY

Bradford, William I
Parker, James
Gaine, Hugh
Benjamin Keach’s Instructions … and War w the Devil 2 - - - 2
Works of Isaac Watts - - 5 2 7
Charles Inglis’s sermons - - - - 2
William Livingston’s Philosphic Solitude - - 1 1 2
James Janeway’s Token for Children - - - 2 2
John Hutchins’ Hutchins Improved … Almanack - - - 2 2
William Smith’s An Oration in Memory of Gen.
Montgomery
- - - 2 2

199

PHILADELPHIA / DELAWARE

Bradford, Andrew/William III
Franklin, Benjamin and Hall, David
Dunlap, William/John
Crukshank, Joseph
Aitken, Robert
Works of Isaac Watts - 1 1 9 11
Mary Mollineux’s The Fruits of Retirement - 1 - 1 2
Abraham Weatherwise’s Father Abraham’s Almanack - - 2 3 5
John Tobler’s The Pennsylvania Town & Country
Almanack
- - 2 6 10
John Wesley’s Collection of Hymns - - 1 4 5
The Works of Flavius Josephus - - - 2 2
The New England Primer - - - 4 4
Edward Young’s Poems - - - 4 4

CONNECTICUT/RHODE ISLAND

Green, Timothy
Jacob Johnson’s sermons - - 1 1 2
Richard Sault’s collection of sermons, The Second Spira - - - 2 2
Michael Wigglesworth’s The Day of Doom - - - 2 2
William Dyers’ collection of sermons, The Golden Chain - - - 2 2
The New England Primer - - - 7 7
Works of Isaac Watts - - - 8 8
Samuel Buell’s sermons - - - 3 3

200

APPENDIX B – Selected Works

YR LAST

FIRST TITLE ED CAT 1 CAT 2 PRINTER CO PLACE
1725 Wolcott

Roger Poetical meditations _ Poetry
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1750 Hookes

Ellis
The spirit of the martyrs
revived _ Account Essay
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1751 Woodridge

Benjamin
The blessed state of the dead
which die in the Lord,
considered _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1753 Johnson

Jacob
Jesus inviting the thirsty to
drink _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1758 Bolles

Joseph
An addition to the book,
entituled, The spirit of the
martyrs revived. _ Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1761 Young

Thomas
A poem sacred to the memory
of James Wolfe _ Poetry Parker, James CT Newhaven
1762 Devotion

Ebenezer
Fortitude, love and a sound
judgment, very needful
qalifications _ Oratory Parker, James CT Newhaven
1765 Worthy

James
The child's plain path-way to
eternal life _ Account
Catechis
m
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1766 Devotion

John
The necessity of a constant
readiness for death _ Oratory Account
Green,
Thomas CT Hartford
1767 Daggett

Naphtali
The faithful serving of God
and our generation, the only
way to a peaceful and happy
death. _ Oratory Account
Mecom,
Benjamin CT New Haven
1767 Daggett

Naphtali
The faithful serving of God
and our generation, the only
way to a peaceful and happy
death. _ Oratory Account
Mecom,
Benjamin CT New Haven
1768 Dyer

William A cabinet of jewels _ Oratory Essay
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1768 Dyer

William Follow the lamb: a discourse _ Oratory
Green,
Timothy CT New London

201

1768 Johnson

Jacob
Honours due to the memory
and remains of pious and good
men at death _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1770 Gale

Benjamin Observations, on a pamphlet _ Essay
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1770 Robinson

Nathaniel
Verses composed by
Nathaniel Robinson 2 Poetry
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1770 Vincent

Thomas God's terrible voice in the city _ Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1772 Ames

Nathaniel
An astronomical diary; or, An
almanack, for the year of our
Lord, 1773 _ Almanac
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1772 Patten

William
The death of men of virtue
and usefulness deserves great
lamentation _ Oratory Account
Watson,
Ebenezer CT Hartford
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Green,
Timothy CT Norwich
1774 Dickinson

Moses
A sermon, delivered at the
funeral, of the Honorable
Thomas Fitch _ Oratory Account
Green,
Thomas CT New Haven
1774 Holly

Israel
A second letter to Mr. Isaac
Backus, upon the controversy
concerning the proper
subjects of baptism _ Essay
Watson,
Ebenezer CT Hartford
1774 Lord

Benjamin
The Christian's comfort in the
close of life _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT Norwich
1774 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Robertson,
Alexander CT Norwich
1774 Wigglesworth

Michael The day of doom _ Poetry Sermon
Spooner,
Judah CT Norwich
1777 Sault

Richard The Second Spira _ Account Oratory
Watson,
Ebenezer CT Hartford
1777 Wigglesworth

Michael The day of doom _ Poetry Sermon
Spooner,
Judah CT Norwich
1780 Edwards

Jonathan
Sermons, on the following
subjects _ Oratory
Hudson,
Barzillai CT Hartford
1780 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Patten,
Nathaniel CT Hartford

202

1781 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Hudson,
Barzillai CT Hartford
1781 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song Webster, Bavil CT Hartford
1781

Poems, on various subjects.
Written by a youth _ Poetry
Hudson,
Barzillai CT Hartford
1782 Buell

Samuel
Useful instructions and
evangelical consolations _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1782 Trumbull

John
M'Fingal: a modern epic
poem, in four cantos _ Poetry Webster, Bavil CT Hartford
1783 Buell

Samuel
Useful instructions and
evangelical consolations 2 Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1783 Daboll

Nathan
The New-England almanack,
and gentleman's and lady's
diary, for the year of our Lord
Christ, 1784 _ Almanac
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1783 Law

Andrew The rudiments of music _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Law, William CT Cheshire
1783 Mason

John Spiritual songs 15 Song
Trumbull,
John CT Norwich
1784 Strong

Nehemiah
Bickerstaff's New-England
almanack, for the year of our
Lord 1785 _ Almanac
Patten,
Nathaniel CT Hartford
1785 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1785 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Barlow, Joel CT Hartford
1786 Hart

Levi
The earnest desire and
endeavour of the true, and
evangelical minister _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London
1786 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Woodward,
Moses Hawkins CT Middletown
1786 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 2 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Barlow, Joel CT Hartford
1787 Barlow

Joel The vision of Columbus 2 Poetry
Hudson,
Barzillai CT Hartford
1787 Barlow

Joel The vision of Columbus _ Poetry
Hudson,
Barzillai CT Hartford
1787 Buell

Samuel Divine support and comfort _ Oratory Account
Green,
Timothy CT New London

203

1787 Burgh

James Youth's friendly monitor 3 Oratory
Patten,
Nathaniel CT Hartford
1787 James

Dana
The reflection and prospect
of a Christian minister at the
close of life _ Oratory Account Bowen, Daniel CT New Haven
1787 Stiles

Ezra A funeral sermon _ Oratory Account
Green,
Thomas CT New Haven
1787 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 3 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Hudson,
Barzillai CT Hartford
1766 Tobler

John
The Pennsylvania town and
country-man's almanack, for
the year of our Lord, 1767 _ Almanac Adams, James DE Wilimington
1768 Foxcroft

Thomas
The Wilmington almanack, or
ephemeries, for the year of
our Lord, 1769 _ Almanac Adams, James DE Wilmington
1768 Tobler

John
The Pennsylvania town and
country-man's almanack, for
the year of our Lord, 1769 _ Almanac Adams, James DE Wilmington
1773 Tobler

John
The Pennsylvania town and
country-man's almanack, for
the year of our Lord 1774 _ Almanac Adams, James DE Wilmington
1783 Tobler

John
An almanack, for the year of
our Lord 1783 _ Almanac
Wright,
Charles FL
St.
Augustine
1688 Ken

Thomas
An exposition on the church-
catechism _ Catechism
Pierce,
Richard MA Boston
1693 Sault

