The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 521
Mr. Clap died the 28th of December, 1747, aged
36 years, 6 months and 28 days.*
NOAH CLAP.t He taught the school at various
times, from 1735 to 1769-some eighteen or twenty
years in all. His salary in 1735 was ~60; in 1750
and'51, ~270 old tenor, or ~36 lawful money; in
1767, at the rate of ~40 per annum.
JOSIAH PIERCE was a son of Samuel and Abigail
Pierce, of that part of Woburn which is now Burlington, where he was born, July 13th, 1708; graduated at Harvard College in 1735; taught the school
about 1738; went to Hadley, in this State, early in
1743, and was hired to keep the Grammar and English school in that town the same year-was to instruct in Latin and Greek, in reading, writing and
arithmetic. He kept the school in Hadley twelve
years, from 1743 to 1755; and again six years, from
1760 to 1766.
During this time, and long after, he preached in
Hadley, and in various other towns, when the minister was sick or the pulpit vacant from some other
cause. Sometimes he supplied a pulpit three or
four months in succession, but was never settled, and
probably never had a call to settle. Mr. Pierce was
esteemed a very good man, and sound in the faith,
but is said to have been uninteresting as a preacher.
* Chiefly from material furnished by Rev. Samuel Sewall, of Burlington.
t For an account of Mr. Clap, see page 356.