FEBRUARY MEETING, 1893.

A Stated Meeting of the Society was held in the Hall of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, No. 10 Beacon Street, Boston, on Wednesday, 15 February, 1893, at four o’clock in the afternoon, the President in the chair.

On calling the meeting to order, Dr. Gould spoke as follows: —

Our Society holds to-day what may properly be regarded as its inaugural meeting; for although its fourteen original corporators have necessarily convened for the purpose of fulfilling various duties required by law, and for the choice of a few members to take part in its fuller organization and equipment, this meeting is the first devoted to the especial purposes for which we have associated.

It seems strange that, amid the multitude of formal organizations existing in our community for the commemoration of great deeds, the furtherance of important principles, mutual aid and encouragement in the fulfilment of common desires, and joint action for promoting the interests of particular classes, there has hitherto been none distinctly and pre-eminently dedicated to the noble ends designated in our Charter.

The achievements of that later generation of our sires, which won for us independence and nationality, establishing not only more liberal institutions, but likewise a home for the outcast and a refuge for the oppressed of other lands, are now widely commemorated by a grateful Nation. But the memory of the ancestors who made those men what they were has largely failed to receive a similar pious service from those in whose veins their blood still flows.

According to the estimate of Mr. Savage, nineteen-twentieths of the population of New England in 1775 “were descendants of those found here in 1692, and probably seven-eighths of them were offspring of the settlers before 1642.” To form an estimate of the proportion to-day would be a task from which any one of us would shrink. And even though the descendants of Pilgrims and Puritans might proudly invite such an estimate if applied to the men whose example, attainments, and patriotism have hitherto shaped the sentiment, aroused the conscience, and represented the intellectual vigor of the community, still their total number is naturally limited; and the vast tide of humanity which now pours ceaselessly upon our shores threatens to overwhelm the progeny of those who established the harbors of refuge, and opened wide the welcoming floodgates.

Yet the men of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay were they who founded the State, they whose influence and principles, gradually freed from such intolerance and superstition as belonged to their era in all countries, developed institutions and gave practical expression to ideas which were the germs of our own still freer institutions, and which, expanded by their descendants, have emancipated a hemisphere, and indeed have leavened the world. Such men cannot be forgotten, any more than can the valor of their children. And now that the great achievements of their progeny in the third and fourth generations are duly and almost universally commemorated, every sentiment of pious reverence and gratitude calls upon us to keep green the memory of the ancestors who reclaimed the wilderness, battled against the insidious savage, reared their families in the knowledge and the love of God, and instilled into them the principles whose fruits we know. They were a sturdy, valiant, God-fearing race. If sometimes intolerant, the fault sprang from an intensity of religious fervor and zeal; if superstition found foothold among them or their children, it was no more the case with them than with their contemporaries on the other side of the ocean; but their uprightness, self-sacrifice, and high aspirations were paralleled nowhere. Sprung mostly from honorable ancestry, bringing in their veins the best blood of the mother country, they became a race by themselves. “A more homogeneous stock,” says Savage, “cannot be seen, I think, in any so extensive region, at any time, since that when the ark of Noah discharged its passengers on Mt. Ararat, except in the few centuries elapsing before the confusion of Babel. What honorable ancestry the body of New England population may assert, has often been proclaimed in glowing language; but the words of William Stoughton, in his election sermon, 1668, express the sentiment with no less happiness than brevity:” “God sifted a whole Nation that he might send choice Grain over into this Wilderness.”

We are associated to render, so far as in us lies, our grateful homage to the memory of these our ancestors, to commemorate their good deeds, to investigate the influences and agencies which brought them here, to examine the true character of the actions for which they have been criticised or censured in later days; but, above all, to draw inspiration from their example and devotion at the same time that we hope to aid in perpetuating the remembrance of their virtues and lofty deeds.

There is abundant opportunity for activity, even though our field of action may appear comparatively small. If it were truly so, so much the more earnest should be the energy concentrated upon it. We do not encroach upon the special fields of other societies engaged with so much success in kindred work. Of such I know of but three active in our immediate community, — one now chiefly devoted to historical, one to antiquarian, and one to genealogical research. There is more than ample scope for all, and we desire to avoid any interference in matters within their special province. Of our great respect for them, and our hope to maintain with them the most cordial relations, we have already given proof, and not without sacrifice sufficient to attest the sincerity of this profession. We hope to receive their co-operation in the future, and not to be remiss ourselves in reciprocating it.

Four weeks ago to-day the first election of members was held, and a limited number were chosen, the official notifications, however, being withheld until definite action should have been taken toward changing the Society’s corporate name. Within the next following week the first gap in that short list was made by the afflictive bereavement over which this whole community is yet mourning. Some other highly valued names have as yet failed of inscription upon our roll, by reason of severe illness; but we trust that this is only for a short time; and we have reason for satisfaction that so considerable a number of the names most frequently heard upon these shores, two centuries and a half ago, are already enrolled to join in rendering due honor to those who then made them illustrious.

The limitation of the number of our members imposes on us the duty of selecting them with great deliberation. Should the names to be reported from the Council to-day meet with your approval, one half at least of the permitted number will have been reached. Let me express the earnest hope that the members of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts may always find reason for a just and laudable pride in their position and their Fellowship; and likewise my conviction that this hope will be fulfilled. Gentlemen, it is my privilege to bid you welcome, and to declare this meeting open for regular business.

The records of the January meeting and of the Special Meeting were read and approved.

The Corresponding Secretary made the report of the Council recommending a change in the By-Laws, and offered the following vote: —

Voted, That Chapter I., Article 1, of the By-Laws be amended by striking out the words “The Massachusetts Society,” and substituting therefor the words “The Colonial Society of Massachusetts.”

There were nineteen votes in the affirmative and none in the negative; and the amendment was adopted.

The following-named gentlemen were unanimously elected Resident Members: —

James Barr Ames.	George Lyman Kittredge.
Charles Warren Clifford.	Gardiner Martin Lane.
Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight.	George Martin Lane.
William Crowninshield Endicott.	William Lawrence.
Charles Montraville Green.	Philip Howes Sears.
Henry Williams.

Professor James B. Thayer then made the first public announcement of the fact that the Corporation of Harvard College had recently voted to re-establish the Lady Mowlson Scholarship, founded in 1643, — the first scholarship at Harvard, — by setting apart for that purpose the sum of five thousand dollars; and he further remarked that it was mainly through the exertions of a member of this Society, Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis, that the mystery which so long shrouded the founder of this scholarship had been cleared, and the original documents disclosed.6

Mr. Davis then read the following paper7: —

historical work in massachusetts.

The Society which assembles here to-day to hold its inaugural meeting was incorporated 29 December, 1892, under the name of The Massachusetts Society. Shortly thereafter, information was conveyed to the incorporators that certain members of the Massachusetts Historical Society were of opinion that confusion might arise from the similarity of the names and the purposes of the two organizations. Steps were therefore promptly taken to change the name of this Society to The Colonial Society of Massachusetts. The purposes set forth in the Certificate of Incorporation are “collecting and preserving mementoes of our Colonial Ancestors; propagating knowledge of their lives and deeds by the publication of ancient documents and records; cultivating an interest in the history of our Country, and more especially of the Colonies of Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay; encouraging individual research into the part taken by our forefathers in the building of our Nation; promoting intelligent discussion of events in which the people of our Commonwealth have been concerned, in order that justice may be done to participants and false claims silenced; and inspiring among our members a spirit of fellowship based upon a proper appreciation of our common ancestry.”

Our seal illustrates the idea upon which claims for membership in the Society must be based. The dates represent, respectively, the foundation of Plymouth Colony; the establishment of a full form of government in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay under a Governor having the charter in his possession; the union of the Colonies under the provincial government, and the establishment, two hundred years after the last event, of a Society composed of members who, according to the terms of its By-Laws, must prove their lineal descent from ancestors who were residents of one or both of these Colonies.

The field of work which may be expected to prove attractive to members of the Society is suggested in the Certificate of Incorporation. A glance at its phraseology reveals at once the salient points, — colonial ancestry in colonial history, the deeds of our forefathers and the fellowship of their descendants. The question has been asked, Is there room for such a society, and is there work for it to do? The answer can best be made after an examination of what has been accomplished by societies engaged in work of this nature in Massachusetts, a glance at what is now being done, and a review of the methods now in use to promote and foster such work throughout the Commonwealth. As a preliminary to any such examination, it will be well to understand precisely what we propose to do. At first thought it might seem easy to define this purpose. The objects of this Society have already been pronounced to be similar to those of the Massachusetts Historical Society. If we are an historical society, then our researches may be confined to historical and antiquarian societies. But how shall we define such societies? We cannot limit our investigation to those which specifically include the words “historical” or “antiquarian” in their corporate title. Neither of these words appears in our own title. We cannot accept the language of charters as the test. If we should do so, we should exclude the Massachusetts Historical Society, which was incorporated simply to collect and preserve historical material, and we should lose the benefit of the example of the American Antiquarian Society, the alleged purpose of which was to collect antiquities and curiosities. Measured by the language of their charters, these Societies are mere collectors. It is evident, therefore, that we must settle upon some definition of the work which has been or is being performed, and by that test determine whether we shall include any given society in our list, irrespective of its name or the language of its charter.

It is obvious that the labor of applying such a test is greatly enlarged from what would be the case if we could rely simply upon the name of the Society. Moreover, the probability of arriving at accurate results is somewhat diminished. Nevertheless, I conceive that what we want to know practically is, What have those societies in Massachusetts accomplished which collect and publish historical material? We shall be compelled, in any event, to look up the work of all organizations which by title are either historical or antiquarian; but the demand that the work of all other societies shall include publishing as well as collecting will relieve us from the necessity of considering a large number of corporations like our athenæums and public libraries, which are engaged in collecting historical material, but which do not publish, and do not intend to publish, what they collect. Let me quote from the Certificate of Incorporation of the Barre Library Association a part of the purposes therein set forth, to show how nearly the functions of this Association correspond with our own. Certain of these purposes are, “providing and supporting courses of lectures on scientific, historical, literary, and other subjects; forming and maintaining a museum containing specimens in natural history, works of art, antiquities, and other objects of interest; and for the purpose of collecting the annals of said town and the genealogies of the inhabitants.” If you will examine the first Report of the Free Library Commission of Massachusetts, prepared by Mr. C. B. Tillinghast, and published in 1891,8 you will find that a large number of the librarians distinctly assert that they have made a point of making their libraries places for the deposit of material for local history. In Lancaster, under the influence of the Hon. Henry S. Nourse, “an earnest and persistent effort has been made to obtain every book, pamphlet, or manuscript known to contain noteworthy mention of Lancaster’s settlement, growth, institutions, or people.” It may be added that this particular effort has been crowned with conspicuous success, and, further, that the distribution of this Report among the librarians cannot fail to render them practically unanimous in the disposition to make similar efforts in their respective localities. Notwithstanding the fact that by the terms of my definition of an historical society I am precluded from considering the work of these libraries, I consider that work of such importance that I cannot pass it by in silence. With the recommendation that you examine the Report to which I have referred, I pass to the consideration of the work of those societies which by title, by promise, and by performance may claim to be historical societies.

the massachusetts historical society.

The oldest organization in this country for historical work is the Massachusetts Historical Society. In August, 1790, Rev. Jeremy Belknap, D.D., drafted a plan of an antiquarian society, in which the proposed purposes were set forth as follows: —

Each member, on his admission, shall engage to use his utmost endeavors to collect and commimicate to the Society manuscripts, printed books, and pamphlets, historical facts, biographical anecdotes, observations in natural history, specimens of natural and artificial curiosities, and any other matters which may elucidate the natural and political history of America from the earliest times to the present day.

The original of this paper is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and there can be no doubt that in this document we have a record of the first step taken toward the formation of that Society. The first regular meeting of the Historical Society of which the records are given in the Proceedings was held 24 January, 1791. This meeting was attended by eight gentlemen, of whom Dr. Belknap was one. But there is in a letter-book a record by Dr. Belknap of the names of five gentlemen, first associated in 1790, followed by the names of five other gentlemen, who were said to have been elected by the first five, each nominating one. This list was headed, “A Catalogue of the Members of the Historical Society, in the order in which they were elected;” and the names of the members subsequently elected were entered under this heading for some time thereafter.

At the first regular meeting a Constitution was adopted. The following extract from that paper will indicate the intention of the associates: —

The preservation of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and records containing historical facts, biographical anecdotes, temporary projects, and beneficial speculations conduces to mark the genius, delineate the manners, and trace the progress of society in the United States, and must always have a useful tendency to rescue the true history of this country from the ravages of time and the effects of ignorance and neglect.

A collection of observations and descriptions in natural history and topography, together with specimens of natural and artificial curiosities and a selection of every thing which can improve and promote the historical knowledge of our country, either in a physical or political view, has long been considered as a desideratum; and as such a plan can be best executed by a society whose sole and special care shall be confined to the above objects, we, the subscribers, do agree to form such an institution, and to associate for the above purposes.

Four Stated Meetings each year were provided for in the Constitution, and provision was made for holding Special Meetings. All communications which should be thought worthy of preservation were to be entered at large or minuted in the books of the Society; and the originals were to be kept on file. All accounts were to be kept in dollars and cents.

The Society, 1 November, 1791, sent out a circular letter soliciting subscriptions to a weekly paper, to be called “The American Apollo,” — asking for detailed information concerning the settlement, history, and statistics of the towns in the Commonwealth, and announcing that contributions to the library or museum of the Society would be accepted with thanks. Enclosed with this circular letter was a prospectus of “The American Apollo,” addressed “to all the Friends of Science, Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce.” It stated that the paper would contain “the publications of the Historical Society, Political and Commercial Intelligence, and other entertaining matter.” If a sufficient number of subscribers to defray the expense of publication should be returned by the twentieth of December, 1791, the publication was to begin on the first Friday of January, 1792. The subsequent history of this venture shows that the subscription list was not well enough patronized to provide for the permanent maintenance of the serial; but the promoters of the enterprise found sufficient encouragement in the situation to comply with their conditional promise, and on the sixth of January, 1792, they issued the first number of the “Apollo.” Its titlepage showed that, in addition to the publications of the Historical Society, it contained “Essays, Moral, Political, and Poetical, and the daily occurrences in the Natural, Civil, and Commercial World.” Thirty-nine numbers were issued in this form, when the “Apollo” cut adrift from the Historical Society, and attempted an independent existence as a newspaper. Thereafter the publications of the Society were separately issued. The records show the deep interest which the members took in the matter, the various expedients which they proposed, and the devices to which they resorted to stimulate public interest in what they felt was a matter of public importance. Notwithstanding the prominence of the men who had the work in hand, the publication of the Collections for the years 1796 and 1797 was suspended for want of funds. Indeed, from that date down to the time when the Society was endowed with a publication fund, lack of means or other causes interfered from time to time with the regular issue of this series of volumes.

The Historical Society continued its work under the Constitution adopted at its first meeting, in 1791, until February, 1794, when it was incorporated under the name of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The purposes of the Society were briefly set forth in the Articles of Incorporation to be “the collection and preservation of materials for a political and natural history of the United States;” and such they nominally are to-day. The prominence given by the founders of the Society to the accumulation of a museum of curiosities brought from the public a miscellaneous assortment of gifts, some of which were evidently of doubtful value. Perhaps it was this which led to the passage of a vote in January, 1794, that “Dr. Belknap, Dr. Cutler, and Dr. Dexter be a committee to make additions to the circular letter, in which they will solicit donations for the cabinet, give directions for the necessary preservation of the several objects of natural history, and request further information on that subject.” The fourth volume of the Collections was issued in 1795, and was prefaced with a circular letter “respectfully addressed to every gentleman of Science in the Continent and Islands of America.” This letter was subdivided into sections, as follows: —

1. Articles on which the Society request information.
2. A list of the topics to be included in the collection of materials for the civil and ecclesiastical history of the country.
3. Directions for preserving animals and parts of animals.
4. Dr. Cutler’s method of preserving the skins of birds.
5. Mr. Peck’s methods of preserving animals and their skins.
6. A method of preserving birds and other animals, from the Philosophical Transactions recommended by Dr. Lettsom in his “Traveller’s Companion.”
7. Method of collecting and preserving vegetables, by Dr. Lettsom.
8. Mr. Peck’s method of taking impressions of vegetable leaves by means of smoke.
9. Method of preserving marine productions.
10. In collecting mineral and fossil substances, the following particulars are to be attended to.

When, in 1833, the Society removed to its present location a portion of the collections thus obtained were deposited in the cabinet of the Boston Society of Natural History. Subsequently the Peabody Institute of Archæology and Ethnology received nearly all the remaining articles adapted to the purpose of its museum.9

While the Society was still in its infancy, James Sullivan, its first President, pointed out a field of labor for its members, in which he himself was a pioneer, and where he evidently hoped that he should have followers among his associates. In the Dedication of his History of Land Titles in Massachusetts10 he thus addresses his fellow-members: —

To the Members of the Historical Society.

Brethren, — Our Society was formed by the government, under an expectation that our exertions would collect and preserve the means for furnishing a complete history of our country. The history of our politics and wars is very interesting and important; the natural history of our country will not be neglected; but the history of the laws and jurisprudence of a nation boasting the blessings of a free and equal government cannot be of less consequence to the community, and even to the world.…

It is obvious that Dr. Sullivan thought that labor in historical jurisprudence, however important it might be, was not likely to prove attractive to his brother-members, nor can it be denied that his judgment has proved to be, in the main, well founded. Yet we cannot fail to recognize the beneficial effects produced by this and other similar societies when their efforts have been put forth in behalf of the publication by the Commonwealth of the Province Laws. We owe the Society a debt of thanks for the share it has taken in standing by the Editor of those volumes in the chronic warfare which has been waged against their publication.

A glance at the list of members of this Society from the date of its foundation to the present time will show that the majority of them have been men who have distinguished themselves in their separate walks of life, and have thus brought honor upon the Society to which they belonged. So manifest is this fact that one might hesitate to say whether the distinction of the Society might not better rest upon the reputation of its members than upon the work which it has done, were it not that he would be confronted by the prodigious extent and value of that work. Merely to enumerate the names of the distinguished men who have contributed to build up the fame of the Society would be a formidable undertaking; and every attempt at an analysis of the work represented by the twenty-seven volumes of Proceedings and fifty-five volumes of Collections, would far transcend the limits of the space at my command. In the sixth volume of the Second Series of the Proceedings, the Librarian has given a partial bibliography of the Society, which will indicate the task which lies before him who undertakes to tell what may be found in these volumes. The Proceedings contain papers submitted by members at the regular meetings, and discussions of topics raised by their consideration. These papers cover a broad range of subjects, and many of them contain researches of great importance to historical writers. Indeed, it may safely be asserted that no student engaged in the investigation of a topic connected directly or indirectly with the history of Massachusetts can afford to neglect these volumes. The subject would be rare and recondite which would not find light already thrown upon it by some of the papers published therein.

The key-note to the character of the original material which is to be found in the earlier volumes of the Collections is set by the “Articles on which the Society request information,” contained in the circulars which they sent out. It was obvious that the Society wished to concentrate information concerning the early settlements of the towns of the Commonwealth, their growth and prosperity, and the history of their churches, schools, and industries, in such form as to be accessible to the historian. Some of the information sought for was lodged in the memories of old men, and would be lost unless placed on record; nearly all would be of little value if it remained in this scattered form.

The appeal of the Society stirred up an interest in the minds of local antiquaries, and brought forth many communications covering the points concerning which information was asked. The public also responded to the request for the deposit of manuscripts, etc.; and the pages of the early volumes of the Collections bear testimony to the success of the circular. The value of the individual communications depends upon two variable factors, — the fitness of the writer for the work, and the materials which he had at command. A glance at these volumes will show that the character of contributions and the methods of editing have improved very much in later years. Only those who have intimate knowledge of the subjects of the papers can testify as to their respective value; but no person would attempt the history of any of the older Massachusetts towns without consulting the Collections. With regard to the manuscripts relating to general topics, which were selected for publication, we stand on safer ground. Their value is universally recognized, and contributes largely to the reputation of the Society. If no other publications had been issued by the Society than Gookin’s Historical Collections of the Indians, Hubbard’s History of New England, The Body of Liberties, and Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, the members might still be satisfied with the record. The pride taken by those who aided in giving Bradford’s History to the world is understood by all historical students. No doubt their predecessors felt a similar glow of pleasure when Hubbard’s work was published, and the reading public of that day were equally appreciative and grateful.11

In addition to the publication of manuscripts, another way in which the Society could be useful quickly suggested itself. There were no public libraries at that time. Books relating to the early history of this continent were rare and relatively expensive. There was an evident opportunity to bring within reach of the reading public some of these rare works, by reprinting them in the Collections, and of this opportunity they at once availed themselves. It was not, however, until after they had published quite a number of these reprints that in a prefatory notice in the fifth volume (Second Series) a statement was made of the purpose of the Society in this direction, in the following words: “The Historical Society consider it to be one important object of their Institution to multiply copies of rare and valuable works relative to the country.” This prefatory note introduced Hubbard’s History, which was first offered to the public in volumes five and six of the Second Series of the Collections; and the note concludes with a statement to the effect that the History had never been published. It may be that, in speaking of multiplying copies of rare and valuable works, they referred solely to the publication of manuscripts; but it seems more likely that the reference was intended to include the work of reprinting rare volumes, in which they had already made great progress.

When they first embarked upon this enterprise, the mistake was made of attempting to select for publication portions only of the works which were to be reprinted. It was soon discovered, however, that what one person would choose to omit might be the very portion which another person would wish to print. It will be found, therefore, as a result of these different opinions, that parts of some of these reprints are given in separate volumes. The selection first given in the Collections not adequately meeting the wants of readers, the omitted portions were inserted in subsequent issues. Very little effort was made in the way of editing these early reprints, yet when we think of the place that they filled in the libraries of the early part of this century, we can realize how they must have been welcomed by the students of the day. A glance at the titles of some of them will show how great is the value of the Collections in this direction alone. We find here, — New England’s First Fruits; Roger Williams’s Key into the Language of America; Mourt’s Relation; Good News from New England; Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence; John Dunton’s Journal; New England’s Jonah Cast Up; Eliot’s Indian Grammar begun; New England’s Salamander; Capt. John Smith’s Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters; Plain Dealing in Newes from New England; Josselyn’s Two Voyages; Sir Ferdinando Gorges Briefe Narrative; Capt. John Smith’s Description of New England; Gosnold’s Letter and Archer’s and Brereton’s Account of Gosnold’s Voyage; Rosier’s True Relation of Waymouth’s Voyage; Levett’s Voyage to New England in 1623; Strachey’s History of Travaile into Virginia; Ill Newes from New England.

It will be understood, of course, that I am not undertaking to give a bibliography of the Society. I have selected these titles to illustrate the value of the work done in two directions, — the publication from manuscript of historical works and the reprinting of rare books. The enumeration of these titles speaks volumes of praise for the work of the Society.

The later numbers of the Collections have been devoted to the publication of papers which have been placed in the custody of the Society. They include selections from the Hinckley, the Winthrop, the Mather, the Aspinwall, the Belknap, the Heath, the Warren, the Trumbull, and the Sewall papers and Sewall’s Letter-Book. These publications are creditable in appearance, and have been admirably edited. The papers which have just been mentioned fill the last twenty volumes of the Collections; yet they constitute but a part of the treasures of this kind, in the possession of the Society, awaiting their turn for examination, selection, and publication. The archives of the Society have from the beginning been favorably regarded by those who had material of this sort which they wished to place in safe-keeping. For many years they furnished the only place in New England where such a deposit could properly be made; and since by their publications they have added to their reputation, it has remained a favorite place for such deposits, notwithstanding the existence of other societies engaged in similar work.

It is difficult to tell what one might not hope to find in searching these volumes of manuscript. A chance word here, a phrase used there, may unlock some mystery or tell some story to the watchful eye, which to the casual observer might have no special significance. An illustration will perhaps better convey my meaning. The tradition of the Palatine Light, which is reported to have been seen off Block Island at irregular intervals for more than a century, has served Whittier and Higginson as a subject for verse, and has been used by Dr. Hale as the incentive for a story. The local antiquaries have never been able to settle with precision whether the name of the Light came from a ship that was wrecked on Block Island, or from the castaways themselves. Although tradition points steadily towards a shipwreck as the basis of the name, and the tendency is in favor of the derivation from the passengers rather than the ship, yet the date of the shipwreck is in obscurity. Now, it happened that in looking over the Colman papers, I found a reference to a contribution collected by Colman in behalf of some shipwrecked Palatines on Block Island. Unfortunately the draft of the letter was not dated, although it seemed probable that it was written between 1732 and 1740. If the letter had been dated, I should have felt certain that the mystery which had puzzled the Block Island historians could be removed.12 The question at issue is not important; but there are many people interested in it, and it is but one of hundreds which the publication of these manuscripts will help to answer.

The statement is made in the “Notes on Special Collections in American Libraries,” No. 45, Bibliographical Contributions, issued by the Library of Harvard University, that this collection is “probably the largest mass of historical MSS. possessed by any similar American society, going back to the earliest periods of American history.” A calendar of them is in preparation.

At the second meeting of the Society the members handed in lists of books which they were willing to contribute towards the foundation of a library. Being thus early in the field, the Society have a good collection of Americana, which was greatly enriched by the copies in the Dowse Library. They have also many files of early newspapers. Special attention has been given of late to New England local history; and the library is rich in town and county histories. The subject of the recent war has been selected as a topic worthy of special illustration, and a collection of one thousand nine hundred volumes and four thousand eight hundred pamphlets treating of that subject has been secured.13 The last published catalogue was printed in 1860. Later accessions are to be found in the manuscript catalogue. The Society have a cabinet of medals and relics and a collection of historical portraits.

The funds of the Society, through gifts and bequests, now in the possession of the Treasurer, amount to a little over one hundred and seventy-four thousand dollars. In this estimate the valuable real estate occupied in part by the Society is set down at the modest sum of one hundred and three thousand dollars. The fund in which non-members of the Society are most interested is the publication fund. The greater part of the income heretofore used by the Society to meet the expense of their publications has come from the munificent gift of George Peabody, whose name is associated with so many enterprises, designed to benefit his fellow-men. The Society stand in the Treasurer’s books debtor to that fund to-day a little over twenty-two thousand dollars; and it is mainly through this liberal gift that the great work of publication in which they are now engaged, has been carried on.

The membership was limited in the Constitution to thirty. In the Charter it was enacted that the number of members should never be more than sixty, excepting Honorary Members residing without the limits of this Commonwealth. It has always been the custom of the Society to keep upon their roll of Honorary or Corresponding Members a goodly array of names of distinguished men from all parts of the world. In 1857, power was conferred upon the Society to increase its Resident Membership to one hundred, and to elect Corresponding and Honorary Members, no limit being fixed to their number. Stated meetings were originally held once a quarter. In 1833, the By-Laws were changed, since which time they have been held monthly.

the american antiquarian society.

In 1812 another Society was organized whose purpose, so far as can be inferred from the petition for a Charter and from the language of the Charter itself, was to establish a museum and a depository for materials which would be of use to future historians. The movement for the incorporation of this Society took place in Worcester. The name selected was the “American Antiquarian Society.” The subscribers to the petition stated that, “influenced by a desire to contribute to the advancement of the Arts and Sciences, and to aid, by their individual and united efforts, in collecting and preserving such materials as may be useful in marking their progress, not only in the United States, but in other parts of the globe, and wishing also to assist the researches of the future historians of our country,” they would “respectfully represent to the Legislature that, in their opinion, the establishment of an Antiquarian Society within this Commonwealth would conduce essentially to the attainment of these objects.”

The Charter which was granted in response to this petition set forth the purposes of the Society in the preamble as follows: “Whereas, the collection and preservation of the Antiquities of our country, and of curious and valuable productions in art and nature, have a tendency to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge, aid the progress of science, perpetuate the history of moral and political events, and to improve and interest posterity; Therefore, be it enacted,” etc. It was provided in the Act of Incorporation that the library and museum of the Society should be kept in the town of Worcester. This location of the Society was natural, since the first movement towards its incorporation originated in Worcester; but the introduction into its Charter of the clause requiring the library and museum to be kept there probably arose from the views on the subject of Isaiah Thomas, who may be said to have been the founder of the Society. It was stated in the petition for a Charter that one of the subscribers was in possession of a valuable collection of books, obtained with great labor and expense, the value of which might be fairly estimated at about five thousand dollars, some of them more ancient than were to be found in any other part of our country, and all of which he proposed to transfer to the proposed Society. Isaiah Thomas is the person alluded to. His opinions, therefore, were regarded with deference. It is said that he not only feared the perils of conflagration to which such a collection would be exposed in Boston, but that he regarded the increased danger on the seaboard, from the ravages of a foreign enemy in time of war, as a sufficient reason for wishing the books and curiosities of the Society to be retained in an interior town.

In 1819, Mr. Thomas offered to build, at his own expense, a suitable edifice for the use of the Society. The offer was accepted, and the building erected in pursuance thereof was dedicated in 1820. An address to members, prepared in 1819, brings to our view an evident fear on the part of the Society that its organization under a State charter might obscure the national character of its work. In the same address we find a definition of the specific field of work to which the Society proposed to devote its energies. The language used is as follows: —

This local authority [that is, the Legislature of Massachusetts] was resorted to from doubts having been expressed whether Congress had the power to grant a charter without the District of Columbia. Its members are selected from all parts of the Union. Its respectability is inferred from its numbers, and from its comprising men of the first standing and intelligence in the nation, and some of first distinction in other countries. The objects of this institution are commensurate with the lapse of time, and its benefits will be more and more accumulating in the progression of ages. As the antiquities of our country, by various means, are rapidly decreasing, an institution whose business will be to collect and preserve such as remain and can be obtained must be viewed as highly important. The chief objects of the inquiries and researches of this Society, which cannot too soon arrest its attention, will be American Antiquities, — natural, artificial, and literary.

The membership of the Society is limited to one hundred and forty persons, and has always been distributed throughout the Union. An examination of a recent list shows that twenty-one States and the District of Columbia were, at the date of its publication, represented in the Society by active or domestic members. The list of foreign members, though small, is made up exclusively of men of great distinction from all parts of the civilized world.

Stated meetings of the Society are held semi-annually in April and October. The Annual Meeting in October, at which officers are elected, is held in Worcester in Antiquarian Hall. The April meeting is held in Boston in the Hall of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The building now occupied by the Society, known as Antiquarian Hall, was completed in 1858.

The bibliography of the Society was compiled by Nathaniel Paine, and was printed in 1876 in a pamphlet entitled “Account of the American Antiquarian Society, with a List of its Publications. Prepared for the International Exhibition of 1876.” Another list of the publications of the Society, prepared by the same author, was published by the Society in 1883. A bibliography brought down to a still later date is given in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the year 1890. Seven volumes, entitled “Archæologia Americana, Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society,” were published 1820–85. Besides these, various scattered reports of meetings, addresses, and proceedings were published from time to time. Since 1849, the Proceedings have been regularly printed. They include Reports of the Council and of officers, and original papers read at the meetings.

The following selections from the publications in the “Archæologia Americana” will indicate the character of the contents of these volumes: Hennepin’s Account of the Discovery of the River Mississippi, etc.; A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America, by Albert Gallatin, LL. D.; An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians of New England, by Daniel Gookin; Records of the Company of the Massachusetts Bay, to the Embarkation of Winthrop and his Associates for New England, with an Introductory Chapter on the Origin of the Company, by Samuel F. Haven, A. M.; The Diaries of John Hull, Mint-Master and Treasurer of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, with a Memoir by Samuel Jennison, Esq.; Original Documents from the State Paper Office, London, and the British Museum, illustrating the History of Sir Walter Raleigh’s First American Colony, and the Colony at Jamestown, with an Appendix containing a Memoir of Sir Ralph Lane, edited by Rev. Edward E. Hale; A Discourse of Virginia, by Edward Maria Wingfield, edited with Notes and an Introduction by Charles Deane, A. M.; New England’s Rarities discovered by John Josselyn, Lieutenant, with an Introduction by Edward Tuckerman, A. M.; History of Printing in America, etc., by Isaiah Thomas, LL.D., being a second edition with the author’s corrections and additions, and a Catalogue of American Publications previous to the Revolution of 1776; and Note-Book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., 1638–41.

The Proceedings contain a great number of papers covering a variety of topics of historical and archaeological importance. A few titles will indicate their character: Report of the Librarian, with a Historical Sketch of Efforts at Different Periods to delineate and decipher the Inscriptions on Dighton Rock; The Early Paper Currency of Massachusetts, by Nathaniel Paine; Remarks on Recent Archæological and Anthropological Discoveries, also on the History of European Discoveries and Settlement on the Shores of the New World, and Contributions to Geographical History from the British Records Commission and Mr. Major of the British Museum, etc., by Charles Deane; Pre-historic American Occupation and Civilization, by Samuel F. Haven, Esq.; The Likelihood of an Admixture of Japanese Blood on Our North West Coast, by Horace Davis, Esq.; Origin and Early Progress of Indian Missions in New England, etc., by J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D.

A brief description of the library and cabinet, with a list of the portraits, statues, and busts contained in the Society’s hall, will be found in the pamphlet of Mr. Paine, to which reference has already been made. The same author has printed another account in the History of Worcester County.14 The subject of the library has also been topically treated, in the History of Worcester County, by Samuel S. Green, a member of the Society. The library has grown, from the little collection of books given by Isaiah Thomas, to about a hundred thousand volumes, consisting in part of pamphlets, which are estimated at ten to a volume. It has over five thousand volumes of newspapers on its shelves. Some of these are quite rare, and attract students of American history from all parts of the country. The manuscript collection is especially rich in material covering the period of the Revolution. A card-catalogue of the library is nearly completed.

the american statistical association.

The American Statistical Association was incorporated 5 February, 1841, for the purpose of “collecting, preserving, and diffusing statistical information.” The publications of this Association are given in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1890. The following titles will show the historical character of some of the contributions: Memoirs of American Discoveries, Colonization, Commerce, and Fishery, from Newfoundland to Florida, both inclusive, down to 1630, by Joseph B. Felt, LL.D.; The History of Paper Money in the Province of Massachusetts before the Revolution, with an Account of the Land Bank and the Silver Bank, by E. H. Derby; Boston’s Trade and Commerce for Forty Years, 1844–84, by Hamilton Andrews Hill, A.M. There are also two valuable statistical papers, by Dr. Felt, one relating to statistics of towns in Massachusetts, and one to statistics of population in Massachusetts. There is also an Account of the Collections of the American Statistical Association, by Samuel A. Green, M.D., in the Collections, New Series, I., 328.

the new-england historic genealogical society.

The New-England Historic Genealogical Society was incorporated 18 March, 1845, “for the purpose of collecting, preserving, and occasionally publishing genealogical and historical matter relating to early New England families, and for the establishment and maintenance of a cabinet.”

The Society has a house at 18 Somerset Street, Boston, in which are stored its cabinet and collection of manuscripts. The latter contains the well-known Knox manuscripts, the United States Census of Boston of 1790, and the Direct Tax of 1798.15 A library, rich in town histories, English parish registers, family genealogies, and works for consultation, bearing upon the special topics which interest the members, is arranged upon shelves in a cheerful hall in the upper story of the house. This hall is decorated with the portraits belonging to the Society, some of which delineate the features of those who have held office in it, while others are curious and interesting specimens of portraiture during the Colonial and Provincial periods.

The Proceedings at the Annual Meetings of the Society have been separately published each year since 1865. The Reports of the Council and of the Committees of the Society are included in this publication. Previous to 1865, the Proceedings appeared only in the Register, though some of the annual addresses were separately printed. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register is published quarterly by the Society. Forty-six volumes of this serial (1846–92) have been issued. The articles are contributed and are published under the authors’ names. The Society has no other method of reaching the public than through this serial, which is in charge of an Editor, and the Proceedings, which contain merely the President’s Annual Address and reports to the Annual Meeting. It has not been the custom of the Society to publish the papers read at its monthly meetings; nor is there any way through which members can communicate to the Society information upon topics in which they are interested, except through the pages of the Register. There is one exception to this general statement. The Society has a Historiographer, who communicates to the monthly meetings memorial sketches of deceased members, which are subsequently printed in the Register. Four volumes of Memorial Biographies have also been published, and prior to the establishment of this custom there was one volume issued by the Society, in 1878, entitled “Memoirs of Several Deceased Members,” etc. A volume entitled Rolls of Membership of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society, 1844–91, was issued in 1892. It contains a list of the officers of the Society from its foundation, a carefully prepared list of members, and elaborate classified indexes of persons and places.

The articles in the Register vary greatly in quality, since the work of writers of such diverse grades of fitness must necessarily be widely different in value. Under its present editorial management, the serial is a credit to the Society, and the vast amount of information which the forty-six volumes contain, relative to families and local history, makes its possession indispensable to every library, public or private, which makes any pretence of furnishing materials for the study of the history of New England. The early volumes are furnished with indexes of surnames only. After a time indexes of places were added. The mass of material in the latest volumes is made easy of consultation by copious classified indexes of names, places, and subjects.16

the essex institute.

The Essex Institute was formed by the union, in 1848, of the Essex Historical Society and the Essex County Natural History Society.17 The Essex Historical Society was incorporated in 1821. The purpose of the Society as stated in the Act of Incorporation was to collect and preserve materials for the civil and natural history of the County of Essex.

In April, 1859, the first number of the first volume of the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute was issued. It is there stated that “the principal object that the founders of the Essex Historical Society had in view at the organization of said Society (which in 1848 was incorporated with the Essex County Natural History Society under the name of the Essex Institute) was the collection and preservation of all authentic memorials relating to the civil history of the County of Essex in the State of Massachusetts, and of the eminent men who have resided within its limits, from the first settlement, and thus to provide ample material for a correct history of this part of the Commonwealth.” The Act of Incorporation of the Essex Institute was approved 11 February, 1848, and so far as the historical functions of the Corporation are concerned, it merely continues in force those of the Historical Society. Twenty-eight volumes of the Historical Collections were issued by the Institute in the years 1859 to 1893. Of the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, twenty-four volumes have been issued (1869–93). In the first number it is stated that “the Bulletin of the Essex Institute is intended to give the public such portions of communications made to the Essex Institute at its semi-monthly and other public meetings as are of popular interest.… Such papers as are somewhat dryly historical or rigidly scientific will be reserved for publication in another form.” The Bulletin is mainly made up of scientific articles, but contains some historical or archæological papers. The Institute has also issued six volumes of another series of papers entitled Proceedings of the Essex Institute. In the first number of the Proceedings, after describing the formation of the Institute by the union of the Historical and Natural History Societies, the statement is made that there are three departments, — History, Natural History, and Horticulture, — and the object of each department is defined. That of the Historical Department is said to be “the collection and preservation of whatever relates to the topography, antiquities, civil and ecclesiastical history, of Essex County, in Massachusetts.” The collection of portraits, relics, and household articles illustrative of the home life of the early settlers, owned by the Institute, is very complete.18

the backus historical society.

The Backus Historical Society was organized 10 March, 1853. The object of this Society is to collect and to preserve, for publication or otherwise, materials illustrative of the history of Baptist churches and of the principles by which they are distinguished in all ages and countries, but more especially those which relate to the origin and progress of the Baptist churches of New England. The Society holds annually a literary meeting at Tremont Temple, Boston, and occasionally a semi-annual meeting. The books and papers of the Society are in the library of the Newton Theological Institution. In 1871 the Society reprinted Backus’s History of New England, with particular reference to the Baptist Church; and occasionally it publishes papers.19

the old colony historical society.

The Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, was incorporated 4 May, 1853, for the purpose “of preserving and perpetuating the history of the Old Colony in Massachusetts, and of collecting and holding documents, books, and memoirs relating to history.” The Society has published four numbers of Collections in the years 1879, 1880, 1885, and 1889. It holds quarterly meetings, at which papers are read. Reports of the proceedings at these meetings are issued. It has a membership of five hundred persons, a building of its own, called Historical Hall, a library of two thousand volumes, and a collection of portraits and relics. The Society has a historiographer, who prepares memorial sketches of deceased members. These are incorporated in the selections.

the dorchester antiquarian and historical society.

The Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society was incorporated 3 May, 1855, “for the purpose of collecting such manuscripts, books, and natural and artificial curiosities, as may tend to illustrate and preserve the history of the United States, and of publishing such portions of these collections as may be deemed interesting and instructive to succeeding generations.” The publications of the Society have been: 1844, Memoirs of Roger Clap, 1620, second edition; 1846, Annals of the Town of Dorchester, 1630–1753, James Blake; 1859, Journal, Life and Death of Richard Mather; 1859, History of the Town of Dorchester, by a committee of the Society. The membership of this Corporation has not been kept up; and it is possible that it may be permitted to expire through the death of its two surviving members. Its collections are in the keeping of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society. Among these is the silver seal of the Superior Court of Judicature.

the dedham historical society.

The Dedham Historical Society was incorporated 23 April, 1862, “for the purpose of collecting and preserving such books, newspapers, records, pamphlets, and transactions as may tend to illustrate and perpetuate the history of New England, and especially of the town of Dedham.” In 1886, it was authorized by special statute to erect a building. A lot of land and ten thousand dollars for a building were left to the Society by Miss Hannah Shuttleworth. A fire-proof building, simple in style but pleasing in appearance, was erected in 1886–87. The publications of the Society have been: 1883, A Plan of Dedham Village, 1636–1876, with descriptions of the grants of the lots to original owners, transcribed from the town records; 1887, Dedham, England, by Rev. William F. Cheney; 1888, Epitaphs in the old Burial-Place, Dedham, Mass., Carlos Slafter; 1889–90, Annual Reports; 1890–92, Dedham Historical Register, Vols. I., II., III. The Register is a quarterly magazine. A charming vignette of the library building illustrates the cover of the serial. Among the objects of the publication are the following: “To preserve in a permanent form all manuscript papers of an historical character, and to encourage a taste for local history.” It contains accounts of the current proceedings of the Historical Society, its work, and information as to its library. Mr. Julius H. Tuttle says: “We have a flourishing society, our meetings are well attended, and the popular interest in the welfare of the Institution is remarkable.” The library contains three thousand volumes. The Records of Town, Church, and Parish are deposited in the fire-proof vaults of the Society for safe-keeping. The celebrations on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversaries of the settlement of the town and of the founding of the church are to be attributed largely to the prompting of the officers of this Society.20

the old residents’ historical association of lowell.

The Old Residents’ Historical Association of Lowell was organized 19 December, 1868. The objects of the Association as set forth in the Constitution are to collect, arrange, preserve, and perhaps from time to time publish any facts relating to the City of Lowell, as also to gather and keep all printed or written documents, as well as traditional evidence of every description, relating to the city. It holds quarterly meetings at which papers on local history or biography are presented. These contributions are annually printed in pamphlet form, the contributions of each four years making one volume. Four such volumes contain all the papers read before the Association to October, 1892. The Association has a library.21

the pocumtuck valley memorial association.

The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, was incorporated 9 May, 1870, for “the purpose of collecting and preserving such memorials, books, records, papers, and curiosities as may tend to illustrate and perpetuate the history of the aborigines and of the early settlers of that region.” The publications of the Society are: History of what befell Stephen Williams in Captivity, with appendix and notes by the Editor, 1889; Proceedings, 1870–79, Vol. I., 1890; Vol. II. is now in the hands of an editor. The Society has an extensive museum, illustrative of the style of life in New England in early times, and a library of ten thousand volumes.

the canton historical society.

The Canton Historical Society was founded in 1871. Its Constitution states that it has for its object “the collecting and preservation of everything relating to the History, Topography, and Family Genealogy of our town.” It has issued no publications. It holds an Annual Meeting at which provision is made for a Fast-Day walk. This walk usually covers six or eight miles within the town, and affords an opportunity to point out objects and sites of local historical interest. Preliminary steps have been taken to incorporate the Society.22

the historical, natural history, and library society of south natick.

The Historical, Natural History, and Library Society of South Natick was incorporated 26 April, 1874. It occupies a hall in the basement of the Bacon Free Library building, and has a fine collection. Its library, numbering one thousand volumes, is included in the Bacon Collection. The purposes were defined in the Certificate of Incorporation to be “to establish and maintain a public library and reading-room and courses of lectures, and to collect and preserve specimens in natural history, works of art, and historical relics and antiquities in connection therewith.” In 1884, the Society issued “A Review of the First Fourteen Years of the Society, with the Field-day Proceedings of 1881–88.” Twenty-seven papers on local topics are printed therein.23

the worcester society of antiquity.

The Worcester Society of Antiquity was organized 23 January, 1875, and incorporated 22 March, 1877. Its object as stated in its Constitution was “to foster in its members a love and admiration for antiquarian research and archæological science, and to rescue from oblivion such historical matter as would otherwise be lost.” In the Certificate of Incorporation the purposes of the Society are stated in substantially the same language, and to the foregoing are added the collection and preservation of antiquarian relics of every description. The Society has always been remarkably active and successful, and to-day occupies a building of its own, in which is a fine hall called Salisbury Hall, after the President of the American Antiquarian Society, who gave the land on which the building stands, and contributed liberally towards the construction of the edifice. On the occasion of the opening of this hall, Mr. Salisbury said: “This Society started without endowment, nucleus, or properties which would serve as an inducement for wider exertion. Its possessions are almost entirely the result of the unaided devotion of its members to the purposes and objects of their organization. How stable and satisfactory has been each step of progress under such conditions is demonstrated by the rapid growth and development of the Association.”

An excellent résumé of the publications of the Society is given in the Worcester “Commercial and Board of Trade Bulletin” for January, 1893. The “Inscriptions from the Old Burial Grounds of Worcester” was issued in 1878. An addendum was published in 1879, with notes and the death record to 1825. The first two volumes of the Early Records of Worcester were put in print in 1879–80. The Proprietors’ Book, with nearly three hundred maps and plans, was issued in 1880–81. This was followed by the publication of the Town Records, 1753–83. The first volume of the Records of the County Court of General Sessions, 1731–37, was published in 1883. After an interval of six years, the printing of the Town Records was resumed under an arrangement by which the city pays half of the expense. Two volumes of this second series have been completed, and the third and fourth are now in press. The Proceedings have been issued yearly since 1877. They contain papers on historical, genealogical, and other subjects. The general name of Collections is given to the whole series, of which ten volumes are now complete.

The library of the Society contains about fifteen thousand volumes. The museum contains many articles of interest. In a “Preface to Collections,” the following language is used: “It may safely be said that no other society in Massachusetts has been able to accomplish so much in so short a time.” The statement was unquestionably true when made, and there can be little doubt that it remains true to-day. The preservation of the Town, Proprietors’, and Court Records is a work for which those interested in local history must ever be grateful to the Society. Monthly meetings are held, at which papers on historical topics are submitted.

the military historical society of massachusetts.

The Military Historical Society of Massachusetts was formed in January, 1876. It was incorporated 24 February, 1891, “for the purpose of the prosecution of studies connected with the military history of our own and other countries, the establishment of a reading-room and library devoted to such topics, and the maintenance of social meetings for the discussion of the same.” In 1881, the Society issued Volume I., “The Peninsular Campaign of General McClellan in 1862,” — Papers read before the Society. In the preface to this volume it is stated that the chief object of this Society is the investigation of questions relating to the War of the Rebellion. Papers (or reports) are prepared by committees appointed to investigate given questions, and are read before the Society, after which they may become the subject of discussion and of criticism. A list of papers, which have been read before the Society, is given, and the places where some of them have been published are indicated. The Society hopes to publish soon a series of papers on the Campaign of General Pope in Virginia in 1862.24

the connecticut valley historical society.

The Connecticut Valley Historical Society, Springfield, was incorporated 9 May, 1876, “for the purpose of collecting and preserving such papers, books, records, and memorials as relate to the settlement of the Connecticut Valley.” The Society has published one volume, entitled “Papers and Proceedings of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, 1876–1881,” containing seventeen papers and a poem.

the universalist historical society.

The Universalist Historical Society was incorporated 1 January, 1877. It has its headquarters at Tufts College, where its library is deposited. “Its purposes are to collect and preserve books, periodicals, pamphlets, and whatever relates to the history of the doctrine of universal salvation, and also whatever on the other side belongs to the controversy on that subject.” It has not issued any publications. Its library contains about four thousand volumes and two thousand pamphlets.25

the berkshire historical and scientific society.

The Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society was organized in 1877. The objects of the Society are said to be, “the collection and preservation of facts, documents, and traditions, relating to the history of the County of Berkshire, and of the towns therein, and the acts and lives of its citizens; the collection of portraits, pictures, books, relics, charts, maps, antiquities, and curiosities, in connection therewith; the discussion of all matters pertaining to the same, and the publication of papers and documents relating thereto.” The stated meetings of the Society are an Annual Meeting and three Quarterly Meetings which are held in the building of the Berkshire Athenaeum. Field meetings may be held at any time. The Society has published four papers to which it gives the title, “Book of Berkshire by its Historical and Scientific Society.” I. (1886) Berkshire Geology, by Prof. James D. Dana of Yale College; The Western Boundary of Massachusetts, a Study of Indian and Colonial History, by Franklin Leonard Pope, Judicial History of Berkshire, by Henry W. Taft; The Early Roads and Settlements of Berkshire West of Stockbridge and Sheffield, by H. F. Keith. II. (1889) The Early Botany of Berkshire, by Rev. A. B. Whipple of Pittsfield; Prof. Albert Hopkins, by President John Bascom; Sketches of the Early Ministers of Windsor, by Prof. John L. T. Phillips; Early Settlements in Cheshire, by Hon. J. M. Barker. III. (1890) Medicine in Berkshire, by Dr. A. M. Smith, Williamstown; The Protestant Episcopal Church in Berkshire, by Rev. Joseph Hooper, Lebanon Springs, N. Y.; A Sketch of the Samuel Phillips Family, by Levi Beebe of Great Barrington; The Indian Mission in Stockbridge, by E. W. B. Canning. IV. (1891) Berkshire at Bennington, by Arthur Latham Perry of Williams College; Recollections of Elder Leland, by Mrs. F. J. Petitcler; The History, Methods, and Purposes of the Berkshire Athenæum, by Harlan H. Ballard; Air Currents, by Levi Beebe; Col. John Brown, by E. W. B. Canning. Members of the Society pay an initiation fee of one dollar; but there are no dues or assessments.26

the rumford historical association.

The Rumford Historical Association, Woburn, was incorporated 28 April, 1877; its purposes are, “to take and hold a certain lot of land with the buildings thereon situated at Woburn, Mass., and being known as the birth-place of Benjamin Thompson, or better known as Count Rumford, as a place of historical interest, and for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a museum, library, and reading-room, and advancing the useful arts and sciences by lectures or otherwise.” Publications: 1881, Constitution, list of officers, and members. A new manual was printed in 1892, in which a sketch of the history of the Association is brought down to the spring of 1892, and shows that the library and collections are constantly increasing.

the historical society of old newbury.

The Historical Society of Old Newbury was originally organized in 1877, under the title “The Antiquarian and Historical Society of Old Newbury.” The present name was adopted in 1882. The Society has a home in the Public Library of Newburyport, in what was formerly the Tracy Mansion, where Lafayette was received. It has a valuable collection of books, portraits, etc., which is constantly increasing. The only publication by the Society is an account of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Newbury, 10 June, 1885. The Society is not incorporated. It holds annual meetings at which papers are read. Some of these have been published in the Newburyport “Herald.”27

the archæological institute of america.

The Archæological Institute of America was organized in 1879. The Regulations adopted 17 May, 1879, state that it was formed for the purpose of promoting and directing archæological investigations and researches, by the sending out of expeditions for special investigations, by aiding the efforts of independent explorers, by publication of reports of the results of the expeditions which the Institute may undertake or promote, and by any other means which may from time to time appear desirable. Prominent features of the work have been classical archæology and the support of the School at Athens. It has, however, simultaneously prosecuted explorations in this country; and American Archæology is represented in the publications by five volumes written by the distinguished archæological student, A. F. Bandelier. Our associate, Prof. William W. Goodwin, is now (1893) President of the Boston branch of the Institute, the parent Society having moved to New York.

the weymouth historical society.

The Weymouth Historical Society was organized in 1879, and was incorporated 19 July, 1886, “to make antiquarian collections; to collect, preserve, and disseminate the local history of Weymouth and the genealogy of Weymouth families.” The publications of the Society have been: 1881, Original Journal of Gen. Solomon Lovell during the Penobscot Expedition, with a Sketch of his Life, by G. Nash; 1885, Historical Sketch of the Town of Weymouth, Massachusetts, from 1622 to 1684, by Gilbert Nash, being 1 and 2 of Weymouth Historical Publications, with Proceedings. The Society has a small collection of books and pamphlets. Its By-Laws provide for monthly meetings, which are held in the Tufts Library Building.

the new england methodist historical society.

The New England Methodist Historical Society was founded 3 May, 1880, and incorporated 13 April, 1882. The purposes of the Society are “to found and perpetuate a library of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, and a collection of portraits and relics of the past; to maintain a reading-room; to preserve whatever shall illustrate the history and promote the interest of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” The Society has a library of over four thousand volumes and sixteen thousand pamphlets at its rooms, 36 Bromfield Street, Boston, of which the statement is made that it is the largest collection of Methodist historical material in this country. The Historiographer prepares and deposits with the Society biographical sketches of deceased members. The Proceedings at the Annual Meetings are published yearly; and these publications contain lists of the works in the library on Methodist church history.28

the bostonian society.

The Bostonian Society was incorporated 2 December, 1881, “to promote the study of the history of Boston and the preservation of its antiquities.” A society known as the Boston Antiquarian Club was the outcome of a circular issued by William H. Whitmore, 24 May, 1879. The first meeting of this club was held 13 June, 1879. Papers were read before it, some of which were separately published.29 A committee was appointed to procure the incorporation of the organization, 8 November, 1881; and the name selected was The Bostonian Society. The rooms of the Society were at No. 16 Pemberton Square, until the second floor of the Old State House was allotted to it. The Society established itself in these appropriate quarters, 1 July, 1882. The vast collection of interesting memorials which has been accumulated during the existence of the Society bears witness to the public approval of its purpose. The number of members was originally limited to one thousand, but the limit has apparently been abandoned. The Proceedings of the Annual Meetings have been published, 1883–92, in attractive form. The Proceedings at a meeting held 24 July, 1887, in memory of General Samuel Miller Quincy, and of a monthly meeting held 12 January, 1888, have also been printed.30

the cape cod historical society.

The Cape Cod Historical Society was organized 5 August, 1882, and incorporated 9 June, 1883, “for the purpose of collecting, preserving, and publishing historical matter relating to the County of Barnstable and vicinity, and for the maintenance of a cabinet and library.” The headquarters of the Society are at Yarmouth. At its Annual Meetings original papers are read and discussions of historical subjects are conducted. When practicable, a summer meeting is held, or an excursion provided to some spot of historical interest. The papers read before the Society have never been collected in a volume, but they have been published in newspapers, and have in some cases been used by their authors in other publications.31

the winchester historical and genealogical society.

The Winchester Historical and Genealogical Society was organized 20 November, 1884, by the adoption of a Prospectus, Constitution, and By-Laws. The Prospectus sets forth that “the subscribers, appreciating the objects and methods of the Associations now so numerous and efficient, formed to preserve, in permanent forms, the historical and genealogical facts pertaining to the towns in which they exist, propose to organize themselves into such an organization in Winchester.” The objects of the Society as stated in the Constitution are “to collect, preserve, and supply to inquirers the facts of the local history of Winchester, and such family genealogies as may be offered to its archives; and to prepare or cause to be prepared, from time to time, such papers relating to these subjects as may be of interest to our citizens.” The collection of material made by the Society relating to the town will become a part of the Town Library. The Society has issued a series of papers called “The Winchester Record,” consisting of Proceedings and papers read at meetings of the Society. Vol. I., covering the year 1885, contained four numbers; Vol. II., covering 1886, three numbers; while of Vol. III., No. 1 only is printed. The Society maintains its organization, but the members are conscious that the field of labor must be enlarged if the activity which followed the organization is to be maintained in the future.

the rehoboth antiquarian society.

The Rehoboth Antiquarian Society was incorporated 1 April, 1885, “for the purpose of collecting, receiving, and preserving ancient manuscripts, books, natural and artificial curiosities, and for the erection and maintenance of a building in the town of Rehobotli to be called the Goff Memorial Building, to be used as a public library, school room, and for the preservation of the collections made under the authority herein granted.” The Rehoboth Public Library is supported mainly by the Antiquarian Society, and is managed by a Committee under direction of the Society.32

the lexington historical society.

The Lexington Historical Society was organized 16 March, 1886. Prior to that date a circular was issued to the following effect: “It is proposed to form a society in Lexington for historical research and study in matters connected with the history of the town, and of families and individuals who have been identified with it, also for suitably commemorating from year to year by appropriate services the great event which has rendered the town forever memorable in the annals of our country, the object being to perpetuate a knowledge of our local history, and to awaken and sustain new interest in the honor and good name of Lexington.” The Society was incorporated 29 July, 1886, for the purpose of “the study of the history of Lexington and of individuals and families identified with it, the preservation of such knowledge and of such relics as illustrate its history, and the commemoration, by fitting public services, of the event which has rendered the town forever memorable in the annals of the country.” One volume of proceedings and papers was issued in 1890. It is entitled Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society, and Papers relating to the Town, read by some of the Members. Eighty-two pages are devoted to the Proceedings, and one hundred and forty-one pages to fourteen papers and an appendix. A collection of historical material belonging to the Society is deposited in the Cary Library.33

the manchester historical society.

The Manchester Historical Society is not incorporated. It was formed to gather whatever might contribute towards giving a full and accurate history of the town. The organization was effected 7 June, 1886. The papers and collections of the Society are kept in the library room of the Public Library of Manchester, where the meetings of the Society are usually held. The meetings are quarterly, and papers read at them are usually published in the Manchester “Cricket.” The publication by the town of the Town Records is due to the influence of this Society.

the concord antiquarian society.

The Concord Antiquarian Society was incorporated 15 December, 1886, “to collect and preserve objects of antiquarian and historical interest, and to stimulate research into local history and antiquities, especially of the towns included within the old limits of Concord.” It has about a hundred members, men and women, residents of old Concord, which includes Bedford, Acton, Lincoln, and Carlisle. Regular meetings at which historical papers are read are held monthly. The Annual Meeting is held 12 September, the anniversary of the settlement of the town. The Society has a home and a collection of antiquities and relics. Publications, 1886, By-Laws.34

the malden historical society.

The Malden Historical Society was incorporated 7 February, 1887, “to collect, preserve, and disseminate the local and general history of Malden, and the genealogy of Malden families; to make antiquarian collections; to collect books of general history, genealogy, and biography; and to prepare or cause to be prepared from time to time such papers and records relating to these subjects as may be of general interest to our citizens.”

the hyde park historical society.

In 1887, the residents of Hyde Park interested in historical matters were summoned to a meeting for the purpose of organizing an historical society. The following statement of the object of this meeting is taken from the circular letter which was issued at that time: “There is a large amount of information concerning the early days of our town in possession and knowledge of the older residents, which must soon be lost or forgotten to a great extent, unless some organized effort is made to collate and preserve it.” Pursuant to this call, a meeting was held 1 March, at which the Hyde Park Historical Society was organized and a Constitution adopted, in which the object of the Society was defined as follows: “The object of this Society shall be the promotion of the study of history, with particular reference to that of Hyde Park, the preservation and perpetuation of the memory of persons and events connected with said town, and the collection of objects of historic interest.” The Society was incorporated 14 April, 1890, for “the prosecution of historical, antiquarian, and literary purposes, and the acquisition, ownership, and control of such real estate and personal property as may be desirable or necessary for the prosecution of the purposes of said Corporation.” It has made a collection of local papers and publications relating to the town. It issues the Hyde Park “Record,” a quarterly of which eight numbers have appeared. The Society has no permanent home; but it is full of life, and is doing good work.

the historical society of watertown.

The Historical Society of Watertown was established in 1888, and incorporated 25 June, 1891, “for the purpose of collecting, preserving, and publishing historical matter relating to the towns and families occupying the original township of Watertown, and in connection therewith to found and maintain a Society building with a museum, art gallery, and library.” It holds meetings bi-monthly, and has a few books and pamphlets, the nucleus for a library. Some of the papers read before the Society have been published in the Magazine of American History and some in the Watertown “Enterprise.” A committee of the Society will soon publish Vol. I. of the Town Records.

the framingham historical and natural history society.

The Framingham Historical and Natural History Society was organized 31 March, 1888, and was incorporated 13 July, 1892, for the purpose of “collecting and preserving articles relating to and illustrating the history of Framingham and vicinity, natural and scientific curiosities, specimens of natural history, recording and preserving natural events that may become of interest in the future, and erecting a building as a safe repository of the same.” The Society has quite a collection of books, pamphlets, and relics, but has not as yet published any proceedings or collections. It has, however, published a list of members.

the westborough historical society.

The Westborough Historical Society was incorporated 28 February, 1889, for “the investigation of matters of local history, the collection of objects of historical and scientific interest, and the maintenance of a library.” The Society has started upon its work and has the nucleus of a library and collection. It has issued its By-Laws in the form of a folder.

the shepard historical society.

The Shepard Historical Society was organized in 1889. The purposes of the Society, as set forth in the Constitution, are “to collect and preserve books, manuscripts, and other memorials relating to the First Church in Cambridge, its former pastors and members, and to the parish and town in which the church is situated, and also to promote an interest in local ecclesiastical history, and to pursue other appropriate researches.” Rev. Dr. Alexander McKenzie informs me that the membership is composed exclusively of members of the old First Church. In view of the conflicting claims between church and parish, which apparently have not yet ceased, it is proper to add that the Church Society within which this Historical Society is organized is more commonly known as the Shepard Congregational Society. The Historical Society has in its Collections some old records, a manuscript autobiography of Shepard, and other manuscripts and books. It has held meetings from time to time. A paper read before the Society by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart was published in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. V. It treated of the relations of Harvard College to the First Church of Cambridge.

the dorchester historical society.

The Dorchester Historical Society was incorporated 6 April, 1891, “for the purpose of collecting and publishing information in regard to the history of that portion of the city of Boston which formerly constituted the town of Dorchester.”

the beverly historical society.

The Beverly Historical Society was incorporated 19 May, 1891, “for the purpose of investigating, recording, and perpetuating the history of the town of Beverly, and collecting, holding, and preserving documents, books, memoirs, relics, and all other matter illustrating its history and that of individuals or families identified with it.” The Society occupies the Burley Mansion, which was bequeathed to it by Edward Burley. Quarterly meetings are provided for in its By-Laws. It has a nucleus for a library, and has some material for local history on hand. Its publications are as yet limited to its By-Laws, but it has in its possession several papers which have been read before the Society.

the medfield historical society.

The Medfield Historical Society was incorporated 14 September, 1891, for 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.” Its publications are Charter, By-Laws, and List of Officers, 1891. Provision is made for stated monthly meetings.35

the fitchburg historical society.

The Fitchburg Historical Society was organized 3 February, 1892. The objects of the Society, as expressed in the Constitution, are to collect, preserve, and transmit the materials for local history and genealogy, particularly such as pertain to Fitchburg and the northern towns of Worcester County, and to encourage among its members a love for historical research. The present number of members is fifty. Monthly meetings are held. No publications have as yet been issued. The Society has a nucleus for a library, consisting of some two hundred bound volumes and about a thousand pamphlets, maps, manuscripts, etc., largely of a local character. A good degree of interest is manifested, and the Society apparently has a prosperous future before it.

the cape ann historical society.

The Cape Ann Historical Society was incorporated 9 February, 1892, “for the purpose of investigating, recording, and perpetuating the history of Cape Ann, and collecting, holding, and preserving documents, books, memoirs, relics, and all other matters illustrating its history and that of individuals or families identified with it.” The headquarters of the Society are in Gloucester. Its regular meetings are on the second Wednesday of each month. The Society is young, and has not as yet made a record; but it has among its members some who are intent upon keeping alive the interest in historical matters which led to its foundation.

the danvers historical society.

The Danvers Historical Society was organized in 1892, and incorporated 5 January, 1893, for “the purpose of collecting and preserving such publications, manuscripts, pictures, memorials, and specimens as may illustrate local and general history, but particularly the annals and natural history of the town of Danvers; establishing within the town a library and museum, in which such treasures as it may thus receive or procure shall be deposited and kept, and generally fostering among its members and others, by meetings and lectures, and in various ways, a love of historical, literary, and scientific pursuits.” Under the auspices of this Society, the Bi-centennial Anniversary of the delusion known as Salem Witchcraft — which began in “Salem Village,” now Danvers — was observed, in 1892. The learned and exhaustive address on that occasion was delivered by our associate, Mr. Goodell.

the old south historical society.

The Old South Historical Society was organized in 1892. The object of the Society as stated in the Constitution is the study of American History and the promotion of good citizenship. Quarterly meetings are provided for. The June, September, and December meetings are for the reading and discussion of papers. The affairs of the Society are managed by a Senate consisting of the Old South Prize Essayists and the officers of the Society, acting in concert with the Directors of the Old South Studies in History. For the past twelve years prizes for essays on subjects in American history have been offered by the Directors of the Old South Studies in History. The competition has been open each year to all who have graduated from the Boston High Schools during the current and the preceding year. Each year there has been a course of lectures on historical subjects, known as the Old South Lectures for Young People, and the subjects for the essays are chosen with reference to the general subject treated in the lectures for that year. Historical tracts have been published each year in connection with each lecture. These tracts are known as Old South Leaflets. The expense of all this has been borne by Mrs. Mary Hemmenway; and it forms a part, and only a part, of what is known as Old South Work. All of it is volunteer work, entirely independent of the Old South Association. One outcome of this work is the Historical Society, the members of which are at present necessarily youthful.36

the colonial society of massachusetts.

The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, incorporated 29 December, 1892, as The Massachusetts Society, proposes to hold monthly meetings, and will publish its Proceedings.37

The foregoing comprise all that come within the strict interpretation of my definition of an historical society; but it will be seen that the list does not include several well-known societies which are ordinarily classed as historical societies. In order to bring within easy reach such information on the subject as I have at command, I group these latter societies by themselves, arranged chronologically by the dates of their organization, adding the titles of such other organizations of similar standing as I have been able to obtain.

the pilgrim society.

Certain associates were incorporated under this title 24 January, 1820, “for the purpose of procuring, in the town of Plymouth, a suitable lot or plat of ground for the erection of a monument to perpetuate the memories of the virtue, the enterprise, and unparalleled sufferings of their ancestors, who first settled in that ancient town; and for the erection of a suitable building for the accommodation of the meetings of said associates.” In 1883, additional powers to acquire property were conferred upon the Society, and its purposes were enlarged by adding “for the creation and preservation of memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers.” Publications: 1850, Report on the Expediency of Celebrating the Landing of the Pilgrims on the Twenty-second of that Month; 1871, Proceedings at the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims; 1883, Speech at the Pilgrim Celebration, 1 August, 1883; 1889, The Proceedings at the Celebration of the Pilgrim Society at Plymouth, 1 August, 1889, on the completion of the national monument to the Pilgrims. The Society has a hall at Plymouth filled with memorials. It has a valuable library and has secured the title to many sites of interest in Plymouth.38

the bunker hill monument association.

The Bunker Hill Monument Association was incorporated 7 June, 1823, for the construction of a monument in Charlestown, to perpetuate the memory of the early events of the American Revolution. 28 March, 1865, this Association was authorized to rebuild the Beacon Monument, which was built in the year 1790 by the citizens of Boston to commemorate that train of events which led to the American Revolution and finally secured liberty and independence to the United States. A History of the Association was published in 1877. The volume is sumptuous in appearance, with broad margins to the pages and expensive illustrations. The Proceedings at the Annual Meeting on the seventeenth of June have been published continuously since 1861.39

the american congregational association.

On the twelfth of April, 1854, the Congregational Library Association of Boston was incorporated “for the purpose of establishing and perpetuating a library of the religious history of New England, and for the erection of a suitable building for the accommodation of the same, and for the use of charitable societies.” 10 May, 1864, the Congregational Library Association was authorized to change its name, and to take the name, The American Congregational Association, with increased powers for denominational work. The foregoing dates are taken from the Acts of the Legislature. It appears from an Historical Sketch of the American Congregational Association, by I. P. Langworthy, published in 1873, that the organization of the Library Association was effected in 1851, and that it was re-organized in 1853. The Report of the Directors for 1892 is termed the Thirty-ninth Annual Report. The object of the American Congregational Association is stated in its Constitution to be to found and perpetuate a library of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, and a collection of portraits, and whatever else shall seem to illustrate Puritan history, and promote the general interests of Congregationalism. In 1889 it had a library of thirty-five thousand volumes, fifty-two thousand pamphlets, thirty-one thousand unbound serials.40 The Association does not profess to publish other accounts of its proceedings than are contained in its Annual Reports. It was, however, for a time part owner of the “Congregational Quarterly.”41

the prince society.

The Prince Society, organized in 1858, was incorporated in 1874, “for the purpose of preserving and extending the knowledge of American History by editing and printing such manuscripts, rare tracts, and volumes as are mostly confined in their use to historical students and public libraries.” Membership in this Society is obtained by subscribing for the publications. These volumes are not put on the market, but are delivered only to subscribers. The value of the work performed by the Society can best be judged by examining their publications, which up to the present time have been: New England’s Prospect, by William Wood, preface by Charles Deane; The Hutchinson Papers, reprinted from the edition of 1769, edited by William H. Whitmore; John Dunton’s Letters from New England, edited by William H. Whitmore; the Andros Tracts, with a memoir of Sir Edmund Andros, by the editor, William H. Whitmore; Sir William Alexander and American Colonization, with a memoir of Sir William Alexander, by the editor, Rev. Edmund F. Slafter; John Wheelwright, with a memoir by the editor, Charles H. Bell; Voyages of the Northmen to America, edited, with an introduction, by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter; The Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, edited with a memoir and historical illustrations by Rev. Dr. Edmund F. Slafter; New English Canaan, or New Canaan, by Thomas Morton, edited by Charles Francis Adams, Jr.; Voyage of Peter Esprit Radisson, edited by Gideon D. Scull; Captain John Mason, the founder of New Hampshire, edited by John Ward Dean; Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his province of Maine, with a memoir, by James P. Baxter. The Society has in preparation: Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with a memoir, by David G. Haskins, Jr.; Samuel Maverick, with a memoir, by Frank W. Hackett; Edward Randolph, with a memoir, by Robert N. Toppan.

the boston numismatic society.

The Boston Numismatic Society was instituted 3 March, 1860, for the promotion of Numismatic Science and the formation of a cabinet and library for the use of its members. 19 March, 1870, it was incorporated, and the purposes of the Corporation are the “collecting and preserving medals and coins, and publishing accounts of the same; also the collecting of a Numismatic Library, elucidating the history of ancient and modern medals and coins.” References to the Proceedings will be found in the Magazine of American History, and in the American Journal of Numismatics and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archæological Societies.42

the berkshire athenæum.

The Berkshire Athenæum was incorporated in 1871, for the purpose of diffusing knowledge by means of a library and of historical and natural curiosities. It has been said of it that it may fairly claim to be the literary, historical, and artistic centre of the county. It has a museum of local antiquities, and one department of its library is devoted to Massachusetts history. The Athenæum is located at Pittsfield.43

the oak tree association.

The Oak Tree Association, Charlemont, is a neighborhood organization, which holds Annual Meetings, at which the officers are elected. It has existed about twenty years. It derives its name from a large oak near the geographical centre of the town, around which cluster historical reminiscences. The objects of the Association are to collect and preserve items of history of the surrounding neighborhood. The Annual Meetings are both social and literary in character.

There are other Societies which introduce into the definition of their purposes language which might lay the foundation for a claim that they intended to perform historical work. A Canadian Relief Society announces that it is “for the encouragement of literary, historical, dramatic, and musical talents.” The suspicion arises that the author of the petition for a charter meant to say “histrionic” instead of “historical.” An association whose first purpose appears to be “the maintenance of a place of social meetings” adds to the functions of the corporation the “historical commemoration of the Battle of Bunker Hill.” A military club prefaces the social functions described in its charter by stating that its purpose is “to maintain and increase the memories and traditions of the military and naval service of the United States of America.” A society organized as Sons of Naval Veterans, and which changed its name, November, 1892, to Naval Legion of the United States, states that its purpose is “to unite the sons of naval veterans in social, literary, educational, historical, monumental, and antiquarian work.” The Lynn Natural History Society is organized for the “purpose of collecting and preserving materials for civil” as well as for “natural” history. There have been Historical Societies at Harvard University and at Williams College, neither of which is in active existence to-day.44

conclusion.

