APRIL MEETING, 1916

THE Stated Meeting of the Society for this month, postponed by vote of the Council, was held, by invitation of Mr. Edward Channing, at No. 74 Sparks Street, Cambridge, on Thursday, 4 May, 1916, at eight o’clock in the evening, the President, Frederick Jackson Turner, LL.D., in the chair.

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

Mr. Richard Clipston Sturgis of Boston was elected a Resident Member.

The President appointed the following Committees in anticipation of the Annual Meeting:

To nominate candidates for the several offices, — Mr. John Trowbridge, the Rev. Henry Ainsworth Parker, and Mr. Julius Herbert Tuttle.

To examine the Treasurer’s accounts, — Messrs. Winslow Warren and Worthington Chauncey Ford.

Mr. Channing spoke at length on the cost of living in 1800, basing his conclusions on investigations as to the cost of sundry necessities of living during the close of the eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth centuries. He drew his data largely from contemporary Boston and New York newspapers, and from manuscript records at Mt. Vernon, Washington, Philadelphia, and Boston, including a careful tabulation of expenses and income by the Rev. Dr. John Pierce of Brookline, which covered a long period of years. The conclusion was reached that the cost of living had during the past century increased about twenty-five per cent.

Mr. Albert Matthews made the following communication:

HARVARD COMMENCEMENT DAYS

1642–1916

One of the College Laws of 1642–1646 reads as follows:

15. Every Scholar shall bee called by his Sirname onely till hee bee invested with his first degree; except hee bee fellow-commoner or a Knights Eldest Sonne or of superiour Nobility.493

The privileged class of fellow-commoners we did have here for about a century, but, with a single exception, the eldest sons of knights494 and those “of superiour Nobility” never darkened Harvard’s doors. On taking his first degree, or A.B., a scholar was, following the practice at English universities, called “Dominus” or “Sir,” the latter designation remaining in use down to the first decade of the nineteenth century.495 On taking his second degree, or A.M., the quondam student was called “Mr.” The above law — which, unfortunately for the peace of mind of the present writer, was seldom violated — has made extraordinarily difficult the identification of students when, as was often the case, there were at College at the same time two or more of the same surname.

When work was begun on the index to the Corporation Records now in course of preparation, it was at once found that it would be absolutely necessary to ascertain, if possible, the exact date of Commencement Day in each year; for according as that day fell was to be determined the identity of certain students. Thus in 1728 it was voted “that Rogers . . . shall have four pounds ten shillings” from a certain fund. During that year there were or may have been at College no fewer than five Rogerses, namely: Daniel (1707–1785), Daniel (1706–1782), and Samuel, all in the class of 1725; John, in the class of 1728; and John (1712–1789), in the class of 1732. Commencement came on June 28. As the vote was passed before June 28, it follows that the Rogers in question was John Rogers of the class of 1728. Had the vote been passed after June 28, then the student receiving the money would have been John Rogers of the class of 1732. If the vote had been passed after June 28 and it had been the intention of the Corporation to bestow the exhibition on John Rogers of the class of 1728, then the money would have been voted to “Sir Rogers.” If the money had been voted to “Sir Rogers” before June 28, or to “Mr. Rogers” after June 28, then the recipient would have been one of the three Rogerses who were members of the class of 1725.496

No list of Commencement Days from 1642 to 1916 has ever been compiled, but there are in existence two lists from 1642 to 1700. The late John Ward Dean, who compiled one of these in 1879, wrote:

THE Rev. Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, published in 1702, states (1st ed. bk. iv. p. 128; ster. eds. vol. ii. p. 12) that commencement day “was formerly the second Tuesday of August, but since, the first Wednesday in July.” As near as I can ascertain, it was the second Tuesday in August from 1642 to 1681; in 1682 and 1683, the second Wednesday in September; in 1684, the first Tuesday in July; and in 1685 the day was changed to that last given by Mather, the first Wednesday in July.497

Thereupon Mr. Dean gave a table showing “the days of the month on which these days fall during the seventeenth century.” Mr. Dean’s list, it is thus seen, was purely theoretical; and as a consequence his dates, though of course often correct, are so only by chance.498

The other list was compiled in 1895 by Dr. Samuel A. Green, who, as might be expected, proceeded on a different plan. “No attempt,” he says, “has ever been made, so far as I know, to give a list of Commencement Days at Harvard College in early times, as gathered from contemporary records.”499 But in his list, valuable as it is, Dr. Green relies too much on almanacs, no fewer than twelve dates500 being derived from that source alone. Moreover, many contemporary records escaped him, while several Commencement programmes, unknown in 1895, have recently been discovered in foreign universities. Hence a new list is imperative. To the term “contemporary records” I give a stricter interpretation than did Dr. Green, and by it mean a document printed or written on, or within a few days of, a particular Commencement Day itself.

The present list is derived from the following sources:

(1) The Theses. “At the Commencement,” wrote Cotton Mather, “it has been the Annual Custom for the Batchelors to publish a Sheet of Theses, pro virili Defendendæ, upon all or most of the Liberal Arts; among which they do, with a particular Character, distinguish those that are to be the Subjects of the Publick Disputations then before them; and those Theses they dedicate as handsomely as they can, to the Persons of Quality, but especially the Governour of the Province, whose Patronage the Colledge would be recommended unto.”501 These were printed as broadsides during a period of one hundred and sixty-nine years, from 1642 to 1810, both included; and, as there were two Commencements in 1653, there were 170 Commencement Days during that period. But there were no graduates in 1644, 1648, 1672, 1682, and 1688502 — thus reducing the largest possible number of Theses to 165. This number must be still further reduced by 82, since 68 Theses have not been preserved,503 13 have the year only printed on them,504 while one (1643) has the year and the month but not the day. This leaves 83 that are fully dated. But three even of these (1723, 1768, and 1772505) must be rejected, since errors have been made in the dates.506 Thus out of a possible 165 Theses, only 80 (or 48 per cent) are available for our purpose.507

(2) The Quaestiones. “The Masters do,” said Mather, “in an half-sheet, without any Dedication, publish only the Quæstiones pro Modulo discutiendæ, which they purpose either Affirmatively or Negatively to maintain as Respondents, in the Disputations, which are by them to be managed.”508 These were printed as broadsides during a period of one hundred and forty-seven years, from 1645 to 1791, both included. But there were no candidates in 1647, 1651, 1657, 1671, 1685, and 1691, thus reducing the largest possible number of these sheets to 141. This number must be still further reduced by 42, since 29 are not extant,509 while 13 have the year only printed on them.510 This leaves 99 that are fully dated.511 But one of these (1723512) must be rejected because the date is wrong. Thus out of a possible 141 Quaestiones, only 98 (or 69 per cent) are available for our purpose.513

(3) The Triennial Catalogues. The known copies of those printed after 1715 have the year only on them. Of the four extant printed in or before 1715 — namely, in 1674, 1682, 1700, and 1715 — that for 1674 has no date at all, leaving only three available for our purpose. These are dated as follows, our calendar being indicated at the right within parentheses:

BOSTONÆ Nov-Anglorum; Die Sexto ante Idus Sextiles. Anno. 1682. (August 8, 1682)
CANTABRIGIÆ NOV-ANGLORUM Tertio Quintilis. MDCC. (July 3, 1700)
CANTABRIGIÆ NOV-ANGLORUM Pridie Kalendas Septembres, M DCC XV. (August 31, 1715)514

(4) Newspapers. These would be among our most valuable sources of information but for two facts: no regular newspaper was established in Boston until 1704; and, singular as it may seem, they did not, so far as is known,515 deign to print an account of Commencement until 1728.516

(5) The archives of the College, namely: (a) the Corporation Records, (b) the Overseers’ Records, (c) President Leverett’s Diary, (d) President Wadsworth’s Diary, and (e) the Steward’s Account Book kept by Thomas Chesholme from 1650 to 1659. These archives might naturally be expected to yield ample and decisive evidence. For a variety of reasons, however, such is unfortunately not the case. Sometimes the specific date is omitted;517 sometimes a meeting was held on Commencement Day, but the fact that it was Commencement Day is not stated;518 and sometimes — just as was the case with the Theses and the Quaestiones — a wrong date was given.519 More often, however, Commencement Day is not mentioned at all. Thus, extraordinary as it may seem, the Overseers’ Records mention Commencement Day (with a specific date) for the first time in 1684,520 and not again until 1722;521 while the Corporation Records do not furnish a specific date until 1711.522 But notwithstanding these strange omissions — partly due to the fact that if the Corporation or the Overseers met on Commencement Day, no records of such meetings have been preserved — the College archives yield much valuable information, now used for the first time, except in so far as Dr. Green utilized the Steward’s Account Book as printed by Sibley in his Harvard Graduates.523

(6) Diaries, journals, and letters, either in print or in manuscript; and manuscript entries in printed almanacs. Evidence derived from these sources must be accepted with great caution, since it is often difficult to determine whether such an entry was actually written at the time when it purports to have been written. Two illustrations may be given. The Rev. Samuel Brown wrote:

I Samuel Brown was admited into Harvard College, at Cambridge on the third day of July, in the year 1705 in the eighteenth year of my age,

And took my first degree on the second day of July Anno 1709, and made entrance upon the ministry preaching my first sermon at Haverhill, on the 22^ond of July Anno 1710.524

Obviously this entry was not written until a year after the Commencement of 1709, which came not on July 2 (which was a Saturday) but on July 6. Hence Mr. Brown’s memory played him false.

Under date of July 6, 1720, the Rev. Samuel Dexter wrote:

I took my first Degree, and as it was y^e Desire of my parents, so it was my own also, to be Improv’d in Business, & not to live Idlely, some Schollars do, without being Improv’d. I was spoke to y^e next Day after y^e Commencement to go & keep school att Tanton, which I undertook, & kept y^e school there half a Year.525

Mr. Dexter then goes on to speak of “this present time” — that is, December 4, 1722. But though the above entry was not written until two and a half years after his graduation, yet Mr. Dexter’s memory was correct as to the day on which Commencement came in 1720.

It is thus seen that, in spite of the seemingly enormous mass of material, the available material is, previous to 1726, singularly meagre. Still, diligent search has established certain dates for all Commencement Days except those in 1642, 1643, 1645, 1648, 1652, 1657, 1661, 1662, and 1673; and of those nine, approximate dates can be assigned to all but three (1642, 1643, 1645).

Finally, it should be stated that one source of information, extensively used by Dr. Green, is here wholly rejected as unreliable — namely, almanacs. Commencement Day ran all the way from June 18 to some unspecified day in October. An almanac was necessarily compiled and published many months before Commencement; hence a date in an almanac is evidence not that Commencement fell, but that it was expected to fall, on that day. But, as we shall see, the day was sometimes suddenly changed by reason of an epidemic, as in 1721 and 1740; or, more often, as from 1727 to 1735, was not appointed until a few days before — in one instance (1730) only two days before. Moreover, there is at least one case where two almanacs for the same year give each a different date for Commencement.526

The remainder of these notes consists of a discussion of disputed or peculiar facts, under each year; of an account of those (other than the Presidents or the Vice-President) who presided at Commencement; and of the places where the degrees have been conferred and the, dinners held; after which is given a complete list of Commencement Days from 1642 to 1916.

1642

Strange statements have been made with regard to the day when the first Commencement was held. Apparently no one attempted to ascertain exactly when that was until 1833, when Benjamin Peirce wrote: “The first Commencement took place on the second Tuesday of August, 1642” — that is, August 9. How Mr. Peirce obtained that date does not appear, and in the very next paragraph he says: “The same year in which the first Commencement took place, but previously to that event, an act was passed by the General Court establishing the Board of Overseers.”527 Now the order establishing the Board of Overseers was made September 27, 1642. There is, therefore, hopeless confusion in Mr. Pence’s statements. But his date for Commencement — August 9 — was adopted by Benjamin H. Hall in 1851,528 by Mr. Dean in 1879,529 by George Gary Bush in 1886,530 and by Charles R. Joy and William R. Thayer in 1911.531 In 1867 Robert C. Winthrop, after quoting a passage from Governor Winthrop dated October 5, 1642, went on to say: “This first Commencement at Cambridge, on the 9th of October, 1642, must have been a proud day for the infant Colony, and for all who had been concerned in founding its institutions.”532 And in 1873 Sibley, though on the very next page he quoted a passage which showed that Commencement must have been before September 26, remarked: “I do not find any record of the day or of the month, in 1642, when the first Commencement was held. Probably it was in October.”533 Why he thought so is not stated.

Turning from these conjectures to contemporary records, there appear to be only two that bear on the matter. The first is a letter printed in London in 1643 which reads in part as follows:

4. The manner of the late Commencement, expressed in a Letter sent over from the Governour, and diverse of the Ministers, their own words these.

THE Students of the first Classis that have beene these foure yeeres trained up in University-Learning (for their ripening in the knowledge of the Tongues and Arts) and are apprved for their manners as they have kept their publick Acts in former yeares, our selves being present, at them; so have they lately kept two solemne Acts534 for their Commencement, when the Governour, Magistrates, and the Ministers from all parts, with all sorts of Schollars, and others in great numbers were present, and did heare their Exercises; which were Latine and Greeke Orations, and Declamations and Hebrew Analasis Grammaticall, Logicall & Rhetoricall of the Psalms: And their Answers and Disputations in Logicall, Ethicall, Physicall and Metaphysicall Questions; and so were found worthy of the first degree, (commonly called Batchelour) pro more Academiarum in Anglia: Being first presented by the President to the Magistrates and Ministers and by him, upon their Approbation, solemnly admitted unto the same degree, and a Booke of Arts delivered into each of their hands, and power given them to read Lectures in the Hall upon any of the Arts, when they shall be thereunto called, and a liberty of studying in the Library. . . .

Boston in New-England,

September the 26. 1642.

Your very loving friends, &c.535

Here is positive proof that Commencement came before the 26th of September.

The other contemporary record is found in Governor Winthrop’s History of New England, and is a very puzzling one indeed. His entries for the month of September, 1642, fill no fewer than fourteen printed pages.536 In the first, merely dated “Mo. 7,” he records the arrival from England of William Hibbins. In the next, dated September 6, he refers to various matters, among others the arrival from Virginia of Richard Bennet with letters “entreating a supply of faithful ministers” for the Old Dominion; and he states that the Rev. John Knowles and the Rev. William Tompson “were sent away, and departed on their way 8ber 7. to Taunton, to meet the bark at Narragansett.” Thus in an entry dated September 6, an event that occurred on October 7 is alluded to. In the next entry, dated September 1, he mentions matters relating to the Indians, and a part of this entry could not have been written until a fortnight or more after the 1st. The entry next, dated September 8, also relates to the Indians, but must have been written at least in part some weeks later, since he states that “although we apprehended no danger, yet we continued our military watches, till near the end of 8ber, and restored the Indians all their arms we had taken from them.” The next entry, dated September 19, requires no comment. Then comes a long entry dated September 22, which begins: “The court, with advice of the elders, ordered a general fast.” This gives the impression that the fast was ordered on the 22d. A session of the General Court was held on September 8, September 27, and October 13. On September 8 “The Court desired, if the churches thought meete, to have a day of humiliation kept the 22^th p̄sent.”537 That is, Winthrop began his entry on the fast day itself. After giving “the occasions” for the fast, he goes on to say:

At this court, the propositions sent from Connecticut, about a combination, etc., were read, and referred to a committee to consider of after the court, who meeting, added some few cautions and new articles, . . . and so returned them back to Connecticut, to be considered upon against the spring, for winter was now approaching, and there could be no meeting before, etc.

These words could not have been written before September 27, on which day “The magistrates in & neare Boston, w^th the deputies of Boston, Charlestowne, Cambridg, Watertowne, Roxberry, Dorchester, or the greater part of them, are appointed to bee a com̄ittē to treate w^th any com̄ission^rs from Plimoth, Con̄ectecot, or Newe Haven, about the union,” etc.538 Then follows a long passage relating to the vicissitudes of John Humfrey, the Rev. John Phillips, and others, who had sailed for England on October 26, 1641.539 Finally, we reach the following paragraph, which begins under the date of September 22 but suddenly jumps to October 5:

22.] . . . Nine bachelors commenced at Cambridge; they were young men of good hope, and performed their acts, so as gave good proof of their proficiency in the tongues and arts. (8.) 5. The general court had settled a government or superintendency over the college, viz., all the magistrates and elders over the six nearest churches and the president, or the greatest part of these. Most of them540 were now present at this first commencement, and dined at the college with the scholars’ ordinary commons, which was done of purpose for the students’ encouragement, etc., and it gave good content to all.

By “a government or superintendency over the college,” Winthrop means the Board of Overseers, and he distinctly gives the impression that the creation of the board preceded Commencement. Such, however, was not the case, as Commencement was held before September 26, while the order establishing the Overseers was passed September 27.541

Winthrop’s account has often been quoted by those describing the first Commencement, but, strangely enough, apparently no one has hitherto used the passage as evidence in the matter of the date except Dr. Green, who accepts September 22 as Commencement Day. What is certain is that sentence after sentence which is entered under a specific date in September could not have been written on the date assigned. It is also certain that September 22 was a fast day. Is it likely that Commencement would have been held on a fast day? However that question may be answered, it seems to me that the only certain conclusion is that our first Commencement was celebrated not long before September 26.

1643

The Theses are dated “Cantabrigiæ Nov. Ang. Mens. 8. 1643.”542 As this is the only contemporary record, the precise day in October must remain undetermined.

1644

From the beginning down to and including 1869, the Master’s degree was taken in course at the end of the third year after graduation.543 As there were neither graduates nor candidates for the Master’s degree in 1644, there could have been no Commencement in that year.

1645

No contemporary record has been found.

1646

July 28, the Theses being dated “Cantabrigiæ Nov: Ang: Mens: 5. Die 28. 1646.” This is the first Commencement of which the exact date is known with certainty.544

1649

July 31. The only contemporary record is an oration delivered by the Rev. Samuel Whiting of Lynn, the heading and first few lines of which read as follows:

ORATIO

Quam Comitijs Cantabrigiensibus Americanis

Peroravit reverendissimus D.

D. Samuel Whiting

Pastor Linnensis; in aula scilicet Harvardina,

Pridie Calendas Sextiles, Anno, M.DC.XL.IX.

OPTIMATES colendissimi, Presbyteri maxime venerandi; Vosque Præses, Socij, Candidati, Discipuli doctrissimi; reliquaque celeberrima Corona: pauca (pro more solito) exaudire, exosculari, rogo ut dignemini.545

1650

July 30. In the Steward’s Account Book of Thomas Chesholme is the entry against the name of William Mildmay (who took his A.M. in 1650), “Commencement day 30 of July;” and against the name of Nathaniel Mather (who also took his A.M. in 1650) the date “30–5–50” and the words “being the day of Commencement.”546

1651

August 12. Presumably Commencement Day had for five years (1646–1650) been the last Tuesday in July. It was now changed — though exactly when or for what reason cannot, owing to lack of evidence, be determined — to the second Tuesday in August, which, so far as is known, continued to be the day for the next thirty years. In a pamphlet published in London in 1652, John Clark says that he “came into the Mathatusets Bay upon the 16 day of the 5th Moneth, 51” — that is, July 16; that he reached Lynn the 19th, where he was soon arrested and imprisoned; and that on the 22d he was sent to Boston, where he was imprisoned until August 11. After quoting an order for his release from prison signed by William Hibbins and dated “the 11th. of the 6th. Month, 1651,” and a letter which he himself wrote to the magistrates dated “11th. 6. 51,” Clark goes on to say: “Both these the next morning I delivered to the keeper to deliver to the Magistrates, who were to meet at the Commencement at Cambridge.”547 In a work published in London in 1654, Edward Johnson said: “The number of Students is much encreased of late, so that the present year 1651. on the twelfth of the sixth moneth, ten of them took the degree of Batchelors of Art.”548

1653

August 9 and August 10, the Theses being respectively dated “Cantabrigiæ Nov-Angliæ Quint: Id: Sextilis Anno Dom: M.D.C.LIII.” and “Cantabrigiæ Nov-Angl: Decimo Sextilis Anno Dom: CIↃ IↃC LIII.” The Quaestiones are dated “NONO DIE SEXTILIS M.DC.LIII.” This double Commencement, as Mr. Lane remarks, “has always been something of a mystery, and facts are still lacking for its complete explanation.”549 Apparently, however, it was due to the fact that about this time the course of study was changed from three years to four years. Those who graduated on August 9 were admitted to their second degree in 1655; while those graduating on August 10 were admitted to their second degree in 1656.

1654

August 8. Dr. Green writes: “See the entry after the name of Michael Wigglesworth in Sibley (I. 551), which gives the Commencement charges on ‘8–6–54,’ August 8, the second Tuesday.” For reasons already given,550 this entry cannot be accepted as proof. There is, however, another entry which furnishes the required information, for under the name of John Davis we read: “att 8–6–54 by his Commencment Chardges,”551 — the “att” making it reasonably certain that the date was that of Commencement.

1667

August 13. Under that date William Adams wrote: “I came down to Cambridge to y^e com̄encement, sought for admission into colledge, could not obtain it, pecuniæ deerant.”552

1671

August 8. Under that date William Adams wrote: “I was admitted to y^e degree of Batchelour of Arts in Harvard Colledge in N. E. under y^e Reverend Charles Chancey President.”553

1672

August 13. Under that date William Adams wrote: “Mr. Vrian Oakes functus officio Præsidis admisit inceptores ad gradus in artibus.”554 The oration delivered by Oakes is headed: “Oratio 1. Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum in Comitiis Academicis Habita, Idib. Sextilib. Anno 1672. (à Rev̄^do admodum, atqȝ Doctissimo Uriano Oakes C. Harv^dini Præside.)”555

1675

August 10, the Quaestiones being dated “QUARTO IDUUM SEXTILIUM 1675.” Under the same date Increase Mather wrote: “At Com^mencemt at Cambridge.”556 Under the same date William Adams wrote: “Admissus fui ad secundum gradum in Artibus in Coll. Harvard, in Cantabr. in Nov.-Angliâ sub reverendo Vrian Oakes Præside pro tempore.”557 Finally, the oration delivered by President Oakes is headed: “Oratio 2̄^a Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum in Comitiis Academicis Habita, a.d. 4 Id. Sextil. 1675.”558

1676

August 8, the Quaestiones being dated “SEXTO IDUS SEXTILES MDCLXXVI.” Under the same date Increase Mather wrote: “At Com̄enct in Cambridge.”559 Mr. Dean having asked for corrections, a correspondent560 pointed out that in Sewall’s Diary the date for Commencement was given as July 28. This is the case in the Diary as printed, but in the manuscript copy the day is placed between July 28 and August 12.561

1677

August 14, the oration delivered by President Oakes being headed, “Oratio Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum in Comitijs Academicis habita postrid: Idus Sextilium. 1677.”562

1682

August 8, the Quaestiones being dated “Die Sexto ante Idus Sextiles MDCLXXXII.” The Triennial printed in 1682 also has the same date.563 A curious manuscript entry is found in a copy (now in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society) of William Brattle’s Ephemeris for 1682 which once belonged to Judge Sewall, who has written on the title, “ex dono Authoris Jan^y 30. 1681” — that is, 1681–2. Against the date August 8 is printed “Com-encment.” But against September 13 (which was Wednesday) Sewall has written in ink “Com̄encment” and in the margin “it” — that is, “item.” Dr. Green mentions these facts and remarks: “It is not easy to explain this discrepancy.” The explanation is as follows. In his Diary, under date of “20^th 5^th” (July 20), Noadiah Russell writes: “There was an act passed amount the overseers yt ye commencement should be deferred ye space of a month tho’ afterwards reversed.”564 Brattle and Russell were both resident graduates at that time. Russell’s entry must have been made soon after July 20, and is a good illustration of the untrustworthiness of almanacs, since it shows that in 1682 the date was twice changed after Brattle’s almanac had been printed. Russell’s statement is confirmed by an entry that was once in College Book II. 73. That book was unfortunately destroyed when the second Harvard College was burned in 1764; but in the Index (now in the College archives) to College Books I–VI which President Wadsworth made for his own convenience is this entry: “Com̄encement. order’d to be on y^e second Wenesday in Sept, & to continue so. 20.5.1682. B.2.p.73.” Finally, in a manuscript Diary owned by the American Antiquarian Society, under date of July 20, Increase Mather has written: “With Overseers of Colledge, who voted yt Com̄encement shd be deferred vntill 2^d wednesday in Sept.” On July 27 he writes: “dined w^th Magistrates & Overseers who vnanimously voted yt I shd be desired to manage ye next Com̄encement.” No doubt it was at this meeting that the day was changed from September 13 back to August 8, for under date of August 8 Mather says: “At Com̄encement w^h D [i.e. Deus] helpes me to manage y^e work of yt day.”565

1683

The above entry in President Wadsworth’s Index clearly indicates that on July 20, 1682, the Overseers fixed upon the second Wednesday in September as Commencement Day. In Cotton Mather’s Boston Ephemeris for 1683566 the word “Commencment” is printed against Wednesday, September 12. The only contemporary record for this year known to me is a manuscript Diary (owned by the American Antiquarian Society) in which, under date of September 12, Increase Mather has written: “At Com̄encmt in Cambridge.”

1684

July 1, Tuesday. At a meeting held December 5, 1683, “It was voted & agreed unanimously by y^e Corporation, y^t the President be desired to speak to y^e Govern^r, to entreat y^t the Overseers would please to order y^e comencement for y^e future to be on y^e first Wednesday in July.”567 In 1684 the first Wednesday in July fell on the 2d. On December 9, 1683, four days after the above vote was passed, President Rogers and the two Fellows, Samuel Andrew and John Cotton, addressed the following letter to Increase Mather:

Reverend Sir, — We are heartily sorry that we are enforced to give you the trouble of these lines; the purport whereof is to signify our great dissatisfaction with the stated time of the Com̄encem^t, on the first Wensday in July next; the occasion whereof is, that upon that very day wil fall out a grand Eclipse of the Sun, which was not foreseen, or at least, thought of, upon the last meeting of the Corporation. What reflection wilbee vpon our oversight of it, or upon our persisting, notwithstanding we have still the opportunity of correcting it, before the Almanack come forth; as also how obstructive the Eclipse wilbee as to the busines of the day, is very obvious. Wee are not superstitious about it, but reckon it very inconvenient. If, therefore, yourself shal joyne with us, and improve your interest once more with the Hono^red Overseers, to alter and confirme the day on the 2^d Wensday in July, or for this p^rsent turne on the first Tuesday in July, or the forementioned 2^d Wednsday, it shal be most grateful and obliging to us.

Sir, praying a blessing upon al your labo^rs, and begging your prayers for us, we kisse your hands, & are

Your friends & servants,

J. Rogers.

Samuel Andrew.

Jno. Cotton.568

Cambridge, 9, 10, 83.

This appeal apparently fell on deaf ears, for at a meeting held at Boston on January 3, 1684, “The Overseers being acquainted with the Vote of the Corporation for the change of the Com̄encem^t day from the time wherin ’t was last held to the first Wednesday in July, Do consent y^t it be upon s^d day for the future.”569 Nevertheless, the matter must have been reconsidered very shortly, as July 1 is given as Commencement both in Noadiah Russell’s Cambridge Ephemeris for 1684570 and in Benjamin Gillam’s Boston Ephemeris for 1684, and a meeting of the Overseers was held “on the Com̄encem^t day Cambridge July 1. 84,”571 while the Quaestiones are dated “Calend: Quintilis MDCLXXXIII.”

1685–1714

During these years Commencement came on the first Wednesday in July, except in 1689, when, for some reason not known, it came on September 11.572 In Sewall’s printed Diary, Commencement Day in 1701 is wrongly given as Tuesday, July 1. What Sewall actually wrote is as follows, the reference being to Lieutenant-Governor William Stoughton, donor of the first Stoughton College:

Monday, June, 30. L^t Gov^r sd would go to ye com̄encem^t once more in his life-time, so would adjourn ye Court to Friday, and did so. But was very much pain’d going home. M^r Nelson,573 Secretary574 & I visit him on Tuesday, to disswade him from going, lest some ill consequence should hap̄en. He consented & ordered us to present his Bowl. After dinner & singing, I took it, had it filled up, and drunk to y^e president575 saying that by reason of y^e absence of him who was y^e Firmanent & Ornament of the Province, & y^t Society, I presented that Grace-cup pro more Academiarum in Anglia The Providence of our soveraign Lord is very investigable 2.576 in that our Grace Cups brim full, are passing round; when our Brethren in France are petitioning for y^r Coup de Grace. President made no Oration.

Commencem^t

Lieut Governour’s Bowl.

1715

August 31. At an Overseers’ meeting held July 7, 1714, —

M^r President577 propounding that on Consideration of the Excessive heat of the Weather and other inconveniencys attending the holding of Com̄encm^t on the first Wednesday in Iuly, the time might be altered.

It was Voted, That henceforth the Comencm^t be held upon the last Wednesday of August yearly.578

1716

July 4. At a meeting of the Corporation held on October 25, 1715, the following action was taken:

Whereas upon the Experim^t of y^e year past, it is found, That the Conveniences for removing the Com̄encm^t prove not what was expected, Jt is agreed, the Com̄encm^t be Assign’d and fixed at the time it has for about thirty years bin Celebrated, Viz^t On the first Wednesday in Iuly; And that the Presid^t present the desires of the Corporation to the Overseers for their Approbation.579

Com̄encement. 1^st Wednesday July.

1721

On June 23, 1721, the Overseers —

3 Voted That by reason of the present Spreading of the Small Pox there be a private Commencemt this year

Small pox.

4 Voted That Notice be given in the publick News papers that the Commencmt wil not be this year on the ususal day

Private Commencement

5 Voted That the Time and Manner of Managing the private Commencmt be referred to the Consideration of the Corporation and by them Lay’d before the Overseers580

According to the fourth vote, the following advertisement appeared in the Boston News Letter of June 26:

NOtice is hereby given to all Person concerned, That by Reason of any Danger that may arise from the Small Pox’s spreading; The COMMENCEMENT at Cambridge this Year will be managed privately, and not on the usual Day, viz. the first Wednesday of July (p. 2/2).

That Commencement was held on June 28 is proved by this entry in President Leverett’s Diary: “At a meeting of the Presid^t & Fellows of Harvard College at the Presid^ts House in Cambridge. June 28̄° 1721. Being the day of giving the Com̄encers for this year their Degrees.”581

1723

It has already been stated that four Theses and one Quaestiones are wrongly dated.582 On July 3, 1723, Samuel Dexter said in his Diary: “This Day was y^e Commencement. I had my second Degree given me;”583 while on the same day Jeremiah Bumstead recorded that he “Went to Commencement.”584 That these entries were actually written on July 3, there is no reason to question. July 3 was the first Wednesday in July, and a meeting of the Overseers held on that day is headed: “At a Meeting of the Overseers of the College July 3^d being Commencemt day 1723.”585 Yet the Theses and the Quaestiones are dated “Tertio Nonas Quintilis. MDCCXXIII” — that is, July 5. A mistake was evidently made by those who prepared the programmes.586

1727–1735

Looking back on the period thus far covered, it is seen that — omitting the years (1642–1645, 1648, 1652, 1657, 1661, 1662, 1673) in regard to which there is uncertainty, and a few years (1683, 1684, 1689, 1715, 1721) when for special reasons the day was altered — Commencement regularly fell on the last Tuesday in July in 1646–1650, on the second Tuesday in August in 1651–1682, and on the first Wednesday in July in 1685–1726. In 1727 a radical departure was made and what were called “private Commencements” were held from 1727 to 1735, both included, the day being kept a secret. The reasons for this change carry us back to the early days of the College, indeed of the colony.

In 1642 most of the magistrates and elders were present, Winthrop tells us, and “dined at the college with the scholars’ ordinary commons;”587 while from another account we learn that “the Governor, Magistrates, and Ministers, from all parts, with all sorts of Schollars, and others in great numbers, were present.”588 Thus at once Commencement became the great gala day of the colony, and no subject caused the authorities greater tribulation than its proper regulation. This was owing to the “excesses” and “disorders” that soon arose. The early settlers were true Englishmen, and the notion of drinking mere water was strange to them. Thus in a letter written in March, 1631, to the Countess of Lincoln, Governor Thomas Dudley said that here may be found “a pure Air to Breath in, and good Water to drink, till Wine or Beer can be made.”589 And two years earlier the Rev. Francis Higginson wrote that “whereas my Stomacke could onely digest and did require such drinke as was both strong and stale, now I can and doe often times drink New-England water verie well.”590 Beer and cider were regularly served at commons, but greater latitude was allowed on Commencement Day. In 1681 the Overseers ordered “that the President of the Colledge do from time to time com̄end it to the Parents & Guardians of those students that commence, that they provide not above one gallon of wine for a Student, judging it to be sufficient for that occasion;”591 and on July 28 in the same year ordered “That no Graduate henceforth shall provide more then 3 gallons of wine nor oth^r Students more then one for com̄encm^t,” a marginal note stating that this was “For the Preventing of the growing Excess in Wine at Com̄encm^ts.”592 At that time, too, Samuel Andrew, then a Fellow of the Corporation, was appointed Proctor for Commencement week, his special duty being —

to take care that the Students Chambers and Studyes be cleared of all manner of p^rsons during the time of publick exercise on com̄encem^t day. & at or before 9 a clock at night to cause all strangers to depart from the Colledge, & to signifye to them that y^e usual recourse of any to the Colledge the following days of the week, excepting Schollars is displeasing to the hon^d & Rev^d Overseers, & that they are required accordingly to forbeare. And in case Students or other p^rsons not belonging to the Colledge shall refuse to submitt themselvs to this order, Jts required of m^r Andrews y^t he returne their names to the Overseers who will proceed ag^t them according to y^e demeritt of their offence. Also the Procto^r is required to take speciall care y^t the provisions to be sent in to the College Hall be accordingly p^rformed. And all the abuses y^t have been of y^t kind formerly to be effectually p^rvented for the future.593

In William Brattle’s Ephemeris for 1682, at the bottom of the page for August, are printed these lines:

COmmencement’s come, but (friendly) I advize

All sorts of Rabble now their Homes to prize,

For if to it they come, so Blind they’ll bee,

That Really no Body will see.

Now Sol to Virgo goes, & there does stay,

Till that his Heat does very much Decay.594

On June 22, 1693, the Corporation “having been informed that y^e Custom taken up in the Colledge, not used in any other Universities, for the Com̄encers to have Plumb-Cake, is dishonourable to y^e Colledge, not gratefull to Wise men, and chargable to y^e Parents of y^e Com̄encers; do therefore put an End to that Custom.”595 On July 3, 1707, Sewall recorded that the Rev. Solomon Stoddard “preached excellently from Mica, 1. 5. . . . Spake against excess in Com̄encem’t entertainments.”596 On April 4, 1721, the Corporation —

For the preventing Extravagancies at Com̄encm^ts. Voted,

1. That the Order of the Corporation pass’d Iune 22^d 1693, ꝑhibiting any Scholar to have Plum-cake &c in his Study or Chamber a Com̄encm^t be strictly observed.

2. That all mix’d drink made with distill’d Sp^ts be also ꝑhibited on the Same Penalty.

3. That the Presid^t and Fellows be desired to exhort & direct the Scholars to be more moderate and frugall in their Entertainm^ts.

4. And that the publick dinner usual on the day after Com̄encm^t be lessen’d or laid aside, as the Presid^t and Fellows of the House597 shall think most convenient.598

On June 11, 1722, the Corporation took more stringent action still:

6. Whereas the Countrey in general and the College in Particular have bin under Such Circumstances, as call aloud for Humiliation, and all due manifestations of it; and that a Suitable retrenchm^t of every thing that has the face of Exorbitance or Extrag^c in Expences, especialy at Com̄encm^ts ought to be endeav^rd And Whereas the preparations & ꝑvisions that have bin wont to be made at those times have bin the Occasion of no Small disorders; It is Agreed, and Voted, That henceforth no preparation nor Provision either of Plumb-Cake or rosted, boiled or baked Meats or Pyes of any kind shalbe made by any Com̄encer, nor shal any such have any distilled Liquours, or any Composition made therew^th . . .

7. Voted, That the Usual publick Dinner in the Hall the day after the Com̄encm^t be hence-forth laid aside.599

These regulations proving ineffectual, on September 6, 1726, —

The Corporation having now had some Discourse about the great Disorders & Jmmoralities yt have attended y^e Publick Commencements; it is agreed yt y^e Several Members of y^e Corporation will Jndeavour to think of wt may be a proper method for y^e preventing of such Disorders & Jmmoralities, and offer their thoughts at another Meeting.600

Accordingly, on April 5, 1727, —

The Corporation pursuant to their vote on the Sixth of September last, refering to y^e preventing y^e Jmmoralities & disorders at y^e Commencements, upon serious consideration had thereon, do agree & vote,

1.) That y^e Commencements for y^e time to come, be more private than has been usual. And in order to this,

2.) That y^e time for y^e Commencement be not fixed to y^e first Wenesday of July, as formerly, but yt the particular day be determined from time to time by y^e Corporation; and yt y^e Hon^ble & Rev^nd y^e overseers of y^e College, be seasonably notified of the said day, and be desired to honour y^e Solemnity w^th their presence.

3) That y^e Exercises of Commencement be y^e same, and performed in publick manner, and a dinner provided in y^e Hall, as usual.

4) That all Candidates for their second Degree, shall attend at y^e College by the fifteenth day of June, & yt such who neglect to give their attendance by yt time without sufficient reason, may not expect their Degree yt year.601

That these Proposals be presented to y^e Hon^ble & Rev^nd y^e overseers for their approbation.602

On May 12 the Corporation authorized the Treasurer to insert an advertisement “into y^e publick News Papers” announcing that “the Commencement shal be managed this year in a more private manner than has been usual,” etc.603 Finally, on June 12 the Corporation took the following action:

The Board of Overseers at their late Meeting of Jun. 8. having recommended it to y^e Corporation, yt y^e Act made. Jun. 11. 1722. respecting y^e retrenching y^e Extravagances of Commencement, be duely executed, and yt a further Act be prepared by y^e Corporation, and laid before y^e overseers at their next meeting, for y^e more effectual Suppressing y^e disorders yt have attended y^e Commencements;

Voted, yt y^e said Act of Jun. 11. 1722. confirmed by the overseers Jun: 13. y^e said year, be duely executed;604 and yt it may more effectually answer y^e good ends proposed, it is further ordered, yt if any who now do, or hereafter shall, stand for their Degrees, presume to do anything contrary to y^e said Act, or go about to evade it by Plain Cake, they shall not be admitted to their Degree. And in case yt any after they have received their Degree, shall presume to make any of y^e forbidden Provisions, their names shall be left or ras’d out of y^e Catalogue of Graduates.

Voted, yt y^e Corporation w^th y^e Tutors do visit the Chambers of y^e Commencers, to see to y^e effectual Execution of y^e said Act; and yt these Votes be laid before y^e overseers at their next meeting.605

It only remained to set the day for the Commencement in 1727, and this was done on June 27th, when the Corporation “voted, yt the Commencement (God willing) shall be on y^e next Friday, viz. the 30^th day of this present month.”606

It is astonishing, as already pointed out, that no account of Commencement appeared in any Boston newspaper until 1728;607 though it is to be remembered that the early issues of those papers were chiefly devoted to foreign news. The following account was printed in the New England Weekly Journal of July 1, 1728:

June 29. The Annual Commencement at Cambridge being chang’d by Order of the Reverend Corporation, with the Advice and Consent of the Honourable and Reverend Overseers of the College, from being held on the first Wednesday in July every Year as formerly, or on any other stated Anniversary, and it being left to the said Reverend Corporation to appoint the Day a little beforehand, that by the uncertainty thereof, there may be a smaller Concourse, and less Disorder on that great Occasion. — The Author608 of this Journal will take a special Care for the Time to come, to inform his Readers Yearly in his Paper next after the said Solemnity, of the Day of Commencement, and the Numbers and Names of the Bachelors and Masters who then receive their Degrees, according to the printed Theses609 and Questions then Exhibited; and He also purposes to give the like Intelligence Yearly of the Commencement at New-Haven.

On the last Year was the first in Order of these more private Commencement at Cambridge: and it was then held on Fryday June 30, when Thirty Seven took their Degree of Bachelor in Arts, and Thirty Six others their Degree of Master.

And Yesterday, which was Fryday June 28, was the Commencement for this Year, when the said Degrees were severally given to the following Persons, after they had held their Publick Disputations in the Church of the Town.610

These private Commencements satisfied neither the graduates nor the College authorities. There was just enough uncertainty about the day to irritate the former,611 while the latter were still obliged to take special measures for preventing disorders. On June 15, 1730, the Corporation voted that “there be no publick Dinner at y^e Commencement ys year;”612 and on June 27, 1733, the Corporation —

had then an Jnterview with three of y^e Justices in Cambridge (the rest not coming) to concert measures to keep good order at y^e approaching Commencement; and it was agre’d, yt y^e Justices should give a Warrant to m^r Samuel Gookin, who (getting six men with him) should Jndeavour to prevent all disorders, by watching & walking towards y^e evening of Commencement day, & also y^e night following; and yt they should be in and about y^e Entry at y^e College Hall at Dinner time, to prevent disorders there; and yt as a Reward for their Service, y^e Steward should pay on y^e College account .20^s to m^r Gookin & 10^s a piece to y^e rest.613

An account in the Weekly Rehearsal of June 26, 1732, began as follows:

Harvard College, Cambridge.

It was formerly the Happiness of this Seminary to be acquainted with things a priori; but since we have lately run into the Posteriori argument, it will not be improper to publish that our Commencement was held on Friday last. Heu quam dissimilis sui! (p. 2/2).

The popular discontent was voiced in a communication written on the first Wednesday in July, 1733:

Cambridge, July 4. On the 29th of the last Month, being the Day for Commencement, there was seen here a very fine Appearance of young Gentlemen, who to the Number of Seventy, had the Honours of the College conferred on them. There was as great a Throng of the Rabble, as might have been expected on the Occasion, if it had been ever so public: Which made it a Difficulty with many to see through the Propriety of changing the Epithet of the Day: Unless the Commencement might be called Private, by reason that only here and there a Gentleman of Education and Character was present at it. — ’Tis generally tho’t, the Riffraff are as well pleas’d with Commencement as ever; there being full Room left for their universal Appearance. Nor indeed does the uncertain Appointment of it bear hard upon any, those only excepted, who have always been acknowledged to have added a Glory to these Solemnities. They wou’d not encourage the Tho’t, that those who have the Appointment of the Day, purposely so contrive to fix it, as that they must be unavoidably absent: yet so it happens in fact, and to the no small uneasiness of many that wish well to the College. — But ’tis believed, the greatest Admirers of these Private Commencements, are by this Time fully convinced, they are but a meer Name, without any Manner of Advantage: Nor can it from henceforth, with any Conscience, be pleaded, that they are an effectual Means to guard against that Noise and Bustle, those Disorders and Irregularities, that have been represented as the inseparable Attendants of Publick Commencements.

This Day is to be kept in honour to the memorable First Wednesday in July; — and ’tis expected, something of it’s ancient Glory will be seen to continue it remarkable.614

On July 1, 1734, the Corporation —

Voted, yt y^e Commencement for this year be on y^e next Fryday, viz. the .5^th. Jnstant.

That for y^e future, y^e fixing y^e day for y^e Commencement be more seasonably considered by y^e Corporation, yt so there may be a greater Latitude in making choice of a day for that Solemnity.615

The following account appeared in the Weekly Rehearsal of July 7, 1735:

At the Commencement at Cambridge on Friday last, 59 young Gentlemen received their Degrees, viz. 38 Bachelors and 21 Masters, on which Occasion a vast Number of People assembled there, notwthstanding all the Care that had been taken to keep it private. ’Tis said the Meeting House was so prodigiously crowded, that the Galleries were in danger of falling; and several Persons were so apprehensive of their Danger, that they jumped out at the Windows, and others with great Difficulty got out thro’ the Doors: And tho’ no Mischief ensued, yet there will doubtless be some Caution taken for the better securing the House for the future, if there should ever be another private Commencement.

We hear that the Hon. and Rev. Overseers of the College, observing the many Inconveniences that attend the keeping Commencement on a Friday, have voted to alter the Day; and ’tis generally thought that for the future it will be kept on a Wednesday, as usual (p. 2).

