MARCH MEETING, 1899.
A Stated Meeting of the Society was held in the Hall of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on Wednesday, 15 March, 1899, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President in the chair.
After the Records of the last Meeting had been read and approved, the Corresponding Secretary reported that letters had been received from Chief-Justice Peters and the Hon. John Howland Ricketson accepting Corresponding Membership, and from Samuel Pierpont Langley, D.C.L., accepting Honorary Membership.
Professor Langley’s letter is as follows: —
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S.A.,
March 9, 1899.
Dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the notification of my election to Honorary Membership in The Colonial Society of Massachusetts and, in accepting, to express my gratification at the honor the Society has done me.
Very respectfully yours,
S. P. Langley.
John Noble, Esq.
Corresponding Secretary,
The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston.
The President announced the death, on the eleventh of March, of Dr. Henry P. Quincy, a Resident Member, and paid a warm tribute to his memory.
Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis then said: —
My acquaintance with Dr. Quincy is of recent birth. It does not, in fact, date back prior to his election to the Council of this Society; yet in the three years of his faithful service in that body, I learned to love and respect him, and I cannot but feel that his simplicity of bearing, his uniform courtesy towards his associates, his constant consideration for the feelings, the comfort, and the convenience of others, and his absolute freedom from social conventionalisms were such sure indications of a guileless, transparent character, that I am justified in expressing an opinion of the man upon this occasion.
I had met Dr. Quincy’s father, and I knew his brother Edmund when he was connected with the Lawrence Scientific School. While these facts did not materially influence our friendship, they prepared me for an appreciation of his many good qualities, and drew us into somewhat closer companionship from the start. The strong feelings of affection which existed between him and Dr. Gould would, in any event, have caused his fellow-members to receive him in the Council with a cordial welcome, but the charming nature of his personality soon secured for him a foothold in their good will based upon the more solid ground of personal achievement.
It did not seem to me that Dr. Quincy’s tastes were such as would have led him, from any motive originating in himself, to engage in historical research. I do not mean by this to intimate that he was not interested in that branch of the work of the Society. His regular attendance at the meetings of the Council and the unfailing good will with which he performed the stated duties of the office, as well as the committee work which was put upon his shoulders, must be accepted as abundant evidence of his real concern for the welfare of the Society and the success of its work. It is my opinion, however, that the enthusiasm of his friend Dr. Gould in this regard, and the interest taken by his wife in the Massachusetts Society of Colonial Dames, are largely responsible for the zeal which he displayed in his work in our behalf. In this I find much that was typical of the man. His affectionate regard for those whom he loved led him to sympathize with affairs in which they were interested, and it was to this characteristic, I think, that we are indebted for the germination of a feeling which, under the influence of his surroundings, became as sound and vigorous in its growth as if it had sprung from an original taste for the matters which it ultimately embraced.
Dr. Quincy contributed to our Transactions164 a Memoir of his friend Dr. Edward Wigglesworth. I was at that time the Chairman of the Committee of Publication, and when he handed his manuscript to me, he said, with a simplicity that was at once charming and characteristic: “Here is the Memoir. I am not much accustomed to work of this sort. Edit it, cut it to pieces, do anything to it that you think will improve it.” The Memoir was so brief that I was at first inclined to be disappointed in it; but a careful consideration of its merits led me to the conclusion that it was not only thoroughly appreciative, but that it might almost stand as a model for others engaged in similar work.
During the time that has elapsed since our joint service in the Council, the occasions on which I have met Dr. Quincy have only tended to confirm the opinions which I then formed of his character. Always, the impression made upon me has been that here was one without guile who loved his fellow-men.
Bishop Lawrence paid this tribute to Dr. Quincy’s memory: —
The first and the enduring impression of Dr. Quincy is that of a simple and charming personality. He was one of those men who throw a beam of light into the life of every one with whom they come in contact. Cheerful in disposition, genial in temperament, kindly, thoughtful, sympathetic with youth, and tender in his regard for old age, he gained the affection and confidence of a large number of people. He had the genius of friendship. The way in which a man is regarded by those of his own profession is often a severer test of character than the estimate of him in social life. Every physician and student who came under Dr. Quincy’s instruction speaks of him with affection and regard. Though not a man of exceptional ability, he had the valuable trait of making the best of his natural powers. His enthusiasm for his work, as well as his interest in the young men of his classes, enforced by his own charming personality, made him an excellent instructor in the Department of Histology at the Harvard Medical School. His best work was in the use of the microscope and as an anatomical draughtsman. He had that regard for exactness, that sensitiveness to form, artistic sensibility, and appreciation of shades of coloring, which enable a man to reveal to others by pencil and brush the wonders of the human frame. His work as a draughtsman is of permanent value, and specimens are preserved to-day in the Medical School and by different professors, not only as valuable contributions to medical science, but also as work of delicate and artistic execution.
Dr. Quincy had a simple and deep religious faith. His studies of the human body and into material things, so far from drawing him into a materialistic spirit, led him to a deeper reverence for his Heavenly Father. Born a Unitarian, later a member of King’s Chapel, he was led into the Episcopal Church, and a few years ago was confirmed at Emmanuel Church, Boston. Dedham was his ancestral home, and one found Dr. Quincy at his best in the midst of his family life and domestic interests, in the beautiful old homestead backing upon the Charles River and overlooking the meadows. He became an officer of old St. Paul’s Church in that county town, and to the citizens there represented everything that was finest in the courtesy, chivalry, public spirit, and high character that his name suggests. The influence of his life will long be felt in the Medical School and among the large circle of physicians and men of all callings who are better for having had the privilege of his friendship.
Mr. Henry H. Edes read the following paper on —
THE PLACES OF WORSHIP OF THE SANDEMANIANS IN BOSTON.
At the Stated Meeting of this Society in March of last year, Mr. Noble communicated a paper entitled Some Massachusetts Tories,165 in which reference was made to two prominent members of the Sandemanian Society in Boston and to the destruction, by fire, of its first Meeting House. While Mr. Noble’s paper was being prepared for the press, the question arose, Where did that building stand? As no one could give positive information upon this point, I undertook to investigate the matter, and the present paper embodies the result of the inquiry.
Robert Sandeman arrived in Boston, from Glasgow, in the ship George and James on the eighteenth of October, 1764. Of his movements and doings in New England and New York during the first two years of his residence in America, we get a glimpse in the newspapers of that day. The Boston Gazette of Monday, 10 December, 1764 (No. 506, page 3/1), contains the following item: —
“NEWPORT, December 3.
The celebrated Mr. Sandiman came to Town last Wednesday from the Eastward, and on Sunday preached two Sermons in the Sabbatarian Church.”
In New York the preacher’s audience was large but not sympathetic, if the account which appeared in the Supplement to the Boston Gazette of Monday, 4 March, 1765 (page 2/1), be true: —
“NEW YORK, February 25.
Since our last Mr. Sanddaman came to Town from Boston, and on Wednesday Evening at the New Play-House he advanced Something to a larger Audience than the Place ever before was crowded with, from the 17th Chapter of St. Luke the 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, and 25th Verses: — He has not held forth since in Public, nor have we yet heard when he intends it, the Usage this Itinerant met with in so refined a Place for the Idle and Wandering having given him little Encouragement to attempt the Hum bugging any sensible Auditory, for a too free Construction of any Part of the Divine Oracle.”
Sandeman, however, had valiant champions, and in its issue of the following week (Monday, 11 March, No. 519, p. 3/2) the Gazette printed a letter, signed Z. A., in vindication of the new comer “from those Scurrilous Aspersions which have formerly or more lately been thrown upon him” and containing an extract from his Letters on Theron and Aspasio.
The Massachusetts Gazette tells of the rough treatment Sandeman received in New Hampshire. In its issue of Thursday, 15 May, 1766 (page 2/1), is an extract from a London newspaper giving an extract from a letter dated Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 14 December, 1764, in which it is said that the mob broke the windows of Mr. Sandeman’s meeting-house; that Sandeman was told to leave town in four days or worse would follow; and that he had prudently departed the town. Then, the London editor adds the following: —
“Mr. Sandiman is brother-in-law to the late unfortunate Capt. Glass.166 He is well known to the Dissenters in this city, by having established a new set of them a few years ago, and who now meet in Glover’s Hall, Beech lane. He is known by being the author of a book entitled, Letters on Theron and Aspasio.”
The Massachusetts Gazette of Thursday, 18 September, 1766 (No. 3285, page 2/1), contains a communication on Sandeman’s religious belief which refers to an article in the Boston Gazette. The next issue of the Massachusetts Gazette (25 September, 1766, No. 3286, page 2/3), contains another communication from the same writer, showing that Sandeman’s advent here had not been unnoticed by the community. Three years later, the Boston Evening-Post of 27 November, 1769 (No. 1783, page 1/1,2), contained a long letter addressed to Mr. Colborn Barrell referring to “your long vindicatory letter,” and dealing with Sandeman and his views. On the eleventh of December following, the Post (No. 1785, page 2/1, 2) printed another letter addressed to Barrell signed Protestant; and in the issue of the eighteenth of December (No. 1786, page 1/2,3) still another letter to Barrell from the same writer appears in which Sandeman is again the subject of discussion, while “A Quaker” also addresses “Friend Coleborn Barrell” upon the same theme (page 3/1).
After organizing a Society here, Sandeman removed to Danbury, Connecticut, where he died.167 The Boston Gazette of Monday, 3 August, 1772 (No. 904, page 1/2), contains the following announcement: —
“BOSTON, August 3.
