MARCH MEETING, 1908

    A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at No. 25 Beacon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 26 March, 1908, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President, Henry Lefavour, LL.D., in the chair.

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

    The Corresponding Secretary pro tempore reported that a letter had been received from the Rev. Charles Edwards Park accepting Resident Membership.

    The Hon. Frank Warren Hackett of New Castle, New Hampshire, was elected a Corresponding Member.

    Mr. George L. Kittredge offered, as a note on Mr. Edes’s discussion before this Society in March, 1899, of the Places of Worship of the Sandemanians in Boston,240 the following entry under date of 15 August, 1773, from the unprinted Journal of John Boyle, the Boston bookseller and printer:241

    Aug. 15 The Sandemanians met in their New Meeting-House in Middle Street for the first Time.

    Mr. Kittredge added that Boyle’s Journal, which runs from 1759 to 1778, was well worth printing.

    Mr. Horace E. Ware made the following communication:

    AN INCIDENT IN WINTHROP’s VOYAGE TO NEW ENGLAND.

    It will be recalled that four ships of the Massachusetts Bay Company’s great expedition to these shores in 1630 left Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, April 8, 1630, Governor Winthrop being on board the Arbella. It had been arranged a few days before the departure that of these vessels the Arbella should be admiral; the Talbot, vice-admiral; the Ambrose, rear-admiral; and the Jewel, captain. The masters of the vessels were,—of the Arbella, Captain Peter Milborne; of the Talbot, Mr. Thomas Beecher; of the Ambrose, Captain John Lowe; of the Jewel, Mr. Nicholas Hurlston. Seven other vessels left Southampton for the Massachusetts Bay a few weeks later.242

    Before proceeding with the main narrative, it may be well to consider certain conditions then existing which are of historical importance in connection therewith.

    Charles the First, ever in need of money, had lately entered upon his eleven years’ experiment of trying to govern without a Parliament. The nation had been at war with Spain for something over five years, but without important consequences to either party; and it may be stated, by way of anticipation, that this war was to be terminated by the Treaty of Madrid, November 5, 1630.243 Louis XIII was King of France, but its government was being directed by the masterful Richelieu. Certain of the relations between that country and England were in what might be called a state of unstable equilibrium, for while the Treaty of Susa, April 24, 1629, had ostensibly put an end to the war begun in the early part of 1627,244 at least two matters remained unsettled at the time of Winthrop’s departure. One of these arose previous to the Treaty, the other for the most part, at least, from proceedings subsequent thereto. Both of them will be referred to later, but I will here state their nature in brief.

    Upon the marriage of Charles I with Henrietta Maria, the sister of Louis XIII, the latter had promised to pay as his sister’s dowry the sum of eight hundred thousand crowns. Only about one half of this amount had been paid, leaving four hundred thousand crowns or thereabouts still payable.

    At the time of Winthrop’s departure the English were in possession of Quebec and certain important places in Acadia. Quebec had been taken in July, 1629, subsequent to the peace established by the Treaty of the previous April, by David Kirke, commander of an expedition sent out by a company formed by Sir William Alexander, Gervase Kirke,245 and other Englishmen, who had a commission and letters of marque from King Charles, issued before the Treaty. A return of all these places had been demanded by the King of France. In this expedition, David Kirke was captain of the largest ship, one of about 300 tons, and his brothers Lewis and Thomas were the respective captains of two of the other vessels.246

    It will be remembered that Winthrop’s History of New England is in the form of a journal in which the events are narrated more or less contemporaneously with the dates under which they are entered. I take from that History under their respective dates the following entries bearing upon the subject:

    1630, April 25. We stood W. and by S. and saw two ships ahead of us as far as we could descry.

    In the afternoon the wind came W. and by S. but calm still. About five of the clock, the rear-admiral and the Jewel had fetched up the two ships, and by their saluting each other we perceived they were friends, . . . About nine of the clock, they both fell back towards us again, and we steered N. N. W. . . .

    April 26. The wind still W. and by S. close weather, and scarce any wind.

    The two ships, which we saw yesterday, were bound for Canada. Capt. Kirk was aboard the admiral. They bare up with us, and falling close under our lee, we saluted each other, and conferred together so long till his vice-admiral was becalmed by our sails, and we were foul one of another; but there being little wind and the sea calm, we kept them asunder with oars, etc., till they heaved out their boat, and so towed their ship away.

    They told us for certain, that the King of France had set out six of his own ships to recover the fort from them.

    About one of the clock Capt. Lowe sent his skiff aboard us, (with a friendly token of his love to the governour,) to desire our captain to come aboard his ship, which he did, and there met the masters of the other ships and Capt. Kirk, and before night they all returned to their ships again, Capt. Lowe bestowing some shot upon them for their welcome.247

    The record here states that there were gales and high winds April 27, 28, and 29.

    April 29th. We had been now three weeks at sea, and were not come above three hundred leagues, being about one third part of our way, viz., about forty-six north latitude, and near the meridian of the Terceras.248

    This night Capt. Kirk carried the light as one of our consorts. . . .

    May 2d. The Ambrose and Jewel were separated far from us the first night, but this day we saw them again, but Capt. Kirk’s ships we saw not since. . . .

    May 18th. Towards night (our rear-admiral being near two leagues to leeward of us) we bare up, and drawing near her, we descried, some two leagues more to leeward, two ships, which we conceived were those two of Capt. Kirk’s, which parted from us in the storm, May 2.249

    Under May 19, the author states that they were 44° 12′ North, and by their account in the midway between the false bank and the main bank. The Arbella and the Jewel reached Salem June 12 and June 13, respectively; the Ambrose arrived at Salem June 18; and on July 2 the Talbot arrived at Charlestown.

    By recalling in a summary way what has been told by Parkman and other writers about the Kirkes and their undertakings, this accidental meeting of the two expeditions on the broad Atlantic will become of greater interest.

    David, Lewis, and Thomas Kirke, whom I have named, were the sons of Gervase Kirke, an Englishman, their mother being a Frenchwoman of Dieppe. There were also two other sons, John and James, and two daughters. The enterprise of Gervase Kirke and others under which the three brothers sailed was private, but the King had furnished them with a commission and letters of marque. About the time this enterprise was instituted in England, there was organized in France under the auspices of Richelieu the association designated The Company of New France, sometimes, however, referred to in history as The Hundred Associates. To this Company the King of France granted a vast territory in America, including all of Canada, besides investing it with extraordinary powers. The Company of New France had in April, 1628, sent out a fleet of armed vessels and transports for the protection of Canada and the relief of Quebec, whose inhabitants were in sore straits for food and ammunition. But the English fleet under the command of David Kirke had arrived in the Canadian waters first, with the result that eighteen of the French Vessels were captured, and Quebec itself was threatened during the month of July. Such ships as the English did not destroy they retained as prizes. Later in the season they returned to England.

