DECEMBER MEETING, 1916
A Stated Meeting of the Society was held in the house of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, on Thursday, 28 December, 1916, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President, Fred Norris Robinson, Ph.D., in the chair.
The Records of the Annual Meeting were read and approved.
The Corresponding Secretary reported that a letter had been received from Mr. Nathaniel Thayer Kidder accepting Resident Membership.
Mr. William MacDonald and Mr. Edmund Burke Delabarre, both of Providence, Rhode Island, were elected Corresponding Members.
The announcement was made of the appointment of Messrs. Nathaniel Thayer Kidder, William Roscoe Thayer, and Archibald Cary Coolidge as delegates from this Society to the Thirteenth Annual Conference of Historical Societies in Cincinnati on 28 December in connection with the meeting of the American Historical Association.
Mr. Samuel E. Morison read a paper on the Religious History of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, 1692–1750.
Mr. Albert Matthews made the following communication:
NOTE ON THE 1672 EDITION AND THE 1675 VOLUME OF THE MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL LAWS4
The General Laws of Massachusetts were first published in 1648, and they were again published in 1660, no Laws having been printed between those years. Sessional Laws were printed in 1663, 1664, 1665, 1666, 1668, and 1669; but none in 1670 or 1671. The legislation that led to the next publication of the General Laws, in 1672, extended over two years. At a Court held on May 31, 1670, we read:
Whereas there is a great want of law bookes for the vse of seuerall Courts and inhabitants in this jurisdiction at present, & very few of them that are extant or compleat, conteyning all lawes now in force amongst vs, it is therefore ordered by this Court, that . . . shall & hereby are appointed to be a com̄ittee to pervse all our lawes now in force, to collect & drawe vp any literall errors, or misplacing of words or sentences therein, or any libertjes infringed, and to make a convenient table for the ready finding of all things therein, that so they may be fitted ffor the presse, & the same to present to the next session of this Court, to be further considered off & approoved by the Court.5
Accordingly, at the next session of the Court on October 12, 1670, the return of the committee was considered and certain changes authorized;6 and on May 31, 1671,—
Mr Richard Russell, Mr Thomas Danforth, & Mr Wm Staughton, or any two of them, are appointed, wth Capt Thomas Clarke and Capt̄ Dauis, to be a comittee, & are impoured to cause the booke of lawes to be printed, & an exact table made thereto, wth a marginal noate of the word ‘Repealed’ vnto all lawes that stand repealed; and the Tresurer is required to pay for the impression, & dispose of the books as to him shall seeme expedient for the publick good & advantage.7
On May 15, 1672, —
It is ordered, that the former com̄ittee (wth the secretary) formerly appointed to send out the lawes to the presse be heereby ordered to pervse the lawes now this Court made, and to make a præface & table, & what els is requisite, and send all out to be printed presently.8
The 1672 edition thus authorized duly appeared, and thereafter, though the Sessional Laws were printed yearly from 1672 to 1686 (both years included), no edition of the General Laws was authorized by the General Court; and the last Sessional Law printed by the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay was one passed at a Court held February 16, 1685–6.9 Under Dudley there was, so far as is known, a single issue only;10 under Andros no Laws were printed; and in 1692 the Colony was succeeded by the Province.
It thus appears that during the existence of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, only three editions of the General Laws were authorized — namely, those published in 1648, 1660, and 1672, all of which were printed at Cambridge. Nevertheless there is a volume of the General Laws which bears on its title-page the date 1675 and London as well as Cambridge. As this volume is not alluded to in the Massachusetts Colony Records, as it is not mentioned by Whitmore,11 as its very existence has been questioned, as erroneous impressions about it are current, as it presents several bibliographical curiosities, and as the exact relations between it and the 1672 edition have never been settled, it is believed that a full discussion of the subject will not prove superfluous.
It should first be pointed out that the 1672 edition is very far from being the “extremely rare” volume that Trumbull stated it to be.12 When our associate Mr. Worthington C. Ford and the present writer were compiling our Bibliography of the Laws of the Massachusetts Bay, 1641–1776, we found that of the twelve libraries whose collections were listed all but one had at least one copy of that edition, one library having two and another three copies.13 Indeed, no fewer than sixteen copies have been located; and there are more known copies of the 1672 edition than of any other edition of the Massachusetts Laws published down to that of 1726. On the other hand, we were able to list only three copies of the 1675 volume — those owned by the American Antiquarian Society, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. There is a fourth copy in the British Museum;14 a fifth copy was recently acquired by an American collector; and a copy was described in Hazlitt in 1887.15 In 1810 Isaiah Thomas16 described the 1672 edition, but said nothing about the 1675 volume. By 1836, however, a copy of the 1675 volume had found its way into the American Antiquarian Society, and a year later was thus described:
Massachusetts. The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony in New England, Revised and Reprinted by order of the General Court holden at Boston, May 15, 1672. fol. Cambridge. 1675.17
It will be observed that nothing is said about London, nor is there in Dr. Samuel F. Haven’s description of the same volume in 1874:
1675.
General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony in New England, Revised and Reprinted, by order of the General Court, holden at Boston, May 15th, 1672. Fol. Cambridge. Printed by S. Green.18
Sabin, writing in 1879, said: “The catalogue of the Worcester Antiquarian Society describes an edition dated 1675, which is probably an error as to date.”19 In 1899 Richard R. Bowker gave this inadequate description:
General laws and liberties of the Massachusetts Colony in New England; rev. and reprinted 1672. E: Rawson, secr. Cambridge, London, 1675.20
The volume was also described by Hazlitt in 1887,21 by Hildeburn in 1890,22 by Miss Adelaide R. Hasse in 1906,23 and by Mr. Ford and the present writer in 1907;24 but in neither case was anything more than a brief description attempted. In 1903, however, Mr. Charles Evans gave a somewhat long description, of which it is necessary to quote only the imprint and his remarks:
Cambridge in New-England, Printed by Samuel Greene, [sic.] for John Usher of Boston, and to be sold by Richard Chiswel, . . . London. 1675. pp. (2), 170, (27), (2). fol.
This edition was probably reprinted in London from the Cambridge edition of 1672. The spelling of the printer’s name incorrectly would seem to support this view of its origin.25
Before proceeding with our discussion, three remarks are pertinent. First, the only separate edition26 of the Massachusetts Laws down to 1776 which is known with certainty to have been printed in London is that of 1724, containing the Province Laws from 1692 to 1719.27 Hence conclusive evidence must be adduced to convince us that an edition of the Laws was printed in London in 1675. Second, the name “Green” is correctly printed in the title-pages of the three copies of the 1675 volume that I nave had an opportunity of examining, in the copy described by Hazlitt, and in the copy lately acquired by an American collector. Hence, even if a mistake has not been made by Mr. Evans in stating that the name of the printer is misspelled on the title-page of the copy examined by him, that fact has not the importance that Mr. Evans attaches to it.28 Third, the words “Cambridge in New-England, Printed by Samuel Green, for John Usher of Boston” in the imprint of the 1675 volume, though perhaps not proof positive, cannot be brushed lightly aside. It is difficult to believe that Chiswell would have had the volume reprinted for him in London and then have stated on the title-page that it was printed in Cambridge, New England.
There are certain differences, and still more striking resemblances, between the 1672 edition and the 1675 volume, and these can best be brought out by giving the title and collation of each. In both cases I have used the copies in the John Carter Brown Library.
1672
The General / Laws / and / Liberties / of the / Massachusets Colony:/Revised & Re-printed. / By Order of the General Court holden at Boston. / May 15th. 1672. / Edward Rawson Seer./ [Rule] / Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God and / they that resist receive to themselves Damnation. Rom. 13. 8.29 / [Rule]
Cambridge / Printed by Samuel Green, for John Usher of Boston. / 1672.
Collation: Colony Seal, 1 leaf; Title, 1 leaf; Laws, pp. 1–161 [1]; “Presidents & Formes of things frequently Used,” pp. 162–170[1]; Errata, nine lines on p. 170; “Summary” pp. (27).
Pp. 16, 163–171, are misnumbered 14, 162–17030
Pagination and Signatures:
1 |
B |
49 |
K |
91 |
U2 |
133 |
Hh |
|||
3 |
B2 |
51 |
K2 |
93 |
X |
135 |
Hh2 |
Summary31 |
||
5 |
C |
53 |
L |
95 |
X2 |
137 |
Ii |
(1) |
A |
|
7 |
C2 |
55 |
L2 |
97 |
Y |
139 |
Ii2 |
(3) |
A2 |
|
9 |
D |
57 |
M |
99 |
Y2 |
141 |
Kk |
(5) |
B |
|
11 |
D2 |
59 |
M2 |
101 |
Z |
143 |
Kk2 |
(7) |
B2 |
|
13 |
D3 |
61 |
N |
103 |
Z2 |
145 |
LI |
(9) |
C |
|
15 |
D3 |
63 |
N2 |
105 |
Aa |
147 |
L12 |
(11) |
C2 |
|
17 |
E |
65 |
O |
107 |
Aa2 |
149 |
Mm |
(13) |
D |
|
19 |
E2 |
67 |
02 |
109 |
Bb |
151 |
Mm2 |
(15) |
D2 |
|
21 |
E3 |
69 |
P |
111 |
Bb2 |
153 |
Nn |
(17) |
E |
|
25 |
F |
71 |
P2 |
113 |
Cc |
155 |
Nn2 |
(19) |
E2 |
|
27 |
F2 |
73 |
Q |
115 |
Cc2 |
157 |
Oo |
(21) |
F |
|
29 |
F3 |
75 |
Q2 |
117 |
Dd |
159 |
Oo2 |
(23) |
F2 |
|
33 |
G |
77 |
R |
119 |
Dd2 |
161 |
Pp |
(25) |
||
35 |
G2 |
79 |
R2 |
121 |
Ee |
162 |
Pp2 |
(27) |
||
37 |
G3 |
81 |
S |
123 |
Ee2 |
164 |
|
|||
41 |
H |
83 |
S2 |
125 |
Ff |
166 |
Qq2 |
|||
43 |
H2 |
85 |
T |
127 |
Ff2 |
168 |
Rr |
|||
45 |
I |
87 |
T3 |
129 |
Gg |
170 |
Rr2 |
|||
47 |
12 |
89 |
U |
131 |
Gg2 |
1675
The General / Laws / and / Liberties / of the / Massachusets Colony / in /New-England, / Revised and Reprinted, / By order of the General Court holden at Boston, / May 15th, 1672. / Edward Rawson, Seer./ [Rule] / Whosoever therefore, resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God; and / they that resist, receive to themselves Damnation. Rom. 13. 2. / [Rule]
Cambridge in New-England, / Printed by Samuel Green, for John Usher of Boston, and to be sold by / Richard Chiswel, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul’s Church-yard, / London, 1675.
Collation: Title, 1 leaf; Laws, pp. 1—161[1]; “Presidents & Formes of things frequently Used,” pp. 162–170[1]; Errata, ten lines on p. 170; “Summary,” pp. (27); List of Books, 1 leaf.
Pp. 16, 163–171, are misnumbered 14, 162–170.
Pagination and Signatures:
1 |
B |
49 |
K |
91 |
U2 |
133 |
Hh |
||
3 |
B2 |
51 |
K2 |
93 |
X |
135 |
Hh2 |
||
5 |
C |
53 |
L |
95 |
X2 |
137 |
Ii |
Summary |
|
7 |
C2 |
55 |
L2 |
97 |
Y |
139 |
Ii2 |
(1) |
A |
9 |
D |
57 |
M |
99 |
Y2 |
141 |
Kk |
(3) |
A2 |
11 |
D2 |
59 |
M2 |
101 |
Z |
143 |
Kk2 |
(5) |
B |
13 |
D3 |
61 |
N |
103 |
Z2 |
145 |
LI |
(7) |
B2 |
15 |
D3 |
63 |
N2 |
105 |
Aa |
147 |
L12 |
(9) |
C |
17 |
E |
65 |
O |
107 |
Aa2 |
149 |
Mm |
(11) |
C2 |
19 |
E2 |
67 |
02 |
109 |
Bb |
151 |
Mm2 |
(13) |
D |
21 |
E3 |
69 |
P |
111 |
Bb2 |
153 |
Nn |
(15) |
D2 |
25 |
F |
71 |
P2 |
113 |
Cc |
155 |
Nn2 |
(17) |
E |
27 |
F2 |
73 |
Q |
115 |
Cc2 |
157 |
Oo |
(19) |
E2 |
29 |
F3 |
75 |
Q2 |
117 |
Dd |
159 |
Oo2 |
(21) |
F |
33 |
G |
77 |
R |
119 |
Dd2 |
161 |
Pp |
(23) |
F2 |
35 |
G2 |
79 |
R2 |
121 |
Ee |
162 |
Pp2 |
(25) |
|
37 |
G3 |
81 |
S |
123 |
Ee2 |
164 |
|
(27) |
|
41 |
H |
83 |
S2 |
125 |
Ff |
166 |
Qq2 |
||
43 |
H2 |
85 |
T |
127 |
Ff2 |
168 |
Rr |
||
45 |
I |
87 |
T3 |
129 |
Gg |
170 |
Rr2 |
||
47 |
12 |
89 |
U |
131 |
Gg2 |
A mere glance at the above collation shows the following differences between the 1672 edition and the 1675 volume: (1) The leaf containing the Colony Seal, found in the 1672 edition, is lacking in the 1675 volume. (2) The title-page of the 1672 edition differs from the title-page of the 1675 volume. (3) The list of Errata on p. 170 is in nine lines32 in the 1672 edition, but in ten lines33 in the 1675 volume. (4) The leaf containing the List of Books, found in the 1675 volume, is lacking in the 1672 edition. Besides these differences, obvious from a mere glance at the collation, there are others which only an examination of the books themselves discloses. They are: (5) The type used in the title-page of the 1672 edition is different from the type used in the title-page of the 1675 volume. (6) The type used in pp. 168–170 of the 1672 edition differs from the type used in pp. 168–170 of the 1675 volume. (7) Pages 168–170 of the 1672 edition and pp. 168–170 of the 1675 volume do not correspond line for line. (8) The paper on which the title-page of the 1672 edition is printed differs from the paper on which the title-page of the 1675 volume is printed. (9) The paper on which pp. 168–170 of the 1672 edition are printed differs from the paper on which pp. 168–170 of the 1675 volume are printed.34
So much for the differences, which are really trifling and concern only five leaves: the leaf containing the Colony Seal, the leaf containing the Title, the two leaves containing pp. 168–170, and the leaf containing the List of Books.
