president, to command a regiment and was chosen a delegate to the continental congress. He accepted both and attended the congress, and when that memorable vote for American Independence was taken the medical colonel's name was first called as representing the most easterly province, and he was the second signer of the Declaration.
In 1779 Col. Bartlett was appointed chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas and in 1782 justice of the Superior Court; in 1788 chief justice of the State; an active member of the convention for adopting the Confederation in 1788 and was chosen a senator in Congress in 1789, a position he declined. In 1790 he occupied the position of president of the State of New Hampshire and in 1793 was unanimously elected the first governor of the State under the new form of government.
Although Dr. Bartlett was actively engaged in politics during these memorable years, he always displayed actively a zealous interest in the welfare of his profession.
He was not only the founder of the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1791, but attended its meetings, taking the time amid the onerous cares of public life. He was the first president of the medical society and was annually elected for three consecutive years, when he resigned.
He married Mary Bartlett, a distant relative, and had three sons, Levi, Josiah and Ezra.
On January 29, 1794, he resigned all public positions on account of increasing infirmities, and died quite suddenly of paralysis on the nineteenth of May, 1795, in his sixty-sixth year.
Bartlett, Josiah (1759–1820)
Josiah Bartlett, soldier of the Revolution, promoter of good medical literature and prominent physician, was the son of a sea captain, George Bartlett, who came from Slocum Regis in Devonshire. Josiah was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, August 11, 1759, and during his childhood and early youth attended the local schools and when about fourteen was placed under Dr. Isaac Foster, a local physician. During the period immediately preceding the war of the Revolution young Bartlett studied under Dr. Foster and when Foster was appointed to the medical department of the American Army at Cambridge, on April 20, 1775. Later on the tutor was appointed chief surgeon to the General Hospital at Cambridge, and procured the office of surgeon's mate for his pupil, then sixteen, who served until 1780, when he resigned from his pupilage and gave up his commission. During this year Dr. Bartlett attended one course of lectures on anatomy by Dr. John Warren, at Cambridge, and soon afterwards was engaged for two voyages as surgeon to the ships of war. During these public services Dr. Bartlett manifested a degree of activity, attention and faithfulness which secured to him a high reputation and the approbation of his superiors in office.
In 1789 he became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and was its recording secretary from 1792 to 1796. In 1810 he delivered the annual oration before this society on the progress of medical science in Massachusetts. Dr. Bartlett attended a complete course of medical lectures at Cambridge in 1790, receiving the honorary M. D. in 1791 and a similar degree in 1809 from Harvard University.
James Thacher states that "perhaps no man contributed more time and active exertion to improve the state of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and through it, the interests of medical literature, than Dr. Bartlett." He delivered two public discourses of a medical nature, one before the Middlesex District Society and one before the Massachusetts Medical Society, the latter being well known as an interesting historical sketch of medical characters in the early days of the country.
He also published various papers on medical subjects in the communications of the Medical Society and in the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
Although engaged in extensive practice Dr. Bartlett found time for activity in civil offices and was at various times elected representative, senator and councillor in the state government.
Bartlett was deeply interested in the early history of New England and especially in the development of its educational and literary institutions. Among his researches is the following information: "The Congregational Church was established in Charlestown in 1633, in which the Rev. John Harvard officiated for a short time before his death in 1638; his age is unknown. All that can be ascertained of this gentleman is that he had been a minister in England, and died soon after his arrival in this country, that he preached a short time in this town, and bequeathed about eight hundred pounds to the college. The
