Zachariah Richardson, who died in Chlemsford in 1776, aged 80 years.

Mr. Fletcher was a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1769, being twenty-one years of age at graduation, and was ordained as pastor of the church in Hopkinton, January 27, 1773. He was very popular with the people of his church, and exerted a great influence in the town, and was elected as a Representative to attend the Provincial Congress, which met at Exeter, May 17, 1775. He was one of a committee of three to prepare a draft to send to the several towns in the State respecting disputes about tories. He was also appointed on a committee with Col. Timothy Walker of Concord and Col. William Whipple of Portsmouth, to see what sum of money would be sufficient to answer the demands of the Province. Col. Whipple was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Fletcher took a great interest in the Revolutionary struggle, and had much to do in influencing the town to do its part in both men and money.

In the days in which Mr. Fletcher lived, it was thought quite as necessary in order to keep life in the church to consult spiritual things here below, as well as above, and it was a common practice for Parson Fletcher, after a three hours' service in the morning, to step over to the inn across the street, with a few laymen of the church, and take a glass of brandy or a mug of "flip." One of the leaves of the account book of Deacon Abel Kimball, who kept a store near Mr. Fletcher's house, has the account of Parson Fletcher for groceries, &c.; but if the pastors of the present day had similar accounts against them, it might lead to an investigation and perhaps a dismissal. This account runs from June 29, 1782, to January 22, 1783. There are twenty-four charges for rum or toddy, by the glass or mug, varying from three to eight pence each; and fifteen charges for rum and brandy by the pint or gallon, amounting in the aggregate to £1, 10s, 6d. The receipt of settlement was written at the bottom of the page in Mr. Fletcher's own hand. and reads as follows:

"Rec'd and Settled all accounts from the beginning of the world to this day, and nothing due on either side." ELIJAH FLETCHER, ABEL KIMBALL.

Hopkinton, Jan'y, 22, 1783."

There is little doubt but the Parson and the Deacon took one glass of toddy before that receipt was written.

Mr. Fletcher, after a short illness, died April 8, 1786, in the 39th year of his age, having been a pastor of the church over thirteen years. He was a man of no ordinary talent, and, if he had lived to mature old age, would have left a bright and shining record in the ecclesiastical history of the State. As it was, he was considered a peer of his contemporaries, and greatly esteemed and beloved by the venerable Rev. Timothy Walker, first pastor of the church in Concord.

An anecdote is related of Mr. Fletcher and his church, in connection with Mr. Walker. At one time in Mr. Fletcher's ministry in Hopkinton, (about 100 years ago), he found that his parishioners were seriously afflicted with the delusions of witchcraft. He patiently listened to all their complaints and charges against each other, and found, if all told the truth, he had but very few members in his church, but were either witches or wizards. He entreated and expostulated with them concerning this fallacious doctrine of witchcraft, but to no effect. Many of his older members came from that section of Massachusetts where at one time witchcraft flourished, and they had not forgotten the fireside stories told by their grandmothers of the wonderful doings of witches who lived in those days, and were eventually hanged on trees or horizontal poles, like dogs.

At length, Mr. Fletcher applied to Mr. Walker for assistance, and proposed to him to exchange and preach to his people in Hopkinton on this subject, telling Mr. Walker all the facts which caused the trouble. Mr. Walker prepared a sermon expressly for the occasion. He told his hearers, in substance, that the most they had to fear from witches, was from talking about them-that witches were very sensitive about that, and generally made their appearance to such persons

in some form. The hearers took the hint, ceased their gossip about each other and the desired result was attained. The excitement about witches was never revived in Hopkinton after that day.

Mr. Fletcher was greatly beloved and respected both by the members of his church and the people of the town. The town paid his funeral expenses, and purchased a set of stones to mark his grave, which still point out the spot where his ashes are mingled with the mother dust. His children, as far we know, were Bridget, born about 1774; Timothy, 1775; Rebecca, 1776, and Gratia, 1781. Rebecca married the Hon. Israel Kelly, about 1801. He was a son of Moses Kelly of Amherst and afterward of Hopkinton, who was sheriff of Hillsborough county from 1785 to 1809. Israel Kelly removed to Salisbury prior to 1802. He was sheriff of Hillsborough county from 1813 to 1818, and Judge of the Court of Sessions for Merrimack county from 1823 to 1825, when that court was abolished. Two daughters of Judge Kelly are now living in Concord at advanced age.

Gratia Fletcher (called "Grace,") was educated at the old academy in Atkinson, finishing her studies at that venerable institution late in the fall of 1800. Rebecca, the widow of Mr. Fletcher, married the Rev. Christopher Paige, January 29, 1788. Mr. Paige was the first minister of Pittsfield, being settled there in 1789. There was never a very pleasant feeling existing between the two daughters and their step-father after they arrived at years of understanding, and when Judge Kelly moved to Salisbury in 1802, Gratia made her home with her sister Rebecca. It was here she first saw Daniel Webster, then a young man, just from college, studying law with Thomas W. Thompson, near his father's house, and in the neighborhood of Judge Kelly's.

An acquaintance sprang up between them, which in time became a strong attachment; but Webster was too busily engaged in perfecting his legal studies to pay much attention to love affairs. After his admission to the Suffolk Bar in 1805, however, he returned and practiced law

in his native town nearly two years, where his opportunities were better to learn the true character of Grace, which he used to say, "improved by studying it." Twice the marriage day had been appointed, but its arrival found them unprepared. At length Webster settled in Portsmouth for a permanent home, and returning to Salisbury, was married at the house of Judge Kelly in 1808.

Tradition says, that when he went to Salisbury, he first saw Grace looking out of the chamber window, and addressed her as follows: "Grace, what do you say? It is to-day or never!" She replied: "Then I say, to-day!" They were married that afternoon, and soon went to their new home in Portsmouth.

Mr. Webster's great talent soon led him into public notice, his grand political career commencing with his election to Congress from this State in 1812. Removing to Massachusetts in 1816, he was sent to Congress from that State in 1822, and in 1827 was made U. S. Senator. It was when on his way to Washington to take his seat in the Senate, accompanied by his wife, that she became ill and he was obliged to leave her in New York. Growing no better, she returned home to Marshfield, where she died, January 21, 1828.

Grace Fletcher Webster was a lady of superior culture and refinement, and would well grace any circle. Through her husband's national position she was often brought into social intercourse with the great men of the day-Clay, Benton, Calhoun, Adams, Jackson and othersand was greatly esteemed and respected by all who knew her. She was the idol of Webster, who cherished for her. through life, a reverential love. She left a son named Fletcher Webster and he a daughter named "Grace."

The house in which Mr. Fletcher lived and Grace was born, stands on the main road leading to Concord, about one mile east of Hopkinton Village, and, up to the spring of 1875, was in its primitive state. A portion of a limb from an elm in front of the house was sent to the Centennial Exhibition last season.

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Among the best known of the representative men of New Hampshire, at the present time, from his connection with politics, as well as business affairs, Col. Henry O. Kent of Lancaster may well be conceded a prominent position. In presenting the readers of the GRANITE MONTHLY with a brief sketch of Col, Kent's career, some allusion to his ancestral history may not come amiss.

As the name indicates, the Kent family is of English origin. There is no direct record antedating John Kent, who died in 1780 at Cape Ann, Mass., at the age of eighty years. His son Jacob, born at Chebacco, (now Essex), Mass., in 1726, settled in the town of Plaistow, in this State. In 1760, a regiment of eight hundred men was raised in New Hampshire, commanded by Col. John Goffe of Londonderry, for the invasion of Canada. Of this regiment, one company was officered by John Hazen, Captain, Jacob Kentabove named-1st Lieut., and Timothy Beadle 2d Lieut. The regiment rendezvoued at Litchfield, and marched by Peterborough and Keene to Number 4, (Charlestown), thence cut a road through the wilderness 26 miles to the Green Mountains, and thence to Crown Point

on Lake Champlain, where they took water transportation. After a successful campaign, they returned through the wilderness via the Newbury meadows, or the Cohos country, undoubtedly following the old Indian path up the Oliveria n and down Baker River to the Pemigewasset. While returning, Lt. Col. Jacob Bayley, Captain Hazen, and Lieutenants Kent and Beadle, were so favorably impressed with the fertility of the Cohos meadows that they determined to return and found a settlement. This project was speedily carried out, Bayley and Kent locating on the western, and Hazen and Beadle on the eastern side of the river, from which settlements sprang the towns of Newbury, then in the "New Hampshire Grants,"- -now in Vermont-and Haverhill, N. H. Gen. Jacob Bayley was a prominent man in Newbury, through a long and useful life. Many of his descendants still reside in the town. Timothy Beadle, or Bedel, as the name is now spelled, was an officer of distinction in the subsequent war of the Revolution, father of Gen. Moody Bedel of the war of 1812, and grand-father of the late Gen. John Bedel of Bath and Col. Hazen Bedel of Colebrook.

