Wingate, James Brackett, Mary Wiggin, and Sally Brackett Weeks. These were all born in Greenland except the last named, who was born in Lancaster in 1789, married Edwards Bucknam, and is still living. 66 Capt. John Weeks was a man of much physical and mental ability. He was captain of a company organized for the defence of the colony, and was called with his company to the defence of Portsmouth from an anticipated attack by the British upon that place during the Revolution. He had prior to that period been on hunting and exploring expeditions northerly into what is now Maine, and into theCohos country." In 1786 he sold his farm in Lee and came to Lancaster, taking up two rights" of land in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Connecticut, where he built his log house and commenced clearing the land. The next year he returned to Lee and brought his family to their new home, which has during nearly all these years been in the name. Capt. Weeks was prominent in the affairs of his adopted town, and was a delegate from the Upper Cohos to the convention which met at Exeter to ratify the constitution of the United States. He died very suddenly at Wakefield, in 1818, while on a journey to Portsmouth. Hon. John Wingate Weeks was for many years one of the foremost men in the state. He was an original and active thinker, a man of fine presence and genial temperament. He combined the trade of joiner with farming, but on the breaking out of the war of 1812 was appointed to a captaincy in the 11th Regiment U. S. A., and served under Gen. Brown in the Canadian campaigns, was conspicuous for his gallantry and bravery, and commissioned major for heroic conduct at Chippewa. At the close of the war he resigned his commission in the army and retired to his farm, intending to devote his time to his farm and books; but he was successively elected county treasurer, sheriff, senator from the 12th district, appointed in 1828 one of the commissioners to establish the boundary line between New Hampshire and Maine (Hon. Ichabod Bartlett being the other New Hampshire commissioner), and served in congress two terms, from 1829 to 1833. He declined all further political preferment, and lived until his death, which occurred in 1853, upon the farm which his father cleared. He wrote a good deal`upon various topics, was consulted upon grave political questions by the active leaders of his party, dispensed a liberal hospitality, and at his death was sadly missed by all. James Brackett Weeks, than whom a nobler man in his station of life never lived, soon after attaining his majority, purchased a lot of land on the southerly slope of what is now called Mt. Prospect, the most easterly of the three Martin Meadow Hills, and commenced at once work upon it. He soon after married Miss Betsey Stanley, a daughter of Lieut. Dennis Stanley, one of the early settlers of the town, a woman who inherited the virtues of constancy and vigor, and withal those of sound sense and womanly grace, from her parents. The life of Mr. Weeks was one of unobtrusive goodness and charity. He sought no political honor, preferring the quiet of his home, with his family and friends, and the exercise of a liberal faith, untramelled by partisan bonds or theological creeds. He died in 1858, having attained the age of 74 years, with the fullest respect of all who ever knew him. His children, who all lived to manhood and womanhood, were three sons and four daughters. The daughters inherited the virtues of their parents, but have all gone to the "undiscovered country save one,-Mrs. Persis F. Rice, now of Dublin, N. H. Martha E., with the devotion of a true woman, did what she could to relieve the sufferings of the wounded soldiers in the hospitals during the late civil war, and died, a martyr to her philanthropic efforts, in Boston in 1873. The sons were Hon. James Wingate Weeks, still prominent in political and business life, Hon. William Dennis Weeks, and John Weeks, Esq., a resident of Buffalo, N. Y., and a successful and respected business man of that city. The subject of this sketch was born on the 28th day of February, 1818. The place of his birth is one of the most beautiful in all this beautiful country. It is so elevated that a fine view of the Presidential range in its entire extent, the Franconia and Pilot mountains, with the intervening woods, streams, ponds, farms, and villages, are spread out to the beholder; and perhaps the grandeur of this scenery, so constantly before him in his boyhood, stamped upon his character some of its rugged elements of independence and sturdy manliness, softened and blended by their lights and shades. His boyhood was mostly spent on the farm, doing the customary work incident to a hilly farm, where there 345 was little to relieve the monotony of life except the varied beauty of the distant hills, and the sport of the woods and streams then abounding with game and fish, and in the athletic games indulged in by the boys bees," and the intermissions of school as they met at "raisings," "logginghours, in all of which he took an interest and excelled his mates. At the district school he gained the rudiments of his education, and with attendance a number of terms at LanThe academy was taught at that time caster academy his school days ended. by Nathaniel Wilson, its first principal, we used to say, who was sucby William H. Hadley. They were ceeded by Walter P. Flanders, and he instructors well fitted for their duties. Young Weeks was not brilliant as a scholar, but he gained the respect of his teachers and associates by his apqualities, and his unswerving integriplication to his studies, his manly champion, and in differences that ty. In all the manly games he was might arise in the various matters that occur in school life he was often appealed to as an arbiter, and the justness of his decisions was never questioned. in his own and other districts, giving During the winters he taught school eminent satisfaction, for his education faithfully and well he discharged his was founded on a solid basis, and duties. Arriving at man's estate, he went solidly at work on the farm, and here showed his peculiar aptitude for agricultural pursuits by adopting the most advanced methods, procuring the best stock, which he tended and reared to the best advantage. In 1839 political parties in town. had become somewhat disjointed, the Democracy, which was the dominant party, having on some local issue broken into two factions. In the canvass for representative the Whigs nominated Mr. Weeks, with which party he had identified himself, and in a hotly contested election he was the successful candidate. In the one session of the legislature which he attended, he fully satisfied the expectations of his friends and constituents, and won the respect and esteem of his fellow-legislators by his sound judgment, dignity, and integrity. He early became interested in military affairs, and rose rapidly by promotion to the rank of Lieut. Colonel, and there was no officer upon parade who had a more soldierly bearing than he. In 1845 he went to St. Johnsbury, Vt., at the solicitation and in the employ of the Messrs. Fairbanks, as superintendent of their farms and general out-door work. He also became interested in manufacturing operations there; but in 1854 he purchased the farm in Lancaster, on which his grandfather first settled in 1786, and which was the homestead of Hon. John W. Weeks. Here he devoted himself to his favorite pursuit, caring for his farm and stock, and attending to such duties as his townsmen imposed upon him. In 1863 he received the appointment of assistant assessor for the 3d Revenue District of New Hampshire; and here, as everywhere in official capacity, his career was marked by the same integrity and sound judgment that characterized him in home life. He was an active and efficient worker in the Coos and Essex Counties Agricultural Society, prominent at all times in directing its affairs, and helping to bring it to a marked degree of success. ernor. In July, 1876, Mr. Weeks received the appointment of judge of probate for Coös county. Previous to this he had received in the Republican State Convention the vote of the entire Coös delegation as candidate for govThe appointment as judge of probate was one of fitness; it was such a one as could not have been bettered, and during the time he served, which was until his death, the position was honored by the man. In all his official course he was dispassionate, and brought to bear his strong common-sense and the endeavor to do right. He was in fact a "most upright judge," and probably no one who has ever occupied the same position in our county has given greater satisfaction to all parties with whom the court had to do than he. In his theological views he was liberal, in life and conduct a religious man, fully living up to the standard set by St. James: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” He was very constant in attendance upon the Sunday services at the Unitarian church, and observed Sunday, not with austere formality, but as a day of rest and quiet cheerfulness, and in doing good. His home life was cheerful and happy. He married, in 1848, Miss Mary Helen Fowler, of Woodstock, Connecticut, a niece of the late Gov. Jared W. Williams. To them were born three children.-Emma F., who married Burleigh Roberts, Esq., of the firm of Kent & Roberts, in Lancaster; John Wingate Weeks, educated at the U. S. Naval School at Annapolis, and who served two years in the navy, but is now engaged in business in Florida; and William Cheney Weeks, who tills the farm that has so long been in the Weeks name, and is so beautiful. Judge Weeks was a thoughtful, kind, and considerate husband and father. His house was as open as his heart, and no one with a tale of sorrow or distress went away from his door without sympathy and aid: he showed his faith by his works." He entertained friends as few know how to do, liberally without ostentation, sincerely without affectation, hospitably without grudging, welcoming guests with quiet dignity and heartfelt cordiality. His death occurred February 27, 1885. 