SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
The oft-repeated supposition that Sarah Holmes was a great-niece of Benjamin Franklin is founded upon a family tradition that their relative Mary Franklin had been an aunt of Benjamin Franklin, and there is no preserved verification that such was indeed the case. The concept that any number of the Tappan male offspring would receive the name “Benjamin” in order to evoke this supposed association with the famous family of Franklin is clearly spurious as the name “Benjamin” had been popular among the Tappans from the very beginnings of that family in America. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1747
October 21, Wednesday (Old Style): Birth of Benjamin Tappan in Manchester, Massachusetts. TAPPAN FAMILY
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
Sarah Holmes Tappan “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1748
January 2, Saturday (1747, Old Style): Sarah Holmes was born in Boston, a daughter of William Holmes, Sr. with Rebecca Holmes. TAPPAN FAMILY
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
Sarah Holmes Tappan “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1760
The population of Boston at this point was 15,631, of which some 8% were black. Ordinarily, racial minorities were banned from Boston’s public spaces at important times — they could not, for instance, enter the town Common during militia musters. Also, a 1723 law had barred them from the Common after dark and a 1746 had barred them from “unnecessary” strolling on public streets on Sunday. Custom seems also to have endorsed attacks on well-dressed blacks during the celebratory week of Harvard Commencement. According to a broadside that dates to approximately this year, however,
“Whites & Blacks & Indians too And trulls of every sort”
were being expected to be present at a barbecue on the Boston Common in celebration of Council Election Day. Question: would this have been actual blackskins and actual redskins and actual trulls of every sort, or was this an invitation to a general costume party in which the white people of Boston, who were allowed to attend events on the Common, were being expected to show up in fantastical costumes?
In about this year Benjamin Tappan became an apprentice to the silversmith William Holmes in Boston.
Daniel Bliss of Concord, a son of the Reverend Daniel Bliss, graduated from Harvard College. He would read law with Abel Willard, Esq. of Lancaster.
DANIEL B LISS [of Concord], son of Rev. Daniel Bliss, was born March 18, 1740, and graduated [at Harvard College] in 1760. He read law with Abel Willard, Esq., of Lancaster, and was admitted to HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN the bar in Worcester County in May, 1765, and soon after commenced practice in Rutland. He removed to Concord in 1772. He married a daughter of Colonel Murray of Rutland, and, in imitation of his father-in-law, embraced principles opposed by the “sons of liberty.” In March, 1775, he left Concord, and was afterwards commissary in the British army at Québec. He subsequently settled in Fredericktown, New Brunswick, where he was a counsellor at law, and afterwards chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He died in 1806, aged 66. His was the only estate in Concord confiscated by the government. He was a man of great talents, popular manners, and energy of character.1 ALL CONCORD COLLEGE GRADS
1. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1768
Due to refusal of Bostonians to pay the small taxes imposed by the Townshend Revenue Acts of 1767, the Royal governor declared that settlement to be in insurrection and caused 4,000 British troops to be disembarked in the harbor. The surrounding towns of the Bay Colony raised “alarm-list companies,” or “minute-men,” pledged to be ready at a moment’s call in case of attack. The colonial Assembly was dissolved when it refused to assist in the collection of taxes. British army troops were quartered in Boston’s Town House and in Faneuil Hall.
British troops on Boston Common in 1768, per Lee Remick’s ancestor Christopher Remick
Benjamin Tappan relocated from Boston to Northampton, Massachusetts. Court records in Northampton show Benjamin Tappan of Northampton, goldsmith, sold land to Nathaniel Fowles trader, of the same place, and to George Blackman in 1794. Other deeds recorded in Springfield, Hampshire County, bear reference to his trade. A goldsmith for about 20 years, he later went into general business—dry goods, hardware, etc., and altogether was in business in Northampton 62 years.
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
Sarah Holmes Tappan “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1769
Sarah Holmes Tappan attended a revival at Falmouth and became convinced that, for her own regeneration, she would require the aid of the Holy Spirit as well as that of her fellow sinners, that only by intercession of Christ could she be sustained in her struggle against the world and the flesh, and that her finding a way to bend her personal will into submission to the Providence of God would constitute the only appropriate expression of her love for Him. She would become the mother and the inspiration of the abolitionists Lewis Tappan and Arthur Tappan.
