1723, and died June, 1731. He was married in 1720 to PATIENCE, daughter of John and Sarah Prentice of New London, and was the father of twelve children. He wrote, 1. A Preface to R. Wolcott's "Meditations." 2. An Election Sermon in 1713, entitled "The Necessity of Religion in Societies." In 1724 he published an “Inquiry into the Right of the Aboriginal Natives to the Lands in America." In 1729 he published another tract, entitled "An Impartial Account of a late Debate at Lyme upon the following points: Whether it be the will of God that the Infants of Visible Believers should be baptized; Whether Sprinkling be lawful and sufficient; and, whether the present way of maintaining ministers, by a public rate or tax, be lawful." Dr. Chauncy thus writes concerning him :

"Mr. John Bulkley I have seen and conversed with, though so long ago that I form no judgment of him from my own knowledge. Mr. Whittlesey of Wallingford, Mr. Chauncy of Durham, and others I could mention, ever spoke of him as a first-rate genius; and I have often heard that Dummer and he, who were classmates in college, were accounted the greatest geniuses of that day. The preference was given to Dummer in regard of quickness, brilliancy and wit; to Bulkley in regard of solidity of judgment and strength of argument. Mr. Gershom Bulkley, father of John, I have heard mentioned as a truly great man, and eminent for his skill in chemistry; and the father of Gershom, Mr. Peter Bulkley of Concord, was esteemed in his day as one of the greatest men in this part of the world. But by all that I have been able to collect, the Colchester Bulkley surpassed his predecessors in the strength of his intellectual powers."

"Mr. Bulkley was classed by the Rev. Dr. Chauncy, in 1768, among the three, most eminent for strength of genius and powers of mind, which New England had produced. The other two were Mr. Jeremiah Dummer and Mr. Thomas Walter."

The following humorous story concerning him is from an ancient publication, quoted in BARBER'S Historical Collections of Connecticut :

"The Rev. Mr. Bulkley of Colchester, Conn., was famous in his day as a casuist and sage counsellor. A church in the neighborhood had fallen into unhappy divisions and contentions,

6

which they were unable to adjust among themselves. They deputed one of their number to the venerable Bulkley for his advice, with the request that he would send it to them in writing. It so happened that Mr. Bulkley had a farm in an extreme part of the town, upon which he intrusted a tenant. In superscribing the two letters, the one for the church was directed to the tenant, and the one for the tenant, to the church. The church was convened in order to hear the advice which was to settle all their disputes. The moderator read as follows: You will see to the repair of the fences, that they be built high and strong, and you will take special care of the old black bull.' This mystical advice puzzled the church very much at first, but an interpreter among the more discerning ones was soon found, who said, 'Brethren, this is the very advice which we most need; the direction to repair the fences is to admonish us to take good heed in the admission and government of our members; we must guard the church by our master's laws, and keep out strange cattle from the fold. And we must in a particular manner set a watchful guard over the devil, the old black bull, who has done so much harm of late.'

"All perceived the wisdom and fitness of Mr. Bulkley's advice, and resolved to be governed by it. The consequence was, that all the animosities subsided and harmony was restored to the afflicted church. What the subject of the letter sent to the tenant was, and what good effect it had upon him, the story does not tell."

APPENDIX.

A.

To show the pride and power of HUGH BIGOD, Earl of Norfolk, Camden states, that "when the seditious Barons put all England in an uproar, Bigod fortified a castle, to the strength of which nature very much contributed; of which he was wont to boast as if it were impregnable :"

"Were I in my castle of Bungey

Upon the river Waveney,

I would ne care for the King of Cockeyney."

B.

In the north aisle of the church of Sawbridgeworth, which lies between London and Cambridge, is a tomb-stone, with the Chauncy coat-of-arms on it, and this inscription :—

Of your charite

Say a Pater-noster and an Ave
For the soul of William Chaunce
On whose soul Jesu have merce.

C.

Extract from the 1st volume of Athena Oxonienses, page 159, n. 211. MAWRICE CHAWNEY, Chamney, Chancy, or Channy, so many ways I find him written, was from his juvenile years a Carthusian monk in the house of that order near London, (now called by some the Charter-House, and by others Sutton's Hospital,) the brethren of which place, as of others in England, did commonly

study in an ancient place of literature near to London Coll. alias Burnell's Inn within this University, and no doubt there is but that this M. Chawney did receive instruction in theological matters therein, or at least in some other house of learning in Oxon. But so it was, that at the dissolution of religious houses by K. Hen. 8. he, with his brethren (18 in number) being committed to custody for denying the King's supremacy over the Ch. of England, did at length with much difficulty escape out of prison, and so consequently death, which all the rest suffered at several times, before the year 1539. At length settling himself at Bruges in Flanders became Prior of some of his English brethren (of the same order) there: And from him do our English Carthusians beyond the sea at Neoport in Flanders derive their succession in the said house near London, to this day, having always been esteemed by them a most devout and pious person. He hath written a book entit. Historia aliquot nostri sacculi Martyrum cum pia, tum lectu jucunda nunquam antehaec typis excusa. Printed (at Mentz in Bavaria as it seems) an. 1550 in qu. and dedicated by Vitus à Dulken Prior of the Carthusians of St. Michael near to Mentz and William à Sittart Procurator of the said house, to Theodore Loher à Stratis Prior of the Carthusians house of St. Marie the Virgin in Buxia near to Memmingen in Schawben a province of Germany. This book contains (1) The Epitaph of Sir Tho. More, written by himself in Latin, fixed over his grave in Chelsey Church near to London. (2) The Captivity and Martyrdom of John Fisher B. of Rochester. (3) The Capt. and mart. of the said Sir Th. More, sometimes L. Chanc. of England. (4) The Martyrdome of Reynold Brigett a pious divine, and of others. (5) The Passion of 18 Carthusians of London, beginning with the life and passion of John Houghton the Prior of them all, contained in 14 chapters, &c. This passion and martyrdom of the said Carthusians was by the care of our author represented in figures; and being afterwards engraved on copper, were printed at Colon. Ub. about 1608. He also reviewed, corrected, and put some additions to a book entit. Vita Carthusiana, written by Peter Sutor Prior of the Carthusians at Paris, an. 1522. Which being so done, he wrot the epistle dedicatory before it; all printed together at Lovaine, 1572,