The Reverend Andrew Bigelow, D.D
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THE REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. This Harvard graduate wrote a travelogue about his journey in the Mediterranean, and donated a copy of it to the library of the Institute of 1770 at Harvard College, of which Thoreau was a member. Thoreau may have seen this volume, and mimicked its style of writing in his A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS. (We lack confirmation, however, that while Thoreau was an undergraduate he ever cracked open the Reverend Bigelow’s volume about his TRAVELS IN MALTA AND SICILY, WITH SKETCHES OF GIBRALTAR.} 1795 May 7, Thursday: Andrew Bigelow was born in Groton, Massachusetts to the Honorable Timothy Bigelow (an eminent lawyer and statesman, son of Colonel Timothy Bigelow of the Revolutionary Army, who went with Arnold to Quebec and afterward commanded the 16th Regiment) with Lucy Prescott Bigelow (a daughter of the Honorable Oliver Prescott, brother to Colonel William Prescott the hero of Bunker Hill). 1814 Thomas Bulfinch and Andrew Bigelow graduated from Harvard College. NEW “HARVARD MEN” (Bigelow would be studying for the law, and then switch to divinity.) HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. 1817 James Walker was a member of the first class to be graduated from the new Harvard Divinity School, and became the minister of a “Harvard” church in Charlestown, which formed when the liberal faction seceded from 1st Church there (he would be the minister there for the following 21 years). Andrew Bigelow also graduated from Harvard Divinity School in this initial year and, because of the wealth of his family and the excellence of his social connections, would travel to Edinburgh, Scotland. 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW 1820 At the age of 18, Lydia Maria Francis (Lydia Maria Child) became a teacher in Gardiner, Maine. There she began to make herself familiar with the thought of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Reverend Andrew Bigelow was ordained as an Evangelist and delivered and published SERMON AT THE DEDICATION OF THE FIRST CONGRESSIONAL MEETING-HOUSE IN EASTPORT, MAINE. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. 1821 When the potato crop again failed in Ireland as it had in 1800-1801 and in 1816-1819, the nature of Irish emigration began to change drastically. Previously the immigrants to America had come from families of Protestants in the North who could afford the transatlantic fare. Suddenly the British government was organizing mass emigration from the South in order to avert famine in the counties of Mayo, Clare, Kerry, and Cork. Some 50,000 would starve or die of starvation-related diseases from Donegal to Youghal (the years of the West Ireland potato famines: 1739, 1816, 1821, 1822, 1831, 1835, 1836, mid-1840s). The goal of the Colonial Office was to provide 2,000 “assisted places” per year. At first the poor Irish Catholics assumed that the grim ships were “transportation”, taking their friends and relatives to what would amount to penal servitude in Australia — which, given the climate of British opinion in regard to the Irish as would be witnessed for instance soon in the early published attitudes of Thomas Carlyle, would not in those times one would have to acknowledge have been an altogether unrealistic suspicion. The Reverend Andrew Bigelow’s LEAVES FROM A JOURNAL; OR SKETCHES OF RAMBLES IN SOME PARTS OF 1 NORTH BRITAIN AND IRELAND. CHIEFLY IN THE YEAR 1817 (Boston: Wells and Lilly, Court-Street). TRAVELS OF ANDREW (I) (He also published a farewell sermon he had preached at his new church in Eastport, Maine.) 1. If you bet that in the course of these foreign travels the good Reverend had learned nothing about prospects of famine.... 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW According to Simon Heffer’s MORAL DESPERADO: A LIFE OF THOMAS CARLYLE (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995), page 42: In the ten years between the 1811 and 1821 censuses the population of Britain rose by 17%, from 12,000,000 to 14,000,000. Wages, which had risen steadily in real terms since the start of the Napoleonic Wars, were now beginning a downward progress that would not be stopped until after the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 — three years after Thomas Carlyle had railed against the economic and social conditions in England in PAST AND PRESENT. The political establishment was unsteady, the King mad, his son the Prince Regent dissolute and disliked. High stamp duties, of 4d on a newspaper, limited the circulation of opinions hostile to the Tory government or Lord Liverpool. A rash of prosecutions for seditious libel, and for the defamation of the King and his ministers, also occurred in 1817, as another means of encouraging conformity. A fall in demand immediately after the war led to a great rise in unemployment, exacerbated by the reduction in manpower of the army and navy. Sporadic rioting, and disturbances even among the middle classes, fed the Tory establishment’s fear Soon, however, letters would begin to arrive from the new continent, explaining that in fact they had not been taken around the world to Australia, that there were not very many anti-Catholic riots or lynchings going on in America, or at least not at that moment, that it was relatively easy to slip across the border from the United States of America to freedom in Canada, that it was relatively easy and risk-free for white people to walk away from the indenture systems then in effect in the USA and assume new identities, etc. Population Trends England / Wales Ireland 1821 12,000,000 6,800,000 1831 13,900,000 7,770,000 1841 15,920,000 8,180,000 1845 about 16,700,000 about 8,300,000 (blight, then famine, fever, and emigration) 1851 17,930,000 6,550,000 1861 20,070,000 5,800,000 1871 31,629,299 5,410,000 1881 35,026,108 5,170,000 “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. 1823 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow was settled as the minister of First Parish at Medford, as successor to the Reverend Dr. David Osgood (there was division in the church, with the smaller group departing to form a Trinitarian congregation and the larger group staying with the Reverend Bigelow as Unitarians). 1824 William Henry Furness became minister of the 1st Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. He would be the author of some thirteen Transcendentalist hymns. Francis W.P. Greenwood was brought in to assist the Reverend James Freeman at the Stone Chapel (Greenwood eventually would succeed him). In Medford, Massachusetts, the Unitarians situated themselves as the “First Congregational Church” while the Trinitarians situated themselves as the “Second Congregational Church” (the Unitarians purchased, for $450, an organ). 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW January 26, Monday: Theodore Gericault died in Paris at the age of 32. The Reverend Andrew Bigelow got married with Amelia Sargent Stanwood. Robert Blum Woodward was born in Providence, Rhode Island. (In 1852 he would open a hotel, the “What Cheer House” at the corner of Sacramento and Leidesdorff Streets in San Francisco, and in due course, after years of taking care of business, he would retire in California rather more wealthy than not.) 1825 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow’s memoir of Massachusetts Governor John Brooks appeared in the Christian Examiner. 1827 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow published a couple of sermons he had preached in Chelsea. 1828 January 6, Sunday: The Reverend Andrew Bigelow preached in Reading’s North Parish on “Signs of the Moral Age.” This would be published in Boston by Bowles and Dearborn, 72 Washington Street, and the press of Isaac R. Butts & Co. SIGNS OF THE MORAL AGE (During this year he would also publish a sermon on “Pastoral Responsibility” preached before a congregation in Washington DC.) Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 6th of 1 M / In the Morning we had an unusual solid Meeting. D Buffum Rose with the text “Mind your calling brethren” - he exhorted us to faithfulness as he did not believe our society was raised up for a day but designed to stand. We had been of great use in the world in abolishing Slavery & enlightening mankind respecting Priest crafts - & nothstanding the many discouraging prospects from revoltings in various parts, he believed our society would stand —he was followed in short testimonys by Father ROdman & Hannah Dennis. — Silent Meeting in the Afternoon RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. 1829 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow’s “Paul at Athens” was featured in LIBERAL PREACHER. 1830 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow’s “Communion Lecture” at Framingham, Massachusetts was published. 1831 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow’s TRAVELS IN MALTA AND SICILY, WITH SKETCHES OF GIBRALTAR IN M DCCC XXVII (Boston: Published by Carter, Hendee & Babcock. New York — Elam Bliss). TRAVELS OF ANDREW (II) 8 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 9 HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ANDREW BIGELOW ANDREW BIGELOW, D.D. 1832 The Reverend Andrew Bigelow’s “Christian Liberty,” a sermon delivered at Derry, New Hampshire, was published. His Unitarian First Congregational Church of Medford, Massachusetts erected, for $3,805, a parsonage, and built a new meetinghouse on the site of the previous one.