Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America, letter, to Eleazar Wheelock, 1767 September 3

Author Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America

Date3 September, 1767

Call Number767503.3

abstractThe commissioners of the Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America refuse to send Wheelock a copy of the letter he requested because they do not credit his account of Occom’s education. They also admonish Wheelock for luring away one of the Company's interpreters.

handwritingFormal handwriting is bold, clear and legible.

paperLarge sheet folded in half to make four pages is in fair condition, with moderate staining, creasing and wear that results in a minor loss of text.

inkBlack.

signatureThe signature is abbreviated.

noteworthyThe letter is signed by Andrew Oliver on behalf of the Company.

EventsOccom’s Ordination, Occom leaves his studies

Modernized Version Deletions removed; additions added in; modern spelling and capitalization added; unfamiliar abbreviations expanded.

Persistent Identifier
Rev. Sir

Mr. Oliver communicated to the Board
of Commissioners your letter of the 10 August desiring a
Copy of ours to Mr. Mauduit, Governor of the Company
in England
of 2nd October 1765. We have no Objection to your
having a Copy, but as the Letter was wrote to our consti‐
tuents and is now in their hands, we think there is an
impropriety in our delivering out a Copy of it. Mr. Oliver
informs us that he read it to you, and both he and
Mr. Pemberton (with whom you conversed on the Subject)
inform Us, that your exceptions to it all relate to mere
circumstances; For we apprehend it to be quite immaterial
whether Mr. Occom was put under your Care at first,
by some well disposed persons, or by his Mother only.
Whether he was ordained on Long Island, or on this side
the Sound in Connecticut: Or Whether the weakness of
his Eyes came upon him while actually under your
education, or after he came out from it? The main thing,
and the only thing of any importance in the Letter is —
Whether "he was a Mohawk Indian lately converted from
Heathenism, and in a short space of time fitted for the
Ministry by Mr. Wheelock"? We did undertake to inform
our Constituents that he was not a Mohawk, but "that
he was born at Mohegan an Indian Settlement lying be=
=tween New London and Norwich, two of the principal Towns
in the Colony of Connecticut"; and in this We think we
are not mistaken. We are also persuaded that his early
youth was spent there (though we said nothing of this in
the Letter) and if so, We think it highly improbable that
he should have lived in a state of heathenism, while
Lecturers and Schoolmasters were then supported among
them. And as you say his Mother brought him to you for
Education, this renders it highly probable that she knew
something of Christianity herself, and was so far "well dis=
=posed" as in some poor manner to have informed her son
of the Saviours name at least; and that he must therefore
be mistaken in giving out, as you say he did, that he
had never so much as heard it till he was 17 years of Age.
But we shall add no more on this head— We cannot
however help taking notice to you of a Fact which has
but this day come to our knowledge — which is this — that
after we have been at the expense of fitting James
Dean
for an Interpreter to the Western Indians,
and have now actually employed him as Such in our
Service, You should attempt to take him away from us,
by promising to take him into your School, and to give
him a liberal Education. We thought We had before
given him an ample allowance; but we cannot now
retain him in our Service without greatly augment=
­ing it: So that instead of drawing together with Us in our
Schemes for propagating the Gospel, you seem to be
rendering it more difficult, at least more expensive
to Us. .. [gap: tear][guess: we wou]ld have been glad to have gone hand
in hand with you in this great and important Cause, had
you ever shown the least inclination to have allowed Us
a share in the conduct of it: We shall however rejoice
in your success, without envying you the honour or
the Satisfaction of advancing the interests of Christianity
more effectually, than they ever have been advanced
under our Management.
I write this in the name and by order of the Board
of Commissioners
and am

Rev. Sir
 Your most humble Servant
Andrew Oliver
Andrew Oliver, Esq.
in the Name of the Board.
 September 3. 1767


To
The Rev.
Mr. Eleazar Wheelock
at
Lebanon
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