ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1899.

    THE Annual Meeting was held at the University Club, No. 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Tuesday, 21 November, 1899, at six o’clock in the afternoon, the President, Edward Wheelwright, in the Chair.

    The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved.

    The President addressed the Society as follows: —

    Gentlemen of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts: —

    I have the honor of welcoming you to the Seventh Annual Meeting of our Society. As compared with some other Historical Societies, we are still in our infancy, but I think we may say, with just pride, that ours is a healthy and robust infancy and full of promise. The Reports of the Council and of the Treasurer, which will be read presently, will inform you of the doings of the Society during the past year, and of its financial condition. I think you will find both Reports eminently satisfactory. By the Report of the Council it will appear that the attendance at our Monthly Meetings has increased, while the papers read and the topics discussed at these meetings have been of so interesting a character that they might well have attracted still larger audiences.

    The financial situation is greatly improved as compared with a year ago. The completion of The Gould Memorial Fund insures the continuance of our Publications, — one of the chief desiderata which Dr. Gould kept constantly in view; but a permanent place of abode, which was also one of the things he wished to insure for us, seems still far off. The man with $300,000, who our friend President Adams assured us at our Dinner last year would eventually come to our aid, has not yet appeared; in the meantime we are learning to rely upon ourselves.

    Only two deaths have occurred in the Society during the past year, — those of Dr. Henry Parker Quincy and of Mr. Samuel Johnson. Both are spoken of in the Report of the Council, and I will only add that as Mr. Johnson died during the summer vacation no opportunity has yet been given, as is customary, to those desirous to pay an informal tribute to his memory. Such an opportunity will be afforded at the December Meeting.

    The Annual Report of the Council was presented and read by the Corresponding Secretary.

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

    Pursuant to the By-Laws and in accordance with its custom, the Council submits its Annual Report.

    The past year has been one of steady success and prosperity. It has shown that there are room and need for such an organization, and that lines of usefulness spread out in many directions. The question of direct, practical importance is, Where to most advantage may its energy and work be applied?

    The Annual Dinner was given at the Algonquin Club on the evening of 21 November, our stated day, — the anniversary of the Signing of the Compact on board the Mayflower, — with a large attendance of the members of the Society and several invited guests.

    During the year the Society has suffered a heavy loss in the deaths of Henry Parker Quincy and Samuel Johnson. While this number is small in itself and less than has too often been the case in other years, the character of the men, and their value to the whole community and to this Society, have made their deaths significantly felt.

    Five resident Members have been added to the Rolls: —

    • Charles Knowles Bolton,
    • Arthur Theodore Lyman,
    • James Lyman Whitney,
    • Frederic Haines Curtiss,
    • Worthington Chauncey Ford.

    As usual, beside the Annual Meeting in November, five Stated Meetings have been held, from December to April, inclusive. In the papers communicated at these meetings the range of topics has been wide. Among the topics treated may be mentioned the Quakers; the Connecticut Land Bank; Suits involving land titles under the Pemaquid Patent, with some account of the early settlements in Maine; Places of Worship of the Sandemanians in Boston, with original plans of their sites; the use of the words Interval and Intervale elaborately discussed; the function of the Currency Controversies in the development of hostility to the Royal Government in the Provincial period; the early history of Yale College as shown in a series of letters by Jeremiah Dummer and others; and some account of Governor Yale’s administration at Madras. Many other papers of interest and value were communicated and numerous original documents were exhibited, including among them unpublished letters of James Lovell and Samuel Adams to Colonel Henry Bromfield; an original Account of disbursements for the printing of Eliot’s Indian Bible; a schedule of Governor Edward Hopkins’s Hartford School Stock; extracts from the Records of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, in 1720, relating to the action of the Governor and Council against John Colman for issuing pamphlets concerning the currency; curious trials at different times; suggestive extracts from the Records of the Court of Assistants; various original documents bearing upon the history of the Provincial period; a curious petition of Revolutionary Soldiers in 1775 touching the quality of the meat supplies, — an illustration of the repetitions of history; Quaker Marriage Certificate bearing the signatures of many prominent citizens of Philadelphia in 1709; and original letters of statesmen and others in the last century. There were also exhibited a rare print of Washington published in Boston in 1782, and an ivory miniature of Professor Joseph McKean, beside various other objects of interest.

    At all the meetings, there was a general discussion of the papers and topics presented, and supplementary remarks were made, the large and increasing number of the members taking part in these discussions making a noticeable feature of the meetings. A gratifying indication of an active interest, not merely on the part of our Resident Members but also on that of our Corresponding and Honorary Members, appeared in the communication for publication from Mr. Edward Field of Providence of a Diary kept in Boston by John Green from 1755 to 1764, containing many matters of interest, among others, mention of Washington’s first visit to Boston; and of a Memoir of our late associate and Vice-President, Leverett Saltonstall, by the Honorable Joseph Hodges Choate. Other Memoirs, communicated by Resident Members, were those of Dr. Daniel Denison Slade by President Wheelwright and of George Martin Lane by Professor Goodwin.

    During the year, occurred the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Oliver Cromwell. Following the action of the American Antiquarian Society to secure some public observance of the day, a committee was appointed on the part of this Society consisting of the President and Messrs. Thayer, Lowell, Everett, Davis, Kittredge and Porter, to confer with similar committees of other societies upon some fitting commemoration of the event. A large and successful meeting in the First Church in Boston was the result.

    Early in the year, at a full meeting of the Society, a resolution of hearty and well-deserved thanks to President Wheelwright was unanimously adopted; and now, at its close, the Council feels most sensibly the weight of added obligations to him for time and labor expended without stint, for gifts most generous and opportune, for constant and sagacious service in the Council, a successful administration of the affairs of the Society, and an untiring devotion to its every interest, as well as for graceful and valuable contributions to its literary and historical work.

    The financial condition of the Society appears in the Report of the Treasurer, to be submitted this evening.

    We are again indebted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for its generous hospitality in affording us the use of its Hall for our meetings; and we desire to place on record an expression of our appreciation of its courtesy and of our cordial thanks.

    The members of the Society cannot regret more deeply than does the Council the unavoidable delay in bringing out our Publications. Financial conditions and that prudence in expenditure which the Council has ever sought to exercise required the suspension of our printing for a year and a half. These conditions,

    however, no longer exist, and our work is progressing as rapidly as is consistent with accuracy and good workmanship. The Index of the forthcoming volume has been prepared with great care. Unusual difficulties have been encountered in consequence of the great number of foreign proper names which occur in the text. To ascertain the full names of these persons, in accordance with our custom, has entailed upon the Committee of Publication and the Printing Committee great labor, in which most valuable aid has been rendered by Mr. Matthews and Mr. Woods. Owing to the great pressure of the publishers’ holiday work upon the resources of the University Press, it has been impossible for it to complete our work in time for us to distribute the volume before this meeting as the Council fully expected to be able to do. It is but just to these two committees to state, that the delay has not been occasioned by any lack of effort or diligence on their part, as is evidenced by the fact that the manuscript of that part of the volume which is not yet in print left the hands of the Printing Committee on the fifteenth of October. The printers give assurance, however, that the volume will be ready for distribution at an early day.

    Various undertakings have been suggested in former Reports for this Society to attempt, in the way of collecting, preserving, and transmitting the accumulating materials of History. The field is wide and the work important. It is enough, here, to refer to them and to renew the suggestions. The main obstacle to carrying them out is the lack of funds; but this is as yet a young Society and time may do something for us in this respect. Meanwhile, even without money, much may be done in the way of original research and in well-directed work in justifying our existence and in establishing the high standard to which we have always aspired.

    The Treasurer presented his Annual Report as follows: —

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

    In obedience to that requirement of the By-Laws which makes it the duty of the Treasurer to submit, at the Annual Meeting of the Society, a statement of the financial operations for the preceding year the following Report is submitted.

    CASH ACCOUNT.
    Receipts.

    Balance, 17 November, 1898

    $438.90

    Admission Fees

    $50.00

    Annual Assessments

    770.00

    Commutation of the Annual Assessment from one Member

    100.00

    Interest

    677.63

    Sales of the Society’s Publications

    5.60

    Gifts to the General Fund from two Members

    110.00

    Withdrawn from Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    1,329.71

    3,042.94

    $3,481.84

    Expenditures And Investments.

    University Press, printing

    $478.29

    A. W. Elson and Company, photogravures

    50.00

    Louis P. Streeter, draughting

    10.00

    Clerical Service

    75.00

    Miscellaneous incidentals

    341.29

    Deposited in Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank: Commutation, Admission Fees, and Interest belonging

    to the Permanent Funds

    927.63

    Mortgages on improved Real Estate in Boston, principal and interest payable in gold coin

    1,300.00

    Interest in adjustment

    18.71

    $3,200.92

    Balance on Deposit in Third National Bank of Boston, 10 November, 1899

    280.92

    $3,481.84

    TRIAL BALANCE.
    Debits.