    The next summer, that of 1629, David Kirke with his fleet was again in the St. Lawrence, having left Gravesend March 25. In due course demand was made upon Champlain for the surrender of Quebec. Terms quite liberal for the French were agreed upon, and on July 20 Lewis Kirke, as representative of his brother, the Admiral, took formal possession. Leaving Lewis Kirke in command at Quebec, the Admiral sailed for England with his prisoners. On the arrival of the squadron at Plymouth, November 20, 1629, Champlain proceeded to London, where with the French Ambassador he endeavored to obtain from the King a promise that the places lately taken by the English should be restored to France pursuant to the terms of the Treaty of Susa.250

    Bitter indeed must have been the disappointment of David Kirke and his associates when they learned of the terms of the Treaty made at Susa the latter part of April, so soon after their departure for Canada. Here were magnificent prospects of wealth and territory shattered at one fell stroke. Upon the capture of Quebec being made known to the French, the latter proceeded to seize upon certain Engglish ships by way of reprisal. King Charles, realizing the serious conditions existing, began work upon the vessels of his navy to have them ready for active hostilities.251 Not only did the French demand restitution of all the places in Canada taken by the English since the Treaty, but also that the Canada adventurers should deliver up all the beaver skins in their warehouse in London which the Kirkes had seized in Canada. Process was issued requiring that these skins be delivered into the hands of the public officers. Kirke and his party and one Thomas Fitz, a merchant, and others interested offered such a high handed opposition that the latter was brought before the Star Chamber for contempt of authority. This brought an end to all resistance; the skins were restored and Fitz was released from custody. These proceedings lasted from at least early in March to as late as the middle of June, 1630.252 This period, it will be observed, includes that of Winthrop’s voyage. David Kirke, therefore, during this time being in London, and Lewis Kirke, as we have seen, having been left in command at Quebec, it follows that Thomas Kirke must have been the “Capt. Kirk” in command of the two ships which were voyaging in company with Winthrop’s fleet.253

    Gervase Kirke died December 17, 1629, leaving a considerable property. Sometime in the year 1630 David Kirke was married to Sarah, daughter of Sir Joseph Andrews, Knight. With his wife came a substantial dowry.254

    Notwithstanding the adverse terms of the Treaty, David Kirke made strenuous efforts to save Quebec. One took the shape of a petition to the King. A ground he claims for the impregnability of Quebec to capture by siege is curious and entertaining. He states it thus:

    The above fort (Quebec) is so well situated that they are able to withstand 10,000 men, and will not care for them; for in winter they cannot stay in the country, soe that whosover goes to besiege them cannot stay above three months, all in which time the musketts255 will soe tormente them that noe man is able to be abroad in centry or trenches daye or night without losinge their sights at least eight dayes.256

    But the King’s only object appears to have been to turn the brilliant conquest of the Kirkes to his own personal advantage. On June 12, 1631, he wrote his ambassador in Paris that when he received the balance of his Queen’s dowry (hereinbefore referred to), and not before, he would make restoration of the places taken.257 Negotiations followed which resulted in the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye on March 29, 1632.258 The King gave Alexander, who had received grants from James I and Charles I, ten thousand pounds, while he ordered Alexander’s son to vacate the neighborhood of Port Royal.259 On July 13, 1632, Quebec was restored to France, Emeric de Caen taking possession in its behalf.260

    I do not find mention of the Kirkes’ ships going to Quebec in the year 1630 unless it be inferred from Winsor’s statement that “during the second summer, they [the English holding Quebec] had received some recruits, and there were about seventy English in the town when De Caen, on July 13, received its surrender.”261 If the “second summer” was that following the capture of Quebec by the English, then the recruits just referred to were in all probability being taken to Quebec by the ships which Winthrop saw. But undoubtedly the London adventurers sent stores, etc., to Quebec every spring or summer during the occupation.

    In December, 1631, the King caused to be conferred upon David Kirke and his brothers certain honorary additions to their coat of arms; and on July 16, 1633, he knighted David Kirke.262 Subsequently, as we shall see, the King made to the latter certain grants in the Island of Newfoundland. We may assume that these favors were conferred in recognition of services and expenditures in the expeditions to Canada, but they seem very small returns considering what the Kirkes had accomplished.

    The subsequent careers of Sir David, Lewis, and Thomas Kirke can be followed in Henry Kirke’s First English Conquest of Canada, from which I have already made citations. There were two patents from the King of the Island of Newfoundland, both dated November 13, 1637. One ran to Sir David Kirke alone, vesting in him the powers of a county palatine; the other was to Sir David and certain others.263 But Sir David alone came to the Island and assumed proprietorship and supreme official authority thereon. These grants included Avalon, the territory previously granted to the first Lord Baltimore, which he and his son, the second Lord Baltimore, as Sir David and his heirs claimed, had abandoned. To Lord Baltimore, the son, it will be remembered, the Charter of Maryland was granted in 1632, instead of to his father who had died a short time before.

    Sir David was a royalist and a staunch churchman. In a letter to Archbishop Laud written in October, 1639, he says, referring to schismatics, “we have heard so many frensies from our next neighbouring plantation, the greatest His Majesty hath in America;”264 a compliment, be it noted, to the enterprise and ability of the Massachusetts colonists, if not to their theology.

    Lewis and Thomas Kirke both commanded vessels in the navy before the Civil War, and on the outbreak of that war in 1642 both joined the King’s forces. Thomas was killed in one of the skirmishes between the Royalist and Parliamentary soldiers. Lewis commanded a troop of horse and was knighted by the King at Oxford on April 23, 1643.265 In October, 1660, he was appointed Receiver and Paymaster of the Band of Gentlemen at Arms.266

    Sir David Kirke offered the King an asylum in Newfoundland when he perceived the danger threatening him in England. After the death of the King he invited Prince Rupert to sail to Newfoundland, and there recruit his fleet; but Rupert found it impracticable to comply, or for some other reason failed to act upon the invitation.