Let us now consider the resemblances, which are, so far as a mere glance at the collation shows, as follows: (1) The number of every numbered page of the 1672 edition is identical with that of every corresponding page of the 1675 volume, even to the misprints of 14 for 16 and 162–170 for 163–171. (2) Each signature of the 1672 edition is identical with the corresponding signature of the 1675 volume, even to the misprints of D3 for D4 (p. 15) and T3 for T2 (p. 87). Other resemblances, not disclosed by the collation, are the following: (3) Every catchword at the bottom of the pages of the 1672 edition is identical with the catchword at the bottom of the corresponding pages of the 1675 volume. (4) The text of pp. 1–170 of the 1672 edition is line for line the same as the text of pp. 1–170 of the 1675 volume, with the exception of the three pages numbered 168–170. (5) The text of the Summary of the 1672 edition is line for line the same as the text of the Summary of the 1675 volume. (6) The type used in pp. 1–170 of the 1672 edition is the same as the type used in pp. 1–170 of the 1675 volume, with the exception of the three pages numbered 168–170. (7) The type used in the Summary of the 1672 edition is the same as the type used in the Summary of the 1675 volume. (8) The paper on which the Summary and pp. 1–170 of the 1672 edition are printed is apparently the same as the paper on which the Summary and pp. 1–170 of the 1675 volume are printed, with the exception of the three pages numbered 168–170. (9) The ornaments on pages 1, 14, 93, 162, of the text, and on pages (1), (27), of the Summary in the 1672 edition are the same as those on the corresponding pages of the 1675 volume.
The text and the Summary make 200 pages, of which three pages — the verso of p. 161, the verso of p. 170, and the last page of the Summary — are blank. The 197 printed pages of the 1675 volume have been shown to be identical in every respect, even to the paper, with the 197 printed pages of the 1672 edition, with the exception of the three pages numbered 168–170. That a volume of 197 printed pages, set up in London in 1675, should follow an edition printed at Cambridge in 1672 page for page, line for line, signature for signature, catchword for catchword, misprint for misprint, ornament for ornament, and in addition should be printed on the same paper — always with the exception of the three pages — is surely beyond belief.
So much for the copies of the 1672 edition and the 1675 volume owned by the John Carter Brown Library. But more remains to be said. The copy of the 1675 volume owned by the American Antiquarian Society appears to have the same peculiarities that the copy owned by the John Carter Brown Library has, except that the former is imperfect, lacking pp. 83, 84, 168, 169, and having pages 1, 2, torn. On the other hand, the copy of the 1675 volume owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania differs in some respects from those owned by the John Carter Brown Library and the American Antiquarian Society. In this copy, the leaf containing the List of Books is not at the end but at the beginning, immediately following the leaf containing the title, and the List of Books is printed on the verso of the leaf;35 pages 168–170 are identical with the corresponding pages of the 1672 edition; the list of Errata on page 170 is in nine lines; and page (25) of the Summary has signature G.36 The copy of the 1675 volume owned by an American collector appears to be, as he kindly informs me, identical with the copy owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, except that the leaf containing the List of Books comes first, followed by the leaf containing the title-page. Thus of four copies now in this country, two are identical in every respect with the 1672 edition except as regards the leaf containing the Colony Seal, the leaf containing the List of Books, and the leaf containing the title-page. Hence the conclusion reached by me is that the text and the Summary of the 1675 volume were printed at Cambridge in 1672; that for some reason which cannot now be determined, it became necessary to reset in some copies the three pages numbered 168–170, and they were reset either in Cambridge or in London;37 that a new title-page was printed in London; and that the List of Books was printed in London.
But, it will perhaps be asked, how did a volume which was not authorized by the General Court and to which there is no allusion in the Massachusetts Colony Records, come to be issued in London? To this reasonable question, a conclusive answer can, I think, be given. In a previous paper38 it was shown that Richard Chiswell was issuing in London books written by New Englanders, some of which books were printed at Boston or at Cambridge and some at London, and that he had business relations with John Usher, who, as we have also seen, had “binn at the sole chardge of the impression of the booke of lawes”39 — that is, our 1672 edition. It may be that some copies were consigned to Chiswell to be sold in London, and that he advertised them for sale in London in 1672; but if he did so, his advertisement has not come down to us. More probably, however, Usher waited until 1674 or very early in 1675 before making Chiswell his agent in London for the 1672 edition. However that may have been, what is certain is that in “A Catalogue of Books Continued, Printed and Published at London in Easter Term, 1675. Licensed May 10. 1675. Roger L’Estrange,” the following advertisement was printed:
LAW.
The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusets Colony in New England. Revised, and Reprinted, by Order of the General Court holden at Boston. In Folio. Price, bound, 6s. Sold by R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul’s Churchyard.
Perhaps Usher sent over copies in sheets, which would account for a new title-page. Perhaps Chiswell had a good many copies left over from a consignment made in 1672, and wished to stimulate their sale by an attractive advertisement and a new title-page. Certainly a would-be purchaser would not infer from the above advertisement that the volume had been printed three years before and contained no laws later than 1672.
The above analysis remains practically as it was written in April, 1912. The conclusion reached — that “More probably, however, Usher waited until 1674 or very early in 1675 before making Chiswell his agent in London for the 1672 edition” — is placed beyond the possibility of a doubt by the following extract, which Mr. Ford has just placed in my hands, from an unpublished letter written by Usher to Chiswell in October or November, 1674:
by one Mr Waldren I haue sent 190 New Engl: Law bookes, ye which as nouelties with yo may sell, I haue printed an impression, wch hath made me thus to Aduenture.40
Mr. Worthington C. Ford gave some account of a list of books imported into Boston between 1679 and 1685 by John Usher, in which mention is made of a New England Primer known in London, 1685, or two years earlier than the printing of the copy attributed to Harris. Mr. Ford traced through the Stationers’ Registers (III. 199) the record of the entry of a copy in 1683, and gave a brief account of the troubles in England of Benjamin Harris, who printed the New England Primer in Boston between 1687 and 1690.
Mr. Ford also communicated the following documents: (1) A letter from the Rev. Samuel Davies to Mr. McCullock, dated Hanover, Virginia, 11 August, 1758; (2) a list of the captive Indian children who, in 1676, were distributed among Massachusetts households; and (3) an account of expenses of a journey from Boston to New Jersey, undated, but perhaps undertaken about the year 1688.
I
Samuel Davies41 to — McCullock
My ever-dear Friend,
As I keep no Copies of my Letters, I cannot exactly recollect when I wrote to you last: but I think it was since I received a Letter from you. However, Friendship tells me, it is Time to write again; tho’ my Hurry, as usual, will hardly let me write any thing worth reading.
Your old Friend Mr. Richardson, having officiated as a Candidate, for some time, was ordained, with Mr Patillo,42 another promising Minister, at our last P’by, about a month ago. And I can afford you the Pleasure of hearing, that his popular Talents vastly surpass my Expectations; & there is Reason already to hope, that his Labours have been of some considerable Service. He itinerates among the vacant Congregations in various Parts of the Country: & we have Work enough for our young Ministers, as Applications are now made to the P’by from many Parts of Virginia, where the very Name of a Presbyterian was wont to excite Disgust & Contempt.
For an Acct of the Chirokee-Mission, I must refer you to Mr Gillies; only adding, that yesterday I was shocked wth a flying Rumour, that they had massacred my worthy Friend Mr Martin. I can by no means believe it true: but the least Suspicion of it is very alarming to me.
