1722
(rev. 7/22/98)

Personal: BF said in the Autobiography that "when about 16 Years of age," he read Thomas Tryon's Way to Health, Wealth, and Happiness and became a vegetarian (A15). Though his primary reason was a principle against killing, the regimen also gave him more money to buy books and to read. When he told his French friends of his early vegetarianism, he attributed the influence to Plutarch's On the Eating of Flesh, "l'usage de manger de la chair," rather than Tryon. (Cabanis, Oeuvres 5: 225; "On the Eating of Flesh" is in Plutarch's Moralia, 15 vols, tr. Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), 12:535-79). No doubt he read both Tryon and Plutarch, and perhaps the joint effect convinced him to foreswear meat and fish. He learned numerous vegetarian menues from Tryon (Plutarch does not give menus) and added New England dishes like "Hasty Pudding" to them. He and his brother had been lodging and boarding together, but BF now began to eat his meals alone in the printing house.

Believing that JF had suggested the Massachusetts General Court conspired with pirates (11 June (c)), the legislature jailed JF from 12 June to 7 July. BF managed the Courant during that period. While serving as editor, he listed the books in the Courant's office (2 July), several of which he mentioned in the Autobiography (A15).

BF's interest in a phonetic alphabet was aroused this year by reading John Wilkins, An Essay towards a real Character and a Philosophical Language. He copied long extracts from the book (probably one that he borrowed from the apprentices of the booksellers) and still had the manuscript on 1 September 1755. He commented that "I was but a boy of 16, when I made the Extract." P 6:177; cf. 15:173-78, 299-303.

Background: Joshua Blanchard recorded in his annals: "In 1722: Aboute this time there was great disputing about prerogative and liberty and property the Rich oppress the poor complain." Assessing the political turmoil of these years, Thomas Hutchinson wrote: "the minds of the people were prepared for impressions from pamphlets, courants, and other newspapers, which were frequently published, in order to convince them, that their civil liberties and privileges were struck at" (Hutchinson, 2:124.)

On 15 May, John Clarke, Elisha Cooke, William Clarke, and Isaiah Toy were elected Boston representatives. Election Day, 30 May, Dr. John Clarke was elected Speaker and Nathaniel Byfield and William Clarke were chosen among the Councillors. On 31 May, Shute negatived Byfield and Clarke. (William Clarke had held open his warehouse on the fast day proclaimed by Gov Shute for 20 April 1721; later, he was one of the minority who voted not to accept the Explanatory Charter [15 Jan 1725/6].) The General Court of 1722-23 met 30 May to 7 July, 8 to 18 Aug, and 15 Nov to 19 Jan 1722/3. On 6 July, the General Court paid him L500 for half his year's salary.

Because of the colonists' immigration into the traditional Abenakis lands in Maine, the Abenakis, supported with arms by the French, conducted skirmishes on the frontier from Maine to the Connecticut Valley. In July, the Abenakis attacked the English settlers around Merrymeeting Bay, near the mouth of the Kennebec. Gov. Shute declared war on 25 July. That September, the Abenakis, reinforced by the Norridgewocks and other French Indians, wiped out all the English settlements on the lower Kennebec. With the coming of winter, the Indians retreated into Canada. The war continued during the following two years until the English killed the Abenakis leader Mog and the French Jesuit Sebastier Rale at Norridgewock, 12 August 1724.

Business: JF brought out twelve pamphlets at his own risk in 1722. Eight of them can be specifically dated. First (11 Jan) came William Douglass, Inoculation of the Small-Pox as Practised in Boston. On 6 March he brought out another Douglass pamphlet, The Abuses and Scandals of some late pamphlets in favour of Inoculation of the Small-Pox. And on 21 March, William Douglass added to it, Postscript. Being a Short Answer to Matters of Fact, &c. Misrepresented in a late Doggrel Dialogue. Meanwhile, on 15 March, Franklin published a dialogue that influenced young Benjamin Franklin: I attribute it to the Couranteer Nathaniel Gardner, A Friendly Debate: or, A Dialogue between Rusticus and Academicus.

On 16 April JF published Thomas Symmes, An Ordination Sermon Preach'd at Malden, Octob. 31, 1721, When the Reverend Mr. Joseph Emerson Was Ordain'd Pastor. Later that month, JF brought out a political piece (20 April), English Advice to the Freeholders, &c. of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, urging the Old Charter party positions and chafing against the appointment of Englishmen rather than colonials to government positions. In the fall, he published Benjamin Colman's sermon Jacob's Vow upon his leaving his Father's House (post 15 Oct). He brought out a travesty of the jeremiad (and particularly of Solomon Stoddard) in the anonymous Hoop Petticoats, Arraigned and Condemned by the Light of Nature and Law of God (26 Nov), a brief piece that I attribute to BF in the biography.

Four JF imprints for which we have only the date 1722 include an edition of the Bay Psalm Book: The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, of the Old and New-Testament; Cotton Mather's Bethiah. The Glory which adorns the Daughters of God; Nathaniel Vincent's A Discourse on Forgiveness (the text of which was perhaps supplied by his uncle Benjamin Franklin [1650-1727]); and the eighth edition of William Winstanley's The New Help to Discourse, for which JF made two woodcuts.

For Samuel Gerrish and Thomas Fleet, JF brought out (17 April) Thomas Walter's The Sweet Psalmist of Israel. Of course his major effort throughout the year went into the editing, printing, and publication of his weekly newspaper, The New England Courant. JF may also have been the printer of the anti-inoculation tract by the religious fundamentalist Samuel Grainger which was advertised in the NEC of 1 Jan as "This Day published" The Imposition of Inoculation as a Duty Religiously considered, printed for the booksellers Nicholas Boone and John Edwards.

To accomplish this amount of printing, JF must have been employing at least one journeyman printer and another apprentice in addition to his sixteen-year-old brother, who by now could work as well as a journeyman printer. It hardly seems that JF could have produced so much with a single press. As we have seen, he was often slightly late with the pamphlets that he advertised in the latter part of 1721. In 1722, having paid off or refinanced the old mortgage, Josiah Franklin took out a new one for £220 with Stoddard (Shurtleff 630-31). Perhaps Josiah loaned James Franklin part of the money for purchasing an additional printing press.

Writings: From 2 April to 8 Oct, BF wrote fourteen "Silence Dogood" essays, America's first essay series, in the New England Courant, submitting them anonymously because he believed his brother would not print them otherwise (A18). He also wrote two separate satires on the Connecticut apostasy: a mock-illiterate letter in the 8 Oct NEC (which also contained Silence Dogood's satire of the apostasy) and a savage satire in the 29 Oct paper. He closed the year with an inquiry after Silence Dogood, 3 Dec. I also believe he wrote Hoop Petticoats, Arraigned and Condemned by the Light of Nature and Law of God (26 Nov).

Chronology:

1 Jan, Monday. NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 1, col. 1, wrote the brief mock letter, signed "S.B.", pretending to be a "quiet man" married to a parsimonious shrew. S.B. complained that he was "sadly fatigu'd with a Scolding Wife, and in short she is such a Shrew, as I believe cannot be match'd in all Christendom. ... She is so close and stingy, that She locks up every thing from my Servants, and will not allow them necessary Food; nay she grudges them so much as Small Beer." S. B. claims that he does not know what to do: "I am such a quiet man, (as my Neighbours can all testifie) that I willingly part with any thing for peace (the Breeches not excepted) and am afraid to say my Soul is my own in her Presence." His hope is that she will recognize her husband's complaint in the paper, "take the Hint, and use me better for the future." Gardner may have inspired aspects of Franklin's portrayal of Poor Richard's wife Bridget.

1 Jan. (B). NEC: "Mr. Matthew Adams" sent in a reprinted religious essay on eternity.

1 Jan (c). NEC: "From the London Mercury Sept. 16: Great Numbers of Persons, in the City, and in the Suburbs, are under the Inoculation of the Small Pox. Among the rest, the eldest Son of a Noble Duke in Hannover-Square, had the Small Pox Inoculated on him." (Cf. 8 (c), 15, 22 (b), and 29 (e) Jan and 5 Feb.)

1 Jan (d). NEC advertisement: "This Day published" [Samuel Grainger] The Imposition of Inoculation as a Duty Religiously considered (Boston: [J. Franklin?] for N. Boone and J. Edwards, 1721 [i.e., 1721/2]). Not in Campbell; Evans 2222. The attribution to JF's press is merely a guess, based on the work's being advertised in the NEC. The only printer's ornament used, p. 1, appears to be a row of stylized plants, Reilley no. 603.

1 Jan (e). NEC ad: "Now in the Press, and will speedily be published" [William Douglass]. Inoculation of the Small-Pox as Practised in Boston. See 11 Jan.

2 Jan, Tuesday, 1721/2, The AWM expressed the hope that the government and council would relieve Pennsylvania's financial distress, in effect asking for a paper currency. The Council promptly forbade Andrew Bradford to publish opinions about the government. Colonial Records 3:43. Cf. 18 Sept 1729 AWM.

6 Jan, Saturday. BF became 16.

8 Jan, Monday. NEC: "Mr. JF," writing as "Lucilius," p. 1, began a series of attacks on Philip Musgrave for doing a miserable job as postmaster. In a poem and a preface, JF charged Musgrave with high-handed behavior, erratic business hours, keeping customers interminably waiting, opening letters to examine their contents, and even stealing money from letters. Calendar 19.

8 Jan. (b). NEC: Perhaps inspired by John Checkley's Choice Dialogues, "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 2, wrote the first dialogue in an American periodical: "A Dialogue between a Clergyman and a Layman, concerning Inoculation. By an unknown Hand." Gardner burlesqued Increase Mather's Several Reasons, proving that Inoculation ... is a lawful Practice and Cotton Mather's brief Sentiments on the Small Pox Inoculated (Boston: S. Kneeland for Edwards, 1721). (See above, 23 Nov 1721.) Parodying Increase Mather's claim that only the wicked oppose inoculation, Gardner's clergyman says, "all the Rakes in Town are against Inoculation, and that induces me to believe it is a right Way." The Layman replies, "Most of the Ministers are for it, and that induces me to think it is from the D[evi]l; for he often makes use of good Men as Instruments to obtrude his Delusions on the World." (For a second dialogue, see 22 Jan.)

8 Jan (c). NEC: A letter from Dr. William Douglass denied that the entire report in the last week's NEC (1 Jan (c))actually appeared in the London Mercury. (See below, 15, 22, and 29 Jan.)

11 Jan, Thursday. [William Douglass], Inoculation of the Small-Pox as Practised in Boston consid'd in a letter to A--- S--- (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Austin 687; Campbell X30; Evans 2332. Dated 20 Dec 1721, the pamphlet was advertised "On Thursday next [11 Jan] will be published" in 8 Jan (NEC); and as "Just Published" 15 Jan (NEC). JF gambled on its publication. Kittredge, "Some Lost Works," 457. Austin: "William Wagstaffe" identified William Douglass as author and Alexander Stuart as recipient when he appended extracts from this and two subsequent letters by Douglass in "A Letter to Dr. Freind." See Boylston's reply, 15 Jan.

15 Jan, Monday. NEC: "Mr. Thomas Fleet" as "Tom Tram," satirized Philip Musgrave with a mock travel allegory supposedly depicting Robinson Crusoe's island. There the people "live by Trade and Merchandizing both by Sea and Land ... and consequently have occasion for Posts to carry our Letters." Though their town is the "Metropolis of the Island, yet we have such a poor careless, lazy, gump-headed (and being in a Passion, he had almost said knavish) Post-Master, as is not to be found in the whole Lunar World." Claiming to be in haste to return to his own regions, Tom Tram advised the islanders to "draw up a Memorial of their Grivances, and send it to the Post-Master General." The series of pieces using Defoe's Crusoe as an imaginary location began with Cotton Mather's News from Robinson Crusoe's Island (1720). Franklin knew all the pieces using Defoe, and he may have recalled them when he entitled a projected April? 1764 skit: "A Letter from a Gentleman in Crusoe's Island," P 11:184.