A Monument has been cut in this Town by Mr. Henry Christian Geyer,168 Stone-cutter at the South End, to be sent to Connecticut; it is executed in the Composit Order with twisted Pillars, and the other proper Ornaments, having a Cherub’s Head on Wings, and the following Label from his Mouth, Rev. XIV. 6, 7.
“On the Tomb-Stone is this Inscription.169
Here lies
Until the Resurrection,
The Body of
ROBERT SANDEMAN,
A Native of Perth, North-Britain,
Who in the Face of continual Opposition
From all Sorts of Men
Long and boldly contended
For the ancient Faith;
That the bare Work of Jesus Christ,
Without a Deed, or Thought, on the Part of Man,
Is sufficient to present
The chief of Sinners
Spotless before GOD:
To declare this blessed Truth
As testified in the Holy Scriptures
He left his Country — he left his Friends,
And after much patient Suffering
Finished his Labours
At Danbury,
2d of April 1771,
Aged 53 Years.
Deign’d Christ to come so nigh to us
As not to count it Shame
To call us Brethren — Shall we blush
At aught that bears his Name.
Nay, let us boast in his Reproach
And glory in his Cross,
When He appears, one Smile from Him
Shall far o’erpay our Loss.”
Sandeman’s new doctrines “rejected belief in the necessity of spiritual conversion, representing faith as an operation of the intellect, and speculative belief as quite sufficient to insure final justification.”170 Among the practices peculiar to this Sect were the weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper and the washing of one another’s feet. They also discountenanced proselyting. Some of the heads of families belonging to the Sandemanian Society here were: — Edward Foster, Alford Butler, George Oglevie (or Ogilvie), Edward King, Henry Capen, Adam Chizeau,171 Ebenezer Allen, Barnabas Allen, Hopestill Capen,172 Benjamin Davis,173 Isaac Winslow,174 Colborn Barrell,175 Walter Barrell,176 Mr. Peck,177 Hannah Robinson, Susanna Davies, Mary Cotton, Mary West, Keziah West,178 Mrs. Stayner,179 and Daniel Humphreys. Joseph Howe and Samuel Harris and his wife joined the Society at a later date.180 Isaac Winslow, Junior,181 was another and prominent member of the Society, in which there were persons of high social and political standing.
Snow thus describes the beginning of this Society, and its first Meeting House: —
“‘They first met in a large room at Mr. [Edward] Foster’s house in that part of Prince St. called Black Horse lane, but as much attention was excited, they removed to the Long Room at the Green Dragon. They soon built a house at the bottom of a lane leading to the mill pond, somewhere between the two Baptist meeting houses. It was erected for the sole purpose of a meeting house, by assistance from many friends.’ This house was burnt in a fire which happened on Sunday, April 4, 1773, at 4 o’clock P. M. in a building belonging to Mr. Alexander Edwards, cabinet-maker, and in a short time extended to several other shops and sheds in the neighborhood. The spot has since been occupied as a bake-shop, and is now within the premises of Mr. Joseph Veazie. Engine house, No. 3, stands at the head of the passage way.”182
The destruction of this building is recorded in the Diary of Thomas Newell, under date of 4 April, 1773, when he notes that the wind was from the east: —
“Sunday, pleasant; fair. p. m. fire broke out in Back Street. Consumed Sandeman’s meeting-house, Edwards’s shop, Kittell’s barn, &c.”183
The Boston Gazette of Monday, 5 April, 1773 (No. 939, page 3/1), thus refers to the event: —
“Yesterday Afternoon a Fire broke out in Back Street, which consumed 5 or 6 Shops, besides Mr. Sandiman’s Meeting House before it was got under.”
The Massachusetts Gazette of Thursday, 8 April, 1773 (No. 3627, page 3/1), contains the following account of the fire: —
“Boston, April 8. 1773.
Laſt Lord’s Day Afternoon, about 5 o’Clock, a Fire broke out in a Building belonging to Mr. Alexander Edwards, Cabinet-Maker, at the North Part of the Town, which was almost wholly in Flames as ſoon as diſcovered, and the ſame in a very ſhort Time conſumed, together with his Work Shop, ſeveral Stores, Barns, Sheds, &c. and a large Quantity of Mahogany and other Stock, with a Number of Articles of Furniture which were finiſhed for Sale; the Fire likewiſe communicated with the Sandemanian Meeting Houſe, that was near adjoining, which was alſo entirely deſtroyed; and it was owing to the alertneſs of the Inhabitants, and the constant Supply of the Engines with Water from the Mill-Pond, that many other Wooden Buildings, which were in imminent Danger, were prevented ſharing the ſame Fate. — The Engine from Charleſtown, eſteemed the belt in America, with a Number of People from that Town, with their uſual Activity, came over very expeditiouſly to aſſiſt at the Fire, and were very ſerviceable. Mr. Edwards’s Lofs is faid to be very great.”184
Deprived of their Meeting House, the Society turned to the Selectmen of the Town for aid in providing a temporary shelter. At a meeting of the Board held on the following Thursday, — 7 April, 1773 —
“Mr. Foster and Capen two Persons of the Sect called Sandemanians attended and acquainted the Selectmen that they had lately lost their House of Worship by Fire — and therefore praying that they might have the use of the North Lattin School upon Sabbaths — Liberty was accordingly granted, that for the present they might have the use of said School on the Sabbaths, untill they could provide themselves with another Place of Worship — they paying all damages the School may receive by their use of it which they agreed to.”185
Dr. Snow thus speaks of the subsequent career of the Society: —
“The Sandemanian society afterwards convened at Mr. [Shippie] Townsend’s in Cross-st. They subsequently built a house in the rear of Middle-street, where they met till within two years, [i. e. 1823] when the attendance became so thin as to occasion the discontinuance of their meetings. A primary school is now kept in the same building.”186
As only such vague descriptions as I have quoted of the location of the two Meeting Houses of the Sandemanians were to be found in print, a careful search of the public records was undertaken to ascertain the sites with precision. The result is embodied in the accompanying Plans,187 by which it appears that the First house of worship stood at the foot of a lane which has since been widened and is now Carroll Place, and the Second at the foot of what is now Parkman Place. The dotted lines in the larger Plan indicate present street lines through the lots contiguous to the site of the first Meeting House. By comparing these Plans with Dr. Snow’s description of the vaguely-located lots, and with the descriptions in the deeds to which I am about to refer, the accuracy of the Plans will be fully demonstrated.188
The site of the first Meeting House belonged to James McMillian, of Boston, cabinet-maker, at the time of his decease, in 1769.189 Ann McMillian, his widow and the administratrix of his estate,190 reciting license from the Superiour Court of Judicature, 15 March, 1769, for £110, conveyed, 21 June, 1769, to Edward Foster, blacksmith, and David Mitchelson, seal-engraver,191 both of Boston, a parcel of land in or near Back Street bounded easterly, partly by land “this day sold to Joseph Kettle”192 and partly by the passageway hereinafter mentioned, 31 feet; southerly by land of Alexander Edwards, 56 feet; westerly by the Mill Pond, 31 feet; and northerly by land of John Proctor, deceased, 56 feet; “together with the edefices and buildings thereon standing” and rights in “a four-foot passageway next to the said Proctor’s land leading from said Back Street down to the granted land.”193 What these “edefices and buildings” were does not appear. Possibly the Meeting House was built before the fee of the land passed to Foster and Mitchelson. This must have been the case if the statement in print be true that it was erected in 1765;194 but it is more probable that the Meeting House was raised immediately after the land was purchased of the McMillian estate. Shurtleff says: —
“Probably the location of the First and Second Baptist meetinghouses, upon its [the Mill Pond’s] southeastern border, was selected for the convenience of using the water of the pond for baptismal purposes, as was formerly done, when the water was next to their rear.”195
In view of some of the peculiar tenets of the Sandemanians these remarks apply with equal force to the probable reason for the selection of the site of their first Meeting House. Hales’s Map of Boston (1814) shows the projection of the two Baptist Meeting Houses over the edge of the Mill Pond as they appear in the accompanying large Plan.196
Foster and Mitchelson, for £80, conveyed the site of the first Meeting House to Joseph Kettle of Boston, baker, 28 April, 1773, — within a month after the building was burned.197 Kettle thus became seized of the whole estate, which his heirs sold, 5 January, 1820, to Joseph Veazie, of Boston, baker.198 It then had a frontage on Back Street (including the four-foot passageway or lane) of 31½ feet and a depth, from Back Street to the Mill Pond, of 223 feet.199
Three days after Foster had sold his interest in the Mill Pond property, we find him, with new associates, taking title to the site of the second Meeting House of the Sandemanians. This property was a part of the realty of which Nathaniel Loring, of Boston, merchant, died seized, in 1770.200 Benjamin Dolbeare, of Boston, merchant, as administrator of the estate, reciting license from the Superiour Court of Judicature, in August, 1772, for £122, lawful money, sold to Colborn Barrell, merchant, Edward Foster, blacksmith, Benjamin Davis, merchant, Edward King, wharfinger, and Isaac Winslow, Junior, merchant, all of Boston, the lot shown on the accompanying (smaller) Plan which gives the metes as stated in the deed, dated 1 May, 1773.201 This building was used on week days for school purposes as early as 1785 when, on the fifth of October, the Selectmen appointed “a Committee to treat with Mr [Isaac] Winslow respecting a School-house lately improved by Mr Dupe202 known by the Name of Sandemons Meeting house.”203 On the ninth of November, the Committee reported that they had rented the building and thus “provided a School for Master Cheney;” and that the key “was received the 7th inst.”204 In 1786, Cheney had more than a hundred pupils.205 Samuel Cheney, who was also a physician, and a Harvard graduate of 1767,206 continued to occupy the building till 21 April, 1790, when the key was returned to Mr. Winslow.207 Cheney had previously been in charge of the South Writing School, in Pleasant Street, and the subject of some controversy.208 The building is thus described in the United States Direct Tax List of 1798: —
“Ward 4, Boston. William Croswell, occupant; Hopstill Capen, Agent, owner. A House, Middle Street, used as Meeting House for a Society called Sandemonians. 1080 square feet.”209
Capen had bought Isaac Winslow’s undivided fifth of the estate on the eighth of November, 1797.210
In 1817, the Sandemanian Society had become reduced to six persons and its early extinction was expected.211 Alford Butler, who died in Boston, 23 March, 1828, at the age of ninety212 is said to have been the last survivor.213 The Meeting House at the foot of Parkman Place was subsequently occupied as a Primary School; and as late as 1835 the City of Boston leased the property for ten years for the accommodation of two of the public schools.214
Having fixed with precision the sites of the two Meeting Houses of the Sandemanians, let me note, in closing, the location of those public and private buildings where this company of Christians met before they had a religious home of their own and during the interval between the destruction of their first Meeting House and the completion of their last place of worship.
Edward Foster, at whose house the Society first met, was, as we have seen, a blacksmith, and evidently a pillar in the new organization. He also appears to have been a man of substance and active in the prudential affairs of the Society. Ten years before Sandeman’s arrival in Boston, Foster had purchased, 23 March, 1754, of John Erving an estate on the southwesterly side of Black Horse Lane and had made it his homestead. The lot had a frontage of 42 feet and a depth of 108 feet and is now numbered 46 to 52 in Prince Street. It includes Salter Place, which intersects it. A portion of the rear of the lot is now within the limits of the yard of the Hancock School.215
Foster was a Tory, like most of the Sandemanians,216 and an Absentee. His property was confiscated. The realty comprised the lot just described and another at the corner of Middle (now Hanover) Street and Bear Lane, now known as Parmenter Street.217 Sabine says that he settled in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, there managed large iron works, and died in 1786, leaving thirteen children.218
The location of the Green Dragon Tavern — in the Long Room of which the Sandemanians met for a short time — in Green Dragon Lane, now Union Street, is too well known to need description.
The “North Lattin School” occupied the site of the present Eliot School, on the north-easterly side of North Bennet Street. That building was given to the Town, in 1711–12, by the father of Governor Hutchinson. Under date of the eleventh of March we find this vote in the Town Records: —
“Voted. Thanks to Capt Thorms Hutchinson for so much as he hath Offered at his own Charge to build a School House at the North end of ye Town.”219
In the Record of the Town Meeting held on the fourteenth of May, 1712, are these entries: —
“Whereas the Com̄ittee appointed the 11th of March Last to enquire after a piece of Land at the North end of this Town Sutable to Sett a School House on. Have now Signified to this meeting that they have made Dilligent Enquiry in that matter, and have at length pitched on a peice of Land belonging to mrs Susanna Love of abt fifty one foot in breadth & abt one hundred feet in length abutting one end thereof. On Bennet Street, and the other end on Love [now Tileston] Street, and that the Same may be purchased for Abt one hundred fifty three pounds, that Land being more then enough for the Setting a School-house on the wch they Recommend to the Town as the most Sutable place wch they Can procure for that use.
“Voted. That the Sd Com̄ittee be impowered to purchace the afore said parcell of Land, to be paid for out of the Town Treasury: And that the Select men to gether with the Said Com̄ittee be impowered to Allot So much of ye Sd Laud for the Sd School House as they shall judg meet and Convenient.”220
Shippie Townsend was born in Charlestown, 16 November, 1722, the son of David and Mabel (Shippie) Townsend and, like his father, was a blockmaker.221 He removed to Boston in or about 1746, and, 23 September, 1757, purchased of Sanderson Houghton of Bolton, in the County of Worcester, yeoman, and the heirs of John West of Boston, the estate on the north-easterly side of Cross Street which is the last to be described in connection with the present inquiry. It had a frontage on Cross Street of 31 feet and 2 inches and a depth of 31 feet, the easterly boundary of the lot being 24 feet and 2½ inches west from Middle (now Hanover) Street before that thoroughfare was widened.222 The estate is now numbered 74 and 76 in Cross Street. The accompanying Plan shows that Townsend subsequently (in 1790) purchased from William Dawes, Junior, of Boston, leather-dresser, the adjoining estate on the east which he sold, the following year, to his son Dr. David Townsend (H. C. 1770).223 Both these lots, with two others contiguous on the west, were formerly owned by Robert Sanderson, from whom they passed to his descendants, the Wests224 and the Houghtons. This holding, a fine rectangular lot, had a frontage of about ninety feet on Cross Street and a uniform depth of forty-eight feet.
The remaining frontage (60 feet 8 inches) on the northerly side of Cross Street, between Hanover and Salem Streets, was long owned by Dr. Thomas Greaves of Charlestown and his heirs by whom it was sold, in 1749, to Thaddeus Mason225. This lot, as shown on one of the accompanying Plans, had a depth of about 103 feet.
At some future meeting of the Society, I hope that some of our associates will tell us something of the Sandemanians and their church polity, — whether it was Presbyterian or Congregational; whether they had settled ministers and, if they had, who these were; and whether any Records or Registers of the Society in Boston were kept and, if they were, whether they are still extant and in whose custody they now are.
NOTE ON BENJAMIN DAVIS, THE LOYALIST.
Captain William Davis, of Boston, apothecary, was of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 1643; was admitted to the First Church, 28 July, 1644; and, in 1669, was one of the principal Founders of the Old South Church, his name standing on the Records at the head of the List. He was a Representative for Springfield, 1652, 1666, 1671 and 1672, and for Haverhill, 1668.226 He was a wealthy and enterprising citizen, a man of discretion, many years one of the Selectmen of Boston at different times between 1647 and 1674, and joint Commissioner (1653) with Governor Leverett to the Dutch at New York. Thrice married, his first wife was Margaret, daughter of William Pynchon of Springfield, his second, Huldah, daughter of the Reverend Zechariah Symmes, and his last, Sarah, daughter of John Farmer.
Captain William Davis lived in State Street, on the north-easterly corner of Exchange Street (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. (Third edition) Part 2, 22; and see ante, v. 289) until 1645, when he sold his estate (Suffolk Deeds, i. 63) and bought of Valentine Hill the lot in Washington Street at the southerly corner of Court Avenue (Ibid. i. 60). This estate had a frontage of twenty feet on the street (this portion of it being now the site of Thompson’s Spa) and, including subsequent additions, extended back, on irregular lines, to Court Square, about 350 feet. In 1736 William Price bought it, and in 1770 bequeathed it to King’s Chapel. The most valuable part of the estate now constitutes The Price Fund (Suffolk Deeds, xxvi, 109; and Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, ii. 421 and notes).
He died 24 May, 1676 (Sewall’s Diary, i. 13). His will, executed a week before his death, mentions “my mother Mrs. Elizabeth Davis in London” and contains valuable particulars (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 786).
Major Benjamin Davis, son of William and Margaret (Pynchon) Davis, was also an apothecary and of the Artillery Company, 1673 (Roberts’s History of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, i. 223). Judge Sewall notes in his Diary (i. 95) the admission of Benjamin Davis to the Old South, 13 September,1685, and the fact that he wore a periwig, — the pet abomination of the good Judge. On the twenty-third of March, 1686–87, Davis, in company with Sewall and others, waited upon Andros to remonstrate, in vain, against the occupancy of their meeting-house for the services of the Church of England (Ibid. i. 171). In 1699, he was one of the Founders of the Church in Brattle Square, and one of the two Deacons first chosen. If evidence of the broad-mindedness of these Founders were lacking, it would be found in the fact, that of the twenty “Undertakers” six had been subscribers to the building of the first King’s Chapel, in July, 1689, — among them Benjamin Davis, who gave £3. He also gave £5 toward enlarging the Chapel, 22 January, 1712–13 (Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, i. 89, 91, 232).
His first wife was Sarah, daughter of James Richards of Boston and Hartford, one of the richest men of his day in New England. Davis died 26 November, 1704 (Sewalfs Diary, ii. 118). His widow Mary declined (12 December, 1704) to administer his estate because she was intending “to go for England amongst my Relations.” She was Mary Tippet whose Purpose of Marriage with Benjamin Davis was recorded 15 January, 1696–97 (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxviii. 348). Probably, she was the widow of Nicholas Tippet of Boston and of Charlestown in the Island of Nevis (Ibid. i. 155, 169; Records of the Court of Assistants, i. 340; Suffolk Probate Records, xi. 221, and Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, i. 112,114, 117,121, ii. 603. See also New England Historical and Genealogical Register, lv. 335). A valuable petition (11 June, 1708) of the children of Captain William Davis is among the Probate papers of this estate (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 2909). See Historical Catalogue of the Old South Church, pp. 278, 279.
Dr. William Davis, physician and surgeon, only son of Major Benjamin Davis, was born in Boston, 22 January, 1686–87 (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ix. 168); married Hannah, daughter of Sheriff Edward Winslow, 26 January, 1715–16 (Ibid, xxviii. 57. See Ibid. ix. 234; Suffolk Deeds, xcii. 69; and Suffolk Probate Files, No. 10,609); with his wife, joined the Church in Brattle Square, 7 January, 1727–28; and there had eight children baptized, 1719–1738.
