December Meeting, 1949
A STATED Meeting of the Society was held at the Club of Odd Volumes, No. 77 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 22 December 1949, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President, Augustus Peabody Loring, Jr., in the chair.
The records of the Annual Meeting in November were read and approved.
At the request of the President, Mr. Whitehill read a copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Congress of Historians of Mexico and the United States at Monterey, Nuevo León, Mexico, on the occasion of the presentation of an oil portrait of Francis Parkman, copied at the expense of the Society from an original owned by the St. Botolph Club in Boston.
The President reported the death on 14 December 1949 of Waldron Phoenix Belknap, Jr., a Resident Member.
The Recording Secretary, on behalf of the Corresponding Secretary, reported the receipt of letters from Mr. Francis Whiting Hatch, of Wayland, and Mr. Lucius James Knowles, of Boston, accepting Resident Membership, and from Mr. Wendell Stanwood Hadlock, of Rockland, Maine, accepting Corresponding Membership in the Society.
The Reverend Palfrey Perkins read a paper entitled:
Fund Raising in the 1750’s
IT sometimes seems today as if everybody were engaged in fund raising. It is a business by and of itself like banking or manufacturing or retailing or exporting. Schools and colleges and hospitals and health campaigns and community chests and religious organizations without number are busy raising funds. Every one of us here has his involvements on either the asking or the giving end. Books are written about fund raising. It has its own vocabulary: the “approach,” the “prospect,” the “follow-up,” “special gifts,” “donors,” etc. Its techniques are varied and intricate. It has a basic philosophy. Statisticians, sociologists, and economists are constantly examining and analyzing the process and the problems it faces in the present moment of history. In all its elaborate ramifications, it is a phenomenon of the modern age. But in its simple essentials it has always gone on. People have been fund raising more or less since the world began. So it went on in Boston in the 1750’s. And it seemed to me that we might get some amusement, as well as information, by looking back two hundred years at the activities of a comparatively small number of people in Boston whose project was the rebuilding of the King’s Chapel, “the building to be of Stone and to cost £25,000 in Bills of Credit of the old Tenor.” The eventual result was the present King’s Chapel, a noble and beautiful sanctuary which, though never actually completed according to the plans of Peter Harrison, was beautified and finished for use at a cost of £7405 sterling.
The first requirement in fund raising is an impressive list of names—a distinguished sponsorship. This was not lacking in the King’s Chapel project. At a meeting on 21 October 1740, “. . . This Vestry requested the favour of Wm. Shirley Esq. one of our Wardens to draw up the preamble to a subscription paper wh is to be presented to such well-disposed persons as are willing to contribute towards rebuilding ye King’s Chapel . . . wch Mr. Shirley undertook and is to be laid before ye Vestry at their next meeting.” Wm. Shirley, born in England in 1693, had come to this country in 1734 and was practicing law in Boston. By the time he got the subscription under way early in 1741 he had been elevated, after the removal of Belcher, to the office of governor—an office which he filled with distinction for fifteen years lively with the stirring events of the French and Indian wars. A contemporary wrote of him, “I must do him the Justice to say I think him a good Governor. And altho his not being of the same profession in Religion with the Body of this People may (be) attended with Inconvenience yet I am not apprehensive that he will ever use his Power to oppress us on that or any other account.” The fact is that throughout his career he was staunchly and even vigorously devoted to his church. So in this matter of the subscription paper he promptly associated with himself other men of importance whose names would carry weight. One of these was Henry Frankland, Esq., later to become Sir Harry and a figure of romantic legend, at this time Collector of the Port of Boston. Another was Peter Faneuil, Esq., even then building his gift to the town of a public market-place and hall. He was a vestryman of Trinity but took a kindly and generous interest in the mother church. Shirley headed the list with a subscription of £100 sterling. Frankland followed with £50 sterling. Among the eleven other names of importance on the list was that of Charles Apthorp who, when he died, was called by Reverend Jonathan Mayhew “a merchant of the first rank on the continent.” His subscription was £200 of the old tenor. None of this money was paid in. It was, as modern fund raisers would say, “in pledges.” First payments were to be made when £ 10,000 had been subscribed, but that amount was not fully subscribed and, as the old record in the King’s Chapel archives puts it, “a Neglect to prosecute the affair with suitable Vigour, the Death of the Treasurer, which soon after followed and from whose Abilities considerable expectations had been found, put a Damp upon the good Design and occasioned its being laid aside for some Time.” Other fund raisers through the years have known this experience of a “Damp upon the good Design”!
Noting the death of Peter Faneuil, it may be worth while following up the long and litigious sequel. For when the subscription was opened some years later under the energetic leadership of a real “go-getter” in the person of Henry Caner, who became Rector in 1747 and of whom much more later, it appeared that Benjamin Faneuil, Peter’s brother and executor, had no intention of fulfilling his brother’s pledge. He was
handsomely asked for his brother’s subscription to whom he was Executor but he refused to pay it, however the Church Wardens were desired to wait upon him once more wh they did and before witness demanded his first Payment and left a Coppy of their Demand in Writing. As he absolutely refused Payment the committee after previous consultation of Gentn learned in the Law commenced suit against him in the Name of the Wardens for recovery of his said Brothers subscription.
For nearly four years this vexatious contest went on in the courts until on 30 May 1751, “The Judges of the Superior Court gave Judgment in Favour of King’s Chapel. . . and therein established the right of the Church Wardens to sue for the Church’s Dues . . . Three of the Judges viz: Saltonstall, Lines and Cushing gave for the Chapel Mr. Sewall only dissented.” Two weeks later on a Thursday when the church wardens waited on Mr. Faneuil to know whether he would settle the matter forthwith “without further dispute in the Law,” he asked them to wait till the following Monday so that he might consult his lawyers. And on the Monday Mr. Boutineau, Faneuil’s lawyer, waited on Charles Apthorp, Treasurer to the Committee, and “engaged to pay the Whole Money demanded without further dispute.” In the final supplementary list of subscribers after the fund raising was finished, this sum of £186 12s 14d wrung by due process of law out of an unwilling executor is euphemistically if inaccurately set down as “Benj. Faneuil’s donation”!
