Author: Bartlett, Joseph
Biography:
BARTLETT, Joseph (1762-1827: ANBO)
Not to be confused with Joseph Bartlet of Cumberland, nor with the J. M. Bartlett who published in London. Lawyer, wit, troublemaker, he was born in Plymouth MA to Sylvanus Bartlett and Martha Wait. He was one of the founding members of the chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard. After graduating in 1782 he began his studies in law; in later years he turned to the law for a living, off and on, in various places. In England from 1783 to 1786, he wrote a play (to pay his way out of debtors' prison) which he claimed was the first by an American to be performed on an English stage--but the title is not recorded. He was elected as representative for Cambridge in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1799 to 1802 and served as a state senator (for Maine, still part of Massachusetts at the time) in 1804 and 1805. He was married twice and both wives left him. He was a drunken and scurrilous man in his later years. He died in Boston. (ANBO 11 Nov. 2017) HJ