TAPPAN FAMILY Shipbuilding was concentrated in the American colonies in such a manner that, between 1769 and 1771, over 400 vessels amounting to more than a third of the tonnage was produced in Massachusetts shipyards. In general, two classes of ships were being produced, the “topsail” ships which ranged from 100 to more than 400 tons, intended for the transatlantic trade, and the “sloops” and “schooners” intended for fishing and for the coastal trade. Twice as many sloops and schooners were being produced as topsail ships.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
Sarah Holmes Tappan “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1770
October 22, Monday: Benjamin Tappan got married with Sarah Holmes in Boston.
TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1771
August 1, Thursday: Sarah Holmes Tappan gave birth to Sarah Tappan in Northampton, Massachusetts. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1773
May 25, Tuesday: In Northampton, Massachusetts, Sarah Holmes Tappan gave birth to Benjamin Tappan, Jr. In 1793 he would come away from college with a bachelor’s degree in his pocket, Voltaire as his theologian, and with Thomas Paine’s THE RIGHTS OF MAN as his credo. –He would be the last son the Tappans would offer to any institution of higher education. He would study art for awhile with Gilbert Stuart and learn the dangers of alcohol, then become a lawyer in Connecticut, then become a merchant in Ohio, and a senator, and a judge. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1775
July 14, Friday: In Northampton, Massachusetts, Sarah Holmes Tappan gave birth to Rebecca Tappan. TAPPAN FAMILY
At about this part of the month, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, ceased to exercise the functions of his office as he, his wife, and their children took refuge on board the British man-of-war Fowey. From aboard ship he would attempt to instigate the American slaves to servile insurrection. White Virginians would respond by assembling for a convention. The British frigates would then shell the port of Hampton on Hampton Bay and the royal governor would proclaim martial law. Under martial law he would declare freedom for “all slaves or servants, black or white, belonging to rebels, provided they would take up arms and join the royal troops.” The governor would come ashore at Norfolk and hundreds of loyalists and black Americans would journey there to join with him.
I AM A NEGATIVE PHILOSOPHER, NOT A POSITIVE ONE: PHILOSOPHY NOT BEING ANY SORT OF SCIENCE, I WOULD HOLD THAT ANY PHILOSOPHICAL ASSERTION THAT TRAVELS UNDER THE PRETENSE THAT IT IS FACTUAL AND ACTUAL MUST BE, TO THE CONTRARY, NECESSARILY SPURIOUS AND UNSUBSTANTIATED. A GOOD EXAMPLE IS THE OFT-HEARD SUPPOSITION “GOD KNOWS THE FUTURE.” AS A NEGATIVIST I NEGATE ANY AND ALL SUCH ASSERTIONS. THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE ME TO REPLACE THESE PSEUDOFACTUAL PHILOSOPHICAL ASSERTIONS WITH MY OWN COUNTERCLAIMS, SUCH AS A POSITIVE ASSERTION THAT IN ORDER TO ALLOW FOR FREE WILL AND FREEDOM OF DECISION “GOD CANNOT KNOW THE FUTURE.” I DO NOT INTEND TO TAKE YOUR GRITTY, GRIMY TEDDY BEAR AWAY FROM YOU AND PRESENT YOU WITH A CUTE CUDDLY PANDA. I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR TEDDY LEAVING YOU EMPTY-ARMED. I HAVE SAID THAT RATHER THAN BEING OF THE OPINION OF BOETHIUS, WHO WROTE IN 523AD THAT GOD, BEING ETERNAL, MUST BE “OUTSIDE” TIME AND ABLE TO VIEW THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE AS INDIFFERENTLY AND UNCHANGINGLY PRESENT IN HIS ONE WHOLE CREATION, I AM INCLINED TO THE OPINION OF MAIMONIDES, WHO WROTE IN THE 12TH CENTURY THAT ACCORDING TO THE TALMUD FREE WILL IS GRANTED TO EVERY PERSON BY GOD SO THAT WE MAY BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO OUR ACTIONS. AS GERSONIDES POINTED OUT IN THE 14TH CENTURY, THERE ARE DECIDED LIMITS TO HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN FOREKNOWLEDGE, AS GOD CANNOT KNOW IN ADVANCE WHICH CHOICE A FREE INDIVIDUAL, IN HIS OR HER FREEDOM, WILL MAKE: “I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH, BLESSING AND CURSE: THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE.” HOWEVER, I WAS LYING WHEN I SAID THAT. ACTUALLY I HAVE NO PREFERENCE FOR THE PSEUDOPHILOSOPHICAL RANTINGS OF MAIMONIDES AND GERSONIDES OVER THE PSEUDOPHILOSOPHICAL RANTINGS OF BOETHIUS. I AM ENTIRELY NEGATIVE. THERE IS NOT A POSITIVE BONE IN MY BODY. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1777
July 14, Monday: In Northampton, Massachusetts, Sarah Holmes Tappan gave birth to Lucy Tappan. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1779
July 21, Wednesday: Sarah Holmes Tappan, mother of Benjamin Tappan, Jr., gave birth to William Tappan, who would grow up to be a drunkard and a shirker. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1781
July 26, Thursday: In Boston, Sarah Holmes Tappan gave birth to John Tappan, who would grow up to be religious, settled, generally prosperous, and untempted by unpopular causes. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1784
