566 MEMORIAL OF 



Company of London, founded in 1537, of which this corps, chartered in 

 1638, is the only offspring. This correspondence established a friendly inter- 

 course between the two companies. In June, 1857, Prince Albert was chosen 

 a special honorary member of the Boston company, and 21 years later, in 

 1878, Colonel Wilder, who then celebrated the fiftieth or golden anniversary 

 of his own membership, nominated the Prince of Wales, the present com- 

 mander of the London company, as an honorary member. Both were com- 

 manders of the Honorable Artillery Company of London when chosen. 



Mr. Wilder, although he had little desire for public life, held high offices 

 in the gift of the people. In 1839 he served a single term in the Massachu- 

 setts Legislature as a representative for the town of Dorchester. In 1849 he 

 was elected a member of Governor Briggs's council, and the year following 

 a member of the Senate and its president, and he was the oldest ex-president 

 of the Senate. In 1860 he was the member for New England of the national 

 committee of the "Constitutional Union Party," and attended, as chair- 

 man of the Massachusetts delegation, the national convention in Baltimore, 

 where John Bell and Edward Everett were nominated for President and 

 Vice-President of the United States. 



He was prominent, too, in the Masonic order, and was initiated into 

 Charity Lodge No. 18, in Troy, N. H., at the ago of 25, exalted to the Royal 

 Arch Chapter, Cheshire No. 4, and knighted in the Boston Encampment. 

 He was deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was 

 one of the 6,000 Masons who signed, December 31, 1831, the celebrated 

 1 ' Declaration of the Free Masons of Boston and Vicinitv ; " and at the fiftieth 

 anniversay of that event, which was celebrated in Boston two years ago, Mr. 

 Wilder responded for the survivors, six of the signers being present. He 

 has received all the Masonic degrees, including the thirty-third, or highest 

 and last honor of the fraternity. At the world's Masonic convention in 

 1867, at Paris, he was the only delegate from the United States who spoke 

 at the banquet. 



On very many public occasions he was called upon to preside or to make 

 addresses, and his orations were always masterly and bore evidence of deep 

 thought. On November 7, 1849, a festival of the Sons of New Hampshire 

 was celebrated in Boston. The Hon. Daniel Webster presided and Mr. 

 Wilder was first vice-president. The Sons celebrated their second festival 

 November 2, 1853, at which Mr. Wilder occupied the chair as president and 

 delivered an address. They assembled again on June 20, 1861, to receive 

 and welcome a New Hampshire regiment of volunteers and escort them to 

 Music Hall, where Mr. Wilder addressed them. The 225th anniversary of 