His residence was at the north-easterly corner of Water Street and Pudding Lane (Devonshire Street). This estate was acquired by Mrs. Welthean Richards, 12 October, 1657 (Suffolk Deeds, iii. 64). By her will (1679) she devised it to her eldest son John Richards (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 1120), and he, by his will (1694), devised it to his young niece Margaret (b. 1681), daughter of Major Benjamin Davis (Ibid. No. 2140), who probably died leaving as her heirs her brother, Dr. William Davis, and two sisters, — Sarah, who married Richard Bill, and Elizabeth Davis. The title passed to Dr. Davis, through his brother-in-law, Richard Bill, and Edward Bromfield, in 1741–1743 (Suffolk Deeds, xxx. 94, 95; lxii. 254; lxv. 251; and lxvi. 25, 26). In 1774, his heirs conveyed the estate to Dr. Joseph Gardner (Ibid. cxxv. 103, 130, 131). It is now owned and occupied by the National Bank of the Commonwealth.
He died 14 March, 1745–46, as we learn from the following obituary227 in the Boston Weekly News-Letter of Thursday, 20 March, 1745–46 (No. 2292, p. 2/1):
“On Friday last died Dr. William Davis aged about 58 Years. He was a Gentleman much improved and greatly beloved among us, as a skilful Physican and Surgeon, and was had in Esteem for his strict Piety. He was decently interr’d Yesterday in the Afternoon.”
Administration upon his estate was granted to his widow, 28 March, 1746. The Inventory amounted to £3429. 9. 6, and included Silver Plate valued at £404. 14 (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 8459).
Benjamin Davis, second son of Dr. William Davis, was baptized 13 July, 1729, and was of the Boston Latin School Class of 1736. He married (1) Elizabeth Phillips, 9 August, 1752 (Records of the Church in Brattle Square), who was baptized into the Episcopal Church, 4 June, 1754, at Trinity Church, where three of their children were also baptized, — (i) Hannah, 1 December, 1754, (ii) Benjamin, 4 April, 1756, (iii) Mary, 12 February, 1757, who married her father’s cousin-german, Isaac Winslow, Junior, 20 April, 1772 (post, p. 129 and note); (2) Anstis Greenleaf, daughter of Sheriff Stephen Greenleaf, 10 September, 1762 (Trinity Church Registers), by whom he had (iv) Anstis, baptized 13 April, 1764 (Ibid.), whose mother died 6 May, following, in her twenty-second year (Boston Gazette of Monday, 14 May, 1764, No. 476, p. 2/2, which contains a long obituary. Cf. Trinity Church Burial Register); (3) Alice Whipple, of Providence, R. I., 18 September, 1768 (Providence Town Records. Cf. Boston Record Commissioners Reports, xxx. 425). Concerning this wife, one of Mr. Davis’s descendants sends me the following anecdote, drawn from his family papers: —
“The lady’s amour propre was offended and her philosophy over-taxed by the extraordinary self-denials and usages of the Sandemanians. Following the example of the early Christian Church, it was their custom to hold a love-feast228 on Sunday at one another’s houses, at which only Sandemanians were present. The wives who were not members of the Sect, naturally did not take kindly to their exclusion from their own tables, and, at last, the third Madam Davis felt constrained to return to her family, thus, practically, deserting her husband. A legal divorce being then unobtainable, the Sandemanians took the matter under consideration and concluded to sanction another matrimonial alliance on the part of Mr. Davis, declaring his to be one of those cases where voluntary abandonment by the wife justifies the dissolution of the marriage tie in the sight of Heaven.”
If Mr. Davis married a fourth wife, it is probable that she was Katharine Overlick, whose Intention of Marriage with Benjamin Davis was entered 24 April, 1773, but as we find no record of a marriage, and do find that Catharine Overlick,—presumably the same woman — entered her Intention of Marriage with John Clows 10 November, 1774, it is doubtful if Mr. Davis made another matrimonial alliance. (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxx. 430,443).
Some account of Benjamin Davis’s troubles at, and immediately following, the outbreak of the Revolution has been already given in these pages (ante, v. 209, 270). In the List of Addressers of Hutchinson, in 1774, his name appears as “Benjamin Davis. Town Dock. Huckster” (1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for October, 1870, xi. 392). His warehouse was at Woodmausey’s Wharf, which had been long in the Davis family. It ran easterly from or near the corner of Merchants’ Row and what is now South Market Street (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii., Second edition, Part II., 95; and Suffolk Deeds, lxxxv. 54. Cf. Suffolk Deeds, iv. 225; x. 202, 286, 293; and Suffolk Probate Files, No. 2909, Inventory, and No. 8459, Inventory). After Benjamin Davis left Boston with his family, he had an eventful career (ante, v. 269, 270.) He finally settled in the town of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where he and his son of the same name were merchants. On the thirtieth of January, 1789, they executed there a power of attorney to Isaac Winslow (1743–1793) of Boston, merchant, in generalty, and in particular to convey their interest in Woodmansey’s Wharf, in Boston (Suffolk Deeds, clxiv. 194), under which a conveyance of the premises was made on the sixth of June, following (Ibid. clxvi. 133, 134). Subsequently, Benjamin Davis, Senior, returned to Boston, and here he died, broken in estate if not in spirit, on the fourteenth of September, 1805. The New England Palladium of Tuesday, 17 September, 1805 (xxvi. 23), contains this announcement229: —
“DIED.
In this town, on Saturday evening last, Benjamin Davis, esq. aged 77.”
A similar, but less complete, announcement appeared in the Columbian Centinel of 18 September, p. 2/3.
On the sixteenth of September, 1805, administration on the estate of Benjamin Davis, late of Boston, merchant, deceased, intestate, was granted to the Hon. William Sullivan. The Inventory, all personal, amounted to only $101 (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 22,440).
NOTE ON ISAAC WINSLOW, Senior and Junior.
As Isaac Winslow and Isaac Winslow, Junior, who were members of the Sandemanian Congregation in Boston, have been confounded by historical writers, it may be stated here that they were uncle and nephew.
Edward Winslow, born in Boston, 1 November, 1669, son of Edward and Elizabeth (Hutchinson) Winslow, and grandson of John and Mary (Chilton) Winslow, was a goldsmith, and Captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (Roberts’s History of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 1895, i. 326, 327). His first wife, Hannah, was a daughter of the Rev. Joshua Moody of the First Church. By her he had, among others, two sons, Joshua, born 12 February, 1691–95, and Isaac, born 2 May, 1709. His daughter Elizabeth (by wife Elizabeth Pemberton), born 16 February, 1712–13, married Richard Clarke, 3 May, 1733, and became the mother of Mrs. John Singleton Copley (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ix. 112, 216; xxiv. 64, 87, 255; and xxviii. 43, 181. Cf. ante, v. 197 n.).
His brick mansion-house was in King (now State) Street, and occupied the lot (2510/12 x 120 feet, extending back to what is now Post Office Avenue) which makes the easterly corner of Congress Street, and is completely covered by the stone building recently in the occupancy of the Tremont National Bank. This lot was a part of the original Possession of Elder Thomas Leverett (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii., Second edition, 4) and, with a lot of similar dimensions contiguous on the east, and now covered by the Exchange Building, constituted the mansion-house and garden of his son, Governor John Leverett, whose heirs, for £370 “in money at the rate it now passeth vizt eight shillings p ounce, Troy,” sold the house to Edward Winslow, 21 October, 1708 (Suffolk Deeds, xxiv. 160). After his death, the house was occupied for a time by his grandson, Benjamin Davis, the Loyalist (Suffolk Probate Records, lxviii. 406). In 1759 (27 November), the estate was sold, for £600, L. M., by Winslow’s heirs to John Vassall, of Cambridge (Suffolk Deeds, xciii. 215–217).
He died 1 December, 1753. The Boston Evening-Post of Monday, 3 December, 1753 (No. 953, pp. 1/2, 2/1), contains the following obituary notice: —
“And the same Evening [Saturday last], about 9 o’clock, after a long Indisposition, died Edward Winslow, Esq; who had just entered the 85th Year of his Age. This Gentleman had formerly, for Many Years, been High Sheriff of the County of Suffolk, and Colonel of the Regiment of Militia in this Town; but by Reason of Age and Infirmities of Body, laid down those Posts, and has for several Years past, till his Death, been a Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum, and one of the Justices of the Inferiour Court of Common Pleas for the County of Suffolk, and also Treasurer of the said County.”
His will is in Suffolk Probate Files, No. 10,609.
Joshua Winslow, merchant, above mentioned, married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Thomas Savage, 8 February, 1720–21 (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxviii. 90; cf. ante, pp. 38, 39, notes), and by her had many children, who were baptized at the Old Sonth Church. Among these was Isaac, baptized 18 September (Old Style), 1743, who was called Isaac Winslow, Junior, to distinguish him from his uncle of the same name. Joshua Winslow died 9 October, 1769. The Boston Evening-Post of Monday, 16 October, 1769 (No. 1777, p. 3/1) thus records the event: —
“Boston, October 16, 1769.
Monday Morning last died here, in the 75th Year of his Age, Joshua Winslow, Esq; ― A Gentleman Who sustained a very respectable Character, both in publick and private Life. His Remains were decently interr’d last Friday Afternoon.”
His will provided that his “distill-house” in Cold Lane (Portland Street) should be carried on by his son Isaac (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 14,559).