Notwithstanding the wide range covered by the topical and limited societies in the foregoing lists, the special field which this Society was organized to cover is not pre-empted, except so far as it has been taken up by those organizations which set no bounds to their work. It is perhaps desirable, in order to obtain a full and rounded view of any period of history, that the impressions should be recorded which it has made upon men of widely different conditions, whose minds have been cultivated under various methods of education, whose capacity for the interpretation of events has been modified by the teachings of religious leaders, whose patriotism may perhaps influence their opinions, and whose jealousies may lead them to give undue prominence to this or that people, or perhaps to this or that leader among men. A knowledge of the opinions of all classes of men, whatever their nationality, whatever their creed, is obviously desirable in order to reach the resultant which may be termed the verdict of the civilized world. Yet I count it most fortunate that the development of our early New England history has been placed in the hands of the men of New England. I do not doubt that an analysis of the membership of the Massachusetts Historical Society and of the American Antiquarian Society would disclose the fact that nearly all the members would have been eligible to this Society. If at times these interpreters of our history have been disposed to deal tenderly with the stern leaders of the theocracy who drove from the little towns those who differed from them in opinion, who ostracized the Church of England men, and exiled the Quakers; if these writers have not criticised the steps taken in the Antinomian Controversy as rigorously as they are criticised to-day, — yet we may congratulate ourselves that we can find no attempt at concealment, misstatement, or wilful misinterpretation of facts. Our historians have never asked that the story of the Salem Witchcraft persecutions should be stricken from our school-books; nor would they have protested against the verdict of posterity upon the acts of the Inquisition, if it had been a New England institution. Their idea of writing history has been to state all the facts. It is only their estimate of the influence of men and their deeds upon the development of our government which is personal, and has been liable to be affected by the atmosphere of current opinions. That these writers have been fair and honest, and have not sought to conceal facts in order to exalt their heroes, will be admitted by all. That we can best rely in the future upon men of the same stock for candor of statement in dealing with events, and for a sympathetic appreciation of the lives of our forefathers, will not he denied by many. This is our justification for seeking to place a specific line of historic work in the hands of a class.

At the outset we recognize the objection which may be raised, that biographers, as a rule, make heroes of their subjects, and that men who treat of topics are apt to be influenced by their standpoint. A recent examination of the different accounts of the fight at Oriskany, in 1777, impressed me strongly with these facts. The differences between the English and the American accounts we should naturally expect; but in addition to the general accounts on both sides, there were the local accounts and the stories of the Indians on the American side, and the historians of the Hessians on the British. Whichever of these accounts you read, you will conclude that the brunt of the fighting was borne by the troops with which the particular author is dealing. The failing is natural, and to be expected in any author who approaches his subject in any other than a broad, judicial spirit. All men are subject to be influenced by their wishes and their hopes in the discussion of questions of politics, religion, or history; but I believe there is no class of writers who have dealt more frankly with events with which their ancestors were associated than the recent students of our own history, in whose veins is to be found the blood of our New England stock.

In what manner a spirit of fellowship can be developed among our members can best be left to the judgment of the Council. This, however, I feel strongly, that if our meetings are to prove interesting, and if our Society is to make a record for itself, the members who have the time at command for such a purpose must be prepared to submit for our consideration original papers worthy to be printed. Such papers should be communicated to the Society at our Stated Meetings, and, while they should go forth under the author’s name, they should be given to the world as the work of the Society in its published Transactions. In the selection of new members due regard should be had for the preservation of a suitable working force; and reliance should always be placed upon the members of the Society for the materials which are to make the proceedings at our meetings of interest. Under no circumstances ought we, in my judgment, to import outside talent in order to attract numbers. It would be far better to have fewer Stated Meetings than not to rely upon ourselves.

In conclusion, let us hope that the members of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, in the work which they are about to perform, in depicting the deeds of their ancestors and developing the influence which these worthies have had in building up our government, will never approach the subject in any other frame of mind than that of perfect fairness. This we have a right to expect from them; it is their birthright. If they live up to it, we can prophesy a bright career for the Society.

The Certificate respecting the change in the Society’s name, required by law to be filed in the office of the Honorable the Secretary of the Commonwealth, was filed by the Treasurer on Wednesday, the Eighth day of March; whereupon a certificate, of which the following is a copy, was issued: —

certificate of change of corporate name.

No. 29.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Be it Known, That whereas The Massachusetts Society, a Corporation organized under the laws of this Commonwealth, and subject to the provisions of Chapter one hundred and fifteen of the Public Statutes and Acts amendatory thereof, has complied with the provisions of Chapter three hundred and sixty of the Acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-one, as appears from the certified copy of the order of the Commissioner of Corporations, authorizing said Corporation to change its name and adopt the name of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and the certificate of the President, Treasurer, and a majority of the Council of said Corporation, duly filed in this office pursuant to the provisions of section three of the aforesaid chapter:

Now, Therefore, I, WILLIAM M. OLIN, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Do Hereby Certify, that the name which said Corporation shall bear is The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, which shall hereafter be its legal name.

	Witness my official signature hereunto subscribed, and the Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hereunto affixed, this Eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-Three.
	WM. M. OLIN, Secretary of the Commonwealth

1 The names of all the signers appear in the Certificate of Incorporation, printed on page 12.

2 See Amendment, adopted 15 February, 1893, printed on page 20.

3 The Rt.-Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D., was also elected at this meeting, but died on Monday, 23 January, 1893, before he received the official notification of his election; not, however, before his interest in the new Society and its purposes had been cordially expressed.

4 General Cobb’s commission and Mr. Paine’s letter have been printed in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1891, xlv. 241–242. Mr. Baylies’s address appeared in the same journal in January, 1864, xviii. 5–17, and in a separate form with the imprint “Albany: J. Munsell, 78 State Street, 1864.” On the titlepage of the original is the following note by Mr. Baylies: —

“This Manuscript is presented to Mr. D. G. W. Cobb with liberty to correct and publish if he thinks proper. I was requested to furnish the printers in this Town, but fearing it might be considered too extravagant I thought it best to keep it awhile. I have looked it over and believe it will do. I wish Mr. Cobb to have one fair copy made and forwarded by mail to Gen. Wool at Washington.”

5 This volume has since been received. It belonged to David George Washington Cobb, and contains his family record. The following is a copy of it; —

“David G. W. Cobb and Abby Crocker were married May 16, 1822.

“Samuel Crocker Cobb, born July 4, 1823, at half-past 6 o’clock, morning.

“George Thomas Cobb, born September 5, 1824 (Sunday).

“Samuel Crocker Cobb, died November 30, 1824; buried Deer. 2d, Thanksgiving Day, in the morning.

“Samuel Crocker Cobb, born May 22nd, 1826 (Monday).

“Elizabeth Baylies Cobb, born February 17, 1828 (Sunday).

“Sally Crocker Cobb, born October 29th, 1831, at 2 o’clock in the morning (Saturday).”

David George Washington Cobb, youngest son of General David and Eleanor (Bradish) Cobb, was born 14 January, 1790. His wife was a daughter of the Hon. Samuel Crocker, of Taunton. Their third son was the late Hon. Samuel Crocker Cobb, Mayor of Boston, 1874–1876, and President of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati from 1880 till his death, 18 February, 1891. See Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, Boston, 1890, pp. 136–144.

6 See Mr. Davis’s communications to the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1887, and October, 1892, New Series, v. 129–139; viii. 274–280; and the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, for July, 1892, xlvi. 234–235; and January, 1893, xlvii. 113–115.

7 Large extracts from Mr. Davis’s paper were printed in successive issues of “The Commonwealth,” newspaper, between 25 February and 13 May, 1893.

8 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Public Document No. 44.

9 See Report of Committee, printed in the Society’s Proceedings, vol. i. The historical sketch of the early days of the Society will repay careful examination.

10 The History of Land Titles in Massachusetts. By James Sullivan, LL.D. Boston. 1801.

11 Nearly every time that Savage refers to Hubbard in the notes to his edition of Winthrop’s History of New England, he does so with a sneer; but Charles Deane, in his chapter on “New England” (Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iii. p. 362), very justly says, “This was by far the most important history which had then been written.” The publication of the works of Winthrop and Bradford materially lessened its value.

12 See Mr. Edes’s communication to the March Meeting of this Society, pages 113–114. This corroborates my conjecture as to the date.

13 See Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University, No. 45, p. 8.

14 the worcester county historical society.

The Worcester County Historical Society was incorporated 19 February, 1831, “for the purpose of collecting and preserving materials for civil and natural history.” A circular was issued without date, a copy of which is preserved in the American Antiquarian Society, in which the title of the Society was given as The Worcester Historical Society, and the purpose of the organization is there stated to be “collecting and preserving materials for a complete and accurate history of the County of Worcester.” The same title is given in Lincoln’s History of Worcester, published in 1836, and the statement is therein made that the Society requires as evidence of qualification for membership the publication of some work or some practical exertion in aid of these objects. At that date, Hon. John Davis had been President from the date of the organization of the Society.

On the fourth of October, 1831, the Society celebrated the centennial anniversary of the incorporation of Worcester County, selecting as an event suitable for such a memorial service the first sitting of the Supreme Judicial Court in Worcester County. The date which was adopted was Dot precisely coincident, but was selected because it was the first day of the session of that tribunal in the year 1831. An address was then delivered by the President, which, with a particular account of the ceremonies, was deposited in the American Antiquarian Society’s Collections.

Mr. Nathaniel Paine of Worcester has made search for the records of this Society without avail. He writes me that Mr. C. C. Baldwin, a former librarian of the Antiquarian Society, under date of 4 October, 1831, says in his diary that the Historical Society was greatly honored at the centennial celebration. Under date of 5 October, 1831, he says that he went to a meeting of the Society, and was chosen to make a report of all the proceedings at the celebration, which report, with a bottle of wine and other appropriate articles, he was to enclose in a tight and safe box, made for the purpose, and commit to the care of the Antiquarian Society. These were to remain in the hands of that Society unopened until the end of one hundred years, when it was intended that they should be brought forth and examined. Mr. Paine reports that the bottle, and presumably its contents, are still at the Antiquarian Hall, but the box has disappeared, together with the account of the proceedings at the celebration. To those of us who do not expect to be on hand when the cork is drawn in 1931, this is necessarily a source of regret, in which it is not improbable that those who shall be present at the ceremonial of opening the bottle will participate.

The Society is not known to have been in existence later than 1836 or 1837, and has not left any other traces of its existence than those I have mentioned.

15 The Census of 1790, and the Direct Tax of 1798, so far as it relates to Boston, have been printed in the Twenty-second Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston.

16 The Gregg Genealogy Company was incorporated 18 May, 1893, “to carry on a search for historical and genealogical facts connected with persons in America by names of Gregg, Gragg, Greig, and lines collateral thereto, and to print and publish the results of such search.” Its headquarters are in Boston.

The Woodbury Genealogical Society was incorporated 23 June, 1893. Its headquarters are in Salem. Its purposes are “to collect and publish historical and genealogical information concerning the old planters, John and William Woodbury, their ancestors and descendants, and to perpetuate their memory by monuments or otherwise.”

17 A full history of the Institute will be found in the “Visitor’s Guide to Salem,” Salem, 1892, pp. 59–71; and Essex Institute Historical Collections (1868–69) ix. Part 2, 3–40; and (1871–72) xi. 1–18.

18 The collection of memorials is thus alluded to by Dr. George E. Ellis in announcing to the Massachusetts Historical Society the death of Dr. Henry Wheatland: —

“He identified the principal work and interests of his long life mainly with institutions in Salem devoted to the preservation and illustration of the historical relics of that, the first of the permanent settlements in the Bay Colony. Those relics in objects and documents are rich and copious, covering, indeed, in a wellnigh complete and exhaustive collection long under his charge as the head of the Essex Institute, the antiquities and memorials accumulating for nearly three centuries.

“They begin with the reconstructed rafters and timbers of the first meeting-house of the settlement, in which Higginson, Hugh Peters, and Roger Williams preached, and Governor Winthrop exhorted and ‘prophesied.’ In no other ancient town in our country, not even in the Pilgrim Hall, at Plymouth, is there gathered so full and continuous a collection of articles identified with the life of the succeeding generations of the people. The household, domestic, culinary, mechanical, and agricultural implements of the elders are all represented.

“Their apparels and furniture, as well as their effigies, journals, letters, and books, present themselves in order.”

19 The Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church has a collection of materials relating principally to that church in Massachusetts. It was formerly kept at the Theological School in Cambridge, but is now at the Diocesan House, Joy Street, Boston. Rev. Edmund F. Slafter is Registrar, has charge of the collection, and makes an annual report to the Convention.

20 In the winter of 1863–64, Mr. John B. Willard delivered two lectures on historical subjects at Harvard. Through his exertions an historical society was organized. It has not, however, accomplished any work, and the fact that it ever existed is known to but few of the citizens of the town of Harvard.

21 The title, “The Old Residents’ Historical Society, Lowell,” is improperly included in the list of Historical Societies of the United States issued by the American Historical Association.

22 This Society was incorporated 29 May, 1893. Its purposes, as described in the Certificate of Incorporation, are “to collect and preserve everything relating to the history, topography, and family genealogy of the town of Canton, Mass.”

23 The National Historical and Library Society, South Natick, is the title of a Society given in the Magazine of American History, July, 1890, page 424. The Historical Society, South Natick, is the title of a Society, and the Natural History and Library Society, South Natick, is the title of another Society, included in the list of Historical Societies issued by the American Historical Association. I have not been able to learn anything about these organizations.

24 The Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati was incorporated in 1806. The publications of the Society have been: 1872,— List of Members of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, etc., with brief biographies, etc., by Francis S. Drake; 1873, — Memorials of the Society of Cincinnati of Massachusetts, by Francis S. Drake; 1883, — The Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati: An Historical Address delivered on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration, by Samuel C. Cobb; 1890,— Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, 1890. This Society is in its nature a relief society, but its biographical publications are historical in character.

The Commandery of the State of Massachusetts Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States was incorporated 15 March, 1887, “to establish and maintain a library, reading-room, and museum, especially for the collection of books, pictures, and such other articles as may in any way illustrate the war for the suppression of the Rebellion against the United States, 1861–1865.” The commanderies of this Order in the several States where it is organized have published several volumes of war papers. The Massachusetts Commandery holds monthly meetings, at which papers are read treating of events or topics connected with the war. The library contains about two thousand volumes and five hundred pamphlets, beside scrap-books, maps, and photographs. See No. 45, Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University.

The Roxbury Military Historical Society has issued in pamphlet form a Constitution and List of Members. The objects for which the Society shall be maintained are stated in the Constitution to be: First, to perpetuate the history of Roxbury and of its military citizens and organizations, past or present; Second, to encourage the volunteer militia; Third, to advocate measures and principles that will tend to strengthen the patriotism of the community; Fourth, to foster social and fraternal intercourse between its members. The date of organization is not given in this pamphlet. The Constitution provides for an annual dinner, of which the Society has had two.

The Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was incorporated 9 October, 1891, for the purpose “of perpetuating the memory of the men who achieved American Independence, and furthering the proper celebration of the anniversaries of the birthday of Washington, and of prominent events connected with the War of the Revolution, collecting and securing for preservation the rolls and other documents relating to that period, inspiring the members of the Society with the patriotic spirit of their forefathers, and promoting the feeling of friendship among them.” The Society has issued a Register of Members (1893) which is full of interesting historical matter. It seeks to preserve a knowledge of historical sites by the erection of suitable tablets.

An organization to be known as the Naval Legion of the United States was recently instituted by naval officers and veterans, at the First Triennial Congress of the General Commandery of the Naval Legion, held in Faneuil Hall. “The purpose of the Association shall be to perpetuate the names, memories, and victories of naval veterans, to encourage research in the realm of naval art and science, and to establish a library, in which to preserve documents, rolls, books, portraits, and relics pertaining to naval heroes.” The eligible list for membership includes those in actual service in the navy and marine corps and other branches of that service, and honorably retired members. A new Constitution was adopted, and officers chosen to serve until the fifth of October, which date is identical with the anniversary of the commission of the first ship in the United States Navy.

25 See No. 45 Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University.

The Buchanan Anthropological Society was incorporated 27 January, 1890. Its purposes are “to spread the Science of Systematic Anthropology as discovered by Prof. Joseph Rodes Buchanan in 1841, and as promulgated by him since that time, by the publication and circulation of such books as may be prepared by Dr. Buchanan in explanation of his philosophy and its bearing on the life of man.” The title of this organization suggests the probability of an historical society. Its alleged purposes limit its work to the publication of Dr. Buchanan’s books.

26 In a list of Historical Societies in the Magazine of American History, July, 1889, p. 115, the following title is given, “The Berkshire County Historical and Scientific Society;” again, “The Berkshire County Historical Society” is given in a list, October, 1884, p. 380, and August, 1885, p. 217. The latter title is also included in the list of Historical Societies of the United States published by the American Historical Association. Mr. H. H. Ballard, Secretary of the Society described in the text, writes me that he knows of no other similar society in the County.

27 The Antiquarian and Historical Society, Newburyport, is the title of a Society improperly included in the list of Historical Societies of the United States issued by the American Historical Association. The attempt was probably made to define by its original title the Society described in the text.

28 See No. 45, Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University.

Three numbers of Transactions were issued (1859–61) by a Society called the New England Methodist Historical Society: No. 1. Introduction of Methodism into Boston, 1859; No. 2. History of North Russell Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 1861; No. 3. Half-Century of the Methodist Church, 1861. It appears from the first Annual Report of the present Society, issued 17 January, 1881, that “a Methodist Historical Society was instituted in Boston in 1859, which existed a few years. During the exciting scenes of the late Rebellion it fell into decay.… Nine years ago the coming spring (1872) the Historical Society of the New England Conference was organized. Annual sessions were held during the Conference week, of much interest and profit to the cause. Monthly meetings were also held for some years. At the last session of the Conference it was discontinued to make room for this organization, designed to unite the Methodists of the New England States for this common purpose.” The purposes of the new organization were set forth in detail by Dr. Dorchester, and are to be found in this Report.

The New England Methodist Historical Society, Malden, is included in the list of Historical Societies of the United States published by the American Historical Association. There is at present but one Society in Massachusetts of the above title, and its office is at 36 Bromfield Street, Boston.

29 The following papers read at meetings have been published: 1880, Reply to Francis Brinley on the claims of John P. Bigelow as Founder of the Boston Public Library, read 11 May, 1880, by Timothy Bigelow; 1885, William Cooper, Town Clerk of Boston, read 12 April, 1881, by Frederick Tuckerman.

30 The Huguenot Memorial Society of Oxford was incorporated 4 October, 1881, “to perpetuate by all appropriate means the memory of the early Huguenot settlement of Oxford.” The chief aim of this Society was the purchase of the old fort and the erection of a monument on that site. The object having been accomplished, the Society is no longer active, although the organization is maintained.

31 The Webster Historical Society was incorporated 7 March, 1884. Its purposes were to collect and publish original and other interesting matter illustrating the high character and services of Daniel Webster and other distinguished statesmen; to keep before the public, through libraries, publications, meetings, or otherwise, such matter as may serve as proper texts for political reform and improvement; to educate young men in the importance of a patriotic service to the true interests of their country; to purchase and mark with suitable monuments places of interest associated with Mr. Webster’s life. The Proceedings at Marshfield, 12 October, 1882, were published by the Society in 1883. The books, pictures, and collections of the Society were sold at auction a few years since, and the proceeds applied to pay debts.

32 The Historical Society, Rehoboth, is the title of a Society included in the list published by the American Historical Association. I cannot find that there ever was a society bearing this title.

33 See No. 45, Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University.

34 The Concord Lyceum was incorporated 9 February, 1881, for “the general diffusion of knowledge in historical, literary, and scientific subjects,” and other objects. The Publications of the Lyceum are: Address pronounced on the Anniversary of the Concord Lyceum, 4 November, 1829; and Semi-centennial,— Proceedings on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of the Lyceum, 7 January, 1879, Introductory Address by E. R. Hoar, Address by C. H. Walcott. Its work has apparently been rather in the field of lectures than historical papers.

35 The Ipswich Historical Society is included in the list of Historical Societies of the United States published by the American Historical Association. Mr. T. Frank Waters, the President of this organization, thinks the name “historical society” rather presumptuous to apply to the little circle of lovers of antiquarian research who have been in the habit of holding meetings since 1891, at which papers have been read covering points of local history, but who have neither Charter nor Constitution, library nor house. Monthly meetings have practically been held this winter (1892–93). It would be strange if the enthusiasm which has maintained this interest in the objects of the Society should not ripen into a permanent organization.

36 The Old South Museum Association was incorporated 21 February, 1877, “to form a collection of historic memorials and in other ways to encourage a public interest in American History.” This Association never proceeded beyond incorporation.

The Old South Association in Boston was incorporated 11 May, 1877, “for the purpose of acquiring and holding the Old South Meeting House in Boston and the land under the same upon the corner of Milk Street and Washington Street in said city, for public, historical, memorial, educational, charitable, and religious uses.” The main purpose of this incorporation seems to be to hold the property.

37 The following named Societies have been organized or chartered since this paper was read:

The Bedford Historical Society was organized 29 March, 1893, for the purpose of collecting and preserving objects and facts of local historical interest. Monthly meetings are provided for, at which papers are expected to be read. A valuable collection of historical material and relics, which has already grown up in connection with the Free Public Library, has fostered an interest in historical matters, and has led to the organization of the Society under the inspiration of Mr. Abram English Brown, the historian of Bedford.

“The Wakefield Historical Society was incorporated 5 May, 1893. Its purposes are the collection and preservation of all historical, genealogical, and antiquarian facts, records, and mementoes concerning the town of Wakefield and vicinity, and relating to the natural history of the region, with lectures, discussions, reports, and essays on the topics within the scope of the purposes set forth.”

The Massachusetts Society of Colonial Dames of America was incorporated 13 April, 1893. Its headquarters are in Boston. The purposes of the Society are “the collection of historical and genealogical information relating to the Colonial period of Massachusetts and the encouragement of interest in American history.”

The Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was incorporated 29 April, 1893. Its headquarters are in Boston. Its purposes are “patriotic, antiquarian, and historical.”

38 Pilgrim Fathers Hall Association. A number of associates were by special act authorized in 1889 to incorporate under the general laws of the Commonwealth with the above corporate title. No certificate has been issued by the Secretary of the Commonwealth bearing this title. The name suggests a memorial association, but it probably is fraternal in its character. The curious character of the Act of Incorporation conveys the idea of an attempt at a joke.

The Plymouth Society, Plymouth, is the title of an Historical Society given in the Magazine of American History, July, 1890, p. 424. This title was also given in the list published by the American Historical Association in 1891, but does not appear in the 1892 list.

The Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association, of Provincetown, was incorporated 29 February, 1892, for “the purpose of erecting at Provincetown a monument or other suitable memorial or memorials to commemorate the arrival of the ‘Mayflower’ and the landing of the Pilgrims at Provincetown on the twenty-first day of November, in the year sixteen hundred and twenty, and to perpetuate, by enduring memorials, the memory of the signing of the Compact, the birth of Peregrine White, the death of Dorothy May Bradford, and the other interesting historical incidents connected with the ‘Mayflower’ while at anchor in Cape Cod harbor, and for the purpose of acquiring and holding land upon which to erect such memorials, and of constructing a building or buildings to accommodate the meetings and to contain the cabinets, collections, and libraries of said Society.”

39 The Wadsworth Monument Association was incorporated 1825. The Duston Monument Association was incorporated 1856. The Standish Monument Association was incorporated 1872. A number of persons were made a corporation in 1874 to erect a monument to General Joseph Warren. All of these Associations partake somewhat of the character of the Bunker Hill Monument Association.

40 See No. 45, Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University.

41 “The American Congregational Historical Society, Chelsea,” is the title of a Society given in the Magazine of American History, July, 1890, p. 424. I have not been able to discover that there ever was such an organization in Chelsea.

42 The Boston Memorial Association was incorporated 2 April, 1880. Its purposes are “the ornamentation of the city of Boston, the care of its memorials, the preservation and improvement of its public grounds, and the erection of works of art within the limits of the city.” This Association is included in the list of Historical Societies in the United States issued by the American Historical Association. A society called the Boston Memorial Society is also included in the same list. This is obviously an error.

43 An interesting description of the historical features of the library is contained in No. 45, Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University.

