Rev. Thomas Fessenden Family from Walpole As It Was and As It Is (1880)

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Surname: FESSENDEN
Source: Walpole As It Was and As It Is by George Aldrich, 
        The Claremont Manufacturing Co., Claremont, N.H., 1880, pages 250-252

FESSENDEN, THOMAS, the second settled minister of the town, was born in Cambridge, Mass., in 
1739, graduated at Harvard, in 1758, settled in Walpole as the minister of the town in 1767 and died 
.May 9,1813, aged 74. He was minister of the town forty-six years, eight years, however, with a 
colleague, (Rev. Pliny Dickinson) leaving his sole and active pastorate thirty-eight years. During that long 
period he must have written nearly four thousand sermons. It is said that he was a man of fine 
scholarship for those days. He was active with his pen when not engaged in parochial duties, and wrote 
several pamphlets on points of religious doctrines. In 1804, he wrote and published a work entitled "The 
Science of Sanctity," of 308 octavo pages. It has been remarked, that the above-mentioned work, is 
one of the most lucid works extant on that subject. Although Mr. Fessenden was considered sound in 
the Orthodox creed in those days; still that work discloses thoughts not consonant with the views held 
by that denomination at the present day. From what is gathered from his writings; and what little 
information is gleaned from the old citizens of the town, it is inferred that he was a man of more than 
common natural and acquired abilities liberal in his views and popular as a preacher. He was fond of 
amusements and at the social gatherings of the young, he frequently honored them by his presence. He 
was jolly in his nature, fond of a good joke, and good at repartee. He liked a good dinner with his 
parishioners and never seriously objected to sipping a mug of flip with them on account of its being 
derogatory to the cloth to do so. On one occasion he preached a sermon to which some of his 
parishioners took umbrage, and urged him to retract the next Sabbath, which he promised to do. In his 
sermon the next Sunday, he made allusion to the offense he had given and said: "If he had said any 
thing in his last Sabbath’s discourse that he did not mean to say he was very sorry for it," and he 
"hoped his apology would be satisfactory."
Whether he was married when first settled is not known, but he was soon after, for his oldest child was 
born in 1771. His children by his wife Elizabeth were 
I. Thomas Green, born April 12, 1771, graduated at Dartmouth college in 1796, studied law in 
the office of Stephen R. Bradley, in Westminster, Vt., and died in Boston, Nov. 11, 1837. He 
was a person of robust constitution, tall in stature, of dark complexion, rather forbidding in 
aspect, but full of full. When pursuing his law studies, he was wont to amuse himself in writing 
humorous poems for the "Farmer’s Museum," edited by Jo. Dennie. In 1801 he went to 
England as an agent for one Perkins, for a newly invented machine called "metallic tractors," 
which involved him in pecuniary embarrassment. The English physicians were violently opposed 
to the introduction of the "tractors," which brought forth from the ready pen of Fessenden a long 
poem in retaliation. It was entitled, "Dr. Caustic; or, Terrible Tractoration," and had an immense 
sale in London, after which it was published in this country, in three editions, in as many years. 
The work is a strange compound of erudition, doggerel verse, and nonsense. The design of it 
was to satirize the English Medical Faculty and at the same time bring the tractors before the 
public. He returned to America in l804, and was engaged in various avocations till 1822,when 
he commenced the publication of the "New England Farmer," with which he was connected 
during the remainder of his life. He edited the "Horticultural Register" and the "Silk Manual." His 
other works were "Original Poems," "Democracy Unveiled," l806, "American Clerk’s 
Companion," 1815, "Ladies’ Monitor," 1818, and "Laws of Patents for New Inventions," 1822. 
For versatility of genius, ready wit, biting sarcasm, and as a popular journalist, no native 
townsman has been his equal. 
II. Elizabeth, b. in New Salem Jan. 21, 1773; m. Royal Crafts, a brother of John Crafts, formerly 
of this town April 5, 1795.
III. Martha, b. Jan. 11, 1775,; d. unm. at Brattleboro; Vt.
IV. Joseph, b. Jan. 7,1777.
V. William, b. Jan. 15, 1779. He was a printer in Brattleboro in 1804.
VI. Samuel, b. Dec. 18,1780; d. April 25,1802.
VII. Catherine, b. Nov.3, 1783; m. Artemas Ainsworth, of Bethel, Vt., Sept. 27, 1810.
VIII. John, b. Oct. 5, 1785.
IX. Anne, b. July 18, 1788.