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a purstown, and was doubtmoir. It was probably marked less in this neighborhood in 1753 and 4. with all the vicissitudes of fortune usually incident to young men of that day; the unremitting toil, exciting adventures, fierce en

Crown Point under General Johnson, beIn 1755, he joined the expedition against coming attached to the New Hampshire reg

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ROWELL, PRESCOTT & CO., PROPRIETORS.... C. E. POTTER, EDITOR.

BIOGRAPHY OF HONORABLE SAMUEL countres, fearful mishaps, and savage incursions of an early frontier life.

BLODGET.

His opportunities for education, must of neIn a former number of this work, we spoke cessity, have been limited, yet by industriousof the ancient" burying ground" of "Namaos-ly improving those opportunities, and attenkeag," situated a little above the thickly set- tively studying his lessons, received in the tled part of the city of Manchester, and re- great school of life, he became a fair scholar marked, "one sleeps there without a stone to for the times; had a passable knowledge of point the spot, whose skill and enterprise, mathematicks; a smattering of philosophy: have done as much for New Hampshire as any composed with some force and correctness; other man who ever trod her soil. And though and wrote a plain, fair hand. no stone tells of his deeds, or his virtues, as long as the Merrimack shall flow, whose forbidding difficulties he obviated, and whose sweeping current be made subservient to the wants and conveniences of commerce, so long shall the name of Blodget be engraved upon the memories of our people." We made this remark, mindful of the fact, that the good men do, lives after them. Emphatically true is this of Hon. Samuel Blodget. While his body has returned to dust, and its resting place is unmarked by tablet, or stone, his good We first find him at the siege of Louisburg, acts still live; live on, in the cultivated fields, but in what capacity, is now unknown. It is and the Hourishing villages in the valley of probable, however, that he was connected with the upper Merrimack; in the manufactories the Commissary department, as he was afterupon its falls; in the Capitol upon its bank, wards connected with that department in vain a word, in the agricultural thrift, the enter-rious campaigns, his business acquirements prise, and well applied skill of the people of fitting him for its duties, and his active mind, loathing the monotony of the mere soldier's

the interior of our State.

With such attainments, Mr. Blodget could have attained almost any desirable position in life, at that early period, when well educated men were few, and opportunities many; but young Blodget, as is too often the case, was possessed of a speculative turn of mind, prone rather to theory than to practice, and which resorted to practice for the purpose of carrying out a favorite theory, for the benefit of the community, rather than with any idea of personal emolument.

Samuel Blodget was born at Woburn, Mass. life. April 1, 1724. His great-grandfather, Sam- For the succeeding ten years, we know but uel Blodget (or Blogget, as it was then writ- little of the history of Mr. Blodget, but it is ten,) resided at Woburn as early as 1655.- certain that in the year 1751, he made a purLittle is known of the early life of the sub-chase of lands in Goffstown, and was doubtject of this memoir. It was probably marked less in this neighborhood in 1753 and 4. with all the vicissitudes of fortune usually In 1755, he joined the expedition against incident to young men of that day; the un- Crown Point under General Johnson, bezemitting toil, exciting adventures, fierce en- coming attached to the New Hampshire reg

iment of five hundred men, under Col. Joseph tive!! Some escaped by running through Blanchard. He was attached to the Commis- the woods barefoot, to Fort Edward, a sary department, and, after the termination of distance of fifteen miles. Others fled to the the expedition, published a description of the woods and found their way to distant settlebattle of Lake George in a pamphlet, accom-ments. Others still escaped through the haste panied with an explanatory plate.

and eagerness of the savages for a general masacre; tomahawked, scalped, and left for dead, they revived and were saved by the returning humanity of the French.

In the expedition of 1757, fitted out against ⚫ Crown Point under Lord Loudon, and which in the absence of Loudon, was entrusted to Gen. Webb, Blodget again enlisted, and was Of this number, was Ezekiel Stevens of attached to the Battalion of New Hampshire Derryfield, who was left for dead, having been troops, commanded by Col. John Goffe of Der- scalped and a tomahawk buried in his head. ryfield. Col. Goffe with his men, marched In a few hours, Stevens revived so as to sit through the wilderness, crossing the Connec- upon the ground. In this position he was taticut at Number Four, (now Charleston, ken prisoner by an Indian. While seated with N. H.) and joined Webb at Albany. Col. his master, upon a log, in the neighborhood Goffe's command was stationed at Fort Wil- of the Fort, his head bleeding profusely, and liam Henry, under the command of the brave almost fainting from his wounds, a file of solCol. Munroe of the British army, and Mr. diers from the Fort passed the log, and symBlodget was appointed Suttler of the Garri-pathy for his condition for once, overcoming son. On the 2d of August, 1757, the Governor General of Canada, the Marquis de Montcalm, at the head of a powerful force of French and Indians, invested the fort.

their national feeling, they told Stevens if he wished to escape from the Indian, when they returned, he must jump into their midst, and they would endeavor to secure him. In a few minutes, the soldiers returned and passing close to the log, Stevens summoned strength enough to rush into the midst of them, who, good as their word, succeeded in protecting him from the violence of the Indian, and carried him safe into the fort. Here he was well cared for, and in a few months so far recovered as to return to Derryfield, where he lived to a good old age, astonishing the men of the present generation with a relation of his miraculous escape at the "Massacre of Fort William Henry.'

Col. Munroe made a most gallant defence, expecting a diversion in his favor, by Gen. Webb, who was within fifteen miles of the fort, with 6000 men under his command.But this pusillanimous officer, made no effort to relieve the gallant Munroe, and after a brave defence of six days, their ammunition exhausted, cannon bursted, and the fortress no longer tenable, the garrison capitulated with the honors of war; to be allowed their private baggage; not to serve against the French for eighteen months; and to be escorted to Fort Edward by the French troops, to protect them Mr. Blodget was more fortunate. At the from the Indians, who were in the neigh-first attack, he fled to the shore of Lake George, borhood of the Fort, in large numbers, as auxiliaries of the French.

secreted himself under a batteau, where he remained until after the massacre, and the venThe garrison marched out of the Fort; geance of the Indians had been glutted, when stacked their guns; and then took up their sallying forth from his hiding place, he atline of march for Fort Edward, the New tempted to make his escape, but was taken by Hampshire battalion being in the rear. the Indians, robbed of every article of clothThe garrison had but just commenced mov-ing, and then suffered to make the best of his ing, when a solitary Indian Chief in his war-way to Fort Edward. paint, rushed from the woods upon the Probably soon after the close of this disas plain, leaped upon a stump in full view of the trous expedition, Mr. Blodget engaged in merunarmed troops, and gave the dreaded war cantile pursuits in Boston. In May, 1759, whoop. In an instant, the woods before so as appears by a receipt signed by Messrs Chase still, were alive with savages, who in a body and Russell, he advertised "Ready-made rushed upon the plain, filling the air with Cloaths to be sold by him." He continued in their yells, and commenced a promiscuous Boston until January, 1764, when he estabonslaught upon the unarmed garrison. The lished himself in business in Medford. His French made no apparent effort to control the stay in Medford was short and he re-comenced savages, and there was no alternative for our business in Boston about the middle of Notroops, but the tomahawk and knife, or es-vember of the same year. cape to the woods.

He continued in business in Boston until Many were fortunate enough to escape, but 1769. While in Boston, he pursued his busia large number were massacred upon the spot, ness with enterprise and success-entering inwhile others, were taken prisoners and reserv- to every kind of trade that promised large reed for refinements in savage cruelty; some of turns. In 1766 he commenced the manufacthem being roasted alive and eaten, their com-ture of pot and pearl ashes upon an extensive panions being compelled" to partake in the scale, in company with John Greene of Hahorrid banquet."

The New Hampshire troops, being in the rear, suffered most severely, eighty out of two hundred men, having been killed or taken cap

verhill. Their principal works were in Haverhill; but they had " potash works" in Hampstead and New Boston, and in other places.

the Excise for the said Province of New Hampshire for the present year. That during the last year he was collector of the Excise and

For the convenience of paying the workmen engaged in making pot and pearl ashes, as well at to enjoy a share of the trade naturally centering at Haverhill, Mr. Blodget es-that sundry persons who had sold spirituous tablished a store there in 1766, under the charge of Mr. Nathaniel Walker, Jr. which was continued as late as July, 1772. January 10, 1765, he commenced sending supplies to his " Amoskeag farm" having "people" there manufacturing lumber.

