DECEMBER MEETING, 1927

    A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at the invitation of Mr. Frederic Winthrop, at No. 299 Berkeley Street, Boston, on Thursday, December 15, 1927, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President, Samuel Eliot Morison, in the chair.

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

    Mr. George P. Anderson read a paper on “Thomas Walley, 1725–1806, A Colonial Dock Square Merchant.”

    Mr. Percival Merritt exhibited a small eighteenth-century book for children, entitled The History and Description of the Famous Cathedral of Saint Paul’s, London, printed in London in 1741. It bore on its titlepage the name of the youthful owner, Abigail Davenport, carefully printed out by the child herself. Attention was called to the fact that the book contained a “List of Subscribers” — a feature unusual in juvenile books though common enough in books for adults. In this list of about three hundred names of “Little Masters and Misses” there were four which were followed by the address of “Boston, New-England,” viz., “Miss Nabby Davenport,” “Master Sammy Mather,” “Miss Polly Oliver,” and “Master Natty Rogers.” These four children were nieces and nephews of Governor Thomas Hutchinson. The first was the original owner of the book, the second was the son of the Rev. Samuel Mather and the grandson of the Rev. Cotton Mather, and the third was the daughter of Andrew Oliver. It was suggested that Hutchinson, who was sent to England in the fall of 1740, probably went to the Guildhall and visited the stall of Thomas Boreman, the publisher of the book, and, learning that it was shortly to be issued, ordered copies for the four little nieces and nephews to be taken to them when he returned to Boston late in 1741.

    engraved for the colonial society of massachusetts from the original owned by mr. percival merritt