ing you with and giving you the comfort of it. I thank you for what you have written concerning thofe relations I defired to hear of; and the rather because you fay you cannot write much, through the weakness of your eyes, and I fear it may hurt them to read these long letters, for I defire you first to read and then feal and deliver the enclosed to my honored and dear friend D. G. with my best refpects to him and his dear wife. My dear mother, I recommend to you the counsel and promife given to the Philippians, chap. 4. 4, 5, 6, 7. and let me intreat you to rejoice in the Lord always, and again I fay rejoice; and I beseech you to remem ber that weak eyes are made weaker by too much weep. ing. Pray take heed you do not hurt yourself thereby.

But alas, I fee my paper is almoft done, and muft yet referve a little room for a poftcript, therefore (hoping I have not forgotten any material thing I fhould write of) I am forced here to break off abruptly, and, with my most affectionate remembrance to all friends, as if I named them, defiring the continuance of your and their fervent prayers, I recommend you and my dear brother and fifters to the tender watchful care of Him who hath borne us from the belly and carried us from the womb, and will be our God and our guide unt death, I am, dear mother,

Your moft affectionate and dutiful fen,

W. G.

Now, my dear mother, give me leave in a poftfcript to be a little merry with you, and yet ferious too. There is one word in one of your letters that sounds fo harshly, and looks fo untowardly, that I cannot tell well how to read or look upon it, and I know not how to write it, and yet I muft, though I crofs it out again. I fuppofe you do by this time fufficiently wonder what will follow; but the matter is this, after you had given me a loving account of a bufinefs wherein you have done your beft, you were pleafed to fay, that if I fhould

be angry you had many to bear with you, &c. Rafa anger, I confefs, is a burthen that needs more fhoulders than one to bear it, for Solomon faith, a stone is heavy, and the fand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. But oh, my dear mother, how could you fear fuch a thing from me? Yourself knoweth I never yet fpake an angry word to you, nay I hope I may fay (without taking the name of God in vain) the Lord knoweth I never conceived an angry thought towards you, nor do I now, nor I hope never fhall, and in fo faying I do not commend myself, for you never gave me the leaft caufe, neither have you now,. and I believe never will; therefore, dear mother, the whole praife belongs to yourself, or rather to the Lord, who, bleifed be his name, hath so united our hearts together in love, that it is a thing fcarce poffible to be angry one with another. But I fhall now conclude with a request that you will not be angry with yourfelf for writing that word I have fpoken fo much againft, for I fuppofe all your meaning was, if I fhould not altogether approve of what was done, &c. and I am abundantly fatisfied that the root from which that fear fprung was tender love, and that you speak your heart when you fay you love and honor me as much as ever, which may well increafe my longings after you, for the exceeding grace of God in you. Now thanks be unto God for his unfpeakable gift. 2 Cor. 9. 14, 15."

CHAP.

F

CHAP. III.

Of Colonel DIXWELL and his Sepulture at New-Haven.

COLON

NOLONEL JOHN DIXWELL was another of King Charles's Judges. He was of the priory of Folkftone, in the county of Kent. He was a junior brother of Mark Dixwell of Broome, in the parith of Barham, in the county of Kent; who died 1643, leaving in the hands and in the care of Colonel Dixwell all his estate and children, all minors, and among the reft his eldest fon and principal heir, Bafil, afterwards Sir Bafil Dixwell. He came to New-England a bachelor, then having neither brother nor fifter living. The Colonel was a gentleman in good and eafy circumftances, being poffeffed of a manor and fundry other eftates in England. Engaging in the civil wars, he became an officer in the army under the Parliament and Protectorate; was nominated fheriff of the county of Kent, and became member of Parliament for Kent in 1654. He was one of the Judges that figned the warrant 1649. At the Restoration he abdicated his country in 1660: but when he first came to New-England is unknown. Very little can be recovered concerning him for the first ten or a dozen years of his abdication. The first notice we have of him is in Goffe's Journal, while the Judges were at Hadley, wherein it is entered that Colonel Dixwell came to them there February 10, 1664-5: but ever after they call him Mr. Davids; and afterwards he went by the name of James Davids, Efq. till his death. This name it is faid he affumed, being his mother's name. Governor Hutchinfon fays he lived at Hadley fome years: his grand-daughter, Mrs. Caruthers, fays only fix weeks. From thence, or after various wanderings and reclufes, now unknown, he at length came to New-Haven; where, thongh cover with a borrowed name, he however was generall

pofed to have been one of thofe who were obnoxious in England. But he carefully concealed his true character from the public.

When he first came to New-Haven is unknown.— Stephen Ball, Efq. of New-Haven, aged 67, a defcendant of the original inhabitants, tells me the tradition is, that when Mr. Davids first came here, he put up and lived with an aged family, two fedate old perfons, Mr. Ling and his wife, who had no children. Mr. Ling at his death requested him to affift and take care of his wife, and recommended it to her to be kind to him. He left his house and whole estate to his wife.Mr. Davids affifted in fettling the eftate. And afterwards he faid he did not know any better way to fhew kindness and take care of her, than to marry her, and accordingly married her. She foon dying, he married another wife, and had children by her. Thus far dea . con Ball. Mr. Ling's death was in 1673: his will and the inventory of his eftate, £900. was then immediately entered and remain on the probate records to this day. So Mr. Davids must have been in New-Haven before 1672 and probably feveral years before, as a fhort and tranfient acquaintance would not have been fufficient to produce that truft and confidence, which Mr. Ling repofed in him at his death.

*

Mr. Ling's houfe was in a retired part of the town, at the north-west corner of what was afterwards called Mr. Pierpont's Square. Here Mr. Davids lived in a retired indeed, but not fecreted manner. For he conftantly attended public worthip, was openly converfant, though not very familiarly and intimately with the inhabitants, who confidered him as a refpectable and pious gentleman, who refided among them in a quiet and peacable manner, without tranfacting any apparent butinefs, and yet fubfifting with decency, leading raher a reclufe and private life. His countenance, but 's true name, was known to Mr. Jones at his first See Plate P