1684; and four daughters, Rebecca, Abigail, Mary and Sarah. JOHN PICKERING, son of the preceding John、 Pickering, was probably born as early as 1640. He married Mary, the daughter of Anthony Stanyan, a respectable inhabitant of Hampton, by whom he had as many, at least, as five children, all of whom but Mary, died before their father. Their names as given in the record referred to, were, John, born 1 December, 1666; Mary, born 1668; Thomas, born 1670, died 1671; Sarah, born 1671, died an infant; Sarah, 2d., born 1673. Mr. Pickering is first noticed as a military man, for which his talents and character seem eminently to have qualified him. As captain, he had a command in Portsmouth for a number of years. In 1680, the colony of New-Hampshire, which for almost forty years had been united with Massachusetts, was erected by the king, into a separate government, whereof John Cutt was appointed the first president. In the first assembly called by the president, Capt. John Pickering was a representative for the town of Portsmouth.* He was also a member of the assembly called by Lieutenant Governor Cranfield, in 1684,† which he (Cranfield,) dissolved in great wrath, for negativing a bill to raise money, previously passed by the council. It is mentioned by Dr. Belknap and some others, that during the suspension of government consequent on the imprisonment of Sir Edmund Andros in 1689, Capt. John Pickering, a man of "a rough and adventurous spirit, and a lawyer," went with a company of armed men to the house of Richard Chamberlain, who had been secretary of the province under Andros, and clerk of the superior court, and demanded the records and files, which were in his possession. Chamberlain refused to deliver them without legal war * Belknap, i. 91. Belknap, i. 104. rant or security. Pickering took them by force and carried them to the house of Major Joseph Hammond, in Kittery, where they were concealed.* Afterwards, in 1692, Pickering was summoned before Lieutenant Governor Usher, threatened and imprisoned, but for some time would neither deliver the books nor discover the place of their concealment, unless by order of the assembly, and to some person appointed by them to receive them. At length, however, he was constrained to deliver them up, and they were handed over to the secretary by Usher's orders. Upon the dissolution of government under Andros, Capt. Pickering was a member of the convention which met in 1690, and recommended a re-union with Massachusetts, which was shortly afterwards carried into effect. In 1690, he and Richard Waldron were chosen representatives for the town of Portsmouth to the assembly which met at Boston. They were also elected to the Massachusetts assembly in 1690, and, took their seats in May, that year.§ Mr. P. was present at the December session, which was the fifth assembly holden in 1691. Early in 1697, William Partridge arrived from England, with a commission appointing him lieutenant governor of the province, and commander in chief, in Allen's absence. Usher's commission, as lieutenant governor was expressly revoked, and the council were empowered to act until the lieutenant governor should be qualified. The suspended counsellors, Hinckes, Waldron and Vaughan, resumed their seats at the council board, and Pickering was appointed king's attorney. The president and council having appointed Charles Story secretary of the province Belknap, i. 149. Adams, Annals, 90. Adams, Annals, 96. + Belknap, Belknap, i. 152. Adams, i. 122. Adams, Annals, 90. § Massachusetts Records, in Secretary's Office. and clerk of the council, the records and files were committed to his care. At an adjourned meeting of the council, Mr. Story did not attend. Being sent for and reprimanded by the president for neglect of duty, his answers and behaviour gave such high offence, that the council demanded of him the books and papers committed to his charge; which he peremptorily refused to deliver. Whereupon the council ordered him into custody, and issued a search warrant, directed "to the sheriff of the province and to Capt. John Pickering," requiring them to take with them sufficient assistance, and to make diligent search in any houses, rooms, closets, chests, trunks, or other places, within the province for the said books or papers, or records belonging to the province, and the same when found to bring to the president and council.