Richard The Second Spira 6 Account
Catechis
m
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1694 Tulley

John
An almanack for the year of
our Lord _ Almanac
Harris,
Benjamin MA Boston
1695 Mather

Cotton Johannes in eremo _ Account Perry, Michael MA Boston
1695 Mather

Cotton
Observanda. The life and
death of the late Mary Q. _ Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1697 Mather

Samuel A dead faith anatomized _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1697 Mather

Cotton The way to excel _ Account Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1698 Lee

Samuel Contemplations on mortality _ Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston

204

1698 Mather

Cotton
A good man making a good
end _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1698 Mather

Increase David serving his generation _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1700 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account
Boone,
Nicholas MA Boston
1701 Mather

Cotton
American tears upon the
ruines of the Greek churches _ Account History
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1701 Rogers

John
Death the certain wages of sin
to the impenitent _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1701 Wigglesworth

Michael The day of doom 5 Poetry Sermon
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1702
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 10 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1703 Hayward

John
The precious blood of the son
of God 7 Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1703 Janeway

James
Invisibles, realities,
demonstrated _ Catechism Account
Green,
Timothy MA Boston
1703 Mather

Cotton Meat out of the eater _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1703 Mather

Cotton
The duty of parents to pray for
their children, opened &
applyed in a sermon _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1703 Mather

Cotton The retired Christian _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1704 Dyer

William Christ's famous titles _ Oratory Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1704 Fowle

John Deus visibilis _ Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1704 Shower

John
Some account of the holy life
and death of Mr. Henry
Gearing _ Account
Phillips,
Samuel MA Boston
1705
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 12 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1705 Mather

Cottton
A faithful man, described and
rewarded _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston

205

1705 Mather

Cotton Monica Americana _ Oratory Account
Phillips,
Samuel MA Boston
1705 Pearse

Edward The great concern 21 Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1707 Mather

Increase Meditations on death _ Oratory
Green,
Timothy MA Boston
1707 Mather

Samuel
The self-justiciary convicted
and condemned _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1707 Pemberton

Ebenezer
A funeral sermon on the
death of that learned &
excellent divine the Reverend
Mr. Samuel Willard _ Oratory Poetry
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1709 Mather

Cotton
Nehemiah. A brief essay on
divine consolations _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1709 Russel

Robert Seven sermons 6 Oratory Allen, John MA Boston
1709 Russel

Robert Seven Sermons _ Oratory Allen, John MA Boston
1710 Mather

Cotton
A discourse concerning faith
and fervency in prayer, and
the glorious kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ, on earth,
now approaching _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1710 Mather

Cotton
Awakening truth's tending to
conversion _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1710 Mather

Cotton
Nehemiah. A brief essay on
divine consolations _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1712 Mather

Cotton
Awakening thoughts on the
sleep of death _ Oratory
Green,
Timothy MA Boston
1712 Williams

John
A brief discourse concerning
the lawfulness of worshipping
God by the Common-Prayer _ Essay - MA Boston
1713
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 16 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Allen, John MA Boston
1713 Jacquelot

M. (Isaac)
Histoire des souffrances du
bien-heureux martyr Mr. Louis
de Marolles _ Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1713 Mather

Cotton A present of summer-fruit _ Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston

206

1713 Mather

Increase
Some remarks, on a
pretended answer, to a
discourse concerning the
Common-Prayer worship _ Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1713 Mather

Increase The believers gain by death _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1713 Mather

Cotton
The will of a father submitted
to _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1713 Steere

Richard
The Daniel catcher. The life of
the prophet Daniel _ Poetry Allen, John MA Boston
1713 Ward

Nathaniel
The simpler cobler of
Aggawam in America 5 Account
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston
1714 Mather

Cotton Maternal consolations _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1714 Mather

Cotton The religion of the cross _ Account Essay Allen, John MA Boston
1714 Mather

Cotton Verba vivifica _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1715 Clap

Nathaniel
Sinners directed to hear &
fear, and do no more so
wickedly _ Account Oratory Allen, John MA Boston
1715 Colman

Benjamin
A devout and humble enquiry
into the reasons of the divine
council in the death of good
men _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1715 Mather

Increase Several Sermons _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1715 Wadsworth

Benjamin
Ministers naturally caring for
souls _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1715 Wigglesworth

Michael The day of doom 6 Poetry Sermon Allen, John MA Boston
1716 Colman

Benjamin
A brief enquiry into the
reasons why the people of
God have been wont to bring
into their penitential
confessions _ Oratory Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1716 Mather

Increase Two discourses _ Oratory Essay
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1716 Smith

William The history of the holy jesus _ Account Essay Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1717 Baxter

Richard A call to the unconverted 31 Catechism Essay Allen, John MA Boston

207

1717 Capen

Joseph
A funeral sermon occasioned
by the death of Mr. Joseph
Green _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1717 Gerrish

Samuel
A catalogue of curious and
valuable books _ Catalogue
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1717 Harris

Benjamin The Holy Bible in verse _ Catechism Allen, John MA Boston
1717 Mather

Cotton
Instructions to the living,
from the condition of the
dead _ Account Oratory Allen, John MA Boston
1717 Mather

Cotton The valley of Hinnom _ Oratory Account Allen, John MA Boston
1717 Peters

Hugh
A dying fathers last legacy to
an only child _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1718 Gerrish

Samuel
A catalogue of curious and
valuable books _ Catalogue
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1718 Mather

Cotton
A sermon wherein is shewed,
I. That the ministers of the
Gospel need _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1718 Mather

Cotton Psalterium Americanum _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1719 Janeway

James Three practical discourses _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1719 Mather

Cotton
Disiderius. Or, A desirable
man describ'd _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1719 Mather

Increase
Five sermons on several
subjects _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1720 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Allen, John MA Boston
1720 Shower

John
Some account of the holy life
and death of Mr. Henry
Gearing _ Account
Catechis
m Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1720 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 7 Song ? MA Boston
1721 Henchman

Nathanael
A holy and useful life, ending
in a happy and joyful death _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1721 Hillhouse

James
A sermon concerning the life,
death and future state of
saints _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1721 Mather

Cotton Genuine Christianity _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston

208

1721 Mather

Cotton
The accomplished singer.
Instructions how the piety of
singing with a true devotion _ Catechism
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1721 Mather

Cotton The way of the truth laid out 2 Catechism
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1722 Dyer

William Christ's famous titles _ Oratory Allen, John MA Boston
1722 Jossipon

The wonderful, and most
deplorable history, of the
later times of the Jews _ Account Allen, John MA Boston
1722 Mather

Cotton
A dying legacy of a minister to
his dearly beloved people _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1722 Mather

Increase
A dying legacy of a minister
to his dearly beloved people _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1722 Walter

Thomas The sweet psalmist of Israel _ Oratory
Franklin,
James MA Boston
1722 Walter

Thomas The sweet psalmist of Israel _ Oratory
Franklin,
James MA Boston
1722 Winstanley

William
The new help to discourse: or
Wit and mirth intermixt with
more serious matter :
consisting of pleasant,
philosophical, physical,
historical, moral, and political,
questions and answer 8 Essay
Franklin,
James MA Boston
1723 Colman

Benjamin
The death of God's saints
precious in his sight _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1723 Colman

Benjamin
The prophet's death lamented
and improved _ Oratory Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1723 Gerrish

Samuel
Catalogue of choice and
valuable books, of divinity
philosophy law mathematicks
poetry history miscellanies
medicine _ Catalogue
Gerrish,
Samuel MA Boston
1724 Bowen

Nathan
The New-England diary, or
Almanack for the year of our
Lord 1725 _ Almanac
Franklin,
James MA Boston
1724 Mather

Cotton
Parentator. Memoirs or
remarkables in the life and
the death of the ever- _ Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston

209

memorable Dr. Increase
Mather
1724

A Modest apology for Parson
Alberoni, governour to King
Philip 12 Account - MA Boston
1724

