24 LIBRARIANS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
house that he built for a parsonage during his
brief ministry is still standing. The minister to
the Indians of Natick and his family were remembered with peculiar reverence and love by the
townspeople, on account of their piety, learning,
and their simple and kindly natures. The College,
too, took paternal care of the elder Peabody,
making several grants to him, and after his death,
shortly before his son's, paying his funeral expenses.
AUTHORITIES : Allen, Amer. biog. and hist. dictionary, 1832. Endicott, Geneal. of Peabody family, 1867.
1751.
Perez Marsh, son of Captain Job Marsh, town clerk of Hadley, and Mehitabel, daughter of Hon. Samuel Porter, was born at Hadley, 25 October, 1729. He graduated from Harvard in 1748, and in the spring in which he took his second degree the Corporation passed, 24 April, 1751, the following vote: "1 : That Sr Marsh be Library-Keeper till the Commencement, after wch it shall be consider'd, what Proportion of the establish'd Salary of that Officer, shall he allow'd to him . . . 3. That the Consideration of the Choice of the Library-keeper for the next year be left to the next Meeting." The matter, however, was not taken up until the fall, when, 16 September, 1751, the following vote was passed: "Vote 1. That whereas Sr Marsh who was chosen Library-keeper, pro Tempore, at our Meeting Apr. 24. 1751, at which time it was proposed to give him, for sd Business, some Proportion of the establish'd Salary of sd Office, the sd Proportion was now debated upon, And inasmuch as it appears to us, That he hath been very negligent in the Business he was appointed to Voted that he have allow'd him, for what Care he hath taken of said Library viz. During' the Space of nine Weeks, no more than the Sum of thirteen Shillings and four pence." From this it appears that, although his name has always been included in the list of Librarians, Marsh was in reality only Librarian pro tempore during a few weeks of the summer of 1751.
In 1754 Mr. Marsh received an honorary A.M. from Yale, and at about this time, although the year is uncertain, he settled in Dalton, where he soon became one of the leading men in western Massachusetts. His marriage, about 1759, to Sarah, daughter of Colonel Israel Williams of Hatfield, allied him to the more prominent families of the county. Although Dr. Marsh is mentioned as a surgeon at Lake George in 1755, it is doubtful if he ever practised the profession in Dalton. He was the proprietor of a very successful tavern.
From 1765 to 1781 he was nominally judge of the court of common pleas for Berkshire, although it was not allowed to sit after September, 1774.
Dr. Marsh died at Dalton 20 May, 1784. Of his eleven children, Martha married Thomas Gold, and was the grandmother of Thomas Gold Appleton and of Mrs. Henry W. Longfellow.
AUTHORITIES : Beers, History of Berkshire County, i. Marsh, Genealogy of Marsh family, 1886. Winthrop, Nathan Appleton, 1861, p. 63.
1751-1753.
Stephen Badger was born in Charlestown, 26 April, 1726. He was the son of Stephen, a potter, and Mary Noseitor. He graduated in 1747. After taking his A.M. he was appointed (16 September, 1751) Librarian, and served for two years. 27 March, 1753, he was ordained as missionary over the Indians at Natick, succeeding Rev. Oliver Peabody (H. U. 1721) in this office. On the College records, under dates of 9 January and 7 February, 1753, appear two votes of the Corporation, by which they express their interest in the Indian lectureship and agree to grant Mr. Badger annually one moiety of the Boyle donation, amounting to £22 10s., and to give also the sum of forty pounds towards building him a house on land given him by the Indians, this money to be returned to the College if he should leave his charge within ten years, and provided further that the Corporation for propagating the gospel in New England should grant him like sums. Over the congregation here, composed mostly of Indians and half-civilized whites, he presided forty-six years. His ministry was disturbed by a violent controversy about the location of the meeting-house, and after his retirement in the summer of 1799 the church was dissolved. He was twice married, first, to Abigail Hill of Cambridge, by whom he had seven children ; and second, to Mrs. Sarah ( ) Gould of Boston. He died 28 August, 1803, at the age of 78.
"In stature Mr. Badger did not exceed the middle height; his person was firm and well formed ; his manners dignified and polished ; and his countenance intelligent and pleasing . . . His sermons were mostly practical, free from the pedantick, technical terms of school divinity, written at full length, and read without any attempt at oratory." Although he did not openly avow it, in religious faith he is said to have been a Unitarian.
Mr. Badger printed in 1774 two temperance sermons under the title, "The nature and effects of drunkenness considered ; with an address to tavern- keepers, to parents, and young people, relating to the subject." This was reprinted in substance in 1811 by the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian knowledge. He contributed to the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (v. 32-42, 1798) a paper on the "Historical and characteristic traits of the American Indians in general,
