160 7723 HAZARD FAMILY 
     
    
   
   
    
     Soon after her marriage she became a recognized Minister in the New England 
     
     Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, and during her subsequent life was 
     
     regarded as one of the most distinguished preachers in that religious seét. Her 
     
     labors in behalf of the gospel of peace and good—will were not confined to her 
     
     immediate surroundings, but her sweet and eloquent voice was heard by 
     
     thousands throughout the hills and valleys of New England. Her gentle but 
     
     living words in reproval of sin and wrong doing, moved her hearers without dis— 
     
     tinction of sect or belief. She fulfilled her mission as perfectly as it is in the 
     
     power of finite beings to accomplish the full measure of their work. 
     
    

    
     While making preparations for her last ministering visit to distant Friends, she 
     
     felt a premonition that this would be her last, and made full preparations for her 
     
     death and burial, taking, it is said, even her burial clothes with her. The Warn— 
     
     ing of the “inward light ” proved a true warning, for she died soon after her ar- 
     
    
   
   
    
     rival in Belgrade, Maine, September 9, 184.5, aged sixty—five. 
     
    
   
   
    
     CHILDREN 
     
    

    
     1635. LYDIA RATHBUN, born July 13, 1803; married, May 6, 1830, Eli K6151. 
     
    

    
     1636. MERCY PECKHAM RATHBUN, born April 2, 1805; married William 0mm, died Nov. 13, 
     
     1881. 
     
    

    
     1637. MARY RATHBUN, born Oct. 1, 1806; married Charla: Hadwz'rz. 
     
    

    
     1638. EDWARD BURROUGH RATHBUN, born Oct. 7, 1809; unmarried. 
     
    

    
     1639. FRANCIS HochLL RATHBUN, born Aug. 19, 1811; married Sum” Brown, died Nov. 12, 
     
     1855. 
     
    

    
     1640. WILLIAM PECKHAM RATHBUN, born Oct. 18, 1814; married Eliza Va?! 313%. 
     
    

    
     1641. ELIZABETH RATHBUN, born Dec. 27, 1818; married Gordan. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     § 902. WILLIAM PECKHAM, 7 (William Peckham, 6; Mary Hazard, 5; 
     
     Governor George, 4.; Colonel George, 3 ; Robert, 2; Thomas, I), was born No- 
     
     vember I I, 1781 ; he died November 7, 1863. His boyhood was passed at home, 
     
     where he acquired his limited education; he attended school four months. His 
     
     parents were prominent members of the Society of Friends, and his early religious 
     
     instructions were on a line with that simple faith, guided by the “light within.” 
     
     He continued “a birth-right member” of that sect until February 2, 1803, 
     
     when he married Susannah Stanton. She not being a member of the Society, he 
     
     forfeited his right of membership ; but both he and his wife continued to worship 
     
     with the Society during their lives. 
     
    

    
     In early life he took a deep interest in public affairs, and observed closely the 
     
     political aspe€t of the times. In I 8 10 he was eleé’ced to the State Senate, and from 
     
     that time until late in life he held many offices of trust. In 1814, during the last 
     
     war with Great Britain, Governor William Jones gave him a commission as Cap— 
     
     tain of the second Company of Infantry, of the town of South Kingstown, and 
     
     he was called out to defend the old sloop Wampum, which was chased and driven 
     
     ashore on Matunuck beach by a British cruiser. This duty he performed much 
     
    
   
   
    
     to the annoyance of his good peace—loving Quaker friends. 
     
     From I 822, to 1 827, he was one of the associate Judges of the Court of Common 
     
    
   
   
    
     Pleas