You will lament with me the Death of the great & good Mr Edwards,43 a few Days after his Installation as President of the College. It is, I am afraid, a severe Frown upon that Institution: but God has the Residue of the Spirit; & this is our only Hope.
Last Week Mr Wright & I waited upon our new Governor,44 as a Deputation from the Presbytery of Hanover: & his Honour gave us a very friendly Reception, & promised to protect us in the full Enjoyment of the Immunities of the Act of Toleration. He makes an agreeable Figure in Conversation: but what his Qualifications for Government are, future Time must discover. I rejoice to hear that our former Governour45 is safe arrived in his native Country once more. May the Evening of his Life be calm & bright!
Last Lord’s Day I Dispensed the Sacrament of the Supper in Hanover, assisted by Mr Wright. It was a Season of Dejection & Tears to me, & I was more disposed to weep under the Cross, than speak to recommend it. But how sweet are such Tears! how medicinal the Wounds of a broken Heart! My dear People appeared generally in the same Frame with myself; so that I hope there was “a great Mourning” among us.
The Number of Negroe-Communicants is still increasing; & multitudes of the poor Creatures are learning to read with considerable Success. Your intended Present of Spelling-Books will be peculiarly acceptable & useful to them; as it is that sort of Books they now stand most in need of. The Generosity of my British Friends in this Respect, has been utterly astonishing: “it is the Lord’s doing, & marvellous in my Eyes:” & by means of it, I really hope, sundry of the most unpolished & wretched Parts of human Nature will be made Partakers of Life & Immortality.
We are in daily Expectation of hearing that Louisburg, the Gibraltar of America, has surrendered;46 as by the last Accounts, our Forces were landed, & had taken the Light-House Battery. But a Victory half-won, has often been lost by some unexpected Turn of Providence; therefore it becomes us to be diffident, & not presume too much upon the Event.
Virginia has done better this year than usual, having chearfully augmented its Forces to 2000, & given £10 enlisting Money to each Man. These are to join about 3000 Pennsylvania-Forces & some Regulars, under Brigadier General Forbes,47 in order to make another Attempt upon Fort-du Quesne, the Nest of those Savages that ravage our Frontiers. But their Motions are so slow, (for what Reasons I cannot tell,) & the Summer is now so far advanced, that I begin to fear nothing will be done, or even attempted. We have just heard, that Genl Abercrombie has been worsted at or near Ticonderoga, & obliged to retreat: But the Particulars of that melancholy Action, we have not yet received. It makes me fear, that Crown-Point will prove impregnable to us: for this Summer we have made our utmost Effort agt it. Thus, I expect, it will be, till we learn to fight, & pray too, to better Purpose.
I am sorry to tell you, that my Lord Loudon48 has left a very bad Character behind him, especially as to his morals, & his imperious Insolence in authority. Alas! how baleful are the Effects of Luxury, Vice & Infidelity upon the British Nation! once a Nation of Heroes, terrible to the World. Faith made Heroes, “subdued Kingdoms, turned to Flight the Armies of the Aliens,” &c in ancient Times: & I am persuaded, Faith is the best Source of true Courage still. But where shall Faith be found upon Earth, among our military Men?
Since the Union of the Synods of New-York & Philadelphia, (for the Plan of which I must refer you to our good Friend Mr Gillies,) our little P’by is increased to 12 Members: but they are scattered through Virginia & Carolina, at the Distance of some Hundreds of Miles, so that we are not likely to have a full Presbytery. How happy a Change in Virginia, which was so long a melancholy & laborious Solitude to me!
The Seceders have got into Pennsylvania, & thrown the Churches there into great Confusion. I hope they are good Men: tho’ their Bigotry & contentious Peculiarities render them very troublesome Members of Society. Alas! what unskillful hands have the Management of Religion upon our guilty Earth; Religion, the divinest Thing, excepting its Author, that ever came from Heaven! Were it not that the God of Order presides, it would soon be reduced into a chaos, or buried in the Rubbish of human Passions & Weaknesses.
I still affectionately remember your valuable consort, & lovely son. May the God of Heaven bless them both! My aged Parents, my tenderer & better Part, & my 5 young Immortals, are well; Blessed be God! I am in a Hurry, as you may percieved by my writing; & can only assure you once more, that I am, my ever-dear Friend, yours in the sincerest Love & willing Service
SamL Davies.
Hanover, Augt 11, 1758.
P. S. I herewith send you Prt Stith’s Sermon,49 which you may compare with the answer in Mr Gillies’s Hands.
Mr McCullock.50
II
List of Captive Indian Children, 1676
August 10 1676. A memorandum of Indian Children put forth into service to the English Beeing of those indians that came in & submitted with John Sachem of Packachooge, with the names of the persons with whome they were placed & the names and age of the children & the names of their relations & the places they Did belong to, By Mr Daniel Gookin Senr, Thomas Prentis Capt’ & Mr Edward Oakes, who were a comittee appointed by the Counsel to mannage yt affayr. The termes & conditions vpon wch they are to serue is to be ordered by the Genll Court who are to provide yt the children bee religiously educated & taught to read the English tounge
2 Boy A maid |
To Samuel Simonds Esq. a boy named John his father named Alwitankus late of quantisit his father & mother prent both consenting the boys age about 12 years To him a girle named Hester her father & mother dead late of Nashaway her age ten years her onkel named John woosumpigin of Naticke |
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1 Boy |
To Thomas Danforth esq a boy aged about 13 yeares his name John |
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1 Boy |
To Leift Jonathan Danforth of [Billericay?] a boy aged twelve yeares, son to papamech alius David late of Warwick or Cowesit. |
|
2 Boyes |
To Mathew Bridge of CamBridge two Boyes the one named Jabez aged about ten yeares the other named Joseph aged six yeares their father named woompthe late of Packachooge ☞ one or both these boyes is away with his father 8 ber 17th 1676 |
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To Mr Jerimiah Shepard of Rowley a boy named Absolom his father of the same name late of Manehage aged about ten yeares. To him a girle sister to the Lad named Sarah aged eleven yeares. These [illegible] of Naticke. To him another girle aged about 8 yeares her named Jane her father & mother dead. |
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1 Mayd |
To Mrs Mitchell51 of Cambridg widdow a maid named Margaret aged about twelve yeares, her father named Suhunnick of quantisit her mother dead. |
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1 Boy |
To Thomas Jacob of Ipswich a boy aged ten yeares, on wennaputanan his guardian & on upacunt of quantisitt his grand mother was present. The Boy [illegible]. |
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1 Boy |
To on Goodman Read52 a Tanner of cambridge a Boy named John aged about thirteen yeares his father Dead. |
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1 Boy |
To Mr Jacob Green of Charel Towne a boy aged about seauen yeares his parrents Dead Late of quantisit but his mother of Narraganset. |
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1 Boy |
