I48 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



to call on Mrs. Rockwood ; but on reaching Cortland I found 

 that she had died on November 26. I was thus enabled to 

 attend her funeral on the next day, and to follow her remains 

 to the grave. It was a source of sad satisfaction to pay this 

 last token of respect to the memory of one who had known 

 my mother from her earliest infancy. 



Two years previously, at a meeting of the Massachusetts 

 Historical Society, held on June 9, 1887, I spoke as follows, 

 in regard to Mrs. Rockwood: — 



In the early part of last month I had the pleasure of meeting a 

 kinswoman of Colonel William Prescott, who is probably the only 

 person now living who ever saw the hero of Bunker Hill, and certainly 

 the only one who ever knew him or ever talked with him ; and her 

 recollections are interesting. I refer to Mrs. Sarah (Chaplin) Rock- 

 wood, a resident of Cortland, Cortland County, New York, who was 

 the youngest daughter of the Rev. Daniel Chaplin, D.D., of Groton, 

 the last minister of the town during the period when it formed but a 

 single parish. Her mother was Susanna, eldest daughter of Judge 

 James Prescott, Colonel William's elder brother. Mrs. Rockwood 

 was born at Groton on November 8, 1785, and Colonel Prescott, her 

 great-uncle, died on October 13, 1795, — so that she was ten years 

 old at the time of his death. The date of her birth was duly entered 

 in the town-records, and the entry corresponds with that in her family 

 Bible. According to the church records she was baptized on Novem- 

 ber 13, 1785. 



She describes him as a tall, well-proportioned man, with blue eyes 

 and a large head. He usually wore a skull-cap ; and he parted his 

 hair in the middle, wearing it long behind, braided loosely and tied in 

 a club with a black ribbon, as was common in those days. He had a 

 pleasant countenance, and was remarkably social and full of fun and 

 anecdote. He was dignified in his manners, and had the bearing of 

 a soldier. 



I am satisfied that her recollections of that early period are clear 

 and distinct. She shows in many ways that her memory of events 

 long since past is still good, as it is of more recent ones. Although 

 she has entered upon the second year of her second century, she 

 reads the newspapers, and takes more than an ordinary interest in 

 public affm'*" 



