Category: 18th Century

The Rev. John Swift (c.1678 – 1745) was Framingham’s first official minister.  Very little is known of Swift’s childhood and adolescence. He was born and raised in Milton, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1697.  Two years after his graduation, he came to Framingham to preach.

Framingham was incorporated as a town in 1700.  At its second town meeting on August 21, 1700, Swift was asked to stay on as the town’s first resident minister.  As payment for his services, he received 100 pounds toward the cost of building a house in the area of present day Swift Road and Maple Street, one hundred acres of land, 10 acres of meadows on Maple Street.  Rev. Swift also received a yearly salary of sixty pounds.  He held religious services in the town’s meetinghouse, a two story barn-like building measuring forty feet by thirty feet built in 1698 on Bare Hill.  Thomas Danforth had set aside this land in the center of Framingham’s six settlements for ministerial use. 

With Rev. Swift in the pulpit, the first official church in Framingham was established in 1701 by eighteen families.  The Framingham Church was associated with the Puritan religion and all citizens of the town were taxed to support it and the minister.  In 1735, a second meetinghouse was built in the center of town in the area of Vernon Street and Edgell Road.  It was larger than the first measuring fifty five feet by forty two feet and three stories high. 

Rev. Swift not only ministered to his parishioners, but according to entries in his diaries, he served on nineteen ecclesiastical councils over an eight year period.  Annually, as was the custom of the time, he met with the young people in the congregation to publicly quiz them on their catechism.

Rev. Swift married Sarah Tileson (1674-1747) on December 16, 1701 in Dorchester, Massachusetts and they had six children, five girls and one boy.  Following in his father’s footsteps John Swift, Jr. served as minister in Acton, Massachusetts after graduating from Harvard College.  From 1733 to 1734, he worked as a school master in Framingham.

For forty-four years John Swift served as minister to Framingham.  After a long illness, he died on April 24, 1745 and was buried in the Old Burying Ground on Main Street.  His obituary in the Boston Evening Post, dated May 13, 1745, described him as pious, diligent, intelligent, faithful and prudent.

On June 17, 1911, The Framingham Historical and Natural History Society erected a granite marker with bronze plaque to mark the site of Rev. John Swift’s home on Maple Street.

Facts

Abel Benson was the grandson of Rev. Swift’s slave Nero.

Framingham settlements in 1700s: Saxonville, Nobscot, Salem End, Pratt’s Plain, Stone’s End, and Sherborn Row.

Members of the first church in Framingham: Henry Rice, Daniel Rice, Jonathan Hemingway, Thomas Drury, John Stow, Simon Mellen, Peter Cloise, Benjamin Bridges, Caleb Bridges, Thomas Mellen, Benjamin Nurse, Samuel Winch, John Haven, Isaac Bowen, Stephen Jennings, Nathaniel Haven, Thomas Frost.

Framingham’s first official road was built to connect the Meeting House to the minister’s home.

First meeting house site is within the Old Burying Ground on Main Street

Rev. Swift was ordained October 8, 1701

---

Bibliography

Barber, John Warner. Historical Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town Every in Massachusetts with Geographical Descriptions. Warren Lazell, 1844. https://archive.org/stream/historicalcolle00barbuoft#page/386/mode/2up/search/framingham Accessed 01 Aug. 2017.

Dewar, Martha E., ed. Framingham Historical Reflections. Framingham 275th Anniversary Committee, 1974.

Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

“History of the Plymouth Church.” The Plymouth Church in Framingham. https://sites.google.com/site/plymouthwebsite/whoarewe/history Accessed 05 July 2017.

Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. A special Centennial year reprinting of the 1887 edition, New England History Press, 1988.

Peter Salem (c.1750 – 1816) was a slave born in Framingham.  His first owner was Jeremiah Belknap, who later sold him to Lawson Buckminster, a lieutenant under Captain Simon Edgell.  During the Revolutionary War, a war to make the colonies free from England, Peter Salem was given his freedom from slavery for a short time so that he could fight for the colonies. He joined Captain Simon Edgell’s company of minutemen – men who had to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice – and fought in the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  Five days later, he transferred to Captain Thomas Drury’s company which was part of Col. John Nixon’s 5^th Massachusetts Regiment.  On June 17, 1775, Drury’s company fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the American Revolution.  It was in this battle that British Major John Pitcairn was killed by an African American soldier.  It may be that Peter Salem fired the shot that killed Pitcairn.

