This collection contains incoming and outgoing correspondence and meeting minutes related to the career of David Damon, a Congregational preacher who served parishes in Lunenburg, Salisbury, Amesbury, and West Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the early 1800s.
The collection’s earliest items relate to the pastorate of the Church and Congregation of the Town of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, including two drafts of Damon's initial rejection of the job (December 12, 1814) and a letter of recommendation from an Ecclesiastical Council (November 22, 1827). Damon was the "Scribe" of an Ecclesiastical Council meeting in Groton, Massachusetts, summoned on October 31, 1826, to examine objections to the installation of Charles Robinson as the pastor of the town's Church of Christ; Damon's meeting minutes are included in the collection. Other letters and documents respect Damon's move to the Congregational Society of Salisbury and Amesbury, including two copies of a resolution calling for his hire (April 1, 1828) and a copy of his acceptance (May 12, 1828).
Damon wrote a letter of recommendation to Reverend T. Flint, endorsing Jeremy Peters and Nathaniel Currier, who planned to build a "Cotton Manufactory" (April 30, 1833). A note written shortly after Damon's death requests prayers for his wife and children (July 2, 1843). The collection also has an official copy of a letter to the Massachusetts Senate from proprietors of manufacturing establishments near Amesbury and Salisbury, Massachusetts, expressing their grievances over taxation (August 1, 1832), and an undated copy of a religious covenant by members of a Salisbury church under the leadership of Reverend Samuel Webster.
David Damon was born in East Sudbury (now Wayland), Massachusetts, on September 12, 1787, to farmer Aaron Damon and Rachel Griffin Damon. He studied at the Andover Phillips Academy in 1806 and 1807, and graduated from Harvard in 1811. He was ordained on November 22, 1813, and served as pastor for the Congregational Church and Society in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, between February 1815 and December 1827. Damon then became pastor of the Congregational Church and Society of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts, on June 25, 1828. He left his position on May 14, 1833, and temporarily preached in several different Massachusetts towns. Damon accepted a call from a congregation in West Cambridge in April 1835, and held a position there until his death in June 1843. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Harvard shortly before he died. He married Rebecca (alternately spelled Rebekah or Rebeccah) Derby of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1815, and they had seven children.
