<i>Theoria</i><span> to </span><i>practica</i><span> and Congregational Independency: From John Singleton Copley's portraiture of ‘Liberty,’ </span><i>Rev. Jonathan Mayhew<span> </span></i><span>identified, to Rev. Lemuel Haynes's </span><i>Liberty Further Extended</i><span>, c. 1776</span>
As part of the Lemuel Haynes Anniversary Project in Granville, MA, <em>Theoria</em> to <em>Practica</em> . . . by Corey Phelon Geske commemorates Juneteenth 2023 and the 270th anniversaries of the July 18, 1753 birth of Rev. Lemuel Haynes and the incorporation of the district of Granville, Massachusetts, January 25, 1754.<br /><br />Also recognizing ‘America250,’ the Nation’s Semiquincentennial, July 4, 2026, this work is published by the Granville History Digital Collection, sponsored by the Mabel Root Henry Historical Museum at the Granville Public Library and the Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation, Granville, MA.<br /><br />For the content in this document most relevant to Rev. Lemuel Haynes please refer to pp. i, ii, v, 2, (Section: "<em>Theoria to Practica</em>: Rev. Lemuel Haynes extends ‘Liberty’ to abolition of enslavement") 38-49, 63.
For the first time, Haynes’s unpublished writings circa 1776, Liberty Further Extended and his poem, The Battle of Lexington, are presented herein as very possibly having been composed in Granville, MA where precepts of ‘Liberty’ seemingly existed as early as 1754 with Haynes’s arrival at five months old.<br /><br />Haynes' subsequent education, fostered his unprecedented life story becoming the first Black man ordained a minister in the United States -- in the Congregational church, bespeaking that Faith’s 'independency' breaking out of the colonial paradigm as did a new Nation.<br /><br />For the first time in publication, John Singleton Copley's portrait (1767) of Congregational Boston minister Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, is herein identified. Having preached, “Britons will not be slaves . . . Let us all learn to be free," Mayhew was respected by John Adams as one of the men most responsible for setting the groundwork of the American Revolution. His emphasis upon ‘Liberty,’ is found in Haynes's unpublished essay Liberty Further Extended . . . the first to apply the precepts of the Declaration of Independence to the abolition of enslavement, bringing to the forefront the hypocrisy of any who supported ‘Liberty’ without extending it to “mankind” in bondage. Copley’s portraiture bears evidence of his effort to do so and his iconology of 'Liberty' extending to the abolition of Black enslavement, is examined and interpreted here.<br /><br />‘Congregational Independency’ in Massachusetts provided the theoria of ‘Liberty’ that guided the iconology of Copley, an Anglican, who put theory to practice, compassing his portraiture with subliminal messaging of ’Liberty.’ <br />From Mayhew to Haynes, the theoria of ‘Liberty’ evolved from considering the rights of white American colonists to the Black enslaved population, all “mankind,” as Thomas Hollis V had inscribed upon Mayhew’s etching by Cipriani after Copley. <br /><br />This extension of theory to practice and ‘Liberty’ to the abolition of enslavement, as proposed by Haynes, whose lifetime paralleled that of the young nation, was rooted in the Independency of the Congregational church.
Corey Phelon Geske
Granville History Digital Collection, Granville, Massachusetts
May 30, 2023
© Copyright May 30, 2023, Corey Phelon Geske. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without the permission of the author. Images used herein with permission for publication in this document from Boston University Libraries; Cleveland Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum; Harvard University Portrait Collection; Houghton Library, Harvard University; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; New York Public Library; The Library Company of Philadelphia; Princeton University Art Museum; and Yale University Art Gallery.
As cited in the text: <br />See the Daniel Rose, Lt. Jacob Baldwin, Rev. Joel Baker . . . Phelon House for additional information:<span> </span><a href="https://granvillehistory.omeka.net/items/show/362">CLICK HERE</a><span> </span>for Daniel Rose . . . Phelon House Part One. Part One includes links to Parts 2-5 and Addenda. <br />For mention of Thomas Holllis V,<span> </span><a href="https://granvillehistory.omeka.net/items/show/1341">CLICK HERE<span> </span></a>for Addendum 1,<span> </span>"Baker Quilt: West Granville Needlework at the F.G. (Rev. Joel) Baker House inspires the historic Deerfield Arts and Crafts Movement."
Roberts, Ida: Autograph Book, 1880's
Autograph book owned by Ida Lucelia Roberts (1872-1958) of Granville, containing signatures of family and friends. Most signatures are from the 1880's.
In 1891 Ida married Benjamin Franklin Gibbons (1871-1950) who served as Granville's postmaster from 1901 until his retirement in 1944.
Ida and Benjamin are buried in the Silver Street Cemetery, Granville, MA.
Ida Roberts
1880's
Book loaned for digitization purposes by Karl Petersen, 26 Sept 2018.
Digital Copy: Granville Library Historical Room, 2018
Sermon By Timothy Mather Cooley On The Death of Louisa Maria Cooley, 1824
Text of a sermon delivered on October 24, 1824 by Rev. Timothy Mather Cooley in Granville, Massachusetts at the funeral of Louisa Maria Cooley. <br /><br />Louisa Maria Cooley was born on September 22, 1810 and died on October 19, 1824 at the age of 14. She was the daughter of James Cooley and Almira (Parsons) Cooley. She is buried in the Main Road cemetery in Granville. <strong><a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71469980">CLICK HERE</a></strong> for her Find A Grave page.
Original document provided by the Granville Library Historical Room and scanned at the Boston Public Library for inclusion on Internet Archive
<a href="https://archive.org/details/sermonaddressedt00unse">(CLICK HERE)</a> to view searchable scan on Internet Archive
Suhm Family Donation to Public Library, 1977
Newspaper photo of Mr. and Mrs. Gustave Suhm donating a collection of jazz and classical records to the Granville Public Library, 1977
Granville Public Library Historical Room
Unknown newspaper
Granville Village School Graduation Program, 1957
Granville Village School graduation program, 1957
1957
Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation
Granville Village School Graduation Program, 1961
Granville Village School graduation program, 1961.
1961
Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation
Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation
Eisenhower, Dwight and David With Noble & Cooley Drum
UP photo and caption, 1954, David Eisenhower receiving Noble & Cooley anniversary drum at the White House.
1954
Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation
United Press
Missionary Stock Certificate, Schooner Robert W. Logan
1890
Granville Public Library Historical Room
Granville Grange Degree Team
Newspaper clipping of the Granville Degree Team. See image for all names in photo. Note that Alfred Goodrich is misidentified in the clipping as "Goodyear." The Petersen and Hansen names are also mis-spelled in the clipping (should be "sen" not "son").
Unknown newspaper
Whitney, Milton B.
Granville News Column, 1873
Newspaper clipping from 1873, unknown newspaper. Contains article about Noble & Cooley, an apple tree, and "aged persons in East Granville."
1873
Summit House, Mt. Holyoke, Skinner State Park, Hadley and South Hadley, Massachusetts
#120 in 1874 Barlow Album.
The Summit House at Skinner State Park in Hadley, MA. The structure leading up the mountain to the building was a covered tramway.
The following history is from Wikipedia:
In its prime, a steamer would pick up guests at the Smiths Ferry railroad station across the Connecticut River in what was then Northampton, ferrying them to a tramway leading to the Half Way House. From there guests could take a steep inclined tram to the summit. The Prospect House, under the proprietorship of John and Fanny French, was expanded twice, first in 1861 and nearly doubled in size with the construction of an annex in 1894.
In 1908 the property was sold to the Mt. Holyoke Hotel Company. This corporation was formed by Joseph Skinner, a local industrialist, L. Treadway of Treadway Inn fame, and Christopher Clarke to hold the land in trust for an eventual state reservation. The hotel continued operation until the Great Hurricane of 1938 badly damaged the 1894 annex, which was subsequently demolished. Soon after this, Joseph Allan Skinner offered to donate the hotel and the surrounding land to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the condition it would become a state park bearing his name. The formal dedication was held in June 1940.
State funds for maintenance of the summit house and tramway during the intervening years were inadequate. The remains of the tramway were removed in 1964 and by the mid-1970s there were proposals to condemn and demolish the summit house. This led to a public outcry and in the mid-1980s the Summit House, consisting of the original 1851 structure and the 1861 addition, was restored by the state.[5] The building was reopened for tours following restoration work performed in 2014.
Granville Public Library Historical Room