    The authorities of the Parliamentary government, being aware of Sir David Kirke’s acts and attempted proceedings against it, a warrant was issued in April, 1651, to John Treworgie and another ordering them to proceed to Newfoundland and to take possession of all Sir David’s ordnance, ammunition, etc., and to collect the taxes paid by strangers for the right of fishing. Sir David went to England in September. The business having come before the Council, after many delays it was in the summer of 1652 decided that Kirke had no authority in Newfoundland under the late King’s grant; that all forts, houses, etc., relating to the fishing trade established on the Island by Kirke and his fellow adventurers should be forfeited to the Government, but that Sir David’s own private effects should be secured to him. Later, however, Sir David secured the removal of the sequestration upon his property, and, with the exception of the ordnance and forts, it was returned to him.

    The closing events in the life of Sir David Kirke are obscure. He returned to London in the autumn of 1651, and died there at an unknown date, but apparently during the winter of 1653–1654.267 After the Restoration his widow and children received severe treatment at the hands of Charles II. Cecil, Lord Baltimore, put in a claim to Avalon under the grant to his father by James I. The evidence is conflicting. On the one hand it was claimed that Baltimore had abandoned Avalon, while on the other it was alleged that the grant to Kirke had been surreptitiously obtained.268 Whatever the true facts were, the decision was in Baltimore’s favor; and the property of the storm-worn veteran, instead of passing to his family, was bestowed upon the owner of the princely domain in the more congenial South which had been given him in substitution for Avalon.

    Allow me to call attention to the following entry in Winthrop’s History—that under date of May 29, 1630—when off Sable Island:

    Saturday, 29. The wind N. W. a stiff gale, and fair weather, but very cold; in the afternoon full N. and towards night N. and by E.; so we stood W.269

    Upon that same day was born in London the infant thereafter to become King Charles the Second, who was to cause to be vacated the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which Winthrop was then bringing with him.

    While not followed by consequences of historic importance, the meeting of the ships of Winthrop with those of Kirke out upon the wide waste of waters is very impressive. We may hazard an opinion as to the matters chiefly in the thoughts of the respective parties as the result of their interview. To Kirke the future Massachusetts settlement might have suggested itself as a comparatively nearby place of refuge in case of untoward fortune. To Winthrop and his associates the danger of a renewal of the war with France, in case the latter’s King should send his ships to recover Quebec, as intimated by Kirke, was undoubtedly a matter of grave concern. Ships sailing from England to the Colony would be in danger of capture; and would-be colonists might not be willing to expose themselves and their families to such additional peril. Moreover, the settlements in Massachusetts would themselves be exposed to attack.270 The consideration of possibilities such as these, gives us a somewhat vivid impression of contemporary conditions.

    The ships of the two expeditions parted and went their several ways. The enterprise of the Kirkes, notwithstanding the courage and ability shown by commanders and men, failed in its most important objects, and exercised no lasting effect upon subsequent history.271 Such a result is in striking contrast with the transcendent success of the undertaking of Winthrop and his associates.

    Mr. George F. Tucker made the following remarks on the will of Governor Richard Bellingham of Massachusetts:

    Richard Bellingham was born in England in 1592 and came to Boston in 1634. He was by profession a lawyer. He was elected Deputy-Governor in 1635, and in 1641 he defeated Winthrop for the governorship by only six votes. There was dissatisfaction over the result, and according to some writers there was a suggestion at least of irregularities in the election, Hubbard stating that Bellingham “carried it by six votes, if so many could regularly be made out.”272 He was elected again in 1654 and also in 1665, after the death of Governor Endicott, and then continued in office until his own death in 1672.

    After the death of his wife in 1641, Bellingham married Penelope Pelham of Plymouth under circumstances which subjected him to the censure of the General Court. It seems that he performed the ceremony himself and did not properly publish the banns. He was prosecuted, but escaped conviction by refusing to leave the bench, thus taking part in his own trial.

    There is a story that Miss Pelham was interested in a younger gentleman, but yielded to the attractions of superior station—an incident which furnished Bynner with the subject of his charming story, Penelope’s Suitors.

    Hubbard says:

    In the end of the year 1672 an end was put to the life and government of Mr. Bellingham, a very ancient gentleman, having spun a long thread of above eighty years: he was a great justiciary, a notable hater of bribes, firm and fixed in any resolution he entertained, of larger comprehension than expression, like a vessel whose vent holdeth no good proportion with its capacity to contain, a disadvantage to a public person; had he not been a little too much overpowered with the humor of melancholy in his natural constitution, (the infirmities of which tincture did now and then appear in his dispensing of justice,) he had been very well qualified for a Governor. He had been bred a lawyer, yet turned strangely, although upon very pious considerations, as some have judged, out of the ordinary road thereof, in the making of his last will and testament, which defect, if there were any, was abundantly supplied by the power of the General Court, so as that no prejudice did arise to his successors.273

    Governor Bellingham died on December 7, 1672, and on the nineteenth his will, which was executed a few days before his death, was admitted to probate. The will gave to his wife, by whom he had no issue, the rent of a farm, and also his dwelling-house, yard and field adjoining, “during her natural life.” To “my only son [Samuel] and his daughter during their natural lives.” Rents of two other farms were given to the relief of the daughter of Colonel William Goodrich, etc. After the death of his wife, his son, and his son’s daughter, he gave—

    my whole Estate in Winnessimit to be an annual Encouragement to some Godly Ministers and preachers, and such as may be such, whoe shall be by my trustees judged faithfull to those principles in Church discipline which are owned and practiced in the first Church of Christ in Boston of which I am a member A maine one whereof is, That all Jurisdiction is Committed by Christ to each perticular organical Church, from which there is noe Appeal, visable Saintship being the matter, and Express Covenanting the forme of the Church.

    His “whole Estate in Winnessimit” embraced nearly all the territory upon which is built the present city of Chelsea. Of the four trustees named in the will, the Rev. James Allen seems to have been the most vigilant and capable. To these trustees eight instructions are given, which embrace, among other things, the building of a church and parsonage at Winnissimet, the providing for the education of theological students and the support of a minister, and the preaching every quarter of the year of a sermon “to instruct the people in Boston in Church discipline, according to the word of God.”

    Early in the year 1673 legal proceedings began between the testator’s only son, Dr. Samuel Bellingham, then in Europe, on one hand, and Allen and his co-trustees on the other. Dr. Bellingham was represented by his attorney, one Richard Wharton, who made a deposition in 1673 containing the serious charge that Allen had not only exercised an undue influence over the mind of the testator, but had actually inserted in the will after its execution a clause revoking all former wills. For this he was severely censured and appears to have been proceeded against criminally.

