A Sermon Preached at Haverhill, (Mass.) in Remembrance of Mrs. Harriet Newell, Wife of the Rev. Samuel Newell, Missionary to India. Who died at the Isle of France, Nov. 30, 1812, aged 19 years. To which are added Memoirs of her life. Fifth edition. by WOODS, Leonard (1774-1854); Harriet NEWELL (1793-1812 - 1815

Boston:: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1815., 1815. Contents: "Memoirs of Mrs. Harriet Newell" [pages [31]-211]. 12mo. 228 pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Mrs. Newell. Original full calf, gilt spine bands, black leather with gilt-spine title; joints cracked (cords holding). Ownership signature of Mary [B.] Sawyer. Bears an interesting inscription with clear relationship to the Newell family: "The Property of Harriet Newell Lamson, presented to her by her parents when she was two years old." Harriet Newell Lamson (1815-1836) was the daughter of Samuel Lamson and Sarah Sleuman Lamson. Scarce, but a most interesting copy. Harriet Newell, along with her close friend Ann Judson, was a member of the first American missionary venture. Dying within her first year of service, Newell became known to future missionaries as its first martyr. In February, 1812, she married the Rev. Samuel Newell, one of the founders of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Shortly thereafter the Newells and the Judsons sailed first to India and then to Burma. When the Burmese government learned that they intended to proselytize, they were ordered to leave. From Burma, they sailed to the Isle of France, where Mrs. Newell died in November. [She passed away from a disease contracted in India, forcing her to return home where she died at just 19 years of age].

In the twenty-five years following the first publication of her memoir in 1815, a new edition was printed almost every year. It was widely read and served as an inspiration to pious women throughout the United States. This excerpt from the memoir is a message the Rev. Newell sent to Mrs. Newell's mother through a friend: "Tell her that her dear Harriet never repented of any sacrifice she had made for Christ; that on her dying bed 'she was comforted with the thought of having had it in her heart to do something for the heathen, though God had seen fit to take her away before we entered on our work.'" (p. 246) – Library Company of Philadelphia, Portraits of American Women in Religion that appeared in print before 1861.

"Forbidden to remain in India by the British East India Company, Samuel and Harriet ("the Belle of Bradford") sailed for Mauritius with plans to establish a mission there and possibly to Madagascar. After a long and perilous voyage, they reached the Isle of France (French name for Mauritius), where Harriet soon died, at age 19, after childbirth ten months after departing Salem. Grief-stricken, Samuel went on to Ceylon, finding it favorable to open a mission there. In January 1814 he joined Samuel and Roxana Nott and Gordon Hall in Bombay. He ministered seven years before his life was cut short by cholera on May 30, 1821, being violently attacked while ministering to the sick. He was greatly endeared to the friends of the mission by his devotedness and amiable character." – Marvin J. Newell, "What Happened to the Others Who Sailed?" – Mission Frontiers, May-June 2012.