FEBRUARY MEETING, 1896.

A Stated Meeting of the Society was held in the Hall of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, on Wednesday, 19 February, 1896, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President in the chair.

After the Minutes of the last Meeting had been read and approved, Dr. Gould spoke as follows: —

We have met this afternoon under circumstances of exceptional bereavement, and it is my sad duty to announce the death of three of our members who, within the brief interval of a single month, have been removed from our small company of one hundred.

At our meeting last month, the first tidings which met me on entering this Hall told of the decease of Mr. Brimmer, whose useful and benignant life had closed during the preceding evening. Not ten days later, on the 23d January, came the sudden death of Dr. Wigglesworth. On Tuesday of last week we were called to lament the loss of Dr. Slade, who during the last three years had rendered assiduous, faithful, and disinterested service to the Society as a member of its Council. In four short weeks these three good men have been taken from our community, to which they were so helpful, — each in his own especial way, — and which so much loved and honored them. Their services and good deeds will be commemorated later, in the most fitting way within our power. Each of them had claims upon the recognition and gratitude of Massachusetts which could not be overlooked, even were nothing uttered here. Yet this Society finds a melancholy satisfaction in commemorating the services and character of its departed members, who conferred new honor upon their lineage, and upon the early New England stock from which they sprung.

The many distinguished positions which Martin Brimmer has occupied in this community, his many public-spirited acts, and the many directions in which his personal influence for good was continually felt, made him especially well known to the citizens of Boston, notwithstanding the unassuming and modest traits which notably marked his character, and which his biographers cannot fail to record as among its peculiar charms.

Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, seventh of the name in as many successive generations, was descended from Edward Wigglesworth, who came to Massachusetts in 1638 at the age of thirty-four, bringing with him his son Michael, seven years old, who became the noted author of the “Day of Doom.” From this last-named sprung a family which was conspicuous from the beginning among the scholars of New England. In 1652 he was a Fellow of Harvard College, as were also his son and grandson, each of whom filled the chair of Hollis Professor of Divinity. These and the later ancestors of our colleague, bearing the name, were graduates of Harvard, where he himself graduated in 1861.

The Civil War having then broken out, he enlisted at once as a private soldier in the Forty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment. At the expiration of the term of his enlistment he served on the Sanitary Commission, and later still in an army hospital as surgeon of volunteers.

After long study of his profession at Paris and Vienna, he devoted himself principally to the study of Dermatology, in which he rose to high professional eminence, and became one of the leading authorities. In the want of proper facilities for the care of patients, he established and conducted at his own expense an institution which he maintained until he had the satisfaction of seeing it incorporated into the City Hospital. He was liberal and generous to an exceptional extent, a constant friend and benefactor of the poor and the suffering, and an unselfish practical supporter of all movements in behalf of the true progress of the community, which came to his knowledge. Many will now miss the thoughtful care of an unknown friend.

Dr. Daniel Denison Slade was a descendant of the sturdy soldier whose name he bore, and whose part was so conspicuous in the first half-century of our New England history. The wife of Major-General Denison was a daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley; their daughter Elizabeth was wife of President John Rogers, of Harvard College, and from this union came our colleague. Dr. Slade graduated in the Class of 1844, and studied medicine for several years in Paris. After some years of professional practice in Boston, he accepted a professorship of Zoology in Harvard University. After filling this office for eleven years, he exchanged it for the position of Lecturer on Osteology, where he continued for nearly eleven years more and until his death. For some time his health had been seriously impaired; but he bore disease and suffering patiently and bravely, and when death came it was only after three days of acute illness.

Apart from his professional and scientific pursuits, Dr. Slade was strongly interested in antiquarian studies, especially in those relating to our early New England history. He was quiet and modest, and mingled comparatively little with general society; but his gentle, kindly nature was always manifest. Nearly sixty years of intimate acquaintance with him, at school, in college, and in later years, enable me to bear witness to the amiability, loyalty, and sincerity of his character. His friends were warmly attached to him, and it would be long before one could find a more lovable man.

The Hon. George S. Hale followed with a brief but feeling tribute to the memory of his friend Mr. Brimmer. He alluded to the symmetry and even development of Mr. Brimmer’s character, to the dignity of his bearing, the courtesy of his manners, and the purity of his motives. The world was made better by the life of such a man.

Mr. Hale also paid a warm tribute to his friend and classmate Dr. Slade.

Mr. William W. Goodwin spoke briefly of Mr. Brimmer’s relation to the Old Colony. His grandmother on his father’s side was Sarah Watson, daughter of Colonel George Watson, of Plymouth, and Eliza Oliver, daughter of Judge Peter Oliver, of Middleborough. She married Martin Brimmer, of Roxbury. Colonel Watson was born in 1718, and died in 1800. He was one of the most eminent citizens of Plymouth, and was universally respected. He was a devoted Loyalist, at least before the open outbreak of war in 1775; and in 1774 he accepted the office of Mandamus Councillor under the Crown. Bancroft thus describes a scene in the Plymouth meeting-house: —

“The people of Plymouth were grieved that George Watson, their respected townsman, was willing to act under his [the King’s] appointment. On the first Lord’s day after his purpose was known, as soon as he took his seat in meeting, his neighbors and friends put on their hats before the congregation and walked out of the house. The extreme public indignity was more than he could bear. As they passed his pew, he hid his face by bending his head over his cane, and determined to resign.”144

Another daughter of Colonel Watson, Elizabeth, was a woman of great beauty; she married Thomas Russell, a distinguished merchant of Boston, and afterwards Sir Grenville Temple. Another daughter, Mary, married Elisha Hutchinson, son of Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Colonel Watson and his second wife (the one above mentioned) had their portraits painted by Copley; and these pictures were in Mr. Brimmer’s possession. Mr. Brimmer was thus, through his grandmother, descended from George Watson, the earliest settler in Plymouth of the name of Watson, who came there before 1633. John, a grandson of George, and the father of Colonel Watson, was reputed to be the most wealthy man in the Old Colony.

Martin Brimmer, the grandfather of our associate, was active in developing the manufacturing interests of Plymouth, and was interested in the iron-works on the Town Brook. He made in Plymouth the first illuminating coal-gas used in this country. He was also engaged in business in Freetown. His son, George Watson Brimmer, designed the church of the First Parish in Plymouth, which was built in 1831, and was burnt a few years ago. The plan of this wooden church was nearly the same as that of the old stone Trinity Church in Summer Street, Boston, which was also designed by Mr. George Watson Brimmer.

Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., spoke as follows: —

I trust I may be excused for calling the attention of the Society to the fact, which has not been commented upon either here or at the recent meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, that Mr. Brimmer’s death closes the male line of descent from the original immigrant of the same name. Thus becomes extinct a family name distinguished in the annals of Boston for four generations.

The first Martin Brimmer, though not of the little band of Huguenots from Rochelle who, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, found an asylum in the New World, was a member of the congregation that worshipped in School Street, under the ministrations of the Rev. Andrew Le Mercier. In 1730 an Act145 was passed for the naturalization of Le Mercier and other Huguenots of Boston, in the petition146 for which Martin Brimmer’s name was included, and was the last signed to it, — he describing himself as a German Protestant from Hanover. I have seen him elsewhere described as a Walloon. We have the authority of our associate Mr. Henry E. Woods for assigning the year 1723 as the approximate time of his immigration.

Without detracting from the merits of our English ancestors, it may well be doubted if of the old families of Boston seven more famous names can be mentioned than seven which I have taken at random from the comparatively short list of persecuted Protestants from the continent of Europe to whom I have alluded. What would the history of Boston lose of its peculiar savor, and how barren of patriotic interest would it become, were it deprived of the names of Bowdoin, Faneuil, Revere, Sigourney, Johonnot, Chardon, and Brimmer! Yet the death of our highly esteemed associate forces upon us the sad reflection that one of these historic Boston names is extinguished.

Mr. Henry E. Woods said: —

Mr. President, — Apropos of what Mr. Goodell has said, it has been remarked that Mr. Brimmer was the fourth bearing the name Martin. As Registrar, I had occasion to look into his ancestry at the time of his nomination to membership in our Society, and it is my impression that there were five Martin Brimmers, but without my notes I cannot positively say that they covered five generations.147 Mr. Brimmer was eligible to membership through the Sigourney family, the first Martin Brimmer having married a daughter of Andrew Sigourney, whose parents came to Boston a few years prior to 1692, the date of ancestral residence required by our By-laws.

Mr. Edward Wheelwright paid this tribute to the memory of Dr. Slade: —

By the death of Daniel Denison Slade The Colonial Society of Massachusetts has lost a worthy and useful member. One of the Founders of the Society, he was until recently a member of the Council. His natural inclination toward historical research was doubtless fostered, soon after his graduation from Harvard, by his employment as assistant to the historian Jared Sparks. He bad already had experience as an original chronicler in keeping a diary, with unflagging perseverance, during the whole of his college life. No day during those four years was allowed by him to go by without a line. He would sometimes bring a volume of this record to the meetings of his Class in after years, and read passages from it both interesting and entertaining, enlivened as its pages were by the writer’s peculiar and often unconscious humor.

The members of this Society do not need to be reminded of the interesting papers he has read to them. He read others before the Bostonian Society, and published still others in various magazines and periodicals, taking care to have them worthily illustrated. He inherited valuable historical papers and memoranda, and delighted to share with others the information to be derived from them. Only a week before his death he sent me a package of these papers, which he thought might be useful to me in some researches I was making. Nor were his literary labors confined to historical subjects. In the early years of his practice as a physician he frequently wrote for medical journals, and was the recipient of several prizes for essays on medical subjects; while in after years he often wrote and published articles upon topics connected with natural history, agriculture, and horticulture. The latest of his writings on the latter subject was a small volume entitled The Evolution of Horticulture in New England, published in the closing month of the last year. Another publication, several years earlier in date, was the record of an excursion on horseback in Western Massachusetts, in company with several of his daughters. Most of this work was done, moreover, amidst the duties of a professorship in Harvard College, in the intervals of more than one severe illness, and while for many years in a condition of health so delicate that it is a marvel to his friends and medical advisers that he lived, as he did, to a ripe old age.

Dr. Slade held an honored place in the profession of his choice, and was a pioneer in the effort to raise the standard of education and practice in veterinary surgery, having made a special study of the subject at the celebrated school of Alfort, in France. He was highly esteemed by his fellow physicians, and found among them some of his dearest and most attached friends. Dr. Richard M. Hodges, whose death was almost simultaneous with his own, is reported to have said in almost his last words, “Give my love to Slade;” while Slade, unaware of his friend’s condition, but conscious that his own end was near, was almost at the same moment urging that Dr. Hodges should be sent for. Dr. Francis, of Brookline, his classmate as well as his intimate friend and trusted adviser, attended him in his last illness.

Community of tastes, and especially a common love of Nature in her wilder aspects, made Dr. Slade a valued friend to his classmate Francis Parkman, and the historian’s chosen companion in several of his explorations of the wildernesses of Maine and New Hampshire. In his later years Parkman delighted to talk over with Slade the incidents of their early travels; and in the drives which, when debarred from walking, he was accustomed to take in the neighborhood of their respective residences, in answer to the question “Where shall we go?” almost invariably answered, “Let us stop at Slade’s.” Dr. Slade’s love of Nature and his fondness for the simplicity of rural life led him to purchase “an abandoned farm” near Lake Winnipiseogee, where he delighted to pass a portion of the summer with his family, who fully shared his tastes. Of this farm he wrote a description in letters which were published in The Nation. This love of Nature extended to all created things, and made his position as Assistant in Osteology in the Agassiz Museum very congenial to him. The loving care with which he handled and arranged his specimens was delightful to witness.

Personally I have lost in Slade a very dear friend, one to whom, in the performance of certain duties that have been laid upon me, I have been accustomed to look for sympathy, and have never looked in vain. I first knew him when we entered Harvard College together, in the Class of 1844. During the Freshman year we boarded together at the same table, and roomed in adjoining houses in the Appian Way. I met him again in Paris when he was a medical student there. After he went to reside at Chestnut Hill I saw him less frequently than before, but was always sure of finding him at the annual meeting of our Class at Commencement. Never was he absent except when seriously ill. In the fast narrowing circle of his early associates he will be greatly missed.

Dr. Slade was a delightful companion. In his own inimitable way he was not only witty himself, but the cause of wit in others. Beneath an apparently impassive and somewhat sluggish exterior there lay, not always concealed, a warm and generous heart, a noble and chivalric spirit. His college associates were wiser than they knew when they gave him the title of “The Good Count.” He was in truth, though after a simple and rustic fashion, one of Nature’s noblemen. There was in him a charming union of naïveté and shrewdness, of frankness and reticence, of ambition and modesty, and with all and above all a steadfast loyalty to truth, to duty, and to friendship.

The Hon. John Lowell then spoke at considerable length touching the relations which existed between Dr. Slade and himself as neighbors. He had listened to the tributes which had been paid by classmates and friends, and as he listened he had felt that among those present no person was better entitled to bear witness to the many winning features in the character of our late associate, no person was better prepared to understand the justice of the eulogiums which had been pronounced upon his life and his work, than himself. Years of friendly intercourse as neighbors had ripened the friendship which existed between them; not as neighbors in a city block where one may live for years with scarcely any knowledge of the family next door, but as neighbors in suburban territory where friendly intercourse was constant, and under circumstances which compelled him to appreciate more and more, from day to day, the rich gift of the personal friendship which was thus bestowed upon him. The loss of such a man must be deeply felt by those who had come closely in contact with him, and by the Societies of which he was a member.

Dr. Charles Montraville Green spoke of the life and character of Dr. Edward Wigglesworth: —

It is not for me at this time, Mr. President, to attempt to present a just and worthy tribute to the life and character of our late associate: that sad duty will be performed by him who will be chosen to prepare, with deliberation, the Memoir for our Transactions. I wish rather to give expression to my sense of the great loss which this Society and this community have sustained in Dr. Wigglesworth’s untimely death. I say untimely, because, although he bad accomplished much in twenty-five years of active professional life, he was still an earnest worker in the advancement of medical science, and in the varied philanthropic pursuits to which he had long devoted himself.

Graduating from Harvard College in 1861, and from its Medical School in 1865, Dr. Wigglesworth spent five years in Europe, chiefly in Vienna, Paris, and London, fitting himself for his chosen specialty, Dermatology. At this time specialism in all branches of medical science was in its infancy in this country; and on his return to Boston Dr. Wigglesworth devoted himself with energy and enthusiasm to his chosen field, becoming one of the pioneers in his department of practice. He opened a free clinic for diseases of the skin, and maintained it at his own expense until special departments in Dermatology were established in connection with the larger medical charities of this city. Subsequently he was appointed to the Department for Diseases of the Skin at the Boston City Hospital, and for many years has been its head. At the time of his death he had just completed his stated period of service for the year. For several years he was an instructor in Dermatology at the Harvard Medical School, and to this institution he long ago gave his valuable collection of models. In his earlier years Dr. Wigglesworth was a frequent contributor to periodical medical literature, and was an active worker in the various medical societies. He gave much time and effort to the establishment of the Boston Medical Library Association, and served until his death on its executive committee. He did good service as a member of the committee which raised the large sum of money required to provide the present seat of the Harvard Medical School. Indeed, it may be said, in the words of one of his contemporaries, “that he was always ready to encourage by word and deed, by suggestion, advice, and gift of money, all worthy objects demanding the active interest of the public-spirited physician; and his assistance was usually sought both in the inception and in the promotion of such objects.”

In his private life Edward Wigglesworth was upright, loyal to his high ideals, tender, chivalrous. Generous to a fault, yet was his giving unostentatious. Of warm-hearted nature, and brilliant intellect, he was a delightful companion. He will be remembered as an accomplished physician, a public-spirited citizen, and a generous and lovable friend.

Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., gave the following account of the Third Volume of the Massachusetts Colony Records, about which there has been a diversity of opinion among historical students and scholars: —

From the time of the division of the General Court, in 1644, into two separate branches, the House of Deputies conformed more and more to the pattern of the House of Commons. They elected a Speaker, and chose a Clerk, and began to keep a Journal distinct from the records of the Secretary. Unfortunately, all these Journals save those from 1644 to the end of the first session of 1657 are lost, — probably in the conflagration of 1711 or 1747, both of which wrought such havoc among the records in the Town House, or old Court House on King Street. The single printed volume of these Journals is erroneously included with the printed Records of the Governor and Company, and introduced by some incomprehensible but certainly mistaken explanation of its want of harmony with the other records, which are the legislative records of the upper branch, and were kept by the Secretary of the Colony. During the first General Court, under the new system, the Journal was kept with diurnal entries under appropriate headings. This practice was discontinued the next year. At first, against all votes and ordinances passed in concurrence, the minute was made in the Journal “by both;” and later, “per curiam.” This practice seems to have been wholly discontinued after the May session of 1651.

In the October session of 1648 the manner of keeping records by the Secretary and the Clerk of the House was further regulated. All bills, laws, petitions, etc., passed in concurrence, and voted upon last by the Magistrates, were to be kept by the Governor until the end of the session; and, in like manner, all such papers last acted upon by the House were to remain with the Speaker. At the close of the session the assembled Court, or a committee of both branches, in presence of the Clerk and Secretary, were to deliver them to the Secretary to be recorded. This recording was to be finished in one month, after which the Clerk was to be allowed another month in which to transcribe this record into his book of copies. The Secretary’s set was to be the official record.

Both sets of these books of record, which, by the same order, were to include, or to be accompanied with, other books containing all previous legislation not already ordered to be printed, were probably consumed with the House Journals. The records of the Magistrates or Assistants, and many if not most of the files, however, seem to have escaped the conflagration. These files were in two groups, — one composed, in part at least, of “such bills, orders, etc., which have only passed the Magistrates,” and which were to be given into the custody of the Secretary to be kept on file; and another of similar papers, “such as have only passed the Deputies,” and which were to be delivered to the Clerk of the House, to be filed and kept by him, in like manner.

The vote requiring that the orders, etc., enacted remain in the hands of the Secretary and Clerk of the House, respectively, until the end of the session was repealed in the first session of 1650, and the Clerk was ordered to send to the Secretary, from time to time, immediately after their passage, such bills, etc., as had been concurrently enacted, and voted upon last by the House. This substantially became the settled practice of the Legislature down to the adoption of the Constitution.

Mr. John Noble said that he had recently discovered in the Suffolk Court Files a fragment148 in the handwriting of Edward Rawson, which might prove to be interesting in connection with this matter.

Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis then said: —

I wish to submit for the consideration of the Society a curious blackmailing letter which was sent to Governor Shirley, in May, 1749. The anonymous writer, under threats of burning Shirley’s country-house and of the commission of other acts of destruction of a similar nature by the band of conspirators in whose name he professes to speak, seeks to extort money from the Governor. Unless a motive is to be found in the sentence in the letter in which the writer alleges that all of those in whose name he pretends to speak had served in Shirley’s regiment, and that not half of them had been paid for their services, there would not seem to be any special reason why the Governor should have been selected as a victim by the blackmailers. The original letter is on file at the Suffolk Court House, and from the indorsement it would appear that James Williams was indicted as the writer of it, and pleaded not guilty. There are, however, no other papers connected with the proceeding, and I have not found any reference to a trial in the Records of the Court.

The letter is as follows: —

May it plese your Exelelcey Your not complying with ours of May y^e 20th 1749 Soterday which we left in your yard nixt y^e Bookbinders Shop which we beleve you have Seen which has mad sum disspute amoung us for Sum was for going and firing your fine cuntry house without eney more Delay but Sum of us thot mabe you had not found it and therefore we Send you these fue lines which we are Shore you will find and by these you may find ye other by enquire tharefore Shall oneley ashore your Exelencey Except all that is in the other leter is preformed Which is that you take five hundred pound New tenor and and Carry the Same to that tree that Stands on your Right hand agoing over ye Nack abought half way over and Sum Distance out of ye highway and thare hid y^e same close under ye Root of y^e tree and cover it over with Durt So that it may be had close and that we may git it when we plese and with out Danger for we Shall not be all thare at a time So that thare will be a Nough left to full fill all that we have promissed in our other leter ye Sum of which is that if you Do not take five hondred pound New tenor with out Eaney privet mark of whot Nater so Eaver or Eney of it none nor Supspected but all good and carri it and hide y^e Same whare you are diricted above on tuesday night which will be may ye 30 day 1749 then if you Dont then we will Shorley burn all yuore fine Countrey Seate and there on to be longing with out fail and other places which will be a disadvantege to you and cuntry to for we will not be Robled No more by your Exelencey then we will by Esq^r Wills for all your good Counsel to him and your proclimation for if it was teen times as much as it is we Should mind it no more then the Durst under our feet or the b burning his house and him in the fray which we will as Shourly go as he is now alive if he dos not on our nixt Sumons proform which Shall Not be long we sware by the liveng God if it is his will that we or eney of us live long anugh and he may be glad to have y^e Sumons before the fier for ye slig he pot on our forst but if he slits y^e next he Shall fare ye worst for no proclimations with eney Considirations Shall avale aneything but the proformence of y^e above for if your exeleucy Should Set a watch Round your house in the Cuntry or town of eney quantity of men Sum of us Shall be there for we have all sarved under your Exelencey^s Ridgment in one place or other and Sum have bin disbanded and Naver halfe of us half paid and we Shall be Ready foreaver Round your Elboe to watch your motions we all have bound under Selves under a Solom and furm oth to stand by etch other in life and in death foreaver & eaver amen.149

It appears from the language of this letter that it was not the first communication of this character which had been sent; and we find, upon examining the records, that on the twenty-first of April, 1749, the Governor submitted the following message to the consideration of the General Court: —

Gentlemen of the Council & House of Representatives. One of the members of His Majesty’s Council has laid before me a villainous paper, importing a wicked conspiracy for robbing him of part of his estate, by extorting a sum of money from him & threatening him with the burning of his house, warehouses, and vessels, and the murdering of his person in case of his refusal to comply with their demands.

Gentlemen, this being the first instance of this kind of execrable villany attempted in this Province, it highly imports this Legislature to make provision for preventing & punishing the same attempts for the future. Wherefore I desire you would immediately take the matter into consideration & do what you judge necessary before you rise.150

The Governor’s message was referred to a joint Committee, and their report, which was prepared by Samuel Welles of the Council, was submitted the next day. The Committee recommended that a Proclamation should be issued offering a reward of Two hundred pounds, bills of the last emission, to be given to any person who should inform or discover one or more concerned in this wicked conspiracy, so that he or they might be convicted. If the informer should prove to have been an accomplice, he was to be forgiven. The Governor was recommended to insert in his Proclamation the sum and substance of the anonymous letter, and verbatim extracts from the impious, insolent, and inhuman language used therein, so that his Majesty’s good subjects might be stirred up to join in bringing to exemplary punishment the profligate and abandoned wretches who were concerned in this wicked and impudent combination. It was also recommended that a Bill should be prepared for the prevention of such abominable and dangerous crimes in the future.

The report was read and accepted, and a joint Committee was appointed to draft a Bill in accordance with the suggestions therein contained. There is nothing in the Governor’s message or in the report of the Committee to indicate what member of the Council was the recipient of the “villainous paper;” but in the letter to Governor Shirley the writer indicates his determination not to be “bobled” any more by his Excellency than by “Esq^r Wills.” It may be inferred from the language used that “Wills” had at that time already received a communication from the same writer, to which he had not responded in such a way as to meet with the writer’s approval. There can be but little doubt that the “Esq^r Wills” of the letter must have been Samuel Welles, a member of the Council,151 and the writer of the report which we have just been considering.

On the first of June, 1749, the Governor, in his message to the General Court, alluded to “an anonymous letter” sent to him to demand his laying a sum of money for the writer in a secret place. If the Governor should not comply with this request, the writer threatened to burn the Province House and Shirley’s own house in the country. This letter, the Governor adds, “I shall order to be laid before you & desire you will without delay prepare a bill for suppressing this kind of wickedneſs & punishing the authors as they deserve.”

The Court did not act promptly in the matter, and on the third of August the Governor laid before them a new instance “of the same kind of villany that was twice lately practised in this Province for extorting money by threatening gentlemen of substance with the destruction of their estates and persons in case of refusal to comply with the demands of these miscreants.” This communication incited the Legislature to action, and on the fourth of August a joint Committee was appointed to prepare a Bill for preventing and punishing such pernicious practices in the future. The action of this Committee is to be found in Chapter 7 of the laws of 1749–50.152

Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., presented a copy of a Proclamation by Governor Hancock, and said: —

Mr. President, — The interesting episode which our Corresponding Secretary has brought to light, and the formalities attending the issuing of the Governor’s Proclamation, may be contrasted with a similar proceeding on a like occasion after the adoption of the Constitution of the Commonwealth.

In 1783 an anonymous letter was found at the door of one of the proprietors of Long Wharf, declaring a determination to set on fire the shops and warehouses extending along the wharf, unless the Proprietors forthwith signified in the newspapers their purpose to cause the removal from the wharf, or the closing of the business, of “all shop keepers, retailers, grog-sellers, etc.”

Upon this, Governor Hancock, in the recess of the General Court, of his own motion apparently, and without even the advice and consent of the Council, issued a Proclamation for the discovery and apprehension of the author or authors of the threatening letter, “promising a reward of one hundred pounds to any person or persons who shall inform against, or discover, any one or more concerned in this wicked design.” The Proclamation, which bears date 27 August, 1783, may be read in full in the forthcoming most interesting and valuable Supplement, by our associate Mr. Edwin M. Bacon, to the “Early Laws of Massachusetts” now being published by the State in a new edition under authority of Chap. 104 of the Resolves of 1889. The object of Mr. Bacon’s Supplement is to supply the lamentable omissions in the official series. This he has not only admirably accomplished, but in so doing has revealed historical data never availed of by any historian, and of the greatest interest and value.

The text of the Proclamation is as follows: —

for apprehending the author of a threat to burn long wharf in boston unless shopkeepers cease business there.

By his Excellency John Hancock Esq^r

Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

A Proclamation.

Whereas an anonimous letter was found at the Doors of one of the Proprietors of the Long-Wharf, in Boston, this morning, directed to Mr. Giles Alexander, wherein the writer declares “That it is determined to set the Long-Wharf on fire, except all shop-keepers, retailers, grog sellers &c cease to continue thereon as it is thought that it is a detriment to the shop-keepers and retailers of the town in general, to suffer any of that denomination to set up on Long-Wharf; and it is a pity that the wholesale merchants should suffer through their means, which must be the case if they cease not. If you mean to cause them to move off, make it known in one of the news-papers this week. If you slight this warning you’ll have no other.”

Which attrocious crime has been represented to me by the Proprietors of the said long-Wharf, praying for the interposition of the Government, in order to discover the author of it: And inasmuch as such an open and flagrant violation, both of the laws of God and man, hath a direct tendency to subvert all civil order and Government, and to render the lives and properties of the subjects of this Commonwealth, altogether precarious:

I have therefore thought fit to issue this Proclamation, hereby requiring all officers, civil and military, and all other subjects within this Commonwealth, to use their utmost endeavours for descrying, seizing, and bringing to justice, the author or authors of the infamous letter aforesaid, or any of his or their accomplices; — hereby also promising a reward of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS to be paid to any person or persons who shall inform against, or discover any one or more concerned in this wicked design, so that he or they may be convicted.

Given under my hand, at Boston, the twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord, One thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and in the eighth year of the independence of the United States of America.

John Hancock.

By his Excellency’s command John Avery, Secretary.

Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from a rare print in the possession of Frederick Lewis Gay Esquire.

1 Mr. Lincoln also gave the following information: —

The Daughters of the Revolution, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was incorporated 28 February, 1894.

The Hills Family Genealogical and Historical Association, Boston, was incorporated 6 July, 1894. Its purposes are: The collection, compilation, and publication of such data and information as may be obtained concerning the genealogy and history of the Hills family.

The Naval Order of the United States, Commandery of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, was incorporated 14 December, 1894. Its purposes are: To transmit to latest posterity the glorious names and memories of the illustrious naval commanders and their companion officers in arms, who are identified with many of the principle (sic) battles and famous victories of the several wars in which the United States has participated, and which were fought and achieved by the naval forces; to encourage research and publication of data pertaining to naval art and science, and to establish a library in which to preserve all documents, wills, books, portraits, and relics relating to the Navy and its heroes at all times.

2 The sources of authority for this story of the Land and Silver Banks are mainly to be found in the Massachusetts Archives and the Suffolk Court Files. [A Calendar of these documents by the author of this paper will be found in Volume iv. of the Publications of this Society.] Occasionally the thread of the narrative prior to 1743 is maintained by use of facts furnished by a contemporary pamphlet entitled, —

An Account of the Rise, Progress, and Consequences of the two late Schemes commonly call’d the Land Bank or Manufactory Scheme and the Silver Scheme, in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. Wherein the Conduct of the late and present G—r during their Ad—ns is occasionally consider’d and compar’d. In a letter from a gentleman in Boston to his Friend in London. Printed in the year 1744.

3 “In our most happy times (as in our fondness we call them) we allowed our Governor an Hundred per annum &c and when the Salary was changed from Corn-Specie to money, there was a muttering and grumbling in the country, as tho’ they were going into a mutiny.” — (A Word of Comfort to a Melancholy Country or the Bank of Credit erected in the Massachusetts Bay, fairly defended by a discovery of the Great Benefit, accruing by it to the whole Province; with a remedy for recovering a Civil State when sinking under desperation by defeat on their Bank of Credit. By Amicus Patriœ. Boston, 1721, p. 9.)

4 By Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull. See Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, October, 1884, p. 266 et seq.

5 Felt, alluding to this Bank, says (Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, p. 47): “How long or how far the preceding Corporation continued their operations, we are unable to tell.” It seems to me that John Blackwell’s letter of 26 July, 1088 (Massachusetts Archives, cxxix. 63), which opens, “I perceive you have declyned the concerning yourselves any further in the Bank affairs,” is conclusive enough. It appears from this letter that the press was actually set up and used “for tryall of the plates & printing off some bills.”

6 The caulkers, in 1741, alleged that they had for many years “labored under great inconvenience, and had suffered much damage wrong and injury in receiving their pay for their work, by notes on shops for money or goods, and thereby had greatly impoverished themselves and families” (News-Letter, No. 1926, 19 February, 1741).

7 A Model for Erecting a Bank of Credit with a Discourse in Explanation thereof Adapted to the Use of any Trading Countrey, where there is a Scarcity of Moneys: More Especially for his Majesty’s Plantations in America. . . . London: Printed in the year 1688. Reprinted at Boston in New-England in the Year 1714.

See also Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, October, 1884, New Series, iii. 302, note E.

8 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports (Town Records, 1700–1728), viii. 115.

9 The notes are generally described in the language used in the text. In a pamphlet entitled “The Melancholy State of the Province considered in a Letter from a Gentleman in Boston to his friend in the Country, . . . printed in the Year 1736,” it is stated (page 2) that “the first proposal was to make one hundred thousand pounds in notes to be paid to the Trustees of the Bank in ten years in silver at Twenty shillings per ounce, the Silver to remain in the Bank until the Ten Years were expired.” The writer goes on to say that they were “perswaded to alter the Scheme and agree to have the Silver drawn out at three periods viz. three tenths at the end of three years, & three tenths more at the end of other three years; and the remaining four tenths at the end of the tenth year.”

10 These notes are described in chapter 21, Province Laws 1734–1735 (Province Laws, ii. 743). The fact that they bore interest is stated in the Report of the Board of Trade to the Privy Council (Ibid. ii. 747).

11 The new tenor notes were originally issued in 1741 upon the basis of twenty shillings for three ounces of coined silver, troy weight. In 1744 there was a change in the portion of the note defining the value at which the notes would be received in the Treasury. Bills under this new form were still receivable in all payments to the Treasury, but the basis of valuation was reduced to two ounces, thirteen pennyweights, and eight grains of coined silver, troy weight.

Douglass says that they were known as old tenor, middle tenor, new tenor first, and new tenor second. He adds that the latter, although about twelve per cent worse than the new tenor firsts, passed indifferently among the people at the same value. (A Summary, Historical and Political, of the first Planting, progressive Improvements, and present State of the British Settlements in North-America. . . . By William Douglass, M.D., i. 493.)

12 Massachusetts Archives, cii. 113.

13 The Distressed state of The Town of Boston once more considered, And methods for Redress humbly proposed. With remarks on the pretended Countryman’s Answer to the Book, entitled The Distressed State of the town of Boston &c. With a Schæme for a Bank Laid down: And methods for bringing in silver money, proposed. By John Colman.

14 Some Proposals To benefit the Province, — a tract without a titlepage but with these headlines on page 1. At the end, on page 15, is Boston: Printed for and Sold by Benj. Eliot, at his Shop below the Town-House. 1720.

15 March 18^th, [1740.]. The Comp^y for Merch^t. notes redeem^l p. silver [in] 25 yrs., carrying 3 per cent interest, meet, signed, and chose their Director at Boston. (The Diaries of Benjamin Lynde and of Benjamin Lynde, Jr., Boston, 1880, p. 161).

Although the description is inaccurate, this can only refer to the Silver Scheme.

16 The following from the News-Letter is a sample of these advertisements:

The Negro-Man advertised to be sold by me the Subscriber for Bills of the Land Bank, will be sold to the highest Bidder, by Inch of Candle, on Tuesday next 4 o’clock, at the Sign of the Lamb.

Ephraim Baker.

17 Special references are not necessary on these points. An examination of the News-Letter for the summer and autumn of 1740 and the early part of 1741 will reveal numerous instances of the publications alluded to. A sample of the humor employed by the wits of the day will be found in the following from the News-Letter of 25 September, 1740: —

“This is to caution my Friends concernd in the said Scheme against loading the Contribution Boxes in their several places of Worship with their Bills, for if they are free that way, it will assuredly stir up the Clergy of every denomination against those who have hitherto (to the admiration of all mankind amongst us) been silent about em.”

18 The report of the Board of Trade to the Privy Council was made 13 November. They recommended “prosecutions against all concerned in the said Land Bank.” The Privy Council, on 19 November, stated that they agreed with the Board in their opinion that “the said Land Bank Project may create great interruption and confusion in business;” but referred the question of methods of suppression to his Majesty’s Attorney and Solicitor-General (News-Letter, 29 January, 1741).

19 Hobart, in his Historical Sketch of Abington (p. 166), says: “It is not known that any one was removed from office in Plymouth County excepting Elkanah Leonard, Esq., of Middleborough.”

20 Middleton unanimously voted, 27 January, 1740–41, to receive Land Rank Bills for town rates (News-Letter, 29 January, 1741). Abington passed a similar vote 31 March, 1741 (Hobart’s Historical Sketch of Abington, p. 133).

It was one of the points submitted to the qualified voters of Dartmouth, 30 March, 1741 (Suffolk Court Files, cccxliii. 53351.

The Supremacy of the Land Bank in Salem affairs in 1741 is developed in the Diaries of Benjamin Lynde, &c, pp. 104 and 162. The overthrow of the advocates of the Bank in 1742 is noted, p. 163.

21 See News-Letter, 16 April and 21 May, 1741.

22 [1741, May] 23d, Saturday . . . the Land Bank, and all other Private Banks are likely to be blank’t by Act of Parliament. The Government frowns on them, our principal establishment (The Diaries of Benjamin Lynde, &c, p. 109). The News-Letter, under the following dates, furnishes evidence of knowledge of the progress of the Bill: —

30 April. It was stated in a London letter that the Bill was passing.
28 May. There was a notice of the arrival of the Bill which had passed both Houses.
16 July. An extract from the Act was published.

23 Province Laws, ii. 747.

24 In the Fifth Report of the English Historical Manuscripts Commission, Appendix, page 229, the following is said to be among the Shelburne Papers, under date of 10 November, 1735: “Report of the Attorney-General to the Lords of Trade on the Scheme of erecting a Land Bank in Massachusetts.” The quotation in the text is taken from a manuscript copy of a paper in the Public Record Office, Board of Trade, New England, 26, B^b. 136. Mr. B. F. Stevens, who procured this copy for me, has also secured from Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice a note to the effect that the above copy is identical with the document in the Shelburne Papers which was calendared in the Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission as an opinion on a scheme for erecting a Land Bank.

25 An Account of the Rise, Progress, and Consequences of the two late Schemes, &c, pp. 41, 42. For full title of this pamphlet see note on p. 2, ante.

26 Edward Hutchinson, Samuel Welles, James Bowdoin, Samuel Sewall, Hugh Hall, Joshua Winslow, Edmund Quincy, Thomas Oxnard, James Boutineau. This list is from a mortgage. There is a return in the Archives (cii. 216) in which the name of Andrew Oliver appears in place of Samuel Sewall, while a copy of the note given in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1860, xiv. 264, has appended to it ten names, those of Sewall and Oliver being both included.

27 Robert Auchmuty, William Stoddard, Samuel Adams, Peter Chardon, Samuel Watts, John Choate, Thomas Cheever, George Leonard, Robert Hale.

28 Province Laws, iii. 803.

29 How extensively this Agreement was executed by the subscribers I have no means of knowing. The only copy that I have seen is in possession of our associate Mr. William Gordon Weld. A description of it will be found in this volume of our Transactions, pp. 47–49, post.

30 Answer of the House of Representatives, 2 March, 1773, to the Speech of the Governor [Hutchinson] of 16 February, in “Speeches of the Governors of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1775, and the Answers of the House of Representatives to the Same, . . . Boston, 1818” (generally cited as Bradford’s State Papers), p. 394.

Hutchinson, in his History (ii. 355), says: “It was said the Act of George I. when it passed had no relation to America; but another Act twenty years after gave it force, even from the passing it, which it never could have had without. This was said to be an instance of the transcendent power of Parliament.” This transcendent power of Parliament, which was partially set aside by the General Court in 1743, which was disputed by Samuel Adams in 1773, and which was submitted to the arbitrament of the sword in the Revolution, was claimed by the counsel for the defendant in Phillips v. Blatchford (137 Mass.) to still have force in Massachusetts. His brief recites the passage of the Acts of 6 George I. and 14 George II., quotes from the State Constitution the clause which continues in force existing laws until repealed, and concludes:

“This law, established by the express command of the Sovereign, and, on the change of the government, confirmed by the new Sovereign, is the law to-day.”

31 Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or Political Essays published in the years 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy between Great Britain and her Colonies, . . . p. 39.

We seek in vain for any recognition by historians of the political importance of these events, at all proportionate to the claim advanced in the text of this paper. Hildreth gives a brief sketch of the Land Bank, and says that the Act extending the Bubble Act to the Colonies “was denounced in Massachusetts as an interference with the Provincial Charter, and in South Carolina as a violation of provincial rights.” He also refers to the fact that “earnest efforts on behalf of these unfortunate speculators, of whom his father was one, first introduced into politics Samuel Adams, afterward so celebrated.” Palfrey says “the project became a prominent political question,” evidently referring, however, to local contemporary politics. After stating that “some of the best men of the Province” appealed to Parliament for relief, he sums up the effect of the application of the Bubble Act to the colonies in the epigrammatic statement, “The Land Bank was caught in its own devices.” As a rule the references of historians to these events are brief and inappreciative. Hildreth alone seems to have been upon the verge of a complete understanding of their political value. It may be asked why this is so. Our associate, Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., has made a suggestion to me upon this point which furnishes an answer to this question. He says it is because Hutchinson, who is the accepted authority for this period of our history, was opposed to the scheme not only as an economist but as a politician. It was not possible for him to interpret these events without prejudice, nor could those who relied upon his judgment arrive at a true measure of their political influence.

32 See Sewall’s Diary, i. 209, 210.

33 Williston Walker, Ph.D., of the Hartford Theological Seminary, in Papers of the American Society of Church History for 1893, pp. 73, 74.

34 A very full account of this Controversy will be found in the Rev. Henry W. Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, chap. xvii. (ii. 241–280), on Episcopacy and the Mayhew Controversy.

35 The story of Mayhew’s ancestry and their civilizing work is given on pages 252, 253, of the chapter above referred to. In this connection the speaker took occasion to refer to the Treasurer of our Society, Mr. Henry H. Edes, as a lineal descendant and worthy representative of the heroic Mayhew family.

36 The mortgage is recorded with Suffolk Deeds, lx. 103.

37 Suffolk Court Files, vol. ccclix. no. 56470.

38 Suffolk Files, vol. ccclxii. no. 56960.

39 Ibid. vol. ccclxix. no. 58408.

40 For an account of this volume and a transcript of its unique passages, see William H. Whitmore’s “A Bibliographical Sketch of the Laws of the Massachusetts Colony,” etc. Boston, 1890.

41 Mr. Noble, as Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the County of Suffolk, is the official custodian of the Suffolk Court Files.

42 This Society was incorporated 22 March, 1895.

43 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 105.

44 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 109, 110, and notes.

45 The treaty of amity and alliance between Great Britain and Portugal was signed at Lisbon, 16 May, 1703, and was renewed by Article xxvi. of the treaty of 1810.

46 By the following November, the Charles, being still the property of the same owners, had sailed upon another expedition as a privateer, under a new commission. See Province Laws, viii. 140, 525, Resolves, 1705–6, Chapter 62 and note.

47 Diary, ii. 102.

48 Diary, ii. 102.

49 Addington, who, after Winthrop’s short term, succeeded Stoughton as Chief Justice, offered to resign his commission 23 July, 1703, but was suffered to retain it with the understanding that “no further service was expected from him therein at present,” and that the Governor and Council would consider the subject of filling that place “as soon as possible.” After this, and until Wait Winthrop was reappointed, 19 February, 1707–8, Sewall presided, and writs bore teste in his name.

50 See a foot-note to Mr. Lindsay Swift’s paper at the December, 1894, Meeting (ante, i. 409), on the location of the Star Tavern.

51 Essay XIV., Of Nobility.

52 At a meeting of the Council held 15 October, 1895, the President appointed Mr. Gardiner M. Lane to fill the vacancy in this Committee occasioned by Mr. Andrew’s death, which occurred on the thirtieth of May.

53 Memorial History of Boston, i. 481.

54 Suffolk Deeds, i. 102.

55 Suffolk Deeds, i. 45.

56 For his title, recently discovered, see 2 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for November, 1896, xi. 185–187.

57 Suffolk Deeds, iii. 124.

58 Ibid. i. 321.

59 Ibid. iii. 124.

60 Ibid. v. 231.

61 Ibid. vii. 153.

62 Ibid. vii. 302.

63 The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester . . . incorporated with a republication of King’s Vale Royal and Leycester’s Cheshire Antiquities, By George Ormerod, Esq., LL.D., &c., &c., &c. Second edition, revised and enlarged by Thomas Helsby, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law. In three volumes. London, 1882, ii. 805.

See also Magna Britannia; being a concise topographical account of the several Counties of Great Britain, by the Rev. Daniel Lysons, A.M. . . . and Samuel Lysons, Esq., F.R.S. London, 1810, iii. 798.

64 My kindly reception by Mr. Evans deserves a more grateful acknowledgment than I can give in these pages.

65 Report of the Commissioners appointed in pursuance of an Act of Parliament made and passed in the 5th and 6th years of King William the 4th, c. 71. Intituled, &c., &c., &c. London, 1837.

66 Some Account of the Citizens of London and their Rulers from 1060 to 1867, by B. B. Orridge. . . . London, 1867. p. 234.

67 A short Account of the Company of Grocers, from their Original together with their case and condition (in their present circumstances) truly stated. . . . London, 1689.

68 Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London, by John Benjamin Heath, Esq., F.R. and A.S. Second edition. London, 1854.

69 Papers of the House of Commons, 1878, Vol. 62. The titlepage of this volume is somewhat obscure, but I give it verbatim: Accounts and Papers.

Thirty-nine volumes — (17. Part I.) — Members of Parliament. Part I. Session 17 January–16 August, 1878. LXII. Part I. p. 476.

70 The Register Book of St. Christopher le Stocks, in the City of London. Edited by Edwin Treshfield. . . . London, 1882. p. 42.

71 Westmin. 1 June, 1632. To Mr. Alderman Moulson, Governor of the Merchant Adventurers. Epistolæ Ho — Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic & Forren. . . . By James Howel, Esq; One of the Clerks of his late Ma^ties most Honb^le Privy Councell. The Fifth Edition. London, 1678. p. 216.

I am indebted to Mr. Edward M. Borrajo, of the Guildhall Library, for this reference to the authority which was the basis of Mr. Welch’s assertion relative to Sir Thomas’s position in this Company. For this and for the courtesy which led him to submit the Stocken papers to my inspection, and for the great courtesy of my treatment at the Library, I desire to make my acknowledgments.

72 Ante, i. 353.

73 See Mr. Noble’s paper read at the February, 1895, meeting, ante, pp. 51–65, and especially pp. 55 and 56.

74 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 259.

75 Suffolk Court Files, vol. ccclvi., no. 55.818.

76 Suffolk Court Files, vol. ccclvi., no. 55.818.

77 New England Historical and Genealogical Register for April, 1888, xlii. 184, 185.

78 Sedgwick afterwards removed to Boston, where he owned a house and garden on Washington Street, the estate being contiguous, on the north, to that on the corner of School Street, a part of which is now (1895) the site of the “Old Corner Book-Store.” Cf. Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. 192 and iii. 2; Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, ii. 852; and Memorial History of Boston, i. 399, ii. xxxiv.

79 Wonder-Working Providence of Sion’s Saviour in New England (Poole’s edition), p. 192.

80 General Laws of New Plymouth, chap. ii. sec. 13, p. 245.

81 Ibid. chap. ii. sec. 14, p. 245

82 The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts reprinted from the edition of 1660 (Whitmore’s edition), p. 123.

83 Frothingham’s History of Charlestown, p. 97.

84 William Stilson’s name was often spelled “Stitson” and “Stetson” in the early records. See Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, ii. 902.

85 The town was named by Capt. Edward Johnson in honor of his friend and “pateron” Sedgwick, who, as we have seen, was a native of Woburn, in Bedfordshire, England. See Hurd’s History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, i. 336.

86 Wonder-Working Providence (Poole’s edition), p. lxxxvi. Frothingham (History of Charlestown, p. 108) interprets the phrase “compild body reare” as meaning “my compact body to rear.”

87 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 271, 511.

88 A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe (Birch’s edition), London, 1742, ii. 419.

89 History of Nova Scotia, i. 126.

90 Murdoch’s History of Nova Scotia, i. 124.

91 Thurloe, iii. 753.

92 Thurloe, iv. 152.

93 Ibid. iv. 152, 153.

94 Thurloe, iv. 155.

95 Ibid.

96 Thurloe, iv. 155.

97 Ibid.

98 Ibid.

99 Thurloe, iv. 155

100 Ibid. iii. 151.

101 Thurloe, iv. 454.

102 Ibid. iv. 600.

103 Thurloe, iv. 604.

104 Thurloe, iv. 604.

105 Thurloe, v. 154.

106 Thurloe, v. 152.

107 Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches (Chapman and Hall edition, London, 1870), iv. 171.

108 Long’s History of Jamaica, i. 257.

109 Eastern Railroad Company v. Allen, 135 Massachusetts, 13 (a. d. 1883).

110 Massachusetts Archives, lix. 22.

111 Cf. ante, p. 160, note 1.

112 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, January, 1888, xlii. 67.

113 Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, i. 180, 188, ii. 573.

114 See Francis Higginson Atkins’s Joseph Atkins, The History of a Family, pp. 57–71, 146–150.

115 Printed in 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ii. 284, 285.

116 An account of Mr. Cary’s ministry is given in Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, ii. 407–416.

117 Records of the First Church in Cambridge. For a short time previous to her second marriage, Mrs. Lincoln had been afflicted with melancholia, and fears were expressed (verified by the sad event) that she might die by her own hand.

118 Tudor’s Life of James Otis, pp. 19, 20; History of Hingham, iii. 9, 277; and Records of the Church in Brattle Square, Boston.

119 Miss Ann Gillam Storrow is here referred to. She was born in Halifax, 24 June, 1784, and died in Brattleborough, Vt., 20 May, 1862. She was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Storrow of the British Army by his wife, Ann Appleton, whose mother, Mary Wentworth, was granddaughter of Lieut.-Gov. John Wentworth, niece of Gov. Benning Wentworth, and cousin of Gov. John Wentworth of New Hampshire (Wentworth Genealogy, i. 513). Miss Storrow was a sister of Louisa Storrow, who married Stephen Higginson, Steward of Harvard College, and lived much in her family, where she was always addressed as “Aunt Nancy.”

120 The Rev. Dr. Daniel Dana, afterwards President of Dartmouth College. He was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport (in a vault under the pulpit of which Whitefield is buried) from 1794 till 1820. From 1826 till 1845 Dr. Dana ministered to the Second Presbyterian Church, the founders of which withdrew from the First Presbyterian Church because of dissatisfaction with his settlement over it thirty-two years before.

121 One of Mrs. Atkins’s descendants writes to me: “The table was of plain white pine, and always kept scoured to perfect whiteness. Mrs. Atkins was obliged to live very carefully, and probably set up her pine table because she could not afford cloths. They had honey in the comb, and, my mother said, no cake except the lightest sponge-cake. These simple things often charmed visitors, but I know not what Mrs. Lincoln saw there.”

122 The Rev. John Andrews, D.D., was colleague and successor to the Rev. Thomas Cary in the pastorate of the Third Parish of Newbury, now the First Parish of Newburyport.

123 New England’s First Fruits, 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 245.

124 Account of Indigenous Vegetables Botanically Arranged, p. 397.

125 Gerard’s Herbal (Johnson’s edition), p. 1588.

126 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 89.

127 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 78.

128 Mourt’s Relation, 2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ix. 51.

129 Wood’s New England’s Prospect (Prince Society’s edition), pp. 16, 17.

130 The New English Canaan (Prince Society’s edition), book i. chap, xviii. p. 172.

131 Description of New England, 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi. 117, 118.

132 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 87.

133 Ibid. viii. 88, 89.

134 Ibid. viii. 93, 94.

135 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 134.

136 Ibid. viii. 157.

137 2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, v. 24.

138 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi. 120.

139 New England’s Plantation (Higgeson), 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 118, 119.

140 Hakluyt’s The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (Goldsmid’s edition), xiii. 92.

141 Somerset’s Land of the Muskeg (London, 1895), passim.

142 Chap. ii. Rhode Island Historical Collections, i. 34.

143 1740–1745, xv. 266, 267.

144 History of the United States (edition of 1858), vii. 105.

145 Province Laws, ii. 586, 595.

146 See pp. 241, 242, post.

147 There were but four generations of Martin Brimmers, — two having been in one generation, one having died in childhood.

148 For the full text of this document see post, v. 116–132.

149 Suffolk Court Files, vol. cccciv. no. 65,227.

150 Province Laws, iii. 449, 505.

151 Palfrey (History of New England, v. 567) gives his term of office 1747, 1748. He was, however, a member of the Council in 1749.

152 Province Laws, iii. 479.

153 Douglass’s “Summary,” Serial Number 15; pp. 235–238, text and note, of loose sheets, without date, among Suffolk Court Files (see p. 227. post); and i. 253 and note (edition of 1749, see p. 218, note 1, post); Snow’s History of Boston, p. 238 et seq.; James Grahame’s History of the United States, ii. 186–188; Bancroft’s History of the United States (edition of 1840), iii. 465, 466; Palfrey’s History of New England, v. 88 et seq.; Memorial History of Boston, chap. xvi.; Narrative and Critical History of America, v. 148 et seq.: and New England Historical and Genealogical Register for October, 1874, xxviii. 451–466. See also Boston Weekly Post-Boy, 23 November, 14 and 21 December 1747, and 4 January, 1748; Boston Evening Post, 14 and 21 December, 1747; Boston Weekly News-Letter, 17 and 31 December, 1747, and 7 January, 1748; and Boston Gazette or Weekly Journal, 5 January, 1748.