The Madness of the Jacobite
party _ Essay
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston
1725 Drelincourt

Charles
Consolations de l'ame fidele
contre les frayeurs de la mort _ Essay Account Phillips, John MA Boston
1725 Mather

Cotton Edulcorator. _ Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1725 Mather

Cotton The palm-bearers _ Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1725 White

John
The Gospel treasure in
earthen vessels _ Oratory Account Boone, N. MA Boston
1726
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 21 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1726 Brown

John
Divine help implored under
the loss of godly and faithful
men _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1726 Cooper

William
The service of God
recommended to the choice
of young people _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1726 Flavel

John Navigation spiritualized _ Catechism Essay
Boone,
Nicholas MA Boston
1726 Mather

Cotton
A good old age. A brief essay
on the glory of aged piety _ Catechism Essay
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1726 Webb

John
Practical discourses on death,
judgment, heaven & hell _ Oratory Account Draper, John MA Boston
1726 Willard

Samuel
A compleat body of divinity in
two hundred and fifty
expository lectures on the
Assembly's Shorter catechism _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1727 Foxcroft

Thomas
Divine Providence ador'd &
justify'd, in the early death of
God's children & servants _ Oratory Account
Gerrish,
Samuel MA Boston
1727 Janeway

James Three practical discourses _ Oratory Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1727 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston

210

1727 Sewall

Samuel
The duty of every man to be
always ready to die _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1727 Smith

Samuel
The great assize: or Day of
jubilee, in which we must
make a general account of all
our actions before Almighty
God 6 Oratory - MA Boston
1728
Church of
England

-
A form of publick devotions, to
be used by a religious society,
within the bills of mortality. _ Liturgy Powell, Edm MA Boston
1728 Dexter

Samuel
A call from the dead to the
living _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1728 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account
Hancock,
Thomas MA Boston
1728 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston
1728 Tufts

John
An introduction to the singing
of psalm-tunes, in a plain and
easy method 7 Song - MA Boston
1729
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 22 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Hancock,
Thomas MA Boston
1729
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Phillips, John MA Boston
1729 Colman

Benjamin
The faithful ministers of
Christ mindful of their own
death _ Oratory Account
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston
1729 Mather

Byles
The character of the perfect
and upright man _ Oratory
Gerrish,
Samuel MA Boston
1729 Seguenot

Francois
A letter from a Romish priest
in Canada, to one who was
taken captive in her infancy,
and instructed in the Romish
faith, but sometime ago
returned to this her native
country _ Account
Catechis
m
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston
1729 Vincent

Thomas An explicatory catechism _ Catechism
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston

211

1729 Woodward

Josiah
Fair warnings to a serious
world, or, The serious
practice of religion
recommended by the
admonitions of dying men _ Essay
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1730
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 23 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Hancock,
Thomas MA Boston
1730 Colman

Benjamin
Dying in peace in a good old
age _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1730 Prince

Thomas
The people of New-England
put in mind of the righteous
acts of the Lord to them and
their fathers, and reasoned
with concerning them _ Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1731 Baxter

Richard
A call to the unconverted, to
turn and live and accept of
mercy while mercy may be
had 32 Catechism Essay
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1731 Dyer

William Christ's famous titles _ Oratory Essay
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1731 Dyer

William Christ's famous titles _ Oratory Essay
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1731 Swift

John
A funeral discourse deliver'd
at Marlborough, on occasion
of the death of the Reverend
and learned Mr. Robert Breck _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1731 Tufts

John
An introduction to the singing
of Psalm-tunes 8 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Gerrish,
Samuel MA Boston
1731 Wigglesworth

Edward
The blessedness of the dead
who die in the Lord _ Oratory Account
Gerrish,
Samuel MA Boston
1732 Prince

Thomas
The faithful servant approv'd
at death _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1733 Beveridge

William
A sermon concerning the
excellency and usefulness of
the Common-prayer 29 Oratory Cox, Thomas MA Boston
1733 Burton

Richard The vanity of the life of man _ Catechism Essay
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston

212

1733 Sewall

Joseph
Christ victorious over the
powers of darkness, by the
light of his preached Gospel _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1733 Webb

Benjamin
The present scope, and future
gain of the Christian life _ Oratory Account MA Boston
1735 Cotton

John New England primer _ Catechism
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1736 Appleton

Nathaniel
The Christian glorying in
tribulation, from a sense of its
happy fruits _ Oratory Account Draper, John MA Boston
1736 Foxe

John
Martyrology, or, A brief
account of the lives,
sufferings and deaths of those
two holy martyrs, viz. Mr.
John Rogers, and Mr. John
Bradford … _ Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1736 Prince

Thomas
Christ abolishing death and
bringing life and immortality to
light in the Gospel _ Oratory Account Draper, John MA Boston
1736 Tufts

John
An introduction to the singing
of psalm-tunes 9 Song
Gerrish,
Samuel MA Boston
1737
Bay Psalm
Book

_
The psalms hymns, and
spiritual songs, of the Old &
New-Testament 24 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1738 Mather

Samuel
The fall of the mighty
lamented _ Oratory Account Draper, John MA Boston
1738 Phillips

Samuel
The history of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ
epitomiz'd: in a catechetical
way _ Catechism
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1738 Townsend

Jonathan
Comfort for the afflicated
righteous, and A call to such
as experience God's
marvelous sparing mercy _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1739 Watts

Isaac Guide to prayer 8 Catechism Draper, John MA Boston
1740 Mather

Samuel
The faithful man abounding
with blessings. _ Oratory Account Draper, John MA Boston
1741 Edwards

Jonathan
The resort and remedy of
those that are bereaved by _ Oratory Account
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston

213

the death of an eminent
minister
1741 Sewall

Joseph
All flesh is as grass; but the
word of the Lord endureth
forever _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1741 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 13 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1742 Chauncy

Charles
The out-pouring of the Holy
Ghost _ Oratory Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1742 Mason

John Spiritual songs 15 Song Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1742 Rowe

Elizabeth
Devout exercises of the heart
in meditation and soliloquy,
prayer and praise 4 Catechism
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1742 Smith

Josiah
The doctrine and glory of the
saint's resurrection _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1742 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 16 Song
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1743 Bury

Elizabeth
An account of the life and
death of Mrs. Elizabeth Bury _ Account Oratory
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1743 Mason

John
Select remains of the
Reverend John Mason, M.A.
late Rector of Water-Stratford
in the county of Bucks 3 Catechism Account
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1743 Mason

John Spiritual songs 16 Song _
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1743 Williams

Solomon
The servants of the Lord Jesus
Christ ought to be quickened
to great diligence, zeal, and
faithfulness in their work,
because he tells them they
must shortly die _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1744 Byles

Mather
The character of the perfect
and upright man _ Oratory Account
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1744 Drelincourt

Charles
The Christian's defensce
against the fears of death.
With directions how to dye
well. _ Essay Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1744 Tufts

John
An introduction to the singing
of psalm-tunes 11 Song _
Gerrish,
Samuel Ma Boston

214

1745 Adams

John
Poems on several occasions,
original and translated _ Poetry
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1745 Keach

Benjamin
The travels of true godliness.
From the beginning of the
world to this present day 10 Catechism
Green,
Bartholomew MA Boston
1746 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1746 Watts

Isaac Sermons on various subjects 7 Oratory
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1747 Colman

Benjamin
Practical discourses on the
parable of the ten virgins _ Oratory
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1747 Foxcroft

Thomas
A seasonable memento for
New Year's day _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1747 Hobby

William
The soldier caution'd and
counsel'd _ Oratory Draper, John MA Boston
1747 Mall

Thomas
The history of the martyrs
epitomised. A cloud of
witnesses; or, the sufferers
mirrour _ Account
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1747 Penn

