James Nelson Barker

“ Barker's play, The Armourer's Escape or Three Years at Nootka Sound, which was acted at the Chestnut Street Theatre, March 21, 1817, had a peculiar interest since John Jewitt, armorer of the ship Boston, on whose adventures the play was based, acted the leading part himself. How to Try a Lover, a comedy, printed in 1817, was never acted, though it was cast and put in rehearsal. It is easily one of the best of Barker's plays.
Superstition was first acted at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, March 12, 1824. ”

“ Superstition is one of the earliest plays based upon Colonial history. Five years before Cooper used the theme of the regicides in The Wept of Wishton Wish and eleven years before Hawthorne published The Gray Champion, Barker had placed on the stage the dramatic story of the old Puritan issuing from his solitude to lead the villagers to victory against the Indians. ”