Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/171

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PYNCHON
PYRLÆUS

Man's Redemption, or Christ's Satisfaction dis- cussed and explained," with a rejoinder to K'< . John Norton's answer (1655) ; " The Jewes Syna- gogue " (165'J); "How the First Sabbath was or- dained" (16.14): and "The Covenant of Nature made with Adam "(1662). On 20 May, 1880, the 250th anniversary of the founding of Springfield by Pynchon and his associates was celebrated in that city. An historical oration was delivered by Henry Morris. The accompanying illustration is from a portrait that is now in possession of the Essex institute, Salem, Mass. It was painted in England after his return. His son, John, statesman, b. in Springfield, Essex. England, in 1621 ; d. in Spring- field, Mass., 17 Jan., 1703, was brought to New England by his father, and. on the latter's return to England in 1652, succeeded him in the govern- ment of Springfield, and in the management of the affairs of the Connecticut river valley, the greater part of which, for himself and his friends, from Enfield and Suffield in Connecticut up to the northern line of Massachusetts, he purchased from the natives, and on which he laid out the towns of Northampton, Hadley, Hatfield, Deerfield, North- field, and Westfield. As colonel of the 1st regiment of Hampshire county, he was in active service dur- ing King Philip's and the first French wars, and was noted for his skill in the management of the Indians, by whom he was greatly beloved. Besides going on many other similar missions, in 1680 he made a treaty with the Mohawks. The Indians gave him a written answer, which was originally drawn i n t he Dutch language, but was translated into Eng- lish, and recorded in the colony records. He was appointed one of the commissioners to receive the surrender of New York by the Dutch in 1664. and a deputy to the general court of Massachusetts from 1659 till 1665. From 1665 till 1686 he was an assistant under the first Massachusetts royal charter. In 1686 he was named one of the coun- cillors under the presidency of Dudley; from 1688 to 1689 he was one of the councillors under Sir Edmund Andros, and under the new charter he was annually elected a councillor from 1693 till 17f>:!. and died in office. In 1060 he built the first l.rirk hou-r in the valley of the Connecticut, which was occupied by the family until 1831. It was known as the Old Fort (see illustration), in consequence of fur- nishing a refuge to the inhabitants of Springfield when that town was at- tacked and burned by the Indians in King Philip's war.

16 Oct.. 16T.">. and

sustaining a siege while Pynehon himself was ab- sent in command of the troops at Hadley. He visited England several times in connection with his father's estates, and left an immense landed property. John's great-grandson, Charles, physi- cian, b. in Springfield, 31 Jan., 1719; d. there, 9 Aug., 1783. was a surgeon in the Massachusetts regiments engaged in the French and English wars in 1745 and 1755, was present at the capture of Louisburg by the provincial troops, and engaged in the expedition against Crown Point. He was an intimate friend of Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams college, and was with him when he fell at the first fire at the battle of Lake George. Dr. Pynchon was one of the two surgeons who treated Baron Dieskau when he was wounded and taken prisoner by the English in the same bat- tie. Another great-grandson, William, lawyer, b. in Springfield, 12 Dec., 1723 ; d. in Salem, 14 March, 1789, was graduated at Harvard in 1743, and be- came an eminent lawyer and advocate and a well- known instructor in jurisprudence. He was the author of a diary of remarkable interest, covering the entire period of the American Revolution. William's brother, Joseph, merchant, b. in Spring- field, 30 Oct., 1737; d. in Guilford, Conn., 23 Nov., 171)4. was graduated at Yale in 1757, and was one of the projectors of the settlement of Shelburne, Nova Scotia. During the latter part of his life he was devoted to scientific pursuits. Joseph's son, Thomas Ruggles, physician, b. in Guilford, Conn., in 1760; d. there. 10 Sept., 1796, was edu cated in New York, and during the Revolution pursued his medical studies in the hospitals of the English army in that city. After the war he returned to Guilford, where he became cele- brated as a physician and surgeon. Dr. Pyn- chon and his father and uncle were loyalists, and strongly opposed to the dismemberment of the British empire, but, after the war, became zealous supporters of the present constitution of the Unit- ed States. His death was caused by a fall from a horse. Thomas Ruggles's grandson, Thomas Riiggles, educator, b. in New Haven. Conn., 19 Jan., 1823, was educated at the Latin-school, Bos- ton, and graduated at Trinity in 1841. He was classical tutor and lecturer on chemistry in the college from 1843 till 1847, received deacon's or- ders at New Haven, 14 June, 1848, priest's orders at Trinity church, Boston, 25 July, 1849. and served as rector in Stockbridge and Lenox, Mass., from 1849 till 1855. He was elected professor of chem- istry and the natural sciences in Trinity in 1854, and' studied in Paris in 1855-'6. He received the degree of D. D. from St. Stephen's college, N. Y., in 1865, and that of LL. D. from Columbia in 1877. In the latter year he resigned the chair of chemistry, and was appointed professor of moral philosophy, which post he still (1898) occupies. On 7 Nov., 1874, he was elected president of Trin- ily, and, in addition to the duties of his professor- ship, he administered that office till 1883, during the period that followed the sale of the original college site to the city of Hartford for a state capi- tol, necessitating the selection of a new site, the designing and erection of the buildings, and the transference of the library, cabinet, and other prop- erty. He is a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science, the Geological so- ciety of France, and other learned bodies, and the author of a "Treatise on Chemical Physics" (1869), and of various addresses.


PYRLÆUS, John Christopher, German missionary, b. in Pausa, Voigtland, in 1713; d. in Herrnhut, Saxony, 28 May, 1779. He studied at the University of Leipsic in 1733-'8, entered the ministry of the Moravian church, and was sent to Pennsylvania in 1740. He engaged in the study of the Mohawk and Mohican languages, and in 1744 organized a school for the instruction of missionaries in these dialects. In 1745 his first translations of hymns into Mohican appeared. He returned to Europe in 1751. His contributions to the department of American philology, for which his high scholarship well qualified him, were “A Collection of Words and Phrases in the Iroquois or Onondaga Language explained into German”; “Affixa Nominum et Verborum Linguæ Macquaicæ,” with which are bound Iroquois vocabularies; and “Adjectiva, Nomina et Pronomia Linguæ; Macquaicæ, cum nonnullis de Verbis, Adverbiis, ac Præpositionibus ejusdem Linguæ.”