August 8, Sunday: Sarah Holmes Tappan gave birth to Charles Tappan, who would grow up to be religious, settled, generally prosperous, and untempted by unpopular causes. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1786
May 22, Monday: Sarah Holmes Tappan, mother of Benjamin Tappan, Jr. and William Tappan, gave birth to Arthur Tappan, who all his life would be tortured by headaches. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1788
May 26, Monday: Sarah Tappan gave birth to Lewis Tappan, the younger brother of Benjamin Tappan, Jr., William Tappan, and Arthur Tappan, with the assistance of midwife “Granny” Allen — who charged mothers $1.00 for this service. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1793
Benjamin Tappan, Jr., eldest son of Sarah Tappan and Benjamin Tappan, Sr., came away from college with a bachelor’s degree in his pocket, with Vol tair e as his theologian, and with Thomas Paine’s THE RIGHTS OF MAN as his credo. –He would be the last son the Tappans would offer to any institution of higher education. He would study art for a while with Gilbert Stuart and learn the dangers of alcohol, then become an Ohio lawyer, then become a merchant.
TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1795
At about this point Benjamin Tappan became a partner in the firm Tappan & Fowle of Northampton, Massachusetts. TAPPAN FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1805
Sylvestre François Lacroix’s ESSAIS SUR L’ENSEIGNEMENT EN GÉNÉRAL ET SUR CELUI DES MATHÉMATIQUES EN PARTICULIER and TRAITÉ ÉLÉMENTAIRE D’ARITHMÉTIQUE À L’USAGE DE L’ECOLE CENTRALE DES QUATRE- o NATIONS (A Paris: Chez Courcier, Imprimeur - Libraire pour les Mathématiques, quai des Augustins, n 71).
After studying theology at Andover, John Farrar became a tutor in Greek at Harvard College. NEW “HARVARD MEN”
(In what follows, don’t become confused by different Benjamin Tappans: confusion will not be tolerated.)
At about this point one Benjamin Tappan became a partner in the firm Tappan & Whitney in Northampton, Massachusetts. Another Benjamin Tappan graduated from Harvard College. There was a struggle over the “Hollis Chair of Divinity” that had fallen vacant with the death of his father David Tappan, between Trinitarians and Unitarians, which the Unitarians won by electing the Reverend Henry Ware, Sr., the 1st faculty member of Harvard not an avowed Trinitarian and Calvinist. The repugnance the “Hopkinsians” and “Old Calvinists” felt to this theologian’s opinions of the original goodness of humankind would lead them to infer that all Harvard had been captured — they would in response in 1808 create the Andover Theological Seminary.
The leader of the Trinitarians in this struggle had been the conservative Reverend Jedediah Morse of Charlestown. His son Samuel F.B. Morse would become a radical Unitarian, and dedicate his life to the eradication of what appeared to him to constitute the original sin, Catholicism.2 But Professor Ware’s conception of man’s “natural affections,” that they occasioned “error and sin” not by any inherent depravity, but simply because they were susceptible to corruption by a “wrong direction,” would not substantially alter over the years.
Hollis Chair of Divinity
Edward Wigglesworth 1722-1765 Calvinist Congregationalist
Edward Wigglesworth, son 1765-1792 Calvinist Congregationalist
David Tappan 1792-1803 Calvinist Congregationalist
Henry Ware, Sr. 1805-1840 Unitarian Congregationalist
David Gordon Lyon 1882-1910 Baptist
James Hardy Ropes 1910-1933 Trinitarian Congregationalist
Henry Joel Cadbury 1934-1954 Quaker
Amos Niven Wilder 1956-1963 Congregationalist
George Huntston Williams 1963-1980 Unitarian
Harvey Gallagher Cox, Jr. 2001-2009 Baptist
Karen Leigh King 2009- Episcopalian
2. Be aware that the name “Unitarian” was not in use until 1815, and that it originated in the Reverend Jedediah Morse’s attempt to associate his theological enemies with the heretical notions of the Reverend Joseph Priestley and Belsham. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1819
Lewis Tappan had been persuaded by the preaching of the Reverend William Ellery Channing to abandon the Calvinist creed of his mother in favor of Unitarianism. It is interesting that the parents, Benjamin Tappan and Sarah Tappan, had no immediate objection to this because, although the Reverend Channing was understood to be somewhat on the liberal side, while at Harvard Divinity he had been one of Hollis Professor of Divinity, the Reverend Doctor David Tappan’s better students. However, by 1815 the Reverend Channing had become so radical as to be preaching that: • The Puritan position had overly distrusted the moral capabilities of humankind. • The Puritans had been considerably in error in painting a portrait of a supreme being who was, essentially, unlovable. • The doctrine that there were 3 persons in the Godhead was merely divisive and difficult, was something which somebody had made up which was irrational, unprovable, and unscriptural.
