GRAND Magazine- Winter 2020 - 30

history
Bringing up grandsons
Body and soul
The old Puritan grandparents also
In 1736, 58-year-old Joshua
used their moral authority to set high
Hempstead of New London was cutting
standards for their grandchildren. In
wood with his teenaged grandson, who
1718, a Barbados planter sent his son
missed his stroke and cut across his shoe.
Richard Hall to a Boston boarding
"He let fall his ax & made no noise but
school. His Boston grandmother, Lydia
said "Grandfather I have cut off two of
Coleman, gave Richard a penny every
my toes," wrote Hempstead in his diary.
Sunday and promised him five shillings
"He seemed to speak as if he was jestAnne Bradstreet
when he could recite all the Biblical
ing." "'I have, really Grandfather'," he said.
Half Old.
proverbs by heart.
Hempstead took him down in his arms,
The Rev. William Bentley
Bradstreet wasn't the first poet to describe a grand- set him down, pulled off his shoe and
She also conferred with his teacher, brought
parent's love for a grandchild. But she did speak for
the teacher presents and made sure Richard had
bound up the injury. Then he set him on his horse and
the first generation of grandparents who lived among brought him home. The doctor came to the house and shoes and handkerchiefs.
plenty of other grandparents.
stopped the bleeding. The boy would be all right.
For example, in 1680 Hampton, N.H., had a popThe boy's father had died at 29, and Grandfather
"I would do my duty by his soul as
ulation of 290 children and teenagers under the age
Hempstead, a widower, raised him and his younger
well as his body," she wrote.
of 19. According to family information about 200 of
brother. The older boy would inherit his house and farm,
them, 90 percent had at least one grandparent alive.
so Joshua taught him how to mow hay, chop wood,
In 1660, the Puritan minister John Wilson wanted
Most children under five years old had three or four
build fences and plant
his sickly newborn grandson to carry on his spiritual
grandparents still living. And nearly half of those from
trees. Joshua would
work. "Call him John," he said. "I believe in God, he
ages 10 to 19 had at least two grandparents still alive.
try to protect the
shall live, and be a Prophet too and do God Service in
Communities became inherently more stable and
two boys from injury
his Generation." Wilson's prediction came true, as John
prosperous after New England invented grandparents.
and expose them to
Danforth became pastor of the church of Dorchester.
They helped teach and take care of their grandchilthe wider world on
William Bentley's parents had no interest in educating
dren, and they often shared their wealth with them.
his travels around
their son. So his grandfather paid for his education,
By 1700, just 70 years after the Puritans' Great
the Northeast. The
and Bentley served as a minister of the East Church in
Migration began, colonial Americans had 38 percent
Hempstead homeSalem, Mass., from 1783 to his death in 1819.
more purchasing power than their British brothers
stead would stay in
and sisters. By the American Revolution, they had half
the family until 1937.
In appreciation to The New England
again as much buying power as Britons, according to
(It's now a house
Historical Society for this article
Joshua
Hempstead
House
economists Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson.
museum.)
Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan
poet, died at age 60 in 1672
- long enough to mourn the
deaths of three grandchildren.
"Farewell sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye," she wrote
in her poem, In Memory of My
Dear Grandchild - Elizabeth
Bradstreet, Who Deceased
August, 1665, Being a Year and a

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GRAND Magazine- Winter 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine- Winter 2020