Author Description

It is very likely, an unimportant tribute to a man whose unselfish life was very rich in benefit to his children and all others, even of alien households, but there is a comfort of a peculiar kind, founded Lipon most grateful recoliections of one of the kindest of parents, in thus dedicating to him the result of very many days pleasantly and perhaps not quite unprofitably, occupied. With reverential affection has the writer ever borne in mind the gentle, courageous, forbearing ancestor, whose virtues are herein altogether too indifferently commemorated. Of names distinguished in the colonial town and state annals of our American Union, none is of more uniformly honorable record than that of Bartlett. The name frequently appears in connection with momentous events of New Englands early days, the actors in which will be remembered for the greatness of their deeds, the strength of their patriotism, and for the tenacity of their adherence to principle. Some who have borne the name, while not perhaps eminent for the splendor of their public career, are properly entitled to grateful remembrance for their cscrnplary concluct and successful endeavor in good citizenship, and as friends of their fellow men. Many of the immediate descendants of John Bartlett of Weymouth and Cumberland appear to have been Quakers. This society at that early period, required escessive lainness in dress and the utmost simplicity in all the affairs of life. They were opposed to war and were exempted from military duty, and the payment of tases for war purposes, and their disapproval of office holding and poiitical controversy, prevented a public recogrition of the worth and virtue that was so conspicuously apparent in the lives of many of its members...