To Thomas Woolson of Wattertowne a boy aged about 14 yeares his name John his father dead who was of Cowesit or Warwick, his mother prsent. |
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1 Boy |
To Ciprian Steuens of Rumny Marsh but late of Lancaster a boy aged about six yeares son to nohanet of Chobnakonkonon. The Boy named Samuel. |
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1 Mayd |
To Thomas Eliot of Boston a carpenter a maid aged about ten yeares her name Rebecka. |
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1 Boy |
To Jacob Green Junior of Charles towne a Boy named Peter aged nine years his father dead his mother prsent named nannantum of quantisit. |
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1 Boy |
To on Goodman Greenland53 a carpenter of Charles towne on misticke side a boy named Tom aged twelue yeares his father named santeshe of Pakachooge. |
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1 Girle |
To Mr Edmund Batter of Salem a maid named Abigal aged sixteen her mother a widow named quanshishe late of Shookannet Beyond mendon. |
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To Daniel Gookin Senr A Boy named Joshua aged about eight yeares son to William wunuko late of magunkoog; his father dead. |
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1 Girle |
To him a girle aged about six yeares daughter to the widdow quinshiske late of Shookanet beyond mendon To Andrew Bordman Tayler of cambridge a girle named Anne sister to ye Last named. |
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1 Boy |
To Thomas Prentis Junior son to Capt Prentis of Cambridge village a boy named John son to William Wunnako late of magnkoy that was executed for Thomas Burney, aged thirteen. |
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1 Boy |
To Benjamin Mills of Dedham a boy aged about six years is [named?] Joseph Spoonans late of Marlboro. |
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1 Boy |
To Mr Edward Jackson a Boy named Joseph aged about 12 yeares Late of magalygook cosen to Pyambow of Naticke. |
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1 Mayd |
To Widdow Jackson54 of Cambridge village a girle named Hope aged nine yeare her parents dead who wer of Narraganset. |
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1 Boy |
To old Goodman Myles55 of Dedham a boy of [ ] yeares old. son to Annaweeken Decesed who was late of Hassanamesit his mother prsent. |
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1 Boy |
To Capt. Thomas Prentis a Boy named Joseph son to Annaweken decesed Brother to the last named aged about 11 yeares ☞ this boy was after taken from Capt Prentice & sent up Mr Stoughton for [ ] Capt Prentis is to bee considered about it for hee has taken more care & paynes about those indians. |
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1 Boy |
To John Smith of Dedham a boy aged about eight yeares his father dead late of Marlborow hee is Brother to James Printers wife |
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1 Mayd |
To Mr John Flint [?] of Concord a mayd aged about [ ] yeares [illegible] |
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1 Boy |
To Mr Jonathan Wade of mistick a Boy named Tom Aged about 11 yeares sonne to William Wunakhow of Magunkgog decesed |
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To Mr Nathaniel Wade of mistick a maid aged about ten years daughter to Jame Natomet [?] late of Packachooge her father & mother dead |
It is humbly proposed to the Honble Generall Court, to set the time these children shall serve; & if not less yn till they come to 20 yeares of age. unto wch those yt had relations seemed willing, and also that the Court lay som penalty upon them if they runne away before the time expire & on their parents or kindred yt shall entice or harborr & conceale ym if they should runne away
Signed By the Com̄itee Above named |
Daniel Gookin SenR Edward Oakes. |
Cambridge
8 ber 28 167656
III
Acco[m]tt of Expenses of a Journy to New Yorke Vizt.57
Att Fishers |
£0: 0: 9 |
||||
Att Whites |
0: 1: 4 |
||||
Att Whipples |
0: 10: 9 |
||||
Att Eldridges |
0: 5: 0 |
||||
Att Goodman Places |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Att Davils |
0: 6: 0 |
||||
Att Pembertons |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Att Saxtons |
0: 4: 6 |
||||
— Mistick Ferry |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
— New London Ferry |
0: 1: 4 |
£1: 14: 2 |
|||
Shoeing the horse |
0: 4: 0 |
||||
The boys 8d bear 3d |
0: 0: 11 |
||||
Att Pecks |
0: 5: 9 |
||||
Ferridge Saybrooke. |
0: 2: 8 |
||||
Clarks |
0: 3: 6 |
||||
Post |
0: 11: 0 |
||||
2 Shoes for your Horse |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
0: 2: 4: |
|||||
Eliots |
0: 1: 10: |
||||
Att Branford |
0: 4: 6: |
£1: 18: 6 |
|||
New Haven Ferry |
0: 1: 0: |
||||
Att New Haven |
0: 5: 0: |
||||
Stratford Ferry |
0: 1: 6: |
||||
Stratford |
0: 1: 2: |
||||
Fairfeild |
0: 3: 0: |
||||
Norwalk |
0: 1: 0: |
||||
Stamford |
0: 5: 0: |
||||
Rye |
0: 3: 4: |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] |
0: 2: 8: |
||||
Kings Bridge |
0: 2: 0: |
||||
Halfe way House |
0: 0: 9: |
||||
Post |
0: 12: 0: |
||||
Bakers |
0: 4: 6: |
£2: 2: 11 |
|||
Shoeing the Horse N. Yorke |
0: 3: 0: |
||||
19th Spent att Bakers |
0: 18: 2: |
||||
20th a Breakfast Do. |
0: 3: 0: |
||||
Mr. Randolph58 |
0: 3: 0 |
||||
21th a Breakfast |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Baker Horse Keeping, etc. |
0: 18: 0 |
||||
Eliza.Town Ferry |
0: 6: 0 |
||||
0: 1: 0 |
|||||
¾ yd Ribband |
0: 1: 1 |
||||
Lodgeing att Eliza.Town |
0: 8: 0 |
||||
Onyons Ferridge etc. |
0: 5: 10 |
||||
Anthonys |
0: 9: 8 |
£3: 18: 3 |
|||
Guide to Anthonys. |
1: 4: 0 |
||||
Burlinton Grubbs |
0: 4: 4 |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] |
0: 1: 10 |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] (pr Contribut’n) |
0: 2: 6 |
||||
Capt. Coles 4 bottles wine |
0: 6: 8 |
||||
Werry Boate |
1: 1: 0 |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] att Shipens |
0: 7: 0 |
||||
Grubbs Horse Keeping etc |
0: 8: 10 |
||||
Ferry |
0: 4: 0 |
||||
Guide to Anthonys. |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Lodging etc. att Do. |
0: 4: 2 |
£4: 6: 4 |
|||
Att Onyons Ferridge, etc. |
0: 4: 6 |
||||
1 pint wine with walker |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
Att Warrens |
0: 12: 0 |
||||
Horse Keeping |
0: 0: 9 |
||||
Warrens |
0: 6: 6 |
||||
Bottle of Rum for men |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Warrens Maide |
0: 0: 9 |
||||
Passage to N. Yorke |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] 5½ ps. 8/8 |
0: 15: 0 |
||||
Octor 1 at Bakers |
|||||
1 bottle wine |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
bear and Cheese |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
2 2 bottles wine |
0: 4: 0 |
||||
bear |
0: 0: 9 |
£2: 11: 9 |
|||
Dinner, vizt. |
|||||
1 ps. beife 4 chickens Cheese, etc. |
0: 18: 0 |
||||
Posta. of a Letter |
0: 0: 9 |
||||
Bear |
0: 0: 6 |
||||
4th a Breakfast |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
peaches and Potatoes |
0: 0: 6 |
||||
Supper |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
Keeping Horses Eliza Town |
0: 3: 9 |
||||
Ferridge pd Gold |
0: 9: 0 |
||||
6 Shoeing black Horse |
0: 3: 0 |
||||
0: 0: 6 |
|||||
bottle wine |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Oates |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] Coffee House |
0: 1: 6 |
£2: 4: 0 |
|||
washing Linen |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Potatoes |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
Morse Horse Keeping |
0: 3: 6 |
||||
J[ohn] V[sher] |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Lodgeing etc. for B. E. |
0: 6: 0 |
||||
Fourt |
0: 18: 0 |
||||
Potters children |
0: 12: 0 |
||||
Do. Negroes |
0: 3: 0 |
||||
Grayhams Negro |
0: 3: 0 |
||||
Rye |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Stamford |
0: 4: 8 |
||||
Guide |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Norwalk |
0: 2: 0 |
3: 0: 2 |
|||
Guide |
0: 2: 8 |
||||
Stratford Ferry |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
Fairfeild |
0: 1: 4 |
||||
Millford |
0: 2: 8 |
||||
New Haven |
0: 1: 4 |
||||
—Ferry |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
Branford |
0: 3: 8 |
||||
Eliots |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Next town |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Ferridge |
0: 1: 4 |
||||
Lime |
0: 3: 2 |
||||
Guide |
0: 1: 4 |
||||
Ferry |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Chandlers N: London |
0: 11: 0 |
1: 16: 0 |
|||
Chandlers Maide and boye |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
N. London Ferry |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
dead Horse |
0: 12: 0 |
||||
Saxtons |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Pembertons |
0: 1: 6 |
||||
Guide |
0: 0: 8 |
||||
Lodgeing, etc. |
0: 2: 6 |
||||
Canonicutt Ferry |
0: 2: 0 |
||||
Rhode Island Ferry |
0: 3: 0 |
||||
shoeing Horse |
0: 2: 8 |
||||
0: 5: 6 |
|||||
Bristoll Ferry |
0: 1: 0 |
||||
Mr. Saffins59 maids and boye |
0: 3: 8 |
||||
—Ferry |
0: 0: 9 |
||||
Oates for Horses |
0: 0: 8 |
||||
Billins |
0: 3: 0 |
||||
Deadham |
0: 1: 6 |
2: 5: 11 |
|||
£25: 18: 060 |
Mr. Matthews contributed the following note on the word Pilgrim:
In a paper on the term Pilgrim Fathers, communicated two years ago, it was shown that the expressions “pilgrim man” and “heirs of Pilgrims” were employed by Robert Treat Paine, Jr., in an ode written for the Boston celebration of Forefathers’ Day on December 22, 1798, while the term Pilgrim Fathers was first used by Samuel Davis in an ode composed for the Boston celebration in 1799.61 Let me call attention to a still earlier use of the word Pilgrim, as applied to those who first came to this country. The Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society was organized on November 20, 1792, and incorporated on June 25, 1794; and for over twenty years, beginning with 1795, the society held public celebrations for which addresses and songs were written by more or less distinguished persons. An advertisement in the Mercury of May 29, 1795 (p. 3/3), stated that on that afternoon an address would be delivered “by the vice president of the society,” who at that time was George Richards Minot, and that an ode “on the occasion, by a citizen of Boston,” would be sung. Paine’s ode was in seven stanzas, of which the first three are as follows:
Composed for the anniversary of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society.
by thomas paine, A.B.
Tune — “Rule Britannia.”
WHEN first the Sun o’er Ocean glow’d,
And Earth unveil’d her virgin breast;
Mid barren Nature’s vast abode,
Was heard th’ Almighty’s dread behest:
Rise, COLUMBIA, brave and free;
Poize the Globe, and bound the Sea!
In darkness wrapp’d, with fetters chain’d;
Will ages grope, debas’d and blind;
With blood the human hand be stain’d —
With tyrant-power, the human mind.
Rise, COLUMBIA, &c.
But, lo, across th’ Atlantic floods,
The Star-directed pilgrim sails!
See! fell’d by Commerce, float thy woods;
And, cloath’d by Ceres, wave thy vales!
Rise, COLUMBIA, &c.62
Mr. Henry H. Edes communicated a Memoir of William Cross Williamson, written for the Transactions by Grace Williamson Edes.63
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM CROSS WILLIAMSON, A.M.
by GRACE WILLIAMSON EDES
William Cross Williamson was born at Belfast, Maine, on the thirty-first day of January, 1831. All his ancestors on both sides of the family were in this country before 1675 and all were of English origin.
Timothy Williamson, the emigrant of the race, came to America in the suite of Mr. Edward Bulkeley of Bedfordshire, England, and sat down at Marshfield, where he was killed in one of the Indian raids. His grandson, Caleb Williamson, moved to Canterbury, Connecticut, and there Mr. Williamson’s grandfather, Captain George Williamson, grew up and married; but desiring to obtain for his large family better educational advantages than were to be found in that secluded hamlet, he moved to Vermont and settled for a time in Woodstock. Joseph, his second surviving son and the father of William Cross Williamson, graduated from the University of Vermont in 1812, and, having been admitted to the Bar in 1816, settled in Belfast, Maine. In 1820 he was appointed Attorney for Hancock County, an office which he continued to hold for many years after the organization of Waldo County. He was president of the Maine Senate and in 1839 received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Brown University.
Mr. Williamson’s mother was Caroline, daughter of William Cross of Newburyport, the third in a line of noted shipbuilders prominent in the affairs of their town,64 who had also rendered their country active service during the Revolutionary War. William Cross was a man of much cultivation, and the education of his daughter Caroline had been his especial care. In letters of the time we find the story of her courtship, of the visit she made to Belfast in the family of her cousin Nancy Atkinson, who had married another kinsman, the Hon. Alfred Johnson, and of how the latter’s brother, Ralph Cross Johnson, and the young lawyer, Joseph Williamson, both met and fell in love with her and on her return to Newburyport followed her to pay their addresses. Joseph Williamson was first in the field, however, and before us in faded ink we have the simple straightforward words wherein he asked her father for his daughter’s hand, and William Cross’s consent, touched with his sorrow at the thought of parting with a “favorite daughter.” Mrs. Williamson is said to have been a woman of unusual charm and dignity, worshipped by her family; and she certainly made a lasting impression on all who knew her.
Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from a portrait from life
William was her second son and named for his maternal grandfather. The days of his boyhood were those of simple pleasures for old and young, before the lure of the larger centres had called away all that was best from the lesser communities, and although the circle in Belfast was small, it was none the less a refined and scholarly one. Juvenile books and entertainments were few, but they were all the more appreciated and enjoyed, and called forth the inventive powers of the youth of the time in a way worthy of the example of Rollo and his playfellows. Theatricals, then as now, were a favorite recreation of boys and girls, and the Williamson barn was the theatre par excellence. Elaborate playbills, made with infinite labor, each separate letter of the names being cut out from newspapers and pasted upon a sheet, bear witness to the care given to each performance. Pizarro and The Death of Rolla were the most popular dramas, varied occasionally by The Iron Chest, and Black Eyed Susan for lighter vein; and of this band of “Thespians” young Williamson was evidently the leader, playing the double part of stage manager and chief actor, his talents as a musician — he played the violin — no doubt adding to his usefulness.
The winter of 1847 he passed in Roxbury in the household of Henry B. Wheelwright,65 who prepared him for college; he entered Harvard in 1848.