This digression has brought us several years ahead of our fund-raising story. We must return to 1747 when a new personality came into the picture, a man whose energy and vigor infused the whole project with new life. This was Henry Caner who was inducted Rector in April, 1747, and within six months had taken on—over and above his duties as pastor and preacher—the enthusiastic work of fund raising.
He is worth looking at with some deliberation, for he spent twenty-eight years at King’s Chapel, and his loyalty to Church and King brought his gray hairs in sorrow to flight with the King’s troops, and his very character to despite among the patriot population of Boston. And yet it was largely his energy and taste, and practical ability as a fund raiser, that made possible and actual the noble edifice which still to this day ought to perpetuate his memory. Born in England, Henry Caner came to this country as a boy. His father built the first college and rector’s house at New Haven, and he himself graduated from Yale College in 1724. This means that he must have shared in all the excitement over Timothy Cutler’s defection to the Church of England which so startled the Church of New England. And it means, too, that he must have been, so to speak, on Cutler’s side and therefore have looked askance on Jonathan Edwards who, as first tutor, practically ran Yale College for two years, after Cutler’s departure to become the first Rector of Christ Church in Boston. At any rate, young Caner went to study theology at Stratford, Connecticut, with the Reverend Samuel Johnson who had been his college tutor. Too young to be ordained, he assisted Johnson as catechist and schoolmaster in the neighboring town of Fairfield. Of him his preceptor wrote to the Secretary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, “Mr. Caner takes a great deal of pains to very good purpose and will I don’t doubt prove a very worthy man.” In 1727 he set out for England to take his holy orders and returned at once as Missionary of the honorable Society for Propagating the Gospel to Fairfield, where he remained for twenty-two laborious years, and then was deservedly promoted to the most conspicuous Episcopal Church in America. In June, 1747, three months after Mr. Caner’s induction at King’s Chapel, Governor Shirley wrote to the Society in England, “I can’t omit expressing my own and the general Satisfaction of the congregation of the King’s Chapel in ye Ministry of Mr. Caner I promise myself” that it will “not only be for the advantage and edification of that particular congregation but promote the general welfare of the church within this metropolis of New England.” Henry Caner found the little wooden church—built in 1688—much out of repair, indeed in a ruinous condition, and he almost immediately picked up the fund-raising project “laid aside for some time” and set about it with extraordinary zeal and energy.
Of his parishioners, “some were of Opinion that rebuilding was now quite necessary as the Chapel was now much more gone to Decay; that it would be Throwing Money away to attempt to repair it. Others objected it would be better to tarry till a Peace, as the War had raised the Price of Materialls and rendered building very expensive.” But the builders won the day and so “Mr. Caner, Mr. Apthorp and Dr. Gibbins made two private lists of subscriptions which they supposed the People might be able and would be willing to comply with.”
The project proceeded with energy and speed, for the first meeting at Dr. Caner’s house was on 30 September 1747. At that meeting “out of Regard to the Honour of God and the more decent Provision for his Publick Worship” seven men set their names to a subscription paper in the amount of £428 sterling and £1400 old tenor. A short five months later the subscription amounted to £20,265 old tenor. Quite in the fashion of modern campaigns for funds, all through that period a meeting was held every Thursday evening “at a Publick House, in order to concert measures for advancing the Design and for addressing”—“approaching” would be the word today!—“Gentlemen of Interest and Ability abroad . . . At this weekly meeting it was proposed that every well wisher to the Affair should be desired to be present.” How much time Henry Caner habitually spent in sermon preparation I do not know, but he must certainly have made some inroads upon it by the composition of the long and handsomely elaborate letters sent abroad to well-disposed persons. They combine pertinent facts and direct solicitation with elegant flattery laid on thick. William Vassall, for example, then living in Jamaica, was asked to use his good offices to awaken “The Generosity of the Gentlemen of the West Indies Islands”—and Mr. Caner added “It is a singular Pleasure to us that we have the Opportunity of making our present Application to those Gentlemen thro’ your hands whose influence and Interest we are very sensible of.” However the West Indies gentlemen seem to have remained untouched and untouchable. Mr. Caner had no diffidence in approaching high places. To the Lord Bishop of London he wrote, “We humbly beg leave to ask your Lordship’s Opinion of the Propriety of an Application to His Majesty in Favour of a Church, the first in America, and who at the Public Charge erected a very handsome Pew for his Majesty’s Governors a Church which has heretofore tasted of the Royal Bounty and if we may judge by the Name, seems in some Measure encouraged to expect it. Your Lordship’s Interest and Influence would be the greatest Security of Success.” How grandly the words flowed from the Rector’s pen!
The Royal Navy was among the “prospects” approached. In 1747 Sir Peter Warren in H.M.S. Devonshire was second in command under Lord Anderson of the fleet which destroyed a French squadron bound, as it hoped, to recapture Louisburg—and he himself captured the French Admiral de la Jonquiere. Early in 1748, not unmindful of this exploit, Mr. Caner wrote to Sir Peter,
While the united Acclamations of British Subjects have agreed to celebrate the Success God has given to His Majesty’s Fleets under your conduct, permitt us also at this Distance to assure you that we hear the News of your Victories with Joy, and celebrate them with Gratitude to Heaven. If the many great Affairs in which you are engaged give you Leisure to attend to the Applications of a People at this Distance, we humbly beg leave to lay before you the ruinous condition of King’s Chapel in this town etc. We flattered ourselves we might take leave to recommend a thing of this Nature to you whose Abilition enable you to do that which your Prudence and Generosity dictate.
This skillful letter got £20 sterling out of Sir Peter.
Nor was the Army neglected by the assiduous fund raiser. General Paul Mascarene was Lieutenant Governor of Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia, where he had been with troops for twenty years, a frontier garrison soldier but of singularly gentle disposition. To him Mr. Caner wrote, “We have thought it our Duty to acquaint you with the Proceedings of the church. . . and to beg your Assistance in carrying on the good Work. This indeed we promise our Selves from your known Virtue and Generosity but shall entirely leave it with you how far and in what Manner to recommend a Thing of this Nature to ye Officers and Gentlemn of the Garrison.” On the final list General Mascarene’s subscription appears as “£50 ster,” but nothing seems to have come from the officers and gentlemen of the garrison.
In the spring of 1748 the opportunity came to have a “friend at court,” a solicitor on the ground in England. For Sir Henry Frankland, who was setting out for the old country, proffered his best services upon his arrival there “to collect the Donations of his friends in favour of the Chapell.” Thereupon Mr. Caner, writing on behalf of the vestry, addressed him in part as follows: “’Tis with much pleasure we entertain so favorable an Opportunity of prosecuting the Interest of our New Church with our friends at home. The doing of it thro’ your Hands. . . we imagine will be the best Method to convince our Friends of the Necessity of the thing and of our Inability to accomplish it without their kind Assistance. . . and will indeed give those Gentlemen some distant Notion of what we are doing.” Sir Henry was not an aggressive solicitor and his efforts, if such they may be called, met with no success. “At present,” he wrote, “all my Friends and Acquaintances are in the Country so nothing can be done before the Winter.” But the fund-raising committee, nothing daunted, had prepared a petition for presentation to no less a personage than His Most Gracious Majesty George the Second “praying your Majesty to take the Premises into your gracious Consideration and to favour them with your Royal Bounty.” By this time there were three personal representatives on the spot in London, for Governor Shirley had gone thither on business of state, and Mr. Barlow Trecothick, who had been clerk of the fund raisers, had departed to spend the rest of his days in London and finally to become its Lord Mayor. To Mr. Trecothick’s activity and his reports upon it, we owe one of the most delightful incidents of this whole affair, which I shall recount in conclusion.
But first let me just pause and review the situation. Long before anything like the necessary funds were in hand, the committee requested Peter Harrison of Newport, Rhode Island, “a gentleman of good judgment in architecture,” “to oblige them with a draught of a handsome church. We do not require any great expense of ornament but chiefly aim at Symmetry and Proportion which we entirely submit to your judgment.” So eager were they to get the work begun, they had a trench opened for the foundations and the cornerstone laid before they even received Peter Harrison’s plan. This was in their hands in September, 1749, when they wrote him that they were well pleased and that “when it should be in their power they should make a further acknowledgment of his Favour.” In the event it proved that it was never in their power to do this, so that Peter Harrison’s beautiful building was literally a labor of love.
The fund raising went assiduously but not too successfully forward all through the five years that elapsed before the Chapel was opened for divine service in August, 1754. The petition to His Majesty was probably never presented. At any rate no royal bounty was vouchsafed to the cause. As one thinks of His Majesty’s Court of the 1750’s and the government of Sir Robert Walpole, one is hardly surprised that there was no enthusiastic response to an appeal for subscriptions to build a church on the other side of the ocean.
The account with which I shall conclude this somewhat meandering paper has to do with Barlow Trecothick’s futile efforts to get a subscription from Captain Thomas Coram. Captain Coram was then a figure of real importance in London. He was the benevolent founder of the Foundling’s Hospital, having made a fortune in the American plantations and in ventures at sea, but so openhanded was he that when he died in 1751, it was in greatly reduced circumstances. However, there was an early chapter of his life which linked him with King’s Chapel and had its serious bearing on his reception of the fund raiser, Mr. Trecothick. He had been living ten years in Taunton, and in 1703, when he left, he conveyed his farm lands there to the “vestrymen of the Church of England in Boston and their successors in trust that if ever hereafter the inhabitants of the town of Taunton should be more civilized than they now are, and if they should incline to have a Church of England among them. . . the vestry was authorized to convey the whole or a part as they should see good for this purpose.” The vestry gave him bitter offense by its conduct, for it disregarded the trust and eventually sold the land, receiving for it during this very period of fund raising a final payment of £100, which was applied to the new building.
In spite of this forty-year-old grievance, the fund-raising committee dared to address Captain Coram in 1748 in the following terms, “considering your attachment to the Church of England and upon how many occasions you have exerted your Interest and Influence in favour of the infant churches in this country we have thought proper,” etc., etc. “None have shown a greater readiness and zeal to appear in behalf of the Church’s interest than yourself.” This was a strangely naive appeal to a man whose very zeal the Church itself had offended. In spite of utter silence on his part, a follow-up letter addressed him two years later with questionably subtle flattery, “knowing your constant application to works of publick charity we imagine you have been too deeply engaged in something of this kind to give Attention to our Request not doubting but at a convenient time you will permit this Affair to have place among the many Interests which fall under your prudent and effectual management.” The “convenient time” never came, and when Mr. Trecothick, the one really active “person to person” solicitor in this whole fund raising, waited upon him, here is what happened, as related in Mr. Trecothick’s letter to the committee.
I had almost forgot to give you an account of my Embassy to Capt. Coram. I waited on him and was very graciously received; but when I opened the Occasion of my visit he broke out into the most passionate Reproaches against the Vestry of King’s Chapel for slighting the present he made them of a piece of land. I represented that his present Petitioners were to a Man another sett of people and not chargeable with the misconduct of their predecessors with whatever else I could think of to cool the Old Gentleman, but all in vain. After several attempts to soothe him, he flatly told me that he knew it was in his Power to serve the Church very much, but that by God if the twelve Apostles were to apply to him in behalf of it he would persist in refusing to do it.
“This,” goes on Mr. Trecothick in masterly understatement, “I thot a definitive answer and so took my leave. I have since paid him another visit [Mr. Trecothick was nothing if not persistent!] and been very courteously treated but on mentioning the church he has directly relapsed into his passion, so that you may lay aside all hope from that Quarter.”
Mr. Caner was never at a loss for the appropriate word, and his next letter to Barlow Trecothick contained this comment on the profane old gentleman in London: “As to Coram, let him go. He might have served us, but in this Work ’tis best to be without Assistance from the Devil.” And the work was finished without any satanic assistance. The loving generosity and public spirit of men and women who loved their church made possible what was in 1752 the noblest house of worship on this continent, and as their monument the Chapel stands today—a master work of simplicity, harmony, and beauty.
