ABSTRACT
I was born in Portsmouth, N. H. in the year 1807. My parents were not so wealthy as some, but were hard laborers and good livers and were respected by all who knew them. I had six brothers and two sisters, I being the youngest son out of seven. My sisters were younger than myself. When I became of the age of four years I was sent to school till I arrived at the age of ten. In the year 1817, I was sent to a trade 16 miles from Portsmouth, in a place called Wadly’s Falls, in Lee. Here I staid two years, working at the Saddler’s trade, with old Timothy Mosley. I returned to Portsmouth shortly after this, his son having taken up the trade of Tanning 1 and Currying, 2 he sent for me and I went back and staid two years and a half longer, till I had almost completed my trade in the month of August, in the year 1821, when I returned back to Portsmouth. He was shortly after killed, by a load of hay, the wheel of the cart passing over his body. During my stay with Mr Mosley, he hired some hands to work on his farm and other places, and it was customary for me to be with them. About the year 1820, a book called. “The Portraiture of / Shakerism,” 3 published by the authority of Mary Dyer 4 (her husband 5 was then living in Endfield, N. H.) 6 bearing upon its unhallowed leaves, abuses against that people of the most outrageous import. People all around seemed to look upon it with dismay. It seemed as though there would be an insurrection, and this would prove fatal to their overthrow.
