1747 May 5 (Tuesday). Mr. Jonah Warrin had my mare for his son and they drove up my young Cattle (seven of them) to Sutton. Mr. Smith[1] came this way in going to Shrewsbury, where the Association met this Day. I rode Noah Hows mare, Ebenezer using mine daily in ploughing. N.B. a long and warm disputation with Mr. Buckminster of Rutland, he affirming (if I could understand him) that men who are of Shining powers and Advantages, and that are in a Natural State, do not contract Guilt according to the Talents they are entrusted with and their abuse of them. N.B. This Debate arose from some passages which Mr. Seccomb had inserted from Cruttenden[2] concerning John Taylor’s Book of Original Sin.[3] N.B. Most sorrowful News from Brookfield, Captain Buckminsters[4] Negro Girl having murder’d her Bastard Child last Lords Day.[5] N.B. Lodg’d at Mr. Cushings.
[1]The Reverend Aaron Smith of Marlborough.
[2]‘ Robert Cruttenden may have commented on Taylor’s work in one of its several editions, or Parkman may have had reference to The Experience of Mr. R. Cruttenden (London, 1744). This was reprinted in Boston in 1744.
[3]John Taylor, The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin Proposed to Free and Candid Examination (London, 1740).
[4]Thomas Buckminster.
[5][Additional note: “We hear from Brookfield, that on the third Instant, in the Evening, a Negro Woman belonging to Capt. Thomas Buckminster, was deliver’d alone of a Bastard Child, which she put into the Fire and cover’d over with Coals and Ashes, and it was almost entirely consumed when discovered.” Boston Evening-Post, May 11, 1747, Issue 613, p. [2].]