and was at that general's defeat in 1755. In 1768 he was a commissioner with Andrew Lewis on the fiart of Virginia to treat with the Six Nations of ndians at Fort Stanwix, N. Y. He was a member of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1775, organized a plan of defence, and served on the second general committee of safety. With his son, Col. John Walker, he was commissioned to treat with the Pittsburg, Pa., Indians in 1777, in order to conciliate them toward the colonists during the Revolution, and in 1778 he was president of the board of commissioners to determine the boundary-line between Virginia and North Carolina. Gen. Walker was the intimate friend of Gen. Washington, both his wives being near kins-women of the latter, and he was the guardian of Thomas Jefferson. By his marriage with the wid- ow of Nicholas Merriwether he came into possession of one of the most valuable landed properties in Virginia, known as the Castle Hill estate, which subsequentlv became the property of his relative, William C. Rives. — His son, John, senator, b. at Castle Hill, Albemarle co., Va, 13 Feb., 1744; d. in Orange county, Va., 2 Dec, 1809, was carefully educated, settled on his estate, Belvoir, Albemarle co., and engaged in planting. During the Revolution he was extra aide to Gen. Washington, who, in a letter addressed to Patrick Henry, dated Morristown, N. J., 24 Feb., 1777, explains his post as one of great trust and importance, and recommends him for "ability, honor, and prudence." In 1790 he was appointed by the governor U. S. senator in place of William Grayson, deceased, serving from 4 May, 1790, to 6 Dec. of the same year, when the senator that was chosen by the legislature took his seat. He married Elizabeth Moore, granddaughter of Gov. Alexander Spots- wood. See the "Page Family in Virginia," by Richard C. M. Page (New York, 1883).
WALKER, Timothy, clergyman, b. in Woburn,
Mass., 27 July, 1705; d. in Concord, N. H., 1 Sept.,
1782. He was graduated at Harvard in 1725,
studied theology, and was settled on 18 Nov., 1730,
as first minister of the plantation of Penacook
(now Concord, N. H.). He was soon called to lead
his parishioners in a legal defence of the title to
their farms, which they had paid for and wrested
from the wilderness. Penacook, twenty-five miles
beyond its nearest white neighbor at the time of
its settlement, had been granted in 1726 by
Massachusetts to 100 carefully selected settlers from her
towns of Bradford, Andover, and Haverhill, who
had at once improved their grant. The boundary-line
between that province and New Hampshire
was then undetermined, and the latter, claiming
the same territory, granted it in 1727 to “the
Proprietors of Bow,” among whom were influential
members of its government, who took no possession
and made no improvements. When, in 1740, the
settlement of this line threw the township into
New Hampshire, the Bow claimants sought
possession of it through suits brought in interested
courts, which were uniformly decided in their favor,
leaving, as their only hope, to the defendants of
retaining their homes an appeal to the king in
council. Mr. Walker, to prosecute an appeal, went
to England three times, first in 1753, a second time
in 1755, and a third in 1762, urging his cause as
best he could until December, 1762, when the king
in council decided that a change of provincial
boundaries did not affect the title to private
property that had been acquired in good faith. This
decision substantially ended a controversy which
had distressed his people for thirty years. Until
the treaty of Paris in 1763 the situation of the
town had exposed its inhabitants to the atrocities
of the French and Indian wars. At times they
lived in garrisons, and went armed to church, where
their pastor preached to them with his gun in the
pulpit. In his religious views Mr. Walker was a
moderate Calvinist, approving the “half-way
covenant” then in use, and opposing George
Whitefield, against whom he preached a sermon (Boston,
1743). His scholarship was more than respectable,
and his sermons and diaries show that he retained
through life his early acquaintance with the
classics. He acquired from necessity some knowledge
of the law, and many of the early legal papers of
his people are in his handwriting. He was an
ardent patriot in the Revolution, and it was one
of his greatest griefs that his son-in-law, Benjamin
Thompson (afterward Count Rumford), embraced
the Tory cause. He was the sole minister of
Concord for fifty-two years. — His son, Timothy, jurist,
b. in Concord, N. H., 26 June, 1737; d. there, 5
May, 1822, was graduated at Harvard in 1756,
studied theology, and preached several years, but
was never settled. At the opening of the Revolution
he became an active participant in the resistance
to British rule. He was a member of the
4th and 5th New Hampshire provincial congresses
and of the first house of representatives in 1776
under the state constitution, and was one of the
committee of the council and house to draft a
declaration of independence. He was a member
of the committee of safety from July, 1776, till
January, 1777, a state councillor in 1777, and a
senator in 1784. In 1788 he did his utmost to render
operative the constitution of the United States
by its ratification by New Hampshire as the ninth
state. Upon the reorganization of the state courts
in 1777 he was made a justice of the court of
common pleas for Rockingham county, which office
he held for twenty-three years. He took an active
part in the conventions of 1778, 1781, and 1791,
for amending the state constitution, and was four
times elected a delegate to the Continental
congress, but never took his seat. He was an early
member of the Republican party, and its first
candidate for governor. As his judicial duties
permitted, he shared the business activities of his
town, serving twenty-one years as moderator of its
annual meetings, twenty-four years as chairman
of its board of select-men, and forty-three years as
clerk of its proprietary. He loved agriculture, and
was continually improving his paternal estate. —
The first Timothy's great-grandson, Joseph
Burbeen, agriculturist, b. in Concord, N. H., 12 June,
1822, was graduated at Yale in 1844, studied law
at Harvard, and was admitted to the New
Hampshire bar in 1847. Subsequently he left the
profession and devoted himself to the care of inherited
estates, an extensive farm, and general business.
Mr. Walker has been a director in various financial
companies, and in 1847 was appointed a member of
the board of trustees of the New Hampshire asylum
for the insane, and subsequently became its secretary
and financial agent. He has been vice-president
of the New England historic-genealogical society,
and took deep interest in founding the New
Hampshire college of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
He represented his city in the legislatures of 1866-'7.
As chairman of a special committee, he drew and
reported the bill that established the college, and
he has been a trustee and lecturer before the
students on drainage and irrigation, to which subjects
he gave observation and study during extended
travel in Europe. He has contributed much to
historical research and to the agricultural interests
of the state, and has published “Land Drainage”
