One<br >THE BEST OF<br >PARENTS<br > ON May 30， I736， in Stonington， Connecticut， their first<br > child， a daughter， was born to the Reverend Joseph Fish<br > and his wife Rebecca， and given the name Mary. This is<br > the story of Mary Fish， drawn from family correspon-<br > dence; from a journal she kept intermittently from girl-<br > hood; and from the reminiscences she began to write at<br > the age of sixty-four， in the hope， she said， that they would<br >prove "instructive and entertaining to my dear children，<br >when the hand that writes can move no more."~ Her cheer-<br >ful， practical approach to the prospect of her own death<br >came from her long religious schooling in the remem-<br >brance of mortality and from the experiences of her life.<br >But in I80O， when she wrote those words， death was far-<br >ther off than she thought. Mary lived eighteen years into<br >the new century， and before her eyes closed on this world，<br >they saw it changed beyond anything her provincial young<br >parents might have imagined on the day of her birth.<br > Joseph Fish hailed from Massachusetts. The third son of<br >Thomas Fish and Margaret Woodward， he was born at<br >