MARCH MEETING, 1909

A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at No. 25 Beacon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 25 March, 1909, 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 Rev. Morton Dexter read the following paper:

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PLYMOUTH AND JAMESTOWN.

During the past two years attention has been directed in many ways to the foundation of the colony at Jamestown, in Virginia. That appropriate notice should be taken thus of the three hundredth anniversary of the beginnings of permanent colonization on our Atlantic coast was natural and commendable. Neglect to do so would have been a grave error. But in the many addresses and publications called forth by the various celebrations some claims were made for Jamestown, and certain allusions to Plymouth occurred, which seem to have left, upon some minds at least, a mistaken impression. In what I am about to say I have no desire to exalt the Plymouth Colony at the expense of that at Jamestown or of any other. But, in the interest of historical truth, I would like to indicate some of the particulars in which the Plymouth Colony differed from that at Jamestown, and which gave to the former the larger importance.

Indisputably Jamestown was founded first. It is incorrect to suppose—and much apparently based upon this supposition occasionally is said or written—that the settlement of the Pilgrims at Plymouth was the earliest in this country. At least six previous attempts had been made, and one of them, that at Jamestown, had succeeded. In 1565 Sir John Hawkins found a small and recent French colony at the mouth of the St. John’s River in Florida. It had been sent out, under one Jean Ribaut, by the famous Admiral Coligny, but it was in great straits and was exterminated by the Spaniards soon after Hawkins’s visit. In 1585 Sir Walter Ralegh despatched a small colony, headed by his cousin, Ralph Lane, to Roanoke Island, in what is now North Carolina, but in a few months it was starved out. Two years later, in 1587, Ralegh made another brief attempt at the same place, but also in vain. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, with thirty-two men, landed on Cape Cod and gave it its name. They also visited and named the Elizabeth Islands and built huts on Cuttyhunk. They intended to remain, but in about a month they changed their minds and returned to England. In 1607, as I have said, Jamestown was settled, in March. Three months later in the same year a colony sent out by Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, attempted to establish itself at the mouth of the river Kennebec in Maine, but soon abandoned the undertaking. Popham had been captivated by the glowing reports of George Weymouth, who had explored the New England coast in the summer of 1605 but had not lingered long enough to learn the severity of a Maine winter. And in 1614 George Calvert, who later founded what has become Maryland, obtained from King James I a grant of a part of Newfoundland, which he called Avalon, but this enterprise also was abandoned soon for the same reason, the inclemency of the climate. Jamestown was the only one which managed to survive, and in June, 1610, even this colony was absolutely abandoned in despair, although it was revived immediately.

All these attempts at colonization were actuated primarily by a commercial aim. And here we touch the first point of difference between the Plymouth Colony and that at Jamestown. The predominant motive of the Plymouth men distinguished them from the earlier colonists here whose doings history records. I say their predominant motive. It is not to be denied that they were influenced by more than one. Their age was an age of restlessness and enterprise. It was the period of Drake, Hawkins, Cavendish, Gilbert, Frobisher, and Ralegh. It was an era of adventure, of exploration, of reckless daring in the pursuit of wealth and fame, of Teachings forth into the portions of the world up to that time unvisited, or, at the least, still practically unknown, in the search for the north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, for the land of Eldorado, and for the supposedly incalculable treasures of the Indies. And, although little indeed was secured, in comparison with the visionary anticipations of the adventurers, enough was carried home, in the form of gold, silver, precious stones, costly stuffs of many sorts, rare fruits, and even captives representing races up to then unknown, to keep the public mind in a state of continual excitement.

Out of this effervescence there crystallized gradually a serious and enduring purpose. Thoughtful men realized that buccaneering and privateering, in addition to being open to moral objection, could succeed only temporarily in rewarding those who pursued them, but that well-established colonies in newly discovered lands might become sources of permanent, and possibly enormous, income. So it came to pass naturally that efforts began to be made in earnest to found colonies in promising regions with the definitely formed and frankly avowed aim of commercial profit. This was true not only of England but also of Holland and Spain, and it became inevitable that a colony should devote itself to one or more presumably remunerative branches of trade, in connection with fishing, lumber, skins, or whatever else it may have been. In fact no colony could have maintained itself a year without loyalty to some such material aims. It was as true, therefore, of the Plymouth Colony as of every other that a prominent motive which led to its foundation was the desire to render the wilderness productive and rewarding; in a word to make money, alike for the colonists and for those at home who had helped to finance their undertaking. Because of the niggardliness of these last, the Merchant Adventurers Company, of London, the colonists nearly starved before they could grow crops and put themselves in a position to send back to England cargoes of merchantable goods. This aim was attained only slowly and with extremest difficulty. But it was attained at last, and from the outset it was prominent in their minds.

At Plymouth, however, frankly acknowledged and faithfully pursued although this commercial aim was, it was not the primary, it was not even the secondary, purpose of the colonists. It held no higher than the third place in their minds. What, then, did they rank above it?

The answer is found in the familiar fact that peculiarly, and almost alone among the colonists of the time—the later Massachusetts Bay Colony seems to have been the only other exception, and by no means to the same degree—they underwent all which befell them for the sake of freedom. Mrs. Hemans struck the correct note in her famous hymn. It was “freedom to worship God” which they sought first and foremost. Whatever may be argued in favor of a State church and whatever may be truly urged in behalf of an hierarchical form of church government, there can be no successful dispute that the ecclesiastical and civil tyranny to which they had been subjected in England formed an ample justification for their resistance until resistance proved hopeless, and then for emigration. But for this probably most of them, if not all, would have continued loyally and happily in the English Church. Opposition set them to thinking and studying. They went back to the earliest days of Christianity and discovered that the first churches were independent. Doubtless they foresaw little of the development of religious and ecclesiastical liberty of which they were laying the foundations in their humble colony, and which the world rightly attributes in such large measure to them. But they were perfectly conscious of what they wanted to do in setting an example of spiritual freedom, of the personal and immediate access of the human soul to its Creator without intervention. This was the primary and supreme motive which impelled, sustained, guided and justified them—the purpose of being spiritually free.

It was not unnatural that events should lead them, as they looked forward after setting their colonizing movement in operation, and before they had reached the scene and sphere of its establishment, to appreciate the value of civil freedom too, and to adopt the purpose of securing and illustrating it as an additional motive. A few persons lacking their high ideals had been added to their company at Southhampton, just before they set sail for America, and a handful of these showed signs of insubordination on board ship. The leaders of the company seized the opportunity, while providing that good order and proper discipline might be maintained, to embody their theory of civil liberty in plain words. The same necessity has led others, before their day and since, to take measures for the rule of the majority, but to them it was left to institute in the cabin of their ship that miniature republic which has become one of the most powerful nations and has had more than one conspicuously successful imitator. The famous “Compact” of the Pilgrims ranks in the same class of historic documents as Magna Charta and the Constitution of the United States. The degree of civil freedom which it assured the colonists was as novel then as it proved enjoyable and serviceable. It was broader in its range and more practical in its adjustments of the claims and duties of the government to the needs and powers and possibilities of the individual citizen than was anything known at Jamestown. To win civil freedom, so far as practicable, was not so early or long-cherished a motive with the Plymouth colonists as to secure ecclesiastical and religious freedom. But it was a leading motive, as a letter from John Robinson to John Carver, written just as they were leaving Holland, indicates.543 They comprehended the fact that they could not easily maintain, or even obtain, their religious liberty, and hardly could rise to any remunerative degree of material prosperity, unless they could establish from the outset a government which should be strong and safe because it should be free. For them, in their conditions, no other, had there been anybody to set it up and carry it on, would have served their purpose.

Here, then, we see one feature which distinguished the Plymouth Colony from that at Jamestown. The Jamestown colonists came over merely to found a trading colony. This motive was not ignoble, but it was their highest, if not their only, one. The Plymouth colonists also came over to establish a trading colony. They, too, meant to subdue the earth and gather the harvest of the sea, and to send back the abundant fruits of their labor to the mother-land, that both they and those who had supplied much of the means for their adventure might be enriched. But when the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Bay the leaders of her company already had committed themselves also to the maintenance of religious liberty and of civil freedom as the distinguishing characteristics of their enterprise.

May I digress here long enough to say that the settlers of all these colonies can be judged fairly only by the beliefs and standards of their own time, and not by those of our modern and more enlightened day? It has been claimed that the Maryland Colony, founded in 1632, was the only one which granted to its people absolute religious liberty from the outset. In a certain sense this is true. But it is not true in the sense commonly understood. The Maryland Colony was the only one in which Protestant and Romanist, Low Churchman and High Churchman, Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker or anybody else could indulge his own preference in respect to religious belief and worship without risk of interference. But the reason of this is plain when the history of the colony is examined. The Calvert family, which founded the colony, was Roman Catholic. At that time in England the Roman Catholics not only were out of power and favor but also were regarded with constant suspicion, and even with almost actual terror, because of the vivid popular recollection of their cruel oppressiveness in the time of their political supremacy, and because of their frequent plots to overthrow the Protestant monarchy and subject the country again to an alliance with Spain and to the civil as well as the religious domination of the Pope. They were suppressed sternly as a political necessity. So, if the Calverts had attempted to establish what they really desired, a Roman Catholic colony, they never would have been granted the necessary charter by the English government. As it was, they secured it only because the head of the family had long been a Protestant, at least nominally, before avowing himself a Romanist, had been an eminent and useful public official, and had won the personal regard of the king. The sole way in which they could secure for themselves and their fellow Roman Catholics in the colony the measure of religious and ecclesiastical liberty which they wanted was to grant it to everybody else also, without distinction, and therefore this policy was adopted. It was not that they were more liberally minded than others. It was only that circumstances forced them to do as they did.

It should be added that the most advanced ideas of religious liberty which commonly were held then were far behind those which are commonplaces to us. One hears occasional sneers at the colonists of those days, especially at the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Puritans of the Bay, as having been narrow, bigoted and bitter, on the ground that they refused to others, as soon as they had gained a position where they could do so safely, the liberty upon which they insisted for themselves and of which they made their boast. Such sneers spring only from ignorance, carelessness, or wilful misrepresentation. In fact they never professed to possess, to offer to others, or even to believe in that degree of religious liberty which most people advocate and practise to-day. Their age in general knew nothing of such a liberty. Only a few individuals here or there were convinced that such a thing could be. What these colonists sought, distinctly and frankly, was freedom for themselves to worship God according to their consciences. They abandoned their early homes and separated themselves from the remainder of mankind largely, as I have said, with this object. But to them this meant, and only meant, that in the territory under their control their ideas of religion and its observances should prevail, or, at the most, that no ideas essentially opposed to their own should prevail. They were willing to grant to others, who held other views, the same freedom which they claimed, but upon condition that it be enjoyed somewhere else. The world was wide. Let Quakers, for instance, believe and practise what they liked, but let them not expect to be allowed to do so in colonies established to illustrate other than Quaker views. Let them colonize by themselves.

To our modern thought this is not a liberal position to take. But they must be judged by the standards of their own time, not of ours. Practically, however, the Plymouth Pilgrims were in advance of their age and of the settlers of most of the other colonies. They allowed a degree of religious liberty much greater than that in the Bay Colony or anywhere else, excepting afterwards in Maryland. They were not without visions of real spiritual freedom. They “never imposed any religious test as a qualification for the suffrage.”544 They did not accept Roger Williams’s peculiar opinions, but they allowed him to preach to them for one or two years as their pastor’s assistant, and remained friendly with him after his well-merited banishment from the Bay. Indeed, there is a persistent tradition that Miles Standish himself never joined their church but was a Roman Catholic, as his relatives in England certainly were.

Returning now to our direct line of thought, I would remind you, in the second place, that the Plymouth Colony was what may be described as a colony of families. Prominent among the intentions of its members was that of establishing homes, or, rather, of re-establishing in America the homes which they had cherished in mother England and in Holland, the land of their refuge for eleven years. It should be remembered that the unit of human society is not the individual, as often is asserted nowadays. It is the family. From the patriarchal age down to the present time the history of the human race has demonstrated this. That many individuals have won distinction, and even have done splendid service to their race, apart from family ties only illustrates the familiar fact that every rule has its exceptions. Nothing has been shown more clearly by the records of colonization than that, although the beginning of a settlement in virgin territory may be made successfully by a body of masculine colonists, a body of men inured to hardship and able to survive the perils and conquer the difficulties which beset any new undertaking of the sort, no colony can expect to succeed permanently, or even to thrive very long, until the feminine element has been added to the masculine, until homes have been established and family life has become a recognized and characteristic feature of its growth.

Now the Jamestown Colony was distinctly, and for a long time, destitute of this feature. Its colonists were men, and men of whom many were of none too high a type of abilities, manners, or morals. It often has been asserted that most of the colonists of Virginia were persons of higher social standing in the mother country than the settlers of New England, that the Southern colonists were gentlemen and the Northern tradesmen, artizans, or farmers. This statement does not bear examination. In the England of that time, as John Fiske well says, each of the two great parties which included practically the whole nation, the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, comprehended so many of the nobility and gentry that political distinctions had no social significance whatever. And when the colonies were founded in this country the English nobility and commonalty both were represented numerously. In Fiske’s own words,—

The differences that grew up between the relatively aristocratic type of society in Virginia and the relatively democratic type in New England were due not at all to differences in the social quality of the settlers but in some degree to their differences in church politics, and in a far greater degree to the different economic circumstances of Virginia and New England.545

Nevertheless, there was a considerable element in the colony at Jamestown which hardly was represented at all in Plymouth. Some of its settlers were men of gentle blood and education. But many, especially during its earliest years, were of the lowest grade morally as well as socially. Many were familiar with prisons in the old country, the doors of which had been opened to them upon the express condition that they should emigrate to Virginia. Many were ne’er-do-weels, impecunious adventurers of more or less reckless character, defiant of social proprieties and conventionalities, who never had formed or had readily disregarded family ties. Many actually had been kidnapped on the streets of English towns, hurried secretly on board ship, and sent over to Jamestown to become hewers of wood and drawers of water and the progenitors of those who later became known as “poor whites” and “white trash.”

These classes of settlers did not bring wives and children to America with them. Few among them looked forward to founding homes, in the high meaning of that term. Nor did many of those among them who were of superior origin. These last-named meant to make fortunes here and then go back to England to live. And when, in the course of time, it was appreciated that the colony must collapse unless something like family life could be introduced, they had to send home for relief and several ship-loads of women and girls were despatched to become their wives and the mothers of the future inhabitants of the colony. Probably most of these were entirely respectable, but few, if any, were of superior birth or training. Certainly many belonged to the lower classes socially. Fiske describes some of them as “the wretched women from English jails.” Among them, too, as in the case of the men, were a number who had been kidnapped. Many, if not most, of them also were sent out in a species of bondage, for they were sold to the highest bidders upon their arrival in Virginia and were not free until they, or the men who wished to marry them, had repaid their passage-money. Homes were formed thus, indeed, and many of them proved creditable and praiseworthy, but many others, as was only to be expected, were homes in name rather than in fact. It was years later in the history of the colony when new settlers began to bring their households with them and when the English gentry, from whom some of the eminent families in Virginia are descended, began to be represented conspicuously in the colony.

But at Plymouth the state of things was very different. When the men who became Pilgrims—and only two or three of them, and those not original members of the company, proved undesirable—first made resistance to the tyranny of their oppressors in England, their wives and mothers and sisters upheld and encouraged them. When they fled from England their women fled with them. While they struggled and suffered and planned in Holland, the women bore their full share in both anxiety and hope. When it was decided to uproot themselves once more and to seek still another country, there was no thought of leaving the women behind, and they endured the hardships of the long and stormy voyage and the terrible perils of the early settlement with hearts as resolute as those of the men. From first to last, so far as circumstances allowed, their homes were transferred with their persons and their household goods. The family life went on unbroken and unaltered. That on board the Mayflower there were many men unaccompanied by women is true. Some were unmarried. Others had left their wives behind, to follow later. In the nature of things it was not possible that every wife should go at first with her husband. But families enough, as such, and more than enough, were in the company to stamp the domestic, family character of the colony upon its face indelibly and forever.

This fact was set forth forcibly by Mr. Charles Francis Adams, in an address before the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants at its December banquet in 1903. As he then declared and explained, the Plymouth Colony was the first in this country, if not in the whole world, to recognize and honor woman. From the very outset she had her rightful place at her husband’s side and as her children’s head. And the Plymouth wives and mothers were no hastily gathered body of miscellaneous women, with little or no education, with no high ideals in civil and religious matters and no ennobling discipline of suffering for the sake of conscience. They were worthy of the men by whose sides they stood. They represented in character and experience the best type of the womanhood of that age. The same thing was true of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, but that was not founded until eight or ten years later, and the Plymouth Colony had passed through the period of its keenest suffering, had driven its roots firmly into the soil, and had well begun its career of prosperity before the Bay Colony was undertaken. Indeed, it well may be that the family life of the colony at Plymouth and the respect and honor which it paid to woman were not without vital suggestiveness to the founders of the Bay Colony, and helped to lead them to adopt the same policy, as they did.

We come now to a third point of difference between the two colonies, Plymouth and Jamestown. The Jamestown Colony exerted very little influence upon the succeeding development of democratic institutions in America. The influence of the Plymouth Colony was powerful and lasting. Here, again, too much has been asserted for Plymouth and the careful student of history must unravel some tangled claims. As the result he probably will decide that the shape which our political institutions finally took was not due to any one of the different colonies alone. Each probably contributed something towards the grand result. If any one were specially pre-eminent above the others in the matter of form, apparently it was Connecticut. The constitution of this colony, adopted at Hartford on June 14, 1639, has been truly described as “the first written constitution known to history, that created a government.” As Fiske has remarked, “Magna Charta partook of the nature of a written constitution, as far as it went, but it did not create a government,” while “the compact drawn up in the Mayflower’s cabin was not, in the strict sense, a constitution, which is a document defining and limiting the functions of government.”546 Nevertheless, the Mayflower Compact inaugurated a new era in civil and political life. Although nominally acknowledging allegiance to the English crown, the Plymouth men were intent upon trying the experiment of self-government afresh and in surroundings where it would be free from the unfavorable conditions which had defeated it up to that time, as in Venice.

They did not openly avow independence of King James, and, had a proposition to that effect been made, doubtless they would have rejected it promptly. But they did, and evidently they meant to do, the same thing in effect. They determined to govern themselves and they did so. They established, on a small scale but in an enduring fashion, a definite type of what has come to be called republican government, and the subsequent colonies which did the same thing hardly can have failed to be influenced by their success. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded it was upon a scale so much larger than that of Plymouth, and the attitude of the English authorities towards it was so much more friendly, that it had a great advantage over Plymouth. The purpose of its founders was to establish not merely a vigorous trading colony but also “a definite and organized state.”547 They adroitly managed to secure a charter permitting them to make such laws as they pleased, provided that none of these laws should antagonize those of England. They even succeeded in defeating a proposed stipulation that the government of the colony must be vested in officials residing in England. Now what led them to insist so strongly upon a degree of independence so unprecedented? It stands to reason that they must have familiarized themselves most carefully with the character and history of the pioneer colony at Plymouth, so near to their own selected site. In fact there is evidence of this.548

They must have been convinced thus that practical political independence was possible in fact as well as in theory. It not only was what they desired in principle, but it also was being illustrated under their very eyes, so to speak, as something which there was no good reason why they should not have. The Mayflower Compact must have suggested some important features of their charter. The example of Plymouth must have encouraged and guided them to vitalize and apply their charter in action. It would be extravagant to assert that, but for the example of Plymouth, the Bay colonists would not have undertaken to build their colony upon foundations of practical political independence, but surely it is quite within bounds to say that it was much easier for them to secure what they wanted because Plymouth had led the way. The conditions of the two colonies were so unlike that differences in respect to details were inevitable as their careers developed. But in the fundamental matter of practical republicanism they were at one, and the older colony cannot have failed to influence the younger powerfully.

Then, later, the Connecticut Colony, which was settled largely from Massachusetts Bay, followed in their steps, and, as I have said already, even went beyond them in shaping its constitution. And from these three colonies population gradually extended itself northward and westward, carrying New England ideas, principles, policies and habits with it. This, of course, was true also of the Middle and Southern colonies, but in nothing like the same degree. It was New England pre-eminently which settled the Interior and the Great West, and the political beliefs and usages of early New England were the chief factors in making possible and real the United States of to-day. Not all the credit, by any means, is due to Plymouth, but its service in this respect was vital and enduring and may not be overlooked. If Connecticut were first to give form to republican ideas, Plymouth certainly had anticipated it in illustrating their spirit.

Now how far can a similar claim be made fairly for Jamestown? Instead of possessing democratic institutions from the outset, it was ruled by governors whose administrations were arbitrary, even when kindly. They have been described as “all despotisms whether mild or harsh.”549 Naturally a demand for more popular liberty came to be made, and it gradually grew so insistent that in 1619 a General Assembly, later called the House of Burgesses, was formed, which has been called “the first legislative body of Englishmen in America.”550 Now, had the institution of this body been followed by the results which presumably would have followed in a colony like that at Plymouth or Massachusetts Bay, Jamestown might, and probably would, have deserved the credit of having not merely inaugurated the beginnings of free government but also of having led the way in developing it. But in large measure the circumstances of the colony prevented this. The character of its common life differed radically from that of the New England colonies. In Plymouth the people lived together, at first in one and later in several little towns, and they established at once the town-meeting, the general gathering of the citizens at which public questions are discussed openly and public policies are settled by vote. All experts in political history agree in declaring the town-meeting to be one of the most fundamental and influential agencies in promoting political intelligence and efficiency.

But in the Virginia Colony the town played only a minor part. In fact towns hardly existed for some time. People lived on plantations, which were large and widely scattered and had different interests. Communication was difficult and was chiefly by water, for roads were few and bad. No such popular gathering as the town-meeting was easy to be held and authority fell into the hands of the few instead of the many. Most of the people had little or nothing to do with local government, and therefore took comparatively little interest in it, unless it oppressed them somehow, and of course they missed the educational value of active participation in the control of public affairs.

Thus the character and influence of the colony as a whole became affected. Its people were favorable rather than hostile to democratic ideas, when they thought about them, and now and then, upon occasion, advocated them strongly, but ordinarily at first were somewhat indifferent about them because so generally unacquainted with them practically. In time, as population spread and people came to live nearer to each other, their common interests increased in number and importance, and at last they caught up with the colonies which had had a more democratic training. There was distinct and steady progress towards democracy, and afterward individual Virginians, such as Washington, Jefferson, Madison and others, became leaders in the great movement towards republicanism. But this was much later, and after the original characters of all the colonies had been modified more or less. The Jamestown Colony, as such and especially during the earlier years of its life which we are considering, exerted little or no influence upon the shaping of our country’s institutions compared with that of the Plymouth Colony.

In these three particulars, not to mention others, it seems neither untrue nor unfair to claim that the Plymouth Colony differed from the colony at Jamestown and was the more important. The Plymouth Colony had higher, nobler aims as its distinguishing motives from the outset. It was notable for its family life and for the honor with which it crowned woman. It also had a more direct, powerful, and lasting influence in shaping the development of republican institutions on this side of the Atlantic.

Would it not be interesting if some of the representative settlers could come back to us long enough to tell us more than now we ever shall know here about their experiences, their aims, their visions of the future while they were alive, and their impressions of our country as it is to-day? Suppose that William Brewster and Captain John Smith, each one of the most cosmopolitan, most shrewd, most energetic and in every way most admirable leaders in their respective colonies, could appear among us this afternoon and address us. Suppose them to be well informed concerning the history of our country and the wonderful fruition of the little seeds which they helped to plant. Much in our manners, beliefs, and institutions doubtless would impart a tinge of regret to the words which they would speak to us, and perhaps would prompt them to remonstrance and warning. But more, I am confident, would impel them to utterances of gladness and thanksgiving. And probably in nothing else would they be more heartily agreed than in their gratification because of the successful perpetuation within our borders of true civil and religious liberty and of a generally noble and beautiful type of family life. And if Brewster should turn to Smith and say, “Which colony, Captain, yours or mine, has had the larger influence in promoting this fortunate condition of things?” Smith was so intelligent and fair-minded a man that I believe he would reply, “Well, Elder, Jamestown must not be belittled. It has done much and has done it well. But on the whole I will admit that Plymouth has done the most and the best.”