On November 12, 1775, General George Washington decreed that no blacks, either slaves or freedmen, could serve in the military.   When news that the governor of Virginia had freed all slaves willing to fight against the British reached Washington, he issued a new edict on December 30, 1775 (and approved by the Continental Congress on January 16, 1776) allowing all free blacks to serve in the military.  Peter Salem was released from slavery and he re-enlisted in the military.  He also fought in the Battle of Saratoga, New York in September 1777, and the Battle at Stony Point, New York in July 1779.  Peter Salem served in the military for a total of seven years. 

After the war, Salem settled in the Sucker Pond area of Framingham and made a meager living caning chair seats and making and mending baskets. Peter was also known as a storyteller.  Children and adults alike enjoyed listening to his stories about the war.   In 1783, he married Katy Benson.  Peter and Katy had no children.  Eventually he moved to Leicester, Massachusetts hoping to find work.  There he continued to eke out a living weaving baskets and caning chairs.  Peter never prospered and in his old age he was dependent on charity.  The town officials in Leicester eventually sent him back to Framingham to live in the poorhouse.  His former masters, Lawson Buckminster and Jeremiah Belknap, gave monies to the town to support Salem for the rest of his life.  Peter died on August 16, 1816 and is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Framingham.  In 1882, the town of Framingham erected a monument at his gravesite.

Further Reading

Carp, Benjamin L. “Bunker Hill, Battle of.” Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, edited by Paul Finkelman, vol. 1, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006, pp. 231-232. U.S. History in Context,

“Black Patriots of the American Revolution.”  Wallbuilder Report: Black History Issue, 2004. https://wallbuilders.com/black-history-issue-2004/.  Accessed 1 Feb. 2017.

---

Bibliography

Davis, Burke.  Black Heroes of the American Revolution.  Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1976.

Dennis Wepman. “Salem, Peter.” American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.  http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00893.html.  Accessed 04 Feb 2017.

Herring, Stephen.  Framingham: An American Town.  Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

“Peter Salem.”  Notable Black American Men, Book II, edited by Jessie Carney Smith, vol. 2, Gale. Biography in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1622000743/BIC1?u=fpl&xid=448c494f. Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.

Quintal, George.  Patriots of Color: A Peculiar Beauty and Merit, African Americans and Native Americans at Battle Road and Bunker Hill. Division of Cultural Resources, Boston National Historical Park, 2004, pp. 189-196.  Internet Archive, https://archive.org/stream/patriotsofcolorp00quin#page/189/mode/1up.  Accessed 1 Feb. 2017.

Russell, Thaddeus.  “Peter Salem.”  Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, Gale, 2006. Biography in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K3444701117/BIC1? u=fpl&xid=29b9e5ba. Accessed 4 Feb. 2017.

Temple, Josiah H.  History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. A special Centennial year reprinting of the 1887 edition,  New England History Press, 1988.

In every town, in every era, there is a person who stands out for his/her commitment to community service.  Jonathan Maynard (1752-1835) was Framingham’s leading citizen following the Revolutionary War.  Jonathan was the second son of Jonathan and Martha (Gleason) Maynard.  The Maynards lived on Salem Street (now called Salem End Road) in Framingham Centre.

When the Revolutionary War began, Maynard was within days of completing his studies at Harvard College.  He immediately left Harvard to enlist in the Framingham Company attached to Col. John Nixon’s regiment.  Eight weeks later, he saw combat in the Battle of Bunker Hill.  During the evacuation of Boston by the British in March of 1776, he was removed to upstate New York. He fought in most of the battles in that area including Stillwater and Saratoga.

During the winter of 1777-78, while stationed in Albany, Maynard and five other Framingham men in General John Nixon’s brigade joined the Freemasons, a fraternal organization.  This group included Col. Thomas Nixon, Capt. Peter Cloyes, Lieut. Samuel Frost, Lieut. Trowbridge, and Luther Trowbridge.  Legend has it that on May 30, 1778, while on a reconnaissance or foraging mission, Maynard and a few other soldiers were attacked and captured by a band of Mohawks, allies of the British.  All of the soldiers were killed by the Mohawks except for Maynard.  He was brought back to their leader, Chief Joseph Brant.  Chief Brant had been educated in Britain, spoke English, and as luck would have it, was also a Freemason. Chief Brant sentenced Maynard to be burned at the stake.  Just as he was to be executed, Maynard gave the Freemason hand signal for extreme peril which the Chief recognized.  Brant stopped the execution! He then sent Maynard to Canada as a prisoner of war for the next thirty one months.  Upon his release on December 26, 1780, Maynard returned to his company at West Point, and was promoted to the rank of Captain.  On November 19, 1781, after the battle of Yorktown, he resigned his commission and returned to his hometown of Framingham.

Once home, Maynard settled into civilian life.  He first found employment as a school teacher.  And then on May 30, 1784, he married Lois Eaton, the oldest child of Jonas and Lois (Goodnow) Eaton. The Maynards made their home in Framingham Centre in the partially finished Patterson House, which had been moved from the Nobscot area to Pleasant Street.  

Maynard became very involved in town affairs.  He was appointed Justice of the Peace.  He served a three year term as a town selectman, and then a two year term as the town clerk.  In 1810, he was appointed to be Framingham’s first postmaster, a position he held for twenty-three years.

Maynard then took his political ambitions to the state level.  He was elected to the state legislature and served as state representative for fifteen years, 1790-1805.  On January 14, 1800, W. Winthrop resigned his seat in the Senate, and Maynard was tapped as his replacement.  He served in the state Senate until 1807.  Maynard served concurrent terms as representative and senator for the years 1801-1805.

Maynard found something lacking in his civilian life in Framingham.  It was the comradery of the Masonic meetings. He and the others who had joined the Freemasons in Albany decided to establish a lodge in their hometown.  Maynard gathered eleven men (the minimum number needed to establish a lodge) and petitioned the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for a charter.  The charter, signed by Paul Revere, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, was granted on June 9, 1795.   Among these eleven charter members eight were from Framingham and three from surrounding towns.  The Middlesex Lodge of Freemasons held their meetings at Maynard’s home for the first twelve years with Maynard as the Grand Master.  Maynard was an active Freemason for fifty-eight years, attending his last meeting just months before his death.

Captain Jonathan Maynard died on July 17, 1835 and is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Framingham Centre.  To acknowledge his service and devotion to the town of Framingham, an elementary school built on Vernon Street in 1915 (now part of Framingham State University) and a road in Framingham Centre are named in his honor. The area in Framingham Centre extending from the First Baptist Church west along Pleasant Street to the railroad tracks, including property on Maynard Road was designated as the Jonathan Maynard Historic District by the 1994 Annual Town Meeting.

Facts

Birth date: May 22, 1752

The Maynard House is located at 113 Pleasant Street.

First officers of the Framingham Grand Lodge: Capt. Jonathan Maynard, Master; Capt. Peter Cloyes, Senior Warden; Barzaiiai Bannister, Junior Warden; Capt. Samuel Frost, Secretary; Major Andrew Brown, Treasurer; Col. Thomas Nixon, Senior Deacon; Thomas Buckland, Jr., Deacon.

---

Bibliography

Brownell, John H., ed. “Life Story of Jonathan Maynard.” The American Tyler-Keystone: Devoted to Freemansonry and its Concerdant Others. vol. 14, no. 2, July 15 1899, pp. 42-43. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=9R_nAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA42&dq=life+of+jonathan+maynard+american+tyler-keystone&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ9M2i5tPdAhWLct8KHZdtDN4Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=lifeofjonathanmaynardamericantyler-keystone&f=false Accessed 24 Sept. 2018.