66 THE FIRST NEW ENGLAND WITCH." An Unpublished Page of New England History. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, in an English country district, two lads romped on the same lea and chased the same butterflies. One was a little brown-eyed boy, with red cheeks, fine round form, and fiery temper. The other was a gentle child, tall, lithe, and blonde. The one was the son of a man of wealth and a noble lady, and carried his captive butterflies to a mansion house, and kept them in a crystal case. The other ran from the fields to a farmhouse, and thought of the lea as a grain field. It might have been the year 1605 when the two were called in from their play-ground, and sent to school thus to begin life. The farmer's boy went to a common school, and his brown-eyed playmate entered a grammar school. From that time their paths were far apart. The name of the tall blonde boy was Samuel Morse. At fifteen he left school to help his father on the ་ home farm. At twenty he had become second tenant on a Wiltshire holding, and begun to be a prosperous farmer. Before he had attained the age of forty he was the father of a large family of children, among them five sons, whose names were Samuel, William, Robert, John, and Anthony. William, Robert, and Anthony ultimately emigrated to America, while Samuel, Jr., and John remained in England. Young Samuel went to London, and became a merchant and a miser. When past his fiftieth year he married. His wife died four years later, leaving a baby daughter and a son. Both children were sent up to Marlboro', where they had a home with their Uncle John who was living on the old farm. There they grew up, and became the heirs both of John and their father. The boy was named Morgan. He received a finished education, embraced the law, and married. His only child and daughter, Mary, became the heiress of her aunt's property and her great uncle John's estate, and was accounted a lady of wealth, station, and beauty. Meanwhile, the family of old Samuel Morse's playfellow had also reached the fourth generation. The name of that playfellow was Oliver Cromwell, who became Lord Protector of the British commonwealth. Of course he forgot Samuel Morse, and was sitting in Parliament when Samuel died. He had children and grandchildren who lived as contemporary of his old playmate's children and grandchildren. Two or three years before Samuel's great granddaughter, Mary, was born, a great grandson of the Protector saw the light. This boy was named Oliver, but was called "Rummy Noll." The ancestral estate of Theobald's became his sole inheritance, and as soon as he came into the property he began to live a wild, fast life, distinguishing himself as an adventurous, if not a profligate, gentleman. He travelled much, and one day in a sunny English year came to the town of his great-grandfather's nativity. There he chanced to meet Mary Morse. The beautiful girl fascinated him, but would not consent to be his wife until all of his "wild oats" were sown. Then she became Mrs. Cromwell, and was a happy wife, as well as a lady of eminence and wealth. Oliver and Mary Cromwell had a daughter Olivia, who married a Mr. Russell, and whose daughters are the present sole representatives of the Protectorate family. As was said above, William, Anthony, and Robert Morse, brothers of Samuel, Jr., emigrated to America, and became the ancestors of nearly all of their name in this country. William and Anthony settled at Newbury, Mass. The latter became a respected citizen, and among his descendants were such men as Rev. Dr. James Morse, of Newburyport, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the telegraph inventor, Rev. Sidney Edwards Morse, and others scarcely less notable. Robert Morse, Anthony's brother, left England at about the time of the beginning of the civil war, and located in Boston as a tailor. He was a sterling old Puritan: of strict morality, prudent and enterprising. He speculated in real estate, and after a while removed to Elizabethtown, N. J., which place he helped to settle, and where he amassed much wealth. He had nine children. Among his descendants were some men of eminence, as Dr. Isaac Morse of Elizabethtown, Hon. Nathan Morse of New Orleans, Isaac E. Morse, long a member of congress from Louisiana, Judge Morse of Ohio, and others. None of these sons of Samuel, the mate of Cromwell, were great men themselves, but were notable in their descendants. Samuel's descendant came to represent a historical family; Anthony's greatest descendant invented the telegraph; and the descendants of Robert were noble Southrons. William, alone of the five brothers, had notoriety. Samuel, Jr., was more eminent, but William made a mark in Massachusetts history. William, brother of Anthony, was the father of ten children,-six sons and four daughters. Settling in Newbury, he led an humble and monotonous life. When he had lived there more than forty years, and had come |