154 A Summary, Historical and Political, of the first Planting, progressive Improvements, and present State of the British Settlements in North-America, containing — I. Some general Account of ancient and modern Colonies, the granting and settling of the British Continent and West India Island Colonies, with some transient Remarks concerning the adjoining French and Spanish Settlements, and other Remarks of various Natures. II. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Lodges, Fur and Skin Trade. III. Newfoundland Harbours and Cod-Fishery. IV. The Province of l’Accadie or Nova-Scotia; with the Vicissitudes of the Property and Jurisdiction thereof, and its present State. V. The several Grants of Sagadahock, Province of Main, Massachusetts-Bay, and New Plymouth, united by a new Charter in the present Province of Massachusetts Bay, commonly called New-England. By William Douglass, M. D. Vol. I. (Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. —Cicero.) Boston, New England: Printed and Sold by Rogers and Fowle in Queen Street, md, cc, xlix.

155 The Titlepage of this Number is as follows: A Summary Historical and Political of the first Planting progressive Improvements, and present State of the British Settlements in North America; with Some transient Accounts of the Bordering French and Spanish Settlements. By W: D: M: D. N^o. 15. To be continued. Boston. Printed and Sold by Rogers and Fowle in Queen Street 1747 Where may be had all the former Numbers at 6^d. each New tenor.

156 Address at the meeting of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association at Fort Dummer, 13 August, 1896, by Rev. George Leon Walker, D. D. (Greenfield (Mass.) Gazette and Courier (newspaper) of 15 August, 1896); McClintock’s History of New Hampshire, p. 210.

157 See Albert H. Hoyt’s article on the Pepperrell Papers in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for October, 1874, xxviii. 451–466; and Palfrey’s History of New England, v. 88, 145.

158 Memorial History of Boston, ii. chap. xv. and xvi.; iv. chap. ix. and x.; Drake’s History and Antiquities of Boston, p. 623; Shurtleff’s Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, pp. 609, 610; Palfrey’s History of New England, iv. 414 et seq.; and New England Historical and Genealogical Register for 1877. xxxi. 118.

159 Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1747–50, xvii. 194.

160 Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1747–50, xvii. 267.

161 Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1747–50, xvii. 276.

162 This may have been Peter Mortimore, mariner, who was married at Trinity Church, Boston, 18 October, 1748, to Mary Wilcocks. See Suffolk Probate Files, No. 15,465.

163 Robert Ball, died in October, 1774 (The Boston Evening Post, No. 2038, of Monday, 17 October, 1774). See Suffolk Probate Files, No. 15,703; and Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xiii. 309; xv. 318; xix. 50; and xx. 224.

164 Massachusetts Archives, liii. 231, 232.

165 Massachusetts Archives, xi. 488. Cf. ante, p. 200, and 1 Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings for June, 1859, iv. 349–353.

166 In the Council Records (xv. 24) the name of the fifth petitioner is entered as “Andrew Duckerman.”

167 Province Laws, ii. 586, 595.

168 Its title is, “What a Small Town may do for Itself.”

169 The Lawrence Society of Natural History and Archæology was incorporated at Lawrence, 8 March, 1895. Its purpose is “to promote the study of natural history and archæology.”

170 My attention was called to this suit by Mr. William P. Upham, who is engaged in arranging the old papers in the Suffolk Court Files. If they shall prove to have the value to students of Constitutional Law which I attribute to them, my gratitude to Mr. Upham for this service on his part will readily be appreciated.

I wish also to express my appreciation of the many courtesies received from our associate Mr. John Noble, while examining these and other papers under his charge at the Suffolk office. The admirable arrangement of the papers, and the manner in which they have been mounted for reference, leave nothing to be desired on the part of historical students.

171 1 Cranch, 137. The student of Constitutional Law will find an excellent abstract of this case in Cases on Constitutional Law, by our associate James Bradley Thayer, Cambridge, 1895.

172 The early cases under State Constitutions where the question of the constitutionality of a law was under discussion have been collated by Professor Thayer in his Cases on Constitutional Law. Holmes v. Walton, a New Jersey case in 1780, mentioned in a note on page 62, is said to have been an important case, and to have been discussed in the Constitutional Convention. See also Trevett v. Weeden, Rhode Island, 1786, page 73 et seq.; Den d. Bayard and Wife v. Singleton, North Carolina, 1787, page 78 et seq.: and Van Horne’s Lessee v. Dorrance, Circuit Court, Pennsylvania District, 1795, page 94 et seq.

173 The question of appeals from Colonial Courts was fully discussed by Harold D. Hazeltine, in 1894, before the American Historical Association. (Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the year 1894, pp. 299–350).

174 It seems to me that Palfrey is disposed to underestimate the importance of this case. He speaks of the reservation in the Charter to the effect that the Legislature could make no laws contrary to the laws and statutes of the realm of England, as “a provision which had little practical significance” (History of New England, ii. 541). When he discusses this case he says, “Winthrop’s wife produced to the Governor a record of an Order of the King in Council, overruling that action of the Connecticut Courts of which Winthrop had complained; and the Assembly ordered the Secretary to proceed to put Winthrop in possession of the land claimed by him, as soon as the bounds and quantity of said land should be ascertained.” Notwithstanding this practical application of the determination of the Privy Council, he then goes on to say: “Connecticut could not be brought to accede to the determination of the Privy Council. And at length, nearly twenty years after the adverse decree of that body, the Provincial law was sanctioned by a decision of the Council, under advice of the Crown lawyers” (Ibid. iv. 578). The Crown lawyers were of opinion that this reservation was of force, and that any law which violated it was null and void “(Chalmers’s Opinions, London edition, 1814, i. 347, 354). This last opinion ends as follows: “If any laws have been there made, repugnant to the laws of England, they are absolutely null and void.”

175 “His Majesty cannot, by law, give a direction to any court for to rehear any cause depending therein, but rehearings are granted, or denied, by courts of equity, on petition of the parties grieved, to such court as shall be judged proper.” (From the opinion of Edward Northey, given to the Board of Trade, 19 December, 1717, in Opinions of Eminent Lawyers on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce of Great Britain. Collected, and digested from the originals, in the Board of Trade, and other depositories. By George Chalmers, Esq., F. R. S. and S. A. London, 1814, ii. 177. This work is generally cited as Chalmers’s Opinions.)

176 I am indebted to Mr. Edward M. Borrajo of the Guildhall Library, London, for the following information concerning Ralph Gulston: —

“In the Gentleman’s Magazine (ix 161) the death of Ralph Gulston, Esq., Turkey Merchant, is recorded under date March 11, 1739. This Gulston was a member of a distinguished family which traces its pedigree from Sir Ralph Gulston, knighted on the field of Cressy by the Black Prince, a. d. 1316; he was the second son of William Gulston, and grandson of Joseph Gulston, Dean of Chichester, Chaplain and Almoner of Charles I., and present with him at his execution. Ralph was born in 1684, and appears to have died without issue. That this Ralph Gulston was identical with your man seems probable. I may add that the address given in a directory of the time is ‘Great St. Helen’s.’”

Mr. Henry E. Woods was kind enough to look up this matter, and through independent sources of information reached the same conclusion as Mr. Borrajo.

177 6 Massachusetts Historical Collections (Belcher Papers), vii. 479. Letter, 9 December, 1734, to the Duke of Newcastle, etc. This letter is as follows: —

May it please your Grace:

The 18: of last mo: I rec’d the honour of his Majestys commands by y^r Graces letter of the 3^d of October respecting a complaint made by Mr Gulston the contractor for supplying His Majestys Navy with masts from this Country which letter with the copy of the Complaint inclos’d by your Grace I first of all laid before His Majestys Council here and then before the General Assembly now sitting that the whole Legislature might exert themselves in an affair that so highly concerns the good of the service and the inclos’d print will give your Grace an account of the particular steps taken for the better preservation of His Majestys Woods.

Then follows what is quoted in the text.

178 Thinking that possibly there might be something among the Privy Council Records which would throw some light upon these proceedings, I made application to the Privy Council Office for information upon the subject. I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Thomas Preston, Record Clerk, for the following: —

“The Registers contain just bare minutes of the proceedings & the orders. The dates are as follows: —

Heard	2 April 1736
Petn to enforce order	21 Decr 1738
Report & order	23 Feb 1738
Further order	22 Mar 1738”

179 Willis, in his History of Portland, gives us the following particulars concerning Emery: —

“Noah Emery of Kittery was for many years the only lawyer in Maine; he commenced practice about 1725, and although not regularly bred to the profession, he was a man of talents, a ready draftsman, and had considerable practice. On one occasion, between 1720 and 1730, an action of trespass was commenced in the Inferior Court of York by Matthew Livermore for the plaintiff. William Shirley of Boston, afterward Governor of Massachusetts, for the defendant, filed a special plea; but as special pleading was rarely used in that day and by the practising attorneys of those times little understood, and much less by the Court, the plea was answered by some ore tenus observations by the plaintiff’s counsel, and the cause went to trial ‘somehow or other.’ The verdict was for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed to the Superior Court, where the cause went again in favor of the plaintiff and execution issued. The defendant entered a complaint to the King in Council, and an order was issued thereon to set the whole proceedings aside, on account of the defective pleadings in the Inferior Court. The order of restitution was addressed to the Superior Court, and Mr. Auchmuty, an able lawyer of Boston, made an earnest application to the Court to have the order carried into effect; the Court was somewhat perplexed on the occasion, but Mr. Emery, as counsel for the plaintiff, drew up an answer to Mr. Auchmuty’s petition, in substance as follows: That the Superior Court of Judicature was a court constituted by the law of the Province, whereby they were authorized to hear and determine such civil matters therein mentioned as were made cognizable by them, and to render judgment thereon, and to issue execution pursuant to their own judgment and not otherwise. And if counsel for the defendant in this case had obtained a different judgment from what appeared upon their records, he must go there for his execution, as they were not by law empowered to issue any execution contrary to the record of their own judgment. The Court were satisfied with this answer, and complimented Mr. Emery upon the manner in which he relieved them from their embarrassment. Mr. Auchmuty acquiesced in the decision.” [Reference, Judge Sewall MSS.] (The History of Portland from 1632 to 1864: With a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine, by William Willis, second edition, Portland, 1865, pp. 616, 617.)

Notwithstanding the variations between the account of the above suit and the story of Frost v. Leighton, there can be but little doubt that this is an attempt to tell the story of that suit from memory.

180 The Board of Trade were advised to the contrary by their counsel: “And as to the instructions given to the Governor mentioned in the petition, whereby he is restrained from allowing an appeal in any case under the value of £500 sterling, that does restrain the Governor only from granting of appeals under that value, notwithstanding which, it is in his Majesty’s power, upon a petition, to allow an appeal in cases of any value, where he shall think fit, and such appeals have been often allowed by his Majesty.” . . . (From the opinion of Edward Northey, 19 December, 1717, on a petition to the Board of Trade, by William Cockburn, from a decision rendered against him in Jamaica. Chalmers’s Opinions, ii. 177).

181 Cf. Massachusetts Reports, cvi. 479–489, 489–498; cxix. 1–28.

182 The words in parentheses were inserted by Ames, J., without indicating where they properly belong. — George F. Tucker, Reporter of Decisions.

183 Pennsylvania Chronicle (newspaper), No. 41, from Monday, October 26th, to Monday. November 2d, 1767.

184 Franklin boarded for fifteen years with Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, whose daughter Mary married Dr. William Hewson, F. R. S. (Bigelow’s Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin (edition of 1887, 1888), ii. 522, note.)

185 Tuthill Hubbart, who succeeded James Franklin, was Postmaster till the Revolution; was Selectman of Boston, 1781–1784; and died, on the site of Sears’s Building, 17 January, 1808, aged 88.

186 “An Epitaph &c To the much esteem’d Memory of B. . . . . F. . . . . . . Esq,’ L. L. D. * * * Possessed of many lucrative Offices Procured to him by the Interest of Men Whom he infamously treated, And receiving enormous Sums from this Province, For Services He never performed After betraying it to Party and Contention, He lived, as to the Appearance of Wealth In Moderate Circumstances. His principal Estate, seeming to consist In his Hand Maid Barbara A most valuable Slave, The Foster Mother of his last Offspring Who did his dirty Work And in two Angelic Females, whom Barbara also served As Kitchen Wench and Gold Finder. But alas the Loss! Providence for wise tho’ secret Ends Lately deprived him of the Mother of Excellency.”^α

^α Governor William Franklin.

187 Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography for 1893, xvii. 256.

188 Samuel Soumien was a silversmith and lived only a few doors from the Franklins in Philadelphia.

189 The names of the gentlemen who constituted this Committee are given in connection with the proceedings of the December Meeting of the Society.

190 The Committee was composed of Messrs. George S. Hale, George M. Lane, Edward Wheelwright, Seth C. Chandler, and S. Lothrop Thorndike.

191 The Class of 1844, Harvard College. Prepared for the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of their Graduation, Cambridge, 1869.

192 Verses by Charles Henry Boylston Snow, Class Poet, recited at a Class meeting in 1864.

193 Reference to these papers is made in the Proceedings of the Society for November, 1896, and January, 1897, Second Series, xi. 183, 221–226.

194 By an Act of the General Court (chap. 95 of the Acts of 1790) passed 11 March, 1797, the Records of the Court after 1 August, 1797, were to be kept in the respective Counties. — The General Laws of Massachusetts (edition of 1823), i. 536.

