1736 January 19 (Monday). Rainy — but not Cold. Almost all the Family indisposed — especially Lucy[1]— but Ebenezer So lively as to be about the Room currently — the Glory be to God our Healer! At Eve Mr. Bradish,[2] Lieut. Baker,[3] Brother Hicks[4] and Mr. Townsend[5] here, upon the Affair of their Dissatisfaction with Brother Samuel Hardy.[6] Lucy was So ill that I got up Several Times in the Night.
[1]Lucy, dau. of Ebenezer and Mary Parkman, b. Sept. 23, 1734 (WVR, 82).
[2]James Bradish was listed by Parkman among the first inhabitants of Westborough (WCR, flyleaf).
[3]Lt. Edward Baker was one of Westborough’s leading citizens, serving twelve years as moderator and twenty years as selectman; DeForest and Bates, History of Westborough, 465-66.
[4]John Hicks was husband of Rebecca (Champney) Hicks, Parkman’s sister-in-law.
[5]Probably schoolmaster Joshua Townsend, who joined the Westborough church, July 27, 1735 (WCR, 37). Parkman listed Benjamin Townsend among the first inhabitants of Westborough (DeForest and Bates, History, 46), but Benjamin Townsend was not a church member.
[6]Samuel and Tabitha Hardy joined the Westborough church on Dec. 6, 1730. On June 6, 1736, “Brother Samuel Hardy offered a Confession for his writing and so being instrumental in uttering forth, divers verses to the Defamation and Reproach of the Committee which the Town had improved to search out who Cut the Pulpit Cusheon, and to the Reproach of divers other persons…. This Confession was read, and he was restored” (WCR, 41). On Nov. 23, 1735, “Mary Bradish offered a Confession for having composed a paper of Verses of a Scandalous and Calumniating Nature respecting the Committee appointed by the Town (some time since) to Search out who it was Cut the pulpit Cusheon, and tending to defame others also – she was very penitent – but there was some objection made by Several against reading Said Confession to Day, but the Church more generally insisting for it, and the chief objectors yielding, it was read and she was restored” (WCR, 38). On Nov. 27, “Being Lecture Day Brother Jonathan Forbush offered an acknowledgment to the Church for having inserted unsuitable Expressions in the Resentments he Composed in answer to the injurious and defaming Verses before mentioned, (he being one of the Committee aforesaid) and altho he knew not the Author of Said Verses at the time of his answering them yet afterwards when he came to the knowledge thereof and perceived his own Miscarriage, he made her Satisfaction; and being it was known to divers more who were offended therewith he freely and humbly offered public Satisfaction also: and was accepted” (WCR, 38-39).