William No cross, no crown _ Oratory
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1748 Doddridge

Philip
Some remarkable passages in
the life of the Honourable
Col. James Gardiner, who was
slain at the battle of Preston _ Account Oratory
Henchman,
Daniel MA Boston
1748 Watts

Isaac
Discourse on the way of
instruction by catechisms 3 Catechism
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1748 Watts

Isaac
Essay toward the proof of a
separate state of souls
between death and the
resurrection _ Essay
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1748 Watts

Isaac Horae Lyricae _ Poetry
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1748 Watts

Isaac Shorter catechism 6 Catechism
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1748 Watts

Isaac
The world to come: or,
Discourses on the joys or
sorrows of departed souls at _ Essay
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston

215

death, and the glory or terror
of the Resurrection
1749 Ashley

Jonathan
Ministers and people excited
to diligence in their
respective duties, by the
consideration of their shortly
putting off their earthly
tabernacles _ Oratory Account
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1749 Chauncy

Charles
The blessedness of the dead
who die in the Lord _ Oratory Account
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1749 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 18 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1750 Mayhew

Jonathan
A discourse concerning
unlimited submission and non-
resistance to the higher
powers: with some reflections
on the resistance made to
King Charles I. and on the
anniversary of his death _ Oratory Fowle, Daniel MA Boston
1750 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Green, John MA Boston
1750 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1750 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 19 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Rogers,
Gamaliel MA Boston
1751 Balbani

Niccolo
Historia della vita di Galeazzo
Caracciolo. English _ Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1751 Byles

Mather
The prayer and plea of David,
to be delivered from blood-
guiltiness _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1751 Pomfret

John Poems upon several occasions _ Poetry Account
Fowle,
Zechariah MA Boston
1752 Byles

Mather
God the strength and portion
of His people, under all the
exigencies of life and death _ Oratory Account Draper, John MA Boston
1753 Young

Edward A poem on the last day 6 Poetry Fowle, Daniel MA Boston
1754 Brady

Nichoals
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Draper, John MA Boston
1754 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Draper, John MA Boston

216

1754 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Draper, John MA Boston
1755 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1756 Prince

Thomas
The case of Heman
considered _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1756 Sewall

Joseph
A tender heart pleasing to
God, and profitable to men _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1757 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Green, John MA Boston
1757

Cambridge
Synod?
A platform of church-
discipline, gathered out of the
Word of God _ Catechism Green, John MA Boston
1759 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 19 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1760 Jewett

Jedediah
A sermon, preached in the
audience of the First Church
and congregation in Rowley,
the next Lord's-Day after the
death of Mr. John Noyes _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1760 Watts

Isaac
Appendix, containing a
number of hymns _ Song
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1760 Watts

Isaac
Appendix, containing a
number of hymns _ Song
Kneeland,
Samuel MA Boston
1760

A New thanksgiving song
revised _ Song
Mecom,
Benjamin MA Boston
1761 Erskine

Ralph
The great ruin, and the great
relief _ Oratory
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1761 Mayhew

Jonathan
A discourse occasioned by the
death of King George II _ Oratory
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1761 Port-Royal

The Royal convert: or, The
force of truth _ Account
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1761 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 23 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1761 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 23 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1761

The Royal convert _ Account
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston

217

1762 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1762 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1762 Fisk

Joseph
Anti-Christ discovered, or The
true church sought for _ Poetry - MA Boston
1762 Livingston

William Philosophic solitude _ Poetry
Mecom,
Benjamin MA Boston
1762 Otis

James
A vindication of the conduct of
the House of Representatives
of the province of the
Massachusetts-Bay _ Essay
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1762 Wallin

Benjamin
Evangelical hymns and songs,
in two parts _ Song
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1762 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 20 Song
Fowle,
Zechariah MA Boston
1763 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1763 De Laune

Thomas
A plea for the non-conformists,
shewing the true state of their
case _ Essay Account
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1763 Low

Nathaneal
An astronomical diary: or,
almanack for the year of
Christian aera, 1764 _ Almanac
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1763 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 24 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1764 Wood

William New-England's prospect 3 Account
Fleet, Thomas
& John MA Boston
1765 Appleton

Nathaniel A faithful and wise servant _ Oratory Account
Draper,
Richard MA Boston
1765 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Adams, Seth MA Boston
1765 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1765 Church

Benjamin The times a poem _ Poetry
Fleet, Thomas
& John MA Boston
1765 Dyer

William A Golden chain of four links _ Catechism Sermon
Fowle,
Zechariah MA Boson

218

1765 Fisk

Joseph
The ten year's almanack, or A
poetical attempt made;
beginning with the year annoq.
Domini, 1755 _ Account Almanack - MA Boston
1765 Mein

-
A catalogue of Mein's
Circulating Library _ Catalogue
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1766 Grove

Henry
A discourse concerning the
nature and design of the
Lord's-Supper _ Essay
Catechis
m MA Boston
1766 Mather

Samuel The Lord's prayer _ Essay Adams, Seth MA Boston
1766 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 21 Song Poetry
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1766 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 21 Song Poetry
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1766 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 21 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1767 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1767 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1767 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1767 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Mein, John MA Boston
1767 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1767 Tucker

John
Ministers of the Gospel, as
spiritual guides to their
people _ Oratory Account
Fleet, Thomas
& John MA Boston
1767 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 21 Song Adams, Seth MA Boston
1767 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 25 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Adams, Seth MA Boston
1768 Maccarty

Thaddeus
The power and grace of Christ
display'd to a dying malefactor _ Oratory Account Adams, Seth MA Boston
1768 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Barclay,
Andrew MA Boston
1768 Stillman

Samuel
A sermon occasioned by the
decease of Mrs. Mary Stillman _ Oratory Account
Freeman,
Philip MA Boston

219

1768 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 26 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Mein, John MA Boston
1769 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1769 Chauncy

Charles
A discourse occasioned by the
death of the Reverend
Thomas Foxcroft _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1769 Low

Nathaneal
An astronomical diary; or,
almanack for the year of
Christian aera, 1770 _ Almanac Adams, Seth MA Boston
1769 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 22 Song
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1770 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Boyle, John MA Boston
1770 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1770 Edes

Benjamin
Edes & Gill's North-American
almanack, and Massachusetts
register, for the year 1770 _ Almanac
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1770 Low

Nathaneal
An astronomical diary; or,
almanack for the year of
Christian aera, 1771 _ Almanac Adams, Seth MA Boston
1770 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1770 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1770 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 26 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1770 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 26 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1771 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Boyle, John MA Boston
1771 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1771 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1771 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account
Fowle,
Zechariah MA Boston
1771 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism - MA Boston

220

1771 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1771 Searl

John
A funeral sermon delivered at
Newbury-Port, Dec. 30 1770 _ Oratory Account Fleet, John MA Boston
1771 Searl

John
A funeral sermon delivered at
Newbury-Port, Dec. 30. 1770 _ Oratory Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1771 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 22 Song
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1771 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 25 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1772 Allen

James
The poem which the
committee of the town of
Boston had voted
unanimously to be published
with the late oration _ Poetry
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Boston
1772
Cambridge
Synod? A platform of church-discipline _ Catechism Boyle, John MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac Horae Lyricae _ Poetry
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 22 Song
Fleeming,
John MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 27 Song Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 27 Song Hodgson, John MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 27 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Hodgson, John MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 31 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Thomas, Isaiah MA Boston
1772 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 31 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Thomas, Isaiah MA Boston
1773 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Mills,
Nathaniel MA Boston
1773 Dodd

William Reflections on death _ Essay
Leverett,
Thomas MA Boston
1773 Eliot

Andrew
Christ's promise to the
penitent thief _ Oratory Account Boyle, John MA Boston
1773 Fleeming

