American author, born in Duxbury, MA, on the 19th of November 1765, of a noted family. He graduated at Harvard in 1786, and was pastor of the Congregational Church at Wiscasset, ME, from 1793 until 1801, after which he was clerk of the supreme court of Massachusetts, a bookseller in Boston, and secretary of state from 1812 until 1824. Later he edited the Boston Gazette. He wrote numerous biographical works and histories of places in his state, besides which he was the author of History of Massachusetts from 1764 until 1820 (1820); History of the Federal Government (1840). He died in Boston on the 26th of October 1843.