The class of 1852, although theirs was the “widest wreath that ever circled the old class tree,”66 as Mr. Williamson proudly asserts in his class poem, yet numbered but eighty-eight. Of these all were known to one another, and to the chosen band who studied and played together through those four happy, carefree years, the tie was only less strong than that of brotherhood. That young Williamson was popular and deeply loved by the small coterie of which he was one, and which seems to have presided largely over the literary and social interests of the class of 1852, was evident. His musical talents procured his entrance into the Pierian Sodality. In addition to his violin he had a sweet baritone voice and an absolutely correct ear; moreover he had a pretty talent for verse making, and as that was the era of poesy and all gatherings were attended with song, his effusions were no doubt in some request. His was the generation which preserved carefully all written words, and laid away with programmes and catalogues of his college days we find the notice that he had been chosen into the Pierian Sodality, “to which he is requested to bring his violin;” of his election to the Institute of 1770 with its imposing red waxen seal; to the Iadma, a debating club which ended with the class of 1852 and of which he was president; and to the Harvard Lodge of Odd Fellows, also a short-lived society. He was poet and secretary of the Hasty Pudding Club and displayed his histrionic talents in their theatricals, where his six feet two as Mrs. O’Scuttle were long remembered. He belonged also to the Alpha Delta Phi and to a small society, which probably did not survive the graduation of the class, called the K Punch Bowl. The bowl still exists, having been bequeathed by his classmate Horace Richardson to Mr. Williamson. Although the secretary of the Pudding Club appends to his report of one meeting that the revels were “adjourned at one o’clock or later,” and in spite of their frequent adjurations to the flowing cup, they seem to have been a very decorous set of youths, the only testimony to the contrary we find being a letter to “E. Chace, Esq.”67 dated October, 1849, in which nine sinners, among whom was Mr. Williamson, offer an apology for “their undignified and unbecoming behavior in having been engaged in an attack upon his rooms.”
Cambridge and Boston were farther apart then than now, and we do not hear of many visits to the metropolis, save when stars like Charlotte Cushman proved an insuperable attraction; but social festivities were not wanting, and an invitation “If agreeable to Mr. Williamson the Ladies of the Cotillion party which meets every Monday evening will be happy to consider him a member,” reads quaintly as compared with the formulæ of invitations of the present day. In his letters home Williamson speaks of meeting Kossuth and his comrades (Mrs. Lowell68 of Quincy Street gave several receptions for “the Hungarians”) and also of a large evening party at Mr. Forbes’s69 in Milton, from which they reached home some time after three a.m. A noticeable feature of the invitations is that they rarely bear any date except that of the day of the week, showing how few were the engagements in those days of leisure.
Letter writing was at its height in those years and young Williamson could not go home for a recess without receiving many effusions to keep him posted in the important doings of classmates and faculty during his absence. Stedman70 writes in August, 1857, that “that noodle of a Sparks71 has had the posts and chains, those familiar comforts of the College yard removed, uprooted! evaded!! erupted!!! Can’t you write a lament for the chains?” and at the same time offers his congratulations on Williamson’s having won the Boylston, while Mr. Choate72 disrespectfully comments on the dampening effect on the spirits of sitting under the Rev. Dr. Francis73 or any other of the Cambridge divines.
During that last joyous senior year a congenial band occupied the east entry of Holworthy and there “Jim Thayer74 and Bill Williamson” chummed together, an association never to be forgotten by either. Class Day and Commencement came later then than now, and we think that to many besides Mr. Williamson the scent of the syringa in after years must have brought back the memory of summer noons in the tree-embowered village which was the Cambridge of those days, and of moonlight nights in the College yard where the elm trees cast their shadows on the grass and the strains of the old songs which we still love and sing floated out upon the air while those who sang yet lingered at the parting of the ways, and the “world was all before them where to choose.”
The crowning satisfaction of Williamson’s senior year was his election as class poet, and his parents were to travel to Cambridge for their son’s graduation. His mother had long suffered from that fell disease, old-fashioned consumption, but hers was a spirit which rose above physical ills, and although she had been less well than usual, she and her husband started on their journey. At Gardiner, Maine, the end came very suddenly.
The relations between William and his father and mother seem to have been unusually sympathetic for those days of rather formal parental custom, and his letters to the former are very simple and unstilted, punctuated by the college boy’s inevitable request for money and details of tailors’ bills; but his mother was his chosen friend and confidante — sharer of all his hopes and fears and little triumphs. In a letter to his father after his return to Cambridge he writes of her with rare tenderness and feeling, but he was of those who speak not of their sorrows, and thereafter her name was never mentioned by him, save to one who was his other self. Yet we know that the memory of gentle words which she had uttered and the lessons she had taught remained with him to the end.
Pleasant reading are the notes from his classmates which followed him to Belfast on his sad journey, — very full of affectionate sympathy, they all breathe a simple faith in a future life which has in it something very touching. Mr. Thayer sent him a full account of the incidents of Class Day: “Stubby Child75 told Joe [Choate] that he had no idea that there was anyone in the class of ’52 who could write so good a poem and Joe read it very well but they all missed you.”
Law was the family profession, and although there had been no question as to what should be Williamson’s career, the shadow of his mother’s death turned his mind for a time to more serious things and he considered entering the ministry. It is pretty to see the sage solemnity with which those of his friends to whom he confided his possible change of programme discussed the pros and cons, the chief argument for the church being that it might leave him freer for the literary life for which they thought him fitted. This was but a passing fancy, although Mr. Williamson did not enter the law school until 1853. In the autumn of 1852, through the instrumentality of his friend Mr. Choate, he was offered a position as tutor in the family of John Appleton Haven (H. C. 1813). Mr. Haven’s home was at Fort Washington on the Hudson; being blessed with a quiverful of seven daughters, he was in the habit, as was the extraordinary custom of the time, of turning loose into his dove cot as preceptor a susceptible young man in the first flush of his college honors. They were a charming and cultivated family, and there Williamson passed a delightful winter as tutor to the three youngest daughters, all girls of brilliancy and promise. His predecessor in office had been James Coolidge Carter (H. C. 1850),76 and Mr. Choate writes Williamson, laughingly, in one of his letters to beware of the perils of his position because “Carter was smashed immediately.” The merry words read sadly in the light of after years, for it was well known to his intimate friends that it was his love for the fair girl whose tragic end was even then so near at hand which made Mr. Carter a lifelong bachelor. In January, 1855, three years after Mr. Williamson had left Fort Washington, fire broke out in the Haven mansion one evening while Mr. and Mrs. Haven were away, and the three youngest daughters were burned to death. The terrible accident was the occasion of the following stanzas which Mr. Williamson wrote and published in the New York Evening Post on the twenty-third of January:
The three sisters were buried side by side; white roses lay upon their breasts, and the caskets were crowned with flowers.
Oh, bear them to their rest!
White roses on their breasts, and in their hands;
Through slumber, deep and blest,
They pass in beauty, to the eternal lands.
Theirs was no outworn life,
Of broken hopes and ill-remembered vows;
The world’s sad care and strife
Had traced no sorrow on their marble brows.
Oh, call them not too young!
God’s peace was on their lips — their life was love.
Long was their stay — too long
For angels who had left their homes above.
The weeping spring shall come,
And strew the paths they loved with tender green;
The jay shall build her home
In arbors where their favorite haunts have been.
They shall come back no more;
Morning shall miss their glad, sweet smiles, and deep
The pines’ perpetual roar
Break o’er the spot where, side by side, they sleep.
And will ye still complain,
Whose cheeks with unavailing tears are wet?
They shall be yours again!
Beyond this prison house of dark regret.