One final reflection: on the subscription list one finds very few names recognizable as borne by people in our community today. As against Gardner, Apthorp, Inches, Forbes, Jackson, and Prescott, e.g., there are to be found Shirley, Lechmere, Frankland, Brinley, Trecothick, Vassall, Royall, Cradock, Hutchinson, Paxton, Auchmuty, Johonnot, Featherstone, Haliburton, and a score of others unfamiliar today. The reason why is obvious. The majority of the subscribers were prosperous stately people who rolled into town on Sundays from their sumptuous countryseats. They were English gentry whose loyalty to God was second only to their loyalty to His Majesty the King. They were not likely to understand the sturdy, independent manhood which twenty years later was to beget the Revolution—itself in part a result of this same mutual antipathy and misunderstanding. So we find in Dr. Caner’s Register of Marriages under date 10 March 1776 the following note.
An unnatural Rebellion of the colonies against His Majesties Government obliged the Loyal Part of his subjects to evacuate their Dwellings and Substance and to take refuge in Halifax, London and elsewhere; By which means the public worship at King’s Chapel became suspended and is likely to remain so till it shall please God in the Course of his Providence to change the hearts of the Rebels or give Success to his Majesties arms for suppressing the Rebellion.
So they departed with the King’s men—these loyal subjects of his—to die in exile and to leave on these shores only their remembered names. How surprised Dr. Caner and these subscribers to the new church must be if they know that we this afternoon are noticing the two-hundredth anniversary of that sanctuary which their good will and generous substance raised!
The King’s Chapel Library
WHEN Richard, Earl of Bellomont, Captain General and Governor in Chief of His Majesty’s Provinces of the Massachusetts Bay, New York and New Hampshire, arrived in New York in the spring of 1698, he brought with him a valuable collection of theological books destined for King’s Chapel, Boston. This Church of England parish, established in the midst of Congregationalism only a dozen years before, had received royal donations in 1696 when the Reverend Samuel Myles, the second pastor of the church, returned from a four-year visit to England. “He arrived July 4th and brought with him part of the gift of Queene Mary, performed by King William after her decease, viz: the church furniture, which were a cushion and cloth for the pulpit, two cushions for the reading deske, a carpet for the allter, all of crimson damask with silke fringe, one large Bible, two large Common-prayer Books, twelve lesser Common-prayer Bookes, linen for the allter; also two surplises, alter tabell, 20 yardes fine damask.”1 In the following year a gift of communion silver was received, and in 1698 came the library, now in the possession of the Boston Athenæum.
The wardens of King’s Chapel, on behalf of the congregation, acknowledged the latter gift, writing to the Bishop of London on 21 July 1698, “We have received another experience of his Lordship’s care and kindness in sending us a Library, which we have received in good condition. . . for the present have lodged them in Mr. Myles his study, for the use of him, the assistant when he comes, and his or their successors, and take care that no abuse of imbecilment be made of them.”2
The gift was thus described by the Reverend Henry Wilder Foote in his Annals of King’s Chapel: “This Library, to which reference is made in the letter to Bishop Compton, 25 July 1698, as his gift, was really the gift of the King, and the covers were so stamped.
svb |
de |
avspicii |
bibliotheca |
wilhelmi |
de |
III |
boston |
A complete catalogue of the books is preserved in the book of records. This was the only collection of books not of private ownership in New England at the time, with the single exception of the library of Harvard College, and was therefore valuable from the scarcity of books; but it had a greater value in itself, being an admirable collection of the best books for the use of a scholarly theologian of the Church of England. It contained ninety-two folios, eighteen quartos, and ninety smaller works, including Walton’s great Biblia Polyglotta, lexicons, and commentaries, fine editions of the Church Fathers, Bodies of Divinity, works on Doctrine and Duty, the sermons of the great preachers of the English Church, historical works (among them such sound histories as Sir William Dugdal’s View of the Late Troubles), Controversial and Philological Treatises.”3
Although the Bishop of London and King William III have been given credit for this gift, the real instigator was the Reverend Thomas Bray, D.D. (1658–1730), who, soon after his appointment by the Bishop of London in 1695 as Commissary for Maryland, saw that the future of the Anglican church in the colonies depended upon an adequate supply of books for the clergy. Bray’s first task was to recruit clergy for vacant parishes in Maryland. As his earliest biographer well put it: “With this view he laid before the Bishops the following consideration: that none but the poorer sort of clergy could be persuaded to leave their friends and change their native country for one so remote; that such persons could not be able sufficiently to supply themselves with books; that without such a competent provision of books, they could not answer the design of their mission; that a library would be the best encouragement to studious and sober men to undertake the service: and that as the great inducement to himself to go, would be to do the most good he could be capable of doing, he therefore proposed to their Lordships, that if they thought fit to encourage and assist him in providing parochial libraries for the Ministers that should be sent, he would then be content to accept of the Commissary’s office in Maryland.”4
From this realization developed his Proposals for encouraging Learning and Religion in the Foreign Plantations,5 and, in 1679, his Bibliotheca Parochialis, which set forth in detail his ideal of a clerical library. By April, 1696, thanks to a donation from Princess Anne, Dr. Bray was in a position to send to Annapolis, Maryland, a library that consisted eventually of 1,095 books, costing £350.6 Dr. Bray’s account books preserve full details of the libraries sent to various colonies, which cost a total of £1,772. The College of William and Mary received books to the value of £50.; New York £62.175., and Boston £99.10s.7
The books coming to Boston were decorously and uniformly bound, with the stamping described above by Dr. Foote.8 Dr. Bray’s punctilious care for all details of the shipment is well shown by the entries for 19 August 1697 in his account books quoted by H. P. Thompson.9
19 Augt. 1697 |
£ |
s |
d |
6 Book presses with Locks Bolts and Handles for the Library sent wth. his Excellency the Earle of Bellamont at Boston in New England 10s. per press |
3 |
0 |
0 |
4 Book presses for the Library sent to New York at 10s. per press |
2 |
0 |
0 |
For a box for some of the Boston Books wch. the presses wd. not hold |
3 |
0 |
|
For Paper to lay Between the Books to keep the Covers from being Raed |
3 |
0 |
|
For Mail Cord to Cord them up |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Paid the Porters for Cording and Carrying them down 3 paire of narrow winding stairs and afterwards up again to the Lodgings (my Lord Bellamont’s servt. not calling for them (according to Appointment) to take ym. on Ship Board along with his Ldp’s Things pand within 4 daies after downstairs again to the waterside |
1 |
3 |
0 |
For a Large Boat to Carry them through the Bridge to the Ship |
5 |
0 |
|
Gave my Ld. Bellamonts servt. to take care of ym. |
2 |
6 |
|
Gave them a Botle of wine to drink my Ld.’s good health |
2 |
0 |
|
For Ale to make the Porters drink |
1 |
0 |
|
For Corbets and Fees at the Custom House |
1 |
2 |
0 |
For 2 folo. Paper Books bound in Vellum to Register the aforesd. Libraries and sent wth. the Libraries |
5 |
0 |
|
For 1 paper Book folo. bound in Vellum to Register the aforesd. Libraries and Delivered to the Earle of Bellamont |
3 |
0 |
The “register of books” received in Boston was published by Dr. Foote from the records of King’s Chapel in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xviii (1880–1881), 423–430. A copy, now owned by the Boston Athenæum, made in 1714 from the list in the “church book,” is reproduced herewith in collotype.
