MARCH MEETING, 1923

    A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at the house of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, No. 28 Newbury Street, Boston, on Thursday, 22 March, 1923, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President, Fred Norris Robinson, Ph.D., in the chair.

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

    The Recording Secretary stated that the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, executors under the will of Horace Everett Ware, had asked the Society, a legatee under the will, to pass the following vote; whereupon, it was unanimously

    Voted, That the Treasurer be and he hereby is authorized to sign a written assent on behalf of the Society to a petition to the Probate Court of Norfolk County praying for a partition of or sale of a certain parcel of vacant land situate on a way 17 feet wide in Milton, Massachusetts, of which the Society is the owner of an undivided seventy-second part under the will of Horace E. Ware late of said Milton; and said Treasurer is authorized to represent said Society in all matters pertaining to said petition to said Probate Court, and to execute, acknowledge and deliver on behalf of said Society any and all deeds and other instruments which may be necessary in the premises.

    The Recording Secretary also stated that the Society was a legatee under the will of our late Treasurer, Henry Herbert Edes, to receive the greater part of his books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, his Bank Book No. 11 in the Warren Institution for Savings in Charlestown, and also the residue of the trust fund after the death of the survivor of Grace Williamson Edes, Matilda Belches (now Matilda L. Ladd), and Ann Capen the younger. And at the request of the executor of Mr. Edes’s will, who wishes to turn over title to the first portion of this bequest before tax day (April first), the following preamble and vote were unanimously passed:

    Whereas, In the 6th article of the will of Henry Herbert Edes, he bequeaths to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts “my library of printed books, pamphlets and manuscripts, including the original Diaries of Peter Edes and John Leach kept in Boston Gaol in 1775, except such volumes or documents as may be otherwise bequeathed by this will, and I request the Society to allow such portion or the whole of this bequest to remain in the custody of my wife as she may elect;” therefore, it is—

    Voted, That the Society hereby accepts the above bequest subject to the conditions named.

    On behalf of Mr. Appleton P. C. Griffin, a Corresponding Member, a photostatic copy of a Commission was exhibited dated June 11, 1779, issued by “The Major Part of the Council of Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England,” appointing Hezekiah Broad528 “First Major of the fifth Regiment in the County of Middlesex whereof Abner Perry529 Esquire is Colonel.” It is signed by fifteen members of the Council and by John Avery, Secretary. At the bottom is this statement:

    Middlesex ss. Major Hezekiah Broad appeared and took the Oath Required by Law to the faithfull Discharg of his Office and Also Volentarily took the Oath of Fidelity and Alegiance before us

    Abner Perry

    John Trowbridge

    John Gleason530

    Framingham June 21st 1779

    Alfred Johnson spoke at length, illustrating his subject by lantern slides from photographs taken recently by himself, on “Monuments and Memorials erected on the Sites of the following early Settlements: Mount Desert (1613), the Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River (1607), Plymouth (1620), Jamestown (1607), and Roanoke Island (1585).” A rapid review was given of the motives of the early voyagers and settlers, whose coming was accelerated by the defeat of the Spanish Armada, from which resulted the clearing of the seas for English adventurers; and the long, roundabout route via the West Indies and up the Gulf Stream, then in use, was traced. The physical characteristics of the early landing places were described in detail and compared; and the elements that tended to make a place suitable for permanent occupation were pointed out—such as a defensible position, a harbor large enough for their comparatively small vessels, with deep water near the shore to obviate long boat trips for disembarking their goods, springs with pure water, a stream with fish, a natural meadow with grass for cattle as well as arable land and timber, and a back country for expansion and development. It was shown why settlements in such places as those selected by the Popham, Jamestown, and Roanoke colonies were doomed, from the start, not to expand into permanent and important centres of population. In closing, Mr. Johnson stated that much credit was due, in the matter of marking sites, to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and to the Roanoke Historical Society.