Isaac Winslow (born 1709) was also a merchant of Boston and later a farmer of Roxbury. He married (1) Lucy, daughter of General Samuel Waldo, 14 December, 1747, with whom he united with the West Church in Boston, 16 October, 1748 (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxviii. 267; and West Church Records); and (2) Jemima Debuke, 15 November, 1770, at the Church in Brattle Square (Church Records, which give the erroneous date of 25 November; and Boston Evening-Post of Monday, 26 November, 1770, No. 1835, p. 2/3). In 1774, he was appointed a Mandamus Councillor and was one of only ten who qualified (Whitmore’s Massachusetts Civil List, p. 64; and Sabine’s Loyalists, ii. 446). He was an Addresser of Hutchinson and of Gage, a Protester against the Solemn League and Covenant, and a Refugee named in Barrell’s List. He died in March, 1777 (Family Record). His will, without date, describes himself as of Roxbury, states that he was then residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was about to embark for New York, and names as executors his nephews, Isaac Winslow, Junior,230 Jonathan Clarke and Isaac Winslow Clarke (see ante, v. 197, 199, 200 and note, and 201). The will was proved here, 28 October, 1785 (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 18,543). Sabine (ii. 446) says that his widow Jemima died in London in 1790. See ante, iii. 14.
Isaac Winslow, Junior, son of Joshua Winslow, was of the Boston Latin School Class of 1751, and graduated at Harvard College in 1762 in the class with the Rev. Jeremy Belknap and the Rev. Andrew Eliot. The Faculty Records (ii. 98) give the date of his birth as 24 September (New Style), 1743. After he had entered mercantile life, he was styled Isaac Winslow, Jr., of Boston, “merchant,” and sometimes “distiller.” In the division of his father’s estate, there was set off to him one-half of the mansion-house and lot situated at the easterly corner of Exchange Street and fronting upon Dock Square, which had descended from Nicholas Davison through the Lynde and Savage families (see ante, pp. 37, 38, note). He was twice married: (1) to Margaret Sparhawk, 22 November, 1770, by whom he had issue, John Sparhawk Winslow, born January, died April, 1772 (Family Record). The Essex Gazette of Tuesday, 20–27 November, 1770 (No. 122, iii. 70/4), thus announces the marriage: —
“Salem, November 27.
Last Thursday Mr. Isaac Winslow, jun. of Boston, Merchant, was married to Miss Peggy Sparhawk, Daughter of the late Reverend Mr. Sparhawk, of this Place, deceased, and Niece of the Hon. Nathaniel Sparhawk, Esq; of Kittery.”
She was born 20 October, 1752 (Essex Institute Historical Collections, xxv. 40–43, 281–283). She died 18 January, 1772,231 and he was married (2) to Mary Davis, 20 April, 1772, by John Hill, Justice of the Peace (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxx. 64), and had issue: — (i) Isaac, born 2 February, 1774, (ii) Thomas, born 10 October, 1775, at Boston, (iii) Benjamin, born 10 January, 1778, at Halifax, (iv) John-Davis, born 26 June, 1779, (v) Mary, born 26 September, 1781, at New York, married Pleasant Hudgens, of New Orleans, Louisiana (see Suffolk Deeds, cclxxxi. 129, and Suffolk Probate Files, No. 33,138), (vi) Benjamin, born 4 August, 1783, at New York, (vii) Joshua, born 24 June, 1785, at Boston, (viii) Elizabeth, born 2 June, 1787, at Boston, married William Pickering, (ix) Edward, born 31 August, 1788, at Boston, (x) Margaretta, born 12 September, 1789, (xi) a still-born daughter (Family Record). At the time of the Evacuation of Boston, Isaac Winslow, Junior, left the Province with his brothers, the Reverend Edward Winslow (H. C. 1741) and John Winslow, who was a Commissary in the British Army and died in New York, 26 September, 1781, without issue (Ibid), and his uncle Isaac Winslow (Ibid.; and Sabine’s Loyalists, ii. 446, 597). The death of Isaac Winslow, Junior — who had become Isaac Winslow, Senior, on the death of his uncle, — occurred 20 January, 1793 (Family Record), and was announced in the Columbian Centinel of Wednesday, 23 January, 1793 (No. 923, p. 3/3): —
“In this town, suddenly, Mr. Isaac Winslow, sen. — His funeral will proceed from his dwelling-house in Sudbury Street, this afternoon, at half-past 3 o’clock, whicli his friends and relations are requested to attend without further invitation.”
He has been characterized as the embodiment of conscience and loyalty. He is supposed to have drowned himself under the influence of religious melancholia. His insolvent estate, which had been ruined by the war and his long absence from the Commonwealth, was administered by his widow, 12 February, 1793 (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 20,095).
The Columbian Centinel of Saturday, 4 October, 1800 (No. 1726, p. 2/4), contains the following announcement: —
“DIED] . . . Last evening Mrs. Mary Winslow, Æt. 44, widow of the late Mr. Isaac Winslow. — Her funeral will be from her late house in Hawkin’s-street, on Monday next, at 4 o’clock, P. M. which the friends and acquaintance of the family are requested to attend.”
Russell’s Gazette of Monday, 6 October, 1800 (p. 3/1), contains a similar notice, which gives Mrs. Winslow’s age accurately as 43.
I am indebted to Mr. William Henry Winslow for the use of a Family Record, made in 1810. From it some of the dates in this Note, which are not found in the public records, have been taken. To our associate, Mr. William Coolidge Lane, also, my thanks are due for extracts from the Harvard College Faculty Records which enable me to correct here a serious error in Sabine’s account of the Isaac Winslows who were Loyalists where he says (ii. 446) that Dr. Isaac Winslow of Marshfield was a Harvard graduate of 1762.
Mr. Abner C. Goodell opened the discussion upon the paper and stated that the church discipline of the Sandemanians was Congregational. He mentioned that John Glas, founder of the sect in Scotland, was the father-in-law of Sandeman,232 and that Faraday233 and his parents and grandparents were devout members of this religious body.
The Rev. Edward G. Porter commended the topographical precision of the paper, and spoke of several of the buildings which were now, or within a few years, standing upon parts of the site of the first Meeting House. He said it was while in Veazie’s barn that John Gilbert began to think of being an actor. Mr. Porter spoke at length on the historical and antiquarian value of papers of this character, and then gave a most graphic sketch of the Sect both in this country and in Great Britain. Glas, he said, was a University man, and in England his followers were called Glasites or Kissites, — from one of their peculiar customs. In this country, Sandeman did not require his followers to bring their children to the public services of the church. The Sandemanians had no settled clergy, but two Elders,234 who took the lead in all matters. They had a hymn-book of their own. He also stated that Stiles, Langdon, and Chauncy gave much thought to the belief of the Sandemanians. Mr. Porter gave an interesting account of the Sandemanian Society in Danbury, Connecticut, and mentioned that its Meeting House235 is now used as a stable.
Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis said: —
When Mr. Edes told me that he was at work upon the task of identifying the sites of the Sandemanian Churches in Boston, I replied, “You will find that many of our members will be much interested in your paper.” I had not, however, supposed that there would be at our meeting one who, like Mr. Goodell, had made a study of the subject and was prepared to tell us of the career of the Society in England, and still another whose knowledge of the sect, of its customs, and of its peculiarities extends to such minute details that it comprehends the names and the places of residence of the surviving members who now represent it. As a matter of fact, it had not seemed to me probable that there would be any person who could aid the writer of the paper in furnishing information upon this subject. I confess to the same surprise that must have been shared by all, at the wonderful reservoir of information treasured in the memory of our associate Porter, from which he has been able with such remarkable facility to draw, without warning or preparation, the extraordinary and interesting account of the Sandemanians to which we have listened.
What I actually referred to in my suggestion that the paper would prove of interest was this. You will remember, Mr. President, that when you and I were considerably younger than we now are, we read with avidity the stories which Edward Everett Hale was then launching upon the public. One of them, The Man without a Country,236 has made his name immortal. Another, My Double and How he Undid Me,237 if it lacks the dramatic pathos of the first, has a quaint humor of its own which entitles it to survive, and besides has an actual historic value through the manner in which it portrays an existing condition of contemporary life in the picture which it gives of the exhausting demands made upon the time of a rural Congregational minister. Frederic Ingham, the hero of this latter story, is described as a Sandemanian minister, and it is through interest in him that thousands, yes, I might say tens of thousands, of readers have been led to inquire, What is a Sandemanian? As if to perpetuate interest in this question, this story closed with Ingham settled upon the Minister’s lot in Township 9, Range 3, in Maine, where, relieved from the exacting duties which led him to employ a double, he finds time to work on his Traces of Sandemanianism in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries, and here the opportunity is found for the construction of the Brick Moon, the story of which forms another of this series.
Those who have read this quaint and humorous forerunner of the quasi-scientific stories of the Jules Verne type, may perhaps recall this fact, that the inhabitants of the Brick Moon were no sooner launched into space than they felt the necessity of a religious organization, which they satisfied by the establishment of a Sandemanian Church. A bundle containing presents, for the inhabitants of the Brick Moon was shot forth from the fly-wheel into space. A few of the articles which it contained reached the surface of the new planet, but others became satellites. Among the latter was a copy of the Ingham Papers which, according to the title-page of that volume, contained “some memorials of the life of Capt. Frederic Ingham, U. S. N., sometime pastor of the First Sandemanian Church in Naguadavick,”238 etc. This volume is prefaced by a Memoir of the imaginary Ingham in which Mr. Hale tells us what he knew about the Sandemanians. He says: —
“I have been somewhat surprised, and indeed annoyed to find how many intelligent persons, who, probably, share themselves in the principles of Robert Sandeman, are, nevertheless, ignorant of the very existence of the Sandemanian Communion.”
In the dedication to one of his books,239 Mr. Hale says: —
“I dedicate this book to the youngest of my friends, not two hours old. Fun, fact, and fancy, — may his fresh life mix the three in their just proportions.”
Mr. Hale’s fancy has such an air of verisimilitude that it has always puzzled some of his readers to distinguish it from his fact, and there must have been many among them who will welcome authentic knowledge of Sandemanianism.
