1. Rev. Jeremy Belknap (1744–1798), Harvard 1762, served as a Congregationalist minister in Dover, N.H., from 1767 to 1786; the following year he moved to Boston’s Long Lane Church. In early 1791 he and several colleagues founded the Massachusetts Historical Society, for which Belknap acted as the corresponding secretary. In his 7 Oct. 1788 letter to Belknap, Benjamin Rush indicated that John Hancock’s ill health “alone will preclude him from that mark of respect from Pennsylvania,” with regard to attaining the vice presidency. Pennsylvania was one of ten states to cast votes in 1789; eight of its electors chose JA and two chose Hancock (ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ; Rush, Letters description begins Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Princeton, N.J., 1951; 2 vols. description ends , 1:489–490; A New Nation Votes). For JA’s notification of the election’s outcome, see John Langdon’s 6 April letter, and note 1, below.