Jacob Kent, here referred to, died at Newbury in 1812, aged 86 years. He was a noted man in his section, commander of the first company of militia raised in the towns of Newbury and Haverhill "in our Province of New Hampshire"-as says his old commission, signed in 1764, by Benning Wentworth, and which is now in Col. Kent's possession. He was a leader in church matters, was for years Town Clerk, and County Clerk of Orange County-and subsequently and for a long period a Judge of the Vermont Judiciary. In the Revolution, while burdened with the cares of the infant settlement, he was an earnest actor in those scenes which gave us our independence. He was Colonel of the forces in his vicinity, and on the advance of Burgoyne, started with his regiment for the field, and was present with it at the capitulation at Saratoga. This Jacob Kent left three sons, Jacob, John and Joseph. John Kent, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, sold his share of the patrimony and purchased a farm on Parker Hill, in the town of Lyman, where he died in 1842, leaving four sons and one daughter. The father of Col. Kent was one of these sonsRichard Peabody Kent―(his mother Tabitha Peabody, a daughter of Lt. Richard Peabody, of the Revolutionary army, who lies buried in the old cemetery in Littleton, near the Connecticut), who was born at Newbury, Vt., Dec, 21, 1805, and is now in active business as a merchant, at Lancaster, being doubtless the senior in point of service of any business man in the region. He attended in boyhood, for a time, the Academy at Haverhill, but at an early age went into a country store, on Parker Hill, as a clerk, thence to Wells River and Bath, and in 1825, went to Lancaster with Royal Joslyn, where, in 1828, he engaged in mercantile pursuits for himself, and has steadily followed his vocation. During this long career his affairs have been transacted with scrupulous integrity, exactitude and honor. He has never been in public life, but has always been interested in the development of the region and the improvement of the town-witnessing its growth and prosperity. He was formerly Cashier of Lancaster Bank,

and is now President of the Corporation of Lancaster Academy.

On the maternal side the ancestry of Col. Kent is traced to Richard Mann, “a planter in the family of Elder Brewster," who was one of the colony of the Mayflower. From him descended that John Mann, born Dec. 25, 1743, who was the first permanent settler of the town of Orford, October, 1765. To him were born fifteen children, of whom Solomon Mann was well known in the State, as for many years the proprietor of "The old Mann Tavern," at the upper end of Main street, Concord, (the place now or recently occupied by Mrs. Smart, on the east side, under the great elms, just above Maj. Lang's.) To him were born eight children, one of whom, Phebe, married Geo. Hough, a printer of Concord, who subsequently, with his wife, went with Dr. Judson as missionaries to Burmah, British India. The descendants of this daughter married with the British residents of India, and are now resident in England, their children being married and settled around them. Emily, the second daughter of Solomon Mann, married Henry Oakes, a merchant, who for many years was an active and well known business man at Waterford and Thetford, Vt. To Henry and Emily (Mann) Oakes were born three daughters and a son, who died in infancy. Of the daughters, Emily Mann Oakes was married to Richard P. Kent, June 5, 1832, at Littleton, among the friends present on the occasion being the late Chief Justice Henry A. Bellows and the Hon. Edmund Burke, then young lawyers just commencing practice.

To this union there have been born three children, sons. Henry Oakes, Edward Richard, and Charles Nelson. The second son, Edward Richard, is now associated in business with his father at Lancaster, and the youngest, Charles Nelson, who graduated at Norwich University and Harvard Law School and was subsequently admitted to the Suffolk Bar, is now in business in the city of New York.

HENRY OAKES KENT was born in Lancaster, Feb. 7, 1834. He attended the district school and Lancaster Academy,

and graduated from Norwich University in the class of 1854. Entering the office of Hon. Jacob Benton as a student of law, he pursued his studies until 1858, when he was admitted to the bar at the May Term of Court at Lancaster. Shortly after, he became the proprietor of the Coos Republican, and assumed the editorial and business management of that paper, his strong interest in political affairs and the fortunes of the Republican party, with which he was actively identified, impelling him to this step, in taking which he relinquished the prospect of a distinguished and successful career at the bar. In the management of the Republican, both financial and editorial, he displayed rare skill and ability. His leading articles were always strong, vigorous, earnest, and secured for his paper, notwithstanding its remote location from the capital, an influential position among the party journals of the State, and considerate recognition by the press of other States. It is safe to say that from the time when he assumed its management until 1870, when he sold it

to its present managers, a period of twelve years,-no paper in the State rendered more efficient support to the party with which it was allied, or advocated more heartily all measures tending to advance the material prosperity of the section in which it was located, than did the Coos Republican under the direction of Col. Kent.

Since 1870, Col. Kent has attended to a large and growing general office business, to which he had formerly given more or less attention; and also to the interests of the Savings Bank of the County of Coos, for which institution he secured a charter in 1868, and of which he is and has been Treasurer. He is also an owner and the present manager of the Lancaster Paper Co., an industry furnishing a market for much of the straw and wood of the surrounding region, and employment for quite a number of people. The Pleasant Valley Starch Mill is also an enterprise with which he is connected and of which he is Treasurer. The encouragement of local enterprise and industry has always been one of his cha