Mr. Henry W. Cunningham made the following communication:

DIARY OF THE REV. SAMUEL CHECKLEY, 1735.

A short time ago there fell into my hands a copy of The New-England Diary: Or, Almanack For the Year of our Lord Christ, 1735, that was interleaved and filled with comments by the Rev. Samuel Checkley on various happenings in Boston during that year. There is much in this Diary that has more than a passing interest for the student of old Boston, and it covers a period when the records are surprisingly meagre. Judge Sewall’s voluminous Diary had ended six years before, and by a singular fatality both town and church records during the early part and middle of the eighteenth century are either missing altogether, or else so little is recorded that they are of slight value. The records of Mr. Checkley’s church, now in the custody of the City Registrar, contain no records of death, a fact that adds value to the burials recorded in this Diary.

The Boston selectmen in the very year of this almanac expressed concern at the neglect of the inhabitants to record births and deaths; and Samuel Gerrish, the town clerk, recorded the negligence complained of, from which it appears that, for the fourteen months preceding, “more than 950 births and deaths” had occurred in the town of which no record had been handed in; “which neglect of theirs,” he added “may prove to be of ill consequence to their posterity.”551

It is clear, therefore, that when a record of this character, made by an educated man of the dominant class, comes to light, it ought to be printed, that others may benefit by the discovery.

From the earliest days, one or more almanacs had been published in New England nearly every year, and found their way into the homes of the people, in many of which they shared with the Bible the distinction of being the only books in the house. Professor Moses Coit Tyler lays stress upon their value to students of early American literature and shows the influence they had upon the thought of the people. In speaking of the Ames almanacs, which continued longer than most others and were perhaps typical of all, he says:

Nathaniel Ames made his almanac a sort of annual cyclopædia of information and amusement,—a vehicle for the conveyance to the public of all sorts of knowledge and nonsense, in prose and verse, from literature, history and his own mind, all presented with brevity, variety, and infallible tact. . . . He carried into the furthest wildernesses of New England some of the best English literature; pronouncing there, perhaps for the first time, the names of Addison, Thomson, Pope, Dryden, Butler, Milton; and repeating there choice fragments of what they had written.

And in speaking of these books in general, he adds:

Throughout our colonial time, when larger books were costly and few, the almanac had everywhere a hearty welcome and frequent perusal; the successive numbers of it were carefully preserved year after year; their margins and blank pages were often covered over with annotations, domestic and otherwise. Thus, John Cotton, it will be remembered, used the blank spaces in his almanacs as depositories for his stealthy attempts at verse. So, also, the historian, Thomas Prince, recorded in his almanacs the state of his accounts with his hair-dresser and wig-maker.552

It is doubly interesting, then, in the book before us to find not only personal items jotted down, but also those happenings that were of consequence at the time to all Bostonians, and the exact dates of the funerals of members of the Rev. Mr. Checkley’s church and of other prominent citizens.

This almanac is one of a series styled “The New-England Diary: Or, Almanack” which began in 1723 and continued through 1738. The author was Nathan Bowen, though on several title-pages he omits his name and styles himself “a Native of New-England.” The numbers from 1722 to 1733 inclusive were printed in Boston by Bartholomew Green who died December 28, 1732, and the next two numbers were probably printed by Thomas Fleet, who certainly printed the last two. The title-page of this issue for 1735 is interesting not only for its quaint facts, but for the quotation of seven lines from Paradise Lost, which shows that its author was one of those New Englanders who had some knowledge and appreciation of Milton’s poems.553

As the number of almanacs increased, the compilers evidently became keen rivals. Nathaniel Ames took Bowen to task for erratic calculations, and Bowen in his issue for 1730 replied:

I have once more ventured into the world, notwithstanding a Repulse I met with the last Year, from a Young Stripling, who under the influence of Mercury, gave his Pen a Latitude beyond that of his Beard; but let him know That tho’ he hath so great a value for the merits of his own performance, were I disposed to pick holes in his Coat, I should leave him in a ragged Condition; &ct.

Not only in the printed pages for each month, but in the manuscript portions every Sunday is indicated by a letter E. This is the Dominical letter for the year 1735. As the first Sunday in the year came on the fifth day of the month, the fifth letter of the alphabet is used to indicate every Sunday during the year.

The first owner of the Diary, who wrote the brief daily comments, was the Rev. Samuel Checkley, the first minister of the New South Church in Boston. Checkley’s father, also named Samuel, had come from Northampton in England in 1670 to Boston, where he married in 1680 Mary, daughter of Joshua Scottow. He served at various times as selectman, town clerk, county treasurer, and as a justice of the peace for the county, besides being a deacon of the Old South Church. He died full of years and honors December 27, 1738.554

The son Samuel, born February 11, 1695–96, graduated from Harvard in 1715, and studied for the ministry. On April 23, 1718, the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts, gave him an invitation “to settle among them in the work of the ministry,” but he declined the call, possibly because there seemed to be some dissension in the church.555 When in 1719 the New South Church was established on Church Green near the foot of Summer Street, to meet the spiritual needs of the growing southerly section of the town, Checkley was called to become its first pastor. He married January 5, 1720–21, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Rolfe of Haverhill, who thirteen years before had miraculously escaped when her father and mother were murdered by the Indians.556 Mr. Checkley was esteemed as preacher and pastor, and under his long pastorate of over fifty years his church grew and flourished, and he led the usual life of a Boston minister of the eighteenth century. His church continued as an active factor in the city down to our own time, when the meetinghouse on Church Green yielded to the encroachments of business. It numbered among its pastors President Kirkland of Harvard, and the Rev. Dr. Alexander Young, who bore testimony to the fact that the church records were admirably kept during the fifty years of Mr. Checkley’s labors.557

The Rev. Samuel Checkley delivered the Artillery Election Sermon in 1725. In his Diary under date of June 7 of that year Jeremiah Bumstead says:

Mr. Checkly preacht to y^e artillery from 2 Samuel, 22, 35, “he teacheth my hands to war.” Not an hour in sermon & last singing.558

Mr. Checkley published the following sermons:559

1. The Duty of a People, to lay to Heart and Lament the Death of a Good King. A Sermon Preach’d August 20th. 1727. The Lord’s-Day after the Sorrowful News of the Death of Our Late King George I. Of Blessed Memory. Boston, no date. A second edition was printed, also undated.
2. The Death of the godly, and especially of the faithful gospel Ministers, the greatest loss to survivers. A Sermon Preached September 17th. 1727. The Lord’s-day after the Funeral of the Reverend Mr. William Waldron. Boston, 1727.
3. Mr. Checkley’s Sermons to a Condemned Prisoner.560 Boston, 1733.
4. Little Children brought to Jesus Christ. A Sermon Preached in private May 6. And afterwards in publick, June 14. 1741. upon a sorrowful Occasion. And published at the Desire of One that heard it. Boston, 1741.
5. Prayer a Duty when God’s People go forth to War. A Sermon Preach’d Feb. 28. 1744, 5. Being a Day of publick Fasting and Prayer, To ask in particular, That it would please God to succeed the Expedition formed against his Majesty’s Enemies, &C. Boston, 1745.
6. A Day of Darkness. A Sermon Preach’d before His Excellency William Shirley, Esq; The Honourable His Majesty’s Council, and House of Representatives, Of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New England: May 28^th. 1755. Being the Anniversary for the Election of His Majesty’s Council for said Province. Boston, 1755.

In addition to the above sermons, Mr. Checkley’s “Charge” at the ordination on October 29, 1746, of the Rev. William Vinal at Newport Rhode Island, was printed at Newport in 1747 in the Sermon preached upon the occasion by the Rev. Joseph Fish of Stonington;561 and his “Charge” at the ordination on April 30, 1766, of the Rev. Penuel Bowen as his own colleague-pastor at the New South Church was printed in the Sermon then preached by the Rev. Dr. Charles Chauncy.562

Mr. Checkley became distinguished through his posterity, since his daughter Elizabeth was the first wife of the patriot Samuel Adams and his son Samuel (H. C. 1743) was pastor of the Second Church in Boston, while a daughter of the latter married the Rev. Dr. John Lathrop, pastor of the same church, and from the last named was descended John Lothrop Motley.

Boston in 1735 had over 4,000 houses and about 17,000 inhabitants; there were nine Congregational and two Church of England churches, with a third (Trinity) just beginning; one Baptist, one French Protestant, and a Quaker Meeting.563 There were five weekly newspapers.564

In reading this Diary one is struck by the number of times the author exchanged pulpits, or had other ministers preach in his church, as well as by the distance from which many of them came. In those days it was something of a trip from Boston to Scituate, Barnstable, Haverhill, or Salisbury; yet ministers from all those places as well as from Hampton, New Hampshire; Biddeford, Maine; Lebanon, Connecticut; and from the Connecticut valley filled his pulpit. Of course, many of them had come to Boston on visits, drawn hither for various reasons, and it is only natural that they should have preached for some brother minister while here.

The Boston ministers, Thomas Foxcroft, Joseph Sewall, Mather Byles, Joshua Gee, Charles Chauncy, Samuel Mather, Benjamin Colman, William Welsteed, and William Cooper are too well known to need comment here. On March 16 we find the Rev. John Cotton in the New South pulpit. He was a son of the Rev. Roland Cotton of Sandwich and great-grandson of the famous Rev. John Cotton of Boston. He graduated at Harvard in 1710 and was settled in 1714 as the third minister of Newton, where he died May 17, 1757, in his sixty-fourth year. Jackson gives a long account of his youthful accomplishments and virtues and of the anxiety of the people of Newton to secure his services, and prints the laudatory inscription upon his tombstone, which is so long that it is difficult to see how one stone could hold it all.565 Checkley returned this visit, for the entry is found on Friday, September 5: “w^t to Newtown pr^d M^r Cotton’s Lecture.” On June 1 and 29 the Rev. Ward Cotton of Hampton preached in Boston. He was a younger brother of the Newton pastor, who had preached the sermon at his ordination in Hampton in 1734.

On May 25 Checkley preached in the Hollis Street Church and “M^r Eliot” preached for him; and again on October 12 we find Mr. Eliot in his pulpit. This was probably the Rev. Jacob Eliot, who graduated at Harvard in 1720 and was ordained in 1729 as the first pastor of the Goshen Church at Lebanon, Connecticut. His first wife was a daughter of the Rev. John Robinson of Duxbury. Eliot died April 12, 1766, in his sixty-sixth year.566

On June 15 Mr. Green of Barnstable preached in the New South in the afternoon. This was the Rev. Joseph Green, a classmate of Jacob Eliot at Harvard. He had been settled over the East Church at Barnstable in 1725, and continued his ministry there till his death in 1770 at the age of 70. The long inscription on his gravestone ends with the lines:

Think what the Christian minister should be,

You’ve then his character—for such was he.567

Four times during the year members of the Cushing family preached for Checkley, and fortunately he has given a designation to each one so that they can be identified, for they were all near relatives. On June 8 came “M^r Cushing (of Dover).” This was the Rev. Jonathan Gushing of the Harvard Class of 1712, who, like Checkley, had had a call (in 1716) to a Haverhill church and declined it,568 and had taught school for a year or two at his boyhood home in Hingham. On September 18, 1717, he was settled over the parish at Dover, New Hampshire, at a salary of £90 a year, and in the following month he married his second cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Cushing of Boston. He was minister of that church for fifty-two years and until his death March 25, 1769, and for the last two years had as his colleague the Rev. Dr. Jeremy Belknap. In personal appearance he is said to have been “a large, stout man of dignified appearance,” and also that he was “a grave and sound preacher, a kind, peaceable, prudent and judicious pastor, a wise and faithful friend.”569

On July 6 is found the entry in the Diary “M^r Cushing (of Salsbury),” on August 3 “M^r Cushing (of Haverhil),” and on November 16 “M^r James Cushing.” The last two items refer to the same man—the Rev. James Cushing (H. C. 1725), who became pastor of the North parish of Haverhill in 1730 and died there May 13, 1764. He was a second cousin of the Dover minister and the son of the Rev. Caleb Cushing of Salisbury, who had filled Checkley’s pulpit on July 6. The latter was the ancestor of Caleb Cushing, the well-known lawyer and statesman.

The note under July 20, “M^r Hinsdel p.m.,” recalls an interesting character, Ebenezer Hinsdale of the Harvard Class of 1727. He was ordained a missionary to the Indians in 1733, when the Rev. Joseph Sewall preached the ordination sermon.570 He seems to have gone at once to the Connecticut valley, where he entered with zeal into the work of a pioneer. He was chaplain of the troops stationed at Fort Dummer, and later built a grist mill near by. In 1753 the town of Hinsdale was incorporated and he was its first town clerk. He died January 6, 1763, at the age of 57, and on his gravestone he is called “Col.”571 The Rev. Paul Coffin (H. C. 1759) of Wells, Maine, kept a journal of a tour to the Connecticut River in the summer of 1760, and on July 25 of that year wrote:

Rode alone to Deerfield dined with Rev. Ashley, then waited on Col. Hinsdale. This man with Joseph Seecomb and Mr. Parker, was ordained a Missionary in Boston, Hinsdale was sent westward; the other 2 went East. All this must have been done long before the war of 1755. Hinsdale did not preach long. The Town and Fort near Fort Dumma, is now called Hinsdale, after the said Hinsdale. The Fort he built at his own Cost. . . . Col. Hinsdale has 30 acres english grain fit for the Sickle.572

Coffin staid over night at the house and next day Madam Hinsdale and he went in a row boat three miles to hear Mr. (afterwards Judge) Simeon Strong preach.

On December 7 another man from western Massachusetts preached for Checkley, the Rev. Robert Breck. Son of the Rev. Robert Breck573 of Marlborough, he graduated at Harvard in 1730 and was settled for two or more years at Windham, Connecticut, when he received a call to the church at Springfield. This he declined because certain rumors and stories regarding his belief were rife in the parish; but in 1735 he was again called, accepted, and was installed, and continued as pastor till his death April 23, 1784, at the age of 71, by tact and judicious conduct of life living down all prejudices and becoming much loved.574

One famous Middlesex County minister officiated for Checkley, for on November 23 is found the item “old M^r Hancock.” This was the Rev. John Hancock, who was settled over the parish in Lexington from 1698 to 1752, the latter part of the time having as his colleague his son, the Rev. Ebenezer Hancock. He was familiarly known as “Bishop Hancock,” because he had presided over so many ministerial councils and ordinations in Middlesex County.575

On November 9 is the entry “M^r Willord (of Biddiford).” This was the Rev. Samuel Willard of the Harvard Class of 1723, long settled at Biddeford. He was the father of Joseph Willard, the President of Harvard College.

Checkley also notes the ordination of the Rev. Joseph Stimpson of Charlestown over the South Precinct Church of Maiden, on September 24. Corey’s History of Maiden gives a pathetic tale of this man’s poverty and struggles.

On October 5 is the entry “M^r Cambell a.m.” This was probably the Rev. Othniel Campbell of the Harvard Class of 1728, a resident of the town of Plympton.576 In 1738 he is found on the council of ministers and elders, mostly Plymouth County men, who settled the dispute between the Rev. John Robinson and the people of Duxbury.

On December 21 Mr. Checkley’s pulpit was filled in the morning by a classmate at Harvard, John Cleverly, a singular man. He had studied for the ministry, but probably never was ordained, and about this period preached for a few years in New Jersey, at Elizabeth and Morristown. His ministrations not being successful, he retired from the pulpit and lived at Morristown somewhat of a hermit, unmarried, and in straitened circumstances, till his death on December 31, 1776, at the age of 81.577

In addition to the annual Fast on March 27, Mr. Checkley makes mention four times of fasts that were held in Boston during this year. First on May 22 “at old Ch:” meaning probably the First Church. Next on June 24 “At our Ch:” and here he gives more than a brief line and speaks of the preaching and praying both morning and afternoon, showing that the people evidently gave up a whole day to these fasts. The other two were those at the Rev. Mr. Welsteed’s New Brick Church on August 26, and at Charlestown on September 23. In each case Checkley gives as the object of these fasts “the Revival of religion.” Late in the previous year, Jonathan Edwards’s sermon entitled A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, had started a revival in the Connecticut valley which was the forerunner of “the Great Awakening” that came when George Whitefield visited New England in 1740. It has generally been supposed that the influence of the earlier revival did not reach as far as Boston. “The excitement,” writes Palfrey, “which in Massachusetts had been confined to towns on or near Connecticut River, ceased after about six months.”578 And the Rev. Alexander McKenzie says, “But Boston was yet to feel its power.”579 The term “revival of religion” had been in use for a generation or so in New England, and church fasts were common at that period; but perhaps the fasts mentioned by Mr. Checkley indicate the influence in Boston of the movement begun by Edwards.

The annual Thanksgiving Day for 1735 came on Thursday, November 13, and Checkley notes that he preached all day. He also records that July 4 was Commencement at Cambridge and that it was a rainy day with northeast wind. That life in the days of the horse and the chaise was not without its excitements and even dangers, is shown by an accident that is thus recorded in the Weekly Journal of Monday, July 7:

On Friday last the Day of the Commencement at Cambridge, a Person belonging to Milton, being mounted on his Horse, and riding homewards, was met by a Chaise which run against his Leg, and broke the same so dangerously, that his Life is in great hazzard.

Among the most important items in the Diary are the burials recorded, and most of them were of Checkley’s parishoners or neighbors. Unfortunately, however, he failed in many cases to give more than the surnames, so that identification is difficult; but extracts from the New England Weekly Journal for that year throw light upon many of the items.

January 18, “old Cap^t Bennet buried.” This was John Bennet, styled a blacksmith, and probably in his early days a mariner, who had a dwelling-house at the South End, and seems to have owned a rather large piece of land stretching from Orange Street to the water.580 The paper of Monday, January 20, states:

On Wednesday last died here Capt. John Bennet in the 89th year of his Age; A Gentleman well known and respected among us; and was decently Interr’d on Saturday last.

January 23, “Richard Flood buried.” This man, too, was a mariner, and lived near the New South Church. He owned a house and land near the Bull Wharf; and Samuel Adams administered upon his estate.581

January 29, “old M^r Cunningham buried.” This was Andrew Cunningham, a Scotchman, who was a resident of Boston as early as 1684, and lived on Newbury (now Washington) Street near the corner of Essex. He was the founder of his family in Boston and died January 27, 1735, aged 81.582

March 13, “M^r Burgain buried.” This was Robert Burgain, mariner.

April 16, “M^r Allen dy’d,” and April 19 “M^r Silence Allen buried.” The Weekly Journal of April 21 states: “Last week died Mr. Silence Allen, Cordwainer, a Person well known and respected among us.” He had married January 20, 1692, Esther, daughter of Enoch Wiswall of Boston,583 and had been admitted to full communion with the New South Church May 7, 1727.

April 23, “Cap^t Arthur Savage buried.” He was a man of some consequence in the town and has already been referred to in our Transactions.584 The Weekly Journal of Monday, April 28, stated:

On Wednesday last the Remains of Arthur Savage, Esq; whose Dearn we mention’d in our last, were decently Interr’d. We are inform’d that he has left a Legacy 25 l. per Annum for some term of Years, to the Poor of the Town of Boston.

May 24, “Madam Oliver buried.” This was Governor Belcher’s sister and she was of sufficient social prominence in the town to have her death noted in any diary. The Weekly Journal of Monday, May 26, said:

On Wednesday Morning died and on Saturday last was decently and honourably Interred, Madam Elizabeth Oliver, Relict of the late Honourable Daniel Oliver Esq; and Sister to His Excellency Governour Belcher.

June 4, “Cap^t Dorby buried.” The Weekly Journal of Monday, June 2, said: “Yesterday died in an advanced Age Capt. Eleazer Darby of this Place.”

June 9, “Deacon Powning buried.” This was Daniel, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Powning, in his 74th year, who had been dismissed from the Old Church, and on August 7, 1720, was admitted to full communion in the New South. The Weekly Journal of Monday, June 9, speaks of him as follows: “On Friday last died here Mr. Daniel Pounding, Deacon of the New South Church; and who for many Years has had the care of the Powder-House.” Sewall mentions him several times, and on January 20, 1719–20, mentions a visit to his mother, who must have flattered the Judge, for he records: “Mrs Powning will be 90. years old next February; I gave her two Crowns, which she very kindly received. Is very hard of hearing, very loansome, spake very well of my Match.”

July 15, “M^r John Fitch buried.” The Weekly Journal of Monday, July 14, records: “On Thursday last died here Mr. John Fitch, only son of the Hon. Col. Thomas Fitch, in the 26^th year of his age.” He had received his A.B. at Harvard in 1727, his A.M. in 1730, and had married Martha, daughter of Anthony Stoddard.585

September 3, “Madam Palmer buried.” The Weekly Journal of Tuesday, Sept. 2, has: “On Thursday night last died here Madam Palmer, the virtuous Consort of the Hon. Judge Palmer, and we hear is to be Interred tomorrow.” It is probably her house, near Fort Hill, that Checkley records as having been struck by lightning on July 28.

November 15, “M^rs Luce buried.” The Weekly Journal of Tuesday, November 18, makes brief mention of this death: “On Monday night last Mrs. Elizabeth Luce, the consort of Mr. Peter Luce, died in a Convulsion Fit after a very short illness.” The Boston News-Letter of November 14 states that she was “Sister to Col. Estes Hatch.”

December 2, “M^r Jn^o Davenport buried.” This was the son of Addington and Elizabeth Davenport. He graduated at Harvard in 1721, married in 1733 Abigail, daughter of Thomas Hutchinson, and died on November 27, 1735, at the age of 32. The Weekly Journal of Tuesday, December 2, has:

On Thursday last died here much lamented, Mr. John Davenport, in the Prime of Life, he had an Education at Harvard College, and was for Some Years, a beloved Tutor in that Society—we hear he is to be interr’d this Day.

Mr. Checkley mentions two other burials that are worthy of note.

April 19, “Rev^d M^r Tayler’s wife of Milton buried.” John Taylor graduated at Harvard in 1721, was ordained over the church in Milton in 1728, and continued there till his death in 1749. He married April 9, 1730, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who was probably a sister of the wife of the Rev. Joshua Gee of Boston.

April 1, “D^r Colmans Daug^r Turil buried at Medford.” This was Jane, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman of the Church in Brattle Square, who was born in 1708 and married at the age of eighteen to the Rev. Ebenezer Turell, pastor of the church in Medford, who has been immortalized by Holmes in his poem entitled “Parson Turell’s Legacy.”586 Mrs. Turell died on March 26 at the early age of twenty-seven, leaving an infant son who died the following year. Mr. Turell did not long remain a widower, for the Weekly Journal of Tuesday, October 28, stated that “On Thursday Evening last the Rev. Mr. Turell of Medford, was married to Mrs. Lucey Davenport, daughter of the Hon. Judge Davenport of this Town.” He thus became a brother-in-law of the John Davenport whose burial took place on December 2, and the two men had been classmates at Harvard.

The severity of the cold and the great quantity of snow that fell might well have made 1735 an “old fashioned winter,” and a sufficient comment on the extent to which the cold got into the buildings is Mr. Checkley’s entry for Sunday, January 19: “It was so cold a Lords Day that the water for Baptism was considerably frozen.” March seems to have been a particularly stormy month with every kind of weather from thunder and lightning to snow. On June 14 is found this item: “in some places there have been this week considerable frosts (& some Ice) which much hurt and Spoild the English Grain;” and again, on October 30, occurs the record of such a severe snow storm and cold that a man was found frozen to death.

