STATED MEETING OF THE COUNCIL,

    7 November, 1901.

    A Stated Meeting of the Council was held on Thursday, 7 November, 1901, at three o’clock in the afternoon, the President, George Lyman Kittredge, LL.D., in the chair.

    Present, Messrs. Henry Winchester Cunningham, Henry Herbert Edes, Frederick Lewis Gay, Edward Hale, George Lyman Kittredge, and John Noble.

    The following is an extract from the Records of the Meeting:

    The members of the Council wish to place upon its Records all expression of their sorrow at the death of their colleague, Robert Noxon Toppan on the tenth of May, and of their appreciation of his character.

    Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mr. Toppan came of a family which for more than two centuries and a half has held high social rank in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He graduated with honors at Harvard in 1858, studied law, and was admitted to the New York Bar. After a long residence abroad, he made his home in Cambridge, where for nearly a score of years, possessed of an ample fortune, surrounded by his family, his friends, and his books, he lived the life of a highly cultivated gentleman, scholar, and man of affairs. His knowledge of numismatics was extensive, and be was deeply interested in historical pursuits. He was the author of several monographs and a contributor to the proceedings of those learned societies with which he was in fellowship. His greatest work, entitled Edward Randolph, was published by the Prince Society in five quarto volumes, and is a monument of his ability and patience in bringing together the memorials of Randolph’s life and the public papers of that devoted servant and agent of the English Crown.

    Mr. Toppan was elected to membership in this Society in March, 1893, soon after its incorporation, and during the rest of his life he was a most devoted and interested member, and constant in his attendance upon its meetings. At the Annual Meeting in 1898 he was elected to the Council, of which for two years he was a valued and valuable member.

    Mr. Toppan attested his loyalty to Harvard College by founding an Annual Prize for the best essay, of sufficient merit, on a subject in Political Science, and also by his devoted service for many years in the Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He was active in good works, outspoken and courageous, intensely patriotic, a hater of everything that was not genuine and true, and a generous giver of time, service and money where they were needed in cases and causes which enlisted his sympathy. He was a most delightful neighbor and friend. His was a charming personality. With a heart overflowing with affection for those nearest and dearest to him, and with sympathy for all who needed it, gentle and refined in thought and deed, possessing a mind stored with interesting reminiscences of foreign travel, which were always at the command of his retentive memory, his companionship was prized by those who were privileged to enjoy it.