Seccombe graduated
Harvard College (1728) and then became the first congregational minister of the town of
Harvard, Massachusetts, where he stayed for 25 years (1733 -1757). While at Harvard, he built the "grandest house" in Harvard at the centre of town and a cottage on one of the two largest islands in
Bare Hill Pond (now named Ministers Island). (He sold the house to Henry Bromfield in 1765. His house in Harvard burned in 1854.) As an author, Seccombe’s best known work is “Father Abbey’s will” (1732), which became famous throughout New England. The poem is a 15 stanza nonsense verse, which was turned into a
Broadside ballad and published many times. Initially the poem was published in 1732 in
the Gentleman's Magazine (June) and
the London Magazine (August). It was continued to be republished by the Massachusetts Magazine in November, 1794. The name Abbey was a misnomer for Matthew Abdy, a custodian of the town, and the poem listed an inventory of Abdy's estate. The poetic composition was first published in Weekly Rehearsal (Boston, Mass.), 3 Jan. 1732. He was re-published in the Gentlman's Magazine, May 2, 1732 and London Magazine (October 1732) and continued to be re-published throughout the 18th and 19th century. The song was anthologized in Louis Untermeyer's
Early American Poets (2001). In 1736, he married the grand daughter of Rev.
Solomon Stoddard. In 1745, he created upheaval in his community by sponsoring Rev.
George Whitefield to speak. == Chester, Nova Scotia ==