John
Fleeming's register for New-
England and Nova-Scotia.
With all the British lists; and an
almanack for 1773 _ Almanac
Fleeming,
John MA Boston

221

1773 Hutchinson

Aaron
Christ a perfect Saviour unto
all them that obey him. _ Oratory Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1773 Robinson

Nathaniel
Verses upon fourteen different
occasions: composed in
Albany goal, in the year 1768 3 Poetry
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1773 Stearns

Samuel
The North-American's
almanack, and gentlemen's
and ladie's [sic] diary, for the
year of our Lord Christ, 1774 _ Almanac
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1773 Stillman

Samuel
Two sermons occasioned by
the condemnation and
execution of Levi Ames _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
John MA Boston
1773 Stillman

Samuel
Two sermons occasioned by
the condemnation and
execution of Levi Ames _ Oratory Account
Kneeland,
John MA Boston
1773 Stillman

Samuel
Two sermons occasioned by
the condemnation and
execution of Levi Ames 4 Oratory Account
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Boston
1773 Stillman

Samuel
Two sermons occasioned by
the condemnation and
execution of Levi Ames 2 Oratory Account
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Boston
1773 Watts

Isaac Divine songs for Children 15 Song Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 37 Song
Poetry
(Ps) - MA Boston
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Davis,
Nathaniel MA Boston
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Kneeland,
Daniel MA Boston
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 27 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
M'Alpine,
William MA Boston
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 37 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Mills,
Nathaniel MA Boston
1774 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) - MA Boston
1774 Mason

John Spiritual songs 16 Song Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1774 Mather

Cotton Corderius americanus _ Oratory Account
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Boston
1774 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Boyle, John MA Boston

222

1774 Thomas

Isaiah
Thomas's New-England
almanack; or, The
Massachusetts calendar, for
the year of our Lord Christ,
1775 2 Almanac Thomas, Isaiah MA Boston
1774 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 37 Song Boyle, John MA Boston
1775 George

Daniel
George's Cambridge
almanack or, The Essex
calendar, for the year of our
redemption, 1776 2 Almanac Account
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Salem
1775 Lyman

Joseph
A sermon preached at Hatfield
December 15th, 1774 _ Oratory
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1776 Cleveland

John
An attempt to nip in the bud,
the unscriptural doctrine of
universal salvation _ Essay Account
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Salem
1776 Stearns

Samuel
The North-American's
almanack, for the year of our
Lord, 1777. By Samuel
Stearns _ Almanac
Bigelow,
Daniel MA Worcester
1778 Gleason

Ezra
Thomas's Massachusetts,
New-Hampshire, and
Connecticut almanack for the
year of our Lord Christ 1779 3 Almanac Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1778 Gleason

Ezra
Thomas's Massachusetts,
New-Hampshire, and
Connecticut almanack for the
year of our Lord Christ 1779 _ Almanac Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1778 Low

Nathanael
An astronomical diary, or
almanack, for the year of
Christian aera, 1779 _ Almanac
Powars,
Edward MA Boston
1778 Low

Nathaneal
An astronomical diary: or
almanack for the year of
Christian aera, 1779 _ Almanac Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1779 Chesterfield
Philip Dormer
Stanhope Letters to his son _ Account Poetry Boyle, John MA Boston
1779 Low

Nathaneal
A Pocket almanack for the
year of our Lord 1780 _ Almanac Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1779 Murray

John
Nehemiah, or The struggle for
liberty never in vain _ Oratory Mycall, John MA Newbury

223

1779 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism - MA Boston
1779
Officer of
rank in the
Continental
Army America Invincible _ Poetry
Russell,
Ezekiel MA Danvers
1780 Low

Nathanael
A Pocket almanack for the
year of our Lord 1781 _ Almanac Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1780 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1780 Weatherwise

Abraham
Weatherwise's town and
country almanack, for the year
of our Lord 1781 _ Almanac
M'Dougall,
John Douglass MA Boston
1781 Fleet

Joseph
A Pocket almanack for the
year of our Lord 1782 _ Almanac Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1781 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1781 Murray

John A welcome to the grave _ Oratory Account Mycall, John MA Newburyport
1781 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
M'Dougall,
John Douglass MA Boston
1782 Hart

Joseph
Hymns, &c. composed on
various subjects 3 Song Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1782 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Coverly,
Nathaniel MA Boston
1782 Rowe

Elizabeth Friendship in death _ Catechism Poetry Hodge, Robert MA Boston
1782 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 39 Song Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1782 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 40 Song Mycall, John MA Boston
1782 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 39 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1783

West Society
A Collection of hymns more
particularly designed for the
use of the West Society in
Boston _ Song Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1784 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism - MA Boston
1784 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Hall, Samuel MA Salem
1785 Dodd

William Reflections on death _ Essay
Edes,
Benjamin MA Boston
1785 Trumbull

John
M'Fingal: a modern epic
poem. In four cantos _ Poetry Edes, Peter MA Boston

224

1785 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 40 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Norman, John MA Boston
1786 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Coverly,
Nathaniel MA Plymouth
1786 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1786 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1786 Weatherwise

Abraham
The Town and country
almanack, for the year of our
Lord 1787 _ Almanac
Folsom, John
West MA Boston
1787 Gleason

Ezra
Thomas's Massachusetts,
New-Hampshire, and
Connecticut almanack for the
year of our Lord Christ 1779 _ Almanac Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1787 Guild

Benjamin
A catalogue of a large
assortment of books
consisting of the most
celebrated authors in history _ Catalogue - MA Boston
1787 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism - MA Boston
1787 Thomas

Isaiah
Catalogue of books to be sold
by Isaiah Thomas, at his book-
store in Worcester,
Massachusetts _ Catalogue Thomas, Isaiah MA Worcester
1787 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song Edes, Peter MA Boston
1787 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Fleet, Thomas MA Boston
1787 Weatherwise

Abraham
Weatherwise's federal
almanack, for the year of our
Lord, 1788 _ Almanac Norman, John MA Boston
1728 Holdsworth

Edward
The mouse-trap, or The battle
of the Cambrians and mice _ Poetry Parks, Willi MD Annapolis
1783 Mercer

Silas
Tyranny exposed, and true
liberty discovered _ Essay Davis, Thomas NC Halifax
1758 Churches

A Vindication of an
association from the charge of
countenancing heresy in
doctrine _ Essay Fowle, Daniel NH Portsmouth

225

1761 Haven

Samuel
The supreme influence of the
Son of God, in appointing,
directing and terminating the
reign of princes _ Oratory Account Fowle, Daniel NH Portsmouth
1762 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 20 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Fowle, Daniel NH Portsmouth
1770 Parsons

Jonathan
To live is Christ, to die is
gain. _ Oratory Account Fowle, Daniel NH Portsmouth
1787 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Melcher, John NH Portsmouth
1758 Gage

Thomas The traveller. Part I _ Account Parker, James NJ Woodbridge
1760 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 20 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Parker, James NJ Woodbridge
1772 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account Collins, Isaac NJ Burlington
1776 Smith

William
An Oration on the death of
Gen. Montgomery _ Oratory NJ
1782 Livingston

William Philosophic solitude _ Poetry Collins, Isaac NJ Trenton
1787 Hart

Joseph
Hymns, &c. composed on
various subjects 10 Song
Kollock,
Shepard NJ Elizabethton
1694 Leeds

Daniel
An almanack for the year of
Christian account 1694 _ Almanac
Bradford,
William NY New York
1695 Keach

Benjamin Instructions for children _ Catechism
Bradford,
William NY New York
1707 Keach

Benjamin
War with the devil, or, The
young man's conflict with the
powers of darkness, in a
dialogue discovering the
corruption and vanity of youth,
the horrible nature of sin, and
deplorable condition of fallen
man, also, a description of the
power and rule of conscience,
and the nature of true
conversion 12 Poetry
Catechis
m
Bradford,
William NY New York
1710
Church of
England
The book of
common-
prayer, and
administration _ Liturgy
Bradford,
William NY New York