Mr. Henry Williams and Mr. Goodell both expressed the wish that Mr. Porter would write out his Remarks in order that the interesting and valuable account of this almost-forgotten Sect might be preserved in print in the Publications of this Society.240
Mr. Frederick Lewis Gay then said: —
Shortly after the battle of Lexington, complaints of bad and insufficient food were heard from the New England militia investing the British forces in the town of Boston. It is hard to say now how far the complaints were justified by facts, but it is only natural to suppose that there was more or less real suffering attendant on the sudden massing of a horde of half-disciplined troops. Perhaps it is too complimentary to call many of them even half-disciplined. Difficulties arose from want of an organized system of distribution rather than from a lack of supplies. Modern instances of like troubles in our recent war with Spain need not be touched on here.
I have here the Petition of a handful of militiamen made vocal by hunger. The body of the Petition is in the handwriting of Eliphalet Barns, the first signer. The writer’s shrewd line of reasoning in the preamble shows him to have been no mean juggler with words. How to deal with such cases of rank insubordination at that juncture must have been a hard question. As an example of one of the many discouragements which beset those in authority at the beginning of the Revolution, the paper seems worth preserving.
To the Representitives of the province of the Massechusetts Bay Seting in Congress at wattertown this with Care.
Jentlemen Representitives of this province.
Know dout it is a truth acknowlidged among men that god his placd. men in greater and Lower Stations in life, and that Inferiours are moraly Bound to obay their Superiors in all their lawful Commands, But altho our king is our Superiour, yet his Commands are unlawful. Therefore we are not bound to obay, but are in providence Cald to rise up against Such tiranical usurpations, and our province at this difficult Day is Necessiated to Chuse Representitives and officers to Rule as king over us. To which we Cheerfully Submit in all things lawful or just & Count it our hapiness, but if their laws are greavious to bare, then the agreaved is by the Same Rule authorized to Rise up in oppisition to Said laws, and their his been Some acts made for the Regulation of the armey, and his been So Short lifed. and New acts in Stead thereof, that it his Constraind many to withdraw and others, viz. Companies and Ragements, Appearently broke or throne into Confusion, and by these that Remain Here are much Deuty Required, to which we, animated from a Spirit of Liberty, would Chearfully Submit, provided we had a Sufficient Support from day to day. we many times have drawn Such Roten Stinkin meat that the Smell is Sufficient to make us lothe the Same, and, provided the provision would be good, a pound of meat and a pound of bread with what Small quantity of Sase we at Some times draw is fare from being Sufficient for a Labouring man during 24 hours, the truth of which we have Experiencd. to our Cost, as Necessity his Constraind us to buy from day to day untill our money fails, and is not this a means of driving away men that otherwise would Stay, and keeping away men that otherwise would Come, pray let not our Case be parilel to the Case of the Isarelites when in bondege to the Egyptianes, who Required the tale of brick, but gave no Straw. If you Require the tale of work or deauty from us, give us wherewith all to live upon, their is a large Nomber of men in verious Ragements that Rsents Their treatment with Regard to provision So fare that they have Sworn by the god that made them that, if the[y] Cannot have a Sufficient Support, they will Either Raise a mob and go to the general and Demand provision and obtain it that way, or they will Swing their packs Emediately and go home boldly throu all the Guards. If the Reality of the above is Scrupled, Surely the truth may be known by the Colonels applying to the Solders, and if we Should be Constraind to take any of the above Extreams, dos it not look like great Confusion, yea, a fore Runner of our fall, and we become a pray to Devorring unnatreal Cruel Enemies of our liberties and Religeon. and Now we would humbly Request the Congress, as they Regard The welfair of the province, our lives and liberties and the Religion we profess, that they would Remove out of the way at Least this one Defficultie which otherwise his the apperence of making an Emediate Contention or Rebelion in the Camp, we not only write in our Names, but in the name And behalf of many whome we Represent. And that the Congress may have wisdom from a bove to act in Such a Difficult day is the Sincere Desire of them who as yet Remains yours to Sarve.
Roxbury, May ye 23, 1775.
Eliphelet Barns
Timothy Titus
Sthephen Willes
James willard
wilam Bennett
Isaac Pits
Jonah Fuler
John Armstrong
In Provincial Congress, Watertown, May 25, 1775.
Ordered. That the within Petition be sent to General Thomas, and that he be, and hereby is directed to enquire into the causes of the Complaint therein contained, and take proper measures for the Redress of the Petitioners.
SamL Freeman Secry P. T.
I cannot discover what, if any, redress was afforded the petitioners. The indorsement, written perhaps by the Commissary General, is brief and ominous: — “Pertition of 8 Scoundrels to the Honourable Provi[ncial] Congress.”241
Mr. Charles Armstrong Snow said that he recognized in John Armstrong, — one of the “eight Scoundrels,” an ancestor concerning whom he should gratefully welcome information, and expressed the hope that some member of the Society might be able to give it.
Mr. Edes exhibited an extremely rare engraved portrait of Washington, which was the first to be published in Boston.242 It bears the following inscription: —
B. Blyth, del.
J. Norman, Sculp.
His Excellcy George Washington, Esqr.
General and Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies,
Supporting the Independence of America.
Taken from an original Picture in possession of his Excy
Govr. Hancock
Published by John Coles, Boston, March 20th 1782.
Mr. Albert Matthews communicated the following paper on —
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS “INTERVAL” AND “INTERVALE.”
These words, so well known throughout New England, suggest interesting questions in regard to derivation, meaning, and distribution. As early as about 1680 the Reverend W. Hubbard called attention to the topographical meaning of Interval. “Butt here and there,” he remarked, “there are many rich and fruitfull spots of land, such as they call intervail land, in levells and champain ground, without trees or stones, neere the banks of great rivers.”243 More than a century later the Reverend J. Morse said that “these vallies, which have received the expressive name of interval lands, are of various breadths, from two to twenty miles.”244 In 1790 the Reverend S. Deane gave the following definition: —
“Interval, the space between two places, or things. The word is used in husbandry to denote the space between rows of corn, or other vegetables; especially in the horse-hoeing husbandry. By interval also, and more usually in this country, is understood land on the border of a river. Interval-land is commonly so high and dry as to be fit for tillage; and yet always so low as to be frequently overflowed by the swelling of rivers, especially in the spring.”245
In 1792 the Reverend J. Belknap, when criticised by an English reviewer246 for the use of the word “freshet,” boldly defended himself; but when he took up the word Intervale, his tone was almost apologetic. He said: —
“I know not whether as much can be said in vindication of another word, which I have frequently used, and which perhaps is not more known in England, viz. intervale. I can cite no very ancient authority for it; but it is well understood in all parts of New-England to distinguish the low-land adjacent to the fresh rivers, which is frequently overflowed by the freshets.”247
The first dictionary to recognize Interval, in the meaning under discussion, was Webster’s Compendious Dictionary of 1806; but Webster did not venture an opinion as to the derivation of the term. This was first done by E. A. Kendall, an English traveller, who in 1809 wrote: —
“The Cohosses or Cohasses, as we now see them, are therefore really tracts of meadow land, belonging to what are called the intervals of the Connecticut. But, even the term interval, though originating with the colonists themselves, has almost ceased to be understood by writers in the United States, and even in New England itself. They are at one time perplexed as to its etymology, and at another as to its application. One of them, translating Mr. Voluey’s work on the soil and climate of the United States, is careful to present the word interval under a peculiar form: — ‘The inter-vales and banks of rivers;’248 a refinement of which the intention appears to be, that of refreshing the reader’s memory as to a supposed derivation of the word from inter and vallis, meaning a space between valleys. This etymology I have heard assigned by word of mouth, and it appears to be adopted in the passage cited, because, had the writer supposed the word to come from inter and vallum, he would certainly have left it interval, in the ordinary form. Meanwhile, a moment’s reflection will suggest, that a space between valleys must necessarily be filled only with mountains.”249
In 1815 the terms were recognized by J. Pickering,250 and a few years later President T. Dwight thus ran foul of the historian of New Hampshire: —
“The word, Interval, you have undoubtedly observed, is used by me in a sense, altogether different from that, which it has in an English Dictionary. Doctor Belknap spells it Intervale; and confesses his want of authority for the use of the word. There is in truth no such word; unless we are to look for its existence in vulgar, and mistaken pronunciation . . . . Interval . . in its appropriate meaning, denotes lands, formed by a long continued, and gradual alluvion of a river.”251
In 1828 the form Intervale was recognized by Webster in his American Dictionary, but in this dubious manner: “Dr. Belknap writes this intervale; I think improperly.” In 1842 Z. Thompson wrote: —
“Intervale. This word has not yet found a place in our dictionaries, and there was much carping about it by Dr. Dwight, Mr. Kendall, and other travellers and writers. But we use it, notwithstanding, because it will express our meaning more briefly and intelligibly to the greater part of our readers, than any other we could employ. It may be derived from inter — within, and vallis — a vale, or valley; and in its specific signification, it denotes those alluvial flats, lying along the margins of streams, which have been, or occasionally are overflowed in consequence of the rising of the water.”252
The terms were noted by Bartlett253 in 1859, and by De Vere254 in 1872. In 1888 the late Professor J. D. Whitney said: —
“‘Interval’ and ‘bottom’255 as topographical designations, appear to be peculiarly American words. An interval (Lat. intervallum) is the space between a river and the hills or mountains by which the lower, level portion of the river-valley is bounded. Hence ‘interval’ has nearly the same meaning as ‘meadow,’ and the two words are more or less interchangeable . . . . Intervale is a variant of ‘interval,’ less frequently used than the latter word.”256
