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josiah bartlett Biography

Josiah Bartlett (1729–1795)
was an American physician and statesman who, as a delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire, signed the Declaration of Independence. He was later Chief Justice of New Hampshire's Supreme Court and Governor of the state.


Personal life
Josiah was born in on November 21, 1729 to Stephen and Hannah (Webster) Bartlett in Amesbury,
Massachusetts. He was their fifth child and fourth son. He attended the common schools, but with
uncommon success. By the age of sixteen, by study, he had also built a foundation in Latin and learned some Greek. In 1745 he began the study of medicine, working in the office of Dr. Ordway of Amesbury.
Before he turned twenty-one, in 1750, he moved to Kingston, New Hampshire in Rockingham County,
hung out his shingle and began his practice.

Kingston at that time was a frontier settlement of only a few hundred families. If a man could stitch wounds, set bones, and treat fevers, he was welcome, even without formal educational credentials. Dr. Bartlett could, and as the only Doctor in this part of the county, his practice prospered. He purchased land and added a farm to his credit.

On January 15, 1754 he married Mary Bartlett of Newton, New Hampshire. She was his cousin, the
daughter of his uncle, Joseph. They would remain a devoted couple until her death in July 14, 1789.
Over the years they would have eleven children: Mary (1754), Lois (1756), Miriam (1758), Rhoda
(1760), Hannah (who died as an infant, 1762), Levi (1753), Josiah (1765, died that same year), Josiah
(1768), Ezra (1770), Sarah (1773), Hannah (1776, also died as an infant). All three of his sons, and five
of his grandsons would follow him as physicians.

Political career
Like many prominent men in small communities, Bartlett became active in the political affairs of Kingston, and in 1765 he was elected to the colonial assembly. In 1767 he became the colonel of his county's militia and Governor John Wentworth appointed him justice of the peace. As the Revolution neared, his Whig policies brought him into opposition with the Royal Governor, John Wentworth.

In 1774, Bartlett joined the Assembly's Committee of Correspondence and began his work with the
revolutionary leaders of the other 12 colonies. Later that year, when Wentworth dismissed, or prorogued,
the Assembly, Josiah was elected to its revolutionary (and illegal) successor, the Provincial Assembly. He
also suffered the loss of his home by fire, alleged to have been set by opposition Tories. He moved his family out to the farmhouse and began rebuilding immediately. When the assembly appointed Bartlett and John Pickering as delegates to the Continental Congress, he had to decline because to attend to his family, but remained active in New Hampshire's affairs. In one of Governor Wentworth's last acts before being expelled from New Hampshire in 1775, he revoked Bartlett's commissions as Justice, Militia
Colonel, and Assemblyman.  

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Continental Congress
Bartlett was selected as a delegate again in 1775, and attended that session as well as the meetings
1776. Indeed, for a time in late 1775 and early 1776 he was the only delegate attending from New
Hampshire. Much of the work of the Congress was carried out in Committees. The most important of
these had a delegate from each state, which meant that Bartlett served on all of them, including those of Safety, Secrecy, Munitions, Marine, and Civil Government. His attention to detail and hard work in these committees made him one of the most influential members in the Congress, even though he was seldom active in debates before the full congress.

Eventually, after his continued letters home to the Assembly and Committee of Safety in New Hampshire, William Whipple and Matthew Thornton were added to the delegation in Philadelphia. When the question of declaring independence from Great Britain was officially brought up in 1776, as a representative of the northernmost colony Bartlett was the first to be asked, and answered in the affirmative. On August 2, 1776 when delegates signed the formal copy of the Declaration of Independence, his position made him the second to sign, just after John Hancock, the president of the Congress.

In 1777, he declined a return to the congress, citing fatigue due to earlier efforts. But when trouble
threatened, he used his medical skills and accompanied John Stark's forces to the Battle of Bennington in August.
He was re-elected to Congress in 1778, and served on the committee that drafted the Articles of
Confederation. But, after the articles were adopted, he returned to New Hampshire to attend to personal
business. This was the last of his federal service, as he felt he had overlooked his family for too long.
Indeed, while he was at the Congress in 1776, his wife Mary had managed the farm, saw to the
completion of rebuilding their house, cared for nine children, and given birth to Hannah.