In 1807 the King’s Chapel Library was deposited with the Theological Library, then housed in the Vestry Room of the First Church in Chauncy Place, but in 1823 the Proprietors of the Theological Library voted that their property should be transferred from the First Church vestry to the Boston Athenæum. Consequently an agreement was signed on 31 July 1823 between Ebenezer Oliver and Joseph May, wardens, on behalf of the Proprietors of King’s Chapel, and Theodore Lyman, Jr., on behalf of the Trustees of the Boston Athenæum, by which the King’s Chapel Library was to be deposited in the Athenæum. This provided that the ministers of the Chapel should be admitted freely as life subscribers and that the books should be properly arranged in the Athenæum in the room appropriated to theology. These agreements were published by the Reverend F. W. P. Greenwood, A History of King’s Chapel in Boston (Boston, 1833), 161–164. For more than half a century, the King’s Chapel books were shelved as part of the Athenæum’s theological library, but in 1881 their value as a collection was emphasized by bringing them together in a special case, which now stands in the center of the biography room on the third floor of the Athenæum. This handsome case—a kind of “ark of the covenant” of vague seventeenth-century inspiration—is decorated with engraved portraits of King William III and his wife, Queen Mary, who had died before the library was sent to Boston. In 1911 the Proprietors of King’s Chapel made a formal conveyance of the library to the Proprietors of the Boston Athenæum in exchange for a share of the Boston Athenæum for the use of the ministers of the church.
In spite of the precautions taken against “abuse and imbecilement,” some volumes of the King’s Chapel Library disappeared before the books were deposited in the Athenæum in 1823. The wear and tear of two centuries and a half have caused others to be rebound. The King’s Chapel copy of Johannes Cassianus, De institutis coenibiorum (Basel, 1485) is now in an elaborately tooled nineteenth-century binding, which carries on the spine the ingenuous stamping: “printed 1485 rebound 1826,” but many of the volumes still retain the royal stamp on the binding.
The following short title catalogue, prepared by Miss Marjorie Lyle Crandall, lists the volumes from the King’s Chapel Library that are today in the possession of the Boston Athenæum.
SHORT TITLE CATALOGUE OF KING’S CHAPEL LIBRARY
Books in the original collection of 1698 | |
---|---|
[Allen, William.] |
|
Animadversions on that part of Mr. Robert Ferguson’s book. London, 1676. |
(Wing A1054) |
[Allen, William.] |
|
Catholicism: or, Several enquiries. London, 1683. |
(Wing A1055) |
[Allen, William.] |
|
The Christians justification stated. London, 1678. |
(Wing A1057) |
[Allen, William.] |
|
A discourse of the nature, series, and order of occurrences. London, 1689. |
(Wing A1062) |
[Allen, William.] |
|
The mystery of iniquity unfolded. London, 1675. |
(Wing A1066) |
[Allen, William.] |
|
Of the state of the church in future ages. London, 1684. |
(Wing A1067) |
[Allen, William.] |
|
A practical discourse of humility. London, 1681. |
(Wing A1070) |
Ambrosius, St. |
|
Opera. Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 1661. 5 v. in 2. |
|
Athanasius, St. |
|
Opera quæ reperiuntur omnia. Parisiis, 1627. 2 v. |
|
Augustinus Aurelius, St. |
|
Opera. Parisiis, 1637. 11 v. in 7. |
|
Baker, Sir Richard. |
|
A chronicle of the kings of England. 9th imp. London, 1696. |
(Wing B510) |
Barlow, Thomas. |
|
Several miscellaneous and weighty cases of conscience. London, 1692. |
(Wing B843) |
Barrow, Isaac. |
|
The works of, v. 4. Londini, 1687. |
(Wing B925) |
Barrow, Isaac. |
|
A brief exposition on the creed. London, 1697. |
(Wing B929) |
Barrow, Isaac. |
|
A defence of the B. Trinity. London, 1697. |
(Wing B931) |
Considerations of the existence of God. 2d ed. London, 1677. |
(Wing B1102) |
Baxter, Richard. |
|
Gildas Salvianus. 2d ed. London, 1657. |
(Wing B1276) |
Baxter, Richard. |
|
A paraphrase on the New Testament. London, 1685. |
(Wing B1338) |
Bernardus Clarœvallensis, St. |
|
Opera omnia. Parisiis, 1621. |
|
Bible, Whole. Polyglot. |
|
Biblia sacra polyglotta . . . Bryan Walton. Londini, 1657. 6 v. |
(Wing B2797) |
Bible, O.T. Psalms. Hebrew. |
|
Sepher Tehillim. Cantabrigiæ, 1685. |
(Wing B2743) |
Blount, Sir Thomas Pope. |
|
Censura celebriorum authorum. Londini, 1690. |
(Wing B3346) |
Bray, Thomas. |
|
Bibliotheca parochialis. Part I. London, 1697. |
(Wing B4290) |
Bray, Thomas. |
|
A course of lectures, v. 1. 2d ed. Oxford, 1697. 2 copies. |
(Wing B4292A) |
Bright, George. |
|