Each of the derivations put forth by Kendall and by Thompson has received support from recent dictionaries.257
If there has been a diversity of opinion in regard to the derivation of the terms, so too has there been disagreement as to their meaning. Kendall, the English traveller already cited, was chagrined that any one should suppose that Interval and meadow were synonymous in meaning, and thus expressed himself: —
“Again: as to the signification of the term, we find it confounded with the term meadow: — ‘The lands west of the last mentioned range of mountains,’ says a native geographer, ‘bordering on Connecticut River, are interspersed with extensive meadows or intervals, rich and well watered.’ But, if the word interval were synonymous with meadow, it ought upon no occasion to be employed; and it is only because it is not synonymous that [it] is useful, and deserves to be retained. The elder colonists resorted to it on account of the peculiar disposition of a very great proportion of the surface, over all the country which they colonized. The interval, intended in New England geography, is the interval or space between a river and the mountains which on both sides uniformly accompany its course, at a greater or less distance from the margin. Hence, interval-lands include meadow and uplands, and in general the whole of the narrow valley, through which, in these regions, the rivers flow. Where rivers flow through extensive plains; where, in short, the eye is not constantly tempted to measure the distance between the river and the adjacent mountains, there is no intention of intervallands.”258
Of a somewhat similar opinion was Noah Webster, who in 1816 said: —
“Interval is not synonymous with meadow. The latter is properly grass land, although we have extended the sense to tillage-land, and usually to plain land near rivers, or other low land. Interval land is land between hills, or a hill and river, and may be so called though covered with wood.”259
However it may have been in regard to etymology — and there is no evidence to show that any American concerned himself with that matter until the present century — it is certain that the Englishman gave himself needless anxiety with respect to the application of the terms. When, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the colonists pushed inland and settled the regions above tide water, they encountered a different kind of soil, — the alluvial deposits along the banks of fresh-water streams. To land of this description, lying between the rivers and the uplands on either side, they gave the name of Interval or Intervale. Hence these terms have again and again been employed as exactly synonymous in meaning with meadow; but it is to be observed that while all Intervales are meadows, not all meadows are Intervales.260 Professor Whitney’s statement that Intervale has been used less often than Interval, is not borne out by the evidence.261 Both forms are not seldom found employed by the same writer, and even appear in the same piece of writing, — though this last fact is certainly due in some cases to careless proof-reading. Kendall remarked upon the form “inter-vale,” employed by C. B. Brown, — a form which is also found in works by R. Rogers262 and by J. A. Graham,263 but which is of rare occurrence.264
The history of the distribution of these terms is interesting as showing the tenacity with which they have clung to that section of the country in which they arose, and the success with which they have resisted attempts at diffusion elsewhere. They occur in the diaries, journals, and letters of New Englanders, and in the records of certain New England towns, three quarters of a century before their first appearance in print; and during the eighteenth century they are found in the writings of others than New Englanders. Whether the terms had an independent origin in other parts of the country, or whether the writers alluded to became familiar with them through travels in New England, it is difficult to say with certainty; but their life in other regions was of short duration, so far as the present writer has been able to ascertain, and in this century the terms have been confined almost exclusively to New England. This is the more surprising because there is proof that the New Englanders who emigrated to the Muskingum and the Ohio, in 1788, took the terms along with them.265 It was remarked by A. L. Elwyn in 1859, that —
“The people of Ohio, who are largely derived from Yankees, are not remarkable for possessing their peculiarities. The great number of modern English and other foreigners who have mingled with the settlers from New England, have broken down any Yankeeisms that might otherwise have established themselves there.”266
How far this statement is true in general, I am unable to say; but it seems to receive striking confirmation from the history of the terms under discussion.267 But while they appear never to have been introduced into the South,268 and while their existence in the West was of short duration, they have yet succeeded in finding their way across the northern boundary of New England, and are now current in New Brunswick.269 It may be added that both terms are absolutely unknown in the British Isles.270
The history and the wide use of the terms are more fully illustrated by the extracts which follow. It should be observed that, unless otherwise indicated in the foot-notes, all the citations are from the writings of New Englanders.
Examples.
“ffirst ffor the maintainanc of the minestree of Gods holy word wee doe Allowe Covenant and Agree that there be laid out Stated and established, . . . thirty acors of vppland and fortie acords of Entervale Land and twelue acors of meddowe with free Libertie of Commons for Pasture and fire woood.”271
“first he hath a peice of upland Laid out to him Sumtimes Called by the name of Still Riuer farm bounded Southwest by the enteruail . . . and westerly it buts upon the highway to the plumtrees enteruail.”272
“That the old planters & their Assignes . . . reteine & keepe as theire propriety, (of such lands as they now clajme an Interest in) each of them only twenty acres of meadow twenty acres for the house lott ten acres Intervale land & tenn acres of other vplands.”273
“I give to my Son Stephen my house and my house lott of Twenty acres at Nashaway and Twenty acres of Intervale Lands and all my Land at Hemp Swamp.”274
“fforasmuch as the countrey hye way as it was formerly layd out by Lankaster and groaten vpon seuerall yeares triall, proued to be very insufficient and very difucult to be made passable in regard it was for the most part lyeing in the Intervailes wheirin their are seuerall soft places and litle brookes . . . Lankaster made application to groaten for Remouing of the said way to Run more vpon the vpland which was Readily atended.”275
“There is no intervale nor meadow land in this tract of land that I moove for them.”276
“Thrô this place [Ousetonuck] runs a very curious river, the same (which some say) runs thrô Stradford; and it has, on each side, several parcels of pleasant, fertile, intervale land . . . . In this place [Kindar-hook] yr is very rich land; a curious river runs thrô the town, on ye banks of which yr is some interval land.”277
“It will be of Great Service to all the Western Frontiers . . . that so Much of the said Equivilant Land, as shall bee necessary for a Block House, bee taken up, with the consent of the owners of said Land; Together with five or six acres of their Interval Land, to be broke up, or plowed, for the present use of Western Indians (In case any of them shall think fit to bring their families).”278
“We . . . scouted up said N. W. branch about 10 mile, & found it to be a still stream fit for Conoes with plenty of Enterval, & old planting land of ye. Indians.”279
“To be SOLD, By Joseph Burleigh, A Plantation containing Two Hundred and odd Acres, situate upon Stoney-Brook, in the Eastern Division of New-Jersey, . . . It is fit for either Stock or Grain, having near fifty Acres of very good intervale Meadows, which is most of it ploughable and brings extraordinary good English Hay.”280
“In some places our lands are interval or meadow upon the rivers, and by the sound the soil is fruitful, but the far greater part of the land in the Colony is mountainous, rocky and more barren.”281
“I also see Pigwaket Plain or Intervale Land as also Pigwaket River which runs from the North West to the South East and cuts the aforesaid Interval to two Triangles, it lying North & South about eight miles in length & four in breadth.”282
“Then marched over several Brooks and low places, but could make no discovery; and so marched to a River, called Currier-Sarge River, and found some Camps, supposed to be Indian camps, and there camped in the Intervale.”283
“This scarcity of Hay I account for in this manner; Our first Planters who settled down by the Sea, and those who settled by the large Rivers and Intervale, Lands, found so much salt Marsh by the Sea-side, and those on the Rivers aud Intervale found so much mowing Ground more than they had Occasion for, that they Improved only such Parts as were best and nearest at hand, and let the Rest lie.”284
“The Soil along these Parts of Ohio and its Eastern Branches, though but little broken with high Mountains, is none of the best; consisting in general of low dry Ridges of White-Oak and Chestnut Land, with very rich interval low Meadow Ground.”285
“With Mess: Jones and Ely, I rode to Northampton . . . . The Meadows, as the People here call the Intervals, are the best Fields I ever saw, very rich and very large.”286
“I find at the back of my Patent here and at 10 or 12 Miles from the River, a small Piece which is an Intervale and I should be greatly obliged to you if you would grant it, on the Indians consenting thereto.”287
“The two great rivers, Connecticut and Hudson’s river, are most remarkable for large tracts of this interval land, which are so often overflowed as to need no other manure, the waters in a freshet bringing down so much muck from the mountains, like the waters of the Nile, as to keep the ground in good heart to bear a crop of wheat every year.”288
“The land in Campton proposed as a site for the School is generally good, — great quantity of large white Pines; the situation pleasant; the stream, called Baker’s River (a branch of Merrimack, by which logs are rafted to the sea), runs through it, on which are large intervales.”289
“To be Sold at PUBLIC VENDUE to the highest Bidder, on the First Day of August, at Two o’Clock, P. M. A FARM in Uxbridge, containing about Two Hundred Acres, Fifty or more of which is choice Intervail for Tillage or Mowing, and a Crop of Grass and Grain on the same.”290
“When I first came into the town, which was upon the top of a hill, there opened before me the most beautiful prospect of the river, and the intervals and improvements on each side of it.”291
“Departed half an hour past ten o’clock A. M. past several islands, and found the bank, on the west side, in many places high, we saw in many others high and intervale oak land; — not so much drowned land as the former days.”292
“The lands which lie upon the Ohio, at the mouths of, and between the above Creeks, also consist of rich intervals and very fine farming grounds.”293
