“JOHN ELIOT.”

Following this missive a letter on quite a different subject, dictated by the redoubtable Indian chief, King Philip, may be interesting.  It bears date of 1672, and is addressed to Captain Hopestill Foster of Dorchester: 

“S’r you may please to remember that when I last saw You att Walling river You promised me six pounds in goods; now my request is that you would send me by this Indian five yards of White light collered serge to make me a coat and a good Holland shirt redy made; and a p’r of good Indian briches all of which I have present need of, therefoer I pray S’r faile not to send them by my Indian and with them the severall prices of them; and silke & buttens & 7 yards Gallownes for trimming; not else att present to trouble you w’th onley the subscription of

  “KING PHILIP,

  “his Majesty P.P.”

One of the best commentaries on the lives and characters of the chief actors in the history of the Dorchester Plantation may be read on the tombstones that mark the places where their precious dust was deposited.  From Rev. Richard Mather, the most noted pastor of the church of that period, to the humblest contemporary of his who enjoyed the rights and priveleges of a free-holder, none was so mean or obscure that a characteristic, if not fitting, epitaph did not mark the place of his sepulture.  From the many well worth perusing, the following are singled and transcribed for the readers of this sketch.

Epitaph of James Humfrey, “one of y’e ruling elders of Dorchester,” in the form of an acrostic: 

  “I nclos’d within this shrine is precious dust. 
   A nd only waits ye rising of ye just. 
   M ost usefull while he liu’d, adorn’d his Station,
   E uen to old age he Seur’d his Generation.

   H ow great a Blessing this Ruling Elder be
   U nto the Church & Town:  & Pastors Three. 
   M ather he first did by him help Receiue;
   F lynt did he next his burden much Relieue;
   R enouned Danforth he did assist with Skill: 
   E steemed high by all; Bear fruit Untill,
   Y eilding to Death his Glorious seat did fill.”

When Elder Hopestill Clapp died his pastor, Rev. John Danforth, composed the following verses for his grave stone: 

  “His Dust waits till ye Jubile,
  Shall then Shine brighter than ye Skie;
  Shall meet and join to part no more,
  His soul that Glorify’d before. 
  Pastors and Churches happy be,
  With Ruling Elders such as he;
  Present useful, Absent Wanted,
  Liv’d Desired, Died Lamented.”

William Pole, an eccentric citizen of the village, before his demise, composed an epitaph to be chiseled on his monument, “Y’t so being dead he might warn posterity; or, a resemblance of a dead man bespeaking y’e reader;” so under a death’s head and cross-bones it stands thus: