(4.) Harriet.

She was twice m., (first) to George Brown,

(second) to William Sprawl.

(5.) Israel, d. Sept., 1871.

(6.) Avard.

(7.) William, d. young,

5. SUSANNA, b. Oct. 27, 1778, m. Jonathan C. Morse, d. Oct. 11,

1842. She had seven children.

two weeks of each other.

Mr. and Mrs. Morse d. within

(1.) Edward. (2.) Israel. (3.) Eliza. (4.) Lucy.

(5.) Caroline. (6.) Minetta. (7.) Mary Cecilia.

6. ISRAEL, b. Sept 28, 1780, m. Mary Bath, who d. Nov. 29, 1842. He d. Nov. 29, 1871. He had nine children :

(1.) Tamer Cecilia.

(2.) John Bath. He was keeper of the penitentiary, St. Johns, N. B., d. 1880.

(3.) Israel James, r. Greenville, Nova Scotia (1878). He had one child: I. 'Robert Bath," b. [1841,] d. Sept. 4, 1861. (4.) Lucy Ann, m. Delancy Grenever.

(5.) Samuel Charles, b. Oct. 3, 1815, m. Eliza Isabella Fowler, r. Greenville, Nova Scotia. He has had four children: 1. "Mary Matilda," b. Aug. 16, 1841; 2. "William Fletcher," b. July, 1844; 3. "Caroline Eliza," b. July 10, 1848; 4. "Anna Gallandlet," b. Feb. 18, 1852.

(6.) Nehemiah Fletcher, b. 1818, d. Feb. 24, 1844. (7.) An Infant, who lived but a few days, unnamed. (8.) Robert Wesley, b. July 19, 1821, m. Charlotte Harris, Nov. 27, 1844, r. Grantville, Nova Scotia.

(9.) Mary Elizabeth, m. John Millbury of Digby, Nova Scotia. 7. DIADIMIA, b. Dec. 17, 1782, m. John McNeal of Halifax, a hatter by trade. She had seven children, and d. June 2, 1860. (1.) Israel, r. Newfoundland (1872).

(2.) Henry, d. at Halifax.

(3.) Diedem. (4.) Susan.

(7.) Edward, lost at sea.

(5.) Margaret. (6.) Warren.

8. CHRISTINA, b. March 20, 1785, m. John Chesley, lived in Annapolis county, Nova Scotia, had seven children, and d. May 9, 1855.

(1.) Ambrose. (2.) Nelson. (3.) Benjamin.

(4.) Eliza, m. Allen Morse.

(5.) Phebe. (6.) Diedem. (7.) Berthia.

9. ELIZABETH, b. 1788, m. John Tupper, had seven children, d.

July 23, 1850.

(1.) Susan, m. Henry Randall, r. Newburyport (1878). (2.) Miner.

(3.) Mary Eliza, m. Capt. Peter McRay, r. Bridgetown, Nova Scotia (1878).

(4.) Harriet, m. Edward Foster.

(5.) Alvira, m. George Murdock of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia.

(6.) Israel, was drowned.
(7.) Mayhew.

10. Lucy, b. 1789, d. young.

11. WESLEY, b. 1794, lost at sea in the year 1818.

12. 13. 14. TRIPLETS, d. unnamed.

VIII. NEHEMIAH, b. at Groton, Sept. 4, 1747, m. Miriam Sawtell of Shirley. He had nine children. Two birth-dates have been entered upon the records of Shirley, and no further account of the family can be given in these pages.

1. OBADIAH, b. at Shirley, Feb. 3, 1773. profession.

2. MIRIAM, b. at Shirley, Aug. 9, 1774.

He was a Quaker by

IX. MARY, b. at Groton, Nov. 4, 1749, m. John Priest of Lancaster. She was removed to Westminster, Vt., where she had children, and where she d. March 22, 1822.

X. JOSHUA, b. at Groton, July 23, 1751, m. Bridget Melvin of Concord, March 20, 1770. She was the youngest daughter of Eleazer and Mary Melvin of Concord, and was b. Dec. 9, 1751.* They passed their lives in Shirley, where he d. Nov. 7, 1814; she d. Feb. 27, 1817. Their remains were interred in the old cemetery at Shirley, and a beautiful marble headstone marks the place of their graves,-erected by a grandson, the late Samuel Chase, of Pepperell.

The different members of the Longley families had a general reputable standing in this town, where they lived, as their fathers had in the town where they were born. In their lives was presented, it is true, the various phases of character that belong to our common humanity, from the grave to the gay, and from the mild to the severe; yet but few of them failed to appreciate the duties of life, and to discharge these duties according to the dictates of a well-regulated conscience.

But, of all who have borne that name in Shirley, Joshua, (the tenth-born of William, the eldest son of the redeemed captive, whose family register is here under consideration,) was the most illustrious. His father removed from Groton to Shirley the year he was born; hence his childhood and boyhood were passed at that inauspicious period when no schools existed within the town. Of course he almost necessarily grew up without a knowledge of letters. Tradition saith that at the age of twenty-one he could not write or even read. But such was his strength of intellect, and such the bias of his inclinations, that he could not see an honorable and useful call to business, beyond the reach of his present ability, without an effort to qualify himself for the calling. He therefore labored with an assiduity that finds no immovable obstacles in the way of success. With such means as he had at his

*See Appendix BB.

command, he furnished himself with that kind of education which the exigence of his situation demanded, and devoted his acquirements to the best possible advantage in all his active course, giving his mind but little respite until its purposes were effected.

In 1780, when he was twenty-nine years of age, he was appointed a selectman of the town, and for twenty-one years he

дома
Gothna Longley

was re-appointed to the same important official station. He was the town-clerk for fifteen years, and was a civil magistrate during a large portion of his

business life. He was also called to discharge legal duties of a more private character, such as solemnizing marriages, drawing business instruments, presiding over petit courts of justice, and thus had a general as well as a business and social influence which few have attained. In 1775 he was a volunteer on the alarm of the 19th of April.

He builded, during his life, two large dwelling-houses after the same pattern; they were of the largest which the town could then boast. They were faced to the south, and neither of them fronted upon the streets on which they were located. He was also the first occupant of the only water-privilege within the town upon the Nashua river, where he builded saw and corn-mills, which property soon passed to the hands of other owners. The farm dwellings, where himself and family usually resided, are yet all standing, in good repair, and have been heliotyped to embellish the pages of this history.

The death of Mr. Longley was almost without warning. It was a fine autumnal afternoon, and the voters of the town had assembled for a public business meeting in the old church; the purpose of which meeting was to take into consideration the situation of Rev. Phinehas Whitney, who had become, permanently, an invalid, and to relieve him of a part, or all, of his ministerial duties, by settling with him a colleague. The meeting had proceeded so far as to resolve upon the measure, and to pass a vote extending an invitation to Rev. William Bascom, then of Fitchburg, to fill the position. At this point it was announced that Mr. Joshua Longley -who was in his usual health, as far as any that were there had been advised-was dead, having just expired at his own mansion, but a quarter of a mile away. Whereupon, Wallis Little, Esq., arose, and, after expressing a surprise at the suddenness of the event, so fruitful of regret to a widespread community, and after briefly recounting the merits of the deceased, moved an adjournment of the meeting, and a general suspension of business until the remains of their distinguished friend and fellow-townsman should receive the rites of sepulture. Joshua Longley had eight children, b. at Shirley.

1. LOVINA, b. May 9, 1771, d. Aug. 11, 1777.

2. ANNE, b. Sept. 17, 1773, d. Aug. 9, 1777.