    The contest over the will was begun in the following way. The interest of the trustees was, it would seem, only a remainder available after the termination of the several lives in being. Yet immediately after the Governor’s decease Wharton, attorney for the son, leased for a year a pasture belonging to the estate to one Blake. Stoddard, one of the trustees, in the following April gave Captain Edward Hutchinson possession of the same pasture “for one whole year.” Hutchinson then turned into the pasture a horse, which Blake put into the pound. Hutchinson replevied the horse and put him back into the pasture. Blake again put the animal into the pound, and Hutchinson again replevied him.

    The contest over the will initiated in the County Court in Boston in 1673 lasted till 1787—a period of one hundred and fourteen years. It is said that every tribunal, including the most inferior, under three governments—Colonial, Provincial, and State—was resorted to. The final decision, which was against the validity of the will, was given by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1787, held by Judge Sumner.

    On a tomb in the Granary Burial-Ground appears this inscription:

    Here Lies

    Richard Bellingham, Esquire,

    Late Governor In The Colony Of Massachusetts,

    Who Departed This Life In The 7th Day Of December, 1672,

    The Eighty-first Yeare Of His Age.

    Virtue’s Fast Friend Within This Tomb Doth Lye,

    A Foe To Bribes, But Rich In Charity.

    When the litigation ended, the Bellingham family was extinct, and the assumption naturally is that the whole estate was hardly sufficient to pay the legal expenses.

    Mr. Henry H. Edes read the following paper, written by Mr. Michael J. Canavan:

    THE OLD BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, 1656–1747.

    When the Boston Public Library was founded in 1852, no suspicion seems to have lurked in the minds of the promoters that there had been a somewhat similar institution at a previous date. Two centuries earlier, however, an acrimonious, contentious Puritan, with a somewhat maculate reputation for fair dealing, made provision for giving a selection from his own doctrinal books to the town of Boston, appealing to others for additional contributions, and set apart a sum of money for a building in which there should be room for the housing of the books.

    This gentleman, Captain Robert Keayne, lived on the south side of the market-place, at the corner of “Roxbury Road” and the “Broad Street leading to the Sea.”274 An enthusiast in the art of war, he had stirred up the public to found here a branch of the Honorable Artillery Company, of which he had been a prominent member in London. In private life also he sought strife, or at least did not avoid it, and was engaged in frequent law suits.

    In 1636 the Widow Sherman brought an action against him for killing her sow, which was tried for six years in all the courts, finally reaching the General Court, where the quarrel culminated, and split that assembly into the two bodies we now call the Senate and House of Representatives.

    He was generally regarded as a niggard and extortioner, was fined and publicly censured by the Court in one case for exacting undue profits, haled before the church for admonition, and barely escaped excommunication for his covetous practices.

    Like many a financier, who plays the game eagerly to the very end, piling up his gains, and then is anxious for a wise distribution of the booty, this grim old warrior, after driving hard bargains during life, desired to give the people some benefit of his shrewdness, and set aside a third of his property of £4000 for public purposes, especially for the building of a market-place, “which shall give country people shelter when they come in to sell their goods,” and in it was to be a room or two for the Courts, one for the Artillery Company, and “a convenient room for a library.”

    His will can be seen in the tenth volume of the Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, fifty-three pages in fine print, begun in March, 1653, and finished in December of the same year. For nine months this militant merchant tailor sat above his shop, evenings, in the chamber which “jettied out” over the street, and, studying his “shop books,” his “vellum debtor and creditor books,” and his “inventory book which was a breviate” of his whole estate, planned out this scheme of benefiting the town and quieting the clamors and evil repute raised up against him.

    The document is a curious mixture of religion, bile, and public spirit, together with a long-winded and somewhat successful attempt to clear his reputation from the stains cast upon it.

    First, as a good Christian, a good, orthodox, congregational Calvinist, he purges himself of heresy:

    Renowncing all manner of knowne errors, all Popish & Prelaticall superstition, all Anabaptisticall inthusiasmes and Familisticall delusions, with all other fayned devises and all Old and New upstart opinions, unsound and blasphemous errors, and other high imaginations that exalt themselves against the honr and truth of God &c.

    Having denounced all heresies, he proceeds to show that he has the right doctrine. “Renouncing,” he says,—

    all confidence or expectation of merritt or desert in any of the best duties or service that ever I have shall or can be able to pforme acknowledging that all my righteousnes sanctificōn and close walking with God if it were or had bin a thousand time more exact then ever yet I attayned too, is all polluted and corrupt and falls short of com̄ending me to God in point of my justification, or helping forward my redemption or salvation, and deserve nothing at God’s hands but Hell and Condemnation.

    So he goes on with the tale of the atonement, Christ’s merits, imputed righteousness, saving grace, and sanctification.

    From spiritual affairs he turns to a consideration of his death. He desires—

    comely & decent burriall . . . yet haveing beene trayned up in Millitary Discipline from my youngr yeares, & seeing . . . [God] hath beene pleased to use me as a poore instrument to lay ye foundation of that Noble Society of the Artillery Company in this place, . . . I shall desire to be buryed as a souldier in a Millitary way.

    The Captain had in mind a protest against the undue expense, the pomp and ceremony of funerals of that day, the gifts, the sashes, the mourning rings, the lavish entertainment in food and strong potations. The Governor and Assistants may drain a glass in his memory, but with them must be his old companion, the artillerist.

    While he was making this will, the fire of 1653 swept away the houses from State Street to the Dock, and the Captain wrote that he wished a conduit built and a market-place,—

    the one useful in case of fire and the other useful for country people that come in with their provisions, that they may have a place to sit dry in. . . . And in the Market-house there is to be a convenient room or two for the Courts to meete, a gallery for the elders, a room for an armoury to keep the Armes of the Artillery Company . . . and a convenient room for a library.

    I shall be willing to cast in my mite & to bring in my lime and hare, possibly God may stirr up the hearts of others to bring in their badger skines & silke, and other more costly things that the worke may goe on & prosper in so small a beginning.

    I give and bequeath to the beginning of that library my 3 great writing bookes, which are intended as an Exposition or Interpretation of the Whole Bible, as also a 4th great writing booke in which is an exposition on the Prophecy of Daniel, of the Revelations & the Prophecy of Hosea not long since begun, all which Bookes are written with my owne hand.