During the year several casualties of local importance are mentioned, such as the striking by lightning on April 7 of the ball on the steeple of the Old South Church, and on June 28 of the drowning of the only son of Robert Hadwin, a lad twelve or thirteen years of age. He had gone in swimming just below the Common and had ventured beyond his depth.

On July 7 is recorded the burning of Dr. Rand’s “Still House,” but the New England Weekly Journal of Monday, July 14, gives the building a slightly different name: “On Monday last a fire broke out at the South End of the town in a small building improved by Dr. Rand for boiling Varnish &ct. which was soon burned to the Ground but the Fire did no other damage.” The owner of this building was probably Dr. Isaac Rand (1718–1790) of Charlestown and the father of the much more celebrated Dr. Isaac Rand of Boston.587

July 29 must have been a day of excitement, for in the early morning came the attempt to poison the Scarlet family. The Weekly Journal of August 4 gives a vivid picture of this “horrid Attempt [that] was made here” last Tuesday “to poison Mr. Humphry Scarlet of this Town, Victualler, his Wife and two Children” by two negroes in their employ, a man named Yaw and a boy named Caesar, who put lumps of “Arsenick” or ratsbane into a skillet of chocolate that was being prepared for breakfast. The long examination of these negroes is interesting, and their attempt to entangle a young negro woman in their crime met with a sudden end when she testified that she had herself been slightly poisoned by tasting the chocolate left in the skillet. The sequel is thus related in the Weekly Journal of Tuesday, September 2:

On Fryday last the two Negroes (lately mentioned) belonging to Mr. Scarlet, who were try’d a few days before at the Assizes held here, & found Guilty of putting Poison into a Skillet of Chocolate, with a design to Poison the Family, had their Sentence given them, which is this, They are to sit on the Gallows for the Space of one Hour, with a Rope about their Necks, and the End of it thrown over the Beam, after which they are to be Whip’d 39 Lashes each on the bare Back at the Carts Tail, between the Gallows and the Prison.

Later in the day came a tragedy near the water front. An attempt was made to open and clean an old well about thirty feet deep on Minot’s Tee to the Long wharf, which had long been out of use, and into which had run sewage and other filth.588 As the work progressed one of the workmen, John Torke of Boston, a married man between thirty and forty, was lowered into the well and as he descended seemed somewhat affected by the gas and was raised to the surface where the fresh air revived him. He then made a second attempt, going further down, and became too much overcome to assist himself in getting out, when John Mack Nobb, a young sailor from a neighboring vessel, went down on the rope; but on his reaching Torke the additional weight sent them both to the bottom, where the gases suffocated them past resuscitation.

Having spoken of church fasts and thanksgiving, let us now turn our attention to secular celebrations. Of these there were certainly three, and probably four, in honor of the royal family. The birthday of Queen Caroline occurred on March 1. Though neither the News-Letter nor the Weekly Journal mentions this event in 1735, yet no doubt it was observed; and if so, its celebration was presumably not unlike the one three years earlier, thus recorded in the Weekly Journal of Monday, March 6, 1732:

Wednesday last being the Anniversary of the Birth of her most gracious Majesty Queen CAROLINE, who then enter’d the 50th Year of her Age, the same was observed here with Demonstrations of Loyalty and joy. In the Evening there were Illuminations, particularly his Excellency’s Seat was finely Illuminated with several hundred Lamps.

Next in order came the accession to the throne of George II on June 11, thus reported in the Weekly Journal of Monday, June 16, 1735:

Wednesday last being the Anniversary of the happy Accession of our most gracious Sovereign King GEORGE the Second, to the Throne, when his Majesty enter’d the Ninth Year of his Reign, the same was observed here with the greatest Demonstrations of Loyalty and Joy: At Noon the Guns at his Majesty’s Castle William, on board his Majesty’s Ship Scarborough, and other Ships in the Harbour were discharged: His Excellency our Governour & several other Gentlemen were elegantly entertain’d at Dinner, by Capt. Durell,589 on board the Scarborough: And in the Afternoon the Regiment of Militia in this Town were mustered, and being drawn together in a Body on the Common, were reviewed by his Excellency, attended by a great Number of the principal Gentry in Town & Country, and Officers paying the proper Standing Salute as they pass’d along. After which his Excellency, and his honourable Attendants, repair’d to a spacious Tent prepared for them on the Common, from whence his Excellency Review’d the Regiment in their March out of the Field, the Officers handsomely performing the proper Salute. The Regiment passing thro’ the Main Street, repair’d to King-Street, where, after performing the Manual Exercises, Firing three Rounds, and giving three loud Huzza’s, an innumerable Company of Spectators joining with them, (his Excellency viewing them from the Balcony of the Council Chamber,) each Company was drawn off and dismiss’d: And the Evening concluded with abundant Expressions of Loyalty & Joy.

The third royal celebration took place on October 11 in honor of the King’s coronation, and is thus described in the News-Letter of Thursday, October 16:

Last Saturday being the Anniversary of His Majesty’s Coronation, the same was observed by the Discharge of the Guns at Castle William; those on board His Majesty’s Ship Scarborough, &c. with other Demonstrations of Loyalty and Rejoycing.

Closely following the coronation came the King’s birthday on October 30, and this, in spite of the snow and cold, was celebrated by a bonfire and fireworks on Dorchester Neck, and one poor fellow, losing his way in the storm, was frozen to death. In the Weekly Journal of Tuesday, November 4, we read:

Thursday last the 30th of October, being the Birth Day of His Majesty King GEORGE the Second, our most gracious Sovereign, when His Majesty entred the Fifty third Year of his Life, the same was observed here with all possible Demonstrations of Loyalty and Joy. At Noon the Guns were discharged at His Majesty’s Castle William, and His Excellency’s Troop of Guards, with two other Troops from the County were muster’d on the Occasion, and drawn up in King-Street. At Night His Excellency’s Seat, with divers others, were finely Illuminated on this joyfull Occasion.

The account of this affair in the News-Letter of November 6 concludes as follows:

A large bonfire was made at Dorchester-Neck, and many curious FireWorks play’d off; but by reason of thick Weather and a great Fall of Snow, the Splendor thereof was much diminish’d, being scarce visible in Town.

The same Night, one Joseph Green of this Town, a labouring Man, who had been employed the Day before to assist in erecting a Mast for the Bonfire at Dorchester Neck, lost his Way as he was going from the Fire to some House or Barn, and the next Morning was found dead in the Snow.590

Shortly after this, on November 5, came a similar celebration at the same place, it being the anniversary of the famous Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in which Guy Fawkes was the active figure; and this day too was followed by fatalities, for four young men crossing the harbor in a canoe were drowned. The Weekly Journal of Tuesday, November 11, says:

On Wednesday last being the 5th of November, the Guns were fired at Castle William, in Commemoration of the happy and remarkable Deliverance of our Nation from Popery and Slavery, by the Discovery of the Gun Powder Plot in the Year 1605; and in the Evening there were Bonfires, and other Rejoycings.

The same Evening four young Men of this Town went in a Canoe (as we are informed) to see the Bonfire on Dorchester Neck, and have not been heard of since; which makes it fear’d they were drowned in their return home.

A further account of this fatality is contained in the News-Letter of Thursday, November 20:

Four Youths that went over from this Town, in a small Boat, to Dorchester Neck, to see the Diversions There in the Evening after the 5th Instant, having not been heard of for some Time after, People had various Conjectures concerning them; but it was most generally tho’t they were drowned in their return Home; and accordingly it now appears that they were, the Bodies of two of them having been found, one on Monday and the other on Tuesday last; The Name of one was John Darling,591 an Apprentice belonging to Mr. Salt the Cooper, and Son of Mrs. Darling a Widow in Charlstown; the other’s Name was John Hemmenway of this Town, an Apprentice to Mr. Joseph Hill, Rope-maker: The Bodies of the other Two are not yet found.

This anniversary had been celebrated since the early days of the colony, and as the eighteenth century advanced the celebrations became more boisterous and the turbulent spirits of the community caused the authorities much anxiety. At first there were processions in which effigies of the Pope and the Devil were carried about the streets and finally burned, but near the time of the Revolution, when popular feeling against the English ran high, the images of unpopular officials like Governor Hutchinson, General Gage, and others were added. Just how early these celebrations began in New England is hard to say, but Judge Sewall speaks of one in 1685 as if it were a regular occurrence, for he says:

Mr. Allin preached Nov^r. 5. 1685——finished his Text 1 Jn^o. 1. 9. mentioned not a word in Prayer or Preaching that I took notice of with respect to Gun-powder Treason. . . . Although it rained hard, yet there was a Bonfire made on the Com̄on, about 50 attended it. Friday night [November 6] being fair, about two hundred hallowed about a Fire on the Com̄on.592

Most of the almanacs mentioned the day, as this very one of Bowen’s, where against November 5 is found “Powder Plot;” and Ames’s almanac for 1735 has under November the lines—

Gun Powder Plot

We ha’nt forgot.

In his issue for 1740 Ames says:

Now for the Old Plot, the POPE goes to Pot

The curst Pope stands in the Way, or I had told you the Day.

What Heaven decrees, no Prudence can prevent.

And in the issue for 1746 we read:

Powder-Plot is not forgot;

’T will be observed by many a Sot.

In the issue of 1767 he has so much to say about the growing political troubles that he merely adds the line—“Powder plot most forgot;” while in the issue for 1772 his allusion brings in the name of Captain Preston of the British troops engaged in the Boston Massacre:

To burn the Pope, is now a joke,

for a design he miss’t on,

to sap that mansion

which dares pension

Your famous Butcher Preston!593

Dr. Nathaniel Ames the younger in his Diary under November 5, 1765, says, “Pope Devil and Stampman exhibited together.”594

Captain Francis Goelet, a New York merchant visiting Boston in 1750, was evidently amused and impressed by what he saw on Pope Night, for he records in his Journal:

After dinner went with some of the Comp^y to ye North End the Towne Bo^t Some Limes &c where we saw the Devil and the Pope &c Carried ab^t by the Mob represented in Effegy very drole soone after see two more, but the Justices feareing some Outrages may be Committed Put a Stop to them.595

It seems that as the custom grew, in Boston there became two rival processions, one from the North End and one from the South End, each carrying images of the Pope and the Devil, and that they marched towards each other and had a skirmish in which the mob joined and the victorious band then burned both sets of images. In 1765 the popular leaders of the town put a stop to this useless quarrel, pacified the two factions, formed them into a Union, and brought to an end the noisy and turbulent celebration. This Union observed the day in a quieter manner with a supper at night; and in this was a nucleus that was of service to the patriots in the approaching struggle.596 John Boyle mentions this same occurrence:

1765, Nov. 5. A Union established between the South and North End Popes. Capt. M^c Intosh on the Part of the South, and Capt. Swift, on the Part of the North. It has heretofore been the Practice on the even’g of the 5th of November, for the two Popes to engage, by which means many Persons have been greatly maimed. This Union and one other more extensive, may be looked upon as the only happy Effecte arising from the Stamp Act.

This Union was undoubtedly hastened by the fatalities of the year before, for Boyle in his Journal for November 5, 1764, says:

A Child of Mr. Brown’s at the North-End was run over by one of the Wheels of the North-End Pope and Killed on the Spot. Many others were wounded in the evening.597

This accident impressed others, for John Rowe mentions it in his Diary, as well as the fact that it took place in the forenoon:

1764 Nov. 5. A sorrowful accident happened this forenoon at the North End—the wheel of the carriage that the Pope was fixed on run over a Boy’s head & he died instantly. The Sheriff, Justices, Officers of the Militia were ordered to destroy both S^o & North End Popes. In the afternoon they got the North End Pope pulled to pieces, they went to the S^o End but could not Conquer upon which the South End people brought out their pope & went in Triumph to the Northward and at the Mill Bridge a Battle begun between the people of Both Parts of the Town. The North End people having repaired their pope, but the South End people got the Battle (many were hurt & bruised on both sides) & Brought away the North End pope & burnt Both of them at the Gallows on the Neck. Several thousand people following them, hallowing &ct.598

Several years ago Mr. Albert Matthews599 made some mention of the observances of Pope Day and quoted from articles in Boston newspapers of 1821 written by some man who remembered the celebrations of the day, though it is probable that after the outbreak of the Revolution the day was less frequently celebrated in New England.600 Perhaps the one place where it lingered longest is in the old town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which clings to many an ancient custom, and there even to the present time something is done on the evening of November fifth, though the performance has changed to the blowing of horns and the carrying about of pumpkin lanterns by boys, none of whom know the origin of the celebration,601 and even the name has been changed to Pork Night

John Albee of New Castle, New Hampshire, in 1892 bore testimony to the survival of the custom in Portsmouth up to that year, saying that he had been a resident of New Castle for the preceding twenty-six years and that he remembered a celebration in that town each of those years.602 He also furnished clippings from two of the local newspapers which told of the doings of 1892, as follows:

The celebration of the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ night on Saturday by the young people of this city was not so extensive as in former years, no doubt owing to the condition of the streets, but nevertheless small bands paraded the streets and made the early part of the evening hideous with music (?) from the tin horns they carried for the occasion. Some carried the usual pumpkin lanterns. The ringing of door-bells was also extensively indulged in. Very few of the paraders knew that the celebration was in keeping of the old English custom of observing the anniversary of the discovery of the famous gunpowder plot to blow up the House of Commons.603

Chaps in this city had their annual blow-out on Guy Fawkes’ night, and in parts of the city the toot of the horns was something terrific. Some grotesque pumpkin lanterns were seen, and altogether the celebration was evidently enjoyed by the boys. Portsmouth is not alone in this peculiar observance, for down at Marblehead the night of the 5th of November is remembered by a huge bonfire on the neck, around which the chaps with horns dance in fantastic glee. The blaze Saturday night on the M. N. was a bigger one than usual.

It’s a queer custom the youths of Portsmouth and Marblehead have.604

In the early times the day was observed in most of the large New England towns as well as in Boston, and there are many casual references to it. The Rev. Samuel Deane of Portland makes mention of it twice in his Journal: “1770 November 5 Several popes and devils tonight;” “1771 November 5 No popes nor devils here tonight at my house.”605 The Rev. Ezra Stiles speaks of it at Newport in 1771, saying “Powder Plot,—Pope &ct carried about;” and again on November 5, 1774, he says, “This Afternoon three popes &ct. paraded thro’ the streets, & in the Evening they were consumed in a Bonfire as usual—among others were Ld. North, Gov. Hutchinson & Gen. Gage.”606 John Adams, attending court at Salem on Wednesday, November 5, 1766, says:

Spent the evening at Mr. Pynchon’s, with Farnham, Sewall, Sargeant, Col. Saltonstall &ct. very agreeably. Punch, wine, bread and cheese, apples, pipes and tobacco. Popes and bonfires this evening at Salem, and a swarm of tumultuous people attending.607

Coffin gives an excellent account in much detail of the way the day was celebrated in Newbury and says that the last celebration was in 1775, the principal cause of its discontinuance being an unwillingness to displease the French, whose assistance was deemed so advantageous at that time. As the observance of the day at Newburyport was probably typical of those in other large New England towns, it is interesting to quote what Coffin says of it:

In the day time, companies of little boys might be seen, in various parts of the town, with their little popes, dressed up in the most grotesque and fantastic manner, which they carried about, some on boards, and some on little carriages, for their own and others’ amusement. But the great exhibition was reserved for the night, in which young men, as well as boys, participated. They first constructed a huge vehicle, varying at times, from twenty to forty feet long, eight or ten wide, and five or six high, from the lower to the upper platform, on the front of which, they erected a paper lantern, capacious enough to hold, in addition to the lights, five or six persons. Behind that, as large as life, sat the mimic pope, and several other personages, monks, friars and so forth. Last, but not least, stood an image of what was designed to be a representation of old Nick himself, furnished with a pair of huge horns, holding in his hand a pitchfork, and otherwise accoutred, with all the frightful ugliness that their ingenuity could desire. Their next step, after they had mounted their ponderous vehicle on four wheels, chosen their officers, captain, first and second lieutenant, purser and so forth, placed a boy under the platform, to elevate and move round, at proper intervals, the moveable head of the pope, and attached ropes to the front part of the machine, was, to take up their line of march through the principal streets of the town. Sometimes in addition to the images of the pope and his company, there might be found, on the same platform, half a dozen dancers and a fiddler, whose

‘Hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels

Put life and mettle in their heels,’

together with a large crowd who made up a long procession. Their custom was, to call at the principal houses in various parts of the town, ring their bell, cause the pope to elevate his head, and look round upon the audience, and repeat the following fines.

‘The fifth of November,

As you well remember,

Was gunpowder treason and plot;

I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

When the first King James the sceptre swayed,

This hellish powder plot was laid.

Thirty-six barrels of powder placed down below

All for old England’s overthrow:

Happy the man, and happy the day

That caught Guy Fawkes in the middle of his play.

You’ll hear our bell go jink, jink, jink;

Pray madam, sirs, if you’ll something give,

We’ll burn the dog and never let him live.

We’ll burn the dog without his head,

And then you’ll say the dog is dead.

From Rome, from Rome, the pope is come,

All in ten thousand fears;

The fiery serpent’s to be seen,

All head, mouth, nose and ears.

The treacherous knave had so contrived,

To blow king parliament all up alive.

God by his grace he did prevent

To save both king and parliament.

Happy the man, and happy the day,

That catched Guy Fawkes in the middle of his play.

Match touch, catch prime,

In the good nick of time.

Here is the pope that we have got,

The whole promoter of the plot.

We’ll stick a pitchfork in his back

And throw him in the fire.’

After the verses were repeated, the purser stepped forward and took up his collection. Nearly all on whom they called, gave something. Esquire Atkins and Esquire Dalton, always gave a dollar apiece. After perambulating the town, and finishing their collections, they concluded their evening’s entertainment with a splendid supper; after making with the exception of the wheels and the heads of the effigies, a bonfire of the whole concern, to which were added, all the wash tubs, tar barrels, and stray lumber, that they could lay their hands on. With them the custom was, to steal all the stuff. But those days have long since passed away.608

When we read such accounts as this, what wonder is it that towns should pass ordinances against bonfires on the night of November fifth? Even as early as 1753 these celebrations had caused enough anxiety for the Province to pass “An Act for further preventing all riotous, tumultuous and disorderly Assemblies or Companies of Persons, and for preventing Bonfires in any of the Streets or Lanes within any of the Towns of this Province.”609 Finally, in many places all the sport was obliged to take place in the day time. And in Boston, where just before the Revolution the two rival processions with hostile intentions towards one another created such a tumult, leading citizens used their influence to unite the two factions and then subscribed money for a supper and a more peaceful entertainment for the would-be participants. And so this old New England celebration gradually died out except in Portsmouth and possibly one or two other places, and even there it has undergone so great a change that none of its original features are left, and few if any of the participants know the significance of the day or even its old-time name.

DIARY610

JANUARY

1 [ ]
2 fair pleasant warm.
3 Rain w^d E. and S.E.
4 fair warm.
5 E.611 pr^d all day. W^d N.E. Snow and Stormy at night.
8 fair & cold
9 fair very cold.
11 fair warm & pleasant.
12 E. Sac^t pr^d all day—moderate
13 Rain w^d S.E.
14 fair warm.
16 Cloudy p.m. pretty much rain Even:
17 fair very high wind & Extream cold.
18 very cold Day old Cap^t Bennet612 buried.
19 E. M^r Foxcroft. A.M. Snow very Stormy & cold p.m. the water for Bap^m frozen. This Day (being Lords Day) it began to Snow before morning Service was over and increas’d very much. The afternoon was very Stormy it Snow’d fast & wind blew very hard at N.E. The storm increased towards Even:—& the night following it raind & blew as hard as I allmost ever knew it. The next Day fair very cold and Slippery. Several vessells cast away in the Storm a Lords day night. It was so cold a Lords Day that the water for Baptism was considerably frozen.
20 fair very cold & Slippery
21 fair more moderate.
22 fair pleasant, flurry of Snow Even: then very cold.
23 Extream cold Richard Flood613 buried.
26 E. pr^d all Day. Cloudy, some Small rain & foggy.
27 Cloudy foggy. Nieg^r Barter’s Daughter buried.
28 fair pleasant. Cloudy Even: little Snow in night.
29 fair pretty cold old M^r Cunningham614 buried.
30 fair cold Day.
31 pleasant.

FEBRUARY

1 fair a.m. Cloudy p.m. w^d E. Snow at night very Stormy the most snow we’ve had this winter.
2 E. pr^d all Day. Wet Snow a.m. not very cold.
3 Some Snow. & some rain. w^d S.E.
4 Cloudy, then fair moderate
5 fair & cold.
8 pleasant moderate weather.
9 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day
11 fair cold.
12 fair. Cloudy p.m. Snow at night about 3 inches deep.
13 fair. Exceed: cold p.m. & Even:
14 Exceed Smart cold last night & to day. moderate at Even:
15 Wet Snow good part of day W^d S.E.
16 E. Chang’d w^th M^r Chauncy. a.m. fair pleasant
17 Rain last night, foggy & rain to day
20 fair pleasant Cap^t Goold’s Kinswoman buried.
21 fair pleasant Spring like weather.
22 fair pleasant—but raw East: w^d
23 E. Changed w^th M^r Gee a.m. pleasant
24 Cloudy foggy M^r Nicholson’s Child buried.
25 Rain. W^d S.E. James Ferguson buried much rain at night and High wind.
28 Cloudy. raw E. Wind.

MARCH

1 rain w^d E.S.E. A.M. fair & very warm p.m.
2 E. pr^d all Day. fair A.M. Cloudy p.m. rain Even: w^d N.E.
3 w^d N.E. Cloudy foggy. & rain
4 Cloudy, then fair and windy.
5 wind last night Exceed: high at South.
7 Little Snow in morning.
9 E. Sac^t pr^d all day. very Smart cold.
13 fair. Windy p.m. & Even looks like Storm M^r Burgain615 buried.
14 Little rain. fair p.m.
15 Several Showers p.m. Light^g & very hard Thunder. This day we had Several Thunder Showers, they rose from the west and northwest very black, it raind very hard and hail’d. Thunderd & Lightned often & one Clap exceeding hard.
16 E. M^r John Cotton616 all day. fair pretty cold.
17 Snow all day & very Stormy, as much Snow as has fell at a time this winter This morning about 7 a Clock it began to Snow, wind at South and then came north, it Snow’d all day. & was very Stormy w^d at N. West as much Snow fell this day as has at one time this winter, it was a moist heavey Snow but if light & dry would have been (it is Judgd) a foot deep
18 fair & cold. Several flurrys of Snow w^th wind towards Even: very cold but fair. Several flurries of Snow towards night & in Even: with wind and very cold, the lighthouse boat overset and one man drownd
20 fair. Cloudy Even.
21 very Stormy it Snowd all day. w^d E. & N.E. more Snow than has fell this winter at once. Early in the morn: it began to Snow and was very Stormy wind East, it held Snowing & was very stormy all day w^d E. & N.E. as Stormy a Day as we have for years together, and more Snow fell this day than has fallen at once the Winter past.
23 E. pr^d for M^r Byles A.M. D^r Sewall pr^d for me A.M. fair.
24 Cloudy then Exeeding stormy all Day: vid: backside617 Cloudy in the morning then rain and Stormy, the storm increasd all afternoon and Even: it raind it snowd and it haild. and the w^d at N.E. blew as hard as Ever I knew it in my life. Most Houses shook very much and great damage was done to the Wharfs and shipping, the wind and storm abated about midnight. A more terrific storm scarce known.
27 The Annual Fast. pr^d all day. fair pleasant.
28 fair Springlike weather
29 fair. looks like fowl weather p.m.
30 E. M^r Byles A.M. I pr^d for M^r Chauncy A.M. rain Even wind & Snow
31 Great deal of rain. M^r M^cLorry618 Child buried.
N B. more storms of rain Snow and wind this month than all the Winter & for many winters past.