15 Jan (b). NEC: "Mr. [James] Franklin," p. 1, col. 2, writing as "Ichabod Henroost" to Mr. Turnstone, complained of his wife's belief in inoculation and her acceptance of tall tale cures by Dr. Zabdiel Boylston.

15 Jan (c). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 2, contributed a brief social satire from a father with "a very Wicked Disobedient Son, inclin'd to almost every Vice," perhaps alluding to Cotton Mather and his dissolute son Increase.

15 Jan (d). Philip Musgrave's BG (which Samuel Kneeland printed) carried a letter dated from Cambridge, 11 Jan 1721/2, defending Musgrave from JF's attack and reporting that, contrary to the Courant, the 16 Sept London Mercury said that "Great Numbers in this City, and Suburbs are under the Inoculation of the Small Pox." The author (Samuel Mather) called the Couranteers "the Hell-Fire Club of Boston," saying that "Campbell will stand God-father for it; having in one of his NewsPapers formerly assign'd this proper Name for them." Actually, Cotton Mather himself first dubbed the Couranteers an impious club (though he did not use the name "Hell-Fire Club") in the 28 August 1721 BNL. The 6 July 1721 BNL had previously reprinted a proclamation against impious clubs in London. Samuel Mather also revealed that he saw through the strategies of Nathaniel Gardner (though he evidently did not known the primary Couranteer's identity): "If there happen to be any thing that looks Religious in their Weekly Libel, 'tis really, and in effect, a Banter on Religion; as their Letter was in defence of Inoculation; which their great Hero & Champion, that Crackbrain'd Mundungus Williams foolishly pretends an Answer to." The author referred to Williams's An Answer to a Late Pamphlet, second edition.

Samuel Mather also revealed that he thought that John Checkley, whom JF had dumped after Courant no. 3, still functioned as the chief Couranteer: "every one knows that the Head of the Club is one who printed some Choice Dialogues, to prove, That the GOD whom the Churches of New-England Pray to, is the Devil." He promised that if "this Hell-Fire Paper be still carried on," he would name the contributors, so "that all the Sober People at the Country may know who they are."

Horner, 508, thought Mather Byles was the author; V. Crane, Rising People, 10, agreed. Holmes, Minor Mathers, 127, attributed it to Samuel Mather, citing Kittredge in PCSM, 18: 220, and 14: 285n. Perry Miller, New England Mind: From Colony, 336-37, and Shipton, Harvard Graduates 7:465n, agreed. The most recent authority, Tourtellot, 352, thought it was by Mather Byles and cited a letter to the Courant of 21 to 28 March 1722 by Samuel Mather saying "I was not concern'd in writing or composing" any earlier communications on the question. But there is no Courant of 28 March. Evidently Tourtellot had in mind Samuel Mather's assertion in the 19 March 1721/2 Courant that he had no hand in composing the appendix to A Friendly Debate; or, A Dialogue between Rusticus and Academicus.

In the Courant for 5 Feb 1721/2, JF said that Increase Mather frequently sent his grandson Mather Byles to pick up the Courant for him, and that Byles brought a piece to be inserted in the 1 Jan paper. Therefore, Byles was living with Increase Mather in Boston. Samuel Mather, however, was living in Cambridge, from whence the article was dated. Contemporaries Douglass (22 Jan (b)) and Gardner (22 Jan (c)) attributed it to Samuel Mather. I conclude Samuel Mather wrote it.

15 Jan (e). BG: Zabdiel Boylston replied to William Douglass' Inoculation of the Small Pox as Practised in Boston (cf. 11 Jan) that no one was under inoculation in Boston and that "whose who were under it at Roxbury are so far recovered as to need no more visits."

19 Jan, Friday. Cotton Mather: "The villanous Abuses offered and multiplied, unto the Ministers of this Place, require something to be done, for their Vindication. I provide Materials for some agreeable Pens among our People, to prosecute this Design withal." Diary, 2: 672. See ante 4 Feb.

22 Jan, Monday. NEC (4 page issue): "Mr. JF," p. 1, col. 1, replied to Samuel Mather's BG (15 Jan) attack, heading his piece with a brief quotation ("Bloody Fishing at Oyster-River, / And sad Work, at Groton") from Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana. JF reported: "That the Courants are carr'd on by a Hell-Fire Club with a nonjuror at the Head of them, has been asserted by a certain Clergyman in his common Conversation, with as much Zeal as ever he discover'd in the Application of a Sermon on the most awakening Subject. This is one of the malicious Arts used by him, and his hot-headed Trumpeters, to spoil the Credit of the Courant, that he may reign Detractor General over the whole Province, and do all the Mischief his ill Nature prompts him to, without hearing of it. But, as this Report betrays the highest Pitch of Malice in themselves, so it discovers the greatest Ignorance in those that believe it; for if the few Gentlemen here, reputed Torys are concern'd in writing the Paper, they are very much out in their Politicks in asserting the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, to prove the Doctrines of Absolute Monarchy, Passive Obedience, and Nonresistance. As to Mr. C[heckle]y's being concern'd in it, I affirm, I know not of one Piece in the Courants of his writing; but am certain, that he has been charg'd with being the Author of many (wherein the Ministers were touch'd upon) which I know he was not; nor is he so much of a Courant Christian as to promote the Paper by being a Subscriber for it."

Taking the high road, JF continued his attack on Cotton Mather by arguing that every person had the right to private judgment: "For a Man to give up his Right and Title to his Senses, and allow his whimsical Minister (for some such there are in all Countries) to dispose of him Body and Soul, just as the Humour takes him, is no Argument of Love, but on the contrary opens a Door for a dangerous Prejudice, if not an irreconcilable Hatred between them. The best of Men are but Men at the best [echoing Williams An Answer (see ante 1 Jan, 1721/2, and 19 Feb (c)]; and if of ambitious Tempers, are apt to receive all the Honour given them, without considering whether it is due to them for their Works sake: And if, after a Minister has kept an open Breast to receive Honours of all Sorts, he begins to demand them as a Duty from his Hearers, 'tis no Wonder if he very much loses his Interest in some of their Affections. 'Tis necessary to love a Minister in order to profit by him, but 'tis not always necessary to please him in order to love him: This is so far from being a Duty, that the contrary is one great Proof of our being good Protestants, & the Subjects of a King who allows us Liberty of Conscience."

22 Jan (b). NEC: "Dr. [William] Douglass," p. 1, col. 2, wrote to "Old Muss," dating his piece from "Hall's Coffee House, Jan. 20.," attacking the publisher of the BG [Philip Musgrave] and the Mathers. "In your last Gazette ... a Chip of the old Block (by Direction) uses the Evasion of Mercury in general, instead of London Mercury. The first passage concerning Inoculation is no more to be found in the London Mercury here on the Table, than Cotton Mather D.D. is to be found in the List of the Royal Society affixed at the other end of the Room." On Hall's Coffee House, see PCSM 4 (1913): 283-89, 400-05. Cf. 1 Jan (c).

22 Jan (c). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 2, col. 1, addressing "Mr. Turnstone," attributed last week's BG piece to a son of Cotton Mather: "It seems the venomous Itch of Scribling is Hereditary; a Disease transmitted from the Father to the Son." The author claimed that "the scandalous and malicious" BG essay villified Boston's ministers.

22 Jan (d). NEC: "Capt. Taylor," pp. 2-3, also replied to the BG attack of 15 Jan. His major Courant essay was dated from Ipswich, 19 Jan. Taylor attacked the Gazette author, claimed that he confused the issues between Musgrave's "Pride, Idleness, and Dishonesty" and the ministers' support of inoculation. "The Difference," he argued, "between F[rankli]n and M[usgrav]e, is not about the Gazette but about the P[o]st-M[aste]r's being defective in his Office."

22 Jan (e). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner, p. 3, col. 1, in a letter signed "Peter Pemble," also censured Post Master (and BG editor) Philip Musgrave.

22 Jan (f). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," pp. 3-4, contributed a third piece, "Another Dialogue between the Clergyman and Layman," maintaining that the clergy had a diminishing role in colonial society. He also satirized the history of the ministers' roles in the Salem witchcraft: "I pray, Sir, who have been instruments of Mischief and Trouble both in Church and State, from Witchcraft to Inoculation? ... I know you cannot endure that Laymen should write and know anything: you would have them know but just enough to get to Heaven." (See 8 Jan for the first dialogue.)

22 Jan (g). NEC: The Select-Men of Boston published the "Number of Persons buried in the Town, that dyed of the Small Pox, from the middle of April last, to the 20th of Jan." May, 1; June, 8; July, 11; August, 20; Sept, 101; Oct, 411; Nov, 249; Dec, 31; To the 20th of Jan, 3; in all, 841. Cf. the Thanksgiving Day, 26 Oct 1721.

25 Jan, Thursday. Cotton Mather: "Something must be done towards the Suppressing and Rebuking of those wicked Pamphlets, that are continually published among us, to lessen and blacken the Ministers, and poison the People." Diary 2: 674. Cf. 19 Jan. For Mather's pamphlet, see ante 4 Feb.

29 Jan, Monday. NEC: "Mr. J. Franklin," p. 1, col. 1, writing as "Abigail Afterwit" (Franklin's later personae included "Abigail Twitterfield" [8 July 1723] and "Anthony Afterwit" [10 July 1732]) complained of a lazy husband. "The Italian Proverb now stares him in the Face, The Man who lives by Hope, will die by Hunger." When Franklin used the proverb (Poor Richard, Feb, 1736), he shortened it: "He who lives upon hope dies farting."

29 Jan (b). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 1, col. 2, writing as "Hortensia," complained of a drunken husband who beat her. JF (or Gardner pretending to be Franklin) prefaced the skit with a joke: if Hortensia "intends to make a Reformer of me, she will do well to write Post paid on her Letters for the future; for I don't intend to reform the Age at my own Charge." Quoted and discussed by Fireoved, 227-28.

29 Jan (c). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 1, col. 2, writing as "Corydon" (Theocritus and Virgil used the name for a shepherd) sent in a poem praising "Eliza." Calendar 20. Tourtellot 305-06 enthused over Garner's unremarkable verse.

29 Jan (d). NEC: "Mr. Thomas Fleet," pp.1-2, writing as "Ann Careful," takes "Mr. Couranto" to task for informing "against the Women? We are like to have fine Times now, when old rusty Batchelors become the Womens Monitors: But it makes good the Old Saying, Batchelors Wives, and Maids Children are alway well brought up." She complains that her husband is "of late so taken up with Inoculation and State Affairs" that he is neglecting his own business.

29 Jan (e). Both the BNL and the BG carried "Advice to the Publick from DR. INCREASE MATHER," dated 24 Jan 1721/2: "Whereas a Wicked Libel called the New-England Courant, has represented me as one among the Supporters of it; I do hereby declare, that altho' I had paid the Printer for two or three of them, I then (before that last Courant was published) sent him word, that I was extreamly offended with it! In special, because in one of his Vile Courants he insinuates, that if the Ministers of GOD approve of a thing, it is a Sign it is of the Devil; which is a horrid thing to be related! And altho' in one of the Courants, it is declared, that the London Mercury Sept. 16. 1721 affirms, that Great Numbers of Persons in the City and Suburbs are under the Inoculation of the Small Pox; In his next Courant he asserts, that it was some Busy Inoculator, that imposed on the Publick in saying so; whereas I my self saw, and read those words in the London Mercury: And he doth frequently abuse the Ministers of Religion, and many other worthy Persons in a manner which is intolerable. For these and such like Reasons I signified to the Printer, that I would have no more of their Wicked Courants. I that have known what New-England was from the Beginning, cannot but be troubled to see the Degeneracy of this place. I can well remember when the Civil Government could have taken an effectual Course to suppress such a Cursed Libel! which if it be not done I am afraid that some Awful Judgment will come upon this Land, and that the Wrath of GOD will arise, and there will be no Remedy.

