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held this evening, the Vice President, Rev. John L. Russell, 

 presiding. 



Records of preceding meeting read. 



Donations to the cabinets were announced from J. C. Howard. 



Donations to the library, from N. S. Howe of Haverhill, 

 M. P. Wilder of Dorchester. Mrs. John Robinson, D. A. 

 White, Trustees of the Ncav York State Library, W. H. 

 Kilby of Eastport, Me. 



Letters from James H. Gregory of Marblehead, N. S. Howe 

 of Haverhill, and F. W. Putnam, were read. 



The hour was occupied by Gilbert L. Streeter in reading an 

 account of the clergymen settled in Salem at the time of the 

 Revolutionary war, it being a sequence to papers descriptive of 

 Salem before that great event. The following is a brief ab- 

 stract prepared by Mr. S. for these pages. 



Thomas Barnard of the First Church. There were 

 two pastors of the First Church at the time of the outbreak of 

 the Revolution, the senior, Thomas Barnard, the junior, Asa 

 Dunbar. Mr. Barnard was born in Andover, Aug. 16, 1716, 

 and graduated at Harvard College in 1732. He was first 

 settled in Newbury, but becoming obnoxious to the friends of 

 Whitfield durinor the great excitement of that time, he felt 

 impelled to resign his charge. He then studied and practiced 

 law He also represented Newbury in the Great and General 

 Court. Returning to the profession for which he was peculiar- 

 ly fitted, he was settled over the First Church in Salem, Sept. 

 18, 1755. In 1772, the failure of his health made it necessary 

 to secure a colleague, (Mr. Dunbar,) but Mr. Barnard contin- 

 ued in his pastoral office until his death, Aug. 15, 1776, aged 

 60 years — having been pastor for twenty-one years. He left 

 four children. 



Mr. Barnard was a man of superior talents and acquirements, 

 and of excellent character. Mr. Felt says, that " he possessed 

 a strong and cultivated mind. He was much beloved by his 

 society here, and highly esteemed by the public." "The 

 congregation was celebrated during his ministry," says Mr. 

 Upham, "for the intelligence, refinement, and high literary 

 cultivation of its members, and he was universally regarded by 

 his contemporaries as a most estimable and excellent clergy- 

 man." Dr. Eliot furnishes a similar account. He says : 

 ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. ii. 16. 