APRIL

1 rain in morn: then fair D^r Colmans Daug^r Turil619 buried at Medford
2 rain.
3 rain A.M. fair p.m.
4 Cloudy foggy weather.
5 Cloudy foggy a.m. fair p.m. Cap^t Homans arrived.
6 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day. fair pleasant.
7 fair pleasant, a.m. rain Thund^r & light: p.m. This day in afternoon it came up very Black then raind and haild in midst of which a great deal of Sharp Lightning & hard Thunder. The lightning struck the Ball upon the Steeple of the old South Church but hurt nothing else.
8 fair cool.
10 fair, raw wind.
12 fair warm day.
13 E. M^r Chauncey. A.M. very warm hazy.
14 fair & very warm.
15 rain. Stormy w^d N.E. very cold
16 fair. M^r Allen620 dy’d.
19 fair. M^r Silence Allen buried and Rev^d M^r Tayler’s wife621 of Milton.
20 E. Chang’d w^th M^r Byles A.M. very hot.
22 warm pleasant.
23 fair pleasant Cap^t Arthur Savage622 buried.
24 raw cold. some rain towards Even:
25 rain. cold Storm w^d N.E.
26 rain. cold & stormy w^d N.E.
27 E. M^r Chauncey A.M. I pr^d for D^r Sewall a.m. very raw cold. & some rain w^d N.E.
28 rain last night Cloudy to day a.m. fair p.m.
29 very squally and cold, a consider^le frost last night.

MAY

2 fair. M^r Greenleafs child buried.
3 fair M^r Hall’s Son buried.
4 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day. rain morn: fair p.m.
8 fair. raw cold p.m.
11 E. pr^d all day. warm and windy.
12 Cloudy, rain.
13 fair. M^r Jackson buried, a Shower w^th Light^g and Thunder. at 1 a Clock
15 went to Natick and pr^d Lecture there.
17 fair pleasant. hot weather.
18 E. chang’d w^th D^r Sewall a.m. pleasant. Shower p.m.
19 fair M^rs Webber buried.
20 fair. very windy p.m.
22 Fast at old Ch: for reviv^l of religion623 &c
23 Stormy w^d at N.E. rain &cold.
24 rain last night and to day. w^d N.E. very cold. Madam Oliver624 buried
25 E. M^r Eliot625 A.M. I pr^d for M^r Byles A.M. fair weather
29 fair pleasant. M^rs Deming buried.
30 raw E. w^d foggy A.M. M^rs Hall buried.

JUNE

1 E. Sac^t M^r Cotton626 (of Hampton) P.M. little rain.
2 fair. pretty Dry time.
3 foggy then fair.
4 fair & hot. Cap^t Dorby627 buried.
6 Weather very hot. Deacon Powning dy’d about 5 h. p.m.
8 E. M^r Cushing628 (of Dover) a.m. Weather cooler.
9 fair. dry time. Deacon Powning629 buried.
11 Cloudy a.m. little rain.
12 fair pleasant but dry weather.
14 very dry time, and cold for season vid: overleaf.630 very dry weather for a Consid^le time, and in some places there have been this week considerable frosts (& some Ice) which have much hurt and Spoild the English Grain.
15 E. M^r Green631 (of Barnstable) P.M.
17 dry weather. little Sprinkling.
18 fair. very sharp lightning in Even: & Some rain.
19 fair. hot and dry weather.
20 a Shower p.m. w^th Thund^r & Light^g.
22 E. M^r Chauncy a.m. S. w^d very high.
23 Great deal of rain. Thund^r & Light^g p.m. then fair.
24 Fast at our Ch: for Revival of religion, vid: overleaf.632 This day was kept by our Church in their turn as Day of fasting and prayer for the Revival of Religion &c M^r Abbot prayd & D^r Sewall preachd A.M. M^r Cooper prayd and I preachd p.m.
28 Cloudy looks like a Storm. This Day M^r Hadwins son (a Lad of about 12 years old) was drownd at Bottom of the Com̄on.
29 E. Sac^t: M^r Ward Cotton633 p.m.
30 fair hot.

JULY

1 [ ]
2 consid^le want of rain.
4 Com̄encment at Cambridge, some rain. w^d N.E.
5 Some rain last night. Cloudy drisling to day rain towards Even:
6 E. M^r Cushing634 (of Salsbury) A.M. Rain last night, and several hard Showers to day.
7 fair D^r Rand Still House burnt. This Day D^r Rand Still House took fire just before one a Clock & was presently burnt down.635 Several other Houses in danger but preserv’d.
9 Some rain p.m. little Thund^r & Light^g.
10 Mary Jepson came to live w^th us.
11 Cloudy then fair w^d cool at N.E.
12 Cloudy foggy then fair.
13 E. Chang^d w^th M^r Byles A.M. rain w^th Thund^r & Light^g p.m. & in Even: This Day (being Lords Day) there was a shower with some Thunder & Lightning just before the afternoon service, and towards night & in y^e Even: there was abundance of rain Thunder & Lightning. M^r Loring’s Barn (at Hull) burnt by y^e Lightning about 8 a Clock in Even: and 2 more places Struck with y^e Thunder in that Town.
14 Cloudy. some rain.
15 Some rain a.m. fair p.m. M^r John Fitch636 buried.
16 fair very hot.
18 very hot. a shower p.m. & Even: w^th Thund^r & Light^g.
20 E. D^r Colman a.m. M^r Hinsdel637 p.m. little rain p.m.
23 little rain then fair.
25 Looks like fowl weather Even:
26 Cloudy. Rain. w^d N.E.
27 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day. little rain a.m. fair p.m.
28 very hot. Rain wind terrible Thunder &c p.m. vid. Mid:638 This afternoon it came up very black then the wind blew very hard, in midst of which it raind very hard and we had terrible Thunder & Lightning the Thunder struck and did much damage to Deacon Williams’s House in y^e Com̄on. it also struck Judge Palmer’s House and struck down 2 men in the street. The Thunder as Loud as I ever I heard espes: 2 Claps of it.
29 very hot. 2 men dy’d in well on Long wharfe by reason of the Damp &c. This day 2 men lost y^r lives going down into a well on Long Wharfe y^e Damp Suffocated and chilled y^m and they were gone at once. This Day M^r Scarlet’s negro poisond his Master Mistress and 2 Children by putting Rats bane into y^r Chocolet639
31 fair. little rain p.m.

AUGUST

1 fair little rain p.m. very much Light^g at night. This afternoon a Small shower, and in the Even: abundance of Lightning. The Lightning continued greatest part of the night.
2 hot Muggy. Several Showers.
3 E. M^r Cushing640 (of Haverhil) a.m. Showers p.m. & in y^e Even: much rain some Thund^r & gr^t deal of Light^g.
4 fair pleasant. A Shower just as meeting began p.m. and Towards Even: it came up very black in the N. West. Then raind very hard. with abundance of Lightning and some Thunder but not very hard.
5 fair a.m. rain p.m. w^d N.E.
7 Cloudy. Great deal p.m. & Even:
8 Cloudy.
9 abund: of rain very Stormy & high tide vid: overleaf.641 This morning it set in for to rain and raind Exceed: hard greatest part of the Day. The wind blew very hard at E. & S.E. The tide was very high did some Damage to wharfs &c as much rain fell to Day as (I think) I ever knew.
10 E. p^rd all day. Cloudy. Rain. Rain hard in Even:
12 fair a.m. a Shower p.m. w^th Thund^r & Light^g.
13 A shower w^th Thunder & Lightn^g about 5 a Clock in morn: and several showers in the day with Thunder & light^g. fair Even: This morn: about 5 a Clock we had a shower with Thunder & Lightning. another shower between 7 & 8 Several afterwards.
14 cool morn: fair pleasant.
17 E p^rd all day. fair, hot day.
19 Cloudy, some rain p.m.
20 cool morn: fair pleasant.
22 pleasant.
24 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day. great deal of rain.
26 Fast at M^r Welsted’s for revival of relig: M^r Burd’s642 Child buried.
27 Extream hot. M^r Brattle olivers child buried.
28 very hot. M^rs Ethelridge buried.
29 fair very hot.
31 E. M^r Cooper A.M. a Shower p.m. w^th Thund^r & Lightning

SEPTEMBER

1 fair pleasant. M^r Bennet buried.
2 fair a.m. very hard shower p.m. Light^g in Even: & then fair
3 cool morn: Madam Palmer643 buried.
5 w^t to Newtown pr^d M^r Cotton’s Lecture. rain a.m. fair p.m.
7 E. pr^d all Day. cool morn:
8 Cloudy raw N.E. w^d Rain Stormy Even:
9 Abund: of rain last night & to day A.M. w^d Exceed: high at N.E. fair at night. Last night & to day a.m. a very Great Storm of wind and rain, it was very raw yesterday w^d at N.E. & in Even began to rain & blow hard. The wind continued Exceed: high (and it raind very hard all y^e time) til near noon next Day.
10 fair very cool. M^r Ethridge’s Child buried.
11 fair cool morn:
14 E. Chang^d w^th Chauncey a.m.
16 fair. warm Hazy weather sun very red
These two days the weather very warm & Hazy not a Cloud in the sky these 2 days & y^e sun very red and fiery.
17 warm Hazy weather. sun very red.
19 fair cool.
21 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day. very warm Hazy Sun very red
23 Fast at Charlestown for reviv^l of relig: very foggy a.m.
24 M^r Stimpson644 ordained at Maiden.
25 rain last night & this morning. then fair.
26 fair cold N.E. W^d
27 Carry’d my Wife and Child to Watertown fair pleasant
28 E. Changd w^th M^r Byles A.M.

OCTOBER

1 [ ] N.E. wind.
3 fair pleasant my wife and Child returnd from Watertown
4 fair pleasant. w^d E.
5 E. M^r Cambell645 a.m. I pr^d at Almshouse a.m. Rain at night very Sharp light^g and some Thunder in Even: This Day (being Lords day) it was Cloudy & warm. In the Evening it raind. There were several very sharp flashes of Lightning accompanied w^th pretty loud Thunder. rain allmost all the night following.
6 Cloudy wind N.E.
9 fair very pleasant.
11 windy. Cloudy. Some rain p.m.
12 E. M^r Eliot A.M. fair cool.
13 fair cool morn:
14 fair a.m. Cloudy raw & windy p.m. Rain at night.
15 Rain w^d South.
16 fair cold and very windy.
19 E. Sac^t: pr^d all day. foggy. then fair pleasant.
20 Some rain p.m.
21 Cloudy. Some rain.
23 Cloudy. Rain. w^d S.
24 Cloudy. some Rain w^d S.
25 fair cool. cold & windy at night.
26 E. Chang’d w^th M^r Byles. fair and cold all day pr^d to young men in Evening.
27 fair & cold.
28 Cloudy. Snow p.m. very Stormy at night. w^d N.E. This day it was Cloudy & very raw a.m. wind at N.E. in after noon it Snowd fast & continued all Even: & night was very Stormy, y^e next morn: Snow was about 8 inches deep, and y^e Day following it Snow’d great part of day. the first Snow this fall. & a Great deal of it.
29 Snow 8 inches deep. Snow good part of y^e day.
30 Fair morn: Snow p.m. very Stormy even: This Day in afternoon it began to Snow and Snowd very hard & was very stormy til between 10 & 11 Clock at night. In night it was very cold & blew very hard. The same Day (being Kings Birth Day) a consid^le number of people went over to Dorchester neck to make a Bonfire & play off fireworks in Even: and one poor man (named Green) was found next morn: in Snow frozen to Death.646
31 fair & very cold more Snow on ground than has been at this time for many years.

NOVEMBER

1 fair very cold
2 E. pr^d all day fair very cold.
5 fair pleasant.647 This Day (being Gun powder treason)648 a Great number of people went over to Dorchester neck where at night they made a Great Bonfire and plaid off many fireworks, afterwards 4 young men coming home in a Canoe were all Drownd. They were not heard of til 17 & or 18 Day & then two of them were taken up dead on y^e flatts near the Channel and brot to Boston where the Jewry sat upon y^m the next Day they were buried one at Charlestown where his friends liv’d the other in this Town.
6 fair. cold day.
7 fair cold.
9 E. M^r Willord649 (of Biddiford) a.m. fair pleasant.
12 Cloudy & warm, fair p.m.
13 The Annual Thanksgiving pr^d all day fair very pleasant.
14 rain w^d E.
15 fair. M^rs Luce650 buried. Mr Hatch’s sons came to live at our House
16 E. Sac^t: M^r James Cushing651 p.m.
17 fair. Cloudy p.m.
18 Rain last night & to day.
19 fair & cold.
20 fair cold. M^r Jos: Hills Prentice burid y^t was drownd see overleaf652
21 fair. looks like fowl weather. M^rs Blins sister buried
23 E. old M^r Hancock653 (of Lexington) p.m. Fair pleasant
27 fair cold. Cloudy p.m. little Snow & rain at night
28 fair slippery raw cold.
30 E. Pr^d all Day. little rain a.m. fair p.m.

DECEMBER

1 fair but very cold.654
2 fair. M^r Jn^o Davenport655 buried.
3 fair a.m. Cloudy p.m. & warm.
4 Great deal of rain last night & to day. w^d E. & S.E.
5 Wind very high last night & to day fair & cold.
7 E. M^r Breck656 a.m. Stormy Snow all day.
8 fair and cold. M^r Burbeen’s son buried.
9 fair cold.
10 pleasant. M^r Cole buried.
12 Pretty deal of rain. M^r Jn^o Hoods Child buried.
14 E. Sac^t: pr^d all Day. fair. cold.
15 fair moderate
16 Rain. fair p.m. Rich^d Estabrooks buried.
19 My wife sick of fever.
20 many people sick w^th colds fever and sore throats.
21 E. M^r Cleverly a.m. M^r Mather, p.m. I was confin’d to my Chamber by great cold &c Snow very stormy.
22 fair very cold.
24 fair. Moderate. one of M^r Hatchs w^t home
25 fair. very smart cold day.
26 very smart cold day. more moderate towards Even:
27 Cloudy. Snow a little p.m.
28 E. M^r Chauncy A.M. a very smart cold Day.
29 fair and cold.
30 Stormy. Snow all day.
31 Stormy Snow allmost all day Concludes y^e year.

On behalf of Mr. Lindsay Swift, Mr. Henry H. Edes communicated a Memoir of Stanley Cunningham, which Mr. Swift had been requested to prepare for publication in the Transactions.

1 The title of this book is as follows:

2 This paper was originally prepared to be read as a part of the memorial exercises at Cambridge which were held under the auspices of the Harvard Memorial Society, in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of Harvard’s birth. The material then collated relative to the construction of houses, etc., when worked into shape proved to be far in excess of the demands for the occasion, so that the paper had to be much abridged in reading; but in submitting it to the Colonial Society with a view to publication, the rejected matter has been restored.

3 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 88, note by Savage.

4 Ibid. ii. 342.

5 Magnalia (1853), ii. 10.

6 Cotton Mather gives his father’s argument in full, as to the power of the College to confer degrees, in Magnalia, ii. 19, 20, and the degree itself, ii. 26.

7 Magnalia, ii. 10, 30.

8 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, vol. iii. p. iv.

9 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 196.

10 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 237.

11 In “The Site of the First College Building at Cambridge,” in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1888, the “Way to Charlestown” is identified with Kirkland Street, and the inference is drawn that the town grant was north of Kirkland Street, as it is now laid out. There can be but little doubt that Kirkland Street represents the “Way to Charlestown,” but whether the way was not from time to time removed from place to place is another question. President Wadsworth’s location of the town grant within the Yard shows his opinion, and my own later views are expressed in “The College in Early Days,” in the Harvard Graduates’ Magazine for April, 1893.

12 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 206.

13 Records of the First Church in Charlestown, Boston, 1880, p. 9.

14 “The 26 of the ii. Month” (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, vol. iii. p. iv.).

15 Records of the First Church in Charlestown, p. 165.

16 Frothingham’s History of Charlestown, p. 74.

17 In Pientissimum, Reverendissimumque virum, Johannem Harvardum, è suggestio Sacro Caroloensi ad cœlos evectum (Magnalia, ii. 33).

18 Frothingham’s History of Charlestown, p. 55.

19 Frothingham further says that in another division his lot was nearly a third larger than that of Mr. Symmes, and adds that on November 27, 1637, he had a grant of three and a half feet of ground for a portal (History of Charlestown, p. 74).

20 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, vol. iii. p. iv.

21 Diary, i. 446, 447.

22 Quincy’s History of Harvard University, i. 48, facsimile of the record.

23 Hutchinson’s Collection of Original Papers, p. 49.

24 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 408; Palfrey’s History of New England, i. 298; Neal’s History of New England, i. 129, 130.

25 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts (1795), i. 431.

26 Journal, i. 33.

27 Winthrop, writing in 1633 of the proceedings against Saltonstall, Humphry, and Cradock, says that “the defendants were dismissed with a favorable order for their encouragement, being assured by some of the Council, that his Majesty did not intend to impose the ceremonies of the Church of England upon us; for that it was considered that it was the freedom from such things that made people come over to us” (Journal, i. 103).

28 His description in his mother’s will as “clarke” and in his marriage licence as “clìcum,” carries with it the probability that he was ordained in the Anglican Church.

29 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 219, 220.

30 Ibid. i. 220. The proceedings this day were replete with interest. Winthrop baffled Vane’s attempt at delay and finally compelled him against his will to proceed with the election by threatening to assume charge of the meeting himself, if Vane would not yield to the desires of the majority.

31 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 220.

32 Ibid. i. 220.

33 Ibid. i. 232.

34 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, i. 64. Winthrop’s account is: “None of them met him & the Sergeants who had escorted the former Governor refused to perform that service for him alleging that such service had been performed on account of the man not the place” (Journal, i. 234).

35 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, i. 65.

36 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 235.

37 Wonder-working Providence (1867), p. 72.

38 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 74.

39 Ibid. i. 74, 76, 77, 79, 91, 109, 160 (wages); 126, 183 (sumptuary laws).

40 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 88. Thomas Dexter was in March, 1632–33, set in the bilboes, disfranchised and fined 40 s. for reproachful and seditious words against the Government here established, and for finding fault to divers with the Acts of the Court, and for saying “this captious ^t will bring all to naught, adding that the best of them was but an atturney” (ibid. i. 103).

Capt. John Stone, in September, 1633, for “confronting aucthority, abuseing M^r Ludlowe both in words and behaviur, assalting him & calling him a iust as,” was fined £100 and prohibited “comeing into this pattent, w^thout leaue of the , vnder the penalty of death” (ibid. i. 108).

41 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 211, 212.

42 Journal, i. 322, 323.

43 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. (second edition) 1.

44 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 86.

45 Ibid. i. 75.

46 Ibid. i. 83.

47 Ibid. i. 111.

48 Ibid. i. 93.

49 The situation was sized up by Chalmers in the following words:

The colonists became at length dissatisfied with adjudications various and contrary, since every magistrate decided according to the equity of his own mind, without established laws to inform his judgment, or former precedents to direct his practice. Dissatisfaction soon swelled into clamor, and continued complaint produced ultimate reformation (Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the American Colonies, Boston, 1845, i. 50).

50 Winthrop himself contended that he was not in favor of a rigorous execution of the orders against those who were merely residents. He stated “that it was his judgment, that, in the infancy of the plantations, justice should be administered with more lenity than in a settled state;” and after some discussion he acknowledged “that he was convinced, that he had failed in over much lenity and remissness and would endeavor (by God’s assistance), to take a more strict course hereafter” (Journal, i. 178).

51 Magnalia, ii. 33.

52 Autobiography, p. 64.

53 Wonder-working Providence, p. 103.

54 Certain Select Cases Resolved, p. 49.

55 The memorandum made by Winthrop and published by Savage in the Addenda reads: “Mr. Harvard gave to the College about £800” (Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 342). The author of New England’s First Fruits, p. 12, says “one halfe of his estate, (being in all £1700) towards the erecting of a college, and all his Library.” Thomas Shepard says, “The Lord put it into the heart of one Mr. Harvard, who dyed worth £1600 to give halfe his estate to the erecting of the Schoole” (Autobiography, p. 64). Johnson in his Wonder-working Providence fixes the amount of the bequest at “near a thousand pounds” (p. 133).

56 Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 374.

57 Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, i. 91; Johnson’s Wonder-working Providence, p. 31.

58 Magnalia, i. 80.

59 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 268.

60 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 192.

61 Ibid. i. 201.

62 Winthrop calls them wigwams (Journal, i. 36, 38); Prince, booths and tents (Annals, p. 309); Scottow, huts and smoky cottages (Narrative of the Planting of Massachusetts Colony, 1694, p. 16); Hubbard, small cottages (History of New England, p. 134); Winslow, booths and huts (Good News from New England, 1648, 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 201)

63 Early Records of Charlestown, in Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 374.

64 March 2, 1646–47, John Crocker vs. Thomas Shawe, “for coming into his house by pulling aside some loose pallisadoes, on ye Lords day, about ye middle of ye day” (Plymouth Colony Records, i. 111).

65 New Englands Plantation, in Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 244.

66 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 48.

67 For references to wooden chimneys and thatched roofs, see Dudley’s letter to the Countess of Lincoln, March, 1631 (Collections New Hampshire Historical Society, iv. 248)

68 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. 70.

69 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 54.

70 Magnalia, i. 311.

71 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 63.

72 Mourt’s Relation (1865), p. 9.

73 Scottow’s Narrative of the planting of the Colony, p. 40.

74 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. 40.

75 Ibid. iv. 63. See also two charges in 1637 for daubing the meeting-house (Essex Institute Historical Collections, iv; Second series, i). Roger Clap describes the Castle as built with “Mud walls which stood for divers years” (Memoirs, Boston, 1731, p. 15).

76 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 82.

77 Ibid. i. 73.

78 Scottow’s Narrative of the Planting of Massachusetts Colony, p. 41.

79 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 87.

80 The Early College Buildings at Cambridge, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for April, 1890.

81 It may seem unnecessary to devote so much time to the discussion of daubed walls in connection with the career of one whose mother was from Stratford and a contemporary of the poet who wrote the familiar lines—

Imperious Cæsar dead and turned to clay

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

82 “Bring paper and linseed oil for your windows” (Winslow in Mourt’s Relation, p. 142).

83 Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 254. Capt. Smith says, “traine oyle with the splinters of the roots of pine trees for candles” (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iii. 38); Wood, New England’s Prospect (1898), p. 18.

84 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 92 (corn), 97 (bullets), 140 (beaver), 208 (wampum).

85 Dunster’s list of these books comprehends 260 titles. Several of these titles indicated works published in several volumes. See A few Notes concerning the Records of Harvard College, Bibliographical Contributions, Library of Harvard University, No. 27. Quite recently a praiseworthy effort has been put forth to place upon the shelves of the Harvard Library a copy of each work named in the catalogue—a contemporaneous publication by preference. The study of the subject has revealed the fact that the library bequeathed by Harvard must have contained 373 volumes.

86 The effort to duplicate these volumes has disclosed the fact that many of them were octavos and some even smaller.

87 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 304.

88 Winthrop was not, apparently, opposed to its use. March 18, 1627, he wrote “We want a little tobacco. I had very good, for seven shillings a pound at a grocer’s by Holborn Bridge” (Journal, i. 350). The statutes referred to will be found in the Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 101 (use prohibited), 109 (constables to take note of persons), 136 (sale prohibited), 204, 206 (former laws repealed), 241–242 (new law against use).

