MEMOIR.
The events in the life of Mrs. Wakefield may be related in a few words. She was born on the seventh day of December, 1836. Her full maiden name was Nancy Amelia Woodbury Priest. Her father, Francis Dana Priest, was a native of Gardner, Mass., and of respectable parentage. The mother of Mr. Priest was the daughter of Col. Jacob Woodbury, a leading man in Winchendon, Mass., and famous in his day as a Revolutionary veteran, and for his exploit in pursuing and slaying a wolf. Mrs. Sophia B. Priest, the mother of Nancy,, is a member of the Hale family, numerous and respected in every generation since the settlement of the town.
Though the home of the family was in Winchendon during nearly the whole of their early and their married life, yet it so happened that Mr. and Mrs. Priest, who were united in marriage in February, 1835, move d into the easterly edge of Royalston a few months before the birth of their gifted child. Thus Winchendon lost the