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Later career

Although he remained in the state after 1778, in 1779 he returned to his role as a Judge, serving in the Court of common ples. Then in 1782 he was appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in spite of not being a lawyer. Indeed, some contemporary lawyers held the view that justice was never better than when the senior judges knew little legal history.

In 1788 Bartlett was made the Chief Justice of the state's supreme court. That same year he was a
delegate to the New Hampshire convention for adoption of the Constitution, serving part of the time as is Chairman. He argued forcefully for ratification, which finally took place on June 21, 1788. The legislature of the new State of New Hampshire, selected him to be a U. S. Senator, but he declined the office.

 

Josiah Bartlett House:

156 Main Street, Kingston, New Hampshire, 03848 (Across from Kingston Town Hall)
Access: This is a private home and not open to the public.
Recognition: National Historic Landmark

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As Governor
In 1790 Josiah's lifetime of contribution received its highest recognitions. He secured legislation recognizing the New Hampshire Medical Society. He was also elected chief executive of New Hampshire by an overwhelming majority. He served in 1791 and 1792 as President. Then when the new State
Constitution took effect in 1792 he continued, now as governor. He resigned in 1794 after four years because of declining health, he died the next year.

During his tenure, he oversaw the installation of a new state constitution, compilation of the laws and statutes in force, and provision for the early payment of the State's debt. He actively promoted agriculture and manufacturing, the improvement of roads, and saw the start of projects to build canals to better unite the people.

Medical career
Bartlett actively practiced medicine for 45 years. From a modern perspective, this alone would be a major accomplishment. He had no university training, and left school at the age of fourteen. In effect, he apprenticed with another Doctor, and set up a practice at the age twenty. But, he was willing to consider what worked, and avoided some traditional therapies such as bleeding. His reputation was firmly secured in 1754.

The area around Kingston had an epidemic of a fever and canker simply called throat distemper around 1735. For adults it was a serious illness, but for children it was frequently fatal, especially among the very young. When the illness struck again in 1754, Dr. Bartlett simply tried doses of several available drugs, and discovered that Peruvian Bark would relieve symptoms long enough to allow recovery.

Bartlett lived during a time when medical practice was progressing rapidly. His wide reading, steady hands, and conscientious work made him an effective and successful physician. He founded and was the first president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. In 1790 he delivered the commencement address at Dartmouth College when his son Ezra graduated. In part, the honor was due to his signing of the Declaration of Independence, and his new selection as President of New Hampshire. But, in part, it was a recognition of his medical career. He was awarded an honorary MD (Doctor of Medicine) the same day his son earned that degree.

Later life
He retired to his home in Kingston, and died there on May 19, 1795. He is buried next to his wife Mary in the Plains Cemetery, also at Kingston. A bronze statue of Bartlett stands in the town square of Amesburry, Massachusetts. His portrait hangs in the State House in Concord, New Hampshire, drawn from an original by Jonathan Trumbull. Bartlett, New Hampshire is named in his honor, and The Josiah Bartlett elementary school is a visible presence on its major roadway.

The fictional President of The West Wing, a popular television drama series, is named "Josiah Bartlet".
Despite the spelling difference, the character (played by Martin Sheen) claims to be a direct descendant
of a New Hampshire signer of the Declaration of Independence.

SOURCE MATERIAL:  http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Bartlett_Josiah.html

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Mary Bartlett - Biography

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"The wife of Governor Bartlett, the signer, was Mary Bartlett (a cousin), of Newton, N. H., A lady of excellent character and an ornament to society. She died in 1789," wrote Levi Bartlett, a descendant of the signer, nearly a century after her death.

Not much more of her youth than this can be told. Her father, Joseph Bartlett, was a soldier at Haverhill, in 1707, where he was made captive by the French and Indians, carried to Canada and held four years.* Mary Bartlett was one of ten children born to Joseph Bartlett, and she was married to her cousin, Josiah Bartlett, in January, 1754. He was a rising young physician at the time, in the town of Kingston, N. H., and had already attracted favorable attention by reason of his success in the treatment of a throat distemper, known as the "black canker," which had broken out with uncommon virulence.