89 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 377.

90 Ibid. i. 379.

91 Wood writes in 1634: “Four eggs may be had for a penny and a quart of milk at the same rate and when butter is six pence a pound and Cheshire cheese at five penc” (Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 414).

92 When the Governor’s wife arrived in 1631 people sent him “fat hogs, kids, venison, poultry, geese, partridges, &c.” (Journal, i. 57). By 1633, the gardens had become productive, so that notwithstanding a scarcity of corn people lived well with fish and the fruit of their gardens (ibid. i. 108).

93 “For bread and beer, that it was denied to them betwixt meals, truly, I do not remember, that ever I did deny it unto them; and John Wilson will affirme, that, generally, bread and beer was free for the boarders to go unto” (Winthrop’s Journal, i. 310 note).

94 Thomas Dudley writes in 1631 to the Countess of Lincoln saying “having yet no table, nor other room to write in than by the fireside upon my knee” (Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 305).

95 My attention has been called to the omission in the text of reference to the use of intoxicating liquors. Of course drunkenness was one of the troubles of that time. Numerous convictions are recorded for the offence, but at the period which I cover, all liquors were imported except strong beer. In 1630, Winthrop restrained the drinking of healths at his table, and so it grew little by little to disuse (Journal, i. 37). In 1635, he speaks of drunkenness occasioned by people running to the ships (ibid. i. 161).

96 I am indebted to Professor Kittredge for calling my attention to two things: first, the proverb “fingers were made before forks,” evidence in itself that the knife was not used by well bred persons for conveying food to the mouth; and secondly, to Chaucer’s description of the dainty manner in which the Prioress fed herself, obviously with her fingers, given in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Thomas Shepard in one of his sermons calls attention to the danger accompanying the use of the knife in cutting one’s meat: “Its from the excellency of a knife to cut well, but to cut my finger with it when I should be cutting of my meat with it, ariseth not from the end of the knife, nor from the intention of him who made it” (Certain Select Cases Resolved, p. 7).

97 Montaigne’s Journal, iv. 210.

98 William T. Davis in his Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth (p. vii.) makes substantially the same observations as to the preponderance of napkins.

99 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 210.

100 Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 54.

101 “We could not follow them in our Armor” (Winthrop’ Journal, i. 199).

102 Massachusetts Colony Records, i, 125.

103 “Our men being completely armed with Corslets, muskets, bandoliers, rests and Swords.” Head pieces are also mentioned in this account. (Capt. John Underbill’s Newes from America, in Hart’s American History told by Contemporaries, p. 439.) Besides the expression, showing that the men were in armor—quoted in the note above—Winthrop, in another description in the same year, 1636, speaks of their being armed with corselets (Journal, i. 194).

104 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 126, 183.

105 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. 8, iv. 3.

106 Boston Record Commissioners Reports, iv. 22.

107 “He demands of the next man he met, what the signall of the drum ment, the reply was made they have as yet no Bell to call men to meeting” (Johnson’s Wonder-working Providence, p. 103).

108 Winthrop’ Journal, ii. 220.

109 Wonder-working Providence, p. 41.

110 See C. F. Adams’ Antinomianism (Prince Society), p. 251. Shepard did not take a very active part in the discussion relative to the heresy of Mrs. Hutchinson, and he evidently considered that he occupied a neutral opinion in the controversy, for he says that Newtown was “kept spotless from the contagion of opinion.” He was, however, one of a committee which examined Mrs. Hutchinson, and although he was not violent in his opposition to her, yet he joined in a report with Thomas Welde which was referred to several times in the discussion. It seems to me therefore that he must be considered as practically taking sides in the matter.

111 Cotton Mather is authority for the statement that the Clergy had “eminent skill in physick.” He says, “it is well known that until two hundred years ago, physick in England was no profession distinct from divinity.” Most of Charles Chauncy’s sons, six in all, were, he says, practicers of physic as well as clergymen (Magnalia, i. 475).

112 Magnalia, ii. 33.

113 It is known that Mrs. Harvard bore children by her second husband. It is probable that Wilson was thinking of these children when he composed his elegy. The form of the elegy, an address by Harvard to an assembly of graduates, involves the idea of the lapse of many years after Harvard’s death before such a gathering could have taken place. Wilson died in 1667 at the age of seventy-nine, and if we allow an interval of at least twenty-five years to have elapsed after Harvard’s death before the elegy was composed, it would make him seventy-five years of age when it was written. This may perhaps account for this expression in the elegy, as confusion of memory on his part. That this must have been so, becomes apparent when we take into consideration the date of Harvard’s marriage, April 19, 1636.

114 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 183.

115 Ibid. i. 208.

116 Ibid. i. 217.

117 The close resemblance of this committee to the body to whom was entrusted the care and regulation of the affairs of the College in 1642, has led encyclopædists to record that members of the committee were at that time appointed Overseers of Harvard College.

118 Magnalia, i. 386.

119 Autobiography, p. 64.

120 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, v. 447, note. George E. Ellis was one of the committee in charge of the publication of this volume and doubtless is responsible for this witty and appropriate quotation.

121 The assumption that Harvard’s will was nuncupative may be correct, but it does not rest upon direct evidence.

122 Publications, viii. 243, 244.

123 The Boston News-Letter of Thursday, 30 September, 1756, stated that “On Saturday last His Excellency embarked on board His Majesty’s Ship Mermaid, Washington Shirley, Esq; Commander” (p. 1/2).

124 Suffolk Deeds, ci. 164.

125 Suffolk Probate Files, no. 15,041.

126 Suffolk Deeds, cxxxv. 196. See also clxx. 48, 96, clxxvi. 13, 15.

127 Born in 1590 at Wethersfield, Essex, where his father the Rev. Richard Rogers held a lectureship from about 1577 to 1618, being repeatedly “suspended for Nonconformity though supported by the Puritan Lord Knolys.” Ezekiel Rogers’s elder brother, Daniel, succeeded his father, after an interval, in the Wethersfield lectureship. All three were of the University of Cambridge. See Victoria History of the County of Essex, ii. 52.

128 The History of Rowley, by Thomas Gage, with an Address by the Rev. James Bradford, 1840. Most of the information about Mr. Rogers is contained in the Address and in Appendix A to the Address.

129 This reminds one of the inability of the younger Weller to see his father in court.

130 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1638–1639, pp. 430, 431.

131 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 263, 264.

132 Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Report vii. App. p. 538.

133 There is a letter dated November 6, 1621, from Mr. Rogers to Lady Joan Barrington, the wife of Sir Francis, who was a daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell and so an aunt of the Protector (ibid. p. 543). Another letter dated September 28, 1626, tells of Mr. Rogers’s sickness and recovery (ibid. p. 543). In 1644 Sir Thomas Barrington died and was succeeded by his son Sir John, and Mr. Rogers wrote to Mr. John Kendall at Sir John Barrington’s on December 8 of that year—

A long letter about what the late Sir Thomas Barrington had promised him in the way of preferment. He alludes to his diligent attendance on and comfort to Sir Thomas “on his sad and deep distemper of melancholy; not only in the day but in the night watchings and midnight rising he (Rogers) did much to impare his health.” (On the back is the copy of an answer by Kendall dated 1 May, 1645, in which he says that Sir Thomas had left his son burdened with 10000 l) (ibid. p. 570).

Mr. Rogers wrote again November 9, 1645, and once more December 9, 1646: “He mentions that old Lady B. promised him 100 l, and that Mr. Bridge said that he himself paid it to Robert Barrington, to be sent to New England for Rogers.” On April 25, 1646, “John Barrington to Ezekiel Rogers in England.—Copy of a letter on the subject of Rogers’s claims.” Was he then in England? See also a letter of the Rev. Daniel Rogers, a brother of Ezekiel, of July 7, 1647 (ibid. p. 570).

134 Ibid. pp. 543, 570.

135 Barton Stacey, a tithing and parish in Hants. The parish includes also the townships of Bransbury, Drayton, and Newton Stacey.

136 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1635, pp. 520, 521.

137 Magnalia (1820), i. 74.

138 Bond, Genealogies and History of Watertown, p. 995.

139 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 170.

140 Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i. 11.

141 Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, pp. 75, 77; Holmes, History of Cambridge, 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 15, 16; Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut, p. 86 note.

142 Winthrop’s Journal (1853), i. 214 note.

143 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ix. 154; Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut, p. 512; Stiles, History of Ancient Wethersfield, i. 24. But see Records of the First Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1636–1734, p. vii. The records of the Windsor Church, now extant, do not embrace anything pertaining to its life at Dorchester, Massachusetts.

144 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 2.

145 Journal, i. 203.

146 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxv. 21

147 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 26, 103, 123.

148 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, iv. 230.

149 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi. 580.

150 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlviii. 263.

151 Stiles, History of Ancient Windsor, i. 429.

152 Magnalia, i. 74.

153 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 7.

154 Holland, History of Western Massachusetts, i. 24.

155 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxv. 21. Dr. H. R. Stiles, in his History of Ancient Windsor, i. 54, and of Ancient Wethersfield, i. 39, seems to confuse him with the Rev. Henry Smith, who later came over from England and became the minister in Wethersfield. See his Ancient Wethersfield, i. 154.

156 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 113.

157 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 118.

158 Trumbull says that this reads “inconvenient” in the manuscript Journals of the Congress (Historical Notes on the Constitutions of Connecticut, p. 5).

159 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 119.

160 Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i. 525.

161 Bowen, Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, 15.

162 Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i. 544.

163 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 477.

164 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 160.

165 Dr. Henry Bronson states, I think mistakenly, that Mr. Welles was for a short time a magistrate under the Massachusetts commission. New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers, iii. 296.

166 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 12.

167 Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, i. 13.

168 Burt, First Century of the History of Springfield, i. 152.

169 As late as 1639 there were probably not over fifteen men there. Green, Springfield, 1636–1886, p. 45.

170 Dwight’s Travels in New-England and New-York, i. 319.

171 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. 472.

172 2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi. 308.

173 Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, ii. 283.

174 Morris, Early History of Springfield, p. 11; Todd (The Burr Family) puts the date of his removal as 1644. He represented Fairfield in the Connecticut General Court in 1645, his name being enrolled as “Jehu Burre” (Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 130).

175 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 10, 13.

176 Letter quoted in Taylor, Roger Ludlow, p. 70.

177 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 192.

178 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 259.

179 Ibid. i. 260.

180 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 10.

181 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 11.

182 Ibid. i. 13.

183 Ibid. i. 19.

184 Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, p. 199.

185 Roger Wolcott’s Memoir, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, ii. 326.

186 Journal, i. 216.

187 This was on October 7, 1640 (Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 304). Connecticut assented in 1641 (Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 64).

188 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 281.

189 Ibid. i. 284.

190 Letter of Thomas Hooker to Gov. Winthrop. Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, i. 9; Winthrop’s Journal, i. 237, 285, 286.

191 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 216.

192 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 320, 321.

193 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 260.

194 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 321.

195 Ibid. i. 229, 230, 232.

196 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 72.

197 Ibid. ii. 111.

198 Ibid. ii. 112.

199 Ibid. ii. 137.

200 John Winthrop, Senior.

201 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 139.

202 Journal, i. 319. Cf. i. 335.

203 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 264.

204 Ibid. “You” in this letter evidently refers generally to those who represented Massachusetts at the conference.

205 Winthrop’s Journal indicates that this conference occurred not in June but July, 1638. He speaks, under date of December 13, 1638, of these three men as having brought their Connecticut amendments to the attention of the General Court at Newtown (i.e. Cambridge) on “the of the 5^th” (Journal, i. 342). This probably indicates simply a lapse of memory.

206 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 428; Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, i. 2.

207 Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, i. 14.

208 Life and Letters of John Winthrop, ii. 422.

209 Journal, i. 344.

210 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 25, 26.

211 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 20, 24.

212 Ibid. i. 18.

213 Massachusetts Historical Society Manuscripts, 81. D. p. 4. I am indebted for this reference to the courtesy of Mr. Charles K. Bolton, the librarian of the Boston Athenæum.

214 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xiii. 291; Holland, History of Western Massachusetts, i. 33; 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 487.

215 Green, Springfield, 1636–1886, pp. 29–36; quoted from the original manuscript now owned by Charles E. Oliver of Boston. The only date of the letter is the 18th day of the second month, but it was addressed on the back “To his lov. friend, M^r Pinchon, at his house in Aguam, lett these bee del^d,” and on the first page is a marginal note, apparently in his handwriting, of its receipt on “the 20 April, 1639.”

216 Green, Springfield, 1636–1886, pp. 55, 60.

217 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 119.

218 Winthrop’s Journal, i. 360.

219 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 30, 31.

220 Burt, First Century of the History of Springfield, i. 144.

221 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 296.

222 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 320–322.

223 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 57.

224 Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i. 115.

225 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 31, 35, 36; Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 82.

226 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 90 note.

227 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 119, 185.

228 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 123.

229 Colonial Records of Connecticut, i. 139.

230 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 136.

231 A copy of this survey is given in Bowen’s Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, opposite p. 19. It runs the line below Enfield Falls. See further Bowen’s description of the territory included, in chapters iii and iv of his work.

232 Colonial Records of Connecticut, v. 390–399.

233 Colonial Records of Connecticut, ix. 431.

234 Johnston, History of Connecticut, p. 209.

235 Hazard, Historical Collections, ii. 142.

236 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 109.

237 Winthrop’s Journal, ii. 457.

238 Green, Springfield, 1630–1886, p. 63.

239 This letter, dated 15 March, 1793, is printed in Anne Cary Morri’s Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris (1888), ii. 38. The opening words—“I have receiv’d yours of the third of February and reply shortly that I may reply immediately. My Reason for which is that”—are omitted in the Diary and Letters, as are also the words printed in italics in the following sentence: “In the first Place I must have leave to resign from the President but further you will consider that the very Circumstance,” etc.

240 Publications of this Society, vi. 109–130.

241 For Boyle, see ibid. vi. 321 note 4, ix. index.

242 Palfrey, History of New England, i. 313.

243 Cambridge Modern History, iv. 275.

244 Ibid. iv. 266–275.

245 In the Massachusetts Colony Records (i. 36), under date of March 17, 1628–29, is the following entry:

A warrant was made ffor payment of 120^t to M^r Nathaniell Wright, for so much p^d by him to M^r Jarvis Kerke, M^r W^m Barkley, & M^r Roᵬrt Charlton, ffor the shippe.

The Jarvis Kerke here referred to is the Gervase Kirke named in the text, both forms of the name being found in the Calendars of State Papers. Thia entry was made a few days after the date of the Charter, March 4–14,1628–29, but before organization thereunder.

246 Henry Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada (1871), p. 69.

247 History of New England (1853), i. 15, 16.

248 Ibid. i. 17. Terceira is one of the large islands of the central group of the Azores. It is in slightly above 27° west longitude. Under date of May 9, Winthrop says that the fleet was a little west of Corvos. Corvo and Flores are the two islands comprising the northwestern group of the Azores and are in slightly above 31° west longitude. Upon the two estimates the fleet made about four degrees of longitude in ten days.

249 History of New England, i. 17, 18, 21.

250 See Parkman, Pioneers of France (1896), p. 444; Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, p. 136; Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, pp. 69–74. In saying that “Champlain surrendered Quebec to the English on the 9th of August, 1629,” Henry Kirke is slightly inaccurate. The surrender of Quebec took place on July 20; the articles, drawn up July 19, were ratified on August 9 by David Kirke at Tadousac. See Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 98, 99. The matter is correctly stated by R. Brown in his History of the Island of Cape Breton (1869), p. 73. The articles are printed in Hazard’s Historical Collections, i. 285–287.

251 Birch’s Court and Times of Charles the First contains letters bearing on the subject from the Rev. Joseph Mead to Sir Martin Stuteville dated September 26, 1629 (ii. 28), from Mr. Beaulieu to Sir Thomas Puckering dated January 20, 1629–30 (ii. 52), from John Pory to Puckering dated January 13, 1630–31 (ii. 89, 90), from Beaulieu to Puckering dated May 25, 1631 (ii. 122), from Pory to Puckering dated June 16, 1631 (ii. 123), and from Pory to Puckering dated February 23, 1631–32 (ii. 171, 172). In his letter to Puckering of January 13, 1630–31, Pory, with pleasing naïveté, writes:

That Philip Burlamachi hath gotten a brave employment into France, to fetch home the latter half of the Queen’s portion, being £120,000, and satisfaction also for three great rich English ships, treacherously taken by the French after the peace proclaimed. “Do you think that the French, being so exhausted by their wars, would part with such heaps of treasure for nothing? No: you may be sure they would not. The bait, therefore, to allure them thereunto, is the fort of Kebeck, in Canada, to get it out of Capt. Kirk’s clutches; the trade of beavers and otters, which they want to enjoy by the possession whereof, having been worth unto them, communibus annis, £30,000 by year.” That the said fort sticketh in their hearts, as Calais did in Queen Mary’s.

252 Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, pp. 82–86; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 117, 118.

253 In a note to Winthrop’s History of New England (i. 15), Savage says that “Capt. Kirk” was “probably a brother of Sir David Kirk.”

254 Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, p. 93.

255 Mosquitoes.

256 Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, p. 87.

257 Parkman, Pioneers of France, p. 444. In Rymer’s Foedera (xix. 303) is a promise of Charles I to return Quebec to the French King dated June 29, 1631.

258 Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, p. 137. The Treaty of St. Germain has been printed several times in French, but not in English. See Rymer’s Fœdera, xix. 361–365; Memoires des Commissaires (1755), ii. 7–13; Collection de Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle-France (1883), i. 86–97; Hazard, Historical Collections, i. 319, 320.

259 See E. F. Slafter, Sir William Alexander, and American Colonization (Prince Society), pp. 62–72.

260 Winsor, Carrier to Frontenac, p. 138.

261 Ibid. p. 138. In a letter to John Winthrop, Jr., dated London, December 26, 1631, Francis Kirby wrote:

Captain Bruton who was imployed by my cozen Moris Thomson and company for the trade of bever in the river of Canada is now arrived heer . . . he hath brought in heer about 3000^lb weight of bever, and they are now hasteninge to set forth a small ship only for that river hopinge to be there before Captain Kerke whom (I hear) Is to fetch his men from Quibeck and yield up the Castle againe to the French this next somer (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ix. 238).

It would appear from these statements that the English were making the most of their control of the River St. Lawrence while it lasted.

As contemporary glimpses of the Kirkes are somewhat rare, it may not be without interest to bring together a few. In a relation written at Quebec August 28, 1632, Father Le Jeune said:

At length, on the 5th of July, which was Monday,—two months and 18 days since the 18th of April, when we sailed,—we reached the much desired port. We cast anchor in front of the fort which the English held; we saw at the foot of this fort the poor settlement of Kebec all in ashes. The English, who came to this country to plunder and not to build up, not only burned a greater part of the detached buildings which Father Charles Lallement had had erected, but also all of that poor settlement of which nothing now is to be seen but the ruins of its stone walls. This greatly inconveniences the French, who do not know where to lodge. The next day Captain Thomas Ker was summoned, a man of French Nationality, born at Dieppe, who had gone over to England, and who, with David and Louys Ker, his brothers, and one Jacques Michel, also born at Dieppe, all huguenots, had thrown themselves upon this poor country, where they have done great damage and have prevented the doing of much good. . . . The English Clergyman, who was not of the same Faith as his people,—for he was a Protestant or Lutheran, and the Kers are Calvinists or of some other more libertine Religion (they held this poor Minister a prisoner in their house for six months),—told me that the Moutagnards wanted to negotiate a peace with the Hiroquois (Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, v. 39, 41, 49).

Under date of July 25, 1645, Governor Winthrop wrote:

Monsieur La Tour having stayed here all winter and thus far of the summer, and having petitioned the court for aid against Monsieur D’Aulnay, and finding no hope to obtain help that way, took shipping in one of our vessels which went on fishing to Newfoundland, hoping by means of Sir David Kirk, governour there, and some friends he might procure in England to obtain aid from thence, intending for that end to go from thence to England. Sir David entertained him courteously, and promised to do much for him; but no means of help appearing to answer his ends, he returned hither before winter, Sir David giving him passage in a vessel of his which came hither (History of New England, ii. 303).

In a letter to John Winthrop, Jr., dated New Haven, September 26, 1659, the Rev. John Davenport said:

I desire . . . to let you know that I have received a large letter fr: M^r Blinman date^d Aug. 22. whereby I understand that God hath brought him and his to Newfoundland, in safety and health, . . . After these passages and his notifying to me the Lady Kircks respectful and loving mention of me whom she saith, she hath heard in London, he addeth to what I had heard fr: England that a fine of 5^£ is put upon any that shall name the last protector (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 25, 26).

No doubt this was the widow of Sir David Kirke.

262 W. A. Shaw, Knights of England, ii. 201.

263 Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, p. 161 and note.

264 Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, p. 167.

265 Shaw, Knights of England, ii. 215. In his History of Newfoundland (pp. 155, 162, 164), Judge Prowse speaks of “Sir James Kirke.” This is apparently a mistake, for in the documents from the Calendars of State Papers referred to by Prowse James Kirke is not spoken of as a knight, nor is his name found in Shaw’s work. On the other hand, John Kirke, though his name too is not in Shaw’s work, was knighted, though exactly when does not appear. On May 14, 1683, there is mention of a “Petition of Sir John Kirk, Knight, to the King” (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1685–1689, p. 643), and on January 26, 1684, of “Sir John Kirk” as the father-in-law of Radisson (ibid. p. 648). The second wife of Radisson is sometimes erroneously said (Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, v. 277) to have been the daughter of Sir David Kirke. Radisson himself said that he was “marry’d at London unto an Hon^ble familly,” and spoke of “my father-in-Law, Sir John Kirk” (Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, Prince Society, pp. 250, 254).

266 R. Brown, History of the Island of Cape Breton, p. 112 note; Kirke, First English Conquest of Canada, p. 173.

267 That from the autumn of 1651 to June 11, 1652, Sir David was in London, as stated by Henry Kirke, is shown by the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 363, 371, 372, 373, 381. Henry Kirke writes:

At the same time [i.e., June 11, 1652], permission was granted to Sir David to return to Newfoundland, on condition that he returned to England with the Commissioners, and in the meanwhile gave security that he would answer whatever was objected against him, and to pay such sums as shall appear to be due from him to the Commonwealth. Upon such hard terms as these, Sir David Kirke returned to his estates at Ferryland, in the summer of 1652. He could not have remained there long, for in the spring of 1653, we find him again in England, . . . he was allowed to return to Newfoundland, upon entering into a bond of double the value of his estate, to answer any charges that might be brought against him. With such terms, which were the best he could procure, Kirke was bound to be satisfied; so he set sail for Newfoundland and arrived there in the autumn of 1653. . . . But all hopes and expectations were blighted by his death, which took place in the winter of 1655–6, but the exact date is not known. (First English Conquest of Canada, pp. T77–184.)

Henry Kirke offers no proof that Sir David returned to Newfoundland in the summer of 1652 and again in the autumn of 1653, and, while the statement may be correct, there is nothing in the Calendar of State Papers to support it. As to the date of Sir David’s death, Henry Kirke is clearly wrong. On June 11, 1653, a petition of Sir David was referred to the Committee of the Admiralty, and on December 1, 1653, an order of the Council of State referred the petition to the Committee for Irish and Scotch Affairs. On April 24, 1654, Sir David was spoken of as dead. (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 404, 412, 415.)

