Note 76 — PART II. (continued 2)

Mr. Wadsworth was Minister of the First Church in Boston from 1696 to 1725, when he became President of Harvard College. He was Son of Capt. Samuel Wadsworth of Milton, who fell in the bloody Fight at Sudbury, April the 21st, 1676. And here it may be noted that President Wadsworth, praiseworthily and in filial Duty, erected a Monument to his father's Memory, at Sudbury, on the Site of the fierce Conflict, in which he ended his Life; but from some Cause easily explained, fixed the Date of his father's Death on April 18th; See N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg. for 1853, p. 221, where the Cause of the Error is explained. There has been a feeble Attempt to maintain the old Date, because it happened ignorantly to be placed upon a new Monument which replaced the old One in 1852. This Attempt has been admitted into the Register for 1866, page 135-141, as unaccountably as the Date on the New Monument.

President Wadsworth, though a Believer in Witchcraft, did not encourage the Proceedings and Prosecutions.