Missionary Society, he was chosen their President, and effectually promoted their interests in that office for ten years. Few have rivalled him in literary attainments, fewer still in acquaintance with practical wisdom."

He married, November 20, 1777, Sarah, daughter of Rev. John Hooker of Northampton, an exemplary professor of religion from her early youth. They had nine children, three of whom died in infancy.

"Patriotism and Piety," or "Speeches and Proclamations of Gov. Strong," was published in 1808. Harvard University conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.

SAMUEL SYMONDS.

DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS COLONY, 1673–1678.*

SAMUEL SYMONDS was descended from an ancient and honorable family in Yieldham, Essex County, England; had there a good estate; settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts Colony, in 1637; died there in 1678.

He was Deputy to the General Court from 1638 to 1643; from 1643 until 1673 held the office of Assistant; was elected Deputy Governor in 1673, and held the office until his decease.

In 1646 he addressed a letter to Governor Winthrop, which unfolded what the author considered the Divine purposes in the settlement of New England. The conversion of the natives to the Christian faith and practice, he mentions as one of the purposes, "which mercy," he adds, "if attained in any considerable measure, will make us go singing to our graves."

In 1651 he received a grant of 300 acres of land, beyond Merrimac River, "with free liberty for timber, if he there set up a saw-mill within seven years."

In 1652 he is on a committee to visit Piscataqua "and settle government there."

In 1667 he is on a committee to revise and bring in certain laws which had been offensive to the King; among them one which abolished the observance of Christmas, as a relic of Episcopacy.

Whatever he undertook, whether business of town, county, colony, or country, he did not leave it, till he had expended upon it all the time, attention, and exertion which he ought.

His politics, principles, and practices, were not swayed by corrupt ambition, but were deeply seasoned by the salt of piety, *Felt's "History of Ipswich," 1834.

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SAMUEL SYMONDS.

471 which induced him to seek first for the approbation of God, and then as a consequence, to act for the best good of those whose interests were committed to his care. His was a mind which looked at earthly concerns in the light of Revelation. His was a soul affected and moved more by eternal realities than by things temporal. His was a life which took hold on judgment, and secured the blessedness of justification through the Redeemer.

He married first, the daughter of Governor Winthrop; second, Rebecca, widow of Daniel Eppes; and had eleven children. Two of his daughters married clergymen; his son, William, was Representative to the General Court from. Wells, Me., in 1676.