Person:Joseph Hawley (17)

Dexter's Sketch of Major Joseph Hawley of Northampton

Joseph Hawley, the eldest child of Lieutenant Joseph Hawley, and grandson of Captain Joseph Hawley (Harv. 1674), of Northampton, Massachusetts, was born in that town, October 8, 1723. His mother was Rebecca, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard (Harv. 1662).

On leaving College he began the study of theology with his first cousin, Jonathan Edwards (Y. C. 1720). He served as chaplain with the provincial forces on the expedition for the capture of Louisburg in 1746.

After this experience he abandoned the ministerial profession, and undertook the study of law with Phineas Lyman (Y. C. 1738), of Suffield. He settled in practice in his native town, as early as May, 1749.

The next year was rendered memorable in Northampton by the dismission of Jonathan Edwards; and Mr. Hawley, though so near a relative, was a principal leader and chief spokesman of the members of the church in compassing this unfortunate result. Ten years later, in 1760, he wrote a remarkable confession of his fault in this course (published in Dwight’s Life of Edwards, 421-27); in 1762 he was elected a deacon in the church,—an office which he retained till his death.

For the first 25 years of his professional life, he enjoyed a very extensive practice, and was justly eminent for fidelity and integrity. For over thirty years (with a few intermissions on account of ill health) he served as a representative in the General Court of the Province. In 1769, he was elected to a seat in the Governor's Council, but declined. During his service in the General Court he was usually a member of all important committees, and was regarded as the pillar of the party of resistance to Great Britain for Western Massachusetts, as was Samuel Adams for the Eastern section. It has been said that, while in the legislature, no vote on any public measure either was, or could have been, carried without his assent 'The almost unexampled influence acquired by Major Hawley, was owing not only to his great talents, but still more perhaps to his high-minded, unsullied, unimpeachable integrity.' (Tudor's Life of Otis.) Unfortunately, however, for the hopes which rested on him, he was the victim of an hereditary tendency to despondency and melancholy, which caused his almost entire withdrawal from public employment after the year 1776, and finally led to something like insanity. Occasionally, however, as in the case of Shays' Rebellion, in 1786, he was aroused to take an active part in defence of government with all his old force.

He was elected to the first Senate chosen under the Constitution of the State in 1780, but declined to serve.

While Massachusetts was still a Royal Province, his great influence on the whig side led to an attempt to silence him as a lawyer. There was printed in the Boston Evening-Post of January 5, 1767, a distorted account of a notable trial of certain persons charged with riotous conduct in connection with the Stamp Act disturbances in November, 1765, in which trial Hawley was of the counsel for the defence. He published in the same paper, July 6 and 13, 1767, a corrected version of the affair, criticizing the action of the Chief Justice in influencing the jury and implying that the Court's sentence was unjustly severe. These articles were produced before the Superior Court at its session in Springfield in September, 1767, and the Court ordered that his name be struck out of the rolls of the barristers and attornies practicing before them; but he was restored at the next term.

His remarkable foresight in regard to the struggle for independence is shown by an extraordinary paper of 'Broken Hints,' which he drew up, in the summer of 1774, to communicate to the Massachusetts delegates to Congress; this paper, beginning with the ominous declaration, 'We must fight, if we cannot otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation,' is printed at the end of volume 9 of John Adams' Works, and is to be read in connection with an earlier letter, on page 342 of the same volume. Twelve other letters of his, on the political situation, in 1775 and 1776, are in print, in Force's American Archives.

He died in Northampton, March 10, 1788, at the age of 64. His wife, Mercy, daughter of Joseph and Abigail (Lewis) Lyman, of Northampton, whom he married in 1752, died November 27, 1806, at the age of 77. They had no children.

His townsman, President Dwight (a grandson of his first cousin), says of him, writing in 1796:—

'The late Hon. Joseph Hawley was one of the most influential in Massachusetts Bay for a considerable period before the revolution: an event in which few men had more efficiency. This gentleman was a very able advocate. Many men have spoken with more elegance and grace—I never heard one speak with more force. His mind, like his eloquence, was grave, austere, and powerful. At times he was deeply hypochondriacal.'"^[2]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Joseph Hawley, Jr. (3); Hon. Joseph Hawley (4), in Trumbull, James Russell. History of Northampton : Northampton Genealogies, 1640-1838. (Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States: n.p., bef 1899)
   213.

   "Joseph (Hawley): b. Oct. 8, 1723."
   "Hon. Joseph Hawley (4): son of the second Joseph (3); Joseph Sr. (2); Thomas (1); d. March 10, 1788."

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Joseph Hawley, in Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College With Annals of the College History. (New York / New Haven: Holt / Yale University Press, 1885-1912)
   2:709-12.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Corbin, Walter E. (Compiler), and Robert J. (Transcriber) Dunkle. Corbin Collection. Volume 1: Records of Hampshire County, Massachusetts: Northampton Vital Records. (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003)
   49; 132.

   "Hauley Joseph s. Joseph & Rebekah [born] Oct. 8 1723"
   "Hawley Hon^ble Joseph Esq^r [died] Mar. 10 1788"

4. ↑ Maj Joseph Hawley, in Find A Grave.