Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. BIRTH AND BAPTISM. CHILDHOOD. — ENVIRONMENT.— SAMUEL DANFORTII.—INCREASE MATHER.—ELIOT. THOMAS DUDLEY. OTHER MEN OF NOTE. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. SPORTS. It was into the atmosphere and environment of gross superstition and the unquestioning faith which I have described as characteristic of Roxbury people, that John Williams was born on Saturday, December 10, 1664, o.a. Let us be thankful that this mite of humanity was not taken to the fireless meetinghouse the next day to be baptized, as was the custom, and let us also hope that when so taken upon the eighth day of its age, it was not obliged to remain through the weary length of the service; but of this we can have no assurance. No record is found concerning directly the childhood of John Williams. We have good reasons to believe that in one respect his environment was a fortunate one, and that he was spared, as he grew up, the usual superstitious fear in case of unusual astronomical phenomena. The comet and the meteor were no Divine Messengers of vengeance. A few rods from the house of Deacon Samuel Williams lived Rev. Samuel Danforth, colleague with Pastor Eliot. He was a firm believer in the direct interposition of the Deity in answer to the prayers of men, but he was also a man of scientific attainments in the line of astronomy, as must needs be a maker of almanacs. He had also a touch of poesy in his make-up. In accordance with the custom of the times, Mr. Danforth made notes on the Church Records of the appearance of comets,but in no spirit of superstition. It was merely a scientific account for permanent preservation, of its appearance and its location in certain constellations. Mr. Danforth and Mr. Williams each had large families. From 1654 to 1674 twenty-five boys and girls came to brighten th...