Letter of recommendation for Amos Main from Joseph Moodey to Nathan Prince, 1725 July 2

Handwritten letter sent by Joseph Moody, schoolmaster in York, to Harvard Tutor Nathan Prince recommending student Amos Main for acceptance to the College. In the letter, Moody requests Prince give Main an examination for admission, with the caveat that though Main has been studying Latin and Greek he has a difficult home life and is "somewhat Raw; yet I hope you'l wink at it." The letter, dated July 2, 1725, is written on a folded folio-sized leaf; there are handwritten notes about Massachusetts towns on the verso.

The letter was originally accompanied by a hardcover volume that contains a typed transcription of the letter and a clipping mounted onto the back cover. The volume was added to the control file for the collection and may be consulted on request; a second typed transcription was deaccessioned (HUG 1548).

Title supplied by cataloger. The item is listed in shelflists as both the Papers of Nathan Prince and the Papers of Amos Main.

The letter was transcribed and published in the March 24, 1927 Harvard Alumni Bulletin, page 717.

The letter was received in the Harvard College Library on February 2, 1927 as a Thurber Gift.

Amos Main (1707/8-1760), a minister in Rochester, NH, was born on January 8, 1707/8 in York, Mass (later Maine). He received an AB from Harvard in 1729 and an AM in1732. Main was ordained as the first minister of the town of Rochester, NH in 1737. Main died on April 5, 1760.

Joseph Moody (1700-1753) was born on May 16, 1700 in York, Mass (later Maine). He received an AB from Harvard in 1718 and an AM in 1721. In 1718, Moody began teaching in York, and also served in a number of town offices including town clerk and judge of common pleas. On November 29, 1732, he was ordained as the minister of the second church of York. In 1738, Moody began displaying symptoms of insanity, including the wearing of a handkerchief over his face nearly all of the time. He was dismissed from his pulpit in August 1741 because of his mental illness, and gained a reputation for his strange behavior. Moody died on March 19, 1753. Moody also spelled his name "Joseph Moodey."

Nathan Prince (1698-1748) was a classmate of Joseph Moody's in the Harvard Class of 1718. In April of 1723, Prince was appointed a Tutor at Harvard College and taught until his dismissal in 1742; he also served as a Fellow from 1728 through 1742. After 1742, Prince worked as a schoolmaster until his death on July 25, 1748.