My earliest ancestor of whom I possess at present any
knowledge, was Thomas Webster. He was settled in Hamp-
ton, New Hampshire, as early as 1636, probably having come
thither from or through Massachusetts, though he may have
come by way of Piscataqua. From him to myself the descent
may be found regularly recorded in the church records and
town records of Hampton, Kingston, now East Kingston, and
Salisbury.

The family is, no doubt, originally from Scotland, although I
have not been able to learn how far back any Scotch accent
was found lingering on our tongue. Probably enough, the
emigrants may have come last from England. The character-
istics of the personal appearance of the Websters are pretty
strongly marked, and very generally found with all who bear the
name in New England. They have light complexions, sandy
hair, a good deal of it, and bushy eyebrows; and are rather
slender than broad or corpulent.

Dr. Noah Webster, the author of the Dictionary, is a vera
effigies of the race. Rev. Mr. Webster, now of Hampton, the
large family in the county of Grafton, and the various remnants
of the old stock still to be found in Kingston and its neighbor-
hood, bear the same general appearance.

My uncles were formed and marked in the same manner.
No two persons looked more unlike than my father and either
of his brothers. His mother was a Bachelder, a descendant of
the Rev. Stephen Bachelder, a man of some notoriety, in his
time, in the county of Rockingham. This woman had black
hair, and black eyes, and was, besides, as my father, who was

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