A treatise of prayer. London, 1678. |
(Wing B4677) |
Bull, George. |
|
Examen censuræ. Londini, 1676. |
(Wing B5416) |
Bull, George. |
|
Judicium ecclesiæ catholicæ. Oxonii, 1694. |
(Wing B5418) |
Burnet, Gilbert. |
|
The history of the Reformation. 2d ed. London, 1681. |
(Wing B5798) |
Burnet, Gilbert. |
|
The history of the Reformation. 2d ed. Part two. London, 1683. |
(Wing B5799) |
Buxtorfius, Johannes. |
|
Lexicon hebraicum et chaldaicum. Ed. 5a. Basileæ, 1645. |
|
Buxtorfius, Johannes. |
|
Thesaurus grammaticus linguæ sanctæ hebrææ Ed. 3a. Basilea, 1620. |
|
Bythner, Victorinus. |
|
Lyra prophetica. Londini, 1679. |
(Wing B6423) |
Opera omnia theologica. Genevæ, 1617. 7 v. |
|
Castell, Edmund. |
|
Lexicon heplaglotton. Londini, 1669. |
(Wing C1224) |
Cave, William. |
|
Apostolici: or, the history. 3d ed. London, 1687. |
(Wing C1592) |
Cave, William. |
|
Ecclesiastici. London, 1683. |
(Wing C1596) |
Cave, William. |
|
Primitive Christianity. 4th ed. London, 1682. |
(Wing C1601) |
Chamier, Daniel. |
|
Panstratiæ catholicæ. Genevæ, 1626. 4 v. |
|
Chemnitz, Martin. |
|
Examinis Concilii Tridentini. Francofurti, 1574. |
|
Chemnitz, Martin. |
|
Harmoniæ Evangelicæ. Genevæ, 1628. |
|
Chemnitz, Martin. |
|
Loci theologici. Ed. nova. Witebergæ, 1610. |
|
Comber, Thomas. |
|
The church history clear’d. London, 1695. |
(Wing C5447) |
Conant, John. |
|
Sermons preach’d on several occasions. London, 1693. |
(Wing C5684) |
Conant, John. |
|
Sermons preach’d on several occasions. Second volume. London, 1697. |
(Wing C5686) |
Cradock, Samuel. |
|
The apostolical history. London, 1672. |
(Wing C6744) |
Cradock, Samuel. |
|
The history of the Old Testament. London, 1683. |
(Wing C6750) |
Cyprianus, St. |
|
Opera. Parisiis, 1666. |
|
Daillé, Jean. |
|
De usu patrum. Genevæ, 1656. |
|
[Dodwell, Henry.] |
|
Two letters of advice. 2d ed. London, [1680?]. |
(Wing D1823?) |
A treatise of justification. London, 1639. |
(STC 7123) |
Downame, John. |
|
The Christian warfare. 4th ed. London, 1634. |
(STC 7137) |
Drelincourt, Charles. |
|
The Christian’s defence. 3d ed. London, 1692. |
(Not in Wing) |
[Dugdale, Sir William.] |
|
A short view of the late troubles in England. Oxford, 1681. |
(Wing D2492) |
Dupin, Louis Ellies. |
|
A new history. 2d ed. London, 1693–95. 7 v. in 3. |
(Wing D2644) |
Edwards, John. |
|
A discourse concerning the authority, v. 2–3. London, 1694–95. |
(Wing E202) |
Edwards, John. |
|
A discourse concerning the authority. 2d ed. London, 1696. |
(Wing E203) |
Ellis, John. |
|
Articulorum XXXIX ecclesiæ anglicanæ defensio. Amstelodami, 1696. |
|
Epiphanius, St. |
|
Opera omnia. Ed. nova. Coloniæ, 1682. 2 v. |
|
Estius, Gulielmus. |
|
In omnes Beati Pauli et aliorum apostolorum epistolas commentaria. Parisiis, 1623. |
|
Estius, Gulielmus. |
|
In quatuor libros sententiarum commentaria. Parisiis, 1638. |
|
Eusebius Caesariensis. |
|
Ecclesiasticæ historiæ. Moguntiæ, 1672. |
|
Falkner, William. |
|
Two treatises. London, 1684. |
(Wing F335) |
Field, Richard. |
|
Of the church. 2d ed. Oxford, 1628. |
(STC 10858) |
Fowler, Edward. |
|
The design of Christianity. 2d ed. London, 1676. |
(Wing F1699) |
Fowler, Edward. |
|
Libertas evangelica. London, 1680. |
(Wing F1709) |
Fulgentius, St. |
|
Opera quæ extant, omnia. Basileæ, [1587?]. |
|
The penitent pardon’d. 4th ed. London, 1694. |
(Wing G1118) |
Gregorius Nazianzenus, St. |
|
Opera, v. 2. Parisiis, 1630. |
|
Grotius, Hugo. |
|
De veritate religionis Christianæ. Oxoniæ, 1675. |
(Wing G2104) |
Hammond, Henry. |
|
The works of. Fourth volume. London and Oxford, 1684. |
(Wing H507) |
Hammond, Henry. |
|
The works of, v. 1–2. 2d ed. London, 1684. |
(Wing H508) |
Hammond, Henry. |
|
A paraphrase, and annotations upon all the books of the New Testament. 3d ed. London, 1671. |
(Wing H574) |
Heylyn, Peter. |
|
Theologia veterum, or the summe. London, 1654. |
(Wing H1738) |
Hieronymus, St. |
|
Opera omnia. Parisiis, 1609. 4 v. in 3. |
|
Hooker, Richard. |
|
The works of. London, 1676. |
(Wing H2632) |
Hopkins, Ezekiel. |
|
An exposition on the Lord’s Prayer. London, 1692. |
(Wing H2730) |
Hopkins, Ezekiel. |
|
An exposition on the ten commandments. London, 1692. |
(Wing H2732) |
Horneck, Anthony. |
|
The happy ascetick. London, 1681. |
(Wing H2839) |
Jackson, Thomas. |
|
The works of. London, 1673. 3 v. |
(Wing J90) |
Justinus Martyr, St. |
|
Opera. Coloniæ, 1686. |
|
Kettlewell, John. |
|
The measures of Christian obedience. 3d ed. London, 1696. |
(Wing K375) |
[Lamb, Thomas.] |
|
A fresh suit against independency. London, 1677. |
(Wing L210) |
[Lamb, Thomas.] |
|
A stop to the course. 2d ed. London, 1693. |
(Wing L212) |
Theses theologicæ. 3d ed. Londini, 1683. |
