1739 August 23 (Thursday). Last Night very rainy indeed — and terrible with Thunders and Lightnings. The morning also exceeding rainy, and Dark. Broke Fast with my Cousen Elizabeth Corsser[1] heretofore Elizabeth Tyley. Dr. Colman preach’d an Excellent and very Seasonable Sermon on Job 38.28. After Lecture Mr. Quincy[2] carried me to his House and on the way at the Printers presented me a volume of Mr. Flynts[3] Sermons, and I took my own likewise (for I was my Self a Subscriber) which I devoted to my Cousen Corsser aforesaid. After Dining at Mr. Quincys I attended a variety of Business — walk’d to Brother Alexanders. N.B. The Meazles not out of Town yet. N.B. Mr. Alexander Wolcott[4] of New Haven who had left that Town because of the Snares of a Young Widow there, notwithstanding the endearments and great Fortune of his own Wife, Supposed to be in Boston and the said Widow likewise, who boldly and resolutely and against the Fears and entreatys of her parents, Sisters and her own Child mounted her Horse before their Eyes and rode after Mr. Wolcott. My Mother very low but I was oblig’d to ride to Cambridge that I might pursue my Journey. N.B. Sister Lydia Champney at Boston.
[1]Elizabeth Tyler, Parkman’s niece, married John Coarsa, June 22, 1738.
[2]Edmund Quincy of Boston.
[3]Henry Flynt (HC 1693), tutor for many years at Harvard College. The work mentioned here is Twenty Sermons on Various Subjects (Boston 1739).
[4](YC 1731), fourth son of Roger Wolcott of Windsor, Conn., later governor of the province. Alexander’s first wife (Sarah Drake) left him in 1739, and he married Mary, the widow of Fitz John Allen of New Haven. He later became a respected physician of Windsor. Dexter, 435-36.