268 “In the full conviction,” writes Henry Kirke, “that the Baltimores had abandoned Newfoundland, Sir David Kirke obtained a grant of that place from the King, . . . This was in 1637, and no complaint was made by Lord Baltimore till 1660” (First English Conquest of Canada, pp. 188, 189). As early as February, 1637, Lord Baltimore presented a memorial “touching his right to part of Newfoundland” (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 246, 247). On June 11, 1652, the Committee for Foreign Affairs considered “the interests of the Commonwealth in Newfoundland, and the encouragement of the fisheries there;” and “Sir David Kirke and Lord Baltimore, who pretend private interest, agree that the proceeding therein will be no inconvenience to them” (ibid. p. 381). The Maryland Historical Society owns several documents relating to the subject dated 1652 or 1653, among them “the Lord Baltimore’s case concerning Avalon” (Calvert Papers, part i. p. 113). Under date of June, 1660, is a—

Petition of Cecil, Lord Baltimore to the King. Recites King James’s patent of Newfoundland to his father; where he began a plantation, built a fair house in which he resided, and expended above 30,000 l. After his decease, the petitioner deputed Capt. William Hill, Governor. In 1638 . . . Sir David Kirke surreptitiously obtained a patent, went over the following year, and dispossessed the petitioner of all his rights there. In 1655 Kirke made over part of his patent to John Claypole (son-in-law to Cromwell), . . . and others, and Sir Lewis Kirke and others are endeavouring to get a confirmation of that patent. Prays that no grant may be passed to his prejudice, and that he may be restored to his rights according to his patent (Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, p. 481).

It has been stated that the Kirke who in 1655 “over part of his patent to John Claypole” was Sir David; but if the date is correct, Sir David was then dead; hence probably it was James Kirke, or else there was a mistake in, the date. A little later than the above petition, we find, presumably dated in 1661, another—

Petition of Cecil Lord Baltemore to the King. Recites his former petition and the proceedings thereon . . . ; with his Majesty’s order (of 20th March 1660/1) to restore petitioner to his possession and rights in Newfoundland, but that he hath yet no satisfaction for such damage done him by Sir David Kirke and others in dispossessing petitioner of his house, goods, and rights in the province of Avalon, and keeping him out of possession many years, to his prejudice of above 20,000 l. sterling, for which damages petitioner sued said Sir David Kirke at his first return thence into England about ten years since, and laid him in prison, where he died before making any satisfaction to petitioner. That nevertheless Sir Lewis Kirke claims satisfaction for the charges wrongfully bestowed by his brother upon said province to petitioner’s prejudice (ibid., Colonial, 1061–1668, p. 21).

Lord Baltimore appointed Captain Robert Swanley to be his lieutenant in Avalon, and on May 9, 1663, the King’s officers and subjects were “to be assisting to Capt. Swanley or his deputy in the Government of said province” (ibid. p. 132).

269 History of New England, i. 24. The following is the entry for May 30:

The wind N. by E. a handsome gale, but close, misty weather, and very cold; so our ship made good way in a smooth sea, and our three ships kept close together. By our account we were in the same meridian with Isle Sable, and forty-two and a half (ibid. i. 24).

270 That the colonists felt that they were in grave danger of hostilities by the French is shown by a statement in Thomas Dudley’s letter to the Countess of Lincoln, dated March 12, 1630–31, wherein Dudley, referring to the efforts of the colonists in July and August, 1630, to find a place for their sitting down, says:

And to that purpose, some were sent to the Bay, to search up the rivers for a convenient place; who, upon their return, reported to have found a good place upon Mistick; but some other of us, seconding these, to approve or dislike of their judgment, we found a place (that) liked us better, three leagues up Charles river; and thereupon unshipped our goods into other vessels, and with much cost and labor brought them in July to Charlestown. But there receiving advertisements, by some of the late arrived ships from London and Amsterdam, of some French preparations against us, (many of our people brought with us being sick of fevers and the scurvy, and we thereby unable to carry up our ordnance and baggage so far,) we were forced to change counsel, and for our present shelter to plant dispersedly, some at Charlestown, which standeth on the north side of the mouth of Charles river; some on the south side thereof, which place we named Boston, (as we intended to have done the place we first resolved on;) some of us upon Mistick, which we named Medford; some of us westwards on Charles river, four miles from Charlestown, which place we named Watertown; others of us two miles from Boston, in a place we named Rocksbury; others upon the river of Saugus, between Salem and Charlestown; and the western men four miles south from Boston, at a place we named Dorchester. (Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, pp. 312, 313.)

It thus appears that the danger of attacks by the French may have affected the locations of towns and town boundaries in the neighborhood of Boston.

271 Savage, referring to the capture of Quebec by the Kirkes, says (Winthrop’s History of New England, i. 13 note) that it was an event then and long after thought of so little consequence as not to be noticed in Hume’s History of England.

272 History of New England, chap. xiv.

273 History of New England, chap. lxxi.

274 This estate was at the southerly comer of what are now known as Washington and State Streets.

275 Mather, Magnalia (1702), book iii. chap. xxv. p. 144.

276 The Rev. John Wilson.

277 The Rev. John Norton.

278 See Massachusetts Colony Records (second edition), i. 37 f, 37 g, 37 h.

279 Original agreement in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

280 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. (part i.) 327.

281 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ii. (second edition) 158.

282 For Oxenbridge in England, see index of Masson’s Life of Milton.

283 Mather Papers, in Catalogue of Prince Library, ii. 15; Suffolk Probate Files, no. 716.

284 Acadia was ceded to France by the Treaty of Breda, 1667, but was not actually turned over until 1670.

285 Both wills are given in Prime’s Some Account of the Temple Family, Appendix (1899), pp. 94–99.

286 The title-page has neither imprint nor date. It is generally assigned to the year 1670. In the address “To the Reader,” the Rev. Increase Mather, a brother of Samuel Mather, speaks of it as a posthumous work; and as Samuel Mather died October 29, 1671, the pamphlet obviously could not not have been printed before the end of 1671.

287 See John Dunton, Life and Errors (1818), p. 204.

288 John Usher (1648–1726).

289 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 576.

290 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, vii. 162.

291 Diary, i. 141.

292 Foote, Annals of King’s Chapel, i. 45, 46.

293 Diary, June 27, 1671; August 3, 1671.

294 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 162.

295 Diary, i. 159, 160, 162.

296 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, vii. 220.

297 See Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xi. 13, 14.

298 Ibid. xi. 26.

299 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, v. 178.

300 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xi. 37.

301 See Palfrey’s History of New England, iv. 295 note, quoting a letter from Governor Dudley to the Lords of Trade, March 10, 1705: “I have received her Majesty’s picture and coat of arms. The same were the next day fixed in the Council Chamber of this Province.”

302 See John Hull’s Diary, p. 150 note.

303 See Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts (1767), ii. 187.

304 Sewall’s Letter Book, i. 422.

305 See Publications of this Society, viii. 19–21.

306 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xi. 185.

307 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 163.

308 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xiii. 249.

309 See Publications of this Society, xi. 196–207.

310 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xviii. 422.

311 [The return of Mede’s book to the King’s Chapel Library came from a suggestion by Mr. Canavan.—Editor.]

312 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xi. 240.

313 Sewall’s Letter Book, ii. 208.

314 See J. J. Ogle’s The Free Library (London, 1897), p. 11.

315 Report for 1899, p. 43.

316 The inscription has been kindly verified by Dean Wace of Canterbury Cathedral, who writes that the tablet is of white marble. It need scarcely be pointed out that the terms “British Colony of New England,” “British Forces,” and “American Commonwealth” would not have been employed by an American.

317 This silhouette of Bishop Cheverus belonged originally to the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Pearson (H. C. 1773), a Fellow of the Corporation of Harvard College, and the first Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover. It was inherited by his daughter Margaret Bromfield Pearson, who married the Rev. 1. H. T. Blanchard (H. C. 1817), the Unitarian minister of Harvard, Massachusetts, and always adorned the wall of her chamber. At her death it passed to her kinsman our late associate Dr. Daniel Denison Slade, and is now the property of his son, Mr. Denison R. Slade. See Publications of this Society, v. 198 note, 205 note, viii. 290.

318 Jean Louis Anne Madeleine Lefebvre de Cheverus (1768–1836) signed himself, when Bishop of Boston, John Cheverus (Memorial History of Boston, iii. 518).

319 Some Select Cases Resolved (Boston, 1747), p. 44.

Again, the authors of A Defence of the Answer made unto the Nine Questions (London, 1648) say: “We had neither time nor Bookes ready at hand to Consider some of the quotations” (p. 29). Thomas Shepard and John Allen figure as the joint authors of this volume. Sabin treats it as identical with the Treatise of Liturgies, which is placed among the works of Shepard.

320 Legal may have a technical meaning here. Legalists are contrasted with Antinomians in contemporary literature. They were those who adhered to a rigorous administration of the word.

321 Theses Sabbaticæ, or The Doctrine of the Sabbath: etc., etc. By Thomas Shepard, Pastor of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England. London, 1649. The Sanctification of the Sabbath . . . The fourth Part, p. 36 et seq.

322 Theses Sabbaticæ, or The Doctrine of the Sabbath: etc., etc. By Thomas Shepard, Pastor of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England. London, 1649. The Sanctification of the Sabbath . . . The fourth Part, p. 45.

323 Subjection to Christ (London, 1652), p. 25.

324 Subjection to Christ (London, 1652), Quest. 3, p. 120.

325 Ibid. Answ. 2, p. 122.

326 Subjection to Christ (London, 1652), p. 124.

327 May 25, 1636, “M^r Shepeard” was one of a committee appointed by the General Court to prepare “a draught of lawes agreeable to the word of God, w^ch may be the Fundamentals of this com̄onwealth” (Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 174). March 12, 1637–38, “M^r Sheopard”—one of several who were described as “elders of severall churches”—was also on a committee appointed by the same body for a similar purpose (ibid. i. 222). This Shepeard or Sheopard was probably our Shepard.

328 The Church Membership of Children, p. 26.

329 The Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1660), p. 106.

330 Ibid. p. 166.

331 New England’s Lamentation for Old England’s Errours (1644), p. 5.

332 A Treatise of Liturgies . . . in answer to Mr. . . . Ball, p. 8.

333 The Sincere Convert (London, 1659), p. 69.

334 The Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1660), p. 226.

335 The Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1660), part ii. p. 5.

336 Ibid. p. 6.

337 Some Select Cases Resolved (Boston, 1747), p. 49.

338 The Parable, p. 103.

339 Ibid. p. 106.

340 Certain Select Cases Resolved, p. 7.

341 The Parable, p. 223.

342 Ibid. p. 127.

343 The Sound Believer (Boston, 1742), p. 206.

344 Subjection to Christ, p. 116.

345 The Parable, part ii. p. 61.

346 Ibid. p. 41.

347 Subjection to Christ, pp. 119–120.

348 Ibid. p. 121.

349 The Parable, p. 89.

350 Subjection to Christ, p. 192.

351 The Saints Jewel, p. 184. This is printed in connection with The Sincere Convert, with continuous pagination.

352 The Parable, part ii. p. 55.

353 The Sound Believer, p. 216.

354 Subjection to Christ, p. 132.

355 The Parable, pp. 107, 166.

356 The Sincere Convert, p. 164.

357 The Saints Jewel (London, 1659), p. 197. Printed with the Sincere Convert and having continuous pagination.

358 The Parable, p. 110.

359 The Sound Believer, p. 62.

360 The Parable, part ii. p. 97.

361 The Sound Believer, pp. 111, 112.

362 Theses Sabbaticse, The Sanctification of the Sabbath, p. 43.

363 The Parable, p. 57.

364 Ibid. p. 211.

365 The Parable, p. 227.

366 The Parable, part ii. p. 23.

367 The Sincere Convert, p. 114.

368 The Sound Believer, p. 238.

369 The Sincere Convert, p. 52.

370 The Sound Believer, p. 142.

371 Theses Sabbaticæ, The Beginning of the Sabbath, p. 3.

372 The Sound Believer, p. 33.

373 The Parable, p. 41.

374 Ibid. p. 215.

375 The Parable, part ii. p. 7.

376 The Parable, part i. p. 80; The Sincere Convert, p. 163.

377 The Parable, part i. p. 191.

378 Theses Sabbaticæ, The Sanctification of the Sabbath, p. 88.

379 Ibid. p. 175.

380 Ibid. p. 49.

381 Theses Sabbaticæ, The Morality of the Sabbath, p. 28.

382 Theses Sabbaticæ, The Morality of the Sabbath, p. 88.

383 A Treatise of Liturgies, p. 42.

384 Subjection to Christ, p. 92.

385 Ibid. p. 106.

386 Preface by Thomas Shepard—without pagination—to A Reply to a Confutation of some Grounds for Infants Baptisme, by George Philips (London, 1645). See sixth page.

387 The Parable, part ii. p. 103.

388 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv. 363.

389 Subjection to Christ, p. 100.

390 Ibid. p. 100.

391 Wine for Gospel Wantons: or Cautions against Spiritual Drunkenness (Cambridge, 1668), p. 9.

392 This is to be found on the third page of a preface by Shepard, which has no pagination, to A Reply to a Confutation of Some Grounds for Infant Baptisme, by George Philips (London, 1645).

393 Luke, vi. 2.

394 Exodus, xxxi. 15.

395 The Parable, p. 18.

396 Autobiography, p. 34.

397 Subjection to Christ, p. 97. For the explanation of this I am indebted to Professor Roger B. Merriman.

398 Subjection to Christ, p. 11

399 Ibid. p. 27.

400 The Sound Believer, p. 101. For the meaning of this, Professor Kittredge, who has helped me in solving some of these questions, says: See Jonah, ii. 5.

401 Certain Select Cases Resolved, p. 49.

402 (1) Autobiography. (2) The Church Membership of Children. (3) New England’s Lamentation for Old England’s Errours. (4) The Parable of the Ten Virgins. (5) The Saints Jewel, with The Sincere Convert. (6) The Sincere Convert. (7) Some [or Certain in some editions] Select Cases Resolved. (8) The Sound Believer. (9) Subjection to Christ. (10) Theses Sabbaticae. (11) Treatise of Liturgies. (12) Wine for Wanton Gospellers. The Saints Jewel, which is separately cited, is only to be found in connection with The Sincere Convert. The Day-breaking if not the Sun-rising, etc., is the title of another pamphlet included by Sabin among Shepard’s works, but not considered by me as entitled to this attribution.

403 The Clear Sun Shine of the Gospel breaking forth upon the Indians, etc., separately published; First principles of the Oracles of God, to be found in Three Valuable Pieces; and Meditation and Spiritual Experiences, also to be found in Three Valuable Pieces, but which was subsequently published by itself. The Sincere Convert in the form of a translation into the Indian tongue is also to be seen in some of our libraries.

404 The Liturgical Considerator Considered in Reply to Dr. Gaudon, London, 1661.

405 See p. 160, above.

406 William Clarke was the father of Richard Clarke, one of the consignees of the tea in 1773. See Publications of this Society, viii. 78 note.

407 The Hon. Josiah Willard, son of Samuel and Eunice (Tyng) Willard and grandson of Major Simon Willard, was born in Boston 21 June, 1681; graduated in 1698 at Harvard College, which he served later as a tutor and librarian; studied divinity and preached, but retired from his profession because of unconquerable diffidence; travelled in Europe and the West Indies, and at one time commanded a ship in the London trade. On 17 June, 1717, he was commissioned Secretary of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay and held the office till his death. From 1728 till 1745 he was Judge of Probate in Suffolk; and from 1734 till 1755 he sat in the Executive Council. He was universally honored and esteemed and was affectionately called “the good Secretary.” At the time of the Knowles riot in Boston, in 1747, Commodore Knowles dined with him. During the dinner the Commodore used some profane language, for which he was gently admonished by his host, but not until the next day. (See the correspondence in Publications of this Society, iii. 239, 240.)

Secretary Willard married (1) Katharine Allen, 24 October, 1715, by whom he had several children; and (2) Mrs. Hannah Clarke, 7 April, 1726, who also brought him two sons and a daughter. Mrs. Clarke was born in Lynn, 1 November, 1684, the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Whittingham) Appleton of Ipswich. She married William Clarke of Boston, at Ipswich, 11 October, 1705, by whom she had several children; and after his death, as already stated, she became the second wife of Secretary Willard. Her first husband, William Clarke, had inherited from his uncle of the same name valuable real estate in Boston, including a parcel at the southeasterly corner of Tremont and School Streets, opposite King’s Chapel, now covered by the newer part of the Parker House. The lot measured 68 feet, 10 inches, on School Street and 94 feet, 5 inches, on Tremont Street, its southerly line bounding on the present site of Tremont Temple. On the northerly portion of this lot stood his mansion house, which faced School Street. Here his widow continued to reside after her marriage to Secretary Willard; and here is where Commodore Knowles dined on the occasion already referred to. Mr. Willard died 7 December, 1756. His widow survived him nearly ten years and died 28 July, 1766. See Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ix. 156, xxviii. 61, 135, xxx. 302; Willard Memoir (1858), pp. 368, 369, 400–403; Whitmore, Massachusetts Civil List, pp. 44, 55–59, 80; Publications of this Society, viii. 78 note, 79 note, xii. 134; Suffolk Probate Files, nos. 3273, 4439, 11,380, 13,898; Suffolk Deeds, lxviii. 136, lxxvii. 191; Minute Book no. 26 of the Superior Court of Judicature, third leaf from end, Docket no. 227, Suffolk term beginning 13 February, 1738–39, of which no Record is known to exist; Suffolk Court Files, dccvi. 15, case no. 108,493; Boston Evening Post, 13 December, 1756, p. 2/2, 4 August, 1766, p. 2/3.

408 Lefroy, Memorials of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, i. 710. Governor Lefroy considers Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, New England, and him of Bermuda the same; but on p. 545 he says, whether they are the same individual or not “the Editor has not ascertained. N. Ward can be traced in Bermuda from 1627 to October 1631.” At vol. ii. p. xv of the same work the title-page of Nathaniel Ward’s sermon preached before the House of Commons on June 30, 1647, is given, with a parenthesis for explanation, thus: “By Nathaniel Ward, minister of God’s word (long a minister in Bermuda).” The words in parenthesis are not a part of the title, and the assertion is clearly a mistake.

409 Ibid. i. 583.

410 Savage says born in 1606. Foster (Alumni Oxonienses) says born 30 Jan., 1608; matric. 20 June, 1623, aged 18; M. A. 17 April, 1627. The editor of Laud’s Works (v. 98) says that he took the degree of M. A. at Magdalen College June 18, 1631. Hotten’s Original Lists (p. 87) gives his age in June, 1635, as 24 years. There is a very good account of Mr. Oxenbridge and his family, which I had not seen until after this article was in type, in the Sussex Archseological Collections (xii. 203–220); where may be found his will, printed at length, and the epitaph of his first wife, whose influence over him was very great. I think the writer has somewhat misunderstood the matter of the sacramentum academicum and Laud’s connection with it. See also p. 121 notes 3 and 4, above, and p. 173 note 4, below.

411 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1633–1634, p. 563.

412 Ibid. p. 571.

413 History of Laud’s Chancellorship of Oxford, Laud’s Works, v. 98.

414 Hotten, Original Lists, pp. 85, 87.

415 Lefroy, Memorials of the Bermudas, i. 706.

416 He was the other or another schoolmaster who was, it would seem, a real Church of England man and whose imprisonment and other sufferings make him write more violently if not more strongly than Norwood.

417 Memorials of the Bermudas, i. 706, 707.

418 Tribe in Bermuda is equivalent to township elsewhere.

419 Memorials of the Bermudas, i. 585.

420 Otherwise Graeme, or Grames, the Rev. Alexander. Ibid. i. 663,704.

421 For an instance somewhat earlier (1616), see ibid. i. 107.

422 Memorials of the Bermudas, i. 569.

423 Ibid. i. 570.

424 Ibid. i. 571.

425 Ibid. i. 573, 574.

426 Ibid. i. 581.

427 Memorials of the Bermudas, i. 583.

428 Ibid. i. 584.

429 David Stokes, who had been removed by the Puritans, being restored.

430 Mr. Oxenbridge’s first wife, Jane Butler, was with him in Bermuda. She was a masterful woman, and in England is reported to have had much to do with her husband’s ecclesiastical activities. She died April 25, 1658. See also p. 168 note, above.

431 Memorials of the Bermudas, i. 692.

432 Ibid. i. 694.

433 Whitmore, Massachusetts Civil List, p. 45. See Massachusetts Province Laws, vii. 24, 54. This was not his first public service. After the overthrow of Andros, Taylor was chosen one of the Representatives from Boston to join in a convention with the Council of Safety at Boston on the ninth of May, 1689, for consultation in regard to the adoption of a form of government (General Court Records, vi. 15, 25). After the arrival of the Province Charter, he again represented Boston in the lower House at the session which began 31 May, 1693 (Massachusetts Province Laws, vii. 20). He may have been identical with the James Tailer, as the name was frequently spelled, who was Commissioner of Impost and Excise from 17 June, 1696, till 18 June, 1697 (Whitmore, Massachusetts Civil List, p. 125). Taylor died in Lynn 29 July, 1716, and was buried in Boston on the second of August (Sewall’s Diary, iii. 94, 95).

434 Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of New England, i. 392.

435 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ix. 59, 63. She was buried in Boston 23 July, 1718, æ. 60 (Sewall’s Diary, iii. 190).

436 Records of the First Church in Boston.

437 Suffolk Probate Files, no. 2005. The estate was administered by Stephen. Minot, who had married Capt. Clarke’s youngest daughter Mary (or Mercy).

438 Essex Probate Files, no. 27,301. See also Rebecca Taylor’s estate, ibid. no. 27,315; Rebecca Kelsoll’s (sometimes Kelsey’s) will, ibid. no. 15,297; Essex Deeds, xliv. 152; Sewall’s Diary, iii. 94, 95.

439 Massachusetts Province Laws, vi. 108, 119, 123, and side notes. See also ibid. ii. 195 note.

440 William Taylor died 23 January, 1769, æ. 72 (Lynn Vital Records, ii. 602). See Essex Probate Files, no. 27,320. He married Sarah Burrill of Lynn, their intentions having been recorded 29 May, 1726, by whom he had two daughters one of whom, Rebecca, born 5 June, 1727, married her second cousin Timothy Orne of Salem, 20 June, 1747, and became the ancestor of our associate Mr. Francis H. Lee (Lynn Vital Records, i. 395, ii. 285, 368, 369).

441 Both declined service and William Taylor, the testator’s half-brother, administered the estate (Suffolk Probate Files, no. 6603). See Massachusetts Archives, li. 283; 1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 410, 414,416.

442 Suffolk Probate Files, no. 8656.

443 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ix. 207.

444 Rev. Jeremiah Condy’s Funeral Sermon, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ix. 175. This sermon was called to my attention by Mr. William P. Greenlaw. See ibid, xxxii. 423.

445 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxviii. 83.

446 Rev. Jeremiah Condy’s Funeral Sermon on her husband.

447 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xi. 27, 28; Suffolk Probate Files, no. 11,430. This family appears to have spelled its name Procter and not Proctor.

448 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxiv. 23.

449 Boston Town Records,—Old Sexton’s bill.

450 Suffolk Probate Files, no. 4273; Suffolk Deeds, xxxviii. 224. This house stood on a part of the site of the Adams Building, between the Ames Building and Franklin Avenue. In 1714 Richard Procter dwelt in Cornhill (now Washington Street), on the westerly side, between Queen (now Court) Street and the present thoroughfare known as Cornhill. This estate ran through to the passageway now called Franklin Avenue (ibid. xxix. 252, xxx. 199).

451 Caulkins, History of New London (1852), p. 318, 367; Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxiv. 177. See Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxx. 20, 422.

452 Mrs. Procter’s gravestone at New London is inscribed: “In memory of M^rs Lucretia widow of M^r John Procter M.A. who died Sept. 10^th 1770 in y^e 64^th year of her age” (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xi. 27, 28). If Procter ever received an academic degree, the name of the college or university conferring it has not been discovered. See Caulkins, History of New London, p. 318.

453 Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xii. 21. See Publications of this Society, x. 257 note.