"I cannot but pity poor Franklin, who tho' but a Young Man, it may be Speedily he must appear before the Judgment Seat of GOD, and what answer will he give for printing things so vile and abominable? And I cannot but Advise the Supporters of this Courant to consider the consequences of being Partakers in other Mens Sins, and no more to Countenance such a Wicked Paper."

On the London Mercury, see 1 Jan (c).

2 Feb, Friday. Cotton Mather, Diary: "Much good may be done, by making an Extract of Dr. Harris's Praelection, De Inoculatione Varrolanum; and publishing of it here." See 5 Feb.

ante 4 Feb, Sunday. [Cotton Mather], A Vindication of the Ministers of Boston (Boston: B. Green, 1722). Austin 1980; Evans 2396; Guerra a-76; Holmes, Cotton Mather, 3: 1173-75, no. 430. See above, 19 and 25 Jan. Kittredge, "Further Notes" 282-83. It was dated at the end 30 Jan. The 5 Feb. NEC advertised it as "Just published." "Above all, we wonder at a WEEKLY PAPER, which has been, and is now, Published, either designedly, to affront our Ministers, and render them Odious; or else, it has hitherto, wretchedly deviated from it's ultimate Intent, and been notoriously prostituted to the Hellish Servitude" (8). JF in the same 5 Feb Courant promised to reply to it.

5 Feb, Monday. NEC: "Mr. J. Franklin," pp. 1-2, replied to Increase Mather (29 Jan (e)), giving "an Account of the first Cause of the Difference between us." He explained that the week before the 1 Jan Courant appeared, a grandson (Mather Byles, as a later reference makes clear) of Increase Mather brought the printer an extract from the London Mercury concerning smallpox and requested that he print it. The printer did so on 1 Jan, only to find the quotation inexact. Half of it did not appear in the London Mercury he saw. So he printed a letter from Dr. Douglass on 22 Jan that denied the quotation existed in the Mercury. Subsequently he saw a complete London Mercury and found that the other half of the quotation in the paper's last sheet. The printer claimed, "I have been imposed on by both Sides, and shall take Care for the future, not to insert any thing in the Courant upon the Word of another."

JF further said that Increase Mather at first subscribed for the Courant, then cancelled his subscription after the third Courant, but continued for the next several weeks to send "his Grandson Biles" every week to buy the paper, and then subscribed again, "and express'd no Dislike of the Paper till after Mr. Musgrave had publish'd his Grandson's Letter in the Gazette of Jan 15. So that he had and paid me for one Paper after that which he so much dislikes."

Concerning Increase Mather's threat that he may "speedily ... appear before the Judgment seat of God," the printer replied, "there is no Man living which doeth good and sinneth not, and that I expect and Hope to appear before God with safety in the Righteousness of Christ." JF objected to the minister saying that no one should buy the Courant. He compared it to forbidding people to purchase goods of any "particular Merchant or Shopkeeper. ... I desire him to consider how it would be taken, if upon a Misunderstanding, between any particular Minister and my self, I should publickly advise his People not to hear him, or contribute to his Support." Finally, the printer said that in the next Courant he would reply to a pamphlet ([Cotton Mather], A Vindication of the Ministers of Boston; see ante 4 Feb.) that had just appeared.

5 Feb (b). NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," p. 2, writing as "ZECHARIAH HEARWELL," extensively quoted Thomas Foxcroft's A Practical Discourse relating to the Gospel Ministry (Boston: Buttolph, 1718), Evans 1956, saying that ministers should not foist off their own opinions from the pulpit.

5 Feb (c). BG carried Increase Mather's "Some Further Account of the Small Pox Inoculated," dated 31 Jan. 1721/2. (Holmes, Increase Mather, 517-22, no. 123A-B.) Written as a reply to Douglass's Inoculation, "Some Further Account" paraphrased Dr. Walter Harris (an English physician) on the subject. The extract was Cotton Mather's idea; see 2 Feb. Kneeland reprinted it as a pamphlet (Austin 1234; Evans 2259; Guerra a-65) within a few days. J. Edwards sold it and advertised it in the 12 Feb NEC. Douglass replied in the same paper, and wrote another pamphlet, dated 15 Feb, entitled The Abuses and Scandals of some late Pamphlets in Favor of Inoculation of the Small Pox, Modestly obviated (see 6 March).

5 Feb. (d). BNL advertised the political position of New Charter men like Samuel Sewall: "Forasmuch as His Majesty's good People of this Government are Indissolubly United in the Common good of their Country and by the favour of GOD and the KING, continue very Thankful in the Enjoyment of the Privileges of the Royal CHARTER. Publick Notice is therefore hereby given to all Proud, Envious Persons, as well Jacobites, Nonjurors, as other Enemies to their happy Constitution, (who one would think are fitter Instruments to build up Bable, than to promote the Common Weal of Israel) That they do not to their utmost Peril, go on to Disturb or Interrupt the Inhabitants in their Quiet Possession of their inestimable Privileges; which were the Bequests and Gifts of their Ancestors; who altho' they were born free, yet with a great Sum obtain'd this freedom, and which are justly Valued, and near the heart of all good Men." Note that the Old Charter politicians were accused of Jacobitism (i.e., those persons who favored the Stuart pretender for king)--the bogeyman of the day.

12 Feb, Monday. NEC (4p.): "Mr. J. Franklin," p. 1, col. 1, replied to Mather's Vindication (ante 4 Feb): "Let Men once be condemn'd as irreligious, for opposing only the Humours of those who profess Religion, they will naturally be tempted to say, That Religion is nothing but Humour." In fact, claimed the printer, "Religion derives its Authority from GOD alone, and will not be kept up in the Consciences of Men by any Humane Power." JF clearly believed Cotton Mather wrote the pamphlet: "He has thrown Praise in his own Face till he is blind to his own Failings; and (to speak like himself) quarrels with his Neighbours because they do not look and think just as he would have them."

12 Feb (b). "Mr. J. Franklin," p. 1, col. 2, writing as "Timothy Turnstone" replied to a BG letter with a poem. Calendar 21.

12 Feb (c). "Mr. T. Fleet," pp. 1-2, sent in a letter signed "Sidrophel" replying to the BG letter with a mock prognostication. Franklin later wrote his own in the first Poor Richard.

12 Feb (d). NEC, pp. 2-3, reprinted an account of the London Hell-Fire Club from Applebee's, 6 May 1721 (cf. BNL 6 July 1721).

12 Feb (e). NEC: "W[illiam] D[ouglas]," p. 4, printed a brief note to "Dr. C[otton] M[ather]."

12 Feb (f). NEC: "Just Publish'd" Increase Mather, Some Further Account from London, of the Small Pox Inoculated. The Second Edition (Boston: J. Edwards, 1721[/2]). See above, 5 Feb.

12 Feb (g). NEC: "Boston, Feb. 12. Last Week his Excellency receiv'd a Letter from the Forces at the Eastward, giving an Account, that as they were marching to seize Father Ralle, he made his Escape out of the House with so much hast, that (being then writing) he left his Papers on the Table, among which was found a Letter from the Governour of Canada, directing the Indians to use their utmost Force, to keep the English from settling at the Eastward and promising to supply them with Powder and Ball for that End, at the same Time charging the Jesuit to keep the matter Private."

19 Feb, Monday. NEC: "Mr. [Nathaniel] Gardner," writing as "Johannes Clericus," p. 1, praised Christianity.

19 Feb (b). NEC: "Mr. J Franklin" wrote as "Betty Frugal," p. 1, col. 2, addressing "Mr. Turnstone" (a bachelor pseudonym for the editor). Betty, a forty-five year old virgin, is being courted by a young merchant whom, she believes, is really a "journeyman Gentleman" (Gardner thus characterized would-be lovers of rich women on 29 Jan). She lives happily and would not "think of changing my Condition, if it were not for Fashion sake, and to shake off the false Reproaches cast on us discreet Women by foolish Boys and Girls." Her suitor "calls my Eyes a couple of Stars, and says my Face is the Sun, nay better than the Sun, for he says the chief Benefit of the Sun is Light, and the greatest Advantage of Light to him is that it shews my Face: He commends my Lips too, and says my Teeth are Pearl. He often says he shall never be happy without me, and told me three Times in one Night, that he would drown himself if I would not smile upon him."

Betty Frugal concluded with words that Franklin echoed, "He talks of Flames and Darts, and the like, which has a strange effect upon me, tho' I can't understand what he means." Commenting on the piece, Turnstone ridicules the proposal. "Your Face the Sun!" Preposterous! "If you marry him, 'tis ten to one but he'll find another Sun to pay his Respects to, when you have shone away all your Benefits on him. Prithee Betty, (if you must be advised by me,) turn him off; I had rather have you my self than see you ruined." Franklin learned from his older brother how amusing such postures could be and used them in the Pennsylvania Gazette (e.g., "A Quaker Lady," 25 May 1732; Lemay, Canon 66-67 [no. 41]).

19 Feb (c). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," in an anonymous letter, p. 2, col. 1, viciously attacked Cotton Mather. "When the Faults of some particular Men (for they are but Men) [echoing John Williams in An Answer to a Late Pamphlet, 18 Dec (e) 1721, and JF on 22 Jan (a)] have been expos'd; how has the same been falsely and maliciously (with an intent to amuse and impose on the Ignorant) deem'd, a striking at the Foundation of Religion?" He concluded by wishing that while "some of a certain Order are condemning cruel Invectives and railing Language in others, they would not become guilty of the same themselves; and while they are undertaking to reform what is amiss, that they would not do it in a Manner which tends into Infidelity and Atheism; and that they would take Care when they are exclaiming against Contention, that they are not the chief Promoters of it."

26 Feb, Monday. NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 1, col. 1, contributed an Addisonian essay on idleness. Cf. 28 May BG, where Samuel Mather accused the supposed author of plagiarizing the essay from Richard Allestree's The Gentleman's Calling.

26 Feb (b). NEC: "Mr. Mathew Adams," p. 1, col. 2, wrote an anonymous letter portraying a group of women arraigning the Courant "at the Bar of Female Impudence." Into this setting, he brought a version of Cotton Mather who exclaimed "bitterly against the Supporters of that Weekly Libel, which infects the sober Part of the Town, and tends to debauch the Minds of unthinking Youth, and set us all in a Flame: crying out, Oh! the Divisions, the Quarrelings, the Backbitings of the Times." Then Adams borrowed from Swift's Tale of a Tub the story of the mountebank who primarily caused the complaint he himself made. The anecdote begins, "A Mountebank in Leicester-Fields." Swift, A Tale of a Tub, ed. A. C. Guthkelch and D. Nichol Smith, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), 46.

5 March, Monday. NEC: "Mr. John Eyre," p. 1, col. 1, writing as "Anthony De Potsherd," asked for advice concerning his scolding wife.

5 March (b). NEC: "Capt. Taylor," p. 1, cols. 1-2, complained of a house of prostitution "not an Hundred Doors from the old-South Church." It may have partly inspired "Silence Dogood" no. 13, on nightwalkers.

5 March (c). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 1, col. 2., as "Fanny Mournful," complained of her treatment by her stepmother.

5 March (d). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," pp. 1-2, as "Dulcimira," objected to the essay on idleness (Gardner in the 26 Feb Courant) because it singled out women for censure. Men, Dulcimira claimed, were at least as idle. This proto-feminist letter may have partly inspired Silence Dogood no. 3. Then, pretending to be the printer, "Mr. G" [BF's additional note] commented on the letter, saying that as "an amorous Man" he was glad "to be thought worthy even of the Scorn of the fair Sex."

