Some Account v
​afforded him but a moderate subsistence;
nor was he enabled, by any ecclesiastical prefer-
ment, to provide for his numerous family,
amounting to eleven children in all, of whom
Joshua was the tenth. Five, however, of
these children died in their infancy.--His
father had a notion, that it might at some
future period of life be an advantage to a
child to bear an uncommon christian name;
which might recommend him to the attention
and kindness of some person bearing the same
name, who, if he should happen to have no
natural object of his care, might be led, even
by so slight a circumstance, to become a
benefactor. Hence our author derived the
scriptural name of Joshua, which, though
not very uncommon, occurs less frequently
than many others; of this baptismal name,
however, the Register of Plympton
by some negligence or inaccuracy, has deprived
him.