(Wing L803) |
Leighton, Robert. |
|
A practical commentary upon the first two chapters . . . of St. Peter. York, 1693. |
(Wing L1028) |
Leighton, Robert. |
|
A practical commentary, . . . vol. II. London, 1694. |
(Wing L1029) |
Leighton, Robert. |
|
Prælectiones theologicæ. Londini, 1693. |
(Wing L1030) |
Leybourn, William. |
|
Cursus mathematicus. Mathematical sciences. London, 1690. |
(Wing L1911) |
Lightfoot, John. |
|
The works of. London, 1684. 2 v. |
(Wing L2051) |
Limborch, Philippus van. |
|
Theologia Christiana. Ed. altera. Amstelædami, 1695. |
|
[Long, Thomas.] |
|
A continuation and vindication of the defence. London, 1682. |
(Wing L2964) |
Mede, Joseph. |
|
The works of. 4th ed. London, 1677. |
(Wing M1589) |
More, Henry. |
|
Opera omnia. Londini, 1679. |
(Wing M2633) |
More, Henry. |
|
Opera theologica. Londini, 1675. |
(Wing M2636) |
More, Henry. |
|
Scriptorum philosophicorum tomus alter. Londini, 1679. |
(Wing M2676) |
Newman, Samuel. |
|
A large and compleat concordance to the Bible. 3d ed. London, 1658. |
(Wing N931) |
Pelling, Edward. |
|
A discourse concerning the existence of God. London, 1696. |
(Wing P1078) |
Penton, Stephen. |
|
Apparatus ad theologiam. Londini, 1688. |
(Wing P1437) |
Peraldus, Gulielmus. |
|
Summae virtutum ac vitiorum. Antverpiae, 1571. 2 v. in 1. |
|
Perkins, William. |
|
Works, v. 1. Cambridge, 1608. |
(STC 19649) |
Works, v. 3. London and Cambridge, 1613. |
(STC 19650) |
Perkins, William. |
|
Works, v. 2. London, 1631. |
(STC 19653) |
Plutarch. |
|
Quæ exstant omnia. Francofurti, 1599. 2 v. |
|
Polanus, Amandus. |
|
Syntagma theologiæ Christianæ. Francofurti et Hanoviæ, 1655. |
|
Polycarp, St. |
|
Polycarpi et Ignatii epistolæ. Oxoniæ, 1644. |
(Wing P2789) |
Quick, John. |
|
Synodicon in Gallia reformata. London, 1692. 2 v. in 1. |
(Wing Q209) |
[Rawlet, John.] |
|
The Christian monitor. 20th ed. London, 1696. |
(Wing R350) |
Reynolds, Edward. |
|
The works of. London, 1679. |
(Wing R1235) |
Sanderson, Robert. |
|
Casus conscientiæ. Cantabrigiæ, 1688. |
(Wing S581) |
Sanderson, Robert. |
|
De juramenti. Londini, 1696. |
(Wing S588) |
Sanderson, Robert. |
|
De obligatione. Londini, 1696. |
(Wing S596) |
Sanderson, Robert. |
|
XXXV sermons. 7th ed. London, 1681. |
(Wing S637) |
Scapula, Joannes. |
|
Lexicon græcolatinum novum. Ed. ultima. Genevæ, 1628. |
|
Scott, John. |
|
The Christian life. Part I. 6th ed. London, 1694. |
(Not in Wing) |
Scott, John. |
|
The Christian life. Part II, vol. I, 4th ed. London, 1695. |
(Wing S2052) |
Scott, John. |
|
The Christian life. Part II, vol. II. 4th ed. London, 1697. |
(Wing S2055) |
Scott, John. |
|
The Christian life. Part III, vol. IV. London, 1696. |
(Wing S2056) |
Apologia pro s. ecclesiæ patribus. Londini, 1672. |
(Wing S2116) |
Sharrock, Robert. |
|
De officiis secundum naturæ jus. Oxoniæ, 1660. |
(Wing S3014) |
[Sherlock, William.] |
|
A defence and continuation of the discourse concerning knowledge of Jesus Christ. London, 1675. |
(Wing S3281) |
[Sherlock, William.] |
|
A discourse about church-unity. London, 1681. |
(Wing S3284) |
Sherlock, William. |
|
A discourse concerning the divine providence. 2d ed. London, 1694. |
(Wing S3287) |
Sherlock, William. |
|
A discourse concerning the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 3d ed. London, 1678. |
(Wing S3290) |
Sherlock, William. |
|
A practical discourse concerning a future judgment. 4th ed. London, 1695. |
(Wing S3310) |
Sherlock, William. |
|
A practical discourse concerning death. 9th ed. London, 1696 |
(Wing S3320) |
Socrates Scholasticus. |
|
Socratis . . . et . . . Sozomeni Historia ecclesiastica. Moguntiæ, 1677. |
|
Stillingfleet, Edward. |
|
A discourse in vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity. 2d ed. London, 1697. |
(Wing S5586) |
Stillingfleet, Edward. |
|
Origines sacræ. 5th ed. London, 1680. |
(Wing S5620) |
Stillingfleet, Edward. |
|
The unreasonableness of separation. 3d ed. London, 1682. |
(Wing S5677) |
Taylor, Jeremy. |
|
The great exemplar of sanctity. 4th ed. London, 1667. |
(Wing T345) |
Tertullianus, Quintus Septimus Florens. |
|
Opera. Lutetiæ, 1634. |
|
Tillotson, John. |
|
A seasonable vindication of the b. Trinity. London, 1697. |
(Wing T1221) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Sermons and discourses, v. 3. 4th ed. London, 1694. |
(Wing T1254) |
Sermons concerning the divinity. 2d ed. London, 1695. |
(Wing T1255A) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Sermons preach’d upon several occasions. 1st vol. 8th ed. London, 1694. |
(Wing T1260) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Sermons preached upon several occasions. Second vol. 6th ed. London, 1694. |
