David KNOWLTON, REV.

                   BIRTH:
    Rev. Charles Henry Wright Stocking, THE HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE
    KNOWLTONS   OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA (1897), p. 72, FHL 526,486; George Henry Knowlton, ERRATA AND ADDENDA TO DR. STOCKING'S HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE
    KNOWLTONS   OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA (1903), p. 44;

MARRIAGE:
    Pittsfield, NH, Town Records 1:413, FHL 015,278, m. by Mr. David Knowlton;

DEATH:
    Pittsfield, NH, Vital Records (Jonathan Perkins His Book), p. 40, FHL 015,570, "mr David knowlton Died";

HISTORY:
    N. F. Carter, THE NATIVE MINISTRY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE (1906), p. 614, Free Baptist, son of Rev. David Knowlton; b. 1780; began preaching 1799; ord. at Barnstead 23 Nov 1803; labored mostly Pittsfield, 1803-06; health failed 1806; d. Barnstead [sic] 11 Mar 1807; m. Hannah, dau. of Dea. Ezekiel True of Salisbury, MA, 25 Sep [sic] 1802; she m. (2) Jonathan Fogg of Montville, ME, and d. Epworth, IA, 20 Apr 1873; Jeremiah P. Jewett, HISTORY OF BARNSTEAD FROM
    ITS   FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1727 TO 1872 (1872), pp. 57, 69-70, first minister in Barnstead was David Knowlton, Freewill Baptist, ord. 1803; "Being the first settled minister, he thereby would have been entitled to the lands allotted by the charter of Barnstead to its first settled minister.  But Knowlton, believing that pay for preaching ought not to be exacted by ministers of the gospel, refused to claim the land by right of priority, and at or before his ordination, executed a release of title acquired, or which he might acquire to said lands at his ordination or settlement in Barnstead as its first minister. Elder Knowlton was a son of the Rev. David Knowlton of Pittsfield.  He was but twenty-seven years of age at his installation, and died about two years afterwards.  His funeral was at Pittsfield.  Rev. BENJAMIN RANDALL preached the sermon.  Text: Num. xxiii:10: `Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his' Six ministers bore him to the grave.  One of them supported the afflicted widow on the way, and nearly one thousand people attended them to the last resting place of the first settled minister of Barnstead.  So died the good man, beloved and deplored. . . .  This denomination [Freewill Baptist] soon became somewhat numerous in Barnstead. . . .  As they increased, churches were formed and preaching was had `without money and without price.'  They relied more on Bible doctrines and puritan principles, than upon rigid rules or creeds in a church government.  Up to the year 1804, they had scarcely been recognized as a Christian denomination.  At that time their burden of taxation was changed by the Legislature of New Hampshire, and they thereby became a distinct sect among the denominations of New England.  As at first they had no meeting-houses, they were constatnly subjected to great inconveniences, such as at the present day are entirely unknown.  For the want of churches, dwelling-houses, barns, orchards, and groves, were often made to take the place of them.  The rations of a soldier, to them at their `yearly meetings,' and `quarterly conferences,' were regarded as ample fare, with which all were satisfied.  Beds were provided for the aged or feeble, while others found contentment and rest without convenient couch or covering.  An eye witness says: `At a quarterly meeting at Pittsfield in 1802, Elder Knowlton filled every bed in his house, and then twenty of us lay on the floor, and as many more slept in the barn'"; Stocking, KNOWLTONS OF AMERICA, p. 154, David and Hannah True Knowlton had four children, all d. young; Knowlton, ERRATA TO
    DR  . STOCKING'S HISTORY, p. 65, Rev. David Knowlton, Free Baptist minister; ord. in Barnstead, NH, 23 Nov 1803, the first minister settled in that town; d. of consumption, in Pittsfield, NH, 11 Mar 1807; his wid. m. Jonathan Fogg 1808, who d. 1863; and in 1866 she removed west w. her son Joseph Fogg where she d. 20 Apr 1873.