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CHAPTER I.

From yon blue heavens above us bent,
The gardener Adam and his wife
Smile at the claims of long descent.
Howe'er it be, it seems to me,

"Tis only noble to be good.

Kind hearts are more than coronets,

And simple faith than Norman blood.

TENNYSON.

ANNE JEAN ROBBINS was born in Milton,

Massachusetts, on the third day of July, 1789. She was the third child of the Hon. Edward Hutchinson Robbins, a man of noble character and warm heart, who has left to his descendants the richest of all inheritances, in the fine flavor of humanity that has kept his memory green, even to the third and fourth generation. The house where Anne Jean first saw the light is still standing on Milton Hill, and is known as the Churchill house. The maiden. name of Anne's mother was Elizabeth Murray, and Anne was named by her for two Scotch aunts, Anne and Jean Bennet. She was a woman of great intelligence and force of character, and had passed the greater part of her life in Milton,- marrying in youth the son of the former beloved minister of the town, the Rev. Nathaniel Robbins.

In a sermon preached in Milton at the two hundredth anniversary of the First Church, by

Rev. Frederic Frothingham, occurs this passage: "Mr Nathaniel Robbins was ordained February 13, 1750-51. A long and honorable service was his, running through four and forty years, closing with his death, May 19, 1795,-a period heaving with the agitations of the Revolution. Mr. Robbins was a patriot. At the battle of Lexington, fought when he was fifty years of age, two of his brothers were in Capt. Parker's company. He seems to have been eminently a man of affairs, and in 1788 was sent by the town to the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. His practical wisdom showed itself in various ways. At his ordination a settlement of £1000 old tenor-cqual to $500- was allowed him, and a salary of £500, or $250, per annum, and 25 cords of wood. But he bought land and built him a house and gradually acquired a considerable farm- now owned by Col. II. S. Russell which doubtless was a faithful friend to him, as well as an abode of hospitality to many others in those distressful days. Then he showed rare tact and skill in adjusting apparently unmanageable disputes. It appeared again in his high personal integrity, which, did men but know it, or would they but believe it, is really wisdom. In his preaching, says Thos. Thacher, 'he refused to call any man master on earth, or to sacrifice truth to prevailing opinions, however conducive to popularity, to consideration and consequence. Such candor and libcral principles were the more deserving of praise, since, in the first period of his ministry, such a spirit. and temper were not common.' So, in preaching,

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