    Cash

    $280.92

    Mortgages

    $13,500.00

    Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    446.77

    13,946.77

    $14,227.69

    Credits.

    Income

    $457.69

    Publication Fund

    $600.00

    General Fund

    3,170.00

    Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

    13,770.00

    $14,227.69

    HENRY H. EDES,

    Treasurer.

    BOSTON, 10 November, 1899.

    Mr. G. Arthur Hilton read the following —

    REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE.

    The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the accounts of the Treasurer of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts for the year ending 10 November, 1899, have attended to that duty, and report that they find them correctly kept and properly vouched; and that proper evidence of the Investments and of the balance of Cash on hand has been shown to us.

    George Nixon Black,

    G. Arthur Hilton,

    Committee.

    Boston, 20 November, 1899.

    The several Reports were accepted, and referred to the Committee of Publication.

    Mr. Charles Sedgwick Rackemann, on behalf of the Nominating Committee, presented the following List of candidates for Officers for the ensuing year: —

    PRESIDENT.

    • EDWARD WHEELWRIGHT.

    VICE-PRESIDENTS.

    • WILLIAM WATSON GOODWIN.
    • JAMES BRADLEY THAYER.

    RECORDING SECRETARY.

    • HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM.

    CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

    • JOHN NOBLE.

    TREASURER.

    • HENRY HERBERT EDES.

    REGISTRAR.

    • FREDERICK LEWIS GAY.

    MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR THREE YEARS.

    • SAMUEL LOTHROP THORNDIKE.

    A ballot was then taken, and these gentlemen were unanimously elected.

    The Corresponding Secretary reported that letters had been received from Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, the Rev. Dr. William R. Huntington and Mr. George Parker Winship accepting Corresponding Membership.

    On motion of Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis, it was unanimously —

    Voted, That in view of the approaching Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, to be held in Boston in December next, a Committee of three, of which the President shall be Chairman, be appointed to represent this Society.

    On motion of Mr. Robert Noxon Toppan, it was then unanimously —

    Resolved, That the members of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, assembled at their Annual Meeting, desire to put on record their high appreciation of the services of Mr. Henry Herbert Edes as Treasurer, as one of the Council, and as Chairman of the Committee on Printing, from the very beginning of the Society of which he was one of the Founders; and to express to him their most hearty thanks for the untiring zeal and eminent ability which he has shown in promoting, in every way, the interests of the Society.

    James Ford Rhodes, LL.D., of Boston, was elected a Resident Member, and the Hon. James Phinney Baxter, of Portland, Maine, a Corresponding Member.

    After the dissolution of the Annual Meeting, dinner was served. The guests of the Society were the Hon. Winslow Warren, President of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, the Hon. Stephen Salisbury, President of the American Antiquarian Society, Dr. James Ford Rhodes, President of the American Historical Association, and the Rev. Edward Henry Hall. President Wheelwright presided and the Rev. Dr. Arthur Lawrence invoked the Divine Blessing.

    After dinner, speeches were made by the President, both the Vice-Presidents, all the guests, and the Hon. Edward J. Phelps, one of the Honorary Members. Mr. Samuel Swett Green also made some remarks suggested by Professor Thayer’s speech.

    During the evening Mr. Henry H. Edes said: —

    Mr. President, — I venture to interrupt for a moment the course of our proceedings as laid down on your programme because I want to propose a toast which I am sure will bring every gentleman present to his feet.

    There can be no doubt that the members of the Society, without exception, have learned with deep regret that Mr. Woods’s engagements have prompted him to ask to be relieved from further service in the office of Registrar. One of the Founders of the Society, — indeed, one of its principal Founders, — Mr. Woods has sat at our Council Board from the beginning, discharging faithfully and well the duties of the important office of which, until to-night, he has been the only incumbent, and giving to his colleagues the benefit of his recondite knowledge of all matters pertaining to the lineage of our early New England families.

    Always ready to lend a helping hand in solving difficult questions that presented themselves to the Committee of Publication or to the Printing Committee, Mr. Woods has rendered a far greater service to the Society during the past seven years than the members realize, and he richly deserves their high commendation and applause. His loss from the Board of Government will be most keenly felt by his former colleagues, whose confidence and respect he has always held, and whose affectionate regard will follow him in his retirement from official place.

    Mr. President, I give you the health of Henry Ernest Woods.

    The toast was received with applause and was drunk standing.