Diary of Anna Green Winslow | Page 3

whence sprung this tender and engaging
little blossom. When the weary Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod before
they made their memorable landing at Plymouth, a sprightly young girl
jumped on shore, and was the first English woman to set foot on the
soil of New England. Her name was Mary Chilton. She married John
Winslow, the brother of Governor Edward Winslow. Anna Green
Winslow was Mary Chilton's direct descendant in the sixth generation.
Anna's grandfather, John Winslow the fourth, was born in Boston. His
son Joshua wrote thus in the Winslow Family Bible: "Jno Winslow my

Honor'd Father was born ye 31 Dec. at 6 o'c. in the morning on the
Lords Day, 1693, and was baptized by Mr. Willard the next day & dyed
att sea Octo. 13, 1731 aged 38 years." A curious attitude was assumed
by certain Puritan ministers, of reluctance and even decided objection
and refusal to baptize children who were unlucky enough to be born on
the Lord's Day; but Samuel Willard, the pastor of the "South Church"
evidently did not concur in that extraordinary notion, for on the day
following "Jno's" birth--on New Year's Day--he was baptized. He was
married on September 21, 1721, to Sarah Pierce, and in their ten years
of married life they had three children.
Joshua Winslow, Anna's father, was the second child. He was born
January 23, 1727, and was baptized at the Old South. He was
"published" with his cousin Anna Green on December 7, 1758, and
married to her four weeks later, January 3, 1759. An old piece of
embroidered tapestry herein shown gives a good portrayal of a Boston
wedding-party at that date; the costumes, coach, and cut of the horses'
mane and tail are very curious and interesting to note. Mrs. Winslow's
mother was Anna Pierce (sister of Sarah), and her father was Joseph
Green, the fourth generation from Percival Green, whose descendants
have been enumerated by Dr. Samuel Abbott Green, the president of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, in his book entitled "Account of
Percival and Ellen Green and some of their descendants."
Mrs. Joshua Winslow was the oldest of twelve Green children, hence
the vast array of uncles and aunts and cousins in little Anna's diary.
Joseph Green, Anna's maternal grandfather, was born December 12,
1703, and was baptised on the same day. He died July 11, 1765. He
was a wealthy man for his time, being able to pay Governor Belcher
£3,600 for a tract of land on Hanover Street. His firm name was Green
& Walker. A fine portrait of him by Copley still exists.
Thus Anna came of good stock in all lines of descent. The Pierces were
of the New Hampshire provincial gentry, to which the Wentworths and
Langdons also belonged.
Before Joshua Winslow was married, when he was but eighteen years

of age, he began his soldierly career. He was a Lieutenant in Captain
Light's company in the regiment of Colonel Moore at the taking of
Louisburg in 1745. He was then appointed Commissary-General of the
British forces in Nova Scotia, and an account-book of his daily
movements there still exists. Upon his return to New England he went
to live at Marshfield, Massachusetts, in the house afterwards occupied
by Daniel Webster. But troublous times were now approaching for the
faithful servants of the King. Strange notions of liberty filled the heads
of many Massachusetts men and women; and soon the Revolution
became more than a dream. Joshua Winslow in that crisis, with many
of his Marshfield friends and neighbors, sided with his King.
He was in Marshfield certainly in June, 1775, for I have a letter before
me written to him there by Mrs. Deming at that date. One clause of this
letter is so amusing that I cannot resist quoting it. We must remember
that it was written in Connecticut, whence Mrs. Deming had fled in
fright and dismay at the siege of Boston; and that she had lost her
home and all her possessions. She writes in answer to her brother's
urgent invitation to return to Marshfield.
"We have no household stuff. Neither could I live in the terror of
constant alarms and the din of war. Besides I know not how to look you
in the face, unless I could restore to you your family Expositer, which
together with my Henry on the Bible & Harveys Meditations which are
your daughter's (the gift of her grandmother) I pack'd in a Trunk that
exactly held them, some days before I made my escape, and did my
utmost to git to you, but which I am told are still in Boston. It is not,
nor ever will be in my power to make you Satisfaction for this Error--I
should not have coveted to keep 'em so long--I am heartily