By this point Sarah and Benjamin had learned enough about the new views of the Reverend Channing to become thoroughly frightened for the souls of their children, in particular for Lewis. The mother began a campaign which would continue until her death in 1826, to persuade the son to:
shun those fashionable preachers, who prophecy smooth things that will lull you into a false security.
TAPPAN FAMILY Meanwhile, however, her son’s concern was not so much for the condition of his own soul as for the salvation of others, as he sought to raise funds on a project to send a Unitarian missionary to redeem the benighted heathens of India, and as he sought a local crusade for the repression of Intemperance.
Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, whose stage name would be “Lola Montez,” was taken to India as an infant.
TRALFAMADORIANS EXPERIENCE REALITY IN 4 DIMENSIONS RATHER THAN 3 AND HAVE SIMULTANEOUS ACCESS TO PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. THEY ARE ABLE TO SEE ALONG THE TIMELINE OF THE UNIVERSE TO THE EXACT TIME AND PLACE AT WHICH AS THE RESULT OF A TRALFAMADORIAN EXPERIMENT, THE UNIVERSE IS ANNIHILATED. BILLY PILGRIM, WHILE CAGED IN A TRALFAMADORIAN ZOO, ACQUIRES THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARD TIME, AND SO WHEN HE RETURNS TO EARTH, HE BECOMES A HISTORIAN VERY LIKE ALL OUR OTHER HISTORIANS: ALTHOUGH HE CANNOT HIMSELF SEE INTO THE FUTURE THE WAY THE TRALFAMADORIANS DO, LIKE ALL OUR OTHER HUMAN HISTORIANS DO HE PRETENDS TO BE ABLE TO SEE ALL PERIODS OF OUR PAST HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN TRAJECTORY NOT WITH THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE LIVING DURING THOSE PERIODS, BUT WITH THE OVERARCHING EYE OF GOD. THIS ENABLES HIM TO PRETEND TO BE VERY VERY WISE AND TO SOUND VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE!
Sarah Holmes Tappan “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1826
March 26, Easter Sunday: Through the agency of Sir George Smart, a Dr. Severin went to see Carl Maria von Weber in London. The doctor told Weber not to worry and prescribed pills and a rabbit skin to be put on his chest.
A constitution for Brazil was promulgated. It provided for a hereditary monarchy and a bicameral parliament.
Sarah Holmes Tappan died in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Alvan Clark got married with Maria Pease.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 26th of 3rd M 1826 / Yesterday Afternoon Our friend Thomas Anthony & Wm Reynolds came from Greenwich, took tea & lodged with us — they also Dined with us today & attended both our meetings - Thomas’s ministry was as a refreshing rain on parched land - The hearts of the brethren were comforted & much refreshed thereby, & were thankful on his account as well as our own that there were evidences of life yet remaining — Thomas I have long known & loved he was an early correspondent of mine, in tender Years, when we took sweet council together. — We took tea at Father Rodmans with them, & then I waited on them to D Buffum from whence they went to J Dennis’s RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1831
January 29, Saturday: The Liberator.
Benjamin Tappan died in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 29 of 1 M 1831 / Today Arnold Paine was here from Cumberland & informed us of the decease of Old Jeremiah Wilkinson Aged 91 Years & that his funeral is to be this Afternoon. —There is also a funeral this Afternoon of an Aged Woman friend at Scituate RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN
1833
January 8, Tuesday: New-York businessman and philanthropist Lewis Tappan wrote to his skeptic brother Benjamin Tappan, Jr. in Steubenville, Ohio, to alert him to the prospect of his eternal damnation.
TAPPAN FAMILY
On the 41st birthday of the musician who was inspiring its formation, Lowell Mason, the Boston Academy of Music was organized. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2017. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: December 6, 2017 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in HDT WHAT? INDEX
SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN SARAH HOLMES TAPPAN the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with