    This was a good beginning for the library, his own manuscripts, over which he had toiled and moiled; in which doubtless the Second Coming of Christ and the New Jerusalem were discussed at large, with full consideration of the four monarchies, the Big and the Little Horns, the Beast, the Papal Antichrist, the Seventh and last trumpet, the great day of Armageddon, wherein all “the reliques of the Roman Beast” shall be destroyed, and then, the Millennium, the thousand years of innocence and happiness on earth. The ministers were continually writing on these prophecies, stating that the time was nigh at hand. Mr. Cotton had lately delivered a series of sermons on the prophecies of Daniel; and the Rev. Thomas Parker of Newbury had applied himself with such invincible industry to this study that “the Strains which his immoderate Studies gave unto his Organs of Sight, brought a miserable Defluxion of Rheum upon his Eyes; which proceeded so far, that one of them swelled until it came out of his Head, and the other grew altogether dim some Years before his Death.”275

    Captain Keayne not only gave his special treasure, his manuscripts, but directed that—

    my brother Wilson276 and Mr Norton277 with my executor and overseers may view the rest of my bookes and choose from amongst them such of my Divinitie bookes and commentaries, and of my written sermon bookes or any others of them as they shall think profitable and usefull for such a Library (not simply for show but properly for use) they being all English, none Lattine or Greeke, then the rest may be sould.—and though my bookes be not many nor very fitt for such a work, being English and small bookes, yet after this beginning the Lord may stir up some others, that will add to them and helpe to carry the worke on by bookes of more value, antiquity, use and esteeme; and that an Inventory may be taken and kept of those bookes that they set apart for the Library.

    There was a clause in the Captain’s will as to his “bookes given to begin the Library:”

    If the towne of Boston should not within three years after my death build a handsome room for the Library and another for the Elders and Schollars to walke and meete in, then they may be delivered to the President or some of the Overseers of Harvard Collidge at Cambridge as an addition to that Library.

    The College Library, of course, preceded Captain Keayne’s, but he regarded his scheme as a new idea, and his books formed the nucleus of the library for the town.

    When the Puritans were getting ready to sail to Salem in 1629, Mr. William Backhouse presented eight books to the Company; and at a meeting on April 16, 1629,278 Mr. Skelton handed in a “Note of Books,” “2 dussen and ten catechisms” and fifty-four small doctrinal books and pamphlets, the. total price for which was 7£ 5s 4d. The “2 dussen and ten catechisms” would indicate that this collection was for the use of the ministers and for church work at Salem. Nothing further is heard of them.

    Captain Keayne died March 23, 1655–56, and his will was proved on the second of May following. It was found that the Captain’s legacy was not sufficient to carry out his intentions, and a subscription was taken up by which some £300 additional were procured. On the first of August, 1658, an agreement279 was made by Thomas Joy and Bartholomew Bernard—

    to build a comely building sixty six feet by thirty six feet from outside to outside, set upon twenty one pillars ten foot high between pedestals and capitals well brased all four waies placed upon foundation stone at the bottom. The whole building to jetty over three feet without the pillars every way. The height of the house to be ten feet above the pillars and a half storey above with gable ends upon it on each side. A walke upon the top fourteen of fifteen foot wide with two Turrets and turned Balusters and Rails round about the Walke according to a modell or draught presented to us by said Tho. Joy and Bart. Bernad . . . to be erected by June 4th, 1658.

    On the understanding that rooms were to be provided for holding courts and that there be a place underneath free for all inhabitants for a market, the Colony contributed one half to the support of the building and Boston and Suffolk County the other half in equal proportions.280 On January 28, 1660–61, the Selectmen made final payment of £680 for completing the Town House and conduit.281 This building was erected at the head of “the Broad Street leading to the Sea,” or “Market Street” as it was also called, on the site of its successor now known as the Old State House.

    As to the conduit, for which Captain Keayne provided, “to be used in case of fire,” it was made south of the Town House near the Captain’s land; but from some unknown cause, although there seems to have been abundant water in that vicinity, none was ever found in the conduit, and in 1672 Captain Nicholas Paige, who had married Keayne’s granddaughter, was allowed to tear it up and remove the bricks.

    In 1669 the Rev. John Wilson died and was succeeded by John Oxenbridge,282 lately a fellow of Eton College, a friend of Cromwell, Milton, and Andrew Marvell. Unfortunately he died soon—in 1674. In his will, dated March 12, 1673–74, is a bequest which shows that the library was already started:

    To the Public Library of Boston or elsewhere as my executors or overseers shall judge best, Augustines Works in six volumes, The Centurys in three volumes; the Catalogue of Oxford Library.283

    This last book was the catalogue of the Library founded at Oxford in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley. The first catalogue was printed in 1605 by the librarian, the Rev. Dr. Thomas James. There is a copy of the edition of 1620 in the Prince Library, a fat octavo, backed with a page from some black-letter law book, and with a fine old leather binding. Under the title Centuriae is given the following book: Ecclesiasticae Histor. Magdeburg. 1569. This History is in several folio volumes, giving an account of the Christian religion from the time of Christ through the successive centuries.

    The six volumes of Augustine were a valuable addition to the town library; for the Calvinists built their faith on him as the greatest of the fathers, and preached his doctrines of Predestination, Election, Reprobation and the Perseverance of the Saints. The severity and harshness of Calvin appeared in the earlier writer, the necessity of chastising religious error and heresy even by the stake if necessary.

    One of the leading men in colonial Boston was Sir Thomas Temple, the proprietor and governor of Nova Scotia from 1656 to 1670, when Charles II choused him out of his territory and sold it to France for a secret bribe.284 Sir Thomas ranked immediately after the Governor in Boston, taking precedence of the Deputy-Governor. For fourteen years he had a residence at the North End and spent most of his time there. In the Suffolk Probate Files (no. 697) is a will made by him October 14, 1671, as he was about to return to England. It contains the following clause:

    I give and bequeath unto my Cosen John Nelson the Ketch Peleran . . . And the remainder of the Cargo at Neuis under his charge which I estimate at £900. as also all my Bookes which I estimate at £150 &c in case of sd Nelsons death before he receive them then I doe give & bequeath . . . the Bookes above sd. at the select men of Bostons dispose viz: such as are fit for the Towne Lybrary unto that; and the rest to be sold & given to the poor of this Towne.

    Sir Thomas made another will in London March 27, 1674, just before his death, in which the Town Library was not mentioned.285 It is, however, not at all unlikely that before his departure from New England, he made a gift of some of his books to the library. It is what one might expect from that generous and genial gentleman.