226

of the
sacraments
1726 Rogers

John
An answer to a book lately
put forth by Peter Pratt,
entituled, The prey taken
from the strong _ Essay Account
Bradford,
William NY New York
1731 Cooke

Samuel Necessarius. _ Oratory Account Zenger, J.P. NY New York
1744 Horsmanden

Daniel
A journal of the proceedings
in the detection of the
conspiracy formed by some
white people, in conjunction
with Negro and other slaves,
for burning the city of New
York in America, and
murdering the inhabitants _ Account Parker, James NY New York
1744 Shower

John
The tryal and character of a
real Christian, demonstrated
in the holy life and death of
Mr. Henry Gearing _ Account
Bradford,
William NY New York
1747 Livingston

William Philosophic solitude _ Poetry Parker, James NY New York
1747 Marchant

John
The history of the late
rebellion, in Great Britain _ Account Parker, James NY New York
1750 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Parker, James NY New York
1750 Watts

Isaac Horae Lyricae _ Poetry Parker, James NY New York
1756

Psalmodia germanica 3 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1758 Ken

Thomas
The retired Christian,
exercised in divine thoughts,
and heavenly meditations, for
the closet 5 Catechism Essay Noel, Garrat NY New York
1758 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 19 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Noel, Garrat NY New York
1761 Johnson

Samuel
A sermon on the beauty of
holiness, in the worship of the
Church of England _ Oratory Parker, James NY New York
1761 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 18 Song Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1762 Watts

Isaac Horae Lyricae _ Poetry Gaine, Hugh NY New York

227

1764 Hutchins

John Nathan
Hutchin's improved: being an
almanack and ephemeris ...
for the year of our Lord, 1765 _ Almanac Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1764

The American mock-bird, or
Songster's delight _ Song Brown, Samuel NY New York
1765 Mason

John Spiritual songs 17 Song Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1766 Piers

Henry
A sermon preached (in part)
before the Right Worshipful
the Dean of the Arches 5 Oratory Holt, John NY New York
1767 Chandler

Thomas
Bradbury
An appeal to the public, in
behalf of the Church of
England in America _ Essay Parker, James NY New York
1768 Maxwell

James Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song Brown, Samuel NY New York
1769 Livingston

William Philosophic solitude 3 Poetry Holt, John NY New York
1771 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1772 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1774 Gillies

John
Memoirs of the life of the
Reverend George Whitefield _ Account Oratory Hodge, Robert NY New York
1776 Smith

William
An oration, in memory of
General Montgomery, and of
the officers and soldiers, who
fell with him, December 31,
1775 _ Oratory Account
Anderson,
John NY New York
1777 Inglis

Charles
A sermon on Phillip. III. 20, 21.
Occasioned by the death of
Samuel Auchmuty, D.D.
Rector of Trinity Church, New-
York, preached March 9,
1777. By Charles Inglis, A.M.
Published by particular desire.
[One line of Latin quotation] _ Oratory Account Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1780 Inglis

Charles
The duty of honouring the
King _ Oratory Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1782 Rivington

James
Rivington's New-York pocket
almanack, for the year 1783 _ Almanac
Rivington,
James NY New York
1783 Clark

Thomas
Plain reasons, why neither Dr.
Watts' imitations of the _ Essay Song
Balentine,
Solomon NY Albany

228

Psalms, nor his other poems,
nor any other human
composition, ought to be used
in the praises of the great God
our Saviour
1785 Pomfret

John Poems upon several occasions _ Poetry Account Green, Hugh NY New York
1786 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account Ross, William NY New York
1786 multiple

A Pocket hymn book,
designed as a constant
companion for the pious.
Collected from various authors 5 Song Ross, William NY New York
1786 Rowe

Elizabeth Friendship in death _ Catechism Poetry Hodge, Robert NY New York
1787 Hutchins

John
Hutchins improved: being an
almanack and ephemeris ...
for the year of our Lord 1788 _ Almanac Gaine, Hugh NY New York
1688 Leeds

Daniel
The temple of wisdeom for
the little world _ Catechism Essay
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1721 Anonymous

Some observations made on
the Presbyterian doctrine of
election and reprobation _ Essay
Bradford,
Andrew PA Philadelphia
1726

The Life and character of a
strange he-monster, lately
arriv'd in London from an
English colony in America _ Poetry - PA London, UK
1727

A Collection of one hundred
notable things; adapted for the
service and delight of young
persons _ Catechism Essay
Keimer,
Samuel PA Philadelphia
1729 Mollineux

Mary Fruits of retirement _ Poetry
Keimer,
Samuel PA Philadelphia
1729 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 7 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1732 Holme

Benjamin
A serious call in Christian love
to all people _ Essay
Bradford,
Andrew PA Philadelphia
1733 Brady

Nicholas
A new version of the Psalms
of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1736 Saunders

Richard
An almanack for the year of
Christ 1737 _ Almanac
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia

229

1740 Taylor

Jacob
Pensilvania, 1741. An
almanack _ Almanac
Bradford,
Andrew PA Philadelphia
1740 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 13 Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1740 Wesley

John Hymns and sacred poems _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Bradford,
Andrew PA Philadelphia
1741 Hale

Matthew Sum of religion _ Essay Poetry
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1741 Taylor

Jacob
Pensilvania, 1742. An
almanack _ Almanac
Bradford,
Andrew PA Philadelphia
1742 Zinzendorf
Nicolaus
Ludwig
My dear fellow-traveller, here
hast thou a letter _ Essay
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1744 Franklin

Benjamin
A catalogue of choice and
valuable books _ Catalogue
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1745

Westminster
Assembly
The confession of faith, the
larger and shorter catechisms,
with the Scripture proofs at
large _ Catechism
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1747 Birkett

William
Poor Will's almanack, for the
year of Christian account,
1748 _ Almanac
Bradford,
Cornelia PA Philadelphia
1748 Braght

Thieleman J.
van
Der blutige Schau-Platz oder
Martyrer-Spiegel der Tauffs
Gesin _ Account
Ephrata
Communiy PA Ephrata
1748 multiple

A New-Year's gift, or A brief
account of the sacrament _ Essay
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1749 Chalkley

Thomas
A collection of the works of
Thomas Chalkley: in two parts _ Essay
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1749 Tennent

Gilbert
A humble impartial essay
upon the peace of Jerusalem _ Catechism
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1753 Allestree

Richard The art of contentment _ Poetry
Chattin,
James PA Philadelphia
1753 Tobler

John
The Pennsylvania town and
country-man's almanack, for
the year of our Lord 1754 _ Almanac
Sower,
Christopher PA Germantown
1754 Chalkley

Thomas
A collection of the works of
Thomas Chalkley. In two
volumes 2 Essay
Chattin,
James PA Philadelphia

230

1754 Rowe

Elizabeth Devout exercises of the heart _ Catechism
Dunlap,
William PA Lancaster
1756 Tobler

John
The Pennsylvania town and
country-man's almanack, for
the year of our Lord 1757 _ Almanac
Sower,
Christopher PA Germantown
1756 Zubly

John Joachim
The real Christians hope in
death; or An account of the
edifying behavior of several
persons of piety in their last
moments _ Account
Sower,
Christopher PA Germantown
1758 Walker

Patrick
The great Scots prophet; or
Some remarkable passages of
the life and death of Mr.
Alexander Peden _ Account
Chattin,
James PA Philadelphia
1758 Weatherwise

Abraham Father Abraham's almanack _ Almanac
Dunlap,
William PA Philadelphia
1758 Weatherwise

Abraham Father Abraham's almanack _ Almanac
Dunlap,
William PA Philadelphia
1759 Rutty

John
The liberty of the spirit and
of the flesh distinguished _ Essay
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1759

The Journals of the lives and
travels of Samuel Bownas,
and John Richardson _ Account
Dunlap,
William PA Philadelphia
1760 Thomas

a Kempis
De passione Christi secundum
scripta quatuor
evangelistarum. English _ Catechism Dilly, Edward PA Philadelphia
1761

Epistle of Jesus Christ _ Catechism Song
Steuart,
Andrew PA Philadelphia
1763

Moravian
Church
A hymn-book for the children
belonging to the Brethren's
congregations _ Song
Miller, John
Henry PA Philadelphia
1763 Saunders

Richard
Poor Richard improved: being
an almanack and ephemeris
... for the year of our Lord
1764 _ Almanac
Franklin,
Benjamin PA Philadelphia
1763

A Word in season to all
Protestants _ Account
Armbruster,
Anthony PA Philadelphia
1763

The childrens Bible _ Catechism
Steuart,
Andrew PA Philadelphia

231

1764 Tobler

John
The Pennsilvania town and
country-man's almanack for
the year of our Lord 1765 _ Almanac
Sower,
Christopher PA Germantown
1764 Williamson

Hugh
What is sauce for a goose is
also sauce for a gande _ Catechism
Armbruster,
Anthony PA Philadelphia
1764 Young

Edward
Resignation. In two parts, and
a postscript _ Poetry
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1765 Beissel

Conrad A dissertation on mans fall _ Essay
Marshall,
Christopher PA Ephrata
1765 Tobler

John
The Pennsylvania town and
country-man's almanack, for
the year of our Lord 1766 _ Almanac
Sower,
Christopher PA Germantown
1765

The Wood-lark _ Song
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1766

Paradisisches Wunder-Spiel _ Song - PA Ephrata
1767 Goodlet

John
A vindication of the Associate
Synod _ Essay Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1767 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 20 Song Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1768 Fothergill

Samuel The prayer of Agur _ Oratory Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1768 Whitefield

George
Collection of hymns for social
worship 13 Song Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1769 Benezet

Anthony
Some serious and awful
considerations, recommended
to all, particularly the youth,
in a representation of the
uncertainty of a death-bed
repentance _ Catechism
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1769 Goldsmith

Oliver Traveller _ Poetry Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1769 Macgowan

John Priestcraft defended 6 Oratory
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1769 Weatherwise

Abraham
Father Abraham's almanack,
for the year of our Lord 1770 _ Almanac Dunlap, John PA Philadelphia
1770 Davies

Richard
An account of the
convincement, exercises,
services and travels, of that
ancient servant of the Lord,
Richard Davies 3 Account
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia

232

1770 Weatherwise

Abraham
Father Abraham's almanack,
for the year of our Lord, 1771 _ Almanac Dunlap, John PA Philadelphia
1770 Wesley

John Hymns and spiritual songs 14 Song Dunlap, John PA Philadelphia
1771 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1771 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song Dunlap, John PA Philadelphia
1771

A Moral ode for the year 1771 _ Poetry - PA -
1772 Green

Enoch Slothfulness reproved _ Oratory Account Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1772 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs 24 Song Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1773 Josephus

Flavius The works of Flavius Josephus 7 Account
Bradford,
William PA Philadelphia
1773 Josephus

Flavius The works of Flavius Josephus 7 Account
M'Gibbons,
John PA Philadelphia
1773 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1773 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David 13 Song
Poetry
(Ps) Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1774 Cath

- A Manual of Catholic prayers _ Liturgy Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1774 Marshall

William
The propriety of singing the
Psalms of David in New
Testament worship _ Oratory Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1774

The New-Year verses, of the
printers lads, who carry about
the Pennsylvania gazette to
the customers. January, 1775 _ Poetry Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1775 Abelard

Peter Letters of Abelard and Heloise _ Account Letters - PA Philadelphia
1775

The Life of the late Earl of
Chesterfield: or, The man of
the world _ Account Poetry
Sparhawk,
John PA Philadelphia
1776 Brackenridge

Hugh Henry The battle of Bunkers-Hill _ Account Drama Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1776 Mollineux

Mary Fruits of retirement 7 Poetry
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1776 Rittenhouse

David
The Universal almanack, for
the year of our Lord 1777 _ Almanac
Humphreys,
James PA Philadelphia
1776 Smith

William
An oration in memory of
General Montgomery, and of
the officers and soldiers, who _ Oratory Account Dunlap, John PA Philadelphia

233

fell with him, December 31,
1775
1776 Stillman

Samuel
Death, the last enemy,
destroyed by Christ _ Oratory Account
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1777 Milton

John
Paradise lost. A poem, in
twelve books. The author John
Milton. With the life of Milton _ Poetry Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1777 Young

Edward
The compaint; or Night-
thoughs on life, death and
immortality _ Essay Poetry Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1779 Churchman

John
An account of the Gospel
laours, and Christian
experiences of a faithful
minister of Jesus Christ, John
Churchman _ Account
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1780 Fothergill

Samuel
The necessity and divine
excellency of a life of purity
and holiness _ Oratory
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1780 Griffith

John
A journal of the life, travels,
and labours in the work of the
ministry, of John Griffith, late
of Chelmsford in Essex, in
Great Britain, formerly of
Darby, in Pennsylvania _ Account
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1780 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Spotswood,
William PA Philadelphia
1781 Crukshank

Joseph
A Plain almanack, for the year
of our Lord, 1782 _ Almanac
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1781 Janeway

James A token for children _ Catechism Account Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1781 Watts

Isaac Horae Lyricae _ Poetry Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1781 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1781 Wesley

John
A Collection of Psalms and
hymns _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Steiner,
Melchior PA Philadelphia
1781 Wesley

John
Hymns and spiritual songs,
intended for the use of real
Christians, of all
denominations _ Song
Steiner,
Melchior PA Philadelphia

234

1781 Wesley

Charles
Hymns for those that seek and
those that have redemption in
the blood of Jesus Christ _ Song
Steiner,
Melchior PA Philadelphia
1782 Combe

William
Letters of the late Thomas
Lord Lyttelton _ Catechism Account Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1782 Luther

Martin Kleine Katechismus _ Catechism Bailey, Francis PA Lancaster
1783 Crawford

Charles
The Christian: a poem; in four
books _ Poetry
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1783 Moore

John
A view of society and manners
in France, Switzerland,
Germany, and Italy _ Account Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1783 Murray

James Sermons to ministers of state _ Oratory Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia
1783 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1783 Weatherwise

Abraham
Father Abraham's almanack,
for the year of our Lord 1784 _ Almanac Dunlap, John PA Philadelphia
1783

A Catechism for youth,
containing the principles of
practical religion _ Catechism Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1784 Anonymous

A collection of religious tracts _ Catechism Story, Enoch PA Philadelphia
1784
Baptist
Church

Song Story, Enoch PA Philadelphia
1784 Fothergill

Samuel
The necessity and divine
excellency of a life of purity
and holiness, set forth with
pathetic energy, by an
eminent minister of the Gospel
amongst the people called
Quakers 2 Oratory
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1784 Holme

Benjamin
A serious call in Christian love
to all people _ Essay
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1784 Marshall

William
Religious instruction to the
rising generation _ Catechism Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1784 Marshall

William
Religious instruction to the
rising generation _ Catechism Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1784 Priestley

Joseph
An appeal to the serious and
candid professors of
Christianity _ Essay Bell, Robert PA Philadelphia

235

1785 Berkeley
George
Monck Maria, or The generous rustic. _ Essay Story, Enoch PA Philadelphia
1785 Smith

William
A sermon preached in Christ-
Church, Philadelphia, on
Friday, October 7th, 1785 _ Oratory Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1785 Young

Edward
Resignation. In two parts, and
a postscript, to Mrs. B******* _ Poetry Story, Enoch PA Philadelphia
1786 Auflage

