Joseph Chester

April 30, 1821 (age 61)

Norwich, Connecticut, United States

Chester had a brief experience as a school-teacher at Ballston, New York. Then he was employed as a clerk at the house of Tappan & Company, silk merchants. This firm was unusual in its stress on the moral conduct of its employees, all of whom were aroused to efforts in the causes of temperance and anti-slavery. Before reaching his majority, Chester was lecturing on temperance to audiences all the way from Massachusetts to Ohio. His leisure hours were also given to writing verse, the merit of which was recognized by the Knickerbocker, then the leading literary magazine in the United States. The issue for January 1843 printed his poem “Greenwood Cemetery” under the pseudonym, Julian Cramer, a name he assumed many times. Later in the year a volume, Greenwood Cemetery and Other Poems, was published, which carried his true name as the author. One poem of his collection, “Lonely Auld Wife, ” attracted the attention of the composer, William Richardson Demster, who set it to music and included it in his concert repertoire in his tours through the country. Soon after 1845 Chester became a Philadelphian. He spent the business hours in a counting room on Market St. , “a quiet unpretending business man, ” but devoted himself in spare time to literature and music. From 1845 to 1850, he served as the musical editor of Godey's Lady's Book magazine. In 1852, he appears to have left the counting room for journalism, becoming associated with the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily Sun; his newspaper connections brought him into the political field for the first time and he was elected to membership in the Philadelphia City Council as a representative from the Sixth Ward, in 1855. He continued to have strong anti-slavery convictions, being responsible for the publication, in 1854, of Educational Laws of Virginia; The Personal Narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Southern Woman who was Imprisoned for One Month in the Common Jail of Norfolk, Under the Laws of Virginia, for the Crime of Teaching Free Colored Children to Read. During the next two years when Congress was the scene of exciting debates on the question of slavery, Chester spent much time in Washington as corresponding editor for the Philadelphia papers; indeed, during the spring of 1855, he was one of the assistant clerks in the House of Representatives. It was during these years also that he served on the staff of Governor Pollock of Pennsylvania and acquired his much treasured title, “Colonel. ” In September 1858, he went to England to try to sell some patent rights, at the same time keeping his connection with the Philadelphia Inquirer, to which he contributed a weekly letter. Up to the time of his arrival in England it does not appear that he had ever given any attention to genealogical research. Captain Uriah Rogers of Norwich, his great-grandfather, believed that he carried in his veins the blood of John Rogers, who was burned at the stake for his heresy during the English Reformation and whose picture in the old New England Primer was doubtless familiar to Chester. “To establish, if possible, the correctness of these claims, ” his visit to England became “protracted. ” He found the family tradition incapable of proof, but he “became thoroughly imbued with the convictions that historical justice had never yet been done” the martyred preacher. Hence his first genealogical contribution, John Rogers: the Compiler of the first authorized English Bible: the Pioneer of the English Reformation; and its first martyr (London, 1861). Chester was credited in London with a long list of publications and with research so successful as to gain for him this tribute: “When he died, he had no superior as a genealogist among English speaking people. ” He remained to the last a citizen of the United States and ever maintained that his prodigious labors in making extracts from parish registers, in copying matriculation registers at Oxford, marriage licenses, wills, books of pedigree, etc. , had as their primary object the publication of a “general and detailed account of the character, social status, etc. , of the English emigrants to New England prior to the Restoration”. His work was well known also in his native country. He was a frequent contributor to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and many articles which appeared first in England were reprinted in the Boston Evening Transcript. Further, he was a highly important and most generous medium through whom American investigators in the same field could obtain accurate information about the English ancestry of American families. His first volume of verse was dedicated “To his wife (not knowing a better friend)”.

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The Visitation of London: Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635. Made by Sr. Henry St. George, Kt., Richmond Herald, and Deputy and Marshal to Sr. Richard ... Kt., Clarencieux King of Armes; Volume 2

( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Some Account of the Taylor Family (Originally Taylard)

( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial: Registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial: Registe...)

London marriage licences, 1521-1869

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

John Rogers: The Compiler of the First Authorised English Bible; The Pioneer of the English Reformation; And Its First Martyr (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from John Rogers: The Compiler of the First Autho...)

The Parish Registers of St. Mary Aldermary, London, Vol. 5: Containing the Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials From 1558 to 1745 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from The Parish Registers of St. Mary Aldermary, ...)

John Rogers: The Compiler of the First Authorised English Bible, the Pioneer of the English Reformation and its First Martyr, Embracing a Genealogical ... Principal Descendants, His Own Writings, etc.

(Reprint. Originally published 1861, London, by Longman, G...)

Greenwood Cemetery, and Other Poems (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Greenwood Cemetery, and Other Poems The Dau...)