The report of a change was somewhat premature, but at a meeting of the Overseers on July 4, 1735, “Upon a Debate had about the Commencemt Voted that Fryday is an Inconvenient day for the solemnizing the Commencement and that the further consideration of the affair of Commencemt be referred to the next Overseers meeting.”616 On November 27 the Overseers voted “That The Consideration of the affair of the Commencemt be referred to this Committee to make report thereon to the Overseers at their meeting;”617 and on April 13, 1736, “The first article of the Report of the Committee (appointed Nov. 27th 1735) respecting the day of the Commencemt &c was accepted and recommended to the Consideration of the Corporation.”618 On May 3 the Corporation took this action:

Pursuant to y^e Recommendation of y^e Hon^ble & Rev^nd Overseers at their late meeting, it is ordered, yt y^e Commencement for this year be on y^e first Wenesday of July next, and that there be seasonable notice given hereof in y^e publick Prints, anything in y^e College Laws to y^e contrary notwithstanding.619

This vote received the consent of the Overseers on May 20,620 and thus at last, after nine years of uncertainty, the old day for Commencement was once again returned to.621

1740

August 27. On June 9 the Corporation voted “That the Com̄encem^t this Year be on the first Wednesday of July next;”622 but on June 23 different action was taken:

Vote. 1. Whereas thro’ the holy Providence of God Several Families in the Town of Cambridge are visited w^th the Throat Distemper, & the Pres^dts & Stew^ds Families,623 are under very afflicted Circumstances by Reason of that Mortal Sickness: And whereas we apprehend that there is great Danger of the Distemper spreading & prevailing, as it hath done formerly in other Places, & that the students are much endangered thereby; Therefore Voted that they be immediately dismiss’d from the College & that the Vacation begin from this Time, And that the Commencem^t for this Year be not until the expiration of the Vacation, the particular Day for which, shall be hereafter determin’d, & public notice given seasonably to those that are concern’d in said Solemnity, & that the Candidates for their Second Degree this Year, be excus’d from attending at s^d College as required by a late Advertisem^t624

On July 28 the Corporation voted “That the Com̄encem^t this Year, be upon the twenty-seventh Day of August next.”625

1749

June 30. On May 15 the Corporation took the following action:

Whereas the present is a Year of uncommon Dearness of the Necessaries of Life, & as there are generally extravagant Expenses as well as great Disorders at the Com̄encem^t, And as there hath been a Proposal from three Gentlemen who have Sons that are Candidates for their Degrees this Year, to give to the College the Sum̄ of one Thousand Pounds old Teno^r provided a Tryal be made this Year of a Com̄encem^t in a more private Manner Than usual; And also inasmuch as the College Treasury is at present in a low State, Therefore it is voted, That the Com̄encem^t this Year be manag’d agreable to the above Proposal, And that the Hon^ble & Rev^d the Overseers be requested, to consent that the Degrees be given this Year to the several Candidates, w^thout their Presence, Said Candidates being first presented to the s^d Hon^ble & Reverend Board for their Approbation; And that there be Theses & Questions printed & Disputations had as usual; And that this Vote be presented to the Hon^ble & Rev^d the Overseers for their Approbation.626

This vote was presented to the Overseers on May 18, but nothing was done about it until June 9, when it “passed in the Negative.”627 Nevertheless on June 21 the Corporation voted “That the Com̄encem^t this Year, be upon Fryday, the thirtieth Day of this Jnstant,”628 though no reason for the change in date was assigned.

1752

There was no public Commencement this year, for reasons given by the Corporation on May 4th:

Vote. 1. Whereas by the Holy Providence of God, the small-pox, hath some time since & now is in the Town of Cambridge, upon which Account all the Students of Harvard College have been dismissed to their several Homes; And that there is no likelyhood, that they can with any Safety come together to attend the Commencement this Year, Therefore Voted that the several Candidates for their first & Second Degrees, shall be admitted to their s^d Degrees, without their personal Attendance. Provided, They shall on or before the twenty fifth Day of June next, pay or cause to be paid the President’s Fee, and shall also answer all their College Dues, as the Law requires, bringing or sending to the Pres^dt a certificate thereof, from the Steward as usual.

2. That the manner of Admission of the Candidates (qualifyed as in the above Vote) to their several Degrees Shall be by their Names being inserted in a General Diploma in the usual Form Mutatis mutandis: To be sign’d by the Pres^dt in the name of the Corporation & to be enter’d in the College Records, And also, That the s^d Names shall in due Time, be transferr’d to the printed Catalogue of Graduates. . . .

3. That the Diploma mention’d in the above Vote, be in the following Form. . . .629

The general diploma is still preserved in the College Library, and, as printed in the Boston Evening Post of July 6, 1752 (p. 4/1), reads as follows:

NEW-ENGLAND.

Cambridge, July 1. 1752.

The following is the Copy of the DIPLOMA by which the several Candidates for both the first and second Degreees at Harvard-College, this Year, have been been graduated.

SENATUS Academiæ Cantabrigiensis in Nov-Angliâ, Omnibus in Christo Fidelibus, præsentes has Literas inspecturis vel audituris, Salutem in Domino sempiternam.

Notum facimus, quod Nos (consentientibus Honorandis admodum ac Reverendis Academiæ nostræ Inspectoribus) per Præsentes admittimus Dominos . . . [here follow 29 names] . . .

antedictæ Academiæ Alumnos, ad Gradum primum in Artibus:

Dominos etiam . . . [here follow 15 names] . . .

Alumnos quoq; antedictæ Academiæ, ad secumdum Gradum in Artibus, dantes & concedentes iis, omnia Insignia, Jura, & Privilegia, Dignitates, ac Honores, ad Gradus suos spectantia.

In cujus Rei Testimonium, Literis hisce, communi Academiæ Sigillo munitis, Nomen meum (pro Authoritate mihi commissa) subscribo, Calendis Quintilibus, Anno 1752.

Edvardus Holyoke, Præses.

1753

On May 21 the Corporation voted “That the Com̄encement this year be on the Eighteenth Day of July, & that the usual Advertisement with respect thereto, be put in the public News-Papers.”630 Thus the day was changed from the first Wednesday to the third Wednesday in July. Though no reason was assigned, the change was doubtless due to the alteration in the calendar; for on the same day the Corporation took the following action:

That whereas by long Custom it hath been usual for the Senior-Sophisters to attend their Exercises with their Tutors till the tenth Day of March, Voted, That they shall hence forward attend s^d Exercises till the twenty-first Day of March, agreable to the Difference of the New & Old Stiles. And whereas by a Law made June 27. 1743. Lib. 4. pag. 252. The Senior-Sophisters were oblig’d to attend the Professor’s Lectures till the twentieth Day of June, They shall now attend the s^d Lectures to the first Day of July, according also to the Difference of the Two Stiles.631

1754

On April 30 the Overseers voted “That it be recommended to the Corporation to Consider whether the Commencemt day this year may be appointed the first Wednesday in July;”632 but the Corporation apparently took no notice of this request, and on May 27 appointed July 17.633

1757

On June 6 the Corporation voted “That the Commencem^t this year be on Wednesday the thirteenth Day of July next;”634 but on June 15 the following action was taken:

Vote 1. Where as at our Meeting of June 6. 1757. We pass’d a Vote that Com̄encem^t this year should be on Wednesday the thirteenth day of July next, & that the Advertisement, with respect thereto, be put out in the public News-papers, It was now voted to reconsider the s^d Vote.

2. Upon the reconsideration of our Vote on June 6. as above mention’d, Voted, The s^d Vote null & void.

3. That in Consideration of the expensive & Distressing War, in w^ch We are involv’d, the Severe Drought with which We are now visited & the very dark Aspect of divine Providence upon the public Affairs of the Province, w^ch call for public Humiliations & Fastings, rather than Rejoycings & festival Entertainments. In Consideration also, That it is very doubtfull, whether there will be any convenient Place,635 by the usual Time, for the carrying on the public Exercises of the Commencem^t

Therefore voted, That the Com̄encem^t this year, be carried on, in the Manner following, That the Names of all the Undergraduates, for their first & Second Degrees, be presented to the Hon^ble & Rev^d the Overseers, for their Consent to their receiving their respective Degrees, at such Time, as y^e Corporation shall appoint, without the Presence of the s^d Hon^ble & Rev^d the Overseers on that Day, any Law, Custom or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding, And that the Exercises on this Com̄encem^t be such as the Pres^dt shall appoint & be perform’d in the Chapel.636

On June 17th the third vote was negatived by the Overseers,637 whereupon, on the same day, the Corporation voted that “Whereas by the second Vote of our last Meeting, Our Vote at our Meeting June 6^th appointing the Com̄encemt Day was null’d, it was now proceeded to appoint again the s^d Day & hereby it is appointed to be on the thirteenth Day of July next, & that the usual Advertisement with respect thereto, be put out in the public News-Papers.”638 Finally, on June 27 the Corporation came into the following votes, which on June 28 were approved by the Overseers:639

3. Whereas by the holy Providence of God, there hath been a distressing Drought upon the Land, whereby the first Crop of Hay hath been greatly diminish’d, & is now past recovery, whereby there is a great Scarcity as to horse feeding, at this time, & that the english grain640 is greatly shortned, in Consideration also of the dark State of Providence, with respect to the War We are now engaged in, w^ch Providences call for Humiliac͞o͞n & Fasting, rather than Festival Entertainments. Also in Consideration of the Doubt we are in, that there will be no Convenience as to an House to meet in for the Comencem^t Therefore Voted, That the several Candidates for their first & Second Degrees this year, shall be admitted to their s^d Degrees without their Personal Attendance, Provided, They shall on or before the thirteenth Day of July next, pay or cause to be p^d the Pres^dts Fee for Degrees, & shall also answer all their College Dues, as the Law of the College requires, bringing or sending to the Pres^dt a Certificate thereof, from the Steward as usual, and that y^e Manner of admission of the Candidates qualified as affores^d to their several Degrees, shall be by their Names being inserted in a general Diploma in the usual Form, Mutatis mutandis to be signed by the Pres^dt in the Name of the Corporation, & to be enter’d in the College Records, & also that the s^d Names shall be thence transferr’d to the printed Catalogue of Graduates; And that the Diploma mention’d in this Vote, be in the following Form. . . .

5. As we have on our Meeting June 17, 1757, voted, That the Com̄encem^t shall be on the thirteenth Day of July next, so s^d Vote was now reconsidered, & thereupon it was voted, That if the Hon^ble & Rev^d Overseers, shall approve the above third Vote, That then the s^d Vote of June 17 shall be null & Void, otherwise shall remain in full Force.

6. That in Case the above third Vote be approv’d by the Hon^ble & Rev^d Overseers, That then the Stew^d shall not demand any Fee for the Com̄encem^t Dinner.641

The diploma for 1757 was apparently not printed in the Boston newspapers,642 and the original has not been preserved.

1760

On May 2 the Corporation ordered “That no Student, either Graduate or Undergraduate, shall have any Entertainm^t at their Chambers, after Dinner on Thursday in the Com̄encem^t Week, on Pain of Punishm^t by Degradation, or Fine, not exceeding forty Shillings, at the Discretion of the Pres^dt & Tut^rs.”643 On May 6 the Overseers approved this vote, but themselves took action in regard to another matter:

8. The Report of the Committee appointed Oct: 2. 1759 to enquire into the state of the College was read

In their report the Com^tee say — First,. . . .

Secondly, The Com^tee took into consideration a practice which has obtained within these few years of addressing the female sex in the orations on commencement days, which practice appears to the Com^tee to be exceptionable & improper & they therefore report that it be recommended to the Presid^t from time to time to inspect the orations before they are delivered on commencement days, & to prevent such like addresses or any other indecencies or improprieties for the future.

Voted that this article of the report be accepted.644

It will be remembered that there was a set day for Commencement from 1684 to 1726, though occasionally the set day was departed from during that period. From 1727 to 1760 there was no set day, but each year the Corporation appointed the day, which varied considerably during that period. On October 13, 1760, the Corporation voted “That the Com̄encem^t be henceforth on the third Wednesday in July annually. And that this Vote be presented to the Hon^ble & Rev^d the Overseers, at their next Meeting for their Approbation.”645 The vote was duly approved by the Overseers on October 21;646 and, except for special reasons on several occasions, the third Wednesday in July was Commencement Day from 1761 to 1801, both included.

1764

On May 23 the Corporation took the following action:

3. In Consideration that the Candidates for their Degrees @ the Com̄encem^t have been hindered by Reason of the Small Pox from their proper Preparations for the Com̄encem^t Exercises, & as by the burning of the Library647 they have been depriv’d of the Advantages for such Preparations, considering also the Danger of Infection, w^ch may reasonably be apprehended by a great Concourse of People, w^ch is usual on the Com̄encem^t Daies, Besides the great Inconveniences we are under, on acc^t of the late sorrowful Desolations, Therefore Voted, That the several Candidates for their first & second Degrees, shall be admitted to their s^d Degrees, without their personal Attendance, Provided, They shall on or before the fourth Day of July next pay or cause to be paid the Pres^dts Fee, and shall also answer all their College Dues, . . .

For the form of the above mentioned general Diploma vid. pag. 13.648

On May 28 the above vote was “read & non-concurr’d” by the Overseers, who resolved “that there be no public Commencement this year, but that it be recommended to the Corporation, to pass a Vote that the same shall be carried on” in a certain manner.649 On May 29 the Corporation voted that since the above third vote had been non-concurred by the Overseers at a small meeting, a general meeting of the Overseers should be called to consider it; and further voted “That the several Candidates for their first & Second Degrees shall, before they are enter’d in the general Diploma, be presented Nominatim, to the Hon^ble & Rev^d Overseers, for their Approbation.”650 On June 2 the Corporation voted:

2. In Consideration That the Candidates for their Degrees @ the Com̄encem^t have been hinderd by Reason of the Small Pox, from their proper Preparations for the Com̄encem^t Exercises, & as by the burning of the Library, They have been depriv’d of the Advantages, for such Preparations, considering also the Danger of Infection, w^ch may reasonably be apprehended by a great Concourse of People, w^ch is usual on the Com̄encem^t Daies, besides the great Inconveniences we are Under on Account of the late sorrowful Desolations, Therefore Voted, That the several Candidates for both their first & second Degrees, being presented Nominatim to the Hon^ble & Rev^d Overseers & by them approv’d, shall be admitted to their s^d Degrees w^thout their personal Attendance, Provided, That on or before the fourth Day of July next, they discharge all their College Dues, w^ch the Law requires of every Candidate for his Degree, previous to his receiving it. And that the Manner of Admission of the candidates (qualifyed as affores^d) to their Degrees, shall be, by their Names being inserted in a general Diploma, in the usual Form, Mutatis mutandis to be sign’d by the President in the Name of the Corporation, & to be enter’d in the College Records, And also that the s^d Names, shall in due Time be transferr’d to the printed Catalogue of Graduates.651

On June 8 the Overseers referred the above vote to their next meeting on July 4th.652 On July 2 the Corporation passed a vote “of the same Ten^r with the second Vote of June 2^d . . . excepting the following Alteration, instead of the Words fourth Day of Jul next were inserted the Seventeenth Day of this Instant.”653 The Overseers expressed their approval on July 4th,654 and thus the vexed matter was finally decided. The diploma, dated “Decimo quinto Calendarum Sextilis, Anno 1764,” is printed in the Boston Gazette of July 30, p. 1/2. The original is in the College Library.

1768

The Quaestiones are dated “Decimo tertio Calendas Sextilis, Anno MDCCLXVIII.” — that is, July 20. An entry in the Overseers’ Records (III. 6) is headed, “July 20. Commencement.” On the same day the Corporation passed the following —

Vote. 1: The Candidates for their first Degrees this year, desiring they may appear habited this Day in the Manufactures of the Country, & having provided accordingly such their Habits, Voted, That the seventh law of Chapter 10. of the College laws [requiring the Candidates for their Degrees to appear on the Com̄encem^t in dark Blue or black]655 be suspended for this Year.

Vote. 2: That the above Vote be presented to the Hon^ble and reverend Overseers for their Approbation.

The Overseers refus’d to act upon this Vote but however admitted the s^d Candidates to their respective Degrees habited as affores^d.656

And the Boston News Letter of July 21 stated that —

Yesterday being the public Commencement, there was a great Concourse of very polite Company at HARVARD COLLEGE in Cambridge. . . .

The Candidates for their first Degree appeared in the Forenoon in black Habits, as usual: But in the Afternoon they were dressed entirely in our own Manufactures agreeable to their laudable Resolution last Fall; and were permitted by the Honorable and Reverend Corporation and Overseers to receive the public Honor of the College in the same.

The Theses were printed on fine white Demy Paper, manufactured at Milton in New England (p. 1/2).

Yet, in spite of this conclusive evidence, the Theses are dated “Decimo-tertio Sextilis, Anno MDCCLXVIII.” — that is, August 13. The error obviously was due to the dropping out by the printers of the word “Calendas.”

1772

No meeting of the Corporation between July 7 and September 7 is recorded, and no meeting of the Overseers between May 5 and October 6. The Quaestiones are dated “Idibus Quintilibus, MDCCLXXII.” — that is, July 15. And the Boston News Letter of July 16 began an account of the day with the words:

YESTERDAY being the Anniversary Commencement at HARVARD-COLLEGE, after the Public Exercises the following Gentlemen were admitted to their respective Degrees (p. 3/1).

Yet the Theses are dated “Decimo-quarto Calendas Sextilis, Anno MDCCLXXII.” — that is, July 19. There is no reasonable explanation of this error, which appears to have been a sheer blunder.

1774

On May 31 the Corporation, —

Considering the present dark aspect of our public Affairs Voted that there be no public Commencement this Year and that the Candidates for their first & second degrees after having been presented nominatim to & approved by the Honourable & Reverend Board of Overseers, shall receive their Degrees in a general Diploma, signed by the Corporation. Provided that on or before the 13th Day of July next they bring to D^r Appleton Sen^r Fellow of the Corporation a Certificate from the Steward that they have paid the stated Fee for a Degree, and have discharged all College Dues, required by Law except for the public Dinner on Commencement Day. As also a Certificate from the Librarian that they have returned in good Order or replaced all the Books they they have borrowed from the Library.

Voted, that a Copy of the foregoing Vote be published in the Newspapers signed by D^r. Appleton.657

An item dated “BOSTON, July 21,” in the Boston Gazette of July 25; stated: “We hear from Cambridge that yesterday the Degrees were conferred on the Candidates by a general Diploma; of which the following is an exemplification, viz. . . .” (p. 1/3). Then follows the diploma, dated “Die vicesimo Julii, Anno Salutis Millesimo septingentisimo septuagesimo quarto.” The original diploma is not extant.

1775

At a meeting of the Corporation “at Watertown, at M^r Fowle’s House,” July 31, —

The Distress & Confusion occasioned by the present War, of which Cambridge has been one principal Seat ever since the 19^th day of April last, having render’d it impracticable to hold a public Commencement, or make the necessary preparation for conferring Degrees at the Stated Season

Voted 1. That there be no public Commencement this Year, & that the Candidates whose names are in the List annexed (vid: List in Diploma page 293) & which being also presented to the Hon^b & Rev^d Board of Overseers, sitting this day in the Council Chamber, may be by them approved, shall receive their Degrees in a general Diploma, signed by the Corporation. Provided that within one week from this day they pay the President the stated Fee for a Degree, & likewise bring him a Certificate from the Steward that they have discharged all College dues required by Law, except for the public Dinner on Commencement Day; also a Certificate from the Librarian that they have returned in good Order or replaced all the Books they have borrowed from the Library.658

On October 2 the Corporation voted “That the following general Diploma, sign’d by the several Members of the Corporation to whom it could be conveniently presented, be published as soon as possible in the weekly Papers.”659 The following notice appeared in the Boston Gazette of October 16:

By the present War, into which the American Colonies have been driven, to save themselves from Oppression and Despotism, Harvard College, in Cambridge, has been several Months in an interrupted and dispersed State, so that the annual COMMENCEMENT could not be held, nor Degrees given, at the usual Season:

But, by the good Providence of GOD, that Society, which, from the first Settlement of New-England has been so great a Blessing to the Public, is at last restored to Order, and now collected in the Town of Concord. And the Candidates for their respective Degrees the present Year, have had Academical Honors conferred upon them by a general Diploma, — a Copy of which follows (p. 3/2).

The diploma is dated “tertio Die Octobris, Anno Domini, 1775.” The original is in the College Library.

1776

On June 24 the Corporation voted “That, in consideration of the difficult & unsettled state of our public affairs, there be no public Commencement this year, & that the Candidates for their first & second Degrees, after having been presented nominatim to, & approved by the Honorable & Rev^d Board of Overseers, shall receive their Degrees by a general Diploma signed by the Corporation;” and “That a Copy of the foregoing Vote, signed by the President, be published in the Watertown News-Paper, & one of the Boston Papers.”660 Accordingly the Boston Gazette (then, owing to the siege of Boston, published at Watertown) of September 2 stated, under date of August 22, that “Last Wednesday se’nnight the degrees were, by a general Diploma, conferred on the Candidates; of which the following is an exemplification, viz. . . .” (p. 1/1). The diploma is dated “Die decimo quarto Augusti, Anno Domini, 1776.” The original has not been preserved.

1777

On June 16 the Corporation voted —

That in Consideration of the public Difficulties occasioned by the continuance of the present unhappy War, the Apprehensions, that still in some degree remain, of an Invasion of this State, & also the apparent Danger of the spreading of the Small-Pox in the natural way in this Town, there be No Public Commencement this Year. And that the Candidates for their first & second Degrees, after having been presented nominatim to & approved by the Hon^le & Rev^d Board of Overseers, shall receive their Degrees by a General Diploma, signed by the Corporation: . .

That if the above Vote shall be concurred by the Board of Overseers, it be published as soon as may be in one or more of the Boston News Papers.661

The Boston Gazette of July 28 contained this notice:

(Omitted last Week for Want of Room.)

HARVARD COLLEGE, Cambridge, July 16 1777.

This Day the Candidates for the Honors of this Society, received their Degrees by a general Diploma, of which the following is a Copy (p. 1/1).

The diploma is dated “Die decimo sexto Julii, Anno Domini, millesimo septingentesimo [septuagesimo] septimo,” the word in square brackets being inadvertently omitted by the printer. The original has not been preserved.

1778

On June 10 the Corporation voted —

That in Consideration of the public Difficulties occasioned by the Continuance of the present War; the apparent danger of spreading the Small Pox in the natural way; in particular the Situation of the President’s662 Family now visited with that Distemper; the want of necessary Accommodations in the Town of Cambridge, the Houses being crowded with British Officers;663 there be no public Commencement this Year, & that the Candidates . . . shall receive their Degrees by a General Diploma signed by the Corporation.664

The following appeared in the Boston Gazette of July 20:

Harvard College, in Cambridge, July 15, 1778.

THIS Day being the stated Time for giving Degrees, the young Gentlemen who were Candidates received the Honors of the Society by the following general Diploma, a Public Commencement being judged by the Corporation and Overseers, inconvenient in these Times of Public Difficulty (p. 2/2).

The diploma is dated “Die decimo quinto Julii, Anno Domini millesimo Septingentesimo Septuagesimo Octavo.” The original is not extant.

1779

On May 11 the Corporation took the following action:

Vote 10. The Board of Overseers having, at their Meeting of May 4. 1779, given it as their opinion “that it is not expedient that there should be any public Commencement this Year”665 therefore Voted — that in compliance with their Opinion, the Law respecting Commencement be for this Year suspended.

Vote 11. That in compliance with the recommendation of the Board of Overseers, “to give that whole Board an opportunity to meet at Cambridge, & inquire into the qualifications of the Candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, previous to their receiving that Degree”666 The Candidates shall hold themselves in readiness to go thro’ all the Academical exercises usual on commencement Days, at a time to be appointed by the Corporation; & that these Exercises shall be performed in the Chapel, or Meeting House; and that the said Degree shall then be conferred on the Candidates in the Form used on Commencement Days if practicable; but the day to be appointed for this shall be kept private, and notice given of it to the Overseers only two days before the Solemnity; that the Students shall be prohibited giving any entertainment at their Chambers; & the Overseers, the President, Corporation, Governors & Instructors of the College, shall dine together at the expence of the Candidates for both Degrees: and no general or public Invitation to dine shall be given on that Occasion.667

On June 8 the Corporation voted —

That the Exhibitions, in compliance with the Recommendation of the Overseers, to give that Board an Opportunity of inquiring into the Qualifications of the Candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, be perform’d on Friday June 18^th at 3 o’Clock in the Afternoon: & that the Board of Overseers be notified on Wednesday preceding,668

Accordingly, it is recorded on June 18 that —

This Day the Candidates for a first Degree performed in the Meeting-House the Exercises usual on Commencement Days, agreeable to the 11^th Vote of May 11^th before a very respectible Assembly; which were introduced by a Latin Oration delivered by the President.669

The following account is taken from the Boston Gazette of June 21:

Last Friday the Overseers and Corporation of Harvard College met at Cambridge, to examine the Qualifications of the Candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts this Year. After Dinner, the Candidates preceded the Corporation, the immediate Governors and the Overseers to the Meeting-House, where the Exercises usual upon a Commencement-Day, were performed. The young Gentlemen did themselves great Honor by their Performances and gave a respectable and brilliant Assembly a pleasing Proof of their Progress in Literature.

The same Day, the Corporation, with the Concurrence of the Overseers, conferred the honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws upon the Honorable Major-General Gates; and upon Mr. de Valnais, the first Consul of His Most Christian Majesty in this State (p. 3/2).

Though the exercises were held on June 18 yet it was not until July 21 that, “The President having presented a List of Candidates for their first Degree, viz. in Course,” it was voted by the Corporation “That the Candidates presented in the List be admitted to their first Degree.”670 In the Boston Gazette of August 9 appeared this account:

Cambridge, July 27, 1779

ON Wednesday last the Corporation of Harvard College, with the Consent of the Honorable and Reverend Overseers, conferred on the Candidates for the Degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts the usual Honors of that University. The following is an Exemplification of the general Diploma (p. 1/1).

The diploma is dated “Die Julii vigesimo primo, Anno Domini mdcclxxix.” It is entered in College Book VIII. 30–31; and the original diploma is in the College Library.

1780

The class graduating this year presented the following petition:

To the Honorable and Reverend Board of Overseers of Harvard College. Respected Gentlemen,

As there is a standing Law of this Society, that the Commencement of Graduates should be public: And as that law, for several years past, has for weighty reasons, been dispensed with. We, who are this year Candidates for the Academical honors, are induced to ask the same indulgence, that we may receive our degrees by a general Diploma. And we humbly beg leave to offer our reasons for the same; relying upon that candour & benevolence which you have ever manifested in your inspection into the welfare of this society.

In the first place, those weighty reasons which have hitherto been thought sufficient, for the omission of a public Commencement, we presume are so far from having become invalid, that they are now more urgent than ever yet they have been. The difficulties of the times & exorbitant prices of every necessary of life, may surely be plead with as much, if not more, propriety now, than could be at any former period. This we would mention as the first (and we would suppose sufficient) reason. But waving our public calamities, & such like reasons, which we are persuaded will ever have due weight in all your Counsels; we beg leave to set before you, the damages we have individually sustained, by the well-known depreciation of our currency, the low ebb to which many of our fortunes are reduced, & consequently the inability of many to defray the expences of a public Commencement. The charges of our Education have been almost insupportable, & have compelled many of us to encounter numerous difficulties, & to comply with many inconveniences. Numbers of us have been necessitated to forego the prosecution of our collegiate exercises, & to absent ourselves repeatedly for months together. Some of us who enter’d this society, presuming upon the indulgence & charity of the College, which we have experienced; & others, who were in easy and affluent circumstances, are now struggling with the misfortunes of the times, & almost despair of being able to discharge the expences necessary for the completion of our remaining studies.

Now if in this embarrassing situation, we should be called upon to support the exorbitant expence, consequent of a public Commencement; many of us will be necessitated (tho’ with reluctance) to withdraw our connections, previous to the celebration of that day.

These matters thoroughly considered, we think it our duty, thus unanimously to address you on this occasion. It remains with you, Gentlemen, to consider the validity of our arguments, & to determine accordingly. And we doubt not in the least, but you will, in your determination, find it consistent, with your regard to this seminary, to consult the advantage & happiness of us your petitioners, who are,

in a literal sense & with the most dutiful Respect

Your most obedient Pupils.671

At a meeting of the Overseers held May 2 this “Petition of the Seni-sophisters relative to Commencement read & referred;”672 and on May 11 —

The petition of the Senior Sophisters, presented at the last meeting; praying that in consideration of their difficulties and sufferings by the depreciation of the currency, the law of the College which ordains that the Commencement of Graduates shall be public, may be suspended for this year, and they be permitted to receive their Degrees by a general Diploma; was again read & considered;

1 Voted that it be recommended to the Corporation to comply with the prayer of said Petition.673

On May 13 the Corporation, “Agreeably to the Recommendation of the Board of Overseers of the 11^th instant — Voted — That the Law respecting a public Commencement be suspended for this year, & that the the Degrees be given by a general Diploma.”674 At a Corporation meeting held July 19, “The List of Candidates both for their first & second Degrees, who had complied with the Laws was presented by the President, & being read nominatim, Voted that the respective Degrees be granted them. N.B. The names will appear in a general Diploma.”675 A long notice filling two-thirds of a page appeared in the Continental Journal of July 27, in part as follows:

HARVARD-COLLEGE, July 22, 1780.

ON Wednesday last, being commencement day, the usual honors of this university were granted by the corporation to the several candidates. . . .An exemplification of the general diploma is here presented to the public (p. 2).676

The diploma is dated “Die Julii vigesimo secundo, Anno Salutis MDCCLXXX, Reipublicæ vero Americanæ quinto.” It is entered in College Book VIII. 57–58; but the original has not been preserved.

1781

The class graduating this year presented the following petition.

To y^e Rev^d & Hon^ble y^e Corporation of Harvard College.

Gentlemen,

We, your dutiful Pupils, beg leave to lay before your honorable Body y^e Reasons, that urge us to request, that we may be indulged with the honors of this Society without y^e Difficulties & Expences of a public Commencement; & we flatter ourselves, they will appear sufficiently urgent to justify this application.

The political Difficulties of America & y^e private Embarassments of Individuals have for several years past been deemed sufficient to excuse y^e Candidates for Degrees from y^e usual public Exhibition, & Expences, & we humbly conceive, y^e weight of these reasons is by no means diminished; but rather increased.

The Expence of an Education at this University has been much greater since we have had y^e honor of being your Pupils, than formerly, & we conceive, those attending a public Commencement must be equally augmented. The Preparations necessary for the Entertainment of so large a Concourse of People, as will probably be excited by y^e novelty of it to attend, will be to all a great, & to some, who are from neighboring Towns & have large Connections, permit us to say, an intolerable Burthen.

The same Reasons, Gen^t urge us most earnestly to request you to dispense with such private Exhibitions as were required in 1779;677 as those of us, who are from y^e neighborhood, many of whom have suffered most severely by y^e present public Troubles, would thus be necessarily involved in Expences nearly equal to those of a public Commencement.

These Reasons being premised, we do most earnestly entreat you, that the honor of this University may be granted us in the private & frugal Manner, in which they were indulged to y^e Class of y^e last Year.

We are, Gentlemen, with y^e highest Respect,

Your dutiful Pupils678

Apparently the Corporation paid no attention to this petition, for on May 1 it voted “That it be recommended to the Candidates for their degrees this Year, that at the Commencement, they observe all that frugality which can consist with so public a day, and that no entertainment be given after Breakfast on Thursday morning.”679 At a meeting of the Overseers on the same day, “The question was put whether this Board think it expedient to recommend it to the Corporation to pass a vote for suspending for this year, the Law which orders a public Commencement? It passed in the Negative.”680 At a meeting of the Overseers on June 12, “A petition signed by a number of the senior class praying that there may be no public commencement this year was presented by the Secretary; which being read; after some debate it was Voted, that the Petitioners have leave to withdraw their petition.”681 In evident anticipation of a rousing old-time celebration, on July 4 the Corporation, —

For the prevention of Disorders on Commencement day, voted that the Hon^ble Henry Gardner Esq: and the Hon^ble Abraham Fuller Esq: Justices of the Peace thro’ the State, and Loammi Baldwin Esq: Sheriff of the County of Middlesex, be requested to give their attendance on that day, & to pass the following night at Cambridge; and be informed that suitable lodgings will be provided for them.682

A long account filling two columns appeared in the Boston Gazette of July 30, in part as follows:

On Wednesday the 18th instant, a public Commencement, after an intermission of seven years, was again celebrated, with its ancient splendor, in the University of Cambridge.

The Governor,683 the Lieutenant-Governor,684 with the Council and Senate, were escorted, from His Excellency’s seat, by a respectable number of gentlemen of civil and military character. At the boundary of the county of Middlesex, they were received by the Sheriff and a number of gentlemen from Cambridge. When His Excellency and his escort alighted at the steps of Harvard, they were received by the Fellows of the Corporation, the Professors, Librarian and Tutors, and conducted to the Philosophy-Chamber. After the usual business of the morning was finished, the procession to the meeting-house was formed in the following manner:

The military gentlemen, who escorted His Excellency;
The Candidates for the Degree of Bachellor of Arts;
The Candidates for the Degree of Master of Arts;
The Gentlemen of the Corporation;
The Professors, Librarian and Tutors;
The Sheriffs of Middlesex and Suffolk;
The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other Gentlemen of the Board of Overseers.

The exercises were opened by an anthem, performed by a collegiate band of musicians. After this, a prayer was made by the Hollis Professor of Divinity,685 who presided on the day. Prayer being ended, the Professor introduced the exercises of the Candidates, by a short address, in Latin, to the Governor and Board of Overseers. The exercises succeeded in the following order: . . .

The exercises of the morning being ended, the procession returned, in order, to the public hall, where an elegant entertainment was provided.

The exercises of the afternoon were opened with an oration, in English, “On the advantages of education, and the diffusion of knowledge through every part of the Commonwealth.” By Mr. Thomas Dwight.

The following exercises were also assigned for the afternoon: . . .

These six exercises, for want of time, were necessarily omitted.

The Professor being seated in the President’s chair, admitted, in the form of the University, the following young gentlemen to [their degrees]. . . .

After the degrees were conferred, Mr. George Richards Minott pronounced, agreeably to ancient custom, a valedictory oration in Latin. The exercises of the day were closed with prayer and an anthem.

The exhibitions on this occasion were sensible, ingenius and learned; gave pleasure to a numerous and brilliant assembly of gentlemen and ladies, and evidently shew, that amidst the calamities of war, this University has not failed to pay a strict attention to every branch of useful and polite literature.

At the same time it appeared that an attention to these studies has not excluded from the University, a public spirit and a proper sense of our obligation to the friends of America, and her patriotic sons, who have distinguished themselves in aiding her councils and her arms against the public enemy; whose noble and generous exertions, tho’ not professedly the subject of any of the exercises, did not fail of receiving that just applause which all good men pay to the wise, the virtuous and the brave (p. 2).686

1787

At a meeting of the Corporation held April 3, “A petition from the Senior Class praying for a private Commencement for certain reasons therein specified, was read; and thereupon, Voted, that the consideration of the petition be put off till Tuesday next.”687 On April 10 the following action was taken:

The petition of the Candidates for their first Degree praying that they may be indulged with a private Commencement, having been read, and the reasons on which the request is grounded maturely considered,

1. Voted, that the prayer of the petition cannot be granted; for it is the opinion of this Board that the public exercises of Commencement have an happy influence in exciting a laudable emulation among the Students of the University; and that the specimens which are given of the acquirements made by the Candidates for Degrees in the various branches of useful learning are highly beneficial to the Commonwealth at large, by stimulating Parents to give to their Children an education which may qualify them to fill with reputation and honor the several offices in Church and State. The Corporation are nevertheless of opinion that the strictest œconomy ought to be observed in the public and private expences at the ensuing Commencement: . . .688

On April 11 John Quincy Adams, the most distinguished member of the class, wrote:

I went down this morning to the President to know the determination of the corporation with respect to a private Commencement, and was told that the petition of the class was rejected, because they supposed that if public Commencements were lain aside, there would be no stimulus to study among the scholars, and they are afraid that by granting our petition they might establish a precedent which the following classes would take advantage of, and claim as a right what we only requested as a favor. Another reason which Mr. Willard said had weight, although the gentlemen did not choose to avow it publicly, was the fear of offending the future Governor689 by depriving him of that opportunity to show himself in splendor and magnificance.690

Undeterred by this rebuff, the Senior Sophisters apparently then appealed to the Overseers, for on May 1 “A petition from the Candidates for the first degree, praying that there may be a private commencement this year; as also several votes of the Corporation relative to Commencement were read; & it was Voted that the consideration of said petition & votes be referred to the adjournment of this meeting.”691 Accordingly, on May 11 “The petition for a private Commencement offered at the last meeting was again read. And after considerable debate, the question was put whether it be expedient that there should be a private commencement this year? And it was passed in the negative;”692 and the votes of the Corporation about Commencement were concurred.

1802

On May 5, 1801, the Overseers —

Voted, that the Governor, D^r Bartlett, D^r Eckley, D^r Eliot, D^r Morse, D^r Thacher and M^r Kirkland693 be a Committee to join a Committee of the Corporation and confer with the immediate governors of the College, to consider whether it be expedient to alter the time of Commencement, and of the vacations.694

On June 3, 1801, the Corporation —

Voted, that Judge Wendell, Judge Lowell, D^r Howard, D^r Lathrop and the Treasurer be a Committee,695 to join a Committee of the Overseers to confer with the immediate Governors, to consider whether it be expedient to alter the time of Commencement and of the vacations.696

On September 22, 1801, the Corporation voted “that the President697 Judge Lowell, and M^r Pearson698 be a Committee to join a Committee of the Overseers to consider whether it be expedient to alter the time of Commencement and of the vacations.”699 On December 24, 1801, at a meeting of the Overseers, the “Report of a Committee appointed to consider whether it be expedient to alter the time of Commencement & of vacations was read; & the consideration of it referred to a future meeting.”700 At a meeting of the Corporation on March 2, 1802, —

The Report of the joint Committee of the Overseers and Corporation, appointed to consider whether it be expedient to alter the time of Commencement, and of the vacations, was read and accepted: Whereupon, voted,

1. That the Commencement be annually on the last Wednesday in August.701

The Overseers concurred in this vote on March 4, 1802.702

Commencement Day was the last Wednesday in August from 1802 to 1848, both included; the third Wednesday in July from 1849 to 1868, both included; the last Tuesday in June in 1869 and 1870; the last Wednesday in June from 1871 to 1911, both included; and in 1912 became the Thursday before the last Wednesday in June.703

Since 1772, two Commencement programmes have been misdated. “The Order of the Exercises of Commencement” for 1808 is dated “AUGUST XXXI, MCCCVIII.” — an obvious printer’s error for MDCCCVIII. The programme for 1907 is dated “A • D • V • KAL • SEXT • A • S • CIↃDCCCCVII” — that is, July 28. Even if “SEXT” was a slip for “QVINCT,” the date would still be wrong, for “A • D • V • KAL • QVINCT” is June 27, whereas in 1907 Commencement Day was actually June 26.

Though the chief purpose of these notes has been to ascertain the exact date of Commencement Day in each year, yet incidentally considerable light has been thrown on the customs of the past. It is now sometimes asserted that Commencement Day is still essentially what it was in the beginning. This view, however, will hardly stand the test of examination. For nearly two centuries it was the great gala day of the colony, the province, the state, and the commonwealth, and there flocked to Cambridge not merely the alumni but the populace. As regards the populace, a change became evident in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. An account of the day in 1832 said:

Commencement. The celebration at Cambridge today, appears to have attracted less attention than ever. Not even a copy of the Exercises was sent to the printers, nor could one be procured in time for publication in the morning papers, as has been customary. At the Custom House and Banks it is a holiday, and some stores are closed;704 but there has been none of the morning stir and bustle, and the mid-day stillness, which formerly prevailed in the city on this occasion, and one would hardly recollect that it was “Commencement Day,” unless reminded of the circumstance by something more positive than mere observation.705

An account in 1849 reads:

Commencement at Cambridge. Yesterday the usual performances which mark the beginning of the academical year at Harvard University, were exhibited in the usual way. Commencement day used to be a “great time,” but somehow or other it has become of late years much diminished in importance as a popular festival — whether from an increase in the number of colleges or a decrease in the public estimation of collegiate studies and honors, we will not undertake to say. Few people now a-days come a hundred miles to stare their eyes out on Cambridge common, where there is no more shaking of “props,”706 sucking of egg-nog. . . . The day was exceedingly pleasant, not too hot, though warm; but the attendance from abroad was unusually small. Two reasons may, perhaps, be assigned, in addition to what we have already suggested, — the alteration of the long established commencement day from the third Wednesday707 in August, and the recent inauguration of President Sparks.708

The popular abatement of interest in the day appears from another aspect. On June 24, 1805, the Corporation voted “That Professor Pearson be requested to engage the assistance of the Sheriff of the County of Middlesex & two justices of the peace with a guard of 18 men Officers included to attend for the preservation of order at the next Commencement season.”709 How much later these elaborate precautions were regarded as necessary, I have not attempted to ascertain; but what was a matter of course early in the nineteenth century had by 1877 become so unusual that when again resorted to complaints were heard. “A rumor has reached us,” an editorial comment in the Crimson of July 3 stated, “that there is much indignation among the graduating class at the unwarrantable action of President Eliot in calling in the service of the police on Commencement night; that it was utterly unnecessary, and was a direct insult by degrading the class to the level of so many criminals.”710

But though the Custom House and the Boston banks are no longer closed, though props cannot be shaken nor egg-nog sucked on Cambridge Common, though the genial but insidious influence of rum punch711 no longer tends to enliven the day, though the Commencement dinner has disappeared,712 and though the day has ceased to be a popular festival and is now wholly devoted to the alumni, yet these latter come not a hundred miles but thousands of miles to attend and the importance of the day to them ever grows rather than diminishes.

Persons presiding at Commencement713

At most Commencements, the degrees have of course been conferred by the President or the Vice-President714 for the time being. But there were vacancies in the presidency on the following Commencements: 1672, 1681, 1724, 1769, 1774, 1781, 1805, 1810, 1828, and 1862.715 Besides vacancies in the presidency, there were various occasions when, owing to illness or to absence, the President did not preside: namely, in 1684, 1688–1691, 1798, 1827. Finally, on three occasions — in 1682, 1737, and 1869 — a newly-elected President chose not to preside at Commencement.716

In 1672 Urian Oakes presided.717 The situation during the years 1675–1679 was somewhat peculiar. Leonard Hoar resigned the presidency on March 15, 1675. On April 7th —

M^r Vrian Oakes was desired to give his Answer to a former motion of the Overseers to accept of the place of the President of the College pro tempore.

In Answer wherto, he declared a deep sence of his unfitness for the work; yet considering the p^rsent Exigency the Society was now in, & confiding in the Overseers seasonably to endeavo^r the settling a fitt p^rson for y^t work, manifesting his willingness to accept of that place for a time God enabling by health & strength, & so far as his church consented.718

On September 27, 1675, Oakes was “elected Presid^t of Harvard Colledge & by the Overseers importuned to accept s^d place & trust.”719 On May 21, 1678, Oakes was “desired to continue his care ov^r the Colledge & to officiate in the place of President at the next Commencem^t.”720 On February 2, 1680, he was again chosen President, accepted, was confirmed by the Overseers on February 9, and inaugurated on August 10.721 His name appears on the Commencement programmes as “Uriano Oakes, . . . Præside pro tempore” in 1675, 1676, 1678, 1679, and as “Uriano Oakes, . . . Præside” in 1680. That he also presided in 1677 may be inferred from the fact that he delivered an oration in that year.722

On Oakes’s death in July, 1681,723 the Overseers, on July 26, —

Ordere’d, That the Governm^t of the day & work shalbe by the Fellows of the College, in manner following,

The Rev^d m^r John Sherman is requested to begin the Work of the day with prayer. And is impowered to give unto the Com̄encers their Degrees.

The Rev^d m^r Incr. Mather is requested to Moderate the Dispute of the Masters, and to conclude the work of the day with prayer.

m^r Daniel Gookin is desired to Moderate the Dispute of the Bacchelours and to be in all other respects assisting as there shalbe occasion.724

But Mr. Sherman’s feebleness obliged the Overseers on July 28 to take the following action:

The Overseers being informed, that the Rev^d m^r John Sherman may not be capeable, through age, of attending the work of the Comencem^t, they thereby impower the Rev^d m^r Jncrease Mather to carry on the work thereof & give the Commenc^rs their degrees. And m^r Daniell Gookin jun^r is desired to be helpfull in moderating the disputes of the Batchel^rs.725

In his manuscript Diary (owned by the American Antiquarian Society), under date of August 9, Increase Mather wrote: “At Com̄encement in Cambridge w^h God graciously assisted me in managing ye work w^h Hee called mee vnto;”726 and his name appears on the Quaestiones as “Reverendo Crescentio Mathero, A.M. Apud Bostonienses V.D.M.” Finally, on August 9, Cotton Mather wrote:

9 d. 6 m. This Day, I took my second Degree, proceeding Master of Arts.

My Father was Præsident, so that from his Hand I received my Degree.727

On April 10, 1682, John Rogers was elected President, but was not inaugurated until August, 1683.728 That Increase Mather presided in 1682 is made certain from his own statement, already quoted,729 and from the fact that his name appears on the Quaestiones as “Reverendo Crescentio Mathero Apud Bostonienses V.D.M. Nee non Collegii Harvardini Curatore Vigilantissimo.”

On July 1, 1684, the Overseers took the following action:

Whereas ꝑ a suddain visitation by Sickness the present President is disinabled from officiating in y^e work of y^e day, in carrying on y^e Com̄encement; The Overseers of the Colledge, have nominated, appointed, & ordered the Reverend m^r William Hubberd to manage y^e same, & do fully impower him to admitt to & conferr upon the Persons concerned their degrees belonging to them respectively.730

During the years 1688–1691 President Mather was in England. In 1688 Governor Andros at first invited the Rev. Samuel Lee of Bristol731 to preside, but later appointed the Rev. William Hubbard. On July 2 John Richards wrote to Increase Mather: “The comencem^t is to be managed this yeare by M^r W^m Hubbard of Ipswich. The Govern^r sent to M^r Lee to do it, who likewise intended, but was not positive in his answer, & so M^r Hubbard is to manage it, hath been here about it.”732 And on July 6 Warham Mather wrote to Increase Mather: “One occasion of my being in your family at this present is the Commenc^mt. It was at the usual time.733 M^r Hubbard of Ipswich was appointed President over it. M^r Lee was sent to by his Excellency to undertake that office. The letter came not to hand till the Governor took his not answering him for a refusall. The enclosed will give an account of what was done therein.”734 The order appointing Hubbard is as follows:

Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, &c.

The Rev. Mr. William Hubbard . . . Greeting

Whereas the Presidency or Rectorship of Harvard College in Cambridge within this his majesty’s territory and dominion of New England, is now vacant, I do therefore, with the advice of the council, by these presents, constitute, authorize and appoint you, the said William Hubbard, to exercise and officiate as President of said College at the next Commencement to be had for the same, in as full and ample manner as any former President or Rector hath or ought to have enjoyed.

Given under my hand and seal, at Boston, the 2d day of June, in the fourth year of his majesty’s reign, annoque Domini, 1688.735

In 1689 William Brattle presided, his name alone being on both the Theses and the Quaestiones. On June 12, 1690, Sewall recorded that “After Lecture there is a Meeting of the Overseers of the Colledge: the Fellows are ap̄ointed to hold the Com̄encement”736 — that is, John Leverett and William Brattle. The Theses for that year are not extant, and Leverett’s name alone appears on the Quaestiones. In 1691 the names of both Leverett and Brattle appear on the Theses, the Quaestiones for that year not being extant.

On May 24, 1724, the Corporation voted “That the Two Seni^r Tut^rs M^r Flynt & M^r Sever be desired to direct & order what is necessarily preparatory for the Exercises at Commencement. . . . That M^r Sever Moderate the Publick disputations of the Bachell^rs in the Forenoon And M^r Flynt the Disputations of the Masters in the Afternoon and that the Said Tut^rs give the degrees to those whose disputations they Moderate.”737

On June 21, 1737, the Corporation voted “that M^r Henry Flynt & M^r Nathan Prince manage the publick affaires of the said day namely That M^r Prince Moderate the publick disputations of the Bachellours & give them their degrees in the forenoon and that M^r Flynt Moderate the disputations of the Masters and give them their degrees in the afternoon.”738 This vote, however, was on June 22 disallowed by the Overseers, who “declared it was not adviseable that there should be two persons to preside in the Solemnitys of that day;” and on June 23 the Corporation voted “that M^r Henry Flynt Preside in the publick Services of the next Commencemt and give degrees to the respective Candidates.”739

It is unnecessary to give details as to later appointments, the information being derived from the Commencement programmes or the College archives or the Boston newspapers. Previous to 1672, the President for the time being, so far as is known, presided at each Commencement. The following list740 gives the names of the persons who have presided, other than the Presidents or Vice-President, from 1672 to the present time:

1672 Urian Oakes
1675 Urian Oakes
1676 Urian Oakes
1677 Urian Oakes
1678 Urian Oakes
1679 Urian Oakes
1681 Increase Mather
1682 Increase Mather
1684 William Hubbard
1688 William Hubbard
1689 William Brattle
1690 John Leverett [and William Brattle]
1691 John Leverett and William Brattle
1724 Henry Flynt and Nicholas Sever
1737 Henry Flynt
1769 John Winthrop
1781 Edward Wigglesworth
1798 Simeon Howard
1805 Eliphalet Pearson
1810 Henry Ware
1827 Henry Ware
1828 Henry Ware
1862 Andrew Preston Peabody
1869 Andrew Preston Peabody
1887 Martin Brimmer

Places where the Exercises have been held

The original building, a wooden structure called Harvard College, was begun by Nathaniel Eaton in or before 1639 and completed by Henry Dunster about 1643. The precise date of its first occupation is not known, but in a letter written in December, 1653, Dunster said: “Thus fell y^e work upon mee. 3^d 8^ber 1641: w^ch by y^e Lords assistance was so far furthered y^t y^e students dispersed in y^e town & miserably distracted in their times of concourse came into com̄ons into one house 7^ber 1642. & w^th y^m a 3^d burthen upon my shoulders, to bee their steward, & to Direct their brewer, baker, buttler, Cook, how to ꝑportion their com̄ons.”741 The building was described in 1643 as an “Edifice . . . very faire and comely within and without, having in it a spacious Hall; (where they daily meet at Commons, Lectures) Exercises, and a large Library with some Books to it.”742 The Hall was apparently finished, except the interior, before Dunster undertook the completion of the building.

That the Commencement dinner was served in the Hall in 1642 is proved by Winthrop’s statement that those present “dined at the college with the scholars’ ordinary commons.”743 But there is some uncertainty as to exactly where the degrees were conferred in the early years. In a paper on “Harvard College and the First Church,” written in 1890, Professor Albert Bushnell Hart declared that “The first Commencement of Harvard College, in 1642, was held in the first edifice of this church.”744 And on October 12, 1676, Edward Randolph, who had reached Boston on the previous 10th of June, wrote: “new-colledge, built at the publick charge, is a fair pile of brick building covered with tiles, by reason of the late Indian warre not yet finished. It contains 20 chambers for students, two in a chamber; a large hall, which serves for a chappel; over that a convenient library, with some few bookes of the ancient fathers and school divines, . . . Their commencement, kept yearly the 2d of August, in the meeting-house, where the governor and magistrates are present, attended with throngs of illiterate elders and church members, who are entertained with English speeches and verses.”745 But Mr. Hart gives no authority, while Randolph’s error as to the date of Commencement — which at that time was not the second of August,746 but the second Tuesday in August — renders his statement as to the place not above suspicion.747 On the other hand, there is some evidence that the exercises were held in the College Hall. Thus Samuel Whiting’s oration in 1649 was delivered “in aula scilicet Harvardina;”748 and Nathaniel Rogers’s oration in 1652 was delivered “in Aulâ Scil. Harvardinâ.”749 It is of course possible that these orations were spoken at the dinner, but it seems more reasonable to assume that they were delivered when the degrees were conferred.

The first Harvard College soon fell into decay and was taken down about 1680, another building of brick, Randolph’s “new-colledge,” also called Harvard College, having been built several years before. On August 7, 1674, Sewall recorded, “New Colledge raised. John Francis helping about raising of the new Colledge had his right legg (both bones) broke a little above his ankle;”750 on “26. 12. 75.” (February 26, 1676), “It is ordered by the councill that the stewards for the new brick colledge doe forth with finish up y^e place appoynted for the coll: library, that so they may be imediately secured therein;”751 on August 31, 1676, Daniel Gookin was paid fifty shillings “in Satisfaction for his paines in removing the library to the new Colledge & placeing them;”752 and, according to Hubbard, who wrote about 1680, “in the year 1677, a fair and stately edifice of brick was erected anew, not far from the place where the former stood, and so far finished that the public acts of the Commencement were there performed.”753 Finally, Urian Oakes was inaugurated President “in the College-Hall on the Com̄encm^t day. August 1680.”754 Whatever conclusion is to be drawn from this conflicting evidence, not long after this the degrees were conferred in the meeting-house of the First Church. Writing on July 6, 1687, Sewall said: “Waited on his Excellency to Cambridge. Eleven Bachelors and Seven Masters proceeded. Mr. Mather, President, Pray’d forenoon and afternoon. Mr. Ratcliff sat in the Pulpit by the Governor’s direction. Mr. Mather crav’d a Blessing and return’d Thanks in the Hall.”755 Robert Ratcliffe was the newly arrived Episcopal clergyman, and Andros’s insistence upon his sitting “in the Pulpit” seems to indicate that the exercises must have been held in the meetinghouse. However that may be, it is certain that the exercises were held there in 1704, for on July 5 of that year Sewall wrote: “Goe to Cambridge with Mr. Thos. Brattle in Stedman’s Calash. Spent the forenoon in the Meetinghouse.”756 And there — or rather in the successive meeting-houses757 of the First Church — the degrees were conferred down to and including 1833. In 1829 there was a division of the First Church into the First Church (Congregational) and the First Church (Unitarian).758 The former built a new meeting-house, while the latter retained possession of the old meeting-house; and in the old meeting-house the exercises were held in 1829–1833. In 1834 the First Church (Unitarian) built a new meeting-house, and in it the degrees were conferred from 1834 to 1872, both included. In 1873–1875 the exercises were held in Appleton Chapel; and from 1876 to 1915, both included, they were held in Sanders Theatre. This year the exercises will, for the first time, be held in the Stadium, “if the weather permits.”759 In 1911 the exercises of the Harvard Alumni Association were transferred from Memorial Hall to the Sever Quadrangle.760

The Commencement dinner was doubtless served in the first Harvard College from 1642 to 1676; in the second Harvard College from 1677 to 1763; in the present Harvard Hall from 1765 to 1813; in University Hall from 1814 to 1841; in Harvard Hall from 1842 to 1870; in Massachusetts Hall from 1871 to 1873; and in Memorial Hall from 1874 to 1904.761 Since 1904 there has been no Commencement dinner.762

List of Commencement Days

1642–1916

abbreviations

C = Corporation Records
E = Order of the Exercises (1791–1810)
EI = Essex Institute Historical Collections
L = President Leverett’s Diary
MC = Massachusetts Historical Collections
MP = Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society
O = Overseers’ Records
Q = Quaestiones (1645–1791)763
R = New England Historical and Genealogical Register
S = Sibley’s Harvard Graduates
T = Theses (1642–1810)764
Tr = Triennial Catalogues (1682–1715)
W = President Wadsworth’s Diary
Dates printed in italics are conjectural

year	month			day of month		day of week	authority
1642765							See p. 317
1643	Oct.766						T Seep p. 321
1644767							See p. 322
1645							See p. 322
1646	July			28		Tu	T
1647	July			27		Tu	T
1648	July			25		Tu
1649	July			31		Tu	See p. 322
1650	July			30		Tu	S768
1651	Aug.			12		Tu	Seep. 324
1652	Aug.			10		Tu
1653	Aug.			9		Tu	Q T
1653	Aug.			10		W	T
1654	Aug.			8		Tu	See p. 325
1655	Aug.			14		Tu	Q
1656	Aug.			12		Tu	Q
1657	Aug.			11		Tu
1658	Aug.			10		Tu	Q
1659	Aug.			9		Tu	Q
1660	Aug.			14		Tu	Q
1661	Aug.			13		Tu
1662	Aug.			12		Tu
1663	Aug.			11		Tu	Q
1664	Aug.			9		Tu	Q
1665	Aug.			8		Tu	Q
1666	Aug.			14		Tu	Q
1667	Aug.			13		Tu	MC769
1668	Aug.			11		Tu	Q
1669	Aug.			10		Tu	Q
1670	Aug.			9		Tu	T
1671	Aug.			8		Tu	MC770
1672	Aug.			13		Tu	MC771
1673	Aug.			12		Tu
1674	Aug.			11		Tu	Q
1675	Aug.			10		Tu	MC772 MP773 Q
1676	Aug.			8		Tu	MP774 Q
1677	Aug.			14		Tu	See p. 327
1678	Aug.			13		Tu	Q T
1679	Aug.			12		Tu	Q
1680	Aug.			10		Tu	Q
1681	Aug.			9		Tu	MC775 Q
1682	Aug.			8		Tu	Q Tr
1683	Sept.			12		W	See p. 328
1684	July			1		Tu	C Q
1685	July			1		W	MC776 R777
1686	July			7		W	Q
1687	July			6		W	MC778 Q T
1688	July			4		W	MC779 Q R780
1689	Sept.			11		W	Q T
1690	July			2		W	Q MC781
1691	July			1		W	T
1692	July			6		W	Q
1693	July			5		W	MC782 Q R783 T
1694	July			4		W	MC784 Q
1695	July			3		W	Q
1696	July			1		W	Q R785
1697	July			7		W	MC786 Q
1698	July			6		W	Q
1699	July			5		W	Q
1700	July			3		W	Q Tr
1701	July			2		W	MC787 Q
1702	July			1		W	Q
1703	July			7		W	MC788 Q
1704	July			5		W	MC789 Q
1705	July			4		W	MC790 Q
1706	July			3		W	EI791
1707	July			2		W	MC792 Q
1708	July			7		W	MC793 Q T
1709	July			6		W	Q
1710	July			5		W	MC794 Q
1711	July			4		W	C L MC795 Q T
1712	July			2		W	MC796 Q
1713	July			1		W	MC797 Q
1714	July			7		W	L MC798 Q
1715	Aug.			31		W	L Q Tr
1716	July			4		W	L MC799 Q
1717	July			3		W	MC800 Q T
1718	July			2		W	MC801 Q
1719	July			1		W	MC802 Q T
1720	July			6		W	L MC803 Q T
1721	June			28		W	L T
1722	July			4		W	O Q T
1723	July			3		W	O Q T See p. 332
1724	July			1		W	Q R804
1725	July			7		W	O Q T W
1726	July			6		W	C MC805 Q T W
1727	June			30		F	C Q T W
1728	June			28		F	C O Q W
1729	June			27		F	Q W
1730	June			24		W	Q T W
1731	June			25		F	C O Q T W
1732	June			23		F	COQTW
1733	June			29		F	Q T W
1734	July			5		F	C Q T W
1735	July			4		F	O Q T W
1736	July			7		W	C O QW
1737	July			6		W	O Q T
1738	July			5		W	C O Q T
1739	July			4		W	O Q T
1740	Aug.			27		W	O Q T
1741	July			1		W	C O Q T
1742	July			7		W	C O Q T
1743	July			6		W	C O Q T
1744	July			4		W	C O Q T
1745	July			3		W	C O Q T
1746	July			2		W	C O Q T
1747	July			1		W	C O QT
1748	July			6		W	C Q T
1749	June			30		F	COQT
1750	July			4		W	C Q T
1751	July			3		W	C O Q T
1752	July			1806		W	Seep. 344
1753	July			18		W	O Q T
1754	July			17		W	C O Q T
1755	July			16		W	C O Q T
1756	July			14		W	C O Q T
1757	July			13807		W	See p. 346
1758	July			19		W	C O Q T
1759	July			18		W	O Q T
1760	July			16		W	O Q T
1761	July			15		W	C O Q T808
1762	July			21		W	C O Q T
1763	July			20		W	C O Q T
1764	July			18809		W	See p. 349
1765	July			17		W	C O Q T
1766	July			16		W	C O Q T
1767	July			15		W	C O Q T
1768	July			20		W	O Q T
1769	July			19		W	C Q T
1770	July			18		W	C O Q T
1771	July			17		W	C O Q T
1772	July			15		W	Q T See p. 352
1773	July			21		W	C Q T
1774	July			20810		W	See p. 352
1775	Oct.			3		Tu	Seep. 353
1776	Aug.			14		W	T See p. 354
1777	July			16		W	T See p. 355
1778	July			15		W	T See p. 355
1779	July			21811		W	T See p. 356
1780	July			19812		W	T See p. 358
1781	July			18		W	C O Q T
1782	July			17		W	C O T
1783	July			16		W	C O T
1784	July			21		W	C O Q T
1785	July			20		W	C O Q T
1786	July			19		W	C O Q T
1787	July			18		W	C O Q T
1788	July			16		W	C O Q T
1789	July			15		W	C O Q T
1790	July			21		W	C O Q T
1791	July			20		W	C E813 O Q814 T
1792	July			18		W	C E O T
1793	July			17		W	C E O T
1794	July			16		W	C E O T
1795	July			15		W	C E O T
1796	July			20		W	C E O T
1797	July			19		W	C E O T
1798	July			18		W	C E O T
1799	July			17		W	C E O T
1800	July			16		W	C E O T
1801	July			15		W	C E O T
1802	Aug.			25		W	C E O T
1803	Aug.			31		W	C E O T
1804	Aug.			29		W	C E O T
1805	Aug.			28		W	C E O T
1806	Aug.			27		W	C E O T
1807	Aug.			26		W	C E O T
1808	Aug.			31		W	C E O815 T
1809	Aug.			30		W	C E O T
1810	Aug.			29		W	C E O T816
1811		Aug.	28		W
1812		Aug.	26		W
1813		Aug.	25		W
1814		Aug.	31		W
1815		Aug.	30		W
1816		Aug.	28		W
1817		Aug.	27		W
1818		Aug.	26		W
1819		Aug.	25		W
1820		Aug.	30		W
1821		Aug.	29		W
1822		Aug.	28		W
1823		Aug.	27		W
1824		Aug.	25		W
1825		Aug.	31		W
1826		Aug.	30		W
1827		Aug.	29		W
1828		Aug.	27		W
1829		Aug.	26		W
1830		Aug.	25		W
1831		Aug.	31		W
1832		Aug.	29		W
1833		Aug.	28		W
1834		Aug.	27		W
1835		Aug.	26		W
1836		Aug.	31		W
1837		Aug.	30		W
1838		Aug.	29		W
1839		Aug.	28		W
1840		Aug.	26		W
1841		Aug.	25		W
1842		Aug.	24		W
1843		Aug.	23		W
1844		Aug.	28		W
1845		Aug.	27		W
1846		Aug.	26		W
1847		Aug.	25		W
1848		Aug.	23		W
1849		July	18		W
1850		July	17		W
1851		July	16		W
1852		July	21		W
1853		July	20		W
1854		July	19		W
1855		July	18		W
1856		July	16		W
1857		July	15		W
1858		July	21		W
1859		July	20		W
1860		July	18		W
1861		July	17		W
1862		July	16		W
1863		July	15		W
1864		July	20		W
1865		July	19		W
1866		July	18		W
1867		July	17		W
1868		July	15		W
1869		June	29		Tu
1870		June	28		Tu
1871		June	28		W
1872		June	26		W
1873		June	25		W
1874		June	24		W
1875		June	30		W
1876		June	28		W
1877		June	27		W
1878		June	26		W
1879		June	25		W
1880		June	30		W
1881		June	29		W
1882		June	28		W
1883		June	27		W
1884		June	25		W
1885		June	24		W
1886		June	30		W
1887		June	29		W
1888		June	27		W
1889		June	26		W
1890		June	25		W
1891		June	24		W
1892		June	29		W
1893		June	28		W
1894		June	27		W
1895		June	26		W
1896		June	24		W
1897		June	30		W
1898		June	29		W
1899		June	28		W
1900		June	27		W
1901		June	26		W
1902		June	25		W
1903		June	24		W
1904		June	29		W
1905		June	28		W
1906		June	27		W
1907		June	26817		W
1908		June	24		W
1909		June	30		W
1910		June	29		W
1911		June	28		W
1912		June	20		Th
1913		June	19		Th
1914		June	18		Th
1915		June	24		Th
1916		June	22		Th

Mr. George L. Kittredge exhibited a letter of Cotton Mather, dated 1 May, 1724, which had evidently been sent with a copy of his Parentator to the Principal818 of the University of Glasgow, to which the volume is dedicated. The letter is laid in a fine copy of the book, apparently the very copy which it originally accompanied. Both letter and volume belong to Mr. Ambrose Cramer, of Chicago, by whose kind permission a facsimile is given.819

Letter from Cotton Mather to the Principal of the University of Glasgow

Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from the original in the possession of Ambrose Cramer, Esquire

Syr.

If my Letters bore any Proportion to the Regards which I owe you, or, if my Poor Countrey could afford any matters worthy to come into Letters to a Person of your Superior Consideration; They would be of Larger Dimensions than those in which they now appear before you.

But instead thereof, I humbly pray you to accept the Public Address, which I have made unto your Illustrious University, in the Dedication of my Parentator, which now waits upon you.

Long, Long, have I wished for an Opportunity, to testify unto the World, my Esteem for a Church, which ha’s That of CHRIST and of TRUTH in it, which must endear it unto all that wish well to the Kingdome of God. At length a most unwish’d for Opportunity, is fallen into my hands; and I am a very Happy Man, if I have so taken it, as to find any tolerable Acceptance with you. And I need not ask, that you would please to communicate the Book, where it may give any agreeable Entertainment.

May the Glorious Lord continue you many days a rich Blessing unto the Renoumed University, at the Head whereof he has placed you; and unto the Church, in the Service whereof He has made you a most Conspicuous Instrument & Ornament.

It is the Prayer of,

S^r,

Your most affectionate Friend,

& Obedient Servant,

Cotton Mather.

Boston, N. England,

May. 1. 1724.

Mr. Andrew McF. Davis communicated a list of historical and quasi-historical societies organized in Massachusetts 1901–1915, speaking as follows:

At the first meeting of this Society, on request of Dr. Gould, I prepared a paper, the subject of which, selected by myself, was Historical Work in Massachusetts.820 In this paper I sought to describe the purposes of the several historical societies which were in existence at that time, or which had for a time existed in the past and had then ceased their work, leaving some traces of a transient life upon the records of the Commonwealth. At the outset it became important to define what an historical society was. Not all societies which bear the name “historical” in their titles are necessarily to be included in the list of those which we may wish especially to consider, and not all the societies which we wish to consider bear in their titles any words which in themselves would indicate that it was imperative under the circumstances that they should be included. On the one hand there have been incorporated societies which bear the word “historical” in their titles, but which limit or transfer their field of work in such a way as to exclude the consideration of our local history, while on the other hand there are many societies which have no such distinguishing mark in their titles, but which we should be compelled to classify as historical societies, of which our own is a conspicuous example.

There are many examples of organizations which include within their purposes functions that we should unhesitatingly qualify as historical in their character, but which in most instances we should not expect to find classified as historical societies. Instances of this sort are to be found in museums which collect historical material, memorial organizations which preserve specific historical relics, and public libraries which offer their vaults and shelves as places of deposit for manuscripts, pamphlets, and books of historical interest.

There are many social organizations which introduce the words historical, or antiquarian, or both in their purposes. In some of these the presence of such a purpose seems incongruous and utterly extraneous to the real intentions of the incorporators. Yet there the word stands, indicating that a society whose fundamental purpose is the cultivation of social friendship also claims to have historical work within its purview, but with no special suggestion as to the methods by which historical purposes are to be cultivated or historical work fostered.

There are Massachusetts societies which claim that they propose to promote the study of the history of certain foreign countries, others which restrain their proposed historical work to specific States other than Massachusetts, while still others confine their purposes to encouraging historical work in connection with towns located in other States.

Certain organizations limit their field of work to topical work, historical in designation, but obviously to be classified as literary in character — Biblical history for instance.

Now in the submission of the list of societies included in the paper on Historical Work in Massachusetts, it became necessary to draw the line somewhere between those that were to be considered for the purposes of the paper as historical societies and those that were not to be regarded as fully entitled to the name, even though some of their purposes were in close affiliation. It seemed to be impossible to ignore many of this latter class. The scheme resorted to was to place full-fledged historical societies in the text, and to relegate to notes such organizations as merely introduced for some unknown purpose the word historical in their functions, as well as those which limited their historical work to that of collecting material or in some other way made it clear that such work was in their case of a secondary character.

The number of societies given in the text of that article was fifty-one. Two historical societies, the Bedford and the Wakefield, formed after the paper was read, were, unfortunately for the logical carrying out of the intention to separate the societies into positions in the text and in the notes according to their character, assigned to positions in the notes, it being too late to get them in the text. Besides these, twenty-five societies which were of a quasi-historical character, or were no longer in existence, were described in the notes.

The suggestion naturally arose after the grouping together of the names of these societies in the index of Volume I that it would be a good thing to continue the list of incorporations from year to year, thus securing for each incorporated society a place in our indexes. Societies of this sort can be run down at the office of the Commissioner of Corporations, or in the volumes containing the annual Acts and Resolves. There is no place, however, to which we can turn to discover unincorporated societies. If it came to be understood that there was one publication to which a student could turn to find information about Massachusetts historical societies, then it would probably be the case that unincorporated societies would voluntarily report to the editor of the publication, and the list would with time become more and more accurate. With this purpose in view, reports of newly organized historical societies were made from time to time at meetings of the Society821 and the names of such societies found their way into our indexes. Unfortunately for the carrying out of this scheme, certain delays in issuing our publications interfered with the reports of incorporations, there being no method at hand of protection against duplication, and since 1901 no such reports have been made. The publication of our Transactions now follows so closely upon our meetings that this difficulty no longer exists. This report, which covers the gap from 1901 to the present time, is made up in a general way upon the same plan. Unfortunately there will always be some societies, the exact position of which in these classifications will not be easy to define. Some would put them in one class, some in another. Indeed, it may be said that no person could offhand make a distribution of these societies into the classes suggested, which he would not, under different circumstances and other influences, alter; but whether the classification be accepted or not, at any rate an attempt has been made to give the name and the general purposes of all societies in Massachusetts having directly or indirectly historical purposes, and any person making use of the list can arrange them as he pleases.

I HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 822

UNITARIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY823

Purposes: “To collect and preserve books, manuscripts, periodicals, pamphlets, pictures, and memorabilia, which describe and illustrate the history of the Unitarian movement, and to stimulate an interest in the writing and preserving of the records of Unitarian Churches.”

Organized: February 18, 1901.

BROOKLINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY824

Purposes: “The study of the history of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, its societies, organizations, families, individuals and events, the collection and preservation of its antiquities, the establishment and maintenance of an historical library and publication from time to time of such information relating to the same, as shall be deemed expedient.”

Date of Charter: April 29, 1901.

ROXBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY825

Purposes: “1^st to perpetuate the history of Roxbury and its military citizens and organizations. 2^d. to encourage the volunteer militia. 3^rd. To advocate measures and principles that will tend to strengthen the patriotism of the community.”

Date of Charter: May 15, 1901.

OLD SOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY826

Purposes: “To promote the study of American history, as a means of culture in good citizenship.”

Date of Charter: June 7, 1901.

MARBLEHEAD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Collecting, studying and preserving historical matter relating to the town and its inhabitants, especially of the early settlement of the town, and of the persons whose lives have since made it famous, and the preservation of such relics of the past as shall assist in making clear the manners and customs of our ancestors.”

Date of Charter: March 15, 1902.

THE MEDWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Historical and antiquarian work and research, collection and preservation of books, manuscripts, pamphlets and other articles of historical and antiquarian interest and other historical and antiquarian objects and purposes.”

Date of Charter: April 29, 1902.

LOWELL HISTORICAL SOCIETY827

Purposes: “Collecting and preserving books, manuscripts, records and objects of antiquarian and historical interest; of encouraging the study of local history, of maintaining a library; and of publishing from time to time whatever may illustrate and perpetuate the history of Lowell and adjacent towns.”

Date of Charter: May 21, 1902.

SHREWSBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “To preserve and promote interest in local historic matters, and to acquire and maintain a collection of historic articles.”

Date of Charter: June 23, 1902.

THE HEATH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The preservation of the old Town House. The collection and safe keeping of any and all articles of historical interest connected with the town of Heath.”

Date of Charter: August 18, 1902.

SWAMPSCOTT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “To study and record the history of the town of Swampscott, its institutions and families; to trace its connections with the larger life of the Commonwealth or the Nation; to perpetuate in suitable ways noteworthy events; and to collect and preserve documents or relics illustrative of this history.”

Organized: September 10, 1902.

NEWTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The study of local history, the collection and preservation of antiquities, the establishment and maintenance of an historical library, and the publication from time to time of historical matter of value to the society.”

Date of Charter: October 22, 1902.

THE AMHERST HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The prosecution of education, antiquarian, historical, literary, artistic, patriotic, and monumental purposes, for establishing and maintaining a historical library, a place for storing said library, and for reading rooms and social meetings, and for such other purposes not inconsistent with law as may be reasonably incident and necessary to the promotion of such objects, the special purpose of the organization being to preserve the historical records of the town of Amherst, and to collect, hold, preserve and exhibit objects of historical value and interest in said town.”

Date of Charter: May 28, 1903.

OLD DARTMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY828

Purposes: “Creating and fostering an interest in the history of the territory included in Old Dartmouth, to wit, territory now included in the City of New Bedford, and the towns of Fairhaven, Acushnet, Dartmouth and Westport; of promoting historical research; of collecting documents and relics and providing for their proper custody.”

Date of Charter: August 10, 1903.

THE SHARON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Prosecuting antiquarian and historical matters.”

Date of Charter: September 11, 1903.

THE CLINTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Awakening and cultivating an interest in local history; of collecting and preserving works of art, with books, papers, documents and articles of artistic and historic value, of promoting the study of natural history, of gathering and preserving specimens connected therewith, of preserving a record of passing events; of procuring and caring for a safe repository for the same.”

Date of Charter: October 13, 1903.

THE STOUGHTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Holding meetings to promote an interest in historical matters; the collection, accumulation and preservation of books, papers, records, pamphlets, manuscripts, pictures and all such other relics, in the shape of mementos, souvenirs and keepsakes, as relate to the history of the town of Stoughton, State of Massachusetts.”

Date of Charter: November 17, 1903.

THE FALMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Conducting historical research in connection with the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, and the collection and preservation of its historical material, genealogical and otherwise.”

Date of Charter: July 21, 1904.

MILTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Study of the history of the town of Milton, Massachusetts, its societies, organizations, families, individuals and events, the collection and preservation of articles of historic value, the establishment and maintenance of an historical library, and the publication from time to time of such information relating to the same as shall be deemed expedient.”

Date of Charter: February 7, 1905.

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Collecting and preserving Books, Manuscripts, and other Memorials, of procuring the publication and distribution of the same and generally of promoting interest and research in relation to the history of Cambridge, in said Commonwealth.”

Date of Charter: June 24, 1905.

THE NORTHAMPTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The prosecution of educational, antiquarian, historical, literary, artistic, patriotic and monumental purposes, for establishing and maintaining a historical library, a place for storing said library, and for reading rooms and social meetings, and for such other purposes not inconsistent with law as may be reasonably incident and necessary to the promotion of such objects; the special purpose of the organization being to preserve the historical records of the City of Northampton, and to collect, hold, preserve and exhibit objects of historical value and interest in said city.”

Date of Charter: November 6, 1905.

LINCOLN HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL ASSOCIATION829

Purposes: “Promoting and providing for the keeping of family histories, and holding of family reunions, and the collection, compilation, and publication of such information as may be obtained, concerning the Lincoln families.”

Date of Charter: July 25, 1906.

THE LEOMINSTER HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The collection, preservation and study of historical matter appertaining to the town of Leominster and its inhabitants.”

Date of Charter: February 13, 1907.

THE NORWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The prosecution of historical and antiquarian work and research, the collection and preservation of books, manuscripts, pamphlets and other articles of historical and antiquarian interest, the publication of periodicals, tracts, and pamphlets devoted to or treating of historical, antiquarian or kindred subjects.”

Date of Charter: February 14, 1907.

THE SANDWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Historical research in connection with the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts, and the collection and preservation of its historical material.”

Date of Charter: July 3, 1907.

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

Purposes: “The prosecution of educational, antiquarian, historical, literary, artistic, patriotic and monumental purposes; for establishing and maintaining a historical library; a place for storing said library and for reading rooms and social meetings, and for such other purposes not inconsistent with law, as may be reasonably incident and necessary to the promotion of such objects, the special purpose of the organization being to preserve the historical records of the town of Greenfield, and to collect, hold, preserve and exhibit objects of historical value and interest in said town.”

Date of Charter: July 8, 1907.

ASHLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “The prosecution of historical and antiquarian work and research; the collection and preservation of books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and articles of historical and antiquarian interest.

“The publication of periodicals and pamphlets treating of historical or kindred subjects and other historical and antiquarian objects and purposes.”

Date of Charter: May 29, 1909.

MENDON HISTORICAL SOCIETY830

Purposes: “Encouraging and promoting historical and antiquarian research; for collecting and preserving ancient and modern documents, books, and papers, also for collecting articles of historical interest.”

Date of Charter: November 4, 1909.

WESTERN HAMPDEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY831

Purposes: “Antiquarian, historical and monumental purposes, and for the establishment and maintenance of reading rooms and libraries, relating to such purposes.”

Date of Charter: November 23, 1909.

THE TOPSFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY832

Purposes: “Collecting, preserving and studying all historical material relating to the town of Topsfield, and it also shall be the purpose of the corporation to encourage the study of natural history in its various branches.”

Date of Charter: October 6, 1910.

THE ANDOVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Cultivating and encouraging an interest in antiquarian and historical research; to collect and treasure significant historical matter and antiquarian relics and to found and maintain a museum, where such collection shall be preserved and exhibited, thus making a valuable, interesting, and educational feature in the life of Andover.”

Date of Charter: May 9, 1911.

THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HISTORICAL SOCIETY833

Purposes: “Collecting and preserving historical relics, letters, papers and facts, and promoting historical research especially relative to the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard, and to hold real estate for these purposes.”

Date of Charter: January 26, 1912.

THE NORTH ANDOVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Acquiring and preserving places of historic interest and collecting and recording historical facts and traditions; establishing a collection of books, documents and articles of historical and antiquarian interest; and carrying on such research and other work as is usually engaged in by local historical societies.”

Date of Charter: July 16, 1913.

THE SHERBORN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Studying the history of the town of Sherborn, and towns in its vicinity, and with especial reference to said history, preserving historic landmarks; locating, acquiring and preserving articles and data of historic interest; and seeking and perpetuating evidence relating to historic events.”

Date of Charter: August 11, 1913.

THE MELROSE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Arousing interest in the study of the history of the city of Melrose, securing the preservation of its oldest buildings; collecting by gift, loan or purchase, colonial books, pictures, furniture, dishes, etc.; providing suitable rooms for their preservation, and publishing from time to time such information relating to Melrose families, organizations, events, etc., as shall be deemed expedient.”

Date of Charter: January 27, 1914.

THE HOLLISTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INCORPORATED

Purposes: “The study, collection, and preservation of historical records, traditions and relics relating to the history of Holliston and its people.”

Date of Charter: March 31, 1914.

THE HINGHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Collecting and preserving manuscripts, printed books, pamphlets, historical facts, biographical anecdotes and historical relics and stimulating research into local history.”

Date of Charter: June 18, 1914.

THE BELCHERTOWN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Purposes: “Receiving either as gift or loans, articles of historical interest, such as memorials, books, pictures, documents, etc., of especial interest to the people of Belchertown and vicinity; Indian and war relics and curios, geological and natural history specimens, also articles of household use, and to provide and maintain a suitable place for their preservation and exhibition. Also to suitably mark in some permanent manner places of historic interest within the town, and to arrange for lectures on historical and kindred subjects.”

Date of Charter: September 16, 1914.

THE NEEDHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INCORPORATED

Purposes: “The prosecution of historical and antiquarian work and research; the collection and preservation of books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and other articles of historical and antiquarian interest, the publication of periodicals, tracts and pamphlets, devoted to or treating of historical, antiquarian or kindred subjects; and other historical and antiquarian objects and purposes.”

Date of Charter: April 5, 1915.

THE WALTHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INCORPORATED

Purposes: “Stimulating and aiding research in the local and general history of Waltham, by collecting and preserving such manuscripts, documents, mementos, and relics as relate thereto, by collecting and preparing genealogies of Waltham families, by preparing or causing to be prepared from time to time, papers and records relating to these subjects, that are or may be of general interest, by aiding in the preservation, buildings, monuments and other objects of historic interest and by such other means as shall be deemed fitting.”

Date of Charter: April 12, 1914.

II QUASI-HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

EAST TEMPLETON VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY

Purposes: Added to the functions set forth in the title is that of preserving places of historic interest.

Date of Charter: February 19, 1901.

THE RUFUS PUTNAM MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION834

Purposes: A memorial society having no other historical purposes than the preservation of the homestead of a distinguished general in the Continental Army.

Date of Charter: April 29, 1901.

UNITY CLUB OF NANTUCKET

Purposes: “The prosecution of Literary, Historical, Scientific, Artistic, and Musical purposes and studies.”

Date of Charter: June 18, 1901.

BEMIS MEMORIAL PARK ASSOCIATION835

Purposes: “Antiquarian and Historical research.”

Date of Charter: January 8, 1902.

THE LYNN REPUBLICAN CLUB

Purposes: “Literary and historical discussion, investigation and study.”

Date of Charter: May 20, 1902.

GAYLORD MEMORIAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Purposes: “Establishing and maintaining a library building, museum, antiquarian and historical relics and collections in the town of South Hadley.”

Date of Charter: June 12, 1902.

TURNVEREIN VORWARTS OF ADAMS

Purposes: “Educational, historical, literary and musical purposes, maintaining a library with manual training and athletics.”

Date of Charter: October 27, 1902.

PARKER FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA836

Purposes: “Genealogical and Historical research, and the establishment and maintenance of Libraries and places for social meetings.”

Date of Charter: November 8, 1902.

WING FAMILY OF AMERICA, INCORPORATED837

Purposes: “Uniting the descendants of Deborah Wing and her ancestors socially; promoting antiquarian research among the members of the Wing Family, and for disseminating knowledge of the history of the family.’

Date of Charter: November 21, 1902.

THE SEA COAST DEFENSE CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION838

Purposes: “Preservation of ancient documents, books, and historic relics.”

Date of Charter: February 17, 1903.

THE BAY STATE HISTORICAL LEAGUE839

Purposes: “(1) To encourage the formation of historical societies. (2) To encourage the existing historical societies in prosecution of historical study and dissemination of historical knowledge, in the institution and maintenance of historical memorials and anniversaries, the collection, preservation and publication of historical material, and to bring such societies into a closer relation with one another; and (3) otherwise to promote historical interests.”

Organized: April 3, 1903.

FAIRBANKS FAMILY IN AMERICA840

Purposes: “Collection and preservation of all matters pertaining to the history of Fairbanks Family in America. The study of this material and the education of members in historical and antiquarian subjects relating to the family. The collection of Books, Pamphlets, Manuscripts and Articles referring to its history.”

Date of Charter: April 17, 1903.

RAMAPOGUE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Purposes: “Acquiring and maintaining for the use of the public, the building and premises known as the Old Day Place in West Springfield, or any part thereof, or some other building or premises, for the reception, protection and exhibition of things of historic interest, and for other kindred charitable use, and as a place of meeting of association engaged in Charitable work.”

Date of Charter: July 1, 1903.

THE NAUTICAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY841

Purposes: “The collection and preservation of Nautical Articles, Manuscripts, Log-books, Pictures and Library, and the preservation of the Pilot Boat Columbia and Scituate Light House if approved by the United States Government.”

Date of Charter: October 13, 1903.

THE LOVEWELL’S FIGHT MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION842

Purposes: A memorial association whose field of work includes historical research.

Date of Charter: June 9, 1904.

MATTAPOISETT IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

Purposes: Include the encouragement of “the collection and preservation of local historical, antiquarian, photographic and literary material.”

Date of Charter: September 12, 1904.

THE STATE OF MAINE CLUB843

Purposes: Include the preservation of antiquarian, historical, literary, and scientific research, only in connection with the State of Maine.

Date of Charter: May 3, 1905.

THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY IN NEW ENGLAND844

Purposes: “Historical and Genealogical research and publication.”

Date of Charter: June 9, 1905.

THE VERMONT ASSOCIATION OF BOSTON845

Purposes: “Promoting social intercourse among its members, of perpetuating common memories, of celebrating events in the history of the State of Vermont, and establishing and maintaining a meeting place for its members, and a reading room and library connected therewith.”

Date of Charter: June 12, 1905.

THE FRIDAY CLUB OF EVERETT

Purposes: “Educational, charitable and benevolent work, for the prosecution of historical, literary, scientific and artistic musical development for social ethical and intellectual culture, for establishing and maintaining libraries and reading-rooms and for promoting economy and thrift among its members and associates.”

Date of Charter: October 21, 1905.

STETSON KINDRED OF AMERICA, INCORPORATED846

Purposes: “Encouraging antiquarian, genealogical and historical researches, especially with reference to the times, the ancestors and the descendants of Robert Stetson, who settled at Scituate (now Norwell), Plymouth County, Massachusetts, about the year 1635, and there died on or about February 1, 1703.”

Date of Charter: November 14, 1905.

ROYAL HOUSE ASSOCIATION847

Purposes: To preserve and keep open to the public the Royal House in Medford.

Date of Charter: January 29, 1906.

THE ALDEN KINDRED OF AMERICA, INCORPORATED848

Purposes: Include publications of an historical character.

Date of Charter: May 31, 1906.

MOLLY VARNUM CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION849

Purposes: Include “perpetuating the memory of the men and women who achieved American Independence; of acquiring and protecting historic spots; encouraging historical research, and the publication of its results; preserving documents and relics, and individual records of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots.”

Date of Charter: September 28, 1906.

THE ROBINSON GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY850

Purposes: “Collection, compilation, and publication of such data and information as may be available concerning the Robinson and affiliated Families.”

Date of Charter: December 21, 1906.

THE BRADFORD ACADEMY HISTORICAL SOCIETY851

Purposes: “Acquiring and preserving the land and buildings formerly owned and occupied by Bradford Academy.”

Date of Charter: January 22, 1907.

PAUL REVERE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION852

Purposes: “Prosecution of antiquarian and historical purposes and especially as a memorial to the patriot Paul Revere, to the end that patriotism and philanthropy and civic virtue and pride, may be publicly fostered and the youth of this community may be educated in respect thereto.”

Date of Charter: May 4, 1907.

WESTERN CLUB OF BOSTON

Purposes: “Establishing and maintaining a place for social meetings and for the prosecution of historical and literary purposes.”

Date of Charter: August 30, 1907.

THE HYDE PARK CARNIVAL ASSOCIATION

Purposes: “Promoting the educational and historical interest of Hyde Park by proper public celebrations . . . and to publicly recognize by appropriate exercises, including general celebrations, historical events and anniversaries of our town.”

Date of Charter: September 11, 1907.

MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION853

Purposes: “Perpetuating the memory and spirit of the men who achieved American Independence, by the encouragement of historical research in relation to the Revolution, and the publication of its results, the preservation of documents and relics, and of the records of the individual services of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots, and the promotion of celebrations of all patriotic anniversaries.”

Date of Charter: December 26, 1907.

DEDHAM CARNIVAL ASSOCIATION

Purposes: “Encouragement and promotion of historical and antiquarian research and arranging and conducting proper public celebrations of National and State holidays, historical events and anniversaries.”

Date of Charter: February 19, 1908.

THE OLD PLANTERS SOCIETY854

Purposes: “Enabling the descendants of the settlers of New England prior to June 12, 1630, to maintain an organization to perpetuate the memory of said early settlers and for historical, literary and other similar purposes.”

Date of Charter: February 21, 1908.

THE OLD STOUGHTON MUSICAL SOCIETY855

Purposes: “Preserving, cultivating and practising the music of the earlier native composers, and for general musical, and antiquarian purpose.”

Date of Charter: February 25, 1908.

SUBMIT CLARK CORPORATION856

Purposes: “Prosecuting antiquarian, historical, literary, scientific, artistic and monumental purposes.”

Date of Charter: April 17, 1908.

REBECCA NURSE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION857

Purposes: “The preservation of the Rebecca Nurse estate in Danvers; the collection and preservation of the literature relating to the history of demonology and witchcraft, and the early history of New England, particularly of ‘Salem Village;’ the promotion of the study of the psychological phenomena of witchcraft and for other literary and scientific objects.”

Date of Charter: April 29, 1908.

RANDALL HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA858

Purposes: “Collecting and preserving data relating to the history, ancestry and genealogy of the several families of the name of Randall, from their immigrant ancestors, also to bring together in social relations the members of the different families.”

Date of Charter: May 14, 1908.

THE WINTHROP IMPROVEMENT AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Purposes: Include the use of its income “for educational, historical, or memorial institutions as it may seem to said Association advisable.”

Date of Charter: June 1, 1908.

THE FRAMINGHAM BOYS CLUB ASSOCIATION

Purposes: Among other things to encourage among boys “study in history, letters, government and kindred subjects.”

Date of Charter: July 10, 1908.

THE GREEK-AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION859

Purposes: “Promoting the study of American History, and American Institutions among American citizens of Grecian birth, and to cultivate the social and intellectual development of its members.”

Date of Charter: September 9, 1908.

OLD CONCORD CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION860

Purposes: “Educating the public in patriotism; for the prosecution of antiquarian, historical, literary and monumental purposes.”

Date of Charter: March 9, 1909.

THE MERRIMAC TOWN IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY

Purposes: “Furnishing a public park and play grounds, and a house for historical purposes, and the general improvement of the town.”

Date of Charter: May 6, 1909.

BULLARD MEMORIAL FARM ASSOCIATION861

Purposes: Certain “educational, historical, and monumental purposes.”

Date of Charter: May 10, 1909.

THE TOWER GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY862

Purposes: “Promoting antiquarian research among the members of the Tower family, collecting, compiling and publishing genealogical, biographical, and historical data, and disseminating knowledge of the Tower family.”

Date of Charter: May 14, 1909.

CANDIA CLUB863

Purposes: “Gathering together in a social organization the loyal sons and daughters of Candia, . . . so as to secure concert of action and promote the general welfare of the town of Candia, New Hampshire, and for historical and benevolent purposes.”

Date of Charter: May 19, 1909.

THE JOHN BEAN ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA864

Purposes: “Collecting, preserving and publishing genealogical facts or data, and otherwise perpetuating the history of the Bean (Beane) family, especially of the descendants of John Bean, who settled in Exeter, New Hampshire, A. D. 1660.”

Date of Charter: August 17, 1909.

THE GIRLS PROGRESSIVE CLUB865

Purposes: “Diffusing among its members a general knowledge of Jewish History.”

Date of Charter: November 5, 1909.

WESTPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Purposes: Include “taking up and prosecuting any antiquarian, historical, literary, scientific, artistic, or musical purpose or work.”

Date of Charter: November 15, 1909.

THE GLOUCESTER DAY COMMITTEE, INCORPORATED

Purposes: Celebration of Gloucester Day and “the prosecution of historical and monumental purposes.”

Date of Charter: December 7, 1909.

THE GERMAN-AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY

Purposes: “Furthering the welfare of societies, citizens and other persons of German birth or parentage, of fostering interest in the achievements of German-American citizens in country of their adoption, and in the language, literature and history of the country of their forefathers, or their own birth.”

Date of Charter: December 28, 1909.

SOCIETY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF ROBERT BARTLETT OF PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS866

Purposes: Perpetuating the memory of Robert Bartlett and “promoting historical, genealogical and antiquarian research, concerning the said Robert Bartlett, and his ancestors and descendants; of compiling and disseminating by publication or in any other manner, such knowledge.”

Date of Charter: December 30, 1909.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NEW ENGLAND ANTIQUITIES867

Purposes: Preservation of objects of historical interest.

Date of Charter: April 2, 1910.

DOM POLSKI TWEINIA KRULA WLADYSLAWA JAGIELLY CO868

Purposes: “Helping the members and their families in the study of the English language and for such literary and social purposes as may promote their social and moral welfare, for perfecting the members in the use of the English language by study of the history and institutions of the United States, to fit and encourage the members to become citizens of the United States, to provide a hall and meeting place for Polish people, and others for social, athletic and recreational purposes not inconsistent with law and order, and to hold real estate for the use and benefit of the corporation.”

Date of Charter: June 22, 1910.

ATTLEBORO CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Purposes: “Perpetuating the memory of the men and women, who achieved American Independence, of acquiring and protecting historic spots, encouraging historical research, and the publication of its results, preserving documents and relics and individual records of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots.”

Date of Charter: July 1, 1910.

THE LINSEY FAMILY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA869

Purposes: “Doing any and all acts which may be for the benefit of, or promote the social, charitable, genealogical or antiquarian interests of the Linsey family, of America, however the name Linsey may be spelled.”

Date of Charter: July 14, 1910.

WOODS HOLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Purposes: Include the collection of objects of historical value.

Date of Charter: August 11, 1910.

THE JEWETT FAMILY OF AMERICA870

Purposes: “Preservation of historical and antiquarian matter relating to the family, the collection of books, pamphlets, documents, manuscripts, and articles referring to the history, and the publication, from time to time of historical articles.”

Date of Charter: September 19, 1910.

THE WOMANS CLUB OF GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

Purposes: “Establishing a body of recognized authority to promote social service, scientific forestry, historical, literary, musical, and art education in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and whatever relates to the best interests of the town.”

Date of Charter: August 7, 1911.

THE SOCIETY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF PILGRIM JOHN HOWLAND OF THE SHIP MAYFLOWER871

Purposes: Among other objects the preservation of historic monuments.

Date of Charter: September 13, 1911.

THE SCOTTISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA872

Purposes: “Conducting research into all matters relating to the Scots in America, to prepare records of the results of such research, and preserve them in the archives of the society. To distribute among the members authentic information concerning the achievements of men of Scottish ancestry in America.”

Date of Charter: September 22, 1911.

THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORY TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION873

Purposes: “Advancing the study of history, government and economics, by the discussion and dissemination of ideas, and by the promotion of social relations among teachers of these subjects in the schools and colleges of New England.”

Date of Charter: November 13, 1911.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY874

Purposes: “Establishing and maintaining a Gallery and Library of American history; to obtain for American schools valuable and much-needed material for use in the teaching of the Nation’s history; to create a zeal for research on the part of the student, especially in the field of the story of his home community and his State.”

Date of Charter: December 28, 1911.

THE HEBREW INSTITUTE875

Purposes: “Establishing and maintaining a place of meeting for the propagation of Zionism as laid down by the International Zionist Congress, for spreading the knowledge of the Hebrew language, Jewish history and Jewish culture.”

Date of Charter: April 20, 1912.

THE QUINCY FOURTH OF JULY ASSOCIATION

Purposes: Include the compilation of literature bearing on the history of the United States.

Date of Charter: June 13, 1912.

THE BATES ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED876

Purposes: Genealogical and memorial.

Date of Charter: June 25, 1910.

THE FERRY-FERRE, FERÉT FAMILY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION877

Purposes: “Collecting and preserving data relating to the history, ancestry and genealogy of the families of the name of Ferry-Ferre, Ferét, descended from Charles Ferre (Ferry) and Sarah Harmon, his wife, of Springfield.”

Date of Charter: August 26, 1912.

THE AMERICAN FLAG LEAGUE878

Purposes: “To promote and encourage the study of American history by the people and by the children in our schools, and the dissemination of literature in reference to the men and events in our nation’s history, and in an especial manner to promote a knowledge of our national flag, and what that flag stands for, liberty and obedience to law.”

Date of Charter: December 30, 1912.

THE ROXBURY HEBREW FREE SCHOOL ASSOCIATION879

Purposes: “Of maintaining and conducting by voluntary contributions, a free school for the teaching and learning of Hebrew and the Hebrew religion and history.”

Date of Charter: January 20, 1913.

THE ROGER CONANT FAMILY880

Purposes: “The collection and preservation of all matters pertaining to the history of the Conant family in America and England, and the study of its material, and the education of members in historical and antiquarian subjects relating to the family, the collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and articles referring and relating to its history.”

Date of Charter: February 27, 1913.

THE LINCOLN GETTYSBURG MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION881

Purposes: “Acquiring and disposing of, for historical purposes historic material, also representations of, and literature dealing with historic subjects or events, of providing for the dissemination of knowledge on historical subjects and events, and generally to do those things which tend to preserve historic memorials and to keep alive the memory of historic events.”

Date of Charter: March 19, 1913.

THE HENRYK DABROWSKI SOCIETY882

Purposes: “Prosecuting a study and diffusion of historical” and other subjects.

Date of Charter: April 1, 1913.

THE GREEK-AMERICAN CLUB OF BOSTON883

Purposes: A social club which undertakes the promotion of the study of American history.

Date of Charter: August 11, 1913.

THE CARY HOUSE ASSOCIATION884

Purposes: Collection and preservation of articles of historic interest in the Bellingham-Cary House.

Date of Charter: January 20, 1914.

THE READE SOCIETY885

Purposes: Genealogical and memorial.

Date of Charter: February 24, 1914.

THE COLONEL TIMOTHY BIGELOW CHAPTER, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION886

Purposes: The encouraging of historical research and the publication of its results.

Date of Charter: May 1, 1914.

THE PAGEANT OF CAPE COD887

Purposes: “Promoting an interest in historical, educational, social and scientific subjects.”888

Dale of Charter: May 23, 1914.

THE OLD ESSEX CHAPTER, SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, INCORPORATED889

Purposes: “Historical research in matters pertaining to the Revolutionary Period; aiding in the preservation of historical relics and documents, and the records of individual services rendered by Revolutionary soldiers, seamen and patriots, promoting the celebration of all patriotic anniversaries; cherishing, maintaining, and extending the institutions of American freedom and fostering true patriotism and love of country.”

Date of Charter: December 4, 1914.

THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF KITTERY, INCORPORATED890

Purposes: Perpetuation of the history of Kittery.

Date of Charter: February 2, 1915.

THE PAGEANT OF LEXINGTON, INCORPORATED

Purposes: Include the promotion of interest in local history.891

Date of Charter: April 10, 1915.

THE SOMERVILLE PAGEANT ASSOCIATION

Purposes: “Civic and historical,” and the production of pageants.

Date of Charter: June 25, 1915.

THE JOHN WHITE ASSOCIATION892

Purposes: “Historical research and the collection and preservation of all records, books, manuscripts, or other articles, or material pertaining or having a historical or antiquarian value to the White family.”

Date of Charter: July 3, 1915.

THE SHEDD FAMILY OF AMERICA893

Purposes: “Historical research and the collection and preservation of all records, books, manuscripts, and other articles, or material pertaining or having a historical or antiquarian value to the Shedd family.”

Date of Charter: August 23, 1915.

THE MARATHON SOCIAL AND LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS894

Purposes: “Promoting Greek social, literary and historical activities.”

Date of Charter: October 6, 1915.

THE LADIES AUXILIARY OF GLOUCESTER DAY COMMITTEE, INCORPORATED

Purposes: Include the prosecution of “historical, literary and monumental purposes.”

Date of Charter: December 31, 1915.

The following paper was communicated by Mr. Clarence S. Brigham at the March meeting:

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY DUPLICATES, 1682

In the manuscript collections of the American Antiquarian Society is a list of duplicates, obtained by Cotton Mather from the Harvard College Library in 1682, which is interesting in that it is one of the few records existing of the titles of books in the College Library of the seventeenth century. The Catalogue of the Library printed in 1723 records the books which the college owned at that time, but because of the fire of 1764, which destroyed the entire library, as well as the earliest donation books, there is no way of telling what books the library possessed previous to that time.

Of the 96 titles, 81 were theological, and the remainder comprised history, philosophy, and philology, including the works of Aristotle, Demosthenes, Herodotus, Xenophon, Horace, and a volume of Plutarch’s Lives. If there was not more science or literature in this group it was due to the literary tendencies of the times, rather than to Cotton Mather’s selection. Mather was a student of subjects other than theological. He admitted that he “feasted” himself “with the sweets of all sciences, which the more polite part of mankind ordinarily pretend to.” He says: “I am able with little study to write in seven languages. I am entertained with all kinds of histories ancient and modern. I am no stranger to the curiosities which by all sorts of learning, are brought to the curious.” Again in his Diary, under date of 1706, he says, “Seldome any new Book of Consequence finds the way from beyond-Sea, to these parts of America, but I bestow the Perusal upon it.”

This must have been almost the beginning of Cotton Mather’s library, for he was at this time but nineteen years of age, having been born in 1663. He had been graduated from Harvard in 1678 and took his second degree in 1681. From the time of his graduation until the time of his ordination as pastor of the North Church in 1685, he was assisting his father as preacher at the same church. His Diary for 1682 is missing; so there is no record of this acquisition to his library. In the Diary for 1683, however, under date of April 16, he records: “Lett mee carefully read some excellent books, which my Saviour, in his infinite Faithfulness has bestowed upon mee.”

The Harvard College Library was not a large one in 1682, probably not as large as that eventually owned by Cotton Mather himself. In 1723, when the Catalogue was printed, it amounted to about 3200 volumes; and in 1764, at the time of the fire, it totaled about 5000 volumes. Cotton Mather’s own library must have totaled about 4000 volumes at the time of his death. On October 16, 1700, he records in his Diary that, after receiving about 40 books which had belonged to President Chauncy, his library amounted to between 2000 and 3000 books. And again under date of November 21, 1702, he records in his Diary: “My Study, is tho’ a large, yett a warm chamber, the hangings whereof, are Boxes with between two and three thousand Books in them.” It was Cotton Mather to whom John Dunton referred when he said “Mr. Mather’s Library is the Glory of New-England, if not of all America.”895

The vote regarding the sale of the library duplicates is recorded in College Book, i. 84, where it is entered without date and placed between entries of May 4, 1682, and January 10, 1683 (the vote is also repeated in College Book, iii. 78). The wording of this vote, given to me through the kindness of Mr. Albert Matthews, is as follows: “At a Corporation meeting, Ordered, that the double books in the Colledge Library be prized and sold, and the money improved for the buying other books that are wanting.”

In the Diary of Noadiah Russell, then a resident graduate at Harvard College, under date of 1682, he records:

Aug. 31. The Corporation meeting at Boston desired yt I would take a catalogue of ye books in ye College Library and to take out ye double books.

Sept. 4. I began to pick out ye double books.

Sept. 12. The Corporation met at ye College to prise ye double books.

Oct. 19. I finisht taking out ye double books on which day ye Corporation met to prise ye rest of ye double books at which time I took up several books in ye library.896

The probable reason for the disposal of the library duplicates at this time was the gift from Sir John Maynard of eight chests of books valued at £400. This gift, as entered in Donation Book, i. 19, is recorded as follows: “1682. Sir John Maynard, Serjeant at Law, gave eight chests of books, valued at £400.”897 This was one of the largest gifts of books that the Library had received, and must have caused the duplication of many titles. One of the titles recorded in Cotton Mather’s list is “Davenantii Determinationes,” valued at three shillings. The Cambridge 1634 edition is now in the American Antiquarian Society Library, and has the autograph of Cotton Mather, and also that of Sir John Maynard. There was an evident attempt to obliterate any marks of Harvard ownership, since Maynard’s name, which is written in two places, is heavily crossed out with ink, and there is a large piece torn out of the title-page containing manuscript entries. Another book in the Antiquarian Society’s collection, Volume I of Johann Gerhard’s Loci Theologici, evidently obtained by Mather from the Harvard duplicates, has the marks of previous ownership on the fly-leaf carefully obliterated with a pen, although the name of “Harvard” can plainly be made out underneath.

LIST OF BOOKS BOUGHT OF HARVARD COLLEGE BY COTTON MATHER, 1682

ENGRAVED FOR THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY

In the list which follows, the attempt has been made to identify all the titles obtained by Mather. This task has been rendered less difficult by the existence of the 1723 Catalogue of the Harvard Library, which would be supposed to contain the titles of all the books owned by the Library in 1682. Most of the titles have been further identified by the British Museum Catalogue or other bibliographical reference books. In the library of the American Antiquarian Society is a manuscript “Copy of an Original Catalogue of Dr. Mather’s Library,” upon which Isaiah Thomas has written that it was Dr. Cotton Mather’s library, “afterward the property of his son the Rev. Samuel Mather.” This could have been but a small part of Cotton Mather’s library, as the list contains but 668 titles. A comprehensive account of the Libraries of the Mathers, written by Mr. Julius H. Tuttle, is to be found in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for April, 1910.898

Books Bought of ye Colledge Library, ꝑ C. Mather

In Folio

Biblia Polyglotta, 6 vo^a

The 1723 Catalogue lists a 6 volume edition, London, 1655. In the Boston Public Library is a 6 volume edition, London, 1657, formerly owned by Thomas Prince, who states that this set had been purchased from Dr. Cotton Mather “who had a Duplicate of them.”

Augustini opera, 5 vo^a

Saint Augustine’s works are listed in the 1723 Catalogue in 11 volumes, Paris, 1635–37. The early editions of his works were mostly in 10 volumes.

Cornelij à Lapide oꝑa. 8 vo^a

The Comment. in Pentateuchum and Comment, in Prophetas Majores, by Cornelius à Lapide, 10 vols., 1622–49, are listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Sayri Casus Conscientiæ

Gregorius Sayrus, Casuum Conscientiæ Thesaurus, Venice, 1609, is probably meant.

Perkins Works. 3 vo^a

William Perkins’s Works were published in several early three volume editions. The 1723 Catalogue lists vols. 1–2, London, 1631, and vol. 3, Cambridge, 1690.

Parej Comentaria. 2 vo^a

David Pareus, Operum Theologicorum Exegiticorum, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue, vols. 1–2, 1628, and vols. 3–4, 1650. There was an edition, entitled “D. Parei . . . in S. Mathei Evangelium Commentarius,” published in 1631.

Gerhardi Loci com̄unes 4 vo^a

Johann Gerhard, Loci Theologici, Geneva, 1639. In the Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society is this edition, 4 vols., inscribed “Cottoni Matheri Liber, 1683–4.”

Wilcox in Psalm &c

Thomas Wilcox, On the Psalms, London, 1624, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue. The correct title is “Works of . . . T. W. . . . containing an Exposition upon . . . Psalmes,” etc., London, 1624.

Dionysij Areopagitæ oꝑa.

Dionysius Areopagita, Opera, 1615, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue. There are several other early editions.

Davenantij Determinationes

John Davenant, Determinationes, Cambridge, 1634. This identical volume is in the American Antiquarian Society Library, inscribed “C. Mather,” and with the name of “S^r John Maynard” nearly obliterated with a pen.

Bradwardin de Causâ Dei

Thomas Bradwardine, De Causa Dei, London, 1618, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Aristotelis Tomus 2^dus

Aristotle’s Works were published in numerous early editions. In the 1723 Catalogue is listed his Opera omnia, 2 vols., 1629.

Burgess of Original Sin

Anthony Burgess, The Doctrine of Original Sin, London, 1659.

Lyranus 6 vo^a

Lyranus, Opera, 1617, 6 vols., with an appendix volume, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Chrysostomi opera, 8 vo^a

John Chrysostom, Opera Græce, Eton,. 1613, 8 vols.

Lutheri opera, 7 vo^a

Martin Luther, Opera, Wittenberg, 1552–1580, 7 vols.

Sanctij opera, 7 vo^a

Gasparus Sanetius, various Commentaries on the books of the Old Testament.

Zuingerj Theatrū. 4 vo^a

Theodor Zwinger, Theatrum Vitæ Humanæ, Basle, 1604.

Aquinas in Arist. 2 vo^a

Thomas Aquinas, one of the early editions of his Commentaries on Aristotle.

Aquinatis Summa

Thomas Aquinas, one of the early editions of his Summa Theologica. The 1614 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Malderj opera, 2 vo^a

Joannes Malderus, De Virtutibus Theologicis Comment. in 2dam 2dae Thomæ, Antwerp., 1616, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Bannes in Aquin.

Dominicus Bannes, Scholastica Commentaria in primam partem D. Thomæ, of which the 1614 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Athanasij opera. 2 vo^a

Saint Athanasius, Opera, Paris, 1627, 2 vols., is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Aquinatis Quæstiones Disputatæ

Thomas Aquinas, either his Qusestiones de Potentia Dei Disputatæ, or his Quæstiones de Veritate Disputatæ.

Epiphanius, Græcà

Saint Epiphanius, one of his various works in Greek. The 1723 Catalogue contains his Contra Octoginta Hæreses, Basil., 1543.

Xenophon, 2 vo^a

There are several early two volume folio editions of Xenophon’s works.

Pineda de Reb. Solomiticis

Joannes de Pineda, De Rebus Solomonis Regis. The 1609 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Liegh of Rel: & Learning.

Edward Leigh, Treatise of Religion and Learning, London, 1659.

Stephani Concordantiæ N. T.

There were several editions of the Concordantiæ Testamenti Novi Græcolatinæ, compiled by both Robert and Henri Estienne, or Stephanus.

Photij Bibliotheca

Photius, Bibliotheca Gr. cum notis, 1653, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Cooperi Dictionariū

Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus Linguæ Romanæ et Britannicæ . . . Dictionarium historicum et poeticum, several early folio editions.

Castelli Lexicon, ꝑt. 2.

Edmund Castell, Lexicon Pentaglotton, 2 vols., 1669, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Pagnini Lexicon

Sanctus Pagninus, Index Dictionum Latinarum, sive Lexicon Latino-Hebraicum, Antwerp, 1616.

Plutarchs English, 2 vo^a

There are several early editions of Plutarch’s Lives and of his Morals in English. In the 1723 Catalogue are listed his Lives, London, 1595, and his Morals, London, 1603.

Ambrosij opera, 2 vo^a

There are many early editions of the works of Saint Ambrose in two volumes, folio.

Thuanus, 4 vo^a

Thuanus, Historia sui Temporis, 5 vols., Geneva, 1620. The Mather manuscript catalogue lists vols. 1, 2, 4 and 5 of this set.

Calepinus

There are numerous early editions of the Dictionarium of Ambrosius Calepinus. The 1723 Catalogue lists Dictionarium cum Cornucop., Paris, 1510, and Dictionarium undecim Linguarum, Basil., 1627.

Nazianzen

There are several early editions of the works of Gregory Nazianzen. The 1723 Catalogue lists his Opera, 2 vols., Paris, 1630.

Herodotus, Græcà

There are numerous early editions of the works of Herodotus in Greek.

Andromachus, Græcà

Possibly De Theriaca in Andromachi carmen Græcum, 1607.

Jermin on Eccles.

Michael Jermin, Commentary upon Ecclesiastes, London, 1639. This volume, inscribed “Matheri,” is in the Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society.

Suares Metaphys.

Franciscus Suarez, Disputationes Metaphysicæ. The 1630 edition, 2 vols., is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Schindleri Lexicon

Valentine Schindler, Lexicon Pentaglotton, of which the 1612 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Irenæus

Saint Irenæus, Adversus Hæreses Libri Quinque, of which the 1570 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Clemens Alexandrinus

Clemens Alexandrinus, Opera, of which the 1616 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Cyrilli Catechesii cum Synesij epis.

Saint Cyrillus and Bishop Synesius, perhaps the following title: Cyrilli Catechesii et Synesii Episcopi Opera, 1631.

Duns Scotus

There are many early folio editions of works by Joannes Duns Scotus. In the 1723 Catalogue are listed his Sententiarum Quæstiones Subtilissimæ, 1620, and Quæstiones Quodlibetates Familiarissime Reportatæ, 1529.

Franciscus Picus Mirandula, 2 Vo^a

There are several early two volume editions of works by Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandula. His Opera Omnia, Basil., 1601, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Arriaga

Rodericus de Arriaga, Cursus Philosophicus, of which the 1637 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

In Quarto

Burroughs Irenicum

Jeremiah Burroughs, Irenicum, of which the 1653 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Burroughs Contentmt

Jeremiah Burroughs, Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, of which the 1650 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Gunters Works

Edmund Gunter, Works, of which the 1673 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Ushers Answ̄ to Jesuit

James Usher, Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuit. The 1723 Catalogue lists the 1631 edition, and in the Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society is the 1625 edition, inscribed “Matheri.”

Ames fresh Suit, incomplete

William Ames, Fresh Suit against Human Ceremonies, 1633. This work is in the Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society, and is inscribed “S. Mather’s 1750.”

Smiths Sermons

Probably Henry Smith’s Sermons, several editions of which were published in the seventeenth century.

Graserus in Apocalypsin

Conrad Graserus, Comment. in Apocalyps., Tiguri., 1600, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Rutherfords Influences

Samuel Rutherford, Influences of the Life of Grace. The 1655 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue, and the 1659 edition is in the Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society.

Gassendi Astronomicæ Instit:

Peter Gassendi, Institutio Astronomica, was published in several early editions. The copy in the 1723 Catalogue is listed as wanting title.

Rainolds on psal. 110

Edward Reynolds, Explication of the CX. Psalm, was published in several early editions.

Glassij Philologia Sacr. 2 vo^a

Salomon Glass, Philologia Sacra, of which a five volume edition, Jenæ, 1645–1651, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Ejusdem Christologia

Salomon Glass, Christologia Mosaica, Jenæ, 1649, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Quench-coal

“A Quench-Coale. Or A breife Disquisition in what place the Lords-Table ought to be situated . . . By a well-wisher to the truth of God . . . Printed in the yeare 1637.” This volume, by William Prynne, is entered in the 1723 Catalogue only under the title.

Hebrew Pentateuch, w^th Targū

There are many early editions of the Pentateuch, with the Targum.

Juelli Vita

Laurence Humfrey, Vita et Mors Joan. Juelli, London, 1673, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue, probably a misprint for the 1573 edition, a copy of which is in the Mather Collection in American Antiquarian Society.

Erpenij Gram̄. Arab.

Thomas Erpenius, Grammatica Arabica, of which the 1656 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

In Octavo, Duodecimo, &c.

Demosthenes

There are many early editions of Demosthenes, although the 1723 Catalogue contains only a folio 1532 edition of the Orationes.

Sleidani Com̄entaria

Joannes Sleidanus, De Statu Religionis et Reipublicæ, Commentarii, of which an Argentoratum undated edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Buxtorfij Lexicon

Joannes Buxtorfius, Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum, of which the Basel, 1655, edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Grynæus on Hagg.

Joannes Jacob Grynæus, Haggæus Propheta, Genevæ, 1581, with English translation, London, 1586.

Horn on psal. 101

This title evades identification. The only title by Georg Hornius in the 1723 Catalogue is his Historia Philosophica, 1655, and that is a quarto.

Life of Mr. Tregoss

The Life and Death of Thomas Tregosse, London, 1671.

Bradshaw of Sacramt.

William Bradshaw, Of Preparation for the Lord’s Supper, London, 1643, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Hebrew Bible in 6 parts.

The only octavo or duodecimo editions of the Hebrew Bible listed in the 1723 Catalogue are the 13 volume edition, Paris, 1542, and the three volume edition, Lugd. Bat., no date.

P. Lombardi Distinctiones

Petrus Lombardius, Textus Magistri Sententiarum . . . Omnium Distinctionum. It is listed in the 1723 Catalogue as Sententiarum Lib. 4, edition of 1609.

Buxtorfij florileg.

Joannes Buxtorfius, Florilegium Hebraicum, Basiliæ, 1648.

Ejusdem Abbreviat:

Joannes Buxtorfius, De Abbreviaturis Hebraicis Liber, of which the 1723 Catalogue lists the second edition, Basiliæ, 1640.

Aquinatis Conclusiones

Thomas Aquinas, Totius Summæ Conclusiones, Lugduni., 1613.

Laurentius Valla de Puritate Serm. Lat.

Probably one of the editions of Laurentius Valla, Elegantiæ Sermonis Latini, of which the 1545 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Horatius, cum Juvenale, et Persio

Probably the Poems of Horace, together with the Satires of Juvenal and of Persius. There is no edition listed, however, which is devoted to the works of the three authors.

Greek Testament

The only Greek Testament of octavo size listed in the 1723 Catalogue is an edition without place or date entered as Testamentum Novum Græcum cui accessit Liturgia Eccles. Anglicanæ.

Pfochenius de Græc. Textus N. T. puritate

Sebastianus Pfochenius, Diatribe de Linguæ Græcæ Nov. Test. Puritate, of which the 1633 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Erasmi Colloquia

There are many early editions of the Colloquia of Desiderius Erasmus, but none is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Gerhardi Meditationes

Johann Gerhard, Meditationes Sacræ, was published in several early editions.

Rolloc de Vocatione

Robert Rollock, Tractatus de Vocatione, 1618.

Bellarminus de C^ti 7 Verbis

Robertus Bellarminus, De Septem Verbis a Christi in Cruce, of which Liber 2 of the 1626 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

In Folio

Castelli Lexicon, ꝑt. 1

Edmund Castell, Lexicon Pentaglotton, 2 vols., 1669, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue. Part 1 of the work is entered above in this list of Harvard duplicates.

Stephani Thesaurus in 3 vol.

Henricus Stephanus, Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ, 1572.

Fr. Longus de Concil. Histor.

The only entry in the 1723 Catalogue which seems to fit this abbreviated title is Stephanus Longus a Coriolano, Summa Conciliorum omnium, 1623.

Oecumenius, w^th Arethas, in 2 vol.

Oecumenius, Commentaria, quibus accesserunt Arethæ; Explanationes, 1630–31, 2 vols.

Marlorat on Isaiah

Augustin Marlorat, whose Expositio Ecclesiastica in Genes., Psalm. & Isaiam, 1562, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Chemnitij Harmonia

Martin Chemnitius, Harmonia Evangelica, of which the 1641 edition is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Hilarius

Bishop Hilarius, whose Lucubrationes quotquot extant, 1580, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Arriaga, 2 vol.

Rodericus de Arriaga, Disputationes Theologicæ, of which several two volume editions are listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

In Quarto

Rutherford de ꝑvidentiâ

Samuel Rutherford, Disputat. Scholast. de Divina Providentia, Edinburg., 1650, is listed in the 1723 Catalogue.

Vedelius de Arcan. Armin.

Nicolaus Vedelius, Arcanorum Arminianismi pars secunda, 1633. This volume is in the Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society, and is inscribed “Cottoni Matheri Liber, 1683.”

Cole of Gods Soveraignty

Elisha Coles, Practical Discourse of God’s Sovereignty, London, 1673.

In the above list, the value affixed to each volume has not been printed, but may be found in the photographic facsimile. The sum total of the lot was £43–19–0. Below the sum total, Cotton Mather made the following entries:

Præterit:

Sanctius in Cantic.	4°
It in A^ct:	4°

Of this

I paid, on 26^d 10^m 1682.	12–0–0
I paid afterwards, another	12–0–0
I paid Mr Browning, for Books Come for ye Colledge, on 5^d 10^m 1684	4–0–0
Afterwards, ye whole account was ballanced, by paying of	16–0–0

NOTE899

Since the paper on Early Interest in Dighton Rock went to press, I have turned my attention again to the puzzle of Cotton Mather’s “second line.” I am now convinced that my previous “bold and most uncertain guess as to what portions of the rock are meant to be represented by the different parts of the drawing” was mistaken. The simple truth is that Mather published this part of his drawing upside-down. Invert it, redraw its lines as narrow as they are made in other cases, and it will be seen clearly to resemble throughout the drawings by other persons at least as much as many of these resemble one another; and nearly as much as his reproduction of Danforth in his “first line” resembles its original. It is evident that this second line stops just short of, and hence does not include, the two apparently human figures at the extreme right end of the rock. It still remains true that Mather was mistaken in believing that there were several lines more on the rock below this one. His reputation as a draughtsman will not be enhanced by this discovery, for the shapes, proportions and relative positions of lines and figures are badly distorted, as to a lesser extent they are in all the other free-hand copies. On the other hand, it is a satisfaction to be able at last to free him from the charge, hitherto not without seeming justification, of having consciously or unconsciously imposed upon the learned members of the Royal Society by putting forth a pure creation of his own imagination as the genuine lineaments of the mysterious rock. He lacked the scientific sense that should have led him to verify his drawing before sending it out. But he sent it in good faith, and there can be no further uncertainty as to the fact that it was actually made, by some unskilled hand, from the rock itself.

E. B. Delabarre.

1 Read but not printed

2 Read but not printed

3 Read but not printed

4 Mr. Gay died in office, 3 March, 1916

5 The title reads:

Éloge de M. Franklin, Lu à la séance publique de l’Académie des Sciences, le 13 Nov. 1790. Eripuit cœlo fulmen, mox sceptra Tyrannis. Turgot, 1775. A Paris, . . . 1791.

At a meeting of the American Academy held February 29, 1792, the gift of the Éloge from the “Consul of France” was acknowledged, and elsewhere in the Academy’s records it is stated to have been given by “M. De La Tombe.” The donation was also noted in the Columbian Centinel of March 3, 1792, p. 3/2.

6 Franklin was made a member of the Society of Arts in 1755 and of the Royal Society in 1756; in 1759 he received the degree of LL.D. from the University of St. Andrews, and by the corporation of Edinburgh was given the freedom of that city; in 1762 he received the degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford, his son William at the same time obtaining the degree of A.M.; and long before the outbreak of the Revolution he was in correspondence with the most distinguished scholars of England and Scotland. Clearly, therefore, Condorcet was under a misapprehension in supposing that there was any tardiness on the part of England in recognizing Franklin’s scientific work.

7 The epigram is, however, mentioned in Condorcet’s “Vie de M. Turgot, publiée en 1786,” where it appears in the same form as on the title-page of the Éloge de M. Franklin. (Œuvres de Condorcet publiées par A. Condorcet O’Connor, Paris, 1847, v. 162.)

8 In Turgot’s Œuvres, Paris, 1810, ix. 140, the epigram appears in the form “Eripuit Cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque Tyrannis.” The date 1775, assigned to the epigram on the title-page of Condorcet’s Éloge de M. Franklin, is doubtless incorrect, for Franklin did not reach Paris until December 21, 1776, and the earliest known allusion to the epigram is under date of April, 1778, where it reads as in Turgot’s Œuvres. For a full and interesting discussion of the epigram, see Charles Sumner’s “Monograph from an old Note-Book; with a Postscript. ‘Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis,’” in the Atlantic Monthly for November, 1863, xii. 648–662. It should be pointed out, however, that in a letter to Horace Walpole dated March 1, 1777, Madame du Deffand (Lettres de la Marquise du Deffand à Horace Walpole, 1912, iii. 308) says, “Voilà des vers pour mettre au bas de l’estampe de M. Franklin” — and then quotes four lines of which the first is identical with the first line of the verses in French written by Turgot (Œuvres, ix. 140). Possibly the original verses were in French and afterwards given a Latin form.

9 Works (ed. Bigelow), vi. 111–112.

10 Glenbervie Journals (1910), p. 95.

11 Bigelow, Life of Franklin, iii. 259 note.

12 Washington’s Writings (ed. Sparks), ix. 72.

13 In 1727 two editions appeared of Prince’s “Earthquakes the Works of God & Tokens of his just Displeasure. Two Sermons On Psal. xviii. 7. At the Particular Fast in Boston, Nov. 2. and the General Thanksgiving, Nov. 9.” In 1755 Prince published “Earthquakes the Works of God, and Tokens of His just Displeasure.” This was Sermon I of the 1727 edition, with an “Appendix Concerning the Operation of God in Earthquakes by Means of the Electrical Substance,” dated “Boston, Dec. 5. 1755.” The passage quoted in the text is from this Appendix. A controversy between Prince and Winthrop took place in the newspapers in 1755.

14 Franklin’s Works (ed. Sparks), v. 419.

15 Works (ed. Bigelow), ii. 253–254, 255.

16 Works (ed. Sparks), v. 337.

17 Publications, viii. 90–92, 104.

18 Publications, xii. 288–294. The following references may be added to those furnished by Mr. Matthews and Mr. Cunningham: William Douglass, Summary, Boston, 1749, i. 239 n; Sir Walter Scott’s note in his edition of Dryden, vi. 222 ff; Saintsbury’s Dryden, vi. 237; Addison, Spectator, No. 269, January 8, 1712, with C. N. Greenough’s note, Selections from the Writings of Joseph Addison, ed. by Wendell and Greenough, Boston, [1905,] (Athenæum Press Series), p. 325; Brand, Popular Antiquities, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, i. 221.

19 The manner of the Burning the Pope in Effigies in London On the 5th of November, 1678. With The manner of carrying him through several Streets, in progression to Temple-Bar, where at length he was decently burned. Also A Particular of several Bloody Massacres done by the Papists upon the Bodies of English, Irish, and French Protestants. With Allowance. London, Printed for D. M. 1678.

20 Pp. 3–6. The pagination of the original is given within square brackets.

21 History of Plymouth Plantation (ed. Ford), i. 333–334.

22 New England’s Memorial (1669), p. 51. The year is correctly given in the headline as 1623. Cf. J. A. Goodwin’s Pilgrim Republic (1888), pp. 249–250.

23 Cf. Boston Post Boy of April 20 (p. 3/3) and 27 (p. 4/3), 1772.

24 Publications, xiv. 268 note 2.

25 New England Palladium, January 14, 1803, p. 3/2. A reference to the proposals also appeared in the Boston Weekly Magazine of January 22, 1803, i. 55.

26 The following advertisement, evidently referring to the edition published by Allen Danforth at Plymouth in 1826, appeared in the Columbian Centinel of December 2 (p. 2/5), 9 (p. 4/4), and 16 (p. 1/3), 1826:

NEW ENGLAND MEMORIAL

JUST published, a new edition of the “NEW-ENGLAND’s MEMORIAL,” or a brief relation of the most remarkable passages of the providence of God, manifested to the Planters of New-England, with special reference to the Colony of Plymouth. By Nathaniel Morton, Secretary to the Court for the Jurisdiction of New-Plymouth. For sale by RICHARDSON & LORD.

27 This specimen of the page and type consists of Morton’s address to the “Christian Reader,” dated “Plymouth in New-England, January 13, 1680,” afterwards printed in Young’s Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers.

28 It is curious to find this statement at so early a period. In the Preface to his edition published in 1826, Judge Davis said that “The first edition of the Memorial was published in 1669. It was a small quarto volume, printed at Cambridge, by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson” (p. iv). This latter statement is unquestionably correct: see Mr. Matthews’s paper called A Ghost-Book (Publications of this Society, xiv. 268–281).

29 Josiah Cotton.

30 Plymouth Church Records, lib. i. p. 45.

31 The letter is printed in Washington’s Writings (ed. Sparks), vii. 459.

32 Cf. Publications of this Society, vii. 127–181, 341–398, xvii. 161–205.

33 See p. 47 note 3, below.

34 John Fitzgerald.

35 Charles Simms.

36 Francis Conway, who married Elizabeth Fitzhugh.

37 Samuel Hanson was tutor to George Steptoe Washington (cf. p. 47 note 3, below), but failed to exercise due control over his ward: see Washington’s Writings (ed. Ford), xi. 263, 297, 372.

38 Born 1739, died 1795; of Cedar Park, Anne Arundel County, Maryland: see Maryland Historical Magazine, viii. 82.

39 David Humphreys (1752–1818).

40 George Augustine Washington, son of Charles Washington (brother of George Washington), married Frances Bassett, daughter of Col. Burwell Bassett.

41 The proceedings in detail are given in J. Pickell, New Chapter in the Early Life of Washington, p. 87. Much information about the Potomac Company will also be found in Corra Bacon-Foster, Early Chapters in the Development of the Patomac Route to the West (1912).

42 William Fitzhugh (b.1741): see Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, viii. 94. Ravensworth was the home of the Fitzhughs in Fairfax County, Virginia.

43 Dr. James Craik.

44 William Shaw, who had recently been Washington’s secretary.

45 Philip Richard Fendall.

46 Chevalier Mauduit Duplessis.

47 To intend, in the sense of “to start on a journey, to set out,” is marked “obsolete or archaic” in the Oxford English Dictionary, no extract from English prose being cited later than 1744. This use, however, was common in this country certainly until the nineteenth century.

48 See p. 47 note 2, below.

49 William Lyles & Co. supplied rum for the workers on the canal: see Pickell, p. 83.

50 Thomas Mifflin (1744–1800).

51 William Craik, son of Dr. James Craik, married Ann Fitzhugh, sister of Mrs. G. W. P. Custis. His eldest sister was Nancy Craik, who married Richard Harrison.

52 “Fore-bay, . . . ‘a reservoir or conductor between a mill-race and a waterwheel. The discharging end of a head or mill-race’” (Oxford English Dictionary, where the earliest extract is dated 1874).

53 Mrs. Daniel French.

54 Tobias Lear (H. C. 1783), Washington’s secretary.

55 * The ground at the ferry being stiff, breaking up in pretty large and heavy clods and the seed harrowed in with my lightest harrow, was not well covered & left the ground very rough & lumpy with hollows between the furrows that would prevent the grain from being well covered — and the Timothy seed still worse.

56 George Gilpin.

57 See p. 47 note 2, below.

58 Edmund Randolph (1753–1813) married Elizabeth Nicholas.

59 “Lea-land, lay-land. . . . Fallow land; land ‘laid down’ to grass” (Oxford English Dictionary).

60 Joseph Jones of Virginia.

61 Dr. David Stuart married Eleanor (Calvert) Custis, the widow of Martha Washington’s son, John Parke Custis. George Washington Parke Custis, Eleanor Parke Custis, Elizabeth Parke Custis, and Martha Parke Custis, were the children of John Parke Custis.

62 George Steptoe Washington, Harriott Washington, and Lawrence Washington were the children of Samuel Washington, a brother of George Washington.

63 Burwell Bassett (d. 1793).

64 See p. 47 note 2, above.

65 “Presley Thornton . . . was a British officer during our Revolution, but he would not fight against his country, and therefore went to Gibraltar, and was in Garrison there during its siege by the Spaniards, where it is said he distinguished himself by his gallant behavior” (Washington to C. C. Pinckney, March 31, 1799, in Washington’s Writings, xiv. 169). He was a first cousin of Mildred Thornton, who married Charles Washington (brother of George Washington).

66 See letter to Triplet in Washington’s Writings (ed. Ford), xi. 64.

67 The Sieur Oster is given in the Massachusetts Almanac for 1785 as the French Vice-Consul at Virginia.

68 His shop and residence were afterwards moved to Hanover Street, where he was a near neighbor and friend of Mr. Edes’s great-grandfather, Nathan Webb (1767–1853), who was a parishioner of Dr. Andrew Eliot. Mr. Edes informs me that this well-known Massachusetts name was at that time pronounced “Ellit.”

69 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, i. 502 note; Boston Transcript, June 4, 1869. The Doctor was quoting a review of the new Pharmacopœia in the Monthly Anthology.

70 The Easter term of the English law-courts lasted from the Wednesday fortnight after Easter to the Monday after Ascension Day. The last Wednesday in Easter term was, therefore, the day before Ascension Day, which always falls on a Thursday; and thirty-nine days after Easter Sunday. (John J. Bond, Handy-Book of Rules for Verifying Dates, 4th ed., p. 174.)

71 This term is first applied in the Colony Records (i. 194) to the Easter term meeting of 1637, and in Winthrop’s Journal (1853, ii. 157) to that of 1634.

72 It is referred to as “the yearly day of election” in an act of 1647 (Charters and General Laws of Massachusetts Bay, 1814, p. 105), and in several subsequent enactments of the General Court.

73 Dr. C. F. Bishop errs in stating, in his History of Elections in the American Colonies, p. 102, that “after 1632 the regular election took place on the second Wednesday in May.” I have compared the dates of the fifty-three courts of elections under the Colony Charter with the calendar, and find that only in one instance (1652) was Election Day held on a different date from the last Wednesday in Easter term. On that occasion (1652) it was held the day after.

74 Bishop, 128–32.

75 Bishop, 130–32; Winthrop, ii. 379. An act of October, 1680, following one of the unsuccessful attempts to abolish direct voting, prescribes that all freemen who have not voted by proxy appear “on the election day . . . at the court house by eight of the clock in the morning, to bring in their votes as aforesaid” (Charters and General Laws, 1814, p. 108).

76 See Mr. Swift’s article on Massachusetts Election Sermons (Publications of this Society, i. 388).

77 Charters and General Laws, p. 29; Publications of this Society, ii. 20. The Province Charter does not expressly require that the Councillors, and the Speaker and the Clerk of the House, be chosen on Election Day, but our associate Mr. Matthews has established, from the examination of Boston newspapers and other sources, that such was the practice. The election of Speaker on Election Day was made obligatory by the Explanatory Charter of 1725 (Publications of this Society, ii. 31). Councillors were chosen, it will be remembered, not by the Representatives (Deputies) alone, but by the entire General Court, consisting of Royal Governor, outgoing Council, and House of Representatives. In the newspapers of the Provincial period Election Day is also referred to as “The Anniversary Day for the Election of Counsellors” (e. g., Boston News Letter, June 4, 1711, and May 31, 1733; and cf. p. 59 note 2, below).

78 H. A. Hill, History of the Old South Church, i. 362.

79 This occurred in 1785, and in 1806 there was a prolonged contest in the General Court over counting the votes. (W. Burdick, Massachusetts Manual for 1814–15, pp. 26–28; 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xx. 12–21.)

80 The former Election Week, under the new title of Anniversary Week, continued to attract to Boston the annual swarms of longfaced, black-coated brethren from country pulpits that so annoyed Dr. Holmes, and suggested his poem “The Moral Bully.” Cf. 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 45–46.

81 The former Election Week, under the new title of Anniversary Week, continued to attract to Boston the annual swarms of longfaced, black-coated brethren from country pulpits that so annoyed Dr. Holmes, and suggested his poem “The Moral Bully.” Cf. 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 45–46.

82 Author not known. [E. E.’s note.]

83 “The game of Paw-paw, or props, was played with four small shells, known to naturalists as the Cyproea Moneta, and was one of the gambling games much practiced by the boys of Boston” (1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 46). Cf. Mary C. Crawford, Social Life in Old New England, p. 431; Oxford English Dictionary, under “Prop, sb.⁴.”

84 Cadets. [E. E.’s note.]

85 The Old Brick, which was the third meeting-house of the First Church, stood from 1713 to 1808 in Cornhill Square.

86 Noted for long sermons. [E. E.’s note.] The Rev. Thomas Frink (H. C. 1722), preached the Election Sermon of 1758. (Cf. Publications of this Society, i. 420.) This allusion fixes the approximate date of the poem.

87 P. 44, above.

88 Columbian Centinel, July 7, 1792, p. 2/4, where the toasts offered are printed.

89 The song was printed in the Massachusetts Mercury of May 24, 1799, p. 4/1, preceded by the following:

Messrs. Young & Minns,

The following, though far from perfect, may have sufficient merit to entitle it to publication. It was written at Surinam, a few days previous to the last anniversary of the Birth of the American Hero.

Yr’s.

A SEA CAPTAIN.

90 Publications, xiv. 199–201.

91 The allusion is to Congress, not to the Massachusetts Legislature. One of the toasts given at the celebration at Concert Hall, Boston, on the same day was this: “The Hon. Roger Griswold, and the fifty-two Gentlemen in Congress: — May their exertions to rid the National Legislature of a beastly character, be remembered by their constituents” (Columbian Centinel, February 24, 1798, p. 2/4). Matthew Lyon of Vermont had insulted Roger Griswold of Connecticut and had used an indecent expression. On February 12th a resolution for expelling Lyon was voted on, and “The Speaker then declared the Yeas to be 52 and the Nays 44, and as the Constitution requires two thirds of the Members present to expel a Member, the Resolution was not agreed to” (Columbian Centinel, February 21, p. 2/2). The Speaker of the House was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. For a reference to Lyon, see Publications of this Society, xvii. 311 note 1.

92 Columbian Centinel, February 24, 1798, pp. 2/3.

93 Thomas Jefferson was then Vice-President.

94 The Alien and Sedition Acts had been passed by Congress in 1798.

95 State Papers and Publick Documents of the United States (Wait, Boston), iii. 415. I am indebted to our associate Dr. Morison for this reference. Cf. Publications of this Society, xvii. 326. Pickering’s report was printed in the supplement to the Columbian Centinel of February 6, 1799.

96 Faculty Records, vii. 33, 34.

97 The only allusion to it known to me is in an article On Some Social Distinctions at Harvard and Yale before the Revolution (Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, October, 1893, ix. 34–59) by our associate Professor Franklin B. Dexter, whose attention was called to it by the late William H. Tillinghast.

98 For a notice of Joseph Williamson (1633–1701), who was knighted January 24, 1672, see the Dictionary of National Biography.

99 Report on the Manuscripts of J. M. Heathcote, Esq. of Conington Castle, Co. Hunts (1899), pp. 88–89, 144–147, 148–150, 150–152, 170–171, 191–192, 194–195.

100 “Many news letters were sent to Fanshawe by this indefatigable collector [Williamson], who, while gathering materials from far and wide for his Gazette was always willing to provide entertainment for his friends, and who gives many items of gossip not mentioned by either Pepys or Evelyn” (Report on the Manuscripts of J. M. Heathcote, p. xxiv).

101 Letters addressed from London to Sir Joseph Williamson while Plenipotentiary at the Congress of Cologne in the years 1673–1674 (Camden Society, 1874), ii. 161.

102 “There is a complete collection of his [Henry Muddiman’s] news letters from 29 April, 1667 to 12 October, 1689 in the Marquis of Bath’s library at Longleat. Their dates are on alternate days and they are contained in fourteen folio volumes, . . . This collection of some thousands of consecutive news letters by one person is quite unique, and considering his privileged position, should be of high value when calendared” (J. B. Williams, The Newsbooks and Letters of News of the Restoration, in the English Historical Review, 1908, xxiii. 275–276).

103 J. B. Williams, History of English Journalism to the foundation of the Gazette (1908), p. 3.

104 The pamphlet consists of twenty pages: title, 1 leaf; Treaty, pp. 3–19; advertisement, p. [20].

105 Allusions to the Treaty will be found in New York Colonial Documents, iii. 388–389, 465, 467, 468, 469, 487, 506, 511, 519, 520–523, 525, iv. 169, 210, 478, v. 620, ix. 370.

106 Cf. Publications of this Society, iii. 86–90.

107 H. C. 1772; died 1813.

108 Samuel Webber and the elder Henry Ware.

109 Observations on a Variety Of Subjects, Literary, Moral and Religious; In a Series of Original Letters, Written by a Gentleman of Foreign Extraction, who resided some Time in Philadelphia. Revised by a Friend, to whose Hands the Manuscript was committed for Publication. Philadelphia: Printed by John Dunlap. M,DCC,LXXIV.

110 This manuscript volume (in my possession) is but a fragment of the journal kept by Mr. Brooks on a European tour of some thirteen months. It covers the interval from April 9, 1834 (Florence), to December 13, 1834 (New York). The passage from Liverpool to New York, in the packet ship Virginian, took twenty-eight days, — a week less than the captain’s forecast. There were twenty-four cabin passengers.

111 1795–1872; H. C. 1816.

112 Willis’s account of his own first call upon Lady Blessington shortly before this date may be found in The New-York Mirror (reprinted in The American Ladies’ Magazine, April, 1835, viii. 215–219).

113 Publications, xii. 227.

114 Curwen Papers, v. 87.

115 Of these three endorsements, the second and third are in the same hand as the Articles above.

116 i. 15. The entry there reads: “Vial; dead 1729.” The name “Vial” is in the hand of Tutor Flynt, the rest of the entry having been inserted, of course at a much later date, by President Wadsworth. Viall was placed eleventh in a class of thirty-seven.

117 Cambridge Church Records, 1632–1830 (1906), p. 96.

118 Narragansett Historical Register, iii. 100, 106, 108–110; J. N. Arnold, Vital Record of Rhode Island, Bristol, p. 168. I am indebted to Mr. Matthews and to Mr. Gay for information about Viall.

119 Publications of this Society, ii. 27.

120 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702, No. 728.

121 Ibid. No. 780.

122 Ibid. No. 924.

123 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702, No. 966.

124 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702, No. 1046.

125 Ibid. No. 1131.

126 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702, No. 1135.

127 Ibid. 1702–1703, No. 30.

128 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702–1703, No. 315.

129 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702–1703, No. 319. The Governor of Jamaica was Thomas Handaside.

130 Ibid. No. 544.

131 Ibid. No. 673.

132 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702–1703, No. 1224.

133 Ibid. No. 996.

134 Ibid. No. 1071.

135 Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1702–1703, No. 1399.

136 Boston News Letter, July 24, 1704, No. 14, p. 2/1.

137 For permission to exhibit this document, I am indebted to Miss Mary A. Tenney, on behalf of her family, in whose possession it has been since Revolutionary days.

138 It is printed in the Postscript to the Massachusetts Spy of May 12, 1774. In the same paper of June 2 (p. 3/3) appeared the following:

Tell it in Gath, publish it in Askelon, that the Boston Port-Bill, in all its parts is now carrying into execution and that Boston is thereby put into greater distress, and is more insulted by an English armament than sheever was by a French or Spanish fleet in the hottest war, when left without one British ship for her protection. The town is become a spectacle to angels and men, G o d grant that it may not be intimidated by the present horrors to make a surrender of the rights of Americans; or in any respect to dishonour herself in this day of tryal and perplexity.

Business was finished at the custom-house at 12 o’clock yesterday noon, and this harbour is now shut against all vessels bound hither, and on the 15th instant none will be allowed to depart hence. Be it forever remembered, to thy grief and shame, O Britain!

139 Frothingham, Rise of the Republic of the United States, p. 336 note.

140 Wells, Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, ii. 172.

141 Copied from an original (two leaves, printed on inside pages) owned by the American Antiquarian Society. An extract from this letter is in Force’s American Archives, 4th Series, i. 397; but apparently the letter has not before been reprinted in full.

142 “William Cooper Clerk” is an autograph signature. Near the wax of the seal, still visible, are written a few words, apparently “S Jenison Or Town.” No doubt this was Samuel Jennison (1733–1790), later elected a member of the Provincial Congress from Douglas: see W. A. Emerson, History of Douglas, pp. 68–70; G. F. Daniels, History of Oxford, pp. 559–560; Vital Records of Oxford, p. 289.

The Massachusetts Historical Society owns two copies of this broadside.

One, with the wax of the seal still visible, is addressed “For the Committee of Correspondence for Salem.” The other ends with the words “We are, &c.;” after which is written in ink in Cooper’s hand:

June 8. 1774.

By Order of the Committee of Correspondence for Boston, William Cooper Clerk.

143 Form A is copied from the document exhibited to-day. It is a folded sheet which, opened, measures 13¾ inches in width by 20 in height. The covenant is printed on the first page. The alterations made in the Westford meeting of July 4 are indicated in footnotes, all the alterations being in ink.

Form B is copied from a broadside owned by the American Antiquarian Society. It measures 7½ inches in width by 12½ in height.

144 In the Westford document, the name “Westford” has been inserted.

145 The words “in the presence of God” are crossed out in the Westford document.

146 The words “and in good faith” are crossed out in the Westford document.

147 The word “full” is crossed out in the Westford document.

148 At the bottom of the broadside the words “This came from Sutton” are written in ink in the hand of Isaiah Thomas. I am greatly indebted to our associates Dr. Charles L. Nichols, for ascertaining what documents bearing on the subject are owned by the American Antiquarian Society, and Mr. Clarence S. Brigham, for sending the documents to Boston for my inspection.

149 The word “fully” is crossed out in the Westford document.

150 The words “imported from Great Britain” are here interlined in the Westford document.

151 The last two letters in “June” have been crossed out and “ly” written above, and “4th” has been inserted in the blank space.

152 E. R. Hodgman, History of the Town of Westford, p. 95. The town clerk of Westford at that time was John Abbot (1713–1791).

153 Most of the signers are mentioned in the genealogical section of Hodgman’s History of the Town of Westford, pp. 435–486.

154 On July 10, 1775, “Chose Doctor Asaph Fletcher to represent this town in the great and general Court to be held at Watertown” (Hodgman, History of Westford, p. 113).

155 It is impossible to decipher this surname.

156 This Christian name is badly blotted.

157 This surname is doubtful.

158 In a town meeting held at Westminster August 3 it was “voted that the Inhabitants would sign a Covenant that might be Drawn up and laid before the Town;” a committee was chosen to prepare one, and on August 19 the town voted “almost unanimously” to accept the proposed covenant. Though not entered on the town records, the original document has been found and is printed, together with the names of forty-seven signers, in W. S. Heywood’s History of Westminster, pp. 152–153. It differs materially from forms A and B. Heywood says:

The document is complete as far as it goes, and with the signature fills the two pages of a half sheet of foolscap paper. There are indications tending to show that the other half has been torn from the one preserved, and it may be presumed that there were upon it names of other well-known residents, who would be likely to take the same self-sacrificing and heroic stand in behalf of their own and their country’s liberties (p. 153).

Is it not probable that the missing half-sheet contained the printed covenant — either form A or form B, Westminster being in Worcester County?

159 Copied from a broadside owned by the American Antiquarian Society. It measures 6⅝ inches in width by 9 in height. The Massachusetts Historical Society owns two copies of this broadside: one measures 7¼ inches in width by 9¾ in height; the other measures 9 inches in width by 15 in height.

160 “William Cooper Clerk” is an autograph signature.

161 Worcester Town Records (Collections of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, iv. 206). The Worcester covenant was adopted at a town meeting held June 20 (iv. 230–233). A protest, signed by fifty-two persons, was immediately drawn up and entered in the town records. It was also printed in the Boston News Letter of June 30, p. 2/1, and in the Boston Post Boy of July 4, p. 1/2, where it was preceded by the following note:

Messi’rs Printers,

If you please you may give the following Protestation, &c. of us a few friends of truth, peace and order, a place in your paper: For it is believed that we, and many others thro’ the province, have too long already, held our peace.

Then comes the protest, with the “Attest, Clark Chandler, Town Clerk,” and the names of the signers. At a town meeting held August 24, the town clerk was severely censured and ordered to erase the record of protest (Worcester Town Records, iv. 236–239). A facsimile of an erased page is given in Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Worcester (1876), p. 113.

It is stated in the History of Worcester County (Boston, 1879, ii. 578, 579) that “‘The American Political Society’ was formed Dec. 27, 1773;” and that “At the monthly meeting of the Political Society in June [1774], it was voted to sign a covenant not to purchase any English goods until the port of Boston was opened, and to discontinue intercourse with those declining to subscribe.” The American Antiquarian Society (Worcester Papers, i. 20) owns an undated draft of a covenant which accords in sentiment, but not in wording (being still more drastic), with the Boston covenant. At the end is written: “It is thought best not to sign any agreement yet, as it is expected we shall have the plan of a General one from Boston very soon. Yours W^m Henshaw. Please return this to the bearer M^r Timothy Bigelow.”

162 Copied from a broadside owned by the American Antiquarian Society. It measures 7½ inches in width by 10 in height.

163 “W^m Young” is an autograph signature. The broadside was no doubt printed in Boston, as the type is apparently the same and the paper has the same watermark as form A of the covenant. At all events, it certainly was not printed at Worcester, as sometimes stated, since Thomas himself said that “The first Thing ever printed in Worcester” was the Massachusetts Spy of May 3, 1775 (Nichols, Bibliography of Worcester, pp. vii, 2; Nichols, Isaiah Thomas: Printer, Writer & Collector, p. 57).

164 American Archives, 4th Series, i. 397–398.

165 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xviii. 177.

166 xviii. 177–178.

167 xviii. 178.

168 Letters and Diary, pp. 276–277.

169 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, viii. 331.

170 Boston Evening Post, July 4, p. 2/2–3. What Andrews called “The declaration” was also printed in the Boston Post Boy of July 4, p. 2/2, but it there precedes (not follows) the two protests.

171 At a town meeting held at Braintree on June 27 a committee was appointed “to prepare a draught of a covenant to be laid before the Town;” the draught offered by the committee the same day was “Voted accepted, and was then proposed the same should be offer^d to the Members of the s^d Town for signing &c.” The meeting then adjourned to July 25, when “The above said covenant having had some exceptions made, so it was offer^d to the Town for amendment which was accordingly done, and then almost every one Present sign^d the same, and it was then order^d by the Town to the Members of the Town in the several Precincts that were not Present at the Meeting for signing and then to be lodg^d with the clerk of s^d Town” (Braintree Records, p. 449).

172 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, ii. 481–482.

173 It is printed in 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, ii. 482–483. When a copy of the covenant reached Dover, on June 28 Jeremy Belknap wrote a vigorous protest, which doubtless had its effect, for on July 4 “The Selectmen & Committee of Correspondence of this Town met & agreed to suspend this matter till they shall hear what is the Result of the approaching Congress, upon the Subject” (ibid. ii. 484–486).

174 Pickering Papers, xxxix. 57.

175 Pickering Papers, xxxiii. 96.

176 Narrative and Critical History of America, vi. 96–97. The misapprehension is due to confusion between the Provincial Committee of Correspondence and the Boston Committee of Correspondence. The General Court met in Boston on May 25, was adjourned on May 28 to meet at Salem on June 7, and was dissolved on June 17. On May 26 it was ordered in the House of Representatives that “the Committee of Correspondence be, and they are hereby directed to Write to the Committees of Correspondence of all the British Colonies on this Continent; inclosing a Copy of the unprecedented Act of the British Parliament for shutting up the Port of Boston, and otherwise punishing the Inhabitants of said Town: And desire their immediate Attention to an Act, design’d to suppress the Spirit of Liberty in America” (House Journal, p. 9). The only action taken with respect to non-importation was on June 17, when, nine days after the Boston Committee of Correspondence had sent out the Solemn League and Covenant, —

Upon a Motion made, the House pass’d the following Resolve, viz.

Whereas this and his Majesty’s other Colonies in North-America, have long been struggling under the heavy Hand of Power; and our dutiful Petitions for the Redress of our intolerable Grievances, have not only been disregarded and frown’d upon, but the Design totally to alter the free Constitutions of Civil Government in British America, and establish arbitrary Governments and reduce the Inhabitants to Slavery, appears more and more to be fixed and determined: It is therefore strongly recommended by this House to the Inhabitants of this Province, that they renounce altogether the Consumption of India Teas, and as far as in them lies, discontinue the Use of all Goods and Manufactures whatsoever, that shall be Imported from the East Indies and Great-Britain, until the publick Grievances of America shall be radically and totally redressed. And it is further recommended to all, that they give all possible Encouragement to the Manufactures of America. And it is moreover strongly recommended to the Inhabitants aforesaid, that they use their utmost Endeavours to suppress Pedlars and Petty-Chapmen (who are of late become a very great Nuisance) by putting in Execution the good and wholesome Laws of this Province for that Purpose (House Journal, p. 46).

177 See E. S. Steams, History of Ashburnham, pp. 133–134; W. Barry, History of Framingham, pp. 90–91; J. H. Temple, History of Framingham, p. 267; J. G. Metcalf, Annals of Mendon, pp. 320–321; J. R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, ii. 343–344; and cf. pp. 110, 111 note 3, 113 note 1, 117, 118 note, above. The Massachusetts Spy of June 30, 1774, said that on June 20 the people of Charlton “generally signed a covenant, obliging themselves, to withdraw all commercial intercourse with the Island of Great Britain; and not to purchase, or use any goods imported from thence, from and after the last day of August next, or till the Port of Boston be opened, and all our charter and constitutional rights are fully restored; but a few individuals refused to sign” (p. 3/1). On June 29 Governor Gage issued “A Proclamation For discouraging certain illegal Combinations,” which was printed in the contemporary Boston newspapers; also in 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xii. 45–48. Cf. ibid. xi. 392–394; Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution, p. 65.

178 The Term Indian Summer, read before this Society in December, 1901 (Publication, vii. 241–244); printed in Monthly Weather Review for January and February, 1902, xxx. 19–28, 69–79, and also in a separate pamphlet.

179 The Old Farmer and his Almanack, 1904, pp. 191–198.

180 Robert Temperley, The Merchant Shipping Acts, London, 1907, pp. 710–711.

181 Monthly Weather Review, January, 1915, xliii. 44–45.

182 A Collection of Poems, on American Affairs, . . . Written between the year 1797 and the Present Time, i. 97–98. In 1902–1907 was published in three volumes The Poems of Philip Freneau, edited by Fred Lewis Pattee.

183 Illustrated Poems (1849), pp. 141–142. In the preface, dated October 1, 1848, Mrs. Sigourney says: “The edition now presented to the public comprises selections from previous volumes, poems that have appeared only in a fugitive form, and others that have never before been indebted to the ministry of the press.”

184 This appears to be the same tradition as that recounted by Charles Brockden Brown in a note in his translation of Volney, View of the Soil and Climate of the United States (Philadelphia, 1804), p. 210. If the tradition has a basis of fact, Brown’s is undoubtedly the more correct version.

185 “Having,” she herself wrote late in life, “become an enthusiast about our aborigines, the first tune that I was permitted to choose for my own performance was that sweetly plaintive melody of the ‘Indian Chief’s Death-Song.’” And again, referring to her Traits of the Aborigines of America — the poem of four thousand lines filling pp. 3–131, while the Notes fill pp. 133–284 — she said:

This was composed two years before my marriage, but its publication was delayed for some time, . . . An early acquaintance with the Mohegan tribe of Indians, who resided a few miles from Norwich, and a taste for searching out the historic legends of our forest-people, deepened my interest in their native lineaments of character, and my sympathy for their degraded condition. In the notes of the volume much information is concentrated respecting them, derived from various sources, in the revision of which I gratefully received the aid of the acute and discriminating mind of my husband (Letters of Life, 1866, pp. 53, 327).

186 Jesuits in North America (1880), p. lxxv. Though not found in this passage, Parkman elsewhere employs the term Indian summer: see Mr. Matthews’s monograph.

187 Lettres d’un Cultivateur Américain . . . depuis l’Année 1770 jusqu’en 1786, par M. St. John de Crevecoeur, Traduites de l’Anglois, Paris, 1787, i. 294. The description fills pp. 289–314.

188 In his Letters of an American Farmer, published in London in 1782, Crevecœur does not mention the Indian summer. My attention was called to the passage in the text by Mr. Franklin B. Sanborn’s paper on “St. John de Crèvecœur, the American Farmer (1735–1813),” printed in 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xx. 32–83. Mr. Sanborn shows that Crevecœur was often inaccurate, remarking in one place: “But dates were never St. John’s forte. He misstated the ages of his children by two years, and dedicated the French edition of his ‘Lettres d’un Cultivateur Américain’ to Lafayette from ‘Albany, 17 Mai 1781,’ though at that date he was in England” (p. 34 note: cf. pp. 36, 37 note, 45, 52–53, 73–74).

189 See Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, p. 400.

190 Bradford, History (1856), p. 9.

191 Bradford, History, p. 11.

192 Bradford, History, p. 13.

193 P. 15.

194 Dexter, The England and Holland of the Pilgrims, pp. 467–468.

195 Bradford, History, pp. 53–54.

196 Bradford, History, p. 17.

197 Book of the General Laws (1672), p. 2.

198 Bradford, History, pp. 59–60.

199 Bradford, History, pp. 66–67.

200 Bradford, History, pp. 59–60.

201 Bradford, History, p. 198.

202 Goodwin, Pilgrim Republic, p. 368.

203 Plymouth Colony Records, xi. 101.

204 iv. 85, 86.

205 Bradford, History, p. 135.

206 Plymouth Colony Records, xi. 6.

207 Plymouth Colony Records, xi. 50.

208 Goodwin, Pilgrim Republic, p. 496.

209 Publications of this Society, xvii. 302 and note.

210 Could this have been the Rev. James Freeman, minister of King’s Chapel?

211 Massachusetts Magazine, iii. 52–53.

212 Third Series, vii. 29–30.

213 James Bowdoin married Elizabeth, daughter of John Erving.

214 In Airs of the Pilgrims, pp. 1–3, appended to W. S. Russell’s Guide to Plymouth (1846).

215 In the later versions this is printed “fresh meat.”

216 Massachusetts Spy, February 3, 1774, p. 4/1.

217 Early English and French Voyages (Original Narratives of Early American History), pp. 337, 347, 350, 371.

218 Travels and Works of Captain John Smith (edited by A. G. Bradley, 1910), pp. 194–200, 267.

219 These facts and others concerning the New England fur trade will be found in C. H. McIlwain’s Introduction to Wraxall’s Abridgment, chap. i. note A. This is the best account of the New England fur trade at present available.

220 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 55; Young, Chronicles of Massachusetts Bay (1846), p. 148.

221 Plain Dealing (1867), pp. 109–111.

222 F. J. Turner, Publications of this Society, xvii. 254.

223 Winthrop’s Journal (1908), i. 103, 108; McIlwain, p. xxxi.

224 Johnson, Wonder-working Providence (1910), p. 237.

225 Plain Dealing, p. 108.

226 New English Canaan (Prince Society, 1883), pp. 282–283, and Introduction, pp. 19 ff.

227 These facts are well summarized by McIlwain, pp. xxix–xxxi.

228 This petition appears in one form in 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, v. 131–134, and in a somewhat different form in Bradford’s History (1908), p. 314. It is calendared in the Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1574–1660, p. 157, where it is dated 1632, obviously a mistake.

229 Cf. Publications of this Society, xii. 101–113, 191–203.

230 The operations of this Canada Company are best described by H. P. Biggar, Early Trading Companies of New France, chapters viii and ix. See also H. Kirke, The First English Conquest of Canada (1908), and Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, chap. xvi. For the interest of Gorges and Mason in this Company, see J. W. Dean’s Introduction to Captain John Mason (Prince Society), pp. 53–54.

231 Works of Captain John Smith, pp. 192, 237.

232 The Laconia charter is printed in Captain John Mason, pp. 189 ff. For an account of the Laconia Company, see J. W. Dean’s Introduction to this work, pp. 53 ff. Dean relied for his information largely upon a work on the Isles of Shoals by John S. Jenness (1875). See also a note by Charles Deane in 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, vi. 376–380; and cf. Publications of this Society, xii. 372.

233 Captain John Mason, pp. 72–74, 331, 335; Gorges, Brief Description of Laconia, in Collections Maine Historical Society, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 67–68; Morton, New English Canaan, p. 237. The best secondary account of the explorations of the Laconia Company is that of Amandus Johnson, Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, i. 392 ff.

234 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 224; Morton, pp. 234 ff. and Introduction, pp. 77–78.

235 New English Canaan, pp. 238, 240.

236 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xl. 70. The contributor of this document, Dr. Charles E. Banks, believes that the writer was Walter Neale, first governor of Laconia.

237 Winthrop speaks of trading with the Dutch for beaver and estimates their total trade at nine or ten thousand skins a year (Journal, i. 131). See also McIlwain, p. xxxii; Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, i. 126. McIlwain errs, however, in citing Weeden (i. 131) to the effect that this illicit trade amounted to from ten to fifteen thousand skins a year. What Weeden does say is that the Dutch, previous to the loss of their Connecticut trade, had drawn that number of skins yearly from New England — quite a different matter.

238 McIlwain, pp. xxx–xxxi; Bradford, pp. 299–302; Winthrop’s Journal, i. 103, 109–110.

239 See an interesting note by Mr. H. A. Wright (Outlook, May 5, 1915, cx. 47) on the size of Pynchon’s trade. His success at Springfield was a source of great annoyance to the Dutch, and was one of the grievances against the English which Stuyvesant brought forward at the time of the treaty of Hartford in 1650 (Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 172, 176, 178).

240 C. H. Levermore, Republic of New Haven, p. 90.

241 No attempt is here made to describe this episode in full. Amandus Johnson (Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, i. 208–217) gives a detailed account with references to the sources. His account supersedes that of Levermore (Republic of New Haven, pp. 90 ff), which is condensed and uncritical and has minor inaccuracies.

242 Levermore, p. 95.

243 See McIlwain, p. xxxi.

244 Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 22–23.

245 Weeden, i. 42; Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 86; Connecticut Colonial Records, i. 113; Plymouth Colony Records, ii. 82. J. A. James (English Institutions and the American Indian, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 12th Series, x. 25–26) makes the mistake of supposing that this proposed company went into operation. The references which he cites in proof of his statement refer to the activities of the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians.

246 Plymouth Colony Records, ix and x. Johnson gives an account of the efforts of the English to get a foothold upon the Delaware from 1643 to 1653 with full references to sources (vol. i. chap, xxxvi). Levermore must be relied upon for the rest of the history of the New Haven Delaware Company (pp. 98–99).

247 Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 140–141.

248 ix. 189.

249 Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 210–212; Johnson, i. 402.

250 Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 199.

251 ix. 213–215.

252 Plymouth Colony Records, x. 13, 14, 15, 32–33, 56.

253 x. 127; Levermore, pp. 98–99.

254 Johnson, i. 394; Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 62–63.

255 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 164.

256 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 60.

257 Of the members of this Company, Tyng was Treasurer of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Valentine Hill was a prominent merchant of Boston, a selectman, and at different times a deputy to the General Court (Savage, Genealogical Dictionary; Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 259, 340). A later entry in the Colony Records shows him engaged with Tyng in a trading venture to the Azores, Madeiras, and West Indies (ii. 247–249). Sedgwick was at this time a deputy and later was commander, with Leverett, of the expedition which was intended to attack New Amsterdam, but conquered Acadia instead. A good account of Sedgwick will be found in Publications of this Society, iii. 156–173. Norton was a lieutenant for Charlestown and deputy (Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 166, 186). Hewes was also a lieutenant (ii. 163) and a prominent merchant. There is a good account of Hewes and his commercial ventures by Eben Putnam, Lieutenant Joshua Hewes and Some of his Descendants (1913). Pages 66–69 describe this Company of Adventurers and his connection with it, but without adding anything new. For Aspinwall see the next note.

258 Journal, ii. 164. William Aspinwall came over, probably with Winthrop, in 1630, and was prominent in the colony until the time of his banishment, in 1637, for being a supporter of Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson. With others of his fellow sufferers he joined in establishing a colony in Rhode Island, and became its first Secretary. Here also he got into trouble, “being a suspected person for sedition against the State.” The scanty notices we have of him from 1637 to 1642 show him engaged in trading. In the latter year he was restored to his rights and citizenship in Massachusetts, and speedily became Recorder and Notary Public. His connection with the Delaware Company was apparently the result of his trading ventures in 1637–1642. In 1651 he was suspended from his office as Recorder “for chardging the Courte and Jury to goe against lawe and conscience,” and the next year he lost his position as Notary Public. We know little about him after 1652 except that he was alive in England in 1662. The above account is taken from that of John T. Hassam printed in 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xii. 211–219, Suffolk Deeds, x. 15–24, and Aspinwall Notarial Records (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxxii). I am indebted to Mr. S. E. Morison for this reference.

259 Johnson (i. 396) prints a photographic facsimile.

260 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 181, 190; Johnson, i. 394–397.

261 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 210, 246; Johnson, i. 398.

262 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 138, iii. 53.

263 William Paine was one of the wealthiest men in the colony. He came over in 1635 and settled at Watertown, but removed in 1639 to Ipswich. He owned a five-sixths interest in the fulling and grist mill at Watertown and a three-fourths interest in both the Lynn and the Braintree Iron Works. He and Thomas Clarke, a member of this Company, were interested with the younger Winthrop in the New Haven Iron Works and the black lead mines at Sturbridge. Some of his letters to Winthrop, which throw light upon their business relations, are printed in 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. Paine was also a landowner on a large scale and at the time of his death was part owner of five vessels and had investments in ventures in England and Jamaica. The extent of his interests discloses the many-sided activities of what we may fairly term the capitalist class in Massachusetts at this time. The fur trade was only one of the forms of investment, perhaps the most speculative form, open to enterprising men of Paine’s generation. For an account of Paine and his undertakings, see Albert W. Paine, Paine Genealogy, Ipswich Branch (Bangor, Maine, 1881), pp. 57–73. Mr. S. E. Morison first called my attention to this Genealogy.

264 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. i. 291.

265 Johnson states in his Wonder-working Providence (p. 237) that at the time he was writing, about 1651, the competition at Springfield had become so keen that there was little profit in the trade, and many of the settlers had turned to agriculture.

266 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. i. 354, 355.

267 Ibid. p. 374. The secondary writers who treat this episode are Brodhead, History of New York, i. 655, 671–674; O’Callaghan, History of New Netherland, ii. 402–406; Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts (1795), i. 150 note.

268 New York Colonial Documents, xiii. 101, 107, 126, 129, 150.

269 Plymouth Colony Records, x. 220, 443.

270 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. i. 395.

271 Plymouth Colony Records, x. 445–446.

272 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 151.

273 New York Colonial Documents, xiv. 465.

274 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 512.

275 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. i. 438. It is here stated that in October, 1659, the General Court had granted the company a tract of land on the Hudson above Fort Orange, but nothing is said about such a grant in the only passage in the Records of that date which refers to the company (p. 395). There is, however, little reason to doubt that such a grant was made.

276 Vol. iv. pt. ii. 51. According to Weeden (i. 161, citing Felt’s Annals of Salem, i. 227), the company reported in 1662 an expenditure of £250 in running lines and £150 for a land journey and other expenses. Several members of the company, including Hathorne, were Salem men.

277 For the official attitude at different times, see Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1574–1660, pp. 26 and 154; New York Colonial Documents, iii. 6–8; Thurloe, State Papers (1742), v. 81. Bradford in 1627 challenged the right of the Dutch to the country (1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iii. 52, 53), as did Gorges and Mason in 1632 (Captain John Mason, pp. 293, 296). Morton’s opinion has already been quoted (New English Canaan, p. 240). Even after the Treaty of Hartford, the United Commissioners asserted in 1653 the priority of the English claims (Plymouth Colony Records, x. 13). I can find no justification for the statement of J. A. Stevens (Narrative and Critical History of America, iii. 386) that Cromwell in the treaty of 1654 formally recognized the Dutch title to New Netherland. An examination of the treaty (printed in Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique, vol. vi. pt. ii. 74–79) does not bear out his contention. It should be said, however, that after that peace Cromwell took the position that the Dutch could not be removed except by friendly agreement (Letter of William Leete to Samuel Disborow, October 10, 1654, in British Museum, Egerton MSS. 2519, fol. 10. I am here relying upon a transcript in the Library of Congress).

278 The correspondence about the rival claims will be found partly in Plymouth Colony Records, x. 220, 443–446, partly in New York Colonial Documents, xiv. 446, 465. See also 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 512. The Hartford treaty is printed in Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 188–190.

279 Compare Stuyvesant’s statement: “New-England does not need her [England’s] interference and assistance in this matter, for she is conscious that her power overbalances ours ten times and it is to be apprehended, that they will in this matter make an attempt so much sooner, as they see and trust that during the present monstrous condition of the English government no countermanding order will be issued from that side; but we will willingly submit our speculations to wiser judgments and hope the best” (New York Colonial Documents, xiii. 162).

280 John Paine was born in 1632 and upon his father’s death in 1660 inherited the bulk of his property and interests. He engaged in mercantile enterprises in Boston and Portsmouth and was interested in various land speculations. Little is known about him except for this episode and another which is closely connected with it. At the time of his marriage he had received as a gift from his father-in-law, Richard Parker, 700 acres of land upon Prudence Island in Narragansett Bay. Learning at the time of his visit to New York in 1672 (A. W. Paine is apparently mistaken in having him go to New York in 1671) that the Duke of York, who had purchased the rights of the Earl of Stirling to Long Island and the adjacent islands, claimed jurisdiction over Prudence Island also, Paine got from Governor Lovelace a grant of the whole island to be held in fee simple for a yearly quit-rent of “two Barrels of Syder and six Couple of Capons,” to be known as Sophy Manor. The story that Paine won the favor of Lovelace by contributing liberally toward the repair of Fort James comes from Arnold, the historian of Rhode Island, and I have been unable to discover the source of his information. Paine’s action involved him in a lawsuit with the colony of Rhode Island for attempting to introduce a foreign jurisdiction, but before it was decided the matter was allowed to drop, probably because Paine gave up the contention that the island belonged to the Duke of York. Paine died shortly afterward, in 1675, having, it is said, before his death lost much of the property inherited from his father. Paltsits mistakenly attempts to identify him with a certain John Paine who came to New York as a soldier in 1664 (Minutes of the Executive Council of New York, i. 142 note 4). See A. W. Paine, Paine Genealogy, pp. 78–92; Arnold, History of Rhode Island, i. 362–364; Brodhead, ii. 188–189; Minutes of the Executive Council of New York, ii. 725–736; 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvii. 85.

281 These documents, together with Lovelace’s reply, are printed in Minutes of the Executive Council of New York, ii. 662–666. Two of them are printed in New York Colonial Documents, xiv. 664, 673. A brief account of the episode will be found in Brodhead, ii. 188. The original of Paine’s address to Lovelace is to be found in New York Colonial Manuscripts, xxii. 137, and of Lovelace’s reply to Massachusetts in the Massachusetts Archives, cxii. 225. See also Minutes of the Executive Council of New York, i. 121, 142.

282 His journal is printed below, pp. 188–191.

283 Minutes of the Executive Council of New York, ii. 664; New York Colonial Documents, xiv. 673.

284 The petition is printed below, pp. 191–192.

285 These statements are based upon extensive study by the writer of New York’s Indian policy. A few references will suffice to illustrate their truth. As early as 1662 an attack by the Mohawks upon an English trading house on the Kennebec was the subject of negotiations between Massachusetts and the Dutch (Brodhead, i. 704; New York Colonial Documents, xiii. 224–227, 240, 297, 355, 378). Complaints of depredations by the Mohawks in Hampshire County were considered by the General Court in 1667 (Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. ii. 359). The attempt of Connecticut and Massachusetts to get aid from the Mohawks at the time of King Philip’s War and the attitude of New York at that time may be traced in Connecticut Colonial Records, ii. 397, 407, 414, 419, 426, 436, and F. B. Hough, Easton’s Narrative and other Documents relating to King Philip’s War (1858), pp. 155–159. The attitude of New York during Lt.-Gov. Dummer’s War is sufficiently illustrated in the notes printed by McIlwain, Wraxall’s Abridgment, pp. xlix, xciv.

286 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. ii. 548.

287 Ibid. 558.

288 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. pt. ii. 570; Massachusetts Archives, iii. 25.

289 Alvord and Bidgood, First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by the Virginians, 1650–1674, p. 244.

290 But see the opinion of F. E. Melvin in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, i. 260–262. Melvin believes that Coxe was less credulous than has been generally supposed.

291 I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. S. E. Morison for his suggestions and criticisms, which have been of great assistance to me in the preparation of this paper.

292 Massachusetts Archives, cxii. 222–224.

293 Massachusetts Archives, cxii. 221.

294 The poem was communicated in February, 1915 (see p. 27, above), but its publication has been delayed until the text could be collated with the manuscript in Dublin.

295 Publications, xiii. 254–259.

296 One in John Lloyd’s Short Tour (1780); the second in O’Looney’s Clare Bards (1863); and the third in Father Dinneen’s edition of Tadag Gaolach O’Sullivan (1893).

297 Published in The Nation (Dublin, 1858), N. S., ix. 731, 763.

298 Dublin (1913), p. 217.

299 Irish MS. No. IX.

300 MS. ²³/_B37.

301 London (1906), pp. 13–14.

302 bhúr, O’C; do, MS. R. I. A

303 tréith, MS. R. I. A.; faon, O’C.

304 So O’C; mar cruadann a coiléir (an coiléir), MS. R. I. A.

305 Dr. Hyde is not quite sure that the MS. has scolta; possibly the reading should be seolta, “guided,” “taught.” In either case the reference would be to the poor Gaelic people.

306 do throideadh, O’C; do throideann, MS. R. I. A.

307 Laoisigh, O’C; laoirce, MS. R. I. A.

308 lease, O’C; leighis, MS. R. I. A.

309 nuair, O’C; tan, MS. R. I. A.

310 chíos, O’C; chuing, MS. R. I. A.

311 Os doigh linn na mairid, O’C; Os dóthchus na maireann, MS. R. I. A.

312 is le fíoch, O’C; agus fíoch, MS. R. I. A.

313 Inis Eilge, “Island of Elg,” is an old poetic name for Ireland of uncertain origin. Compare Kuno Meyer, in the Berlin Sitzungsberichte, 1913, p. 446.

314 “Brother O’Leary” is the Reverend Arthur O’Leary, a Capuchin friar, who labored conspicuously to keep the Irish Catholics loyal to the British throne. By so doing, O’Meehan declares, he tightened the yoke (literally, the collar) for the man who is wandering. It seems safest to interpret this phrase as a general reference to the wretchedness of the poor Gaels, though a more particular application to the fortunes of the young Pretender is also possible. In O’Meehan’s other poem on Washington, it may be recalled, the name of “the innocent Charles Stuart” was linked with those of Louis of France and the American leader, and at the time when the second song was written the condition of Charles Edward was certainly that of a discredited wanderer. Still the figure of “tightening the yoke” seems to apply best to the oppression of the people. The last couplet of the stanza doubtless means, as Dr. Hyde suggests, that O’Leary was making a profit out of bribes, while the wretched Gaels got nothing but “leave to talk.” O’Leary is known to have been in receipt of a government pension, for his loyal writings, before 1784. The “lad of gold” has not been identified, unless the name applies also to O’Leary. The order of the passage seems at first to favor the view that some other character is referred to. But this is by no means certain, and the epithet would have been a natural one for O’Meehan to apply to O’Leary. It might be interpreted as a general term of praise, here ironically employed with reference to the popular and prosperous clergyman; or one might even see in the phrase a double meaning which anticipates the later reference to bribes.

315 At Harvard the degree of Master of Arts, which from 1645 to 1869 was given in course — that is, at the end of the third year after obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Arts — has been granted since 1869 on examination only. Hence, previous to 1870, no date follows the A.M. degree, unless it was granted more than three years after graduation.

In the 1830 Harvard Triennial the names of those who received honorary degrees were for the first time placed by themselves at the end, each under the year when the degree was conferred. Previous to 1830 the practice was confusing, for the name of each recipient was placed under the class in which he graduated A.B. in some other college; or, if he was not a college graduate, in the class to which he presumably would have belonged had he gone to college; and a dash separated the names of those who graduated A.B. from those who received honorary degrees, the date when the latter were conferred being also given. Thus the first degrees conferred on Franklin and on Washington were respectively A.M. in 1753 and LL.D. in 1776, both from Harvard. In the 1754 Triennial the name of Franklin appears under the class of 1724, and in the 1776 Triennial that of Washington under the class of 1749. That is, it was assumed that if Franklin and Washington had gone to college they would have graduated in those years respectively.

The early practice at Yale was still more confusing, since no dash separated the names of those graduating A.B. from those receiving honorary degrees, and no date was attached to the names of the latter.

316 That is, the entry so stood as regards the date of the conferring of the degree. In the 1772 and 1775 Yale Triennials Mather’s Harvard class is misprinted 1725. Innumerable differences in typography, in arrangement, and in details occur in the different editions of both the Yale and the Harvard Triennials and Quinquennials.

317 Diary of Cotton Mather, ii. 805, 758–759, 762–763.

318 Our associate Professor Franklin B. Dexter, to whom I am indebted for information about the 1742–1745 and 1751 Triennials, writes: “In 1868 the change to 1725 was made, unhappily, on the theory that if given in 1724 it would have been entered in the Catalogue of that year, and also because, although other instances could be found where in those early days a Master’s degree was given two years after a Bachelor’s degree, no other instance occurs of a Master’s degree after an interval of one year.”

319 There has been much uncertainty in regard to degrees, honorary or otherwise, conferred on Harvard graduates by foreign universities previous to 1731, and different editions of the Triennials and Quinquennials vary in this respect. The following list is compiled from the 1915 Quinquennial:

1642 Benjamin Woodbridge, A.M. Oxford 1648
1642 Henry Saltonstall, M.D. Padua 1649
1645 James Ward, A.M. Oxford 1648, M.B. Oxford 1649
1650 William Stoughton, A.M. Oxford 1653
1650 John Glover, M.D. Aberd. 1654
1650 Leonard Hoar, M.D. Cambr. 1671
1651 Isaac Chauncy, M.D.
1651 Ichabod Chauncy, M.D.
1653 Joshua Ambrose, A.M. Oxford 1656
1656 Increase Mather, A.M. Dublin 1658
1656 John Haynes, A.M. Cambr. 1660
1674 Edmund Davie, M.D. Padua
1678 Cotton Mather, S.T.D. Glasgow 1710
1684 Samuel Myles, A.M. Oxford 1693
1693 William Vesey, A.M. Oxford 1697
1699 Jeremiah Dummer, Ph.D. Utrecht 1703
1701 Timothy Cutler, S.T.D. Oxford 1723, Cambr. 1723
1710 Edward Wigglesworth, S.T.D. Edinburgh 1730
1722 Ebenezer Miller, A.M. also Oxford 1726.

It is not known when or from what university the Chauncys received their degrees, nor when Davie obtained his. It may be added that George Stirk, who graduated in 1646 and later changed his name to Starkey, presumably also received the degree of M.D., though again when and from what university is unknown.

320 The bestowal of an honorary degree on a Harvard man by a foreign university was usually, if not always, noted in the Boston newspapers of the eighteenth century. Thus Cutler’s degree from Oxford was noted in the New England Courant of July 22, 1723, p. 2/1; and Wigglesworth’s degree from Edinburgh was noted in the Boston News Letter of August 27, 1730, p. 2/1.

321 New England Weekly Journal, November 8, 1731, p. 2/2. The same notice appeared in the Boston News Letter of November 4.

322 In College Book III. 137–170 are entered twenty-five diplomas for honorary degrees, most of which were received by Harvard graduates from other universities or conferred by Harvard College. A list of these was given by Mr. William C. Lane in our Publications, x. 230 note 2.

323 Mather employed the title in books published in 1728 and 1732: see pp. 223, 224, below. The New England Weekly Journal of Monday, January 31, 1732, said that “On Friday last the Old North Church in this Place made Choice of Mr. Samuel Mather, Chaplain at His Majesties Castle William, to succeed his Renowned Father in the Pastoral Office among them” (p. 2/2. A similar item appeared in the Boston News Letter of February 3, p. 2/2). And the Weekly Rehearsal of February 28 stated that “The Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather, lately Chaplain of Castle William has accepted the Choice to succeed his Father in the Pastoral Charge of the Old North Church” (p. 2/2. A similar item appeared in the Boston News Letter of March 2, p. 2/2). The date “January 28, 1730–31,” given in Cotton Mather’s Diary (ii. 818), should be January 28, 1731–32. Samuel Mather was ordained colleague pastor June 21st: see New England Weekly Journal, June 19, p. 2/1, June 26, p. 2/1; Weekly Rehearsal, June 26, p. 2/2.

It appears, then, that Samuel Mather was Chaplain from 1728 (or earlier) to 1732, when he resigned after being chosen colleague pastor with the Rev. Joshua Gee. His resignation of the chaplaincy clears up a matter which puzzled the editors of the Belcher Papers. On August 12, 1732, Governor Belcher wrote to his son Jonathan Belcher, Jr. (H.C. 1728):

M^r Warren shall know your concern (and my readiness) to serve him. But Coll^ll Tailer (before his death) had fix’d a successor to M^r Mather, M^r Moseley (whom you knew at College, being, I think, next class to yours) (Belcher Papers, i. 164).

The reference is to the Rev. Samuel Moseley (H.C. 1729), and the editors remark: “Apparently he had been designated by Lieutenant-Governor Tailer for some civil employment.” Tailer died March 1, 1732, and evidently the allusion in Belcher’s letter was to the chaplaincy of the Castle.

324 This statement is slightly inaccurate, as Mather’s Aberdeen degree is not in the 1895 Quinquennial: see p. 217, below.

325 I am indebted to Mr. C. Chester Lane, the present editor of the Quinquennial, for information in regard to this correspondence and for a reference to Scottish Notes and Queries.

326 Cotton Mather was three times married: first, May 4, 1686, to Abigail Phillips; second, August 18, 1703, to Elizabeth (Clark) Hubbard; third, July 5, 1715, to Lydia (Lee) George. By his first wife there were, disregarding daughters, three sons: Joseph, born March 28, 1693, died April 1, 1693; Increase, born July 9, 1699, drowned at sea in September, 1724; and Samuel, born December 13, 1700, died February 7, 1701. By his second wife there were, also disregarding daughters, three sons: Samuel, born October 30, 1706, H.C. 1723, died June 27, 1785; Nathaniel, born May 16, 1709, died November 24, 1709; and Eleazar, born October 30, 1713, died November 17–18, 1713. There were no children by his third marriage. The above dates, often wrongly given, are taken (of course with the exception of the date of death of Samuel Mather of H.C. 1723) from Cotton Mather’s Diary. In 1726 Samuel Mather called himself the “only Brother” of his sister, and in 1728 the “only Son of” his father: see pp. 220 note 2, 221, below.

327 See F. B. Dexter’s Yale Biographies and Annals, i. 627–628.

328 In books printed between 1761 and 1773, Mather used only the degree A.M. (or M.A.): see p. 225, below.

329 Literary Diary, ii. 169.

330 P. 3/1. “A Poem On Occasion of the Death of Dr. Thomas Mather, . . . By a young Gentleman intimately acquainted with the late Doctor,” was printed in the Boston Evening Post of January 24, 1763, p. 1/2. In a letter (owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society) to Thomas Hollis dated December 11, 1762, Samuel Mather mentions the death of his son. On July 15, 1761, the Corporation took the following action:

At the same Meeting The Rev M^r Sam Mather of Boston desird the Corporation to grant to his Son, who is in the Practice of Physic, a Degree of Master of Arts, the Corporac͞on in Consideration, That his s^d Son had never been at any College & not being satifyed in his Qualifications in Classic Learning, or his fitness in any other Regard for the s^d Degree, & there being no Time for his Examination (w^ch yet his Father consented he shou’d submitt to, if it was requir’d) for the s^d Reasons the above Request was deny’d unanimously (College Book vii. 90–91).

331 Overseers’ Records, ii. 153.

332 College Book vii. 184.

333 Boston Gazette, May 15, 1769, p. 2/1. “The Subject was exposing the Idolatry of the Church of Rome, &c.”

334 College Book vii. 260.

335 Boston Gazette, July 26, 1773, p. 3/1.

336 President Langdon’s only honorary degree was that of D.D. from Aberdeen in 1762, and that he must have received his diploma at the time stated in the text is shown by the following title: “The Duty and Honor of A Minister of Christ. A Sermon Preached at Windham, near Casco-Bay, at the Ordination Of the Reverend Mr. Peter Thacher Smith, To the Work of the Gospel Ministry, and the Pastoral Care of the Church there, September 22, 1762. By Samuel Langdon, D.D. Pastor of the First Church in Portsmouth. . . . Portsmouth, . . . 1763.”

337 Publications of this Society, xiv. 285 and note.

338 In the Boston News Letter of September 15, 1726, appeared this advertisement:

JUst Published, An Essay to bespeak & engage Early Piety; Occasioned by the Early Departure of Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, by her Father, Dr. Mather, with an Elegy by her only Brother. Sold by John Phillips on the South Side of the Town House Boston (p. 2/2).

The exact title of the sermon is: “Pietas Matutina. One Essay more, To Bespeak and Engage Early Piety; Made On an Occasion taken from the Early Departure of Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, At the Age of Twenty-two August 7 1726. By her Father. . . . Boston: Printed for J. Phillips, MDCCXXVI.” Samuel Mather’s elegy, printed on the last two pages of the pamphlet, consists of fourteen stanzas of four lines each, and is entitled: “Thoughts, Produced by the Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, In the Sorrowful Mind of her only Brother.” The first stanza is as follows:

Say, Mournful Song, what gloomy grief

Invades my mind, untunes my Soul!

And try to bring me some relief,

To stay the winds, and waves controul.

For information about the pamphlet itself, which is rare, I am indebted to the officials of the Library of Congress.

339 The title, somewhat misleadingly given by Sabin, is as follows:

The State of Religion in New-England, Since the Reverend Mr. Whitefield’s Arrival there. In a letter from a Gentleman in New-England to his Friend in Glasgow. To which is subjoined an Appendix, containing Attestations of the principal Facts in the Letter, By The Reverend Mr. Chauncy, . . . Mr. John Caldwell, Mr. John Barnard . . . Mr. Turell, Mr. Jonathan Parsons . . . and Dr. Benjamin Colman . . . Glasgow, . . . mdccxlii.

340 The only copy I have seen of the second edition lacks the title-page. The card catalogue of the Boston Public Library gives 1742 as the date of this edition, but doubtless Sabin is correct in stating that it was published in 1743.

341 It was advertised as “This Day Published” in the Boston Evening Post of February 8, 1783, p. 3/2, and in the Boston Gazette of February 10, p. 3/2; and as “Just Published” in the Boston Gazette of February 17, p. 1/3, March 3, Supplement, p. 2/3, March 17, Supplement, p. 2/2, and in the Independent Chronicle of February 20, p. 1/2. On March 13, 1783, the Rev. John Eliot wrote: “P. S. Matheetes Archaios is too despicable to have anything said about it” (Belknap Papers, iii. 250). Mr. Evans writes me that he cannot recall his authority for the attribution to Mather. Professor Dexter makes the suggestion, confirmed by Mr. Evans, that this was the Brinley Catalogue, where an entry reads: “Serious Letter to the Young People of Boston, . . to guard them against Error, etc. By Matheetes Archaios [S. Mather?] Boston, 1783” (no. 6397, iv. 49). Mr. Dexter adds: “We bought this volume at the Brinley sale, and the title-page has ‘S. Mather?’ written in it in ink, in a not-modern hand. In cataloguing this copy, some thirty years ago, I considered this attribution; but decided that it was not very probable.” As the volume came from the library of the Rev. Dr. Joseph McKean, perhaps the query is in his hand.

342 The funeral discourses which were customarily delivered at that time on the death of a prominent person sometimes contain valuable information. That no funeral discourse or sermon was preached after Mather’s death was due to his own desire. He died June 27 and was buried June 30, 1785: see the Massachusetts Centinel of June 29, p. 3/2; and the Independent Chronicle of June 30, p. 3/2, which prints extracts from his will. In the Boston Magazine for June we read:

30. On Monday morning last, departed this life, and entered into rest, Doctor SAMUEL MATHER, of this town, in the 79th year of his age. He left positive orders that his interment should be private, and without any ceremony: he has also signified his desire, that he may not have any funeral encomiums from any quarter. On Thursday he was interred, without the least ceremony, at 5 minutes past sun setting, followed by six persons, without pall bearers, in conformity to his will, and laid in the family tomb (ii. 237).

343 The Harvard College Library owns an interesting copy of a book entitled:

An Abridgment of the Life Of the late Reverend and Learned Dr. Cotton Mather, of Boston in New-England. Taken from the Account of him published by his Son, the Reverend Mr. Samuel Mather. . . . By David Jennings. Recommended by I. Watts, D.D. . . . London: . . . 1744.

This is a presentation copy from Watts to Mather and from Mather to the College, and a note on the College book-plate says that “This book belonged to the Library before the fire Jan. 24. 1764.” Watts’s Recommendation is dated “Newington near London, Aug. 13. 1743;” and in the Preface Mr. Jennings says that from Samuel Mather “I have received a very civil and obliging Letter, with full Leave and Liberty to make such an Abridgment of his Book as is here attempted. I hope he will not be displeased with my prefixing his License to this Work, without which I should not have undertaken it.” Then follows Mather’s letter.

344 Not before attributed to Mather. It is a reply to Dr. William Douglass’s “A Dissertation concerning Inoculation of the Small-Pox. . . . Boston, N.E. . . . M.DCC.XXX.” My authority for the attribution of the Letter to Mather is a note on the fly-leaf of a volume owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society containing various pamphlets, among them Douglass’s Dissertation and the Letter. This note reads:

Dissertation on Inoculation.

By Dr. Duglas.

Remarks on it by Sa^m. Mather

This note may or may not be correct, but is given for what it is worth. As Mather appears to have written on inoculation in 1722, he might well have returned to the subject in 1730: see p. 220, above. Mather’s interest in the subject is attested by a copy, now in the Boston Athenaeum, of Dr. James Jurin’s “An Account Of the Success of Inoculating the Small Pox in Great Britain. . . . The Second Edition. London: . . . 1724.” This has marginal notes apparently in the hand of Mather, and on the title-page are written in ink these inscriptions: “Sam. Mathers 1727” and “The Gift of the Author.”

345 The dedication was perhaps an afterthought, due to the receipt of the diploma, for this advertisement appeared on October 18, 1731:

SUbscriptions towards Printing an Essay concerning Gratitude, by Mr. Samuel Mather, are taken in by Thomas Hancock, Bookseller (Weekly Rehearsal, p.2/2).

Though bearing the date 1732 on the title-page, this Essay was published late in 1731, as appears from an advertisement on December 27, 1731:

THIS may inform the Gentlemen who Subscribed to Mr. Samuel Mather’s Essay concerning GRATITUDE, that the Books are now ready to be delivered to their Order.

N.B. Some Books will remain to be Sold after the Subscribers are supply’d, by Tho. Hancock (Weekly Rehearsal, p. 2/2).

It is perhaps worth while to call attention to this early instance of the practice, now so common among publishers, of placing the following year on the title-pages of books issued in the closing weeks or months of a year.

346 Haven, Sabin, and Evans enter the book under “Rock-man, Constant,” without attempting to identify the author. They also state that the date on the title-page is misprinted mdcclviii. In the only copies I have seen the date is correctly given. In 1885 the late William Cushing wrote in his Initials and Pseudonyms:

Rock-man, Constant, M.A. Rev. Nicholas Bowes. Modest account concerning the salutations and kissings in ancient times. . . . B. 1768 (p. 252).

Bowes, Rev. Nicholas, M.A., — 1755. Constant Rock-man. An American Cong, minister; Harv. Univ., 1725; pastor at Bedford, Mass. (p. 361).

The Rev. Nicholas Bowes, son of Nicholas and Dorcas (Champney) Bowes, was born in Boston, November 4, 1706; married Lucy Hancock of Lexington; and died in 1755. Obviously, therefore, he could not have been the author of a book written in 1768. Mr. Cushing was perhaps led astray by two entries in pencil on the title-page of a copy of the Modest Account owned by Harvard College. One reads: “Was not this from & the answer to it written by Nicholas Bowes, for whom they were published?” The other reads: “See the Kiss of Charity.” This refers to a pamphlet (usually attributed to Shippie Townsend) advertised as “This Day Published” in the Boston Gazette of July 11, 1768, p. 1/3, and entitled:

An Inquiry Whether the Scriptures enjoin the Kiss of Charity, as the Duty of the Disciples of Christ, in their Church-Fellowship in all Ages. — Or, only allowed it to the first Disciples, in Consequence of the Customs that then prevailed. Occasioned by a Letter lately published by Constant Rockman, M.A. Intitled, “a Modest Account concerning the Salutations and Kissings in ancient Times,” &c. Containing some Remarks thereupon. . . . Boston: New-England. Printed by Kneeland and Adams, for Nicholas Bowes, opposite the Old Brick Meeting-House, in Corn-Hill. MDCCLXVIII.

Nicholas Bowes the bookseller was presumably that son of the Rev. Nicholas Bowes who was born October 20, 1737. The bookseller married Rebecca Wendell November 26, 1767, and died in Boston in April, 1790. (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxiv. 40, xxx. 48; Bedford Vital Records, p. 13; Paige, History of Cambridge, p. 494; Massachusetts Centinel, April 10, 1790, p. 3/1; Suffolk Probate Files, No. 19481. The accounts of the Bowes family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, x. 82, and in the Heraldic Journal, i. 109, contain inaccuracies.) Mr. Cushing confused the father with the son.

The Modest Account was advertised as “This Day Published” in the Boston Gazette of May 23, 1768, p. 3/1. In his Annals of the American Pulpit (1857, i. 373), Sprague vaguely enters in his list of Mather’s works: “A modest account of the salutations in ancient times (anonymous,) 1768.” A copy owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society bears the signature “Ezra Stiles Junij 25. 1768;” and under the name of Rock-man is written, in Stiles’s hand, “The Reverend Samuel Mather of Boston.” That this ascription is correct is proved by a letter (owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society) written to Thomas Hollis on May 17, 1768, in which Mather himself says:

I beg leave now to put into your Hands [Accipe, sed Facilis] a Letter obtained from me thro’ Importunity from D^r Chauncey, my Friend and Neighbour, and some others: which I have publish’d under a fictitious Name, [‘Rockman versus Sandeman’] lest some Offence might be given by my writing on such a Subject; tho’, I think, there is not any Thing justly exceptionable in it.

This letter was received in October by Hollis, who made this endorsement: “A modest account concerning the Salutations & Kissings in ancient times; in a Letter to a Friend, . . . By Constant Rockman, M.A. Boston, in N.E. 1768, in oct.”

347 Some copies of this pamphlet lack the bastard-title. The recto of this reads: “America Known to the Ancients.” On the verso is printed a letter dated “Bost. N.E. Dec. 31. 1772,” and signed “S.MATHER.”

348 This was in reply to a pamphlet entitled:

Salvation for all Men, illustrated and vindicated as A Scripture Doctrine, in Numerous Extracts from a Variety of Pious and Learned Men, who have purposely writ upon the Subject. Together with their Answer to the Objections urged against it. By One who wishes well to all Mankind. . . . Boston: . . . 1782.

The authorship of this pamphlet, usually attributed either to the Rev. Dr. Charles Chauncy (H.C. 1721) or to the Rev. Dr. John Clarke (H.C. 1774), raises an intricate problem which will be discussed on another occasion.

349 The pamphlet “Salvation for All Men,” advertised as “Just Published” in the Boston Gazette of September 2, 1782 (p. 4/2), caused a heated controversy. Mather’s “All Men will not be saved forever” was advertised in the same paper of Monday, November 4, as “Now in the Press, and on Thursday next will be Published” (p. 3/2). The same paper of November 25 (p. 3/2) announced for sale “A Letter to Dr. Mather. Occasioned by his disingenuous Reflexions upon a certain Pamphlet, entitled, Salvation for All Men,” presumably written by the Rev. Dr. John Clarke. In the Independent Chronicle of January 9, 1783, was advertised as “This Day published, And to be sold at EDES’s Printing-Office, in Corn-hill (price 4d.) A LETTER, to the Author of a Letter to Dr. Mather” (p. 2/2). This last is the pamphlet mentioned in the text, where it is inserted because usually ascribed to Mather; but I doubt very much whether it was written by him.

350 In 1792 began to be printed (1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 256) an article headed “The following Account of the first settlement of Boston, was written in the year 1784, by the late Dr. Samuel Mather.” At that time the Collections of the Historical Society were printed serially, and this article happened to begin on the last page of a serial. At the bottom of the page is the catchword “But,” yet no more was ever printed. The reason is thus stated in the next serial at the bottom of p. 257:

☞ Doctor Mather’s account of the first settlement of Boston, which was continued from our last sheet has been mislaid; and as another copy cannot be obtained, we are obliged to leave it incomplete.

The Boston Public Library owns a broadside dated “Worcester, January 12th, 1789,” which reads in part as follows:

Proposal For Printing by Subscription, A Disquisition on the Most Holy Deity. In which it is endeavoured to communicate the Scriptural Doctrine concerning God, And his Manifestation to his Intelligent Creatures. By the late Samuel Mather, D.D. Pastor of a Church in Boston. Contents. The Preface. The Prologue. Chap. I. . . . Chap. XI. . . . [The manuscript of this valuable Essay was found, ready prepared for the Press, among the papers of the late author, after his death, and is now proposed to be printed at the request of a number of the clergy, and others, in this State, who have perused it.] Conditions of Publication. . . . V. The work to be put to Press as soon as 500 Copies are subscribed for . . . Subscriptions are received by I. Thomas, the intended Publisher, at his Bookstore in Worcester; . . .

It is not unlikely that this was the work (now owned by the American Antiquarian Society) which, as we learn from some amusing letters owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society, Mather had endeavored, through the joint efforts of Thomas Hollis, the Rev. Nathaniel Lardner, and Ralph Griffiths (publisher of the Monthly Review), to get published in London a quarter of a century earlier. Writing to Hollis on December 11, 1762, Mather said:

Within this current Year I have been busily emploied in writing some Disquisitions on very important and interesting Subjects. One of These I beg to enclose to you and inscribe to your Name, if it be thôt worthy to be communicated to the Public. As I am diffident of my own Composures, I commonly offer them to select Friends to read, before I think of sending them abroad. Accordingly I have desired the learned D^r Lardner in Hoxton Square London to give it an attentive Reading; and, if he approve of it and will signifie by a few Prefatory Lines, that it deserves Consideration, I am willing, that it should be made public: And, since you kindly signified to me, that Mr Griffiths in the Strand would print for me; I desire, that you would offer it, with my Compliments, unto Him. I hope, that your Modesty will not make You unwilling to receive my Dedication; especially since my Gratitude to your excellent great Uncle, as well Respect to yourself, is intended in it.

This appeal was not relished by Hollis, who replied on May 19, 1763:

Inclosed is a parcel from Dr Lardner. It contains the Mss which you desired me to lay before him, and a letter.

I likewise forward to You the dedication to that Mss. Dedications I never have accepted nor ever will accept, and I am utterly below them. I return you, however, my humble thanks for the honor You intended me, as well as for two curious publications.

What Griffiths said to me was, not “that he would print for you,” but “that the Reviewers should take notice of your dissertation in the Review, and would, probably, do the same by any other which You might send them.” And yet no notice was taken of it in the Review. As matters of this kind are out of my way, I beg the favor of You to dispense me from them in the future.

351 Proceedings, April, 1903, xv. 296–298.

352 There is a copy of this Catalogue in the Boston Athenæum.

353 David I. Bushnell, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, in a letter of October 21, 1915, to the writer of this paper, expresses well the opinion that he shares with all recent authorities, as follows:

There is of course absolutely no reason to attribute the origin of the pictographs appearing on the Rock to any but the North American Indian, as he was known to the colonists. The many and varied theories which have from time to time been presented, some regarding it as of Norse origin, appear to be without the slightest foundation or reason. The figures represented on the Rock do not differ essentially from those found over a wide extent of territory extending to the Ohio river and beyond. Therefore to select this one example as being distinctly of different origin is without justification.

354 Plate I. This photograph, measuring 9 by 13 inches, was presented to the Massachusetts Historical Society by George C. Burgess of Dighton, December 24, 1868. A stereoscopic photograph, taken by Augustine H. Folsom, a photographer of Roxbury and Boston, was also presented to the Society by Burgess on February 10, 1869. Eight other photographs, taken at various times between 1853 and 1913, are known to the writer of this paper. In every case the supposed lines were first chalked over on the rock, in order to render them more distinct. But the two Burgess photographs were evidently taken, either without any preliminary chalking, or at most with the faintest trace of it, — probably with none at all.

355 See, for example, E. G. Squier, in National Intelligencer, March 27, 1849, p. 2/1–3, extracted from the British Ethnological Journal, December, 1848; Garrick Mallery, Picture-Writing of the American Indians, 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1888–9, pp. 88 ff. The following is an almost exact quotation from Mallery, describing the ledges at the Pipestone quarry in Minnesota but adapted so that it becomes possibly applicable to the Assonet rock: “It was formerly a custom for each Indian who came to the vicinity to secure game or fish, to transcribe his totem upon the rock. This was done by pecking out the stone with some sharp pointed instrument or by the use of pieces of quartzite. The figures are of different sizes and dates. The excavation of the surface is often very slight, in many cases not exceeding ¹/₁₆ of an inch, and sometimes only enough to leave a mere tracing of the designed form. The hardness of the rock was a barrier to deep sculpturing with the imperfect tools of the aborigines; but the tenacity with which it retains impressions will warrant the assignment of any date to these inscriptions that may be called for within the human period. Yet it is probable that they date back to no very great antiquity.”

356 One of the most convincing evidences is the fact that on another part of the same rock is a group of characters so faint that they have apparently been seen and described by only one previous observer. Dr. Stiles made them out dimly in 1767, as he relates in his unpublished Itinerary, and was told by neighbors that they had been made not more than thirty years before. Without knowledge of their having been previously discovered, I saw them in 1915, and made a drawing in close agreement with that of Dr. Stiles. These figures, at least, must have been thinly carved in order to become difficult to discern within thirty years, and to have been overlooked by everyone else; and the wear of the rock must have been very slow indeed, since they are still discoverable after another 150 years.

357 The principal objections that have been urged against this conclusion are these: (1) The Indians were too lazy; (2) they had no adequate tools; (3) they left no other similar monuments. The replies to all these claims are adequate and convincing. (1) Among others, E. G. Squier, in the paper already referred to, says that the labor expended on some other inscriptions of known Indian origin is vastly greater than that required to make the Dighton Rock inscription; that the work on some single ones of their tools was probably little less; and that they had abundant leisure. (2) Very many trustworthy authorities have claimed that the stone implements of the Indians sufficed for the work. But besides stone, they also possessed copper tools. Moreover, for nearly a century before there occurs any mention of the rock, they obtained from traders an abundance of iron and steel as well as copper implements. How abundant and varied these were has been shown best very recently through the uncovering of about sixty Indian interments on Burr’s Hill, in Warren, Rhode Island. The collection is of the greatest historical value, and is preserved in the George Haile Free Library at Warren. It has not yet been adequately described, but some idea of it can be gained from the Providence Sunday Journal of August 24, 1913, section 5, p. 1, and November 30, 1913, section 5, p. 2. (3) A great number of Indian petroglyphs are now known and have been described by Schoolcraft (History, etc., of Indian Tribes, 1851), Squier (paper above cited; also Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, 1847), Mallery (10th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1893), and others. Of examples on Narragansett Bay, six were pictured in Antiquitates Americanæ, 1837, and another by W. J. Miller in the Wampanoag Tribe of Indians, 1880. These and others have been described also by other writers. In the collection of the Old Colony Historical Society at Taunton is a headstone supposed to be that of a “praying Indian,” with an inscription that is supposed to have been made during the ministry of the Rev. Samuel Danforth. In the collection of the George Haile Free Library at Warren, is a small stone implement with an inscription, whose authenticity, however, has not yet been satisfactorily determined. Though they did not do it extensively, yet the Indians about Narragansett Bay did unquestionably make some rock-carvings.

358 Thomas H. Webb, quoted in Antiquitates Americanæ, 1837, pp. 356 ff.

359 Yates and Moulton, History of the State of New York, 1824, i. 86.

360 Rasmus D. Anderson, America not discovered by Columbus, 2nd ed., 1877, pp. 82 ff.

361 Prof. Elton, D.D., Report of the 18th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1848, part ii. p. 94.

362 See pp. 251, 289, 291, below.

363 See pp. 267, 270, 290, below.

364 Indian names in Plymouth County, 1909, p. 42.

365 E. W. Peirce (Collections Old Colony Historical Society, 1885, No. 3, p. 113), who says that the name means either “what is most desirable or most noticeable” or “the place of stones,” thinks that the place alluded to is Joshua’s Mountain, near the village of Assonet, several miles from Dighton Rock. Dr. P. W. Leland, in a paper on Algonquin place-names read in 1858 (ibid. p. 89), is of the same opinion. The History of Freetown, 1902, gives still another interpretation, “a song of praise.” J. H. Trumbull (Collections Connecticut Historical Society, 1870, ii. 19) says hassun is never used in composition except in an adjectival sense, and consequently hassun-et could mean only “at a stony place.” It is not without interest in this connection to notice Rafn’s derivation (1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 1865, viii. 175) from the Icelandic Esiones, from esia, a marshy district.

366 Plymouth Colony Records, i. 142: dated March 3, 1639–40.

367 ii. 58.

368 William Bradford’s Confirmatory Deed, Plymouth Colony Records of Deeds, v. 459.

369 Agreement as to Division of Land on Assonet Neck, Bristol County, Massachusetts, N. District, Land Records, Book 3, p. 287.

370 Plymouth Colony Records, i. 143.

371 250th Anniversary of the Founding of Taunton, 1889, p. 256.

372 Old Proprietary Records, Taunton, Book 4, pp. 185, 188, 189, 192; Book 5, pp. 155, 156, 158, 159; etc.

373 Called Asonate Cove in a deed of 1768 (Bristol County, Massachusetts, N. District, Land Records, Book 57, p. 41).

374 Collections Old Colony Historical Society, No. 3, 1885, p. 113.

375 Walter D. Nichols, in Hurd’s History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1883, p. 181.

376 See p. 289, below.

377 Mourt’s Relation (ed. Dexter, 1865), pp. 104–105.

378 Francis Baylies (Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth, 1830, i. 283) says that the territory of Taunton, including Berkley, was claimed by the sachem of Tetiquet, but was desolate and depopulated, owing to the ravages of the plague. But the whole country had been thickly populated. In another place (iii. 3) he says: “The lands of Mt. Hope and Poppesquash and, probably Assonet and Shewamit, were held by the Wampanoags. The last were uninhabited.”

379 Plymouth Colony Records, ii. 58.

380 In a letter to the Hon. John Davis, dated October 29, 1807, published as an “Account of the Writing-Rock in Taunton River” in Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1809, iii. 165–191. The statement quoted is on p. 181; and is again made by Kendall in his Travels, 1809, ii. 231.

381 Bristol County, Massachusetts, N. District, Land Records, Book 3, p. 198: 20 July, 1670. I am indebted to Charles R. Carr of Warren, Rhode Island, for this important reference.

382 The two names do not seem to be Anglicized Indian designations, but more probably terms applied by the English because of incidents known to them and hence occurring after their arrival. If so, our choice among known incidents is very limited, and the most likely occasion for their origin seems to have been furnished by the events of the period between 1642 and 1645. There were “conspiracies” by Corbitant and the Namaskets in 1621, and by other Indians in 1623; but apparently they had nothing to do with this locality. In 1632 Massasoit was attacked by the Narragansett Canonicus, and successfully defended by the English. Nothing connects this conflict with the region in question. From 1634 to 1637 occurred the Pequot troubles, ending in the extermination of this tribe. Many Indians were taken captive and distributed among the allies; and some of these were afterward shipped away to be sold as slaves. Several persons have suggested to me that some of these may have been held for a time on Assonet Neck. But this region was still a remote, almost unknown, unsettled wilderness. Moreover, Plymouth took no part in the Pequot War, and had no share in the captives. The names must have arisen later, in all probability. The evidence as to the disposal of the Pequot captives is fully discussed by A. W. Lauber in his History of Slavery in Colonial Times (Columbia University Studies in History, 1913, liv. 374–376). A few years after this war, however, the Narragansetts did for many years actively “conspire” against both the Mohegans and the English; some of their plottings were conducted not far away, at least, from the Taunton River; and they held for a time a number of Mohegan captives.

The known and unknown earlier rivals to this last named period are, therefore, merely unsupported possibilities. In its own favor, however, are a number of definite considerations. (1) “The Narigansets, after the subduing of the Pequents, thought to have ruled over all the Indeans.aboute them. . . . By reason of [their] plottings, the Indeans were drawne into a generall conspiracie against the English in all parts” (Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, 1912, ii. 363, 353). They planned, according to Lion Gardener, to let the English alone until they had destroyed Uncas, “and then they, with [other tribes], would easily destroy us.” The plot was an extended one; for, endeavoring to enlist the aid of Indians on Long Island, Miantonomoh told them: “We are all the sachems from east to west, both Moquekues and Mohauks joining with us, and we are all resolved to fall upon them all [i.e., the English], at one appointed day” (Gardener’s Narrative, in Orr’s History of the Pequot War, pp. 138–142). These “Moquekues and Mohauks” were probably not two separate tribes; for the name of the Mohawks was known in two forms, each spelled in many ways, of which Moquawes, Mackwaes, Mawques, Maquas, are some that I have noticed. “All the sachems [of Long Island] hadd accepted and promised assistants and soe hadd all the Sachems from the Dutche to the Bay” (3 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, iii. 162). Some writers (e.g., S. G. Drake, Book of the Indiana; G. W. Ellis, King Philip’s War, pp. 26–35) blame Uncas and defend the Narragansetts; but “the belief was general that there was a widespread conspiracy among the Indians, with Miantunomo as their leader” (Bradford, ii. 354 n). Palfrey (History of New England, ii. 127 n) rightly insists that the reality of the alarm is shown by the record of public proceedings in all the colonies. (2) The Pocassets, living close to Assonet Neck, perhaps actually making use of it, may very likely have joined in these conspiracies; for their sachems, Corbitant and his successor Weetamoe, were always hostile to the English. “Ther was a Sachem called Corbitant, alyed to Massassoyte, but never any good freind to the English to this day” (Bradford, i. 225). (3) “Miantonomoh had, in some way, obtained possession of a portion of Massasoit’s domains,” which the English in 1643 endeavored to make him restore (Sylvester, Indian Wars of New England, i. 120 n. For confirmation, see Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 15). (4) In 1645, the Narragansetts occupied with hostile intent some place in this region. I find no definite indication as to just what place it was. However, the following statements are pertinent. The Commissioners of the United Colonies “sent to Plimoth to send forth their 40 men with all speed, to lye at Seacunke, least any deanger should befalle it, before the rest were ready, it lying next the enemie” (Bradford, ii. 380). “Forces were sent out of Plymouth under the command of Capt. Standish, and marched as far as Rehoboth, that being near the borders of the Enemy” (Increase Mather, Early History of New England, Drake’s edition, p. 195). This makes Assonet Neck, or the Pocasset country just south of it, a distinct possibility as the seat of the main body of the hostile Indians; for Seacunke alias Rehoboth, which Massasoit had sold to the English in 1641, extended nearly to the Taunton River. The southern extremity of Assonet Neck, with its wide outlook over protecting rivers, would perhaps have been the most favorable place in the region for their purpose. The following, from Edward Winslow’s Hypocrisie Unmasked (London, 1646, p. 85), seems at first sight to argue against this assumption: “And for Captaine Standish, this I heard him relate, that being at the place of Rendezvouzc, before the Massachusets Forces came, observing that some of the Inhabitants of Providence received the Indians into their houses familiarly, who had put themselves also into a posture of Armes, and the place within a mile of Secunck or Rehoboth where Captaine Standish lay; he sent to Providence and required them to lay aside their neutrality, and either declare themselves on the one side or other.” Yet this is not conclusive, for these may have been wandering individual Indians, or other bands, and not the main body of the enemy. (5) By this time the Narragansetts held many Mohegan captives; for one condition of peace with them was that they should “restore unto Uncass, the Mohegan sagamore, all shuch captives, whether men, or women, or children, and all shuch canoowes, as they or any of their men have taken” (Bradford, ii. 384). If they “conspired” on Assonet Neck, they doubtless guarded their “banished” prisoners near-by — and no other meaning for “banishment” is supported by anything that we know about Indian practices. As late as 1649, Uncas complained that these captives and canoes had not been returned to him (Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 144).

It is well known that charges of conspiracy were made against Alexander in 1662 (G. W. Ellis, King Philip’s War, 1906, p. 37), and against Philip as early as 1667 (p. 38). It may have been on one of these occasions that the island received its name, but there were no incidents in either of them suggestive of banishment. Again, in 1669, there was a “rumored Indian plot,” of which Ninigret was supposed to be the head, and in which some Indians from Pocasset were apparently involved (Connecticut Colony Records, ii. 548–551; Rhode Island Colony Records, ii. 264–286). There is given no indication, however, that any of its plottings took place outside of Ninigret’s own country. There may have been many other local and unrecorded “conspiracies,” by Indians or others, besides those here noticed. If the two names, “Conspiracy” and “Banished Indians,” originated together in connection with one series of events, then among incidents known to us those of the period from 1642 to 1645 appear to be the only ones offering a plausible explanation of them. But it is equally possible that they arose on separate occasions, and if so, that “Conspiracy” at least was of later origin. There is one other peculiar name applied to some place near-by, on the Freetown side of Assonet River, as to whose meaning it seems vain to speculate. This is a piece of salt meadow, “at a place called Behinde Noon, in a Cove” (Bristol County, Massachusetts, No. District, Land Evidences, Book 4, p. 492; record of 1705). It seems interesting and mysterious enough to be worthy of mention.

383 Plymouth Colony Records, xii. 242.

384 I have no desire to appear as possessed of any real knowledge as to the derivation of Indian names. But an amateurish attempt to see what could be made of the two here mentioned led to interesting results. I made use of Trumbull’s paper cited above, and of his Natick Dictionary (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 25, 1903). The name Mastucksett is derived, as I judge from Trumbull’s manner of explaining similar names, either from maskhet-ock-set, “near the meadow land,” or from massa-tuk-set, “near the big tidal river” (i.e., the Assonet River). Either of these would be appropriate for Stacy’s Creek. The name Chippascutt is of more interest. It was without question applied to some place in or near Smith’s Cove, or to the Cove itself. This is a considerable widening of Taunton River opposite the village of Dighton, where the river is divided into two by Grassy Island. Dighton Rock stands on the shore of this Smith’s Cove. In the paper cited (p. 10), Trumbull says that peske-tuk means “a divided river;” and in his Natick Dictionary he gives the meaning of chippe as “(it is) separated, apart,” or divided. Thus chippe-peske-tuk or chip-peske-ut would be “at the dividing of the river.” But an alternative meaning seems warranted by the Natiek Dictionary. In it, there is no indication given of peske or anything similar meaning “river.” But -pisk means “rock;” chepisq or chippipsk means “a detached or separated rock.” According to this, chepisq-ut would imply “at the rock that stands apart,” and thus perhaps Dighton Rock. But again, the meaning “division” as well as “apartness” is justified by Trumbull’s examples (see the word “divide” in the Dictionary), and hence the word may signify “at the cleft rock.” Now a Cleft of Rocks — a narrow cleft about six inches wide and perhaps thirty feet deep in the massive conglomerate of Hospital Hill, at the northern end of Assonet Neck and at the head of the meadows bordering on Smith’s Cove — is a natural curiosity of the region, and is mentioned as a boundary mark in the original Assonet Neck deed of 1677, and in another deed of 1687 (Book 5 of Land Evidences at Taunton, p. 367). It may be this that is referred to in the name.

385 Plymouth Colony Records, v. 191 (10 March 1675–6), 240 (July 13, 1677).

386 Plymouth Colony Records of Deeds, Book 5, p. 199.

387 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxix. 318; Indian History, etc., 1878, p. 254.

388 I have had photostats made of this deed. It bears the signatures of Constant Southworth, Treasurer of Plymouth Colony, of Josiah Winslow, Governor, and of Nathaniel Morton, Secretary. Its seal is in fair preservation, and is a different one from that shown on The Book of the General Laws Of the Inhabitants of the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth, Boston, 1685. The “V” of the word “PLIMOVTH” in the latter, is lacking in this; and there are other differences. The possession of two seals by the Colony appears not to have been known heretofore.

389 An Early Account of Dighton Rock, American Anthropologist, 1908, x. 251–254.

390 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1887, xli. 414.

391 Collections Old Colony Historical Society, 1889, No. 4, p. 16. Mr. Baxter in this paper expressly disclaims any pretension to critical accuracy and completeness, and is rather to be congratulated on the real discovery that he made than criticized for not having taken ampler notes.

392 The source of these quotations is discussed fully in a later part of this paper.

393 These biographical facts concerning the Danforths can be confirmed and extended from Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 88, ii. 369, 507, iii. 171, 243; and from J. J. May’s Danforth Genealogy, 1902. I am myself indebted to Mr. Albert Matthews for them.

394 Assonet Neck was made a part of Taunton in 1682, of Taunton South Precinct in 1709, of Dighton in 1712, and of Berkley in 1799.

395 Now in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mrs. Eliza Howard, who presented it in 1796, wrote to the Rev. Jeremy Belknap concerning Samuel Danforth: “He was very zealous for promoting religion among the Indians.” The Vocabulary is in manuscript, and is not complete.

396 I take the liberty of quoting from a letter by Mr. Albert Matthews, written April 11, 1915, shortly after I had told him of my discovery of the real facts, to show that others shared the above opinion: “As I run over in my mind the reasons that led you, Mr. Gay, and myself to conclude that it was Samuel and not John Danforth who made the first copy, I fail to see how we could have reached any other decision from the available facts.” Samuel F. Haven (Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, October 21, 1864, p. 41) arrived at the same conclusion: “probably the Rev. Samuel Danforth of Taunton, though he must at that time have been quite a young man.”

397 A facsimile reproduction of the entire letter is given in Plates XII to XVI. It is more fully discussed below (pp. 280–291), where it is called the “Greenwood Letter B.”

398 So the writer is informed by Mr. Bushnell in a private letter.

399 The material is presented, however, in an entirely different manner. In the first letter it was quoted in part in the body of the letter, and then further information was added in a postscript. In the second letter the same quotation is given in the body, but there is enclosed also an entirely separate slip of paper containing all the facts, in place of the postscript. Later in this paper (p. 284, below), I present reasons for believing that this enclosed slip may have been written by Danforth himself, and that the accompanying drawing also may have been Danforth’s own.

400 See Plates XI, XV, and III. The version by Lort is from Archaeologia, London, 1787, vol. viii, plate xviii.

401 Thomas H. Webb, sending a copy of Danforth to Professor Rafn in 1834, says: “This is not sent with any idea that it will prove serviceable in your present enquiry, but simply to shew what strange things have been conjured up by travellers, and sent to Europe for examination” (Antiquitates Americanæ, 1837, p. 371).

Professor C. C. Rafn (in the same volume, p. 377) says: “Danforth’s drawing merits no confidence.”

Karl H. Hermes (Die Entdeckung von America durch die Islander, 1844, p. 123) calls it “eine rohe Abbildung.”

Daniel Wilson (Prehistoric Man, 1862, ii. 172–178): “As early as 1680, Dr. Danforth executed what he characterizes as a ‘faithful and accurate representation of the inscription.’” This statement is one of several errors of which Wilson is guilty.

Rev. Charles R. Hale, in an unpublished manuscript discussion of Dighton Rock (in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society; written in 1865), repeats this last statement, without reference to its source, adding that only a very vivid imagination could so describe it. He says further: “Danforth’s drawing is quite too incorrect to be the basis of any accurate reasoning.”

None of these critics, of course, had the advantage of acquaintance with the genuine original of Danforth; though that would probably have made little difference in their opinion. Hale had Seager’s cautious drawing in mind as his ideal.

402 Though perhaps the word “Mister” does not express the exact significance of “Dominus,” yet it seems to be the nearest English equivalent that we have; and is the equivalent that Greenwood used when referring to these persons in English.

403 Account of an antient Inscription in North America, Archaeologia, viii. 290–301.

404 Antiquitates Americanæ, Hafniæ, 1837.

405 The earliest mention of it in the subsequent literature of Dighton Rock that I have taken note of is by Samuel G. Drake in his edition of F. Baylies’s Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth, 1866, pt. v. p. 22.

406 A copy in the Prince Library (Boston Public Library) has on a fly-leaf the signature “Mary Thacher Her Book Anno Domini 1689,” indicating that the sermon was published before March 25, 1690. For this information, as well as for various references to Boston newspapers cited later, I am indebted to Mr. Matthews. There was a second edition of this book published in 1703 (Sabin, xi. 450).

407 Plate II.

408 Narrative and Critical History of America, 1889, i. 103. This is a reproduction of seven of them, from a plate in Antiquitates Americanæ.

409 Picture-Writing of the American Indians, Bureau of American Ethnology, 10th Annual Report, 1888–’89 (1893), plate liv, p. 762.

410 Plate VI.

411 Cotton Mather’s Election into the Royal Society, Publications of this Society, xiv. 82.

412 There are many later cases where there are differences between original and copy in the representations of this inscription. The degree of difference naturally grows less, as we approach modern times. Sewall’s original of 1768 was several times copied, and always with large variations. Many versions of the drawing of 1789 exist; and they differ. The copies of Kendall’s 1807 original are in important respects very different from it. The 1830 drawings by Bartlett and by a Committee of the Rhode Island Historical Society, and the Gardner photograph of 1875, have been more frequently reproduced than any others; and always with some points of difference, except when copied by a photographic process.

413 John Danforth was ordained at Dorchester, June 28, 1682.

414 Letter-Book, i. 116. Mr. Clarence S. Brigham, Librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, aided me in the discovery of this passage.

415 Jews in America, or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that Race, London, 1650. New edition with additions, 1660.

416 Archæology of the United States, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 1856, viii. 5.

417 i. 122, 192, ii. 155, 163.

418 The United States elevated to Glory and Honor. A Sermon, Preached . . . At the Anniversary Election, May 8th, 1783.

419 Observations on the American Inscription. Read February 9, 1786. Archæologia, viii. 302.

420 First referred to by Edward A. Kendall, in Travels, 1809, ii. 224; and in the Diary (1911, iii. 322–323) of William Bentley under date of October 13, 1807.

421 To this, Professor Kittredge adds the following footnote: “No. 339 of the Philosophical Transactions has the colophon, ‘London, Printed for W. Innys, at, the Princes’-Arms in St. Paul’s Church-yard. 1714.’ It was afterwards assembled with other numbers to make up ‘Vol. XXIX. For the Years 1714, 1715, 1716,’ which was issued as a whole in 1717. The excerpts are on pp. 62–71. They bear the title, ‘An Extract of several Letters from Cotton Mather, D.D. to John Woodward, M.D. and Richard Waller, Esq.; S. R. Secr.’ The Letter-Book of the Royal Society (M. 2. 34) contains this article (as printed in the Transactions) in MS., prepared for the press (Gay MS., fols. 151–168).”

422 In further explanation, Professor Kittredge has kindly written to me as follows: “This is Mather’s communication, addressed to Richard Waller, Sec’y of the Royal Society, preserved in the Society’s Letter-Book M. 2. 21. 32 (written Nov. 28, 1712). My copy is from a transcript made from the Letter-Book for F. L. Gay of Brookline. It was from this letter that the report in Phil. Trans. No. 339 (for Apl.–June, 1714), vol. xxix, was made. At the end of this letter in the Letter-Book a part of the page is cut away. This cut-off bit obviously contained the inscription reproduced as Fig. 8 in the plate in Phil. Trans. . . . It does not appear that he ever made any further communication to the Royal S. on the subject. I have studied his subsequent communications (unprinted) very carefully, and have found nothing about the Rock. These communications were continued, at intervals, for several years. The latest were sent in 1724.”

423 There are at least two abridgments of the early numbers of the Philosophical Transactions. The one by Hutton, Shaw and Pearson, 1809, vi. 85, gives portions of Mather’s contributions, but omits altogether the reference to Dighton Rock. Philosophical Transactions, abridged by Henry Jones, volume v, 1700–1720, part ii, published in 1721, gives Mather’s letters more fully. His text concerning the rock is on p. 165; and his drawing of the inscription is given in Figure 72, on Plate VIII, opposite p. 190. The text is almost, but not quite identical, with that of the original in No. 339.

In case there should be any interest in comparing Mather’s actual letter with the Philosophical Transactions, we present the latter’s statement in full:

In the next place, he gives an account of a strange Inscription found on a Rock, in these Words. At Taunton, by the side of a Tiding River, part in part out of the River, there is a large Rock, on the perpendicular side of which, next to the Stream, are 7 or 8 Lines, about 7 or 8 Foot long, and about a Foot wide, each of them ingraven with unaccountable Characters, not like any known Character. He has not yet been able to procure the whole, which he hopes to be Master of before long, and has herewith sent a Copy of two of them, promising the rest; they are as is represented, Fig. 8 (No. 339, xxix. 70–71.)

Jones’s Abridgment, p. 165, repeats this with some differences of capitalization, etc. It also omits the phrase “which he hopes to be Master of before long;” changes “and has herewith sent” into “but has sent;” omits “promising the rest;” and changes “they are as represented, Fig. 8” into “represented in Figure 72.”

The “first line” is about 3⅛ inches long in the 1714 cut; the “second line” about ¼ inch longer; and the width of the two together about 1⅝ inches. The cut in the Jones Abridgment is of approximately the same dimensions.

424 See note on p. 417, below.

425 Mather’s drawing has often been characterized by other writers possessing a first-hand knowledge of the rock, and always unfavorably. I give such examples as my notes afford.

Edward A. Kendall (Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1809, iii. 188): “In the Doctor’s second line we are not able to discover a single figure resembling those on the rock, . . . though that part of the rock is at this day filled with figures the most distinct. . . . Dr. Mather, like his successors, toiled in the maze of conjecture;” he “substitutes for figures, at this day as plain as if they had been yesterday inscribed, others, of which it is impossible to recognize a single feature” (pp. 185–186).

Hon. John Davis (same volume, p. 197): “Mather’s copy is imperfect, and of little or no use.”

Samuel F. Haven (Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 1856, viii. 28): “very rude and inaccurate.”

Rev. Charles R. Hale (unpublished manuscript on Dighton Rock, 1865, in possession of American Antiquarian Society): “It is hardly possible to conceive of a more incorrect drawing than Dr. Mather, or the draughtsman employed by him, has given us.”

George A. Shove (in Hurd’s History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1883, p. 250 f): “It bears not the slightest resemblance to the sculptured characters, but appears as if executed by a person having the St. Vitus dance or the delirium tremens.”

426 Diary, ii. 85–86.

427 William Checkley (H. C. 1756) was an officer of the Customs in Providence, and died July 18, 1780. His widow married Dr. Stiles in 1782. He was son of the Rev. Samuel Checkley (H. C. 1715), first minister of the New South Church in Boston. See Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, i. 58 note; and Providence Gazette Deaths.

428 Plate V. The “first line” of the other is shown in Plate VI.

429 Broadsides are known of a date earlier than this. See, for example: List of Early American Broadsides, 1680–1800 (Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, N. S., xi. 455–516); Weeks and Bacon, Historical Digest of the Provincial Press, 1911, i. 15, 16, 99 n, 219.

430 History of New England, ii. 593.

431 For my first acquaintance with Du Simitière’s manuscript I am indebted to Mr. Frederick L. Gay, who sent me his transcript of it. But he inadvertently omitted to give me also its author and source. A reference in the narrative to a visit by the author to the Rev. Dr. Stiles of Newport in 1768 led me to apply to Mr. Franklin B. Dexter, editor of Stiles’s Diary, for help; and he kindly suggested that I enquire of the Library Company of Philadelphia to see if Simitière might be the author sought. His surmise was correct, and the manuscript is No. 1412 Quarto in possession of the Library Company.

In Drake’s Dictionary of American Biography is the following brief account of the writer: “Pierre Eugène du Simitière, painter and antiquary, b. Geneva; d. Phila. 1788. A.M. of N. J. Coll. 1781. . . . He was an ardent patriot and a well-informed man, and collected materials for a Hist. of the Amer. Revolution.”

432 This date is evidently inaccurate, since Berkeley left America in 1731.

433 The valley known as the Wady Mukatteb, near Mount Sinai in Arabia, is lined with rocks and cliffs “engraved with ancient unknown characters.” These were called the “written mountains,” and were arousing interest and speculation in England analogous to that devoted to Dighton Rock, during the period under discussion. Among the earliest writers who mention them, according to Léon de Laborde (Journey through Arabia Petraea to Mount Sinai, 2nd ed., 1838, p. 259), were Belon, Neitzchitz, Monconys and Kirscha; but they attracted little attention. In 1706, however, Montfaucon published a French translation of the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes, a writer of the sixth century, who believed that the children of Israel, during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, made these inscriptions, “which have been preserved to this present time, as I suppose, for the sake of unbelievers.” In 1722 they were seen by the prefect of the Franciscan monastery at Cairo, who thought it probable that “these unknown characters contain some very secret mysteries, and that they were engraved either by the Chaldeans, or some other persons long before the coming of Christ.” His manuscript Journey from Grand Cairo to Mount Sinai was translated into English in 1753 by Robert Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, who was so confident that confirmation of the truth of the Biblical narrative of the Exodus would be derived from this source that he offered the sum of £500 toward defraying the expenses of anyone who would visit and copy them.

Such expectations were gradually abandoned, however, as the inscriptions became better known. They were visited, and some of them described and pictured, by Dr. Richard Pococke (Description of the East, 1743, i. 148), and by the eccentric Edward Wortley Montagu (Philosophical Transactions, 1766, lvi. 40–57; Gentleman’s Magazine, 1767, xxxvii. 374, 401: cf. Nichols’s Illustrations, 1812, iv. 625–656). The Rev. Thomas Harmer contributed to the discussion in his Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture, 2nd ed., 1776, ii. 142–153. Karsten Niebuhr went to the place in 1762, “although convinced that the wonderful part of the story of that mountain was perfectly imaginary,” and reported: “The marvelous part of this discovery by degrees disappeared; and the sanguine hopes which had been built upon it, vanished. . . . Those who examined them the most accurately, concluded . . . that they related nothing more than the names of travellers, and the dates of their journies” (Reisebeschreibung von Arabien, 1772; English translation 1792, i. 200–207).

This opinion seems to have been generally accepted. The writers in the English Review and in the Gentleman’s Magazine who reviewed Lort’s paper of 1787, were both so impressed by the commonplace outcome of these wonder-tales, that they regarded Dighton Rock as an empty marvel of the same kind. The latter says: “After the disappointment at the written mountain, one would not have thought the learned would have run after any more mountain scrawls” (1787, lvii. 699).

It was not until much later that the “unknown characters” were actually deciphered, and the opinion confirmed that their content was utterly trivial. The first success in this was due to Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer (Inscriptiones . . . ad Montem Sinai, 1840). Suggestions as to later research and discussion can be found in the Princeton Review, 1870, xlii. 533, in Biblical encyclopaedias under the heading of “Sinaitic Inscriptions,” and in numerous books of travel.

434 These remarks refer to theories which in 1790 had recently been promulgated by President Stiles, Court de Gebelin, Vallancey and others.

435 English Review, xv. 180–182.

436 J. B. Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, 1848, vii. 504–506. Professor Kittredge gave me this reference and it was the clue to my discovery of the English Review.

437 Life and Letters of George Berkeley, 1871, p. 161. But compare what Fraser says later: “It is not to be supposed, however, that Berkeley travelled extensively in America, his knowledge of that country from personal observation was limited to a narrow region” (p. 162).

438 Biographia Britannica, vol. vi. pt. ii. 1766, Supplement, p. 16, Note I: “He was indefatigable in pastoral labours throughout New England.”

439 Bristol County, Massachusetts, N. District, Land Records, Book 13, p. 258.

440 Ibid. Probate Records, Book 20, p. 396.

441 In the Stiles Collection, Library of Yale University.

442 All authorities agree as to the date of Berkeley’s arrival at Newport. Dr. Fraser, however, his chief biographer, incorrectly names the Boston newspaper in which this event was announced. Benjamin Rand (Berkeley and Percival, 1914, p. 37) corrects the error, stating that both the Boston Gazette of January 27, 1729, and the New England Weekly Journal of February 3, 1729, make mention of the fact. The latter speaks of him as “Dean Barkley of Londonderry.” It is interesting to note that the pronunciation of his name thus indicated persisted for some time in New England. In 1750 an inventory was filed in Taunton, of an estate in Berkley, a neighboring town that had been named in honor of the Dean. The original instrument spells the name correctly; but the clerk who copied it into the Probate Records (Book 12, p. 158) gives it as “Bartley.”

The date of Berkeley’s departure for England has not yet found its way into his biographies. Even Rand fails to give it. Previous approximations have been based on a statement by Berkeley, in a letter dated September 7, 1731, that “I am now on the point of setting out for Boston, in order to embark for England” (Life and Letters, 1871, p. 188). Mr. Matthews has recently discovered that the exact day of sailing is shown by an entry in the Weekly Rehearsal of Monday, September 27: “Last Tuesday the Rev. Dean Berkley embark’d in Curling for London” (p. 4/2). The discovery seems to have been first made, however, by Mr. William E. Foster of Providence. In a paper on Some Rhode Island Contributions to the Intellectual Life of the Last Century, read before the American Antiquarian Society in April, 1892, he says: “The exact date, only roughly conjectured hitherto, even in the biography by Dr. Fraser, is found to have been September 21, 1731, through an entry under that date in an unpublished diary of Benjamin Walker. This manuscript is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society” (Proceedings, viii. 103–132, 123 n). The entry in the Diary reads: “Dean Barclay saild in Curlin for London wi^th family.”

443 For the birth-dates and names of his children, see Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxiv. 205, 209, 214, 218. Two of these records are inexact, as indicated in later footnotes. For the main facts known concerning John Smibert, see especially W. Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, 1834, i. 27–31. Horace Walpole (Anecdotes of Painting in England, 1771) says that Smibert was born in Edinburgh about 1684, and died in March, 1751, leaving a widow and two children. The date of death was actually April 2, 1751, as is proved by obituary notices in the Boston News Letter for April 4, and in the Boston Evening Post for April 8, 1751. Another item of interest which seems to have escaped the notice of the biographers of Smibert is the following advertisement, which appeared in the Boston News Letter of October 17, 1734:

John Smibert, Painter,

SELLS all Sorts of Colours, dry or ground, with Oils and Brushes, Fanns of & several Sorts, the best Metzotinto, Italian, French, Dutch and English Prints, in Frames and Glasses, or without, by Wholesale or Retail, at Reasonable Rates; at his House in Queen-Street, between the Town-House and the Orange-Tree, Boston (p. 2/2).

Queen Street is the present Court Street. The Orange Tree stood on the northerly corner of Hanover and Court Streets: see Memorial History of Boston, i. 548, vol. ii. pp. xiv (Plan B, no. 30), xvii, 452. For the site of Smibert’s house, see ibid. vol. ii. pp. xiv (Plan B, no. 33), xviii.

444 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 9822.

445 His death, on January 18, 1774, was noticed in all the Boston newspapers. The Boston Records give the date of his birth as January 29, 1732; but this is probably incorrect, for his sister Allison was born only eight and a half months before. He apparently entered the Boston Public Latin School in 1743, and its Catalogue (1886) discussed his name (which is commonly given as William) and his birth-date as follows: “The record [on the Town Records] is plainly Jan., but the date of baptism at the Old South, 2 July, renders it possible that the copyist has mistaken u for a, and that it should read Jun. The record of baptism gives the name as Williams, which being the family name of his mother, is very likely correct” (p. 62 note 10). See also Suffolk Probate Files, No. 15549.

446 These facts are taken, and can be amplified, from Nathaniel I. Bowditch’s manuscript Records of Land Titles, in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Liber 14, pp. 257, 258. See also 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, ix. 208; Suffolk Probate Files, No. 16410.

447 The date of Nathaniel Smibert’s birth is always given as January 20, 1734. But inasmuch as a brother was born November 24, 1733, this date must be Old Style, and Nathaniel’s birth was in 1735. For the few facts known concerning his life, see: W. Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, i. 31; Scribner’s Cyclopedia of Painters and Painting, 1887, iv. 192; and the next note.

448 “Yesterday Afternoon died here in the 22d Year of his Age Mr. Nathaniel Smibert, an ingenious young Gentleman, greatly esteemed by all that knew him” (Boston News Letter, November 4, 1756, p. 2/2). This passage corrects the usually given date of his death (November 8), as well as supporting the above correction as to his date of birth. Long obituary notices appeared in the Boston Gazette of November 8, p. 2/2; and in the Boston News Letter of November 11, p. 3/2.

449 As there is a bare possibility that the drawing may have been left in the studio and shared the fate of the other drawings and paintings that were there, I cite a few items that I have noted. In the work above referred to, Dunlap says on p. 351 that John Trumbull, when painting in Boston between 1777 and 1779, occupied the room which had been built by Smibert, in which remained many of his works. See also John Trumbull’s Autobiography, 1841, p. 49; Suffolk Probate Records, lxxxiv. 554–556. Mr. Charles H. Hart of New York informs me that some of Smibert’s paintings were still in the studio as late as the first decade of the last century. For further hints as to the use of Smibert’a studio or of the site on which it stood, and thus possibly as to the fate of its contents, see Memorial History of Boston, iv. 384; S. A. Drake’s Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston, 1873, 72–74.

450 The United States elevated to Glory and Honor, New Haven, 1783.

451 Medical Repository, 1811, Third Hexade, ii. 176. Dr. Mitchill mentions the incident again in Archæologia Americana, 1820, i. 327.

452 “A Catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the British Museum hitherto undescribed: consisting of five thousand volumes, including the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. the Rev. Thomas Birch D.D. and about Five Hundred Volumes bequeathed, presented, or purchased at various Times,” London, 1782. I owe the facts concerning this Catalogue to Professor Kittredge, who explains further: “From Ayscough’s Preface (i. p. iv.) it appears that nos. 4101–4478 in his Catalogue are from the collections of Birch. Only nos. 1–4100 are Sloane MSS. In the present numeration in the British Museum, the Add’l MSS. begin with 4101. . . . 4432 (the Catalogue’s number for Greenwood) is the number of the MS. (now called Add’l. MS. 4432); 55 is the number of the article or division of the MS. Ayscough makes 86 divisions or articles (1–86) in this MS. 4432.” In connection with statements made below, it should be noted that this no. 4432 (now Add. MSS. 4432) is in the collection of Birch, not of Sloane. We shall later identify this reference with two letters of different dates by Isaac Greenwood, still in the British Museum, catalogued under slightly different numbers; and shall see that the “James” Greenwood was an error due to the fact that the letters were signed “Is.” and “I.” Greenwood, respectively.

453 Account of an antient Inscription in North America. Read November 23, 1786. In Archæologia, viii. 290–301. The same or a similar letter was later published in full by Bushnell, as discussed below.

454 F. Madden, “Index to the Additional Manuscripts, with those of the Egerton Collection, preserved in the British Museum, and acquired in the years 1783–1835,” 1849. This might prove to be a correct reference for the time when it was made, though incorrect now, on account of a change in the folio numbers.

455 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1887, xli. 414; Early Voyages to America, Collections Old Colony Historical Society, No. 4, 1889, p. 16.

456 Edward J. L. Scott, Index to the Sloane MSS. in the British Museum, 1904.

457 Charles M. Andrews and Frances G. Davenport, Guide to the manuscript material for the History of the United States to 1783 in the British Museum, p. 73. The reference is correct, but the folio number has been changed.

458 An Early Account of Dighton Rock, American Anthropologist, x. 251–254.

459 The person referred to was doubtless the Rev. Dr. Villers, and he was not Professor Greenwood’s correspondent. His identity seems to be conclusively established by the following notes, which I owe to the courtesy of Mr. Matthews:

Tothillfields is in Westminster, and St. John the Evangelist is in Smith Square, Westminster. In the Historical Register, 1736, xxi, Chronological Diary, p. 19, is the following: “Dy’d, . . . The Rev. Dr. Villers, Rector of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster.” This is under February, though no day is specified. On p. 15, under “Preferments,” is this: “Dr. Willis, Dean of Lincoln, to the Rectory of St. John, Milbank, Westminster, in the Room of Dr. Villers, deceas’d.” Millbank Street runs between Smith Square and the Thames, being connected with Smith Square by Church Street.

Even with these definite contemporary statements, however, it seems that the name under discussion must undergo yet another transformation. In a letter dated February 24, 1916, the Ven. Basil Wilberforce, Archdeacon of Westminster, forwards to me the following results of an inquiry made by Mr. J. E. Smith, “who is the antiquary expert of Westminster:” “There was never a Rector of St. John’s named Villiers, Villan or Viller. There was, however, a John Villa, who held the rectory for some years, including (so far as I remember) the particular years you mention. In the ‘Parochial Memorials of St. John’ you will find a reproduction of his signature obtained from the parochial receipts which the Rectors at that time used to give in respect of an allowance secured to them under the local Act. At the time the above mentioned Memorials were compiled every possible source of information was referred to with reference to the Rectors in succession of the Parish, but it happened that the John Villa in question afforded less information in the research than any one of the other Rectors. Such as could be gleaned, however, was incorporated with the Memorials. It was so sparse that I employed an expert to endeavor to render it more complete, but without success.”

Since there is a question as to whether the contemporary printed sources or the Parochial Memorials furnish the more reliable version of the name, I retain the spelling of the former in the text.

460 See first paragraph of Greenwood’s letter of 1730.

461 Reproduced in Plates VIII to XI.

462 See Letter C.

463 Reproduced in Plates XII to XVI.

464 Reproduced in Plates XVII and XVIII.

465 Neither Viller, nor Villan, nor any similar name beginning with a V or a W appears on the membership lists of either of the two societies in 1732 or thereabout. Cf. p. 279 note.

466 The Dictionary of National Biography speaks of John Eames as a “dissenting tutor.” “His reputation as a tutor, especially in natural science, was very great.” Dr. Isaac Watts considered him the most learned man of his acquaintance; and he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society through the influence of Sir Isaac Newton. He died in 1744.

467 The approximate measurements of these papers are as follows:

Letter A (6402.106, 107)	8 × 12
Combined Drawing (6402.47)	8 × 12¾
Letter B (4432.185, 189)	7½ × 9 +
Greenwood Drawing (4432.186)	3½ × 9½
Danforth Drawing (4432.187)	2¾ × 7¾
Danforth Slip (4432.188)	2½ × 6¼
Letter C (4432.190)	8½ × 11

468 Note particularly the difference in the capital “R” and in the manner of writing “y^e.” Note also that the slip calls the river “Assonet” or “Asonet.” Greenwood knew that its name was “Taunton;” but, quoting the slip, he wrote: “Assoonet (as this was then called),” — meaning, perhaps, at the time the slip was written. The error in name is clearly due, not to Greenwood, but to the writer of the slip.

A letter written by John Danforth in 1698 is in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It presents a great variety in the manner of forming the letters. Thus there are three forms of r; three of e; two of h, etc. Capitals T, H, S, and W are very like those of the slip. I noticed three cases of the occurrence of the word “y^e;” in every case, the lower curve of the y is to the right, exactly as in the slip, although every other y in the whole letter, so far as I observed, even in “y^r,” has the curve turned to the left. The e also being alike in the two, the whole “y^e” becomes a strongly characteristic indication of identity. The spelling “neer” for “near” is reminiscent of the “meer” of the slip. This letter, therefore, although its very closely written page and variety of style give it at first sight an appearance very different from that of the slip, rather supports the assumption that the latter was written by Danforth.

469 This word is given in three different forms on the backs of the originals in the Museum: “dorse,” “dors,” and “dorso.”

470 Plate XVIII.

471 See C. W. Ernst, The Postal Service in Boston, in Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County, 1894, ii. 443–504.

The British Post-Office Act of 1710, 9th Anne, Chapter 10, established a legal route and legal rates for mails from Boston, via New York, to London; the rate being 2 shillings per sheet, or 8 shillings for one ounce. But New York had no mail packets until 1755–56. Letters from Boston went by private ship, as so-called ship letters, instead of being sent by the legal route at the legal rates. If for London delivery and not carried personally to their destination by the ship’s captain, they were handed over to the “penny post” — not the Post Office, but a concern for handling local letters, whose charge for delivery was one penny.

Thus the above suggestion about the meaning of the “I N 5” does not seem to be warranted. Mr. Ernst, to whom I have submitted the problem, tells me that the “5–IV” indicates that the penny post received the letter on June 5th; and that the other marks indicate the receiving office. But if the penny post delivered for one penny irrespective of weight, what is the reason for the weight being indicated? Greenwood’s letter of three sheets and three smaller enclosures must actually have weighed not far from “1 oz.” “It is conceivable,” writes Mr. Ernst, “that your ship letter on arriving in London was gobbled by the postal authorities; but they could not lawfully collect more than a few pence.” The latest discussions of this subject of which I know are J. C. Hemmeon’s History of the British Post-Office, 1912, and a paper on The Colonial Post-Office, by William Smith, in the American Historical Review for January, 1916 (xxi. 258–275). They do not help to enlighten me as to the meaning of the I N 5, or whatever else is there written; and so I leave the solution of this question uncertain.

472 Evidence is not wholly lacking, however. The following mingling of surmise and fact is interesting and may be true; and it seems worth while to record a consistent and plausible speculation. On the Danforth drawing of Letter A (6402 f. 47), which is unquestionably a copy by Greenwood, underneath the first figure at the left is a character like a B lying on its side, thus: . It is not in keeping with the rest of the drawing, and looks almost as if it did not belong there. Yet Lort and all his successors accepted it as real and made it conform to the rest of the drawing. So also did Cotton Mather in 1690, though he made it look like a 9, not a B. But on this “original” Danforth drawing of Letter B (4432) it is much fainter than on the copy that Mather made and on the other copy that Greenwood made for Letter A. Moreover, it is not merely a B, but apparently a BI, and it clearly is not a part of the drawing itself, but an extraneous mark. Now it is a curious coincidence that these very initials are cut on another stone on the same property within half a mile from Dighton Rock. The owner of the rock at the time of Danforth’s visit in 1680, and again when Cotton Mather obtained his first drawing about 1689, was James Walker, a prominent man in Taunton, one of the original purchasers of Assonet Neck in 1677. In 1690, he deeded his property there to two daughters (see Bristol County, Massachusetts, N. District Land Records, Book 2, p. 242), one of whom in 1695 became the wife of Benjamin Jones (Memorial of the Walkers of Old Plymouth Colony, 1861, p. 421). The property was divided, and the part containing the Rock came into the ownership of this Benjamin Jones, who already dwelt there, the division line being marked by boundary stones on one side of which were “marked or engraven” the initials B:I: (loc. cit. Book 7, p. 720). In 1720, Hannah, widow relict of this Benjamin, deeded the property to her son Benjamin (loc. cit. Book 13, p. 258), who, since he lived until 1768 (Bristol County Probate Records, Book 20, p. 396), was dwelling on the place in 1730. He had personal knowledge of Greenwood’s visit at that time (see p. 270, above). It is barely possible that John Danforth visited in Taunton shortly after graduating from Harvard College; went to the Rock in company with its owner, James Walker; gave to the latter his original drawing, or one of them, and perhaps also the descriptive “slip” now in 4432 f. 188 to go with it; that later, possibly after Walker’s death (1691 or 1692), his daughter Hannah had these papers, and through her marriage they came into possession of Benjamin Jones; that he or his son Benjamin placed these initials on the drawing, and that it was from the latter that Greenwood secured the papers in 1730. My correspondent tells me that the paper of the two drawings, 186 and 187, seems different from the body of the letter, and smoother, especially 186. The two drawings, therefore, are apparently on differing paper, and 186 looks more handled than 187. As to the “slip,” 188, it is difficult to judge, because it is pasted onto modern paper of the British Museum. It is not probable that it was written by Greenwood at the same time that he composed his letter, because in such case he would have incorporated it into the letter. He already had it, as a descriptive companion to the drawing. Its handwriting may not be Greenwood’s and may be Danforth’s. It looks as if Greenwood had added to it not only the “No. 2,” but also the inserted “n” which corrects the previous spelling of the word “Tanton;” and other reasons have been given on an earlier page for the belief that the slip was not written by Greenwood. These considerations do not prove that the drawing and slip were by Danforth himself, nor that the initials on the drawing were put there by Benjamin Jones, father or son; they do not explain how Mather in 1689 happened to put another character in the corresponding position on his drawing; but they indicate interesting possibilities.

473 For B, see Plate XIV; for A, Plate XI; and for Lort, Plate VII.

474 Nathaniel Fisher was born about 1686; Harvard College, 1706; ordained in 1710; first minister of Taunton South Precinct, which, together with Assonet Neck, became the township of Dighton in 1712; continued in office until his death at the age of 91, August 30, 1777.

475 This is the end of the first page, except that the word “Time” is added at the bottom, to indicate the first word on the following page.

476 There is no evidence that any part of Taunton River was ever called Assonet. Its Indian name was Titicut, Tetiquet, or Tecticutt. Plymouth and Taunton records refer to it always as “down the river,” the “great river,” “Taunton Great River,” or later “Taunton River.” Assonet Bay and Assonet River are on the other side of Assonet Neck, and empty into Taunton River two miles below Dighton Rock. They are called by these names very frequently in the Proprietors’ Records between 1648 and 1669.

477 This word ends the second page of the letter.

478 Probably Mathurin Veyssière de Lacroze, who, according to Larousse’s Grand Dictionaire (xv. 973), was an “érudit et orientaliste français, né 1661, mort 1739.”

479 The words “that wch is under, with what is above Ground;” are here written in and crossed out.

480 This is an error made by Danforth: see pp. 284 note 1, 289 note 3, above.

481 The New England Weekly Journal of May 1, 1732, has the following entry: “Custom House, Boston, April 29. . . . Clear-Out, . . . Winslow & Scott for London” (p. 2/1). We have already seen that the letter was sent “Per Capt. Winslow.” This was doubtless the “Edw. Winslow” who “Entred Inwards” on the preceding 4th of March (ibid. March 6, p. 4/2).

482 MS. Minutes S. A. L., ii. 2.

483 The reason probably was that the drawings were not considered sufficiently complete and accurate. For we learn that before 1744 Eames sought to obtain a “more accurate copy” through Professor John Winthrop. See Archaeologia, viii. 295.

484 Archaeologia, viii. 292.

485 Letter of Frank O. Wales, town clerk, February 17, 1916.

486 Whitney’s error was reproduced by Anson Titus, Jr., in Charlton Historical Sketches (p. 21), but George F. Daniels in his History of the Town of Oxford (p. 40) and John Haven in his Historical Address (p. 7) give the date January 10, 1755. So also do each of the two histories of Worcester County published respectively in 1879 (i. 374) and 1889 (i. 746).

487 The petition is in the Archives, cxvi. 586.

488 cxvi. 764.

489 xx. 327.

490 Province Laws, vol. i. p. xxv.

491 Province Laws, iii. 781.

492 Province Laws, iii. 70–72.

493 College Book, i. 43.

494 Henry Saltonstall (1642) was a son, but not the eldest son, of a knight (Sir Richard Saltonstall). The only eldest son of a knight known to have been a student at Harvard was William Mildmay (1647), whose parentage has long been in dispute. It can now be stated, though the story is too long to be given in detail here, that he was not (as alleged by Savage and others) a son of Sir Henry Mildmay of Graces, Little Baddow, Essex, but was the eldest son of Sir Henry Mildmay of Wanstead, Essex. These two Sir Henry Mildmays were second cousins, both great-grandsons of Thomas Mildmay of Chelmsford, Essex. The Harvard graduate was a great-grandson of Sir Walter Mildmay, founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

495 The latest instance I have noted is an allusion to “Sir Ballard, a resident Graduate” under date of December 2, 1801 (College Book, viii. 408). Cf. Publications of this Society, viii. 295 note.

496 There are numerous instances where graduates, even after taking; their A.M., remained in residence. I have nowhere seen any allusion to this fact, and, though many were no doubt studying theology, it is difficult to know exactly what they were doing. Thus Daniel Rogers (1706–1782) was still in residence on September 8, 1729; while Daniel Rogers (1707–1785) remained in residence as late as April 11, 1732 — or seven years after graduation.

497 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxiii. 423.

498 Of the fifty-nine dates given by Mr. Dean, eight (1643, 1646–1650, 1682, 1689) are certainly wrong, one (1642) is probably wrong, while two (1644, 1645) are doubtful.

499 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, x. 194–205, 360; xii. 72–73, 285–286.

500 1646, 1648, 1673, 1677, 1683, 1691, 1693, 1695, 1696, 1698–1700. The present paper cites contemporary records for all these dates except two — 1648 and 1673.

501 Magnalia (1702), bk. iv. p. 131.

502 On July 4, 1688, Sewall wrote: “Com̄encement managed wholly by Mr. W^m Hubbard; compared Sir William [Phips], in his Oration, to Jason fetching the Golden Fleece. Masters proceeded, no Batchelours” (Diary, ii. 219). Yet elsewhere he wrote under date of June 30, 1688: “Writt to . . . Brother . . . Stephen; . . . In Brother Stephen’s I inclosed the Com̄encers Theses” (Letter-Book, i. 85). Perhaps this entry was made some days after June 30 and Sewall inadvertently wrote “Com̄encers Theses” instead of “Quaestiones.”

503 1642, 1645, 1649–1652, 1654–1669, 1671, 1673–1677, 1679–1681, 1683–1686, 1690, 1692, 1694–1707, 1709, 1710, 1712–1716, 1718, 1724, 1728, 1729, 1736, 1752, 1757, 1764, 1774, and 1775. The Theses for 1642 were printed at Cambridge, but no copies are extant. Presumably they were dated, but if so the date was omitted when the Theses were reprinted in London in 1643 in New Englands First Fruits (pp. 18–20). Sewall mentions the Theses for 1707: see p. 335 note 2, below. President Stiles once owned the Theses for 1713, but his copy cannot now be located. Theses were printed in 1728 and 1729: see p. 338 note 3, below.

504 1687, 1689, 1721, 1727, 1730–1735, 1737–1739.

505 See pp. 332, 351, 352, below.

506 The year-date on the Theses for 1761 is also misprinted — “M,DCC,XLI.” instead of “M,DCC,LXI.” — but that misprint carries its own refutation. For another misprint in the year-date in 1808, see p. 366, below.

507 There were no public Commencements in 1752, 1757, 1764, 1774–1780. No Quaestiones are extant for any of those years, and no Theses for 1752, 1757, 1764, 1774, and 1775. But as Theses were printed in 1776–1780, there seems to be no reason why they may not have been printed in the other years as well, and also the Quaestiones for each of those years. At all events, simply because no copies are extant we cannot assume that none were printed. What were known as “private Commencements” were held in 1727–1735, but Quaestiones were printed in each of those years, as were also Theses (though those for 1728 and 1729 are not extant: cf. note 1, above).

508 Magnalia, bk. iv. p. 131.

509 1645, 1646, 1648–1650, 1652, 1654, 1661, 1662, 1667, 1670, 1672, 1673, 1677, 1683, 1706, 1721, 1752, 1757, 1764, 1774–1780, 1782, and 1783.

510 1722, 1727, 1730–1739, 1741.

511 It is not necessary to give here the Theses and Quaestiones that are fully dated, since they are all noted in the list on pp. 378–384, below.

512 See p. 332, below.

513 It will be observed that many more Quaestiones than Theses have been preserved. No doubt Mr. Lane’s conjecture is correct: “It is likely that the fire of 1764 was the cause of the destruction of many of the earlier Theses for it is to be noted that of the 21 sheets extant between 1642 and 1726 (85 years) the College Library has only four, while of the 58 extant Quaestiones falling within the same period, the College has 56. From this date down the file of both sheets in the College Library is fairly continuous. It is reasonable to conclude therefore that while the College file of Quaestiones escaped destruction in some way in 1764, the file of Theses perished.” Mr. Lane’s exhaustive and very useful article on Early Harvard Broadsides will be found in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1914, xxiv. 264–304.

514 In describing in 1907 a file of the Boston News Letter owned by the Boston Athenaeum, I wrote: “In a communication to this Society made in October, 1864, on ‘Catalogues of Harvard University,’ Sibley, speaking of the Triennial Catalogues, said: ‘A few years since, I found an excellent copy of the one for 1715, bound near the middle of a volume of the “Boston News Letter” of that year, which is in the Library of the Boston Athenaeum. Being of the same size as the newspaper, it had till then escaped observation’ (1 Proceedings, viii. 31). This catalogue is no longer in the volume” (3 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, i. 205). When Mr. Lane was preparing his paper on Early Harvard Broadsides, he asked me whether the missing Triennial had since turned up, and I was obliged to report that it had not; but recently I found it bound in a volume of broadsides to which it had been removed.

515 This statement is based on an examination of every known copy of every Boston newspaper of the proper date from 1704 to 1728, my thanks being due to the librarians of the American Antiquarian Society, the Connecticut Historical Society, the New York Historical Society, and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for information about certain issues. Of a few issues of the right date, no copies are known.

516 Nevertheless the dates of two Commencements before 1728, did we not know them from other sources, could be recovered from newspapers. The following notice is from the Boston News Letter of July 24, 1704: “Mr. Thomas Weld, a pious Youth, Son to the Reverend Mr. Thomas Weld, Minister of Dunslable, who took his Second Degree at Cambridge on the 5th Instant, Sickened on the Fryday following, Dyed the 21st Currant at Braintrey, and Buried at Roxbury the 22d” (p. 4/1). For the other instance, see p. 339, below.

517 “The Rev^d m^r Urian Oakes was Installed Presid^t of Harvard College by Govern. Bradstreet in the College-Hall on the Com̄encm^t day. August 1680” (College Book, iii. 72). “Com̄encm^t Day at the Presid^ts House 1712” (iv. 43). “At a meeting of the Presid^t and Fellows of Harvard College in the Library on the Com̄encm^t Day 1718” (iv. 62).

518 “At an Overseer’s Meeting in the College Hall, 7° Iuly. 1714” (College Book, iv. 53). “At a Meeting of the Presid^t and Fellows of Harvard College at the Presid^ts House in Cambridge Iune 28, 1721” (iv. 72).

519 On June 17, 1729, the Corporation “Voted, yt y^e Commencement for this year, be upon Friday, y^e twenty-seventh of this Jnstant June” (College Book, iv. 138). The record of this meeting, in the hand of President Wadsworth, is immediately followed by a “Memorandum, on Commencement day, Jun. 28. 1729,” also written by President Wadsworth. In his Diary (p. 68), Wadsworth correctly dates the entry, “Commencement. Jun. 27. 1729.” “A Stated meeting of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College was held on Commencement day, the twenty seventh of June, A.D. 1870, at nine o’clock in the forenoon in Gore Hall, in Cambridge” (Overseers Records, x. 412): but Commencement Day in 1870 was June 28, not 27.

520 College Book, i. 93.

521 Overseers’ Records, i. 34.

522 College Book, iv. 39.

523 The dates in the Steward’s Account Book of Thomas Chesholme must be used with great caution.

524 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, iii. 374. The entry may have been made as late as 1745.

525 New England Historical and Genealogical Registry, xiii. 305–306.

526 Edward Holyoke’s Almanack for 1715 gives August 31 as Commencement, while Nathaniel Whittemore’s Almanack for 1715 gives July 6: the correct date was August 31. Other errors in almanacs are as follows. John Tulley’s Almanack for 1689 gives July 3 as Commencement: the correct date was September 11. Whittemore’s Almanack for 1721 gives July 5 as Commencement: the correct date was June 28. Nathan Bowen’s New-England Diary for 1727 gives July 7 as Commencement: the correct date was June 30. Nathaniel Ames’s Astronomical Diary for 1740 gives July 2 as Commencement: the correct date was August 27. Ames’s Astronomical Diary for 1749 gives July 5 as Commencement: the correct date was July 18. George Wheten’s Astronomical Diary for 1753 gives July 4 as Commencement: the correct date was July 18.

527 History of Harvard University, p. 9.

528 Collection of College Words and Customs, p. 55.

529 See p. 310, above.

530 Harvard the First American University, pp. 55–56.

531 Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, xx. 46, 250. In 1875 Edmund Quincy remarked: “Mr. Sibley finds himself unable to fix the precise day of the Commencement of 1642, but probably it was in August” (Harvard Book, ii. 152).

532 Life and Letters of John Winthrop, ii. 301.

533 Harvard Graduates, i. 15.

534 Attention may be called to a curious error that has crept into the Century Dictionary. In its academic sense the word “act” is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “a thesis publicly maintained by a candidate for a degree, or to show a student’s proficiency,” and in the Century Dictionary as “a public disputation or lecture required of a candidate for a degree of master;” but the latter definition is incorrect and both definitions are imperfect, since the word also means (as in the passage quoted in the text) the occasion or ceremony of keeping acts. On May 6, 1650, the Overseers ordered that such as “expect to proceed masters of Art” were “to exhibit their Synopses of Arts required by y^e Lawes of y^e Colledge” (College Book, i. 44), the reference being to the 19th of the College Laws of 1642–1646, which reads:

Every Scholar that giveth up in writing a Synopsis or summa of Logicke, Naturall & morall Philosophy, Arithmeticke, Geometry; & Astronomy, & is ready to defend his theses or positions, . . . at any publike act after triall hee shall bee capable of y^e 2^d degree of Master of Arts (i. 44).

The order of May 6, 1650, was printed in Quincy’s History of Harvard University (i. 518), but the words “their Synopses of Arts” were misread by the copyist employed by Quincy and in the History are misprinted “their synopsis of acts.” The expression “synopsis of acts” obviously has no meaning at all; yet the above passage from Quincy’s History was quoted by B. H. Hall in his Collection of College Words and Customs (1851, p. 3), and also duly appears in the Century Dictionary under “act.”

It will be observed that in 1642 the students kept two “solemne Acts for their Commencement.” Mr. Lane suggests that the ceremony consisted of two parts: first, orations, etc.; second, defence of theses.

535 New Englands First Fruits, pp. 16–17.

536 History (1853), ii. 91–105. It is possible that the original manuscript of Winthrop’s History, if in existence, would throw some further light on the date of these passages; but unfortunately, as Mr. Tuttle informs me, the second volume of the manuscript (which contained the passages in question) was loaned to James Savage on October 27, 1825, and was destroyed by fire on the 10th of November following.

537 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 28. Cf. Love, Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England, pp. 156, 178.

538 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 31.

539 Cf. Winthrop, History, ii. 55; Publications of this Society, xvii. 215.

540 On November 20, 1637, the Court appointed the following committee “to take order for a colledge at Newetowne:” Richard Bellingham (Treasurer), Rev. John Cotton, Rev. John Davenport, Thomas Dudley (Deputy-Governor), Roger Harlakenden, John Humfrey, Rev. Hugh Peters, Rev. Thomas Shepard, Israel Stoughton, Rev. Thomas Weld, Rev. John Wilson, John Winthrop (Governor). These names — except that John Endicott (then Deputy-Governor) takes the place of Roger Harlakenden (who died in 1638) — are printed on the 1642 Theses (New Englands First Fruits, 1643, p. 18). Mr. Gay conjectures that “at the first Commencement only six were probably present, viz. Winthrop, Endicott, Bellingham, Cotton, Wilson, Shepard. Of the other members, Weld, Peter, and Humphrey were then in England, Stoughton was apparently on the way thither, and Davenport had gone to New Haven in 1638” (Publications of this Society, xvii. 125). Mr. Gay has apparently overlooked Dudley. By “most of them,” Winthrop appears to refer to the members of the board as it was constituted on September 27.

541 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 30.

542 Referring to the years 1672–1673, Dr. Green says: “During this period the customary way of giving the date of Commencement on the college programme was changed, and the Roman system adopted.” As a matter of fact the Roman system was employed in 1647, though no system was adhered to consistently. Some dates are given in the text under 1643, 1646, 1653, 1675, 1676, 1682, 1684, 1723, 1768, 1772, 1774–1780. A few others follow, Q and T indicating the Quaestiones and the Theses:

1647	T	Cantabrigiæ Nov: Ang: 6 Calend. Sextilis. 1647.
1655	Q	Decimoquarto Die Sextilis 1655.
1670	T	Cantabrigiæ Nov-Angliæ die nono Sextilis Anno	M. DC. LXX.
1674	Q	Tertio Idus Sextiles M.DC.LXXIV.
1678	T	Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum Idibus Sextilibus: MDCLXXVIII.
1687	T	Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum. Anno à, Christo nato. MDC.LXXXVII.
1690	Q	Sexto Nonas Quintilis. M,DC,XC.
1691	T	Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum Calendis Julii. M. DC. XCI.
1692	Q	Die Sexto Quintilis M DC XCII.
1696	Q	Kalendas Quintilis. M DC XC VI.
1698	Q	Die Sexto Quintilis. M DC XC VIII.
1708	T	Habita in Comitijs Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum, Die Septimo Quintilis. MDCCVIII.
1713	Q	Calendis Quintilibus. M DCC XIII.
1717	T	Habita in Comitiis Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum, Quinto Nonarum Quintilis. MDCCXVII.
1740	T	Habita in Comitiis Academicis Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum, Sexto Calendas Septembris, Anno MDCCXL.

Other dates will be found in Mr. Lane’s article on Early Harvard Broadsides.

543 Cf. p. 207 note, above.

544 In an almanac (the only known copy of which lacks the title-page) for 1646 compiled by Samuel Danforth, Commencement Day is given as July 28. Danforth may have given July 28 because in 1645 Commencement had been July 29; or the last Tuesday in July may have been fixed upon at some Corporation or Overseers’ meeting between the summer of 1645 and the end of that year, when the almanac was presumably printed.

545 P. 1. The copy owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society fills sixteen pages, but has no title. It was not printed until 1709, for on September 17 of that year Sewall wrote: “Mr. Green finishes printing Mr. Whiting’s Oration” (Diary, ii. 263). Presumably the date was taken from the original manuscript.

546 Sibley, Harvard Graduates, i. 548. Dr. Green quotes the extracts in the text and also the date “30–5–50” and the words “Commencment Chardge” against the name of William Stoughton, who graduated in 1650 (Sibley, i. 549). But, as already stated (p. 315 note 4, above), the entries in Chesholme’s book must be used with great caution, and no date found in it can be accepted as Commencement Day unless the day is specifically stated to be Commencement Day. Thus against the name of Urian Oakes is the date “10–7–52” and the words “his Commencement Chardges” (i. 548); against the name of John Collins is the date “10–7–52” and the words “his Commencment Chardges” (i. 549); against the name of John Glover is the date “12–7–51” and the words “by his Commencmente Chardges” (Chesholme’s Account Book, p. 142); against the name of Leonard Hoar is the date “10–7–53” and the words “by Commencment Charges” (Sibley, i. 550). There is no reason for supposing that Commencement came on September 10 in 1652, and we know with certainty that it did not come on September 12 in 1651 or on September 10 in 1653. The Commencement charge was often paid not on Commencement Day, but on quarter day; and presumably the above dates were quarter days. This point is clearly brought out by the original entry under Mildmay’s name, which in Chesholme’s Account Book (fol. 3) reads: “13–7–50 by m^r Willyam Mildmay his Commencment Chardges 003–02–06;” but above the date is written “quarter day,” while below the date is written “Commencment day 30 of July befor this quarter day.” Many other instances where Commencement charges are entered against a quarter day occur in Chesholme’s book. The practice of granting degrees before College dues were paid, though surprising, apparently continued for over half a century. On June 11, 1694, the Corporation ordered “That Such as Stand for their Degrees Shall ten days at least before the Com̄encm^t clear their Accounts with y^e Colledge Steward” (College Book, iv. 9). As late as 1721 the Steward found it “exceeding Difficult to get in the Tuition money as well as other College dues” (iv. 70); and on June 2, 1725, the Corporation felt it necessary to vote “That the Tut^rs be desired to Notify those who Stand for their degrees that they pay all College Dues to the Stew^d in order to their regularly receiving their degrees and that the Stew^d Exhibit to the Tut^rs a List of the Commencers Names the day before Commencment to signify how far this Order is complyed w^th” (iv. 102)

547 Ill Newes from New-England, pp. 10, 11.

548 Wonder-Working Providence, p. 166.

549 Early Harvard Broadsides, pp. 275–279, where the problem is discussed at length.

550 See p. 323 note 2, above.

551 Chesholme’s Account Book, p. 54; Sibley, i. 552.

552 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 8. It is pleasant to find that on September 20 Adams “came to Cambridge again with my uncle N. A.,” and that on the next day he was “admitted into Colledge” — his uncle Nathaniel no doubt furnishing the “pecunia.”

553 Ibid. i. 13.

554 Ibid. i. 17.

555 In the second of two volumes of manuscripts (preserved in the College archives) labelled “President Leverett’s Discourses.” This title is a misnomer, since, though all the discourses are unmistakably in the hand of Leverett, he was certainly not the author of some of them. The second volume contains “Oratio Comitiis Cantabr. Nov-Anglor̄ habita Anno Domini, 1652. ꝑ orataqȝ à Rev^do Nath. Rogers. Ecclesiæ Ipsvicensis Pastore Eximio, in Aulâ Scil. Harvardinâ” (pp. 93–98); an oration delivered in 1686 (pp. 99–104); “Oratio Salutatoria Comitiis Academicis habita Anno Dom̄. 1703” (pp. 104–114: was this by Spencer Phips?); an oration in 1708 (pp. 114–123) and another in 1709 (pp. 124–125), presumably by Leverett himself; and orations delivered by Oakes in 1672 (pp. 1–9), 1675 (pp. 10–29), 1677 (pp. 29–52), and 1678 (pp. 52–77); and various other discourses. Presumably the dates were copied from the original manuscripts.

556 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 350.

557 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 21. The dates in Adams’s Diary are somewhat hard to follow, and Sibley (Harvard Graduates, ii. 384) wrongly assigns the extract quoted in the text to “Aug. 10. 1674.” The year “1674” is Sibley’s interpolation. The extract itself shows that it must have been written in 1675. First, Commencement in 1674 was on August 11, not 10. Second, President Hoar of course presided in 1674; but on March 15, 1675, “D^r Leonard Hoar made a resignac̄on of his Presid^tship of the College” (College Book, iii. 67: see also p. 369, below). The entry corrects an error in the Quinquennial, where it is stated that Adams took his A.M. in 1674.

558 President Leverett’s Discourses, ii: see note 1, above.

559 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 369.

560 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxiv. 103.

561 The manuscript of this portion of the Diary itself is not in existence. It is greatly to be regretted that Sewall’s Diary, upon which so much reliance is placed for exact dates, should have been so carelessly printed. Marginal entries (which often are essential to the text) have not been printed at all, words have been misread, and various errors of commission and omission occur. Cf. Publications of this Society, xvii. 53 note, 63 note 2. In 1701 the printed Diary (ii. 38) wrongly gives Commencement as July 1 instead of July 2: see p. 330, below. And in 1704 the printed Diary twice (ii. 111, 112) gives Commencement as July 15 instead of July 5, the original Diary showing that Sewall wrote “July, 5” in each case, the comma having been turned into the figure 1.

562 President Leverett’s Discourses, ii: see p. 326 note 1, above.

563 See p. 313, above.

564 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vii. 56. It is to be regretted that the person who deciphered Russell’s Diary was unable to read his writing, as the printed Diary contains several palpable errors. Nor was Russell, as alleged by the editor, a Tutor, but, as stated in the text, a resident graduate.

565 There is still another contemporary record for this year. In a letter to Increase Mather dated Stamford, September 16, 1682, the Rev. John Bishop said: “I lately received . . . a Catalogue of Harvard’s sons” (4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 311). This can refer only to the 1682 Triennial. Had Commencement come on September 13th, Bishop would have received his catalogue not “lately,” but only a day or two before he wrote his letter — if, indeed, he could have received it at all before September 16th.

How many days before Commencement were the programmes printed? In 1671 Commencement was August 8, and on August 2 William Adams noted in his Diary: “Was printed our theses for y^e commencemt” (4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 13). Of the extant Theses and Quaestiones for the years 1727–1735 only two are fully dated: the Quaestiones for 1728 and 1729. On June 17, 1728, Commencement was appointed to be “on Friday, y^e 28^th of this Jnstant June” (College Book, iv. 131); and on June 17, 1729, Commencement was appointed to be “upon Friday, y^e twenty-seventh of this Jnstant June” (iv. 139) Hence in those two years the Quaestiones could not have been printed more than eleven or ten days in advance. That the programmes would have been printed two or three weeks before Commencement is unlikely in the extreme.

566 There is no name on the title-page, but on the title-page of a copy of the almanac owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society Judge Sewall has written, “By Mr. Cotton Mather.”

567 College Book, i. 89.

568 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 521–522.

569 College Book, iii. 85. The only entry relating to the matter in Increase Mather’s manuscript Diary (owned by the American Antiquarian Society) is under date of January 3, 1684: “O[v]erseers of ye Colledge mett, & voted yt Com̄ent sd for ye future be on ye 1 Wednesday in July.”

570 On January 12, 1684, Russell says in his Diary, “I went to Cambridge to carry my Almanack to ye Press;” and on January 26, “My Almanack was printed” (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vii. 59).

571 College Book, i. 93, iii. 85.

572 See p. 316 note 2, above.

573 John Nelson.

574 Isaac Addington, Secretary of the Province.

575 Increase Mather.

576 This entry, though it begins June 30, obviously could not have been written before July 2. In the printed Diary (ii. 37–38) the figure “2.” which of course means July 2, appears as a semicolon, thus making it appear that Commencement was July 1.

577 John Leverett.

578 College Book, iv. 53. Cf. Sewall, Diary, iii. 9. See p. 316 note 2, above.

579 College Book, iv. 58.

580 Overseers’ Records, i. 19. A similar entry is in Leverett’s Diary, p. 198.

581 P. 199. No meeting is recorded in the Overseers’ Records on June 28. The Corporation met that day, but the fact that it was Commencement is not stated: see p. 314 note 4, above.

582 See pp. 312, 312 note 4, 313, 313 note 4, above.

583 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xiv. 28.

584 xv. 199.

585 Overseers’ Records, i. 52.

586 The date should have been “Quinto Nonas Quintilis.” According to the Roman calendar, the Calends were the first day in any month; the Ides were the 15th of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of the other months; the Nones were the ninth day before the Ides (counting both days), i.e. the 7th of March, May, July, and October, and the 5th of the other months; and the Romans reckoned the days forward to the Calends, Nones, or Ides next following. The fact that Commencement happened to come on July 3 may have caused the authorities inadvertently to write “Tertio” instead of “Quinto.” On the other hand, Professor Albert A. Howard of Harvard University, to whom I am indebted for help, tells me that the authorities may have used printed tables for converting Christian dates into Roman dates. If so, since the programmes were no doubt prepared and printed in June, it would have been easy for the authorities to look at the June column instead of the July column, for the 3d of June would have been “Tertio Nonas Junias.”

In 1663 Commencement was August 11, the Quaestiones being dated “UNDECIMO DIE SEXTILIS M.DC.LXIII.” There has been preserved in manuscript a set of burlesque Theses, dated “Quinto Idùs Augusti An^o Magni Iubilæi MDCLXIII.” — that is, Sunday, August 9. “This discrepancy as to the date,” writes Mr. Edes, “can be accounted for by assuming that the author or authors forgot that the Ides of August fell on the thirteenth of the month instead of the fifteenth as in July when, probably, no inconsiderable portion of this paper was written.” (See Publications of this Society, v. 322–339.) It thus appears, to borrow Jowett’s phrase, that in 1663, as now, “not even the youngest” were infallible.

587 See p. 321, above.

588 See p. 318, above.

589 Massachusetts or The first Planters of New-England (Boston, 1696), p. 20.

590 New-Englands Plantation (Essex Book and Print Club, 1908), p. 30.

591 College Book, iii. 27.

592 iii. 73.

593 iii. 73.

594 Dr. Green quotes these lines and asks: “Do they have reference to the drinking habits of that period?” The answer must obviously be in the affirmative. Our associate Mr. Merritt calls my attention to an interesting passage in a letter from the Rev. Nathan Prince to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The controversy of Prince, for many years Tutor and Fellow, with the Corporation was a cause célèbre in the history of the College. Writing on August 29, 1745, he said: “It has been represented that ‘I was expelled the Independent College in this Country for Immorality.’ There is something, Sir, more gross than Intemperance itself suggested to the mind, when ’tis said that a Person is condemned for Immoralities: Whereas I never was charged before the Government of that College with any thing immoral, but only with one or two Acts of Intemperance during fifteen years’ run of their lascivious Commencements and other publick Entertainments” (W. S. Perry, Historical Collections relating to the American Colonial Church, iii. 393).

595 College Book, iv. 7. On July 8, 1707, Sewall recorded that he “gave Mr. Stoddard for Madam Stoddard two half pounds of Chockalat, instead of Com̄encment Cake; and a Thesis” (Diary, ii. 192).

596 Diary, ii. 189–190.

597 By “Fellows of the House” axe meant the Tutors.

598 College Book, iv. 69–70.

599 iv. 78.

600 iv. 118.

601 Here a marginal entry reads: “N.B. The overseers at y^r meeting. Apr. 11. 1727. added ys clause, viz: And y^t these Rules be observed till further order.”

602 College Book, iv. 121–122.

603 iv. 122–123.

604 Here a marginal entry reads: “Reforming y^e Commencements Ys Act was consented to by y^e Overseers, published in the Hall. Jun. 19. 1727. and ordered to be set up in y^e Hall.”

605 College Book, iv. 123.

606 iv. 124. An advertisement about Commencement was printed in the Boston News Letter of May 18, 1727.

607 This does not mean that Commencement was never mentioned before 1728. It has already been pointed out (p. 314 note 2, above) that the Commencement of 1704 was casually referred to in a Boston paper, and advertisements about Commencement were occasionally inserted by the College authorities. Also, there was printed in the New England Weekly Journal of July 3, 1727, a poem of 155 lines called “The Sequel of Commencement,” introduced as follows:

Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero

Pulsanda tellus —— —— Hor.

WHILE I was preparing an Entertainment for the Publick, I was diverted from my Subject, with the Seasonable Conclusion of a Poem, enclosed in the following Letter to our Society.

Gentlemen,

‘You may please to remember, that the Poem on Commencement that was published the last Year, concluded at the College with a Complement to the Members of that learned Society. I have presumed to march off the prodigious Swarm that were then left at Cambridge, and conduct them thro’ their various Pastimes & Divertisements, down to their several Districts and Habitations; promising my self your Protection, and candid Examination of the Performance.

I am

Gentlemen

Your Obliged Servant.

608 The word “author” formerly meant editor or publisher.

609 No copies of the Theses for 1728 or 1729 have been preserved; but that they were duly printed is proved by the passage in the text and by this extract from the same paper of June 30, 1729 (p. 2/2):

On Fryday last the 27th Currant, was the Annual Commencement at Cambridge for this Year, (it being the Third in order of the more Private Commencements.) when the following Persons, had their Degrees given them, after they had held their Publick Disputations in the Church of that Town, as they are in the Printed Theses and Questions, viz. . . .

610 P. 2/1. Then follow the names of those who received degrees. It is pertinent to point out that the names of those receiving degrees printed in the newspapers furnish important evidence which has not as yet been used by the Editor of the Quinquennial. Thus the 1915 Quinquennial records that thirty-eight members of the class of 1725 and twenty-eight members of the class of 1726 received their second degree (A.M.) in course — that is, in 1728 and 1729 respectively. But the newspapers cited in the text and in the preceding note record only thirty-six in 1728 and twenty-seven in 1729. It is to be hoped that this source of information will some day be utilized. A case in point may be specified. Stephen and William Fessenden were both in the class of 1737 and so would have taken their A.M. in course in 1740. On July 1, 1741, the Corporation voted (College Book, iv. 231) that “Mr. Fessenden who was a Candidate the last year, be allow’d the Same Privilege” — that is, be allowed his second degree. The vote clearly indicates that one of the Fessendens received his A.M. in 1740, and from the Boston News Letter of August 28, 1740, we learn that it was “Gulielmus Fessenden.” Hence it was Stephen who received his A.M. out of course in 1741, thus correcting an error in the Quinquennial, where it is stated that both Fessendens received their A.M. in 1741.

A curious fact to which, apparently, attention is now called for the first time is that the Quinquennial contains the names of several men who never received the A.B. degree at all. Three instances may be given. Ebenezer Hartshorn entered in the class of 1732, left College, in 1737 was given an A.M., and his name is printed under his class (1732). George Erving entered in the class of 1757, left College, in 1762 obtained an A.M. from Glasgow University, was admitted to the same degree ad eundem at Harvard in 1762, and his name is printed under his class (1757). Amos Windship entered in the class of 1771, left College, in 1790 was given both an A.M. and an M.B., and his name is printed under his class (1771). On August 19, 1830, the Corporation “Voted — That in the present number of Colleges in the United States, & variety of studies required in them, that it is inexpedient to grant generally, degrees ad eundem” (Corporation Records, p. 186).

611 The advertisements in the newspapers informing the candidates for their second degree when to appear in Cambridge gave a clue. A glance at the list of Commencement Days (pp. 378–384, below) shows that during the nine years (1727–1735) when these private celebrations obtained, Commencement ranged from June 23 to July 5 and that the day was always Friday, except in 1730 when it was Wednesday.

612 College Book, iv. 145.

613 iv. 166.

614 Boston News Letter, July 5, 1733, p. 2/1. An account in the New England Weekly Journal of July 2 reads in part as follows:

Cambridge, June 30. 1733.

Yesterday was the Commencement, at which His Excellency the Governour [Belcher] was present, being attended by a number of the King’s Officers, and Col. Hatch’s Troop of Horse Guards; His Excellency brought with Him in his Chariot the Honourable Mr. George Townshend Son to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Townshend, and Nephew to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole (p. 2/1).

George Townshend, later Admiral, was then a youth of eighteen, and was serving under Captain Thomas Durell on the Scarborough. To the Commencement of 1711 Governor Dudley brought General John Hill — brother of Queen Anne’s favorite Abigail Hill, Lady Masham, and the “Jack” Hill depicted by Thackeray and others — and Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker, who were in command of the land and sea forces in the disastrous expedition against Quebec. But for the intercession of Dudley, Hill, and Walker, John Wainwright, who “stood Convict of being . . . in a Riot late in the night,” would have lost his degree. (College Book, iv. 39–40.) In 1744 some Mohawk chiefs, then visiting Boston, were brought to Commencement by Governor Shirley and dined in the College Hall (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xiv. 257). So far as I have observed, the presence of distinguished guests (except, of course, the Governors and Lieutenant-Governors) was first noted on the Commencement programmes in 1868.

615 College Book, iv. 173.

616 Overseers’ Records, i. 145.

617 i. 148.

618 i. 149.

619 College Book, iv. 189.

620 Overseers’ Records, i. 150.

621 On June 10, 1741, the Overseers took the following action:

Upon a Motion made & Seconded and a Considerable debate thereupon — The Question was put whether it shal be recommended to the Corporation to make an Order for suspending for this present year the Laws relating to the Commencemt so far as they may be thought inconsistent with a more private manner of giving the degrees and also that it be recommended to the said Corporation that thereupon the degrees be given in as private a way as may be — wch passed in the Negative (Overseers’ Records, i. 191).

622 College Book, iv. 222–223.

623 The President and the Steward were the Rev. Edward Holyoke and Andrew Boardman (d 1747). On July 3 Holyoke noted: “The Com[mence]ment put by on account of the throat distemper” (Holyoke Diaries, p. 6). In July Paul Dudley wrote: “The Commencement put by this year by reason of the Throat Distemper at Cambridge. The President’s Lady died of it the latter end of June” (Diary, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxv. 30). This was Holyoke’s second wife, Margaret Appleton, who died June 25 (Holyoke Diaries, p. 6).

624 College Book, iv. 222–223.

625 iv. 223.

626 College Book, iv. 298–299.

627 Overseers’ Records, ii. 14, 15.

628 College Book, iv. 300.

629 College Book, vii. 13. Approved by the Overseers on June 10, 1752 (Overseers’ Records, ii. 26).

630 College Book, vii. 22.

631 College Book, vii. 22–23. There was no meeting of the Corporation between August 27 and September 18, 1752; but between those meetings President Holyoke has written: “Mem^o All the after Dates are according to the Kalendar as it hath been corrected by Act of Parliament” (vii. 16). The Act of Parliament, passed in 1751, decreed that the following first day of January should be New Year’s Day (instead of, as formerly, March 25th), and that in September, 1752, the 3rd should be reckoned the 14th.

632 Overseers’ Records, ii. 30.

633 College Book, vii. 32. No action was taken by the Corporation at its meeting held on April 30, and no meeting was recorded between April 30 and May 27.

634 College Book, vii. 59.

635 The meeting-house in Cambridge was then being rebuilt: cf. p. 377 note 1, below.

636 College Book, vii. 59–60.

637 Overseers’ Records, ii. 47.

638 College Book, vii. 60.

639 Overseers’ Records, ii. 47–49.

640 By “English grain” is meant wheat.

641 College Book, vii. 60–62. On May 28, 1759, the Corporation voted “That it shall be deemed no Offence, if any Scholar shall at the Com̄encem^t make & entertain any of the Guests at his Chamber, w^th Punch, any Law Usage or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding” (vii. 75).

642 In the form of the diploma entered in College Book, iv. 61, the date is left blank: “Subscribo —— —— Anno ——.” Neither the Boston News Letter of July 14 nor the Boston Evening Post of July 18 mentioned the day. But in the Boston Gazette (the only other paper published in Boston at that time) of Monday, July 18, was a paragraph beginning, “The following young Gentlemen received their Degrees as Bachelors of Arts by a Diploma last Wednesday, viz. . . .” (p. 2/1) — that is, July 13.

643 College Book, vii. 80.

644 Overseers’ Records, ii. 65.

645 College Book, vii. 84.

646 Overseers’ Records, ii. 70.

647 Harvard Hall was burned January 24th: see Publications of this Society, xiv. 2–43.

648 College Book, vii. 117–118. The reference is to vii. 13, where the form for 1752 is entered.

649 Overseers’ Records, ii. 163–167.

650 College Book, vii. 118–119.

651 College Book, vii. 119–120.

652 Overseers’ Records, ii. 170.

653 College Book, vii. 121.

654 Overseers’ Records, ii. 174. The following is taken from their meeting of July 18 (ii. 177–178):

The form of Presentation — with the Governor’s Placet, added in y^e Psence & at y^e Desire of y^e Overseers. . . .

Placetne?	Placet
Cantabrigiæ Julij. 17^mo	Fra. Bernard
1764.	Bostoni Julij 18^mo 1764.

655 The square brackets are in the original.

656 College Book, vii. 181. The Overseers’ Records are silent regarding this matter.

657 College Book, vii. 273. Approved by the Overseers June 2 (Overseers’ Records, iii. 73). A notice that there would be no public Commencement appeared in the Boston Gazette of June 6, p. 1/1.

658 College Book, vii. 290–291. Approved by the Overseers July 31 (Overseers’ Records, iii. 80).

659 College Book, vii. 293.

660 College Book, vii. 303. Approved by the Overseers July 2 (Overseers’ Records, iii. 94). The diploma is recorded in College Book, vii. 306–307.

661 College Book, vii. 323. Approved by the Overseers June 19 (Overseers’ Records, iii. 109). The diploma is recorded in College Book, vii. 327–328.

662 Rev. Samuel Langdon.

663 The result of Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga, October 17, 1777.

664 College Book, viii. 2–3. Approved by the Overseers June 10 (Overseers’ Records, iii. 131–132). The diploma is recorded in College Book, viii. 5–6.

665 Overseers’ Records, iii. 156.

666 Overseers’ Records, iii. 156.

667 College Book, viii. 24. Approved by the Overseers May 20 (Overseers’ Records, iii. 157–158).

668 College Book, viii. 27.

669 viii. 27.

670 viii. 29.

671 Harvard College Papers, ii. 138. The petition is signed by all of the thirty-students in the graduating class except John Barrett, Nathaniel Bethune, Philip Draper, and James Hughes. The absence of these four names was perhaps due to rustication.

672 Overseers’ Records, iii. 195.

673 iii. 196.

674 College Book, viii. 54.

675 viii. 56.

676 The beginning of this notice, together with the names of those receiving degrees, was also printed in the Independent Chronicle of July 27, p. 3/3; but the omission of the statement that the degrees were granted by a general diploma and of the diploma itself, tends to convey the impression that the Commencement was a public one.

677 See p. 357, above.

678 Harvard College Papers, ii. 156. The petition has attached to it the names of all the members of the class except Isaac Bayley, Elisha Doane, Isaiah Lewis Green, and Elijah Paine. In a Calendar prepared some years ago, the late William G. Brown said: “The class of 1781 in the Quinquennial numbers twenty-seven & included all the signers of the above except Atkins.” Mr. Brown overlooked the fact that Dudley Atkins afterwards changed his name to Dudley Atkins Tyng: hence all the signers duly received their degrees

679 College Book, viii. 84.

680 Overseers’ Records, iii. 216.

681 iii. 217. The petition to the Overseers has not been preserved.

682 College Book, viii. 95. On July 18 the Corporation voted “That the Law respecting the dress of the Candidates for degrees be suspended for this day” (viii. 98).

683 John Hancock.

684 Thomas Cushing (H.C. 1744).

685 Rev. Dr. Edward Wigglesworth (H.C. 1749).

686 On July 31 the Rev. John Eliot, then an Overseer, wrote to Jeremy Belknap: “We somewhat expected you down at Commencement. A truly academical day it was. Wigglesworth exceeded y^e expectation of his warmest friends, and did honour to himself & the Society. The young gentlemen behaved to a charm. . . . Old Mother Harvard is a good old dame enough, & will nourish many likely children who are yet to come. Your friend here was very set against a public Commencement, thinking that the consequences would be rather bad as to rioting & wantonness, and that the Prœses pro tem. would be no advantage to the performances. I am glad to be disappointed, and rejoice that my motion was overruled” (Belknap Papers, iii. 212–213).

687 College Book, viii. 233. This petition has not been preserved.

688 College Book, viii. 234–235.

689 In May Hancock was re-elected Governor.

690 Diary, in H. Adams’s Historical Essays (1891), pp. 90–91.

691 Overseers’ Records, iii. 343.

692 iii. 344.

693 Gov. Caleb Strong (H.C. 1764), Dr. Josiah Bartlett (d 1820), Rev. Joseph Eckley, Rev. John Eliot (H.C. 1772), Rev. Jedidiah Morse, Rev. Peter Thacher (H.C. 1769), Rev. John Thornton Kirkland (H.C. 1789).

694 Overseers’ Records, iv. 326.

695 Oliver Wendell (H.C. 1753), John Lowell (H.C. 1760), Rev. Simeon Howard (H.C. 1758), Rev. John Lathrop (d 1816), Ebenezer Storer (H.C. 1747).

696 College Book, viii. 482.

697 Rev. Joseph Willard.

698 Rev. Eliphalet Pearson.

699 College Book, viii. 486.

700 Overseers’ Records, iv. 341.

701 College Book, viii. 490.

702 Overseers’ Records, iv. 345.

703 For the reasons which brought about this change, see Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, 1911, xx. 221–222, 250–254.

704 “The usual exercises of Commencement at Harvard University will take place to-day, according to the programme already published. The Banks of this city and the Custom House will be closed” (Boston Courier, July 18, 1849, p 2/1).

705 Boston Transcript, August 29, 1832, p. 2/1. The same paper June 27, 1871, said: “Cambridge Commencement is not what it was, say chronic sympathizers with the past given to decrying the present, and wanting the prophetic eye of the future. . . . The metropolitan banks are not closed as of old and the day is no longer the distinguished holiday it once was; indeed in no sense is it a holiday at all, except in the social greetings of classmates of several generations of ‘Sons’” (p. 2/1). I am indebted to Mr. Charles A. Ruggles of the Boston Clearing House for the information that “the last time the banks were closed on account of Commencement Day was in 1870.” With regard to the Custom House, Mr. E. Perry writes me that “a great many of the old records were destroyed in a fire in 1894 and a search of such as are available has not disclosed any data bearing on the subject.”

706 For the game of props, see p. 61 note 1, above.

707 An error for the last Wednesday in August.

708 Boston Courier, July 19, 1849, p. 2/2.

709 College Book, ix. 43.

710 Crimson, viii. 109.

711 Punch was prohibited in the spring of 1894: see Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, iii. 79.

712 The dinner was served for the last time in 1904: cf. p. 378, below. In 1845, as no doubt at every previous dinner, wine was served (cf. 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, v. 247); but in 1846, the first under the presidency of Edward Everett, “The entertainment was conducted on the plan of total abstinence from all drinkables except water and lemonade” (Boston Advertiser, August 27, 1846, p. 2/2), and wine was never again reverted to.

713 The 1910 Quinquennial contains a list of “Persons appointed to preside at Commencement during Vacancies in the President’s Office” (p. 10 note); but only four years (1681, 1724, 1737, 1769) are given, and the statement about 1737 is incorrect.

714 From the resignation of President Mather on September 6, 1701, to the inauguration of President Leverett on January 14, 1708, there was no President. But Samuel Willard was Vice-President from July 12, 1700, to August 14, 1707, and his name is on the Quaestiones for 1702–1705 and 1707, the sheet for 1706 not being extant.

715 There was also a vacancy in 1774, but, as there was no public Commencement in that year, perhaps there were no exercises. The general diploma was signed by Nathaniel Appleton, John Winthrop, Andrew Eliot, Samuel Cooper, John Wadsworth, “Socii,” and John Hancock, “Thesaurarius.”

716 President Holyoke was elected May 30, 1737, but was not inaugurated until September 28. President Eliot was elected and assumed office on May 19, 1869, but was not inaugurated until October 19. For President Rogers, see p. 371, below.

717 See p. 325, above.

718 College Book, iii. 67.

719 iii. 68.

720 iii. 70.

721 i. 82, iii. 71, 72.

722 See p. 327, above.

723 The date of his death is given in College Book, iii. 72, and by Mather (Magnalia, bk. iv. p. 129) as July 25; but by Sewall (Diary, ii. 14*), by W. Adams (4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 22), and by John Hull (Transactions and Collections American Antiquarian Society, iii. 249) as July 24. The Quaestiones for 1681 are surrounded by a black border.

724 College Book, iii. 72.

725 iii. 73.

726 The following entries occur in Increase Mather’s Diary under the dates of July 26, August 7, and August 8, 1681: “At mr. Oakes’s Funeral, whe ov^rseers of ye colledge, desired mee to modte ye mrs disputations on y^e ensuing Com̄enct, but I did absolutely & peremptorily decline it, also to mr Gookin in private I manifested my resolution not to meddle in yt matter. . . . Rode to Cambridge, wh pryd; & visited Mr. Sherman. . . . Spent in preptions for ye Commencement.”

727 Diary, i. 26. In calling his father “President,” Cotton Mather merely meant that he was the presiding officer. Increase Mather was elected President in 1681, the precise date not being recorded in College Book, i. 82, iii. 74. The choice was approved by the Overseers on September 8, 1681 (Massachusetts Archives, lviii. 109, 109 a).

728 Noadiah Russell stated that Rogers came to Cambridge on May 23, 1683, and was inaugurated August 14 (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vii. 59). On August 14 Increase Mather wrote in his manuscript Diary (owned by the American Antiquarian Society): “Rode to Cambridge w^he m^r Rogers was Installed p^rsident Returned about sunset.” But an entry (in the hand of Thomas Danforth) in College Book, iii. 84, reads: “Aug. 12. 1683. m^r John Rogers was solemnly inaugurated into the place of President.”

729 See p. 328, above.

730 College Book, i. 93, iii. 85.

731 Cf. Publications of this Society, xiv. 143–144.

732 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 502.

733 Warham Mather graduated in the class of 1685, in which year Commencement was for the first time held on the first Wednesday in July: yet, within three years, Warham Mather spoke of “the usual time.”

734 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 671.

735 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 83. This order is interesting as being the only known one of the sort, the presiding officer on all other occasions having been appointed by the Corporation or the Overseers.

736 Diary, i. 322.

737 College Book, iv. 96.

738 College Book, iv. 198.

739 iv. 198.

740 It is possible that there may be some omissions in this list.

741 Publications of this Society, iii. 420.

742 New Englands First Fruits, p. 12.

743 See p. 321, above. By “the college,” Winthrop unquestionably meant the first Harvard College. Previous to 1718, every building was called a “college;” in 1718 the word “hall” was introduced; from 1718 to 1781, when the original Stoughton College was taken down, the words “college” and “hall” were employed indifferently; after 1781, “college” disappeared as an official designation, though remaining in colloquial use. See Dialect Notes, ii. 91–114.

744 2 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, v. 403. An earlier writer had also stated that “In this house,” that is, in the first meeting-house, “in 1642 were held the first College commencement exercises” (Harvard Register, 1881, iii. 81).

745 T. Hutchinson, Collection of Original Papers (1769), p. 501.

746 It will perhaps be thought that Randolph wrote not “the 2d of August,” but “the 2d Tuesday of August.” His narrative is no longer in the Massachusetts Archives, where presumably it was in Hutchinson’s day. No doubt the original is in the Public Record Office, London, and this reads: “their commencement is kept yearly on August 2nd in the meeting-house at Cambridge” (Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1675–1676, p. 467).

747 Owing to the ruinous condition of the first Harvard College and the unfinished state of the second Harvard College, it is quite possible that in 1676 the exercises were held in the meeting-house; but if so, that fact does not affect previous Commencements.

748 See p. 323, above.

749 See p. 326 note 1, above.

750 Diary, i. 15. This was the building burned in 1764.

751 Massachusetts Archives, lviii. 92.

752 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, vi. 340.

753 General History of New England, p. 610. Though not printed until 1815, on June 11, 1680, a committee was appointed “to pervse the same, & make returne of their opinion thereof to the next session, that the Court may then, as they shall then judge meet, take order for the impression thereof;” and on October 11, 1682, the Court made a grant of £50 to Hubbard, he transcribing his history “fairely into a booke, that it may be the more easely pervsed” (Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 279, 378).

754 See p. 314 note 3, above.

755 Diary, ii. 181.

756 Diary, ii. 111. On July 2, 1707, Sewall wrote: “Com̄encement Day is fair and pleasant. . . . Got Joseph a Table, and Bread, which he wanted before. Went into the Meetinghouse about 11. . . . My Son held the first Question in the Afternoon; . . . My Son was the first that had a Degree given him in the New Meetinghouse” (ii. 190).

On July 5, 1704, Sewall went on to say: “Waited on the Gov^r from Dinner Time till the last Question: Then follow’d the Govr in. Mr. Gibbs was holding the last Question. Dr. Dum̄er rose up and in very fluent good Latin ask’d Leave, and made an op̄osition; and then took Leave again with Com̄endation of the Respondent” (Diary, ii. 111). Probably it was unusual for those not candidates to take part in the exercises, as Jeremiah Dummer (H.C. 1699; Ph.D. Utrecht 1703) did on the above occasion; but two years earlier a more noted person was moved to do so and was prevented only by lack of time. Having recently renounced Quakerism George Keith came to New England as an Anglican missionary, arriving in the same vessel with Governor Dudley and Lieutenant-Governor Povey, as stated in his Journal of Travels (1706, pp. 1–5). The story of his appearance at Commencement is more fully told in a letter to Lewis Morris dated July 27, 1702: “I prevailed with Mr. Keith to stay here til our commenc^nt was over, where the good man met with very little university Breeding, and with less learning, the last Thesis disputed by the masters was, Immutabilitas Decreti divini non tollit Libertatem crœture.” This met with Mr. Keith’s hearty disapproval, as did also two propositions which “the opponents urged, and both the President Mr. Willard, and the Respondent assented to: . . . and their manner of urging hereupon did clearly evince their opinion to be that the bad as good actions of men were necessarily determined; the day being far spent was the main reason why M^r Keith did not publickly oppose them, but when he returned to Boston he drew up in Latin an answer to the President’s arguing of a full sheet of Paper wh^h he transcribed ready to be sent to M^r. President upon M^r. Keith’s return” (W. S. Perry, Historical Collections relating to the American Church, iii. 72). Thereupon a pamphlet war took place between Willard and Keith.

757 Previous to 1833, the First Church had no fewer than four meeting-houses. The first (1632–1650) was in Dunster Street; the second (1650–1706) was on watch-house hill; the third (1706–1756) was on or near the site occupied by the second; and the fourth (1756–1833) was also on or near the same site, within the present College Yard, near Dane Hall. In 1833 the fourth house was removed, the land on which it stood was sold to Harvard College, and the First Church (Unitarian) erected a new meeting-house in Harvard Square, at the corner of Church Street, opposite Massachusetts Hall. (Paige, History of Cambridge, pp. 246 note, 259, 259 note, 287, 293, 304.)

758 See Paige, History of Cambridge, pp. 299–302. The First Church (Congregational) was in 1829 incorporated as the Shepard Congregational Society.

759 Harvard Alumni Bulletin, May 3, 1916, xviii. 574–575.

760 Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, xx. 75, 254.

761 The statements in this sentence are believed to be correct. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the dinner was, for special reasons, sometimes omitted. For its omission in 1905 and subsequently, see Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, xiii. 72, 627, 764, xiv. 44. Memorial Hall was dedicated on June 23, 1874, the day before Commencement.

762 In the eighteenth century, bad commons provoked several rebellions. But the Commencement dinner by no means escaped criticism, and complaints were of long standing before it was abolished. Thus the Boston Post of July 18, 1850, said:

The College Dinner. — It is said that the college dinner at Cambridge yesterday partook largely of the character of an “indignation meeting.” A “come-outer” states that some of the poultry was very lively, and in the course of the muss escaped out of the windows (p. 2/3).

763 An italic Q or T indicates that the Quaestiones or Theses for that year are extant, but unavailable as evidence owing to errors in date (1723, 1768, 1772: see pp. 332, 351, 352, above) or because not fully dated (see pp. 312, 313, above). All extant Quaestiones and Theses are in the Harvard College Library — chiefly originals, but a few in facsimile. The list printed by Mr. Lane in his Early Harvard Broadsides shows what libraries own original programmes.

764 An italic Q or T indicates that the Quaestiones or Theses for that year are extant, but unavailable as evidence owing to errors in date (1723, 1768, 1772: see pp. 332, 351, 352, above) or because not fully dated (see pp. 312, 313, above). All extant Quaestiones and Theses are in the Harvard College Library — chiefly originals, but a few in facsimile. The list printed by Mr. Lane in his Early Harvard Broadsides shows what libraries own original programmes.

765 Before September 26.

766 Day of month not known.

767 No Commencement.

768 i. 548.

769 4 Series, i. 8 (W. Adams).

770 4 Series, i. 13 (W. Adams).

771 4 Series, i. 17 (W. Adams).

772 4 Series, i. 21 (W. Adams).

773 2 Series, xiii. 250 (I. Mather).

774 2 Series, xiii. 369 (I. Mather).

775 7 Series, vii. 26 (C. Mather).

776 5 Series, v. 85 (S. Sewall).

777 xiii. 255 (J. Pierpont).

778 5 Series, v. 181 (S. Sewall).

779 5 Series, v. 219 (S. Sewall).

780 xiii. 256 (J. Pierpont).

781 5 Series, v. 323–324 (S. Sewall).

782 7 Series, vii. 166 (C. Mather).

783 xx. 157 (J. Baxter).

784 5 Series, v. 390 (S. Sewall).

785 xx. 157 (J. Baxter).

786 5 Series, v. 456 (S. Sewall).

787 5 Series, vi. 37–38 (S. Sewall).

788 5 Series, vi. 81 (S. Sewall).

789 5 Series, vi. 111–112 (S. Sewall).

790 5 Series, vi. 133 (S. Sewall).

791 “July 3. I carried my mother to Charlestown, and then to Commencement” (Diary of Rev. Joseph Green, H.C. 1695, in Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. x. pt. i. p. 74).

792 5 Series, vi. 190 (S. Sewall).

793 5 Series, vi. 227 (S. Sewall).

794 5 Series, vi. 282 (S. Sewall).

795 5 Series, vi. 318 (S. Sewall).

796 5 Series, vi. 354 (S. Sewall).

797 5 Series, vi. 390 (S. Sewall).

798 5 Series, vii. 8–9 (S. Sewall).

799 5 Series, vii. 90 (S. Sewall).

800 5 Series, vii. 134 (S. Sewall).

801 5 Series, vii. 187 (S. Sewall).

802 5 Series, vii. 222 (S. Sewall).

803 5 Series, vii. 258 (S. Sewall).

804 xv. 202 (J. Bumstead).

805 5 Series, vii. 378 (S. Sewall). Only official documents are cited after this date.

806 No public Commencement, but the general diploma is dated July 1.

807 No public Commencement, but the general diploma is dated July 13.

808 The year-date on the Theses for 1761 is misprinted 1741: see p. 312 note 4, above.

809 No public Commencement, but the general diploma is dated July 18.

810 No public Commencements from 1774 to 1779, both included, but the general diplomas are dated as given in the text.

811 No public Commencements from 1774 to 1779, both included, but the general diplomas are dated as given in the text.

812 No public Commencement. The degrees were granted July 19, but the general diploma is dated July 22: see pp. 359–360, above.

813 The Order of the Exercises of Commencement was printed as a broadside from 1791 to 1810, both included. *

814 The Quaestiones were not printed after 1791.

815 The year-date on the Order of the Exercises for 1808 is misprinted 1308: see p. 366, above.

816 The Order of the Exercises of Commencement and the Theses were printed as broadsides for the last time in 1810. After 1810 the dates have been obtained from the Commencement programmes and Boston newspapers.

817 The Commencement programme is wrongly dated: see p. 366, above.

From 1642 to 1916, both included, is a period of 275 years. There was no Commencement in 1644 (see p. 322, above), but there were two Commencements in 1653 (see p. 324, above): consequently the number of Commencement Days exactly corresponds with the number of years that have elapsed since 1642. According to months, Commencement has occurred as follows:

June:	1721, 1727–1733, 1749, 1869–1916	57
July:	1646–1650, 1684–1688, 1690–1714, 1716–1720, 1722–1726, 1734–1739, 1741–1748, 1750–1774, 1777–1801, 1849–1868	129
August:	1651–1682, 1715, 1740, 1776, 1802–1848	83
September:	1683, 1689	2
October:	1643 (day unknown), 1775	2
Unknown:	1642 (probably September), 1645	2
		275

818 The Principal from October, 1701, to September, 1727, was John Stirling (Innes, Munimenta Alme Universitatis Glasguensis, vol. i. p. xci).

819 The volume contains the label “BRINLEY. 1189:” (see Brinley Catalogue, i. 161).

820 Publications, i. 21–71.

821 Publications, i. 157–158, 182–183, 266, 266–268, 386; iii. 1–2, 243–246, 404–405, 471–474; v. 55–56, 318–319; vi. 212–213, 454–455; vii. 228–230.

822 The location of each society, if not indicated in the title, is given in a footnote.

823 Boston.

824 Cf. Publications of this Society, iii. 244.

825 Cf. Publications of this Society, i. 48 note.

826 Boston. Cf. Publications of this Society, i. 62.

827 Cf. Publications of this Society, i. 44–45.

828 New Bedford.

829 Taunton.

830 Cf. Publications of this Society, iii. 245.

831 Westfield.

832 Cf. Publications of this Society, iii. 85.

833 Edgartown.

834 Rutland.

835 Spencer.

836 Boston.

837 Boston.

838 Tisbury.

839 This society has no fixed location.

840 Dedham.

841 Scituate.

842 Boston.

843 Boston.

844 Boston.

845 Boston.

846 Boston.

847 Medford.

848 Boston.

849 Lowell.

850 Taunton.

851 Haverhill.

852 Boston.

853 Boston.

854 Salem.

855 Stoughton.

856 Easthampton.

857 Danvers.

858 Boston.

859 Lowell.

860 Concord.

861 Farm of Henry Bullard, Holliston.

862 Boston.

863 Boston.

864 Boston.

865 Fall River.

866 Plymouth.

867 Boston.

868 Chicopee.

869 Boston.

870 Rowley.

871 Plymouth.

872 Boston.

873 Boston.

874 Boston.

875 Boston.

876 Boston.

877 Boston.

878 Boston.

879 Boston.

880 Boston.

881 Boston.

882 New Bedford.

883 Boston.

884 Chelsea

885 Boston.

886 Worcester.

887 Sandwich.

888 Expired October 1, 1914.

889 Salem.

890 Boston.

891 Expired December 31, 1915.

892 Boston.

893 Billerica.

894 Worcester.

895 Letters from New England (Prince Society), p. 75.

896 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vii. 57.

897 Quincy, History of Harvard University, i. 513.

898 Mather’s list has the following indorsement, not reproduced in the facsimile:

Catalogue of Books
bought by D^r Cotton
Mather of Harvard
College.
22.
Presented by Mrs. Crocker.

899 See p. 262, line 10, above.