City of Framingham, Historic District Commission. “613 Pleasant Street Preliminary Report (pdf).” City of Framingham website. https://www.framinghamma.gov/1555/Historic-District-Commission Accessed 21 Dec. 2018.

Coolidge, Charles W. “Brief Sketch of His Military and Masonic Life.” The Tribune. 01 Apr. 1898. Pp.4+”The following democratic republican senators are probably chosen by the people.” National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser [Washington, District Of Columbia] 20 Apr. 1804. 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.bpl.org/ncnp/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=NCNP&userGroupName=mlin_b_bpublic&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=GT3017437465&t

Herring, Stephen. Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

“Joseph Brant”. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2018. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Accessed 28 Sept. 2018.

“Maynard, Jonathan Captain.” The State Legislative Biographical card file. State Library of Massachusetts, Reference Dept.

“Post Office Appointments.” National Intelligencer [Washington, District Of Columbia] 8 Dec. 1810. 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.bpl.org/ncnp/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=NCNP&userGroupName=mlin_b_bpublic&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=GT3017453105&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 Accessed 23 Sept 2018.

Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. A special Centennial Year reprinting of the 1887 edition. New England History Press, 1988.

In the 1700s, Framingham, like most places, was a man’s world. Women couldn’t vote or hold public office, and it would be this way for two more centuries. Advanced education for women during this time was not considered important, and some even felt that allowing women to pursue academics was dangerous. However, Lydia Learned (1730 – 1792) did not let this stop her from learning all she could and leaving a lasting impact on Framingham. She was the second of eleven children to Moses and Lydia Bryant Learned. They lived on a farm on the south end of Learned Pond, which had been named after their grandfather. 

Before there were schoolhouses, little children in New England learned their alphabet and numbers from a neighborhood lady, who earned some money by teaching them in her home. Lydia probably went to such a “dame school,” but she wanted to know more than the basics. Boys could go on to study at grammar schools and later prepare for university, but girls were expected to stay at home and learn housekeeping and sewing.

Lydia learned much more. She read a great deal and taught herself to write poetry and essays on serious topics like the ten commandments. She never married but worked as a schoolteacher.  In Reverend Josiah Temple’s History of Framingham 1640-1880, he described her as “a voluminous writer in prose and verse, much of which was printed.” It was surprising that her work was published. There were few printing presses in colonial America and none in Framingham. Anything that was printed was by male politicians or ministers. Perhaps that is why some of Lydia Learned’s work was printed anonymously.

Lydia wrote religious treatises (similar to an essay) and wonderful poems. In 1777 when the community was shocked by the sudden death of two of its citizens by a bolt of lightning, she wrote a mourning poem that was printed and widely circulated. The families of the victims were so moved that parts of it were inscribed on the headstones of the deceased and can still be read in the Old Burying Ground. The stanza is as follows:

My trembling heart with grief o’erflows,

While I record the death of those,

Who d’yed from thunder sent from heav’n

In sev’nteen hundred seventy-seven

According to Stephen Herring, former Town Historian, Lydia Learned sowed the first seeds of a Framingham tradition that values education. A tradition carried on by the Framingham Academy founded in 1792, which admitted “children of both sexes…upon equal terms,” as well as by the State Normal School (today’s Framingham State University) and the model school system of the current century.

---

Bibliography

Herring, Stephen W., An American Town, The Framingham Historical Society, 2000.

Herring, Stephen W., “Top Ten Remarkable Women From Framingham’s History,” Town Historian, Framingham Historical Society.

Temple, J. H., History of Framingham 1640-1880, The Town of Framingham, 1887.

Dr. John B. Kittredge (1771 – 1848) made a mistake. As Framingham’s first doctor with an M.D. degree, he set up practice in 1791 and many were impressed with his medical capabilities. So much so that in 1793, a Framingham resident named Abidja Parmenter had a sick relative from New Hampshire come and see the young doctor. Dr. Kittredge initially thought the patient had dropsy (a swelling of the legs). To Dr. Kittredge’s dismay, it turned out he had a much more serious illness: smallpox. The virus quickly spread through the west side of town. Due to the good reputation of Kittredge, smallpox was in Framingham.

Smallpox outbreaks were being reported all around New England in the early 1790’s. Smallpox, a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and raised sores on the skin, spread easily as it was highly contagious, and wreaked havoc on cities, towns and Native American tribes. A smallpox diagnosis was usually a death sentence. 

Dr. Kittredge’s patient did not survive. A “pest house”, where people with the disease stayed in quarantine, was formed at the home of Samuel Angier, a Revolutionary war veteran who was one of the first to be infected with the virus in Framingham.  The town was wary of bringing the dead bodies into town for proper burial, so those who died were buried in a nearby pasture under flat stones, without inscriptions.  Despite being connected to the smallpox outbreak, Dr. Kittredge remained a respected member of the medical community and his advice was often sought after by other physicians. He was one of the first professional men to come to Framingham town Centre and establish it as a bustling business place for Framingham and surrounding towns, and in that way his legacy is still felt today.

---

Bibliography

Coss, Stephen, The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics, Simon and Schuster, 2016.

Fenn, Elizabeth A., Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82, Hill and Wang, 2001.

Herring, Stephen, Framingham: An American Town, The Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

Temple, J. H., History of Framingham 1640-1880, The Town of Framingham, 1887.

Willrich, Michael, Pox: An American History, The Penquin Press, 2011.

We can trace the military life of Thomas Nixon Jr. (1762 – 1842) because he served with his father, Thomas Nixon Sr., under the very famous General John Nixon throughout his service in the American Revolution.

Thomas Nixon Jr. enlisted in the Continental army in 1775 at the age of thirteen. It was common for teenage boys between fourteen and sixteen to enlist as fifers and drummers. He saw action at Lexington and Concord as part of Captain David Moore’s Sudbury Company in April 1775. Thomas Jr. enlisted with his father after Lexington and Concord and became part of John Nixon’s brigade. He was stationed at Winter Hill, Somerville, from April 1775 until the siege of Boston was over with the British army withdrawal on March 17, 1776. He served under General George Washington’s command in New York and helped reinforce the army at Fort Ticonderoga. Thomas Nixon Sr. was injured when a cannon ball passed closely to his head, which impaired his sight and hearing. Thomas Jr. was asked to accompany his father home to Framingham. Both were honorably discharged in December, 1780. Thomas Jr. re-enlisted for a year in 1782 and was 20 years old at the war’s end.

Here is an example of the fife music Thomas Jr. would play:  

Thomas Jr. attended surveying school and worked with a group of surveyors who parceled out land to veterans returning from war as payment for their service.

He married Lydia Hager and built his house on Edmands Road, which is still standing today. They had four children: Warren, Otis, Suky and Reny. After Lydia passed away Thomas married the widow, Sarah Stone. Thomas is buried in the Main St. cemetery.

The Framingham History Center has Thomas Nixon Jr.’s song book and fife. He may have acquired the book when he served with a soldier John Long from New York. This book allows us to know revolutionary music as it would have sounded and played in 1776. There are 104 pages containing 143 tunes in his book. Both men contributed to the tunes. 

The role of the fifer or drummer was to communicate instruction among the troops in battle and in camp. Songs were used for drum beats, duty calls and special occasions such as military funerals, ridiculing prisoners, and entertainment for dancing and jigs. Yankee Doodle can be found on page 95. Other songs were copied after the war, including many dance songs. 

---

Bibliography

Dewar, Martha E. and Gilbert, M. Joan, Framingham Historical Reflections, Town of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1974.

Herring, Stephen, Framingham: An American Town, The Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

Rookey, Anne Livermore, “Talk on Thomas Nixon Jr’s tune book,” Framingham Historical Society, 9 May 1996. Transcript

Temple, J. H., History of Framingham 1640- 1880, The Town of Framingham, 1887.