“Removed our camp to the west side of the river, about 3 miles up; this is allowed by judges to be the best land they ever saw and sure I am that I never saw an equal to it, our garden spots in New Hampshire not excepted, the interval surpasses all description; the river Susquehanna on which this lies, abounds with fish.”294
“But you, perhaps, will inquire why all the margins of the River Ohio and Muskingum are not taken up so far as we extend these lots on either side of them? Answer: They are so where there is any considerable body of Interval or Second Bottom bordering on them.”295
“At the melting of the snows, the river [Connecticut] comes down in all its majesty; rising about fifteen feet perpendicular: and overflowing the land on either side. The lands which are overflowed are called intervale, are used as meadows, and occasionally sown with hemp and grain.”296
“In this descent and passage to the ocean, all the larger rivers in this part of America, have also formed large tracts of intervale lands. By intervales we mean those low lands, which are adjacent to the rivers, and frequently overflowed by them in the spring and fall, or whenever the waters are raised to their greatest height. These intervales are level, and extensive plains; of the same altitude as the banks of the river; in width they often reach from a quarter of a mile, to a mile and an half, sometimes on one, and sometimes on both sides of the river. There are frequently two strata of intervales, the one four or five feet higher than the other; the highest of which is not overflowed, but when the waters are raised to an uncommon height; but they are level, and extensive like the others.”297
“The floods, from time to time, have changed the beds of several of our rivers, as the different strata at twenty, thirty, and forty feet below the surface evince; and there is reason to conclude that the intervals have thereby been formed.”298
“The intervales [in Ohio] are very fertile; and, on the borders of the rivers and creeks, the bottom-lands are from half a mile to a mile and a half, and sometimes more, in width, with great depth of soil. These are capable of being made into extensive and luxuriant meadow grounds.”299
“It is natural to inquire into the motives which could tempt men to settle in a region so remote from commerce and the world: iron-mines, and some fine interval land (as it is here called) were the original attractions.”300
“It is also easy by the geological and topographical features of a country, to predict the nature of the alluvial or intervale soils, which have been washed down from the hills and mountains by brooks, rivers and rain.”301
“We had tracked
The winding Pemigewasset, overhung
By beechen shadows, whitening down its rocks,
Or lazily gliding through its intervals,
From waving rye-fields sending up the gleam
Of sunlit waters.”302
“Beneath low hills, in the broad interval
Through which at will our Indian rivulet
Winds unmindful still of sannup and of squaw,
Whose pipe and arrow oft the plough unburies,
Here in pine houses built of new fallen trees,
Supplanters of the tribe, the farmers dwell.”303
“The north bank of the St. Lawrence here is formed on a grand scale. It slopes gently, either directly from the shore, or from the edge of an interval, till, at the distance of about a mile, it attains the height of four or five hundred feet.”304
“From the heart of Waumbek Methna, from the lake that never fails, Falls the Saco in the green lap of Conway’s intervales.”305
“On the divide between the upper waters of the Roanoke and New River was a beautiful intervale, the pasturing ground of large game, known as Draper’s Meadows.”306
Dr. Fitzedward Hall remarks, in a letter, that it would be curious if it were to be proved “that, in the English of England, interval, in its ordinary sense, was ever spelled with a final e and pronounced intervale.” While the expression “with-outen intervalle,” translating the French phrase “sans intervalle,” occurs in Chaucer,307 it is probable that interval, in its ordinary sense, did not come into vogue in England until about the beginning of the seventeenth century.308 During that century a few examples309 are met with of interval, in its ordinary sense, spelled with a final e; but such examples are extremely rare, and there is no other evidence to indicate that, on either side of the Atlantic, the word, in its ordinary sense, was pronounced “inter-vale.” Moreover, that the true derivation of interval from intervallum was recognized by some users of the word is shown by the occasional employment of intervallum itself, both as a Latin word310 and as an English word,311 and also by the definitions of lexicographers.312 It is to be noted, also, that interval, in its ordinary sense, was a learned word, not one used by the people. When, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the word was employed by the New Englanders in its specialized American sense as a topographical word, meaning the space between the river and the uplands on either side, it at once came into popular use; and, the particular kind of land denoted by the term lying necessarily in valleys, it is probable that in their minds “vale” was very prominent. Thus the form Íntevàle (as in “Íntervàle land”), with two accents, and perhaps influenced by an erroneous notion that the etymology was intr + vallis, came into existence.313 We have already seen how the Reverend W. Hubbard alluded to land of this description —“such as they,” that is, the people, “call intervail land,” — the spelling indicating the popular pronunciation. Later, the true etymology may have reasserted itself, or, at all events, the word may have been once more associated with the ordinary word, and we find Interval, both as noun and as adjective, in common use. The spelling Intervale, however, was often preserved, even when the last syllable had been shortened. The secondary accent and the pronunciation -vale, were easily restored in speech whenever the rhythm or the sense was favorable or the speaker connected the word (in his mind) with vale “valley.”314
Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from a miniature from life.
The paper was discussed by Mr. Davis, who said he had supposed that an Intervale was devoid of wood; by President Wheelwright, who spoke of the Intervale on the Saco River; by Mr. Henry Williams, Mr. Goodell, the Rev. Mr. Parker and others.
Mr. Edes exhibited a miniature on ivory of the Rev. Dr. Joseph McKean, for nine years Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in Harvard College. It is not known who painted this miniature, — the only portrait of Professor McKean of which his family has knowledge.315
Mr. Edes also communicated some verses commemorative of Professor McKean,316 of which the following is a copy: —
THE FOUNT.
mr. russell. — If the following lines are worthy of your Fount, you are at liberty to insert them. I wish they were worthy of their subject.
F.317
LINES.
Occasioned by the death of Professor M’Kean.
O MOURN not for the Good who die,
For goodness has a home on high,
And tears which fall when saints depart,
Refresh religion’s soil, the heart.
O weep not that the staff is gone,
Which aged Israel rested on;
O weep not that he sleeps afar —
The world is one wide Macpelah.
O weep not that his body must
Be trodden down like common dust;
But weep that there remains behind
No traces of the mighty mind.
How few who live have dared to think;
How few who think have dared to do;
O weep then that a soul should sink,
Who boldly thought and acted too.
How seldom rays that reach the earth
Bear imprint of their heavenly birth;
Then who from sorrow can refrain
That heaven absorbs such rays again.
How few created minds have soar’d
Above the heights before explor’d;
How few will reach the height he dar’d!
O weep then that he was not spar’d.
Go mark the comet’s bright career,
And trace its track when it is gone,
Say when another will appear,
And you may bid us cease to mourn.
The following passage from the Poem on Milton Hill, written by Henry Maurice Lisle318 in 1803, refers to Dr. McKean: —
From ’midst the scatter’d domes that westward lie
Milton’s fair spire attracts the wandering eye;
With grief depicted o’er her beauteous face
The Muse dejected turn’d and viewed the place;
Then wiping from her cheek the trickling tear
To great Olympus thus addressed her prayer;
O! thou who did’st this blooming Eden form
“Who guid’st the whirlwind and direct’st the storm”
Who can’st in Mercy stay the fleeting breath
And wrest the victim from the grasp of death;
From Milton’s pastor bid disease be gone.
Save science and the Muses favorite son:
Bid sage Minerva dry her flowing tears,
Bid pure Urania dissipate her fears.
In Mercy hear, — in kind compassion speak
And health again shall blossom on his cheek;
Again his lustrous periods, fraught with sense,
Again his matchless powers of eloquence
Shall charm the ear, instruct the ignorant mind,
Convince the sceptic and reclaim mankind:
Thousands in gratitude with one acclaim
Shall chant their pæans to thy holy name,
In songs of praise shall hallelujahs rise,
And swelling chorus reach the vaulted skies.
IMPROMPTU.319
stanzas — Upon seeing an imperfect portrait320 sketched from memory of the late and lamented Professor McKean.
HOW vain the Painter’s classic aim
To keep that clear and glorious eye,
Whose rays from Heaven’s unearthly flame
Touch’d close on immortality!
As vain the peaceful smile to trace,
Which warm in life’s affections grew,
And spoke of soul — a native grace,
To all the sacred feelings true.
Perfection not to man is given,
But thou, McKean, so kindly shone,
That loved by earth, and blessed by heaven,
Both claimed thy virtues as their own.
Frail were the wish, those stores of mind,
That genius to God’s Image near;
Like the winged eagle — earth-confined —
Were left and lent to languish here.
EPITAPH ACROSTICK.321
Join, friends of Worth, bring all funereal flowers
O’er this new grave to shed in copious showers;
Strike every string attun’d to deepest woe;
Enlist each heart that feels afflictions throe;
Prepare appropriate wreathes with care to blend,
Here lies Religion’s, Virtue’s, Honour’s friend.
McKean lies here, let nothing base intrude:
Keep hence Impiety, Ingratitude
Each fiend of darkness. — To your sacred trust,
Angels of Light approach, and guard this dust
Nor leave, till rais’d to life among the just.
The Rev. Henry A. Parker made some Remarks upon the Quakers of the Middle States and their marriage customs, and exhibited an original Marriage Certificate, on parchment, dated the second day of the fourth month, 1709, of Dr. Richard Moore (son of Mordecai Moore, of Ann Arundell County, Maryland) and Margaret Preston, daughter of Samuel Preston of Philadelphia. The Certificate bears the signatures, as witnesses, of a large part of the prominent residents of Philadelphia. The Certificate was accompanied by a photographic copy of a portrait of Dr. Moore supposed to have been painted in Edinburgh, where he studied medicine prior to his marriage.
Mr. Edes exhibited three similar certificates, — of Michael Kennard (1734) of Kittery, and of William Ricketson (1708) and John Ricketson (1763) of Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Mr. Davis stated that he had recently signed a certificate of this character upon the occasion of the marriage of his youngest son, Mr. Horace Andrew Davis (H. C. 1891), to a Quakeress.
Daniel Coit Gilman, LL. D., of Baltimore, Maryland, Frederick Jackson Turner, Ph. D., of Madison, Wisconsin, and William Woolsey Winthrop,322 LL. D., of Washington, D. C, were elected Corresponding Members.