* It is scarcely necessary to state that the records and files were found in a short time, and forthwith delivered to the president and council. Mr. Story then received an immediate discharge from confinement, and from office. Capt. Pickering was a member of the assembly most of the time from 1697 to 1709. In 1697, 1698, and 1699, he was elected speaker, and had the good fortune to be approved by Governor Allen in one of those years. He was again chosen speaker under the administration of Dudley in 1704, and continued to be annually elected to that office until 1709. In 1707, the great cause Allen vs. Waldron, involving Allen's title to the province of New-Hampshire, was tried on appeal, at the August term of the Superior Court. As this was the last trial, all the strength of the parties was brought into action on this occasion. It affords unequivocal evidence of the legal and popular talents of Capt. Pickering, and of the confi * Ibid. 105. † Adams, Annals, 112. Belknap, i. 165. Adams, Annals, 124. dence reposed in him by the defendants of this cause, which embraced some of the first men in the province, that he was selected as one of the counsel to defend the homes, the houses and lands of the inhabitants, from the rapacity of the plaintiff and those who were especially interested in his behalf. Charles Story was associated with him as counsel. The verdict of the jury was a confirmation of the former judgment for the defendant, and costs of suit.* The exact time of Capt. Pickering's death is not ascertained. Through the kindness of John Kelly, Esq., register of probate for the county of Rockingham, we are informed that he made his will 21 June, 1720, and that it was approved 15 May, 1721. He must have been about 80 years of age when he died. His real estate was appraised at 1.3185, and his personal, at only 1.20. 18. He devised to the South Parish in Portsmouth, a lot of ground for a convenient site for a meeting house; to be set off to the said parish, on the highest part of his neck. (Pickering's Neck.) The parish received possession of the lot, and erected their meeting house upon it in 1731, and have had continued possession of it until the present time. As before remarked, Capt. P. left but one child, Mary, who was the wife of John Plaisted, Esq. one of the provincial counsellors in 1702. His son John, who married Elizabeth Munden in 1688, died about six years before his father, leaving three sons, John, Thomas and Daniel, and three daughters, Mary, who married Ambrose Sloper, Deborah and Sarah.† Of John and Daniel we have no knowledge. Thomas, the second son, commanded a company stationed at Casco, in Maine, in the time of the French and Indian war, and was slain by the Indians in an attack on the fort. His will is dated 18 March, 1745, and was proved 28 * Probate Records. + Oral Communication of Hon. D. P. Drown. March, 1747. His wife was Dorothy, and his children were John, Daniel, Elizabeth, who married a Lambert, Abigail, born 18 June, 1731, married a Janvrin, and died 16 February, 1832, aged 100 years, 8 months and 3 days, Dorothy, Olive, Lydia and Molly. The late Hon. John Pickering, LL. D., was a native of Newington, and descended from Thomas, the second son of the first John Pickering. § Notice of the life and character of the late Hon. OLIVER PEABODY, of Exeter. Few persons have been more generally respected and beloved in the circle of those who knew them, than the late Judge Peabody; and it is believed that a concise recapitulation of the principal circumstances of his life will not be wholly uninteresting to his numerous surviving friends. He was the son of Oliver Peabody, and was born at Andover, Massachusetts, 2 September, 1752, N. S.* His father was a respectable culti Probate Records. § It is hoped that the gentlemen who furnished most of the preceding Sketch, will prepare a memoir of Judge Pickering, for a succeeding volume of the Society's Collections. * The Peabody family came early to New-England. Francis Peabody, whom we suppose to be the great ancestor of Judge Peabody, settled in Hampton in 1639, at which time he was a married man. (Belknap, Hist. N. H. i. 21.) He left Hampton, and was a resident in Topsfield in 1661. (MS. Records.) The family has continued in Topsfield, or Boxford, which we believe was separated from Topsfield in 1685, ever since that period. John Peabody, who was admitted freeman in 1674, represented Boxford in the two courts summoned to meet at Boston, 23 May and 5 June, 1689; at the two courts which met 8 October and 10 December, 1690; and at the two courts, holden 14 October and 10 December, 1691. He might have been father to Rev, Oliver Peabody, of Natick, Mass., who was born in Boxford in 1698, graduated at Harvard College, 1721, and died 2 February, 1752. Rev. Oliver Peabody, of Roxbury, Mass., was son of Mr. Peabody, of Natick. He graduated at Harvard College in 1745, was ordained 7 November, 1750; died 29 May, 1752. Jacob Peabody, of Boxford, whose father died 24 November, 1689, was born 6 November, 1689, and died 24 July, 1749, (MS. Gen. Nathaniel Peabody) leaving a son, Jacob Peabody, who was a physician, and born 18 February, 1713; married Susanna, daughter of Rev. John Rogers, of Boxford, by whom he had 12 children, |