258 History of the Endicott Pear Tree. 



within at the bottom, which gives it the appearance of three 

 trunks; but the branches at the top are sound." Again he 

 says, Oct. 10, 1809 : " The tree is near the site of the first 

 mansion of the governor, and the land and tree always have 

 been, and now are, the property of his direct heirs, being now 

 in the possession of Mr. John Endicott, nearly four score 

 years of age, and of the sixth generation. To ascertain its 

 age, near it stood a dial, which was fixed upon a pedestal, 

 which the governor said bore the age of the tree. That dial 

 has been for years in my possession. It is copper, square, 

 horizontal, three inches, a very fair impression, and in the 

 highest order. It is marked ' William Boyer, London, clock 

 maker, fecit I. 1630 E.,^ the initials of the governor's name." 



Before taking leave of Mr. Bentley, we will subjoin a copy 

 of a note, highly characteristic of him, written some thirty- 

 five years since : — 



" Salem, 3 Oct., 1818. — Mr. Bentley acknowledges the 

 token from a worthy descendant of the immortal Endicott. 

 Fruit is rich in itself, but when it is tlie memorial of that 

 virtue which has made our country great, it is from the Tree 

 of Paradise. Pray accept the assurance of inexpressible ob- 

 ligation. 



To Samuel Endicott, Esq., Salem." 



In 1845, Timothy Endicott, of Sterling, in this State, the 

 sixth son and youngest child of the Mr. John Endicott men- 

 tioned by Doct. Bentley, gave the writer the following ac- 

 count, which will show the condition of this tree in 1763, 

 now 90 years, which he received from his mother, Avho en- 

 tered the family that year. The first autumn after her mar- 

 riage, she visited this tree, with her husband's father, born in 

 1713, and he took with him a boy to gather some fruit ; — 

 that the tree was then very old and rotten, and in a shat- 

 tered condition, — that one of the limbs broke while the boy 

 was upon it, and that the old gentleman remarked, " I must 

 have this tree cut down, it is so old and rotten, else some 

 one, by-and-by, will have his neck broken by it." 



Notwithstanding the great age it has attained, this tree has 

 had much to contend with during a large portion of it. For 

 upwards of a century its situation has been very exposed in 



