Governors Academy - Milestone Yearbook (Byfield, MA)

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children, W'illiam, Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Hannah and Richard. He and his wife lie buried near the trayneing green in Newbury. Their gravestones bear the follow- ing inscriptions: Richard Dummer, Esq. Died December ye' 14th 1679 in his 880' year, and Mrs. Francis Dummer died in the jon' year of her Age being the 19th day of November 1631 Of Richard Dummer's live children by his second wife, W'illiam and Nathaniel died without marrying. The youngest son, Richard, Jr., married Flizabeth Appleton, and is the ancestor of Joseph N. Dummer, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Governor Dummer Academy. The daughter, Hannah, married Rev. James Allen, pastor ofthe First Church of Boston lFounded I63Ol. Later ministers ofthis Church, Thomas Foxcroft and Charles Chauncy, were named as the first Trustees of Govern- or Dummer Academy, along with Nathaniel Dummer, a son of Richard Jr. Jeremiah, the second son of Richard Dummer by his second wife, was born at Newbury on 14 Sept. 1645. Shortly before he was fourteen he was sent to Boston for an eight-years' apprenticeship to John Hull the Silversmith and Master of the Klint. Hull lived on the south-west corner of the present Washington Street and Temple Place, and his silver shop and mint were probably near by. After his apprenticeship Jeremiah set up business for himself, and became a notable silversmith whose pieces are highly valued by collectors. He made five standing cups and a tankard for the communion table of the First Church of Boston. These pieces were given by various people, as was the custom in those days, and are now on exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Of most interest is a cup inscribed as follows: Hx dono A D se: Testm J A The initials are for Anna Dummer, wife of Jeremiah, and Joshua Atwater, her father. On 9 June ITOQ the Connecticut .Assembly enacted a bill providing for the print- ing of bills ofcredit on the Colony, because of the great scarcity of money. Jeremiah Dummer was commissioned to print this money in suitable sums from two shillings to five pounds to the value of I0,000 pounds, from plates presumably engraved by himself. The colonists, however, had the custom of raising the amounts stated on these bills, and on Il June 1713 the General Assembly instructed Jeremiah to alter the plates, adding to each a creature to represent the amount, i.e., 2 shillings a dove, 5 shillings a fox, io shillings a lamb, etc. This was done and an additional 1o,ooo pounds taken off. Evidence has come to light in the last decade making it probable that Jeremiah Dummer was the first native-born Massachusetts painter. His interest in art may have come through the portraits of his sons, W'illiam and Jeremiah Jr., by the popular Fnglish court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller. He apparently taught himself how to paint, copying Kneller's style, and in this must have been aided by his long experience in the design and engraving of his silver. He is said to have painted por- traits of himself and his wife, and of his brother and sister-in-law Mr. and Mrs. John Coney. He may have painted the portraits of his son W'illiam and his wife Katherine now in the Mansion House at Governor Dummer Academy. 9

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ln 1671 Jeremiah Dummer married Anna, the daughter of Joshua Atwater, a mercer formerly of New Haven. Jeremiah received as a marriage portion from his father-in-law a house, garden and warehouse on King CStateJ Street at the corner of Klackrell Lane Cliilby Streetl, which became his Boston home. Their, children that grew to maturity were William, Jeremiah Jr., Ann, and Samuel. Jeremiah held a number of minor public offices, was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artil- lery Company, and a deacon of the First Church of Boston. He died If May 1718 in his seventy-third year, and was buried in the Dummer tomb CNo. 1689 in the Gran- ary Burying Ground. Ann, the only daughter of Jeremiah Dummer, married John Powell on I2 May 1714, soon after he came to New England from Edenhope, Parish of Mainstone, Co. Montgomery, Wales. They had four children, John Jr., Ann, W'illiam and Jeremiah, Ann's eldest brother William with others formed a company to settle territory they owned at North Yarmouth, Nlaine. John Powell was made clerk of this company, and went to North Yarmouth where he died in 1741, Ann's portrait was painted by Copley in 1764, the year ofher death. Jeremiah Dummer Jr. was usually called Jeremy, and as such signed his will. He was born in Boston in 1681. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1699, and according to President Increase Mather was by far the best scholar of his time. He remained in residence there until April 1701 , and in July 1702 arrived in Holland where he entered the Cniversity of Leyden. On 3 Feb. 1703 Professor Hermann Witsius of the Cniversity of Leyden signed a certificate to the effect that Jeremias Dummer Anglus Americanusn had under him completed the philosophical and theological studies which he had so happily begun 'in his own country. He emigrated to the neighboring Cniversity of Ctrecht, where after examinations he was granted the degrees of AAI. and Ph.D. on I3 Feb. 1703. About a year later he returned to Boston and preached for a few months. He published in 1704, A Discourse on the Holiness of the Sabbath Day, with an admiring preface by the elder Mather. Jeremy was not popular as a preacher, and in the fall of 1708 he returned to England to study law and politics. On II Nov. 1710 he was appointed agent of the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony thru the aid of Sir William Ashurst. He served the Colony well for eleven years, and in 1715 wrote his famous pamphlet The Defense of the New England Charters, that won for him the gratitude of that and later generations. Jeremy Dummer was also agent for the Connecticut Colony at London, and in 1713 was active in securing gifts for the Collegiate School that had been organized at Saybrook in 1701. As a result of his efforts nearly IOOO volumes of considerable value were sent from England in 1714-15, and Elihu Yale was among a notable list of donors. In Jan. ITIS Cotton Mather wrote Elihu Yale urging his financial support of the College that was now building in New Haven. As a result of this application, and further urging from Jeremy, there arrived at Boston in Aug. 1718 a large box of books, a portrait of the King, and East India goods that were sold for more than IO