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to have written to you this week on the subject of your tarrying as long as possible at congress; but urgent business has so taken up their time, that it cannot be done by this post, and I hope you will consider this request as coming from them.

In 1779 Dr. Bartlett was appointed chief justice of the court of common pleas, for the state of New Hampshire, and in 1780, muster-master of the troops then raising for three years and during the war. In 1782, on the resignation of judge Thornton, he was appointed a justice of the superior court, which office he held until he was made chief justice, in 1788.

In the year 1788, the federal constitution, which had been framed by the delegates assembled at Philadelphia, was presented to the several states for their consideration. For this purpose, in the state of New Hampshire a convention of people was held, and the new constitution was acceded to, and approved by them on the twenty-first of June. Dr. Bartlett was an active member of the convention, and strenuously supported its adoption. In April, 1789, the old confederation expired, and the new form of government, partly federal and partly national, succeeded in its place, to the universal joy of all who desired the happiness of the United States. Dr. Bartlett was chosen a senator to congress, in the same year, together with his old friend Mr. Langdon; but the infirmities of age, being now in his sixtieth year, induced him to decline that office.

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In June, 1790, he was chosen president of New Hampshire, in which office he continued until June, 1793, when he was elected the first governor of the state. He discharged the duties of this high station with his usual promptitude and

fidelity he was a ruler in whom the wise placed confidence, and of whom even the captious could find nothing to complain.

The advanced age of governor Bartlett now required repose, and he closed, by the resignation of the chief magistracy, his public career, which, in its purity of principle and love of country, was not excelled even in what has been emphatically denominated "the age of men." On the twenty-ninth of January, 1794, he addressed the following letter to the legis lature:

"Gentlemen of the legislature; After having served the public for a number of years, to the best of my abilities, in the various offices to which I have had the honour to be appointed, I think it proper, before your adjournment, to signify to you, and through you to my fellow-citizens at large, that I now find myself so far advanced in age, that it will be expedient for me at the close of the session, to retire from the cares and fatigues of public business, to the repose of a private life, with a grateful sense of the repeated marks of trust and confidence that my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, and with my best wishes for the future peace and prosperity of the state."

The repose which he anticipated, so inestimable to a man, the better part of whose life had been consumed amid the toils and troubles of the revolution, and the dissensions which preceded it, was destined, in this world, to be of short duration. On the nineteenth of May, 1795, this distinguished patriot was gathered to his fathers, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The wife of governor Bartlett was a lady of Kingston, who possessed the same family name. She was a woman of ex

cellent character, and an ornament to society, and died in 1789, six years previous to the death of her husband. The sons of governor Bartlett are distinguished among the most eminent citizens of New Hampshire.

The stern patriotism and inflexible republicanism which adorned the character of Dr. Bartlett, have already been developed. His mind was quick and penetrating, his memory tenacious, his judgment sound and perspective. His natural temper was open, humane, and compassionate. In all his dealings he was scrupulously just, and faithful in the performance of all his engagements. These brilliant talents, combined with distinguished probity, recommended him early in life to the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. But few persons, by their own merit, and without the influence of family or party connexions, have, like him, risen from one degree of confidence to another; and fewer still have been the instances, in which a succession of honourable and important offices have been held by any man with less envy, or executed with more general approbation.

WILLIAM WHIPPLE.

WILLIAM WHIPPLE, also a delegate from New Hampshire, was descended from a family of much respectability and good connexions in the province. His father William Whipple was a native of Ipswich, in Massachusetts, and was bred a maltster. Having removed to Kittery in Maine, he followed the sea, during several years. He married Mary, the eldest daughter of Robert Cutts. Her grandfather, Robert Cutts, was a brother of John Cutts, the president of New Hampshire, and emigrated from England to the West Indies, where he married a wealthy widow, who died soon after. He then married Mary Hoet, an English lady, who had removed to the West Indies. Soon after their marriage they came to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and subsequently removed to Kittery, where Mr. Cutts established a ship-yard, and carried on the business of ship-building very extensively. They had two sons, Richard and Robert, and four daughters. Robert married Dorcas Hammond, the daughter of major Joseph Hammond, whose father, having been an adherent of Oliver Cromwell, left England on the death of the protector, came to this country and settled in Kittery. They had four daughters; Mary, the wife of William Whipple; Catharine, who married John Moffat, a merchant, who then resided at Kittery, but afterwards removed to Portsmouth; Mehitable, who married Jotham Odiorne, merchant of Portsmouth; and VOL. I.-0 o

Elizabeth, who married the Rev. Joseph Whipple, the brother of William Whipple, and who settled in the ministry at Hampton Falls.

Mr. Cutts possessed a large estate, and his daughter, Mrs. Whipple, inherited from him a very valuable farm in Kittery, situated on the eastern branch of the Piscataqua river, opposite to the island where the navy yard is now established, and within view of the town of Portsmouth. Mr. Whipple now abandoned his nautical pursuits, and resided on this estate, which he held in right of his wife, where he employed himself as a farmer and maltster. Mrs. Whipple was a lady of excellent sense, agreeable manners, and many pleasing accomplishments. They had five children; William, Robert, Joseph, Mary, and Hannah. Robert died when he was about nineteen years of age: Joseph was educated in the countingroom of Nathaniel Carter, a merchant of Newburyport, and established himself in business in Portsmouth, in company with his brother: they continued their mercantile connexion until a short time previous to the commencement of the revolutionary war. He was afterwards appointed collector of the port of Portsmouth, first by the state of New Hampshire, and after the adoption of the federal constitution, by the president of the United States: he held this office, with a short intermission, until a few months before death. He died without issue, on the twenty-sixth of February, 1816, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Mary Whipple, the eldest daughter, married Robert Trail, comptroller of the port of Portsmouth previous to the revolution. They had three children, Robert, William, and Mary: Robert and William went to Europe, where they settled; and Mary married Keith Spence, a merchant from Scotland who settled in Portsmouth. Captain Robert T. Spence, their son, holds a distinguished rank in the navy of the United States. Hannah

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