Author: Hearsey, Freeman
Biography:
HEARSEY, Freeman (1772-1824: ancestry.com)
He was born on 24 Dec. 1772 at Hingham MA to Mary (Humphrey) and Zerubabble Hearsey. The preface to his only known collection of pious verses informs the reader that the author had “no education of any kind” but was apprenticed to a carpenter when, in 1791, he first felt the impulse to write poetry. The result was a broadside Elegiac Poem printed in Boston that he later included in his book under another title, “On the Battle at the Ohio.” On 13 Jan. 1792 he married Ruthy Dolbear in Boston; they had at least two children. By 1805 he was the proprietor of a trunk shop in Salem MA, but his wife died in Salem in Apr. 1808. On 7 Nov. 1812 he enlisted in the army at Salem but he deserted and was sent as a prisoner to Fort Warren. After his release he returned to Boston as a housewright and married Eleanor Dwyer at Trinity Church on 17 Apr. 1815 or 8 Jul. 1816 (records vary), or both. By 1818 his name appears in the Boston Directory in partnership with Ephraim Merriam, another housewright, but business must have declined. Hearsey died in the poorhouse at Hingham on 6 Sept. 1824. (ancestry.com 29 Mar. 2022; findmypast.com 29 Mar. 2022; Salem Register 25 Sept. 1805; Columbian Centinel 1 Dec. 1804; information from Brian Chaffin)