5 March (e). NEC: "Mr. G[ardner]," p. 2, as "Dick Pembleton," satirically thanked Philip Musgrave (BG editor) for printing the (boring) South Carolina addresses.

5 March (f). NEC: Boston news: "On Thursday last in the Afternoon, a Lecture was held at the New Brick Church, by the Society for promoting Regular Singing in the Worship of God. The Reverend Mr. Thomas Walter of Roxbury preach'd an excellent Sermon on that Occasion, from 2 Sam. 23.1.--The sweet Psalmist of Israel,--. The Singing was perform'd in Three Parts (according to Rule) by about Ninety Persons skill'd in that Science, to the great Satisfaction of a numerous Assembly there present."

JF sometimes used local news to cultivate relations with friends and possible authors. The Rev. Thomas Walter of Roxbury had given him The Little-Compton Scourge or the Anti-Courant to publish, and Walter (and the book seller Samuel Gerrish) had commissioned JF to print The Grounds and Rules of Musick (1721; Evans 2303). Walter and the booksellers Gerrish and Fleet replied by hiring JF to print The Sweet Psalmist of Israel (17 April).

5 March (g). BG: Boyleston. Cf. 12 March (b).

6 March, Tuesday. [Isaac Greenwoood and Cotton Mather], A Friendly Debate; or, A Dialogue between Academicus; And Sawny & Mundungus (Boston: [B. Green?, 1722]). Austin 840; Evans 2339; Guerra a-72; Holmes, Cotton Mather, 1:398-400; no. 137. An inept performance, the dialogue portrayed Sawny (Dr. Douglass) and Mundungus (John Williams) as stupid, hypocritical fools. "Academicus" (Greenwood and Mather) took up nine-tenths of the dialogue lambasting the strawmen-opponents. The dialogue also contained passages of Mather's typical self-adulation ("he has been above Forty Years a Celebrated Preacher, and has been so acknowledged by Foreign Universities, as no American ever was before him, and justly merited the Honour of being a Member of the ROYAL SOCIETY"). Douglass, 12 March (a) dated it 6 March. The dialogue provoked the best pamphlet, as literature, in the inoculation controversy. See 15 March. Guerra attributed the printing to JF, but gave no reason.

6 March (b). Douglass, The Abuses and Scandals of some late Pamphlets in Favor of Inoculation of the Small Pox, Modestly obviated (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Austin 685; Campbell X29; Evans 2331; Guerra a-70. Though JF advertised it on 5 March as "This afternoon will be published," Douglass noted on 12 March that it actually appeared on Tuesday morning, 6 March. It was dated 15 Feb, 1721/2. Austin: "William Wagstaffe identified William Douglass as author and Alexander Stuart as recipient when he appended this and other letters by Douglass to his A letter to Dr. Friend, shewing the danger and uncertainty of inoculating the small pox (London, 1722)."

12 March, Monday. NEC: "Dr. Douglass," in the lead essay, dated and discussed the recent literature on inoculation: Zabdiel Boylston in the BG 5 March; 6 March, Tuesday morning, Personal Abuses obviated; and 6 March, Tuesday afternoon, Second Part of the Vindication of Dr. C. M. "by way of doggrel Dialogue." The latter was Douglass's name for A Friendly Debate.

12 March (b). NEC: "Dr. Douglass," pp. 1-2, sent in an extract from a "Horse Doctor's Harangue to the credulous Mob." A travesty of Boylston's 5 March (g) piece.

12 March (c). NEC: "John Williams," p. 2, col. 1, replied in his own incredible spelling to Greenwood's A Friendly Debate. JF said he printed it exactly as he received it, in the "Mundungian Language." Williams addressed "the Author of a late Dialog" [Isaac Greenwood and Cotton Mather]: "Bot Sir, ould it not be of equll Benefet to the Poblecke, if while thay are theching the Arth of Lojeche, they could Infuese Onesti in to their Pupels to youse it onestly, that thaer may be no more fals erecketed Hiphotices, with a desine to delude the Peopole, wich they noes is a Lye before God, to dra Concluccnes ethar to gain the Point of Inockelacion or any other thing wich their secret Iehe shuld put them upon." The attack on Harvard may have influenced Franklin's dream-vision, Silence Dogood, no. 4. Inspired by "Mundungus" Williams, BF wrote the first real mock-illiterate letter in the Courant, 8 Oct (b) (cf. 30 April (c)).

12 March (d). NEC: The Rev. Benjamin Colman sent in a brief note saying that he was not the author of the Vindication. Dr. Douglass said he erred in Abuses and Scandals by suggesting that Colman wrote it.

12 March (e). "At a Meeting of the freeholders & other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston ... Voted, that Elisha Cook Esqr be Moderator for this meeting. ... Elisha Cook Esqr, Mr. Thomas Cushing, Capt Nathaniel Green, Mr. Ebenezer Clough, Mr. William Clark, Mr. John Marion, & Mr. Isaiah Toy are chosen to Serve as Selectmen for the year ensuing." RRC 8:160. Cotton Mather was disappointed by their election and wrote a fable against the town; see 19 March (e).

15 March, Thursday: The 12 March NEC advertised, "On Thursday next [March 15] will be publish'd A Friendly Debate: Or a Dialogue between Rusticus and Academicus, about the late Performance of Academicus (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Austin 1696; Evans 2386; Guerra a-73. The pamphlet is dated 9 March. JF advertised it as "Just publish'd, and sold by the Printer hereof" in the 19 March Courant. BF may have set the type for the pamphlet. He knew it well. Kittredge, "Lost Works" 471n, and Silverman, Cotton Mather 355-56 have mentioned the pamphlet without suggesting an author. Guerra follows Evans in suggesting that "Rusticus" was Isaac Greenwood. The following discussion of authorship is abbreviated since it is found in the biography. Here, however, the past literature is cited.

The contents give a clue to the authorship. The Dialogue has four parts: an advertisement; a satirical dedication to Cotton Mather signed by RUSTICUS and dated "From the South Side of my Hay-stack, March 9. 1721,2"; the dialogue itself; and an appendix. The clue lies in the appendix, which consists of a brief introductory paragraph; a "Short Answer" to John Williams's Several Arguments, signed TOBACCO PROOF and dated "Cambridge, Dec. 19. 1721"; and a conclusion. Everything in the pamphlet except TOBACCO PROOF's "Short Answer" to John Williams is by Rusticus.

The brief introduction to the Appendix says: "Whereas an Academical Brother (Son to a Fellow of the Royal Society) having sent the following Answer to John Williams unto the Publisher of the Courant, who has favour'd us with the MSS, we thought we could not fill up the vacant Pages more to the Satisfaction of the ingenious and learned Reader, than by annexing it to this Dialogue." The clue is not in the (mistaken) ascription of the "Short Answer" to Samuel Mather, but Rusticus's ability to decide, first, not to publish the letter in the Courant, and second, to print it in the Dialogue. The author had to be JF or Nathaniel Gardner--the only two Couranteers at this time who planned and decided the contents of the paper and the only two Couranteers who could later have exercised an editor's control of using a submission to the Courant as part of a pamphlet.

The advertisement [p. ii] credited "I[saac] G[reenwood]" with authorship of A Friendly Debate and advised him that his "broad Panegyricks" inadvertently satirized Cotton Mather. In the dedication, the author said that Cotton Mather's name "shall be mention'd with Dishonour, while those Clergymen and others, who have distinguish'd themselves by their Meekness and Silence [my italics], shall be otherwise spoken of." Writing as "Zechariah Hearwell" on 5 Feb, Gardner had previously praised ministers who imitated the "meekness and gentleness of Christ," implicitly contrasting them with Cotton Mather. This use of "Silence," published one month before the first Silence Dogood essay, perhaps partly inspired BF's pseudonym.

Within the tract, Rusticus asked Academicus what he intended by the late Dialogue. Academicus condescendingly replied: "I intended to let you know that I am a Man of Letters, and that not only Sawny, but all the illiterate Scribblers of the Town (the Leather Apron Men) are proud and vain Fellows, and that 'tis not possible for them once in their Lives to speak a Word of Truth." Franklin used the epithet "Leather Apron Man" in Silence Dogood No. 1. (Although "Apron-men" or mechanic is used by Shakespeare [Cor. iv vi.96] and is in the OED, s.v. "Apron. 6"; I do not recall ever having seen the epithet "Leather Apron Men" used previously.) BF may have deliberately flattered Gardner by using the epithet.

My primary reason for atttributing the Dialogue to Gardner rather than JF is the author's citation of religious controversial literature. Further, the dialogue itself is excellent and is a genre that Gardner introduced to the Courant. Not only its form but also its liveliness and satire are more typical of Gardner than of JF.

Rusticus/Gardner ironically commented that "he has certainly a great Name abroad for Something" and then quoted John Oldmixon's attack on Mather's prose style, his old-fashioned beliefs and attitudes, and his education. Naturally Oldmixon's British Empire in America (London, 1708)--the only recent history of all the American colonies--was well-known in America. The Courant library (see 2 July) had a copy. Gardner repeatedly objected to New England's provincial self-centeredness. The last several issues in the Friendly Debate echo his protests.

The "Appendix" contained a "Short Answer" that Rusticus seemed to attribute to Samuel Mather, but young Mather advertised in the 19 March Courant that he did not write or compose "the said Answer." (Cf. 19 March (c).(Holmes, Minor Mathers, 117, no. 63.) Perhaps it is one of Gardner's mock letters. John Williams had not realized that Gardner imitated Mather in his essay of 20 Nov 1721, and therefore replied to him in Several Arguments (11 Dec 1721). Perhaps Gardner continued the subterfuge with a "Short Answer." The only passage in the "Short Answer" that seems to echo another piece condemned Williams as a "Omnium Horarum Homo, i.e. Jack of all trades and Good at None." John Campbell (or the person who spoke for him) in the 14 August BNL called JF "Homo non unium Negoti; or, Jack of All Trades; and it would seem, Good at none." But the sentiment is proverbial.

BF found another part of the pamphlet fascinating. The concluding comment by Rusticus/Gardner mocked the "Sons of Harvard" for their use of learned languages, recommending instead that they take up the Mundungian, "the very Sound of which is rhetorical and perswasive, and will add a peculiar Beauty to their Performances." And Rusticus concluded by making fun of "our Academical Elegiac Poets, who in all their Funeral Elegies (or Tears dropt at Funerals) burlesque the Dead with Double Rhimes, and render the Use of all rhiming Monosyllables altogether useless." Not only does Rusticus's constant satire of Harvard throughout the pamphlet anticipate Franklin's satire of Harvard in Silence Dogood No. 4, but his sneers at the New England funeral elegy perhaps inspired Franklin's satire in Silence Dogood no. 7, where his "RECEIPT to make a New-England Funeral ELEGY" echoes the pamphlet in calling for "A sufficient Quantity of double Rhimes" (P 1:26).

15 March, Thursday (b). House of Representatives: "Ordered, That Mr. Cooke, Mr. Heath, Mr. White, Mr. Osgood and Mr. Rand be a Committee to draw up a Bill to prevent the Spreading of the Infection of the Small-Pox by the practice of Inoculation." Journals 3:178. On 20 March, the bill was read the first and second time; on 21 March, it was read the third time and sent up to the Council. Journals 3:181, 184, 185. Hutchinson, 2:208, noted that the "council were in doubt and the bill stopped."

19 March, Monday. NEC: "Mr. J Franklin," p. 1, col. 1-2, wrote an amusing social satire as BELINDA in the lead essay. Belinda complained of a bashful, humble, awkward suitor afraid to declare himself. Cf. 3 Dec.

19 March (b). NEC: "Capt. Taylor," p. 2, col. 2, dating a brief letter from Guttridges Coffee-House, urged attendence at the Thursday weekly lectures.