The Becket Athenæum was incorporated 8 March, 1888, to establish and maintain, among other things, a library, and an antiquarian and art museum.

44 The Chelsea Veteran Firemen’s Association was incorporated 4 January, 1893, and one of its purposes is said to be “the preservation of historical matter relating to firemen.”

The Anchor Club Association was incorporated 19 May, 1893. It has its headquarters at Lynn. Its purposes are “to encourage and promote an interest in antiquarian and historical subjects.”

45 That clause, expressing, in part, the purposes of this Society, is in these words: “To inspire among our members a spirit of fellowship based upon a proper appreciation of our common ancestry.”

46 “The collection and preservation of materials for a … natural history of the United States.”— Massachusetts Special Laws, i. 487, 488.

47 The Commissioners are Alexander Strong Wheeler, A.B., William Cross Williamson, A.M., and Abner Cheney Goodell, Jr., A.M.

48 These documents are now in press, and will appear as Volume II. of the Publications of this Society.

49 The name still commonly applied to the channel between Beverly proper and “Ryal Side.” At its head, where it receives the brook which forms the upper part of Bass River, the farms of the “Old Planters” of Salem were laid out. This channel appears as “Beverly Creek” on the Coast Survey chart from which the map accompanying this paper is copied.

50 I regret to say I have not had opportunity to form an opinion as to how many of the signatures to this interesting document are autographic. Roger Conant, who heads the list, and Edward Bishop, the last subscriber, appear unquestionably to have written their own names.

51 These official memoranda are in the margin of the original, as shown in the plate.

52 These official memoranda are in the margin of the original, as shown in the plate.

53 See Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for October, 1863, vii. 161–165; and its Collections, Fifth Series, vi. 16–20. Also, Moore’s Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, Appendix, pp. 251–256.

54 A copy was presented to the Massachusetts Historical Society in October, 1863, by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop.

55 Sewall’s statement of the motive which led him to write his “Apology” for the negroes, provokes the surmise that Adam and his wife may have been the anonymous persons for whom Mr. Belknap informed him he intended to apply to the Legislature. It is given in his Diary (ii. 16) under date of 19 June, 1700, as follows: —

“Having been long much dissatisfied with the Trade of fetching Negros from Guinea; at last I had a strong Inclination to Write something about it; but it wore off. At last reading Bayne, Ephes. [Paul Baynes, “Commentary on the First Chapter of the Ephesians,” 1618. — Eds.] about servants, who mentions Blackamoors; I began to be uneasy that I had so long neglected doing any thing. When I was thus thinking, in came Bro^r Belknap to shew me a Petition he intended to present to the Gen^l Court for the freeing a Negro and his wife, who were unjustly held in Bondage. And there is a Motion by a Boston Com̃ittee to get a Law that all Importers of Negros shall pay 40^s p̃ head, to discourage the bringing of them. And Mr. C. Mather resolves to publish a sheet to exhort Masters to labour their Conversion. Which makes me hope that I was call’d of God to Write this Apology for them; Let his Blessing accompany the same.”

56 Of Sewall so much is generally known that a biographical sketch of him here would be superfluous. But as Saffin is not so celebrated, it may be proper to say that he was born about 1634 (depositions, Suffolk Probate Records, vi. 356) of an old English arms-bearing family of Wolf-Heriston (Woolverston) in the County of Somerset, and that at one time he owned lands in Bicester in Oxfordshire (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1891, xlv. 42). He appeared in Scituate about 1645–1647 (Middlesex Court Files and N. E. H. G. Reg., 1877, xxxi. 115), and removed thence to Virginia in 1654, where he remained a few years (deposition of Lieut.-Col. Samuel Smith and others in Saffin v. Green, Middlesex County Court Files, 29 Dec., 1657), and returning married Martha, daughter of Capt. Thomas Willett, at Plymouth, 2 Dec., 1658 (Plymouth Colony Records, viii. 22). After this marriage he removed to Boston, where he appears to have been a successful merchant, and engaged for a time, with other Boston merchants, in the clandestine importation of negroes from Guinea (N. E. H. G. Reg., 1877, xxxi. 75, 76). His wife, with two of her children, died of the smallpox in 1678; and in 1680 he married Elizabeth, widow of Peter Lidget. She died 1 Nov., 1687, and he married for his third wife Rebecca, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Lee and sister of Cotton Mather’s third wife. This last union proved an unhappy one, and ended in a separation shortly before his death, which induced Mather to volunteer as peacemaker in a remarkable letter to Saffin printed in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 137–139. He was chosen a deputy to the General Court, from Boston, and was the last speaker of the Colonial House of Representatives. Some time between 1687 and 1689 he removed to Bristol, where he had previously held land (he being one of the company of purchasers of Mount Hope) and had been engaged in business. He represented Bristol in the General Court of Plymouth in the latter year, and served on important committees. Upon the union of the colonies in 1692, he was appointed the first justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Bristol County, and from 1693 to 1699 inclusive he was also annually elected councillor. He was again elected to the Council in 1703, but negatived by Dudley. He seems to have been a man of extraordinary force and ability. His reply to Sewall contains all the most cogent arguments that have been since put forth in defence of slavery, and shows the writer to have been a skilful polemic and not unfamiliar with literature.

He had the misfortune to survive his eight sons, the last of whom, according to Sewall (Diary, i. 192), was buried 15 Oct., 1687, about the time that tidings arrived from London of the death of another son, Thomas. The latter, “much favored of his prince,” died of the small-pox at the age of twenty-three, and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Dunstan’s, Stepney. His curious epitaph is given by Henley in No. 518 of the “Spectator,”— his name being disguised as “Thomas Snapper” or “Sapper.” Lysons, in his “Environs of London,” gives what appears to be a more exact version of the lines on his tomb which, he says (Second Edition, ii. 686*), was restored by “his countrymen” in 1750.

Saffin died in Boston, 28 July, 1710. This is contrary to the opinion generally entertained upon the authority of the editor of the Hutchinson Papers (in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 139), who says that he died at Bristol Savage fails to remove the doubt by stating that he died “at B.”— which may mean either Bristol or Boston. The circumstance that Sewall records his death the next morning and makes the further entry that Mr. Pemberton of the Old South in Boston was at the bedside of the dying man, leaves little doubt as to the fact, which is fully established by the declaration of his executors in their probate account (Suffolk Probate Files, Case No. 3264).

Besides his homestead and farm lands in Bristol County and another estate on Mill Creek in Boston, in the triangle now formed by Union, Blackstone, and Hanover Streets, and a wharf and land at the Town Dock, he had a mansion-house, outbuildings, and an enclosed pasture on the site of the present American House, and here undoubtedly he died. That his inventory, filed by his executors, shows no real estate is probably owing to the fact that upon his marriage with Elizabeth Lidget he settled upon her by way of jointure for her life after his decease, his mansion-house, yard, garden, and pasture-field adjoining, etc., and also his land and wharf upon the town dock with a new warehouse thereon then building; and charged his feoffees upon the decease of himself and his wife to convey the same to his heirs-at-law (Suffolk Deeds, xii. 159). The estate on the Mill Creek he had conveyed to John Hull, 28 April, 1680 (Ibid. xii. 175). This afterwards came into the possession of Samuel Sewall, who married Hull’s only daughter. In 1708 Sewall built a malthouse there. (Cf. Letter to Saffin 27 Sept. 1708, in Sewall’s Letter Book, i. 373. and his Diary, ii. 242.)

For the identification of the localities above described I am indebted to my friend, Mr. Henry H. Edes. The mansion-house estate he has traced back probably to the original allotment to Governor Leverett which certainly included the estate adjoining on the east. It was here, possibly in the same house, that Dr. Joseph Warren resided at the time of his death at Bunker Hill.

57 This title will be given in full, further on in this essay.

58 When used by Dr. Moore, Saffin’s pamphlet was in the possession of the late George Brinley, at the sale of whose library it was catalogued as No. 853 of Part I. I am under great obligation to Wilberforce Eames, Esq., Librarian of the Lenox Library, for procuring for me the privilege of copying both the pamphlet and the appendix.

59 These extracts were made to be used in preparing a note explanatory of the resolve of the General Court which appears later on in this article, and which constitutes Chapter 8, of the resolves for the year 1703–4 in the forthcoming eighth volume of the Province Laws.

60 Suffolk Court Files.

61 He was nominated by a bare majority of the Council. This was after the deaths of Bellomont and Stoughton, when the Council was exercising the full executive function.

62 Suffolk Court Files.

63 Clarke, in conjunction with Thomas Brattle, was appointed by the Legislature to manage the expenditures for fortifying Castle Island under the direction of her majesty’s engineer, Col. Wolfgang William Römer. See Province Laws, vii. (Resolves) 1702–3, chapter 4, and note, et passim.

64 After the verdict against Adam, and before this term of the Court, Queen Anne succeeded King William.

65 Diary, ii. 64.

66 Both were among the first attorneys sworn in before the Superior Court of Judicature, 24 June, 1701. See note to No. 20 of Private Acts: Province Laws, vol. vi., now in press.

67 Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1700–1714, fol. 84.

68 Suffolk Court Files.

69 Ibid.

70 Records in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for civil business, in the County of Suffolk.

71 It was not judicially determined until a year later that appeals lay from judgments on pleas in bar or abatement. The decision was subsequently confirmed by statute. See notes to Resolves, 1703–4, chapters 47 and 89, Province Laws, vol. viii.

72 Suffolk Court Files.

73 Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1700–1714, fol. 100.

74 Massachusetts Archives, ix. 152.

75 To be held on the first Tuesday of July following.

76 Sewall, whose sympathies continued strong for the negro, indignantly minuted in his Diary (ii. 79), under date of 8 June, 1703, the following: —

“Adam is again imprison’d to be Tryed at Suffolk Sessions. Trial order’d by the Gen^l Assembly.

Superanuated Squier, wigg’d and powder’d with pretence,

Much beguiles the just Assembly by his lying Impudence.

None being by, his bold/sworn Attorneys push it on with might and main

By which means poor simple Adam sinks to slavery again.”

From which verse it appears that, in the honest judge’s eyes, Saffin’s offence had been greatly aggravated by his wearing a periwig— the good judge’s particular abomination.

77 Suffolk Court Files.

78 Records of the Court of Sessions, in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth.

79 Suffolk Court Files.

80 Records of the Superior Court of Judicature, 1700–1714, fol. 114.

81 Massachusetts Archives, ix. 153.

82 Boston Record Commissioners’ Report, No. 11, Selectmen’s Records, 1701–1715, p. 137.

83 See New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxi. 115, where the name is misprinted Laffin.

84 The Narrative begins near the bottom of the fifth page of the pamphlet.

85 The deposition referred to appears to be entire except the introductory recital of the names of the deponents, etc. It was sworn to by Griffin, 13 Oct. 1701, before Isaac Addington as justice of the peace, and by Shine and Lee on the 27th, before Addington Davenport, Clerk of the Court of Sessions for Suffolk County, and is here printed from a copy attested by Davenport, and preserved in Suffolk Court Files, No. 5173; namely, —

“[*****]d William Lee al[l of f*]ull age being Imployed as Labourers in the Works on Castle Island Testifie and say that on Tuesday the Seventh of October 1701 Cap^ṭ Timothy Clarke one of the Overseers of s^ḍ Works, Speaking to Adam a Labourer and negro at the Castle to Direct him about his Work, the s^ḍ negro Shewed himself very Surley and gave Saucy Answers to s^ḍ Cap^ṭ Clark refuseing to observe his Directions; Whereupon the Cap^ṭ with a Small Stick which lie then held in his hand struck his Tobacco-pipe out of his mouth, gave him a Shove with his hand & Struck him a blow over the Shoulders with the s^ḍ Stick; the s^ḍ negro in great Fury & rage Shoved the Cap^ṭ again wrested the Stick out of his hand and broke it, & lifted up the Shovel wherewith he was at work and with the Iron upward offered a Stroke to the s^ḍ Cap^ṭ which he fended off with his Arm; otherwise might in all probability have been grieviously mischiefed thereto; butt the Depon^tṣ with some others ran into the rescue of the Cap^ṭ but the s^ḍ negro was so furious & outragious and putt forth so great Strength that it was as much as Six or Seven of us could do to hold and restrain him —

* Manuscript mutilated.

Boston October 13^tḥ 1701 —

Signed

John X Shine —

John Griffin —

Sign’d

Will^ṃ Lee — ”

86 Dealings with the Dead, ii. 519.

87 See Mr. Davis’s query respecting the destination of the Palatines, in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography for 1887, xi. 243, 244.

88 Peter Baynton, a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, born 27 December, 1695, was a son of Benjamin and a grand-nephew of Peter Baynton, an early emigrant to Pennsylvania, who came about 1686 from Bedminster, near Bristol, England. Peter, the emigrant, married Annika (Kyn) Sandelands, widow of James, and the wealthiest woman in the Province. As their only child was a daughter, Rebecca, who in 1713 married Thomas Weston, the name became extinct in that line at his decease.

Peter Baynton, to whom Faneuil’s letter was addressed, was a Vestryman and Warden of Christ Church, Philadelphia. He married first, in Charleston, S. C., a Miss Paris, and second, in 1723, his cousin Mary, daughter of John and Rebecca (Smith) Budd, of New Jersey. He resided at Burlington, N. J., near which place he was drowned in the Delaware, 22 February, 1743–4. His son Benjamin, bred to the law, died at the age of twenty-one. Another son, John, of the Philadelphia firm of Baynton, Wharton, and Morgan, born 17 December, 1726, married Elizabeth Chevalier, 17 December, 1747, and was father of Peter Baynton, third of the name, born in 1754, who in 1799 was Adjutant-General of the militia of Pennsylvania. The Baytons are among the most ancient families of England. Cf. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, i. 351, 352, 466; ii. 443–448; vi. 17, 18; Christ Church “Inscriptions,” p. 50; and p. 369, post.

89 Burgess Hall, in 1733 or 1734, was a householder in Stratfield, a parish of Stratford, Connecticut, where he was baptized in November, 1701, a son of Isaac Hall, Jr., of Redding, Connecticut. This family descended from Francis Hall of New Haven, Fairfield, and Stratford, who was son of Gilbert Hall who emigrated from Kent, England. See Orcutt’s History of Stratford and Bridgeport, Conn., i. 502; ii. 1210.

For the identification of Captain Hall and Peter Baynton, I am indebted to Mr. Walter Kendall Watkins, the courteous Assistant-Librarian of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society, in the Cabinet of which a part of one of Faneuil’s Letter-Books is preserved.

90 Mr. William Sigourney Otis was also elected at this meeting, but died on Thursday, 20 April, 1893, before receiving official notice of his election.

91 This valuable document, dated 26 December, 1672, was printed at length, its quaint orthography being preserved, in the April 1892 number of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlvi. 127–133. Cf. Ibid. xxiii. 312–335; Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), ii. 318; and Felt’s History of Ipswich, pp. 164–167.

92 On the “last of August, 1645,” sixty-four of the inhabitants of Roxbury subscribed an agreement, still extant, to build and maintain a free school to be managed by seven feoffees, and to allow to the schoolmaster £20 per annum, to be raised annually among themselves in sums ranging from two shillings to £1 4s. In the Agreement and in the records of the feoffees the subscribers are termed “Donors.” William Denison agreed to give eight shillings annually. His son, Edward Denison, was chosen one of the feoffees 15 February, 1662–3. See “A History of the Grammar School or ‘The Free Schoole of 1645 in Roxburie,’” by C. K. Dillaway, Roxbury, 1860, pp. 1–13; 28.

93 “1638, 2 May. It is ordered that Newtown shall henceforward be called Cambridge.” Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 228.

94 Johnson’s “Wonder-Working Providence” (Poole’s edition), p. 66.

95 See Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), i. 98.

96 New England’s Prospect (Prince Society’s edition), p. 43.

97 Dudley is characterized as “a man of sound judgment in matters of religion, and well-read, bestowing much labor that way” (Johnson’s “Wonder-Working Providence,” Poole’s edition, p. 52); as “a lover of justice, order, the people, Christian religion,— the supreme virtues of a good magistrate” (Morton’s “New England’s Memorial,” Judge Davis’s edition, p. 255). He was a principal founder and pillar of the Massachusetts Colony, of which he was several times Governor or Deputy Governor.

98 Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), i. 164. See also Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 123.

99 New England’s Prospect (Prince Society’s edition), pp. 48, 49.

100 John Dane. See his Narrative in New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1854) viii. 154.

101 Concerning the Antinomian Controversy, cf. Dr. George E. Ellis’s “Life of Anne Hutchinson,” and Charles W. Upham’s “Life of Sir Henry Vane,” both in Sparks’s American Biography; Mr. Goodell’s “A Biographical Sketch of Thomas Maule, of Salem,” etc., in Essex Institute Historical Collections (1861), iii. 238–253; Mr. Goodell’s Remarks on pages 132–145 post; Winthrop’s History of New England, passim; Memorial History of Boston, i. 171–177, and notes; Harvard College Library Bulletin, No. 11, p. 287; and the forthcoming volume of the Publications of the Prince Society, “Antinomianism in Massachusetts Bay, 1636–38,” edited by Charles Francis Adams.

102 Cf. Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), i. 239, 294, 309, 313, et passim; ii. 164; and Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts Bay, ii. appendix.

103 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 207.

104 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 211, 212.

105 “Wonder-Working Providence” (Poole’s edition), pp. 192, 193.

106 Printed in the Atlantic Monthly for January and February, 1893, lxxi. 25–31, 201–213. A good account of this contest is also given by John George Bourinot, D.C.L., President of the Royal Society of Canada, in his recently published work, entitled Historical and Descriptive Account of the Island of Cape Breton, and of its Memorials of the French Regime, with Bibliographical, Historical, and Critical Notes, Montreal, 1892. See, also, Winthrop’s History of New England, passim; 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 90–121; Ibid. Fourth Series, iv. 462; Charles C. Smith’s chapter on “Boston and the Neighboring Jurisdictions,” in Memorial History of Boston, i. 282, et seq, and the same writer’s chapter on “Acadia” in Narrative and Critical History of America, iv. 135, et seq.

107 Cf. Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 157–159, iii. 74, 75; and Winthrop’s History of New England (edition of 1853), ii. 334, 373, 377.

108 History of New England, ii. 389.

109 Printed in 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ii. 115–118.

110 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part 1, 141.

111 See Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, printed in Plymouth Colony Records, x. 54, 57.

112 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part 1, 337, 350.

113 Denison had been associated with Samuel Symonds and Joseph Hills in a similar commission as early as 3 May, 1654. (Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part 1, 182.) For an admirable account of the legislation concerning the revision of the laws during the Colonial period, see Mr. William H. Whitmore’s Bibliographical Sketch of the Laws of the Massachusetts Colony prefixed to “The Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, reprinted from the Edition of 1660.… Published by order of the City Council of Boston.” Second edition, Boston, 1890.

114 19 October, 1658. Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part 1, 356.

115 Cf. Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, printed in Plymouth Colony Records, x. 102, 110–111, 114, 329; Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part 1, 196–197.

116 Plymouth Colony Records, x. 180–181.

117 Cf. Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, printed in Plymouth Colony Records, x. 387; Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part 2, 572, 573; and Massachusetts Archives, lxvii. 173.

118 Whitman’s History of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (Second edition), p. 170.

119 Preserved in Massachusetts Archives, lxvii. 208.

120 The History of the Indian Wars in New England (Drake’s edition), ii. 129.

121 Ibid. ii. 176, 189 et seq.

122 Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 311–313. Cf. Ibid. v. 303, 398.

123 That is, four sessions: May and October, 1649, October, 1651, and May, 1652.

124 This essay was printed in the same volume with Hubbard’s Funeral Sermon on General Denison, and is included between pages 175–218. The imprint is, “Printed at Boston by Samuel Green, 1684.” The above extracts may be found on pp. 179, 218.

125 Report to the Lords of Trade, 12 October, 1676, printed in Hutchinson’s Collection of Original Papers (Prince Society’s edition), ii. 236.

126 Edition of 1853, ii. 318.

127 The extracts here printed may be found on pp 151, 157–159.

128 See The Heraldic Journal, i. 91; ii. 141.

129 See note on page 140 et seq., post.

130 “This gentlewoman was of a nimble wit, voluble tongue, eminent knowledge in the Scriptures, of great charity, and notable helpfulness, especially in such occasions where those of that sex stand in need of the mutual help of each other.”— 2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, v. 283.

131 Backus’s History of the Baptists (Backus Historical Society’s Edition), i. 500.

132 Among the purposes of the “Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution” are “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 services of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots.”

133 The text of this document has been printed in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1887, N. S. v. 132–133; and in the New England Magazine for February, 1894, ix. 779.

134 Since Professor Goodwin made the above communication to the Society the following additional references to Alderman Mowlson have been gleaned from the Calendar of State Papers: —

December, 1626. Thomas Moulson, appointed one of the Commissioners for French Goods, to the Mayor of Plymouth. (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1625–1626, p. 511.)

27 January, 1627. A letter dated at Westminster was addressed to the Commissioners, the name of Thomas Moulson being included. “By commission, dated December 8 last past, the persons now addressed were appointed Commissioners to arrest all French ships and goods in England, and authority was given to the Lord Admiral to direct the king’s ships to stay French ships which they found at sea. The king directs that ships stayed at sea are not to be dealt with by the Commissioners, but to remain in the custody of the Lord Admiral.” (Ibid. 1627–1628, p. 32.)

22 July, 1628. The petition exhibited to the king by Robert Alt, on behalf of the poor spectacle-makers, was read to the Court of Aldermen, and Alderman Moulson was appointed one of a Committee, the other members being the Lord Mayor, the Recorder, and the Sheriffs, to whom the petition was referred with instructions to consider the conveniency or inconveniency thereof. (Ibid. 1628–1629, p. 226.)

8 October, 1633. The Lord Mayor, in obedience to an order of the Council of 29 May last, reported that he had made inquiry of all such persons as since the last certificate had come to lodge (termers excepted) in London. The certificates as to the several wards accompanied this report. Among them was the following from Alderman Thomas Mowlson: No lodgers in Broad Street Ward. 20 June, 1633. (Ibid. 1633–1634, p. 237.)

135 Mr. Henry F. Waters has forwarded to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, an abstract of the will of Anthony Radcliffe, a brother of Lady Mowlson. This abstract will appear in the Waters Gleanings in the April, 1894, number of the Register. The will was proved 25 June, 1628. Alderman Moulson, his well beloved brother-in-law, was appointed his sole and only executor.

From this document it appears that the testator had three sisters,— Dorothy, who was married to a Gerrard, and who was probably the mother of Sir Gilbert Gerrard, of Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, Baronet, a legatee under Lady Mowlson’s will; Elizabeth, who was married to a Harvey, and who may perhaps be connected with Lady Mowlson’s will through one of the legatees, Mr. Cary Mildmay, otherwise Harvey, of Marks, in Essex; and Anne Moulson, who, as we have seen, herself signs her name Ann Mowlson.

In this will the testator expresses the desire that his body should be buried in the parish church of Harrow, “Where the Bodyes of my Father and Mother and divers of my Friends lye buried.”

136 The gift of £100 to Harvard College and the subscription of £600 to the loan raised to pay the Scottish army, are perhaps evidence enough that Lady Mowlson was a woman of means; but the following item taken from the Calendar of State Papers shows not only that she had large sums to lend, but that she was not disposed tamely to acquiesce in the illegal detention of her funds by others: —

(5 May, 1652. Council of State. Days Proceedings.)

“Order on the report of the examination of Wm. Abel, late alderman of London, concerning dangerous words against the public peace lately spoken by him in Northall Woods, near Hatfield Co., Herts. That it appears that Abel has been prisoner to Sir John Lenthall since 12 March last, at the suits of Ann, relict of Sir Thos. Moulson, for 1,500l., borrowed for the use of the Vintners’ Company. Also of the executors of Thos. Hammond for 1000l, and of Richard Woodward, merchant, for 600l. for the same business.”

137 This reference, undoubtedly, is to John Alborough, or Albro, with whom Judge John Saffin had a contention in 1679 concerning the title of lands in King’s Province, then claimed both by Massachusetts and Rhode Island. (Rhode Island Colonial Records, iii. 75.) Alborough was very prominent in Rhode Island affairs. He rose to the rank of Major in the militia; was a Commissioner for Portsmouth, where he resided, in 1660 (Ibid. i. 437); was appointed, 10 November, 1679, with John Smith, to survey and ascertain the boundary line between Rhode Island and Connecticut (Ibid. iii. 73); served frequently as a Deputy to the General Assembly; and later was an Assistant of the Colony. In 1686 he was appointed to a seat in Andros’s Council, and attended its first meeting, in Boston, 20 December of that year (Ibid. iii. 219–220). Savage says he died 14 December, 1712, aged 95 years.