A Preliminary Investigation of the Alleged Ancestry of George Washington

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Joseph Lemuel Chester Edit Profile

genealogist antiquaria poet

Background

Joseph Lemuel Chester was born on April 30, 1821 in Norwich, Connecticut, United States, the son of Joseph and Prudee (Tracy) Chester. His first immigrant ancestor was Captan Samuel Chester who settled in New London, Connecticut (c. 1663), and was engaged in West India trade. The boy was only eleven when his father died; the mother with most of her children in 1835 moved to Ohio.

Education

Chester received formal school education. One of his Norwich teachers spoke of him as “a handsome bright boy, ” but his school days gave no evidence of “budding genius. ” At the age of eighteen, Chester undertook a law course in New York City but he abandoned it soon. In 1881 he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from Oxford University. Columbia University also honored him with the Doctor of Laws Degree in 1877.

Career

Chester had a brief experience as a school-teacher at Ballston, New York. Then he was employed as a clerk at the house of Tappan & Company, silk merchants. This firm was unusual in its stress on the moral conduct of its employees, all of whom were aroused to efforts in the causes of temperance and anti-slavery.

Before reaching his majority, Chester was lecturing on temperance to audiences all the way from Massachusetts to Ohio. His leisure hours were also given to writing verse, the merit of which was recognized by the Knickerbocker, then the leading literary magazine in the United States. The issue for January 1843 printed his poem “Greenwood Cemetery” under the pseudonym, Julian Cramer, a name he assumed many times. Later in the year a volume, Greenwood Cemetery and Other Poems, was published, which carried his true name as the author. One poem of his collection, “Lonely Auld Wife, ” attracted the attention of the composer, William Richardson Demster, who set it to music and included it in his concert repertoire in his tours through the country.

Soon after 1845 Chester became a Philadelphian. He spent the business hours in a counting room on Market St. , “a quiet unpretending business man, ” but devoted himself in spare time to literature and music. From 1845 to 1850, he served as the musical editor of Godey's Lady's Book magazine. In 1852, he appears to have left the counting room for journalism, becoming associated with the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily Sun; his newspaper connections brought him into the political field for the first time and he was elected to membership in the Philadelphia City Council as a representative from the Sixth Ward, in 1855.

He continued to have strong anti-slavery convictions, being responsible for the publication, in 1854, of Educational Laws of Virginia; The Personal Narrative of Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Southern Woman who was Imprisoned for One Month in the Common Jail of Norfolk, Under the Laws of Virginia, for the Crime of Teaching Free Colored Children to Read. During the next two years when Congress was the scene of exciting debates on the question of slavery, Chester spent much time in Washington as corresponding editor for the Philadelphia papers; indeed, during the spring of 1855, he was one of the assistant clerks in the House of Representatives. It was during these years also that he served on the staff of Governor Pollock of Pennsylvania and acquired his much treasured title, “Colonel. ”

In September 1858, he went to England to try to sell some patent rights, at the same time keeping his connection with the Philadelphia Inquirer, to which he contributed a weekly letter. Up to the time of his arrival in England it does not appear that he had ever given any attention to genealogical research. Captain Uriah Rogers of Norwich, his great-grandfather, believed that he carried in his veins the blood of John Rogers, who was burned at the stake for his heresy during the English Reformation and whose picture in the old New England Primer was doubtless familiar to Chester. “To establish, if possible, the correctness of these claims, ” his visit to England became “protracted. ” He found the family tradition incapable of proof, but he “became thoroughly imbued with the convictions that historical justice had never yet been done” the martyred preacher. Hence his first genealogical contribution, John Rogers: the Compiler of the first authorized English Bible: the Pioneer of the English Reformation; and its first martyr (London, 1861).

Chester was credited in London with a long list of publications and with research so successful as to gain for him this tribute: “When he died, he had no superior as a genealogist among English speaking people. ” He remained to the last a citizen of the United States and ever maintained that his prodigious labors in making extracts from parish registers, in copying matriculation registers at Oxford, marriage licenses, wills, books of pedigree, etc. , had as their primary object the publication of a “general and detailed account of the character, social status, etc. , of the English emigrants to New England prior to the Restoration”.

His work was well known also in his native country. He was a frequent contributor to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and many articles which appeared first in England were reprinted in the Boston Evening Transcript. Further, he was a highly important and most generous medium through whom American investigators in the same field could obtain accurate information about the English ancestry of American families. His first volume of verse was dedicated “To his wife (not knowing a better friend)”.

Achievements

Joseph Lemuel Chester was considered a “master in genealogy and biographical history”. His fame rested on his genealogical researchers on many prominent American families. He made about eighty-seven folio volumes of extracts from British parish registers. His greatest work was "The Marriage, Baptismal and Burial registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St Peter Westminster" which was published in 1876 with many useful footnotes. In recognition of Chester's genealogical research, British established a tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey.