TRANSACTIONS

    1916–1917

    TRANSACTIONS OF THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS

    ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1916

    THE Annual Meeting of the Society was held at the University Club, No. 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Tuesday, 21 November, 1916, at half-past six o’clock in the evening, Vice-President Andrew McFarland Davis in the chair.

    The Records of the last Stated Meeting were approved without being read.

    The Corresponding Secretary reported that a letter had been received from Mr. Richard Clipston Sturgis accepting Resident Membership.

    Mr. Nathaniel Thayer Kidder of Milton was elected a Resident Member.

    The Annual Report of the Council was presented and read by the Rev. Charles Edwards Park.

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL

    Four of our stated meetings have been held in the house of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which with unwearied hospitality continues to play the part of kindly host, and to which we continue to tender our unwearied gratitude. In April our members enjoyed the privilege of meeting with our associate Professor Edward Channing, at his house in Cambridge, and spent a delightful evening under his roof.

    Our finances show, on the whole, a small but encouraging improvement. Almost $1000 has been contributed by a few generous members for current expenses. Three more members have commuted their annual dues, by the payment of $100 into the treasury, thus relieving themselves of further payments, and increasing this portion of the endowment of the Society to $6100. Our endowment, while it is far short of what we might wish it to be, is still sufficient to warrant our publishing from time to time collections of original manuscripts which may be given or loaned to us. This being one of the principal opportunities of such a society as ours, it is gratifying to feel that on occasion we are able to improve it worthily. The bequest of $1000 by Dr. Watson, which was noted in last year’s report, has been received and added to the endowment. In considering the year’s finances we are made immediately sensible of the loss we have suffered in the death of our associate Mr. Frederick Lewis Gay, the most generous of supporters, the most faithful of attendants. Mr. Gay’s generosity extended far beyond mere money gifts, but it is in the year’s financial review that the generosity is first missed. During the year a gift of $500 has been received from our associate Mr. Horace E. Ware, accompanied by a suggestion so unusual as to deserve notice in this report. While the gift is entirely free, Mr. Ware suggests that this sum of $500 “together with any interest thereon and additions, if any, from other sources, be applied at some future time, perhaps in the year 1930, to or towards constructing and placing a memorial to the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England or to such of its officers and freemen as took part in the transfer of its charter government to its territory here in New England.” Your Council is confident that Mr. Ware’s suggestion will prove of great interest to the Society, and ventures to lay the whole matter before you, trusting that if you are sufficiently in accord with him you will meet his initial generosity with your own, and so, in the course of years, bring this nucleus up to the amount necessary for the fulfilment of this project.

    Our Editor makes the following statement relative to the Society’s publications: Volumes XV and XVI, which will contain the Corporation Records of Harvard College down to 1750, are well advanced, but it is impossible to say when they will be ready for publication. Volume XVII, which contains the Transactions from March, 1913, to December, 1914, both included, has been distributed since the last annual meeting. Volume XVIII, which contains the Transactions from January, 1915, to April, 1916, both included, is completed so far as the text is concerned and no doubt will be ready for publication early in 1917. The material for the Royal Instructions is now wholly in hand, and is in course of preparation for the printers. It is gratifying to note in this connection that the market for our publications is steadily increasing. The new subscribers are principally large libraries scattered all over the country.

    Remembering that opportunity cometh, and sometimes goeth, like a thief in the night, your Council is prompted to remind you that the year 1917 will mark not only the 400th anniversary of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, but also the 25th anniversary of the founding of this Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and to suggest that if it seems fitting to make some observance of either or both of these anniversaries, it were well to consider the matter betimes. Whether you will choose a special committee to arrange such an observance, or will refer the matter back to the Council with power, is for you to say.

    The following gentlemen have been elected to Resident Membership in the Society:

    • Alfred Johnson,
    • Lawrence Shaw Mayo,
    • Richard Clipston Sturgis,
    • George Parker Winship.

    Death has stricken from our rolls three honored names:

    Frederick Lewis Gay, an early Resident Member and invaluable friend of this Society; a large-spirited lover of human nature, essentially sympathetic to every human interest. Himself a collector and student of unusual discrimination, it was his passion to be of service to all sincere students, and his many acts of generosity were invariably but the outward expression of a truer inward generosity of solicitude and coöperation.

    James Burrill Angell, an Honorary Member, educator and diplomat, veteran among college presidents, who in early manhood set before himself the holy aim of opening unto the consciousness of young men and women a vision of their own higher possibilities, and with reverent fidelity pursued this aim to the end of a long and profitable life.

    Horace Davis, a Corresponding Member. The son of a governor of this Commonwealth, he carried to his Western home lofty ideals of service to humankind, coupled with unusual abilities of mind and character, which speedily placed him among the leaders of his great State; her representative in Congress, the president of her university, the foremost upholder of her institutions of learning and culture.

    Mr. Arthur Lord offered the following votes, which were unanimously adopted:

    That the report of the Council be accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication.

    That the gratitude of the Society be expressed to Horace Everett Ware for his unfailing interest in its work, for his substantial help on many occasions, for his learned and valuable papers communicated from time to time, and for his generous gift of five hundred dollars, free from all restrictions, which has just been announced by the Council.

    That the suggestion of Mr. Ware with regard to a memorial “to the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, or to such of its officers and freemen as took part in the transfer of its charter government to its territory here,” — a suggestion which the Society has heard with deep interest, — be referred to the Council for consideration and for report at a future meeting.

    The Treasurer submitted his Annual Report, as follows:

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER

    In compliance with the requirements of the By-Laws, the Treasurer submits his Annual Report for the year ending 16 November, 1916.

    CASH ACCOUNT

    receipts

    Balance, 19 November, 1915

     

    $27.27

    Admission Fees

    $40.00

     

    Annual Assessments

    620.00

     

    Commutation of the Annual Dues

    300.00

     

    Sales of the Society’s Publications

    139.14

     

    Sales of the Society’s Paper

    18.87

     

    Contributions from two members for immediate use

    91.28

     

    Editor’s Salary Fund, subscriptions

    900.00

     

    Interest

    3,631.09

     

    Henry H. Edes, demand loan without interest

    1,175.00

     

    Publication Fund, contributions

    55.00

     

    William Watson Fund, bequest of Dr. Watson

    1,000.00

     

    Horace Everett Ware Fund, gift of Mr. Ware

    500.00

     

    Mortgages, discharged or assigned

    5,450.00

    13,920.38

       

    $13,947.65

    disbursements

    The University Press

    $1,436.82

     

    A. W. Elson & Co., photogravure plates

    247.38

     

    Folsom Engraving Co.

    140.00

     

    Bigelow, Kennard & Co., Incorporated, plate printing

    11.75

     

    Albert Matthews, salary as Editor of Publications

    1,000.00

     

    Andrew Stewart, auditing

    10.00

     

    Clerk hire

    83.60

     

    Jenness & Co., delivering Volume 17

    50.59

     

    Ewing W. Hamlin, stenography

    10.50

     

    American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fuel, light and Service

    15.00

     

    Boston Storage Warehouse Company

    24.00

     

    Postage, stationery, and supplies

    57.95

     

    Lucy Drucker, services in London at the Public Record Office

    66.78

     

    Annual Subscription toward the Bibliography of American

       

    50.00

     

    Miscellaneous incidentals

    515.40

     

    Henry H. Edes, demand loan

    1,175.00

     

    Deposited in Provident Institution for Savings

    150.00

     

    Mortgages on improved real estate in Boston

    8,700.00

     

    Interest in adjustment

    83.11

    $13,827.88

    Balance on deposit in State Street Trust Company, 16 November, 1916

       

    119.77

       

    $13,947.65

    The Funds of the Society are invested as follows:

    $73,250.00

    in First Mortgages, payable in gold coin, on improved property in Greater Boston

    250.00

    on deposit in the Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston

    $73,500.00

     

    TRIAL BALANCE

    debits

    Cash

     

    $119.77

    Mortgages

    $73,250.00

     

    Provident Institution for Savings

    250.00

    73,500.00

       

    $73,619.77

    credits

    Income

     

    $119.77

    Editor’s Salary Fund

    $300.00

     

    Publication Fund

    10.000.00

     

    General Fund

    11,700.00

     

    Benjamin Apthorp Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Edward Wheelwright Fund

    20,000.00

     

    Robert Charles Billings Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Robert Noxon Toppan Fund

    5,000.00

     

    Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. Fund

    3,000.00

     

    Andrew McFarland Davis Fund

    2,000.00

     

    William Watson Fund

    1,000.00

     

    Horace Everett Ware Fund

    500.00

    73,500.00

       

    $73,619.77

    Henry H. Edes

    Treasurer

    Boston, 17 November, 1916

    REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE

    The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the Accounts of the Treasurer for the year ending 16 November, 1916, have attended to that duty, and report that they find them correctly kept and properly vouched, and that proper evidence of the investments and of the balance of cash on hand has been shown to them. This Report is based on the examination of Andrew Stewart, Certified Public Accountant.

    Winslow Warren

    Worthington C. Ford

    Committee

    Boston, 17 November, 1916

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

    On behalf of the Committee appointed to nominate officers for the ensuing year, Mr. Julius H. Tuttle presented the following list of candidates; and, a ballot having been taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected:

    PRESIDENT

    • FRED NORRIS ROBINSON

    VICE-PRESIDENTS

    • MARCUS PERRIN KNOWLTON
    • ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS

    RECORDING SECRETARY

    • HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM

    CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

    • CHARLES EDWARDS PARK

    TREASURER

    • HENRY HERBERT EDES

    REGISTRAR

    • ALFRED JOHNSON

    MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR THREE YEARS

    • JOHN WOODBURY

    Mr. George L. Kittredge offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

    That we, the members of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, assembled at our Annual Meeting, learn with regret that Frederick Jackson Turner, our President for the past two years, has decided to decline reelection at this time.

    In acquiescing, though reluctantly, in this decision, we are impelled to record our sense of the substantial benefit which President Turner has conferred upon us. It has been much for a society like ours to have a leader who is universally recognized as an historical scholar of the highest distinction. The influence of his learning, of his refined scholarship, of his good taste and right feeling, and of his earnest and kindly nature, has made itself felt in every department of our associated activities. He has served us at much sacrifice of time and strength, and we desire to assure him of our grateful appreciation.

    Mr. Alfred C. Potter exhibited a silver teapot made by Minot and presented to Tutor William Kneeland in 1763 by his pupils at the time of his marriage and retirement from office. It is now owned by Harvard College.

    After the meeting was dissolved, dinner was served. The guests of the Society were Rear-Admiral Francis Tiifany Bowles, and Messrs. Brooks Adams, George Russell Agassiz, William Richards Castle, Jr., Howard Millar Chapin, Edmund Burke Delabarre, Charles Eliot Goodspeed, William Prescott Greenlaw, Nathaniel Thayer Kidder, William MacDonald, John Phillips Marquand, James Parker Parmenter, Fitz-Henry Smith, Jr., Harry Walter Tyler, and Arthur Gordon Webster. Mr. George Lyman Kittredge presided.