ROLFE. ROLFE. 52; He has always resided on the farm where he was bom, and farming has been his principal occupation, although from 1857 to '67 he was engaged in the flour and grain business in Newburyport. Leaving this, he gave his whole attention once more to farming, and has ever since spent his time in agricultural pursuits. Mr. Rolfe was married, April 2S, 1847, to Mary Little, daughter of Richard and Abigail (Little) Adams. Of this mar- riage are five children : Moses, John C, Helen N. (now Mrs. Edward A. Noyes of Newbury), Willard G., and Abbie L. Rolfe. Mr. Rolfe has served the town of New- bury as selectman, assessor, and overseer of the poor fifteen years in succession (with the exception of one year). He has been town treasurer three years, and a jus- tice of the peace twelve years, and has always been especially active in all munici- pal matters. He represented his district in the House of Representatives in 1869, and in the Senate of 1S81 and '82. ROLFE, William James, son of John and Lydia Davis (Moulton) Rolfe, was born in Newburyport, Essex county, De- cember 10, 1827. His boyhood was mainly passed in Low- ell where he was fitted for college in the high school. He entered Amherst College in 1S45. After remaining three years he gave up his studies in order to become a teacher. After teaching in Kirkwood Acad- emy, Maryland, he became principal of Day's Academy, Wrentham, where he remained until December, 1852 ; then took the mas- tership of the Dorchester high school, and remained there until the summer of 1857, when he was invited to take charge of the high school in Lawrence. After four years in Lawrence he removed to Salem, but after one year, he was offered the mastership of the Cambridge high school. This he ac- cepted, and has since continued to reside in Cambridge, though he resigned his posi- tion in the school in 1868. Since that time he has devoted himself to editorial and literary work. Since 1869 he has been one of the editors of "Popular Science News" (formerly "Boston Journal of Chemistry"), and for several years has had charge of " Shake- speariana " in the " Literary World," besides contributing to other literary and scientific periodicals. In 1865 he published a "Hand-book of Latin Poetry " in conjunction with J. H. Hanson, A. M., of Waterville, Me. In 1867 he published an edition of Craik's " English of Shakespeare.' 1 Between 1867 and '69, in connection with J. A. Gillet, he brought out the "Cambridge Course of Physics," in six volumes. This series has since been entirely re-written by the au- thors. In 1870 he prepared a school edi- tion of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice," and followed it up with editions of the "Tempest," "Julius Caesar" and " Henry VIII." Others were eagerly called for both by students and the general reading public, and the edition is now complete in forty volumes. Its sale has far exceeded that of any other American edition, amount- ing to more than a third of a million vol- umes. Mr. Rolfe has also published a volume of selections from Gray's poems, and others from Goldsmith's and Wordsworth's in style similar to that of Shakespeare ; also the "Minor Poems of Milton," Scott's "Lady of the Lake," " Marmion," and "Lay of the Last Minstrel;" Tennyson's " Princess," three volumes of selections from Tennyson ; Byron's "Childe Harold," and two volumes of selections from Brown- ing. With his son, John C. Rolfe, Ph. D., he has edited Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome." He has also begun a series of more elementary " English Classics," three volumes of which have already appeared. It is generally understood that he is the author of the Satchel "Guide to Europe," though his name does not appear on the title-page. Mr. Rolfe received the honorary degree of A. M. at Harvard, in 1859, and the same degree subsequently at Amherst, where he was enrolled as a regular graduate of the class of 1849, at the suggestion of President Seelye his old classmate and "chum." In 1887 he received the further honor of the degree of doctor of letters from Amherst. Mr. Rolfe was elected to the presidency of the Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute, on the resignation of Colonel Sprague, in the spring of 1882, and held the office until 1888. Mr. Rolfe was married in Dorchester, July 30, 1856, to Eliza Jane Carew (a gradu- ate of his school), daughter of Joseph and Eleanor (Griffiths) Carew. Of this union are three children : John Carew, George William, and Charles Joseph Rolfe. Mr. Rolfe is foremost among the Shake- spearian scholars of America, and is ac- knowledged as one of the most delicately critical interpreters of the " Prince of Poets." As a specialist in some lines of scientific research, he has been widely quoted both in this country and Europe.
