Introduction: America 250 Celebration – Melissa Davenport Berry concludes her story about Revolutionary patriot Josiah Bartlett, the second signer of the Declaration of Independence. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue with Dr. Josiah Bartlett (1729-1795), former New Hampshire governor, member of the Continental Congress, and the second signer of the Declaration of Independence. Josiah was born in the town of Amesbury, Massachusetts, to Stephen Bartlett and Hannah (Webster) Bartlett.

To recap: Part One covered Josiah’s early life, including his study of medicine with Dr. Ordway and his move to Kingston, New Hampshire, where he acquired a large practice by his skill in surgery and in the study of the human frame. The article also described his appointments to various statesmen roles and his marriage to his [first] cousin, Mary Bartlett, the daughter of his uncle, Joseph Bartlett, and his wife Sarah (Hoyt) Bartlett of Newton.

Part One also presented part of the narrative about Josiah Bartlett published by the well-known author and historian Eva Augusta (Clough) Speare in her column “Stories of New Hampshire” entitled “The Patriot Doctor – Josiah Bartlett” in the Manchester Union Leader in 1971. I will now proceed with the rest of her narrative.

Returning to New Hampshire in 1779, he [Dr. Josiah Bartlett] was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1782 he became a Justice of the Superior Court and Chief Justice in 1788.

In 1790 he was elected President of the State of New Hampshire and re-elected in 1791 and again in 1792 when he carried nearly three-fourths of the votes in the State. The name President was changed to Governor in June 1793.

In January of 1794 he retired to private life. He died in the spring of 1795 at the age of sixty-six.

Of his family of twelve children, his three sons became doctors: Levi in Haverhill, Josiah Jr. in Kingston, and Ezra in Warner. Four of Ezra’s sons became doctors and also a son of Levi’s.

[Below are portraits of: U.S. Congressman Dr. Josiah Bartlett Jr. (1768-1838), who married Sarah Wingate and 2nd Hannah Weeks; and his brother Dr. Levi Bartlett (1763-1828), whose portrait descended to a great-granddaughter, Lottie Mary (Bartlett) Goodrich, of Epping, New Hampshire.]

Amesbury has always been proud of being the birthplace of the second signer of the Declaration of Independence. A bronze and granite monument of Josiah Bartlett stands at the head of Main Street in the city, the gift of Jacob R. [Huntington], pioneer carriage manufacturer of Amesbury.

[Here is a photo of the monument’s statue while under construction. The statue is a standing portrait of Josiah Bartlett holding a quill in one hand and the Declaration of Independence in the other, modeled from a painting by John Trumbull.]

[Here is a photo of the finished monument.]

On the Fourth of July, 1888, the monument was unveiled before a crowd of dignitaries of state, thousands of citizens, and numerous descendants of the Bartlett family. A poem, “One of the Signers” by John Greenleaf Whittier, was read on this occasion.

Family records in the Josiah Bartlett home in Kingston were used for this column. The house is there with the linden tree that grew from a twig that Dr. Bartlett brought in his pocket from Philadelphia.

This large linden tree is still standing in front of the Kingston house, brought and planted by Josiah Bartlett on his return from Philadelphia at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Note: The very breeches worn by Josiah when he signed the Declaration of Independence, attributed to tailor Gideon George, are housed at the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Below is an obituary for Josiah published after he died on 19 May 1795. The cause of death was palsy (paralysis). He is buried in Plains Cemetery, Kingston, New Hampshire.

This article reads:

On Tuesday night, 19th ult., departed this life suddenly, in a fit of the Palsy, at his seat in Kingston, the Hon. JOSIAH BARTLETT, Esquire, late Governor of this State.

In the death of this patriot is finished a well spent life of public usefulness. He was for several years in the younger part of his life a practitioner of physic in that town, and by industry and frugality acquired a handsome fortune. At the commencement of the late revolution, “the time that tried men’s souls,” he stood forward a distinguished supporter of the cause of his country; was early a member of the committee of safety in time of the war; and was representative to Congress under the old confederation; he likewise sustained various other offices of public trust, with honor and fidelity. And since the establishment of the new Constitution, has been several years Judge of the Superior Court; and afterwards Governor of the State; in these offices, he possessed the entire confidence of the people. Being in a manner worn out in the service of his country, he resigned the latter office, since which, his health has been fast declining.

Here is a daguerreotype of Josiah’s grandson Dr. Josiah Bartlett (1803-1853), son of Dr. Ezra Bartlett and Hannah (Gale) Bartlett.

Below is a photograph of Josiah’s great-great-grandson Ezra Bartlett (1832-1886), son of Dr. Josiah Bartlett and Hannah (Weeks) Bartlett, who served during the Civil War aboard the USS Kearsarge, most known for its famous sea victory over the CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France, on 19 June 1864.

In conclusion, I leave you with this: President Josiah Bartlet is the central fictional character and two-term U.S. President in the NBC political drama series The West Wing, played masterfully by Martin Sheen.

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Note on the header image: AI-created image of Josiah Bartlett. Credit: Melissa Davenport Berry.

Related Articles:

• America 250 Celebration: Josiah Bartlett (part 1)
• Honoring Patriots and Their Children (part 1)
• Honoring Patriots and Their Children (part 2)
• Soldiers of the American Revolutionary War (part 1)
• Soldiers of the American Revolutionary War (part 2)
• Soldiers of the American Revolutionary War (part 3)
• Soldiers of the American Revolutionary War (part 4)
• Deborah Sampson: Revolutionary War Soldier Disguised as a Man
• Patriot James Lemmon Honored on the Fourth of July