138 Petaquamscott was within the limits of Old Kingston, R. I., and probably in that part of the town set off in 1723 and now known as South Kingston. There is a neck of land on the shore of Narragansett Bay, and within the limits of this town, still known as “Boston Neck,” and as it is bounded on the west by Petaquamscott River, it is possible that it is identical with Sewall’s tract. On 19 September, 1699, Sewall writes: “Goe with Tho. Hazard to Mattoonuck, view the bounds and add to the heaps of Stones at 3 Corners. Go back and lodge on Boston Neck at Tho. Hazard’s” (Diary, i. 501). As Mattoonuck is immediately south of Kingston, this entry may refer to the land given, in 1696, to the College.

139 14 Geo. III. Chap. 19.

140 Ibid. chap. 39.

141 Ibid. chap. 45.

142 See page 176 et seq.

143 Life and Works of John Adams, x. 247.

144 Ibid. viii. 384.

145 Ibid. ii. 323.

146 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports (Town Records), xviii. 48.

147 See “The Boston Massacre,” by A. C. Goodell, Jr., 1887, p. 3, reprinted from the Boston Daily Advertiser.

148 Printed in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xiiv. 282–283.

149 These Minutes and those of the Bristol Convention of 4 and 5 January, 1775 (printed on pp. 255, 256, post), are written on seven pages of cap paper. The manuscript consists of two separate sheets: page 1 contains the Preamble and Resolve 1; page 2, Resolves 2 to 7; page 3, Resolves 8 to 11; page 4 (reversed), the paragraph which, as here printed, immediately precedes the Preamble, the rest of the page being blank; and page 5, the two Resolutions printed between Resolves 7 and 8, the three Resolutions printed between Resolves 10 and 11, and— at the bottom— the first two paragraphs above printed. These manuscript pages are indicated in the printed text by broadfaced figures enclosed in brackets. The Minutes of the Convention of 1775 fill pages 6 and 7 (reversed) of the second sheet, the eighth, and last, page of which is blank.

The words in the margin are from the Resolves of the Bristol Convention in the Appendix to the printed Journals of the Provincial Congress, and the marks of reference indicate where these words occur in the paragraph. The Resolutions are not numbered in the printed Journals, but the order in which they are printed therein is indicated in the margin by numerals enclosed in parentheses. Differences of spelling and punctuation are not noted.

150 Quincy, in his History of Harvard College (i. 274), says: “The President and Fellows of Harvard College being the only Corporation in the Province, and so continuing during the whole of the seventeenth century, they early assumed, and had by common usage conceded to them, the name of The Corporation, by which they designate themselves in all the early records.” At the period of which Quincy was then treating there was no other corporation in the Province, but it is an error to say that they designate themselves as “The Corporation” in all early records. Prior to 1650, generally, and for some time thereafter, occasionally, the College is designated in the records as “The Society.” In the fac-simile of the records (Quincy, i., facing 48), the term used is “the Governours of the College.”

151 The Charters and General Laws of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1814, pp. 8, 9.

152 The Charters and General Laws of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1814, p. 14.

153 Hazard’s State Papers, i. 103.

154 Rymer’s Fœdera, xii. 595. The O. S. year 1495 is given in Hazard’s State Papers, i. 9.

155 Rymer’s Fœdera, xiii. 37.

156 Hazard’s State Papers, i. 24.

157 Ibid. i. 33.

158 Ibid. i. 43, 45.

159 Hazard’s State Papers, i. 50.

160 Ibid. i. 54.

161 Ibid. i. 67.

162 Ibid. i. 72.

163 Ibid. i. 134, 206.

164 Ibid. 143: “Damus et concedimus dicto domino Willielmo Alexandro, suisque prædictis, liberam potestatem stabiliendi et cudere causandi monetam pro commercio liberiori inhabitantium diotæ provincæ, cujusvis metalli, quo modo et qua forma voluerint et eisdem præscribent.” See also Ibid. pp. 209, 214.

165 Ibid. i. 137: “Nos pro nobis nostrisque successoribus et hæredibus, cum avisamento et consensu prædictis, virtute præsentis cartæ nostræ damus et concedimus liberam et plenariam potestatem præfato domino Willielmo Alexandra suisque prædictis, conferendi favores, privilegia, munia, et honores in demerentes, etc.”

166 In 1625 Charles I. issued a proclamation, in which he ordained that the government of the Colony of Virginia should immediately depend on himself, and not be committed to any company or corporation. (Rymer’s Fœdera, xviii. 72.)

In 1627 a special commission was issued to “Sir Kenelme Digby, Knight, one of the gentlemen of our Privy Chamber,” as a discoverer, in which “our loving subjects,” “whose company, assistance, or service the said Sir Kenelme Digby” should use, were commanded “to yield all duty, obedience, and respect unto him.” (Ibid. xviii. 947, 948.) This is the same Sir Kenelme Digby who gave books to Harvard College Library.

167 Porro ne Viris honestè natis et se ad præsentem Expeditionem accincturis, ac bene de nobis et Regnis nostris Pace et Bello mereri cupientibus in tam remota longèque dissita Regione omnis ad Honores et Dignitates Via præclusa et penitus obsepta esse videatur propterea Nos pro Nobis Hæredibus et Successoribus nostris præfato modò Baroni de Baltimore et Hæredibus et Assignatis suis liberam et plenariam Potestatem damus Favores Gratias et Honores in benemeritos Cives infra Provinciam prædictam inhabitantes conferendi Eosque quibuscunque Titulis et Dignitatibus (modo tales non fuerint quæ in Anglia nunc sunt in Usu) pro Arbitrio suo decorandi Villas item in Burgos et Burgos in Civitates ad Inliabitantium Merita et Locorum Opportunitates cum Privilegiis et Immunitatibus congruis erigendi et incorporandi. (Hazard’s State Papers, i. 333.)

It would seem as if the use of titles the value of which was understood in England would have stimulated emigration better than to have compelled the use of new dignities. Such titles as “landgrave” and “cacique,” granted in Carolina, could not have been as well appreciated as if power had been given to grant titles without the limitations in the patent. See foot-note to Sir William Alexander’s grant, ante, p. 187.

168 Hazard’s State Papers, i. 160.

169 Ibid. i. 442, 448, 470, 480.

170 An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, etc. [Adam Anderson], London, 1720, ii. 128; Narrative and Critical History of America, v. 291.

171 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 393.

172 I quote what follows from an exhaustive article entitled “History of the Law of Business Corporations before 1800,” by our associate, Samuel Williston: “The following things were said to be of the essence of a corporation: First, Lawful authority of incorporation, and that may be by four means; viz., by the common law, as the king himself, etc.; by authority of Parliament; by the king’s charter; and by prescription. The second, which is of the essence of the incorporation, are persons to be incorporated, and that in two manners; viz., persons natural, or bodies incorporate and political. Third, A name by which they are incorporated. Fourth, Of a place, for without a place no incorporation can be made. Fifth, By words sufficient in law, but not restrained to any certain, legal, and prescript form of words.” (Harvard Law Review, ii., No. 3.)

173 Sutton’s Hospital Case. (Coke’s Reports, Part 10, 30 a.) The reporter digests a portion of the opinion in these words: “The words incorporo, fundo, erigo, etc., not necessary to create a corporation.”

Ibid. 30 b. “To the creation of an incorporation the law had not restrained itself to any prescript and incompatible words.”

174 Thomas v. Sorrell (Vaugh. 330, 340), quoted by Chief-Justice Gray, in Hill v. Boston, 122 Mass. 349.

175 The important part of the form in this connection is as follows: —

Whereas our soṽaigne lord the king pleased to betrust us, T. P., W. B., E. W., &c., W^th the goṽment of so many of his subjects as doe or shalbe pmitted to live W^th in this goṽment of New Plym̃, and that it seemeth good unto us to begin, set up & establish a neighborhood or plantac̄on, at a place called, being bounded, and lying miles westward from s̃d towne of New Plym̃; and whereas, by reason of the distance of the place and our many weighty occaations, we can not so well see to the receiving in of such psons as may be fitt to live together there in the feare of God, and obeydyence to our said soṽaigne lord the king, in peace and loves, as becometh Christian people, all W^ch we earnestly desire— that our care therefore may apeare in the faythfull discharge of our duties towards God, the Kings Ma^tie, and the people oṽr whom we are, wee have thought good to betrust our wel beloved T. B., A. C., G. D., &c. then follow powers to receive peaceable and faitful people and to allot lands to them according to their rank and that they follow instructions from the Government. (Plymouth Colony Records, i. 113.)

176 Hill v. Boston, 122 Mass. 349.

177 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 207; iv. Part i. 9; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xi. 206–210.

178 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part i. 368.

179 Ibid. iv. Part ii. 26.

180 Ibid. iv. Part ii. 56.

181 Ibid. iv. Part ii. 99.

182 Memorial History of Boston, i. 219.

183 Province Laws, v. 177, 187.

184 Constitution of Massachusetts, Part the Second, chap. 1, sect. 2, art. 2.

185 Ibid. Sect. 3, art. 2.

186 Chief-Justice Gray, in Hill v. Boston, 122 Mass. 349. I am indebted to our associate, Professor James B. Thayer, for calling my attention to the marvellous resources of this remarkable opinion.

187 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 137; iii. 48.

188 Ibid. ii. 60.

189 Ibid. ii. 61.

190 Ibid. ii. 81.

191 Ibid. ii. 104; iii. 58.

192 Ibid. iii. 371. Another suit, in May, 1655, was thus entered in the records:

“In the case between Capt. Robt. Keane, plaintiff, and commissioner for the undertakers of the iron works, and Mr. Robt. Knight, defendant.” (Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 381. See also iii. 369–372, 379.)

In a suit, in 1654, a question of personal liability was raised. The defendant was entered of record as John Becks & Company, of the iron works. (Ibid. iii. 351.)

193 Ibid. ii. 138; iii. 53.

194 Ibid. ii. 249, 250.

195 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 253.

196 Ibid. under date of June, 1650, iii. 207.

197 Ibid. iv. Part i. 12.

198 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part i. 99.

199 Our associate, Mr. Henry H. Edes, has furnished the following interesting items, which show the existence of the Company at a later day. The Conduit itself was apparently in working order in 1737, and is incidentally referred to in the Selectmen’s Records as late as 1763: —

There were thirteen corporators named in the Act (Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part i. 99), who appear to have had an equal interest in the undertaking. An intimation that the Conduit had been built before the Charter was granted (1 June, 1652) is found in the Act itself, which provides that the corporators “shall take order for the due pajment of theire annuall rent to Mr. Willjam Ting, according to theire couenant and agreement wth him.” The fact that it had been built and was in use, certainly as early as 24 (11) 1651, is fully established by a deed of that date whereby Valentine Hill, one of the corporators, conveyed to William Awbrey, “for the vse of the Vndertakers of the Iron workes in New England,” land and a wharf “on the Southerly side of the streete or highway neere the bridge over the mill Creeke … together with all water Courses,” etc., and “it is further explajned that by water courses is vnderstood the priviledge of the Conduite in the streete for two shares as well as any other priviledges of water courses.” (Suffolk Deeds, i. 178–180.) The street, apparently, had not as yet become known as “Conduit Street,” but a year later it is so designated in a deed given by William Hudson, another corporator, to Robert Petershall, 27 March, 1652 (Ibid. i. 219). The annual expense of the Conduit privileges is shown by a deed dated 22 October, 1652, by which Leonard Buttles, a third corporator, conveys to Capt. Nicholas Simpkins an estate near the Dock with “right & priviledge to fetch water at the Conduite for his owne house only paying therefor yearely two shillings & Sixe pence to the wardens of the Company for the time being” (Ibid. iii. 302). Three years later, on 20 February, 1655, Buttles conveys to Richard Staines an estate which “fronteth the Conduit Street” and “a fifteenth part of the water Conduit” (Ibid. ii. 258). This would indicate that two other “proprietors of lands, w^thin the sajd streete or elsewhere,” had “come into the sajd body,” as permitted by the Charter; but the surmise that a clerical error occurred in recording Butties’s deed is warranted by reference to an instrument dated 13 July, 1656, by which Joseph Armitage conveys to Capt. Thomas Savage “two thirteenth shares in y^e Condit … w^ch two said shares” had been taken on execution from the estate of the “Vndertak^rs of y^e Iron workes” (Ibid. iii. 3).

Conduit Street was known later as Ann Street, and is now North Street. In the title of the estate now and for many years known as “Oak Hall,” and of the estate adjoining it on the Southwest, are references to the Conduit. These estates are on the Northerly side of North Street, between Union and Blackstone Streets, and nearly opposite the end of Merchants’ Row. The Southwesterly part of the Oak Hall estate belonged to Major Thomas Savage, who conveyed it in 1659, describing it as “on the North side of the Conduit Street” (Ibid. iii. 488). In the Inventory of the estate of William Ballantine, a founder of the Scots Charitable Society, this estate is mentioned with wharf and Conduit privileges (Suffolk Probate, No. 516). William Ballantine’s heirs, for £275, conveyed the estate to Col. John Ballantine (the eldest son), 28 July, 1680, together with “one share in the Conduit in the Conduit Street,” and wharf privileges (Suffolk Deeds, xii. 95). By deed dated 3 January, 1692, Bozoun Allen granted to Ballantine and others the right of laying pipes for the use of the Conduit in Conduit Street (Ibid. xx. 29). Colonel Ballantine bought several contiguous parcels, and died 27 April, 1734. His administrator conveyed the enlarged estate to Charles Coffin by deed dated 25 May, 1737, together with wharf and other privileges, “and the use and privilege of the well and water from the Conduit, as the same Premises were heretofore held, used, occupied, and enjoyed” by Ballantine (Ibid. liv. 139). The Ballantine lot had a frontage of about 22 feet on Conduit Street. The lot, about 17½ feet front, adjoining it on the Northeast is now included in the Oak Hall estate.

Conduit Street is also referred to in a deed from Abigail Woodbridge, of Hartford, Conn., to Joseph Belknap, 15 March, 1753, conveying the estate adjoining the Ballantine lot on the Southwest. (Ibid. lxxxii. 48.)

See also Shurtleff’s Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, pp. 398–404, 640, 645, 683; Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii., vii., viii. (Town Records, 1634–1728), passim, x. 1–54 (Capt. Robert Keayne’s Will, 1653), 86, and xi., xiii., xix. (Selectmen’s Records, 1701–1763), passim; and Memorial History of Boston, i. 233, 234, 546.

200 Patents.— In May, 1646 Joseph Jenkes, who was reputed to be a man of ability “in raising the manufacture of engines of mills to go by water,” “for the speedy despatch of much work with few hands,” was granted the exclusive use of “such new inventions” for fourteen years. (Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 149.)

In May, 1652 Edward Burt, who was supposed to have discovered a new way to make salt, was granted the monopoly for ten years of the manufacture of salt by the new method. (Ibid. iii. 275.) Our associate Mr. Henry H. Edes is authority for the statement that Burt was of Charlestown, where he was Town Clerk 1658–1662, and married Elizabeth, daughter of George Bunker. Governor Bradstreet was concerned with him in building there the Saltworks, in 1652 (Suffolk Deeds, ii. 256, 257). Cf. Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, i. 115, 150, 160; Suffolk Deeds, i. 99, 238, ii. 112, 156, 163, 167, 169, 170, 171, iii. 66, 324; Middlesex Deeds, i. 142, 143; Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, iii. (Charlestown Land Records) passim; and Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 421, iv. Part. i. 91, 272, 283, 334.

In October, 1652 John Clarke was granted the exclusive use for three years of his invention “for saving firewood and warming of rooms with little cost and charge, by which means great benefit is like to be to the country.” (Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part i. 104.) This grant was extended in May, 1656 for the term of Clarke’s life. (Ibid. iv. Part i. 260.)

In May, 1655 Joseph Jencks, Sr., and his assigns were granted the exclusive right for seven years to make and use an engine that said Jencks had proposed to the Court for the more speedy cutting of grass. (Ibid. iv. Part i. 233.) In May, 1656 John Winthrop was granted an exclusive privilege for twenty-one years of making salt after his new way, within this jurisdiction. (Ibid. iii. 400.) In October, 1670 Richard Wharton petitioned the Court (Ibid. iv. Part ii. 467) relative to the manufacture of salt. A committee was appointed to treat with him. It may be gathered from the report of this committee in June, 1671, that he had information of the “making of salt by improving the advantage of the sea-water by the sun,” as practised elsewhere, and that he wished to secure a charter for a company. (Ibid. iv. Part ii. 505.) The committee recommended the grant of “a charter for empowering a company of adventurers thereunto,” and the Court approved the proposition, but recommitted it for future report, after settlement of details.

In June, 1671 the Court passed an order to the effect that no person, except Richard Wharton, John Saffin and Company, could make or produce (any other way than hath been practised in former times in this country) any pitch, rosin, turpentine, oil of turpentine, or mastic of the pine or cedar trees in this jurisdiction. This monopoly of the manufacture of these articles by any other methods than those previously in practice had one exception. Any person could manufacture for his own use by new methods. The order was to remain in force for ten years, and was accompanied by grants of pine and cedar trees. (Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part ii. 499.)

In May, 1681 the “undertakers of the outworke or wall before the toune of Boston, to the seaward,” were granted power to hear and determine controversies among themselves, and impose fines among themselves. (Ibid. v. 310.) Although this is not a corporation, yet considering the scope of our review, it ought not to be passed by without notice. It is not mentioned here, because the grant is considered as qualifying the statement in the text.

The attempt to improve the mechanical application of water-power is what might have been expected in Massachusetts; but that the mowing-machine should have been anticipated, seems, on the whole, strange. It was also natural that attention should be turned toward improvements in the manufacture of salt. What was known in this direction can probably be ascertained; but it would be interesting to learn what was the proposed economy of John Clarke in the use of firewood.

201 Ibid. iv. Part ii. 535; Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 592.

202 New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, xi. 206–210.

203 Paige’s History of Cambridge, p. 42, note.

204 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 587. In the Convention for the revision of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1820, the act of 1642 was spoken of by Quincy as the Charter of the College, and he even went so far as to describe the Act of Incorporation in 1650 as the “Supplemental Charter.” (Journal of Debates and Proceedings, Boston, 1821, p. 44.) Daniel Davis of Boston took substantially the same ground. (Ibid. p. 46.) Daniel Webster, at a later stage of proceedings, made a report in which he gave a history of the Charter, and showed the points of difference between the act of 1642 and the Charter of 1650. (Ibid. pp. 236, 237.)

205 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 58, 276. The effect of the annulment of the Colony Charter was discussed by Hon. Emory Washburn in 1875. He said: “There is no doubt, however, that opinions have at times prevailed in the community that the Colonial Statutes were annulled by abrogating the Charter.” (Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 454.) James Savage, discussing the same question in the Massachusetts Convention for the revision of the Constitution in 1820, said: “The rights of all sorts dependent on that Charter were annulled. Not, sir, that my ancestors, or yours, were, or could be, deprived of the actual possession of their highest rights; they held them by something better than paper.” (Journal of Debates and Proceedings, etc. Boston, 1821, p. 48.)

206 The account books from which these entries are transcribed mouldered and rotted, and were riddled by insects for many years in a loft in John Hancock’s stable. Mr. Sibley published an account of their recovery by the College, and gave a detailed description of their contents. (Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 1862–1863, vi. 337.) The historical value of the books is greatly increased by these entries, the first being illustrative of the chaotic condition, at that time, of affairs in this country, and the second indicating that the representative of the Crown considered the organization at Cambridge as having its origin from the Colonial government, and therefore as being under his control.

207 Brief Account concerning Several of the Agents of New England, their Negotiation at the Court of England, with some Remarks, etc. [Increase Mather.] London, 1691, p. 21.

208 Province Laws, i. 38, and note at the end of the chapter; vii. 452, 608; Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 77, 594.

209 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 85; Province Laws, vii. 608.

210 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 82.

211 Province Laws, i. 288; vii. 608, 609; Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 86.

212 Province Laws, vii. 228.

213 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 100, 607.

214 Province Laws, vii. 230.

215 Ibid. vii. 245.

216 Province Laws, vii. 252, 253.

217 Ibid. vii. 257, 643.

218 Ibid. vii. 260.

219 Ibid. vii. 635, 643.

220 Ibid. vii. 265.

221 Ibid. vii. 272, 644.

222 Ibid. vii. 698.

223 Ibid. vii. 308.

224 Ibid. vii. 312.

225 Ibid. vii. 703.

226 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 153.

227 It will be observed that the details relating to the foregoing analysis of the legislation with reference to the government of Harvard College during this ad interim organization are mainly derived from the copious notes furnished by Abner C. Goodell, Jr., in the seventh volume of the Province Laws. Quincy covered this ground with great detail, but the patient industry of Mr. Goodell has added new material, and has made plain much that was left obscure by Quincy. For a just appreciation of the value of Joseph Dudley’s intervention, through which the charter of 1650 was saved to the College, and for the proper understanding of these proceedings, which were rendered complex through the ambition of Mather to retain the presidency without complying with the order of the Court that he should reside in Cambridge, it is desirable to read the explanations and comments of the learned annotator, in connection with Quincy’s elaborate account.

228 Samuel Nowell was a Charlestown man. We therefore look to our associate Mr. Henry H. Edes for information concerning him. He contributes the following facts: —

Samuel Nowell was a graduate of the College in 1653. He was a son of Elder Increase Nowell of Charlestown, where he was born 12 (9) 1634. Two years after graduation, in 1655, he was elected a Fellow of the College. He was also a Chaplain in the army during Philip’s War, and was in the great Swamp Fight, 19 December, 1675. Nowell also served the Colony as an Assistant and a Commissioner of the United Colonies, and in 1687 accompanied Increase Mather to London on a mission to the English Court.

Nowell’s appointment as Treasurer of the College in January, 1682/3, was pro tempore, the Corporation “still reserving Liberty for the worshipfull Captⁿ, Richards to reassume the place at his return” from England. Nowell’s instructions for the management of the College finances are printed in 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 694. He died in London in August or September, 1688. (Cf. Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, ii. 710–711; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 322, 335–342, 553, 592)

229 I am indebted to our associate, Abner C. Goodell, Jr., for calling my attention some months since, when I showed him copies of these entries, to the technical legal point, of the recognition of the College as a corporation, by the representative of the Crown, which was involved in the order issued by Andros to the College to submit their accounts to his inspection.

230 The Charters and General Laws of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay. Boston, 1814, pp. 26, 27.

231 Province Laws, iii. 708, 744.

232 Ibid, iii. 778, 818.

233 Ibid, iii. 891, 951.

234 Ibid, iv 463, 542.

235 Ibid, iv. 518, 560.

236 Province Laws, iv. 520, 560.

237 Ibid. iv. 806.

238 Ibid. v. 177, 187.

239 Ibid. v. 179, 188. et seq. The passage of this act and of the act incorporating the Overseers of the Poor in the Town of Boston led to the discussion of a curious technical point. Both these corporations were originally created under acts which, following the analogy of king and Parliament, authorized the Governor to grant the Charters. This he declined to do; but when the acts were passed in the form of direct incorporations, he submitted them to the Lords of Trade. The question whether the power of granting Patents of Incorporation was or was not vested in the General Court was submitted to an attorney, Richard Jackson, who decided that under the Province Charter it was so vested. (Province Laws, v. 191.) Jackson’s opinion was given 13 April, 1774.

240 Ibid. v. 200, 262.

241 Ibid. v. 295, 354.

242 Province Laws, v. 1129, 1270 et seq. In making up this list of Province Corporations, my first impulse was to draw the line at the Declaration of Independence. This excluded from my list the Massachusetts Charitable Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Trustees of Phillips Academy, Andover. Mr. Goodell called my attention to the method of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Province Laws in the treatment of Laws passed during this transition period, when the future classification depended somewhat upon the result of the pending struggle. If that result had been adverse to the hopes of the Americans, there would have been no State under which to classify these corporations. They are therefore properly to be included among the Province Corporations.

243 Province Laws, v. 1194, 1369, 1370.

244 Ibid. v. 1418, 1456 et seq.

245 Statutes at Large, vi., 14 George II., chap. 37, pp. 164–168

246 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i.160.