19 March (c). NEC: Samuel Mather advertised that he was not the author of the answer to John Williams annexed to Gardner's Dialogue between Rusticus and Academicus.

19 March (d). NEC: "On Wednesday next will be published, A Postscript to Abuses, &c. obviated" (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Advertised as "Just published and sold by the Printer hereof," 26 March.

19 March (e). BG published a fable immediately following the report of the persons elected to various Boston town offices. It appeared in an extraordinary newspaper position. Most belletristic materials appeared before the local news, or on page one. This short piece appeared after the local news. Its position suggested that it commented upon the election. Boston citizens had again elected the Old Charter Party's leaders. The fable said: "It is related by Dampier in his Travels, that being to take a long Walk in a Road where the Trees were full of Monkeys, the wretches kept throwing sticks at him all the way as he went along. He could easily have kill'd some of the Monkeys; but he was of the Opinion that for him to Answer any of them, would be for one so Superiour to them to take too much Notice of such sorry Creatures; their Impotent Sticks also did him little Damage; But if he had by any returns brought the whole Body of the Monkeys upon him, he knew that in their Way they might out do him, so he let them throw on, without any Answer to them. And wise Men were of the Opinion, he did Wisely in doing so." I agree with the contemporary attribution of this brief fable to Cotton Mather (26 March). Mather echoed a passage in William Dampier, Dampier's Voyages, ed. John Masefield, 2v. (London: D. Grant Richards, 1906) 2:161. For the election, see 12 March (e). Franklin was probably fascinated by the fable, for he frequently used the genre in his later writings.

21 March, Wednesday. [William Douglass], Postscript To Abuses, &c. Obviated. Being a Short Answer to Matters of Fact, &c. Misrepresented in a late Doggrel Dialogue (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Austin 688; Campbell X31; Evans 2333; Guerra a-71. Douglass's reply to Greenwood's A Friendly Debate; Evans 2339.

26 March, Monday. NEC: "Mr. J Franklin," p. 1, as Anthony Fallshort protested against a New England wife who did not labor and who demanded servants, fine food, and sumptuous furnishings. FALLSHORT claimed he was no "Journeyman Gentleman," but a hard-working merchant who began with a reasonable estate. He itemized his wife's past expenses, calculating that after ten years of marriage she cost him £1,486.04.04. He reflected, "A Good Wife saves more than she brings, and a bad one spends more than she pretends to bring." BF's "Anthony Afterwit" (10 July 1732), about a extravagant wife, may have been influenced by this.

26 March (b). NEC: The Couranteers believed they recognized the author of the 19 March BG fable. An anonymous letter recalled that "about Thirty Years ago ... a Reverend Person handed about a Paper of Fables, wherein he calls himself Orpheus his Father Mercurius, the Governour an Elephant, (a Beast of Burden) and the whole Country are compared to no better than Beasts." The correspondent recalled Cotton Mather's four political fables, written in 1692 to justify Increase Mather's acceptance of a new charter against the "Old Charter" stalwarts who believed that he had sacrificed their rights. (Holmes, Cotton Mather 2:826-27, no. 287.) The anonymous correspondent said that the same author of those fables has sent in another "borrowed" fable between "A Wiseman and his Monkeys."

26 March (c). NEC: "Dr. Douglass," pp. 1-2, writing anonymously from "Hall's Coffee House," also attacked the BG fable, adding that "it came out of the North" (i.e., Cotton Mather's North Church). "No doubt the Author was very angry to find himself disappointed, after the great Pains he had taken to get in Select Men that dance after his Pipe." Douglass ironically added, "we think he is very modest in comparing them, and the whole Town, to a Parcel of Monkeys, seeing it is not long since (in his Letter to his Friends at Portsmouth) he was pleased to call them Dogs, and worse than the Monsters of Africa." (I have failed to identify Cotton Mather's "Letter to his Friends at Portsmouth." It does not seem to be in Holmes, Cotton Mather, or in Silverman.) The brief poem in the letter is Calendar 22.

26 March (d). NEC: "Polygrave," p. 2, col. 1, wrote against a "certain Atheistical Spark, who sometimes goes to a Church in Brattle-Street." Although BF did not annotate this piece, the reply (cf. 9 April) by Nathaniel Gardner suggests Gardner was "Polygrave." Fireoved 232 omitted it from his checklist of Gardner's contributions.

26 March (e). NEC: Under Boston: "The Number of Persons buried here the last Year amounts to 1102."

2 April, Monday, NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 1, col. 1-2, as "Philanthropos," wrote an Addisonian essay on honor. "John Harvard" in the BG accused him of plagiarizing the essay from the Guardian, no. 161. Actually, Gardner quoted at least two authors on honor, and he borrowed some sentences entire from the Guardian. "The religious Man fears, the Man of Honour scorns to do an ill Action." Cf. The Guardian, ed. John Calhoun Stephens (Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1982), 525. But almost all of Gardner's essay (like his concluding definition of the man of honor) is his own: "In a word, He is the Honourable Man, who is Influenc'd and Acted by a Publick Spirit, and fir'd with a Generous Love to Mankind in the worst of Times; Who lays aside his private Views, and foregoes his own Interest, when it comes in competition with the Publick: Who dare adhere to the Cause of Truth, and Manfully Defend the Liberties of his Country when boldly Invaded, and Labour to retrieve them when they are Lost. Yea, the Man of Honour, (when contracted sordid Spirits desert the Cause of Vertue and the Publick) will stand himself alone, and (like Atlas) bear up the Massy Weight on his Shoulders: And this he will do, in Spite of Livid Envy, Snakey Malice, and vile Detraction." See Gardner's reply 4 June (a). Harold Lester Dean commented on the essay and found class resentment in it and a numer of other Courants, 107-08, 43, 55, 57, and 88.

2 April (b) NEC: "B. Franklin," pp. 1-2, sent in his first Silence Dogood essay. The essay series, the first in America was published every other week through 8 October. BF submitted them anonymously because he believed JF would not print them if he knew they were by BF (A18). P 1:8-11; W 5-6. For discussions, see Amacher, Granger, BF 27-37; Tourtellot

2 April (c) NEC: "Mr. G[ardner]," p. 2, as "Sisyphus," on his "Virago of a Wife."

2 April (d) NEC: News items noticed a ghost in Newport, RI, the conversion of Judah Monis from Judaism to Christianity, and the marriage of the Hon. Samuel Sewall to Mrs. Gibbs.

9 April, Monday. NEC: "Mr. John Eyre,"p. 1. col. 1, sent in an extract from Bishop Latimer.

9 April (b). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 1, col. 2, wrote as Ben Treackle an "Advice to the Love Lorn" letter--a genre popular in American journalism for the next two centuries. Gardner pretended to be a bashful young man captivated by the "powerful Charms" of a "brisk young Widow." He asked if "it would be improper for the Lady to pop the Question first." Replying as the editor, Gardner answered with a delightful play upon the word pop.

9 April (c). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," pp. 1-2, as "Will Coatless," angrily addressed "You Turnstone," objecting to the paper's pointing at specific persons, particularly objecting to Polygrave (cf. 26 March) calling a certain fop in church atheistical. Gardner, as Turnstone, replied that, "If the Person pointed at by Mr. Poligrave was not guilty of an irreverent and atheistical Behaviour at Church, how came he to be describ'd and pointed at as it were with the Finger, since his Name was not mention'd." Turnstone/Gardner also gave a fantastic and amusing description of himself.

9 April (d). NEC: "Mr. J. F[ranklin]," p. 2, col. 1, replied to "Will Coatless" (9 April (c)).

9 April (e). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 2, col. 1, wrote a mock advertisement as "John Harmony" against several loud irregular singers at the South Church.

9 April (f). NEC: "We hear there is no catching Fish at Winter-Harbour without baiting the Hook with a Gudgeon; and it so happens to be so all along the Eastern Shore, as far as the English Settlements. 'Tis thought by many that the Price of Fish will be very high by Reason the Bait is so scarce." Preston T. Shea, 151-52, noted that gudgeon, which normally meant a trash fish was also a name for a simpleton. He pointed out that the "word was a slighting reference to attempts by Shute and the Council to renew the treaty of pacification signed in 1717." Shea further explained, "the Courant's pun ... mocked Shute and the Council for their failed attempts to entreat the Indians and suggested that the conciliatory policy made the 'savages' more insolent."

16 April, Monday, NEC: "B. F.," p. 1, col. 1, Silence Dogood, No. 2. P 1:11-13; W 7-9.

16 April (b). NEC: "Capt. Taylor," p. 1, col. 2, on the lawyer tried "for cohabiting with a French Tayloress." The brief poem is Calendar 23.

16 April (c). NEC: Boston Selectmen report that only three persons in town have the smallpox.

16 April (d). NEC: "Tomorrow will be published. A Sermon preach'd at the Lecture held in Boston, by the Society for promoting Regular and Good Singing." See 17 April.

16 April (e). NEC: "Just published, and sold by the Printer hereof," Thomas Symmes, Sermon at the Ordination of Joseph Emerson in Malden (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Campbell X38; Evans 2389.

16 April (f). NEC: "On Friday next will be publish'd, and sold by the Printer hereof, English Advice to the Freeholder." Advertised as "Just Published" in the 23 April NEC.

17 April, Tuesday. Thomas Walter, The Sweet Psalmist of Israel (Boston: J. Franklin, for S. Gerrish, 1722). Campbell X40; Evans 2402. For a title page with different bookseller (T. Fleet), see Campbell X41; Evans 2403. Sabin 101197. See above, 5 March.

20 April, English Advice to the Freeholders, &c. of the Province of Massachusetts Bay ... relating to the new Choice of Representatives (Boston: J. Franklin, 1722). Campbell X32; Evans 2335. Signed at the end "Brutus, Cato" and dated 18 April, the brief political pamphlet (6 pages of text) argued that persons who hold government posts (such as sheriffs or military officers) or positions that derive any profit from the government should not be elected representatives. The author used a sentence that was a favorite of the Couranteers: "Altho' they may be good Men, yet they are but Men" (2). He also recommended that the "Three or Four misguided Gentlemen" who were "active in promoting and drawing up" the act "For preventing Riots and Tumults" and the act "for preventing Libels and scandalous Pamphlets" should be "remark[ed]" by the electors. The author was evidently crusading against the Dudleys. The author also attacked Cotton Mather when he wrote that those who "have wrote to England against the Country, should not be screened from a just Resentment" (3). In a final note revealing local pride and resentment, the author warned of "how Strangers [Englishmen] are promoted, and your Countrymen [New Englanders] neglected and despised" (p. 6). The same prejudice against English immigrants as "strangers" existed in Virginia by 1701; Lemay, "Robert Beverley's History" 81.

23 April, Monday. NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 1, col. 1, as "Philanthropos," on the delights of conversation and the miseries of solitude. BF may echo Gardner's sentiments in his journal at sea, 25 Aug 1726, P 1: 85-86.

23 April (b). NEC: "Mr. T. Fleet," p. 1, col. 2, on avaricious creditors.

23 April (c). The Boston selectmen recorded: "Whereas mr. Samuel Deming Late of Boston Collermaker dyed yesterday of the Smal Pox, and Sundry of the Inhabitants that went out of Town to avoid that Distember are Returned and many in Town that have not had the Snmall pox ... and our Country neighbours daylie coming into Town, Wherefore to prevent Danger of any Person being Infected with the Said Samuel Demmings Corps, Ordered that he be Buryed this Night betwen the Hours of Ten & Eleven and Carryed up Winter Street for the Reasons aforesaid." RRC 13: 96.

30 April, Monday, NEC: "B. F.," p. 1, col. 1, Silence Dogood, No. 3. P 1:13-14. Tourtellot 339 pointed out that the essay echoed Spectator no. 179.

30 April (b). NEC: "Mr. Matthew Adams," p. 1, col. 2, as "Harry Meanwell," wrote that a certain landlord dictated whom his tenants should vote for. Shipton 4:49 thought that Paul Dudley was being attacked, but it may have been William Dudley (see John Eyre's article in the 14 May NEC).

30 April (c). NEC: Though BF did not annotate it, the letter dated from Woodstock and signed "Elisha Trueman" was evidently by Thomas Lane. See 14 May. Using a countryman persona and slight mock-illiterate spelling, Lane condemned the current representative from Woodstock (James Horsemet; see Journals 3:86; he was replaced in 1722 by John Chandler, Esq.; Journals 4:1). Lane referred to [Cotton Mather's] Deplorable State of New England: "and we hear the Story in the Votes concerns one of a great Family, mention'd in that Pamphlet." Mather had attacked Joseph Dudley in the pamphlet, originally published in 1708, but reprinted by Mather's opponents in 1721 (ante 12 May 1721). Tourtellot 297 attributed it "undoubtedly" to Lane.

30 April (d). NEC: "Dr. Douglass," p. 2, col. 1, wrote an anonymous letter concerning smallpox.

30 April (e). NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 2, col. 1, pretending to be a widower who had lost his wife to the smallpox, told the story of his new courtship which abruptly concluded, when, just before marriage, he had a lawyer "draw up an Instrument to secure all that she was worth to my self." The lady refused and broke off the marriage. The insensitive, avaricious persona therefore advertised for a woman who had "five or six hundred Pounds to secure to him by Deed of Gift" whom he would marry. Cf. 7 May.

7 May, Monday. NEC: "Mr. Gardner," p. 1., col. 1, sent in a Whiggish essay from Cato's Letters.

7 May (b). NEC: Printed votes, pp. 1-2, from House of Representatives of 6 and 7 July 1721, declaring the election of Paul Dudley null and void. Partially quoted in Shipton 4:49.

7 May (c). NEC: The avaricious widower of 30 April (Nathaniel Gardner [not annotated by BF]) said that he had seen the error of his ways, apologized, and published the banns for marriage "the third Time." He therefore regretfully announced that he would not now be able to marry the wealthy young virgin or widow requested in the last paper. Omitted by Fireoved 233.

14 May, Monday, NEC (4p): Pp. 1-2, Silence Dogood, No. 4. P 1:14-18. BF's dream-vision satire of Harvard College. For an extended commentary, see Tourtellot, 348-74.

14 May (b). NEC: "Mr. T. Lane," pp. 2-3, as "Elisha Trueman," dating his letter from "Woodstock," sent in the sentiments of "an hearty Old Charter-man" who attacked William Dudley, mentioning his "specious Pretence of Piety, in giving a Piece of Plate to the Church." Just two weeks earlier, Elisha Trueman of Woodstock contributed a letter to the 30 April NEC, which Franklin left unattributed. The content, as well as the place and pseudonym, make it obvious that Lane also wrote the earlier letter.

14 May (c). NEC: "Mr. John Eyre," p. 3, col. 1, sent in a brief anonymous letter attacking William Dudley. Shipton 4:49 thought that the main attack was on William's older brother, Paul.

14 May (d). NEC: Two news items from "Roxbury" reveal, 7 May, that the church has received "a Present of a fine Piece of Plate," and, 8 May, that William Dudley was chosen representative for the town. Cf. 6 Aug.

14 May (e). NEC: p. 3, under "Boston, May 10: Next Tuesday is the Time appointed for our Election of Representatives. 'Tis hop'd the Eyes of the Town will be fix'd on honest Men, and Friends to their Country. Quaere, Whether those Gentlemen who held up their Hands in the House, for the Payment of Mr. B[ridge]r's Money, are fit for Representatives? Quaere, Whether one who gives no Account of Money appropriated by Law to purchase Arms and Ammunition for the Town's Use, be fit to serve the Town in that Station?"

14 May (f). NEC: "Capt. Taylor," pp. 3-4, writing against a "late Act for supplying Great Britain with Naval Stores," quoted a long extract from Cato's Letters on the law: "The Violation therefore of Law does not constitute a Crime where the Law is bad." BF may reflect the argument concerning law from Cato's Letters in "The Speech of Miss Polly Baker." Taylor also quoted Cato's Letters urging resistance to bad laws. This Lockean theory was among the justifications of the American Revolution.

14 May (g). NEC: Under "Boston 14 May ... a Singing Lecture was held at Dorchester."

14 May (h). NEC: "Just Published: The Original Rights of Mankind freely to subdue and improve this Earth, asserted and maintained By J. M." (Boston: For the Author, 1722). Evans 2346. Holmes, Increase Mather, 2:645-46, pointed out that "J.M." also wrote Some Proposals to Benefit the Province (Boston: Eliot, 1720), rpt. in A. M. Davis, Tracts 382ff., and that J.M. was probably Joseph Morgan. I agree. Morgan was an idealistic Old Charter man: "there is no difference in the Views and Interests of the Governours and Governed, but each striving to Excel, in promoting one the others happiness" (Original Rights i-ii).

15 May, Tuesday. "On Tuesday last [15 May] came on the Election of Representatives for this Place, when John Clark, Elisha Cook Esqrs, Mr. William Clark Merchant, and Mr. Isaiah Tay, were chosen by a great Majority of Votes."--NEC 21 May.

15 May (b). The Boston Selectmen voted that "the Province Hospital on Spectable Island" should house those persons lately inoculated. RRC 13: 97-98. Thomas Robie attended those he had inoculated and others there, at the "Pesthouse." Shipton, Harvard Graduates 5:452.

21 May, Monday. NEC: "Dr. Douglass," p. 1, col. 1-2, wrote on news of the Boston inoculations in the London press.

21 May (b). NEC: Under local news, p. 2, the selectmen of Boston examined Dr. Boylston concerning smallpox in Boston.

21 May (c). BG: An advertisement dated "Roxbury" said that there had not yet been any gift to the church and denied any relation between the proposed gift and the election of William Dudley. The author of the NEC story was guilty of a "Verbal Sacrilege."

23 May, Tuesday. Sarah Franklin (sister of BF) married James Davenport, baker of Boston. P 1:lx (C.12).

28 May, Monday, NEC: "B. F." p. 1, col. 1, as Silence Dogood, No. 5. P 1: 18-21; W 17-19. This is the last annotation in BF's own file of the NEC.

28 May (b). NEC: Anonymous letter, pp. 1-2, against the Dudleys, replying to the 21 May BG advertisement.

28 May (c). NEC: Anonymous letter, p. 2, cols. 1-2, replying to the 14 May BG letter.

28 May (d). BG: Letter from Roxbury defending William Dudley.

28 May (e). BG: "John Harvard" (Samuel Mather) accuses NEC author of essay on honor (2 April) of plagiarizing it from the Guardian, no. 161, and the author of the essay on idleness (26 Feb) of taking it from The Gentleman's Calling by Richard Allestree.

30 May, Wednesday. Dr. John Clarke elected Speaker; Nathaniel Byfield and William Clarke were among the Councilors elected. Journals 4:2-3.

31 May, Thursday. Gov. Shute negatived Nathanael Byfield and William Clarke. Journals 4:4.

4 June, Monday, NEC: Unattributed lead essay, replying to two articles in the 28 BG (one by William Dudley [d] and the other by John Harvard [e]), is by the same author (Nathaniel Gardner) who wrote the essay on honor in the NEC, 2 April. Omitted by Fireoved 233.

4 June (cont). NEC: "Crowdero" wrote a poem "To Mrs. Silence Dogood, on her Letter in the Courant of the 14th Instant." Calendar 24. This is the first public praise of BF.

4 June (c). NEC: "The Councilors elected, who did not serve the last Year, were Adam Winthrop, Esq; Jonathan Belcher Esq; Nathanael Byfield Esq; and Mr. William Clark. The last two are negativ'd by his Excellency."

11 June, Monday, NEC: "Silence Dogood, No. 6." P 1:21-23; W 17-19.

11 June (b). "Philanthropos" on helping young men start in business. The essay impressed BF, who reprinted it in his PG of 26 June 1732. He echoed it in a standing query for the Junto: "Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately set up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto anyway to encourage?" (P 1:258). He followed its advice in sponsoring a series of young printers as business partners. And he repeated essentially the same message in a codicil to his will. Smyth 10:503-07.

11 June (c). NEC: Under date: Newport Rhode-Island, June 7. Note: The last sentence in this news release made the legislature take up and imprison JF. "On Monday Morning last His Honour the Governour had advice by a Whale-Boat (which came away in the Night) from Block-Island, that there was at that Island a Pirate Briganteen, with two Carriage Guns, and four Swivel Guns, and about 40 or 50 Men on Board, which had taken one Cahoon; belonging to this Island, and another Vessel outward bound, from the Westward. Whereupon the Drums were order'd immediately to be beat about Town for Volunteers to go in quest of the Pirates; and by 3 of Clock the same Day, there were two large Sloops under Sail, Equipt and Man'd; one mounts 10 Guns, and has 80 Men on Board, under the Command of Capt. John Headland, the other has 5 or 6 Guns, and about 50 or 60 Men, under the Command of Capt. John Brown. We hear that the Pirates have said, they are resolved to take a Rhode Island Sloop for their own Use, the Vessel they are in being a dull Sailor. We are advis'd from Boston, that the Government of the Massachusetts are fitting out a Ship to go after the Pirates, to be commanded by Capt. Peter Papillion, and 'tis thought he will sail sometime this Month, if Wind and Weather permit." Joseph Blanchard, 397, recorded in his diary that it was "taken as a joke upon the generall Court then Seting."

12 June to 7 July, BF managed NEC while JF was in jail for having suggested collusion between pirates and Massachusetts officials.

12 June, Tuesday. "Samuel Sewall, Penn Townsend, and Addington Davenport Esqrs; brought down the following Vote of June 12th. 1722. The Board having had Consideration of a Paragraph in a paper call'd the New-England Courant, published Monday last, relating to the fitting out a Ship here, to proceed against the Pirates; and having Examined JF Printer, he acknowledged himself the Publisher thereof: And finding the Said Paragraph to be Grounded on a Letter pretended by him to be received from Rhode Island. Resolved, That the said Paragraph is a High affront to this Government. Sent down for Concurrence."

"Read & Concurred. Sent up. Resolved, That the Sheriff of the County of Suffolk do forthwith Committ to the Goal in Boston, the Body of JF Printer, for the gross Affront offerd to this Government, in his Courant of Monday last, there to remain during this Session. Sent up for Concurrence." Journals 4:23.

"In Council; Read & Concurred; Consented to." Duniway 163.

15 June, Friday. "A Petition Signed JF, acknowledging his Offence, and praying that he may be allowed the Liberty of the Yard, for Reasons therein. Read." Journals 4:31. Cf. 20 June.

18 June, Monday. NEC: Lead essay, introducing "Proteus, or Old Janus," the persona of the editor, may have been by BF, JF, or Nathaniel Gardner.

18 June (b). NEC: "Hypercarpus," p. 1, col. 2, criticized the last "Silence Dogood."

18 June (c). "Voted, That Mr. JF, now a Prisoner in the Stone Goal have the Liberty of the Prison House and Yard, upon his giving Security for his faithful abiding there. Sent up for Concurrence." Journals 4: 35.

20 June, Wednesday. "A Petition of James Franklyn Printer, Humbly Shewing that he is Truely Sensible & Heartily Sorry for the offence he has Given to this Court, in the late Courant, relating to the fitting out a Ship by the Government, & Truly Acknowledges his Inadvertency & Folly therein in affronting the Government, as also his Indiscretion & Indecency, when before the Court, for all which he Entreats the Courts forgiveness, & praying a discharge from the Stone Prison, where he is Confined, by Order of the Court, and that he may have the Liberty of the Yard, He being much Indisposed, & suffering in his health, by the Said Confinement,--A Certificate from Dr. Zabdiel Boylestone of his Illness, being offered, with the Said petition.

"In the House of Representatives Read & Voted That James Franklyn now a Prisoner in the Stone Goal may have the Liberty of the Prison House & Yard, upon his Giving Security for his faithfull abiding there.

"In Council Read & Concurr'd--Consented to, Samuel Shute."--Duniway 99.

ante 25 June, Monday, 1722: "Elegy on My Sister Franklin. MS at PU. A forgery. P 1:46-47.

25 June, Monday, NEC: Silence Dogood, No. 7, pp. 1-2. P 1:23-26. Tourtellot 377, overlooking my identification of Dr. John Herrick as the elegy's author (Calendar, #25), continued the mistaken attribution of the elegy to the Rev. Dr. Edward Holyoke (P 1:26, n.1).

25 June (b). NEC: "Philomusus" (i.e., BF), p. 2, col. 1-2 "To the Sage and Immortal Doctor H-----k, on his Incomparable ELEGY, upon the Death of Mrs. Mehitabell Kitel, &c." Calendar 25; Canon, no. 1. W 23.

2 July, Monday. NEC: Lead Addisonian essay on pride may have been by Nathaniel Gardner.

2 July (b). NEC: Essay on the design of the NEC: "to promote Virtue and real Goodness." It concluded with a list of books in the NEC's office: "Pliny's Natural Hist.; [Flavius] Josephus Ant[iquities of the Jews]; Aristotle's Politicks; History of France; Roman History; Her[man]. Moll's Geography; [John Dunton] Athenian Oracle, Four Volumes. British Apollo; [Peter] Heylin's Cosmography; [Peter] Heylin's Sum of Christian Theology; Cot. Mather's History of New England [i.e., Magnalia Christi Americana]; John Oldmixon's History of the American Colonies [i.e., The British Empire in America]; [George] Sandy's Travels; [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas [Divine Weeks, tr. Joshua Sylvester]; [Gilbert] Burnet's History of the Reformation; [Thomas] Burnet's Theory of the Earth; Virgil; [Samuel Butler's] Hudibras; Milton; [Addison and Steele] The Spectator, Eight Volumes; [Addison and Steele] The Guardian, Two Volumes; [Giovanni Marana] The Turkish Spy; [Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole] Art of Thinking; [Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole] Art of Speaking; The Reader, [ed. Richard Steele]; The Lover; [Abraham] Cowl[e]y's Works; [The Post Boy Rob'd of His Mail; or] The Ladies Pacquet broke open; [Richard Allestree] The Ladies Calling; History of the Affairs of Europe; [John] Oldham's Works; Shakespear's Works; [Jonathan Swift] The Tail of the Tub; St. Augustine's Works; . . . [John] Tillotson's; Dr. [William] Bates's; Dr. [Robert] South's; Mr. [John] Flavel's; and Mr. [Stephen] Charnock's Works, &c, &c, &c, &c. we have also a great Number of Latin Authors, and a vast Quantity of Pamphlets." JF also had some books of engravings, see entry for [John Smith] The Husbandman's Magazine at the end of 1718; see also 22 Sept 1719.

5 July, Thursday. The council attempted to punish JF further with the following resolve: "Whereas in the Paper called the New England Courant, printed Weekly by JF, many passages have been published boldly reflecting on His Majesty's Government and on the Administration of it in this Province, the Ministry, Churches and College; and it very often contains Paragraphs that tend to fill the Readers minds with vanity to the Dishonor of God, and disservice of Good Men.

"Resolved, that no such Weekly Paper be hereafter Printed or Published without the same be first perused and allowed by the Secretary, as has been usual. And that the said Franklin give Security before the Justices of the Superior Court in the Sum of 100£. to be of the good Behaviour to the End of the next Fall Sessions of this Court. Send down for Concurrence.

"Read and Non-concurred. --Printed in the NEC, 16 July. Also in the Journals 4: 72.

6 July, Friday. House voted £500 for Gov. Shute's salary. Journals 4:73.

7 July, Saturday. General Court prorogued, and consequently JF freed.

9 July, Monday, NEC: "Silence Dogood, No. 8." P 1:27-30; W 24-26.

9 July (b). NEC: A Rhode Island poet, p. 2, sends in a poem, with a prefatory note mentioning "the lofty Kitelic Strains." (Cf. 6 Aug.) Calendar 26.

9 July (c): NEC advertisement: "RAN away from his Master Mr. Josiah Franklin of Boston, Tallow-Chandler, on the first of this Instant July, an Irish Man Servant, named William Tinsley, about 20 Years of Age. ... Whoever shall apprehend the said Runaway Servant, and him safely convey to his abovesaid Master, at the blue Ball in Union Street Boston, shall have Forty Shillings Reward, and all necessary Charges paid."

16 July, Monday. NEC: JF asked his enemies "to bear with Patience the unwelcome News of my Enlargement" and printed a vicious poetic attack on himself concluding: "A Jail we think's too goood / For you, and others of the Factious Brood; / We hope to see you on a Jibbet Dangle, / With all the meddling Crew that love to wrangle." Calendar 27. Then JF quoted Mr. Aislabie's speech in the House of Lords, 19 July 1721. JF quoted it again in his defense of 6 May 1723.

23 July, Monday, NEC: "Silence Dogood, No. 9." P 1:30-32. Tourtellot 408, who evidently did not know my essay suggesting that Franklin pointed at Sewall, also thought that Sewall was a logical target. Lemay, "Benjamin Franklin," 208.

23 July (b). NEC: A correspondent gave three reasons against making war on the Indians: "Particular Gentlemen having vast Tracts of Land have settled Families thereon Scattering and disstant from one another and this Province is not oblig'd to be at the Charge of defending them." Despite this bold insight into the motives of the wealthy owners (Elisha Cooke, Oliver Noyes, and the Dudleys) of the Eastern/northern lands, the NEC shifted into a defense of the war; otherwise, the Jesuits would continue to encourage the Indians to kill our fellows.

23 July (c). NEC: Reported that the Indians had attacked Brunswick, killed at least one person, and were "daily plundering the People of their Cattle and Goods, and burning their Houses." Captain Johnson Harmond went after them with his Company, "and finding them asleep, kill'd 18 of them on the Spot, with the Loss of but one of his own Men."

25 July, Wednesday. Gov. Shute and Council declared war on the "Eastern Indians" (ie, the Abnenakis) for the continual skirmishes on the frontier.

30 July, Monday, NEC: Lead essay reprinted chapter 29 of Magna Carta, together with the notes on it (probably from JF's edition of Henry Care's English Liberties, pp. 22-27). JF implied that he was taken up and imprisoned unjustly. He also printed an extract from the Massachusetts Bay Charter giving the right to the General Court "for the Hearing, Trying and Determining of ALL MANNER OF CRIMES."

6 Aug, Monday. NEC: In the lead essay, dated "Newport on Rhode Island," "Insulanus" (who refers to the "Kitelian Tribe") sent in a criticism of the Rhode Island muse (cf. 9 July). Calendar 28.

6 Aug (b). NEC: "Philander," p. 1, col. 2, satirized a government appointment, and quoted Machiavel (cf. 10 Dec for another reference to Machiavel).

6 Aug (c). NEC: At the end of the foreign news, p. 2, col. 2, JF printed: "Sir James Thornhill made a Present to the Town of Weymouth, sometime before he was chosen a Burgess for that Place, of a very fine Altar Piece, and beautified the Church, which it's said cost Three Hundred Pounds." Then the following editorial note appeared: "By this Paragraph we see it is no new Thing for the Churches to receive Presents before the Time of Elections, tho' we do not yet find that the publishing such Things in England is accounted by the generous Donors a Verbal Sacriledge." Cf. William Dudley, 14, 21, and 28 May.

13 Aug, Monday, NEC: Pp. 1-2, Silence Dogood, No. 10. P 1:32-36; W 29-32.

20 Aug, Monday, NEC: P. 1, "Silence Dogood, No. 11." P 1:37-38; W 33-35.

27 Aug, Monday. NEC: Lead essay praised Demosthenes and censured Demades and his family: by capitalizing the letters "Paul" and "Joseph," the essay pointed at the Dudleys.

27 Aug (cont). NEC changed its imprint to: "BOSTON: Printed and Sold by J. Franklin, in Queen-Street, over against Mr. Mills's School, where Advertisements and Letters are taken in. Advertisements are likewise taken in by J. Edwards, at the Corner Shop on the North Side of the Town House. Prince 3d. single, or 10s.a year." Cf. 17 Sept.

3 Sept, Monday. NEC: Anonymous lead essay satirized funeral orations, quoting from the Rev. George Curwin's preface to Thomas Blowers, The Deaths of Eminent Men (Boston: B. Green, 1716). I suspect Nathaniel Gardner wrote this class-conscious essay: "Funeral Complements are for the most part bestow'd on the Rich & Honourable: not that they are the most deserving, for mean obscure Persons may be, and often are full as pious as they; but the misery is they are not able to bequeath such large Donations to the Orators, to Embalm their Memory, and fix an Asterism to their Names."

10 Sept, Monday. NEC: p. 1, "Silence Dogood, No. 12," against drunkenness. P 1: 39-41. James Parton suggested that the word catalogue may have been suggested by Rabelais. Robert D. Arner discussed the essay, "Politics and Temperance," 53-57.

12 Sept, Wednesday. The Rev. Timothy Cutler, the head of Yale College, ended his prayer at the Yale commencement with the Episcopalian formula: "And let all the people say, Amen." Thus he announced his conversion from Congregationalism to Anglicanism.

13 Sept, Thursday. Seven Connecticut ministers announce their doubts of the Congregational way: "To the Rev. Mr. Andrew, and Mr. Woodbridge, and others our Rev. Fathers, present in the Library of Yale College, this 13th of Sept, 1722."

"Reverend Gentlemen, Having represented to you the Difficulties we labour under, in relation to our Continuance out of the visible Communion of an Episcopal Church, and a State of seeming Opposition thereto, either as Private Christians or as Officers; and so being insisted on by some of you (after our repeated declinings of it) that we should sum up our Case in Writing; We do (tho' with great Reluctancy, fearing the Consequences) submit to and comply with it, and signify to you, That some of us doubt of the Validity, and the rest are more fully perswaded of the Invalidity of the Presbyterian Ordination, in Opposition to Episcopal, and should be heartily thankful to God and Man, if we may receive from them Satisfaction herein; and shall be willing to embrace your good Councels and Instructions, in relation to this important Affair, as far as God shall direct and dispose us to it. [Signed] Timothy Cutler. Jared Eliot. Samuel Johnson. John Hart. James Wetmore. Daniel Brown. Samuel Whittelsey."

17 Sept, Monday. NEC: Lead piece is an allegorical poem about JF being imprisoned. Probably by JF. Calendar 29.

Thro' various Forms of Government
They pass'd, till many Years were spent;
But always us'd (to blind the People)
To join the State unto the Steeple;
And those who left the State i'th' Lurch,
Wou'd cry, The Danger of the Church!
Till some o'th' Clergy and the College,
Declar'd against the Sin of Knowledge:
And truly 'tis a fatal Omen,
When Knowledge, which belongs to no Men
But to the Clergy and the Judges,
Gets into the Heads of common Drudges.
But Time at last had brought to Light
A Painter, who in Black and White,
Wou'd ev'ry roguish Face discover,
And send them all the Country over;
And ev'ry Face in ev'ry Town,
Had scores of Knaves to call't his own:
Whether he drew by Art, or blunder'd,
Each knavish Face wou'd fit a'Hundred:
And what betray'd the silly Asses,
They could not help comparing Faces.
Nay, once (where e'er it was he aim'd)
He drew a Face th'whole Senate claim'd;
But tho' they knew the Face was true,
They storm'd to see't expos'd to View.
Look ye! (says one) This saucy Villain!
We're all i'th'Compass of a Shilling!
I wonder how the Rascal draws us,
And in so small a Compass stows us. (ll. 13-42)

18 Sept, Tuesday. Sewall: "Mr. Airs [Obadiah Ayers] shews me a piece of Ground lately bought to build a new Church of England." Diary 2:995. Cf. 24 Sept.