Mary Bartlett was then twenty-four years old, an amiable girl, well grown and, for the times, well educated. For the next ten years, her life was that of the wife of a popular and prosperous young country doctor. His skill as a practitioner was accepted. He was democratic, kindly, and fast growing in the esteem of his fellow citizens. Always a man of strict integrity, sound judgment, and marked public spirit, he early began to take an active part in public affairs. He was made a civil magistrate and soon after given command of a regiment of militia. In 1765, he was chosen representative to the Provincial Legislature from Kingston. Though Governor Wentworth had appointed him to several positions of honor and profit, Dr. Bartlett felt called upon, almost from the first, to oppose vigorously some of the Governor's measures in the Legislature especially those pertaining to the land grants, a vast system of official peculation that was one of the great evils of the administrations of both the Wentworths. By 1774, the aggressions of the Governor, and the policy of the British Ministry which he was trying to carry out, had grown so burdensome to the people that Dr. Bartlett and a few other leaders found themselves in almost open opposition. He was still a member of the Legislature and in that year we find him at the head of a "Committee of Correspondence," which was in constant communication with Samuel Adams and other patriots of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Then Dr. Bartlett was elected delegate to "a general congress to be held in Philadelphia." This brought down upon him the wrath of Governor Wentworth and his Tory adherents. His appointment as Justice of the Peace was revoked and his commission as Colonel of militia was taken from him. Soon afterward his house was set on fire and burned to the ground, after he had received warning to cease his "pernicious activity.

During all this period, Mary Bartlett had been the closest friend and counselor of her husband. Just as he had consulted her over his troubles as a young physician, helping to bear the home burdens of his patients and personal friends in their little community, so now he consulted her about the greater troubles and dangers that menaced the country. And always she was the true helpmeet, always the ready and sympathetic friend and judicious adviser. Her patriotism was as ardent as his and burned with as steady a flame, and when their home lay in ruins and the family were driven to seek shelter and safety elsewhere, she took their numerous brood and retired to their little farm, which she managed thereafter, leaving him free to devote himself almost entirely to the public business.

Between these public duties Dr. Bartlett found time to rebuild, on the site of his ruined home, a fine old-style New England mansion, that still stands. In all her letters to her husband and her children, there is not one word of regret at his course or pity for herself, left alone to bear the double duties incumbent upon her; no complaints, only a spirit of loving, helpful sympathy in all his acts.

Mrs. Bartlett died in their new house in Kingston, in July, 1789, and her death was a great blow to her husband, who was at the time Chief Justice. The following year he was chosen President of New Hampshire, which office he held until 1793, when he was elected Governor, the first the Commonwealth ever had as an independent State. He declined re-election and died shortly afterward in the sixty-sixth year of his age, broken down, according to his own declaration, by grief and the double duties and responsibilities imposed upon him since her death.

Twelve children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Bartlett, of whom eight came to maturity. Three sons, Levi, Joseph, and Ezra, followed in their father's footsteps and became eminent physicians, and all three of them took considerable interest in public affairs, holding not a few positions of honor and responsibility.

Of the daughters, Mary, who married Jonathan Greeley, Miriam, who married Joseph Calef, Rhoda, who married Reuben True, and Sarah, who married Dr. Amos Gale, were the only ones to leave descendants.

Source: Wives of the Signers: The Women Behind the Declaration of Independence, by Harry Clinton Green and Mary Wolcott Green, A.B. (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilder Press, 1997). Orignaly Published in 1912 as volume 3 of The Pioneer Mothers of America: A Record of the More Notable Women of the Early Days of the Country, and Particularly of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons). Pages 10-14. (Some minor spelling changes may have been made.)

SOURCE:  Colonial hall . com 


* [From page 149] In 1707, Joseph Bartlett was drafted and sent with others to Haverhill to defend the town against an expected attack of French and Indians from Canada. August 29, 1708, about 160 French and 50 Indians attacked the town and set fire to several buildings.

Mr. Bartlett and others were in a chamber of Captain Wainright's house from the windows of which they fired upon the enemy. They were informed that their only safety was in surrender. Mr. Bartlett secreted his gun in the chimney above the fireplace, went down, asked for quarter, was bound, and carried to Canada where he remained a prisoner until he was redeemed.

After a captivity of four years he returned. He afterward visited Haverhill and found his gun where he had secreted it. It finally came to his grand nephew, Richard Bartlett of Amesbury, Mass., who carried it while a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Richard brought the gun back with him from the Revolution and it was afterward blown to pieces by some boy celebrating Fourth of July. Levi Bartlett (author of this sketch) collected the fragments in I879, and riveted, and wired the gun together and deposited it in the rooms of the New Hampshire Historical Society where it may still he seen."

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