247 The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States, Ben: Perley Poore, ii. 1890.

248 The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States, Ben: Perley Poore, ii. 1908.

249 Narrative and Critical History of America, iii. 146; Political Annals of the United Colonies, George Chalmers, i. 62.

250 Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby, p. 21.

251 Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby, p. 23.

252 Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, Major-General John Henry Lefroy, i. 59.

253 Ibid. i. 98.

254 Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby, p. 17.

255 The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States, Ben: Perley Poore, i. 931.

256 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 16.

257 The phrase “not contrary to the laws of England,” was construed by the colonists to mean, not contrary to the spirit of those laws, so that any modification that took place gradually, or was due to a change of circumstances, was not looked upon as in violation of their chartered rights and obligations.

258 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 19.

259 Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby, pp. 45–54.

260 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part ii. 213.

261 Hutchinson’s Collection of Original Papers (Prince Society’s Edition), ii. 213.

262 State Papers, in the Public Record Office, London. I refer to these papers under two headings: State Papers, Colonial; and State Papers, Colonial Entry Book. The papers of the first series are in what are called bundles. The present reference is, State Papers, Colonial, Bundle 52, 112.

263 State Papers, Colonial, Entry Book, cv. 60.

264 Ibid. cv. 89.

265 State Papers, Colonial, Entry Book, cv. 95.

266 Ibid. cv. 99.

267 8 Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 203.

268 State Papers, Colonial, Bundle 53, 212.

269 Ibid. Bundle 53, 216.

270 Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 347.

271 Ibid. v. 351.

272 State Papers, Colonial, Bundle 54, 105.

273 Ibid. Bundle 54, 188.

274 Massachusetts Archives, cvi. 334.

275 Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby, p. 89.

276 Andros Council Records, p. 56. These records are the original minutes of the early Council meetings. They are in manuscript, and in possession of the American Antiquarian Society. They differ somewhat from the copies at the State House, which were procured from England.

277 Sir William Alexander and American Colonization (Prince Society’s Publications), p. 143.

278 Ibid. p. 229.

279 Captain John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire (Prince Society’s Publications), p. 191.

280 The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States, Ben: Perley Poore, i. 812.

281 The County of Durham, Joseph Richard Boyle, pp. 68, 74.

282 Early Coins of America, Sylvester S. Crosby, p. 130

283 Maryland Archives, i. 400.

284 Ibid. i. 429.

285 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine (Prince Society’s Publications), ii. 127.

286 The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and other Organic Laws of the United States, Ben: Perley Poore, ii. 1383.

287 Ibid. ii. 1397.

288 Mr. Thorndike here exhibited a Charles I. prayer-book with Sternhold and Hopkins bound in at the end, and stated that there were in the Athenæum and other large libraries many Bibles with the same appendix.

289 Mr. Thorndike here exhibited a copy of the edition of 1565, and various others earlier than 1620, including two copies of Este’s harmonized edition.

290 Mr. Thorndike here exhibited a copy of the 1618 edition of Ainsworth.

291 The Committee of Publication would call attention to Mr. Goodell’s letter on page viii., ante, in which he states that he has changed his opinion as to the handwriting of this manuscript. The statement made on page 249, that Washington wrote this document, should of course be changed to correspond with the views expressed in this letter.

292 The Hon. Samuel Crocker Cobb succeeded to the Presidency of the Society in 1880, on the death of Rear-Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher. See pp. 14 and 15, ante.

293 The manuscript pages are indicated in the printed text by broad-faced figures enclosed in brackets. The words in the text in full-faced letters were substituted by Washington for the words of Knox, which are given in the margin. Editorial comments in the margin are put in brackets, and when given in connection with Knox’s words, the latter are put between quotation marks. The words in italics in the text were underlined by Washington in his manuscript. The punctuation is Washington’s.

Knox’s draught is dated “West point, 15 Apl. 1783,” and headed, on the left, “Cincinnati.” It is among the Knox Papers (xii. 92–93) in the cabinet of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society. A fac simile is in Memorials of the Society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts (edition of 1873) between pp. 6 and 7.

294 Catchword.

295 Catchword.

296 Catchword.

297 Catchword.

298 A draught of these Articles, apparently a copy by Colonel Shaw, endorsed, in another hand, “Original Constitution of the Society of Cincinnati,” is in the Library of Harvard College, received from the estate of our associate, the late Francis Parkman. On comparison it is found to agree substantially with the copy printed in the Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (edition of 1890, pp. 7–13), from which the present impression was made.

299 The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, etc., p. 111.

300 The above conjectures have been since rendered more certain by our associate, Mr. Henry H. Edes, who has found that in his last will, proved 23 January, 1809 (Suffolk Probate, No. 23,283), Jackson directed his executor to separate all moneys, notes, or certificates of any kind in his hands as Treasurer of the Cincinnati, and to pay over the same to his successor. General Cobb was one of the subscribing witnesses to this will, and in the performance of this particular duty very likely assisted the executors, neither of whom was a member of the Cincinnati. The draught of association, being not a document belonging to the Treasurer’s custody, might have been retained by General Cobb, who became Vice-president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati in 1810, before the final settlement of Jackson’s estate.

301 Concerning the unreasonable popular prejudice against the Cincinnati, and the attitude of Washington, Knox, Lafayette, John Adams, and others towards it, much can be learned from the correspondence of Washington and John Adams. Cf. letters of Knox, Lafayette, and Benjamin Hawkins to Washington, in Sparks’s Correspondence of Washington, iv. 58–60, 71; Washington’s letters to Knox, Jefferson, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., Madison, and William Barton, in Sparks’s Writings of Washington, ix. 26, 29, 35, 216–218; xii. 298–299; also Appendix No. 1, in ix. 495 et seq.; Lafayette’s letter to John Adams, and Adams’s letter to Charles Spener, in Life and Works of John Adams, viii. 187; ix. 523–524. See also Austin’s Life of Elbridge Gerry, i. 416 et seq.; Wells’s Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, iii. 201 et seq.; and Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (Boston, 1873), pp. 3–41, 534; (Boston, 1890) pp. 3–52, 531.

302 See footnote on page 176, ante.

303 An erased word that is illegible in the manuscript follows the word “money.”

304 The title adopted by the Society is the “Daughters of the Revolution, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

305 The Quincy Historical Society, Quincy (ante, pp. 182, 183), and the Groton Historical Society, Groton (ante, p. 266), have been organized since the list of the American Historical Association was published.

306 If Church Historical Societies are properly to be included, there should be added to this list of omissions: Shepard Historical Society, Cambridge.

307 See what Parkman says about Rev. Samuel Moody, Minister of York, in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1891, lxvii. 321. There is a cut of this Cross in the frontispiece of Vol. ii. of the Memorial History of Boston.

308 Historical and Descriptive Account of the Island of Cape Breton, etc. Montreal, 1892.

309 A Journal of the late Siege by the troops of North America against the French at Cape Breton, etc., by James Gibson, Gentleman Volunteer, at the above Siege. London, 1745. This edition is prefaced with a large folded sketch of Louisburg.

In 1847, this Journal was re-published, under the editorship of Lorenzo D. Johnson, with some additional matter, but without the sketch of Louisburg, under the title, “A Boston Merchant of 1745, or incidents of the life of James Gibson,” etc. Boston, 1847.

310 Memorial History of Boston. Vol. ii.

311 Harvard University, Library Bulletin, No. 8, 1 June, 1878: Notes.

312 This structure was of wood, and in the rear of where the Charles River National Bank now is, having been approached through the alley-way by the side of the old Court House.

The beautiful and truthful panorama was purchased at London, in 1819, by the late Theodore Lyman, jr., and presented by him to Harvard College. Efforts to obtain the means for constructing a suitable building for its exhibition having proved unsuccessful, the plan was deferred until the accumulated interest upon the amount already secured for the purpose should suffice. (See Quincy’s History of Harvard University, ii. 401, 592.)

The building, which was nearly or quite circular, was erected in 1842, and free access to it given students of the College. But it only endured for about three years; for the building, with the panorama, was consumed on the night of the sixth of June, 1845, the flames having reached it from a carpenter’s shop, set on fire by an incendiary.— G.

313 The writer especially acknowledges his obligations for material used in this paper to Bell’s “John Wheelwright” (Prince Society Publications), Bell’s History of Exeter, N. H., Bourne’s History of Wells and Kennebunk, and Folsom’s “Saco and Biddeford.”

314 Letter to George Vaughan, in Belknap’s History of New Hampshire, Appendix.

315 Bilsby is a hamlet adjoining the market town of Alford. The shire town of York County, Maine, takes its corrupted name, Alfred, from that of Alford, England.

316 The use of this material previous to its publication by the Massachusetts Historical Society has been allowed through the courtesy of Charles F. Adams, Esq., the owner of the copies of these records, and of Dr. Samuel A. Green, Librarian of the Society.

317 Permission is not given to cite the legal authority referred to. The opinion is as follows: “I should say that the probability is that the incumbent simoniacally agreed to resign, probably with the patron, and so the turn went to the King. I am not sure that a simoniacal contract to present as patron would vacate the benefice, but the other piece of misbehaviour seems to me natural enough and to fit the facts.”

318 Rev. Hanserd Knollys, born about 1598, at Cawkerell, Lincolnshire; graduated at Cambridge; inducted to the living of Humberston, Lincolnshire, 23 August, 1631, which he held until 8 January, 1633; came to Massachusetts 1638, where, being suspected of “Antinomianism,” he was refused residence. He was pastor at Dover, N. H., for nearly four years, when he returned to England. There he taught school, and was chaplain in the Parliamentary army. He was the author of several religious works, and an incomplete autobiography. A Baptist publication society in London is called the Hanserd Knollys Society. See Congregational Quarterly, vol. xiii.; Second Series, vol. iii.

319 Cotton Mather’s letter to George Vaughan.

320 See the Remarks of Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., on the Antinomian Controversy at the April, 1893, Meeting, ante, p. 132 et seq.

321 The Lincolnshire men in the Exeter Colony were Wentworth, Storre, Helme, Lawson, Leavitt, Rishworth, Hutchinson, Pormortt, Fish, the Wardwells, and the Littlefields. There was a family connection between several of these colonists, of which Anne Hutchinson was the central figure; her father, Rev. Francis Marbury, was the uncle of Wentworth and the great-uncle of Helme and Lawson; Augustine Storre married her husband’s sister Susanna, another sister married a Leavitt, another a Rishworth; Samuel Hutchinson was her husband’s brother. John Wheelwright married first, Augustine Storre’s sister, and as his second wife, Mary Hutchinson, Anne’s sister-in-law. Anne Hutchinson’s mother was a cousin of John Dryden, the poet. The Marburys, Drydens, and Wentworths were arms-bearing families; the Hutchinsons laid claim to like distinction, but their pedigree, filed during the last century in the Heralds’ College, was endorsed “respited for proof.” See New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xx. 355; Heraldic Journal, ii. 83, 171, 183.

322 Bell’s History of Exeter, appendix.

323 Tuttle’s Historical Papers, appendix.

324 “When a boy on the Wheelwright farm I ate fruit from trees planted by Samuel and his sons Joseph and John. We have held the homestead two hundred and fifty years, but last year (1893) it was sold, as no one wished to live on it, no member of the family I mean.”— Letter of Rev. John Bourne Wheelwright, of Minneapolis, Minn.

325 “The people in the province of Maine may be divided into Magistrates, Husbandmen, or Planters and Fishmen; of the Magistrates some be Royalists, the rest Perverse Spirits; the like are planters and fishers both, others mere fishers. Handicraftsmen there are but few; shopkeepers there are none, being supplied by the Massachusetts Merchants with all things they stand in need of.” John Josselyn’s Two Voyages to New England.

326 Gorges pedigree, Harleian Society’s “Visitations of Somersetshire.”

327 Champernowne pedigree, Harleian Society’s “Visitations of Devonshire.” See Berry’s “Hampshire Genealogies” for marriage of a Richard Champernowne and Elizabeth, daughter of Chief Justice Popham.

328 Josselyn pedigree, Harleian Society’s “Visitations of Essex,” pp. 65, 230.

329 See “George Cleaves of Casco Bay” (Gorges Society Publications), p. 37, footnote.

330 Henry Boade in his will makes his “loving cousins, Mr. John Winthrop, Esq. and Rev. Timothy Dalton,” his executors. The pedigree of Bode in Berry’s “Kent Genealogies,” gives a Henry Bode, and the marriage with John Winthrop of a distantly removed step-cousin of this Henry Bode, Mariam Ford, daughter and heir of John Ford of Buckley Abbey, Suffolk.

331 Bolles pedigree, Harleian Society’s “Visitations of Nottinghamshire.” For will of John Bolles, Esq., in which he mentioned his “brother Joseph in New England,” see Waters’s “Gleanings in England.” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlvi. 34.

332 See Maine Historical Collections, ix. 297–384.

333 General Knox attempted a large landed proprietorship in Maine, but this enterprise met with dismal failure.

334 The name was variously spelled, “Storr, Storre, Storer, Story, Storey, Storah.” William, the son of Augustine, spelt his name Storer and Story. Cf. Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of New England, iv. 211.

335 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts (ed. of 1765), i. 193, note.

336 Wheelwright, in the conveyance of land to Richard Crispe, his son-in-law, dated 22 October, 1677, described himself as “late of Belleau, in the County of Lincoln.” (Suffolk Deeds, x. 215.) At Belleau was Vane’s country-seat.

337 Mr. Abner C. Goodell, Jr., found that this portrait was not that of John Higginson, as it had been labelled; close examination disclosing, painted in a slightly darker shade of the background color, an inscription giving an age and date that proved the portrait to be either John Wheelwright or Roger Conant, presumably the former. See “First Church, Quincy,” Appendix.

338 Thomas Wheelwright is supposed to have lived in a part of Wells called Batcombe, which took its name from a hamlet similarly related to Wells, England. He is said to have been the only man of Wells of the first three generations, other than those who met untimely ends, who was a life-long bachelor. What is left of the house he began for his intended bride is known as “Thomas’s Cellar.”

339 Col. Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick.

340 At a court held at Saco, 1666, an indictment was found against one “Francis White for saying that Samuel Wheelwright was a lying justice.”

341 Maj.-Gen. John Leverett, Edward Tyng, Capt. Richard Waldron, Capt. Richard Pike.

342 William and Harlakenden Symonds were settlers at Wells. They were sons of Deputy Governor Samuel Symonds of Massachusetts. For Symonds and Harlakenden pedigrees, see Harleian Society’s “Visitations of Essex.”

343 The Bay Colony appointed as its government: President, Thomas Danforth; Council, Capt. John Davis, Major Brian Pendleton, Capt. Joshua Scottow, Capt. John Wincoll, Edward Rishworth, Francis Hooke, Samuel Wheelwright, Capt. Charles Frost.

344 Massachusetts Archives, lxviii. 88.

345 Confident of victory, Mather relates, “they fell dividing persons and plunder, and agreeing that such an English Captain should be a slave to such a one, and such a gentleman in the town should serve such a one, and his wife be maid of honor to such or such a squaw proposed, and Mr. Wheelwright (instead of being a worthy Counsellor of the Province, which he now is), was to be the servant of such a Netop.” A French officer, “habited like a gentleman,” stepped to the front. He exhorted the band in English to attack fearlessly, assured them that victory was easy, that it would be a great prize to any of them to capture John Wheelwright as he was the life and strength of the town.

346 Burroughs was at one time Rev. John Wheelwright’s assistant at Salisbury.

347 Province Laws, vii. 129, 521.

348 Province Laws, vii. 618.

349 See also Chap. 18 of the Resolves of 1699–1700, Province Laws, vii. 222, 618.

350 Abbé Tanguay’s “A Travers les Registres.”

351 John Plaisted, their son, when a lad, was captured by Indians and taken to Canada.

352 It would so appear from petitions and letters, but on the other hand, Col. Samuel Wheelwright’s wife and some of Joseph Bolles’s children could not write.

353 The Indian deed of 1629 was a later forgery, of which, however, no suspicion rests on any member of the Wheelwright family. It was made to serve the defendant in one of the suits of the purchasers of the Mason Patent for the recovery of lands in 1708. There possibly was an earlier Indian deed than that of Exeter made to Rev. John Wheelwright and his company, for Wheelwright made affidavit at Hampton, 13 October, 1663, that there had been a purchase made, through an agent, from certain Sagamores “of which Runawit,” who was not party to the Exeter transaction “was one.” Some credence may also be given to Cotton Mather’s statement that “good men … knew of such an instrument, but concluded it lost and gone beyond recovery.” The tradition of the existence of an early deed probably suggested the forgery. Wheelwright’s affidavit and Cotton Mather’s letter are given in Belknap’s History of New Hampshire, appendix.

354 Capt. Johnson Hammond, the leader of this expedition, laid before the Massachusetts Council twenty-five Indian scalps and the scalp of Ralle. He received a bounty of four hundred and five pounds for the Indian scalps, and one hundred pounds for that of the priest, to be divided among his officers and men. See Letters of Major Thomas Westbrooke and Others, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlviii. 187–188.

355 In Massachusetts Archives, lii. 232, is a letter of 26 July, 1725, from Capt. Samuel Wheelwright, reporting the capture at Wells of ten Indian deserters, showing the employment of Indians as enlisted men. Letters of Major Westbrooke and Others, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlvii. 319. In the same collection are other references to Col. John and Capt. Samuel Wheelwright.

356 The John Wheelwright who served in the Louisburg campaign is not known to have been a descendant of Rev. John Wheelwright. He came to Cohasset, Massachusetts, about 1720, and was the ancestor of our associate Mr. Edward Wheelwright.

357 See Journal of Rev. Joseph Baxter of Medfield, Missionary to the Eastern Indians, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv. 52.

358 The English branch of the family uses the same coat-of-arms with a difference in one of the colors indicated in the King’s Chapel carving; the motto “Spectemur Agendo,” used with the coat of the English family, is an assumption not unwarranted by the story of the family, but there is no evidence authorizing the coat-of-arms. It may be that an enterprising English stone-cutter or Boston carriage painter, who profited through the social aspirations of many New England families of that day, acted in stead of the Heralds’ College.

359 The Rev. Charles Apthorp Wheelwright, the grandson of Nathaniel, was Prebendary of Lincoln. His son Rev. George and his grandson Rev. Charles Apthorp Wheelwright were clergymen of the Church of England.

360 Hon. John Wheelwright, formerly a Councillor of the Province, son of Samuel, was chosen in 1779 to prosecute all who were inimical to the patriot cause. Aaron, grandson of Joseph, was one of the Committee of Correspondence at the same time. Capt. Daniel, brother of John above-mentioned, died in service, 1778. Jeremiah of Gloucester, son of Lieut. Jeremiah of Portsmouth, was Commissary in Arnold’s Expedition to Canada; he died in 1778, from the effects of exposure in this campaign; his son, Abraham, served in the Continental army from December, 1775, to July, 1777; from that time until or near the close of the war he was first officer on several privateers.

361 See By-Laws, chap. ii. art. 1.

362 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 496 et seq.; iii. 323 et seq.

363 DeForest’s History of Westborough, p. 65.

364 DeForest’s History of Westborough, p. 187.

365 Ibid. p. 87.

366 Ibid. p. 191, note

367 Montcalm and Wolfe was published in 1884.

368 DeForest’s History of Westborough, p. 189.

369 Ibid. pp. 18, 479.

370 Montcalm and Wolfe, ii. 163.

371 DeForest’s History of Westborough, p. 136.

372 Ibid. p. 163. At page 181 it is said that in December, 1776, “at least two of his (the minister’s) sons were in the army.”

373 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, ii. 416.

374 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 496–507.

375 It is possible that Francis Parkman may have partly inherited from these Puritan ancestors the strong interest he felt in the Indians. It does not appear, however, that he ever learned their language, and it may be regarded as certain that he never preached to them.

376 Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, iii. 323–326.

377 History of Medford, by Charles Brooks, revised and enlarged by J. M. Usher, 1886.

378 Brooks’s History of Medford (1886), p. 300.

379 Brooks’s History of Medford (1886), p. 509.

380 The Art of Authorship, personally contributed by leading authors of the day. Compiled and edited by George Bainton. London, James Clark & Co., 1890.

381 Boston Daily Advertiser, 7 May, 1885.

382 George Francis Parkman.

383 He was always Parkman 2d, his cousin, George Francis Parkman, being Parkman 1st.

384 Tributes of the Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 6.

385 In the Knickerbocker Magazine for April, 1845, was published a “Sketch,” entitled the “Scalp-Hunter,” in which the final scene takes place in the identical locality of Parkman’s adventure. Though it is unsigned, there is strong internal evidence that Parkman was the author.

386 It was on this journey that Parkman saw the remains of Fort William Henry, as he describes them in “Montcalm and Wolfe,” i. 492, and as mentioned on page 493, note 2. It was perhaps also this journey that he refers to in a note on page 258 of volume ii. of “Montcalm and Wolfe,” where he says: “I once, when a college student, followed on foot the route of Rogers from Lake Memphremagog to the Connecticut.”

387 A Half Century of Conflict, ii. 230. See also Mr. George S. Hale’s address at the meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 21 November, 1893.

388 In a note to the above, Mr. Cushing adds: “No doubt Parkman had in mind his Indian Expedition, which occurred soon after.”

389 The Oregon Trail, p. 204.

390 A Half Century of Conflict, i. 333; ii. 38–41.

391 Vassall Morton, p. 37.

392 “The Book of Roses,” published in 1866. See a paper read before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society by Dr. Henry P. Walcott, in the Boston Transcript, 16 December, 1893.

393 Ibid.

394 See The Jesuits, p. 448.

395 The Old Régime in Canada, p. 314.

396 Mr. Fiske has kindly furnished a copy of this paragraph.

397 A Half Century of Conflict, ii. 92.

398 The closing paragraph of Mr. John Fiske’s address has been already quoted on page 310.

399 Pedigrees of Hertfordshire Families. Collected by William Berry. Lithographed (not printed). London (no date), pp. 109–110. This volume also gives twelve generations of the pedigree of Alderman Anthony Radcliffe.

400 Sir William Alexander and American Colonization (Publications of the Prince Society), p. 73.

401 The words “Confirmaõn de 1631,” are written in the upper left hand comer of the Commission.

402 This seal, unfortunately, is missing from the Commission.

403 Savage (i. 270) records the death of Dorothy, widow of the Hon. John Brown, at Swanzey, 27 January, 1674, at the age of 90. As this statement, taken in connection with that of Judge Saffin, at once challenged attention, inquiry was made at Swanzey upon the points at issue. The courteous and obliging town clerk, Mr. Henry O. Wood, has kindly furnished the following verbatim extract from the ancient records in his official custody: —

“Mrs. Dorothy Brown wife of John Brown Sen^ṛ deceased the twenty seaventh day of January 1673 being the ninety and eighth year of her age or thereabouts and was buryed uppon the 29th of January 1673.” (Book A. Page 143.)

Mr. Wood communicates the interesting fact that the name and memory of this Colonial dame is perpetuated in Swanzey by the “Dorothy Brown Rebekah Degree Lodge 122 I. O. O. F.”

See Judge Davis’s edition of Morton’s Memorial, pp. 295–297.

404 The Boston Town Records as printed in the Record Commissioners’ Reports (ix. 124) state that Benjamin, son of John and Martha Saffin, was born 15 June, 1672.

405 See Whitmore’s Copp’s-Hill Epitaphs, p. 34.

406 By the inscription on the gravestone of Rachel, wife of John, it appears that she died 6 July, 1690, twenty-three days before her husband.

407 This fire occurred on the fifth of July, 1692, according to Laurence Hammond, who adds that it “began in ye King’s-Head Tavern in Boston, by Halsy’s Wharf, betw 11 & 12 at night,” and that it “destroyed about 20 Dwelling Houses & Warehouses.”— Diary: 2 Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings, vii. 162.

408 Suffolk Deeds, xiii. 438–440.

409 Ibid. xxii. 425.

410 Massachusetts Archives, xvi. 476.

411 Ibid. xvi. 475.

412 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 1739.