    Only one book still exists which seems to have belonged to the Town Library. It is in the Boston Athenæum, a pamphlet by the Rev. Samuel Mather, entitled A Testimony from the Scripture against Idolatry & Superstition, with the inscription, “ffor the publike Library at Boston 1674.”286

    In the Life and Errors of John Dunton,287 a publisher and bookseller who visited Boston toward the close of the seventeenth century, the author gives an account of his contemporaries in London. Among them was “Mr. Richard Chiswell who well deserves the title of the ‘Metropolitan Bookseller of England,’ if not of all the world. His name at the bottom of a title page does sufficiently recommend the Book. He has not been known to print a Bad Book or on Bad Paper.” On February 16, 1676–77, Mr. Chiswell wrote the following letter to the Rev. Increase Mather:

    I have sent a few books to Mr. Vsher288 without order, which I put in to fill up the Cask. You may see them at his shop, & I hope may help some of them off his hands by recom̄ending them to your publick Library, especially the new ones, which cannot be there already, ꝓticularly Dr. Caves Lives of the Fathers, & Dr. Cary’s Chronologicall account of ancient time, which are both exceedingly well esteemed by the most learned & ingenious men here.289

    In an old New England library a large proportion of the books were devoted to theology and the quotations given above show that our Town Library must have had a strong ecclesiastical tang, and that it was regarded as the most likely purchaser in Boston of costly editions.

    Towards the end of the life of Captain Keayne, Deacon Wiswall and Dr. Cooke occupied a couple of buildings on his land between his house at the southerly corner of State and Washington Streets and the site of the Blue Anchor Tavern, now occupied by the Globe Building. On August 2, 1683, the Selectmen gave an order to David Edwards—

    to receaue of Elder John Wiswall & Docr Elisha Cooke £34. 4s. in mony for severall things he brought from England for ye vse of the Library, by order of Captain Brattle, and is in pte of a greate sume due from them for Captain Keayne’s legacye to ye use of said Library.290

    News that the Colony Charter was revoked reached Boston, July 5, 1685. Charles II died and was succeeded by James II early in 1686. Bloodthirsty Colonel Percy Kirke of Kirke’s Lambs had been talked of as a governor for Massachusetts, and the Colony looked forward with dread to his coming. In May, 1686, Edward Randolph arrived with a commission for Joseph Dudley as President, and though the Colony did not like Dudley, he was a lesser evil than Kirke. On May 25 his commission was published. With Randolph came Mr. Ratcliffe, a minister of the English Established Church. Randolph requested that he be given the use of one of the three Congregational meeting-houses. This was refused, but Samuel Sewall wrote on Wednesday, May 26, 1686, that Mr. Ratcliff “is granted the East-End of the Town-House, where the Deputies used to meet.”291 In Foote’s Annals of King’s Chapel is an account of the fitting up of the room with twelve forms and a pulpit to be carried in and out; and in the same book is the following entry from the Church records:

    Boston, New England July 4th 1686. At a meeting of the church—that for the present the prayers of the Church be said every Wednesday and Saturday in ye Library Chamber in ye Town House in Summer at seven of the Clocke in the morning and in the Winter season at nine o’clock in the morning.292

    In the beginning of the reign of Charles II, Mr. Ratcliffe would have been shown the door quickly. Then the King’s commands were only half obeyed, his commissioners were snubbed and disregarded, yet nothing was done to the Colony, for the Commissioner for Foreign Plantations recognized that Massachusetts was strong and ripe for rebellion. John Evelyn touches a couple of times on this point.293 He was appointed a Commissioner, and soon learned that this Colony must be allowed to have its own way. But now the King could take away their Charter, and impose spies and a Royal Governor upon them; for the Colony was weak and poverty-stricken in men and money, having lost many soldiers in King Philip’s War, and hundreds of houses in the great fires of 1676 and 1679. The country was nearly bankrupt, and it took a generation for the people to recover from these disasters. Still they had not lost all their spirit, for after some quarrel with the royal officers, an order was passed at a meeting of the Council held in Boston December 8, 1686, that “the Colony records shall be put in the Library Chamber and kept there, and two locks be put on the office, the keys to be kept by some one deputed to that service.”294

    This would indicate that the town did not intend the newcomers should exceed the privileges granted, that it resented the use of the Library Room for their morning prayers, and barred them out.

    Sewall makes this record:

    Monday, Decr. 20. 1686. Governor Andros comes up in the Pinace, touches at the Castle, Lands at Govr. Leveret’s wharf . . . and so march up through the Guards of the 8 Companyes to the Town-House . . . . It seems speaks to the Ministers in the Library about accommodation as to a Meeting-house, that might so contrive the time as one House might serve two Assemblies.295

    An arrangement was made soon after by which the English Church held their meetings in the Old South Meeting-house, and their furniture was removed from the Town House.

    At a town meeting March 11, 1694–95, it was—

    Voted that bookes of the Register of births and deathes in the Town of Boston shall be demanded by the Selectmen in whose hands soever they may be and that all Bookes or Other things belonging to the Library and all the goods or Estate belonging to the Town be demanded and Taken care of by the Selectmen.296

    At a meeting of the Selectmen on January 1, 1701–02, it was “Ordered that whereas Samuell Clough did formerly borrow the Towns Globes that he do now return them unto the Town Treasurer.”297 This gentleman made almanacs for the years 1701, 1702, 1703, giving the quarters of the moon according to the aspects, courts, spring-tides, time of the full sea at Boston, and eclipses. Clough used the terrestrial and celestial globes in his computation. If they had belonged to the school, they would have been referred to as the school globes, but from being called the “Towns Globes,” we infer that they came from the Town Library. On August 31, 1702, the Selectmen “Ordered that Mr. John Barnard junr be desired to make a Cattalogue of all the bookes belonging to the Towns Liberary and to Lodge the Same in ye sd. Liberary.298

    This young man, a recent graduate of Harvard, was then an itinerant preacher. His father was a selectman, and his grandfather one of the two builders of the Town House. He was a North End boy,299 and like the Rev. Benjamin Colman was in early manhood rather given to sensibility, a fad of those days. He recovered from it, however, and became the level-headed pastor of a church at Marblehead, dying there in his eighty-ninth year. On February 28, 1704, the Selectmen ordered that—

    Mr. John Barnard Junr having at the request of the selectmen Set the Towne Liberary in good order he is allowed for sd Service two of those bookes of wch there are in ye sd Liberary two of a Sort.300

    Mr. Barnard’s catalogue has not come down to us, more’s the pity, for then we should have known the contents of the library, or at least approximately.