454 Records of the First Baptist Church, passim; Nathan B. Wood, History of the First Baptist Church of Boston, pp. 201, 204, 208, 209, 234.

455 In March, 1746, the Society met in their new meeting-house in Baldwin Place. It is now known as the Warren Avenue Baptist Church (ibid. p. 241). Concerning the schoolhouse, see Publications of this Society, x. 257 note.

456 I am indebted to our associate Mr. Julius H. Tuttle for this important item.

457 After Procter’s death, a dispute arose between his widow and executrix and the Baptist Church officials over his accounts with them. A commission appointed to adjust the dispute awarded in favor of the Church officials, 12 October, 1758 (Suffolk Probate Files, no. 11,430).

458 Suffolk Deeds, xlix. 141.

459 Ibid. xxii. 451.

460 Ibid, xxxiii. 235 (two instruments); xxxvii. 79, 80; xlii. 181.

461 As the parchment has, between the given name and surname of the signature, three slits for the insertion of a ribbon, a seal was probably pendant.

462 This entry and the next entry are on the face of the parchment.

463 The Boston Town Records preserve the dates of birth of the following named children of James Taylor which do not appear on the parchment: by wife Elizabeth, Elizabeth, 24 October, 1674; and by wife Rebecca, Abigail, 2 August, 1690; Ann, 13 November, 1692; Sarah, 19 May, 1695; William, 19 June, 1696; Mercy, 13 November, 1700, and Mary, 15 July, 1702 (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, ix. 134, 191, 202, 224, 228, xxiv. 5, 17). The daughter Mary, born of James Taylor’s first wife, Elizabeth, 25 January, 1675, had married William Payne, 11 October, 1694 (ibid. ix. 218) and died in childbed, 6 January, 1700–01, before the birth of Taylor’s youngest daughter of the same name by his second wife, Rebecca, 15 July, 1702 (1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xiii. 410). Cf. Suffolk Deeds, xxxvii. 79, 80.

464 Argent; a chevron between three cross-crossleta sable within a bordure engrailed gules bezantée; impaling argent on a saltire azure a dragon’s (?) head, erased or.

465 Hartford, 1790; Boston, 1825–1826; Boston, 1853; New York, 1908 (Hosmer’s edition).

466 Journal (Hosmer’s edition), i. 32.

467 Smiles, John Harrison, Inventor of the Marine Chronometer, in Men of Invention, London, 1884.

468 Lady Arbella Johnson.

469 See pp. 101–113, above.

470 Terceira is one of the central group of the Azores, and is in about 27° 10′ west longitude.

471 In his journal of his voyage to New England, Francis Higginson says under date of June 1, 1629, “For coming now to the height of the Western Islands, some of our men fell sick of the scurvy, and others of the small pox,” etc. (Young’s Chronicles of Massachusetts, 1846, p. 226). Higginson sighted Cape Sable June 24 (ibid. p. 231). On his second voyage, Josselyn sighted Flores and Corvo June 25, 1663, but passed them without landing. (Two Voyages to New England, 1865, p. 32.)

472 See Edmund M. Blunt, American Coast Pilot, 1827, p. 564; E. & G. W. Blunt, Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, New York, 1832; A Chart of the Banks of Newfoundland, 1775, in Jefferys’s American Atlas, 1778, No. 13; Alexander G. Findlay, Directory of the North Atlantic Ocean, London, 1895.

473 Winsor, Christopher Columbus, pp. 201–203; L. A. Bauer, United States Magnetic Declination Tables and Isogonic Charts for 1902, pp. 22–24, 24 note. Under date of May 25 Winthrop writes: “We went on with a handsome gale, and at noon were in forty three and a half; and the variation of the compass was a point and one-sixth.”

474 Barrow, Life of Lord Anson, 1839, p. 84.

475 Ibid. pp. 46–47; F. J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, 1899, pp. 235, 236.

476 Williamson, History of Maine, 1832, i. 231 and note.

477 Savage believes this to have been the White Mountains (Winthrop’s Journal, 1853, i. 28).

478 It will be remembered that the promontory now known as Cape Ann was originally named Tragabigzanda by Captain John Smith, and that Smith also named three of the islands off that Cape the “three Turks heads” (Works, 1884, p. 204). I suggest the probability that Mt. Agamenticus temporarily acquired the name of the Three Turks’ Heads through some confusion in the description of, or reference to, the said three islands off Cape Ann.

Hubbard gives his version as to how the cape and three islands referred to ceased to be called by the above names respectively in characteristic language as follows:

As some merchants from the west of England had for a long time frequented the parts about Munhiggon, for the taking of fish, &c, so did others, especially those of Dorchester, make the like attempt upon the northern promontory of the Massachusetts Bay, in probability first discovered by Capt. Smith, before or in the year 1614, and by him named Tragabizanda, for the sake of a lady from whom he received much favor while he was a prisoner among the Turks; by whom also the three small islands at the head of the Cape were called the Three Turks’ Heads. But neither of them glorying in these Mahometan titles, the promontory willingly exchanged its name for that of Cape Anne, imposed, as is said, by Captain Mason, and which it retaineth to this day, in honor of our famous Queen Anne, then surviving, the royal consort of King James; and the three other islands are now known by other names (History of New England 1878, p. 105).

The story of “this Noble Gentlewoman,” as Smith called Charatza Tragabigzanda, and of the three Turks whom he overcame in single combat, is told by the redoubtable Captain in his True Travels, Adventures, and Observations, published in 1630 (Works, pp. 838–840, 853, 866). But Hubbard was mistaken in thinking that Capt. John Mason imposed the name of Ann upon the cape, as the change was made by Prince Charles (ibid. p. 232). It is worth noting that the same royal personage altered the name of Accominticus to Boston. But while the former change was accepted, the latter was rejected. Young gives the present names of the three islands as Straitsmouth Island, Thacher’s Island, and Milk Island (Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 22 note).

479 On the sketch a line across the Atlantic on the parallel of 43° 15′ is laid in illustration.

480 See Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, pp. 31, 34; Hubbard, History of New England, pp. 199, 200.

481 In his Annals of New England, published in 1755, Prince gives (p. 10) this “List of Ships which arriv’d in New-England this Year,” 1630:

No	Names	whence set sail England	whence set sail 1630	when arriv’d 1630	where arriv’d New-Engl.
1	Lyon	Bristol	Feb.	Maye.	Salem
2	Mary-John	Plymouth	March 20	May 30	Nantasket
3	Arbella		April 8	June 12
4	Jewell		Ditto	June 13
5	Ambrose		Ditto	June 18
6	Talbot		Ditto	July 2
7	May Flowr	S. Hampton	May		Charleston
8	Whale	ditto	Ditto		Charleston
9	Hopewell	ditto	Ditto		[Salem]
10	Wm & Fran.	ditto	Ditto		[Salem]
11	Tryal	ditto	Ditto
12	Charles	ditto	Ditto
13	Success	ditto	Ditto	July 6	[Salem]
14	Gift	Maye.	Aug. 20	Charlestown
15	Another	June
16	Handmaid	Aug. 6	Oct. 29	Plymouth
17	Another set out by a private Merchant

The Mayflower, Whale, Hopewell, William and Francis, Trial, Charles, and Success, are the ships which in the text are stated to have sailed in May.

482 In a letter to his wife written on board the Arbella at Cowes on March 28, 1630, Winthrop, referring to the four vessels which sailed from Yarmouth and the seven which sailed from Southampton, says: “We are, in all our eleven ships, about seven hundred persons, passengers.” He also states that the Mary and John carried about one hundred and forty persons, and the Lion about eighty (Life and Letters, 1864, p. 388). Young says that the Handmaid brought about sixty passengers (Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 310 note).

483 History of Plymouth Plantation (1908), pp. 106, 107.

484 Leviathan (1651), pt. i. ch. xiii. p. 63.

485 Ibid. pt. ii. ch. xviii. pp. 89, 90.

486 Leviathan, pt. ii. ch. xx. p. 102.

487 Ibid. pt. ii. ch. xxix. p. 169.

488 Observations upon Aristotles Politiques, touching Forms of Government (1652), Preface.

489 Ibid.

490 Observations, etc., Preface.

491 On November 29, 1769, Harvard College received from Thomas Hollis a volume containing six of Filmer’s pamphlets printed in 1680. On a fly-leaf Hollis has written the following:

As the Patriarcha gave occasion to two of the noblest works which were ever executed by men, the “Discourses of Government” by Algernon Sydney, and “Two Treatises of Government,” by John Locke; I have been willing to send all the Publications of Sir R. Filmer, to Harvard College, that so the whole of those Works by the curious may be compared.

Aug. 12. 69. T. H.
- Floreat Libertas!

492 The Social Compact (1842), p. 28.

493 Discourses on Government (1805), i. 453, 454.

494 Discourses on Government, ii. 20, 21.

495 Ibid. ii. 381.

496 Two Treatises, § 22, Works (1823), v. 351.

497 Ibid. § 90, v. 389, 390.

498 Ibid. § 95, v. 394.

499 Two Treatises, § 99, v. 396.

500 Early Records of the Town of Providence, i. 1.

501 Whittier, The Mayflowers.

502 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, lvi. 341–344.

503 The words “so long as his Master lives of said Term” are interlined.

504 Presumably he was the “[C?] ollister Baker” who was baptized on March 1, 1720 (Vital Records of Marlborough, p. 15).

505 The Philadelphia Hospital, the first in this country, was established in 1751. See Harrington, Harvard Medical School, i. 30, 31; Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, ii. 1584, 1588.

506 This was the class which President Stiles of Yale University called “the learned class.” Our associate, Mr. Franklin B. Dexter of the Yale University Library, in a letter to Mr. Henry H. Edes, writes that this phrase is pencilled in President Stiles’s copy of the Harvard Triennial of 1776, now preserved in the Yale Library, and that certain members of the class are marked as “docti” and “doctissimi.”

507 I am indebted to our associate Mr. Julius H. Tuttle, of the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, for suggesting this identification.

508 It is written on a small folio sheet of four pages, 15¾ by 6 inches. Pages 2 and 3 are blank.

509 History of Concord (1835), p. 45.

510 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. part i. 100, 101.

511 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. iv. part i. 205. See also ibid. vol. iv. part i. 179, 186; Publications of this Society, iii. 417–425.

512 Substituted for “and.”

513 I am indebted to Mr. William Prescott Greenlaw, a descendant of the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, for deciphering this very obscure signature. Although not mentioned by Shattuck in his History of the town, Maj. Thomas Henchman, Hinchman, or Hincksmen, was among the early inhabitants of Concord who removed to Chelmsford, which was settled soon after the date of the Agreement in the text. He is also said to have been one of the “Wenham company” who under the leadership of the Rev. John Fiske, and as members of his church in Wenham, transplanted themselves to Chelmsford, where Allen says he “was for many years a leading character, and became a large land holder.” Savage says that Maj. Henchman died 18 July, 1703. See Colony Records, vol. iv. part i. 251, 261, 431, 432,441,460, vol. iv. partii. passim, and vol. v. passim; Province Laws, i. 93, 406; Wilkes Men, History of Chelmsford (1820), pp. 8, 16, 21, 27, 106, 122, 148, 149, 152, 154, 156–158, 162, 163, 166–170; Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of New England, ii. 403.

514 William Underwood also removed to Chelmsford, of which he was one of the first settlers, and a selectman in 1679. Other signers of this Agreement cast in their lot with the founders of Chelmsford.

515 Sketches of the Judicial History of Massachusetts, p. 304.

516 1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, iii. 147.

517 Life of Thomas Hutchinson, chap. xii.

518 See G. E. Ellis, in Atlantic Monthly, liii. 662.

519 See Eighth Annual Report, pp. 14–15; Tenth Annual Report, pp. 19–20. A photograph of the field accompanies both Reports.

520 Andrew Oliver.

521 Stephen Greenleaf.

522 David Phips.

523 Of the Class of 1770.

524 College Book, vii. 216–220.

525 Of the Class of 1737.

526 The original is in Harvard College Papers, ii. no. 73.

527 This letter is printed in the Magazine of American History (1883), ix. 375.

528 Col. William Dalrymple.

529 On July 17, 1774, Omiah was presented to George III, who recommended his being inoculated; and on August 25, having recovered from the small-pox, he dined with the Royal Society. He was still in England in 1775. See the Gentleman’s Magazine, xliv. 330, 388, 441, xlv. 167, 169.

530 John Bowers came to Medfield with the Braintree and Weymouth people about 1652. His house lot was near the Great Bridge. His house was burned and he was killed by the Indians in their attack on Medfield February 21, 1676–76. See Tilden, History of Medfield, p. 320.

531 Henry Adams, son of Henry Adams of Braintree, came to Medfield, of which he was the first town clerk, with the Braintree and Weymouth people about 1652. He was killed by the Indians on February 21, 1675–76. Hannah Adams, the well-known writer, was descended in the fifth generation from Henry Adams of Medfield. For a sketch of him, see Tilden’s History of Medfield, p. 281.

532 Probably John Biscoe (1622–1690). See Bond’s Genealogies and History of Watertown, i. 43.

533 The words “might be caused to” are substituted for “would.”

534 Richard Norcross, a son of Jeremiah Norcross of Watertown, was born in England about 1621, was admitted a freeman in 1652 or 1653, and died in 1709. He is supposed to have been the first schoolmaster of Watertown, to which office he was chosen on January 6, 1650–51. See Bond’s Genealogies and History of Watertown, i. 376–377; Watertown Records, i. 21.

535 This document is in the hand of Thomas Danforth.

536 Thomas Danforth (1623–1699), Deputy-Governor of Massachusetts.

537 Capt. Hugh Mason of Watertown. He died October 10, 1678. See Bond’s Genealogies and History of Watertown, i. 356.

538 Deacon William Stitson, Stetson, or Stilson, of Charlestown. He died April 11, 1691. See Wyman’s Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, i. 902.

539 Medallic Portraits of Washington, No. 78, pp. 49, 52. See also, under date of April 20, 1778, S. Curwen’s Journal and Letters (1864), p. 204.

540 Publications, x. 258, xi. 195 note.

541 See Columbian Centinel, February 22, 1794, p. 3/2; February 26, p. 4/1; March 1, p. 3/2.

542 See pp. 174–181, above.

543 Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (1908), pp. 68–70.

544 Byington, Puritan in England and New England, p. 170.

545 Old Virginia and her Neighbours, ii. 29, 30.

546 Beginnings of New England, p. 127 note.

547 Ibid. p. 105.

548 Beginnings of New England, pp. 93–94.

549 Fiske, Old Virginia and her Neighbours, i. 177

550 Ibid. i. 186.

551 Drake’s History and Antiquities of Boston, p. 599.

552 History of American Literature, ii. 120, 121, 123.

553 See remarks of Mr. Charles Francis Adams in 3 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, ii. 154–170.

554 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ii. 351.

555 Mirick, History of Haverhill, p. 139.

556 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ii. 353.

557 Ibid. ii. 351 note.

558 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xv. 204.

559 The reason for giving these titles at such length is that no complete list of Mr. Checkley’s printed sermons has been made and that hitherto the writings of Mr. Checkley and those of his son, the Rev. Samuel Checkley, Jr., have been confused. Thus three sermons have been attributed to our Mr. Checkley which were really preached by his son, pastor of the Second (or North) Church, as is proved by the following title-pages:

The Character and Hope of the Righteous Consider’d, in a Sermon Preach’d the Lord’s-Day after the Funeral of Madam Lydia Hutchinson, the Virtuous Consort Of The Honourable Edward Hutchinson, Esq; Who departed this Life, July 10. 1748. Aged 61. By Samuel Checkley, A.M. Pastor of the second Church of Christ in Boston. Boston, 1748.

The Duty of God’s People when engaged in War. A Sermon Preached at the North-Church of Christ in Boston, Sept. 21. To Captain Thomas Stoddard, and his Company; On Occasion of their going against the Enemy. By Samuel Checkley, A.M. Pastor of said Church. Boston, 1755.

The Christian triumphing over Death through Christ. A Sermon Preached November 10. 1765. At the second Church of Christ, in Boston; Upon a mournful Occasion. Published with some Enlargements. By Samuel Checkley, jun’r. Pastor of said Church. Boston, 1765. The “mournful Occasion” was the death of “Mrs. Mary Gallop, Widow, aged 37 Years.”

560 The words in the text are those of the half-title, missing in some copies. There were three sermons, each separately paged, but with a continuous register. The titles are as follows:

Murder a great and crying Sin. A Sermon Preach’d on the Lord’s-Day March 4th. 1732–3. To a poor Prisoner Under Sentence of Death for that Crime.

Mercy with God for the chief of Sinners. A Sermon Preach’d on the Lord’s Day March 4th To a Prisoner Under Sentence of Death for Murder.

Sinners minded of a future Judgment. A Sermon Preached to, and at the Desire of, A Condemned Prisoner, March 18th. 1732–3. Being the Lord’s-Day before his Execution.

561 Pages 49–52.

562 Pages 33–36.

563 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, i. 134, ii. 353; Drake, History and Antiquities of Boston, p. 820; Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, vol. xxii. p. iv.

564 Publications of this Society, ix. 9.

565 History of Newton, p. 252.

566 Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 322 note; Hine, Early Lebanon, p. 153.

567 Allen, American Biographical and Historical Dictionary; Freeman, History of Cape Cod, i. 362, 566.

568 Mirick, History of Haverhill, p. 138.

569 J. S. Cushing, Cushing Genealogy, p. 34; J. Scales, Historical Memoranda of Dover, N. H.

570 Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 280 note.

571 H. Child, Gazetteer of Cheshire County, New Hampshire; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ii. 208.

572 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ix. 340, 341.

573 See p. 214, above.

574 Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 385.

575 Paige, History of Cambridge, p. 572; Hudson, History of Lexington, pp. 53, 71, 84.

576 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xliv. 251.

577 F. Hatfield, History of Elizabeth, N. J., pp. 338, 367, 568, 572, 629.

578 History of New England, v. 7.

579 Memorial History of Boston, ii. 231. Dr. McKenzie’s account, it must be confessed, is somewhat confusing. He says:

The new life began to appear in 1734, under the powerful preaching of Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton. It spread to the surrounding towns. It aroused the interest of the Boston churches. Dr. Colman wrote to Dr. Edwards for an account of the work, which was given in a letter long afterward published in London. The Boston ministers kept their people interested, and circulated among them Dr. Edwards’s letter and several sermons which had been influential in the movement. The remarkable interest in the valley of the Connecticut was not of long continuance; partly, it would seem, because so many had quickly felt the new life, and had come under its control, or turned away from it. But Boston was yet to feel its power.

Edwards’s letter to Colman was dated November 6, 1736, and was printed in abstract in the Appendix to the Rev. William Williams’s Duty and Interest of a People, among whom Religion has been planted, to Continue Stedfast and Sincere in the Profession and Practice of it, published at Boston in 1736. The letter was printed in full in London in 1737 under the title of A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton, and the Neighbouring Towns and Villages of New-Hampshire in New-England. This was reprinted in Boston in 1738. The London editors speak of “the Neighbouring Towns and Villages of New-Hampshire in New-England.” This natural error was corrected by the Boston editors to “the Neighbouring Towns and Villages of the County of Hampshire, in the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England.”

At the time when Edwards started his movement, Whitefield was an undergraduate at Oxford. He first came to Georgia in 1738 and to Boston in 1740.

580 Suffolk Probate Files, no. 6672.

581 Ibid. no. 6677.

582 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, lv. 305, lxi. 303.

583 Ibid. xl. 59.

584 Publications, vi. 47.

585 This Anthony Stoddard—he married Martha Belcher, a sister of the Madam Oliver whose burial is recorded by Mr. Checkley—who was born in 1678, who graduated at Harvard College in 1697, and who died in 1748, should not be confused with his first cousin, the Rev. Anthony Stoddard, who was also born in 1678, who also graduated at Harvard in 1697, but who died in 1760. The grandfather of Mrs. Fitch was Simeon Stoddard, whose sister Lydia married Samuel Turell and became the mother of the Rev. Ebenezer Turell mentioned in the text. Hence Turell, who graduated at Harvard only six years before Fitch, and Anthony Stoddard, the father of Fitch’s wife, were first cousins.

586 See also p. 220, above.

587 Wyman, Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, ii. 785–786; Thacher, American Medical Biography, ii. 13–16.

588 New England Weekly Journal of August 4.

589 Capt. Thomas Durrell. See Publications of this Society, viii. 244.

590 In these days such a death seems extraordinary. The following extract is taken from the Boston Evening Post of Monday, January 24, 1737:

Friday last one Richard Williams, a Chimney-Sweeper at the South End of the Town, was found in his Bed froze to Death, where in all probability he had lain since Tuesday Night, having never been seen by the Neighbours since that Time.

591 In the Weekly Journal of November 25, the name given is James Darling. This is correct. He was the son of George and Abigail (Reed) Darling. See Wyman, Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, i. 276.

592 Diary, i. 102, 235, 368, 462.

593 S. Briggs, Essays, Humor and Poems of Nathaniel Ames, pp. 139, 440.

594 Dedham Historical Register, ii. 27.

595 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv. 61.

596 Palfrey, History of New England, v. 339; Snow, History of Boston (1825), p. 263.

597 John Boyle’s Journal, p. 87. For these extracts from this imprinted Journal, owned by a member of the Palfrey family, I am indebted to Professor George L. Kittredge.

598 Letters and Diary, p. 67.

599 I am indebted to Mr. Matthews for aid in the preparation of this paper.

600 Publications of this Society, viii. 90, 91, 92, 104.

601 Dialect Notes, i. 18, 217.

602 Journal of American Folk-Lore, v. 335.

603 Portsmouth Republican News, Monday, November 7, 1892.

604 Portsmouth Daily Evening Times, November 7, 1892.

605 Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel Deane, pp. 329, 331.

606 Literary Diary, i. 182, 470.

607 Works, ii. 201.

608 History of Newbury, pp. 249–251.

609 Massachusetts Province Laws, iii. 647, 997, iv. 78, 617; v, 87, 459, 1122.

610 On the first page is written in ink:

Rev. Mr. Checkley of Boston appears to have been the author of the notices entered in this Almanac. M.A.S.

May 4, 1837.

The top of the volume has been trimmed, thereby cutting off a few entries. Where these are undecipherable, square brackets are used.

There are no entries on the following days: January 15, February 18, 19, March 6, 19, July 8, October 8, November 8, 24, 26, December 17, 18.

The word “fair,” and that only, is entered on the following days: February 26, March 25, May 7, June 10, 16, 21, July 3, 21, August 6, October 7.

The words “fair pleasant,” and those only, are entered on the following days: February 6, 7, 10, 27, March 22, 26, April 17, 18, May 5, 6, 14, 16, 26, 27, 28, June 25, 26, 27, July 19, 22, 24, 30, August 11, 15, 16, 18, 25, September 6, 12, 13, 15, 20, October 2, 10, 18, 22, November 5, 10, 22, 25.

The following days are labelled “hot,” “cold,” “cool,” “dry,” “moderate,” “seasonable,” “cloudy,” or in some such indefinite way: January 6, 7, 10, 24, 25, March 8, 10, 11, 12, April 9, 11, 21, 30, May 1, 9, 10, 21, 31, June 5, 7, 13, July 17, August 21, 23, 30, September 4, 18, 23, 29, 30, October 17, November 3, 4, 11, 29, December 6, 11, 13, 23.

611 See p. 272, above.

612 See p. 281, above.

613 See p. 281, above.

614 See p. 281, above.

615 See p. 281, above.

616 See p. 275, above.

617 What follows is written on the other side of the leaf.

618 This name is uncertain. It might be “M^cLong” or “M^cLorey.” On May 2, 1734, Mr. Checkley married “Thomas McLory & Isabella Hood” (Boston Record Commissioners’ Reports, xxviii. 186).

619 See p. 283, above.

620 See p. 281, above.

621 See p. 283, above.

622 See p. 281, above.

623 See p. 279, above.

624 See p. 282, above.

625 See p. 276, above.

626 See p. 276, above.

627 See p. 282, above.

628 See p. 276, above.

629 See p. 282, above.

630 What follows is written on the other side of the leaf.

631 See p. 276, above.

632 What follows is written on the other side of the leaf.

633 See p. 276, above.

634 See p. 277, above.

635 See p. 284, above.

636 See p. 282, above.

637 See p. 277, above.

638 What follows is written on another leaf in the middle of the book.

639 See p. 285, above.

640 See p. 277, above.

641 What follows is written on the other side of the leaf.

642 Perhaps this name is “Burch’s.”

643 See p. 283, above.

644 See p. 279, above

645 see p. 279, above.

646 See pp. 284, 287, above.

647 This entry is on the other side of the leaf, and of course was not made until about a fortnight later.

648 See pp. 288–295, above.

649 See p. 278, above.

650 See p. 283, above.

651 See p. 277, above.

652 This refers to the entry under date of November 5. See p. 288, above.

653 See p. 278, above.

654 This entry is somewhat uncertain.

655 See p. 283, above.

656 See p. 278, above.

657 See Publications of this Society, vi. 288.

658 History of the Harvard Medical School, i. 111.

659 College Book, viii. 185 ff.

660 Overseers’ Records, iii. 300 ff.

661 College Book, viii. 264.

662 1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vii. 177 ff.

663 History of the Harvard Medical School, i. 112 ff.

664 College Book, viii. 387.

665 Overseers’ Records, iv. 192.

666 College Book, viii. 480.

667 July 15, 1801, College Book, viii. 484; Overseers’ Records, iv. 335.

668 August 25, 1802, College Book, viii. 500; Overseers’ Records, iv. 361.

669 August 30, 1809, College Book, ix. 152

670 August 29, 1810, College Book, ix. 179.

671 So spelled here and in all Triennials until that of 1830, when the spelling “Clapp” appears thirteen years after the man’s death.

672 Harvard College Papers, vi. 61.

673 That is, Benjamin Shurtleff.

674 College Records, x. 48. The Overseers’ Records (v. 360) give no lists.

675 Prophesying is dangerous. While these pages were going through the press, Charles W. Eliot received from Harvard the honorary degree of M. D.!

676 College Book, viii. ISO; Overseers’ Records, iii. 300.

677 This is the spelling of the name in the records of the First Church, but the more usual form is Hibbins or Hibbens.

678 February, 1907, Publications, xi. 196–207.

679 So called in the Proprietors’ Records, Boston Athenæum, March 18, 1826.

680 So called in the Proprietors’ Records, Boston Athenæum, January 1, 1827.

681 Memoirs of Rev. Joseph Buckminster (1849), pp. 188, 207.

682 William Emerson, Nathan Frazier, James Jackson, John S. Popkin, Josiah Quincy, Timothy Williams, John Quincy Adams, John Lowell, and later John C. Warren, John C. Howard. (Life of J. C. Warren, i. 72; MS Records of the Society, p. 11.) The records of this society were presented to the Boston Athenæum in 1909 by the present Dr. John Collins Warren.

683 Catalogue / of / Books / in the / Boston Medical / Library, / and the / Rules and Regulations / concerning the same. / Also, / a Statement of the Trustees / to the Proprietors. / Boston. / Printed by Thomas Fleet, No. 5, Cornhill, 1808. Title, 1 leaf; Catalogue, pp. 3–10; Rules and Statement of the Trustees, pp. 11–16.

684 See E. J. Forster’s article in Professional and Industrial History of Suffolk County, iii. 220. The present Boston Medical Library was incorporated in 1877, after several meetings dating from 1875.

A copy of the catalogue of a so-called Second Social Library has been preserved, and it shows that this library was in 1808 wholly general in character. This copy, owned by Dr. Ayer, has many titles added in manuscript, suggesting that the library had a considerable call for books. The title-page reads:

A / Catalogue of Books, / in the / Second Social Library / in the / Town of Boston. / Instituted January, 1805. / Incorporated 1806. / Boston: / Printed at the Emerald Printing office, / No. 5, Court Street. / 1808. / E. G. House, Printer, /pp. 12.

This copy belonged to the Rev. William Emerson and bears his autograph signature on the title-page.

The Boston Public Library has a second edition, which was John H. Gould’s copy with a supplement covering twelve additional pages, entitled:

Supplementary Catalogue of Books, added to the Second Social Library, from January, 1809, to May, 1811. pp. 12.

685 The names read: Theoph: Parsons, Chas Jackson, Charles Paine, Rd Sullivan, Warren Button, Wm Stackpole, Jr., James Allen, Jr., Israel Munroe, Wm. H. Sumner, Thomas Williams of Roxbury, Peter Thacher, Cha Davis, John Heard, Jur., Samuel D. Parker, Ira: D. Channing, Edward Gray, Joseph Hall, Jno Lowell, Geo: Blake, Danl Davis, Eben Gay, John Phillips, R. G. Amory, Josiah Quincy, Robert T. Paine, Jr., Jos. Rowe, Thos. O. Selfridge, C. Gore, Geo. Sullivan.

686 Preface to Catalogue of 1849.

687 Preface to Catalogue of 1865.

688 Quincy, History of the Boston Athenseum, p. 94.

689 View in Ellis’s History of the First Church in Boston, facing p. 172.

690 Ibid. View facing p. 237.

691 W. Emerson, History of the First Church, p. 168.

692 The catalogue bears the title:

Catalogue of Books, / in the / Theological Library, / in the / Town of Boston. / March 1, 1808. / Snelling and Simons, Printers, / Devonshire-Street. . . . Boston. /1808. Title, 1 leaf; Rules and Regulations, Subscribers, and Government for 1807–8, pp. 3–6; Catalogue of Books in the Theological Library, including those Deposited by the Corporation of “King’s Chapel,” in Boston, pp. 7–33.

693 Greenwood, History of King’s Chapel, p. 162.

694 The General Theological Library was organized April 20, 1860, with the Rev. Charles Burroughs as president and J. Sullivan Warren as secretary. In 1862, with the Rev. Luther Farnham as secretary, the Library began its work, having quarters at different times on Tremont, West, Somerset, and now on Mount Vernon Streets. It is open to members, clergymen, and visiting strangers.

695 The Boston Public Library has a catalogue of books in “the Columbian Social Library, instituted January, 1813,” and of “Social Library No. 1, March, 1823.” The title-page of the latter reads:

Catalogue of Books / in / Social Library, / N^o 1. / March, 1823. / Boston: / Printed for the Proprietors. / pp. 36. 4 books at once. $10 a share.

696 Shaw’s Description of Boston, p. 278.

697 See Life of John C. Warren, i. 79. Members were Col. George Gibbs, President Holley, Dr. James Jackson, the Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, Benjamin Vaughan, and Francis C. Gray.

698 Including some on International Law.

699 The writer.

700 See Howe v. Morse, 174 Massachusetts Reports, 491 (1899).

701 These included our associate, Major Henry L. Higginson, nephew of Colonel Lee, who narrated the incident to me.

702 A.B. Harvard, 1864; A.M. Harvard, 1870; LL.B. 1886.

703 The firm of Balch & Rackemann was formed in October, 1886, and consisted of Mr. Balch, the writer, and Felix Rackemann.

704 In his Memorial to Mr. Tillinghast, Mr. George H. Martin says:

In 1849, in order to give the Board and its Secretary an office, an act of the legislature made the Secretary of the Board of Education State Librarian with the power to appoint an assistant librarian and clerk, and the business of the Board was installed in one of the rooms of the Library.

This relation between the Board and the Library continued under sanction of law until 1893, when provision was made by statute for the appointment of the Librarian by the Governor.

705 Harvard College Papers, viii. 89.

706 Life and Letters of George Bancroft, i. 33.

707 Life and Letters of George Bancroft, i. 42.

708 Life and Letters (1909), i. 79.

709 The name Virginia, as is of course well known, was, when given by Queen Elizabeth at the time she knighted Ralegh (January 6, 1584–85), applied to an indefinite tract of territory north of Florida. The name Massachusetts occurs in Capt. John Smith’s Description of New England, published in 1616. The name Connecticut (under the form Quonehtacut) is found in Winthrop’s Journal under date of April 4, 1631. The Connecticut River was named the Fresh River by the Dutch, and continued to be so called by them long after the adoption by the English of the name Connecticut.

710 Documentary History of the State of Maine, vii. 223, 224. In the Century Cyclopedia of Names is this: “Maine. [In the charter granted by Charles I. in 1639 named ‘The Province or Countie of Mayne,’ because regarded as a part of ‘the Mayne Lande of New England.’]” This reason, it is perhaps unnecessary to point out, is not found in the charter itself.

711 History of Maine, p. 122.

712 Ibid. p. 307.

713 American Annals, i. 311 note.

714 History of Saco and Biddeford, p. 53.

715 History of the State of Maine, i. 277. Early in 1635 the Council of the Plymouth Company decided to return its charter into the hands of the King; but before doing so, an agreement was made on February 3, 1634–35, for the several divisions of the seacoasts of New England. In this division no name is given to that portion which became Gorges’s, but he soon (in 1636) called it New Somerset or New Somersetshire. For the history of the name of Somerset as employed in Maine, see Publications of this Society, vi. 61–70.

716 Folsom is not the only one who has fallen into error in calling Gorges “Lord Palatine.” Gov. Chamberlain did the same (Maine: her Place in History, p. 54), and also a writer in London Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, xii. 23. Such a title, however, was not used by Gorges himself. See Publications of this Society, viii. 206–207.

717 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, ii. 58. Folsom adds: “The biography of this queen recently published by Miss Strickland, is a work of intense interest and apparently drawn from original and authentic sources.” This allusion would seem to indicate that Folsom, who in 1830 (as quoted in the text) had held that Henrietta Maria was “connected by title or estate with the province of Meyne in France,” changed his opinion as a result of something said by Miss Strickland; but in her sketch of Henrietta Maria (Lives of the Queens of England, 1845, viii. 1–266) she apparently does not mention the French province of Maine.

718 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, iii. 31 note.

719 History of New England, i. 525 note.

720 History of the United States, i. 337 note.

721 Maine: her Place in History (1877), p. 54 note.

722 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, vol. v. p. xxi.

723 American Historical Record, i. 211.

724 History of Maine, p. 107.

725 Brief History of Maine (second edition), p. 42.

726 Rural Hours, pp. 479, 483.

727 See p. 367, above.

728 See p. 368, above.

729 Ancient Dominions of Maine, p. 124.

730 Gov. Chamberlain makes a curious slip. In one place he speaks of the grant of August 10, 1622, “which the indenture itself states ‘they intend to call the Province of Maine,’” yet a little later declares that in the charter of April 3, 1639, the territory “was now for the first time, and by charter, named the Province of Maine” (Maine: her Place in History, pp. 44, 54).

731 Documentary History of the State of Maine, vii. 66, 67, 68.

732 The word “charter” as here used includes charters, grants, and patents, as it is impossible to distinguish between the terms.

733 In J. A. Poor’s Vindication of the Claims of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, pp. 121–123.

734 Documentary History of the State of Maine, vii. 102.

735 History of New Hampshire, i. 8.

736 S. F. Haven, History of Grants under the Great Council for New England, in Early History of Massachusetts (1867), p. 150. Charles Deane called attention to Belknap’s mistake in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for April 24, 1867, p. 56 note, and ibid, for October 21, 1868, p. 34.

737 History of Maine, pp. 267–269. Yet Sullivan himself seems to have been hopelessly confused. Cf. pp. 111, 119, 304.

738 History of the State of Maine, i. 225.

739 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, ii. 52.

740 Ibid. in. 30.

741 History of New England, i. 205.

742 History of the United States (1876), i. 257; ibid. (1883), i. 217.

743 Brief History of Maine, p. 34.

744 Boston Transcript, June 8, 1872, p. 6/4. When this letter was reprinted in. the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1875, xxix. 243–244, it was preceded by an editorial note stating: “We learn that Mr. Tuttle is preparing a full account of the origin of the name of Maine.” So far as I am aware, that account was never written.

745 H. Ellis’s Original Letters, Second Series (1827), iii. 226–228.

746 Mr. Baxter says that “Charles, accompanied by the dissolute Buckingham, had seen and wooed the princess Maria, but, returning through France incognito, had stopped in Paris, and at a ball there had seen the French princess Henrietta” (Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, Prince Society, i. 133). It was, however, on their journey to Madrid that the two travelled incognito. Charles left the Escorial September 2, 1623, sailed from Santander September 18, and landed at Portsmouth October 5. (Gardiner, Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage, ii. 409, 413, 421.) In a letter dated Paris, February 22, 1622–23, Charles himself gave this description:

Since the closing of our last we have beene at Court againe, (and that we might not houd you in paine, we assure you that we have not been knowen,) where we saw the young Queene, littell Monsieur, and Madame, at the practising of a Maske that is intended by the Queene to be presented to the Kinge, and in it ther danced the Queene and Madame with as manie as made up nineteen faire dancing Ladies, amongst which the Queene is the handsomest, which hath wrought in me a greater desier to see her sister. (In H. Ellis’s Original Letters, 1824, iii. 121–122.)

The wife of Louis XIII was Anne, sister of the Infanta Maria; “littell Monsieur” was Gaston, Duke of Orleans; “Madame” was the Princess Henrietta Maria. Henrietta Maria’s sister Elizabeth married Philip IV of Spain. After the breaking off of the English marriage, the Infanta Maria married the Emperor Ferdinand III.

747 In an account of an interview with Lady Carew, dated September 19, 1618, Sir Thomas Wilson said, referring to Queen Anne of England, that “Her Majesty said she would rather have the match with Mdme. Chretienne than the Spanish lady with all her gold” (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611–1618, p. 573).

748 See the notices (by S. R. Gardiner) of Charles, Digby, Hay, and Henrietta Maria, and that of Rich (by C. H. Firth) in the Dictionary of National Biography; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611–1618, 1619–1623, 1623–1625.

749 In his text (see p. 368, above) Williamson spoke of “the provincial name of Maine, though one by which this section of the country was at that time frequently called,” etc. This statement is somewhat misleading. The word “main” was applied to the mainland along the coast, but it was not applied to the territory as such. Previous to the charter of April 1, 1639, the country was once and once only called “Maine”—namely, in the grant of August 10, 1622. Thus before 1639 a man at Boston or Plymouth would never have said that he was going “to Maine,” meaning the present State of Maine. He might have said that he was “going to the main;” but that would have left the exact locality in doubt. See also note 3, below.

750 History of New England, i. 525 note.

751 In speaking of Maine’s “own unique geographical features,” Tuttle was using exaggerated language. Maine is not the only State in the Union that has islands along its coast, though it has more than any other. The word “main” was applied in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the mainland along the entire Atlantic coast, from the Carolinas to Greenland. See also note 1, above.

752 Boston Transcript, June 8, 1872, p. 6/4; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxix. 244.

753 History of the United States, i. 337 note.

754 Maine: her Place in History, p. 54 note.

755 Narrative and Critical History of America, iii. 363 note.

756 The lack of certainty on the part of historians is doubtless due to the fact that this point has never received adequate treatment. Writers have asserted that the word “main” was frequently used for mainland, but have failed to furnish proof. “The name of ‘Province of Maine,’” says Miss Mary F. Farnham, “is first used in the grant to Gorges and Mason, 1622; its origin is not difficult to trace in the frequent use of maine as applied to ‘maine land,’ and ‘along the main’” (Documentary History of the State of Maine, vol. vii. p. xxi). And again, referring to the charter of April 3, 1639, she says: “The name ‘Province of Maine’ is repeated from the grant of 1622. By reference to the early charters it is easy to arrive at a correct idea of the origin of the name, which has survived all the changes of colonial rule, and is perpetuated in the phrase ‘state of Maine’” (ibid. vii. 222). It is obvious that nothing later than August 10, 1622, is of value. Now the word “main,” in the sense of mainland, occurs only three times previous to that date in the documents printed by Miss Farnham,—namely, on March 3, 1619–20, November 3, 1620, and July 24, 1622. These extracts are quoted in the text, p. 379, below. Hence it is necessary to go to other documents than those given by Miss Farnham. Williamson (History of the State of Maine, i. 277 note), quotes three extracts, one from Smith’s Generall Historie of Virginia, published in 1624, one from a document dated 1635, and one from a work written about 1680. These are of course too late. Palfrey (History of New England, i. 525 note) repeats two of Williamson’s citations. In the present paper, for the first time so far as I am aware, full evidence on this point is given.

757 “The poet found out, one day,” writes W. J. Rolfe in the Nation of October 22, 1908, “that the Spanish Main was the mainland bordering on what he—like nine people out of ten—had supposed to be the sea called by that name” (lxxxvii. 383). Dr. Rolfe, however, does not indicate when the discovery was made. The reading is “Had sailed the Spanish Main” in Longfellow’s Poems, 1842, ii. 43, and in his Poems, 1866, i. 95. In the Poetical Works, 1872, p. 40, the reading is “Had sailed to the Spanish Main.” Hence the change was made in 1872 or between 1866 and 1872.

758 Purchas his Pilgrimes (1906), xviii. 306, 307, 309.

759 Purchas his Pilgrimes (1906), xviii. 315.

760 Ibid, xviii. 323, 324.

761 Ibid, xviii. 338.

762 Description of New England, Works (1884), p. 190.

763 Purchas his Pilgrimes, xix. 132, 133.

764 Documentary History of the State of Maine, vii. 17.

765 Ibid. vii. 33.

766 Sir George Calvert, later first Baron Baltimore.

767 Documentary History of the State of Maine, vii. 61–62. In a letter written to Mason on March 18, 1631, Gorges said:

As for the ꝑtie yon write of that hath lived w^th the Dutch soe longe time I wishe yo^u would not omitt to keepe him on reasonable condic̄ns untill my comeing vpp [to London], in the meane while that you will informe your selfe of the strength they haue where they Hue, how fortified, & ꝑuided for, how farr vpp, into the Maine they bee, What other Commodity they finde besides their Trade of furrs, what Cattle, what Horses, and what carriages they make vse of w^th what people they hold Coraspondancy w^thall, and what Enemyes they haue, and in what parts of the Country ther Enemyes, or freinds are (Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, Prince Society, iii. 254).

In the index to that volume “the Maine,” which of course means mainland, is entered under “Maine,” as if it referred to the Province of Maine.

768 Capt. John Mason (Prince Society), p. 174.

769 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine (Prince Society), i. 124 ote.

770 Boston Transcript, June 8, 1872, p. 6/4; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxix. 244.

771 This is an allusion to the grant to Sir Robert Heath on October 30, 1629, of Carolana (or Carolina). No settlements were made under it.

772 Juan de Mariana (1536–1623).

773 Scharf gives as his authorities manuscripts in the British Museum.

774 History of Maryland, i. 51–52.

775 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1623–1625, p. 387; ibid. 1625–1626, p. 16.

776 Lives of the Queens of England, viii. 33.

777 Capt. John Mason (Prince Society), p. 14.

778 A facsimile of the title-page of this almanac is given in the Church Catalogue, iii. 1113.

779 See pp. 270–306, above.

780 Between 1725 and 1776 inclusive there are in addition to the specimens in the text almanacs for the several years named giving longitudes as follows: 1725, 4 h. 44 min.; 1726, 4 h. 44 min.; 1728, 70° or 4 h. 44 min.; 1729, 72°, in another 289°; 1730, also 1731, 4 h. 44 min.; 1732, 289°; 1733, 4 h. 25 min.; 1737, about 71°; 1738, 71°; 1740, 69°; 1743, 69° 27′; 1744, 69° 15′; 1750, about 4 h. 40 min.; 1751, 4 h. 45 min.; 1753, 69°.

In the New England Almanack, or Lady’s and Gentlemen’s Diary for 1769, by Benjamin West, the meridian is 4 h. 40 min. west from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. This language tends to indicate that the maker had knowledge of the British Nautical Almanac first published in 1766, as stated in the text. From 1725 to 1776 the almanacs stating the longitude to be that of Boston without addition appear to be in a large majority.

781 Account of Two Voyages to New England made during the Years 1638, 1663, Boston (1865), p. 124.

782 Ibid. p. 157.

783 The Massachusetts Town Boundary Survey makes the State House to be in longitude 71° 03′ 51.040″ (Atlas, Boston and Brookline, 1902).

784 I take the longitude of St. Michael’s from the map of that island in Walter Frederick Walker’s The Azores, London, 1886, opposite p. 46.

785 Voyages and Works of John Davis, the Navigator, Hakluyt Society, London, p. 284.

786 Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America, translated by Samuel Kettell, Boston (1827), pp. 18–19.

787 Schott, Secular Variation in the Position of the Agonic Line of the North Atlantic and of America between the Epochs 1500 and 1900 A. D., in Bulletin No. 6, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, June 7, 1888, p. 29 (being the first page of Bulletin) and footnotes.

788 Frontispiece to The Azores.

789 Schott, Bulletin No. 6, ubi supra, p. 29. See also Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, iii. 41. On p. 40 of the last named volume a facsimile is given of Michael Locke’s or Lok’s map of 1582, whereon the meridian of 350° passes through the Azores, and the meridian of 360° passes between the Azores and the Madeiras.

790 A Discourse of the Variation of the Compass by William Borough was published as an addition to Robert Norman’s The New Attractive in 1581.

791 St. Mary’s, a smaller island than St. Michael’s, lies about forty miles south from it, in the eastern group of the Azores.

792 Facsimile, New York, 1907.

793 By Andrew Wakely, Corrected and Enlarged by James Atkinson, London, 1716.

794 The first edition was published in 1652.

795 In this connection I quote from Bauer’s United States Magnetic Tables, etc., pp. 27, 28. The author, after stating that the purpose of Table I on p. 28 represents an attempt to collect the values of the magnetic declination up to the year 1600, inclusive, etc., goes on to say:

The values obtained with sea compasses require careful scrutiny, as these compasses were frequently shifted to allow for the supposed variation or “error” of the needle. Thus, Robert Norman, instrument maker, in 1581, says: “Of the common Sayling Compasses, I find heere (in Europa) five sundry sortes or sets”—according to the amount of correction allowed for by different makers. Thus, “by the Isle of Saint Michaell in the Acorres,” he found “that the North poynt of the common compass, showeth the Pole very neere in that Meridian, but the bare Needle sheweth about 4 Degrees 50 Minutes to the Eastwards of the Pole.”

It was not until the close of the sixteenth century that the “variation from the true north” came to be generally accepted as an and not one to be accredited to the imperfection of the construction of the compass.

796 Schott, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bulletin No. 5, The Value of the Arcano del Mare with reference to our knowledge of the Magnetic Declination in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, June 7, 1888, p. 26. Schott, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Appendix No. 7, Report for 1888, Secular Variation of the Magnetic Declination in the United States and at some foreign stations, seventh edition, June, 1889, p. 182.

797 Vol. i. chaps, viii, x.

798 See my paper on Winthrop’s Course across the Atlantic, p. 192, above.

799 See p. 198 and note 1, above.

800 See pp. 194–195, above.

801 The great salt and the loving-cups are described and portrayed in the Curio for 1887 (New York, 1888), i. 20–22, and the loving-cups in the Catalogue of American Silver exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1906 (Boston, 1906), nos. 37, 64, pp. 45, 51, plates I, II, IV, V, VII. See also Publications of the Cambridge Historical Society, iii. 15.

802 This address was written by President Lefavour and was engrossed on parchment, measuring 17 by 22 inches, by Mr. Frank Williamson Martin. It is illuminated in red and gold. The seal of the Society is pendant on a scarlet grosgrain ribbon.