413 Suffolk Deeds, xxii. 424, 425.

414 Ibid. xvi. 408–410.

415 Ibid. xxii. 425–428.

416 The first letter is dated 13 June, 1737, the last 5 May, 1740.

417 Dealings with the Dead, ii. 515.

418 Boston Newsletter, No. 1769.

419 Suffolk Probate Files, No. 7107.

420 Dealings with the Dead, ii. 509, 550–551.

421 An examination of the Ledger discloses transactions with correspondents in Antigua, Bristol, Eng., Canso, Connecticut, Guernsey, Jersey, London, Louisburg, Martinique, New York, Pennsylvania, Rotterdam, Rhode Island and Virginia, besides Boston and many of the smaller towns in Massachusetts. It is interesting also to note the names of the following families which appear in this ponderous tome: Barrett, Boylston, Boutineau, Bromfield, Cabot, Chardon, Coffin, Colman, Cushing, DeLancey, Folger, Hallowell, Hooper, Hutchinson, Jackson, Johonnot, Lloyd, Lyman, Maverick, Minot, Palfrey, Parkman, Paxton, Phillips, Pickman, Quincy, Royall, Salter, Savage, Scollay, Sewall, Sturgis, Verplanck, Waldo, Wendell, and Winslow.

422 Peter Faneuil was born 20 June, 1700, at New Rochelle, N. Y.

423 The earliest entry is dated 9 April, 1725, and the latest 21 October, 1730. The Invoices are consecutively numbered, and cover consignments to Andrew and Peter Faneuil, which are entered indiscriminately.

424 This is probably an abreviation of “Merchandise Account.”

425 Dealings with the Dead, ii. 507.

426 By Mr. Walter Kendall Watkins.

427 Rhode Island Colonial Records, iii. 73.

428 The text of the essential parts of this Indenture is as follows: —

This Indenture made the fifteenth day of June Anno Dom. 1726, & in the twelfth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King George over Great Britain &c. Between Peter Baynton of the City of Philadelphia in the province of Pensilvania mercht. & Mary his wife only Child of John Budd late of Philadelphia aforesaid but now of Hanover in the province of New Jersey Esq^ṛ & Rebecckah his wife decēd which said Rebekah was only Daughter & heir of John Smith late of Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island &c. Surveyor decēd on the one part & Thomas Child, Joshua Wroe & John Marshall all of Boston [etc. on the other part, Witnesseth the conveyance, for £400, of] One full Thirty-third Part of the Township of Sutton in the County of Suffolk & province of the Massachusetts bay aforesaid which they the said Peter Baynton & Mary his wife do now hold and Enjoy in right of their said Grandfather John Smith, who was one of the original Grantees or proprietors of the said Township in the same manner as other the original Proprietors of the sd Township do now hold & enjoy their rights therein, etc.

Witnesses:	Benj^ạ Rolfe	Richard Waite and
	Anth^ọ Woalfe	Eben^ṛ Bennit.

Suffolk Deeds, xliii. 304. See also Ibid. xliv. 2.

429 The History of Sutton (pp. 1–2) states, that the township was bought of John Wampus and other Nipmug Indians; that it was a tract eight miles square, embracing in its limits an Indian reservation of four miles square called Hassanimisco; that the deed from Wampus was lost; that the Proprietors met on 22 February, 1731–2 and ordered “a new book” for records to be provided wherein the Wampus deed and the grant of the General Court of 1704 were to “be first placed;” and that the book was procured, but that while the grant of 1704 was recorded in it the Wampus deed was not. Probably it had already disappeared.

430 With Captain Peleg Sanford (Rhode Island Colonial Records iii. 26). The next year Smith was appointed by the General Assembly to survey Mount Hope Neck. (Ibid. iii. 55.)

431 Recorded with Suffolk Deeds, xvi. 89–90.

432 Resolves of 1703–4 Chap. 101, Province Laws, viii. 46.

433 Recorded with Suffolk Deeds xxxv. 260.

434 This Society was chartered 10 September, 1894. Its object is “to perpetuate the memories of the men who completed the work of the Revolution, in upholding the principles of the Nation against Great Britain in the conflict known as the war of 1812; to collect and secure for preservation rolls, records, books, and documents relating to that period, and to encourage research, and publication of the same; to foster true patriotism, and to cherish, maintain, and extend the institutions of American freedom.”

435 Acts and Resolves, 1884, chap. 60.

436 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 73.

437 Thornton’s Pulpit of the American Revolution, p. xxiii.

438 Magnalia (edition of 1702), Book iii. p. 21. Mather may refer here to the sermon which Cotton preached on 24 August.

439 History of Massachusetts-Bay (edition of 1764), i. 45.

440 Winthrop’s Journal (edition of 1853), i. 168.

441 See “Election Sermons,” a disappointing article, by Barnes in the “Christian Spectator,” vol. x. It is merely a review of some Connecticut and New Hampshire sermons, in which the reverend reviewer finds “an occasion for offering some considerations on the influence of religion and law.”

442 Johnson’s Wonder-working Providence (Poole’s edition, 1867), p. 77.

443 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 256.

444 Ibid. i. 264.

445 Ibid. ii. 73

446 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv. 361–366.

447 Judges, ix. 14, 15.

448 Magnalia, Book iii. p. 118

449 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxvi. 162.

450 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 42; quoted also in Lechford’s Plain Dealing (Trumbull’s edition), p. 68.

451 Printed in 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 191.

452 History of Massachusetts, i. 329–332.

453 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 141.

454 Magnalia, Book ii. p. 10.

455 Ibid. Book iii. p. 102.

456 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 62.

457 Ibid. ii. 71.

458 See note by Dr. George H. Moore in Historical Magazine, February, 1867, p. 116.

459 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part ii. p. 424.

460 Manuscript note now in Boston Public Library.

461 History of Massachusetts, i. 331.

462 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 268.

463 Ibid. ii. 316.

464 Itt being the time & turne of y^e Depu^ts for to choose & appointe y^e ministe^r to p^reach the se^rmon at y^e next Cou^rte of Elecc̄on, they chose & desired M^r Nathaniell Roge^rs, of Ipswich, to p^reach y^e next elecc̄on sermon. (Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 80.)

465 Johnson’s Wonder-working Providence, p. 178.

466 Magnalia, Book ii. p. 131.

467 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 148.

468 Ibid. iv. Part i. 254.

469 In a copy of Oakes’s sermon for 1673, which belonged to Samuel Sewall, is a manuscript memorandum, which, Sewall says, was “taken out of Grandfather Hull’s Character Book of several that did preach the Artillery and Election sermons,” in which Mr. Flint is set down as preacher in 1657, and Mr. Ward as preacher in 1660. Neither of these names seems to be correct, yet this memorandum as a whole, no doubt, has been important in determining some of the preachers. It is in the Prince collection, now in the Boston Public Library.

470 Magnalia, Book iv. 184.

471 Ibid. Book iv. 182.

472 I have been unable to identify this “F. Drake,” and only offer the bracketed name as a suggestion.

473 Magnalia, Book iv. 185.

474 Mitchel’s “Nehemiah on the Wall,” p. 23.

475 Norton’s “Sion the Out-cast,” p. 1.

476 Ibid. p. 2.

477 Ibid. p. 6.

478 Higginson’s “The Cause of God …”, p. 11.

479 New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, vii. 239.

480 Edes says from Psalm cxxii. 6.

481 Sibley’s “Graduates,” i. 117.

482 The title is curious enough to give entire: “Nehetmiah on the Wall in Troublesom Times; or, a Serious and Seasonable Improvement of that great Example of Magistratical Piety and Prudence, Self-denial and Tenderness, Fearlessness and Fidelity, unto Instruction and Encouragement of present and succeeding Rulers in our Israel.”

483 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. Part ii. 376.

484 Stoughton’s “New-England’s True Interest,” p. 3.

485 Ibid. p. 20.

486 Magnalia, Book iv. p.56

487 Magnalia, Book iv. p. 154, § 5.

488 Danforth’s Election Sermon for 1670, p. 15.

489 Magnalia, Book iv. p. 191, § 5.

490 Shepard’s “Eye-Salve,” p. 14.

491 Ibid. p. 12.

492 Ibid. p. 13.

493 Ibid. p. 13.

494 Shepard’s “Eye-Salve,” p. 13.

495 Ibid. p. 44.

496 Oakes’s “New-England Pleaded with,” p. 19.

497 Ibid. p. 36.

498 “New-England Pleaded with, And pressed to consider the things which concern her Peace, at least in this her Day: Or, A Seasonable and Serious Word of faithful Advice to the Churches and People of God (primarily those) in the Massachusets Colony; musingly to Ponder, and bethink themselves, what is the Tendency, and will certainly be the sad Issue, of sundry unchristian and crooked wayes, which too too many have been turning aside unto, if persisted and gone on in.”

499 Sibley’s “Graduates,” i. p. 328.

500 Torrey’s Election Sermon for 1674, p. 8.

501 Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 34.

502 Sibley’s “Graduates,” i. 379.

503 Mather’s “A Call from Heaven,” 1677, p. 59; second impression, 1685, p. 81.

504 Sewall’s Diary, i. 360.

505 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 65.

506 Hubbard’s “Happiness of a People,” 1676, p. 39.

507 Ibid. p. 26.

508 Allen’s Election Sermon for 1679, p. 8.

509 Willard’s Election Sermon for 1694, p. 20.

510 Sewall’s Diary, iii. 7.

511 Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 441.

512 Sibley’s “Graduates,” i. 519.

513 Sprague’s Annals, i. 170.

514 Adams’s Election Sermon for 1685, p. 11.

515 Ibid. p. 17.

516 Sewall’s Diary, i. 92.

517 Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 514.

518 Sewall’s Diary, i. 136.

519 Memoir of Wigglesworth, p. 93.

520 Sibley’s “Graduates,” i. 285.

521 American Quarterly Register, xi. 193.

522 Sewall’s Diary, i. 136.

523 History of Massachusetts-Bay, i. 354, note.

524 “Not till after the deposition of Gov. Andros, I presume, was another Election Sermon preached at Boston.” (Dean’s Memoir of Wigglesworth, p. 92.)

525 Mather’s “Way to Prosperity,” p. 23.

526 The imprint of some copies of this sermon, “The Way to Prosperity,” is: Boston, Printed by Richard Pierce, for Benjamin Harris. Anno Domini, 1690; of other copies it is: Printed by R. Pierce, for Joseph Brunning, Obadiah Gill, and James Woode. (See Sibley’s “Graduates,” iii. 50.) This sermon may also be found in Cotton Mather’s “Wonderful Works of God commemorated.”

527 Mather’s Election Sermon for 1690, p. 34.

528 Ibid. p. 58.

529 The title is: “Things fora Distress’d People to think upon.” There was an imperfect copy in George Brinley’s library, which lacked three pages of the Postscript. The Worcester copy includes only pp. 5–74. The only known perfect copy is in the Boston Public Library. These three are the only copies of which I have heard.

530 Sewall’s Diary, i. 426.

531 Mather’s Election Sermon for 1700, p. 11.

532 Ibid. p. 31.

533 Sibley’s “Graduates,” ii. 514.

534 Sewall’s Diary, i. 453. This was the Star Tavern. It stood on the north-easterly corner of Hanover and Union streets, running back to and abutting upon Link Alley (later known as North Federal Court), which was discontinued, closed, and built upon in 1857–1860. It was here that the Court of Admiralty sat, in 1704, for the trial of Capt. John Quelch and his company for piracy, when Stephen North was the inn-keeper. Cf. Sewall’s Diary, ii. 108; Province Laws, viii. 395, note; Shurtleff’s Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, pp. 405, 607, 630, 656; Nomenclature of Streets (Boston City Document No. 119 of 1879), pp. 21, 26, 35, 89, 95; John Bonner’s Plan of 1722; John Groves Hales’s Maps of the Street Lines of Boston in 1819 and 1820, p. 185; and Annual Report of the Boston Street Laying Out Department for 1894 (City Document No. 35 of 1895), pp. 196, 228.

I am indebted to Mr. Henry H. Edes for this valuable note, which identifies not only the “Stone House,” but a lost alley.

535 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 178.

536 Noyes’s Election Sermon for 1698, p. 58.

537 Ibid. pp. 69 et seq.

538 Samuel G. Drake’s “The Witchcraft Delusion in New England,” iii. 40.

539 This was Joseph Belcher; Samuel Belcher preached in 1707.

540 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 34.

541 Journal by Dankers and Sluyter (Memoirs, Long Island Historical Society, i.), p. 385.

542 Stoddard’s Election Sermon for 1703, p. 13.

543 Sibley’s “Graduates,” ii. 114.

544 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 301.

545 Russell’s Election Sermon for 1704, p. 14.

546 Estabrook’s Election Sermon for 1705, p. 16.

547 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 132.

548 Ibid. ii. 132.

549 Sibley’s “Graduates,” iii. 273.

550 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 224.

551 Ibid. ii. p. 256.

552 Sewall’s Diary, ii. 278.

553 Ibid. ii. 278.

554 Ibid. ii. 282.

555 Pemberton’s Election Sermon for 1710, p.4.

556 Sewall’s Dairy, ii. 333.

557 Ibid. ii. 278.

558 Sibley’s “Graduates,” ii. 308.

559 Ibid. ii. 309.

560 Sewall’s Diary, ii.385.

561 Shepard’s Election Sermon for 1715, p. 20.

562 Sibley’s “Graduates,” iii. 325.

563 Colman’s Election Sermon for 1718, p. 40.

564 Sewall’s Diary, iii.214.

565 Ibid. iii. 291.

566 Ibid. iii. 291.

567 Sewall’s Election Sermon for 1724, p. 65.

568 Ibid. p. 66.

569 Baxter’s Election Sermon for 1724, p. 32.

570 Sewall’s Diary, iii. 356.

571 Ibid. iii. 348.

572 Breck’s Election Sermon for 1728, p. 22.

573 Fiske’s Election Sermon for 1731, p. 10.

574 Swift’s Election Sermon for 1732, p. 23.

575 Ibid. p. 25.

576 Prince’s Election Sermon for 1731, p. 37.

577 Holyoke’s Election Sermon for 1736, p. 6.

578 Loring’s Election Sermon for 1737, p. 1.

579 Ibid. p. 12.

580 Ibid. p. 51.

581 Ibid. p. 60.

582 See the Memorial of the Chaunceys, by William Chauncey Fowler, on the attitude of the General Court in this matter.

583 Chauncy’s Election Sermon for 1747, p. 36.

584 Cooper’s Election Sermon for 1740, p. 6.

585 Ibid. p. 9.

586 Williams’s Election Sermon for 1741, p. 49.

587 Phillips’s Election Sermon for 1750, p. 42.

588 “There were but three sessions of the General Court this year [1752]. The first session was held in Concord, on account of the small-pox which then prevailed in Boston. On the fifth of June the Assembly was prorogued to September 27th (16th, Old Style), but was again prorogued, by proclamation, August 28th, to meet at Harvard College on the twenty-second of November following.”— Province Laws, iii. 662, note.

589 Cotton’s Election Sermon for 1753, p. 16.

590 Mayhew’s Election Sermon for 1754, p. 5.

591 Ibid. p. 20.

592 See Dr. Joseph H. Allen’s Remarks upon the relations of the Mayhew family to the Indians of Martha’s Vineyard, at the February, 1895, meeting, iii. 45, post. See also Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel, ii. 252, 253.

593 Mayhew’s Election Sermon for 1754, p. 28.

594 Thomas Smith’s Journal (Willis’s edition, 1849), p. 159.

595 Steven’s Election Sermon for 1761, p. 6.

596 Ibid. p. 57.

597 Frink’s Election Sermon for 1758, p. 1.

598 Ibid. p. 85.

599 Williams’s Election Sermon for 1762, p. 19.

600 Eliot’s Election Sermon for 1765, p. 52.

601 Ibid. p. 53.

602 This is the Andrew Elliot whose Letters to Thomas Hollis (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv. 398–461) are so well known for their value among pre-revolutionary documents. See other similar letters of his in Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceeding, xvi. 281 et seq.

603 Haven’s Election Sermon for 1769, p. 48.

604 Thornton’s Pulpit of the American Revolution, p. 175.

No one has probed more cautiously or more accurately to discover the attitude of the hierarchy previous to the Revolution, than has the Hon. Mellen Chamberlain in several of his publications, but particularly in his Address on “John Adams.”

605 History of the Revolution, i. 418, 419.

606 Pulpit of the American Revolution, p. xxxviii.

607 At the “Meeting-House.… After Divine Service the Procession returned to Harvard-Hall, where an Entertainment was provided.”— Massachusetts Gazette 4 June, 1770.

608 Cooke’s Election Sermon for 1770, p. 16.

609 Ibid. p. 20.

610 Ibid. p. 33.

611 Pulpit of the American Revolution, p. 177.

612 Cooke’s Election Sermon for 1770, p. 45.

613 Trust in God, the Duty of a People in a Day of Trouble. A sermon preached, May 30th, 1770. At the request of a great number of Gentlemen, friends to the Liberties of North America, who were desirous, notwithstanding the removal of the Massachusetts General-Court (unconstitutionally as they judged) to Cambridge, that God might be acknowledged in that house of worship at BOSTON, in which our tribes, from the days of our fathers, have annually sought to him for direction, previous to the choice of his Majesty’s Council. By Charles Chauncy, D.D. Boston: printed by Daniel Kneeland, for Thomas Leverett, in Corn-Hill. 1770.

614 Tucker’s Election Sermon for 1771, p. 19.

615 Ibid. p. 45.

616 Ibid. p. 26.

617 Parsons’s Election Sermon for 1772, p. 23.

618 Parsons’s Election Sermon for 1772, p. 17.

619 Turner’s Election Sermon for 1773, p. 41.

620 Hitchcock’s Election Sermon for 1774, p. 45.

621 Ibid. p. 20.

622 Ibid. p. 13.

623 Ibid. p. 42.

624 There haven been two reprints of Langdon’s sermon,— one in Thornton’s Pulpit of the American Revolution, and the other in “The Patriot Preachers of the American Revolution,” 1860.

625 Quoted by Thornton, p. 255, note.

626 Patriot Preachers, p.50.

627 Langdon’s Election Sermon for 1775, p. 8.

628 Ibid. pp. 28, 29.

629 This sermon bears the imprint, “Watertown: printed and sold by Benjamin Edes. 1775.”

630 Gordon’s Sermon of 19 July, 1775, p. 27.

631 West’s Election Sermon for 1776, p. 27.

632 This site is now (1894) occupied by the Rogers Building.

633 Webster’s Election Sermon for 1777, p. 30.

634 Payson’s Election Sermon for 1778, p. 14.

635 Ibid. p. 37, note.

636 Stillman’s Election Sermon for 1779, p. 8.

637 Howard’s Election Sermon for 1780, p. 47.

638 Adams’s Election Sermon for 1782, p. 49.

639 Ibid. p. 58.

640 Resolve requesting the Governor and Council to appoint a gentleman to preach the election sermon, in case that Mr. Hemmenway declines. 25 March, 1784.

Whereas the great distance of the Rev. Moses Hemmenway, chosen by the House to preach upon the next annual election, has prevented his giving his answer,… Resolved: etc. (Resolves of the General Court, March, 1784, No. ccii., p. 151.)

641 Mellen’s Election Sermon for 1797, p. 32.

642 Morse’s “John Adams,” p. 248.

643 Allen’s Election Sermon for 1808, p. 13.

644 Parish’s Election Sermon for 1810, p. 21.

645 Flint’s Election Sermon for 1815, p. 18.

646 Withington’s Election Sermon for 1831, p. 21.

647 Memorial of Samuel C. Jackson, by Edwards A. Park, Andover, 1871, p. 18.

648 Braman’s Election Sermon for 1845, p. 34.

649 Ibid. p. 40.

650 Reprinted in Dr. Park’s “Discourses on some Theological Doctrines as related to the Religious Character.” (1885.)

651 Neale’s Election Sermon for 1852, p. 27, note.

652 Samuel Kirkland Lothrop’s Election Sermon for 1855, p. 14.

653 Seeley’s Election Sermon for 1856, p. 23.

654 Pike’s Election Sermon for 1857, p. 31.

655 Hale’s Election Sermon for 1859, p. 23.

656 Phelps’s Election Sermon for 1861, p. 56.

657 Ibid. p. 48.

658 Alger’s Election Sermon for 1862, p. 40.

659 Stearns’s Election Sermon for 1864, p. 38.

660 Stone’s Election Sermon for 1865, p. 16.

661 Ibid. p. 30.

662 Grinnell’s Election Sermon for 1871, p. 26.

663 Peabody’s Election Sermon for 1872, p. 19.

664 Resolves of 1875, chap. 62.

665 Waldron’s Election Sermon for 1880, p. 20.

666 Miner’s Election Sermon for 1884, p. 46.

667 See Article 91, “Body of Liberties,” in 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 231. I do not forget that Dr. Moore, speaking of a case of slave-trading on a Boston vessel in 1645, says: “In all the proceedings of the General Court on this occasion, there is not a trace of anti-slavery opinion or sentiment.”— Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 30.

668 See Mr. Goodell’s communication on John Saffin and his slave Adam at the March, 1893, meeting of this Society, ante, p. 85 et seq.

669 Cooke’s Election Sermon for 1770, p. 41.

670 George H. Moore’s Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 194.

671 Stillman’s Election Sermon for 1779, p. 35.

672 Hemmenway’s Election Sermon for 1784, p. 37.

673 Allyn’s Election Sermon for 1805, p. 25.

674 Pierce’s Election Sermon for 1849, p. 48.

675 Anderson’s Election Sermon for 1860, p. 26.

676 History of Massachusetts, i. 443. I think that Hutchinson is here trying to quote Giles Firmin, whose very words are given later.

677 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, i. 445.

678 Mather’s Election Sermon for 1689, p. 26.

679 Mather’s Election Sermon for 1690, p. 31.

680 Norton’s Election Sermon for 1708, p. 15.

681 Pemberton’s Election Sermon for 1710, p. 99.

682 Ibid. p. 101.

683 Rawson’s Election Sermon for 1709, p. 35.

684 Ibid. p. 35.

685 Thacher’s Election Sermon for 1711, p. 29.

686 Williams’s Election Sermon for 1719, p. 25.

687 Baxter’s Election Sermon for 1727, p. 32.

688 Prince’s Election Sermon for 1730, p. 35.

689 Ibid. p. 29.

690 John Ward Dean, in his Brief Memoir of Firmin (p. 11) quotes this a little differently, and seems inclined to doubt if the utterance was that of Firmin.

691 Loring’s Election Sermon for 1737, p. 27.

692 Ibid. p. 51.

693 Lewis’s Election Sermon for 1748, p. 17.

694 Prince’s Election Sermon for 1730, p. 34.

695 Huntington’s Election Sermon for 1858, p. 8.

696 Richard Gleason Greene’s Election Sermon for 1874, p. 24.

697 By the charter of 1691 the last Wednesday of May was established “Election-day,” and a little later the Artillery election-day was established.— Memorial History of Boston, ii. 247.

698 Memorial History of Boston, i. 119, note.

699 Lechford’s “Plain Dealing” (Trumbull’s edition), p. 64.

700 “And that desolating fire in our Metropolis, laying so much of our Glory in Ashes, destroying so many goodly Edifices, turning us out of doors, where these Solemnities have been so many years formerly Celebrated.”— Cheever’s Election Sermon, 1712, p. 41.

701 Oakes’s Election Sermon for 1673, p. 24.

702 Stillman’s Election Sermon for 1779, p. 20, note.

703 See Nathaniel L. Frothingham’s “The Shade of the Past,” Boston, 1833.

704 In connection with these extra sermons, Dr. George H. Moore has called attention to the fact that there were generally two or more sessions, but not more than eight instances during the whole Provincial period of a second Assembly in one political year.

705 Memorial History of Boston, ii. 223.

706 A complete list, compiled by Ralph D. Smyth, is in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for April, 1892, xlvi. 123.

707 A complete list of the New-Hampshire Election Sermons is in the Congregational Quarterly for July, 1868, x. 240; and an earlier list is in William Allen’s Sermon for 1818.

708 An account of the Vermont discourses is in the Historical Magazine for March, 1868 (New Series, iii. 175). An earlier account, in the Congregational Quarterly for April, 1867 (ix. 187), was reprinted from the Vermont Record. Both articles are signed P. H. W., the initials, doubtless, of Pliny H. White.

709 Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings, for May, 1809, i. 213.

710 Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings, ii. 293, 294.

711 American Museum, June, 1791, ix. App. iii. p. 43.

712 This List appeared while Mr. Swift’s paper was passing through the press. See 2 Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings for February, 1895, ix. 410 et seq.