195 See Freeman’s Norman Conquest (second edition), i. 640; iv. 736. Edric “the Wild,” though his career is very obscure, is prominent enough to figure in the background of Kingsley’s “Hereward.”

196 This letter has the Weld crest, with the motto Auspicium melioris ævi; Nil sine Numine.

197 See Publications of this Society, i. 153.

198 Province Laws, ii. 586.

199 See a copy of this Petition, ante, pp. 211, p. 242.

200 Mr. Thomas Hills.

201 Acts of 1861, chap. 183.

202 Page 2

203 Page 3.

204 Page 23.

205 Page 27.

206 Miss Susan Whitney died at Taunton, Massachusetts, 16 November, 1880, aged 80 years. Her school for boys and girls, in Boston, —was kept in the basement of the First Church, in Chauncy Place.

207 The line of descent from the emigrant ancestor was through the Rev. Michael (H. C. 1651), Prof. Edward (H. C. 1710), Prof. Edward (H. C. 1749), Thomas (H. C. 1793), and Edward (H. C. 1822), — the father of our late associate.

208 John Forrester Andrew was descended from the Higginson, Pickering, Grafton, Otis, Crushing, and other prominent New England families.

209 Memorial address on Governor John A. Andrew, by Parke Godwin.

210 The Officers of the Young Men’s Republican and Independent Club of Boston were as follows: —

President, John F. Andrew; Vice-Presidents, Roger Wolcott, Francis Leeds, Henry W. Putnam, Lewis U. Tucker, and Henry H. Edes; Secretary, John T. Wheelwright; Assistant-Secretary, Francis C. Lowell; Treasurer, Arthur L. Woodman.

211 Andrew had early been urged by the Tariff Reformers to accept the Congressional nomination, but it was decided by him and those whom he consulted that the general cause could be pushed more advantageously if he were the candidate for the Governorship on a platform supporting the reforms which he especially sought to advance.

212 During his absence in Europe in the summer of this year he was mentioned as the probable Democratic candidate, and as he had authorized Mr. Moorfield Storey to decline for him in case his nomination was seriously considered, Mr. Storey did so in an open letter to Hon. P. A. Collins, then the Chairman of the Democratic State Committee.

213 Hon. Scott Wike, now Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, in an interview published in Boston Herald, 1 June, 1895.

214 The re-organization of the Fourth-Class Postmasterships in accordance with the recommendations of the De Forest Report could not be accomplished, as the Fifty-fourth Congress refused to grant the requisite transfer of appropriations requested by Postmaster-General Wilson.

215 Mr. Andrew married 11 October, 1883, Harriet, daughter of Nathaniel and Cornelia (Van Rensselaer) Thayer of Boston. She died 16 September, 1891, leaving two daughters, Cornelia-Thayer, and Elizabeth.

216 This Bill proposed the increase of circulation of National Banks to the par value of the bonds held to secure it, the repeal of the tax on circulation, and the reduction of the bond deposits; also the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

217 A Constitutional Prohibitory Amendment was presented by the Republicans, in 1886, for popular vote. Andrew said in a speech of this campaign in regard to this prohibitory legislation: “We need no more laws; we should better enforce the laws we already have. An Act of the Legislature never yet made a man temperate.”

218 Publications, i. 19.

219 At the time of the appointment of this Committee Mr. Endicott was serving on two similar committees of other organizations. He therefore asked to be excused from service, and Mr. Henry H. Edes was appointed by the President to fill the vacancy thus created.

220 This may refer to James Anderson, of Boston, who was an Addresser of Hutchinson and of Gage; but more probably the person referred to was Samuel Anderson, of New York, who, at the beginning of the Revolution, went to Canada, where he held, successively, high judicial offices under the Crown. See Sabine’s Loyalists of the American Revolution (edition of 1864), i. 164.

221 This is probably intended for Lincoln, the fifth and sixth letters being transposed. Mr. James’s mother was descended from the Lincolns. See History of Hingham, ii. 380, 381.

222 General James Warren.

223 General Benjamin Lincoln.

224 The Rev. Caleb Gannett (H. C. 1763) and his first wife, Katherine Wendell, are here referred to. He was Steward of Harvard College from 1779 till his death in 1818.

225 She was probably a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Gretian) Pinkney. See post, pp. 895, 396, notes.

226 Published by the Town in 1893.

227 See also “John Gay of Dedham, Mass., and some of his Descendants,” by Frederick Lewis Gay, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for January, 1879, xxxiii. 45–57, from which the authors of the History of Hingham appear to have copied.

228 See post, p. 398, note 3.

229 Suffolk Probate Files. No. 16,842.

230 In the Roll of Members, &c., published by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1895, Martin Gay is erroneously set down as Captain under the year 1772. In 1770 he was Lieutenant. He was Captain for one year only.

231 This was the Building now occupied as the West End Branch of the Boston Public Library.

232 The Columbian Centinel (No. 2592) of Saturday, 4 February, 1809, records his death on the previous morning, and announces his funeral on the following Monday “at half past 8 o’clock from his late, dwelling house on Union Street.”

233 See List of “Addressers” in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for October, 1870, xi. 392–395. Also, Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, iii. 459.

234 Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, ii. 294–296. See also the Rev. Edward G. Porter’s Rambles in Old Boston, p. 98.

235 This List is commonly known as Barrell’s List. It is printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for December, 1880, xviii. 266–268.

236 See also Mr. Frederick Lewis Gay’s article in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for January, 1879, xxxiii. 45–57, already cited on p. 384, ante.

237 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 18,785, Bond of Timothy Atkins et al., dated 9 December, 1794.

238 See Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16,950.

239 Swansey or Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts.

240 Suffolk Deeds, xcv. 196–198. The second of these conveyances (Gay to Gay) is from the parents of Martin Gay, viz,— “Ebenezer Gay of Hingham, clerk, & Jerusha, his wife.” Mrs. Gay was one of the four daughters of Hannah Bradford.

241 See plan drawn by Osgood Carleton, 7 February, 1814.

242 From plans drawn in 1814 by Osgood Carleton, and in 1881 by Alexander Wadsworth, for subsequent owners of the estate, it appears that the site is now, in part, covered by the modern buildings numbered 56–58 and 60–62 Union Street, near Hanover Street, and opposite the entrance to Marshall Street. A large part of the rear portion was cut off in laying out Friend Street, in 1855, but the line of frontage on Union Street remains, measuring, however, 48 ⁷⁰/₁₀₀ feet instead of 44 feet, according to the old measurement. Something has probably been added from the adjoining estate on the north, belonging to the same owners, in order to equalize more nearly the width of the three buildings. All resemblance to the former aspect of the premises has entirely disappeared. “The great entry way” was long since closed and built upon. The numbering of Union Street has been frequently changed; in 1840 the building covering the site of Martin Gay’s front shop was No. 22.

243 See Act of 1 May, 1779 (chap. 49), Province Laws, v. 968–971, 1056, 1057.

244 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16,842. See Acts of 1776–77 (chap. 38, sect. 5), Province Laws, v. 631.

245 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16,842.

246 This Appeal was allowed by Chap. 278 of the Resolves of 1781, approved 30 October of that year.

247 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16,842.

248 Mrs. Gay is so styled by inadvertence, as her husband was still living.

249 John Lowell, the Agent of the estate, was a Boston merchant and auctioneer, a member of the Committee of Correspondence and, in 1776, Deputy-Secretary of the Executive Council. He was cousin-german to his more distinguished namesake, Judge John Lowell (1743–1802), and died in Boston, 1 June, 1793, œ. 54 years.

250 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 18, 785. The estate was not settled until 1794.

251 See Hassam’s Confiscated Estates of Boston Loyalists in 2 Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings for May, 1895, x. 162–185.

252 Beside the estate on Union Street, Martin Gay, at the time of his leaving Boston, owned a house and land on Winter Street. This was also leased by John Lowell, Agent, until sold to John Davis, of Boston, shopkeeper, for £225, “money.” (Suffolk Deeds, cxxxvi. 228.) In this sale no right of dower was reserved. In the Inventory of the estate of Martin Gay, Absentee, 2 April, 1779, the Mansion House, workshop, stable, and land belonging to the same were appraised at £9000. 0. 0, and the House and land in Winter Street at £600. 0. 0. (Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16,842.)

253 Suffolk Deeds, clxviii. 122.

254 See ante, p. 384 and note 1. There is, to be sure, a difference in spelling. Martin Gay’s wife is called Mary Pinckney; the daughter of John and Elizabeth was Mary Pinkney.

255 See Genealogies of the Payne and Gore Families, published by the Prince Society, 1875, and in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for January, 1875, xiii. 405–424. See also the will of John Pinckney in Suffolk Probate Files, No. 7219. For a further account of Christopher Gore, see Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), ii. 430; Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, ii. 470–480 and notes; and 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iii. 191.

256 Chap. 85 of the Resolves of 1807.

257 Suffolk Deeds, ccxxii. 168.

258 Ibid, ccxxx. 301.

259 It seems not to have been thought necessary to make Christopher Gore a party to this conveyance, though the legal title to the estate conveyed would seem to have been at the time vested in him as Trustee. It was probably assumed that the purposes for which the trust was created had been accomplished, — that it had executed itself. Its provisions are rehearsed in the deed to Davis.

260 From this amount should be deducted the £380 lawful money paid by Timothy Atkins at the sale, 15 June, 1786, and the $1,680 paid by Mrs. Ruth Gay, 23 June, 1807. (Suffolk Deeds, ccxxii. 168.)

261 Suffolk Deeds, ccxxii. 302.

262 It is entitled Fifty Years with the Revere Copper Company. A paper read at the Stockholders’ Meeting held on Monday, 24 March, 1890. By its Treasurer, S. T. Snow. Boston: Printed by request and for use of the Stockholders.

263 The Boston Directory of 1796 records the name of Robert Crocker, brass founder, on Edwards’ wharf, Back Street, whose house was also on Back Street.

264 Mr. Snow thinks that it was through this association that Martin Gay acquired the designation of “Brass founder,” sometimes applied to him. In all original documents examined, of early date, where his calling is mentioned, he is styled “Brazier” or “Coppersmith;” in later documents, “gentleman.”

In the Act of the year 1778 (chap. 24), “to prevent the return to this State of certain persons therein named,” etc., the name of Martin Gay is followed by the designation “Founder.” (Province Laws, v. 913, 1004–1009.) Also, in the Inventory of the Estate of Martin Gay, Absentee, taken and appraised 2 April, 1779, one of the items (besides the founder’s mould already mentioned) is “Founder’s pattin [?], £8. 15. 0.” (Suffolk Probate Files, 16,842.)

265 Fifty Years with the Revere Copper Company, p. 21.

266 Fifty Years with the Revere Copper Company, p. 21. In a note Mr. Snow adds: “The foregoing is taken largely from Mr. Joseph T.Buckingham’s Letter, No. XVII., in The Saturday Evening Gazette, of May 21,1859. It is understood that the facts contained therein were obtained by him directly from Mr. Davis.”

267 Ibid. p. 22.

268 Ibid. p. 13.

269 Occasional Sermons; Notes, p. 68.

270 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 23,280.

271 Given in Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 311, 312.

272 William Dummer.

273 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts Bay (edition of 1768), ii. 292.

274 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts Bay (edition of 1768), ii. 290, note

275 Magnalia (edition of 1702), Book iv. p. 131.

276 Ben: Perley Poore’s The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States, ii. 1904

277 Henry Vane, elected Governor in 1636 partly on account of his father’s high social position in England, was not knighted until his return to England.

278 Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), i. 160, 161; Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts Bay (edition of 1765), i. 490–495.

279 “Hereditary honors both nature and scripture doth acknowledge, but hereditary authority and power standeth only by the civil laws.” — Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts Bay (edition of 1765), i. 493 (Appendix).

280 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 167 et al.; also Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), i. 363, 364.

281 Felt’s Ecclesiastical History of New England, i. 135.

282 Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), ii. 19.

283 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 95, — 13 November, 1644.

284 History of Massachusetts Bay (edition of 1765), ii. 9. Hutchinson considered the House of Lords the bulwark of the British Constitution, curbing both the Crown and the people.

285 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 17, note. For some years the title Mr. was given in the records to the Assistants of the Colony, although the Governor Deputy Governor, and some of the Assistants were styled Esquires. This was followed by a period when the title Gentleman was accorded to all of these; and this again was followed by the custom, lasting down to the overthrow of the first Royal Charter, of naming them Esquires. See Massachusetts Colony Records, passim.

286 James Phinney Baxter’s Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine (Prince Society’s Publications), ii. 127.

287 Rev. Edmund F. Slafter’s Sir William Alexander and American Colonization (Prince Society’s Publications), p. 233; Rymer’s Fœdera, xix. 301; Traité entre le Roi Louis XIII. et Charles Roi d’Angleterre pour la Restitution de la Nouvelle Fiance, la Cadie et Canada, 1632

288 Schuyler’s Colonial New York: Philip Schuyler and his Family, i. 12 et al.

289 New York Colonial Documents (edition of 1853), iii. 72 et al.

290 Schuyler’s Colonial New York, i. 275. Cf. New York Colonial Documents, iv. 823.

291 New York Colonial Documents, ii. 619 note.

292 Ibid. iv. 823; also Schuyler’s Colonial New York, i. 199.

293 New York Colonial Documents, iv. 829.

294 Learning and Spicer’s Grants and Concessions of New Jersey, p. 609; also New Jersey Archives, ii. 462.

295 Hazard’s Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 489.

296 William H. Egle’s History of Pennsylvania, p. 281 et al.

297 Maryland Archives, i. 20. An Act was passed in March, 1637–38, against “aliening” manors; also an Act passed to establish baronies. The manors of Bridgewater, of Talbot, of Arundell, of Lady Baltimore and others mentioned in the Maryland Archives appear to have been tracts of land so designated without possessing any special privileges. See also Ibid. vi. 134, 205 et al.

298 Colonial Records of North Carolina, i. Prefatory Notes, p. xviii.

299 Historical Collections of Georgia, by George White, p. 20.

300 Major Simon Willard, who arrived in Boston in May, 1634, was thrice married, his first wife having been Mary Sharpe, his second wife Elizabeth Dunster, and his third wife Mary Dunster. Miss Willard’s descent from him was through Samuel (H. C. 1659), Vice-President of the College, 1700–1707; John (H. C. 1690); Samuel (H. C. 1723); Joseph (H. C. 1765), LL.D., President of the College, 1781–1804; Joseph (H. C. 1816), and Robert (H. C. 1860), M. D. See Willard Memoir, pp. 350, 351, 365 et al.

301 An account of the opening of Dunster’s grave in the old Cambridge Cemetery, 1 July, 1846, is printed in Palfrey’s History of New England, ii. 534, note; further details, including an account of the discovery of the grave, are in Chaplin’s Life of Henry Dunster, pp. 225–230. At that time the Corporation renewed the tablet over the tomb. This last tablet having been broken into several pieces, and the vault being in need of repair, a few of the graduates of the college, with the consent of the President and Fellows, have recently caused the tomb to be repaired, and have placed over it a slab of North River stone, into which the fragments of the old tablet have been set in cement. The work has been done at the expense of David P. Kimball of the Class of 1856, Francis H. Brown and Franklin Haven of 1857, Charles P. Bowditch of 1863, William L. Richardson of 1864, Heman W. Chaplin of 1867, Amory A. Lawrence and Otis Norcross of 1870, Charles M. Green of 1874, and Grenville H. Norcross of 1875. Cf. Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. 266–269, where it is maintained that the grave is not that of Dunster, but that of the Rev. Jonathan Mitchell, who succeeded the Rev. Thomas Shepard in the pulpit of the Cambridge Church, and who wrote an Elegy on Dunster; and Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, pp. 15 and note, 140, where the Latin epitaph, written by Charles Folsom in 1846, may be read.

302 Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, p. 8.

303 Middlesex County Court Records, 1 April–25 June, 1656, i. 77, 83, 87, in Thomas’s History of Printing (edition of 1810), i. 229, 458–466.

304 Palfrey’s History of New England, ii. 534, note. The will of Sir Henry Mildmay of Graces mentions no son William.

305 Lechford’s Plain Dealing (Trumbull’s edition), pp. 122, 123, and notes.

306 See Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, p. 15.

307 Edward Jackson was a generous benefactor of the College, and had already served, with Increase Nowell and others, on a Committee which settled Thomas Welds’s account 25th 8th month, 1651. He was an honored citizen of Cambridge Village (Newton) and sat in the General Court sixteen years, between 1617 and 1676. He died 17 June, 1681, œt. 79, leaving a large estate. See Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 458, 474, 506, 512, 513; Massachusetts Colony Records, passim; Jackson’s History of Newton, pp. 330–333; and Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 593.

308 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. (Part I.), 178–180. This Order was also recorded in the House Journal, 14 September, 1653. See Ibid. iii. 331, 332.

309 It thus appears that Dunster arrived in Boston early in August, 1640, not “in the autumn of 1610,” as stated by Quincy in his History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 14. Cf. Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence (Poole’s edition), p. 162.

310 Dunster married (1) Elizabeth (Harris), widow of the Rev. Jose (or Josse) Glover, 22 June, 1641. As the spelling and pronunciation of Glover’s given name have been the subject of much discussion, it is not inapposite to call attention to the fact that, to this day, Jŏsse — pronounced as one syllable — is the common contraction for Joshua in Lancashire, and, perhaps, elsewhere in the north of England. Cf. Glover Memorials, p. 564; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxx. 26–28; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 208, 209; and Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. 559, 560.

311 Joseph Cooke was a prominent citizen of Cambridge, of which he was a Commissioner, Selectman, and Town Clerk. He lived on the east side of Holyoke Street near Holyoke Place, and represented the town in the General Court six years. Under date of 30 October, 1651, the records of that body contain the following entry: —

“Itt is ordered, that Capt̃ Daniell Gooking, M^r Joseph Cooke, or M^r Henry Dunster, shallbe, and is heereby, inipowred to marry M^r John Apleton and M^rs Priscilla Glover, who have been published at Cambridge, according to lawe.” (Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. (Part I.), 74).

Priscilla Glover was the youngest daughter of the Rev. Jose (or Josse) Glover, consequently Dunster’s step-daughter. Paige tells us that Cooke went to England in 1658, and that it is not known that he returned to America. See History of Cambridge, pp. 40, 513, 560; and Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 275.

312 Hugh Peter sailed for England 3 August, 1641; and Samuel Shepard was excused from further service as a member of the General Court, 18 October, 1645, “being to goe for England,” where both joined the Parliamentary Army. See Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), ii. 37, 38; Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 275, iii. 52; and Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. 653, 654, where a full account of Major Shepard, who was a half-brother of the Rev. Thomas Shepard, the elder, may be read. See also post, p. 454.

313 See Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 93–98, 216, 217. The Records of the Commissioners of the United Colonies fill Volumes ix. and x. of the Plymouth Colony Records, where they are printed in full from the contemporary manuscript copy which belonged to the Old Colony.

314 “Cyguatea or Cigoteo, but known also as Eleutheria, Eleuthera, Ethera, Alabaster, and the Bahama Island,” also as Segotea. The circumstances attending this gift and the occasion of it have been fully told by Air. Sibley. The persecuted people of this Island sent to the College, in 1658, another gift of £124, “out of their poverty.” See Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 139; and Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 507, and note.

315 This doubtless refers to the plan for maintaining poor scholars at Cambridge submitted by the Rev. Thomas Shepard to the Commissioners for the United Colonies, 30 September, 1644. See Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 20, 21; and Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 15 et seq.

316 The Rev. Urian Oakes (H. C. 1649), afterwards President of the College, is doubtless here referred to. His name appears in the Quinquennial Catalogue (pp. 10, 35) in the lists of Fellows and Tutors followed by a query; and his term of service — 1650 to 1652 — is also questioned. Dunster’s statement, taken in connection with the entry in the Steward’s Account Book (i. 11, 12), apparently removes these doubts. There was a close friendship between Oakes and the younger Thomas Shepard, who was settled later over the Charlestown Church as colleague with the Rev. Zechariah Symmes. Cf. Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 173, 548.

317 It is not improbable that the other “fellow” to be thus maintained by the Hartford, Connecticut, Colony was a classmate of Oakes, — Samuel Eaton, eldest son of Gov. Theophilus Eaton, of New Haven, who, according to Mather (Magnalia, edition of 1702, book ii. p. 28), maintained his son “in the Colledge until he proceeded Master of Arts,” which was in 1652, — the year before Dunster was writing. Samuel Eaton was one of the five original Fellows named in the College Charter of 1650. See Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 589; and Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 171, 172, 548.

318 See Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860) i. 455 et seq., where these accounts appear, but without dates.

319 These marks occur in the original paper. They do not indicate that any part of this letter has been omitted in printing.

320 The Rev. John Norton, who was bred at St. Peter’s College, Cambridge.

321 It does not clearly appear whether Leverett’s name was inadvertently omitted from the superscription of this letter or whether he did not sit with the “Commissioners,” which is not improbable. His services were constantly required for important military and civil occasions of every kind. In May of this very year (1653), and for more than a year following, he was a prominent figure in the troubles with the Dutch; and for a considerable part of this time he was out of the country. Early in 1651 Cromwell sent hither ships and troops for the reduction of New York. This expedition was put in charge of Robert Sedgwick and John Leverett, who bore the title of “His Highness’s Commissioners.” Leverett wrote to the Protector from Boston, 4 July, 1654, a letter in which he refers to “my last from Fiall of the first of May, 1654,” and to his “saife arrival in Boston the fifth of June following.”

It is not difficult, therefore, to see that Leverett’s public engagements in a military capacity during the autumn of 1653 and the following winter and spring probably precluded his giving to the affairs of the College that close attention which their importance demanded, and that he preferred to leave to his four competent associates the responsibility of making the investigation and “retourne” ordered by the General Court. — See Plymouth Colony Records, x. 26–30 et al.: Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. and iv. (Part I.) passim; Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts Bay (edition of 1765), i. 179–183; Palfrey’s History of New England, ii. passim; and Thurloe’s State Papers, ii. 425.

322 Cf. Johnson’s Wonder Working Providence (Poole’s edition), p. cxv.

323 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. (Part I.), 186, 187.

324 See Backus’s History of the Baptists in New England (edition of 1871), i. 290; and Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, i. 102, 312, 313, and 428.

325 Deane’s History of Scituate, p. 180. Cf. Ibid. p. 248; and Palfrey’s History of New England, ii. 533, 534, notes.

During the years 1653–1657 Dunster was harassed by no less than fourteen lawsuits brought by his step-children John Glover and Mrs. Priscilla (Glover) Appleton (ante p. 420, note) and others for an accounting of his stewardship of the Glover property. See Willard Memoir, pp. 178–180 and notes; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 210, 211; and Middlesex County Court Records, i. 79, 83, 87, in Thomas’s History of Printing (edition of 1810), i. 205, 222, 458–466

326 See Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 148–152, 155.

327 History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 14, 15. See also Magnolia (edition of 1702), book iv. sect. 10, pp. 175, 176; and ante, p. 416, note.

328 Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, New Series, vi. 323–349.

329 Chap. xix. pp. 164, 165 (Poole’s edition).

330 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 242 et seq.

331 History of New England (edition of 1853), ii. 105.

332 Ibid. ii. 165.

333 Princeton Sketches (1893), p. 150.

334 Page 42.

335 The Princeton Book (1879), p. 14.

336 Writings of James Madison (1860), i. 4.

337 J. Maclean’s History of the College of New Jersey (1877), ii. 47, 48.

338 Discourses, p. 276.

339 Ways of Yale (1895), p. 6. 55

340 See Postscript on p. 437, post.

341 1774, January, C. C. Beatty, in J. F. Hageman’s History of Princeton and its Institutions (1879), i. 102.

342 1787, November 26, Ibid. ii. 316.

343 1807, in J. Maclean’s History of the College of New Jersey (1877), ii. 80.

344 M. LaBorde’s History of the South Carolina College (1859), p. 129. The date of this resolve was 1821, — the earliest use of the term at any college except Princeton.

345 1824, J. W. Alexander’s Forty Years’ Familiar Letters (1860), i. 57. The writer was a professor at Princeton.

346 Finch’s Travels in the United States and Canada (1833), p. 282. The writer refers to Princeton.

347 L. R. Gibbes, in M. LaBorde’s History of the South Carolina College (1859), p. 197.

348 S. W. Fisher, in Semi-Centennial Celebration of Hamilton College (1862), p. 82, note.

349 1871, A. C. Dayton’s Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York (1897), p. 162. In 1857 Columbia College was removed to its present site. It is doubtful whether Campus was ever actually in use during the occupation of the original site.

350 1870, W. A. Stearns, in Opening of Walker Hall, Amherst College (1871), p. 32. The writer was then President of Amherst, where the term was beginning to be adopted.

351 G. R. Cutting’s Student Life at Amherst College (1871), p. 113.

352 W. Wells, Union College, in The College Book (1878), p. 187.

353 H. J. Van Dyke, Jr., in The Princeton Book (1879), p. 375.

354 Annual Catalogue of the University of Rochester, 1895–96, p. 13.

355 E. M. Hyde’s Lehigh University: A Historical Sketch (1896), p. 36.

356 Catalogue of Ohio Wesleyan University, 1896, pp. 80, 89.

357 The Indiana University: Illustrated Announcement (about 1896), p. 5.

358 Suffolk Court Files, vol. xxviii, group-number 2.331.

359 Magnalia (edition of 1702), book iv., p. 130.

360 Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, p. 25; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 166, 167.

361 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 417.

362 Ibid. i. 419.

363 Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, p. 28.

364 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 423.

365 Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, p. 166. See also Quincy’s History of Harvard University (edition of 1860), i. 513.

366 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates iii. 354, 355; and Sewall’s Diary, ii. 320.

367 Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 562.

368 Ibid. p. 580.

369 Ibid. pp. 558, 559

370 Middlesex County Court Files, October Term, 1672. Cf. Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 226; and Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, ii. 416, 417.

371 Middlesex County Court Records, iii. 35, 37.

372 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, ii. 416; and Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. 625, 626.

373 Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 625.

374 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, ii. 428.

375 Ibid. ii. 455.

376 Ibid. iii. 208.

377 Ibid. iii. 169.

378 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 217.