24 Sept, Monday, NEC: "Silence Dogood, No. 13," p. 1, on prostitutes. P 1:41-42; W 37-39.

24 Sept (b). The NEC broke the news of the Connecticut Apostasy: "They write from Connecticut, that the Day after the Commencement at Newhaven, the Reverend Mr. Cutler, President of the College there, and Four or Five other Dissenting Ministers, some of whom have been ordain'd to particular Congregations for Twenty Years past, publickly declared themselves to be of the Principles of the Church of England."

"Some Gentlemen of the Church of England have lately purchas'd a Piece of Ground in the North Part of Boston, in order to erect a New Church there."

1 Oct, Monday. NEC: Lead article contains a mock advertisement concerning Cutler and the Connecticut apostasy.

1 Oct (b). NEC: Local news report, p. 2: "We hear the Reverend Dr. Cotton Mather has been desir'd to take the Charge of the College at Newhaven, in the room of the Reverend Mr. Timothy Cutler who has resign'd that Place."

8 Oct, Monday, NEC: Lead essay, "Silence Dogood, No. 14," is on the Connecticut apostasy. P 1:43-45; W 39-42.

8 Oct (b). NEC: "Jethro Standfast," pp. 1-2, sent in mock-illiterate letter on the Connecticut apostasy. I have argued that "Standfast" is BF. Lemay, "BF and the Connecticut Apostasy," 140-42. Franklin here wrote the first excellent mock-illiterate letter in American literature. Cf. the illiterate letter by John Williams, 12 March (c), and the slightly mock-illiterate letter by Thomas Lane, 30 April (c).

8 Oct (c). NEC printed the "Declaration" of the seven Connecticut ministers. See 13 Sept.

15 Oct, Monday. NEC: Lead essay, pp. 1-2, by "HARRY CONCORD," against strife within Christian sects (and indirectly defending Cutler), attributed to the Rev. Henry Harris by Tourtellot 415.

15 Oct (b). NEC "Irenaeus, Junior," p. 2, col. 1, on the Connecticut apostasy.

post 15 Oct. Benjamin Colman, Jacob's Vow upon his leaving his Father's House ... Octob. 15. 1722 (Boston: James Franllin [sic], 1722). Campbell X28; Evans 2325.

22 Oct, Monday. NEC: "Irenaeus, Junior," lead article on the Apostolic succession.

22 Oct (b). NEC: Unsigned article, p. 1, col. 2, on the Connecticut apostasy.

22 Oct (c). NEC: "Boston, Oct 22. Last Week one of the Chiefs of the Mohawks, lately come to Town, dyed at the Royal Exchange Tavern in King-Street, and was magnificently interr'd on Friday Night last. A drawn Sword lay on the Coffin, and the Pall was supported by Six Captains of the Militia." The Massachusetts authorities had invited the Indians to come to town, hoping to enlist them against the French Indians.

29 Oct, Monday. NEC: "Nausawlander," p. 1, col. 1, ironically suggested that ministers who have performed sacred duties but who now doubt of the truth of the apostolic succession are declaring "all they have been doing in that Office is void, and of none Effect; and then it is to be fear'd, that all those Husbands and Wives who have been married by them (who it seems as yet have no Right to officiate in holy Orders) will take the Liberty (except Love or Conscience oblige them to the contrary) to separate one from the other." The brief prefatory poem is Calendar 30. I attributed this essay to BF. Lemay, "BF and the Connecticut Apostasy," 142-44.

Oct 29 (cont). "Will Whetstone," pp. 1-2, attacks John Campbell and the BNL for poor writing.

5 Nov, Monday. NEC: James Wetmore, Samuel Johnson, and Daniel Brown, three of the Connecticut apostates, made fun of the "tragical Representation" the BNL gave of their actions.

5 Nov (cont). NEC: Under local news, p. 2: "Last Week Mr. Cutler, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Brown came to Town from Connecticut, in order to proceed on their Voyage to London."

12 Nov, Monday. NEC: "Hypercriticus," pp. 1-2, satirized some New England funeral elegies and referred to Silence Dogood's essay.

12 Nov. (b). NEC: T[homas] Robie, p. 2, col. 1-2, dating his letter from "Harv. Col. in Camb., Oct. 20, 1722," gave directions to observe the forthcoming eclipse of the sun.

26 Nov, Monday. NEC: Harry Consort p. 1, col. 1, wrote on singing in the New North Church, quoting Congreve's verse on music's charms from The Mourning Bride: "Music has charms to soothe a savage beast."

26 Nov. (b) NEC: "Just publish'd, and Sold by the Printer hereof, [Benjamin Franklin?] Hoop-Petticoats Arraigned and Condemned, by the Light of Nature, and Law of God" (Boston: Printed and Sold by J. Franklin, 1722). Campbell X33; Evans 2341. The pamphlet travestied Solomon Stoddard's Answer to Some Cases of Conscience (Boston: B. Green for S. Gerrish, 1722); Evans 2387. Printed on 25 June, Stoddard's Answer had claimed that hoop petticoats were "Contrary to the Light of Nature" and that "Hooped Petticoats have something of Nakedness" (p. 15). Nathaniel Gardner, the only Couranteer known to have mocked the jeremiad, could possibly have written it, but the piece mocks Bibliotry and religion, and Gardner was essentially religious. Franklin, who satirized hoop petticoats in Silence Dogood no. 6, is the logical author.

3 Dec, Monday. NEC: "Amoroso" versified JF's essay signed "Belinda" (19 March). Calendar 32.

3 Dec (b). "Hugo Grim," p. 2, col. 1, asked for the whereabouts of Silence Dogood. I believe "Grim" was BF; Canon, no. 2. W 43.

6 Dec, Thursday. House: "An Accompt signed Samuel Gerrish amounting to 6£ 1s. for Printing Mr. Webb's Sermon, by Order of this House." Journals 4: 136. Cf. 17 Nov. Note that BF used the pseudonym Samuel Gerrish in his mock Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle (W960).

10 Dec, Monday. NEC: "Tom Freeman," pp. 1-2, attacked clergymen who turn flatterers, thus pointing at the clergy's (especially Cotton Mather's) support of Gov. Shute. Referred to Machiavel (cf. 6 Aug, above). Fireoved 233, # 36, suggested that Nathaniel Gardner was Tom Freeman, based on Captain Taylor's ad in the 4 Feb 1722/3 BNL. Cf. 24 Dec for Freeman.

17 Dec, Monday. NEC: Unsigned lead essay lamented driving coaches on Sunday.

17 Dec. (b). NEC: To be "speedily published": A brief Narrative or Poem, giving an Account of the Hostile Actions of some Pagan Indians towards Lieut Jacob Tilton ... Composed by the ingenious W.G." Ford, Mass. Broadsides # 483. Though not extant, it was reprinted in 1774; Ford # 1725; Evans 13289; NEHGR 2:271.

21 Dec, Friday. Governor Shute proposed to the Council that he adjourn the General Court over Christmas. Sewall and the conservative Puritans among the Council disagreed. Sewall: "I said the Dissenters came a great way for their Liberties and now the Church had theirs, yet they could not be contented, except they might Tread all others down. Govr. said he was of the Church of England." Diary 2:1001.

22 Dec, Saturday. Sewall: "About a quarter of an hour before 12. the Govr. adjourn'd the Court to Wednesday morn 10 .a-clock, and sent Mr. Secretary into the House of Deputies to do it there." Diary 2:1001.

24 Dec, Monday. NEC: "T. FREEMAN," p. 2, cols. 1-2, writes from New Hampshire that Henry Care's English Liberties has inspired the province. Cf. 10 Dec. for Freeman.

28 Dec, Friday. House: Ordered, That the Reverend Mr. John Wise of Ipswich, be desired to Preach the next Election Sermon, and that John Wainwright Esq; and Mr. Nathaniel Knoulton wait on him for that end." Journals 4: 170. As usual, Wise refused.

30 Dec, Sunday. Sewall: "Notes are put up in many Congregations to this effect, His Excellency Gov. Shute, bound to Sea, desires prayers." Diary 2: 1002. Cf. 31 Dec (a).

31 Dec, Monday. NEC: Local news, p. 2: "On Friday last we were surpriz'd with the News of his Excellency our Governour's Design to go for England. He went privately on board his Majesty's Ship Sea-Horse (bound to Barbadoes) on Thursday in the Afternoon, and wrote a letter to the Hon. William Dummer Esq; our Lieutenant Governour, desiring him to take his Place in the Government, and acquaint the Council that he had taken his Passage for Barbadoes, in order to go from thence to London, and intended to return hither in the Fall. The Reasons of his Excellency's sudden Departure (at this Juncture) are variously guess'd at; but it being our Business to relate Matters of Fact, we shall purposely omit mentioning the different Surmises of People. However, it is certain that he has hereby depriv'd the Town of an Opportunity of showing those publick Marks of Respect, which are undoubtedly due to him for his WISE and JUST Administration among us."

31 Dec. (b). The Boston selectmen admitted Brice Blair, tailor, of "Martins vineyard" as an inhabitant, with his wife and four children, with Josiah Franklin and James Davenport as his sureties for £100. RRC 13:1, 108.

Specific date in 1722 lacking. Josiah Franklin paid off or refinanced his old mortgage with Simeon Stoddard for the property on Union Street. The former mortgage for £250 was taken out with Simeon Stoddard on 25 Jan 1711/2; this one was for £200. Shurtleff 631 wrote: "the first mortgage being paid before the second was made, and the last cancelled in due time."

A checklist of JF publications for 1722:

1. The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, of the Old and New- Testament: Faithfully translated into English Meeter. Twentieth [Twenty-first?] edition. Boston: J. Franklin. Campbell X27; Evans 2317.

2. Benjamin Colman. Jacob's Vow upon his leaving his Father's House. Boston: James Frankllin [sic] 1722. Campbell X28; Evans 2325.

3. William Douglass. The Abuses and Scandals of some late pamphlets in favour of Inoculation of the Small-Pox. Boston: J. Franklin. Campbell X29; Evans 2331.

4. William Douglass. Postscript. Being a Short Answer to Matters of Fact, &c. Misrepresented in a late Doggrel Dialogue. Boston: J. Franklin. Campbell X31; Evans 2333.

5. W. G. A Brief Nattative, or Poem, giving an Account of the Hostile Actions of some Pagan Indians towards Lieutenant Jacob Tilton ... [Boston: J. Franklin, 1722.] Ford # 483; rpt 1774: Ford #1725.

6. Hoop Petticoats, Arraigned and Condemned by the Light of Nature and Law of God. Boston: J. Franklin, 1722. Campbell X33; Evans 2341.

7. Cotton Mather. Bethiah. The Glory which adorns the Daughters of God. Boston: J. Franklin. Campbell X34; E2353.

8. Rusticus. A Friendly Debate: or, A Dialogue between Rusticus and Academicus. Boston: J. Franklin. Campbell X37; E2386.

9. Nathaniel Vincent. A Discourse on Forgiveness. Boston: J.Franklin. Campbell X39; E2394.

10. William Winstanley. The New Help to Discourse. Eighth edition. Boston: Reprinted and sold by J.Franklin. Campbell X42; E2408; Reilly 1501, 1502. Two reliefs cuts by JF.

Note: Cotton Mather's Repeated Admonitions (Campbell X35; E2359) is actually a ghost of Evans 2673, which was printed by Thomas Fleet, not by JF.