    On October 2, 1711, a fire which started in Williams Court burnt the houses on both sides of Washington Street and at the head of State Street, reaching nearly to the Dock. Queen Anne had graciously given her portrait to the Province, and it hung in the Town House.301 The valuable collection of books in the Town Library survived this ordeal, not so happily as her Majesty, who passed through the fiery furnace without a hair of her head being harmed; but thanks to the efforts of the neighbors the library was saved, though a little singed, a little depleted.

    The following spring we find Judge Sewall writing to Jeremiah Dummer, the agent of the Province at the Court of Queen Anne. This gentleman was the son of “Cousin Dummer” who had come from Newbury in 1660, and was apprenticed to John Hull, the mint-master, to learn the goldsmith’s trade.302 The younger Jeremiah Dummer studied at Harvard, and later at the University of Utrecht, where he spent several years and received a doctor’s degree. Finding no prospect of business or occupation in America that was agreeable to him, he settled in England and was employed by Lord Bolingbroke in some secret negotiations. He had assurance of promotion to a place of honor and profit, but the death of the Queen blasted these hopes. He was a prominent lawyer and man of fashion in London, a sceptic in religion and wary in politics. His services to Massachusetts as its agent were of value.303

    Boston. N.E. April 22/1712.

    To Jeremiah Dummer Esq. Agent.

    Though it be something with latest (annus abif) yet ’t is more easy asking your Condolences of our Losses by the October Fire, now that we have the pleasure of seeing persons beginning to build the wast-places and especially those of publick concern, the Court-House; and Meeting-House. In our Boston Library several valuable Books were lost, as the Polyglot Bible, the London Criticks, Thuanus’ History, a Manuscript in two Folios left by Capt: Keyn, the Founder &c.304

    By the Court House Sewall meant the Town House, which was rebuilt at the joint expense of the Province, the County, and the Town.305 The two folios contained the exposition of the prophecies in Daniel and Hosea, an irretrievable loss, for though other interpretations of these prophets could be procured, the captain’s manuscripts were not to be replaced. This English Polyglot Bible was edited by Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester, born 1600. He was a follower of Laud and in the Civil War was dispossessed of his livings and imprisoned. In 1645 he joined the King at Oxford. His plan for the Polyglot was approved by John Selden and Archbishop Usher. All six of the folio volumes came out between 1654 and 1657. Nine languages appear on its pages and Walton claimed responsibility for the whole. Thuanus, whose History is mentioned in Sewall’s letter, was Jacques Auguste de Thou, son of the President of Parliament, born in Paris, 1553. The Latin edition of De Thou’s History, which was the one in the Boston Library, was in seven folio volumes, entitled lac. Avgvsti Thvani Historiae svi Temporis.

    Soon after this fire, arrangements were made by which a new house was to be built on the former site. On June 2, 1713, the Selectmen ordered—

    that an advertisement be printed desiring all persons who have any of the Town’s Liberary or can give notice of any booke’s or other things belonging to ye Town-House before ye Late fire to inform ye T. Treasurer in ordr to yr being returned.306

    The following advertisement appeared in the Boston News-Letter of June 8, 1713:

    ALL Persons that have in their Keeping, or can give Notice of any of the Town Library; or other things belonging to the Town-House in Boston, before the late Fire: are desired to Inform the Treasurer of the said Town thereof, in order to their being returned.

    THe first Volumn of Pool’s Annotations was carryed away in the late Fire in Boston; any Person that has it, or any other Books, carry’d away at that time, or any other Goods, are desired to bring them to the Post Office, that the true Owners may have them again (p. 2/2).

    These annotations were by Matthew Poole or Pole, the biblical commentator, born at York, 1604. He was graduated at Emmanuel College in 1624, and had a Presbyterian congregation in London.

    On a miserable rainy day, foggy and slippery, January 28, 1718, Judge Sewall went over to Charlestown to hold court, and the Rev. Simon Bradstreet persuaded him to spend the night at his house. Sewall had given his host Chrysostom’s works in two folios and learned that Mr. Bradstreet already had all the Eton edition. Whereupon “I offered to give Dr. Mather’s Church History for them and put them into the Library.” On the following morning, “Mr. Bradstreet read to me Chrysostom going out of Constantinople into Banishment; and I read in return, both in Latin, very entertaining.”307 The account of the departure of that great bishop and “golden mouthed” rhetorician is of intense interest now as it was two hundred years ago, for on leaving his people whom he loved passionately, he preached a marvellously pathetic homily, which these two elderly Puritans were reading seated by the fireplace of a winter’s morning.

    It is to be hoped that Sewall carried out his intention of giving the book to “the Library”—the Town Library I think he meant, for that at Harvard was generally alluded to as the College Library.

    My attention was called a short time ago to a volume of sermons by Lewis Atterbury, an elder brother of Bishop Atterbury. On the cover was stamped in gold—

    BELONGING • TO • • LIBRA

    RY • OF • BOSTON • IN •

    • NEW ENGLAND •

    It might not unnaturally be inferred that this inscription refers to the old Town Library. But, in the King’s Chapel Library are eight volumes by Henry More and five books by other writers—all strongly Anglican—bearing the same stamp. This stamp is simply the English of De Bibliotheca De Boston.—which, as will appear later, is the inscription On other books belonging to the King’s Chapel Library. Hence these books could scarcely have belonged to the old Boston Town Library and are now doubtless in their proper place in the King’s Chapel Library.

    Sewall’s letter to Dummer recounting the loss of several volumes, and the advertisement calling in books, show that the Boston Town Library was in fair condition after the fire. Later on steps were taken to improve and increase it. In the town reports we find that on February 25, 1733–34, the Selectmen voted “that Mr. Treasurer Wadsworth be directed to take a Bond of Nathaniel Green Esqr for Ninety Pounds being now in his hands, A Donation from Colo Fitch and others, in Order to procure Books for the Town Library.”308

    Ninety pounds in those days would buy many books. In the Bowditch Collection in the Boston Public Library is a fine copy of Leybourn’s Cursus Mathematicus, a thick folio, beautifully printed, full of illustrations. A note by the original owner, John Allason of “ffoulesyke,” England, states that he paid for it, March 21, 1691, 1£ 9s 9d. When one considers the make-up of this volume, its excellent paper and printing, the engravings, its stout leather binding, and its limited sale, this was a very low price for the book.