Framingham people cared passionately about their music. Temple tells us that Rev. Matthew Bridges, the second minister in town, held regular singing practice and trained seven members who had strong enough voices to start the psalms for the congregation to sing.  The first choir was formed in 1768, but when stringed instruments were introduced to strengthen the voices some older members of the congregation were distressed.  Used to the familiar psalm tunes of his youth one elderly gentleman, on hearing the first lines of William Billings’ “David the King,” cried out, “Hold, hold!” and left the meeting house noisily.  In 1798 the town hired a singing master and used money from the alewife fishing at Cochituate Brook as the “singers fish privilege.”

Daniel Belknap (1771 – 1815) grew up and went to common school in Framingham.  He learned enough music to start his own singing school when he was only eighteen years old.  His first songs were published in anthologies of religious tunes, but by 1797 he had brought out a tune book devoted entirely to his own work.  In all he published four books of sacred music, the largest, The Village Companion, included fifty-six of his own compositions.  He also published a secular “songster,” which included an instrumental piece, “Belknap’s March.”

His tunes are usually in four parts, with simple harmonies.  The melody is often in the tenor voice, not the soprano, and in many cases the second half of the song is a “fuging tune,” starting with one voice followed by another and featuring some skipping dotted eighth notes.  The titles of the tunes often have nothing to do with their words: “Framingham” is a meditation on the passion of Christ, as are “Holliston” and “Southborough.”  “Hopkinton” is a call to repentance; “Keene,” a version of Psalm 11. 

There is a “Funeral Ode” on the death of George Washington:

Deep resound the solemn strain,

Bid the breathing notes complain,

Say, Columbia’s hero’s fled,

Say, the world’s great chief is dead…

Belknap was a devoted Mason.  In The Middlesex Songster there is “A Masonic Song:”

Before I became a Freemason,

I tho’t it some damnable thing,

I tho’t it was witchcraft & treason,

Some swore that the devil reign’d king.

But I thought to myself I would venture

Without any further delay,

With firm resolution to enter

To a Lodge, then hasten’d away.

And who would not be a free mason,

So happy and social are we;

To kings, dukes and lords we are brothers,

And in every Lodge we are free.

In the introduction to The Harmonist’s Companion, Belknap writes: “’A View of the Temple, A Masonic Ode,’ which appears in this work, was set to musick by particular desire, and performed by the author with several brethren of the fraternity, at the installation of Middlesex Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, in Framingham in 1795.”

Belknap’s “Four Seasons,” unlike Vivaldi’s lively and descriptive concertos, consists of four brief and rather lugubrious hymns. The words start cheerfully enough with “Spring,” but lament the passing days in “Summer” and “Autumn,” and dread the “sullen vengeance” of the storm in “Winter.”

Belknap married Mary Parker of Carlisle and they had five children.  The family moved to Providence in 1812 and Daniel died there three years later.  His place among New England psalmodists is well established; one scholar even acclaims him as the most typical composer of them all.

Facts

The Middlesex Lodge of Masons met at the home of Jonathan Maynard, on the top floor of a house still standing on Pleasant Street.

---

Bibliography

Belknap, Daniel.  The Collected Works, edited by David Warren Steel.  Garland, 1991.  Music of the New American Nation: Sacred Music from 1780-1820, Vol. 14.

Belknap, Daniel. The Harmonist’s Companion: Containing a Number of Airs suitable for Divine Worship, Together with an Anthem for Easter, and a Masonic Ode, composed by Daniel Belknap, Teacher of Music, in Framingham.  Boston, Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T Andrews, 1797. 

Belknap, Daniel. The Middlesex Songster, Containing a Collection of the Most Approved Songs now in Use.  Dedham: Printed by H. Mann, 1809. {Photocopy of a copy at Brown University, p. 4-6.]

Cooke, Nym.  “William Billings: Representative American Psalmodist?”  The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning, 7 (Spring 1996): 47-64.  (quoted in Belknap. Collected Works, p. xxiii)

Parr, James L. and Kevin A. Swope.  Framingham Legends & Lore.  History Press, 2009.  P. 63.

Temple, Josiah H.  History of Framingham Massachusetts 1640-1885.  Centennial year reprinting of the 1887 edition.  New England History Press, in collaboration with the Framingham Historical & Natural History Society, 1988.  P. 337-338.