(Not in Wing) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Sermons preach’d upon several occasions. 4th vol. London, 1695. |
(Wing T1261) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Several discourses. 4th vol. London, 1697. |
(Not in Wing) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Six sermons. London, 1694. |
(Wing T1268) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Sixteen sermons. 2d vol. London, 1696. |
(Not in Wing) |
Tillotson, John. |
|
Sixteen sermons. 3d vol. London, 1696. |
(Wing T1270) |
Turretin, François. |
|
Compendium theologiæ didactico-elencticæ. Amstelodami, 1695. |
|
[Varen, Bernhard.] |
|
Cosmography and geography. 3d imp. London, 1693. |
(Wing V104) |
Vossius, Gerardus. |
|
Theses theologicæ et historicæ. Bellositi Dobunorum, 1628. |
(STC 24883) |
Wilson, Thomas. |
|
A complete Christian dictionary. 8th ed. London, 1678. |
(Wing W2945) |
Books added since 1698 | |
An answer to several remarks upon Dr. Henry More his expositions. London, 1684. |
(Wing A3379) |
Basilius Cœsariensis, St. |
|
Opera omnia. Parisiis, 1638. 3 v. |
|
Bayle, Pierre. |
|
Dictionnaire historique et critique. 3e éd. Rotterdam, 1720. 4 v. |
|
Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. |
|
The Book of Psalms. [By Peter Allix.] London, 1701. 2 copies. |
|
The works of. London, 1726. 2 v. |
|
Binius, Severinus. |
|
Concilia generalia et provincialia. 2a ed. Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1618. 4 v. in 5. |
|
Bray, Thomas. |
|
Catechetical discourses on the whole doctrine of the covenant of grace. London, 1701. |
|
Bull, George. |
|
Opera omnia. Londini, 1703. |
|
Burnet, Gilbert. |
|
An exposition of the thirty-nine articles. 3d ed. corr. London, 1705. |
|
Cassianus, Johannes. |
|
De institutis coenibiorum. Basel, 1485. |
(Stillwell C210) |
Church of England. |
|
The Book of common prayer. London, [1731?]. |
|
Church of England. |
|
The Book of common prayer. London, 1766. 2 copies. |
|
Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus, St., and Synesius Cyrenaeus, St. |
|
Opera græc. lat. [Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 1631.] |
|
Dionysius Areopagita, St. |
|
Opera omnia quæ extant. Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 1615. |
|
[Dodwell, Henry.] |
|
Prælectiones academicæ. Oxonii, 1692. |
(Wing D1815) |
Edwards, John. |
|
The preacher. The third part. London, 1709. |
|
Hilarius Pictaviensis, St. |
|
Quotquot extant opera. Parisiis, 1652. |
|
Irenaeus, St. |
|
Contra omnes hæreses. Oxoniæ, 1702. |
|
Josephus, Flavius. |
|
Opera . . . omnia. Oxonii, 1720. 2 v. |
|
Keith, George. |
|
An exact narrative of the proceedings. London, 1696. |
(Wing K161) |
Keith, George. |
|
George Keith’s fifth narrative. London, 1701. |
|
George Keith’s fourth narrative. London, 1700. |
(Wing K167) |
Keith, George. |
|
A second narrative. London, 1697. |
(Wing K204) |
Keith, George. |
|
A third narrative. London, 1698. |
(Wing K218) |
Leland, John. |
|
A view of the principal deistical writers. 3d ed. London, 1757. 2 v. |
|
[Leslie, Charles.] |
|
A defence of a book intituled, The snake in the grass. London, 1700. |
(Wing L1126) |
Leslie, Charles. |
|
The theological works of. London, 1721. 2 v. |
|
Lloyd, William. |
|
Series chronologica. Oxoniæ, 1700. |
(Wing L2698) |
Lucius, Ludwig. |
|
Historia ecclesiastica. Basileæ, 1624. 3 v. |
|
More, Henry. |
|
Apocalypsis Apocalypseos; or the revelation. London, 1680. |
(Wing M2641) |
More, Henry. |
|
Discourses on several texts. London, 1692. |
(Wing M2649) |
More, Henry. |
|
An illustration of those two . . . Daniel. London, 1685. |
(Wing M2662) |
More, Henry. |
|
Paralipomena prophetica containing several supplements. London, 1685. |
(Wing M2669) |
More, Henry. |
|
A plain and continued exposition of . . . Daniel. London, 1681. |
(Wing M2673) |
Nectarius. |
|
Confutatio imperii Papæ in ecclesiam. Londini, 1702. |
|
Ralegh, Sir Walter. |
|
The historie of the world. London, 1666. |
(Wing R164) |
[Sage, John.] |
|
A vindication of a discourse entituled The principles of the Cyprianic age. |
|
London, 1701. |
|
[Sarpi, Paolo.] |
|
The historie of the Councel of Trent. London, 1620. |
(STC 21761) |
Several discourses preached at the Temple Church. London, 1756 |
|
Tena, Luis de. |
|
Commentaria . . . Pauli ad Hebræos. Londini, 1661. |
(Wing T677) |
Theodoretus. |
|
Theodoreti . . . et Evagrii . . . Historia ecclesiastica. Moguntiæ, 1679. |
|
Walker, John. |
|
An attempt towards recovering an account of the numbers and sufferings of the clergy. London, 1714. |
|
West, Gilbert. |
|
A defence of the Christian revelation. London, 1748. 2 copies. |