If perfect sight were ours,
Ye could not mourn them lost, but humbly say:
“The Father gave these flowers,
And the dear Father taketh them away.”
White roses on their breasts and in their hands;
Through slumber, deep and blest,
They pass in beauty, to the eternal lands.
In 1855 Mr. Williamson received his degree of LL.B. from Harvard and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in June, 1856. During the intervening years he had published poems and essays in various magazines, and was asked to contribute to several of the poetic anthologies which were then in fashion. He was invited to deliver the Fourth of July oration in his native town, and was often called upon to lecture for the Lyceum courses, at that time an important feature in New England life. On such occasions the best bedroom, despised of Dr. Holmes, was no doubt his portion. He and Melville Fuller77 had been correspondents from boyhood, and we find that the latter also appeared on the Lyceum platforms, a note returning a borrowed ten-dollar bill expressing regret that fees came in so slowly to “soldiers of fortune” like himself.
On being admitted to the Bar Mr. Williamson entered the office of Elias Hasket Derby78 and in due time became his partner; and on Mr. Derby’s retiring from practice he formed a partnership with his son, George Strong Derby,79 which lasted until the latter’s death. Their offices were in the second story of the old building on the corner of Tremont and Court streets, where Washington stopped in 1789 when he visited Boston during the first year of his presidency.
Young Williamson settled in Boston and lived during his bachelor life in the boarding-house, then quite well known, which was kept by Miss Easton80 in Bowdoin Square. He soon became a member of a rather literary circle, among whom he was called the “young Antinous.” It is safe to say that the sobriquet never reached his ears, for he was always utterly contemptuous of his personal beauty. He belonged also to several musical societies, taking lessons on the violin for many years from the late Thomas Ryan, and continued to contribute to the North American Review and Putnam’s Magazine. The College affiliations were not forgotten, and in 1857 he read a poem at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Alpha Delta Phi in New York, the orator on the occasion being Donald G. Mitchell; in the same year he was one of the directors of the Harvard Club in Boston, which had been founded in 1855 but which enjoyed only a brief existence. He was for a time interested in politics, and in 1858 and 1859 sat in the Common Council and was president of the Young Men’s Democratic Club of Boston.
In 1858 Mr. Williamson was taken by a classmate to the opera to meet the woman, then in the first bloom of her girlhood beauty, whose presence was to make his life’s chief happiness until his dying hour.81 They were married in 1863.
With the death of his law partner came one of the greatest sorrows of his life. They had been singularly congenial, Mr. Derby’s keen sense of humor and almost boyish gaiety forming a counterpoise to the other’s more serious disposition. He was thought to be recovering from rheumatic fever when the disease attacked his heart. Mr. Williamson was playing on his violin, the subject of many of Mr. Derby’s merry quips, when the news of his death was brought to him; he never played again.
Heretofore he had taken the court practice of the firm and was known as a successful advocate with both judge and jury, but he gradually withdrew from this branch of the profession and devoted himself to chamber practice, conveyancing, and the care of trust estates.
In 1861 he was made Commissioner in Insolvency, and from 1878 to 1888 he was on the School Committee of which he was president in the latter year. He was always interested in educational matters and his breadth of religious vision enabled him to hold the balance true between the claims of Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, in our increasingly heterogeneous population. He was a principal founder and counsel for the North End Savings Bank, and in 1890 was appointed one of the commissioners on the publication of the Province Laws. All other offices he invariably declined, even that of Probate Judge, concerning which he was approached at one time, holding no attractions for him. Opportunities for good are not confined to the two other liberal professions, and he did many kind deeds, gave much wise counsel for which he received no recompense, but in very truth his left hand knew not the doings of his right. Many years after his death a lady told his daughter of his being sent to her by friends when she was in the greatest trouble which can befall a woman. “He came,” she said, “and I felt as if half my burden had dropped from me.”
Mr. Williamson was an intense lover of Nature; he and his wife were of the generation which loved to roam the “meadows, hills, and groves” with a volume of Emerson, Wordsworth or Tennyson, and before the writer there rises a picture of an August afternoon in the Magnolia woods where Mr. Williamson read Wordsworth’s Ode on Immortality to a spellbound group, his beautiful voice lending fuller meaning to the words than they had ever held before, his listeners said. As a young man he was a member of the Boston Cadets. He belonged also to the Union and St. Botolph Clubs, the Harvard Musical Association, and the Examiner Club.
In 1890 a great pleasure came to him and the other members of the class of 1852 in the founding of a dining club of eight which met monthly at their different houses. Although Williamson had written a poem for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Class, in the stress and turmoil of middle life the classmates had necessarily drifted apart and the renewal of the old bond was a happiness to all.
But above all and before all his heart was in his home, his fireside, and the books he loved. During his earlier years he had given much study to the German poets. He possessed a gift for translation and for catching the spirit of the original, and his rendering into English verse of some of the shorter poems of Goethe and others is very graceful. “Happy the man,” says Dr. Holmes, “who finds his rest in the pages of some favorite classic! I know no man more to be envied than that friend of mine who for many years has given his days and nights to the loving study of Horace;”82 and by the same token, in his later years, Mr. Williamson devoted himself to the study of Horatius Flaccus. He translated many of the Odes and became indeed one of the foremost Horatian scholars in the country. He left also unfinished notes on the allusions, plagiarisms and quotations from Horace to be found in English and German literature from a very early period to the present day. In recognition of his scholarship, in 1901 he was elected a member of the Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He had a collection of the best editions of Horace, many of them very rare and valuable, — published in France and Germany as well as in England. They were left by Mrs. Williamson to the Harvard College Library.
The last poem which Mr. Williamson ever wrote was the sonnet which he read at the meeting of this Society held in memory of his chum James Bradley Thayer;83 and his last literary work was the memoir of his older brother, Judge Joseph Williamson of Belfast, whose death preceded his own by six months.84 He had been for some time in failing health and the end came at his summer home in Weston on June thirteenth, 1903.85
Mr. Williamson was elected a Resident Member of this Society in April, 1893.
If, to transpose the line of Goldsmith, “Virtues may lean to failing’s side,” perhaps Mr. Williamson’s greatest fault was an excess of modesty in that he could never realize the fullness “of the argument his life to his neighbor’s creed had lent.” After his death letters came to his wife from persons he had scarcely known telling of the deep impression and lasting influence his character had made upon the writers. The motto of his race Constare in Sententio was exemplified in him, for above all he was unswerving and faithful. With great gentleness of personality was blended a charm, the accompaniment perhaps of his poetic nature, which inspired in his friends a tenderness of affection such as men usually reserve for women, but with all his gentleness, let any question of honor or principle be involved and he was as rock — gentle still — calm, but absolutely unbending.
One of his friends wrote of him in the summer of his death:
It is of incalculable value to us when any man lives out his own life to the end, true to the best. This was his life. He lived his own life, not another’s and in his own way. He was true to his principles, true to himself and could not be false to anyone. “I have kept the faith.” Immersed in the details of his profession, with the burden upon him of the interests of many clients whose welfare was never for a moment overlooked or forgotten, his poetic nature lived undisturbed. The music of his soul caught no discordant notes from the turmoil of his profession. He was a scholar from first to last, a poet by nature and achievement.
In truth, no words could apply to him more fitly than those with which he closed the memoir of his brother:
How happy is he born and taught,
Who serveth not another’s will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the worldly care
Of public fame, or public breath;
* * * *
This man is freed from servile bands,
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.