Born in Ipswich in 1654, John Emerson’s legacy suffers from the existence of several other Rev. John Emersons coming out of that same family line, often making precise identification confusing. The son of Nathaniel and Sarah Emerson, John followed in the footsteps of his uncle (another John Emerson) by attending Harvard College. He was not a perfect student, being reprimanded by the President at least once, but this did not prevent him from graduating in 1675. When he next appears in records, it is as a Newbury schoolmaster in 1681. Several documents refer to his profession as ‘clergyman’ at various points, although it is unclear at what church he would have been preaching. A new preaching opportunity may have been the reason for Emerson’s move to Newichawannock (now Berwick, Maine)s, with land being transferred to him in 1684.
The 1680s were a dangerous time to be living in Maine. Bolstered by the support of French Canada, the Wabanaki Confederacy had begun attacks on English settlements, revenging themselves on colonial officials who had wronged them. In June of 1689, Emerson turned down an invitation to dinner by Chief Justice Richard Waldron, a Major who had famously betrayed Indigenous refugees during King Philip’s War. Emerson’s decision would prove prescient, as that night Dover was attacked by the Penacook, and the elderly Waldron was tortured and killed. Emerson would serve for a time as a chaplain for the military expedition to Canada, but otherwise kept himself in Massachusetts from that point onward. He would move to Cambridge, hired by the town “for the education of the Youth, viz. In Latin, writing, ciphering, and perfecting in English”. A Rev. John Emerson is mentioned as involved in the 1692 Witch Trials, but this seems likely to be his Gloucester-based uncle.
John Emerson married Sarah Carter in 1699, the same year he was hired by the town of Salem to be its schoolmaster. His salary was 50 pounds per year, double what he had been paid in Cambridge, and he ran a Grammar school, preparing prospective Harvard students. On Feb 24, 1712, John died, and was buried with a small stone in the Burying Point.