Wentworth cheswell brief biography of maya

What We Do. Board of Directors. Editorial Team. Know Your Vote. Civic Health Index. Collaborative Projects. Race and Equity Initiative. NH, Informado. Community Journalism Project. GSNC Reporting. The State We're In. Data Library. Wentworth Cheswell was a teacher, auditor, assessor, selectman, and Justice of the Peace in New Hampshire. When he was elected town Constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire in , he became the second person of African ancestry, after Mathias de Sousa of the Maryland colony, to be elected to public office in what would become the United States.

Cheswell, born on April 11, in Newmarket, New Hampshire, was listed in the census as white but was considered mulatto because his father Hopestill Cheswell was a bi-racial, free-born black man, and his mother Catherine Keniston was Caucasian. The Cheswell family name and all descendants are linked to Richard Cheswell, a former enslaved person.

Wentworth Cheswell was sent to Byfield, Massachusett, to attend Dummer Academy where he was educated in reading, writing, arithmetic, Greek, Latin, horsemanship, and swimming. Cheswell returned home after completing his education and became a Schoolmaster. He purchased his first piece of land from his father in and on September 13, , Cheswell married Mary Davis.

He also ran a store next to the school house. Cheswell supported his family as a teacher, and was elected and appointed to serve in local government for all but one year of the remainder of his life, as selectman, auditor, assessor, scrivener, and other roles. He was interested in artifacts from the town and wrote about his studies; he has been called the first archeologist in New Hampshire for his work.

The scholars W. Dennis Chesley and Mary B. Mcallister have said, "Cheswell's writings clearly contain the seeds of modern archaeological theory. His eighteenth century fieldwork and reports, limited though they were, justify calling him New Hampshire's first archaeologist. In , Cheswell and other men established the first library in Newmarket, the Newmarket Social Library.

In his will he stated,. I also order and direct that my Library and collection of Manuscripts be kept safe and together…if any should desire the use of any of the books and give caution to return the same again in reasonable time, they may be lent out to them, provided that only one book be out of said Library in the hands of any one at the same time.

Cheswell was a self-appointed town historian. As scrivener, he copied many of the town records going back as far as the towns incorporation in , including two regional Congregational Church meetings. He collected stories and took notes of town events as they occurred. Jeremy Belknap , who wrote a three-volume History of New Hampshire, quoted Cheswill more than once at length in his work, and credited him for his local histories.

They corresponded several times. In that position, he executed deeds, wills, and legal documents, and was a justice in the trial of causes.

Wentworth cheswell brief biography of maya

He served as Justice until typhus fever caused his death on 8 March , a month before his 71st birthday. He held some of the first offices in the town in which he resided, was appointed Justice of the Peace for that county, and was perfectly competent to perform with ability all the duties of his various offices in the most prompt, accurate, and acceptable manner.

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