300
��White-field.
��dering. The first name of Stark was Percey, from Thomas Percey, at that time chaplain to the king ; but in the act of incorporation an evident cleri- cal error occurred of introducing an i, and thus was it put on record — Piercy.
The p^itioners in the case of the town of Windsor asked to be incor- porated by the name of Winsor ; but during the passage of the act a d was inserted, and thus it is.
In relation to the present town of "Wolfeborough : In the Journal of the House it is Wolfsborough ; and in the council records the / is omitted. Which is the right?
The town of Plaistow was incor- porated witiiout the use of the i — Plastow. The present spelling is probably without authority.
When, in 1804, the pioneers of "Whitefield petitioned the general court to be incorporated as a town, with intent to settle any complications that might arise from the dual orthog- raphy, and to inform the rest of the world that Whitefield was the proper and desired title, they asked to have the insinuating s forever dropped from its name, which was accorded Dec. 1, 1804.
The idea has always prevailed among those interested, and the writer has no doubt it was the inten- tion of the grantor, either in accord- ance with his own or the expi'essed wishes of some of those upon whom this grant was bestowed, that the name thereof was to commemorate that of the Rev. George AVhitefield, the light of whose life had been but recently extinguished, and whose name was even then a household word throughout all New England.
��It is a fact that he was a welcome guest at the Wentworth mansion, and that the governor held the itinerat- ing ecclesiastic in high esteem, al- though he was proselyting followers from the established church. The last week of the great preacher's life was passed in New Hampshire, dur- ing which he preached four of his unique sermons, delivered in the open air, for there was no church large enough to hold the crowds who came to see and hear him ; and, in fact, many of the houses of Sabbath wor- ship were closed against him.
His last discourse was at Exeter, the day before his death, where, in God's free, vast temple, he preached for two long hours to a crowd of in- terested listeners. At Newbury port, upon the following day, was his next appointment ; but during the night he was seized with an asthmatic par- oxysm, of which he died suddenly, in his 56th 3'ear.
Mr. Whitefield was born in Glouces- ter, England. He took the degree of A. B. from Pembroke college, and was ordained in 1736 by the bishop of Gloucester, and in 1740 was admitted to pi-iestly orders. He made seven different voyages between England and America, always in the cause of religion and humanity. It was said of him that " no clergyman ever possessed the powers of oratory in a -higher degree, or led a more useful or virtuous life."
Upon the day of his death, Sept. 30, 1770, all the bells of Portsmouth tolled from 11 o'clock till sunset.
The house where Whitefield died is still standing upon School street in Newburyport. and is pointed out to visitors as one of the objects of inter-
�� �
