The TextBook of the Washington Benevolent Society...

Concord {New Hampshire} 1812.

Membership certificate finished in ink for Sylvester Martin (1765-1856) this certifies that Sylvester Martin has been regularly admitted a member of the Washington Benevolent Society instituted in the City of New York on the twelfth day of July 1808 and established at Grafton New Hampshire on the twentieth day of February 1812.

Signed E Bullock, Secretary.

(after considerable research I believe ‘E Bullock’ was Experience Bullock the only “E Bullock” I could locate during this time period in the county. Noted in Before Equal Suffrage that there was evidence that numerous ladies in the city Boston attended functions held by the Washington Benevolent Society and in 1812 describes a local gathering of women in Vermont, Perhaps indicating that women were perhaps involved in the Washington Benevolent Society.)

Experience Bullock was a daughter of Mary Martin and Seth Bullock and she was born in 1792 and married in 1814 to Merrill Hoyt and died in 1832. She was a niece of Sylvester Martin.

SYLVESTER MARTIN (1765-1856) Born in Rehoboth moved to Grafton at an early age. He married Elizabeth Ford in 1786, and reared seven children. One of his sons, Asa was Sheriff for 14 years. He joined the Washington Benevolent Society at age 47. He then married MARY “POLLY” HOYT July 12, 1827 in Grafton. He removed to Bristol with his family in 1849. He was a painter in Bristol till about 1853, when he removed to Haverhill, and in 1860, returned to Grafton, where he died.

He was a son of Mary Horton Martin (1744-1805) and his father SETH MARTIN (1745-1817) In 1772, the first 12 settlers arrived in Grafton, Seth Martin was among them along with Captain Joseph Hoyt and Hezekiah Bullock. On April 18, 1774, they met at the home of Seth Martin to vote on a warrant to formally allocate the twelve lots required to be settled in the charter. Seth Martin received the NO. 12-13 lots in the 6 range which was to become Razor Hill and where he is buried. Seth joined the Revolutionary War from NH. He was in the NH Militia. He appears as a Lieutenant on the payroll of Col. Jonathan Chase's Regiment, which reinforced the Northern Continental Army at Ticonderoga by General Falson's order May 7, 1777. He was discharged June 16, 1777. Seth appears on the payroll as Lieutenant in Col. Jonathan Chases's Regiment, which marched from Cornish in Sept. 1777 and joined the Continental Army under General Gates near Saratoga. He entered service on October 2, 1777 and discharged October 24, 1777.

Sylvester descended from Ephraim Martin (1676-1734) a minister in Rehoboth, Bristol County, son of immigrant John Martin (1634-1713).

It is believed the signature of the Society’s President was E. Blasdell. The signature, most likely hurriedly written and perhaps written a dozen or more times that day with weak hand (examine and determine)

(Thought to be Elijah Blasdell Born in 1782 son of Daniel. After working as a shoemaker he began to study law. He was in Grafton briefly and in the fall of 1812 removed to Canaan. Notes early he began in politics as a Federalist. He held the office of judge of probate, and represented Canaan in the legislature. He died around 1862.

The Washington Benevolent Societies were grass-roots political clubs with a semi secret membership; set up 1808-1816 by the Federalist Party in the U.S. to electioneer for votes. As shown on the membership certificates printed within copies of "Washington's Farewell Address" that were issued to members, the first of these societies was "instituted in the City of New York, on the 12th day of July, 1808.

The TextBook of the Washington Benevolent Society containing a biography and character of George Washington... his farewell address to the people of the United States and the federal Constitution with the amendments... with portrait of George Washington as frontispiece “his path be ours”

Published by George Hough.

Publisher George HOUGH (1757 - 1830) was a private in the New Haven Alarm on 9 July 1779. George became a printer who moved to Vermont and started The Vermont Journal in 1783. He later moved to Concord, NH, and started the first paper there, The Concord Herald, in 1787. He published that paper through 1805.

Grafton, New Hampshire: Originally granted in 1761, and re-granted in 1769, Grafton, like the county it resides in, takes its name from Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, a relative of colonial governor Benning Wentworth. Capt Joseph Hoyt, the first settler, came from Massachusetts in 1772. Grafton was incorporated in 1778. The population in Grafton was 931 in 1810.

Interesting to note the membership date here was Feb 20th (which was a Thursday) and not the 22nd which would have been George Washington’s 80th birthday. In the just a few months, in June, New Hampshire prepared for the War of 1812. The Governor passed orders for detaching over 3000 men from the militia of the state.

Condition and Notes

Cited: Shaw & Shoemaker 27549

Pocket sized. Measures about 3 1/4” by 5 1/2”

106 pages collated and complete

Contemporary boards attached with moderate external where some chipping of material and light abrasion and rubbing some soiling to the marbled boards with minor loss of material as pictured, mild abrasion

Scattered foxing and browning minor stains

No torn pages

Pencil marks on membership page as pictured, perhaps could be carefully erased

Interior else free of writing

Endpages foxed

Offsetting of membership certificate

Page 103 mild abrasion of text

Binding sound

Corners bumped and rubbed

Pocket-size and probably carried to the meetings by Sylvester Martin.

Membership certificate is pictured twice as well as detailed frontispiece

Signature required on delivery

Information gleaned from research through: Gazetteer of Grafton County 1709-1886 compiled & published by H. Child; Before Equal Suffrage, and ancestry.