Erste _ Song Leibert, Peter PA Germantown
1786 Frenau

Philip
The poems of Philip Freneau.
Written chiefly during the late
war _ Poetry Bailey, Francis PA Philadelphia
1786 Horace

The lyric works of Horace,
translated into English verse _ Poetry
Oswald,
Eleazor PA Philadelphia
1786
Protestant
Episcopal
Church

-
Book of common prayer
(1790) _ Liturgy Hall, David PA Philadelphia
1786 Smith
William
Moore
Poems, on several occasions,
written in Pennsylvania _ Poetry Story, Enoch PA Philadelphia
1786

The History of little King Pippin _ Poetry Account
Young,
William PA Philadelphia
1787 Campbell

James
An oration, in commemoration
of the independence of the
United States of North-
America, delivered July 4,
1787 _ Oratory
Pritchard,
William PA Philadelphia
1787 Cowper

William The task. A poem _ Poetry
Dobson,
Thomas PA Philadelphia
1787 Cowper

William The task. A poem _ Poetry
Dobson,
Thomas PA Philadelphia
1787 Crisp

Stephen
Scripture truths demonstrated,
in thirty-two sermons _ Oratory James, Joseph PA Philadelphia
1787 Francis

Benjamin The conflagration: a poem _ Poetry Aitken, Robert PA Philadelphia
1787 Fry

John
Select poems, containing
religious epistles _ Poetry
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1787 Milton

John Paradise lost _ Poetry James, Joseph PA Philadelphia
1787 More

Hannah
Sacred dramas, chiefly
intended for young persons _ Catechism
Dobson,
Thomas PA Philadelphia
1787 Trumbull

John M'Fingal, an epic poem _ Poetry Carey, Mathew PA Philadelphia

236

1787 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song
Crukshank,
Joseph PA Philadelphia
1787 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Bailey, Francis PA Philadelphia
1787 Watts

Isaac The Psalms of David _ Song
Poetry
(Ps) Bailey, Francis PA Philadelphia
1787 Wilkinson

Edward Wisdom, a poem _ Poetry James, Joseph PA Philadelphia
1787 Young

Edward Resignation _ Poetry James, Joseph PA Philadelphia
1787 Young

Edward
The compaint; or Night-
thoughs on life, death and
immortality _ Poetry
Pritchard,
William PA Philadelphia
1746 Callender

John
A discourse occasioned by the
death of the Reverend Mr.
Nathaniel Clapp _ Oratory Account Franklin, Ann RI Newport
1759 Burt

John
The mercy of God to his
people, in the vengeance he
renders to their adversaries,
the occasion of their
abundant joy _ Oratory
Franklin,
James RI Newport
1766 multiple

Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song Hall, Samuel RI Newport
1768 Sault

Richard The Second Spira _ Account
Catechis
m
Southwick,
Solomon RI Newport
1768

Songs, composed for the use
and edification of such as love
the truth in its native simplicity _ Song
Waterman,
John RI Providence
1772 Morton

Nathaniel New-England's memorial _ Account
Southwick,
Solomon RI Newport
1773 Fothergill

Samuel
The prayer of Agur, illustrated
in a funeral discourse: and the
advantages resulting from an
early and steadfast piety _ Oratory Account
Southwick,
Solomon RI Newport
1773 Gavin

Antonio
A master-key to popery: in five
parts 3 Essay
Southwick,
Solomon RI Newport
1775 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Waterman,
John RI Providence
1776 Smith

William
An oration in memory of
General Montgomery, and of
the officers and soldiers, who _ Oratory Account
Southwick,
Solomon RI Newport

237

fell with him, December 31,
1775
1781 Watts

Isaac Hymns and spiritual songs _ Song
Wheeler,
Bennet RI Providence
1782 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Carter, John RI Providence
1782 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism
Wheeler,
Bennet RI Providence
1784 Fenning

Daniel Universal spelling-book 17 Catechism Carter, John RI Providence
1785 NE Primer

- New England primer _ Catechism Carter, John RI Providence
1787 Glas

John Christian songs 7 Song
Wheeler,
Bennet RI Providence
1737 Wesley

John
A collection of psalms and
hymns _ Song
Poetry
(Ps)
Timothy,
Lewis SC Charleston
1749 Heywood

Henry
Two catechisms by way of
question and answer: each
divided into two parts _ Catechism
Timothy,
Peter SC
Charles-
Town
1761 Andrews

George
The South-Carolina almanack
and register, for the year of
our Lord 1762 _ Almanac Wells, Robert SC Charleston
1762 Andrews

George
The South-Carolina almanack
and register, for the year of
our Lord, 1763 _ Almanac Wells, Robert SC Charleston
1771 Tobler

John
The South-Carolina and
Georgia almanack, for the
year of our Lord 1772 _ Almanac Wells, Robert SC Charleton
1775 Tobler

John
The South-Carolina and
Georgia almanack, for the
year of our Lord 1776 _ Almanac Wells, John SC Charleston
1786 Ladd

Joseph Brown The poems of Arouet _ Poetry
Bowen,
Thomas
Bartholomew SC Charleston
1744 Sherlock

William
A practical discourse
concerning death _ Essay Parks, William VA Williamsburg
1746 Allestree

Richard
The whole duty of man. Laid
down in a plain and familiar
way _ Catechism Essay Parks, William VA Williamsburg

238

1749 Thomson

John
An explication of the Shorter
catechism, composed by the
Assembly of Divines _ Catechism Parks, William VA Williamsburg
1764 Carter

Landon
The Rector detected: being a
just defence of the Twopenny
Act, against the artful
misrepresentations of the
Reverend John Camm _ Essay Royle, Joseph VA Williamsburg
1772 Purdie

Alexander
The Virginia almanack for the
year of our Lord God 1773 _ Almanac
Purdie,
Alexander VA Williamsburg
1787 Andrews

Robert
The Virginia almanack, for the
year of our Lord, 1788 _ Almanac
Nicholson,
Thomas VA Richmond
1740 Gibson

Edmund
The sacrament of the Lord's
Supper explain'd _ Liturgy Parks, William VA Williamsburg
1731 Parks

William
The Virginia and Maryland
almanack _ Almanac Parks, William
VA,
MD ?
1712 Tompson

Edward Heaven the best country _ Account Oratory

239

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract Supplementing a market in books that was principally sourced by importation from London, printers living in the English colonies of North America—and, later, in the newly independent United States—produced print material addressing the reality of death as a routine and ongoing matter of practice. Across this vast and diverse array of publications, they frequently represented martyrdom as the archetype of an ideal death. This dissertation argues that the production, distribution and use of printed material imbued with martyrological themes was a catechetical practice aimed at instructing and informing right conduct in individuals, and maintaining right order in communities. All who participated in the production, distribution and use of this kind of print material—authors, printers, people involved in the sale and distribution of printed material, and consumers—were engaged in a practice that can be rightly called the “print practice of martyrology.” This dissertation considers the print practice of martyrology in 18th-century British North America through the lens of four well-known cultural artefacts from the era of the American Revolution—Patrick Henry’s “liberty or death” speech, Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, John Dickinson’s Liberty Song, and the legend that grew up around the execution of Nathan Hale.

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Creator Fanestil, John Whitaker (author)

Core Title The print practice of martyrology in British North America, 1688-1787

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program History

Publication Date 04/18/2019

Defense Date 03/22/2017

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag 18th-century,Death,early America,OAI-PMH Harvest,publishing,Religion

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Mancall, Peter (committee chair), Concannon, Cavan (committee member), Perl-Rosenthal, Nathan (committee member)

Creator Email fanestil@usc.edu,johnfanestil@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c40-360055

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Legacy Identifier etd-FanestilJo-5221.pdf

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Rights Fanestil, John Whitaker

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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