ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1905.

    THE Annual Meeting was held at the University Club, 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Tuesday, 21 November, 1905, at six o’clock in the afternoon, the President, George Lyman Kittredge, LL.D., in the chair.

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

    The Annual Report of the Council was presented and read by Mr. George V. Leverett.

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

    It is the duty of the Council to present at each Annual Meeting a statement of the condition and needs of the Society and a Report for the previous year of its transactions and of the salient facts of its history.

    The Society has now been established for so many years that the field of its activity has been well defined and the value of its work known and appreciated. There are two things still lacking to enable it to do fully the valuable work which it has undertaken. We need permanent quarters. We should also have larger Publication Funds in order that the Committee of Publication may issue promptly the collections of historical material in its hands.

    At the Stated Meeting of the Society in March, the subject of securing permanent quarters was referred to the Council for consideration. It was certain that the possession of a permanent home would be immediately followed by gifts of books, manuscripts, portraits and historical relics, many of which are now known to be withheld because we lack proper facilities for safely caring for them; but after mature deliberation, the Council reached the unanimous conclusion that it was inexpedient to take any steps toward the attainment of that desirable end until the Publications should have been brought up to date and the permanent Publication Funds should amount to at least fifty thousand dollars. This decision, however, must not be regarded as an expression of unwillingness on the part of the Council to undertake the construction of a building for the Society’s use if some generous member or friend is disposed to provide funds for the purpose.

    During the year there have been, besides the Annual Meeting, five Stated Meetings of the Society at which a large number of valuable papers have been contributed and many documents and letters illustrative of the early history of New England submitted for publication. These will appear in the Transactions.

    The amount of unpublished matter in the hands of the Committee of Publication made it imperative that steps should be taken to secure the services of an Editor who would devote his whole time, if necessary, to the duties of his office. Through amendments to the By-Laws made at the last Annual Meeting the office of Editor of Publications was created. The Council immediately thereafter elected Mr. Albert Matthews to fill that office, and with his efficient aid the work of the Committee of Publication has been vigorously prosecuted.

    Volume VII. of our Publications, containing the Transactions from April, 1900, to April, 1902, has recently been distributed, and Volume VIII., containing the Transactions from November, 1902, to November, 1904, is in type and will be ready for distribution next spring. Indeed, the Transactions are now wholly in type down to the meeting in April of the current year.

    Other volumes are in hand, which will contain original material for the history of the Colony and Province, and they will be published as rapidly as our income will permit. It is important, therefore, that our Publication Funds should be increased to enable the Committee of Publication to bring out as speedily as possible the valuable records necessary to a correct understanding of our history, which hitherto have remained in manuscript. An endowment of $100,000 devoted exclusively to our Publications would furnish no more than a sufficient income to provide for the work which can easily be handled.

    Mr. Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr., a constant and loyal friend of this Society from its birth, has given proof of his attachment to it by a testamentary bequest of three thousand dollars. This gift is the more welcome since it comes from an historical scholar who was not of our Fellowship. Mr. Winthrop declined the honors of the Society on account of the state of his health; but his contribution to our Publications in December, 1900, of the then recently discovered letters of Governor Winthrop and the Rev. Edmund Browne to Sir Simonds D’Ewes, gave evidence, during his lifetime, of his deep interest in the Society and its work. The Council will ask the Society at this meeting to take appropriate action upon the bequest of Mr. Winthrop whereby it shall be dedicated to our work of publication and forever be a memorial of a generous benefactor.

    During the year there have been added to our Roll the names of five Resident Members,

    • James Eells,
    • James Read Chadwick,
    • Francis Henry Lee,
    • Horace Everett Ware,
    • Elias Harlow Russell;

    and four Corresponding Members,

    • John Carroll Perkins,
    • Clarence Winthrop Bowen,
    • Worthington Chancey Ford,
    • Appleton Prentiss Clark Griffin,

    the last two by transfer from the Resident Roll.

    Five members have died within the last year.

    Our Honorary Roll has lost two eminent names:

    James Coolidge Carter, the head of the New York Bar, a lawyer of national reputation; counsel for the United States in many famous cases, and in some of international concern; a member of important public commissions; active in organizations legal, literary, and educational; a forcible writer and speaker; a public-spirited and patriotic citizen of the highest type.

    John Hay, statesman, diplomatist and man of letters, known and honored abroad not less than in his own land, dying in the maturity of his powers, with a fame increasing year by year and abundantly insured for the future, his public services conferred distinction upon his country.

    From our Resident Roll three names have fallen:

    Joshua Montgomery Sears, a citizen of high character and standing, of public spirit and foresight, and a liberal and wise patron of many enterprises and institutions of interest to the city and the Commonwealth. He seldom attended our meetings and took no prominent part in our proceedings, but he was always ready to respond to any appeal for aid which, in justifiable confidence in his liberality, the Society made to him.

    James Read Chadwick, the beloved physician, one of the most recently elected members of the Society, who consequently had had no time to fulfil the high hopes and anticipations with which we welcomed him to our fellowship. His sudden and early death closed in its prime a life of distinction and beneficence and of brilliant promise.

    James Madison Barker, identified with important public positions and interests, connected with many business organizations, a Trustee of Williams College, a distinguished lawyer and jurist, an able and honored judge for over twenty years, first on the bench of the Superior Court, and later and till his death on that of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

    The Society during the past year has had a vigorous and successful life. Although its income is inadequate, its expenditures have been kept well within it; but the Committee of Publication will need more than the whole available income of the coming year, and their work will be delayed unless further funds are provided to meet their urgent demands.

    The Treasurer submitted his Annual Report, as follows:

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

    In compliance with the requirements of the By-Laws, I have the honor to submit the following statement of the financial operations of the Society during the past year, and of the amount, character, and condition of the investments.

    CASH ACCOUNT.

    receipts.

    Balance, 15 November, 1904

    $1,693.77

    Admission Fees

    $50.00

    Annual Assessments

    660.00

    Commutations of the Annual Assessment

    300.00

    Sales of the Society’s Publications

    79.10

    University Press: paper

    8.79

    Interest

    2,495.34

    Withdrawn from Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank.

    397.82

    Mortgages, assigned or discharged!

    12,500.00

    Publication Fund

    700.00

    1

    Editor’s Salary Fund

    950.00

    Executors of the will of Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr.

    3,000.00

    21,141.05

    $22,834.82

    disbursements.

    University Press, printing

    $1,186.31

    A. W. Elson & Co., photogravure plates and plate printing

    441.46

    Suffolk Engraving and Electrotyping Company

    13.00

    Albert Matthews, Salary as Editor of Publications (nine months)

    750.00

    Clerk hire

    79.95

    Mary H. Rollins, indexing Volume VII

    100.00

    Sarah Cresson, listing Boston Newspapers, 1704–1780.

    6.25

    Merchants Parcel and Express Company

    24.08

    Boston Storage Warehouse Company

    24.00

    Hill, Smith and Company, stationery

    5.50

    Carter, Rice and Company, stationery

    5.00

    Library Bureau, index cards

    13.50

    William H. Hart, auditing

    5.00

    Miscellaneous incidentals

    379.39

    Deposited in Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    567.32

    Mortgages on improved real estate in Boston and Brookline

    18,100.00

    Interest in adjustment

    208.78

    $21,909.54

    Balance on deposit in State Street Trust Company, 16

    November, 1905

    925.28

    $22,834.82

    The Funds of the Society are invested as follows:

    $47,800.00

    in First Mortgages, payable in gold coin, on improved property in Boston, Cambridge and Brookline.

    200.00

    deposited in the Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank.

    $48,000.00

    TRIAL BALANCE.

    debits.

    Cash

    $925.28

    Mortgages

    $47,800.00

    Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    $200.00

    48,000.00

    $48,925.28

    credits.

    Income

    $925.28

    Editor’s Salary Fund

    $1,400.00

    Publication Fund

    2,500.00

    General Fund

    6,100.00

    Benjamin Apthorp Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

    Edward Wheelwright Fund

    10,000.00

    Robert Charles Billings Fund

    10,000.00

    Robert Noxon Toppan Fund

    5,000.00

    Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. Fund

    3,000.00

    48,000.00

    $48,925.28

    Henry H. Edes,

    Treasurer.

    Boston, 16 November, 1905.

    REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE.

    The undersigned, a committee appointed to examine the accounts of the Treasurer of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts for the year ending 16 November, 1905, have attended to that duty and report that they find them correctly kept and properly vouched, and that evidence of the investments and of the balance of cash on hand has been shown to us. This examination is based on the report of William H. Hart, Auditor.

    Thomas Minns,

    Augustus P. Loring,

    Committee.

    Boston, 17 November, 1905.

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

    Mr. William C. Wait, on behalf of the Committee appointed to nominate officers for the ensuing year, presented the following list of candidates; and, a ballot being taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected:

    PRESIDENT.

    • GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE.

    VICE-PRESIDENTS.

    • WILLIAM WATSON GOODWIN.
    • MARCUS PERRIN KNOWLTON.

    RECORDING SECRETARY.

    • HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM.

    CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

    • JOHN NOBLE.

    TREASURER.

    • HENRY HERBERT EDES.

    REGISTRAR.

    • FREDERICK LEWIS GAY.

    MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR THREE YEARS.

    • JOHN LATHROP.

    On the recommendation of the Council, it was unanimously —

    Voted, That the Society gratefully accepts the bequest of Three thousand dollars received from the Executor of the will of Robert Charles Winthrop, the younger of that name; that it be added to the permanent Publication Funds; and that it be forever called the Robert Charles Winthrop, Junior, Fund, the income only of which shall be used.

    The name of the Rev. James Eells was transferred from the Roll of Resident Members to that of Corresponding Members, since he has removed his permanent residence from Massachusetts to Tarrytown, New York.

    After the Meeting was dissolved, dinner was served. The guests of the Society were the Rev. Drs. Edward Everett Hale, George Foot Moore, and James De Normandie, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Dr. James B. Ayer, Professor Edward Channing, and Messrs. St. Clair Baddeley of Gloucestershire, England, James W. Brooks, James F. Hunnewell, and George A. Plimpton. President Kittredge presided.