379 See ante, p. 420 and note.

380 The Proprietors’ Records of Cambridge, p. 77; Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. xv, xvii, 610, 653.

381 The Proprietors’ Records of Cambridge, p. 88; Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. xv, xvii, 512, 564. The doubt which Paige records as to Gookin’s occupancy of this estate is removed by Oakes’s deposition.

382 I.

To the Constable of Cambridge.

In his Ma^ties name.

you are required to warne Samuel Gebson that he appeare at the Court to be held to morrow at this Towne then and there to answ^r for wrong doing, fraudelency & injustice to Herbert Pelham, Esq^r. by receiveing & taking his sonnes Apparll theu stud^t of Harvard Colledge, & under Age of 21: yeares, without consent of Parents, Guardian, Tutor, or other y^t [have ?] ye dispose & goverm’ of him, & concealing & deteyning ye same from y^m contrary to rules of justice & equity, and her of you are to mak a true return under your hand & not to faile. date 30. 7. 1672.

Thomas Daxforth, Assis^t.

This warrent was served upon Samuell Gibson according to the Tenor of it by me

John Goue

Consta^l

1 (8) 82

[Endorsed] Warrant for Sam^l. Gibson.

Apparrell y^t Samuel Gibson hath had of M^r Pelhams sonne. 1 p^r.of new breeches conteyneing 3 yd^s. Devonshir Kersie. 8^s. yd.		01 — 04 — 0
To making, 2^s 6^d. Pockets. thred, & silk 18^d		00 — 04 — 0
1 Great Coate of bro. cloath. 24^s. yds. 2: yds. ³/₂ [sic] —
	is 3^s. 00 — 00
making & tremeng.	00 — 06 — 00
	3: 06. 00
Abate ye ½ for w^t it had been worn, the remainder is		01 — 13 — 00
The whole is		03 — 01 — 00

— (Middlesex County Court Files, October Term, 1672)

383 At a County Court held at Charlestown Dec. 15, 1674. . . . Samuel Gibson appearing before the Court to answer the p^r sentm^t of the Grand Jury for a pound breach. He is convicted of being guilty thereof, & to pay costs, & the fine imposed by law is respited untill next Court. — Middlesex County Court Records, iii. 107.

At a County Court held at Cambridge April 6, 1675. . . . Samuel Gibson appearing before the Court & refusing to take the Oath tendred for clearing hiins: of a Pound breach. The Court ordered y^t the fine should be respited untill the Court gave further order. — Ibid. iii. 112.

At a County Court held at Cambridge, by speciall order of the Gen^ll. Court. Decemb^r. 18, 1678. . . . Samuel Gibson appearing before the Court, On vehement suspicot of his breaking open the house of Elizabeth Belcher, & stealing a p^s of linnen. On his examination he stands convicted of being out unseasonably, neere to y^e place where the aboves^d damage was done and not giveing a satisfactory ausw^r to the Court of his being abroad so unseasonably at the s^d place, he is sentenced to pay a fine of forty shill: money, or to ly hi Bridwell three dayes.

Samuel Gibson made his Appeale to y^e next Court of Assist^ts.

Samuel Gibson as principle in five pounds Nath^ll. Hancock & Jn^o Gibson as his suretyes in 50^s. a p^e, do acknowledge y^ms to stand bound Joyntly & severally to the Tre͞r of the Coun. On Condiccon that Samuel Gibson shall prossecute his appeale to effect as the law injoynes Aud y^t in y^e meane time he shall be of the good behavio^r— Ibid. iii. 238, 239.

To the Honoured Countye Courte now Seting in Cambridge.

The humble Petition of Samuell Gibson sheweth that whereas your poore petitioner was bound ouer to the last Courte of this Countye upon ye Complainte of M^rs: Belcher whoe had suffered wronge in her Goods by night and your Petitioner being found abroade from his habitation y^e same night did give your honours Reason to adjuge your Petitioner to paye fortye shilings as a fine to ye Countye, but because your humble Petition^r: do knowe & professe his ignorance & inocencey of anye burte done to any bodye or Goods at y^t time, & for his owne parte in that matter can bringe the testimoney (as your honours have ben alredy inforin^d of Sam^ll: Goffe & Sam^ll: Green, therefore I humbly intreate y^t my Bonds of appeale maye bee made Nulle & voyade with y^e remition of my fine and it shall oblige mee in toake[n] of Thankefullues always to praye for yo^r: Honours happines

Sam^ll Gibson.

— (Middlesex County Court Files, October Term, 1678).

The Appeal seems never to have been entered in the Court of Assistants, as its Records show no such case. The Petition, presumably, was granted.

384 Oliver’s Case. — At the “Court of Common pleas holden at Edgertown Octb^r 1^st 95 M^r Samuell Gibson atturnnie to Nathaniel Oliver appeared.” Upon a plea to the jurisdiction the cause was “adjudged to be dismist.” The “petion^r by his Attorney appealed.” His appeal was refused. Oliver then petitioned the General Court “to take this mighty breach upon the undoubted Eight of the Subject and laws of this Land, into yo^r most Serious Consideration & provide Some Redress for so great a Grievance.” The General Court directed a hearing. When it came on “Matthew Mayhew Esq^r One of the said Justices Appeared & Justified the Denial” for want of “Jurisdiction . . . within Elsabeth Islands.” The justification was adjudged good. — Province Laws, vii. pp. 110, 491–496. The identity of Gibson, in this case, while not absolutely established, is made reasonably certain by many circumstances.

Gove v. Gibson. —Samuel Gibson, the defendant in an action brought by John Gove of Cambridge “before Joseph Lynde one of then Majesties Justices of Peace” for “Trespas for cuting and cariiug four trees, . . . plead that the Land upon which the Trees were cut did not belong to the Plant^ve but to the Town of Cambridge, whereof the Defend^t was ail Inhabitant and Proprietor,” and to the jurisdiction “for that the Title of Land wasconcern’d.” . . . “Judgment was giuen for the plaintif,” and “defen^at apealed to the next Court of Common pleas.” To his Reasons of Appeal signed by himself, assigning as the only ground want of jurisdiction, Anthony Checkley filed the Answers. At the September Term, 1695, “The Court . . . find the Judgment good . . .” &c.

Gibson then petitioned the General Court for “direction and assistance therein,” having “no relief or remedy in the premises in the ordinary course of Law;” assigning as his grievance that the plea to the jurisdiction “being overruled at y^e Inferiour Court, Judgement ought not to have been given finally and peremptorily, but he ought to have been permitted to plead issueably.” The General Court voted him a hearing. The two branches disagreed; conferences were ineffectual, and the matter slumbered till 1702, when Gibson presented another petition for a hearing, which was granted. This not coming off, Gibson again petitioned. This hearing was twice deferred. Finally, 5 November, 1703, the General Court —

“Ordered, That there be a full hearing of the said Cause upon the merits thereof at the next Inferiour Court of Common Pleas within the County of Middlesex. And the said Court is hereby directed and Impouered, to receive and hear the said Cause, Aud to do therein that which to Justice pertaineth according to Law.”

At the trial the former judgment was reversed. Gove appealed, and the case was concluded in the appellate Court at the July Term, 1704, the Court determining that in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, “the Tryal of the s^d Cause being in the nature of an Appeal from M^r Justice Lynde, the order of that Court is final & the Appellant can take nothing by his Appeal.” (Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, iii. 129.) However barren the victory, Gibson was at the last left in possession of the field. (Province Laws, vii. 111, 354, 369, 496–498, 728–730, 745; and viii. 9, 30–31, 263, 309, 310.)

There is also in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court in Boston a collection of papers originally used in different stages of the trial, — thirteen in number, petitions, orders of the General Court, pleadings, &c. (Suffolk Court Files, vol. lxi., group-number 6171.)

Gibson also appears as attorney for the plaintiff in Oliver r. Ray. (Suffolk Court Files, vol. dlxiv., group-number 1301, — “Fragments,” Two papers.)

Mr. Goodell’s Notes give a full history of the cases with complete transcripts from the Massachusetts Archives, Council Records, and Court Records. Too high an estimate can hardly be put on the value of these Notes to the several volumes of the Province Laws issued by Mr. Goodell. With indefatigable research, judgment, and exhaustive knowledge, a wealth of material has been gathered for the illustration of the legislation of that period. Law is not an exact science like mathematics, where what is true once is true for all time, and where results can be ciphered out, — it needs the light of History as an adjunct. And so of Laws, — a mere compilation is comparatively a barren schedule of enactments. The material here collected, from sources often not readily accessible and to a great degree unrecognized before, is ready for instant use. It is not merely for the antiquary, the genealogist, the sociologist, and the historian, but equally or more for the legislator, the lawyer, the judge, and the student of jurisprudence.

In conversation with one of our associates, the late Mr. Justice Devens, not long before his death, bestowed the highest praise upon Mr. Goodell’s method of editing the Province Laws, referring especially to the value of his elaborate Notes, adding: “We often hear it said that Mr. Goodell’s work is valuable only to the antiquary and genealogist; and yet in this very case of which I have been speaking, it would have been impossible for the Court to do justice as between the litigants without the aid of Mr. Goodell’s unique and matchless work.” In some three hundred cases the Province Laws have been cited in the Massachusetts Reports, and in many of these cases the Opinions show that much of the historical information which they contain was drawn from these Notes.

385 Jackson’s History of Newton, p. 445.

386 Ibid. p. 446.

387 Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. 20 note, 540.

388 The father died about 1676, and his estate had not been fully administered in 1700. In 1678, “during their nonage,” Jonathan and his brother Thomas were put under the guardianship of John Fayerweather and Arthur Mason, of Boston, and Amos Richardson, of Stonington, Conn., the maternal grandfather of the boys. (Suffolk Probate Files, Nos. 341, 811, 946.) This grandfather seems to have been well endowed with prudence and foresight and landed property. In 1073 he conveys to his —

“Son in Law . . . as a portion with his Wife, . . . in Cousiderac͠on of my parentall Lone to Jonathan Gatliffe of Boston in New England aforoSaid Marriner & his wife Mary Gatliffe my Eldest Daughter & of their Filiall afectiou to Mee . . . all that my house & Land Lieing & beeing in Boston afores^d, which for Seuerall years past hath bin in the Possession & tenu^r of hiin the Said Jonathan Gatliffe . . . And also a farme in Stoneington aforeS^d of two hundred Acres of Land . . . & Also halfe of my Land by the Dock . . . in Boston aforeSaid . . . in fee . . . Prouided always that the premisses nor any part thereof shall not be Sold by the Said Jonathan Gatliue except vponan Imergent otation to reileeme him out of Captiuty in case hee should be taken in Slauery or for the Sustentation of his family in case of Diuiue prouidence by Sickness or losses reducing him to pouerty.”

Anthony Checkley was one of the witnesses to the deed, which was acknowledged before Edward Tyng, Assis^t. — (Suffolk Deeds, viii. 290.)

389 Paige’s History of Cambridge, pp. 97, 572.

390 Ibid. p. 558.

391 Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 530.

392 Peirce’s History of Harvard University, p. 45.

393 Magnalia (edition 1702), book iv., page 129.

394 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 179.

395 Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, 1660 (Whitmore’s edition), pp. 136, 137.

396 Suffolk Court Files, vol. xii, group-number 1.174.

397 Records of the Corporation of Harvard College, 22 June, 1693.

398 Eliot’s Sketch of the History of Harvard College, p. 33.

399 Records of the Court of Assistants, ii. 192, 193.

400 The Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States met in Philadelphia 14 May, 1787, but a majority of the States not being represented the members adjourned, from day to day, until the twenty-fifth of the month, when an organization was effected and Washington was chosen President of that august body.

401 Probably the Independent Chronicle of 31 May, 1787, and the Columbian Centinel of 2 June, 1787, which contain lists of the members of the General Court in which the “new Comers” are indicated.

402 Nathan Dane, the writer of this letter, was at this time an able and influential member of the Old Congress then sitting in New York.

403 Dr. Samuel Holten, of Danvers.

404 Judge Gorham was born in May, 1738, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where he died 11 June, 1796. He was the most distinguished man who ever lived in Charlestown, where he was universally honored. Besides his judicial honors, Judge Gorham sat in the House, of which he was Speaker, in the Provincial Congress, the Board of War, the State Constitutional Convention of 1779, and the Old Congress, of which he was President. In the Convention which framed the Federal Constitution he took high rank, was chosen Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, presided over the Convention in Washington’s absence, and was put on important committees, including that to which the Resolutions of the Convention were referred, in July, for the purpose of draughting a Constitution. Judge Gorham subsequently exerted a powerful influence in securing the adoption of the Federal Constitution by Massachusetts.

405 The Society of Mayflower Descendents (sic) was incorporated 1 April, 1896 for patriotic, antiquarian, and historical purposes.

406 This Sketch proved too long for full insertion in the volume referred to, and with Gould’s entire approval considerable portions were omitted in printing. The original Sketch has been in the hands of the present writer.

407 This school was kept in a building which stood at the northwesterly corner of Kingston and Bedford Streets.

408 In the printed Catalogue of the Boston Latin School Gould appears as entering in 1835. This is surely wrong, and must signify that he entered the class entitled of that year.