    The Town House was again burned in 1747. Nothing remained but the walls. In the Massachusetts Magazine of 1790 (III. 467) is an account of the building, which says that in this fire “a vast number of ancient books and early records together with a collection of valuable papers were destroyed.”

    After this nothing more appears in letters or records in regard to the Public Library. Mr. Prince had formed his library at the South Church. King’s Chapel had its collection given by King William, and in 1765 John Mein, a bookseller, started a large circulating library,309 so that the loss was not so severely felt. The town was in no condition to start a library on its own account. There was its portion to pay for the rebuilding of the Town House; the country was at war with France, and when that ceased, there was a little interval of peace, followed by a struggle lasting from 1754 to 1763; then came the Stamp Act and taxes, a quarrel with king and parliament and the Revolution. During this time the town was impoverished and needed all its means to live, and to support its poor. When the question of a Public Library was taken up again in the middle of the nineteenth century, it seemed a perfectly new idea; apparently no memory was left of the old Town Library.

    If the records in regard to the Library are scanty, still they show that a Town Library was started in 1656, and kept in a room devoted to it. From time to time it received accessions, and in 1711 it was valuable. In 1734 it received great additions, and it probably gave up the ghost in the fire of 1747, which left nothing but the bare walls.

    We shall now apparently digress from the subject, but it is for the purpose of setting forth two acts of courtesy, one ancient, the other of to-day, extended by the old Boston Town Library and by our present Boston Public Library to a sister institution.

    An account has been written by the Rev. Henry W. Foote310 of a library given to King’s Chapel by King William in 1698, ninety-six volumes, to which many others were added later. It was kept in the houses of the successive ministers of King’s Chapel; and though it suffered somewhat in the Revolution, when Boston was in turn occupied by the two opposing armies, its loss was greatest during the time it was deposited with the Theological Library. In 1807 it entered those gates, and two hundred and fifty-one volumes were lined up on the shelves. In 1823 it came out with ranks sadly thinned. Red Coats and Blue Coats had passed it by, but the Black Coats made great havoc, more than decimating it, leaving but two hundred and fourteen volumes. These books were finely bound; on one cover was stamped in golden letters:

    SVB

    AVSPICIIS

    WILHELMI

    III

    and on the other:

    DE

    BIBLIOTHECA

    DE

    BOSTON.

    In 1823 by vote of the proprietors of King’s Chapel the library was placed in the Boston Athenaeum, where it has since remained.

    One of the most popular theological writers in the time of James I and Charles I was Dr. Joseph Mede, or Mead, a fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, an Anglican of the older type, not greatly given to ceremony and with a leaning toward the simplicity of the Puritan; yet “he never could digest that black doctrine of absolute Reprobation.” Dr. Mede’s Works were in the King’s Chapel Library, but had disappeared. In January, 1907, the volume311 was turned over to the Athenaeum by the Boston Public Library, to which it had been given in 1890.

    It is pleasant to record a similar kindness done by the old Boston Town Library. On January 30, 1715–16, at a meeting of the Selectmen, “it was ordered that L. Cursus Mathematicus be delivered Mr Miles it appearing yt ye sd booke belongs to ye Church Liberary.”312 Mr. Miles was the Episcopal clergyman, and in the old King’s Chapel catalogue was “Leybourne’s Cursus Mathematicus 1690.” It had evidently gone astray, and probably owing to the advertising and the demand for the return of books to the Town Library after the fire, had been handed in at the Town House and was restored to its owners by the Selectmen.

    Among the books in the Church Library was the monumental Biblia Polyglotta by Walton, the loss of which from the Town Library Sewall referred to with so much regret in his letter about the fire of 1711. Fourteen years later the Judge again alludes to this book, when writing to the Rev. Thomas Prince, May 30, 1762.313 He says he does not believe in Prince’s scheme for a lending library, but will contribute liberally to buy the Polyglot for the use of the minister of the South Church.

    The reading of this paper was followed by a discussion in which the President, Mr. Lindsay Swift, and Mr. Albert Matthews participated. Mr. Swift remarked that some distinction should be made between a “public library” such as Mr. Canavan had described and the popular institutions of to-day. Continuing, he said:

    In the earlier instances books were bequeathed to city or town corporations314 and kept, as appears to have been the case with the Boston Library, in some room as a part of the municipal possessions. The present public libraries, which have existed in their present form for considerably less than a hundred years, are subject to municipal control and are supported by “rates” or taxation. This distinction is touched upon in the Ninth Report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts.315 The early subscription libraries, in fact, more nearly resembled the democratically constituted institutions of to-day than did these town-owned assemblages of books. Benjamin Franklin, who proudly speaks in his Autobiography of the Philadelphia Library, which he organized when he was twenty-six years old, as the “mother of all the North American subscription libraries, now so numerous,” takes pains to call this significant act his “first project of a public nature.” The true seeds of development seem then to have been rather in these quasi-public libraries of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries than in any collection of books such as that so accurately and fully described by Mr. Canavan.

    On behalf of Mr. Francis H. Lee, Mr. Matthews exhibited an original licence issued by Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire in October, 1774, authorizing the marriage of Samuel Charles and Susannah Abbott. The licence is a printed form, running “To either of the ordained Ministers of the Gospel in said Province, and to them only.” The words “and to them only” have been struck out, and inserted in writing are the words “or To Thomas Merrill Esq: of Conway.”

    Mr. Edes communicated a copy of the inscription on a tablet in memory of Major Simon Willard (1604–1676), set in 1902 into the wall of Canterbury Cathedral, outside the Crypt, near St. Gabriel’s Chapel. The inscription316 follows.

    In Memoriam

    MAJOR SIMON WILLARD,

    born 1604, died 1676.

    Exactly one hundred years before the declaration of independence.

    A KENTISH SOLDIER-and AN EARLY PIONEER

    In the settlement of the british colony

    of new england, america, 1634.

    He was made COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF of the BRITISH FORCES

    against the hostile Indian Tribes.

    He was distinguished in the military legislative

    and judicial service of the american commonwealth

    until his death-aged 72.

    Of simon willard’s ancestors one was PROVOST OF

    CANTERBURY 1218, and another was BARON OF CINQUE PORTS 1377,

    and his descendants to the present day have held

    eminent positions in the united states.

    ERECTED BY

    SYLVESTER D. WILLARD, M. R. C. S.

    LONDON, 1902.