Henry Livingston, Jr.
Henry Livingston's Poetry




Letter sent to master Timmy Dwight
7 ys old    Dec. 7. 1785


Master Timmy brisk and airy
Blythe as Oberon the fairy
On thy head thy cousin wishes
Thousand and ten thousand blisses.

Never may thy wicket ball
In a well or puddle fall;
Or thy wild ambitious kite
O'er the Elm's thick foliage light.

When on bended knee thou sittest
And the mark in fancy hittest
May thy marble truly trace
Where thy wishes mark'd the place.

If at hide and seek you play,
All involved in the hay
Titt'ring hear the joyful sound
"Timmy never can be found."

If you hop or if you run
Or whatever is the fun,
Vic'try with her sounding pinion
Hover o'er her little minion.

But when hunger calls the boys
From their helter skelter joys:
Bread and cheese in order standing
For their most rapacious handling
Timmy may thy luncheon be
More than Ben's as five to three.

But if hasty pudding's dish
Meet thy vast capacious wish -
Or lob-lollys charming jelly
Court thy cormorantal belly
Mortal foe to megre fast
Be thy spoonful first & last.


View in Manuscript Book


Country Advertiser and Poughkeepsie Journal
Feb 14, 1787; by R.


For the Poughkeepsie Advertiser
An Epistle to a young Friend
just in Breeches


MASTER Tommy blithe and airy,
Brisk as Oberon the fairy;
On thy head, thy cousin wishes,
Thousand, and ten thousand blisses!

Never may thy wicket ball,
In a well, or puddle fall:
Or thy wild ambitious kite
On the elm's thick foliage light.

When on bended knee thou settest
And the mark in fancy hittest,
May thy marble truly trace
Where thy wishes mark'd the place.

If at hide and seek you play;
All involved in the hay,
Titt'ring, hear the joyful sound,
"Tommy never can be found."

If you hop, or if you run,
Or whatever is the fun;
Vic'try with her sounding pinion
Hover o'er her little minion!

But when hunger calls the boys
From their helter skelter joys,
Bread and cheese in order standing
For their most rapacious handling
Tommy may thy luncheon be
More than Jack's as five to three,

But if hasty-pudding dish,
Meet thy vast capacious wish:
Or lob-lollys charming jelly,
Court thy ever craving belly;
Mortal foe to megre fast,
Be thy spoonful, first and last.
R--.



Historical Background
Timmy Dwight was the son of Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, a Yale-educated minister who would, in another eight years, become the president of Yale. Timmy's mother, Mary Woolsey, was the aunt of Sarah Welles, Henry's wife. Rev. Dwight gave the funeral sermon for both Henry's father-in-law, Rev. Welles, and for Henry's wife.

Henry's sister Alida was married to another first cousin of Sarah, General Melancthon Lloyd Woolsey, an aide of Washington's during the Revolutionary War.


The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans Volume 3
TIMOTHY DWIGHT, PRESIDENT OF YALE
Dwight, Timothy, educator, was born in Northampton, Mass., May 14, 1752; son of Maj. Timothy and Mary (Edwards) Dwight; grandson of Col. Timothy and Experience (King) Dwight, and of Jonathan and Sarah (Pierpont) Edwards; great-grandson of Nathaniel and Mehitable (Partridge) Dwight; great-great-grandson of Capt. Timothy and Anna (Flint) Dwight, and great-great-great-grandson of John and Hannah Dwight of Dedham, the immigrants, 1634-35.

He was graduated at Yale in 1769, sharing with Nathan Strong the honors of the class. He was principal of Hopkins grammar school, 1769-71; tutor at Yale, 1771-77, during which time he studied law; was [p.360] licensed to preach in 1777 and served as chaplain in Parson's brigade of the Connecticut line, 1777-78. The death of his father called him home and he took charge of the farm, occasionally preaching in the neighborhood churches, 1778-83. At the same time he conducted a day school and while New Haven was in the hands of the British, he had under his care several of the refugeed Yale students.

He was a representative in the Massachusetts legislature, 1782, and refused a nomination as representative in congress.

He was pastor of the church at Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Conn.,1783-95, and established there his celebrated academy and became the pioneer of higher education of women, placing both sexes on an equal footing in his school. During this period he secured the union of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in New England.

He was president of Yale college from Sept. 8, 1795, to Jan. 11, 1817, and Livingston professor of divinity pro tempore, 1795-1805, and by election, 1805-1817. He found the college with a narrow and pedantic curriculum, with the bitterest of feeling existing between the freshmen and the upper-class men, and between the students and the faculty, and with the burden of a primary system. These he reformed, and at his death the 110 students had increased to 313 and the college had taken rank as one of the model university schools in America.

He was married in March, 1777, to Mary, daughter of Benjamin Woolsey of Long Island and they had eight sons, the eldest of whom, Timothy (1778-1884), was a merchant in New Haven and gave $5000 to endow the Dwight professorship of didactic theology at Yale.

He received from the college of New Jersey the degree of S.T.D. in 1787, and from Harvard that of LL.D. in 1810. His master dissertation was: History, Eloquence and Poetry of the Bible; while a chaplain in the army he wrote the patriotic song Columbia; his most ambitious work was his epic The Conquest of Canaan and his most popular pastoral poem was Greenfield Hill (1794). He revised Watts's Psalms with additions of his own and made a selection of hymns, introduced in the worship of the Presbyterian churches by the General assembly. His published books include: Travels in New England and New York (4 vols,, 1821); Theology Explained and Defended in a Course of 173 Sermons (5 vols., 1818); The Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testament (1793); Discourse on the Character of Washington (1800); Observations on Language (1816); Essay on Light (1816).

See Memoir by the Rev. Sereno Edwards Dwight (1846). He died in New Haven, Conn., Jan. 11, 1817.






        
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