Not far from this time he purchased large tracts of land in Goffstown and Hooksett, and upon Black Brook, in Goffstown, built a saw mill, known far and wide as " Blodget's Mill." His lumber was mostly sold in the Haverhill and Newburyport markets, being run over the various falls at high water, or drawn past them by teams. The expense and difficulty attending such transportation, doubtless suggested to his inventive mind, the practicability and advantage of a canal about the Amoskeag Falls.

liquors, drew out their accounts in a very Loose uncertain manner and made application to Richard Jenniss, Esquire, who administered oathes to them in such a Loose way that the oath only included what they had sold during eleven months of the Time without mentioning what was sold by other persons, by and under Them, and afterwards deducted Twenty per cent. out of what they had sold which makes near thirty Eight per cent allowance for wastage, &c. instead of the twenty per cent allowed by Law; and one of those persons so sworn before the said Jenniss afterward on a more Strict Examination, swore to a much Larger quantity than they had before sworn to before the said Jenniss and paid the Excise accordingly: by means of all which, your Petitioner Humbly apprehends if the said Jenniss is suffered to continue swearing Those Sellers of Spirituous Liquors that his majesty's Revenue will be greatly Diminished and the Excise of the Government Rendered of very Little value, wherefore your Petitioner most Humbly prays that your Excellency and The people of Boston, placed great confi- Honors would take the matter under your dence in him, and he was on terms of intima-wise consideration and Recommend to the said cy with some of its most distinguished citi- Jenniss not to administer the oath to any person Respecting their Excise for the present

While a citizen of Boston, he became widely known throughout the country, as a merchant of energy and great probity,-and by means of such extensive acquaintance, was able afterwards to accomplish undertakings beyond the means of ordinary men.

zens.

At a town meeting of the inhabitants of year, or make such other order or determinaBoston, holden in Fanueil Hall, March 14, tion thereon as to your Excellency and Honors 1768, Mr. Blodget was appointed Chairman of in your great wisdom, shall seem best and two committees raised to take into consid-your petitioner will ever pray, &c. eration two specific articles in the warrant and to report at an adjourned meeting-of which appointment he was duly notified by William Cooper, Esq. the Town Clerk.

Which fact goes to show that the people of Boston held his abilities and character in esti

mation.

While in Boston he became extensively engaged in the lumber and fur trade, making large and frequent shipments of furs and pot and pearl-ashes to merchants in London; among them was Sir William Baker, to whom he continued to make shipments for some years. The better to prosecute his manufacture of pot and pearl ashes, and the trade in lumber and furs, he removed to Goffstown in 1769, where he continued his business with energy and success.

In 1770 he was appointed by the Governor, "Collector of the excise of the Province of New Hampshire." He held this office the following year, as appears from the following petition to the Governor and Council.

SAMUEL BLOdget. Portsmouth, March the 13th 1771. That he performed the duties of his office acceptably to the Governor and to the public, is evident, from the fact that the Governor appointed him to other offices of honor and profit, while he retained the respect of his fellow citizens, at a time, when other excise collectors, were in continual collision with the people.

Upon the division of the Province into Counties in 1771, Mr. Blodget received a commission from the Governor as Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of Hillsborough. This commission he held until the subversion of the King's authority in the Province in 1775, and the consequent dis

solution of the Courts of Justice.

ernor Wentworth the office of Deputy SurDuring this period, he also held from Govveyor of his Majesty's woods, over a territory embracing most of the towns in the Merrimac Valley.

Judge Blodget, although an officer of disPROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. tinction under the crown, yet took part with To his Excellency, John Wentworth, Esquire, his countrymen against the mother country. Captain General and Commander in Chief, in Upon the commencement of hostilities in and over his Majesty's Province of New Hamp- April, 1775, his public offices being at an end, shire, and to the Honorable, his Majesty's Coun-he opened a store in Goffstown, but in June cil for said Province :following, he became connected with the Com

Humbly shews Samuel Blodget collector of missary department of the "Continental Ar

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