History of Ipswich, (Essex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Levi Frisbie, educator, was born in Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 15, 1783; son of the Rev. Levi Frisbie, who was born in Branford, Conn., July 6, 1748; graduated from Dartmouth in 1771, was ordained a minister of the Congregational church in 1772; engaged as a missionary among the Delaware, Canadian and Maine Indians until 1776; became pastor of the first Congregational church, Ipswich, Mass., in 1776; published "Sermons and Orations" (1783-1804); and died in Ipswich, Mass., in 1806. The son was graduated from Harvard in 1802, and began the study of law, which he abandoned because of failing eyesight. He was Latin tutor at Harvard, 1805-11; college professor of Latin. 1811-17, and Alford professor of natural religion, moral philosophy, and civil polity, 1817-22. His writings were published by Prof. Andrews Norton of Harvard (1823). He died in Cambridge, Mass., July 9, 1822.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Joseph McKean, educator, was born in Ipswich, Mass., April 19, 1776; son of William and Sarah (Manning) McKean and grandson of Dr. Joseph and Eliza (Boardman) Manning, of Ipswich. His father, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, settled in Boston, Mass., as a tobacconist in 1763, removed to Ipswich in 1775, but after the Revolution returned to Boston. Joseph attended Phillips Andover academy, 1787-90, and was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1794. He taught school in Ipswich, Mass., and studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Joseph Dana, 1794-96, the Rev. John Thompson, 1796-97, and the Rev. John Elliott, of Boston, 1797. He was also principal of the academy at Berwick, 1796-97. He was ordained to the Congregational ministry, Nov. 1, 1797. He was married in September, 1799, to Amy, daughter of Maj. Joseph Swasey, of Ipswich, a soldier at Bunker Hill, and his wife, Susanna, daughter of Henry Wise (Harvard, 1717) and granddaughter of John Wise (Harvard, 1673). He was pastor of the church at Milton, Mass., 1797-1803, and on account of pulmonary trouble, he was obliged to pass the following winter in the Barbadoes, and the two succeeding winters in North and South Carolina. He formally resigned his pastorate, Oct. 3, 1804, and when his health improved engaged in teaching in Boston. He was appointed Hersey professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard in 1806, but declined, having taken up the study of law. He was chosen about this time to represent Boston in the general court, and was re-elected for a second term. He was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard, 1809-18, when pulmonary troubles again forced him to retire. He spent a short time in South Carolina, and from there went to Havana, Cuba. He was secretary of the Massachusetts Congregational society; a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; corresponding secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, and of the Massachusetts Historical society; and an honorary member of the New York Historical Society. He received the degree of LL.D. from the College of New Jersey in 1844, and that of S.T.D. from Allegheny college, Pa., in 1817. He was the founder of the Porcellian club of Harvard college, and the McKean Gate, inscribed in his honor, wai erected by the club in 1901. He contributed additional matter to Wood's continuation of Goldsmith's History of England; published a memoir on the Rev. John Eliot, S.T.D., in the Historical Collections of the Massachusetts Historical society, and occasional sermons. He died in Havana, Cuba, March 17, 1818.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

David Pulsifer, antiquary, was born in Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 22, 1802; son of Capt. David and Sarah (Stunwood) Pulsifer, and a descendant of Benedict Pulsifer, who settled in Ipswich, Mass., in 1662, and married Susanna Waters of Salem, Mass. He attended the public school, and in 1817 was apprenticed to Isaac Cushing, book-binder, of Salem, where he developed a taste for antiquarian research. He was an assistant to Ichabod Tucker, clerk of the Essex county courts, 1822-30; clerk and bookkeeper for James Munroe & Co., publishers and booksellers, Boston, after 1841; assistant in the offices of the clerk of courts and register of deeds, Middlesex county, where he gained a reputation for his skill in deciphering seventeenth century handwriting, and transcribed the first volume of the "Massachusetts Colony Records," for the American Antiquarian society. He was copyist for Ephriam M. Wright and N. B. Shurtleff in 1853, when they edited the colonial records, completing them to 1688, and copyist and subsequently editor of the "Plymouth Colonial Records," compiling volumes IX. to XII. (1859-61). He was clerk in the office of the secretary of state until about 1882; librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical society, 1849-51; its recording secretary in 1857, and a frequent contributor to the early volumes of its Register. He was married in 1867 to Lucy (Safford) Whaer, daughter of James Safford of China, Maine. He was a fellow of the American Statistical association, 1848-94, its librarian, 1863-65, and received the honorary degree A.M. from Amherst college in 1863. He is the author of: Inscriptions from the Burying Grounds of Salem, Mass. (1837); A Guide to Boston and Vicinity (1860), and an Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill, with Gen. John Burgoyne's Account (1872); and edited "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," by Nathaniel Ward (1843); "A Political Epistle to George Washington, Esq., Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States of America," by Rev. Charles H. Wharton (1881); and "The Christian's A.B.C.," an original manuscript written in the eighteenth century by an unknown writer. He died in Augusta, Me., Aug. 9, 1894.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Joseph Green Cogswell, librarian, was born in Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 27, 1786; son of Francis and Anstice (Manning) Cogswell, and a descendant of John Cogswell, who immigrated to America from England in 1635. He was fitted for college at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Harvard in 1806 receiving his A.B. degree in 1807 and an honorary A. B. from Yale the same year. He made a voyage to India as super-cargo and then practised law in Belfast, Maine. He was tutor in Harvard 1814-15, studied at the University of G?ttingen, 1810-17, and investigated educational methods and bibliography in the European capitals, 1818-19. He was professor of mineralogy and geology and college librarian at Harvard, 1821-23, and during his professorship he greatly enriched the college with gifts of rare mineral and botanical specimens. In 1823 with George Bancroft he established Round Hill school, at Northampton, Mass., and continued with the school until 1836, when he took charge of a like institution in Raleigh, N. C., but soon left the south to assume the editorship of the New York Review, which he conducted until 1842, when its publication ceased. In New York he made the acquaintance of John Jacob Astor and with Washington Irving and Fitz-Green Halleck, arranged the plan of the Astor library, being appointed a trustee of the library fund. Washington Irving secured for him the appointment of secretary of legation to Madrid, Spain, in 1842 but Mr. Astor prevented his acceptance by appointing him superintendent of the proposed library and he went abroad after Mr. Astor's death in 1848 and selected a large number of the books for its shelves. He prepared an alphabetical and analytical catalogue of the books in the library which was published in eight large volumes, and he gave to the library his own valuable series of bibliographical works. He retired from the superintendency in 1861 on account of his advanced age, and in 1864 took up his residence in Cambridge, Mass., resigning his office as trustee of the library. He left, of his moderate fortune, $4000 to a school in Ipswich, and was buried there, his Round Hill pupils erecting over his grave a handsome monument. He received the degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1814; that of Ph.D. from G?ttingen in 1819; and that of LL. D. from Trinity College (Conn.) in 1842 and from Harvard in 1863. He was a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences of Boston. See "Life of Joseph Green Cogswell, as Sketched in His Letters," a memorial volume, by Anna E. Ticknor (1874). He died in Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 26, 1871.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor