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Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
Ontario
Legislative Library
PUBLICATIONS
OF
Colonial £>ocfet of
TRANSACTIONS
1919
Committee of publication
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON
ALBERT MATTHEWS
HENRY HERBERT EDES
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE
CHESTER NOYES GREENOUGH
Cmtor of publications
ALBERT MATTHEWS
fy'
PUBLICATIONS
OF
Colonial g>ocietp of
• „.!**." «
s*» - 1
VOLUME XXI
TRANSACTIONS
1919
at tije Cfjarge of tfje Robert Cljarlta TOHintfjrop, Jr., tftmfc
BOSTON
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
1920
*i ^* j
.5
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
PREFACE
T VOLUME XXI, now completed, contains the Transactions
* of the Society at four meetings, from March to Decem-
ber, 1919, in continuation' of Volume XX.
The committee gratefully acknowledges the Society's
indebtedness to several institutions, and to friends and
members of this Society, for permission to reproduce docu-
ments in their possession, for the gift of plates, or for other
courtesies, namely : to Mr. Charles Fitch Bates, Miss Ada
Bouve*, Mr. Charles William Jenks, Dr. Charles Lemuel
Nichols, the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston
Public Library, the Corporation of Harvard College, the
Dedhain Historical Society, the Harvard College Library,
the Library of Congress, the Massachusetts Historical So-
ciety, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Archives
Department).
For the Committee of Publication,
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON,
Chairman.
BOSTON, 1 March, 1920.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PACT
PREFACE v
LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS be
OFFICERS, 1 MARCH, 1920 xi
RESIDENT MEMBERS xii
HONORARY MEMBERS xiv
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS xiv
MEMBERS DECEASED , xv
PAPERS, NOTES, REMARKS, AND DOCUMENTS
Dr. Robert Child the Remonstrant, by GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 1
Comenius and Harvard College, by ALBERT MATTHEWS . . . 146
Catalogue of John Harvard's Library, by ALFRED CLAGHORN
POTTER 190
John Dunton Again, by CHESTER NOTES GREENOUGH .... 232
Remarks by SAMUEL CHESTER CLOUGH, in exhibiting a Map of
Boston in 1648 251
A Charter Party, dated 22 October, 1659, exhibited by JOHN
WHITTEMORE FARWELL 254
A Water-Color View of Harvard College, made about 1807, ex-
hibited by WALDO LINCOLN 257
Comment by WILLIAM COOLJDGE LANE 257
Remarks by JULIUS HERBERT TUTTLE, on certain Names in the
Dedham Church Records 258
Early Sunday Schools in Boston, by ALBERT MATTHEWS . . . 259
Is there a Mark Baskett Bible of 1752? by CHARLES LEMUEL
NICHOLS 285
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGB
Land Warrants issued under Andros, 1687-1688, communicated
by JULIUS HERBERT TUTTLE 292
The Harvard College Charter of 1672, by ALBERT MATTHEWS . 363
Remarks by WILLIAM COOLIDGE LANE, in exhibiting a Water-
Color View of Harvard College made by Houdin d'Orge-
mont in 1795 410
New England Town Mandates, communicated from KENNETH
COLEOROVE 411
Remarks by JULIUS HERBERT TUTTLE, on a Tradition relating
to the Regicides Goffe and Whalley 449
Receipts of the Record Books and Papers of the Middlesex
Registry of Deeds, 1776, communicated by HENRY HER-
BERT EDES 452
BUSINESS PROCEEDINGS
Members Elected 1,231
Committee to Nominate Officers appointed 231
Committee to Examine the Treasurer's Accounts appointed ... 231
Committee on Memorials appointed 231
Report of the Council 403
Report of the Treasurer 406
Report of the Auditing Committee 408
Officers Elected 408
Annual Dinner 409
Death of Member announced 410
Delegates to the Annual Conference of Historical Societies ap-
pointed 410
INDEX , 455
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
PORTRAIT OF HENRY LEE HIGGINSON Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 146
TITLE-PAGE OF JOHN DOWNAME'S CHRISTIAN WARFARE AGAINST
THE DEVILL, WORLD AND FLESH, 1633 206
WATER-COLOR VIEW OF HARVARD COLLEGE, MADE ABOUT 1807 256
FACSIMILE OF ENTRIES IN THE DEDHAM CHURCH RECORDS . . 258
TITLE-PAGE OF THE MARK BASKETT BIBLE, 1761 286
FACSIMILE OF PASSAGES IN THE ALLEGED MARK BASKETT BIBLE,
1752 288
TITLE-PAGE OF THE MARK BASKETT BIBLE, 1763 290
TITLE-PAGE OF THE ALLEGED MARK BASKETT BIBLE, 1752 . . 292
DRAUGHT OF THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672, I . 388
DRAUGHT OF THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672, II . 392
DRAUGHT OF THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672, HI . 396
DRAUGHT or THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672, IV . 400
WATER-COLOR VIEW OF HARVARD COLLEGE, MADE BY HOUDIN
D'ORGEMONT, 1795 410
FACSIMILES OF TWO DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE RECORD
BOOKS OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, DATED
26 AND 30 APRIL, 1776 452
FACSIMILE OF AN ENTRY IN THE DIARY OF THE REV. JONATHAN
TOWNSEND, DATED 17 JULY, 1737 453
COUNCIL
OF
Colonial Society of
1 MARCH, 1920
present
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON, Pn.D ........ CAMBRIDGE
ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS, A.M.' ...... CAMBRIDGE
HON. ARTHUR PRENTICE RUGG, LL.D ..... WORCESTER
R*corbin0
HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM, A.B. . . . MILTON
REV. CHARLES EDWARDS PARK, D.D ...... BOSTON
ftrea^urtr
HENRY HERBERT EDES, A.M ......... CAMBRIDGE
»
JUgi^trar
ALFRED JOHNSON, Lnr.D ..... ..... BROOKLINE
tfrecuttoe
CHARLES LEMUEL NICHOLS, M.D., Litt.D. . . . WORCESTER
MARK ANTONY DsWOLFE HOWE, Litt.D. . . . BOSTON
SAMUEL WILJJSTON, LL.D .......... BELMONT
tfbitor of publication^
ALBERT MATTHEWS, A.B ........... BOSTON
RESIDENT MEMBERS
IN THE ORDER OF THEIR ENROLMENT
1899
HBNRT HERBERT EDES, A.M.
ANDREW MCFARLAND DAVIS, A.M.
HBNRT WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM, A.B.
CHARLES SEDGWICK RACKEMANN, A.M.
1893
GEORGE WIGGLESWORTH, A.M.
WALDO LINCOLN, A.B.
CHARLES MONTRAVILLE GREEN, M.D.
GEORGE LTMAN KITTREDGE, LL.D.
CHARLES WARREN CLIFFORD, A.M.
CHARLES PICKERING BOWDITCH, A.M.
WALTER CABOT BAYLIES, A.B.
FRANK BREWSTER, A.M.
GEORGE LINCOLN GOODALE, M.D., LL.D.
1894
GEORGE NIXON BLACK, Esq.
1895
LINDSAY SWIFT, A.B.
1896
CHARLKS FRANCIS MAKIN, A.B.
RICHARD MIDDLECOTT SALTONSTALL, A.B.
ALBKRT MATTHEWS, A.B.
CHARLES ARMSTRONG SNOW, A.B.
1897
WILLIAM COOLIDGE LANE, A.B.
Hon. WILLIAM GUSHING WAIT, A.M.
1898
JOHN ELIOT THATER, A.M.
1899
FREDERIC HAINES CURTISS, Esq.
1901
Hon. JAMES MADISON MORTON, LL.D.
JAMES ATKINS NOTES, A.B.
1902
Rev. JAMES HARDY ROPES, D.D.
FRANCIS APTHORP FOSTER, Esq.
1903
JOHN NOBLE, LL.B.
Hon. WlNTHROP MURRAT CRANE, LL.D.
WlNTHROP HOWLAND WADE, A.M.
Hon. AUGUSTUS PBABODT LORING, LL.B.
1906
WILLIAM VAIL KELLEN, LL.D.
ROBERT DICKSON WESTON, A.B.
HENRY LEFAVOUR, LL.D.
FRANCIS RANDALL APPLETON, LL.B.
ARTHUR LORD, A.B.
1908
Rev. WILLIAM WALLACE FENN, D.D.
JULIUS HERBERT TUTTLE, Esq.
Rev. CHARLES EDWAUDS PARK, D.D.
OGDEN CODMAN, Esq.
1909
WORTHIUGTON CHAUNCET FoRD, Litt.D.
WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM, LL.B.
HAROLD MURDOCK, A.M.
Rev. EDWARD CALDWELL MOORE, D.D.
RESIDENT MEMBERS
Xlll
1910
AKCHIBALD CART COOLIDGE, LL.D.
EZRA HKXKY BAKER, A.B.
JOHN WHITTEMORE FARWILL, Litt.B.
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, LL.D.
JOHN WOODBURT, A.B.
Hon. JOHN ADAMS AIKEN, LL.D.
Rev. GEORGE FOOT MOORE, LL.D.
EDWARD PERCIVAL MERHITT, A.B.
Hon. ARTHUR PRENTICE RUGG, LL.D.
1911
MARK ANTONT DeWoLFB HOWE, Litt.D.
MELVILLE MADISON BIGKLOW, LL.D.
1919
CLARENCE SAUNDERS BRIGHAM, A.M.
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON, Ph.D.
ROGKR BIGKLOW MERRIMAN, Ph.D.
CHESTER NOTES GBJBENOUGU, Ph.D.
LINCOLN NEWTON KINNICUTT, Esq.
SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON, Ph.D.
Hon. ROBERT GRANT, Ph.D.
BARRETT WENDELL, Litt.D.
1913
ALLAN FORBES, A.B.
CHARLES LEMUEL NICHOLS, M.D., Litt.D.
SAMUEL CHESTER CLOUGH, Esq.
Hon. CHARLES GRENFILL WASH BURN, A.B.
ALFRED CLAGHORN POTTER, A.B.
FRANCIS HENSHAW DEWET, A.M.
WILLIAM ROSCOE THATBR, LL.D.
EDWARD KENNAKD RAND, Ph.D.
1914
CHARLES HALL GRANDGENT, L.H.D.
Hou. CHARLES JOHN MC!NTIRE
1915
FRANCIS RUSSELL HART, Esq.
SAMUEL HENSHAW, A.M.
AUGUSTUS GEORGE BULLOCK, A.B.
Hon. WINSLOW WARREN, LL.B.
EDWARD CHANNING, Ph.D.
Rev. HENRT WILDER FOOTE, A.M.
STEPHEN WILLARD PHILLIPS, LL.B.
ALFRED JOHNSON, Litt.D.
1916
GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP, Litt.D.
LAWRENCE SHAW MATO, A.M.
RICHARD CLIPSTON STURGIS, A.B.
NATHANIEL THATER KIDDER, B.A.S.
1918
Hon. HENRT CABOT LODGE, LL.D.
WILLIAM CROWNINSHIELD ENDICOTT, A.B.
FREDERICK CHEEVER SHATTUCK, M.D.,
LL.D.
Hon. JAMES PARKER PARMENTER, A.M.
1919
CHARLES ROCKWELL LANMAN, LL.D.
HENRY GODDARD PICKERING, A.M.
ROBERT GOULD SHAW, A.M.
SAMUEL WILLISTON, LL.D.
MORRIS GRAY, LL.B.
RCT. HOWARD NICHOLSON BBOWW, D.D.
JOHN LOWELL, A.B.
1920
Hon. CHARLES FRANCIS JENNET, LL.B.
GEORGE HENRT HATNES, Ph.D.
EDWABD MUSSET HARTWELL, LL.D.
HONORARY MEMBERS
1910
Hon. ELIHU ROOT, LL.D.
1913
Hon. WILLIAM HOWARD TAW, LL.D. *
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS
1898
JOHN FRANKLIN JAMESON, LL.D.
Hon. SIMEON EBKN BALDWIN, LL.D.
WlLBBRFORCB EAMES, A.M.
Rev. WILLIAM JEWKTT TUCKER, LL.D.
FRANKLIN BOWDITCH DEXTER, Litt.D.
1899
EDWARD FIELD, A.B.
Hon. JAMES PHINNET BAXTER, Litt.D.
ARTHUR TWINING HADLET, LL.D.
1903
Rev. WILLISTON WALKER, D.D.
GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON, LL.D.
1904
HERBERT PUTNAM, LL.D.
1905
Rev. JOHN CARROLL PERKINS, D.D.
CLARENCE WINTUROP BOWEN, LL.D.
APPLETON PRENTISS CLARK GRIFFIN, Esq.
1906
WILLIAM LOGAN RODMAN QIFFORD, A.B.
ROBERT HALLOWELL GARDINER, A.B.
1907 '
THOMAS WILLING BALCH, L.H.D.
1908
JAMES KENDALL HOSMER, LL.D.
FRANK WARREN HACKKTT, A.M.
1910
EDWARD ROBINSON, LL.D.
1918
EDWARD YANDERHOOF BIRD, Esq.
1913
EDGAR HUIDEKOPER WELLS, A.B.
1915
CHARLES MCLEAN ANDREWS, L.H.D.
EVARTS BOUTELL GREENE, Ph.D.
1917
EDMUND BURKE DELABARRE, Ph.D.
WILLIAM MACDONALD, LL.D.
GEORGE BURTON ADAMS, Litt.D.
1918
Hon. FREDERIC ADRIAN DELANO, A.B.
OTIS GRANT HAMMOND, A.M.
1920
GEORGE RUSSELL AGASSIZ, A.B.
MEMBERS DECEASED
Members who have died since the publication of the preceding volume
of Tramactions, with the Date of Death
KtfitHtnt
MOSES WILLIAMS, A.B .......... 21 August, 1919
HENKT ERNEST WOODS, A.M ........ 11 October, 1919
HENRY LEE HIGGINSON, LL.D ....... 14 November, 1919
FRANKLIN CARTER, LL.D ......... 22 November, 1919
TRANSACTIONS
1919
TRANSACTIONS
OF
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
MARCH MEETING, 1919
A STATED MEETING of the Society was held at the house
^~*- of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, No. 28
Newbury Street, Boston, on Thursday, 27 March, 1919,
at three o'clock in the afternoon, HENRY HERBERT EDES,
A.M., in the chair.
The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read
and approved.
The CORRESPONDING SECRETARY reported that a letter
had been received from Mr. ROBERT GOULD SHAW ac-
cepting Resident Membership.
Mr. MORRIS GRAY of Newton, and Mr. SAMUEL
WILLISTON of Belmont, were elected Resident Members.
Mr. GEORGE L. KITTREDGE read the following paper:
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
My original purpose in this paper was to throw together a few
facts about Dr. Robert Child that seem to have escaped the notice
of New England historians, such, for instance, as the date of his
M.D. at Padua, his friendly relations with Boyle and Hartlib, cer-
tain details of his travels on the Continent, his acquaintance with
the celebrated Harvard alchemist George Stirk, his authorship of
two important treatises on agriculture (which include a number of
observations on America), his interest in the development of Ire-
land under the Commonwealth, and the date of his death. As to
2 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
his historic clash with the governing forces of the Bay Colony, I
supposed, in my guileless ignorance, that the ins and outs of the con-
troversy had been long ago traced by the students of our early
annals, and that I could pass over that portion of his life that makes
him so conspicuous a figure in our constitutional development with
a brief reference to standard authorities. But it soon appeared that
I had reckoned without my host. Nowhere was there discoverable
an account of the famous Remonstrance of 1646, and of the two re-
sultant prosecutions, that assembled all the res gestae or established
the chronology of the affair. It became necessary, therefore, to
study this episode afresh, with an open mind, and to weigh the evi-
dence as judicially as might be practicable; and thus, in an un-
guarded moment, I found myself taking up arms against a sea of
troubles.
These troubles, in the main, are of rather recent origin. In an
earlier generation, when Palfrey composed his masterly sketch of
the Remonstrant imbroglio, it was assumed that two men, or two
parties, could disagree and come to grips without imposing upon us
the duty of inf erring that either of them was altogether in the wrong.
But of late — at least in the case of our Remonstrant — animum
non caelum mitiamus. Generalities have elbowed concrete partic-
ulars into the limbo of the discredited. Scholars no longer regard
Robert Child as what he was, — an ardent Presbyterian, a disciple
of Robert Baylie, eager to extend to all his countrymen the bless-
ings of a rigid conformity, — but as an advocate of general religious
toleration and freedom of conscience, principles which he and his
party abhorred with all the strength of their earnest souls as the
devil's latest device for the rum of society and the damnation of
mankind. And, on the other hand, I find the fathers of our Com-
monwealth no longer looked at, in this instance, as the shrewd and
valorous (if severe) upholders of a well-conceived plan of civic de-
velopment, but as a little oligarchy of bigots, conscientiously re-
pressive of everything that we, their descendants, hold to be the
inalienable heritage of a freeborn man. The contest between the
Remonstrants and the government of the Bay cannot be understood
if we approach the subject with any such prejudices. Free speech,
the right of petition and appeal, resistance to arbitrary rule, equality
before the law, the separateness of church and state, " I am the cap-
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 3
tain of my soul" — these are principles that may or may not be
involved in the controversy of 1646 and 1647; but that controversy
was not conducted upon those principles, either by Child and his
associates on the one side or by the Governor and Company of the
Massachusetts Bay on the other.
Two parties were struggling for the control of England — the
Presbyterians and the Independents. Both were right and both
were wrong, as is always the case with partisans; but, in the long run,
it has appeared — and is admitted — that the triumph of Inde-
pendency made for the progress of freedom. It was a closely fought
match, and never more hotly contested than at precisely that time
when Child and the Remonstrants struck their blow for the Pres-
byterian party. Of course, the Independents, who bore sway in
Massachusetts, countered with all their strength. They could not
abandon then* friends who were fighting for their very existence in
the mother country. Principiis obsta was of necessity their motto.
The question was not — Shall liberty or bigotry prevail in Massa-
chusetts? It was — Shall Presbyterianism (as it was then, with all
its faults) or Independency (as it was then, with all its faults) pre-
vail as a political system among English-speaking men on both
sides of the sea? Robert Child is a singularly attractive — even a
charming — figure in the life of his tune; he fought valorously for
his own side when neutrality was a crime; he deserves all honor.
But he cannot be judged, in this matter of the Remonstrance, as an
individual: he must stand or fall with his party; and what that
party was, the bare facts, when we reach them, should determine
without argument. It was a party that did not wish either to toler-
ate or to be tolerated. Its one great principle was domination, for
it knew that it was of God and that all other parties were of the
devil. Let us admit, if one insists, that the Independents were as
bigoted as the Presbyterians. So be it, they were not more bigoted,
and there could be no advantage to the Colony in undergoing a
revolution that should merely substitute one bigotry for another.
That the state of things was as I have described it, as to parties,
needs no argument, for such is the consensus of historians. It re-
mains to show that the Remonstrance was in truth a party affair.
For this we may leave the case to the facts of record, to which we
will now turn.
4 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS s [MARCH,
Robert Child was born in 1613 in Kent, probably at Northfleet,
where his father, John Child, appears to have had a comfortable
estate.1 At all events, the Child family was of long standing in the
county * and both Robert Child and his brother, Major John, were
well-to-do. Robert was regarded by our ancestors as a "gentle-
man" and a "person of quality." * Robert Child was matriculated
at Bene't College (Corpus Christi), Cambridge, at Easter Term,
1628, as a Pensioner, took his A.B. in 1631-2, and proceeded A.M.
in 1635.4 He went immediately to the University of Leyden, where
he entered as a Student of Medicine on May 23, 1635, at the age of
twenty-two.6 How long he remained at Leyden we do not know,
but it is certain that he finished his medical studies at Padua.
Child claimed to have the degree of M.D. from Padua,6 and,
1 The date of Child's birth is inferred from his age (22) when he entered the
University of Leyden on May 23, 1635 (see note 5, below). His county (Kent) is
mentioned in the record of his admission to Corpus Christi (List appended to
Part i of Robert Mastere's History of the College of Corpus Christi, 1753, p. 12),
and he describes himself in an agreement of August 23, 1650, as "Robert Child
of Northfleet in the County of Kent Doctor in Physicke" (Suffolk Deeds, i. 216).
His (presumably elder) brother, Major John Child, was also of Northfleet (see p. 94,
below) . His father's name is given in the Padua record (see p. 5 note 4, below) .
1 The name of Child (Peter de la Child) occurs hi Kent as early as 1262
(Archaologia Cantiana, iii. 252; cf. x. 40; xiii. 209, 305, 308, 426; xviii. 355, 364;
xxvii. 45-47, 221). I suspect that Robert Child belonged to that branch of the
family that in the sixteenth century held the manor of Parrocks (Porrocks, Pad-
docks) in the parish of Milton-juxta-Gravesend (John Harris, History of Kent,
1719, pp. 136-137; Hasted's Kent, 2d ed., iii. 339-341 [1797]; Cruden, History
of the Town of Gravesend, 1843, pp. 284, 387). The John Child who, on April
27, 1637, was appointed administrator of the estate of Thomas Child, his brother,
of "Milton next Gravesend" (Archseologia Cantiana, xx. 26) may have been
Robert Child's brother the Major. The John Childe of Kent who, about 1626,
was reported by the Commissioners for the Loan as conformable and as having
given assurance to pay (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1625-1626, p. 521),
may have been the father. The persons mentioned by Waters, Gleanings, i. 762,
seem to belong to quite a different family, but, as Kentishmen, may have been
related.
• Winthrop, ii. 358 (294).
4 Savage, 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, viii. 247; Venn, Book of
Matriculations and Degrees, i. 147 (in the record of matriculation the name is
spelled Chiles). The county (Kent), which identifies this student as our man, is
given in the List printed by Masters (see note 1, above).
1 Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae, Hague, 1875, col. 271
("Robertus Child Anglus").
• Cf. note 1, above. Major John Child calls him "my Brother Robert Child
Doctor of Physick" (New-Englands Jonas, p. 1).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 5
though modern writers have usually taken his word, a slight shadow
still rests upon his title. For this, the language of the Declaration
of the General Court (November, 1646) in answer to the Remon-
strance seems to be primarily responsible: "The first ... is a
Paduan Doctor (as he is reputed)."1 The words seem deliberately
chosen to cast a doubt on Child's pretensions. Their tone, at all
events, had that effect upon Hutchinson, who remarks that "Child
was a young gentleman, just before come from Padua, where he
studied physic, and as was reputed, had taken the degree of doctor." 2
Winslow, in adverting to the subject, uses a tantalizing " however,"
which, while appearing to admit the fact, has really the effect of
leaving one's judgment in suspense: "However he tooke the degree
of Doctor in Physick at Padua, yet doth not at all practise, though
hee hath beene twice in the Countrey where many times is need
enough."3 I am glad to be able to set the matter at rest. The
archives of the University of Padua testify that "Robertus Child,
anglus films Johannis," passed his examinations for the degree of
M.D. on Friday, August 13, 1638. 4
Child probably went home soon after getting his medical degree,
for what seems to have been his first absence from England lasted
"two or three years," as appears from a curious passage in his
treatise entitled "A large Letter concerning the Defects and Reme-
dies of English Husbandry," written in 1651 and forming the bulk
of "Samuel Hartlib his Legacie" published in that year.5 This same
1 Hutchinson Papers (Prince Society), i. 239.
- History of Massachusetts, 2d ed., 1765, i. 145.
* New-Englands Salamander, p. 7.
4 University Archives, vol. cclxxv, p. 179. Some years ago, I asked Mr.
William C. Lane, who was writing to Padua, to ask the University Librarian if
he could find any entries relating to Robert Child, George Si irk, or Nathaniel
Eaton. In his reply (January 12, 1914), the Head of the University Library,
Dr. Gaetano Buryada, wrote: "Ho fatto le ricerche da Lei desiderate, ma
posso dirLe che solo di Robertus Child, anglus filius Johannis, qui si trova notizia.
Nel nostro archivio universitario, nel volume 275 che si riferisce ai Dottori e
licenziati in chirurgia dal 1629 al 1640, a p. 179 e proprio nelT anno 1638, mese di
agosto, giorno di Venerdl, 13, dava gli esami il Child per addottorarsi in medicina.
Di Nat. Eaton e dello Stirk non trovo ricordo alcuno, ma debbo pure aggiungere
che i nostri atti di archivio hanno molte lacune."
• "There are two wayes of making Cider and Perry: one, by bruising and
beating them, and then presently to put them into a vessel to ferment or work
(as it is usually called) of themselves: The other way is to boil the juice with
6 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
treatise gives much incidental information about his travels; but
some of the notes may refer to other visits to the Continent, for
after his return he probably visited France again some years later,
perhaps in 1642.1 " I have travelled twice through France" he says
in the Large Letter,2 and his agricultural observations show acquaint-
ance with almost every part of the country from Normandy to the
Spanish border.8 Probably he visited Spain,4 and perhaps Flanders 6
and Germany.6 Italy he of course knew well.7 Winslow in a some-
what insinuating passage, to which we shall return, declares that
"as for Doctor Childe, hee is a Gentleman that hath travelled other
parts before hee came to us, namely Italy, confesseth hee was twice
at Rome, speaketh sometimes highly as I have heard reported in
favour of the Jesuites." 8 It was fortunate for Child's reputation
that he did not confide to the fathers of the Bay Colony an incident
of his Italian experiences that he mentions in another treatise:
"As concerning the extraordinary bignesse of Goose livers, it is in
Italy amongst the Jews, where I have eaten of them, highly esteemed,
but at present not much in credit amongst the Italians, and to my
Palate it is not so excellent a dainty." 9 Jews and Jesuits would
have made a fine alliteration for the author of New-Englands Sala-
mander to play with.10 Wherever Child went, he kept his eyes
open, and he returned to England not only with a medical degree
some good spices, by which the rawnesse is taken away, and then to ferment it
with some yest, if it work not of it self, this is the best way: and I have tasted
Cider thus made of an excellent delicate taste. Neither let any complaine of the
windinesse; for it is onely want of use: When I had for 2 or 3 years continually
drunk wine beyond Sea, the strongest beer for 2 or 3 weeks was as windy to me,
as Cider will be to any; and afterwards when I went to Parts, the wine of that
place was as troublesome as English beer for a little time" (2d ed., 1652, p. 20;
3d ed., 1655, p. 20). As to Child's authorship of this Large Letter, see p. 107,
below.
1 See the passage quoted in p. 5 note 5, and cf . p. 9, below.
.* Legacie, 2d ed., 1652, p. 23; 3d ed., 1655, p. 23.
« Legacie, 2d ed., pp. 1-3, 5, 14, 26, 28, 47; 3d ed., pp. 1-3, 5, 14, 26, 28, 48.
1 Legacie, 2d ed., p. 44; 3d ed., p. 45.
1 Legacie, 2d ed., p. 45, 47; 3d ed., p. 46, 48.
• Legacie, 2d ed., pp. 29, 51; 3d ed., pp. 29, 52. Cf. p. 102 note 1, below.
Legacie, 2d ed., pp. 5, 27, 28, 51, 52; 3d ed., pp. 5, 27, 28, 52, 53.
• New-Englands Salamander, p. 7. Cf. p. 102 note 1, below.
• An Answer to the Animadversor on the Letter to Mr. Samuel Hartlib of
Husbandry (in Samuel Hartlib his Legacy of Husbandry, 3d at, 1655, p. 168).
10 See p. 61, below.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 7
but with a vast store of exact knowledge on agriculture and kin-
dred matters. Something led him to think of visiting New England,
and thither he went sometime between 1638 and 1641.
Nothing exists in the way of evidence as to the moment when
Child made the acquaintance of the younger John Winthrop. Their
friendship may have begun in England when Winthrop was there in
1634 and 1635, or even as early as 1631, the year of his first embarka-
tion for America; but Winslow's language suggests that Child was a
stranger to the New Englanders until he presented letters of intro-
duction.1 After all, it is a question of idle curiosity; for, if they had
not met before, they certainly became intimate when Child visited
the Bay the first time.
Most authorities have overlooked Child's first visit to this coun-
try,2 but the evidence is decisive. Winslow, writing in 1647, is per-
fectly clear:
Hee hath beene twice in the Countrey. ... At his first coming to
New-England he brought letters commendatory, found good accepta-
tion by reason thereof with the best; fab upon a dilligent survey of the
whole Countrey, and painefully traveUs on foot from Plantation to
Plantation; takes notice of the Havens, situation, strength, Churches,
Townes, number of Inhabitants, and when he had finished this toylesome
taske, returnes againe for England, being able to give a better account
then any of the Countrey hi that respect. Hee comes a second time,
and not onely bestoweth some Bookes on the Colledge, as Sir Kenelme
Digby* and many others commendably did, but brings second Letters
commendatory, having put in some stock among some Merchants of
London, and for the advancement of Iron workes in the Countrey,
which through Gods goodnesse are like to become very profitable to
them; but hath no more to doe in the managing of them then any here
who have other their Agents being expert in the worke. This Gentle-
mans carriage is now changed, and is not onely ready to close with such
as are discontented, but to bee a leader of such against the government,
affront the Authentic God hath hitherto honored with his blessing,
appeale from their justice, and thereby seeke to evade any censure.4
1 Cf. p. 30, below.
1 It is noted by Felt (Ecclesiastical History of New England, i. 583) and by
W. T. R. Marvin, New-England's Jonas, 1869 (Introduction, p. xxiv note 41).
' A list of the books given to Harvard College by Digby is on record in College
Book i. 259, but this remark appears to be the only allusion to Child's benefaction.
4 New-Englands Salamander, pp. 7-8.
8 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
And ChUd himself, in his first extant letter to John Winthrop, Jr.,
written in May, 1641,1 speaks of his intention to "returne" to New
England.2 This fixes the date of his first visit within the limits just
defined. At the end, Child sends his regards to several eminent per-
sons in the Colony, both lay and clerical: "Remeber my service
to yor father [,] Mr Dudley, Mr Bellingham, Mr Huphreys — Mr
Cotton, Mr Wilson, Mr Peters — uto whome I am much beholde."
In a later letter, also written before his second visit, he sends his
best respects to Mr. Maverick,8 with whom he was afterwards asso-
ciated in the Remonstrance. Manifestly, as Winslow has already
told us, the letters commendatory had been effective on Child's first
visit, and he had indeed "found good acceptation with the best."
Child's perambulation of the settlements, undertaken in the same
spirit that had guided his European travels, had satisfied him that
the new country had resources worth developing, and he was ready
to invest something in the plantation.
It is astonishing, in view of this letter of 1641, — even if there
were no other testimony available, — that Child should more than
once be styled an Episcopalian by recent writers on New England.4
He calls it good news that Laud is in the Tower and sure to be
punished severely, rejoices that "Lord p'lates — deanes, prebends,
are fallen," and looks forward hopefully to a like fate for the bishops.6
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 148-151. This letter must have been written between
May 8 and 12, for, in a brief budget of "good newes," Child informs Winthrop
that "y* deputy [Strafford] in codemed by both houses," but does not mention
his execution. What he says of a fine of £100,000 on canons to help toward the
payment to the Scots sounds like an incorrect rumor based on the debate of May
11 in the House of Commons (W. A. Shaw, History of the English Church dur-
ing the Civil Wars and under the Commonwealth, i. 59).
"I intend when I returne to you (god willing) to prosecute y* planting of
vines throwly" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 150).
1 March 1, 1644[-5] (iii. 155). In quoting the Winthrop Papers, I have in
almost every instance gone back to the manuscripts. This will explain a number of
divergences from the printed text.
4 Drake, History and Antiquities of Boston, 1856, pp. 292, 299; Marvin, with
a "probably," in his edition of New-Englands Jonas, 1869, p. xxii note 40;
Whittier, 1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, xviii. 390, 392; C. E. Banks
in his edition of Henry Gardener's New-Englands Vindication, p. 32 note 34
(Gorges Society, No. 1, 1884); Augustine Jones, Life and Work of Thomas
Dudley, 1899, p. 337.
• Winthrop Papers, iii. 150, 151.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 9
In fact, he was a high Presbyterian, as appears abundantly in his
later history.
Child's letter of 1641 offers several other points of interest. It
has much to say of books, especially of those relating to chemistry,
encloses a catalogue (now, alas ! no. more) of his " chymicall bookes,"
asks Winthrop to send a list of such works on the subject as he
possesses, reports on certain volumes which Winthrop had asked
him to procure, and announces the sending of several works "from
myne own library ... to pvse till I come to New England." Al-
chemy was a subject to which both Child and Winthrop devoted
much study, and it is continually mentioned in their correspondence.
In due season we shall revert to this topic. The following passage is
too important to be abridged: "I Intend, if I haue leysure, to goe to
Burdeau, from thence to Tholouse to salute Faber 1 — to procure
vines and a vigneron,2 who can likewise manage silkewormes if it
be possible — if I can doe you any pleasure there, pray let me heare
from you speedily. I intend when I returne to you (god willing) to
prosecute ye planting of vines throwly, to try somewhat cocerning
silkewormes, and would to my power helpe forward ye digging of
some good mine, if you haue found any in ye coutrey." 3 Of Child's
interest in American mines, which cost him dear, we shall hear more
as we proceed. Whether he went to France again before returning
to New England we cannot tell, but a sentence hi his Answer to the
Animadversor 4 may refer to such a visit: "I lived in Charanton
two leagus from Paris, a whole Vintage, purposely to see how wine
was made in France." 6
Undoubtedly Winthrop received the letter of 1641 before he
sailed for England by way of Newfoundland on August 3 in the same
1 Pierre Jean Fabre, the celebrated French physician and chemist, who died
in 1650 (see Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, i. 259-260). He was a correspondent
of the younger Winthrop (Cromwell Mortimer, dedication of vol. xl of the Phil-
osophical Transactions, 1741).
1 Cf. Child's essay on the Defects of English Husbandry: "Yet I counscll
to get a Vigneron from France, where there are plenty, and at cheaper rates than
ordinary servants here, and who will be serviceable also for Gardening " (Samuel
Hartlib his Legacie, 2d ed., 1652, p. 28; 3d ed., 1655, p. 28).
v • Winthrop Papers, iii. 150.
* See p. 109, below.
1 Samuel Hartlib his Legacy, 3d ed., 1655, p. 148.
10 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
year.1 He arrived at Bristol on September 28 2 and remained in
Europe more than a year and a half, in the course of which he visited
the Continent and may have attended a few medical lectures or
anatomical demonstrations at a Dutch or German university.3 One
of the main objects of his sojourn in the mother country was to
promote the establishment of iron works in Massachusetts. He
raised a thousand pounds for this project,4 Child being one of the
investors,5 and the congenial pair must have had many a confabu-
lation. One of these has left a record, for we know that Winthrop
told Child of his discovery of black lead at Tantousq,6 and that
Child promised to stand a quarter part of the expense in develop-
ing the mine.7 We shall hear more of this speculation presently.
In May,. 1643, Winthrop set sail for Boston in the ship "An
Cleeve" of London, with "many workmen servants & materialls"
for iron works. He had lain "many daies at Gravesend," waiting to
be cleared, and, when this formality was over, had been further de-
tained by a scrupulous or interfering port-officer named Robinson,
so that he missed a favorable wind and was kept beating about on
the English coast above six weeks. After a voyage of more than
fourteen weeks he arrived at Boston "neere winter." It was too
late to begin operations, and Winthrop had to maintain the im-
ported workmen in idleness until spring.8 On the way, he had
touched at the Isle of Wight, where some of them seem to have de-
1 Winthrop, ii. 38 (31).
1 John Winthrop, Jr., to his wife, October 8, 1641 (Winthrop Papers, iv. 35).
» Sir William Boswell to De Vic, November 1, 1642 (Winthrop Papers, iii.
323). We learn from this letter that Winthrop was travelling under the style of
"Student La Physic."
4 Under 1645 Winthrop notes that "Mr. John Winthrop, the younger, com-
ing from England two years since, brought with him 1000 pounds stock and
divers workmen to begin an iron work" (ii. 261 [212]). One concrete trace of
the collection of English capital for this project remains in the form of a receipt
given by Winthrop, Emanuel Downing, and Hugh Peter to Nicholas Bond for
£100 "for the Iron worke," March 23, 1642[-3] fWinthrop Papers, i. 516).
• See pp. 11, 60-61, 65, below.
• See pp. 11, 14-15, 92, 99, 112-115, below.
7 Child to Winthrop, March 1, 1644h5] (Winthrop Papers, iii. 153-155).
• Winthrop's draught of a petition to Parliament, perhaps never presented
(Winthrop Papers, iv. 36-37; cf. 2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, viii.
13, 14 note). He alleged that he was damnified above £1000 for delay and for
wear and tear of workmen. Emanuel Downing, who was also interested in the
iron works, seems to have been on the same ship (iii. 152).
1919] DR- ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 11
•erted. On this and other matters he wrote from the Isle to Child,
whose reply, dated Gravesend, June 27, 1643, has been preserved.
He hopes the rest of the voyage to New England "hath bin both
spedy and pspous" but fears Winthrop will not have time to get the
works started so late in the season. "These times put me to my
wits ends well if or Iron busines goe on, all is well." "Pray re-
member to send me word cocerning ye black lead mines." When he
wrote this letter, Child meant to sail for Massachusetts in the next
spring.1
On February 25, 1644[-5], Emanuel Downing wrote to the younger
Winthrop from London: "Dr. Child purposeth to come over with
me, and writes by this shipp of all his owne affaires vnto you."2 This
letter of Child's is extant and is dated March 1 of the same year.
He means to sail for New England soon, perhaps by the following
ship. He sends five or six sorts of vines, some prune grafts, and
various plants and seeds. When he comes over, he will "vndertake
a vineyard wth all care and industry," for he is "confident in 3 yeares
wine may be made as good as any in France." (These remarks are
worth noting in connection with Child's distinguished essay on the
Defects of English Husbandry, to which we shall come in due season.)
He is glad to hear that "y* Iron workes doe goe on, and y* or hopes
encrease," and reports some changes in the personnel of the English
adventurers in the project. Money is scarce, but "we are taking
care to provide moneys according to yor bills." Mr. Leader, whom
Winthrop knows well, has been invited to go over as manager.3
In fact, though Child did not know it, owing to absence from Lon-
don, the bargain with Richard Leader had been struck. He was to
serve the company for seven years from March 25 at an annual
salary of £100.4
Meanwhile the iron works were in progress, though not yet a
going concern. Braintree had been selected by the younger Win-
1 Winthrop Papere, iii. 151-152.
1 Winthrop Papers, i. 60. Downing had left Massachusetts again late in
1644 or early in 1645 (id., i. 89), bringing a letter from Winthrop to Child, to
which Child's letter of March 1, 1644[-5], is a reply.
» Winthrop Papers, iii. 153.
4 Emanuel Downing (from London) to John Winthrop, Jr., February 25,
1644-[5] (Winthrop Papers, i. 61; cf. i. 62-64, and 2 Massachusetts Historical
Proceedings, iii. 190-197).
12 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MAKCH,
throp as the most suitable situation,1 and here, on January 19, 1644,
the town of Boston had granted to him and his "partners" three
thousand acres of common land "for the encouragement of an iron
worke, to be set up about Monotocot River." These were to be laid
out " in the Land next adjoyning and most convenient for their said
Iron works."2 This looks as if the site of the works had already
been acquired. Another site was procured at Lynn, at a place called
Hammersmith, on the Abousett or Saugus River. At which of the
two foundries iron was first manufactured is a vexed question, which
we may leave to the local antiquaries.3 Both belonged to the same
company, however, which received a monopoly from the General
Court in March, 1644.4 Somewhere and somehow £1000 had been
spent by the following November; a furnace had been set up, but
the forge and "finery" were not ready.5 The management passed
from Winthrop to Richard Leader, an expert, in 1645 6 and from
Leader to John Gifford in 1650.7
* 2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, viii. 13-14
1 Town Records (Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, ii. 77; cf. pp.
91-92, 127); Suffolk Deeds, i. 73.
1 Lewis and Xewhall, History of Lynn, index, s. v. iron works; Pattee, His-
tory of Old Braintree and Quincy, pp. 450-472; E. P. Robinson, Essex Institute
Historical Collections, xviii. 241-254; N. M. Hawkes, Register of the Lynn His-
torical Society for 1902, pp. 46-60.
4 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 61-62; Winthrop, ii. 261 (212-213). The
Company's privileges were afterwards extended or otherwise modified in their
favor (Records, ii. 81-82, 125-128, 185-186).
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 81-82.
• On June 4, 1645, nine persons (including Robert Child), adventurers for
the iron works, wrote to Winthrop introducing "our agent," Mr. Richard Leader,
now sent over (2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, viii. 15-16). Emanuel
Downing, writing to Winthrop from England on February 25, March 3, and
May 5, 1645, has many suggestions as to what compensation Winthrop should
receive for his past services (Winthrop Papers, i. 61-64).
7 Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Essex Insti-
tute, i. 294. Emanuel Downing wrote from Salem to John Winthrop, Jr., Feb-
ruary 24, 1650[-1]: "I suppose you haue heard how Mr. Leddar hath left the
Iron works . . . Here is one Jeffries come in Mr. Leddars place" (Winthrop
Papers, i. 76). In 1651 Leader was in trouble for "threatening and slandering
the courts, magistrates, and government" of Massachusetts, and for "affront-
ing" the constable in the execution of his duty. He made his peace by means
of an apology in writing (Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 227-228). There
is a good brief sketch of him by Dr. Charles E. Banks in Tuttle and Dean, Cap-
tain John Mason (Prince Society, 1887), p. 92 note 180; but it is comical to read
that his severing his connection with the iron works before the expiration of his
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 13
We need not pursue the annals of this ill-starred speculation, but
a few names and dates must be mentioned to make future references
intelligible. At first everybody had high hopes, and in May, 1645,
the General Court issued a call for Massachusetts subscriptions
which reads like a promoter's prospectus.1 But the concern was
under-capitalized and never made any money. Serious trouble
began in 1652. Three of the New England owners — Captain
Robert Bridges, Henry Webb, and Joshua Foot — were acting as
commissioners for the undertakers, and John Beex or Becx was the
leading proprietor in London. Neither the Londoners nor the local
executive committee were pleased with Gifford's management, and
Gifford was dissatisfied with the state of his accounts.2 To secure
Gifford and two large creditors (Webb himself and Jeremy Howchin),
the committee, on May 24, 1653, gave them a mortgage of the whole
property, real and personal — houses, lands, wharves, forges, fur-
naces, tools, fuel, iron, cattle, boats, bills receivable, and "all the
seruants Scotts or English." 3 A whirlwind of litigation followed,
which lasted for several years. Gifford sued the company and the
company sued Gifford; countless suits were brought against the
company, or Gifford as its agent, by creditors, and some judgments
were obtained.4 Gifford was for a tune in prison for his debt to the
contract was "a change which had its beginning, doubtless, in a lack of sympathy
with the religious views of his employers." William Awbrey of London, mer-
chant, was engaged by the adventurers as their agent on August 23, 1650, and
soon came to Massachusetts (Suffolk Deeds, i. 216-218). He was acting in this
capacity in January, 1651 [-2], and for some time thereafter (Suffolk Deeds, i.
178-180, 227, 232). Apparently he cooperated with Gifford. One Mr. Dawes,
"a grave man of good fashion," had come over in 1648 "to oversee Mr. Leader,"
but "they could not agree" and he returned before September 30 (John Winthrop
to his son John, August 14 and September 30, 1648, in Savage's Winthrop, 1853,
ii. 434-J35).
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 103-104; cf. iii. 31.
* See Beex's letter to the committee, September 28, 1652, and Webb's letters
to Beex, November 6 and December 14, 1653; letter from John Beex and Thomas
Foley to Josias Winslow and Captain Keayne, December 26, 1654 (Records and
Files of the Quarterl. Courts of Essex County, i. 400-401, ii. 75-91).
» Suffolk Deeds, i. 306.
« Records and Files, i. 284, 286, 289-295, 300, 309-310, 319, 332, 335, 336,
347-348, 372-374, 378, 385-386, 393-594, 398-402, 417, 425-426; ii. 130, 193;
Suffolk Deeds, ii. 266, 271-272; iii. 3, 30, 137; Massachusetts Colony Records, iii.
351, 369-372, 379, 381, 406; iv. i. 155-156, 188, 194-195, 216-220, 237, 241-244,
251-254, 268, 330-331.
14 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
company, but in May, 1656, he was released by the General Court
at the request of the Londoners, who had changed their minds about
him,1 and he went home to tell his story, whereupon, on July 16,
1657, eight of the English partners, for themselves and the others,
attorneyed to their associate John Beex, and Beex in turn entrusted
the whole business to Gifford (August 25), who came back to
Massachusetts,2 full of fight. In October, 1657, though the works
were still in operation both at Braintree and at Hammersmith, the
Court declared that they were "not like long to continew," not
being properly supported by the London undertakers, and gave
privileges to other parties.8 They went on, nevertheless. In 1658
Gifford got a verdict against Webb for defaming him to the London
partners and for unjust imprisonment,4 and as late as 1662 he was
attempting to recover damages from the estate of Keayne (deceased)
on a similar complaint.5 Soon after the Restoration, the English
adventurers were on hand with a petition to the King to right their
wrongs, but nothing came of it.6 The best summary of the whole
matter is Captain Edward Johnson's choice piece of unconscious
humor: "Divers persons of good rank and quality in England, were
stirred up by the provident hand of the Lord to venture their estates
upon an iron work, which they began at Braintree, and profited the
owners little, but rather wasted their stock." 7 Child was one of
those who wasted their stock: he lost £450, as we shall see presently.
Meantime we may return to Child's letter of March 1, 1644[-5].
A considerable portion is taken up with a learned excursus on black
lead, in criticism of an essay that Winthrop had sent him. He ad-
vises Winthrop to "dig lustily," and is still quite ready to "bear the
fourth part" of the expense, but "Pray let not out too much cost,
till you haue more certainty then as yet you haue." Child had been
talking the matter over with Emanuel Downing and Winthrop's
brother Stephen, both then in England, and he even thinks of "set-
Massachusetts Colony Records, ill. 406, iv. i. 268.
Suffolk Deeds, iii. 155-161.
Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. i. 311.
Records and Files, ii. 71-72, 74-97, 116. Cf. Lords' Journals, jri. 38, 41;
Historical Manuscripts Commission, Seventh Report, Appendix, p. 87.
Records and Files, ii. 389.
Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1661-1668, p. 17.
Wonder-working Providence, 1654, bk. iii. chap. 6, p. 207.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 15
tling himself" where the mine is, if he finds the place agreeable.1
This might lead one to infer that the mine he had his eye on was that
at Nashawake (Lancaster), for in June, 1644, the General Court had
granted permission for a plantation there to Robert Child and
others.2
"I thanke you," Child continues, "for engaging me in the Lake
discovery, and Misticks mines, though as yet we receive no pfit."
The mines in question, I suppose, were at Mistick in Connecticut,
where Winthrop had discovered Iron ore; he had received authority
in 1644 "to make a plantation in the . . . Pequott country . . .
& also to lay out a convenient place for iron works." 3
By the Lake discovery Child means the project formed in 1644 by
certain Boston merchants to find the great lake supposed to lie in
the northwest region of the Massachusetts patent and to engage
in the beaver trade, thought to originate there, "which came to all
the eastern and southern parts." At the March court in 4644 this
company obtained a monopoly for that purpose for twenty-one
years and in May "they set out in a pinnace, . . . which was to
sail up Delaware river" as far as possible, whence the expedi-
tion was to be continued in skiffs or canoes under the guidance of
William Aspinwall; they were stopped by the Dutch and reached
Boston, on then* return, on July 20.4 Darby Field thought he saw
this great lake from the White Hills in 1642,5 and years before,
in 1632, Edward Howes had written with enthusiasm of this
body of water, expressing the fear that the Dutch would an-
ticipate the English in exploring it.6 Another company for the
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 153-155.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 75 (after May 29). Child mentions the
Nashaway mine in his Answer to Boot (see p. 112, below).
' Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 71; Winthrop Papers, i. 517-518. Cf.
Winthrop's 1661 will (Waters, Sketch of the Life of John Winthrop the Younger,
p. 70).
• Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 60; Winthrop, ii. 193-194 (160-161), 218
219."(178-179), 229 (187). The adventurers were Valentine Hill, Robert Sedgwick,
William Tinge, Francis Norton, Thomas Clarke, Joshua Hewes, and William
Aspinwall.
1 Winthrop, ii. 82 (68).
• See his letter of November 23, 1632 (Winthrop Papers, i. 480-481), and a
note in Howes's hand in a copy of Sir Dudley Digges's essay Of the Circum-
ference of the Earth, or A Treatise of the North-east-passage (1612) which
16 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Lake discovery received similar privileges at the October Court in
1645.1
Summer came, and still Child had not sailed for New England,
but his departure was imminent, for on June 23, 1645, Hugh Peter
wrote from Deal to the elder Winthrop: "Dr Child is come y* honest
man who will bee of exceeding great vse if the Country know how
to improue2 him, indeed he is very very vsefull, I pray let vs not
play tricks with such men by our ielousyes."3 This is a tantalizing
passage. By "jealousies" Peter means, of course, suspicions. I
cannot avoid the inference that Child's high Presbyterianism had
attracted the attention of the leading men in the Colony with whom
he associated on his former visit, and that some report had reached
Peter which made him fear that the Doctor might be looked at
askance. His warning words, it seems likely, were penned just
before Child embarked and perhaps came over by the same ship. At
all events, Child was in New England in the following September,
and had been here long enough to strike a bargain with Richard
Vines, for, on the 30th of that month, Vines conveyed to Child
all his rights under the Saco patent, and in October he gave him
livery and seisin.4 Whether Child viewed his new possessions at this
Howes sent to Winthrop in 1632 and which is in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society (Winthrop Papers, i. 480 note) : see Ford, Massachusetts His-
torical .Proceedings, lii. 278. In a letter of September 3, 1636, Howes asks
"What newes of the Lake?" (Winthrop Papers, i. 503).
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 53-54. The original petition of the
adventurers (Richard Saltonstall, Simon Bradstreet, Samuel Symonds, Richard
Dummer, William Hubbard, William Hathorne, and William Payne) is in the
Massachusetts Archives, cxix. 5.
1 I. e., utilize. * Winthrop Papers, i. 108.
* James Graham in his report of title, 1688, declares: "I do Also find that
. . . Richard Vines by his Certaine Writing under his hand and Scale Bearing
Date y* Last Day of September one thousand Six hundred fourty five did convey
and SelTunto Robert Child Phisicion his heires and Assignee all that Parcell of
Land on y* South Side of y* River Swackadock Alias Saco in the Province of
Maine as is Said in the Above Graunt but find No Conveyance from said Child
or from any Vnder him" (Documentary History of the State of Maine, iv. 443).
For the Vines patent see Documentary History of the State of Maine, vii. 121-
125. "I Richard Vines of Saco gent haue barganed and Sould the patent aboue
Specified vnto Robert Childe Esqr Doct°: of phisick and given him livery and
seasin. '.Vpon the [ ] day of 8*** 1645 in the presence of Mr Addam Winthorpe
and Mr Beniamin Gillam" (York Deeds, i. ii. 9; Folsom, History of Saco and
Biddeford, 1830, pp. 74, 319). On October 22, 1645, William Aspinwall " attested a
Copie " of Vines's deed to Child (Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, xxxii. 10).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 17
time, or whether he had surveyed them on his previous visit, we
cannot tell. At any rate, he did visit Saco at least once in his life,
now or formerly, as we shall see when we examine his agricultural
writings.
From October, 1645, to May, 1646, we l^par nothing of Child.
Then, however, he emerges — Remonstrance hi hand. At the risk
of repeating many familiar things, I shall run through the history of
the Remonstrance, for all the facts have never been brought together
in one place, though the story has been told again and again, some-
times with scant regard to accuracy in detail.1
The "Remonstrance and humble Petition" of Robert Child,
Thomas Burton, John Smith, Thomas Fowle, David Yale, Samuel
Maverick, and John Dand was submitted to the General Court, with
a request for an immediate answer, on May 19, 1646,2 which was near
the close of that session, but its consideration was postponed until
the autumn.3 Major John Child, the Remonstrant's brother, asserts
1 The fullest account of the whole affair is that by W. T. R. Marvin in hia
reprint of New-Englands Jonas (Boston, 1869). This is so detailed, and — in
the main — so clear and accurate, that my review of the facts may seem a work
of supererogation. Still, there are a good many points in which Marvin's narra-
tive needs correction or supplement, and some of them are of much significance.
It was impossible to indicate these points and to enforce their bearing on the
subject without telling the whole story. Palfrey's treatment of the episode
(History of New England, book ii, chapter 4) is admirable, especially for the
lucidity with which the relations of the Remonstrance to English politics are
brought out; but it is not quite full enough for my purpose. Besides, his argu-
ments have been treated so cavalierly by some recent writers that a reopening
of the case is at least excusable. Bancroft (History of the United States, 19th ed.,
1862, chap, x., i. 437-444) is also excellent, but his plan does not call for details.
Most or all of the other important accounts are cited in the course of this paper.
Winthrop is naturally our chief authority; he is supplemented by John Child's
New-Englanda Jonas, Winslow's New-Englands Salamander, and Johnson's
Wonder-working Providence. Hubbard depends entirely upon Winthrop, but
does not always follow him with due care (chap. 55, ed. 1848, pp. 500, 512-518).
Hutehinson is of some use, since he apparently had access to documents now
lost (see p. 41 note 1, [below), but he unfortunately confused the Remonstrants
with the Hingham petitioners (see p. 25, below) — an error found also in Old-
mixon's British Empire in America (2d ed., 1741, i.1 88-90), in Neal's History
of New-England, 1720, i. 213-218, and in Chalmers's Political Annals of the
Present United Colonies, 1780, i. 179-181. From one of these sources it has
made its way into Grahame'a History of the Rise and Progress of the United
States, 1827, i. 320-325.
* New-Englands Jonas, p. 13.
» Winthrop, ii. 320-321 (261-262). The Court convened on May 6 (Mi
18 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
(no doubt truthfully) that it was "in a peaceable way presented,
only by two of the Subscribers,"1 implying, it seems, a contrast
to the riotous goings-on that had accompanied the presentation
of certain petitions to the Long Parliament in recent years. We
shall have occasion to examine the contents of this Remonstrance
presently.* Meantime, suffice it to say that it painted a dismal
picture of the civil and religious condition of Massachusetts, de-
scribed the inhabitants as poverty-stricken and discontented, ac-
cused the magistrates of arbitrary and tyrannical conduct, and
foretold the utter rum of the Colony unless certain thoroughgoing
reforms were put into operation immediately. The reforms con-
templated may be summed up under three heads: (1) that the
fundamental laws of England and "such others as are no wayes
repugnant to them" should be forthwith established in Massa-
chusetts; (2) that the rights of freemen should be extended to "all
truely English" (whether church-members or not); and (3) that all
well-conducted members of the Church of England should be re-
ceived without further tests or covenants into the New England
churches, or else be allowed "to settle [themselves] here in a church
way, according to the best reformations of England and Scotland,"
that is, of course, on the Presbyterian model. If their prayers were
not granted, the Remonstrants declared that they should feel' con-
strained to appeal to Parliament for redress.
This document naturally disturbed the magistrates, coming as
it did immediately after the efforts of William Vassall to get up
petitions to Parliament against the New England government,8 and
chusetts Colony Records, iii. 61; Winthrop, ii. 316 [258]) and "lasted near three
weeks" (Winthrop, ibid.).
1 New-Englands Jonas, p. 14.
1 The text of the Remonstrance may be found in New-Englands Jonas, pp.
6-13, and in the Hutchinson Papers, i. 214-223. There is a very brief abstract,
summing up the mam complaints and demands, in the Massachusetts Archives,
cvi. 6 (printed by Sumner, History of East Boston, pp. 101-102).
1 See Winthrop, ii. 319, 340, 391 (260-261, 278, 321); Winslow, New-Englands
Salamander, pp. i. 16-18, 23. The history of VassalTs activity is obscure. It is
certain, however, that he carried to England certain petitions against the colonial
government (one apparently from the Bay and another from Plymouth) by the
Supply, which sailed from Boston November 9, 1646 (see p. 33, below), and
that he had been occupied with these before Child's Remonstrance was pre-
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 19
at a time when Gorton and some of his associates had been in Eng-
land for at least half a year,1 extending their alliance among the
most turbulent sectaries there and pressing their case before the
Commissioners for Plantations. Nor was the discomposure les-
sened by the conduct of the Remonstrants, who, in the interval
between the May and the October Court, in 1646, had so indus-
triously circulated their manifesto in the neighboring colonies that,
by the end of the year, it had reached "the Dutch Plantation, Vir-
ginia, and Bermudas."2 Soon after the petition was presented,
Winthrop received a letter from Winslow (dated June 30, 1646) 8
which shows how serious the Remonstrance looked to the Plymouth
Colony. "A 2d thing," writes Winslow, "wch moved me to put pen
to pap is to entreate you to be better preped (at lest to staue off
prejudice against yor Goverm* in the Comittee of Parliam*) in re-
gard of the peticoners & many others who are very busie, who not
onely threaten us as well as you, but grossly abuse us & insult &
boast as if the victory were attayned before the enterprise is begun
if I may so say: ffor I confesse I r[eceive]d a very proud If lately
wch makes me feere things are not to begin."4 By "better pre-
pared" I suppose Winslow means better prepared than the Bay
had shown itself in Gorton's case, in which the malcontents had the
advantage in their first application to the English Commissioners.5
Before the October meeting of the General Court, the administra-
tion had received from the Commissioners for Plantations an order
(dated May 15, 1646) which favored the Gortonians and appeared
to assert such jurisdiction over the Colony as the magistrates re-
garded as a violation of their chartered rights, as well as an encour-
agement of appeals to the home authorities.6
On May 15, 1646, the General Court passed a vote recommend-
ing a synod of the New England churches,7 and it has been thought
rented. On VassalTs character, see the defence of him in 1 Massachusetts His-
torical Proceedings, vi. 471-479.
See p. 44, below.
Winslow, New-Englands Salamander, p. 6.
Winthrop Papers, i. 182.
I. e., "are well advanced."
See Winthrop, ii. 332 (272).
Winthrop, ii. 342-344 (280-282).
Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 154-156; iii. 70-73; Winthrop, ii. 323-
324 (264-265).
20 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
that their action was influenced by the Remonstrance,1 but this was
not presented until the 19th,2 as it happens, and, anyhow, the elders
had brought in a bill proposing the synod at the previous session,
in October, 1645, several months before the Remonstrance was
drawn up.8 However, at the November session in 1646 the Court
did adopt two measures which bear some relation to that document.
The first of these was the appointment of a committee to " examine "
and "compose in good order" the laws already in force and to sug-
gest others — since we wish to "manifest our vtter disaffeccon to
arbitrary goument." True this committee was but to finish a piece
of work begun in 1645, but the mention of arbitrary government
undoubtedly glances at the Remonstrance. The second measure
was a plan to avoid " all complaints by reason of vnaequall rates," *
and this, too, was a point that Child and his associates had made.
Per contra, a bill enlarging the privileges of non-freemen, which was
ready to pass at the May session in 1646, was postponed on account,
it seems, of the presentation of the Remonstrance at that time,5
but it became a law at the May session in 1647.6
The persons whom Child induced to join him as signatories were
of various opinions in religion, and doubtless had — most of them —
no clear idea of his main design, the chief bond of union among them
being dissatisfaction with the dominant party. The colonial au-
thorities made much of this divergence of sentiment. Johnson,
who, La his Wonder-working Providence, 1654, sides with the mag-
istrates, remarks with some humor, that "the persons were of a
Linsiwolsie disposition, some for Prelacy, some for Presbytery, and
some for Plebsbytery, but all joyned together in the thing they
would, which was to stir up the people to dislike of the present
Government."7
The colonial authorities were not spoiling for a fight, and "an
1 Palfrey, History of New England, 1860, ii. 170; Marvin, New-Englanda
Jonas, pp. xxvii-xxviii.
John Child, New-Englands Jonas, p. 13.
Winthrop, ii. 323 (264).
Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 109, 128, 157, 196; iii. 26-27, 46-47,
74-75, 84-85, 87-88.
Winthrop, ii. 321 (262).
Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 197; iii. 109-110.
Bk. iii. chap. 3, p. 202.
19193 DR. ROBERT CHILD TILE REMONSTRANT 21
eminent person"1 made some attempt to satisfy the Remonstrants
in "a private conference," which seems to have taken place in 1646,
before the October court came in. We owe our account of the in-
cident to Winslow. The eminent person asked the petitioners
"what Church government it was they would have? One of them
answered, he desired that particular government which Mr. John
Goodwin in Colemanstreet2 was exercised in. Another of them said,
hee knew not what that was: but hee for his part desired the Pres-
byterian government. A third of them said hee desired the Epis-
copall government if it might bee, if not, the Presbyterian: And a
fourth told mee himselfe that hee disclaimed anything hi the Peti-
tion that was against the government of the Churches in New-
England, &c. resting and liking what was there done in that kind."3
No. 1 in this list sounds as if it were John Dand, whom the General
Court describes as an "ould grocer of London" with a failing intel-
lect.4 Whoever desired the particular government that Mr. Goodwin
was exercised in, ought in all conscience to have been content with
New England Congregationalism, for Goodwin was one of the lead-
ing lights of Independency. He had been sequestered from St.
1 Perhaps the Governor (Winthrop) or the Deputy Governor (Thomas Dudley).
1 This was the famous preacher whose book justifying the trial of Charles I
("TppiffToSUcu. The Obstructours of Justice. Or A Defence of the Honourable
Sentence passed upon the late King, by the High Court of Justice. London,
1649) had the honor to be burned by'the common hangman in 1660 along with
Milton's Defensio pro Populo Anglicano and Eucoi^xXdo-Tr/s (Chalmers, Supple-
mental Apology, 1799, pp. 7-9; Masson, Life of Milton, vi. 181-182, 193). He
became Vicar of St* Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, December 18, 1633,
succeeding John Davenport, who had resigned (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 537;
Hennessy, Novum Repertorium, p. 385), and he was sequestered May 22, 1645
(Hennessy, p. cliv note u 1; cf.. p. 470), by the Committee for Plundered Minis-
ters (Freshfield, Some Remarks upon the Book of Records, etc., from Archaoologia,
vol. 1. p. 8) but was reinstated by Parliament in 1649 (Freshfield, pp. 10-11).
Meantime he had been minister of a private congregation, which was now received
very hospitably by the vestry: the details of the]arrangement are extremely curious
(Freshfield, pp. 11-12; W. A. Shaw, History of the English Church during the
Civil Wars and under the Commonwealth, 1900, ii. 134-136). Neal describes him
succinctly as "a learned Divine, and a quick Disputant, but of a peculiar Mould,
being a Republican, an Indcpendant, and a thorough Arminian" (History of the
Puritans, iii. 391, ed. 1736); cf. Burnet, Own Time, ed. Airy, 1897, i. 283-284.
See also[Baylie, Dissuasive, 1645, p. 56; Cotton, The Way of Congregational
Churches Cleared, 1648, pt. i. pp. 23-28.
• New-Englands Salamander, p. 3.
4 Declaration, November, 1646 (Hutchinson Papers, i. 240).
22 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Stephen's, Coleman Street, in 1645, by the (Presbyterian) Parlia-
mentary Committee "because he refused to baptize the Children of
his Parishioners promiscuously, and to administer the Sacrament to
his whole Parish,"1 and was at this moment the minister of an
Independent church in London. It was a similar refusal on the part
of the Massachusetts churches that the Remonstrants alleged as
their great ecclesiastical grievance. Dand, then, was badly mixed
in his mind, and a mere statement of his position by Winslow was
enough to label him (for every intelligent contemporary) as an
almost imbecile Mr. Facing-both-ways.
No. 2 must have been Child himself. No. 3 was assuredly Mave-
rick.2 What Maverick wanted it is easy to discover. Having been
admitted as a freeman before church-membership was made a pre-
requisite, he* was under no political disabilities, but he did not like
the administration, and — not having been in England since the
Presbyterian party had borne sway — he may have fondly imagined
1 Neal, History of the Puritans, iii.' 391-392 (1736). The New England In-
dependents, the Remonstrants complained, would not admit sober and godly
members of the [Presbyterated] Church of England to the Lord's table (or their
children to baptism) without their previous assent to the covenant of some local
church (Hutchinson Papers, pp. 193-194, Prince Society, i. 220-221). As to
baptizing the children of non-church-members (in the New England sense),
there was, as a matter of fact, great diversity of practice. This is clearly set
forth in the resolutions of the General Court in May, 1646, recommending the
Cambridge assembly or synod of 1646 (Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. TO-
TS; cf. Winthrop, ii. 323-324 [264-265], 329-332 [269-271]). As to communion,
it seems clear (from a kind of agreement discernible in the gingerly-conducted
debate on this point in Hypocrisie Unmaskrd, New-Englands Jonas, and New-
Englands Salamander) that Presbyterians were sometimes allowed to com-
municate without actually joining a New England church. We should note,
further, that to extend the right of communion. to all parishioners indiscrimi-
nately was no more a principle of Presbyterian than of Congregational discipline.
On the contrary, the Presbyterian system required that only such parishioners
should communicate as had passed a catechetical test and were also certified by
the elders as of moral and godly conduct. This principle, indeed, was regarded
as so vital by the Presbyterian clergy in England that, when a parish declined
to assent to it, they in many instances refused to administer the sacrament at
alL On the whole subject see the excellent discussion in Dr. William A. Shaw's
History of the English Church during the Civil Wars and under the Common-
wealth, London, 1900, ii. 142-164.
* "A freeman, but no member of any church, and the reason hath beene his
professed affection to the hierarchic" (Declaration of the General Court, No-
vember, 1646, Hutchinson Papers, i. 239).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 23
that direct Parliamentary control under a General Governor or a
board of Commissioners would be less oppressive than the rule of
the little commonwealth. He was frankly an Episcopalian, but
church matters were not his chief concern: what he desired was to
abolish the quasi-independence of the Bay Colony, and with. this
end in view he was quite ready to join hands with a high Presby-
terian like Child, the deadly enemy of prelacy. Neither he nor
Child, of course, had the slightest sympathy with general toleration
or with liberty of conscience, the two betes noires alike of Episcopa-
lians and of Presbyterians and of New England Congregationalists.
No. 4 must have been Fowle, whom Brewster doubtless talked
with in London. He is described by the General Court as a church-
member who "will be no freeman" since "he likes better to be
eased of that trouble and charge."1 Politics, then, were not his
object; and, since he liked the Congregational system, he can have
had no wish to introduce Presbyterianism for its own sake. In 1645
he had been a petitioner "for ye abrogacon or alteracon of y* lawes-
agnt y* Anabap*', and y* lawe y* requires speciall allowance for
new come's residing here."2 This shows where he stood: he was
really and truly an advocate for liberty of conscience or at least for
a large toleration. As such, he is the first of his kind that we have so
far discovered hi the little band, and we may well ask what on earth
he was doing dans cette galere. John Smith, whom Brewster does not
characterize, was doubtless of similar sentiments, for he was a
Providence man. At all events, his objects can hardly have been
political, since he was not an inhabitant of the Bay.
Thomas Burton and David Yale are likewise omitted in Brewster's
catalogue of opinions. They are both compared, in the Declaration
of the General Court, to "those who were called by Absalom to
1 Declaration of November, 1646 (Hutchinson Papers, i. 239). It is he, un-
doubtedly to whom the same document refers in the following sentence: "These
remonstrants are now come to the church doore, when one of theire companie
gives them the slipp, not dareing (it seemes) to enter for feare of an admonition"
(i. 241). This accords with what Winslow says of his approving the New England
church system.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, in. 51; cf. iii. 64. Emanuel Downing was
one of the petitioners. Cf. p. 29 note 1, below. The counter-petition of 1646 —
"that such Lawee or orders as are in force amongst vs against Anabaptists or
other erronious persones . . . may not be abrogated . . . nor any waies weakned"
— is in the Massachusetts Archives, x. 210-211.
24 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
accompany him to Hebron"1 — an allusion that escaped nobody
in those Scripture-reading days: "And with Absalom went two
hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in
their simplicity, and they knew not anything."5
Of Thomas Burton little is known. He is described by the Court
as"aclarkeof the prothonotaries office, a sojournour . . ., and of no
visible estate in the country, one who hath never appeared formerly
in such designe, however he hath been drawne into this."3 The
prothonotary was the Chief Clerk of the King's Bench or the Com-
mon Pleas in England. Burton had been in the country for not less
than six years and his connections were certainly respectable, for he
had married Margaret, daughter of John Otis, great-grandfather of
the Patriot.4 Apparently he was not a church-member, or he would
doubtless by this time have been admitted a freeman; besides, his
membership would surely have been mentioned in the passage that
describes him in the Declaration of the Court. He lived at Hingham,
and the baptism of his five daughters is on record there (1641-1649) .5
Such a record would usually suffice to show that he belonged to the
Hingham church, but the pastor of that town, the Rev. Peter
Hobart, did not believe in restricting baptism to the children of
church-members.6 Since Burton had been prothonotary's clerk, he
was doubtless a member of the Church of England, and probably,
like Mr. Hobart,7 he had Presbyterian sentiments. His legal train-
Hutchinson Papers, i. 239-240.
2 Samuel, xv. 11.
Declaration of the General Court, November session, 1646, Hutchinson
Papers, i. 239.
History of Hingham, ii. 112, iii. 101-102.
ii. 112.
"Hee refuseth to baptize no children that are tendred to him (although this
liberty stands not upon a Presbyterian bottom)" writes Winslow, Hypocrisie
Unmasked, p. 100. Major Child thus challenges Winslow: "Dares Mr. Winslow
say that Mr. Hubard was not punished neither directly nor indirectly, for bap-
tizing some children whose parents were not members of their Churches, and
that his sharp fines & disgracefull being bound to the good behaviour, had no
influence from the baptism of those children?" (New-Englands Jonas, p. [22]).
Winslow replies: "For answer, I doe and dare affirme in my conscience, that I
am firmly perswaded hee was not" (New-Englands Salamander, p. 28). If , as it
would seem, Burton's children were among those for whose baptism Hobart
was blamed, Burton's impulse to join the Remonstrants would have been
especially powerful.
» Winthrop, ii. 288 (235); Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 99.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 25
ing, too, must have predisposed him to favor the extension of the
laws of England to the Colony. Here, then, for the first time, we
have a petitioner whose sentiments accorded almost exactly with
those of Robert Child, and, in truth, Burton seems to have acted as
the Doctor's right-hand man in the whole case.1
But Burton probably had another reason for joining in the Re-
monstrance. The troubles incident to a military election at Hingham
were a cause celebre in 1645, and it is quite possible that Burton,
like his pastor, was among the eighty-one petitioners who thought
themselves harshly treated by the General Court. The Hingham
affair was still in hot controversy when Child presented the Remon-
strance in May, 1646, for it was on the 18th of March preceding that
Mr. Hobart had objected to the validity of the Marshal's warrant,
as not being made out in the King's name, had declared that he and
the other Hingham petitioners "had sent into England unto his
Friends the busines, and expected shortly an answer and advice
from thence," and had criticized the government for exceeding its
powers, alleging that it was "not more then a Corporation in Eng-
land."2 These points, or most of them, were also made in Child's
Remonstrance, and likewise (it would seem) in Vassall's petition,
and the magistrates therefore regarded the Hingham case as closely
connected with that of the Child party, and believed that the two
groups were not only acting in concert but were also in league with
Vassall.3 So convinced were they, indeed, of such an alliance that
at the October court in 1646, when they were about to consult the
elders about the business of Gorton and Child, Mr. Hobart was
accused of having a hand in Vassall's petition, and though he denied
all knowledge of it, was required to withdraw from the conference
on the ground that he had shown himself opposed to authority and
was at that moment under bonds for his good behavior.4 In sub-
stance, though perhaps not in detail, the magistrates were not far
astray in their belief, for among the documents carried by Vassall
and Fowle to England in the Supply for use in their campaign in
1 Winthrop, ii. 367 (302), justifies such an inference.
1 From the official Relation (New-Englands Jonas, p. 4); Winthrop, ii. 271-
288, 312-313 (221-236, 255-256). Cf. New-Englanda Salamander, pp. 4-6, 28.
1 Cf. New-Englands Salamander, p. 5.
4 Winthrop, ii. 340 (278-279).
26 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Parliament were copies of the Hingham petition of 1645, of the
complaint against Mr. Hobart for his acts and speeches on March
18, 1646, of the verdict against him returned on June 2, 1646, and
of his sentence to pay a fine of £20.1 Nothing was more natural,
then, than for Burton's name to appear among the signatures of
the Remonstrants. In fact, he showed much energy in their cause,
and was particularly zealous in collecting a number of special prov-
idences to show that God was against the government, until his
efforts were checked by a providence on the other side, as all may
read in Winthrop's narrative.2 What became of Burton after the
final sentence was passed on the Remonstrants in November, 1647,
we have no means of knowing, for there is no mention of him be-
tween that date and May 13, 1649, when his daughter Sarah was
baptized at Hingham, and with that he disappears from the records.3
I suppose he died soon after. His health had suffered a severe shock
in!646.4
David Yale, the father of the founder of Yale College, came to
this country in Davenport's company with his stepfather, Theo-
philus Eaton, it appears, in 1637, and was one of the first settlers of
New Haven. He was perhaps an inhabitant there in March, 1641, but
on June 21 in the same year is described as " now resident in Boston."5
Children were born to him and his wife Ursula in Boston, according
to the town records, in 1644, 1645, and on January 14, 1651 [-2].
Elihu, his second son, was born in New England (probably in Boston)
in 1648 or 1649.6 On August 23, 1645, David Yale bought of Ed-
1 New-Englands Jonas, pp. 3-5.
* Winthrop, ii. 367-368 (302).
* History of Hingham, ii. 112.
* Winthrop, ii. 367 (302). John Otis, Burton's father-in-law, died on May
31, 1657, and in his will, dated May 30, left "to my daughter Margaret Burton
and her three children twenty shillings amongst them, a small brasse pot, and a
canvass skillet" (History of Hingham, iii. 102).
* New Haven Colony Records, i. 27, 50, 91; F. B. Dexter, Papers of the New
Haven Colony Historical Society, iii. 227; Lechford's Note Book, p. 224 (cf.
p. 232), hi American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, vii. 414
(cf. p. 426); Winthrop, i. 272 (228).
6 Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, ix. 17, 20, 33; Du Card's MS.,
excerpted in 2 Notes and Queries, ix. 101, and New England Historical and
Genealogical Register, xiv. 201; Dexter, as above, iii. 228-232. Cf. Waters,
Gleanings, i. 65. On July 17, 1644, Israel Stoughton in his will, drawn up in
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 27
ward Bendall a fine estate on Cotton Hill in Boston,1 but in 1651 he
seems to have returned to London,2 where he spent the rest of his
life, though he visited Boston for a short time in 1659.3 His Boston
estate was sold by his attorneys in 1653.4 His will is dated July,
1665 (the great Plague Year), but was not proved (by his son Elihu)
for thirty-four years.5
Nothing in this biography suggests Presbyterianism, and the
only visible reason that emerges for Yale's joining the Remonstrants
is the fact that, not being a church-member, he was a non-freeman
and could not have his children baptized. Perhaps that was reason
enough, but I wonder whether Yale's signing was induced by the
trial of his mother, the wife of Governor Theophilus Eaton, by the
New Haven Church in 1644 for "divers scandalous offences." By
toying with Anabaptist doctrines she had come to entertain scruples
which interfered with conformity in church practices. Besides, she
had struck her mother-in-law, and slandered her stepdaughter,
and declared that "Anthony the neager" had bewitched the beer.
In short, she was a little insane 6 and had made her house an uncom-
fortable place for the family. She received a public admonition,
and in 1645 she was excommunicated for contumacy and falsehood.7
Her treatment by the church cannot have been pleasing to her son,
and he may well have thought some change in the New England
system desirable. True, the Presbyterian model, for which Child
was so eager, would have handled the case with quite as much
severity, but Yale was young, and — so the fathers thought — was
as ignorant of what he was about as Absalom's recruits who went to
Hebron " in their simplicity."
England, made David Yale one of his overseers (New England Historical and
Genealogical Register, iv. 52).
Suffolk Deeds, ii. 47. Cf. our Publications, xx. 264.
Suffolk Deeds, i. 192.
Winthrop Papers, ii. 501.
Suffolk Deeds, ii. 48.
Dexter, as above, iii. 231-232.
Her daughter, the wife of Governor Edward Hopkins, was insane for many
years (Waters, Gleanings, p. 64; Winthrop, ii. 265-266 [216-217]).
1 The report of the trial, from the Church Records, is in the Papers of the
New Haven Colony Historical Society, v. 133-148; cf. Leonard Bacon, Thirteen
Historical Discourses, 1839, pp. 296-306; F. B. Dexter, Historical Catalogue of
the Members of the First Church in New Haven, 1914, pp. 2-3.
28 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
I have dwelt at some length on the extreme diversity of views
among the seven Remonstrants, because this has been thought to
explode the theory that we are dealing with a Presbyterian move-
ment. The diversity is, at first sight, a little disconcerting to that
theory; but a moment's reflection shows that it is equally discon-
certing to any theory that would strive to explain the united action
of this ill-assorted group. Two separate questions are really in-
volved: (1) What did the Remonstrants try to do? and (2) Why
did they try to do it? *
The first question admits of an immediate and strictly definite
reply: — They tried to subvert the Massachusetts government, to
bring the Colony under the thumb of a Presbyterian Parliament, to
impose the Solemn League and Covenant upon all the inhabitants,
and to procure the establishment of the (Presbyterian) Church of
England as a state church.
Why did they try to do this? That is not so easily answered.
There were seven Remonstrants, and only two of them were Pres-
byterians, Child and Burton. These two we can understand with-
out difficulty, for they strove to accomplish exactly what they be-
lieved in — the extension to Massachusetts of all the blessings of a
Presbyterian national church established in a Presbyterian state.
They signed the Remonstrance with full comprehension of what it
meant and in hearty agreement with all its principles. The other
five were united only in desiring to see the autonomy of the Bay
overthrown; and to bring this about they consented to sacrifice —
Maverick his Episcopal tenets, Dand and Fowle and Smith their
Congregationalism, Fowle and Smith their principle of toleration or
of liberty of conscience. Maverick, perhaps, knew what he was
about, for he was certainly a thorough Royalist at heart, and he
may have realized that the King's sole hope lay in the triumph of
the Presbyterian party over the Independents. If so, his action is
quite intelligible. He was willing to embark with the Presbyterians
in order to save the Church and the King, for he could not doubt
that the King would throw them overboard, if God gave him strength,
as soon as they had served his turn.1 Thus Maverick, a Presbyterian
1 Maverick, whatever his wrongs and his virtues, was not always law-abiding.
Witness his punishment for "confederacy" with Thomas Owen in the tatter's
escape from prison in 1641 (Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 335; Winthrop,
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 29
for the nonce, ranges with Child and Burton, and three out of our
seven are accounted for. The others, Dand and Fowle and Yale
and Smith, belonged in the group only by virtue of their discontent
with the administration, which was the sole binding element com-
mon to all the Remonstrants.1 The guiding spirit was undoubtedly
ii. 61-62 [51-52]). In that same year he was also thought to be "privey to the
flight of one Bell," who had jumped his bail (Maverick to Winthrop, March 1,
1640[-1], Winthrop Papers, ii. 308-309); nor was this the first time that he had
been suspected of harboring shady characters (Massachusetts Colony Records,
i. 140, cf. i. 159). The administration had another ground of offence against him
of very recent date. In 1644 Madame la Tour had got judgment in £2000 damages
in a Massachusetts court against Alderman Barclay of London; and in the next
year Barclay had attached Thomas Fowle's ship and had brought suit against
Stephen Winthrop, Recorder of the court that found for Madame la Tour, and
Captain John Weld, one of the jurymen (Winthrop, ii. 244-248 [198-202]; letters
of Stephen Winthrop, March 1, 1644 [-5], and March 27, 1646, Winthrop Papers,
iv. 200, 205). A mainstay of his case was "a certificate of the proceedings of the
[Massachusetts] court under the hands of divers persons of good credit here,
who although they reported truth for the most part, yet not the whole truth,
being somewhat prejudiced in the case." "These persons," adds Winthrop,
"were called in question about it after, for the offence was great, and they had
been censured for it, if proof could have been had for a legal conviction." Who
they were, he does not inform us, but we learn from another source that one of
them was Maverick, for Stephen Winthrop writes to his brother John from
London, March 1, 1644[-5]: "Major Sedgwick, Mr Rusell, Mr Maverick &
Trerise were they y* did informe ag1 y° country vnder theire hands" (Winthrop
Papers, iv. 200). Barclay's efforts were in vain, but he put Fowle, Weld, and
Stephen Winthrop to considerable expense, and their petitions to the General
Court in 1645 for reimbursement were unavailing (Massachusetts Colony Records,
ii. 135, iii. 49-50). The original petitions are in the Massachusetts Archives, ii.
489 (Winthrop and Weld), be. 142 (Fowle). See also Lords' Journals, vii. 352,
366, 400; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Sixth Report, Appendix, pp. 58,
59, 61, 63; 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vii. 98-99, 105-106.
1 Fowle and Yale (and apparently Dand) were merchants and as such were
doubtless influenced by the feeling that the severity of the colonial government
discouraged immigration and was damaging to trade. Thus their wish for
greater freedom in religious matters may have rested in part (by no means dis-
creditably) on a sound commercial basis. If so, they were under a singular mis-
apprehension in supposing that the establishment of a Presbyterian regime
would foster liberty. There is plenty of evidence that friends of New England
felt that the harshness toward the Anabaptists and other sectaries was bad for
the Colony. On March 1, 1644[-5], Stephen Winthrop wrote from London to
his brother John: "Heere is great complaint ag* vs for or severetye ag* Ana-
baptist. It doth discourag any people from coming to vs for fear they should be
banished if they disent from vs in opinion" (Winthrop Papers, iv. 200). On
September 4, [1646,] Hugh Peter wrote to the younger Winthrop: "None will
come to you because you persecute" (Winthrop Papers, i. 109), and Coddington
30 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Child, who was the only man of first-rate intellectual qualities in
the coterie. The diversity of views, then, by no means disproves the
Presbyterian character of the movement.1 It proves only that, as
in all such movements, some are leaders and some are led.
Anyhow, the private reasonings of the "eminent person" with
the Remonstrants were of no effect, and the business was taken up
again when the General Court assembled on October 7, 1646. A
committee was appointed to draw up an answer to Child and his
associates, and Edward Winslow was selected to go to England as the
agent of the Colony in the Gorton business, as well as in any troubles
that might grow out of the Remonstrance. The committee consisted
of Winthrop, Thomas Dudley, Richard Bellingham, and Nathaniel
Duncan,2 the first three of whom had become personal friends of
Child when he visited the Colony for the first time.3
In November, 1646, at an adjourned session, which began on the
4th, at 1 p. M.,4 the Court tackled V affaire Child in earnest. The
Elders were consulted, and gave their opinion of the Remonstrance,
refers to this remark in a letter of November 11, 1646, to the elder Winthrop:
"Mr Fetters writes in y* yow. sent to yor sonn, y* yowpsecute" (Charles Deane,
Some Notices of Samuel Gorton, Boston, 1850, p. 41). Again, on May 5, 1647,
Peter writes to John Winthrop, Senior: "Ah sweet New England! & yet sweeter
if diuisions bee not among you, if you will giue any incouragement to those that
are godly and shall differ etc. I pray doe what you can herin, & know that
your example swayse here" (Winthrop Papers, i. Ill; cf. 1 Massachusetts His-
torical Proceedings, x. 19). Giles Finnin writes to the elder Winthrop on July
1, 1646, with regard to Hugh Peter: "I could wish hee did not too much counte-
nance the Opinionists, which wee did so cast out in N. England. I know he
abhorrs them in his heart, but hee hath many hang vpon him, being a man of
such vse. I hope God will preserue him spottlesse, notwithstanding vile aspersions
cast vpon him, but I perceiue it is by the Presbyterians, against whom sometime
hee lets dropp a sharp word" (Winthrop Papers, ii. 277). Cotton, in The Way
of Congregational Churches Cleared (London, 1648), pt. i. p. 22, remarks:
"Surely the way which is practised in New-England cannot justly be taxed for
too much connivence to all kinde of Sects: wee here doe rather heare ill for too
much rigour."
1 Dr. H. M. Dexter describes the Remonstrants accurately enough as "a
little cabal of Presbyterians and others in Massachusetts — undertaking to
work with the aid of the very large number who by this time were in the country
resident, who were not members of the churches, and so were debarred from the
privileges of freemen" (Congregationalism, New York, 1880, p. 435).
* Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 162; Winthrop, ii. 346 (283).
1 See p. 8, above.
4 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 79.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 31
but offered no advice as to what judgment should be passed on the
petitioners, leaving that question to the Court.1 Yet it is still the
vogue to call the Colony a theocracy I The Answer had been pre-
pared in the interim.2 It is an elaborate document, and skilfully
drawn, but is too well known to invite comment.3 This was adopted
by the Court, not, as Winthrop explains, "by way of answer" to the
Remonstrance, because that "was adjudged a contempt," but "in
way of declaration of the Court's apprehension thereof," and was
afterwards made public 4 and somewhat widely circulated.
A ship, the Supply,5 was about to sail for England, on which
Fowle had engaged passage, and Smith, who lived in Providence,
was likely soon to return to his home. They were therefore — so
the Records inform us — summoned to Court and asked if they
"sawe any evill" in the Remonstrance "which they would retract."
When they replied that, on the contrary, "they stood to justify v*
same," they were required to give securities in £100 each "to be
responsall to ye judgm* of ye Courte," since they might be out of
the jurisdiction when the matter came up. Both of them refused
and appealed to the Commissioners for Plantations, declaring that
they would "engage" themselves to prosecute the appeal. They
were taken out of the courtroom, but were called in again after a
brief interval and were once more required to give security " to answer
y* matter of ye peticon," but they "refused to answer," and Fowle
argued that the Court was not competent to judge them for any
alleged offence against itself, as being a party interested;6 "therfore
they stood to their appeale for competent justice." Accordingly
they were committed to the Marshal until they should furnish the
security required.7 Winthrop affords further details, from which we
1 Winthrop, ii. 347 (284).
« Winthrop, ii. 346 (284).
' Hutchinson Papers, i. 223-247. The manuscript is in the Massachusetts
Archives, x. 321-337.
4 Winthrop, ii. 346 (284).
1 New-Englands Jonas, p. 2; Winslow, New-Englands Salamander, p. 3.
• Cf. the language of Henry Gardener, New-Englands Vindication, 1660:
"What Law can we have or expect that be of the Church of England, they In-
dependents, so our Antagonists, incompetent Judges, being parties in action,
and opposite in Religion [?]" (pp. 6-7; p. 36, ed. Banks, Gorges Society).
7 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 88-89 (session of November 4, 1646).
32 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS ^[
learn that Fowle and Smith complained that the other Remon-
strants had not also been sent for. Thereupon these were summoned,
and all, except Maverick, appeared. Probably the Marshal had
failed to find him, since there is no evidence that he attempted to
escape, and since his absence was not counted against him later.1
Child, "being the chief speaker," demanded to know what they were
accused of, and was informed that "their charge" was not yet ready,
but should be forthcoming in due season, and that the present busi-
ness had to do only with the question of securities for Fowle and
Smith. The Doctor again asked "what offence they had com-
mitted, for which they should find sureties," and he was accommo-
dated by the reading of one particularly offensive clause in the Re-
monstrance. He took a high tone — being young and ardent, and
manifestly feeling some scorn for this picayune Parliament — and
replied that he and his associates had acted beneath their dignity
in petitioning the Court in the first place, whereupon he appealed
to the Commissioners. The Governor refused to admit any appeal,
as being contrary to the Charter, and "the Court let them know
that they did take notice of their contemptuous speeches and be-
havior, as should further appear in due time." All were then dis-
missed, with an injunction to appear when summoned, except Smith
and Fowle, who had been "committed to the Marshal," as we have
already seen, but they soon found sureties, and were released before
nightfall.2 Though Child's appearance on this occasion is not men-
tioned in the record, we may be confident that Winthrop is accurate,8
for the appeal before sentence was later in this same session made an
especial ground of accusation against him and all the other Remon-
strants except Maverick.
There is an important remark of Winthrop in a letter to his eldest
son (November 16, 1646), which seems to have been overlooked by
investigators of these events. He writes: "I had thought we should
The exact date cannot be determined, but it was between November 4, when
the Court came in, and November 9, when the Supply sailed.
1 See p. 38, below.
1 Winthrop, ii. 347-348 (284-285); cf. New-Englands Salamander, p. 12.
1 It will be noted that the Record testifies that there was an intermission in
the hearing or examination of Smith and Fowle. Doubtless it was caused by the
time it took to summon Child and the others.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 33
onely haue declared or apprehensions concerning the Petition,1
wthout questioning the Petitioners but, the Deptyes called vpon it,
whereupon mr Fowle was forced to putt in bond to ansr, &c, & the
rest being called, did p'sently appeale to the Parl*, etc.: so as we
are like to proceed to some Censure for their appeal, if not for the
Petition."2 This shows that the magistrates had not planned to
bring the Remonstrants to the bar, but that the Deputies were de-
termined to have them appear. Their bearing when summoned,
and the momentous questions raised by their appeal, made "cen-
sure" (that is, the passing of some judgment) inevitable.
Soon after this hearing, Fowle went to England in the Supply, as
he had intended, and he seems never to have returned to America.
The ship sailed on November 9, 1646.3 The passenger list4 included
Richard Sadler, Captain Thomas Harding, John Leverett, Herbert
Pelham, — who, at his own request, was relieved of the duty of serv-
ing as agent of the Colony in association with Winslow,5 — William
Vassall, — whom Winslow regards as the chief fomeoter of the
whole trouble and the constant adviser of the Remonstrants, —
Captain William Sayles (late Governor of Bermuda) and William
Golding (a minister in that colony), who were charged with the mis-
sion of pleading the cause of the Independent churches of the islands
with the Bermuda Company, and, if necessary, with Parliament.6
The voyage was tempestuous and full of peril; but, after an almost
1 The allusion is to the Declaration of the General Court, session of November
4, 1646 (see p. 31, above).
• John Winthrop to John Winthrop, Jr., November 16, 1646, printed in the
Appendix to Savage's Winthrop, ii. 430.
1 John Winthrop to John Winthrop, Jr., May 14, 1647: "Captain Harding
arrived at Bristol 19 (10). They went from here 9 (9), and had a very tempes-
tuous voyage, and were carried among the rocks at Scilly, where never ship came "
(Savage's Winthrop, ii. 432). Cf. Winslow, New-Englands Salamander, pp.
4, 19.
4 Winslow is our authority for the names that follow (New-Englands Sala-
mander, pp. 17, 18, 20).
• Winthrop Papers, ii. 138-139. The petition of Herbert Pelham and Richard
Saltonstall (who also wished to be relieved of this duty) is dated November 17,
1646, and must have been presented to the court by the latter, since Pelham
sailed on the 9th. Yet it is all in Pelham's hand (date included) except Salton-
Bt all's signature. For Salt-oust all's appointment (1645), see Massachusetts
Colony Records, iii. 48.
• See the Rev. Patrick Copland's letter to John Winthrop, September 30,
1647 (Winthrop Papers, iii. 351).
34 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
miraculous escape from shipwreck on the Stilly rocks, the Supply
reached Bristol on December 19, 1646.1
A number of documents that concern us went over on the Supply,
and their presence occasioned a characteristic incident on the voyage.
A few days before the ship set sail, Mr. Cotton of Boston, in his
Thursday lecture (November 5, 1646) had mentioned the imminent
departure of the Supply and of another vessel that was soon to
follow. " If there bee any amongst you my brethren," he had said,
"as 'tis reported there are, that have a Petition to prefer to the
High Court of Parliament . . . that may conduce to the distrac-
tion, annoyance and disturbance of the peace of our Churches and
weakning the Government of the land where wee live, let such know,
the Lord will never suffer them to prosper in their subtill, malicious
and desperate undertakings against his people." He declined to ad-
vise the passengers, "when the terrors of the Almightie shall beset
the Vessell wherein they are, the Heavens shall frowne upon them,
the billowes of the Sea shall swell above them, and dangers shall
threaten them, (as I perswade my selfe they will)," to "take such a
person," as the sailors in the Bible took Jonah, "and cast him into
the Sea; God forbid: but," he continued, "I would advise such to
come to a resolution in themselves to desist from such enterprises,
never further to ingage in them, and to cast such a Petition into the
Sea that may occasion so much trouble and disturbance."5 The
Rev. Thomas Peters (Hugh's brother) was so much stirred by this
appeal, that, "having shipped his goods and bedding to have gone
in the Ship with them, amongst other arguments this was the maine,
that he feared to goe in their company that had such designer, and
therefore tooke passage to goe rather by way of Spaine."3
1 Winthrop's letter (p. 33 note 3 above) ; New Englands Salamander, pp. 4,
18-20 (cf. New-Englands Jonas, pp. [18-19]). Cf. Copland to Winthrop, Sep-
tember 30, 1647: "Our friends [Sayles and Golding] write they had a miserable
voyage from you to old England, but at last they safely arrived at their native
Country;" he is giving news contained in their letters of March 15, 1647 (Win-
throp Papers, iii. 351-352).
* New-Englands Salamander, pp. 14-17. The petition was Vassall's.
' So he told Winelow in London, with permission to print the fact in his New-
Englands Salamander (p. 18). John Winthrop, in a letter to John Winthrop, Jr.,
November 16, 1646, says that " Mr Peters is resolued to goe by Malago, wth Cap*
Hawkins" (Savage's Winthrop, 2d ed., Appendix, ii. 430). This ship "loosed
fro Nantasket" on December 19, 1646, and arrived at Malaga on January 19,
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 35
Storms did, indeed, descend upon the ship; the passengers re-
membered Mr. Cotton's warning, and Fowle, in the midst of the
tempest, when two hundred leagues short of Land's End, in com-
pliance with the request of "a godly & discreet woman," took a copy
of the Remonstrance out of his trunk and gave it to her, and "re-
ferred it to the discretion of others to doe withall as they should see
good." This was after midnight, when all were "wearied out and
tired in their spirits." The woman showed the paper to Richard
Sadler and others. They saw at once that "it was not the right
Petition," that is, not Vassall's petition to Parliament, but "because
they judged it also to bee very bad, having often scene it in New
England, but never liked the same, cut it in peeces as they thought
it deserved, and gave the said peeces to a seaman who cast them into
the sea." Next day the wind abated, but they had divers storms
afterward. In short, Winslow tells us, it was " the terriblest passage
that ever I heard on for extremitie of weather, the mariners not able
to take an observation of sunne or star in seven hundred leagues
sailing or thereabouts." 1 This incident suggested the title for Major
John Child's New-Englands Jonas Cast up at London, to which we
shall recur. Though one copy of the Remonstrance had thus gone
overboard, there was another hi the ship, and Vassall had with him
his own petitions to Parliament.2 These, however, must be sharply
distinguished from Child's appeal. It does not appear that this
appeal was carried to England on the Supply, though that is possi-
ble. It was Child's intention, as we shall see in a moment, to go to
England in a few days, and to bring the matter to the attention of
Parliament himself. Fowle's copy of the Remonstrance, as well as
certain other pertinent documents, — such as transcripts of the
Hingham petition and the proceedings against the Rev. Peter Hobart,
the Capital Laws of Massachusetts, and the Freeman's Oath, all of
1647 (Thomas Peters to Governor Winthrop, from Malaga Road, February 17,
1646[-7], Winthrop Papers, ii. 428). Peters was in London as early as April 27,
1647 (ii. 431).
I l I have followed Winslow's account of this Jonah incident, which is based on
inquiries made 'among the passengers — particularly on information) furnished
by Captains Sayles, Leverett, and Harding, and Mr. Richard Sadler. The
account in New-Englands Jonas does not differ in any essential respect, but is
lees careful and less circumstantial.
* See Winthrop, ii. 340, 391 (279, 321).
36 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [
which (and other papers unspecified) were taken over in the Supply,1
— was obviously intended to be used either in support of Vassall's
petitions, or in influencing public opinion in preparation for Child's
arrival, or hi both ways. Nothing of any consequence, however,
was done by Fowle or Vassall in England until after the arrival of
Winslow, which took place in January, 1647.
But we must return to the proceedings of the November Court of
1646. At that session, the 24th of December was- set apart for a
day of humiliation "wth respect to ye hazordous estate of our native
country, y* trowbles thereof, ye sad condicon of ye church at Bar-
muda,2 & ye weighty cases in respect of our churches & comonwealth,
10th reference to any that seeke to vndermyne ye libertyes of Gods people
here in either or both."3 This was particularly directed against the
Remonstrants, and was so understood; and therefore Mr. Peter
Hobart, "the pastor at Hingham, and others of his church (being of
their party) made light of it, and some said they would not fast
against Dr. Child and against themselves."4 Hobart, Winthrop
asserts, was "of a Presbyterial spirit," that is, he was disposed to
"manage all affairs without the church's advice," contrary to the
Congregational principle.5
1 New-Englands Jonas, p. [19].
1 See Lefroy, Bermudas, i. 569-587, 594-595, 600-633, 711-713; Winthrop,
ii. 408-409 (334-336); Sibley, Harvard Graduates, i. 137-140; Winthrop Papers,
iii. 340-342, 350-354; unpublished letter of the Rev. Patrick Copland to Win-
throp, August 25, 1646, Davis Papers, fol. 7 (Massachusetts Historical Society,
O. 12, 3); Colonial Society Publications, xiii. 53-55; A declaration of the Right
Honourable Robert, Earle of Warwick, . . . Governour of the Company of
London for the Plantation of the Summer Islands; And of the said Company: To
the Colony and Plantation there. October 23, 1644 (Harvard College Library).
What might have happened in Massachusetts, had Child's conspiracy not been
frustrated, Winthrop was able to read in the Bermuda case in a letter from
William Rener (March 31, 1647) which he may have received before Child was
sentenced: "The Honr11 Companye in London for o* Hands, hathe sent a newe
Gouernor. At his Arriuall called an Assemblye, and by multiplicitye of vote
chose suche Burgesses as serued for the ende p'tended, the greatest pte of the
Counscell were independants (as they call them) but by this Assemblye to be
caste of, ipso facto; haueinge not else against them; Our Elders not suffered to
teache the worde, nor anye of that (soe called) independant waye to beare anye
office in Comonwealthe " (Winthrop Papers, iii. 340).
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 86.
,« Winthrop, ii. 372 (305).
• Winthrop, ii. 288 (235). Cf. Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 99.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 37
About the middle of November, or a little later — near the end
of the session, at all events, — all the Remonstrants (except Fowle J)
were summoned and "in the open court, before a great assembly"
they heard their petition read and listened to the charge against
them, which a committee had prepared in the interval. They were
accused, (1) on the basis of various expressions in the Remon-
strance, of defaming the government and slandering the churches,
with attempting to weaken the authority of the laws and fomenting
sedition, and (2) on the basis of their behavior when previously
summoned, with "publickly declaring their disaffection" to the gov-
ernment in that they refused to answer, and " disclaiming its juris-
diction" by appealing "before they knew whether the Court would
give any sentence against them or not." The charges were dis-
tributed under twelve heads.2 The defendants asked time to com-
pose an answer, which they presented in writing later in the same
day, probably in the afternoon, the Court reassembling and the at-
tendance of the people still being large. This, as was to be expected,
was part defence, part excuse, and part denial, and "the court re-
plied" to it clause by clause "extempore," as it was read.3 The
appeal, which, as we have seen, was brought to their charge as an
offence quite distinct from their contempt and the seditious char-
acter of the Remonstrance, they justified4 as their right; but they
did not answer the important point raised in the Charge — namely,
that they had appealed before sentence, and in such terms as to
deny the jurisdiction of the Court. This point the presiding officer
did not neglect to emphasize in replying to the defendants' answer.5
Whatever may be thought of the case of the Remonstrants, nobody
who has read the documents can hold that they improved it mate-
rially by their rejoinder. They were found guilty and sentenced —
Child to a fine of £50, Smith to £40, Maverick to £10, and the rest
to £30 each; but were informed that "an ingenuous & publicke
1 The Record says expressly that Fowle was "at sea" when judgment was
passed (ill. 94).
1 Winthrop, ii. 348-350 (285-287); Massachusetts Colony Records, Hi.
90-91.
» Winthrop, ii. 350-355 (287-291).
4 Winthrop's words (ii. 354 [290]), "they make an apology for their appeal,"
must not be misconstrued: apology is used in its original meaning, "defence."
• Winthrop, ii. 354 (290).
38 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
acknowledgmen* of their misdemean°rs" would be "accepted as
satisfaccon for their offences, & their fines not taken." They re-
jected this offer, and the Court declared their sentence.1 "Three
of the magistrates, viz., Mr. Bellingham, Mr. Saltonstall, and Mr.
Bradstreet, dissented, and desired to be entered contradicentes in all
the proceedings (only Mr. Bradstreet went home before the sen-
tence),"2 and five of the Deputies were also recorded as contradi-
centes, two of whom had been leaders in the Hingham disturbances.8
The smallness of Maverick's fine was due to his not having appealed
in November.4 Child's sentence runs as follows: "Doctor Childe, as
being guilty not only of his offence in the matter of appeale & remon-
strance, but also in chardging ye Coute wth breaches of p*viledges
of Parliament, & contemptuous speeches & behaviou' towards them,
is fined ffiffty pounds."6 This refers to his demeanor at the Novem-
ber hearing, for there is no indication that he misbehaved at the
actual trial. After sentence they all appealed again.2
The trial seems to have occupied one day, and the sentence was
almost the closing act of the session.6 The exact date cannot be de-
termined, since all the proceedings of the session that began on
November 4, 1646, are recorded under that single date, but it was
certainly later than the 16th,7 and probably several days later.
The sentence, we observe, says nothing about imprisonment or
about security for payment.8 This silence is significant. The cul-
prits were set at liberty, as the course of events proves, but they
were liable to arrest at any time for then* unpaid fines.9 The object
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 94; Winthrop, ii. 355-356 (291-292).
1 Winthrop, ii. 356 (292).
• Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 94 (Richard Russell, Henry Bartholmew,
Bozon Allen, Joshua Hubbard, Edward Carleton). Allen and Hubbard (Hobart)
were the Hingham men, and the latter was the minister's brother.
• Ibid.; Winthrop, ii. 355 (291).
• Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 94.
• This may be inferred not only from its place in the record, but also from
the words of Winthrop, ii. 356 (292): "So the court was dissolved."
7 On November 16, 1646, John Winthrop wrote to his son John, respecting
the Remonstrants: "We are like to proceed to some Censure [i. e., judgment]
for their appeal, if not for the Petition" (letter in Savage's Winthrop, ii. 430).
• Contrast the language of the sentence imposed in May, 1647, when it was
expressly provided that the defendants should be imprisoned until their fines
were paid or security given (Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 113).
• Winslow says: "Though they were fined, yet the fines were not levied"
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 39
of this apparent leniency seems obvious, — to give the offenders
plenty of rope. The magistrates suspected a Presbyterian con-
spiracy against the Charter and the Independent churches, and they
kept a sharp eye on Child and his associates.
Child, even before the trial, seems to have had the intention of
paying a visit to England in the autumn,1 and this purpose must have
been well-known to the leading men in the Colony, with whom he
had until recently been on friendly terms. After the trial, he made
haste to get ready to go in a ship which was to sail in about a week,2
and he seems to have talked incautiously about what he expected to
accomplish by prosecuting his appeal. The evening before his de-
parture, the Council (Bellingham dissenting) decided "to stay the
Doctor for his fine, and to search his trunk and Mr. Dand's study,"
whereupon, as Winthrop tells us, "we sent the officers presently to
fetch the Doctor, and to search his study and Dand's both at one
instant." The officers brought Child, and his trunk, which con-
tained nothing contraband, "but at Dand's they found Mr. Smith"
and also certain papers — some of them in Chikfs handwriting3 —
which deserved all the attention that the fathers of the Colony gave
them.
The fact is, Winthrop and his associates had been too clever for
Dr. Child. They had given him every opportunity, since his trial,
to prepare such documents as he thought would be most effective in
England, knowing full well that he would (if liberty of action were
allowed him) get these ready before he sailed, in order to fortify them
(New-Englands Salamander, p. 2). Child's letter to John Winthrop, Jr., May
14, 1647, shows that none of the fines had been paid at that date: "I am in some
measure streightned for things necessary, esp. if or fines be demaunded" (Win-
throp Papers, iii. 158).
1 He writes to John Winthrop, Jr., May 14, 1647: "I neglected to write to
my freinds for a supply [of money] this yeare, because my Intentions were for
England" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 157-158).
* Winthrop, ii. 356 (292). I suppose this was Major Nehemiah Bourne's ship,
which, on November 16, 1646, was expected to be ready to sail within " this 14
dayes" (John Winthrop to John Winthrop, Jr., in the Appendix to Savage's
Winthrop, 2d ed., ii. 430). Marvin says inadvertently that Child "was hastily
preparing to return to England with Vassal and Fowle" (New-Englands Jonas,
Introduction, p. xxxix).
» Winthrop, ii. 356-357 (292-293). Winthrop, ii. 358 (294), says that "the
writings" were in Child's hand. Winslow says that one of the "Coppice" was
in Child's hand, another in Dand's (New-Englands Salamander, p. 13). A
40 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
with signatures. This was manifestly their object in postponing his
afrest to the eve of sailing. Indeed, their original purpose had been
to wait until he had actually embarked: why, Winthrop does not tell
us, because he supposes we shall be shrewd enough to infer that any
documents seized on shipboard would be not only the last results of
the Doctor's activities but would also, from the circumstances of
their seizure, require no proof that they were intended for use in the
mother country. I should be ashamed to make so obvious a sugges-
tion, were it not that an eminent New Englander has interpreted
the action of the vigilant guardians of our independence hi quite
another fashion. "One striking characteristic of the theocracy,"
writes Mr. Brooks Adams, "was its love for inflicting mental suffer-
ing upon its victims. The same malicious vindictiveness which sent
Morton to sea in sight of his blazing home, and which imprisoned
Anne Hutchinson in the house of her bitterest enemy, now suggested
a scheme for making Childe endure the pangs of disappointment, by
allowing him to embark, and then seizing him as the ship was setting
sail."1
The papers thus impounded were three in number. There was a
petition to the Commissioners for Plantations from some twenty-
five "non-freemen" calling for liberty of conscience and for a general
governor. This was of no great consequence. Far more significant
was another petition, signed by the original Remonstrants, hi which,
after reciting the harsh treatment they had received, they ask not
only for "settled churches according to the reformation of England,"
— that is, the Presbyterian reformation, — and for the appointment
of a "general governor" or commissioners to regulate the Colony,
but for the imposition of "the oath of allegiance and such other
covenants" as the Parliament may decide on to test the sentiments
of the colonists "to the state of England and true restored Prot-
estant religion," i. e., of course, the Presbyterian system. This
clause, we note, calls for the imposition of the Covenant on the
whole Colony! The petition also asked for judgment on the Remon-
strance and for answers to certain queries. These, which made up
the third document, were openly revolutionary. They concerned,
document in the Massachusetts Archives, cvi. 6 a (printed below, p. 55), says
that "the foule draughts both of Petition & Queris are like his [Child's] hand."
1 Emancipation of Massachusetts, Boston, 1887 [really 1886], p. 92.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 41
amongst other things, the validity of the charter, inquiring " how it
might be forfeited, and whether such and such acts or speeches in
the pulpits or in the courts were not high treason."1 The revolu-
tionary nature of the seized documents admits of no question.
William Pynchon, on March 9, 1646[-7], wrote from Springfield to
"Winthrop, on the receipt of certain "extracts," which he sent on
(as requested) to Edward Hopkins: "I cannot but be much affected
with that malignant spirit that breathes out in their endeuors, be-
c[ause] by their manner of proceedinge (though they pretend honest
reformation, yet) it seemes to me they would destroy both Church
& Comonwealth: in laboring for a generall Governor, & in charging
treason by Conniuence vppon ye Court."2
Child, on being brought before the Governor and Council, "fell
into a great passion, and gave big words, but being told, that they
considered he was a person of quality, and therefore he should be
used with such respect as was meet to be showed to a gentleman
and a scholar, but if he would behave himself no better, he should be
committed to the common prison and clapped in irons, — upon this
he grew more calm; so he was committed to the marshal, with Smith
and Dand, for two or three days, till the ships were gone." He was
" very much troubled to be hindered from his voyage, and offered to
pay his fine," but the authorities refused to accept this as sufficient
to discharge him, since they " now had new matter and worse against
him."3 He was bound over to the next Court of Assistants. He
was not imprisoned, however, but was allowed to lodge at the house
of his friend Richard Leader, manager of the iron works, on giving
bond in £800 (with three sureties) not to leave the town limits.4
1 Winthrop, ii. 357-358 (293). Hutchinson (2d ed., 1765, i. 147-149), gives the
fullest account of the contents of the seized documents, but he speaks of only one
petition, a portion of which was the request for the answers to certain queries.
Winthrop, ii. 359 (295), says that the "petitions and queries intended for Eng-
land" are in the records of "that court," but they are not now to be found there
nor have the originals been discovered.
* Winthrop Papers, i. 381. Pynchon goes on to suggest certain measures which
the Colony may well take to obviate criticisms made by the Remonstrants.
» Winthrop, ii. 358 (294).
4 So I understand the combined testimony of Child's letter to the younger
Winthrop, March 15, 1646[-7] (Winthrop Papers, iii. 156), and of New-Englands
Jonas, p. (22). Winthrop, ii. 358 (294), says merely: "Yet, upon tender of suffi-
cient bail, he was set at liberty, but confined to his house, and to appear at the
next court of assistants."
42 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Smith and Dand, refusing to be examined, were not bailed, but
committed to prison, "yet lodged in the keeper's house," with
liberty to receive visits from their friends.1
At the Court of Assistants, in March, 1647, the whole matter was
referred to the next General Court, partly because that Court had
dealt with the former case (that of the Remonstrance itself), and
partly because the new grounds of complaint against the defendants
were so momentous, concerning "the very life and foundation of
our government." Smith and Dand were released on bail, after
giving security to pay within two months the fine imposed on each
of them in the preceding November. Maverick, who had been
fined only £10 on that occasion, had exerted himself in the interim
to get signatures to the petition to the Commissioners — the same
of which a copy was found hi Band's study. He was therefore sum-
moned to the Court of Assistants, charged with this offence (which,
in the view of the Court, involved a breach of his Freeman's Oath),
and likewise bound over to the General Court. "Mr. Clerk," of
Salem, a freeman and a church member, was also summoned and
bound over for the same reason : — he had not signed the original
Remonstrance, but "had been very active about the petition to the
commissioners in procuring hands to it." Dr. Child, regarded as
the chief offender, "was offered his liberty, upon bail to the general
court, and to be confined to Boston; but he chose rather to go to
prison, and so he was committed." 2
We are now in a position to understand Child's letter of March 15,
1646[-7], written from Boston to John Winthrop, Jr., "at Pequat
River," immediately after this action of the Assistants:
I should willingly haue come along wth yor man, but yor father (I thanke
him) hath bin ye especiall occasion of my stoppage here and impris-
onm*, for now I am at Mallins house, chusing rather to abide there,
than to Accept of his ptended Courtesy of Confinem* to Boston necke,
vnder 3 suretys & 800* bond, wch Confinem* I haue patiently endured
this 3 months. Imprisonm* I must expect as long 3 viz to y° General
Court, or till y6 Parliam* releive me: y« busines you know, namely ya
petition & remonstrance, for y" wch I was fined 50*, Mr. Smith, 40*,
Mr. Yale 30*.
1 Winthrop, ii. 358-359 (294-295); cf. New Englanda Salamander, p. 13.
* Winthrop, ii. 367 (301).
» I. e., three months more (in reality, about two months).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 43
He asks payment of £40 which he had lent Winthrop, for "this fine
& other businesses may cause me to want moneys." l "Mallins," I
suppose, was George Munnings, keeper of the Boston prison.2 Child,
like Smith and Dand, was obviously lodged in the keeper's house,3
not in the prison itself.
Here we must pause to draw an obvious distinction, which has
sometimes been overlooked or ignored. The authorities had two
separate cases against Child: (1) that which grew directly out of the
Remonstrance itself and his conduct when summoned to answer to
it, and (2) that concerning the papers found in Dand's study. The
first was finished at the November Court in 1646 by the imposition
of a fine of £50, which still hung over his head, being unpaid; the
second, which involved a conspiracy to subvert the government,
was now pending and was to be tried at the spring session of the
General Court in 1647. It was the fact that the fine of £50 had not
been paid which gave the Council a valid ground for arresting Child
in November, 1646, when he was about to sail for England, and
doubtless (as already suggested) the neglect to exact payment and
the liberty of a week or more accorded to the Doctor before the
date of his intended sailing (in November, 1646) had been a piece
of policy on the part of the magistrates, who, suspecting a con-
spiracy against the government, wished to give the plotters every
opportunity to take such measures and prepare such documents as
should make their ultimate purposes clear.
The Court of Elections was held on May 26, 1647. Winthrop was
chosen Governor by a plurality of two or three hundred, and the
only new magistrate elected was Captain Robert Bridges. Yet there
had been "great laboring" by "the friends of the petitioners to have
one chosen governor who favored their cause, and some new magis-
trates to have been chosen of their side." 4 Only a few days before,
Child was still looking for good news from England. "I hope," he
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 156. I infer from this letter that Child had for three
months been under bonds not to leave the town limits, and that he refused to
renew his bond and went to prison.
* See Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 148.
* Our associate Mr. Samuel C. ('lough states that this house was on the westerly
side of the prison land, fronting Court Street, now covered in part by the annex
to the City Hall.
4 Winthrop, ii. 374-375 (307).
44 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., on May 14, "when we heare from
England to be comaunded from hence, to prosecute or Appeale before
y* Parliam* & y* or Cause may be heard before indifferent Arbiters,
till woh time I suppose I shall remayne in my ould Lodging in y*
prison." * But no such summons arrived, for Winslow had been
busy in the interim.
Before Winslow sailed for England, Gorton with his two asso-
ciates, John Greene and Randall Holderi, had accomplished much.
They had left Rhode Island about the middle of August, 1645, had
arrived in England (it seems) toward the end of the year,2 had pre-
sented then* case to the Commissioners for Plantations, and on May
15, 1646, had procured two orders for reinstatement in their Narra-
gansett lands.3 Holden, arriving at Boston on September 13, had
presented the first of these orders, which served him as a passport
through the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and the other had been sent
over by the Commissioners and had reached the hands of the magis-
trates.4 Winslow's mission in England was to reopen the Gorton
case, as the agent of the Bay, and incidentally to bring the Child
affair to the attention of the Commissioners, or to oppose the efforts
of the Remonstrants if they had got the start of him. Gorton had not
returned to America with Holden. He doubtless expected some
further move on the part of the Massachusetts Court, and he
remained in England to fortify his case. His famous book, Sim-
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 157.
1 Gorton and his comrades left Rhode Island for "the Dutch plantation"
about the middle of August, 1645; there they "lay long," waiting for a ship,
then sailed to Holland, where they "lay long" again before they could get pas-
sage for England. These details (but not the date) come from the letter of
August 22, 1661, from the inhabitants of Warwick to the General Court of
Massachusetts (Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, ii. 228). The best
criterion for the date of Gorton's departure from Rhode Island is the letter of
J[ohn]. W[arner]., November 20, 1645, printed in Simplicities Defence, pp. 93-
94. In tolling Gorton the news from America, Warner begins by informing him
that the Bay authorities had provided an army against the Narragansetts, but
that, upon Captain Harding' s warning them of the difficulty of the enterprise,
they had sent Harding and Wylbour to deal with the savages, associating with
them Benedict Arnold as interpreter. Now these events took place hi August,
1645 (Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 32 ff, ii. 90), and the commission of Hard-
ing, "Welborne," and Arnold is dated August 18 (ix. 41— 12).
1 Winthrop gives both orders in full, ii. 333, 342-344 (272-273, 280-282); see
also Rhode Island Colonial Records, i. 367-369.
• Winthrop, ii. 333-334, 342 (273, 280).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 45
plicities Defence against Seven-headed Policy, addressed to the
Commissioners, was licensed on August 3, 1646, and published as
early as November 7th.1
Winslow sailed from Boston about the middle of December,2 and
"had a comfortable passage and landfall," so that he must have
reached London in January, 1647. He did not get a hearing before
the Commissioners until sometime between May 5 and July 22.3
Meanwhile, his facile pen was kept busy. Gorton's Simplicities De-
fence was waiting for him on the bookstalls, and he dashed off a
reply, Hypocrisie Unmasked, also addressed to the Commissioners,
which was issued between February 22 and March 25.4 This was
answered in its turn by Major John Child, in his New-Englands
Jonas, which was also written (at least in part) before the latter
date,5 though not published until after the legal new-year, as its
1 "Imprimatur August 3, 1646." Thomason bought his copy on November
7 (Thomason Catalogue, i. 473).
1 New-Englands Salamander, p. 20; Winthrop, ii. 387 (317). Seccombe
(Dictionary of National Biography, Ixii. 202) says that "Winslow sailed from
Boston in October 1646," apparently following Jacob B. Moore's statement
("about the middle of October") in his Memoirs of American Governors, i. 123.
Moore was no doubt misled by Winthrop's "lOber", thinking that he should
count January as the first month instead of March. The error would not de-
serve a word if it had not passed from Seccombe into a note in the fine edition of
Bradford published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, ii. 394 note 1.
1 On May 5, 1647, Herbert Pelham wrote from London to Winthrop: "For
the ftusines of the Countrie yow will be more fully inf ormed by my Cosen Wins-
low, who takes great payns, but as yet can not come to a hearing" (Winthrop
Papers, ii. 140). On the same day Hugh Peter wrote to Winthrop: "Appealea
will hardly bee ouerthrowne nor doe I mynd it much as a thing you should bee
troubled about" (Winthrop Papers, i. 111). Cf. p. 64, below.
• The date in the title-page, 1646, proves that the book was printed before
March 25, 1647, and it was certainly written after Winslow's arrival, which
must have taken place in January. It was entered in the Stationers' Register on
February 22, 1646[-7] (Stationers' Register, 1640-1708, Roxburghe Club, i.
263). Winslow himself dates it (p. 77) "not much above two moneths" after his
departure from New England. Thomason dated it October 2 (Thomason Cata-
logue, i. 467), which is manifestly wrong, for Winslow did not leave New Eng-
land until about the middle of December, and he states expressly that he first
saw Gorton's book hi England: "When I came over, I found that Gorton had
enlarged his complaint by publishing a booke called Simplicities defence against
Seven-headed Policy" (New-Englands Salamander, p. 22; cf. Hypocrisie Un-
masked, p. 63).
1 Major Child speaks of 1646 as "this year" (p. [18]). This is in the body of
liis tract. His reply to Hypocrisie Unmasked is in the form of a "Post-Script,"
46 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
imprint (1647) shows. Thomason bought it on April 15,1 which was
perhaps the very day of publication. Winslow instantly retorted
with New-Englands Salamander, which was also issued in 1647-
as early as May 29.2
Major Child, being a high Presbyterian,8 had no sympathy for
Gorton, whom he describes as "a man notorious for heresie," 4 but,
in advocating the cause of his brother, he felt bound to oppose Wins-
low's doctrine of No Appeal.6 Besides, there were some passages in
Hypocrisie Unmasked that alluded to the Remonstrants. In par-
ticular, Winslow had contended that Presbyterians, as such, were
under no disabilities in Massachusetts,6 and this point the Major
thought it desirable to controvert in the interest of his brother and
the other petitioners.7
which may have been written after the rest of the book was in type. New-Eng-
lands Jonas is reprinted in part in 2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv.
107-120, and in its entirety by W. T. R. Marvin (Boston, 1869) with a good
introduction. It may also be found in Force's Tracts, iv, no. 3. I have used a
copy of the original in the Boston Athenaeum.
1 Thomason Catalogue, i. 504.
1 This is Thomason's date (Catalogue, i. 513) and must be close to the day of
publication. When Winslow wrote, he had not yet been heard by the Com-
missioners, for he says that he has been sent over by "the government of the
Massachusets" to "render a reason" to the Commissioners with reference to
the Gorton business, "which I still attend till their more weighty occasions will
permit them to heare" (Salamander, p. 22). This passage, then, was certainly
written before May 25, the date of their preliminary answer, which was so favor-
able that Winslow could hardly have refrained from alluding to it if it had already
been given when he wrote. The tract is reprinted in 3 Massachusetts Historical
Collections, ii. 110-145. I have used the copy of the original in the Harvard
College Library.
* See p. 87, below.
* New-Englands Jonas, p. 13 [i. e., 21].
* See Winslow's Epistle Dedicatory to Hypocrisie Unmasked.
* Hypocrisie Unmasked, pp. 99-100.
7 In the title-page of New-Englands Salamander, Winslow describes New-
Englands Jonas as "an irreligious and scornefull Pamphlet, . . . Owned by
Major lohn Childe, but not probable to be written by him." He ascribes the
book to "New-Englands Salamander," that is, as we learn from Winthrop (ii.
391 [321]), to William VassalL At all events, he is convinced that Vassall was
Major Child's "chief animator to this undertaking" (p. 1), and the Post-Script
he "verily beleeves" the Salamander "penned every word" (p. 13). In fact,
Child's tract (except for this Post-Script) is mostly occupied by copies of docu-
ments (the Hingham Petition, with the record of subsequent proceedings in
that affair; the Remonstrance; the Capital Laws of Massachusetts; the Oath
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 47
Just what was being done by Thomas Fowle (the only Remon-
strant then in England)/ by William Vassall (also there), and by
English friends of the cause, to get the business before the Par-
liament or the Commissioners, we cannot make out with certainty.1
Fowle and Vassall had been in England ever since December 19,
1646, and something had doubtless been attempted in the way of
bringing influence to bear on individual Commissioners or Members
of Parliament. Vassall, who believed in universal toleration,2 prob-
ably joined forces with Gorton, but Major Child and his circle would
have gone to the stake before they would have cooperated with a
Familist. We know that Vassall took over with him in the Supply
one or more petitions to Parliament which called for certain reforms
that were also demanded by the Remonstrants, but these were
drawn up, it seems, before the Remonstrance was prepared, and
were certainly neither in the name nor in the behalf of Child and his
associates.3 Vassall's petition, a copy of the Remonstrance, and
other pertinent documents, as Major Child informs the world in his
New-Englands Jonas, arrived safely on the Supply, "and are here
in London to be seen and made use of in convenient time." 4 The
Major's present tense applies, of course, to the moment of writing,
that is, to some time between February 1 and March 25, 1647 —
certainly before the latter date. His language indicates, I think,
that the friends of the Remonstrance had not yet submitted their
case to the Commissioners.
Before this time, however, Winslow, though he had not yet got a
of a Freeman) and by the story of throwing the petition overboard, which he
says (p. 2) is given "verbatim, as it was delivered to me in writing by a Gentle-
man that was then a passenger in the Ship." Vassall was a passenger.
1 See pp. 42-44, above.
1 See Winslow's letter to Winthrop, November 24, 1645 (Hutchinson Papers,
i. 172-175). This letter is generally, and doubtless rightly, thought to refer to
Vassall (Palfrey, History of New England, ii. 167 note 4). The proposition which
Winslow says was brought before the Plymouth Court was "to allow and main-
taine full and free tollerance of religion to all men that would preserve the civill
peace and submit unto government; and there was no limitation or exception
against Turke, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicholaytan, Familist, or any
other." Cf. 1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, vi. 476-479.
1 No copy of Vassall's petition or petitions is known. See Winthrop, ii. 319-
320, 340, 391 (260-261, 278-279, 321); New-Englands Jonas, p. 12 [error for 181;
New-Englands Salamander, pp. 16, 18, 23.
4 New-Englands Jonas, p. 13 [error for 19].
48 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [
formal hearing, must have filed his documents. These included
copies not only of various Gorton papers, but also of Child's Re-
monstrance and the General Court's Declaration in reply; and with
them went the protest of December, 1646, addressed to the Com-
missioners by the Governor and Company in answer to their order
of May 15, 1646. This protest covered both cases, Gorton's and
Child's. It asserted, with a masterly union of deference and frank
courage, the doctrine of No Appeal under the Charter, and called
upon the Commissioners to recognize that doctrine, not, to be sure,
by affirming it in set terms but "by leaving delinquents to our just
proceedings, and discountenancing our enemies and disturbers of
our peace, or such as molest our people . . . upon pretence of in-
justice." * Vassall's petitions may or may not have been before
the Commissioners when Winslow submitted his papers, but, if so,
they were a thing apart, and not a branch or member of the Child
agitation, nor did they involve the question of appeal. We know
nothing of their history before the Parliament or the Commissioners,
except that they were rejected.2
Meanwhile, as we have seen, Robert Child was in confinement at
Boston, awaiting the May session of the General Court and looking
anxiously for a summons from Parliament that should call him to
England to "prosecute his appeal." 3 By an odd coincidence, on
May 25, 1647, the very day before the Court of Elections was held
in Massachusetts, the English Commissioners, who must have given
Winslow at least a preliminary hearing, indited a letter to the Gov-
ernor and Company which sounded the death knell to all Child's
hopes.
In this letter the Commissioners acknowledge the receipt from
Winslow of the Petition and Remonstrance of the Governor and
Company in the Gorton case, and continue in these highly signifi-
cant terms:
Though we have not yet entered into a particular consideration of the
matter, yet we do, in the general, take notice of your respect, as well
1 Winthrop, ii. 360-364 (295-298).
* Aa Winthrop, ii. 391 (321), puts it, "Mr. Vassall, finding no entertainment
for his petitions, went to Barbados." This news seems to have reached Boston
in May, 1648.
1 See p. 44, above.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 49
to the parliament's authority, as your own just privileges, and find cause
to be further confirmed in our former opinion and knowledge of your
prudence and faithfulness to God and his cause. And perceiving by your
petition, that some persons do take advantage, from our said letter,1 to de-
cline and question your jurisdiction, and to pretend a general liberty to ap-
peal hither, upon their being called in question before you for matters proper
to your cognizance, we thought it necessary (for preventing of further incon-
veniences in this kind) hereby to declare, that we intended not thereby to
encourage any appeals from your justice, nor to restrain the bounds of your
jurisdiction to a narrower compass than is held forth by your letters patent,
but to leave you with all that freedom and latitude that may, in any respect,
be duly claimed by you; knowing that the limiting of you in that kind may be
very prejudicial (if not destructive) to the government and public peace of
the colony.2
The passage here italicized refers in the plainest way to the appeal
of Child and his associates, and is a direct and favorable reply to
certain dignified and outspoken sentences in the petition of the
Governor and Company which Winslow had delivered to the Com-
missioners. This declares that if Gorton be upheld by the Com-
missioners, it will endanger the peace of the Colony.
For some amongst ourselves, men of vnquiett spiritts, affecting rule &
innovacoh, haue taken bouldnes to .pferr scandalous & seditious peti-
cons for such libertyes as neither our charter, nor reason, nor religion
will allawe; & being called before vs in open Courte to give accomp* of
their miscarriage therein, they have threatned vs wth yor honno's au-
thority, & before they knew whether wee would Accede to any sentence
agnt them or not, have refused to answer, but appealed to yor honno's.
Ye coppy of their petition, & our declaration therevpon, our comission'
hath ready topsent to yow. . . . Their appeals wee have not admitted,
being assured y* they cannot stand wth ye liberty & power graunted vs
by our charter, nor willbe allowed by yor honno's, who well know it
would be destructive to all goument, both in ye honnor & also in y*
power of it, if it should be in ye liberty of delinquents to evade y« sen-
tence of justice, & force vs, by appeales, to ffollow them into England,
where the evidences & circumstances of facts cannot be so cleerely held
1 I. e., the Commissioners' order of May 15, 1646, printed in Winthrop, ii.
342-344 (280-282).
» Winthrop, ii. 389-390 (319-320).
50 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [M.\RCH,
forth as in their .pper place. Besids the insupportable chardges wee
must be at in y*,psecution thereof.1
The action of the English Commissioners, however, — as it could
not be known to the Magistrates and Deputies at the May session
of the General Court, so it was not needed to spur them to decisive
action in the case of Child and his associates, for they were con-
fident that they were acting legally and they never lacked courage.
Undoubtedly they expected a favorable reply from England, but
their action on subsequent occasions — for example, in their treat-
ment of the Commissioners of Charles II in 1665 — shows that they
were quite ready to defy the Parliamentary Commissioners now,
should these claim any power which the Charter, as our forefathers
interpreted it, had lodged in the hands of the Massachusetts au-
thorities.
And so the May court of 1647 began its session on the 26th, and
the trial of the Remonstrants was reached in due course. It is im-
portant, in view of the prevalent confusion on this subject, to define
the issue. The first case, that of the Remonstrance itself, was over
and done with, and the penalties had been imposed. The present
case, though it had grown out of the former, was quite distinct, and
depended on acts discovered and in part committed subsequently
to the former trial. These acts, in the opinion of the magistrates,
amounted to a conspiracy against the government on the part of
Robert Child, John Smith, Samuel Maverick, John Dand, and
Thomas Burton. Two of the original Remonstrants were not in-
volved in this second proceeding — Thomas Fowle and David Yale.
Fowle had gone to England before the former trial, and had conse-
quently had no part in the subsequent activities that led to the
present prosecution. His sureties (whoever they were) were, of
course, bound to produce him or settle up, if the Court should call
him to bar on the former offence, for which he had never been tried;
but it seems clear that the matter was never pressed. How, when,
and why Yale dropped out of the case is a mystery. I should be in-
clined to think he had not signed the petition seized in Dand's study
but for the fact that Wmthrop says expressly that it was "from Dr.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 97 (session of November 4, 1646); Win-
throp, ii. 362-363 (297).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT .">!
Child and the other six petitioners." 1 Perhaps this is a slip of the
pen. At all events the list of culprits given in a contemporary memo-
rial omits his name,2 and he is not mentioned in the record of the
sentence.3
One new culprit was expected to stand trial with the rest, having
been bound over at the Court of Assistants in March, 1647. This
was "Mr. Clerk of Salem the keeper of the ordinary there and a
church member." His offence is equated with Maverick's by Win-
throp, for both were freemen: "These having taken an oath of
fidelity to the government, and enjoying all liberties of freemen,
their offence was far the greater." They "had been very active
about the petition to the commissioners" (that revolutionary docu-
ment found in Dand's study) "in procuring hands to it."4 In the
opinion of the magistrates, then, they had been guilty of perjury as
well as of conspiracy. William Clark had been chosen by the in-
habitants of Salem to keep the town ordinary on April 7, 1645, B and
in the following October the General Court appointed him Lieutenant
of the Military Company of Salem and Lynn.6 But alas! at the
Quarter Court held at Salem on February 18, 1646, he was "advised
to forbear being offensive in suffering a shuffling board in his house,
occasioning misspending of time."7 We are not obliged to infer that
this incident threw him into the arms of the malcontents, but
thought is free.8 He died before May 26, 1647, thus escaping trial
1 Winthrop, ii. 357 (293).
1 See pp. 53-55, 56, below.
• Massachusetts Colony Records, ill. 113.
« Winthrop, ii. 367 (301).
• Felt, Annals of Salem, 1827, p. 166. The General Court of November,
1646, granted him a license at the rate of £15 a year (Massachusetts Colony
Records, ii. 173).
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 133 (cf. ii. 110).
7 Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, i. 91. He was
not, as Felt (p.- 172) asserts, fined, for the law against playing "shovelboard"
in public houses was not passed until the May 26 session of the General Court,
1647 (Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 195).
• He had other troubles, for on August 4, 1646, he was "discharged of his
presentment for affronting the constable, having confessed publicly." It ap-
pears that he had twice affronted this officer, once when the latter had visited
his house on an errand about a "hew and crye," and again when he demanded
( 'lark's "measure" to compare it with the town standard, thinking the land-
lord's measure too small (Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex
52 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS £MARCH,
for conspiracy, and his widow was allowed to continue the ordinary
at Salem.1
The exact date of the trial of the conspirators is not determinable.
The Court assembled on May 26, 1647, but the trial certainly took
place hi June,2 and sentence was not pronounced until after the 9th.3
There was more or less public sentiment in favor of the defendants,
and an escape or rescue was feared, as is shown by the following
entry in the records of this session :
In regard of y" weaknes of ye prison, & y* to have iustice now de-
luded by any escape, would reflect much dishono' upon y* Co'te, &
minist' matt' of insulting to ye adverse pty, it is ord'ed, by authority
of this. Co'te, y * ye keeper shall huire 2 able men, such as may be trusted
wth a matter of so great moment, & if he cannot huire any such, then
upon sight hereof ye cunstables of Boston, or any of them, shall from
time to time impresse 2 such men, who shall assist ye keeper in guarding
y* prisoners day & night, & when they go to ye publike meetings, & they
shalbe alowed 3 sh8 p day & night, each of them, out of ye fines of y*
prisoners.
It is furthr ordained, y* if all y* prison's of D' Childs conspiracy
shalbe once discharged out of prison, except one or 2, y« keeper shall
keepe such one of two of them in irons, except they wilbe at charge of
such guarde as y* matrato8 of Boston shall appoint ovr them.4
A very interesting memorial, hitherto unprinted, was submitted
to the Court shortly (as it would seem) before a decision was reached.
It is docketed, in a hand contemporary with the text: "Deputy":
motions, 1647," 6 and is signed by fourteen members of the House
County, i. 101). He had lawsuits in 1640, 1642, and 1643 (i. 20, 22, 49, 55),
but anyhow our forefathers were a litigious lot.
1 Felt, Annals of Salem, p. 175; Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 193. The
inventory of his estate (sworn to by his widow, Katherine Clark) is dated June
25, 1647 (Records and Files, as above, i. 119).
» Winthrop, ii. 359 (295) says that the trial was in June — " (4) 47." Se«
p. 58, below.
1 On June 9, 1647, Mr. Ezekiel Rogers of Rowley preached at the Cambridge
Synod, the Magistrates and Deputies being present, and he "took occasion to
speak of the petitioners, (then in question before the court,) and exhorted the
court to do justice upon them, yet with desire of favor to such as had been drawn
in, etc., and should submit" (Winthrop, ii. 376 [308]).
4 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 195-196.
* The second word is very indistinct, but seems to be meant for "motions" or
"Notions."
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 53
of Deputies. The document proves that there was considerable
difference of opinion in the Court itself, and contains so many curious
details that I reproduce it in full from the original in the Archives: l
Concerninge the matter about the Petitioners, we finde that this may
be legally Charged on them.
For Mr Dan
1 That the Petitioners 2 & Queres were found in his Custody & soe
must be Charged wth them till he p'oduce an other Author
2: y1: he purposly raised slanders on the Country & this Appeares
by his owne letters
3. he went about to nurrish & Cherrish: discontented psons, amongest
vs to the disturbinge of ye Libertiies amongest vs. both in Church &
Commonwelth, & this appeares, in the two Petitions he gaue to Foy &
Barlo the Coppis of wch were found wth him 8
For Mr: Mauerick.
1: He Countenaunced this Petition that was witnessed to in such a
dangero8 & disturbinge way & that appeares by his owninge of it from
1 Massachusetts Archives, cvi. 6 a.
* Error for Petitions.
* Foy and Barlow were apparently sea-captains engaged in the carrying trade
between England and the Colony, who testified that Dand had given them copies
of both of the seized petitions to take to England. When this delivery was made
— whether before or after the raid on Dand's study — does not appear, nor is it
clear whether the petitions were actually taken to England by Foy and Barlow.
The Foy mentioned can hardly have been the Captain John Foy (e) so well-known
in Boston from 1672 (Suffolk Deeds, vii. 317) till his death in 1715 (SewalTs Diary,
iii. 68), but may have been an older relative. Captain John Foy bought a house
here in 1673 (Suffolk Deeds, viii. 133), took the oath of allegiance in 1678 (Boston
Record Commissioners' Reports, xxix. 165), and had by his wife Dorothy (died
1724: SewalTs Diary, iii. 328) nine children born in Boston 1672-1689 (Record
Commissioners' Reports, ix. 123, 132, 145, 151, 157, 165, 174, 184). He is often men-
tioned in Sewall's Diary and Letter-Book and elsewhere (Massachusetts Colony
Records, v. 267, 382, 391, 497; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1693, p. 428;
Hinckley Papers, p. 206; Lawrence Hammond's Diary, 2 Massachusetts Historical
Proceedings, vii. 157, 159, 168; our Publications, x. 112, xiv. 143; indexes to
Toppan's Edward Randolph, iii, iv, vi; Suffolk Deeds, x-xiv; Boston Record
Commissioners' Reports, i; Mather Papers; Winthrop Papers, iv, vi); but is easily
confused with his son, the younger Captain John Foy (1674-1730), who was of
Charlestown (Wyman, Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, i. 372-373;
Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, iii. 210, 211, ix. 250; Sewall'e Diary,
i. 480, 493, ii. 279, 327; Sewall's Letter-Book, i. 193, 203; Winthrop Papers, iv. 527,
545,v. SIS'; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv. 7,131, 132).
54 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Bushnel & sendinge it for England l Conterrary to his Ingagen* to
this Commowealth.2
For Mr Smith
1: He Countenaunced Mr Dan & Resisted Authority & that Ap-
peares in his endeuero'g to keepe these papers: from Authority that
had sent for them to Mr Dans studdy. & in sayinge he hoped to haue
Commission to Rannsick the Gouerno's Studdy eare Longe *
ForM'Burtton:
It is Cleare that he knew of the former petition sent for England:
first Foy sayes hee was prsent & cons[ent]4ed to the deliuery of it to him6
2: by Mr Parker & his wiues Testimony which sayes he hope to haue
the best at last which must be by this Petition or a worse way Alsoe
he spake slightly of Authority & Contemnd it in oppen Courte by his
words & Carriages
For the Doctor
It may be feared & is somethinge profile that he was acquainted with
both Petitions & Queres, & therefor Authority did well to sease on him
to secure themselues & to keepe him in Costody for future Euidence
1 This was the petition "from some non-freeman," in getting signatures to
which Maverick had been] "very active." See Winthrop, ii. 358, 367 (293-294,
301). This memorandum is the only evidence we have that it was actually
"sent for England." One copy was seized in Band's study — perhaps the "foule
draught" mentioned below. It appears, however, that the authorities had a
copy with twenty-five signatures that was seized in the raid on Dand (Winthrop,
as above), and this can hardly have been the foul draught. What "owninge of
it from Bushnel " means is a puzzle. The word owninge is very clear in the MS.
It was first written owinge and the n is above the line with a caret. Perhaps
"from Bushnel" belongs in sense with "appears," — i. e. that Maverick coun-
tenanced the petition appears from Btishnel's testimony that he acknowledged it
(as a document that he approved).
1 I. e., contrary to his oath as a freeman.
* This outburst on Smith's part gave particular offence in those days as being
1 gross disrespect to authority. Times have changed. See Winthrop, ii. 357 (293) :
"But at Band's study they [the officers] found Mr. Smith, who catched up some
papers, and when the officer took them from him, he brake out into these speeches,
viz. we hope shortly we shall have commission to search the governour's closet."
4 Hole in the paper.
• This seems to mean the Remonstrance. It cannot refer to Vassall's petition,
for Vassall took that over with him on the Supply (see p. 34, above), nor does
Burton seem to have had anything to do with it. As to the Remonstrance, it is
clear that two copies were on board the Supply. One of them was thrown over-
board, the other was used for the text printed in New-Englands Jonas (see pp.
35, 45, above).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 55
wch mjght appeare in ye examinatio of the Cause; & this feare is grounded,
first the foule draughts both of Petition & Queris are like his hand
2: he had mentioned his discontente & said some Queres would
Quiett.1
3: He adioyntly Joyned in all former greuances & Complaints to
this Courte wth the rest
Therefore we humbly Craue that these or earnest breathings for
peace both in Courte & Conscyence may be taken as fauorably: as the
rule of loue will giue leaue wch we haue no Cause to doubt of, & there-
fore we pfess we doe not this to direct the Courte but throughinge or
might 2 to Cleare or selues from some Jelosyes that may seeme to arise
from or Conterary desent pdone or boldnes. we hope not tedio": for we
are yo": as God Inable vs.
Ric Dumer Edward Gibons Robert Payne
Brian Pendleton Edward: Carlton
[On the back Robert Clements
of the sheet] William Barthollmew
Jacob Barney
Steuen Kinsley
Obadiah Bruen
William Pelham
Tho: Lowthroppe
William Inglish
William Fiske 8
1 I. e., apparently "would quiet it." The passage seems to mean that Child,
in conversation, had been heard to say that certain queries that were to be sent
to England would put an end to his grievances. This remark was thought to
refer to the queries afterwards seized in Dand's study.
1 If the text is right, the phrase must mean "exerting all our abilities." In
that case, we have an example of the verb to through (to " carry through," " carry
out"), hitherto known only as a Scottish word. Perhaps, however, throughing is
a scribe's error for through and the phrase means "to the best of our ability."
1 Dummer was deputy from Salisbury; Gibbons from Boston; Pendleton
from Watertown; Payne from Ipswich; Carlton from Rowley; Clements from
Ilaverhill; Bartholomew from Ipswich; Barney from Salem; Kinsley from Brain-
tree; Bruen (or Brewen) from Gloucester; Pelham from Sudbury; Lothrop from
Salem; English from Hampton; Fiske from Wenham (see Massachusetts Colony
Records, iii. 42, 62, 121-122, 147, 202, 297). Their names all appear in the
list of Deputies for 1647 (Records, ii. 186, iii. 105). Four of the persons who
were contradicentes in the previous sentence, 1646 — Richard Russell, now
Treasurer, Bozon Allen, Joshua Hobart (Hubbard), and Edward Carlton (see p.
38, above) — were members of the 1647 Court, but only one of them (Carlton)
now appeared as an objector.
56 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Of the fourteen signers, one alone — Jacob Barney of Salem — ap-
pears as flatly " contradicens " to the final sentence of the Court;
Dummer, Pendleton, Payne, Carlton, Clements, Pelham, and Lothrop
are recorded as "somewhat differing from ye sentence of ye Courte,
in degree only," and as "desiring their contradicentes might stand
on record only as they differed." They were in favor of lighter
fines, and their several opinions are entered.1 Pendleton, Payne, and
Carlton thought Child had been already punished enough by his
imprisonment.2 The sentence (which was probably followed by an
appeal3) runs as follows:
The Courte having taken into serious consideracoh the crimes chardged
on Doc* Rob* Child, Mr John Smith, Mr Thomas Burton, Mr John
Dand, & Mr Samuell Mauericke, & whereof they have binn found guilty
vpon full evidence by the former judgment of this Courte,4 have agreed
upon y* sentence here ensewing respectively decreed to each of them.
Doctor Child, tuo hundred pounds, & imprison-
ment vntill it be payd or security given for it . 2001' 00s 00d
Mr John Smith, one hundred pounds, & imprison-
ment as before 100 00 00
M' John Dand, tuo hundred pounds, & imprison-
ment as before 200 00 00
Mr Tho: Burton, one hundred pounds, & imprison-
ment as before 100 00 00
Mr Sam: Mauericke, ffor his offence in being ftty to
ye conspiracy, one hundred pounds, & imprison-
ment as before 100 00 00
Mr Sam: Mauericke, ffor his offence in breaking his
oath, & in appealing ag118* ye intent of his oath of
a freeman, mfty pounds, & imprisonment as
before 050 00 00
Jacob Barney contradicens to ye sentence of y* Courte.5
John Dand, being unable to pay his fine and unwilling to apolo-
gize, was put in prison.6 He petitioned the November Court (1647)
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 114. Lothrop, however, agreed with the
Court as to Child and Dand.
1 The formula, in each case, is: "Doctor Child he could not pceed to sentence
besids his imprisonment."
* See pp. 67, 81-82, below.
4 That is, earlier in this same session. The judgment is not recorded.
• Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 113. • Winthrop, ii. 359 (295).
1919]
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
57
to remit the penalty, and it was voted that if, before or at the next
Quarter Court, he shall tender "such acknowledgement" as shall be
approved by that court and by all or a majority of a committee of
seven Deputies [named], and shall also give security to the Auditor
General for £50 "to be paid into ye Treasurer wthin 6 months now
next coming, he shall yn be discharged."1 Dand, however, still
refused to offer a satisfactory apology and remained in jail until
May, 1648, when, having made the requisite amende, he was "ffreed
from his imprisonm*, & his fine readyly remitted him." 2
Maverick was allowed his liberty for about a month after sentence,
but then, not having paid his £150, he was imprisoned.3 From a
curious petition presented by his daughter to Andros in 1688, it
appears that he was resolved not to pay at all, and that; fearing that
the authorities would seize his estate of Noddle's Island, "he made
a deede of Gift of the sd Island to his Eldest sonne," Nathaniel, "not
wth any designe to deliver the sd Deede to him but only to p'vent the
seizure of itt." 4 After twelve days' confinement, however, he paid
his fine and was discharged.3
At the November session of the General Court in this same year
(1647) Maverick petitioned for "a review of his Tryall, the reparacoh
of his Creditt, and remittm* of fines 6 imposed on him," but got no
answer.6 He repeated his application in October, 1648, whereupon
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 205.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 241, iii. 125-126; cf . Winthrop, ii. 359 (295).
1 Samuel Maverick's petition, May 8, 1649 (Massachusetts Archives, B
nrviii. 228, printed by Sumner, History of East Boston, p. 110).
4 Petition of Mary, the wife of Francis Hooke, of Kittery, Maine, "Daughter
and Heiresse of Samuel Mavericke, deceased " (Massachusetts Archives, cxxviii.
45; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, viii. 334; Sumner, His-
tory of East Boston, p. 107). Mary Maverick married (1) John Palsgrave,
February 8, 1655-6, and (2) Francis Hooke, September 20, 1660 (Boston Record
Commissioners' Reports, ix. 53, 76). There are several errors in the petition, but
there seems to be no reason to doubt the execution of the deed of gift, which is
consistent with the fact that, in 1650, Samuel Maverick and his wife, con-
jointly with their son Nathaniel, conveyed the island to Captain George Briggs
of Barbados for 40,000 Ibs. of good white sugar (Suffolk Deeds, i. 122-123; Sumner,
History of East Boston, p. 178).
1 The plural is used because two fines were imposed in June, 1647, £100 for
conspiracy and £50 for perjury (see p. 56, above).
• So Maverick recites in a petition submitted in October, 1Q48 (Massachusetts
Archives, B xxxviii. 227). No copy of the 1647 petition has been found, nor is it
mentioned in the Court records.
58 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
the Deputies voted that he ought to be heard and the Magistrates
(October 25) consented.1 The result was a vote of the Deputies
"that on Mr Samuell Mauerickes acknowledgment of his error his
fine shalbe Remitted," but apparently the Magistrates refused to
concur.2 The matter came up again at the May Court in 1649, and
on the 4th, in response to Maverick's "request" for "a review of his
cawse, whereby he might either cleere himself or be satisfyed in the
evidence formlly pduced against him," the General Court appointed
May 9 "for hearing him."3 There is no record concerning the
business on the 9th, but Maverick's petition of May 8, 1649, is in
the Archives. It alleges that he was charged with " conspiracy and
periury" at a court held in May and June, 1647, protests his inno-
cence, and asks that his fine of £150 may be repaid.4 In another
document of May 8, 1649, Maverick specifies wrhat he conceives to
be a number of errors in a record of the trial of 1647 which had been
furnished him by the Secretary.5 Again there was no result, and ap-
1 The original of this 1648 petition is in the Massachusetts Archives, B xxxviii.
227; and the approval of a rehearing (signed by William Torrey) and the consent
of the Magistrates (in Governor Winthrop's hand, signed) are appended on the
same sheet. The only date given is that noted by Winthrop after his signature:
"25 (8) 48".
2 This note of the Deputies (in William Torrey's hand, signed) is preserved
on a scrap of paper in the Archives (B xxxviii. 227 a) which is docketed "Mr S:
Mavericks Petition 1648." The same scrap shows a memorandum in Winthrop's
hand: "An Answr to this Petn will appear in the Record of the Court holden
Nov: 19;" but nothing is to be found in the Court Records.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 153.
* Massachusetts Archives, B xxxviii. 228 (Stunner, History of East Boston,
p. 110).
* Massachusetts Archives, B xxxviii. 228 a. I append this memorial (hitherto
imprinted) since it furnishes some curious details of the prosecution:
Errors (as I conceiue, in the Coppie of those reco'ds I receiued from mr Secretarie)
First yor whole pceeding agst vs seemes to depend on or refusall to answer
Intergatories vpon oath, whereas the Comittie of mag'*8 and deputies, had sate
diiise dayes & made returne to the Corte before eu wee were called as appeares
by the reco'ds.
Further whereas it is declared in the recco'ds that at or appearance when wee
were sentenced wee had nothinge further to aleage to hinder the Corts pceedings
against vs vnder fauor wee all then desired to see those testimonies vpon wch op
sentence was grounded And I in my pticuler answer to the charge against mee
desired to haue libertie to make additionall answers for the further Clearing vp
of my inocencie w** I could not obtaine
Further where as it is affirmed in the recco'ds that wee brought in to the
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 59
parently the Court was displeased with the high tone of the peti-
tioner, for a "second petition," much humbler in style, came before
it on May 16th. Maverick now throws himself upon the Court's
'mercy: " Being confident and experimentally assured of yor clemency
to others in the like kind, I am bold rather to crave yor mercy in the
favorable remittance of my fines then to stand either to justify
myself or pceedings, wch, as they have (contrary to my intencons)
prouved pjudicyall and very offencive, so it hath binn, is, & willbe,
my greife and trouble." The Deputies voted to abate £100, but the
Magistrates did not concur, for they "cannot finde that the peti-
tioner hath so fair acknouledged himself guilty of his offence ... as
doth give them such satisfacon as might moove them to take of any
parte of his fine." 1 In the June court of 1650 Maverick petitioned
again "for the remittinge or mitigation" of his fine of £150, and this
time the Court voted to abate it £75.2
As to Smith and Burton, we have no record that proves the pay-
ment of their fines, but Maverick asserts, in his Briefe Description of
New England,3 that the Remonstrants "were fined 1000H, a[nd]
Notw*standing they Appealled to England, they were forced to pay
the same." 4 One notes, by the way, that, in his venomous arraign-
ment of the Colony in this paper, he suppresses the fact that Dand's
£100 was remitted and that £75 of his own £150 was finally returned
Co'te or seuall answers to or seuerall Charges (vnder fauor) It was not soe
neither was it in the publique meeting howse, but or answrs were sent for to vs
by the marshal!, by whom after oure deniall the second time wee sent them
Further the last clawse now on reccord of or sentence Concerning the kecpe-
ing of one or twoe in Irons was noe pte of or publique sentence as will appeare
by a Coppie of the sentence vnder the Secretaries hand w** I had six dayes after
the Corte was ended and affirmed vnder his hand to bee a true Coppie fiue weekes
after
DiQse other both materiall & Circumstantiall erro's I conceuie there are
w**1 for want of time I omitt
Samuell Mauerick
The 8. of the 3d m° 1649
The "last clawee" to which Maverick refers seems to have embodied the
substance of the order printed on p. 52, above.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 166-167.
1 iii. 200; iv. i. 18.
• Egcrton MS. 2395, fob. 397-411 (British Museum).
4 2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, i. 240; New England Historical and
Genealogical Register, xxxix. 41.
t'.'i THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
to him. Still, his statement that the fines were exacted is certainly
true (though not the whole truth) in his own case, and probably also
with respect to Child's £200. This inference is confirmed by Child's
expressed wish, soon after his return to England, that his fines might
be "restored" or "returned."1 He even commissioned Richard
Leader, agent and manager of the Lynn and Braintree iron works —
a venture in which Child was one of the original partners 2 •- to
approach the authorities on the subject.3 And he returns to the
matter in his last extant letter to the younger Winthrop, August 26,
1650.4 We may be sure, then, that Child was not allowed to leave
Massachusetts until he had paid his £200. His former fine of £50,
however, was still unpaid when he departed. It has been thought
that John Winthrop, Jr., stood security for this sum. The facts,
however, are rather more complicated, and illustrate, in an amus-
ing fashion, how scarce cash was in old New England. Winthrop
had borrowed forty pounds of Child in London. On March 15, 1647,
Child asked for the money, explaining why he needed it; he re-
peated his request on May 14, offering to accept whatever Winthrop
could send in lieu of coin, "as peage, if it be good, & other kinds of
provisions at price currant." Finally, writing from Gravesend, on
May 13, 1648, he approves of Winthrop's act in having "paid in ye
40* to Mr Leader" and adds, "We are now totally euen." 5
Meanwhile, in October or November, 1647, the Court had passed
the following vote:
Whereas Doctor Rob't Child oweth for a fine due to the country the
sume of 50* of lawfull mony charged upon him by the Gen'all Cote in
the 9th m, 1646, wch is unpaid, & himselfe gone out of this Jurisdiction
into Europe, & whereas he hath a stock going in the iron workes, under
the managment of Mr Leader, to the value of 450*, it is therefore ordered
by this Co'te, that the audito* gen'all hath hereby powp & authority
given unto him to make sale of so much of the said stock of 450* as will
$>sently yeild ye 50* due to ye country.6
1 Child to John Winthrop, Jr., from Gravesend, May 13, 1648 (Winthrop
Papers, iii. 159).
1 See pp. 10-14, above.
• See p. 92 note 2, below.
4 Winthrop Papers, iii. 162.
• iii. 156, 157, 159.
• Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 199.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 61
The iron works were far from profitable, and such a sale would
undoubtedly have been at a great loss. To prevent this, I conjecture,
and to square his debt to Child, Winthrop guaranteed to the Colony
£40 of Child's first fine, and had Leader, as Child's agent, credit him
with that amount.1 The Bay was an indulgent creditor — and very
properly so — to the younger Winthrop, who also claimed a set-off
on account of a payment he had made in England for the Colony; 2
and it appears by the records that he was still indebted for that por-
tion of Child's fine in October, 1650,3 and also in October, 1651, when
the debt was forgiven him as a recompense for his services in Eng-
land.4 Whether the odd £10 was ever collected from Child we have
no means of knowing.
Mr. Brooks Adams remarks with a certain vagueness, that "though
the elders accused Childe of being a Jesuit, there is some ground to
suppose that he inclined toward Geneva."6 I have too much respect
for our forefathers' common sense and knowledge of the world to
believe that they seriously took Child — who they knew was a high
Presbyterian — for an emissary from the Jesuits. But they may
have been willing to dally with this surmise, and perhaps even to
repeat it as a ground for odium. That there was suspicion in some
minds is indubitable from what Winslow told Major Child viva wee
and afterwards printed in New-Englands Salamander,6 and from the
1 Leader's receipt is preserved among the Winthrop MSS., xiv. 104:
Rec of John Winthrop Jnr Esqr the sume of forty pounds by the order & for
the vse of doc Robt Childs witnes my hand the 12th day of September 1647
P Richard Leader.
An order to Winthrop from Leader in favor of Goodman Arnold for any sum
not exceeding £6, dated Boston, July 16, 1646, is also preserved among these
manuscripts (xiv. 124). On the back Winthrop has written: "Mr leaders note
for G Arnold 6 >« — w** accordingly Mr Leader paid Dr Child in full of all y° mony
I re[c]ived of him in England &c."
1 Petition printed by Waters, A Sketch of the Life of John Winthrop the
Younger, pp. 31-32.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 219.
4 iii. 256, iv. i. 65.
1 Emancipation of Massachusetts, p. 95.
* "I freely imparted to you the Countries colorable grounds of suspecting his
agency for the great Incendiaries of Europe, . . . yea that the very yeare hee
came over, a gentleman in the country (Mr. Peters by name) was advised by
letters from a forraign part that the Jesuits had an agent that Sommer in New-
England. And that the Count roy comparing his practise with the intelligence
62 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Apostle Eliot's entry (1646) in the records of the First Church in
Roxbury: "This yeare arose a great disturbance in the country by
such as are called the Petitioners a trouble raised by Jesuited agents
to molest the peace of the churches & Com.w."1 To be sure, the
same session of the General Court that sentenced Child in June,
1647, passed a law excluding Jesuits from the Colony;2 but this
action may well have been due to general fears of the Pope and of
"Papists," sharpened by reports which had often come from Por-
tugal and the Azores. Cotton, writing in 1647, informs his English
readers that "some of the Jesuites at Lisborn, and others in the
Western Islands have professed to some of our Merchants and
Mariners, they look at our Plantations, (and at some of us by name)
as dangerous supplanters of the Catholick cause." 3 One of the mer-
chants in question, as we learn from Winthrop, was a Mr. Parish,
who arrived at Boston from the Madeiras in 1642. He had lived in
those islands "many years among the priests and Jesuits, who told
him, when he was to come hither, that those of New England were
the worst of all heretics, and that they were the cause of the troubles
in England." 4 Into the criss-cross intrigues in which the King and
his supporters entangled themselves in 1645 and 1646 — with the
Presbyterians of Scotland, with the English Presbyterians (both
orthodox and Erastian), with the Roman Catholics of Ireland and
were more jealous of him then any; (though to mee he was a meere strariger)"
(New-Englands Salamander, p. 2). Cf. p. 7: "Hee is a Gentleman that hath
travelled other parts before hee came to us, namely Italy, confesseth hee was
twice at Rome, speaketh sometimes highly as I have heard reported hi favour of
the Jesuites." In his first extant letter to the younger Winthrop, 1641, Child
reveals his reading of the Jesuit Relations, but he certainly does not express ap-
proval: " From myne owne library I likewise send you to pvse till I come to New
England, Dr Dauisons workes; y° French Jesuits voyages hi Canada in 3 Volues,
that you may see how they proceede in the cversion of those Heathen, and how
little the Lord hath blessed them in there proceeding" (Winthrop Papers, iii.
150). Cf. p. 102 note 1, below.
1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxiii. 65.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 193, iii. 112. Felt thinks that "one in-
ducement for the passage of such an act was probably the strong suspicion that
Dr. Child . . . was on his second tour in this country as a spy from the Jesuits
of Europe" (Ecclesiastical History of New England, i. 597).
* The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared, London, 1648 (imprimatur,
January 1, 1647-[8]), part i. pp. 21-22.
* Winthrop, ii. Ill (92).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 63
France, and even with the Pope, — we need not enter; * but the
effect of those intrigues on the public mind was unsettling. So
ramified and intertwined were they that, as some of them came to
light from time to time and others were imagined or guessed at,
either of the two great Protestant parties, the Presbyterians and the
Independents, might naturally suspect the other of negotiating with
Rome. It is just possible, then, that our fathers imagined Child an
intermediary between the Presbyterians and the Jesuits, but they
can hardly have fancied in their wildest moments that he was actually
a member of that society.
Exactly when Child left New England we do not know. On July
14, 1647, he was still hi this country, for on that date he gave to
Richard Bonighton a deed for one hundred acres of his Saco pur-
chase from Vines in exchange for a like quantity in another patent,2
but by ca. October 27 he had departed "into Europe," as the Court
order proves.3 I think he sailed before September 12th.4 An odd
detail of his passage to England may be mentioned, because it has
escaped the curiosity of previous students. In his Large Letter on
Husbandry, 1651, Child remarked: "I should thank any Merchant
that could inform me in some trivial and ordinary things done be-
yond Sea, (viz.) how they make Caviare out of Sturgeons Rowes?
in Muscovia, how they boil and pickle their Sturgeon, (which we
English in New-England cannot as yet do handsomely?)." 6 In his
comments on this Letter, Dr. Arnold Boot declared that the receipt
for caviare may be found in Purchas his Pilgrims, "second Tome,
page 1420." ' Replying, Child says:
1 See, for example, Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, ed. 1893, ii.
170-176, 258-260, 285-286; iii. 1-57, 62-63, 70-76.
1 York Deeds, i. i. 40; Folsom, History of Saco and Biddeford, p. 74. Folsom
quotes an undated letter from Vines to Child concerning a hundred-acre lot
purchased by Joseph Bowles.
* P. 60, above. William White, an expert miner, seems to have been left
stranded by Child's withdrawal: see White's confused letter to Governor Win-
throp, July 24, 1648 (2 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv. 199): "I was
promised 5s a day by Doctor Child for myselfe and my sonn."
4 See Leader's receipt of that date (p. 61 note 1, above). John Winthrop, Jr.,
wrote to Child, apparently to England, on October 25, 1647 (Winthrop Papers,
iii. 158).
1 Samuel Hartlib his Legacie of Husbandry, 2d ed., 1652, p. 62 (3d ed., 1655,
p. 71). On Child's authorship of a large portion of this volume, see p. 107, below.
• Legacie, p. 112 (3d ed., 1655, p. 127). See p. 108, below.
• ••
...
64 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
I am certain that Purchase himself, never saw the making of Caveare,
nor the Merchant perhaps that wrote it, and therefore I must question
the Process, and know that in New-England where there are abundance
of Sturgeon, whose rows are ordinarily accounted the Material of it,
yet never any ever so much as attempted to make it, though divers
Fishmongers were there, and attempted to pickle Sturgeon, though with
ill success; for in the ship in which I returned from New-England, many
Scores of Cags of Sturgeon were sent to London, which were all naught,
and cried about the Stree[t]s, under the notion of Holy Sturgeon.1
When Child reached home, if not before, he must have learned of
the action of the Commissioners in the Gorton case. Their two
letters to the Colony, dated May 25 and July 22, 1647, had virtually
settled the fate of the Remonstrance. In the first, they advert
plainly enough to Child and his associates, declaring that they have
no wish to encourage appeals or to limit the jurisdiction of Massa-
chusetts, and admitting that the contentions of the Bay have been
in defence of legal privileges under the Charter. The second and
final letter reaffirms these expressions: "We did by our said letter
declare our tenderness of your just privileges, and of preserving en-
tire the authority and jurisdiction of the several governments in
New England, whereof we shall still express our continued care." 2
After this, it might well have seemed hopeless for Child to prose-
cute his appeal. But he was an ardent soul, and no doubt received
help from his family and friends, especially his brother the Major.
At all events, by March or April, 1648, Child had given up the fight,
for in May three ships arrived from England in one day, bringing
word by the passengers, and also by letters from Winslow, that the
struggle was over. Child had "preferred a petition to the com-
mittee [i. e., the Commissioners for Plantations] against us, and put
in Mr. Thomas Fowle his name among others; but he, hearing of it,
protested against it, (for God had brought him very low, both in his
estate and his reputation, since he joined in the first petition)."
This application to the Commissioners had come to nothing. News
also came of an encounter on the Exchange, in which Child had told
Francis Willoughby that the people of New England "were a com-
pany of rogues and knaves."
» Legacie, 3d ed., 1655, p. 168. See p. 109, below.
« Winthrop, ii. 387-390 (318-320).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 65
Mr. Willoughby answered, that he who spake so, etc., was a knave,
whereupon the Doctor gave him a box on the ear. Mr. Willoughby was
ready to have closed with him, etc., but being upon the exchange, he
was stayed, but presently arrested him. And when the Doctor saw the
danger he was in, he employed some friends to make his peace, who
ordered him to give five pounds to the poor of New England, (for Mr.
Willoughby would have nothing of him,) and to give Mr. Willoughby
open satisfaction in the full exchange, and to give it under his hand, never
to speak evil of New England men after, nor to occasion any trouble to
the country, or to any of the people, all which he gladly performed; and
besides God had so blasted his estate, as he was quite broken.1
In consequence, perhaps, of his reverses of fortune, Child seems
to have sold Vines's Saco patent, about this time, to John Becx and
associates, the proprietors of the iron works,2 in which he still re-
tained an interest.3
It was, of course, largely the efforts of Winslow in gaining the
support of men of influence, as well as in presenting the Gorton case,
along with Child's, to the Commissioners before the Doctor's arrival,
that had doomed Child's final attempt. Four pieces of contem-
porary testimony may close this episode in our hero's career. The
Apostle Eliot wrote in the Records of his church at Roxbury under
1647: "God so graciously prospered mr Winslows indeavours in
England, against Gorton & his complices, y* all theire great hopes
were dashed ; and they among vs, a little pulled in theire heads, and
held theire peace." 4 Bradford, under 1647, thus records the facts
as he saw them:
This year Mr. Edward Winslow went into England, upon this occa-
tion: some discontented persons under the govermente of the Massa-
chusets sought to trouble their peace, and disturbe, if not innovate,
1 Winthrop, ii. 391-392 (321-322).
1 In 1659 the lands included in this patent were conveyed to Lt. William
Phillips of Boston, vintner, by William Hathorne of Salem as attorney for John
Jeffard (Gifford) in behalf of Mr. Beex and Company (York Deeds, i. i. 82; Fol-
som, History of Saco and Biddeford, p. 103). Child had purchased the patent
in 1645 (see p. 16, above). James Graham, who reported on the title in 1688,
could find no record of any conveyance from Child or "from any under him"
(p. 16 note 4, above).
1 Child as one of the proprietors of the iron works joins with Becx and others
in an agreement with John Gifford, August 23, 1650 (Suffolk Deeds, i. 216).
4 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxiii. 238.
66 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
their govermente, by laying many scandals upon them; and intended to
prosecute against them in England, by petitioning and complaining to
the Parlemente. Allso Samuell Gorton and his company made com-
plaints against them; so as they made choyse of Mr. Winslow to be
their agente, to make their defence, and gave him comission and in-
structions for that end; in which he so carried him selfe as did well
answer their ends, and cleared them from any blame or dishonour, to
the shame of their adversaries.1
On July 14, 1648, Herbert Pelham wrote from England to Winthrop:
I doubt but you are fully informed, by my Cosen Winslow in those
things that concerne the affayrs of the Collonies, the care of wch busines
you have coinitted to him; who as he was fitly chosen by your selfe &
the rest, soe he hath as faythfully discharged that trust you have re-
posed in him. I could from my owne observation say much concerning
his care & dilligence in improveing every opportunitie and his many
wearisome journeys and attendancys for the dispatch of the Busines
he came about . . . but I shall leave it to the relation of some now
returning to you.2
Maverick, about 1661, in a paper drawn up to serve as ammuni-
tion in his campaign against the liberties of New England, shall be
the last witness, for the proverb says that losers must have leave to
talk:8
7 persons of Quality about 12 years since for petitioning for themselves
& Neighbo™ that they might have votes in Elections as freeholders or
be ffreed from publick Charge, and be admitted to the Sacrament of the
Lords Supper and theire Children to Baptisme as Members of the
Church of England, and have liberty to have Ministers among them-
selves learned pious and Orthodox, no way dissonant from ye best Re-
formation in England, and desireing alsoe to have a body of Lawes to
be Established and published to prevent Arbitrary Tiranny, For thus
desireing these three reasonable requests besids imprissonement and
other indignitys, they were fined 1000 H, a[nd] Notw*standing they
1 History of Plimmoth Plantation, 1912, ii. 391-393.
* Winthrop Papers, ii. 144-145.
* The proverb was familiar to our forefathers. It is used with dignified in-
dulgence in the Court's letter to the adventurers for the iron works, 1646: "Wee
find yor stile more sharpe & your conclucohs more peremptory then rationall,
(as wee conceave,) but wee consider yow have binn hitherto loosers, & therefore
may take leave to speake" (Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 91).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 67
Appealled to England,1 they were forced to pay the same, and now also
at great Charges to send one home to prosecute their appeall which proved
to no Effect, That dismall Change falling out, Just at that time And
they sending home hither one Edward Winslow a Smooth toungued
Cunning fellow, who soon gott himselfe into Favor of those then in
Supreame power, against whom it was in vaine to strive, and soe they
remained sufferers to this day.2
"Now," in the passage that I have italicized, must refer to the
time of writing. If so, we have merely an assertion that Maverick
himself has come to England as the representative of the petitioners,
whose cause has languished for all these years; but he can hardly
have meant to pose as agent for the seven Remonstrants, for Child
and Burton were dead, Fowle and Yale had dropped the business
years before, and Maverick and John Dand seem to have been the
only members of the group who were pursuing the affair. At about
this same tune, thirteen persons who found themselves aggrieved
by the New England authorities petitioned the Council for Foreign
Plantations for redress. Among them were Edward Godfrey (for-
merly Governor of Maine), John Gifford (agent for the iron works),3
John Baxe (one of the chief adventurers in the same specula-
tion), and our old friend John Dand the Remonstrant.4 On March
4, 1661, the Council directed the attendance (on the llth) of God-
frey and Gifford, as well as Maverick and Captain Breedon, "with
such papers and writings as together with their own particular
knowledge may give information of the present condition and gov-
ernment ... of New England." 5 We are at liberty to conjecture
that Maverick's Briefe Description was one of the papers submitted
on the llth, when the hearing was duly held and the same four per-
sons, with Captain [John] Leverett, Thomas Bell, and Mr. [Joshua]
Wollnough were ordered to attend on the 14th.6 After this there
1 This indicates that there was an appeal after the second trial.
* Egerton MS. 2395, British Museum (2 Massachusetts Historical Proceed-
ings, i. 240; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxix. 41).
* Gifford at this same time was full of projects. He was trying to convince the
English authorities that copper and precious stones might be found in New Eng-
land (Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1661-1668, pp. 25-26).
« Pp. 16-17. • P. 15.
* P. 16. On the 14th this order is repeated for the 18th as to Godfrey, Gif-
ford, Maverick, Breedon, and Leverett, and Leverett is to bring a copy of the
"patent for New England" (p. 16).
68 TIIE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS ([MARCH,
seems to have been a lull for a couple of years, but Maverick did
not despair. On August 1, 1663, he petitions the King, alleging that
he has lived many years in New England, "and with many others
suffered great wrongs from those who have the rule," and on the
30th he renews his application, in behalf of himself and "many
thousand loyal subjects there."1 He has "for near three years been
a constant solicitor for relief from his Majesty," and now "prays
that some persons may be speedily sent over to regulate all things
there now out of order, being assured that if relief appear not they
will either rise in arms one part against the other or remove to the
Dutch or other places."2 We may have all the sympathy we choose
for Maverick's grudge without crediting him with cautious veracity
in this prognostication. Commissioners were in fact appointed in
1664, with Maverick as one of them, and they did their best to regu-
late New England — with what success in Boston everybody knows.
Soon after his appointment, Maverick petitioned again, thanking
the King for the honor, and acknowledging the receipt of £250
"towards his setting forth." He asked for somewhat more of the
royal bounty, however, since he had expended at least £500.8 I
mention this because it throws some light on the passage just quoted
from the Briefe Description, in which Maverick appears to repre-
sent himself as one "now sent home [to England] at great Charges"
by the Remonstrants to prosecute their old appeal.4 Clarendon's
letter of March 5, 1665, warning him not to indulge his personal en-
mities in his official acts would be good reading at this point, but is
too long to quote.6 On May 31, of that same year, Governor Bel-
lingham, in the name and by the order of the General Court, wrote to
Sir William Morrice complaining against Maverick " for calling them
traitors again and again, and [for] threats destructive to them." '
I have always been unable to understand why our ancestors should
be so much glorified for resisting and thwarting Maverick and his
fellow-conspirators hi 1664 and 1665, when they are so much blamed
for resisting and thwarting Maverick and his fellow-conspirators in
Calendar, as above, p. 151.
P. 157.
P. 204.
P. 67, above.
New York Colonial Documents, iii. 92.
Calendar, as above, p. 302.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 69
1646 and 1647. On both occasions they proved their quality as clever
and courageous administrators at a moment of crisis. The political
points at issue were precisely the same, and we ought not to judge
the earlier case like sentimentalists and reserve our common sense
for the later.
In estimating rights and wrongs in the controversy between the
Bay and the Remonstrants, it is inevitable that historians should
take sides. Maybe it is likewise inevitable that, in so doing, many
of them should instinctively espouse that cause which appears, at
first face, to embody resistance to a narrow and provincial tyranny
and to represent civic freedom and liberty of conscience; but I am
inclined to think more caution might have been used hi accepting
the Remonstrants as authentic champions of these noble principles.
Certain it is, at all events, that we cannot pass judgment as if the
antithesis were between liberality on the one hand and bigotry on
the other. Our ancestors of the Bay believed — on good grounds —
that they were grappling with a conspiracy to overthrow the gov-
ernment, both civil and ecclesiastical, under which they desired to
live. This they suspected from the outset, and their initial suspi-
cions were completely justified by the documents which, in the
second stage of the affair, they seized at Dand's lodgings, for these
proved beyond a peradventure that Child hoped to procure from
Parliament the abrogation of the Charter (as forfeited for non-
fulfilment of its conditions), the trial of the magistrates for high
treason, the supersession of the Governor and Company by a General
Governor under the immediate control of Parliament in all things
(without chartered privileges) or by a Board of Parliamentary
Commissioners, and the establishment of Presbyterianism as the
state church. These objects, all of them plainly avowed in the seized
documents, were for the most part expressed or implied in the
original Remonstrance,1 as the magistrates were not slow to discern,
though their modern critics hav* been less keen of sight. In short,
1 The Remonstrance practically accuses the colonial authorities of having
violated the Charter (whence it was an unavoidable inference that they had
forfeited it), and with having broken their oath of allegiance (Hutchinson Papers,
i. 217, lines 27-28). The signers express in set terms their objection to that
measure of independence which the Colony arrogates, maintaining that it shpuld
reduce itself to its proper position, which is not that of a "free state," but that
of "a colonie or corporation of England" (i. 219, lines 13-14). They hope for
70 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MAKCH,
the object of the Remonstrants, from the beginning, was to abolish
the independence of the Bay Colony, and the object of the General
Court, from the beginning, was, in opposing them, to maintain that
independence, which they regarded as vital to their happiness and
prosperity.
We, their descendants, who enjoy the fruits of that independence,
need not be too harsh in criticizing those who founded and trans-
mitted it. But let us not get ahead of our reasoning. I am not
maintaining that the Colony was the abode of liberty for the in-
dividual, as we understand it. That is another question, which does
not logically arise at any stage of the present discussion. The issue
was quite different. Child desired to bring the Colony under the
Parliamentary thumb; he desired to reduce it to the position of a
civic corporation in the mother country — to that of London, for
example, though without the chartered privileges and immunities
which that city enjoyed. To the colonists, on the other hand, it
was a prime object, though remaining a part of the Empire, to
achieve the position of an independent state, something like Canada
now-a-days, for example, or New Zealand. On this issue there was,
of course, no possibility of compromise, nor can there be any doubt
which of the two objects was the more desirable hi the long run.
The logic of events has settled that problem, and theoretical con-
such changes as may bring the Colony under the immediate and minutely ex-
ercised control of the Parliament (i. 222, lines 19-20). And, if the colonial au-
thorities do not voluntarily undertake such measures as shall bring about these
ends, they threaten to endeavor to force the changes by an appeal to Parliament
itself (i. 221, lines 28-30).
It may be held, perhaps, that the danger from Child was not so great as the
colonists imagined, but that consideration, even if it is sound — as by no means
appears — neither alters the fact of his revolutionary purposes nor renders the
magistrates blameworthy for resisting them with all their strength. If they were
nervous, they had every reason to be nervous. The autonomy of the Colony had
been continually attacked, and they knew that their enemies were numerous in
England and elsewhere. When we read Maverick's Briefe Description, drawn up
ca. 1661, and note his bitter assault upon the Bay (2 Massachusetts Historical
Proceedings, i. 239-242), we are apt to think that his enmity resulted from the
treatment he had experienced in the matter of the Remonstrance. This may be
true in part, but what seems to have eluded the observation of some scholars
is the fact that what Maverick was alleging and what he was attempting in
1661-1665 accord perfectly with what we know of the allegations and attempts
of the Remonstrants in 1646 and 1647.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 71
siderations have no standing. We may admit that the little com-
monwealth that our ancestors were establishing was narrow and
bigoted at the moment; and that some of the changes that Child be-
lieved hi would have been salutary may also — for argument's
sake — be conceded. Still, it remains true that it was better, in the
long run, to keep that commonwealth independent and to let it
work toward the light in its own way, however slowly, than to de-
stroy its autonomy at one blow, even if such destruction brought
about the reform of certain abuses. We honor our ancestors, I re-
peat, for successfully resisting the royal Commissioners of 1664,
who came hither with just such powers as Child's proposed Com-
missioners of Parliament would have wielded if they had been ap-
pointed, and again in 1689 for ousting Andros, who realized at
length the alternative desire of Child for a General Governor. How
then can we condemn them for thwarting a similar attempt at sub-
jugation in 1646 and 1647? We shall not, I trust, be deluded by the
mere name of a Parliament, for the Long Parliament in 1646 was far
more arbitrary in its temper than Charles II in 1664, and every bit
as arbitrary as James II, who appointed Andros.
Winslow four times asserts in plain terms that permission to
form Presbyterian churches was offered to the Remonstrants in
open court. In Hypocrisie Unmasked he writes: "Not long before
I came away certaine discontented persons in open Court of the
Massachusets, demanding that liberty,1 it was freely and as openly
tendred to them; shewing their former practices by mee mentioned;
but willed not to expect that wee should provide them Ministers
&c. for the same, but getting such themselves they might exercise
the Presbyterian Government at their libertie, walking peaceably
towards us as wee trusted we should doe towards them.";i Major
Child did not venture to deny this allegation, but he tried to throw
doubt upon it. "This," he retorted, "is strange news to us here, for
we hear not one word of that offer from those Petitioners, although
here are letters from some of them dated since Mr. Winslaws com-
ming from thence, that relates that Dr. Child & others of them
remained still in prison, save that D. Child hath the liberty to be con-
fined to M. Leders house upon security of 800.1. bond given for his
1 That is, to " be suffered to exercise their Presbyteriall government amongst us."
1 Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 100.
72 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
abiding there." 1 And so, in New-Englands Salamander, Winslow
reiterated his assertion: "I heard them demand in Court the Pres-
byterian government, and it was granted them." : And again:
"Let the Reader know that the Presbyterian Government was as
freely tendered them by the Governour in the open Court without
any contradiction of any the Assistants or other, as ever I heard
any thing hi my life." 8 And finally, — "For . . . the late tender
of the Court of the Massachusets to their Petitioners for the en-
joyment of it 4 at present, themselves providing for it, 't is not so
strange as true: But whereas they say, they hear not of the latter
(being since they came away:) 'T is false; I have told them, and they
may heare it by many others." 5
Let it not be forgotten that at this very moment the utmost that
the moderate Presbyterians in England were willing to grant was
that, when the Presbyterian system had been established by law,
such Independents as wished might be allowed to form and support
their own separate churches, whereas the thoroughgoing Presby-
terians (like the Scottish Baylie, whom Major Child quotes with
approval 6) wished to withhold even that degree of toleration and,
reviving the Laudian practice under another name, to force the In-
dependents to conform or take the consequences. All this was
better known to the rulers of the Bay than it seems to be to many
of their critics now. They knew also (and so did Child when he pre-
sented his Remonstrance on May 19, 1646) that on the 5th of March
the House of Commons had passed an ordinance establishing Pres-
byterianism in England,7 and they may well have known also that
the Lords had assented on the 14th.8 They were well aware that
bare toleration was all that Congregationalism could expect of a
New-Englands Jonas, p. [22].
New-Englands Salamander, p. 3.
New-Englands Salamander, pp. 12-13.
I. e., "their liberty in the exercise of the Presbyterian government."
New-Englands Salamander, p. 28.
See p. 87, below.
Commons' Journals, iv. 463-465.
Lords' Journals, viii. 209. As Gardiner points out (Great Civil War, ed.
1893, iii. 77), the Lords had amended the ordinance, and it therefore had to go
back to the Commons; but that was a mere detail: nobody doubted any longer
that the Church of England was to be Presbyterian.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 73
Presbyterian Church of England, and that it would have to fight
hard to achieve even that measure of freedom. They would have
been weak indeed if they had not stood to their guns in America.
And why should we be offended at them for thinking that they were
doing Presbyterians full justice if they allowed them precisely the
same privileges in Massachusetts that the Congregationalists in
England, in the most favorable prospect, might hope to receive from
the Presbyterians there? It's a poor rule that won't work both ways I
Winslow did not miss this point: there is very little in this whole
affair that he did miss. In Hypocrisie Unmasked, addressing an
English (not a colonial) audience, after explaining how, some years
before, certain Scottish Presbyterians had received permission to
settle in Massachusetts and to organize their own churches in their
own way, he remarks that by this it "will easily appeare how wee
are here wronged by many; and the harder measure as wee heare
imposed upon our brethren for our sakes, nay pretending our ex-
ample for their president [precedent]." Then, when he has told of
the offer to Child and the Remonstrants, he concludes with a tren-
chant suggestion, though moderately and even ironically put: "So
that if our brethren here [i. e., in England] shall bee restrained they
walking peaceably, the example must not be taken from us, but
arise from some other principle."1 From what other principle, he
tellingly refrains from specifying.
Of course, the magistrates, with a passionate interest quite justi-
fied by the crisis, were watching the life-and-death struggle in Eng-
land, both hi Parliament and out, between the Presbyterians and
the Independents; and they were well aware that Massachusetts
was deeply and even essentially involved in the contest. New Eng-
land was regarded by the Presbyterian party in the mother country
as the true nidus of the Independent germ, and to New England the
English Independents looked for cooperation and effective aid.
Only four years before, in 1642, an appeal had come from "divers
Lords of the upper house, and some thirty of the house of commons
and others from the ministers there, who stood for the independ-
ency of churches," begging for the presence of Cotton, Hooker, and
Davenport to advance the cause in England. And in the very year
1 Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 100.
74 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
(1645, July 1) that preceded Child's Remonstrance, the elders of
the churches throughout the United Colonies met at Cambridge to
"examine the writings which some of them had prepared" hi answer
to many books from England, a part of which were " in maintenance
of the Presbyterial government (agreed upon by the Assembly of
Divines in England) against the Congregational way, which was
practised here." l Child himself arrived in that same summer or
in the autumn, and lost no time in identifying himself with the
Presbyterian opposition, for his Remonstrance was presented to the
General Court in the following May. At home the parties seemed
almost to counterbalance, but in the Colony the Independents were
at present hi control. The issue was well defined hi England, and
our Massachusetts forefathers were better informed than some of
their descendants as to what it was.2 They would have been not
only cowards, but traitors to their friends in England as well as to
themselves, if they had not opposed all such movements as that of
Child and his associates; and they would have been blind leaders
indeed if they had failed to see the purpose and significance of the
particular agitation in which Child was taking the lead.
So much for generalities — now for one or two concrete matters
involved in the case of the Remonstrants — or rather, in their two
cases, for we must never forget that there were two distinct trials
for different (though connected) acts, and two distinct sentences.
It is continually asserted, or implied, that Child and his friends
were punished for petitioning the General Court,3 and much rhetoric
1 Winthrop, ii. 91-92 (76), 304 (248). Cf . Cotton, The Way of Congregational
Churches Cleared, 1648, pt. i. p. 68: "If none of us have been willing to reply to
the Books written against us, how come it to passe that Mr. Hooker hath written
a large answer to Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Davenport to Mr. Paget, Mr. Mader to
Mr. Rathbone, Mr. Shepard and Mr. Allen to Mr. Ball, Mr. Norton in Latino to
Mr. Appollonii; my self to Mr. Williams, both to his examination of my Letter,
and to his bloody Tenent? "
1 In 1645 Stephen Winthrop wrote to his brother John: "Only the pres-
beterian Goverm* is resolved on & y° other are at a Losse: & cannot tell where
they shall find rest" (Winthrop Papers, iv. 202).
8 Dr. C. E. Banks, in his edition of Henry Gardener's New Englands Vindica-
tion, avers that the Remonstrants, whom he calls Episcopalians, "were heavily
fined for presuming to petition for freedom of worship" (Gorges Society, 1884,
p. 32, n. 34). Whittier remarks that the colonial authorities "imprisoned Dr.
Child, an Episcopalian, for petitioning the General Court for toleration " (1 Massa-
chusetts Historical Proceedings, xviii. 390).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 75
has been expended (not to say wasted) in denouncing our fathers for
such a violation of one of the most precious of all civic rights. Many
scholars seem to forget that the right of petition, as we understand
it, has got itself defined and established by dint of a long course of
development. Let us give all credit to Child and the Remonstrants
for doing their part — though with motives quite different from those
of constitutional reformers — to advance the ideas of the world on
this vital question of republicanism; but let us not be too hasty in
condemning our forefathers for observing the only rules they knew
or could know. Their Court was a little Parliament, and they fol-
lowed Parliamentary precedents in this regard. Again and again,
in the critical years between 1640 and 1646, the House of Commons
had rebuked or punished petitioners for breach of privilege in cases
in which to-day, with our present principles, such action would seem
monstrous. To petition at all, on some subjects, was thought offen-
sive, and no matter how proper the subject of any given petition,
Parliament always showed extreme sensitiveness to anything in the
manner of expression, or in the bearing of the petitioners, that might
be actually or technically a contempt. It was even a contempt, and
therefore punishable, to criticize the character or conduct of a mem-
ber of the House. There can be no question what would have hap-
pened to any group of petitioners who had dared to present to the
Commons a document embodying the assertions and conceived in
the style that Child ventured upon in his Remonstrance. They
would have been sent to the Tower incontinently and would hardly
have got off without heavy fines. And, apart from language and
matter, there was, in this case, such conduct on the part of the
Remonstrants when called before the magistrates, though not when
brought into Court for their judgment, as the most lenient of modern
judges could hardly have refrained from treating as contempt of
court. In this regard, we must not forget that the General Court
was not merely a legislative body, but actually a court of judicature,
civil and criminal, and that — whatever liberties are accorded to
petitioners before a legislative assembly to-day — our judges are
still sensitive, and have a power to punish for contempt which is
quite as arbitrary as that which Parliament exercised in the seven-
teenth century — be it the English Parliament or our little parlia-
ment of the Massachusetts Bay.
76
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Child's party, of course, complained that they were punished for
petitioning, but our forefathers knew better. Child was himself
informed by the Court, at a preliminary examination, when he
contended that "it was no offence to prefer a petition," that the
Remonstrants "were not questioned for petitioning, but for such
miscarriages, etc., as appeared in their petition and Remonstrance." l
Winslow, in defending the Colony, points out with perfect clearness
the necessary distinction: "There were none committed for petition-
ing, but for then* Remonstrance and the many false charges and sedi-
tious insinuations tending to faction and insurrections sleighting
the government &c." 2 And he then particularizes, so that there can
be no doubt what expressions were contemptuous and seditious.
Winslow was addressing not a colonial but an English circle, and
he knew well that every intelligent reader would see at a glance
how such a series of expressions as he quotes or cites would have
been regarded by Parliament. So much for the right of petition
and the question of contempt.8
The second point is that of the appeal to Parliament, or to the
Commissioners for Plantations — which amounts to the same thing.
Here Child and his friends made a bad mistake in tactics, of which
the magistrates took instant advantage. They put in their first
appeal at the wrong moment and in a wrong way, and thus got into
an altogether false position. Without waiting for the decision of
the Court on the charges of contempt and sedition, or even for a
formal arraignment, they "refused to answer" and appealed to the
Commissioners in England, and this was of course construed as a
denial of jurisdiction, as in fact it was and was meant to be. In the
language of the charge brought against them in the first case, they
"publicly declared their disaffection [to our government], in that,
being called by the Court to render an accompt of their misappre-
hensions and evil expressions in the premises, they refused to answer;
but, by appealing from this government, they disclaimed the juris-
1 Winthrop, ii. 347 (284).
J New-Englands Salamander, p. 9.
1 Chief Justice Marshall, in his brief account of the affair, brings out this
point, as might be expected, with proper emphasis: "Their plea that the right
to petition government was sacred, was answered by saying that they were not
accused for petitioning, but for using contemptuous and seditious expressions"
(History of the Colonies, Philadelphia, 1824, pp. 119-120).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 77
diction thereof, before they knew whether [the court] would give any
sentence against them, or no."1 This point was also made with per-
fect distinctness in the official letter of the Governor and Company
to the Commissioners.2
Whether or not an appeal would lie from the General Court to
Parliament was a question on which the magistrates had made up
their minds.8 They held that under the Charter the judgment of
the General Court was final, and they regarded the establishment
and maintenance of this principle as necessary to the safety of their
plantation. Of course they knew that it was a ticklish point, but
they were quite right in supposing that it was vital, and they were
bold accordingly in its assertion, though they had until very recently
avoided raising it directly. Almost at the beginning they had been
accused of setting up a separate state and renouncing the laws of
England as well as its Church,4 and throughout the pre-Parlia-
mentary period they had lived in constant danger of having their
power superseded or nullified by Commissioners or a commissioned
Governor.
With the coming-in of Parliament the situation became pecul~
iarly embarrassing, both with regard to sovereignty in general and
with regard to the right of appeal. Fears were past from King and
Council, and the Parliament was friendly. It was requisite, there-
fore, to keep its favor and at the same time to maintain the position
that appeals could not be made.6 Nervousness on this point showed
itself in 1640 (or 1641) when the authorities declined to accept the
well-meant advice of friends hi England that they should petition for
1 The Charge, in Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 91; Winthrop, ii. 350
(287).
1 In Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 97; Winthrop, ii. 362 (297).
1 There was, of course, some difference of opinion, and therefore a certain
sentiment favoring a petition to Parliament for a new charter with enlarged
powers; but wiser counsels prevailed, for it was feared that Parliament might
reduce rather than increase the local authority (Winthrop, ii. 341-342 [280]).
The elders gave their opinion that there was no appeal (ii. 345 [282-283]).
« Winthrop, i. 119, 122 (100, 102-103).
1 One notes that Winthrop, while recording with obvious relief the action of
the House of Lords in 1641 in reviving the Charter, takes care to add that the
petition which resulted in this action, though presented by "some of our people
being then in London," was "preferred without warrant from our court" (ii.
50 [42]).
78 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
additional privileges. "We declined the motion, for this considera-
tion, that if we should put ourselves under the protection of the
parliament, we must then be subject to all such laws as they should
make, or at least such as they might impose upon us." 1 This pas-
sage in Winthrop led Governor Trumbull, " one of the most deliberate
assertors of the American revolution," to remark, most pertinently,
as it happens, to our present purpose: "Here observe, that as at
this time, so it hath been ever since, that the colonies, so far from
acknowledging the parliament to have a right to make laws binding
on them in all cases whatsoever, they have ever denied it in any
case." 2 Through the help, at first, of friends in England, and later
by a Fabian policy of no less courage than shrewdness, they had
managed to retain their Charter, in spite of attempts to procure its
recall by Order in Council in 1632 3 and 1634,4 of its abrogation by
quo warranto hi 1635,5 and of continual demands to surrender it (in
1634,6 1638,7 1639 8), until Parliament took up the reins of govern-
ment and in effect reaffirmed it in 1641. 9 And during all this period
they had, when occasion rose, shown themselves ready to resist a
Commission or a commissioned Governor by force of arms if need
were.10 Thus by tract of time, improved with rare political skill at
every turn, the colonists had succeeded in establishing a de facto
i Winthrop, ii. 29-30 (25).
1 Savage's note, ibid. The passage is in TrumbulTs letter to Van der Capellan,
August 31, 1779 (1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi. 156).
« Winthrop, i. 119, 122-123 (100, 102-103); Hutchinson Papers, i. 57-59;
Bradford, ii. 141-145; Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial Series, i. 183; C. F.
Adams, 1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, xx. 81-85.
• Winthrop, i. 161, 163 (135, 137); ii. 233-234 (190-191).
6 Brought in Trinity Term, 11 Charles I (Hutchinson Papers, i. 114-116);
decree, Michaelmas Term (i. 116-118).
• Winthrop, i. 163 (137).
7 Hutchinson Papers, i. 118-119; Winthrop, i. 323-324 (269), 329-330 (274);
Hubbard, ch. 36, ed. 1848, pp. 268-271.
» Winthrop, i. 359-360 (298-299), 367 (305).
• Winthrop, i. 50 (42).
10 Winthrop, i. 171, 183, 280-281 (143-144, 154, 234-235). As to the first of
these occasions, see Laud's commission of 1634 in American Antiquarian Society
Proceedings, xiii. 213-220. These signs of promptitude in resistance were, soon
after the Restoration, made a ground of attack on the Colony by Samuel Maver-
ick in his Briefe Description of New England preserved in Egerton MS. 2395
(2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, i. 240-241; New England Historical
and Genealogical Register, xxxix. 41-42).
1919]
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
79
rule (which they were prepared to defend de jure) that there was no
appeal to England against sentences or judgments passed in Massa-
chusetts; but they had so far contrived (except in the Gorton case)
to prevent this question from coming to a direct issue in the mother
country. That they had such points in mind at the outset is shown
by Winthrop's remark that Winslow, in 1635, was ill-advised in
petitioning the Council "for a commission to withstand the intru-
sions of the French and Dutch," since "such precedents might en-
danger our liberty, that we should do nothing hereafter but by
commission out of England." 1
As the Civil War progressed, however, and as Parliament became
more and more nearly absolute, — while, in the strife of parties on
both sides of the water, disaffection or dissatisfaction with the
colonial government increased with the growth of a mixed popula-
tion, — the moment was inevitably approaching when this doctrine
of N*o Appeal must be decided. It came up in the case of Captain
Stagg when he made prize of «, Bristol ship in Boston harbor, and
was asserted as undoubtedly sound "in causes of judicature," but
here a conflict of authority was avoided by some very close reason-
ing, into which we need not enter.2 And then, in Child's Remon-
strance, presented in May, 1646, the Court found itself confronted
with a distinct threat to appeal to "the honourable houses of Par-
liament" if the petitioners should not receive a satisfactory response;
and, before the matter had been taken up by the Court, the dis-
quieting news came that Samuel Gorton and two of his fellows who
had gone to England and appealed to the Commissioners for Planta-
tions against their treatment by the Bay authorities, had met with
a large measure of success. For there arrived by Captain Wall's
ship on September 13, 1646, shortly after the presentation of the
Remonstrance to the May Court, a letter from the Commissioners
(dated May 15 in that year), which was instantly sent to the Gov-
ernor by Randall Holden, its bearer. It was an order to allow the
Gortonians to land and to proceed unmolested to their settlement
on Narragansett Bay. By the same ship, or immediately after,
came another order from the Commissioners, dated ten days later
(May 25, 1646), to reinstate the Gortonians in their settlement,
• Winthrop, i. 205 (172).
1 Winthrop, ii. 222-225 (180-183).
80
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
The first of these orders, after some hesitation, was quietly obeyed
in so far that Holden, who seems to have come alone, was allowed to
go in peace, but the second — Gorton himself being still in England
- was made the special subject of Winslow's commission, as we have
already seen.1
The Gortonian petition, which the Commissioners had received
and on which they had taken provisional action, was to all intents
and purposes an appeal from the Bay to Parliament; and the fathers
of the Colony were shrewd enough, in forwarding their own protest
to the Commissioners by the hands of Winslow, in December, 1646,
to bring this Gorton appeal into connection with the case of Child.
For, since Child had not appealed (in November, 1646) until the
Commissioners' action hi the Gorton matter had become known in
Boston, it was reasonable to assert that his boldness in appealing
before judgment had been encouraged, if not suggested, by that
action. And the two cases were particularly advantageous ones,
from the Massachusetts point of view, on which to raise the general
question. For the Gortonians were sectaries of a sort that Parlia-
ment would be unlikely to encourage when all the documents were
laid before it, particularly that extraordinary manifesto of Randall
Holden addressed "To the great and honoured Idol Generall, now
set up in the Massachusets." : This was a paper which the Com-
missioners must at once recognize as the kind of thing no legislative
or judicial body could be expected to accept with patience. And as
to Child, the fact that in his Remonstrance he had also used offen-
sive language (though of a different kind) and had included the
threat of an appeal, as well as the error in tactics he had committed
in appealing before judgment and in expressing his contempt for
the jurisdiction, would go far to put him out of court with Par-
liament and the Commissioners. Thus this crisis, as it demanded
that the Massachusetts authorities should at last make a firm stand
1 Winthrop, ii. 332-334, 340-346, 359-367 (272-273, 278-284, 295-301).
1 Hypocrisie Unmasked, pp. 28-36. Two specimens of the diction of this doc-
ument will suffice: "Out of the abovesaid principles, which is the kingdome of
darknesse and of the devill; you have writ another Note unto us, to adde to
your former pride and folly." "But we know our course, professing the king-
dome of God and his righteousnesse, renouncing that of darknesse and the
devill, wherein you delight to trust . . . O yee generation of vipers, who hath
fore-warned you, or fore-stalled your mindes with this, but Satan himselfe."
1919]
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
81
on the invalidity of appeals, and should state their doctrine with
perfect clearness, so it afforded them an uncommonly favorable
opportunity to do both. As we have noted, their representations,
under the skilful handling of the astute Winslow, elicited a reply
from the Commissioners which practically, though not in express
terms, conceded the point and established the doctrine of No Appeal,
which the Colony had long cherished as one of the most valuable of
its chartered rights. And this reply coincided almost to a day
with Child's appeal after conviction on the second case against him,
at the May Court in 1647. That appeal, therefore, was a practical
nullity at the moment when it was made.
As it, has sometimes been asserted — how erroneously we have
seen — that the Remonstrants were fined and imprisoned for peti-
tioning the General Court, so we hear now and again that they were
punished for appealing. The late Mr. Charles Francis Adams, as I
understand him, avers that an appeal to Parliament, in this and
other cases, "was looked upon and treated in Massachusetts as a
crime, and as such was punished." And, though he acknowledges
that "the stubborn spirit of independence behind " this denial of right
was "what made New England," he cannot refrain from the query:
"Yet would Verres have dared to make a crime of the complaint a
Roman citizen had proffered to the Senate and People of Rome?" !
The implied comparison does not please me, nor am I altogether
satisfied with the classical allusion. For I cannot forget the climax
of Cicero's terrific denunciation of the wicked proconsul — the
case of that Gavius of Consa who, because he threatened to take his
wrongs to Rome, was scourged and tortured, though he protested
his Roman citizenship, and finally was crucified. "Nullus gemitus,
nulla vox alia illius miseri inter dolorem crepitumque plagarum
audiebatur, nisi haec, 'Civis Romanus sum!'" And Verres set up
the cross on the Strait of Messina, that, since Gavius said he was a
Roman citizen, he might see Italy and his home as he hung there
dying. "Monumentum sceleris audaciaeque suae voluit esse in
conspectu Italiae, vestibule Siciliae, praetervectione omnium qui
ultro citroque navigarent."2
1 Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, pp. 349-350.
• In Verrem, Actio ii. lib. v, 61-66.
82 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Thus I vindicate Verres from the charge that he would have re-
spected the right of appeal to Rome. Our ancestors, in the cases of
Child and Maverick, the record will also vindicate from the charge
of treating an appeal to Parliament as a crime. Child appealed twice
once, in his first case, before sentence, with contemptuous denial of
the Court's jurisdiction. In this appeal Maverick was not con-
cerned, and Child, as we have seen, was not punished for appealing,
but for appealing at such a moment and in such a way as to make
himself guilty of high contempt. The second appeal, in which both
shared, was at the end of the first case. It was treated as an
offence in Maverick's case only, because it violated his oath as a
freeman.1
Note that Samuel Maverick, who knew at least as much about
these transactions as our local iconoclasts, was under no misappre-
hension about the charges against him. Referring, in a formal docu-
ment, to the second trial (on the first, he had escaped with a mulct
of only £10), he avers that he was convicted of "conspiracy and
perjury." And he was quite correct. Child's actions — after the
first case, that of the Remonstrance itself, had been disposed of —
amounted to a plot against the government, and therefore the records
speak, with stern but exact judgment, of "Dr. Child's conspiracy,"
and in this conspiracy Maverick was unquestionably implicated.
As to perjury, all one has to do is to read the Freeman's Oath, which
Maverick had taken, to determine that question.2
The prevalent opinion seems to be that Child presented his Re-
monstrance of 1646 in good faith and with a sincere desire to procure
from the colonial authorities the blessings of civil liberty and free-
dom of worship. One plain fact has often been strangely over-
looked: namely, that Robert Child, who was no fool, did not intend
that his Petition and Remonstrance should be favorably considered
by the General Court. Merely to read the document — a tempta-
tion which some scholars appear to have resisted — will convince
anybody that he could have had no such hope or purpose.
1 There was probably an appeal after the second trial also (see pp. 67, 81, 84) . If
so, Maverick's sentence (p. 54, above) may apply to this occasion; but, in any event,
Child was punished for no appeal except that at the November hearing in 1646. '
* It is printed in New-Englands Jonas, p. [17], to show that the Colony was
setting up a commonwealth independent of the mother country.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 83
For the Court to give the petition a favorable hearing would have
been to admit that the colonists had violated their Charter and
neglected their oath of allegiance, inasmuch as they had not yet
established " a setled forme of government according to the lawes of
England;" that the inhabitants, under the system that prevailed,
could not have "a sure and comfortable enjoyment of [their] lives,
liberties, and estates, according to [their] due and naturall rights
as freeborne subjects of the English nation;" that the magistrates
appeared to cherish "an overgreedy spirit of arbitrary power," such
as was "detestable to our English nation and to all good men" and
was "at present a chief cause of the intestine warre" in the mother
country, — in short, a disposition like that of Charles I himself;
that the people lived in constant fear of " illegal commitments, un-
just imprisonments, taxes, rates, customes, levyes of ungrounded and
undoing assessments, unjustifiable presses, undue fynes, unmeasur-
able expenses and charges;" that the limitations on the franchise
and on eligibility to office were causing " many great inconveniences,
secret discontents, murmurings, rents in the plantations," and even
"fears of perpetual slavery and bondage;" that the church polity of
Massachusetts occasioned "an ocean of inconveniences, dishonor
to God and to his ordinances, . . . encrease of anabaptisme and of
those that totally contemn all ordinances as vaine, fading of Chris-
tian graces, decrease of brotherly love, heresies, [and] schismes;"1
that "all things in the Colony" were "growing worse and worse,
even to the threatning ... of no less than final ruin" — "the
Gospel much darkened," "Christian charity and brotherly love
almost frozen," "secret discontents fretting like cankers," "mer-
chandizing and shipping by speciall providence wasted," "hus-
bandry now withering," "villages and plantations much deserted,"
credit "almost lost," "strife and contention now rife," and our
brethren in England in "just indignation" and "flying from us as a
pest." Furthermore, for the Court to grant the specific requests
1 It passes my comprehension how anybody who had read this passage could
straightway characterize Child as a champion of religious liberty or freedom of
conscience. Perhaps nobody who has read the passage has ever so characterized
him.
* This particular passage was read to the Remonstrants by the Court at the
first hearing as a specimen of the offensiveness of the document (Winthrop, ii.
347 [284)).
84
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
or demands embodied in the Remonstrance would have meant that
the whole body of English laws should be substituted for the colonial
code; that the Colony should cease to regard itself as a free state, and
should reduce itself to the condition of "other corporations of Eng-
land;" that all English denizens not now admitted to full rights
should be forthwith accorded them, or released from the liability
to taxation; that members of the Church of England should enjoy
all the privileges of church-members in the Colony without being
required to take the covenants of the colonial churches, or else should
be allowed to "settle themselves" in accordance with the Presby-
terian system.1
We need not here inquire whether the allegations were true or
false, and the requests reasonable or unreasonable, for that is not
the point. The point is rather that Child, who was on his second
visit to the Colony and was intimately acquainted with its leading
men,2 must have known perfectly well that his petition would be
refused — that the administration could not grant it without giv-
ing up principles and purposes which they held most tenaciously,
and for whose sake they had emigrated in the first place. His in-
tention clearly was, not to persuade the government to adopt cer-
tain reforms which would be equivalent to a revolution, but to
furnish himself with a grievance which should enable him to appeal
to Parliament with telling emphasis. This appeal he meant to urge
in person, backed by the whole Presbyterian party, then in the
majority in the House of Commons — a party of which his brother
Major John Child was an important member.
When, at the end of the Remonstrance, he declared that, in case
the petition were rejected, he and his associates should "be necessi-
tated to apply [their] humble desires to the honourable Houses of
Parliament," he was not indulging in a mere threat: he was express-
ing, none too guardedly, the real purpose that he had in mind in
presenting his Remonstrance. And the threat itself would be a
powerful argument when he went to the Commons. "You see,
gentlemen," so he could argue, "how slightly these rebellious colo-
nists hold your authority. I assured them that I should appeal to
you if they were not just to me, and they threw out my petition all
1 Hutchinson Papers, i. 214-223.
1 See pp. 7-8, above.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 85
the same!" Indeed, the whole Remonstrance, if read with all the
circumstances in mind, reveals itself at once as a paper intended,
from the first, for the eyes of the Presbyterian party in England,
both in the Parliament and out, who had long looked askance at
New England as a stronghold of Independency. Only in form was
it addressed to our General Court.1
And the nature of the petition that was to come before Parlia-
ment, on the basis of the clearly foreseen rejection of this extraor-
dinary Remonstrance, is not a matter of conjecture, for we know
the contents of the papers seized in Band's study on the eve of
Child's intended sailing. After a recital of their bitter experiences,
the Remonstrants petition the Commissioners not only for the ex-
tension to Massachusetts of the laws of England and for liberties
like those of English freeholders, but "for settled churches accord-
ing to the reformation of England," — that is, for the introduction
of the Presbyterian system, — for the appointment of "a General
Governor or some honorable Commissioners" to take charge of the
Colony, and for the imposition upon all of the oath of allegiance
"and other covenants which the Parliament shall think most con-
venient, to be as a touchstone to try our affections to the state of
England and true restored Protestant religion." This last re-
quest is particularly notable. What Child had in mind was that the
colonists should be forced to take the Covenant! After this, one thinks,
we should hear no more of Child as one of the noble army of martyrs
to liberty of conscience and freedom of speech.2 Along with this
1 Captain Edward Johnson, who is a good witness as to contemporary opinion
in the Bay, was in no doubt on this point (Wonder-working Providence, 1654,
bk. iii. chap. 3, p. 202). Bancroft states the facts in brief and trenchant terms:
"An entire revolution was demanded." "The document was written in a spirit
of wanton insult" and "was evidently designed for English ears." Child "de-
uired only an excuse for appealing to England" (History of the United States,
chap, x, 19th ed., 1862, i. 438, 439). Chalmers writes amusingly: "A petition,
which would now appear so humble and so reasonable, we ought naturally to
infer, met- with the most gracious attention. But no conclusion however would be
more erroneous" (Political Annals, 1780, i. 179).
1 Grahame makes a pretty keen observation: "The discovery of the intoler-
ance meditated by these persons served to exasperate the intolerance which they
themselves were experiencing from the society of which they formed but an
insignificant fraction" (History of the Rise and Progress of the United States,
London, 1827, i. 324).
86 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
petition was to go a copy of the original Remonstrance, which was
a sweeping denunciation of the Colony and its whole government,
both civil and ecclesiastical. There was also a paper of queries, in-
tended for the Commissioners, asking, among other things, "about
the validity" of the Massachusetts patent, "and how it might be
forfeited," and whether certain specified "acts or speeches in the
pulpits or in the Court were not high treason." 1
These papers, it may be, were drawn up after the Remonstrance
had been rejected and its subscribers fined, and may have been more
drastic on that account, but there is every reason to suppose that,
so far as the petition to the Commissigners is concerned, it repre-
sents substantially what Child had originally intended to bring before
Parliament, though he had since decided to bring the matter before
the Commissioners.2 It is impossible not to infer that, from the be-
ginning, Child's design was, if he could, to impose Presbyterianism
on the Colony as the legally established system as well as to effect
such a radical change in the colonial government as should abolish
the Charter and put an end to the large degree of independence
which the Bay had thus far enjoyed. The Remonstrance itself was
simply a means to this end.
Nor were the fathers of our commonwealth in doubt, even before
they seized Child's and Dand's papers, that the Remonstrants (or
their ringleaders) intended to nullify the Charter and to reduce the
Colony to a condition of absolute dependence on the will of a Pres-
byterian majority in Parliament. When Child told the Court, in
November, 1646, "that they [the Remonstrants] did beneath them-
selves in petitioning to us, etc., and in conclusion appealed to the
Commissioners in England," the Governor replied that "he would
admit no appeal, nor was it allowed by our charter, bid by this it
appeared what their aim was in their petition; they complained of
fear of perpetual slavery,3 etc., but their intent was, to make us slaves
1 Winthrop, ii. 357 (293).
1 Whether one petitioned the Parliament or the Commissioners was a mere
detail of procedure, for any petition to the Parliament from the colonies was sure
to be referred to the Commissioners for advice, if not for final action.
1 Cf. the Remonstrance: "Whence issue forth . . . also jealousies of too
much unwarranted power and dominion on the one side, and of perpetual shivery
and bondage on the other" (Hutchinson Papers, i. 218).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 87
to them and such as themselves were, and that by the parliament and
commissioners." 1 There could be no clearer pronouncement. The
Court understood that the Remonstrance was a move in the Pres-
byterian campaign, and that it was intended from the outset for
presentation to the Parliamentary authorities in England. Its re-
jection was a foregone conclusion : it was drawn up to be rejected and
thus to serve as the basis of an appeal.
That Robert Child's sentiments were violently anti-Independent
comes out clearly in the papers already examined. Their testimony
is corroborated by the pamphlet issued by his brother the Major.
Note, for instance, the closing words : " I shall desire the Reader by
ah* that hath been said, to observe how Independents are all of a
peece, for subtilitie, designs, fallacies, both in New-England and hi
Old." 2 Or take the following dictum, which discloses the actual
personage whose tenets ruled the Major's life and opinions: "We
have cause heartily to pray, That (as Mr. Batty sets forth in his
book of Disswasive from the Errors of the times) as from New-England
came Independencie of Churches hither, which hath spread over all
parts here; that from thence also (in time) Arbitrary Government in
the Commonwealth may not come hither."8
Major Child's citation of Mr. Baily seems to have made slight
impression upon the minds of the more recent investigators of New
England history, but it deserves a moment's pause, for it shows us
where he stood and thus gives the plainest indication of the real
purpose of the whole agitation. A quotation or two from Baylie's
famous Dissuasive will be more than enough:
The fruits of Independency may be seen in the profession and prac-
tices of the most who have been admitted, as very fit, if not the fittest
members of their Churches. These have much exceeded any of the
Brownists that yet we have heard of: first, in the vilenesse of their
Errours; secondly, in the multitude of the erring persons; thirdly, in
the hypocrisie joyned with their errours; fourthly, in malice against
their neighbours, and contempt of their Superiours, Magistrates and
Ministers for their opposition to them in their evil ways; and lastly, in
their singular obstinacie, stiffly sticking unto their errours, in defiance
1 Winthrop, ii. 347 (285).
* New-Englands Jonas, p. [22].
1 P. 12 [error for 20J.
88
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
of all that any upon earth could do for their reclaiming, or that God
from heaven, almost miraculously, had declared against them.1
These Five last yeers, the chief of that party, both from Arnhem,
Rotcrdam and Neio-England, have kept their residence at London, to
advance, by common counsels and industry, their Way, in these days
of their hopes . . . But three things seem to be clear, which make their
way at London no more lovely then in the places mentioned. First,
they have been here exceeding unhappie in retarding, and to their power
crossing the blessed Reformation in hand.2 Secondly, they have preg-
nantly occasioned the multiplication of Heresies and Schisms, above
all that ever was heard of in any one place in any former Age. Thirdly,
they have occasioned such Divisions in the State, that, had it not been
for the extraordinary mercies of God, the Parliament and all that follow
them, had long ago been laid under the feet of their enraged enemies,
and the whole Isle, long before this, totally ruined.8
After this we are not surprised to find the excellent Baylie (whom
I greatly admire for his clearness and force of style, and for the
frankness with which he joins issue with everything that makes for
liberty of conscience and freedom of speech) spending a whole
chapter to prove that " Independencie is contrary to the Word of
God."4 "Liberty of Conscience," he declares, "and Toleration of
all or any Religion is so prodigious an impiety, that this religious
Parliament cannot but abhorre the very naming of it." 6 After
digesting these tough morsels of Presbyterian doctrine, one can
hardly read with a straight face the strictures passed upon our
fathers by those scholars who maintain that Child and his fellows
were contending for free speech and religious liberty.6 But, lest
1 Robert Baylie, A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time, London, 1645,
pp. 60-61.
1 I. e., the establishment of the complete Presbyterian system, including the
inquisitorial power over manners and morals in private life.
1 P. 90.
4 Chap. x. pp. 196-223.
1 Epistle Dedicatory, p. [iv].
* Among writers who think or seem to think that Robert Child was an ad-
vocate of toleration or of liberty of conscience may be mentioned Whittier
(Preface to Snow-Bound; 1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, xviii. 390);
C. F. Adams, Massachusetts its Historians and its History, p. 60, and Three Epi-
sodes of Massachusetts History, i. 333; Brooks Adams, Emancipation of Massa-
chusetts, p. 95; W. T. R. Marvin, New-Englands Jonas, p. 1; Peter Oliver, Puritan
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 89
some one may think that Baylie's arguments were academic — that
he was upholding a theoretical system, not aiming to establish a
social and political tyranny — let me quote from a sermon which he.
delivered in this same year (1645) before the House of Lords, and
which he published at their request.1 First, note his opinion as to
the propriety of tolerating "errors," that is, divergencies from the
Presbyterian doctrine and discipline:
It is more, at least no lesse unlawfull for a Christian State to give any
libcrtie or toleration to Errours, then to set up in every Citie and Parish
of their Dominions, Bordels for Uncleannesse, Stages for Playes, and
Lists for Duels. That a libertie for Errours is no lesse hatefull to God
no lesse hurtfull to men, then a freedome without any punishment,
without any discouragement, for all men, when and wheresoever they
pleased, to kill, to steal, to rob, to commit adultery, or to do any of
these mischiefs, which are most repugnant to the Civill law, and de-
structive of humane societie.2
But what are "Errours"? Baylie leaves us in no doubt on this
point, for he enumerates several aberrant sects that appear to him
equally dangerous: — the Canterburians (i.e., High Churchmen of
Laud's temper), the Antinomians, the Anabaptists, the Libertines,
and the Independents. And, as he puts the Independents at the top
of the climax, so he does not hesitate to explain their bad eminence:
Commonwealth, p. 420; C. E. Banks, reprint of Henry Gardener's New-Englands
Vindication, p. 32, n. 34; Sumner, History of East Boston, p. 99; Barry, History of
Massachusetts, 1855, i. 339.
It must be admitted that one of the petitions to the Commissioners seized in
Dand's study (signed by a number of non-freemen) did ask for "liberty of con-
science" as well as for a General Governor (p. 40, above). How Child meant
to utilize such a paper, which was glaringly inconsistent with his own request for
tho imposition of the Covenant and the establishment of Presbyterianism, does
not appear: probably, however, merely as evidence of general discontent, for only
BO could it serve his turn and back up the requests that he had draughted to
submit to the Commissioners. Such discontent, if proved, might encourage the
Presbyterian party in England to attempt the overthrow of the Massachusetts
regime, and, if that were once abolished, the Presbyterian regime would of course
be decreed as its successor, no matter what wishes these non-freemen might
cherish for universal toleration.
1 Errours and Induration, are the Great Sins and the Great Judgements of
the Time. Preached in a Sermon Before the . . . House of Peers, . . . July
30. 1645 (London, 1645).
« Preface.
90 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
"That so much-extolled Independency," he calls it, "wherein many
Religious souls for the time do wander, which is the chief hand that
opened at first, and keepeth open to this day the door to all the
other Errours that plague us." Still, he has hope: Independency
is likely to be suppressed by the strong hand of the law, and Pres-
byterianism, which alone is of God, will soon be established by God's
mighty arm throughout the land. "Yet here is our Comfort, That,
in answer to our Supplications, the Lord hath stirred up the hearts
of those who have power effectually to minde that which we are
confident will prove the Remedy of these and many more of our
present Evils: I mean, The setting up, without further Delay, of
the Lords Government in his own House, over all the Land."
All this, to be sure, is in the Preface to the printed sermon, but
the actual discourse addressed to the Lords breathes the same
sentiments:
Understand the Language of them who plead for liberty of errours;
If you beleeve Christ, or the Doctrine of Paul attested by Peter, and the
rest both Prophets and Apostles . . .; they invite you to permit raven-
ing Woolfs freely to enter your streets, and tear in peeces all they meet
with; to come into your Houses and Chambers, to devour the souls of
your best beloved Wives, Sons, Daughters, Servants, and Friends; to
lead them all out to a ditch, and drown them; yea, which is infinitely
worse, to cast them all in the pit of damnation. . . .
Would you count him a gracious parent, who should wink at any who
brought into his house Vipers and Serpents, Woolfs and Tigers, to de-
stroy his Children? who brought in Boxes of Pestiferous Cloaths, and
boldly spread them on the Beds, and about the Table where he himself
and family were to sit and lie? This is the office and onely exercise of
all our Hereticks and Patrons of errour.1
Among these heretics and patrons of error, be it understood, the
Independents have a chief place in Baylie's mind — " the Inde-
pendents," he says, "the Brownists, or the Anabaptists, or any of
the Heterodox Societies." 2 One more quotation may suffice; it
gives the practical application of all that precedes: "All Christians
are obliged to the uttermost of their power to quench the fire of
Heresie and Schism; but above all other, we have a speciall obliga-
1 P. 26.
» Pp. 22-23.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRAOT1 91
tion for this duty." 1 What he particularly wishes to quench — if
we had any doubt about it — we could learn from a clause in the
Dissuasive: "that lamentable Independency which in Old and New-
England hath been the fountain of many evils already, though no
more should ensue." 2 Away with Independency, and the other
heresies and schisms will be easily crushed!
Baylie's Dissuasive appeared the year before the Remonstrance
was presented. All such books came to New England without delay
and the task of answering them devolved hi large measure upon the
Massachusetts divines. Indeed, John Cotton was penning his reply
to Baylie and Rutherford 3 at the very tune that the troubles with
the Remonstrants were in full -swing.4 Our ancestors knew what
high Presbyterianism meant and they recognized it when they saw
it. Some of their descendants and critics are not so well-informed or
not so vigilant. Otherwise, Child would never have been glorified
as a champion of religious liberty. Why, Major Child rejects this
imputation as a "false report" invented by Winslow and the New
Englanders to injure the repute of the Remonstrants in the mother
country! "They give out of my Brother and others," he exclaims
with indignation, "that they desire a Toleration of all Religioun."5
Nothing could have seemed a worse slander to a conscientious Pres-
byterian of Baylie's school.6
The friendship between Child and the younger John Winthrop
was not disturbed even by the outcome of the trial of June, 1647.7
1 P. 26.
1 P. 17.
* The Way of Congregational Churches Cleared. London, 1648 (Imprimatur,
January 1, 1647[-8]).
* Winthrop, ii. 304-305 (248-249); Palfrey, History of New England, 1860,
ii. 84-92, 173, n. 1.
1 New-Englands Jonas, p. 1.
* The Remonstrance itself ascribes to New England Congregationalism "an
ocean of inconveniences, dishonor to God and to his ordinances, little profit by
the ministry, encrease of anabaptisme, and of those that totally contemn all
ordinances as vaine, fading of Christian graces, decrease of brotherly love, heresies,
tchismes, Ac." (Hutchinson Papers, i. 221).
7 Winthrop is mentioned in the list of those present at the opening of the
spring session of the General Court on May 6, 1646 (Massachusetts Colony
Records, ii. 146). It was at this session (on May 19) that the Remonstrance
was presented, but it was not taken up until November (see p. 30, above),
when he was in Connecticut (John Winthrop to John Winthrop, Jr., October 26,
92
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Soon after Child left America, Winthrop sent him a letter (dated
October 25, 1647) informing him that he had paid Leader the bor-
rowed £40. Child replied, but, fearing his letter might miscarry, he
wrote again on May 13, 1648, lest "intelligence betwixt us" might
be broken. "If I had not quarrelld in ye country," he writes, "I
should have bin willing to haue ventured an 1001 or two vpon yo*
mine of b ,* but shall not haue any thing to doe with y * country
hereafter in this kind, vnles my fines be restored, wch I had desti-
nated to this end, & yet will adventure them wth you, if they be
returned. I am not so offended wth y« country but I may be recon-
ciled, & passe by such iniuryes as I haue there received, knowing to
doe good for evil is Xian-like." The tone of the letter is affectionate
and he sends his "best respects to yor wife, brother, father, & all o*
freinds."2 Winthrop's reply (March 23, 1648[-9]) mentions the
black lead but avoids the subject of the fines: "I have not beene at
Boston since last Spring:3 have done nothing yet about the b
mine; because of ye difficulty in ye beginning exept a plantation were
neere, or a good stocke. It can be well forborne a yeare or 2, wch
because of your departure I have not minded to raise by other
adventure." 4
Child's letter of 1648 is dated at Gravesend, but he was then
November 16 and 19, 1646, in Savage's Winthrop, 2d ed., Appendix, ii. 429-431).
He was also in Connecticut in May, 1647 (Winthrop Papers, iii. 157-158, iv.
222-223), and probably also in June, when the second trial of the Remonstrants
took place. However, he attended meetings of the Commissioners of the United
Colonies, at Boston, perhaps in July and certainly in August, 1647 (Acts of the
Commissioners, i. 96-97, 101), and may therefore have seen Child before the
latter sailed for England (see p. 63, above). Winthrop was an uncommonly
charming person and never quarrelled with anybody, even with Samuel Gorton
(Winthrop Papers, ii. 627); his success in dealing with the English government
after the Restoration has astonished all students of our early history.
1 I. e., [black] lead.
* Winthrop Papers, iii. 158-161. On August 21, 1648, Richard Leader writes
to Winthrop on the same subject: "I have lately received from the Doc, whoe
remembers his love to you and hath ordered me to see if his fine can be remitted;
which he will venture in your black lead myne, in case you approve of it" (2
Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, iii. 192).
s This may be a kind of excuse for having nothing to say about the fines.
4 Winthrop Papers, iv. 41. The sheet is endorsed "Letter intended to Dp
Child." We cannot be sure, therefore, whether this letter was ever sent, but
Child's letter of August 26, 1650, shows that Winthrop had written.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 93
lodging at the house of one Dr. Garbet at Hogsdon, which was close
by and was also in the neighborhood of Northfleet, where he was
born and where his elder brother the Major still lived, doubtless on
the hereditary estate. Manifestly Garbet was an alchemist, and he
was an old friend of Winthrop's.1 Child was tranquilly working at
a "few experiments," probably chemical, and when they were fin-
ished he thought he should "settle in Kent, and follow [his] calling,
being almost weary of rambling." In his budget of news we find
one significant item: "The army is much divided, ye people much
displeased wth ye Parliam*8 proceedings. Essex hath lately de-
clared so much, & other Countyes begin to speake higher language."
One of these counties, though Child does not say so, was Kent itself,
and his brother the Major was in the thick of the troubles. At the
end of this very month the Kentishmen rose in arms against the
Parliament and so bestirred themselves that their defeat was cele-
brated by their opponents as a great victory; as indeed it was, for
they threatened London, and if London had fallen into Royalist
hands, what would have become of English history?2 Only one in-
cident in the short campaign concerns us here, but that is lively
enough and made some noise at the time. We have several reports
about it from the field — for there were war correspondents even in
those days, and news-pamphlets took the place of the modern extra.
The following account is from a tract printed June 2, 1648:
His Excellency 8 had Intelligence, That a party of the Kentish Rebels
(not Browns Rebels) had fortified and barricadoed a Bridge which led
"He remembers his love to you, he hath not bin Idle, these many yeares, yet
I canot see he had done much in this great busines" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 160).
* On the whole matter see A Perfect Diurnall, no. 253 (May 29-June 5, 1648),
pp. 2034-2040; Rushworth, Historical Collections, vii. 1133-1137, 1130 bis-
1131 bis; Clarendon, bk. xi (ed. 1826, vi. 25-31, 38-41, 56-62); Heath, Brief
Chronicle, 2d impression, 1663, pp. 314-317; C. R. Markham, Life of Fairfax,
pp. 305-309; Archax>logia Cantiana, ix. 31-49; Gardiner, History of the Great
Civil War, chap, bcii (ed. 1893, iv. 132-142). The Rev. Thomas Peters (Hugh's
younger brother), writing from Falmouth, England, on June 26, 1648, gives his
friend John Winthrop, Jr., a brief Account of the revolt (Winthrop Papers, ii.
432). Nehemiah Bourne mentions "the rebellion of Kent, Essex, and other
parts " in a letter to Governor Winthrop, August 12, 1648 (Winthrop Papers, ii.
303). Winthrop mentions the affair in a letter to his son John, September 30,
1648 (Savage's Winthrop, 2d ed., Appendix, ii. 434).
• Fairfax.
94 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
towards Gravesend; a commanded party was sent forth under the con-
duct of Major Husbands,1 and Capt. Bransons Troop, in all about 300
horse, who mounted about an hundred foot behinde them: when they
drew towards the Bridge, the enemy fired thick upon them; our men
notwithstanding fell on, and the horse swam through the water, and so
got over; by this time the enemy perceiving in what danger they were,
fled: Major Childe who commanded them and was very active, hardly
escaped, having his Horse shot, whereupon he forsook it; his Son was
shot in the back, and taken. There were about twenty slain in the
place, divers wounded, and thirty Prisoners taken, many escaped, by
hiding themselves in the Corn fields and houses. The enemies party
consisted of the Countrey-men thereabouts, the Seamen, and some
London Apprentices.2
A letter of June 2, 1648, runs as follows: "On Thursday the first
of June, our Army marched towards Rochester, whereby the way
we found a passage over a Bridge neare Norfleel maintaind by about
600. foot, whereof Major Child had command, his Excellency com-
manded out a party of 200 horse, 100. foot mounted behind them;
Major Husbands having the command of them, and after some
dispute, we gained the passe, and the enemy fled, about 20. killed,
and 30. prisoners taken."3 A report dated Rochester, June 5, 1648,
states succinctly: "On June 1 Major Husbands with 300 tooke Nor-
fleete bridge, from Major Child, killed 20 and took 30 prisoners."4
What became of Major Child after this defeat we do not know,
but he escaped on foot, unwounded — as we have seen — and prob-
ably managed to make his peace with the authorities. Anyhow, we
hear no more of him for a couple of years.6 Meanwhile we must
1 Azariah Husbands, a well-known officer in the Parliamentary army (see
Clarke Papers, ed. by C. H. Firth, Camden Society, i. 57, ii. 274).
1 The Lord Generals Letter In Answer to the Message of the Kentish-men,
May 31, 1648. Imprimatur June 1, 1648. London, Printed June 2, 1648 (Har-
vard College Library), pp. 6-7. The extract is not from Fairfax's letter, but
from another letter dated Mapham, 1 June, 1648, and printed in the tract. The
same letter, with slight variations, is included in A Perfect Diurnall for May 29-
June 5, 1648, no. 253, pp. 2037-2038 (Harvard College Library).
1 Letter dated Maidstone, June 2, 1648, in A Perfect Diurnall, as above,
p. 2039; also in Rushworth, vii. 1137.
4 A Narrative of the Great Victory obtained by the Lord Generall in Kent
(London, 1648), p. 6 (Harvard College Library).
• The Christian name of Major Child is not mentioned in any of the con tern-
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 95
turn a leaf backward. In 1645 one "Major Childe," obviously the
same man that we have just seen fighting hard amongst the Royalists,
had been a trusted officer on the Parliamentary side, and his soldier-
ing had not been confined to his own county. On April 14 of that
year the Committee of Both Kingdoms sent him orders: "Upon
information just received of commotions in Kent, ... to march
back with the trained bands of Kent under your command, and there
obey such further directions as you shall receive from this Committee
or that of Kent."1 We ought never to wonder that anybody —
anybody! — should have changed sides in England between 1645
and 1648. But Major Child had not changed sides. He was a high
Presbyterian in 1645, when he fought under Parliamentary orders;
he was a high Presbyterian in 1647, when, in New-Englands Jonas,
he quoted Robert Baylie, the most thoroughgoing of Scottish doc-
trinaires, against the Independents, and wound up his tract with
the pregnant sentence, "I shall desire the Reader ... to observe
how Independents are all of a peece, for subtilitie, designs, fallacies,
both in New-England and in Old;" and he was a high Presbyterian
when, in 1648, he led his troop against the Parliamentary forces in
the Royalist uprising. Times had changed, but the Major was
still the same. His party, in its hatred of Independency and its fear
of the growing power of the army, which was Independency's strong-
hold, was ready to throw itself into the arms of the King, but its
representatives in Parliament still hesitated, and the Major, like
many other gentlemen in his county and elsewhere, thought that the
time for debate was past and the moment for action had come.
Technically, then, he was fighting against the Parliament; in reality,
however, he was supporting, wisely or unwisely, the reaction which
his own party in Parliament longed for, but which it was too weak,
too timid, or too politic to bring to the arbitrament of the sword. A
porary accounts of the skirmish, but it is given, with his place of residence, in the
"information" brought by John Bulfinch against "Major John Childe, or Chiles,
Northfleet, Kent," on November 2, 1650, which declares that "he was* a commis-
sioned officer in arms against Parliament in the Kentish insurrection of 1648"
(Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money, iii. 1274).
The Doctor's brother, the Major John Child of New-Englands Jonas, was (aa
Winthrop tells us) "a Major of a regiment in Kent" (ii. 391 [321]), and Northfleet
was undoubtedly his home.
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1644-1645, p. 407 (cf. p. 406).
96
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
contemporary tract entitled A Letter from a Gentlemen in Kent,1
written to exculpate the insurgents and to claim indulgence for them
on the part of the authorities, describes the revolt as directed not
against Parliament but against the Independent faction.2 Major
Child's share in the Kentish insurrection, then, is most instructive.
It dispels any doubts that may linger in our minds as to the real
politics of his brother Robert's conspiracy against the civil and
ecclesiastical government of Massachusetts. We do not need this
evidence, but it comes to hand unsought, in welcome confirmation
of the inferences that the documents in the case have already forced
us to draw.
Before we return to the Doctor, we may as well follow his brother's
fortunes so far as they appear in the records. If the Major's offence
was overlooked for a time, he was at all events not relieved from sus-
picion. On November 20, 1650, a certain John Bulfinch laid an
information against him, alleging that he had been "a commissioned
officer" in the Kentish revolt and had aided the Royalists on other
occasions. Accordingly an order was issued (January 1, 1651) that
his estate should be "seized and secured" and that the rents
should remain in the tenants' hands. But the Major clearly had
powerful friends and, though his activity in the uprising was noto-
rious, he was able to put up a good fight pro domo. On the 7th of
January he got permission to "hold his estate on security," to have
a copy of the charge, and to examine witnesses before the County
Committee.3 The law, we should remember, obliged the informer to
1 London, 1648 (Harvard College Library).
1 According to this writer the county was loyal to Parliament but had been
driven to revolt by the oppressive acts of the Committee for Kent. It was, he
alleges, "a plaine Committee-war, without the least premeditate designe Or plot
against the Parliament, or their present peace and security" (p. 8). "On the
one side you have a whole County, represented by all the Knights, Gentlemen,
and Yeomen thereof, by many of the Deputy Lieutenants themselves, the Cap-
taines and other Officers of Horse and Foot ever wel-aff ected to the Parliament . . .
On the other side, you have about six or seven, or few more busie pragmaticatt
Committee-men, having neither honour nor honesty, patronizing the Separatists and
Sectaries of the Country, by them alone had in veneration, as favourers of consci-
entious Professours; and elsewhere by persons of greater power and place held to
be zealous members of the Independant Churches ... six or seven Committee-men
with so many hundred perhaps of their schismaticall Adherents" (pp. 12-13).
1 Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money, Hi.
1274.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 97
prosecute the case himself. Soon after, it seems, fresh charges of
" delinquency " were " instigated " by a neighbor, one Henry Payne of
Milton-juxta-Gravesend,1 and the Major was imprisoned. We have
the order for his release passed by the Council of State on May
20, 1651. Colonel Twisleton and Mr. Parker of Gravesend are in-
structed as follows: "Upon some information received, we thought
fit to restrain the liberty of Major John Child of Northfleet, but
upon considering his petition, we are inclined to discharge him on
security; you are to take his recognizance in 1,000/., with two sureties
in 500/. each, to appear before the Council when commanded, and to
be of good behaviour." 2 On the 28th Child petitioned that two
witnesses might be summoned to invalidate Payne's testimony:
his own "fidelity," he declares, "is known by his constant employ-
ment for the State, as commander of towns, etc." On June llth he
once more asked "to be made responsible on good security for his
estate, it being seized, and his rents in the tenants' hands, whereby
he and his family are in some want." The request was granted. On
October 8, Bulfinch the informer, begged for a hearing in the case,
and this was ordered.3 Here the record ends, but it is clear that Child
managed to keep his estate until the Act of Oblivion came to his
relief in 1652. This appears from the lament of Colonel Nicholas
Devereux of Westminster, March 24, 1652. This gallant warrior
" complains that though he has entered 27 cases in the book of infor-
mation, yet the Act of Oblivion has cut him off from the benefit of
his discoveries, though many cases had been entered two years, and
were ready for judgment; that of Major John Child, of Kent, was 1,0001.
to his prejudice." * In 1654 Child was again in confinement, for in
that year the petition of "Mary, wife of Major John Child, prisoner
in Upnor Castle, Kent, for her husband's release," was referred to
the appropriate committee5 — result unknown. Five years later,
on the eve of the Restoration, he appears in the Government service.
On August 2, 1659, the Council of State issued a warrant for the
payment of £20 to "Major Child" (doubtless the same man) "for
1 Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money, iii. 1274.
Perhaps these charges were part of the same Bulfinch case.
• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1651, p. 211 (cf. p. 208).
1 Calendar, Committee for Advance of Money, iii. 1274.
• Id., ii. 870.
• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1655-1656, p. 94.
98 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
intelligence" and the Committee for Examinations was to confer
with him;1 on August 5th the Council voted that he should "secure
suspected persons."2 This is the last we hear of our Major, but we
may hope that King Charles forgave these lapses, in view of what
had gone before.
We must now return to Dr. Robert Child, whom we left in May,
1648, at Dr. Garbet's house in Hogsdon, Kent, busy with chemical
experiments and contemplating the life of a general practitioner in
his native county. He was on friendly terms with the scientific
circle to which Boyle and Hartlib belonged, and was deeply en-
gaged, as we shall see presently, in alchemical speculations, as well
as in the more practical study of agriculture, then attracting much
attention in England. In this same letter to Winthrop he men-
tions "an Ingenuous young man of my acquaintance" who "hath
newly invented double writing, so y* a man can write 2 or 3 Copyes
or more as soone & as fairely as one, he hath a pattent graunted in
ye Parliam* for 14 yeares, by ye next ye invention will be comon. "8
This was Dr. (later Sir) William Petty, destined to be one of the
founders of the science of political economy, whose "pentograph"
was then a new thing. Petty speaks of the contrivance in a little
tract entitled The Advice of W. P. to Mr. Samuel Hartlib, for The
Advancement of some particular Parts of Learning, published early
in 1648.4 Child's letter also contains some thrilling alchemical news,
to which we shall later return.6
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1659-1660, pp. 67, 580.
s Id., 1659-1660, p. 75.
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 159.
4 The Epistle Dedicatory, signed "W. P.," is dated "London the 8.
January. 164 J." The title-page bears the date 1647, obviously Old Style. There
is a copy in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society which may have
been a present from Hartlib to the younger Winthrop. Some copies appear to be
dated 1648 (see Dircks, Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib, p. 60). The
tract is reprinted in Oldys, Harleian Miscellany, vi. 1-13 (1745), ed. Park, 4to,
vi. 1-14 (1810), with the later date. On the pentograph, which proved a dis-
appointment, see Hartlib to Boyle, May 8, 1654 (Boyle's Works, v. 264); Fitz-
maurice, Life of Sir William Petty, 1895, pp. 10-11, 13. Hartlib, writing to
Boyle, November 16, 1647, speaks of "one Petty, of twenty four years of age,
not altogether a very dear Worsley, but a perfect Frenchman," etc. (Boyle's
Works, ed. Birch, 1744, v. 256). Benjamin Worsley and Robert Boyle were
doubtless friends of Child's at this tune, as we know they were a little later.
• P. 129, below.
1919]
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
99
On August 26, 1650, Child wrote again from Gravesend. The
letter is long and interesting. It expresses an eager hope that their
correspondence may continue and deplores the fact that they can
"sildome write." Heretofore Child's extant letters have begun with
the formal "Sir" or "Worthy Sir," but this tune he addresses Win-
throp as "Loving freind." He has not yet quite abandoned his wish
to return to New England :
I am sorry you haue not as yet attempted your blacke h mine, y*
we might know certaynely what it conteyneth; I, for my part, am more
than halfe weaned from New-England, by their discourtesye, yet if they
would returne me my fine, I would adventure it with you & phaps might
see you. Otherwise either I shalbe for Ireland where at Kilkenny a
new Acadamy is to be erected or I shall retreate to a more solitary life,
as I can comaund myselfe, with 6 or 7 gentlemen & scollars, who haue
resolved to live retyredly & follow their studyes & experiences, if these
troublesome times molest not, these gentlemen for Curiositye & Learn-
ing scarcely haue their equals in England, next weeke we are to meete
& conclude by my next you may heare more: I suppose you are to yor
Plantacoh, out of the way, yet I hope some times to heare from you, &
if you haue any thing that is rare, pray let vs receive part. Commaund
me Sr', if I can serve you, for truly I am Your loving frend
Robt Child
A postscript gives a large budget of European news and closes with a
notable passage:
Sr I desire to heare from you sometimes, & if you meete with any
rare thing, vegetable minerall &c. or any strange newes communicate
it to your freind: & further if you see a booke called Anthroposophia,
tell me, if you can, what the metaphysicall subject is, which is the great
question now amongst vs which is the perfection of all things. — Sr,
I send not further at prsent but to commit you to the Almighty Resting
Yours, R C1
No further letters on either side are known to be in existence, but
I am glad to be able to prove (as I shall do shortly) that these two
choice and congenial spirits were never estranged.
The scheme for a society of scholars came to nothing, nor, so far
as I can discover, did the Kilkenny project ever take shape. At all
events, Child did not go to Ireland immediately. William Codding-
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 161-164.
100
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
ton, after his return from England with his commission as "Gov-
ernor of Acquedneck, alias Rhode Island, and Quinnungate Island,"
wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., on February 19, 1651 [-2], that he had
met Child several times in England, doubtless in London and prob-
ably in 1650 or 1651:1 "I sawe Do' Child who did inquire diuers
tymes very affecshonately how the Pequite Sachem did, & would
haue had me for to haue taken yor plantation in to my Comistion
weh j would not doe wtbout order." 2 Coddington had a short and
inglorious career in his ill-gotten governorship, and I should be
sorry to think that Child seriously advised him to take Winthrop's
Connecticut colony under his a?gis. The Doctor was certainly
in a jesting vein when he dubbed Winthrop "the Pequit sachem,"8
and the advice he gave to Coddington must have been part of the
jest. Whether the budding Governor was humorist enough to
understand, is a problem that I must leave to the Rhode Island
pundits, for his words may be taken either way.
We have still further traces of Child in 1651. On March 7, Elias
Ashmole makes the following entry in his Diary: "I went to Maid-
stone with Dr. Child the physician. And 3 Hor. post mend. I first
became acquainted with Dr. Flood."4 Ashmole was one of the most
enthusiastic students of alchemy in that age, and a general virtuoso,
so that he and Child had much in common. Another alchemist in
Child's circle was young George Stirk (or Starkey) of the Harvard
Class of 1646. Stirk was the son of the Rev. George Stirk of Ber-
muda,5 who died in 1637, and he had been especially recommended
1 Coddington went to England in January, 1648-9 (Roger Williams to John
Winthrop, Jr., January 29, 1648[-9], in 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections,
ix. 280, and Letters of Roger Williams, ed. by J. R. Bartlett, p. 169, 1 Narra-
gansett Club Publications, vi). His commission was on the stocks from March
6, 1650, — when the Council of State referred his petition to the Committee of
the Admiralty for report, — until April 3, 1651, when it was granted (Calendar
of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, pp. 335-338, 354; Edward Winslow's
letter of April 17, 1651, in Plymouth Colony Records, ix. 197, and Hutchinson
Papers, i. 258). Coddington seems to have reached his home at Newport in
August, 1651 (see William Arnold's letter of September 1, 1651, in Hutchinson
Papers, i. 267; cf. Roger Williams to John Winthrop, Jr., October 6, 1651, in
3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ix. 294, and Letters of Roger Williams,
p. 228).
1 Winthrop Papers, ii. 282. » Cf. p. 166 note 5, below.
* Lives of Ashmole and Lilly, ed. by Charles Burman, 1774, p. 313.
1 See our Publications, xiii. 16-59.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 101
to the care of the elder Winthrop by the Rev. Patrick Copland, at
whose instance, it seems, he had come to Harvard for his education
instead of going to England.1 He began to study chemistry, in his
spare hours, in 1644, while still an undergraduate,2 and was en-
couraged by the younger Winthrop, who lent him books from his
well-furnished library.3 In 1647, the year of Child's second trial,
we find Stirk practising medicine,4 presumably hi Cambridge or
Boston, and he was certainly established in Boston in 1 648-1 650.5
Child probably knew him in this country, and when (in 1650 or 1651)
Stirk went to England to follow his profession there, it was Child
who introduced him to Robert Boyle. This appears from Stirk's
own words in dedicating his Pyrotechny Asserted and Illustrated
(London, 1658) "To the Honourable, Virtuous, and most accom-
plished Gentleman, Robert Boyl, Esq; My very good Friend."
The address begins: "Since it was my good fortune first by the
occasion of our mutual Friend, Dr. Robert Child, (whose memory
being a man most learned and ingenuous, I honour,) to kiss your
Honours hand, your love to me hath ever continued so real and
constant, that if I should not take such notice of it, as to my power
to acknowledge it, I should worthily deserve the black note of in-
famy." The introduction apparently took place in 1651.' In this
1 Copland to Winthrop, December 4, 1639 (Winthrop Papers, iii. 279).
1 "In the Year of Our Lord 1644. I first began the studie of Chemical Phi-
losophic" (Stirk, Pyrotechny Asserted, London, 1658, p. 76).
* Stirk to John Winthrop, Jr., [from Boston], August 2, 1648 (Winthrop Papers,
iii. 359-360).
4 Copland to Winthrop, September 30, 1647 (Winthrop Papers, iii. 353).
' These dates appear from an entry in William AspinwalTs Notarial Records
(Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, xxxii. 304).
• The exact dates are not determinate, but we know that Stirk was in this
country as late as May 31, 1650 (Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. i. 15), and
there is every reason to believe that he went to England with his maternal grand-
father, Stephen Painter, who arrived in Boston, en route for London, on August
6, 1650 (Increase Mather, in the Dunster MS., M. H. S.; our Publications, xiii.
53-55). Painter waa in London before July 19, 1651 (Lefroy, Bermudas, ii. 24),
and that Stirk was there in 1652 is proved by an entry in his own hand in Sloane
MS. 3708, fol. 78 a. Boyle went to Ireland in 1652 (Life, by Birch, in Boyle's
Works, i. 30), and in January, 1653, his letter to John Mallet shows that he had
already been there for some time (Works, i. 31). In either 1651 or 1652 Stirk
collaborated with Boyle in an experiment in medical chemistry: by a misprint
the date is given both ways in his tract entitled George Starkey's Pill Vindicated,
and Boyle does not give it at all (Works, i. 510-511, 563-565). Child may have
102 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
same year (or more probably in 1650) Dr. John French dedicated to
Child his English translation of Agrippa's Occult Philosophy,1 one of
the most famous of all works on natural magic.
gone to Ireland in the latter part of 1651, and he certainly was there in 1652
(see p. 119 note 5, below). On the whole, it is safe to infer that Stirk went to
England in the latter part of 1650, and that in 1651 he was introduced to Boyle.
1 Three Books of Occult Philosophy, written by Henry Cornelius Agrippa . . .
Translated out of the Latin into the English Tongue, By J. F. London, 1651.
As to the identity of the translator, see Ferguson (Bibliotheca Chemica i. 293);
the question is settled definitely by two entries (unknown to Ferguson) in the
Stationers' Register (Roxburghe Club, i. 341, 342). The same J. F. translated
Sendivogius (London, 1650). Child speaks of both translations in a letter to
Winthrop (p. 125, below), but says nothing about J. F. and does not mention the
dedication. Some account of Dr. French (16167-1657) may be found in the
Dictionary of National Biography, xx. 251-252.
Dr. French's dedication of his translation of Agrippa's Occult Philosophy has
just been transcribed for me from a copy in the British Museum. It is so inter-
esting that I append it entire. The volume is dated 1651 in the imprint, but
Thomason bought it on November 24, 1650 (Thomason's Catalogue, i.818). The
book was entered in the Stationers' Register on April 23, 1650 (Roxburghe Club,
i. 342), and Child mentions it in a letter of August 26, 1650, as "coming out"
(Winthrop Papers, iii. 162).
To my most honorable, and no less learned Friend, Robert Chttde, Doctor of
Physick.
Sir! Great men decline, mighty men may fall, but an honest Philosopher keeps
his Station for ever. To your self therefore I crave leave to present, what I know
you are able to protect; not with sword, but by reason; & not that only, but
what by your acceptance you are able to give a lustre to. I see it is not in vain
that you have compassed Sea and Land, for thereby you have made a Proselyte,
not of another, but of your self, by being converted from vulgar, and irrational
incredulities to the rational embracing of the Sublime, •Hermeticall, and Theomagi-
call truths. You are skilled in the one as if Hermes had been your Tutor; have
insight in the other, as if Agrippa your Master. Many transmarine Philosophers,
which we only read, you have conversed with: many Countries, rarities, and
antiquities, which we have only heard of, and admire, you have seen. Nay you
have not only heard of, but seen, not in Maps, but in Rome it self the manners
of Rome. There you have seen much Ceremony, and little Religion; and in the
wilderness of New England, you have seen amongst some, much Religion, and
little Ceremony; and amongst others, I mean the Natives thereof, neither Cere-
mony, nor Religion, but what nature dictates to them. In this there is no small
variety, and your observation not little. In your passage thither by Sea, you
have seen the wonders of God in the Deep; and by Land, you have seen the as-
tonishing works of God in the unaccessible Mountains. You have left no stone
unturned, that the turning thereof might conduce to the discovery of what was
Occult, and worthy to be known. It is part of my ambition to let the world know
that I honor such as your self, & my learned friend, <fe your experienced fellow-
traveller, Doctor Charlet, who have, like true Philosophers neglected your worldly
1919] DH. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 103
In 1651, at the request of Milton's friend Samuel Hartlib, who had
a passion for issuing little books and was particularly interested in
projects for the improvement of English agriculture and industry,
Robert Child composed an essay entitled "A Large Letter concern-
ing the Defects and Remedies of English Husbandry written to
Mr. Samuel Hartlib," which forms the bulk of a volume published
in that same year under the title, Samuel Hartlib his Legacie.1
advantages to become masters of that which hath now rendered you both truly
honorable. If I had as many languages as your selves, the rhetoricall and patheti-
call expressions thereof would fail to signifie my estimation of, and affections
towards you both. Now Sir! as in reference to this my translation, if your judge-
ment shall finde a deficiency therein, let your candor make a supply thereof.
Lot this Treatise of Occult Philosophy, coining as a stranger amongst the English,
be patronized by you, remembering that your self was once a stranger in the
Country of its Nativity. This stranger I have dressed in an English garb; but
if it be not according to the fashion, and therefore ungrateful to any, let your
approbation make it the mode; you know strangers most commonly induce a
fashion, especially if any once begin to approve of their habit. Your approbation
is that which it will stand in need of, and which will render me,
SIR,
Most obligedly yours,
J. F.
1 Samuel Hartlib his Legacie: or An Enlargement of the Discourse of Hus-
bandry used in Brabant & Flaunders, London, 1651. In my references I have
used the second and third editions, 1652, 1655 (which are in the Harvard College
Library), but I have examined the New York Public Library's copy of the first
edition (1651). Except for the Appendix (added in the second edition), the con-
tents of the first and the second edition are identical, and there is only one tri-
fling difference in arrangement: the errata and the brief advertisement about
clover, which in the first edition come at the end of the front matter, are in the
second edition transferred to the penultimate page of the volume. As to the
Appendix in the second edition, see p. 108, below. The Large Letter is on pp.
1-108 in the first edition, pp. 1-81 in the second, pp. 1-96 in the third. The
subtitle (An Enlargement, etc.), dropped in the third edition, is a little mis-
leading. It means that this book was issued as an addition to the material on
this practical art contained in a tract already published by Hartlib in 1650 — A
Discours of Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders (of which a second edition
appeared in 1652 and a third in 1654). Of this earlier tract the author was Sir
Richard Weston, as Hartlib informs us in the preface to the Legacie, as well as
in the second and third editions of the Discours itself. When he first published
the Discours, he was ignorant of the author's name.
The Large Letter in the third edition of the Legacy shows a few additions. I
have noted the following: P. 38 of ed. 3 (a philosophical discussion of "the true
causes of Fertility") is not in ed. 2; "Instructions for the increase and planting
of Mulberry-trees," pp. 63-68, ed. 3, is not in ed. 2 (this is reprinted from a tract
"printed by Eliaz. Edgar, in the year 1609:" see p. 55); there is a slight addition
104
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
This essay gives one a highly favorable impression of Child's powers
as an observer and a practical man of science. Interpreting the
word "husbandry" in a large sense, he treats not only of every de-
partment of farming and gardening — implements, fertilizers, the
chemistry of soils, rotation of crops, methods of sowing and plant-
ing, diseases of wheat with their cause and cure — but of stock-
raising, vine-growing, wine-making, orchards, forestry, fishponds,
mines, clay for pottery, building stone, mineral springs, bee-keeping,
and silkworms. He deplores the neglect of meadows, the existence
of so much waste land which might be brought under cultivation,
the remissness of farmers in acquainting themselves with foreign
methods, their ignorance of many useful plants that are native to
the country, their reluctance to try experiments and compare notes.
Many plants and some animals might be introduced into England
with profit. Black foxes, musk-cats, sables, minks, martens, and
the "musk-squash" might be raised for their fur. Even elephants
might be useful as traction-engines. He dilates particularly on the
silkworm, which, as he thinks, experience has shown will thrive in
England. "Divers Ladies, Gentlewomen, Scholars, Citizens, &c.
have nursed up divers wormes to perfection, though they have had
little skil in the managing of them; and likewise not such accommo-
dations as are necessary for them; and more would they have done,
if they could have had Mulberry-leaves. I am informed that one
near Charing-Crosse maketh a good living by them: as also another
by Ratliffe-Crosse; and therefore if we can bring up an 100, why not
a 1000, yea 100000, if we had food for them?" 1 The silkworm, by
the way, was a timely topic. It was in the very next year that
Hartlib put forth that fascinating little volume in which, on the
strength of Virginia Ferrar's experiment, an attempt was made to
convince the planters of Virginia that silkworms would pay better
than tobacco.2 Elephants and silkworms may not be suited to the
in ed. 3, p. 82, as against ed. 2, p. 72; most of pp. 91-92 in ed. 3 is new; the passage
beginning "Lastly, for a Corollary," on p. 93 of ed. 3, and ending "I leave to
them at the Helme of the State," p. 95, is not in ed. 2. The total increase amounts
to about eleven pages, six of which (63-68) are reprinted from the Edgar tract.
1 Samuel Hartlib his Legacie, 2d ed., 1652, p. 54. The 3d ed. (1655) adds
(after "Ratcliffe-Crosse") "yea, even in Cheshire at Duckenfield they thrive <fe
prosper" (p. 55).
1 A Rare and New Discovery of A speedy way, and easie means, found out
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 105
British climate, but very few of Child's suggestions are vagaries.
His essay is full of good things, and was highly commended by no
less an authority than the Rev. Walter Harte, the author of the
celebrated Essays on Husbandry (1764) l which Thomas Hollis
characterizes in a manuscript note2 as "Written like a Good man, a
Scholar, and a Gentleman."
Child's treatise is a kind of index to his European travels, and we
have already resorted to it for information on that score.8 He often
refers to New England. "Bees thrive very much" there, he tells
us.4 There is a kind of oats " which in New England serveth well for
Oatmeal without grinding, being beaten as they come out of the
bam."6 Summer wheat "is sowen abundantly" there "in April
and May, and reaped ordinarilly in 3 moneths." 6 He had observed
the "Palmer-worms, which is a kind of great black Cater-piUer,
(which I have seen destroying much in New-England) ; " 7 this was in
July, 1646.8 "In New-England, where there is no Chalk nor Lime-
stone, they are compelled to burn Oyster-shells, Cockles, to make
Lime', or else they could hardly build any houses." 9 This reminds us
of the ordinance passed in 1705 by Dangerfield, now Truro, that
"inasmuch as great damage is done by persons digging shells out of
the proprietors' lands, to sell and transport, which shells might
by a young Lady in England, she having made full proof thereof in May, Anno
1652. For the feeding of Silk-Worms in the woods, on the Mulberry-Tree-
leaves in Virginia (London, 1652: Boston Public Library). Child refers to this
tract in his answer to Boot (Samuel Hartlib his Legacy, 3d ed., 1655, pp. 151-
152) : " Moreover, a Lady (Virginia F.) as I have lately seen in print, hath hatched
worms in England, and then turned them forth to the Mulberry-trees, exposed to
the cold and moysture of the Air, and yet they have done well, yea better then
those within doors."
Essay i, p. 129 (also in the ed. of 1770).
In the copy of the 1764 edition which he gave to the library of Harvard
College.
P. 5, above.
2d ed., p. 49; 3d ed., p. 50.
2d ed., pp. 68-69; 3d ed., p. 78.
2d ed., p. 68; 3d ed., pp. 77-78.
2d ed., p. 10; 3d ed., p. 10. The parenthetical clause about New England is
added in the third edition.
• Winthrop, ii. 327 (267-268); William Pynchon to Winthrop, July 7, 1646
(Winthrop Papers, i. 378); John Eliot, Records of First Church in Roxbury
(New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxiii. 65).
• 2d ed., p. 67; 3d ed., p. 76.
106
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
otherwise be of use to the inhabitants to make lime, a fine be im-
posed of 6d. pr. bushel." * Among the animals that Child wishes to
have introduced for their fur, we recognize the American muskrat,
under its Indian name — so he spells it — of Musk-Squash? and may
recall, if we like, the strange story of the musquash and the cat
which Cotton Mather sent to the Royal Society in 1716.3 Two
longer extracts may serve as their own apology:
In New-England they fish their ground, which is done thus: In the
spring about April, there cometh up a fish to the fresh Rivers, called an
Alewife; because of it's great belly: and is a kind of shade, full of bones;
these are caught in wiers, and sold very cheap to the planters, who
usually put one or two cut in pieces into the hill where their Come is
planted, called Virginia-Wheate, for they plant it in hils, 5 graines in
an hill, almost as we plant Hops (in May, or June; for it wil not endure
frosts) and at that distance; it causeth fertility extraordinary for two
years, especially the first: for they have had 50 or 60 bushels on an Acre,
and yet plough not their land, and in the same hils do plant the same
Corne for many years together, and have good crops : besides abundance
of Pompions, and French or Kidney beanes. In the North parts of New
England, where the fisher-men live, they usually fish their ground with
Cods-heads; which if they were in England would be better imployed. I
suppose that when sprats be cheap, men might mend their Hop-grounds
with them, and it would quit cost: but the dogs will be apt to scrape
them up, as they do in New-England, unlesse one of their legs be tyed up.4
We will onely fall 6 upon our Northern Plantations,6 Verginia, New-
England, and instance in a few things. Why may not the Silk-grasse
of Verginia, the Salsaperilla, Sassarfas, Rattlesnake-weed (which is an
excellent cordial) 7 be beneficial to us, as also their Cedars, Pines, Plum-
trees, Cherries great Strawberries and their Locusts (which is a prickly
plant, a swift grower, and therefore excellent for hedges) be usefull to
us? So for New England, why should we think that the Indian corn, the
1 Freeman, History of Cape Cod, ii. 545.
2d ed., p. 72; 3d ed., p. 82.
American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, xxvi. 37.
2d ed., pp. 35-36; 3d ed., pp. 35-36.
Misprinted "sail" in ed. 2.
In distinction from "the Southern Plantations, as Barbadoes, Antego, Saint
Croix[,] Christopher, Mevis, Monferate" (ed. 2, p. 60; ed. 3, p. 69).
* See our Publications, xiv. 151, 183-184; American Antiquarian Society Pro-
ceedings, xxv. 359, xxvi. 23-24, 42.
1919]
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
107
Marsh1 wheat, that excellent Rie, the Pease (which never are eaten with
magots,) the French, or Kidney Beans, the Pumpions, Squashes, Water
mcUons, Musk-mellons, Hurtleberries, wild Hemp, Fir, &c. of those parts
are altogether uselesse for us? as also the Cramberries, (which are so
called by the Indians, but by the English, Bear-berries, because it is
thought the Bears eat them in Winter; or Barberries, by reason of their
fine acid tast like Barberries,) which is a fruit as big and as red as a
Cherry, ripe onely in the winter, and growing close to the ground in
bogs, where nothing else will grow? They are accounted very good
against the Scurvie, and very pleasant in Tarts. I know not a more
excellent and healthfuller fruit.2
This essay of Child's — the Large Letter — is dated at the end
"Anno 1651 " in the first edition 3 and signed in blank:
Your,
lor is the author's name mentioned anywhere in the volume. The
same is true of the second edition (1652),4 but in the third (1655)
the signature is —
Your faithful Friend,
and Servant
ROB. CHILD.5
Even without this, however, we should be able to identify the author,
for Hartlib himself ascribes the essay to Dr. Child in a letter to
Boyle, May 8, 1654.6 The connection of this interesting treatise
The 3d ed. reads (correctly) March.
2d ed., pp. 60-61; 3d ed., pp. 69-70.
P. 108.
P. 81.
P. 96.
Boyle's Works, v. 262. Harte, Essays on Husbandry, 1764 (also in the
lition of 1770), speaks of "Robert Child, the true author of the famous Treatise
Husbandry, commonly called HARTLIB'B LEGACT" (Essay, i. p. 129; cf. Essay
p. 23; Essay ii., p. 54), and Sir Egerton Brydges (Censura Literaria, 2d ed.,
117) quotes Harte. Dircks (Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib, p. 69)
disposed to credit the Large Letter to Cressy Dymock, though he was aware
its ascription to Child by Harte and in the Gentleman's Magazine, Ixxii. 12;
but Dircks had overlooked both Hartlib's letter to Boyle and the plain signature
in the third edition of the Legacy. The paper in the Gentleman's Magazine
(signed "Ferd. Stanley") is by Brydges (see Censura Literaria, ed. 2, vii. 201).
108 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
with Robert Child the Remonstrant seems to have escaped the
notice of most New England historians and antiquaries; but I am
sure it was known to our lamented associate Frederick Lewis Gay,
for the Harvard College copy of the third edition of the Legacy,
which prints the signature, came from his library.
Child wrote the Large Letter before he went to Ireland.1 The
volume that contains it (Samuel Hartlib his Legacie) was published
in 1651, and came out before July 1, for on that date Dr. Arnold
Boot, a distinguished Dutch physician and Hebraist, then living in
Paris, wrote to Hartlib, thanking him for a copy and highly com-
mending the tract, which he had "perused instantly & capite ad
calcem." Boot followed up this letter with nine others, dated from
July |f, 1651, to January ^, 1652, and the series formed a running
commentary on Child's essay. His notes, in the main, touched
points in which he disagreed with some matter of detail, but he
praised the whole book as "a most excellent piece; and from the
beginning to the end fraught with most excellent observations and
experiments."
Hartlib instantly published a second edition (1652), in which he
reprinted Child's Large Letter and the other contents of the first
edition, with an Appendix containing (1) Boot's ten letters (or ex-
tracts from them) under the title of Annotations upon the Legacie
of Husbandry and (2) An Interrogatory Relating more particularly
to the Husbandry and Naturall History of Ireland.2 To the Anno-
tations he prefixed a signed epistle "To his worthy and very much
Honoured Friend, the Author of the large letter of Husbandry,"
from which it appears plainly that Child was now in Ireland. He
calls Boot's letters (which follow) to Child's notice, and continues:
And least you should imagine, that you are at this distance forgotten
by us, give me leave to present you with another taske proper for your
1 This is proved by what Hartlib says in a letter "To his worthy and
much Honoured Friend, the Author of the large Letter of Husbandry," pr
to the Appendix that appears in the second edition of the Legacie, 1652.
* Besides the general title-page (Samuel Hartlib his Legacie . . . The secoi
Edition augmented with an Appendix) there is a title-page for the Appenc
(An Appendix To The Legacie of Husbandry: or, A Seed-plot of Annotatioi
upon the Legacie aforesaid. With an Interrogatorie, Relating more partici
to the Husbandry, and Naturall History of Ireland) and another for the
terrogatory. Each of the three title-pages bears the date 1652.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 109
thoughts in the place where now you are, that the advantages of Nature,
which God hath bestowed upon Ireland, may not lie undiscovered, and
without improvement, at this season wherein the Replanting of the
wast and desolate places of that Countrey, is seriously laid to heart
by many: I shall therefore desire you to look upon this Alphabet of
Interrogatories, and consider what Answers your Observatious [sic]
will afford unto them; or what you can learne from the Observations of
others to clear them.1
Child responded by composing a series of observations on Boot's
critique, which were printed by Hartlib in the third edition of the
Legacy (1655) under the title "An Answer to the Animadversor on
the Letter to Mr. Samuel Hartlib of Husbandry." 2 This Answer
comes immediately after Boot's letters, which are headed "Dr.
Arnold Beati's, Annotations upon the Legacy of Husbandry."8
Beati is a mere misprint for Boate, the English method of spelling
the Doctor's surname.4 There is no possible doubt about the writer.
In the Table of Contents he is called Dr. Arnold Boat, and in a letter
to Boyle (May 8, 1654), Hartlib thus announces this third edition:
I could give you likewise several accounts concerning la Lucerne, and
St. Foyne ; 5 but my legacy of husbandry being to be printed the third time,
you shall find them all in that edition with the Answer of the late Dr.
Child to the animadverter, Dr. Boate, upon his large letter of husbandry,
wherein there are divers excellent observations and experiments, which,
by God's blessing, are like to enrich these nations, if their industry be
not wanting.6
1 P. [102J.
1 Legacy, 3d ed., pp. 132-172. This Answer is neither signed nor dated, but
no signature is needed to assure us that it is the work of the writer of the Large
Letter. The author uses the first personal pronoun continually in referring to
statements made in that essay.
1 They are on pp. 118-132. In the second edition (1652), when Boot's anno-
tations first saw the light (pp. 103-118), their author's name is not given.
4 Both Dr. Arnold Boot and his brother Dr. Gerard (see p. 116, below) used
this spoiling of their name (Boate) when writing English, to preclude the other-
wise inevitable mispronunciation. See, for example, Arnold Boot's letters to
Uasher in Usaher's Whole Works, ed. Ellington and Todd, vol. xvi.
1 These two kinds of forage, then much in favor in France, were just beginning
to interest agriculturalists in England and Ireland. See Samuel Hartlib his
Legacie, 2d ed., 1652, pp. 1-4, 84-89; 3d ed., 1655, pp. 1-4, 98-104, 250-255.
• Boyle's Works, v. 262.
no
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
In this Answer to Boot Child has a good deal to say about New
England products. A few extracts are worth making.1 We may
begin with a curious medical note:
As for the Pox, ... I will not long discourse, whether it proceeded
from eating mans flesh at Naples, (as Lord Bacon 2 and others seem to
affirm) or from the Indyes, which is most likely; but how it first came
amongst them, is very difficult to know, its most probable from their
base corrupt dyet, eating mans flesh, not using salt, or any thing of
high tast, as I have observed amogst the Indias of New England, where
i[t] abounds,3 or perhaps from Bestiality s*
There was an outbreak of this disease in Boston in 1646 5 while Child
was here, and he alludes to the cases in the Remonstrance as a sign
that God is displeased with the administration.6
Here is a remark which points a moral for the dry days that are
coming. Child is speaking of making beer without malt:
Yea 7 know that Potatoes maketh excellent drink in Barbadoes; also in
New-England the stalks of Virginian wheat, as it is usually called.
Squashes or Gourds, Pumpions boyled make considerable drink; Pars-
nips make that which is accounted rare; therefore much more the Grains
above mentioned [namely, wheat, barley, peas, etc.].7
Henry Stubbe, however, the Warwick physician, gives a rather
alarming account of this potato tipple:
When I was at Barbadoes we carried off several poor English thence to
Jamaica, where many of them falling sick, and some being well, were let
blood: I observed that in those poor people, which live upon nothing al-
most but Roots, and drink Mobby (a liquor made of Potatoes boyl'd and
steep 'd in water, and so fermented) that their blood did stream out yellow,
and in the Porringer did scarce retain any show of red in the coagulated
1 See also Legacy, 3d ed. (1655), pp. 140, 154, 157, 163, 168. Child also men-
tions things he has seen in Ireland (pp. 163, 164, 166, 169; cf. p. 152). In the
Large Letter in this 3d ed. are two mentions of Ireland (pp. 82, 91) not found
in the 2d ed.
1 I have not found this in Bacon.
1 Cf. our Publications, xiv. 151, 185-186; American Antiquarian Society Pro-
ceedings, xxvi, 42,
4 P. 138.
• Winthrop, ii. 315-316 (258).
* Hutchinson Papers, i. 215.
' P. 142.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 111
mass: yet are they well and strong, but look pale and freckled: such per-
sons (which are frequent in Barbadoes) are called Mobby-faces.1
The following notes confirm what Winslow says about Child's
peregrination of New England, though we cannot be sure to which
of his two visits they apply. They derive additional interest from
the fact that in 1645 Child purchased Vines's Saco patent.2
I am sure that Sassafras groweth in the Northern Plantations of
New-England, even as far North as Sacho, where the Snow usually lyeth
five moneths, and the Winter extream bitter in respect of England: and
further this Sassafras is not a small plant or shrub easily nipt with the
frost, but a great Tree, so that boards of ten inches Diameter have been
made thereof; and further, where it once groweth, hardly to be de-
stroyed : so that it much annoyeth the Corn by its young shoots, and the
Mower in Harvest more then any other Tree that I heard of in that
Countrey. I was informed that the Native Indians of the place, when
they lose themselves in the Woods, presently run to these small shoots,
and thereby know which is North and South. Indeed I have observed
that one side is more speckled then another, and perhaps other small
shoots of plants are so, but not as yet observed (for ought I know) of
any.
And he goes on to show how sassafras is not sufficiently described
by any botanist, so far as he knows.3
I know that in New-England the wild-Bays (which is like our common
bays in smell and leaves) casteth its leaf in Winter, as also a kind of Fir
about Casho-bay, (out of which is extracted a very odoriferous gum)
and others in like manner, &c. In New-England divers in the be-
ginning of their plantations, used this Plant 4 in their Beer, hoping that
it would have served both for rnault and spice, but it deceived their
expectations. For in my apprehension it giveth a taste not pleasant,
and also they that accustomed themselves to this drink, especially in
the Summer found themselves faint and weak, not able to endure labour.6
1 The Lord Bacons Relation of the Sweating-Sickness Examined, in a Reply
to George Thomson, Pretender to Physicke and Chymistry (London, 1671),
p. 117 (Harvard College Library).
1 P. 16, above.
* Legacy, 3d ed., 1655, p. 153.
4 Sassafras.
• Pp. 153-154.
112 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
In New-England I have seen Pines above four foot Diameter, and the
length accordingly, even in the most Northern places . . . : so concerning
Cedars, they grow of a very great heighth and bignesse in the Northern
parts of New-England, where snow lyeth five or six months.1
Snakeweed, supposed to be a cure for the venom of the rattle-
snake, attracted much attention from naturalists and physicians
in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, as one may see, for in-
stance, in the Philosophical Transactions and in the writings of
Cotton Mather.2 Child regarded this plant as likely to flourish in
England:
When I was in New-England I was acquainted with an ancient Gen-
tleman, who also was a Scholer, and had lived ten years in Virginia,
who certified me that there were two sorts of Eattle-sndke-weeds, the
greater, and the less. That which he called the greater I casually had
in my hand, ... I ... have far greater hopes of the flourishing
of this wild plant, that [read than] of Tobacco, (either of that which in
New-England is called Poak, much differing from the Virginian, or of
that other commonly used and sown in Virginia). ,3
The following extract concerning black lead is of quite peculiar
interest — personal as well as historical:
I think it likewise not amiss to certifie that in New-England this
Material is found in divers places ; as at Nashaway about forty miles from
Boston, as also on Pequat River about eighty miles from Boston: this
last was given from the Court of Boston to a friend of yours and mine,
viz. Mr. John Winthrop, this Gentleman sent divers pieces thereof to
me, that I might enquire of some Dutch Merchants what price it bare
in Holland, and how much might be vendible, which accordingly I did,
and also shewed it to the two Gentlemen above named,4 who were very
inquisitive where I had it, and how much might be procured thereof,
and desired that I would leave one of the greater pieces with them, that
they might try it which I did; and the next morning enquiring again
what they said to my black lead; they told me it was nothing worth,
because it would not endure the Saw, they hoping, as I after found to
1 P. 156.
» See p. 106, above.
« P. 155.
4 Namely, "Master Bolton and Master Bret, who live in CornhU nigh the
Exchange, and sell Colours" (p. 132).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 113
have had enough for to have furnished Europe with black Combs, which
are very rare and dear, a small one usually sold at twenty or thirty
shillings: My friend Mr. W. hoped that this material had been Plum-
bago Cisalpini, which he also calleth Mater Argcnti.1 But I suppose in
this particular he was mistaken, yet upon Examination we found pure
silver amongst it, which by calculation might amount to 15/. per tun,
though the black lead sent me, was found onely on the surface of the
earth: I am the longer on this discourse, because this material hath
been little considered as yet by learned men that I can find, and also
because my friend would be glad to have some ingenious men to joyn
with him in a Work, which hath very great probabilities of very great
profit to the undertakers.
The common uses of black-lead, are first to make black-lead pens for
Mathematicians, &c. 2. For Painters and Limners. 3. For those that
work in Copper to make their hammer go glib. And lastly, if any great
pieces be found, which is rare in Cumberland Mine, to make Combes of
them, because they discolour gray hairs, and make black hair of a Raven-
like, or glittering blacknesse, much desired in Italy, Spain, &c?
In tracing Child's career we have several times encountered
references to the younger Winthrop's black lead.3 Winthrop, when
in England in 1641-1643, had roused his interest in the mine.4 It
was at Tantousq or Tantiusques, in the southern part of the present
town of Sturbridge in Worcester County, and, as Child remarks in
the passage just quoted, was given to Winthrop by the General
Court of Massachusetts. There is a record of this action at the
session of November 13, 1644: "Mr lohn Winthrope, lunior, is
granted ye hill at Tantousq, about 60 miles westward, in which the
black leade is, and liberty to purchase some land there of the In-
dians." 6 In the next year, just before he visited the Bay for the
1 Child is referring to the treatise De Metallicis by Andreas Crosalpinus
(Cesalpino). Plumbago is treated in book iii, chap. 22 (Niirnberg edition, 1602
pp. 211-212), where much is said about silver, though I do not find the phrase
"mater argenti." In his letter of March 1, 1644[-5], in a little excursus on this
same subject (see p. 14, above), Child also refers to Csesalpinus, having his eye
apparently on book i, chap. 9, pp. 28-29, and book iii, chap. 8, pp. 186-187, as
well as on the passage just cited.
» Samuel Hartlib his Legacy, 3d ed., 1655, pp. 133-134.
• See pp. 10, 11, 14-15, 92, 99, above.
4 See Child's letter of June 27, 1643 (Winthrop Papers, iii. 152).
* Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 82. This action was in general though
not exact accord with a policy adopted at the session of June 2, 1641: "For in-
114 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
second time, Child was eager to invest money in the project. He
wrote to Winthrop on March 1, 1645, after talking with Emanuel
Downing and Stephen Winthrop, and warned him not to expect too
much from the enterprise, but he expressed his readiness to stand a
quarter of the expenses. He adds a learned discourse on the sub-
ject, quoting "Cesalpine," as in the extract just given from the reply
to Boot.1 Downing and Winthrop's brother Stephen were at this
time acting as promoters in the mother country.2 On June 16 of
the same year, Richard Hill writes to Winthrop from London on
the subject. He has heard from Winthrop by letter, and has also
been talking with Downing and Stephen Winthrop: "I ... am
glad to heare you haue soe well spent your time as I vnderstand you
haue, in ffinding out that mine of black Lead." Specimens had been
sent to England and Hill had tested them. The substance yielded
about a shilling a ton in silver. " If itt yealded any Lead mettle itt
would bee somthing like, but as itt is, it is only to bee gathered by
Quicksiluer as I conceaue." A larger quantity, some four or five
hundredweight, is needed for a definitive test.3 Later, during his
troubles in New England and thereafter, Child returns more than
once to the subject of the Tantousq mine. He was still eager to in-
vest in it in 1650, if the authorities of the Bay would apply his fines
to that object, and his letter of August 26, 1650, proves that Win-
throp had so far done nothing to develop the property.4 Winthrop's
letter of 1649 shows no great alacrity in proceeding,5 but later, in
1658 and 1659, there was a vigorous though troubled attempt to get
to work.6 The subsequent history of the mine down to the begin-
curagment of such as will adventure for the discovery of mines, it is ordered,
that whosoever shalbee at the charge for discovery of any mine wthin this iuris-
diction shall enioy the same, w*11 a fit portion of land to the same, for 21 years
to their «pp. vise" (i. 327).
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 153-155.
1 Stephen Winthrop writes to his brother John from London on March 1,
1644 [-5]: "We are inquiring a chapm for yor black lead. There is some of it
sent into France for triall. We hope we shall setle al yor busines & or returne
in y* Cambridg shipp a month after this" (Winthrop Papers, iv. 200-201).
* Winthrop Papers, iii. 336.
« Winthrop Papers, iii. 162 (cf. pp. 156-157, 159).
1 See p. 92, above.
• William Paine's letters to John Winthrop, Jr. (Winthrop Papers, ii. 404-
410). In 1662 at a meeting of the Royal Society (December 31) "Mr. Winthrop
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 115
ning of the present century, when (in 1902) a fresh attempt was
made to operate it, has been told in a very interesting paper by
Professor George H. Haynes.1 I am informed that the mine has
now lain idle for several years.
We should have more of Child's observations on American natural
history but for an accident in transportation: "In New-England I
have seen a Plant with good success used for Sarsaperilla, . . . but
concerning this plant and divers others, which grow in New-England,
I cannot give you that account I desire, because my seeds and
papers unhappily miscarried." 2
The Interrogatory which Hartlib prepared for Child's use in gath-
ering materials for a natural history of Ireland covers most things
in nature and includes some matters of curious interest. Under
Maccamboy is the inquiry "Whether there be such a thing at ah1,
that this herb should purge the body meerly by external touch, or
whether it be a fable, what particular observations have been taken
for or against it, ... and hi what place it groweth?" Under Poisons,'
Hartlib asks, of course, for "particular observations of the Anti-
pathy of the Irish earth and Aire, against all poisonous creatures."
Under Patricks-Purgatory, he requests a "perfect description of
the Logh, Island, Caves, and the whole proceedings there, durhig
the Justiceship of the Earle of Corke, and the Lord Chancellour
Loftus." Under Barnacles are several questions, all directed toward
an elucidation of the venerable legend of the geese that develop out
of these marine crustaceans. Sir Kenelm Digby, who was probably
a friend of Child, as he was of Hartlib and Boyle and the younger
Winthrop, could have answered the questions authoritatively. So
at least Lady Fanshawe thought in January, 1649:
When we came to Calais we met the Earl of Strafford and Sir Kenelm
Digby, with some of our countrymen. We were all feasted at the Gov-
ernor's of the Castle, and much excellent discourse passed; but, as was
reason, most share was Sir Kenelm Digby's, who had enlarged some-
what more in extraordinary stories than might be averred, and all of
remarked that there was no right black-lead any where except in England and
New England" (Birch, History of the Royal Society, i. 167).
1 "The Tale of Tantiusques," American Antiquarian Society Proceedings
riv. 471-197.
* Samuel Hartlib his Legacy, 3d ed., 1655, p. 154.
116 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
\
them passed with great applause and wonder of the French then at table.
But the concluding was that barnacles, a bird in Jersey, was first a shell-
fish to appearance, and from that, sticking upon old wood, became in
time a bird. After some consideration, they all unanimously burst out
into laughter, believing it altogether false; and, to say the truth, it was
the only thing true he had discoursed with them. This was his infirm-
ity, though otherwise a person of most excellent parts and a very fine-
bred gentleman.1
The learned world was particularly interested in these bemicle
geese. The very learned Father Athanasius Kircher — pace tanti
viri dixerim — communicated a high-fantastical theory on the
subject to Robert Southwell in 166 1.2 But later in that same year
Dr. Worthington was able to tell Hartlib that the great naturalist
Ray and his company had recently visited "the Bass Island, and
both saw and fed on the Soland geese, but they found all was not
true which is usually reported of them." 3 The modern inquirer
may slake his thirst with Mr. Henry Lee's exposition in Sea Fables
Explained.4 As for St. Patrick's Purgatory, Hartlib's appetite for
facts had been whetted by Gerard Boot's brief account of this
celebrated place of pilgrimage and of its destruction in 1632 by
Loftus and Cork. The documents that he desired may now be
found in Canon O'Connor's book.5
Gerard Boot, the elder brother of that Dr. Arnold Boot who wrote
Animadversions on Child's Large Letter, was a native of Gorin-
chem in Holland 6 and an M.D. of Leyden.7 He removed to England
1 Memoirs of Ann Lady Fanshawe, London, 1907, p. 50.
* Southwell to Boyle, Rome, March 30, 1661 (Boyle's Works, v. 405). In the
eame year (April 3) Dr. William Petty was desired by the Royal Society "to in-
quire in Ireland concerning the petrification of wood, the bernacles," etc. (Birch,
History of the Royal Society, i. 20).
* Worthington to Hartlib, October 7, 1661 (Diary and Correspondence of Dr.
John Worthington, ed. Crossley, Chetham Society, ii. 51).
4 Pp. 98-122, International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883, Literature,
vol. iii.
1 Rev. Daniel O'Connor, St. Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg (Dublin, 1895),
pp. 132-140. Cf . the Earl of Cork's Diary, September 8, 1632 (Lismore Papers,
ed. by A. B. Grosart, 1st Series, iii. 159); Dorothea Townshend, Life and Letters
of the Great Earl of Cork, 1904, pp. 192-193.
* Van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, ii. (iii.) 892.
7 The Leyden Album Studiosorum registers his admission as a student of
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 117
ca. 1630 l and for nearly twenty years was established as a general
practitioner in London, where in 16*48 he had a house in "Crooked
Friars." 2 In 1646 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of
Physicians.3 His interest in Ireland arose partly from his having
invested a large share of his estate in the Irish forfeited lands4 —
the so-called Irish adventure in which so much money was made and
lost in the latter part of the seventeenth century.6 Arnold Boot, who
was two years his junior,6 practised in Dublin with much success
from 1636 to 1644,7 having Strafford and Archbishop Ussher among
his patients,8 when he went to Paris and settled there.9 In 1644,
on his way to France, the Dover boat in which he had embarked
medicine (aged 25) on June 21, 1628 (col. 211), describing him as "Gorcko-
miensis." See also note 6, below.
1 Van der Aa, ii. (iii.) 892.
1 Letter from Arnold Boot (Boate) to Ussher, March 5, 1648 (Ussher's Whole
Works, ed. by Ellington and Todd, xvi. 554).
1 November 6, 1646 (Munk, Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of Lon-
don, i. 243-244). Munk says he was "entered in the physic line at Leyden, 21st
June, 1628, being then twenty-five years of age, and graduated a doctor of medi-
cine there, the 3rd July, 1628."
4 Arnold Boot's prefatory letter. Cf . Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, Ad-
venturers for Land, 1642-1659, p. 129; Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1647-
1660, pp. 410, 416, 535.
1 "And the Adventurers after 10 years being out of their Principal Mony,
which now ought to be double by its Interest, they sold their Adventures for
under 10 s. per I. anno 1652, in open and free Market" (Sir William Petty, Politi-
cal Survey of Ireland, 2d ed., 1719, p. 23).
• Gerard was born in 1604, Arnold in 1606 (van der Aa, ii. [iii.] 892, 893).
The Leyden Album Studiosorum registers the admission of "Arnoldus Boot
Gorichomiensis," aged 22, as a student of medicine on April 23, 1629 (col. 217).
7 Gerard Boot, Irelands Naturall History, chap, xxiii, section 4 (Collection of
Tracts and Treatises, i. 143) ; Arnold Boot's prefatory letter. His earliest extant
letter to Ussher is dated Dublin, October 30, 1638 (Ussher's Whole Works, xvi.
39-40).
1 The Rev. Alexander Clogie, writing of Ussher, says: "The speech of his own
physitian, D. Bootius, a learned Dutchman (who was also physitian to the
e. of Strafford), is very remarkable; Si Armachanus nosier esset," etc. (Speculum
Episcoporum, § 49, printed in Two Biographies of William Bedell, Bishop of
Kilmore, ed. by E. E. Shuckburgh, 1902, p. 118).
1 Van der Aa, ii. (iii.) 893. We can locate him hi Paris, on the evidence of
his correspondence with Ussher and Hartlib, from April if, 1648, to October 18,
1653 (Ussher's Whole Works, xvi. 126-130, 581-582, and passim; Samuel Hart-
lib his Legacie, 2d ed., 1652, pp. 103-118, 3d ed., 1655, pp. 118-132; Boyle's
Works, v. 258). On December 22, 1650, Evelyn, then in Paris, notes in his
Diary: "Came the learned Dr. Boet to visite me" (ed. Wheatley, 1906, ii. 20).
118 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
was captured by a privateer in the Parliamentary service,1 and he
was detained in London from early in May to late in October.2
Probably he lodged with Dr. Gerard. At all events, they had many
talks about Ireland, and Dr. Gerard, who had never visited that
country, wrote the First Book of his Naturall History in 1645 on
the basis of their conversations and of subsequent intercourse with
several gentlemen who had been driven out by the "bloody com-
bustions" there. He meant to add three more books, but he never
carried out his plan. He sent the manuscript to Dr. Arnold, who re-
turned it with editorial improvements.8 In 1647 (July 16) the House
of Commons ordered that Dr. Gerard be appointed "Physician of
the Army in Ireland" and be sent to Dublin; 4 but there was some
delay. Finally, in 1649, he was appointed State Physician for Ire-
land and "Doctor to the hospital at Dublin," and he went over late
in the year.6 He died at Dublin on January -3^, 1649-50.2
Hartlib was eager to have Gerard Boot's fragmentary work com-
pleted, for he thought such a treatise would be of great benefit to
the "improvers" of Ireland under the Commonwealth. His Inter-
rogatory was meant to encourage the gathering of material for this
purpose. He looked to Arnold Boot as the natural continuator,
and in 1653 his hopes were high, for towards the end of that year the
Doctor started from Paris for England.6 His final destination, ap-
parently, was Dublin, where he may have expected to succeed his
brother as State Physician. He reached Dieppe — but I must let
1 In the House of Commons, April 25, 1644, "the humble Petition of Dr.
Arnold Boole and Mr. Ben. Worseley, in the Behalf of themselves, and other poor
Protestant Passengers, taken by some Ships in the Parliament's Service, in their
Passage upon a Vessel of Dover, was this Day read; and referred, and in an es-
pecial Manner recommended unto the Consideration of the Adventurers, that
set forth the Ships that took the said Passengers; to inquire into the Condition
and Affection of the said Passengers; and to do therein as they shall think fit;
and to report their Doings therein to the House" (Commons' Journals, iii. 469).
1 Arnold Boot's prefatory letter in Irelands Naturall History.
1 Arnold Boot's prefatory letter.
4 Commons' Journals, v. 247. Benjamin Worsley was named as General Sur-
geon to the Army in Ireland in the same order.
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1649-1650, pp. 66, 588; Arnold Boot's
prefatory letter.
6 His last letter to Hartlib from Paris (October 18, 1653) expressed his in-
tention of bringing a book to Boyle, who was then in Ireland (Hartlib to Boyle,
February 28, 1653-4, Boyle's Works, v. 258).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 119
Hartlib tell the $tory — he is writing to Boyle, February 28, 1653-4:
"I need not tell you again (for I hear, that you know it already)
that Dr. Boat, when he was come as far as Diepe towards England,
being let blood by those common butchers of human kind, departed
this world: which really is a very great loss to the commonwealth
of learning." * The butchers thus pilloried are merely those physi-
cians or surgeons who followed the old drastic method of treatment.
Hartlib favored the new school, which walked in the footsteps of
Paracelsus and van Helmont, eschewing huge doses, violent purges,
and phlebotomy, and relying on so-called chemical remedies.2 Dr.
Boot's death may safely be referred to the latter part of 1653.3 It
left Hartlib in doubt how to procure the completion of Gerard Boot's
work, and his thoughts turned instinctively to Child. He writes to
Boyle (February 28, 1653-i) that he is "utterly at a loss" how to
go on "except Dr. Child from Ireland succeed him [Arnold Boot]
in the pursuit of that weighty subject," and again, in the same
letter, he protests: "I must now most solemnly call upon you, on
the behalf of the Natural History of Ireland, which, if yourself and
Dr. ChUd do not take professedly to task, I fear will never be per-
fected to any purpose; at least, if so much could be done in it, as to
have all the interrogatories judiciously answered ... it would be
a considerable addition to a second edition of this imperfect work." 4
Child certainly went to Ireland either in 1651 or more probably
in 1652.5 What was his particular inducement we do not know,
though it is a good guess that he was invited by a certain large
landowner with whom, as we shall see presently, he was afterwards
associated there. Perhaps, however, the design of the Common-
wealth for "planting" that country with English settlers is reason
1 Hartlib to Boyle, February 28, 1653-4 (Boyle's Works, v. 258).
* His son-in-law Clod (Clodius, Claudius) was a fashionable London prac-
titioner of the chemical persuasion (see Hartlib to John Pell, April 1, 1658, in
Robert Vaughan, Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, ii. 454).
1 Van der Aa says 1653 (p. 893). The author of Boot's life in the Dictionary
of National Biography (J. T. Gilbert) says the date of his death has not been
ascertained (v. 284), but gives it as 1653 with a query. Neither of them knows
of the passage in Hartlib's letter. •
* Boyle's Works, v. 259.
1 We know that he was still in England during a good part of 1651 (see pp.
100-103, 107-108, above), and that he was in Ireland when, in 1652, the second
edition of Samuel Hartlib his Legacie was published (see p. 108, above).
120
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MA urn,
enough, for Ireland was at this time a land of promise for all the
investors, speculators, and projectors in England. Child's friend,
Robert Boyle, who had large Irish estates, went over in 1652.1 Two
other friends of his, Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Petty and Ben-
jamin Worsley went over to take government positions in 1652 —
Petty to be physician to the army and Worsley to act as Secretary
to the Commissioners.2 Worsley was already well acquainted with
Ireland, where he had been Surgeon-General to the Army from 1(1 11
to 1645.3 Child's friend Richard Leader, with whom he seems to
have lodged in Boston and at whose house there he was certainly
at one time confined.4 had been in Ireland before his appointment as
manager of the iron works, and must have spoken favorably of that
kingdom. Leader, at all events was an enthusiast on the subject.
In 1650 he wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., from Barbadoes: "For
1 Birch's Life of Boyle in Boyle's Works, i. 30; cf . Boyle's letter to John Mallet,
January, 1652-3 (Works, i. 31).
1 Child was certainly acquainted with Petty (p. 98, above), and it may be
assumed that he also knew Worsley, who was an intimate friend of both Boyle
and Hartlib. Petty and Worsley went over on the same ship,[arriving at Water-
ford on September 10, 1652 (Petty, History of the Down Survey, ed. Larcom,
Dublin, 1851, p. 2; Petty's will, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol.
xxiv, Antiquities, p. 110). Worsley was Secretary to the Commissioners for the
Affairs of Ireland as early as February 4, 1653 (Calendar of State Papers, Ire-
lajid, 1647-1660, p. 391), and I assume that he had this appointment before he
left England.
1 Worsley was "Chirurgeon-General of the whole Army" in Ireland from
1641 to 1645 (Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1633-1647, pp. 776, 780, 787;
Manuscripts of the Marquess of Ormonde, Historical Manuscripts Commission,
New Series, ii. 256-257, 284; Lords' Journals, vii. 401, 424; Historical Manu-
scripts Commission, 6th Report, Appendix, pp. 61, 63).
4 See pp. 41, 71, above. On August 26, 1650, Child wrote to the younger
Winthrop: "Mr Leader hath more curious booke[s] than I; especially about
Divinity businesses; where you may see them" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 162). I am
indebted to Mr. Clough for the following note:
Although Richard Leader's place of residence was chiefly at Lynn, he was the
owner of at least two parcels of real estate in Boston. One of these, the one referred
to in the text, he sold, October 10, 1655, for £200, to Mr. William Paine: ;"all
that my Mansion house (now in possession of Mr. Robert Patershall, merchant)
at Boston, togither with ye Orchard, gardens, tymber yeards, wharfes wayes,
water courses, Grounds," etc. (Suffolk Deeds, ii. 210.) The site of this property
is in part now numbered 350-360 on the west side of North Street, between Harris
Street and Hanover Avenue. In Leader's time, this estate included also the cop-
responding frontage on the easterly side of North Street to the water's edge. Cf.
Savage, Genealogical Dictionary, iii. 67, 68; Aspinwall, Notarial Records, p. 367.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 121
my owne part I see no place so good as Ireland, either for p'fitt or
pleasure; Where I intend to steere my course so sone as I cann
withdraw what I have oute of this westerne parte of the world." l
The agricultural and industrial possibilities of the new plantations
would have been a strong attraction to a man of Child's tastes, and
his fortunes needed repairing.
Soon after Child's death, Hartlib wrote to Boyle: "By that,
which I read concerning Dr. Child's husbandries in the work of
Ireland, I see what a good foundation of life he hath laid for that
honest country calling. But I doubt the colonel cannot shew us
any more observations or directions of his in writing, besides what
is extant already from his own hand; though this would have un-
proved clover, flax and woad, upon many more lands than his own." 2
These sayings are uncommonly Orphic, even for Hartlib, but luckily
his remark in a letter to Winthrop — that Child at the time of his
death was "living with Esquire Hill"3 — gives us the answer to
the riddle and thus enables us to understand what Child's occupa-
tion was in Ireland. Esquire Hill and the Colonel are manifestly
one and the same person — to wit, Colonel Arthur Hill, son and
successor of Sir Moyses Hill of County Down. Colonel Hill had
been appointed one of the Commissioners of Revenue for Ulster in
1G51,4 and his duties were much concerned with the sequestration of
forfeited estates and the repeopling of the county with new planters.
In this capacity he had a strong interest in husbandry. He had also
every motive to study the subject on his own account, for he had
succeeded to the family estates and was a great landholder. The
Marquesses of Downshire are his descendants,6 and their holdings
in Ireland and England were worth nearly £100,000 a year in 1883.6
1 Leader to John Winthrop, Jr., January 16, 1659-60 (2 Massachusetts His-
torical Proceedings, iii. 196).
• Hartlib to Boyle, May 8, 1654 (Boyle's Works, v. 262).
1 See p. 123, below.
4 Letter from Major George Rawdon to Lord Conway, November 20, 1651
(Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1647-1660, p. 383); R. Dunlop, Ireland
under the Commonwealth, vol. i. pp. cxrvii. 40 note (cf. i. 71-73, 127, 131; ii.
329. 339, 655, 658, 670).
• Burke' a Peerage, under Downshire. The head of the family was created
Viscount Hillsborough in 1717, Earl of Hillsborough in 1751, and Marquess of
Downshire in 1789.
• Complete Peerage, by G. E. C., iv. 461 (1916).
122 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OP MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Even in the lifetime of his father, Arthur Hill had distinguished
himself as a progressive landlord, for Sir William Brereton, in 1635,
records a visit to "a brave plantation" which he held on a long
lease from Lord Chichester: "This plantation is said doth yield
him a £1000 per annum. Many Lanckashire and Cheshire men are
here planted; with some of them I conversed. They sit upon a rack
rent, and pay 5s. or 6*. an acre for good ploughing land, which now
is clothed with excellent good corn." l
Child, as we may now infer, was serving Colonel Arthur Hill as
agricultural expert, with his headquarters perhaps at what is now
Hillsborough Castle, near Belfast.2 Boyle had doubtless been writ-
ing to Hartlib about the value of Child's services to Hill in the great
enterprise of planting Ulster. Probably Child had himself invested
something in Irish lands. A Robert Child subscribed £50 for the
Irish adventure on July 19, 1642, and there is a reference to this
same transaction in a record of March 10, 1651-2,3 which must be
close to the time when our Robert Child went to Ireland. The
name occurs again in a list of adventurers dated July 20, 1653, shortly
before his death.4
Child died, it seems, between February and May, 1654. In a
letter to Boyle, dated February 28, 1653-4, Hartlib expresses the
hope that Child will finish Gerard Boot's Natural History of Ire-
land,5 but in writing to Boyle on May 8 he speaks of him as "the
1 Sir William Brereton's Travels, Chetham Society, 1844, pp. 128-129.
1 There is a possible trace of Child in this part of Ireland in a passage in his
Answer to Boot (Samuel.Hartlib his Legacy, 3d ed., 1655, p. 164): "I have seen
long pices of yellow transparent Stone, or Amber found in a Fountain nigh Lake
Neagh, about six miles from Antrims which the Irish say (though vainly) that it
is found only there on May-day, and doe use it superstitiously about divers
things." Cf. Birch, History of the Royal Society, ii. 60.
1 Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, Adventurers for Land, 1642-1659, p. 92;
cf. pp. 91, 352.
4 Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, 1647-1660, p. 405.
1 Boyle's Works, v. 259. In the same letter Hartlib remarks: "Sir, you com-
plain of that barbarous (for the present) country, wherein you live; but if you
would but make a right use of yourself, from the place where you live, towards
Dr. Child, Mr. Worsley, Dr. Petty, major Morgan (not to mention others) they
would abundantly cherish in you many philosophical thoughts, and encourage
you, perhaps more vigorously than I can do at this distance and uncertainties, to
venture even upon divers choice chemical experiments, for the advancement both
of health and wealth." The letter was written in reply to a letter from Boyle
dated Youghal, January 10, 1653-4.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 123
late Dr. Child." 1 His friend the younger Winthrop did not hear of
his death till some years later, for in 1661 Hartlib wrote to him, ap-
parently in response to something in a letter of Winthrop's, perhaps
an inquiry: "I wonder that you have not heard of Dr Rob. Child
who dyed in Ireland about 3. yeares agoe living with Esquire Hill.
He was a singular lover of your Person and a most vseful honest
Man in his kind." 2 Child seems never to have married. He was
certainly a bachelor when he was in New England,3 and we hear
nothing that would lead us to infer that he ever took a wife.
I have passed lightly over Child's alchemical pursuits in order
not to complicate too much our study of this remarkable man. They
did not interfere with his practical, every-day interests — medicine,
mining, agriculture, speculation in colonial iron works; nor were
they inconsistent with mundane engrossment, for a time, in English-
American politics. This observation is not without significance.
Why somebody has not paid serious attention to the alchemical
studies of the early New Englanders 4 — Winthrop and Child and
Stirk and Brewster and Avery, not to mention later investigators,
like President Stiles and Judge Danforth and Dr. tineas Munson 6
- 1 do not know; but I suspect it is because alchemy ranges with
witchcraft in the thoughts of most of us and we feel that this is a
case hi which " least said, soonest mended " is a sane maxim. In fact,
however, there is no connection between the two subjects. Witch-
craft looks backward: it reverts to the abysm of time; it reminds us
(not much to our self-satisfaction) of the pit of primeval savagery
1 Boyle's Works, v. 262. In this same letter (v. 264) Hartlib writes: "I am
intending ... to write to the possessors of the late Dr. Boole's papers, to publish
those in print beyond the seas, which contain the Natural History of Ireland,
written in Low-Dutch originally, as he told me in his life-time." This must
refer to Dr. Arnold Boot, but no such publication is known.
* Hartlib to Winthrop, September 3, 1661 (1 Massachusetts Historical Pro-
ceedings, xvi. 213). It will be noted that Hartlib underestimates the lapse of
time.
1 Declaration of the General Court, November, 1646 (Hutchinson Papers, i.
239).
* Lowell devotes a few pages to the subject in his essay on New F.nglnnH Two
Centuries Ago, 1865 (Works, Standard Library edition, ii. 46-^56).
* For Munson (1734-1826) see Stiles, Literary Diary, ed. F. B. Dexter, iii.
345, 471, 472; Henry Bronson, Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical
Society, ii. 263-274.
124
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
out of which we are digged, of the miry clay that still adheres to the
hem of our rationalistic garments; it is our vital link with Ashantee
and the juju-men of the West Coast. But alchemy looks forward:
it is experimental science in the making — science that does not \vt
acknowledge its finite bounds, but aspires star-eyed to the illimi-
table possibilities. Child's lifetime coincided with the eager stirrings
of the scientific instinct in England. Had he lived a few more years,
he might well have been one of the founders of the Royal Society,
like his friends Boyle and the younger Winthrop. For a physician
not to study alchemy in those days was a sign that he was either a
reactionary or a fossil.
We have slight occasion, then, to take the defensive, and none at
all to apologize for our great-grandfathers as if their zeal in alchemy
were merely a picturesque and amiable weakness. It is much to
the credit of New England intellectual life in the seventeenth cen-
tury that the younger Winthrop could meet Robert Child and Sir*
Kenelm Digby on their own ground in these speculations; that
George Stirk could go to London in 1650 with so thorough a knowl-
edge of alchemical principles and processes that he was able to im-
pose on the world his splendid fiction of the adept Eirenseus Phila-
lethes, who still rules royally in the counsels of occultists; that
Jonathan Brewster, our Plymouth elder's son, was in 1657 in hot and
sanguine pursuit of the grand elixir in his cabin on the Connecticut
frontier with the Indians howling at his kitchen door; * that William
Avery at Boston in 1684 was patiently searching for the alkahest or
universal solvent and had taught his son Jonathan to be "an as-
siduous labourer at the chemical fire." 2
1 Brewster was at a trading post at Manheken (Monhegen), afterwards a
part of Norwich, Connecticut. See his letters to the younger Winthrop, January,
1656[-7] (Winthrop Papers, ii. 72-75, 77-81). He writes: "It is 5. yeares want-
ing two monthes befor the red Elixer be pfected, and 4. yeares before the white,
Boe that my worke will be yet till December next, befor the coullers bee & 5
monthes after before the white apeare, and after the white standee a working
till pfected by the hott fyerey imbibitiones, one whole year after till September.
I ffeare I shall not live to see it finished, in regard ptly of the Indianes who I
feare will raise warres: as also I haue a conceite y* God sees me not worthy of
such a blessing, by reason of my manifold miscariadges" (ii. 79).
J See William Avery's two letters to Boyle (November 9, 1682, and May 1,
1684), printed in Boyle's Works, v. 614-617; cf. our Publications, xiv. 147,
162-165.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 125
Child's interest in alchemy and in the occult appears in the earliest
letter of his that we possess — that addressed to his friend Win-
throp in 1641 l — and it emerges unabated in his latest extant letter
to the same correspondent, that of August 26, 1650 :2 "Cornel.
Agrippa de Occult pliio [Philosophia] is coming forth in English,8
& Sendivogius," 4 so he notes as an item of scientific intelligence,
along with an announcement of the great Harvey's book de Genera-
tione6 and Dr. Bate's treatise on the rickets.6 And he mentions
Thomas Vaughan twice: — first, by way of literary news, "One
Vaughan an Ingenuous young man hath written Anthroposophia, &
is printing pftio Adamitica," 7 and again, near the end, in a kind of
intellectual S.O.S.: "If you see a Booke called Anthroposophia, tell
me, if you can, what the metaphysicall subiect is, which is the great
question now amongst vs which is the perfection of all things."
Thomas Vaughan, brother of the mystical poet, killed himself
accidentally by exploding a mercurial compound.8 Experimenta-
tion and occultism, since (as we fondly think) divorced, were then
joined hi loving union. John Heydon (the friend of George Stirk,
who was the friend of Robert Child) was an attorney who cast
figures by geomancy and astromancy for the benefit of his clients,
and found they served to increase his practice.9 Much later, Presi-
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 148-151.
• iii. 161-164.
» See p. 102, above.
4 A New Light of Alchymie . . . Written by Micheel Sendivogius . . .
Translated . . . by /. F. M.D. London, 1650. On Sendivogius see Ferguson,
Bibliotheca Chemica, ii. 364-370. As to the translator, see p. 102, above.
• Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, London, 1651.
• Francis Glisson, George Bate, and Ahasuerus Regemorter, De Rachitide
. . . Tractatus, London, 1651.
1 Anthroposophia Theomagica: Or A Discourse of the Nature of Man and
his state after death; Grounded on his Creator's Proto-Chimistry, and verifi'd
by a practicall Examination of Principles in the Great World. By Eugenius
Philalethes. London, 1650. Magia Adamica: or The Antiquitie of Magic, and
The Descent thereof from Adam downwards, proved. Whereunto is added a
perfect, and full Discoverie of the true Coalum Terrse, or the Magician's Heav-
enly Chaos, and first Matter of all Things. By Eugenius Philalethes. London,
1650.
• See p. 142, below.
• "Although our self is not of the Theomagical Order of the Holy Rone frogs',
yet we have been very studious and curious in searching out their secret Myste-
rious Learning near twenty years: besides, we have served as a Clerk five years
126 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
dent Stiles of Yale was reputed to know the great secret, but felt
constrained to protest (with coram Deo veritas) that he was ignorant
whether such a thing was even possible.1
As to the younger John Winthrop, he began these studies early
in life, for they loom large in the letters he received from the friend
of his youth, Edward Howes, from 1628 to 1644.2 When he met
Child, then, Winthrop was doubtless already well versed in the
science, and we have no reason to suppose that his faith was ever
shaken. When he died, hi 1676, he had long enjoyed the reputation
of having discovered the mighty secret of the Hermetic sages. This
comes out plainly in the Funeral Tribute published in that year by
in Cliffords-Inne, and now in Terme-time we follow the practice of an Atturney
in the Kings-bench at Westminster. But this is our Vacation-Recreation, and it is
profitable to our Practice in the Law; and by these Arts we gain credit: for we
will undertake no cause that shall go against us; let the Plaintiff or Defendant
pretend what they will, we know before-hand what good or evil will end the
business; and' so we (contrary to others) endeavour peace, save money and
trouble; yet we do not profess our self a Scholar, but a Gentleman, and that very
few Artists can do" (John Heydon, Theomagia: or, The Temple of Wisdome,
Spiritual, Ccelestial, and Elemental, bk. iii. chap. 19, p. 125, London, 1663,
1664).
1 "Interspersed among my miscellaneous Writings may perhaps be found
Things respecting the Rosacrucian Philosophy, which may induce some to
imagine that I have more Knowledge of that matter than I really have. I h^ave
no Knowledge of it at all; I neyer saw Transmutation, the aurific Powder, nor the
Philosophers Stone; nor did I ever converse with an Adept knowing him to be
such. The only Man that I ever suspected as a real & true Adept was Rabbi
Tobias of Poland, but he evaded my Interrogatories & communicated to me
nothing — I believe he was only a conjectural speculative Philosopher. I have
known 2 or 3 Persons (as Judge Danforth & Rev. Mr. West) who believed the
reality of the Philosophers Stone, but neither of them ever obtained it. They
are only conjectural & speculative Philosophers — and of such, Dr Franklin
told me there were several at Philad* &c. who were loosing then* Time hi chemical
Experiments to no Effect. I never had, or made an Exp* with, a Furnace or
Alembic in all my Life. I am not versed in the Books of the Adepts; I have seen
but few of those authors, & read less — perhaps all the little I have read collec-
tively would not equal a common Octavo Volume. I am infinitely less acquainted
with that than any other of the Sciences in the whole Encyclopaedia of Litera-
ture. I never absorbed the extracted Sulpher of Gold in Terra: I have no prac-
tical Knowl. of the Matter: the few Ideas I have about it are only imaginary,
conjectural & speculative. Coram Deo Veritas" (Stiles, Literary Diary, July 1,
1777, ii. 173-174; cf. ii. 183, 216; iii. 345, 348, 471-472).
• 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ix. 240-245, 252-258; Winthrop
Papers, i. 467-513.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 127
Benjamin Tompson, "Learned Schoolmaster & Physician & y* Re-
nowned Poet of N. Engl.:" l
Projections various by fire he made
Where Nature had her common Treasure laid.
Some thought the tinct ire Philosophick lay
Hatcht by the Mineral Sun in Winthrops way,
And clear it shines to me he had a Stone
Grav'd with his Name which he could read alone.1
The epitaph in Mather's Magnalia also testifies to Winthrop's rep-
utation as a successful alchemist:
Non Periit, scd ad Ccelestem Societatem
Regia Magis Regiam,
Vere Adeptvj,
Abiit:
WINTHROPUS, Non minor magnis Majoribus. »
This signifies that, whether or not Winthrop was really an adept in
alchemy (that is, whether or not he had found the philosopher's
stone), he was "an adept in the true sense" because he had now
learned the secrets of the heavenly kingdom. The same belief is
hinted at in Mather's interminable epitaph on Four Winthrops, in
his "Hades Look'd into," 1717, a funeral sermon on Wait Winthrop:
Cinis tegitur hoc Marmore,
Dignus Lapide Philosophorum tegi.
Quatuor conduntur in hoc Tumulo
WINTHROPI.4
But the most striking of all tributes is a vivid passage in President
StiJes's Diary, June 1, 1787. Stiles is speaking of "the Governors
Ring, as it is called, or a Mountain in the N. W. corner of East
Haddam:"
Govr Trumbull has often told me that this was the Place to which
Gov. Winthrop of N. Lond. used to resort with his Servant; and after
1 So runs the inscription on his tombstone in Roxbury (Hazard, 5 Massa-
chusetts Historical Collections, ii. 19).
1 A black-letter broadside, reprinted by Waters, Sketch of the Life of John
Winthrop the Younger, p. 75; cf. S. A. Green, John Foster, p. 127; 2 Massa-
chusetts Historical Proceedings, x. 270-271.
* Magnalia, 1702, bk. ii. chap. 11, p. 33.
« P. 43.
128 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
spend* three Weeks in the Woods of this Mountain in roast8 Ores &
assaying Metals & casting gold Rings, he used to return home to N.
l.ond. with plenty of Gold. Hence this is called the Gov. Winthrop's
Ring to this day. Gov. Winthrop was an Adept, in intimate Corre-
spond, with Sir Knelm Digby and first chemical & Philosophical Char-
acters of the last Century — as may be seen in the Dedic' of 40th Vol.
Phil. Transactions 1740.1
The younger Winthrop had more than a thousand books "in a
chamber" in Boston in 1640. We owe our knowledge of the extent
of his library to the fact that there was "corn of divers sorts" in the
same chamber and that the mice were busy. One of the volumes
consisted of "the Greek testament, the psalms, and the common
prayer . . . bound together. He found the common prayer eaten
with mice, every leaf of it, and not any of the two other touched,
nor any of his other books, though there were above a thousand." *
Many volumes that belonged to him I have examined in the New
York Society Library 3 and in the libraries of Yale University and
the Massachusetts Historical Society. His collection was rich in
alchemical and occult books, which he lent freely to other investi-
gators. One volume, a German translation of the Antimonii Mys-
teria Gemina of the famous Alexander von Suchten,4 bears Child's
autograph on the title-page: "Rob Child his booke 1636." John
Winthrop (H. C. 1700) has also written his own name with Dee's
famous monadic symbol (likewise used by John the Connecticut
governor) on the same page. Child and his friend Winthrop ex-
1 Literary Diary, iii. 266.
1 Winthrop, ii. 24 (20).
• There is an imperfect list of that portion of them that went to this cor-
poration in the Alphabetical and Analytical Catalogue of the New York Society
Library, 1850, pp. 491-505.
4 Antimonii Mysteria Gemina. Alexandri von Suchten. Das ist: Von den
grossen Geheimnussen des Antimonij . . . Durch Johann Tholden, Leipzig,
1604 (Society Library, No. 240). On von Suchten, see Ferguson, Bibliotheca
Chemica, ii. 415—417. Antimony in Winthrop's time was an equally enthralling
subject to the would-be adept and to the physician. Dr. William Douglass, in
recording the death of the younger Winthrop, April 5, 1676, remarks: "He was
much given to experimental Philosophy and Medicine; several of his Recipe's are
still used by that Family in Charity to the Poor; some of his Pieces are to be found
amongst the first Philosophical Transactions of the London Royal Society; he
was a great Admirer of Van Helmont, and dealt much in Aniimonials " (Summary,
Boston, 1751, ii. 159 note f).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 129
changed their treasures from time to time, by way of loan or gift,
and it is pleasant to be able to read von Suchten's treatise in a copy
that has been reverently handled by these two eager students of
Hermetic philosophy.
The most exciting of Child's utterances on occult subjects occurs
in a letter to Winthrop, written on May 13, 1648, soon after his return
to England :
I had letters from a freind in Scotland, who hath pfected Helmonts
menstruu, & made many excellent expim*' by it for transmutacon he
did send a sheet writen to me of all of the & some things else but ye ship
was cast away & his freind who brought these things, hardly eschaped
wth life. I dayly expect to heare from him, or else I resolve to see him
if peace continue betwixt ye 2 Kingdomes, woh is much to be feared:
Sr I desire you, if you meet wth any sorts of seeds or stones, wch are
not comon to make me ptaker of some of them ; & I shall willingly doe
you service in this or any other way. Its reported by diverse, y* y*
Empor of Germany hath found a secret to turne C into O l by ye wch
he pays his Army y* Duke of Holstein is turnd a great Chymist. Some
say (y* haue good intelligence) y* Helia Artista is borne. I saw letters
y* came to a learned Dr from ye Fratres R C to y4 purpose but he is
not of Or nacon.2
This reveals Child as in close contact with the latest scientific news
from the Continent. The "fratres R. C." are, of course, the Rosi-
crucians, who ever since 1614 had been making a vast stir in Europe.
One of the greatest of them was, like Child, a Kentishman — Dr.
Robert Fludd, who died in London in 1637. I should like to think
that Child knew him and, indeed, nothing is more probable. Both
Winthrop and Edward Howes were deeply interested in Fludd's
works, of which Howes gives Winthrop a catalogue in 1632: he calls
him "the famous and farre renouned English man of our tymes." 3
At first sight Fludd seems a likely candidate for identity with the
mystical doctor whom Howes mentions so reverently in 1635:
I haue bin 2 or 3 tymes since wth the Dr and can gett but small satis-
facc8n about yor queries, I doubt he hath some piudicate conceipt of
1 I..e., "silver into gold."
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 159-160.
» Howes to Winthrop, November 24, 1632 (Winthrop Papers, i. 483-485;
of. i. 496, 497, and 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, ix. 255).
130 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
one of vs, or both; yet I must confesse he seemed verie free to me, only
in the maine he was misticall, this he said that when the will of God is
you shall knowe, what you desire, it will come wth such a light, that it
will make a harmonic amonge all yor authors, causing them sweetly to
agree, and putt you for euer after out of doubt & question. To discerne
the fratres scientific I cannot as yet learne of him.1
But it is pretty certain that the person meant is one "Dr. Euer." 2
The report that Child quotes about the Emperor of Germany
was founded on a strange occurrence at Prague in January, 1648.
A certain Johann Conrad von Richthausen (so runs the tale) dis-
played to the Emperor Ferdinand III a grain of red powder which
he averred was the true philosopher's stone. With this one grain,
in the Emperor's presence, three pounds of quicksilver were trans-
muted into about two pounds and a half of pure. gold. From this
alchemic gold the Emperor caused a medal to be struck of the value
of three hundred ducats, and upon Richthausen he bestowed, some-
what later, the grotesque title of Baron Chaos — Freiherr von
Chaos.3
1 Howes to Winthrop, August 21, 1635 (Winthrop Papers, i. 499). See also
Howes's letters of August 4, 1636, and March 21, 1637 [-8] (i. 501-502, 504-505),
which are in a strain of exalted mysticism. The earliest of all Howes's letters to
Winthrop (January 22, 1628) has a distinctly mystical tinge (Winthrop Papers,
i. 467-468).
1 Cf. Winthrop Papers, i. 500, 502, 507.
1 The medal is figured in J. J. Becher, Oedipus Chemicus, Frankfurt, 1664,
ad p. 168; J. F. Helvetius, Vitulus Aureus, Amsterdam, 1667 (2d ed., Hague,
1702), frontispiece; Johann Zwelfer, Mantissa Spagyrica, pt. i. cap. 1 (Phar-
macopoeia Augustana Reformata cum eius Mantissa & Appendice, Dordrecht,
1672, p. 796; cf. Gabriel Clauder, Dissertatio de Tinctura Universal!, Altenburg,
1678, pp. 84-88); W[illiam]. C[ooper]., A Philosophicall Epitaph, London, 1673,
opposite pp. 34, 41; Musseum Hermeticum, Frankfort, 1677, p. 830 (The Hermetic
Museum, London, 1893, ii. 281); J. J. Manget, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa,
Geneva, 1702, i. 200; J. F. Buddeus, Exercitatio Politica An Alchemistae sint
in Republica Tolerandi (in his Commentatio Academica de Concordia Re-
ligionis Christianae Statusque Civilis, etc., Halle, 1712), fig. iv. ad p. 549 (Ger-
man translation, Historisch- und Politische Untersuchung von der Alchemic,
in Friedrich Roth-Scholtz, Deutsches Theatrum Chomicum, Niirnberg, 1727, i. 78,
fig. iv); Lenglet-Dufresnoy, Histoire de la Philosophic Hermetique, Paris, 1742,
ii. 36-37; Kiesewetter, Geschichte des Occultismus, Leipzig, 1895, ii. 135. See
also Journal dee Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys, 2* Partie, Lyons, 1666,
pp. 378-380 (Voyage d' Allemagne) ; D. G. Morhof, De Metallorum Transmuta-
tione, Hamburg, 1673, p. 164; Wilhelm Freiherr von SchrSder, Nothwendiger
Unterricht vom Goldmachen, 1684 (Roth-Scholtz, Deutsches Theatrum Chemi-
1919]
DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT
131
The Duke of Holstein mentioned in Child's budget of alchemical
news was Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp, a rather magnificent
personage in his day, who succeeded in 1616 and died in 1659. He
appears to have been .a correspondent of the younger Winthrop's,
doubtless on scientific topics.1
The rumor which Child mentions, that " Helia Artista is born,"
signified the appearance of a divinely enlightened adept to whom
was revealed the secret of the elixir. There was a saying, derived
from Jewish tradition, "When Elias shall come, he shall make all
things plain,"2 — "That Proverbial Prediction of the Jews" as
Henry More calls it, "touching their expected Elias, Elias cum
venerit soket omnia." 3 Elias Artista, therefore, became a term
cum, 1727, i. 232-233); G. W. Wedel, Introductio in Alchimiam, Jena, 1705,
p. 14; K. C. Schmieder, Geschichte der Alchemie, Halle, 1832, pp. 397-401; Louia
Figuier, L' Alchemie et lea Alchemistes, 3d ed., Paris, 1860, pp. 247-248; A.
Bauer, Chemie und Alchymie in Oesterreich, Vienna, 1883, pp. 35-36; H. Kopp,
Die Alchemie in alterer und neuerer Zeit, Heidelberg, 1886, i. 89-90, 195 n.;
A. E. Waite, Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers, London, 1888, pp. 182-183;
H. C. Bolton, Contributions of Alchemy to Numismatics, New York, 1890,
pp. 19-20 (also in American Journal of Numismatics, xxiv. 82); Ferguson,
Bibliotheca Chemica, ii. 572; J. C. Creiling, Die Edelgeborne Jungfer Alchymia,
Tttbingen, 1730, pp. 84-92 (with figure).
1 Among the letters addressed to John Winthrop, Jr., still remaining in the
hands of his grandson, John Winthrop, F. R. S. (H. C. 1700) in 1741, there was
at least one from "FRED. Princeps Holsatise & D. Slesvic" (Cromwell Mor-
timer's dedication to vol. xl of the Philosophical Transactions). The Harvard
College copy of the volume was given to the library by this John Winthrop and
contains an inscription in his beautiful handwriting:
Presented,
To the publick Library
of Harvard College, at
Cambridge in New-England;
by their very Affectionate
and most Obedient, humble
Servant
J: Winthrop.
Like his grandfather, many of whose alchemical books he inherited, this John
Winthrop was a spagyric philosopher. "The extraordinary Knowledge," writes
Mortimer in the dedication, "you have in the deep Mysteries of the most secret
Hermetic Science, will always make you esteemed and courted by learned and
good Men."
* See Malachi, iv. 6-6; Matthew, xi. 14, xvii. 10-12; Mark, ix. 11-13; John, i.
21, 25.
• Divine Dialogues, 1668, ii. 361 (2d ed., 1713, p. 473).
132 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
among alchemists for him who should solve their desperate problem.
Paracelsus gave wide currency to the phrase.1 For an English ex~
ample, take the work called "Cheiragogia Heliana. A Manuduc-
tion to the Philosopher's Magical Gold: by Geo. Thor. Astromagus"
(London, 1659). " Theophrastus," writes Thor, "sayes thus: That,
That is not In It, we may attain by the help of the Other: by, It,
meaning the magnetick Spirit of the World, which is the Philosophers
True Magnesia. And That (sayes he) will follow the Captain of Art
(that is, Helios the Artist) close." Works were published under
the name of Elias Artista.3 In 1666, Johann Friedrich Helvetius,
an eminent physician, was visited at the Hague by a nameless wan-
derer who gave him a little bit of the philosopher's stone, by means
of which Helvetius was able (so he thought) to succeed once in mak-
ing gold out of lead. He published his experiences in a tract called
The Golden Calf,4 and throughout he calls his mysterious visitor
Elias Artista. With reference to this incident, William Cooper, in
his Philosophicall Epitaph (1673), addresses Child's friend Elias
Ashmole in a lofty strain:
However Sir, give me leave to tender you these small Reliques of my
obsequious obsequy, as Burnt Offerings, Reviving and describing Aarons
Calf ground to dust by Moses, with Helvetius his Golden Calf, burnt
to a stone or Pouder, by the Teutonic Elias Artista, and I wish you might
prove another Elias (as your name imports) in this Fiery Chariot, or
Transfiguration for the benefit of this our English nation, and of the
whole world, to glorifie him who is the giver of all good things.
Indeed, this same Cooper, in the same dedication, unconsciously
bestows the title Elias the Artist upon George Stirk also. For he
cites "our late English Phcenix, or Elias Artisto Anonymon, in his
book of The open entrance to the shut Pallace of the King." This is
the Introitus Apertus, the most famous of the treatises of Philalethes,
— and Philalethes, as I am prepared to prove, was George Stirk
and none other, though Cooper did not know it.
1 See the references in Hermann Kopp, Die Alchemic in iilterer und neuerer
Zeit, Heidelberg, 1886, i. 250-251.
• P. 5.
1 See Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, i. 236-237.
4 Vitulus Aureus, Quern Mundus adorat & orat. Amsterdam, 1667 (2d ed.,
the Hague, 1702).
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD JTHE REMONSTRANT 133
This little excursus on Elias the Artist will, I trust, be forgiven
when I point out its pertinency. We have it on Child's own word,
as the letter shows, that he was not Helias Artista himself and that
he had never solved, or pretended to solve, the momentous problem
of transmutation. This testimony may suffice to quiet forever a
strange and romantic rumor which was current in scientific circles
on the Continent soon after Child's death and which still echoes
dimly among students of the occult and the pseudonymous. This is
the report that Child was Eirenseus Philalethes (or Philaletha), that
mysterious adept who discovered the secret of transmutation in 1645
at the age of twenty-three, wrote several books on the subject, —
including the thrice-famous Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis
Palatium, — and wandered for years about Europe in disguise,
occasionally performing the miracle of transmutation.
About the middle of the sixteenth century there occurred, on the
Continent, three supposed cases of the successful transmutation of
metals. Each was attested by a perfectly reputable witness who was
then (and should be now) above suspicion of fraud or lying. Just
what actually happened in a chemical way, or just what tricks were
played by the transmuters, we are not called upon to explain. It is
enough for us to feel sure that something did occur each time, and
that silver or gold was found in the crucible.
The earliest of the three cases is that of Claude Berigard, an emi-
nent French physician, born in 1578, who spent a good part of his
life as Professor of the Aristotelian Philosophy in Italy, first at Pisa,
afterwards at Padua. Berigard himself gives an account of the
affair in his Circulus Pisanus, a commentary on Aristotelianism pub-
lished in 1643. When he was living in Pisa, he received from an ajc-
quaintance one dram of a powder resembling wild poppy in color.
Berigard worked the experiment in person, and took every precau-
tion against being deluded, for he well knew that in many former
instances gold had been secretly introduced into either the materials
or the utensils. The result was convincing, for by means of the
powder he turned ten drams of mercury into fine gold.1 The second
experiment took place on February 24, 1649, at Chur in Switzerland,
in the presence of the apothecary Michael Morgenbesser; it was
1 Circulus Pisanus Claudii Berigardi (Utini, 1643), chap. xxv. p. 154.
134 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OP MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
worked by a traveller from Genoa and produced silver from lead.1
The third transmutation was effected in 1650 at Geneva in the
presence of Pastor Gross; the adept was an Italian, who turned a
mixture of tin and mercury into gold.2 On the basis of these and
other similar events, many scientific men, it seems, soon came to
believe that a mysterious adept was adrift on the Continent, who
used various disguises, and from time to time introduced himself (now
by one name, now by another) to some student of the art and either
effected transmutation or furnished the powder (known as the philos-
opher's stone) which enabled one to work the chemical miracle.
Now George Stirk, soon after his removal from Boston to London,
which took place hi 1650 or 1651, had exhibited various alchemical
manuscripts in Latin which he said were the work of an adept who
chose to call himself Eirenceus Philalethes. Stirk's story was that
these had been given to him in New England by a friend of his who
knew the adept well. This story he printed in 1654 in the preface
to Part I of a versified treatise, The Marrow of Alchemy,8 a work
which he then pretended was written by the friend in question, but
which he afterwards acknowledged as his own composition.4 Stirk
allowed copies of the manuscripts to circulate among students of
alchemy, and they excited a lively interest, both in England and on
the Continent. He died in 1665, and two years later Johann Lange
published at Amsterdam the most important document of the
group, the Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium, ascrib-
1 Morgenbesser's letter dated Wahlau, October 14, 1672, as quoted from the
original by Samuel Reyher, Dissertatio de Nummis quibusdam ex Chymico
Metallo factis (Kiel, 1692), pp. 138-140.
1 Gross's own account, as communicated by him to J. J. Manget and reported
by the latter in his Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa, Geneva, 1702, Preface, pp.
[iv-v].
* The Marrow of Alchemy, Being an Experimental Treatise, Discovering the
secret and most hidden Mystery of the Philosophers Elixer. . . . By Eiracncus
Philoponos Philalethes. London, Printed by A. M. for Edw. Brewster . . . 1654.
The Second Part appeared in 1655.
4 The complete evidence for this acknowledgment is too long and com-
plicated to be given here. One decisive fact, however, may be cited. Stirk pre-
fixed a Latin poem, with an English translation, to John Heydon's Idea of the
Law, 1660, and another Latin poem (dated May 4, 1663) to the same author's
Theomagia, 1664, and on both occasions he added his pseudonym "Eirenseus
Philoponus Philalethes" to his own signature — George (in the second case
Georgiua) Starkey.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 135
ing it on the title-page to "an anonymous philosopher Philaletha."
In this work the concealed author describes himself as a true adept
who had discovered the art of gold-making in 1645 at the age of
twenty-three. Other editions and other tracts followed, appearing
at different places, and under various editorship, and conjectures
were freely emitted as to the identity of Philalethes, who was gen-
erally regarded as an authority of the first rank. Inquiries directed
by Continental scholars to learned friends in England elicited much
information about George Stirk, who had been a familiar figure in
London scientific circles, as well as divers guesses as to Philalethes
and Stirk's relations with him. It was the current opinion that
Eirenseus Philalethes was an Englishman, now wandering incognito
in foreign parts.
In the course of this lively interchange of learned chitchat, Stirk's
known friendship with the much-travelled Dr. Robert Child, coupled
with the fact that they had met in America,1 was likely at any mo-
ment to suggest the attachment of Child's name to these tracts in
some fashion; but the first extant testimony to any such connec-
tion dates from 1677. In that year (or perhaps in 1676) a dis-
tinguished Moravian physician, Johann Ferdinand Hertodt von
Todtenfeld — an ominous name for a doctor! — sent to the Breslau
Ephemerides a Latin epistle on Philalethes, including an extract
from a letter received from an English colleague. The extract may
be closely translated as follows:
Philaletha Anonymus was really named George Starkey. He was an
Englishman by nation. Having made the acquaintance of a certain
adept called Dr. Childe in America or the West Indies (called New
England) he received from him an ounce of the White Elixir, one part
of which transmuted a thousand times a thousand parts of lead, tin,
or common mercury into the best silver. And without doubt, if George
Starkey had not so quickly shown his hypocrisy, he would have obtained
complete knowledge of the art. Wherefore, he then returned to England
with his tincture, and carried with him the names or titles of twelve
small tracts on chemistry composed by the learned Childe, the names
of which I do not remember well but they will be found in the preface
of the Marrow of Alchemy written in English, and I do remember the
following, which are Introiha Apertua ad Occlufum Regis Palatium,
1 See p. 101, above.
136
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Brevis manuductio ad Rubinum ccelestem, Fons Chymicce Philosophise,
Brevis via ad vitam longam, Elenckus errorum in arte chymica deviantium,
' Brevis manuductio ad campum Sophias. These six tracts were first
written in English. Of all of them I have had a copy in my hands, copied
from Starkey's autograph, before they were published in Latin, and so
Starkey was the real author of those twelve tracts, and he carried with
him only those twelve titles [of tracts] which Dr. Childe had promised
that he would later send to him. But when Starkey saw that Dr. Childe
would not write to him further, then he composed twelve tracts under
those titles which Dr. Childe had given. And so he has been the cause
of many evils by means of his deceptions. He died of the plague in
1665 while confined in the prison of London for his debts. At the time
when he received the tincture from Dr. Childe he was twenty-three years
old, and in the following year I made his acquaintance. But I did not
come to know him well until he had used up all he had. Then, at my ex-
pense and that of certain friends of mine, we discovered the emptiness
of his words. Now let it suffice to say concerning him in death, " May
he rest in peace!" 1
Thus wrote Hertodt's English correspondent. Hertodt himself
had nothing to add as to the identity of Philalethes, but he did
assert that he had found his works a deceptive guide, and this utter-
ance soon elicited an anonymous reply, also published in the Ephe-
merides: "I will not quarrel with anybody," says the apologist,
" as to whether Starkey or Childe was the author of the tracts which
circulate under the name of Philaletha, . . . but I do maintain that
nobody can have written them qui non habuerit penitissimam Chemice
arcanorum notitiam." Hertodt's paper and the reply, appearing
as they did in the transactions of an important academy, attracted
instant attention. There are three contemporary (or almost con-
temporary) copies of both communications, in three different hands,
in Sloane MS. 646 in the British Museum,3 and Manget reprinted
them both in 1702.4 In 1683 Johann Otto von Helbig defended the
1 Miscellanea Curiosa, sive Ephemerides Medico-Physicse Germanic® Aca-
demise Naturae Curiosorum, for 1677, Breslau, 1678, viii. 384-386. This was
the official journal of the Breslau Academia Naturae Curiosorum (later the
Leopoldina), of which Hertodt was a Fellow.
1 Miscellanea Curiosa, as above, viii. 389.
» Fols. 2-6, llb-13b, 23-24.
4 Johann Jakob Manget, Bibliotheca Chemica Curioea, Geneva, 1702, ii. 697-
700.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 137
works of Philalethes against Hertodt, but admitted that he knew
nothing of the author except that a London friend had lately in-
formed him that he believed the adept to be still living in one of the
islands under English rule.1 In 1684 Wilhelm Freiherr von Schroder
mentioned Hertodt's attack on Philalethes without approval.2
From the publication of Hertodt's letter until the present time,
the name of Child has continued to be associated, off and on, with
the works of Philalethes. In Sloane MS. 2558 there is a copy of
Stirk's Marrow of Alchemy (made from the printed book) which
has "Dr. Child" written in an eighteenth-century hand 3 at the foot
of the title-page under the imprint, and (in the same hand) there is
a note on the blank page opposite the title-page: "it is supposed
Eireneus Philalethes name was Bartlet who was acquainted with
Dr. Child." 4 Fuchs in his Repertorium, 1806-8, identifies Phila-
lethes with "Childe." 5 The same notion is mentioned, though the
writer does not commit himself, in the ludicrously incorrect account
of George Starkey (Stirk) in the Dictionary of National Biography.6
There is a curious piece of evidence which shows that the erroneous
identification of Eireneeus Philalethes with Child made its way to
America and that scientific men in Boston about the beginning of
the nineteenth century had recognized this Child as the Remon-
strant. I find the evidence in certain alchemical books that once
belonged to Judge Samuel Danforth.
1 Dni. de Helbig judicium de Philalethse introitu ad apertum Regis palatium, <fc
Pantaleone (appendix to Johann. Ottonis de Helbig, Magnse Britannise Equitis,
. . . Judicium de Duumviris Hermeticis Fcederatis, Jena, 1683, pp. 42-45): —
" Licet amicus qvidam Londini, cum nuper in Anglia essem, suam de Philaletha
euppicionem, & qvod sub Imperio Britannico, in Insula quadam Anglicana adhuc
viv«Tet, mihi dixerit" (p. 42). There is an English translation (in the hand of
Samuel Bellingham, M.D.) of the passage about Philalethes in Sloane MS. 633
(fol. 234a). It begins: "As Concerning Philalethes Introitus I know not the
Author Although a friend at London w° I was Lately in England told mee hee
beleeued hee yet Lived in Some of y* English Islands or Plantations."
1 Nothwendiger Unterricht vom Goldmachen, 1684 (in Friedrich Roth-Scholtz,
Deutsches Theatrum Chemicum, Theil i., Nurnberg, 1727, p. 273).
» Not Sloane's.
4 Both these notes are in the same hand as the text. The discrepancy is ac-
counted for if we conjecture that the copyist transcribed scribbles (in different
hands) found in the printed volume from which he copied.
• Georg F. C. Fuchs, Repertorium der chemischen Litteratur, p. 199 (Fergu-
son, Bibliotheca Chemica, ii. 194).
• liv. 108.
138 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Judge Danforth's career as a public man is well-known. He was
the son of the Rev. John Danforth of Dorchester, and was born in
that town in 1696. He graduated at Harvard College in 1715, was
Selectman of Cambridge 1733-1734, 1737-1739, Representative to
the General Court 1734-1738, Member of the Council 1739-1774,
Register of Probate for Middlesex County 1731-1745, Judge of
Probate 1745-1775, Judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas
for Middlesex 1741-1774. He was also a Special Justice of the Court
of Common Pleas in 1735 and of the Superior Court in 1753.1 For a
long time (at least from 1743 to 1768) he was one of the Commis-
sioners of the Land Bank.2 It is interesting to remember that he was
on the committee appointed by the General Court for the rebuild-
ing of Harvard Hall after the fire of 1764.8 He died at Cambridge
on October 2, 1777. The Judge was a Tory, and as such he re-
ceived the appointment of Mandamus Councillor on August 9,
1774, which he was forced to resign on September 2. This he did in
Harvard Square, Cambridge, in the presence of a crowd of some
four thousand people, who listened quietly to the old man's feeble
voice. The scene is described in a letter from Dr. Thomas Young
to Samuel Adams written two days later.4 Danforth's alchemical
studies have attracted less attention. Dr. John Eliot remarks with
dry brevity: "He was said to be a great natural philosopher and
chymist." 6 More to the point is the testimony of President Stiles,
who thus records his death under date of October 3, 1777: 6 "Last
week the Hon. Samuel Danforth Esq. of Cambridge died in Boston,
1 Paige, History of Cambridge, pp. 461, 465; Whitmore, Civil List, pp. 56-63,
73, 79, 88, 90; Emory Washburn, Sketches of the Judicial History of Massa-
chusetts, 1840, p. 342; W. T. Davis, History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts,
1900, pp. 137, 140; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vii. 319.
1 Our Publications, iv (index).
1 Id., riv. 13, 16, 17.
4 Wells, Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, ii. 237-238; our Publica-
tions, xi. 36 and n. 3. Cf. Thomas Newell's Diary, September 2, 1774 (1 Massa-
chusetts Historical Proceedings, iv. 222, xv. 357); New England Historical and
Genealogical Register, xxviii. 61-62, xxix. 63-64, xliii. 146-147. In 1775 Dan-
forth's house in Cambridge was protected by a guard: see Col. William Hen-
Shaw's Orderly Book, April 22, 1775 (1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings,
xv. 90).
* Biographical Dictionary, 1809, p. 148 note.
1 Literary Diary, ii. 216.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 139
set. 81 & supra. He was deeply studied in the Writings of the Adepts,
believed the Philosophers Stone a Reality and perhaps for Chemical
knowledge might have passed among the Chemists for a DC^ 7^3-" *
Convincing testimony to Danforth's alchemical ardor exists
(though heretofore overlooked) in a fragment of his library still pre-
served in the Boston Athenaeum.2 He was in the habit of annotating
his books. His marginalia exhibit his hand as it was at different
periods of his life, and sometimes the same volume shows con-
siderable differences in both ink and penmanship, so that these com-
ments represent a long course of study, begun when he was a young
man. Some of the books were obviously used as laboratory manuals.
In Stirk's Pyrotechny,3 in particular, the stains, and the brittle
leaves at the end, show plain traces of the action of the Judge's
chemicals. The Opus Tripartitum 4 also exhibits signs of constant
thumbing, and all three of its tracts are plentifully underlined and
annotated in the Judge's hand. Several other volumes have Dan-
forth's manuscript notes, some of which are highly interesting:
I hope to return to them some day. Meantime our immediate con-
cern is with the next possessor of these volumes, the Judge's eldest
son, Samuel Danforth, M.D., who, like his father, was a Royalist.5
He was born at Cambridge in 1740, graduated at Harvard College
in 1758, and practised medicine for many years in Boston, where he
died in 1827.6 His eminence as a chemist was locally celebrated.
He received the degree of M.D. from Harvard in 1790.
Dr. Danforth inherited his father's alchemical library,7 and I
think that he too once believed in the philosopher's stone.8 His
1 Ba'al Shc;i!. "Master of the Name:" a term applied to an adept in secret
learning; properly, one who can work wonders by virtue of knowing the true name
of God (see Ginsberg, Jewish Encyclopaedia, ii. 382-383). Our associate Professor
George F. Moore has helped me here.
1 These books came to the Athenaeum by gift of Judge Danforth's son Dr.
Samuel Danforth (H. C. 1758) and grandson Dr. Thomas Danforth (H. C. 1792).
' Pyrotechny Asserted and Illustrated. By George Starkey. London, 1658.
4 Opus Tripartitum de Philosophorum Arcanis, London, 1678.
1 Our Publications, v. 260.
• Thacher, American Medical Biography, ii. 233-238; New England His-
torical and Genealogical Register, vii. 319-320.
T Judge Danforth's library was valued in the inventory of his estate at £300;
he bequeathed one half of it to his son Samuel (Suffolk County Probate Files).
1 See his manuscript note in the Judge's copy of Urim and Thummim, p. 71:
"The Author of the above written Urim and Thummim was an adept."
140
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MAECH,
signature — "Sam1 Danforth's 1799" — occurs in the Judge's copy
of Opus Tripartitum (1678), a collection of three tracts. The printed
title-page designates the writer, in the ablative, as " Autore, Anonymo
sub Nomine ^Eyrensei Philalethes, natu Angli, Habitatione Cos-
mopolite." Under the last two words Dr. Danforth has written
"Dr Robert Child." On the special title-page of the Experimenta
de Preparatione Mercurii Sophici (in the same volume) we have
the following state of things:
[Printed] Ex Manuscripto Philosophici Americani, alias
[Written] Dr Robert Child sub Nomine
[Printed] ^YREN^I PHILALETHES, natu An-
[Printed] gli, habitatione Cosmopolite.1
Again in the same volume, after the printed words "Catalogus
Librorum editorum Authore ^Eyrenseo Philalethe Cosmopolita," 2 is
written "anglice Dr Robert Child." At the end of the last tract in
the volume (the Vade-Mecum Philosophicum) is written "Script
in Boston Nov-Angliae." 3 Again, under the words "Authore
Anonymo Philaletha Philosopho" printed in the half-title of the
Introitus Apertus in the Musseum Hermeticum,4 occurs the manu-
script entry: "or Dr Robert Child sometime a resident in Boston."
Finally, under the name Eyraeneus Philaletha Cosmopolita on the
title-page of Secrets Reveal'd,5 the Doctor has written "Dr Robert
Child" and in the margin: "he fled to New England where he was
persecuted as a Church of England man — see Hutchinsons History.'
All these scribbles appear to be in the same hand that wrote " Sam1
Danforth's 1799" in the Opus Tripartitum, and if so, they show
that Dr. Danforth had got hold of the erroneous idea, common in'
.» P. 181.
1 P. [223].
» P. 222.
4 Musseum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum (Frankfort, 1677),
p. 647. This copy has no indication of having been Judge Danforth's, but it
certainly belonged to his son the Doctor, who gave it to the Athenseum in 1812.
6 Secrets Reveal'd: or, An Open Entrance to the Shut-Palace of the King . . .
Composed by a most famous English-man, Styling himself Anonymus, or
Eyrseneus Philaletha Cosmopolita: Who, by Inspiration and Reading, attained
to the Philosophers Stone at his Age of Twenty three years, Anno Domini, 1645
(London, 1669). This volume has the Doctor's autograph on the title-page:
"Samuel Danforth's."
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 141
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that the right name of
Philalethes was Child, and that he identified this Child with the
celebrated Remonstrant.
By 1698, however, another identification had come before the
public, for in that year Georg Wolfgang Wedel, in the preface to his
edition of the Introitus Apertus, declared that Philalethes was com-
monly thought to have been an Englishman named Thomas de
Vagan.1 The error is patent. Thomas Vaughan (1621-1665), twin
brother of Henry the poet, wrote under the name of Eugenius (not
EireruBus) Philalethes, and all his works are well known. We have
already found Child citing two of them in a letter to Winthrop.2
But, absurd as it is, the error had considerable currency. It is re-
peated, for. example, in the title-page of a German translation of
the Introitus Apertus published at Hamburg in 1705; 3 and it is
mentioned in 1742 by the abbe Lenglet-Dufresnoy, who, however,
does not commit himself, remarking of Philalethes that "son nom,
sa personne, sa vie, ses ouvrages, tout est chez lui un paradoxe in-
dechiffrable." 4 The confusion between Eugenius and Eirenaeus
Philalethes, though often rectified,5 has persisted to very recent times.
One finds "Philalethe Irenee" in Larousse (1874) unhesitatingly
equated with "Thomas de Vaughan ou Waghan." 6 Hermann Kopp,
in 1886, remarked that it has not been determined whether Phila-
lethes was really, "as most have supposed," an Englishman named
Thomas Vaughan; 7 and as late as 1896, Mr. E. K. Chambers, though
1 Introitus Apertus ad Occlusum Regis Palatium, authore Anonymo Phila-
letha Philosopho, . . . denuo publicatus, cum Indice & noua prsefatione Georgii
Wolffgangi Wedelii, Jena, 1699. Ad Lectorem, p. 15. This preface is dated Sep-
tember 21, 1698. Wedel does not repeat the statement, however, in his Intro-
ductio in Alchimiam (Jena, 1705), though he often refers to Philaletha, whom
he reckons among authorities who are "classici, veri, principes" (p. 19).
1 See p. 125, above.
1 Abyssus Alchymiae Exploratus . . . von Thoma de Vagan, Einem En-
glischen Adepto . . . gezeiget und beschrieben, Hamburg, 1705.
4 Histoire de la Philosophic Hermetique, i. 403. Lenglet-Dufresnoy adds (i.
480): "Eyrende Philalethe se nommoit a ce qu'on croit, Thomas de Vagan"
' Anthony a Wood in his Athene Oxonienses, first published in 1691 and 1692,
distinguishes Eirenseus from Eugenius (Vaughan) and both from the author of
The Marrow of Alchemy. See Bliss's edition, iii. 725 (370).
• Dictionnaire Universel, xii. 801.
1 Alchemic in alterer und neuerer Zeit (Heidelberg, 1886), i. 200.
142 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
not convinced that Eirenseus (as well as Eugenius) was Thomas
Vaughan, was yet by no means sure that he was not.1
The real Thomas Vaughan, a devout and highly-esteemed occult
philosopher, was born in 1622 and killed himself by an alchemical
accident in 1665, but neither his record nor the known limits of his
career could preserve his name from an astonishing profanation in
1895, when Leo Taxil 2 made him a choregus of Satanism. Accord-
ing to the spurious Memoires d'une ex-Palladiste, ascribed to "Miss
Diana Vaughan," high priestess of the Luciferians, but really con-
cocted by Taxil, and published in monthly numbers by the Librairie
Antimaconnique at Paris, Vaughan was fourth successor to Faustus
Socinus as Grand Master of the Fraternity of the Rose Cross and
was the organizer of " la Franc-Ma^onnerie, telle qu'elle est aujourd'-
hui." In 1645 he got himself substituted at the last moment for the
regular headsman at the execution of Laud, offered to Lucifer the
blood of that "noble martyr" (with which he had soaked a sacred
corporal), and secured in return a contract, signed by Lucifer and*
himself, enabling him to make gold and assuring him of a life of
Hermetic knowledge for thirty-three years. After this infernal con-
secration he wrote the Introitus Apertus. On the 25th of March,
1678, his term was up and he was carried off by the devil.3 The
extraordinary hoax of which these memoirs formed a part extended
over a period of twelve years and affords one of the most amazing
instances of human gullibility on record, but does not here concern
us. Taxil owned up in a public address of unexampled cynicism
delivered on April 19, 1897 .4 What makes his fiction pertinent to
1 Poems of Henry Vaughan, ed. by E. K. Chambers, vol. ii. pp. xxxiii-lvi.
* Taxil's real name was Gabriel Jogand-PagSs.
» Memoirs d'une ex-Palladiste, pp. 110, 130-133, 172, 176-178, 240.
4 There is a full report of his address (based chiefly on that in Le Frondeur of
April 25, 1917) in H. Gruber, Betrug als Ende eines Betruges, Berlin, 1897, pp.
9-28, and a briefer report in Braeunlich, Der neueste Teufelsschwindel, Leipzig,
1897, pp. 96-101. Cf. Journal des DSbats, April 24, 1897, cix. 782-784;
L' Univers (Paris) for April 23, 25, and 27, 1897. Taxil had previously been exposed
by A. E. Waite, Devil-Worship in France (London, 1896); by F. Legge in The
Contemporary Review for October, 1896, Ixx. 466-483 (cf. Ixi. 694-710); by Pour-
tales in Etudes publides par des Peres de la Compagnie de Je"sus, 34* anne"e, Janu-
ary-March, 1897, Ixx. 162-174 (cf. L'Universfor March 12, 1897); and by Gruber,
Leo Taxil's Palladismus-Roman (Berlin, 1897), but many believed in him until
the very moment of his impenitent confession. For copies of several journals
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 143
our present study is that it is founded, to a large extent, on the ac-
ceptance of Thomas Vaughan as Eirenseus Philalethes. Undoubt-
edly the blunder has had its effect in developing the notion that our
mysterious adept changed his name whenever the fancy took him,
and thus has fostered the idea that a number of successful trans-
mutations in the seventeenth century were worked by Eirenseus
Fhilalethes in disguise. Petrseus, in 1717, declared that "the late
Baron Urbiger" (himself a very shadowy personage, thought by
many to have been a Borghese1) asserted stoutly that King Charles
II had told him that Eirenaeus Philalethes made projection in his
own royal presence; 2 and Lenglet-Dufresnoy, in 1742, mentioned an
opinion that he was the wandering stranger who gave Helvetius the
powder of projection in 1666.3 This idea Taxil utilized in his Lucife-
rian romance, including the incident in his account of Thomas
Vaughan and adding the statement that Vaughan forthwith initiated
Helvetius as a Luciferian.4
But we are not at the end of our comedy of errors. In a singular
work, with a singular title, Die Edelgebojne Jungfer Alchymia, by
Johann Conrad Creiling,5 which appeared anonymously at Tubingen
in 1730, the author avers that the writings of Philaletha have be-
come "as familiar to alchemists as their daily bread, and have met
with general applause from the majority. . . . By some (among
them Wedel) his name is given as Thomas de Vagan; by others
(Hertodt, for instance) as Childe or Dr. Zcheil, residing in America.
Certain it is that Georgius Sterkey, an apothecary in London, who
containing important material on Taxil's imposture I am indebted to the staff
of St. John's Ecclesiastical Seminary at Brighton and to the Maurist Fathers
in Boston.
1 See Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, ii. 487-^88.
1 "Der Irenseus 1. Anonym. Philaletha aber soil Projection ver KOnig Carls
II . gethan haben, wie dann der sel. B. Urbiger aus dieses grossen Konigs Munde
Bolches selber gehdret zu haben sehr versichert hat" (Fr. Basilii Valentini . . .
Chymische Schriften: Samt einer neuen Vorrede . . . begleitet von Bened. Nic.
Petraeo, Med. D., 6th ed., Leipzig, 1760, sig. f v°). The first edition of Petraeus'a
book appeared at Hamburg in 1717 (Roth-Scholtz, Deutsches Theatrum Chemi-
cum, Nurnberg, 1727, i. 656). The Urbiger yarn owes what plausibility it has
to King Charles's well-known interest in alchemy (Burnet, Own Time, ed. 1833,
i. 169).
1 Histoire de la Philosophic Hermetique, i. 405. See p. 132, above.
4 Mdmoires d'une ex-Palladiste, pp. 215-217.
1 On the authorship, see Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, i. 182-183.
144 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
died ... of the plague in 1665, published the tracts in question,
and perhaps wrote some of them himself. In the tract Medulla
Alchymise he ... gives information which shows that he did not
obtain these writings (much less any of the tincture) directly from
the adept, . . . but that the adept Childe gave some of the incom-
parable tincture, in English America, to Thomas de Vagan, or Vagan
to Childe or to some other person," and so on.1 Creiling, one sees,
had been consulting George Stirk's Marrow of Alchemy, and, una-
ware of the elaborate mystification which that book involves, he has
rigged an ingenious combination. Since both Vaughan and Child
had been put forward, by different authorities, as the real Phila-
lethes, he inferred that one of the two (probably Child) was the
anonymous adept celebrated by Stirk in his preface, and that
the other (probably Vaughan) was the friend mentioned ibidem as the
disciple of this adept and as the author of the Marrow itself. The
outlandish name Dr. Zcheil is merely Creiling's gallant attempt to
spell Child phonetically in German.
Creiling's combinations have met with all the success that their
irresponsible ingenuity deserves. In 1832 Karl Schmieder, Professor
at Cassel, published his famous History of Alchemy. Schmieder
believes that it is possible to transmute base metals into silver and
gold, and that the secret was passed down from generation to gen-
eration among a select circle of initiates. He is inclined, therefore,
to ascribe the three famous cases just mentioned — those of Beri-
gard, Morgenbesser, and Gross — to one and the same philosopher,
who may well have been identical with a certain unnamed adept
from whom the great chemist van Helmont received the philosopher's
stone. And this personage Schmieder would like to think was the
mysterious wanderer Eirenaeus Philalethes. For him he constructs
a wild biography, which is a patchwork made up of all the blunders
and credulous guesses that I have briefly registered. It is very
likely, Schmieder thinks, that Philalethes passed under five names
in his travels — Thomas de Vaughan, Thomas Vagan, Childe, Dr.
Zheil, and Cacnobie; when he was in America, where he met Starkey,
he called himself Childe.2
So splendid a piece of constructive fiction, fortified in its details
1 Chap. ii. § xxxi, pp. 195-197.
« Schmieder, Geschichte der Alchemic, Halle, 1832, pp. 389-392.
1919] DR. ROBERT CHILD THE REMONSTRANT 145
by so much citation of learned authors, the world has not willingly
let die. Figuier repeats it, almost word for word, with additions, in
his vastly entertaining book L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes.1 Kiese-
wetter, in 1895, goes over the same ground in his Geschichte des
Occultismus,2 with. the same string of names, including Childe and
Zheil, and so does Gessmann in 1900.3 Mr. A. E. Waite, in The
Real History of the Rosicrucians (1887), informs us that Yaughan
"adopted various pseudonyms in the different countries through
which he passed in his wanderings as an alchemical propagandist.
Thus in America he called himself Doctor Zheil, and in Holland
Carnobius." 4 None of these scholars seems to recognize Child and
Z(c)heil as the same name differently spelled.5 Caillet, who equates
our adept with Vaughan, remarks with solemn caution: "On a
pretendu que Vaughan s'etait fait appeler en Amerique fle Docteur
ZHEIL' et en Hollande 'CARNOBE.' II n'a pas laisse d'ecrits sous ces
noms, a ma connaissance." ' An unverifiable reference in Fergu-
son's Bibliotheca Chemica (1906) introduces another factor into
the confused equation :-"Bacstrom says distinctly that his [Eirenseus
Philalethes'j name was Winthorp and that he was Starkey's patron." 7
Who Bacstrom was I cannot discover.8 He deserves our gratitude,
however, for bringing in the name of the younger Winthrop, who, as
1 2d ed., Paris, 1856, chap, vi, pp. 276-286. He gives liberal, but not too
liberal, acknowledgment to Schmieder in his preface.
* ii. 130-132.
* G. W. Gessmann, Die Geheimsymbole der Chemie und Medicin des Mittel-
alters, Munich, 1900, p. 11.
4 P. 309. In his Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers, 1888, pp. 187-189,
Waite gives up the identification of Eirenseus with Vaughan, but in his edition
of The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan, 1888, he still contemplates the
mysterious adept as wandering "over a large portion of the habitable globe,
performing astounding transmutations under various names and disguises"
(p. vii).
* Ferguson saw the identity of the names (Bibliotheca Chemica, ii. 194).
* Albert L. Caillet, Manuel Bibliographique des Sciences Psychiques ou
Occultes, Paris, 1912, iii. 669.
7 Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, ii. 194.
' He may have been that Johann Friedrich Bachstrom, German physician and
preacher, of whom Adelung gives an account in his continuation of Jocher (Fort-
setzung und Erganzungen zu Jochere Allgemeinem Gelehrten Lexico, i [1784].
1323-1325). This Bachstrom lived in the first half of the eighteenth century and
visited England, where he is said to have become an F. R. S., though this claim is
not substantiated by the list in Records of the Royal Society, 2d ed., 1901.
146
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
we know, was a friend of both Stirk and Child, who were also friends
of each other. As a matter of fact, as I hope to prove when time
serves, Eirenaeus Philalethes was the creation of George Stirk's
teeming brain and not too scrupulous conscience, and the works
ascribed to him, so far as they ever existed, were of Stirk's own
composition.
My task is finished. I have followed the career of Robert Child
from his birth to his death, and have even ventured to register the
posthumous fictions that have associated themselves with his* name.
Few characters in our colonial annals are so multifariously inter-
esting, and none, I think, appeals more congenially to a modern
student.
Mr. ALBERT MATTHEWS read the following paper:
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
More than two centuries ago it was asserted that John Amos
Comenius, the famous Bohemian scholar, was offered the presidency
of Harvard College. This somewhat startling statement, twice made
by Cotton Mather, apparently slumbered unnoticed by writers on
either Comenius or the College for over a century and a hah*. It was
dug out of the Magnalia in 1860, again lost sight of, then once more —
twenty-five years later — came to light, and the stirring events in
Europe during the past five years have called renewed attention to
it. Mather's passage in the Magnalia deserves a more careful con-
sideration than has been accorded it. It reads as follows:
Mr. Henry Dunster, continued the President of Harvard-College, until
his unhappy Entanglement in the Snares of Anabaptism; fill'd the Over-
seers with uneasie Fears, lest the Students by this means, should come to
be Ensnared : Which Uneasiness was at length so signified unto him, that
on October 24, 1654. He presented unto the Overseers, an Instrument
under his Hands; wherein he Resigned his Presidentship, and they ac-
cepted his Resignation. That brave Old Man Johannes Amos COM-
MENIUS, the Fame of whose Worth hath been Trumpetted as far as
more than Three Languages (whereof every one is Endebted unto his
Janua) could cany it was indeed agreed withall, by our Mr. Winthrop
in his Travels through the Low Countries, to come over into New-Eng-
land, and Illuminate this Collcdge and Country, in the Quality of a
~v r f •/"' r * r
Jjjc^kcre an c.K//r ._wnc te lew
Cftatfi Jiarjrfc >
]kel: Icr.muirtfPtch/, d tntf nvrtn, uruw
'authc rvpru^ maf&f all the world ftu cn>
jT
.
rfffinf" -- -.i
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
147
President: But the Solicitations of the Swedish Ambassador, diverting
him another way, that Incomparable Moravian became not an American.
On November 2, 1654. Mr. Richard Mather and Mr. Norton, were em-
ployed by the Overseers, to tender unto Mr. Charles Chancey the Place
of President, which was now become Vacant; who on the Twenty Seventh
Day of that Month, had a solemn Inauguration thereunto.1
There is no mention of this episode in the histories of Harvard
College by Peirce (1833), Quincy (1840), Eliot (1848), or William R.
Thayer (1890), nor in later works relating to the College. Before
examining the passage in the light of contemporary evidence, it will
be well to bring together some remarks that have been called out
by it in the past fifty-nine years. In an article printed in 1860
we read :
After the resignation of President Dunster, John Amos Comenius, of
Moravia, received, through the younger Winthrop, overtures to accept
the office, but he was induced to bestow his educational labors in Sweden
and Transylvania. . . . Had Comenius made either Old or New Eng-
land his permanent residence, it is not too much to suppose that his
publications and earnest personal efforts would have introduced the
same educational reform which he inaugurated in Germany.2
1 Magnalia, 1702, bk. iv. pt. ii. § 5, p. 128; 1820, ii. 10; 1853, ii. 14. The punctu-
ation of this passage is obviously at fault, the comma after Dunster' s name being
unnecessary and misleading.
1 American Journal of Education, September, 1860, ix. 135. The article,
called "Harvard College. 1636-1654," fills pp. 129-166. A note on p. 129 says:
"This sketch will follow substantially Eliot's 'History of Harvard College'" —
that is, Samuel A. Eliot's Sketch of the History of Harvard College, published in
1848. I have been unable to ascertain whether this article was prepared by
Eliot himself, or, as perhaps is more probable, by or under the direction of Henry
Barnard, the editor of the American Journal of Education. As stated in our text,
Eliot's Sketch does not mention Mather's story. A footnote on p. 135 of the
article refers to "John Amos Comenius," translated from the German of Karl
von Raumer, in the American Journal of Education for June, 1858, v. 257-298;
but that memoir contains no allusion to Mather's story.
Dr. Charles W. Eliot kindly writes me as follows: " It is highly improbable that
my father had anything to do with the article published in Henry Barnard's
American Journal of Education for September, 1860, for his health was at that
time already impaired; but I am by no means able to assert that he did not write
that article. I am sure, however, that my father never alluded in conversation
with me to the supposed invitation to Comenius to become President of Harvard.
He would have been likely to do so if he had accepted that statement; because I
entered the service of Harvard College in 1854, and my father knew that I had a
etrong interest in the history of the College."
148
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
In 1885 Edmund de Schweinitz, Bishop of the Unitas Fratrum,
said:
While on his way to Lissa [in 1642] in order to consult with his col-
leagues, prior to his going to Sweden, he [Comenius] met probably in
Holland, with Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Colony,
who tried to induce him to come to America and accept the presidency
of Harvard College, which had been founded at Cambridge in 1638.
This overture Comenius declined, as also an invitation which reached
him from France to visit that country.1
"It may not be generally known," remarked William H. Payne
in 1886, " that Comenius was once solicited to become the president
of Harvard College. . . . This was on the resignation of President
Dunster, in 1654." 2
In 1892 Professor Paul H. Hanus — who, however, later changed
his opinion — wrote:
While yet in the full vigor of his maturity, Comenius was invited to
come to America and become the president of Harvard College. . . . Had
" our Mr. Winthrop " prevailed upon Comenius to accept the invitation
to become President of Harvard College, who can doubt that some of the
improvements we are now so earnestly seeking to introduce into our
schools, would have been adopted many years ago, and America and not
Europe would lead the world in the excellence of its educational
facilities.3
Comenius, asserted Samuel G. Williams in 1892, "was summoned
to England, to Sweden, and to Hungary for aid in the bettering of
learning and improvement of schools; and in 1654 he was offered and
declined the presidency of Harvard College, his fame having reached
even far distant America."4
1 History of the Church known as the Unitas Fratrum, p. 580. A footnote
says: "Our authority for the interesting fact that Comenius received an offer
of the presidency of Harvard University, as it is now called, is Cotton Mather in
his Magnalia, ... At that time Mr. Henry Dunster was President, who 'fill'd
the Overseers with uneasie Fears,' on account of 'his unhappy entanglement in
the snares of Anabaptism.' "
* Gabriel Compaq's History of Pedagogy, 2d ed., 1890, p. 125 hote.
1 The Permanent Influence of Comenius, in Educational Review for March,
1892, iii. 234-236. See p. 151, below.
4 History of Modern Education, 2d ed., 1896, pp. 164-165.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 149
In 1896 James P. Munroe remarked:
Wide as were the wanderings of this pious old man, they narrowly
missed extension even to America. . . . What a fertile source of specu-
lation is this paragraph ! If Comenius had yielded to " our Mr. Winthrop,"
and if thereby Dunster had been succeeded by this vigorous reformer
instead of by the testy yet pliable Chauncy, what might not have been
the difference of result. How unlike its real history might have been
the growth, not alone of Harvard College, but of the whole country I
Throwing off the shackles of English tradition two hundred years earlier
than it in fact did, what might not this university have accomplished I
The chief leader of New England thought, its early emancipation from
the humanities would have altered the whole course of American history.
The great Oxenstierna ought, perhaps, to be added to the list, already
too long, of conservative forces governing New England.1
In the same year (1896) Count Liitzow said :
Though he remained some months in England, Komensky seems al-
most immediately to have recognized that he had then no hopes of
carrying out his plans in that country. He meditated for some time
accepting an invitation to North America. His exceptional linguistic
and educational talents and his eloquence had suggested the idea of
sending him there as a missionary. Numerous Bohemian Brethren,
1 The Educational Ideal, pp. 76-77.
"I have," says Mr. Monroe, "examined with some care the numerous lives
of Comenius printed in the German language, and a Bohemian friend has examined
those printed in Czech; and although we find less noteworthy distinctions recorded,
there is no mention of a call to Harvard College or America" (Educational
Review, 1896, xii. 379). In a book published in German since this passage was
written, Dr. Jan Jakubec, "Professor an der k. k. Bohm. Karl-Ferdinand-Uni-
vereitat in Prag," has said: "Aus Amerika wurde ihm die Leitung des Harvarder
Kollegiums angeboten" (Geschichte der £echischen Litteratur, Leipzig, 1909, p.
98; 1913, p. 114). Mr. Monroe owns the Korrespondence Jana Amose Komen-
ak^ho, published in three volumes by the Cech Academy of Arts and Science in
Prague, and writes me that his "good friend Professor Frantisek Cad a of the
University. of Prague had collated them with some care without finding any justi-
fication for Mather's statement."
I have myself examined most of the books and articles relating to Comenius
printed in the English language listed in the bibliographies in Mr. Monroe's
Comenius's School of Infancy (1896, pp. 91-95), in Mr. Monroe's Comenius and
the Beginnings of Educational Reform (1900, pp. 175-180), and in Mr. Capek's
Bohemian (Cech) Bibliography (1918). So far as I have noted, Count LQtzow
and Dr. Jakubec are the only writers not Americans who have alluded to America
or to Harvard College. But see p. 150 note 3, below.
150 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
or "Moravians" as they were called In foreign lands, had sought a new
home in North America.1
Finally, in 1899, Count Liitzow, ignoring his previous statement
that Comenius had had thoughts of coming to this country as a
missionary, repeated the familiar story, but with curious variations:
In June 1642 Komensky left England, and first proceeded to Holland.
It is a proof of the great celebrity that he had already attained that he
here received yet another invitation. While travelling in Holland,
Komensky met Richard Charles Winthrop, formerly Governor of Mas-
sachusetts, who suggested to him that he should proceed to America
and become rector of Harvard College, that had been founded six years
before. Komensky, who was bound by his agreement with the Swedish
Government, in the name of which De Geers had negotiated with him,
declined the offer.2
In all the above accounts, as well as in numerous other accounts
that have appeared since 1896, the sole authority given for the state-
ment is Mather's Magnalia, and no other authority has apparently
ever been cited.3 The first person to question the accuracy of the
1 Bohemia, an Historical Sketch, p. 408. Count Lutzow gives no authority
for his statement. The Moravians did not come to America until about 1735.
1 History of Bohemian Literature, pp. 268-269. Again no authority is given.
Count Lutzow must have relied on some writer who confused Governor John
Winthrop of Massachusetts with the late Robert Charles Winthrop, who edited
the letters by and to Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, printed in
1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 206-251.
s In their Bohemian (Cech) Bibliography, 1918, Thomas Capek and Anna
Vostrovsk^ Capek say: "From Cotton Mather we learn (a fact which is con-
firmed by other sources) that Governor Winthrop offered to Komensk^- the
Presidency of Harvard College" (p. 43). In reply to a query as to the "other
sources," Mr. Capek kindly writes me as follows:
"In the Ottuv Nau6n£ Slovnik (Cech Encyclopedia), xiv. 627, Dr. J. Novak
says: 'Having been provided with funds by Lawrence de Geer, he [Komensk^]
returned from England to the Continent. He stopped at Leyden and he received
at that time an offer from America to take charge of a college there; thereafter
in August, 1642, he proceeded to Norrkoping,' etc.
"On p. 437 of Pisemnictvi Cesk6 (Cech Literature), by Dr. Vaclav Flajshans,
published at Prague, 1901, the statement is repeated; but it adds, that it was the
Swedish Ambassador who prevented Komensk^ from accepting."
A tradition in regard to the alleged offer of the presidency might have come
down from three wholly independent sources: (1) in America from Winthrop;
(2) in England from Hart lib ; and'(3) in Bohemia from Comenius. The sole person
to record the first source is Cotton Mather, and no one records either the second
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 151
statement was Professor Will S. Monroe. In an article on Comenius
written in 1892, Mr. Monroe made no allusion to the story, though he
then certainly knew about it.1 Soon, however, his doubts were
aroused; and in 1894, in an article called "At Comenius' Grave,"
he said : " Whether he taught in twenty cities, as Michelet maintains,
and whether he was called to the presidency of Harvard College, as
Cotton Mather asserts (but which the present writer seriously doubts),
does not concern the limits of this article." 2 The "doubts" s6on
became certainties, and in an article printed in 18963 and in a book
published in 19004 Mr. Monroe gave his reasons for concluding
that the alleged invitation had never been extended to Comenius.
These reasons were not considered conclusive by Mr. James H.
Blodgett in 1898,6 but Professor Hanus was convinced by them and
in 1899 retracted his former opinion:
There is a tradition that Comenius, while yet in the full vigor of his
maturity, was invited to come to America, and become the president
of Harvard College. ... A diligent search among the archives of
Harvard University has failed to confirm this tradition. There are
also reasons for doubting Cotton Mather's statement quite apart from
the absence of any existing record of the alleged invitation to Comenius.6
Disappointing as are the early records of Harvard College, from
their meagreness and from the haphazard way in which they were
kept, it so happens that they throw important light on the resigna-
tion of Dunster and the election of his successor. As both Mr. Hanus
and Mr. Monroe content themselves with merely stating that the
records do not corroborate Mather's story about Comenius, and as
source or the third source. Nor, apparently, did any European writer allude to the
offer previous to 1896. Hence it seems pretty- <clear that the "other sources"
referred to by Mr. Capek are in reality derived froin^American sources.
1 Comenius, the Evangelist of Modern Pedagogy, in Education for December,
1892, xiii. 212-219. Mr. Monroe cites Mr. Hanus's article quoted in our text.
* Journal of Education, November 15, 1892, xl. 324. These words are repeated
in Monroe's Comenius' School of Infancy, 1896, p. xiii.
1 Was Comenius Called to the Presidency of Harvard? in Educational Review
for November, 1896, xii. 378-382.
4 Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform, 1900, pp. 78-81.
1 Was Comenius Called to the Presidency of Harvard? in Educational Review
for November, 1898, xvi. 391-393.
' The Permanent Influence of Comenius, reprinted in Educational Aims and
Educational Values, 1899, pp. 195-211.
152 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MAKCH,
Mather's own account, though correct enough so far as it goes, is
not complete, the evidence is here given in full.
Dunster's resignation, addressed " To the worshipful and honored
Richard Bellingham, Esq. Governor of the Massachusetts Colony,
with the rest of the honored Assistants and Deputiec hi General
Court at Boston now assembled," and dated June 10, 1654, con-
cluded as follows:
Therefore I here resign up the place wherein hitherto I have labored
with all my heart, (blessed be the Lord who gave it) serving you and
yours. And henceforth (that you in the interim may be provided) I
shall be willing to do the best I can for some few weeks or months to
continue the work, acting according to the orders prescribed to us; if
the society in the interim shall not fall to pieces in our hands; and what
advice for the present or for the future I can give for the public good,
in this behalf, with all readiness of mind I shall do it, and daily by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray the Lord to help and counsel us
all, in whom I rest.1
Tn the College records, under the same date (June 10, 1654), we
read :
mr Henry Dunster President made a Resignation of his place in
writing under his hand & delivered the same to the Overseers of the
Colledge, wch being prsented unto the Gen11 Court then sitting, The
Court made thereupon their Order as followeth.
In Answer to a writing presented to this Court by mp Henry Dunster,
wherin amongst other things therin conteyned, he is pleased to make a
resignation of his place as President, This Court doth order that it shall
be left to the care & discretion of the Overseers of the Colledge to make
provision (in case he persist in his Resolution more then one month &
informe the Overseers) for some meet prson to carry an end that work
for the p'sent & also to act in whatever necessity should call for untill
the next Sessions of this Court, when wee shall be better enabled to
settle what will be needfull in all respects with reference to the Colledge:
and that the Overseers will be pleased to make returne to this Court at
that time of w* they shall do herein.2
1 Peirce, History of Harvard University, Appendix, pp. 79-80.
1 College Book iii. 17-18. The second paragraph in this entry was doubtless
copied from Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 352, or vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 196-
197.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 153
At a meeting of the Overseers held October 24, 1654:
Mr Henry Dunster after sundry conferences that had passed be-
tween the Overseers & himself made his finall Resignation in these
following words.
To the hond Magistrates & Revd Elders of Harvard Colledge.
J Henry Dunster President of Harvard Colledge: ffor & upon diverse
considerations & weighty Reasons me thereunto moving, do relinquish
& resigne up my Presidentship into the hands of yo'selvs the hond
Overseers of the sd Colledge. Heartily praying God graciously tp pro-
vide for the sd Society a suitable supply for the publick weal thereof,
& of the whole country
Henry Dunster
This Resignation of Mr Dunsters was voted & consented to by the
Overseers the 24th of the 8th 1654.1
At the same meeting of the Overseers, on October 24, 1654:
Jt is agreed by the Overseers that the Revd mr Richard Mather and
the Revd mr John Norton speak with the Revd. mr Charles Chauncey
and as they shall see cause encourage him to accept of an Jnvitation to
the Presidentship of the Colledge, in case the Overseers shall give him
a call thereto.
The Care and Governement of Harvard Colledge for the present
time & untill a President shall be orderly elected and confirmed is
committed by the Overseers unto the ffellows of the Colledge.2
At a meeting of the Overseers held November 2, 1654:
mr Mather and mr Norton are desired by the Overseers of the Col-
ledge to tender unto the Revd mr Charles Chauncy the place of Presi-
dent, with the Stipend of One hundred pound per annum to be payd
out of the Country Treasury: And withall to signify to him, that it is
expected and desired that he forbeare to disseminate or publish any
Tenets conc'ning the necessity of immersion in Baptisme & Celebra-
tion of the Lords Supper at Evening, or to oppose the received Doc-
trine therein.8
The condition having been accepted, "The Revd mr Charls
Chauncy was," on November 27, 1654, at a "meeting of the Hond &
1 College Book ill. 18.
1 iii. 39.
1 iii. 39.
154
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Revd Overseers of Harvard Colledge, at the College Hall in Cam-
bridge," "solemnly inaugurated into the place of President."1
It thus appears that Dunster's resignation was first presented on
June 10, 1654; that it was not immediately accepted; that the Over-
seers were empowered by the General Court to make provision, in
case Dunster persisted in his resolution more than one month, for
some "meet person" to carry on the college work, etc.; that on
October 24 Dunster, after conferences with the Overseers, made his
final resignation, which was accepted on the same day; that on the
same day (October 24) the Overseers appointed Richard Mather and
John Norton to confer with Chauncy with a view of offering the
presidency to him, and also committed the care and government of
the College to the Fellows; and that on November 2 the Overseers
instructed Mather and Norton to tender the place to Chauncy,
who accepted and was inaugurated on November 27. It is obvious,
therefore, that if Cotton Mather meant that the presidency was
offered to Comenius in 1654 — and that is the interpretation always
placed on Mather's words2 — the statement cannot possibly be true.
It is conceivable that immediately after June 10 the Overseers
placed themselves in correspondence with Comenius, but there is
no evidence that this was done, and Dunster clearly remained in
charge of the College until his final resignation on October 24, since
it was not until then that the College was committed to the care of
the Fellows. Besides, even if Comenius had been written to in June,
a reply could hardly have been received before October 24.
But because Comenius could not have been offered the presidency
in 1654, must Mather's story therefore be wholly rejected? It could
hardly have been invented, and must have had some basis. What
was this basis?
1 College Book iii. 39.
1 Is this interpretation a necessary one? As printed, the passage (p. 146,
above) appears to have that meaning. It is to be remembered, however, that
Mather did not see his work through the press, as it was printed in London, and
that many errors in the Magnalia are doubtless due to that fact. The single sen-
tence about Comenius is preceded by a sentence about Dunster's resignation
and is followed by a sentence about Chauncy*s election. Hence the sentence
about Comenius is really parenthetical, and, had Mather been able to see proof
sheets, might have been placed within parentheses. Both in the Magnalia and
in the Ratio Discipline (quoted on p. 155, below), Mather mentions Sweden,
showing that he had in mind Comenius's "diversion" to that country in 1642.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 155
"Comenius," said Mather in 1702, "was indeed agreed with-
all, by our Mr. Winthrop in his Travels through the Low Coun-
tries, to come over into New-England, and Illuminate this Colledge
and Country, in the Quality of a President: But the Solicitations of
the Swedish Ambassador, diverting him another way, that Incom-
parable Moravian became not an American." By "Swedish Am-
bassador," Mather apparently meant Count Axel Oxenstiern, who,
born in 1583, became Chancellor in 1611, and died on August 28,
1654. But the passage just quoted is not the only one in which
Mather told the story. A quarter of a century later — to be exact,
in 1726 — he again returned to the subject, using words which
hitherto have escaped notice. Speaking of the churches of New
England, he said:
We will proceed then to Describe the PRACTICES in which they
generally manage and uphold their Principles. And that the Story may
be the less Insipid, we will take the leave to Salt it now and then with
Interspersed <Notes of what we find practised in other Churches; espe-
cially the Primitive: . . . Which will be the more easily pardoned, when
'tis remembered that in our brief Remarks, we shall a little imitate what
was done in the RATIO DISCIPLINE FRATRUM BOHEMORUM,1
written by that Incomparable Comenius, who once had resolved upon
coming over, at an Invitation to become President of Harvard-College
in this Country, if he had not, by being invited unto Sueden, been
diverted from it.8
Here, it will be observed, there is no allusion either to "our Mr.
Winthrop" or to the Low Countries, but the reference to Sweden is
repeated. Now it is known with certainty that in 1642 Comenius,
then in England, was "diverted" to Sweden.
Before pursuing this episode, let us inquire into the identity of
"our Mr. Winthrop," who travelled in the Low Countries. He has
been identified as Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts,* as Gov-
1 The work of Comenius published under this title, imitated by Cotton Mather
was between 1664 and 1738 mentioned by four generations of Mathers: see pp.
189-190, below.
' "Ratio Discipline Fratnun Nov-Anglorum. A Faithful Account of the
Discipline Professed and Practised; in the Churches of New-England," Boston,
1726, Introduction, pp. 5-6.
1 See p. 148, above.
156 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
ernor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut,1 and as Wait Winthrop,2
the son of Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut. Gover-
nor John Winthrop of Massachusetts was never, so far as is known,
on the Continent, he came to this country in 1630, he never returned
to Europe, and he died in 1649. Wait Winthrop was born on
February 27, 1642. Hence those two Winthrops must be eliminated.
There can be no reasonable doubt that "our Mr. Winthrop" was
Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut.8 Born on February
12, 1606, in 1627 he joined the ill-fated expedition under Buckingham
to the Isle of Rhe, and in 1628 and 1629 he travelled on the Con-
tinent. Mather says of him:
His Glad Father bestowed on him a liberal Education at the University,
first of Cambridge in England, and then of Dublin in Ireland; and be-
cause Travel has been esteemed no little Accomplisher of a Young Gentle-
man, he then Accomplished himself by Travelling into France, Holland,
Flanders, Italy, Germany, and as far as Turky it self; in which places he
so improved his Opportunity of Conversing with all sorts of Learned Men,
that he returned home equally a Subject of much Experience, and of
great Expectation.*
Winthrop was not at Cambridge University,5 nor was he, in 1628-
1629, either in France or in Germany, though he had been in the
former country earlier and was in the latter country in 1642.6
1 See p. 147, above.
* This suggestion, rightly rejected by Mr. Monroe, was made to him by the
late Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale (Educational Review, xii. 379-380).
* Hereafter in this paper called either John Winthrop, Jr., or the younger
Winthrop, when it is necessary to distinguish him from his father.
4 Magnalia, 1702, bk. ii. chap. xi. p. 30.
' It was Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts who studied at Cambridge
University, though he did not take a degree: see R. C. Winthrop, Life and Letters
of John Winthrop, i. 58-59. The Adam Winthrop who matriculated at Mag-
dalene College, Cambridge, at Michaelmas, 1567 (Venn, Matriculations and
Degrees, 1913, p. 740), was no doubt the father of Governor John Winthrop;
Governor John Winthrop matriculated at Trinity at Easter, 1603 (ibid.); and
Forth Winthrop, a younger brother of John .Winthrop, Jr., matriculated at
Emmanuel at Easter, 1626 (ibid.). All three left without taking degrees. John
Winthrop, Jr., and Forth Winthrop were fitted for college at the Free Grammar
School at Bury St. Edmund's, the former going to Dublin in 1622 and the latter
to Cambridge in 1626 Adam Winthrop was auditor of Trinity College for
sixteen or seventeen years, resigning in 1610 (R. C. Winthrop, Life and Letters
of John Winthrop, i. 32-33).
* See p. 164, below.
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
157
Leaving London about June 11, 1628, he went by sea to Leghorn,
thence by sea to Constantinople, thence by sea to Venice, thence by
sea to Amsterdam, thence to Flushing, and thence by sea to London,
which he reached in August, 1629.1 Early in 1628 Comenius went
to Lissa, Poland, and there remained certainly until 1640.2 In 1629
Winthrop was a young man of twenty-three, while Comenius had
not yet attained fame; but even if, of which there is no evidence, the
two met in that year, obviously nothing could have been said about
the presidency of an institution that did not come into existence
until seven or eight years later. Two years after his return to Eng-
land from Holland, Winthrop came to New England, reaching
Boston in November, 1631 ;3 and in New England he remained,
with the exception of an occasional trip to Europe, until his 'death
on April 5, 1676. It has been stated that " his public duties obliged
him repeatedly to visit England,"4 but this is an exaggeration, since-
1 Winthrop Papers, iv. 9-20. In a letter dated July 28, 1629, he wrote:
"I am yesterday safely arrived in this citty of Amsterdam. ... I am heere
without acquaintance & our long passage hath eaten out all the money that I
receyved at Venice, . . . therefore I pray you to send me a letter of credit from
some merchant to some man in Flushing, or Middleborough, . . . because the
longer I stay heere the more I shall runn in debt. Therefore I would, as soone as
I can receive answeare from you . . . returne with all speede home. ... If you
write to me, I pray conscribe it to be delivered in Flushing at the house of Mr.
Henry Kerker, for I purpose, God willing, to goe shortly thither, where I shalbe
neere to take my passage upon all occasions" (iv. 18-19).
On August 8, 1629, his aunt Lucy Downing (the wife of Emanuel Downing)
addressed a letter as directed (iii. 7). In a letter dated "Aug: Friday, 1629,"
he said: "I am (God be thanked) yesterday safely arrived in London" (iv. 19);
and in his next letter, dated "Lond., Aug. 21, 1629" (iv. 21), he acknowledged
having received letters on the previous Wednesday (August 19). Hence he must
have reached London on Thursday, August 13 or 20, and obviously could not
have gone to Germany.
1 My information about Comenius is derived from the following sources:
R. H. Quick, Essays on Educational Reformers, 1868, pp. 43-67; M. W. Keatinge,
The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius, 1896, pp. 1-101; W. S. Monroe,
Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform, 1900, pp. 38—82; Count
Liitzow, Comenius's Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart,
1901, pp. 11-52; Ltitzow, Bohemia, an Historical Sketch, 1896, pp. 392-416;
Liitzow, History of Bohemian Literature, 1899, pp. 249-253. It is of course
possible that Comenius, though living at Lissa from 1628 to 1640, took an un-
recorded flying trip to Holland in 1629 or in 1634-1635.
1 J. Winthrop, Journal, 1908, i. 70. He came in the Lyon, which reached
Nantasket November 2.
4 Winthrop Papers, iv. 3 note.
158 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
in the forty-five years he lived in New England he visited Europe
only three times, though apparently other trips were contemplated.1
As he had relatives and friends living in the Low Countries, and as
he had already once been there himself, we should naturally expect
him to visit them again, and this he certainly did on at least two of
his three trips.
Winthrop's first visit was made in 1634-1635. Leaving Boston in
October, 1634,2 he had an eventful experience, which, under date
of October, 1635, his father thus related:
Another providence was in the voyage of Mr. Winthrop, the younger,
and Mr. Wilson 3 into England, who, returning [to England] in the winter
time,. in a small and weak ship, bound for Barnstaple, were driven by
foul weather upon the coast of Ireland, not known by any in the ship,
and were brought, through many desperate dangers, into Galloway,
1 In a letter to Winthrop dated Salem, February 24, 1651, Emanuel Downing
wrote: "Wee heare that Mr. Damport and Mr. Eaton are goeing for England.
I cannot give much creditt thereto, I hope you will not resolve to goe before you
give your freinds a visit here" (Winthrop Papers, i. 76).
A document dated October 22, 1670, says: "About y* peace between y*
Maquaes and Mahicanders, To leave this in suspense, Untill y* Certainty of
Govern' Winthrops Voyage to England bee knowne & the Returne of Mr. Mayo'
from Albany" (New York Colonial Documents, xiii. 458). I have found no other
allusion to this trip, which certainly was not undertaken. But in 1675 Winthrop
did intend to go to England, though the intention was not carried out: see Win-
throp Papers, iv. 166-169; Connecticut Colonial Records, ii. 263, 344.
In a letter to Winthrop undated but assigned to "May, 1647," his brother
Adam Winthrop said: "Youer letter off the 2 of Desember I receaued, but it
had a very longe passage. We were glad to heer of youer safe arivall, and that
you have bene in health since" (Winthrop Papers, iv. 222). The "very longe
passage" might imply that John Winthrop had lately been in England, but
actually it means only that he was at Pequot, wherle he had been granted a
plantation and where he was living late in 1646: see Massachusetts Colony
Records, ii. 71, 160, 241; Winthrop Papers, iv. 38; R. C. Winthrop, Life and
Letters of John Winthrop, ii. 356-361. Writing to Winthrop from Ipswich on
February 26, 1636, his sister Mary Dudley said: "I am sorry that I shall not se
you before you take your journey to Coneticott, but I wish you a prosperous
viage" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 65). In those days any trip by sea, however short,
was called a "voyage."
* He was present at a court held October 6, 1634 (Massachusetts Colony
Records, ii. 132), but on November 8 his father wrote: "I hope the Lord hath
carried you safe to England " (R. C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop,
ii. 123).
» Rev. John Wilson (1588-1667) of Boston.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 159
where they parted, Mr. Winthrop taking his journey over land to
Dublin, . . .
Mr. Winthrop went to Dublin, and from thence to Antrim in the
north, and came to the house of one Sir John Clotworthy,1 the evening
before the day when divers godly persons were appointed to meet at his
house, to confer about their voyage to New England, by whom they
were thoroughly informed of all things, and received great encourage-
ment to proceed on their intended course. From thence he passed over
into Scotland, and so through the north of England; and all the way he
met with persons of quality, whose thoughts were towards New England,
who observed his coming among them as a special providence of God.2
The younger Winthrop was in London on July 7, 1635,3 embarked
on the Abigail on July 10,4 and reached Boston about October 6,
"with commission," as his father wrote, "from the Lord Say, Lord
Brook, and divers other great persons in England, to begin a planta-
tion at Connecticut, and to be governor there."5 On this journey
he did not, so far as is known, go to the Continent, though he
may have done so.6 Comenius was living at Lissa at that time, and
1 In a letter to John Winthrop, Jr., dated (as printed) "Antrim, 5th Ju: 1634,"
Sir John Clotworthy says that "I shall request yu, when yu are freede from y*
distractions w** a werisom jorney may phapps afford, to consider of these
pticulars" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 203-204), the particulars relating to those
mentioned by Governor John Winthrop, and the letter clearly indicates that
John Winthrop, Jr., was then in Europe. As he was in New England in June
and July, 1634, it is obvious that the printed date is wrong; and an examination
of the original letter shows that it is dated "Antrim, 5th Jn: 1634" — that is,
January 5, 1634-5. Clotworthy, afterwards first Viscount Massereene, either knew
or was interested in Hartlib, for on April 2, 1647, "Sir John Clotworthy carried
to the Lords the vote for Three hundred pounds, out of Haberdasher's Hall, for
Mr. Hartlib" (H. Dirck, Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib, p. 12).
J. Winthrop, Journal, i. 164.
Winthrop Papers, iii. 482.
Hotten, Original Lists, p. 100.
J. Winthrop, Journal, i. 161.
Not a single letter written by Winthrop during this journey has been pre-
served. But his movements can be followed fairly well by letters written to him,
and from these it would appear that he visited Ireland, Scotland, and England
only. In a letter to Winthrop dated Rotterdam, March 7, 1635, his brother-in-
law Col. Thomas Reade said: " I cane not chooes but trobell you withe thes feaue
leynes, to let you for to vnder stand that I should a bean very glad for to a spoke
withe you at London, but the shipes coming a way so sone that I could not
inquier you ought.(thoe I was at deyveres places to heare of you) " (Winthrop
Papers, ii. 113).
160
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
certainly was not in England. But even if Winthrop and Comenius
met or corresponded, nothing could have been said or written about
the presidency of a college that was not founded until 1636.
Winthrop's third visit was made in 1661-1663.1 He sailed in
July, and reached England late in September, 166 1.2 He signed a
document in London on April 7, 1663,3 left there April 9,4 and was
back in Connecticut in June.6 About 1647 Comenius returned to
Lissa, but in 1650 settled at Saros-Patak in Hungary, where he re-
mained until 1654, when he once more returned to Lissa. On April
29, 1656, that town was sacked by the Poles, and Comenius's books,
writings, and property were destroyed. He himself went to Silesia,
then to Frankfort on the Oder, then to Stettin, then to Hamburg,
and finally to Amsterdam, where, under the protection of Laurence
de Geer, the son of his former patron, he lived from 1656 until his
death on November 15, 1670.6 Did Winthrop visit the Low Countries
1 Mr. Monroe says: "Winthrop visited briefly in England during the early
months of 1661, and the only reference to Comenius in connection with the names
of any of the Winthrops occurs in a letter from Samuel Hartlib written at 'Axe-
Yard in Westm. Sept. 3, 1661,' to Governor Winthrop at Hartford, shortly after
the tatter's return from London" (Educational Review, xii. 380-381). Hartlib's
letter of September 3 was written not after Winthrop's return from London, but
before he had reached London, which, as stated in our text, was in September.
Hartlib's letter of September 3 addressed to New England, and another letter
of October 9 addressed to Winthrop "Next to the Church in Colman Street,"
London, are printed in 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi.
212-216. And Winthrop's visit was not "during the early months of 1661," but
lasted from September, 1661, to April, 1663.
1 In a letter to Winthrop dated "Brereton, Cheshire, October the Second,
1661," William Brereton said: "I was very glad to find in our good friend Mr.
Hartlibs letter that you were come to London and that you intend to make some
stay in England" (1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 215).
Evidently, therefore, Winthrop must have reached London in September.
1 Winthrop Papers, iv. 83.
4 In a letter to Winthrop dated February 15, 1664, his aunt Lucy Downing
said: " Yrt of April 9th 1663 I had, but perceiuing therein y* you was that day
to set out of London to meet yr 'ship at y° Downs, I had noe hopes to recouer
any to you" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 58).
1 Winthrop Papers, i. 526, 535; 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society,
xvi. 216.
• Keatinge, The Great Didactic of Comenius, pp. 62, 70, 83, 84, 85, 87, 89.
In a letter to an unknown person dated July 17-27, 1656, John Pell said:
"Five days ago, I received from you a letter dated Dantzic, Junii 17th, con-
taining a letter from Mr. Comenius, dated the 22nd of May, wherein he describes
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 1G1
in 1661-1663? In a letter to Governor Stuyvesant dated June 21,
1661, Winthrop said:
It being my purpose (Deo volente) to make a voyage into Europe,
and having information of a good ship that is shortly to saile from
New Netherlands thither, I have sent one purposely to know the cer-
tainty thereof, & the very vttermost limited period that it may be
certaine that ship or ships may stay. I have written of these queeries &
the sad estate of those Protestants that escaped from Lesna, where he, for his
own part, besides his writings, lost in money, books, and household stuff, above
three thousand reich-dalers, (near seven hundred pounds sterling.) ... I hear
he is sixty-five years old; and, it seems, hath nothing left but the clothes on his
back" (in R. Vaughan's Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, 1838, ii. 430).
A letter from 'Comeniua dated Stettin, June 14-24, 1656, is printed in
Thurloe's State Papers (1742), v. 118. (Cf. C. H. Firth, Last Years of the
Protectorate, 1909, ii. 244.) Another, dated Amsterdam, September 1, 1656, is
printed in Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, 1903, xxvi. 322-323.
In a letter to John Pell dated August 7, 1656, Samuel Hartlib wrote: "I have
also received from Mr. Comenius fresh letters dated at Hamburg, . . . Mr
Dury has returned to Amsterdam, and promises with all possible expedition to
hasten unto us, and it is very like Mr. Comenius will come along with him"
(Vaughan, ii. 432, 433). Comenius, however, did not go to England after 1642.
The Rev. Dr. John Pell, whose correspondence is printed in Vaughan's vol-
umes, was unquestionably known to Winthrop, quite possibly as early as 1642.
His brother Thomas Pell came to this country about 1635, served as a surgeon
in the Pequot war of 1637 and 1638 (Elizabeth H. Schenck, History of Fairfield,
1889, i. 68), is mentioned in a letter written to Winthrop by Theophilus Eaton
on January 4, 1656 (Winthrop Papers, ii. 476), and on July 2, 1666, himself
wrote a letter to Winthrop (Winthrop Papers, iii. 410). He left his estate to his
nephew John Pell, son of Dr. John Pell. In a letter to Lord Brereton, in whose
family Dr. Pell was then living, dated October 10, 1670, Winthrop said: "I
was at Boston in the Massachusets colony when Mr John Pell arrived, by whom
I had the great favour of your Lordships letter of the 23 of June last. He came
into that harboure very opportunely for his advantage in the expedition of his
businesse; for Mr Banckes, a neighboare of Mr Pell deceased, & one of those
whom he had intrusted WA the estate, was in a vessell of Fairfeild (the place
where Mr Pell lived) returning thither & mett the ship, coming in & came back
w*11 Mr John Pell to Boston, where I spake w*11 them both" (Winthrop Papers,
iv. 138; a letter to the same purport from Winthrop to Boyle, dated Octobor 27,
1670, is printed in Boyle's Works, 1772, vi. 581-582). Dr. John Pell was a
Fellow of the Royal Society; in 1643 he was at Amsterdam through the influence
of Sir William Boswell; and his Idea of Mathematics, written about 1639, was
sent by Hartlib to Mersennes and Descartes and published in 1650 in John
Durie's Reformed Library Keeper: see the notice of Pell in the Dictionary of
National Biography. Pell and Sir William Boswell were in correspondence as
early as 1640 (Vaughan, Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, ii. 379, 380). For
John Dune, see p. 172 note 5, below.
162 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
other matters necessary for my accomodation for such a des5gne, to my
worthy friend, Capt: Willet. I am bold to request this favour of your
Honr, that I may obtaine liberty to take passage in y* ship.1
In his reply, dated New Amsterdam, July 5, 1661,2 Stuyvesant
wrote:
By the bearer, and letters delivered vnto mee, I see your honnors
jnclination for Europe, which giues mee hoopes off your honnors longe
desyred and expected presencie. Vpon sight off your honnors letter, I
sent jmmediately for the masters of the ships, and desiered off them the
vttermost period of theire stay. There answears was, that they all
three weare reddy to sett sayle in companie one with another, desyreinge
and expectinge only our lettrs off dispach. Afterwards, I did speacke
pryvately with the master and marchant of the biggest ship called the
Trowe, which I thincke will bee most convenient for your honnor; soe in
regard off the ship Mr, which speackes good English. His answer was
that hee was reddy to sett sayle this weecke; but for your honnors sacke
hee woulde stay vntill the middle or latter end off the followinge weecke,
provyded that I woulde detayne the other ships soe longe, which I did
promise.8
In a letter dated July 23, 1663, Thomas Willett reminded Winthrop
that "ate yowar going for Holland, thar was a parshall of wampon
sente, and allso som lefte bey yowar selfe when you went awaey." 4
The presumption that Winthrop sailed from New Amsterdam to
Holland in 1661 is made a certainty by the account of "Issues debtor
to Powder delivered from the first May, A° 1661, to the last of Novem-
ber, as appears by the Gunner's Delivery Book," which shows that
one hundred and fifty-nine pounds of powder were expended at the
time of his departure:5
1 Winthrop Papers, iv. 73.
* It should be borne in mind that Stuyvesant's dates are no doubt New
Style, while Winthrop's are Old Style, and that hence an allowance of ten days
must be made. Thus June 21 Old Style, was July 1 New Style; while July 5
and July 23 New Style, were June 25 and July 13 Old Style.
* Winthrop Papers, iii. 391.
4 Winthrop Papers, iii. 396.
1 New York Colonial Documents, ii. 460. On January 27, 1662, the Directors
of the Dutch West India Company wrote a letter to Stuyvesant describing
an " interview between gov. Winthrop of Connecticut and the directors at Amster-
dam " (Calendar of New York Historical Manuscripts, Dutch, 1865, i. 297). Win-
+arop's expected arrival at Amsterdam was thus announced in the Haerlemse
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 163
July 18. To powder, 27 Ibs., to salute Governor Winthrop, coming here from
the Fresh river l to proceed, in the Trou, to Fatherland, ... 27
21. To powder, 18 Ibs., to salute the ships Arent, Hope and Trouw, when
they sailed hence for Fatherland, 18
To powder, 50 Ibs., issued to the Burgomasters for the Burghers
who were under arms to escort Governor Winthrop, 50
23. To powder, 10 Ibs., issued to the inhabitants of Breuckelen to
salute Governor Stuyvesant, who escorted the above named
Governor Winthrop, 10
To powder, 25 Ibs., to fire at the above named Winthrop's de-
parture 25
To powder, 29 Ibs., issued to 58 soldiers, % Ib. per man, who also
escorted the above named Winthrop, 29
That Winthrop and Comenius met in September, 1661, is pos-
sible, even probable; but even if they did, no formal offer of the
presidency of Harvard could have been made to Comenius, since
there was no vacancy in the office from the inauguration of Chauncy
on November 27, 1654, to his death on February 19, 1672, fifteen
months after the decease of Comenius. Moreover, in 1661 Winthrop
had no official connection with Harvard, while Comenius was then a
man of nearly seventy.2
There remains to be considered Winthrop's second visit hi 1641-
1643. Leaving Boston August 3, 1641, 3 he was a fortnight in reach-
ing Newfoundland, where he spent three weeks, and then sailed for
Bristol, arriving there on September 28, 164 1.4 Returning, he left
England in May, 1643, but, owing to untoward circumstances, did
not reach Boston until about September.6
Saterdaeghse Courant of September 17, 1661: "Amsterdam, September 16. On
Monday last arrived in the Texel the ship Arent, from New-Netherlands, laden
with tobacco and some peltry. The ship Trou and the ship Klock lay ready to
sail, [intending] daily to depart, and may now be daily expected, having been
seen, as is supposed, near Fairhill. In the Trou comes passenger Mr. Winthrop,
Governor of Connecticut, together with the Rev. Mr. Stone, as agents to his
Majesty of England" (2 New York Historical Society Collections, i. 456). Thus
Winthrop reached Amsterdam soon after Monday, September 2-12, 1661.
The Dutch name for the Connecticut River.
Comenius was born March 28, 1592.
J. Winthrop, Journal, ii. 32.
\Yinthrop Papers, iv. 35.
Sec Winthrop's petition, undated, in which he says that he sailed in May,
1643, but was "kept above six weekes vpon the coast of England, and by reason
thereof was above 14 weekes before he could attaine the port in New England "
(Winthrop Papers, iv. 36-37). At the session beginning September 7, 1643, the
164
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OP MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
Besides being the son of the Governor of Massachusetts, the
younger Winthrop, then thirty-five years of age, was already a man
of note on his own account; he had gone to England on public busi-
ness in 1634-1635, returning with a commission from Lord Saye
and Sele, Lord Brooke, and "divers other great persons in England,
to begin a plantation at Connecticut, and to be governor there;"
he was in correspondence with many celebrated persons in Eu-
rope; and during his stay in Europe from September, 1641, to
May, 1643, he must have met many distinguished men, though un-
fortunately only one of his letters during that long period has been
preserved.1 Moreover, he then was, had been for some years before,
and continued to be for some years afterwards, a magistrate of
Massachusetts.2 Finally, it can be shown that in the autumn
of 1642 he visited both Germany and the Low Countries — a fact of
which we should be ignorant but for the accident that the goods and
books he shipped from Hamburg to Amsterdam were captured by a
Dunkirker. In a letter dated at the Hague, November 1, 1642, Sir
William Boswell, British resident at that place, wrote to Sir Henry
De Vic, British agent at Brussels, as follows:
There is one Mr John Wenthrop, a Suff : gentlem. and student in
Physiq., who coming lately fro Hamburgh into these pts, by land,
embarqd vpon a shippe of y* towne, bownd for Amstrdam, a chest, con-
teyning in it apparell, books, & other ncies appertaining soly to him, &
his personal! vse, no way contrebanded, wch a ship of Dunikerk (or other
place of Flaridres) toke at sea, & haue brought into y* or other port of
Flandres. Whereupon my earnest suit vnto you is to lend Mr Wenthrope
yor aduise & assistance, as shalbe requisit, for ye recouery of his sd goods,
for wch himself (if possible) or frend, whom he employes for this end, will
wait vp5 you.3
General Court voted to pay his bill of £50, " except what is already paid " (Massa-
chusetts Colony Records, ii. 47).
1 This is the letter, dated Bristol, October 8, 1641, cited above, p. 10 note 2.
1 He was elected a magistrate in 1632, and for the years 1634-1649, both
included: see Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 95, 118, 145, 174, 195, 228, 256,
288, 319, ii. 33, 66, 97, 146, 187, 238, 265, iii. 2, 9, 61, 104, 121, 146. His friends
in England did not fail to note this honor. "I understand," wrote Francis
Kirby on March 26, 1633, "that you are an Assistant and so have a voice in the
weighty affaires of that Commonwealth" (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections,
ix. 260).
1 Winthrop Papers, iii. 323.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 165
It has already been said that Comenius was in England in 1642.
What took him there can best be told in his own words:
After the Pansophus Prodromus had been published and dispersed
through various kingdoms of Europe, many of the learned approved of
the object and plan of the work, but despaired of its ever being accom-
plished by one man alone, and therefore advised that a college of learned
men should be instituted to carry it into effect. Mr. S. Hartlib, who had
forwarded the publication of the Pansophioe Prodromus in England,1
laboured earnestly in this matter, and endeavoured, by every possible
means, to bring together for this purpose a number of men of intellectual
activity. And at length, having found one or two, he invited me also,
with many very strong entreaties. As my friends consented to my
departure [from Lissa], I proceeded to London, and arrived there on the
day of the autumnal equinox, 1641, and I then learned that I had been
called thither by an order of Parliament. But in consequence of the
King's having gone to Scotland, the Parliament had been dismissed for
three months, and consequently I had to winter in London, my friends
in the meantime examining the "Apparatus Philosophicus," small
though it was at that time. ... At length Parliament having assembled,
and my presence being known, I was commanded to wait until after some
important business having been transacted, a Commission should be
issued to certain wise and learned men, from amongst themselves, to
hear me, and be informed of my plan. As an earnest, moreover, of then*
intentions, they communicated to me their purpose to assign to us a
college with revenues, whence some men of learning and industry,
selected from any nation, might be honourably sustained, either for a
certain number of years, or in perpetuity. The Savoy in London, and
beyond London, Winchester, and again near the city, Chelsea, were
severally mentioned, and inventories of the latter, and of its revenues,
were communicated to me. So that nothing seemed more certain than
that the design of the great Verulam to open a Universal College of all
nations, devoted solely to the advancement of the sciences was now in
the way of being carried into effect. But a rumour that Ireland was in a
state of commotion, and that more than 200,000 of the English there had
been slaughtered in one night, the sudden departure of the King from
London, and the clear indications that a most cruel war was on the
point of breaking out, threw all these plans into confusion, and com-
pelled me and my friends to hasten our return.*
1 This had been published by Hartlib at London in 1639.
1 R. H. Quick, Essays on Educational Reformers, 1868, pp. 47-49.
166 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
The object of Comenius's visit to England having failed, "his
position was unpleasant. On the strength of Hartlib's invitation
and assurance that funds would be forthcoming, he had given up
his post in Lissa. Hopes of universal colleges and pecuniary support
were now vanishing into thin air, and he found himself with baffled
expectations, a wife and daughters to support, and a rapidly empty-
ing purse." 1 At this time he is said, but perhaps on uncertain au-
thority, to have been asked by Marin Mersenne 2 to go to France,
but declined. But an invitation to go to Sweden, given by Ludwig
de Geer, a Dutch merchant then living at Norrkoping, Sweden, was
accepted. Leaving London in June, 1642, Comenius, apparently
by way of Holland and Germany, reached Norrkoping in August,
and was almost at once summoned to Stockholm by Chancellor
Oxenstiern, after which he took up his residence at Elbing in Prussia,
which he reached in November.3 Though there is no proof that
Comenius and Winthrop met in 1641-1642, yet attention should
be called to certain coincidences. They both reached England in
the same month — September, 1641. The former had come on the
invitation of Samuel Hartlib, who later was a personal friend and
correspondent of Winthrop's and may well have been so in 1642.4
Both remained in England some seven months, both were in Hol-
land and Germany in the summer or autumn of 1642.6 Indeed, it
1 Keatinge, The Great Didactic of Comenius, pp. 47-48.
1 Mersenne is mentioned in letters of Sir Charles Cavendish to Dr. Pell,
February 5, 1642 (Vaughan, Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, ii. 346); of Sir
William Petty to Dr. Pell, November 8, 1645 (id. ii. 367-368); and of Boyle
to Hartlib, March 19, May 8, 1647 (Boyle's Works, 1772, vol. i. pp. xxxviii,
xli).
1 According to Keatinge (The Great Didactic of Comenius, pp. 49, 50-51,
53), Comenius apparently returned from Stockholm to Norrkoping, then made a
preliminary visit to Elbing, then went to Lissa "to take final leave of his scholastic
and clerical duties," etc., and finally settled at Elbing in November.
« See pp. 171-174, below.
5 John Humfrey left Boston in the autumn of 1641 and hi a letter to Winthrop
dated Weymouth, England, July 21, 1642, said: "You are a thousand times well-
come home, ... I beseech you if you see the wind chops about contrarie, &
hold there, come downe, I will beare your charges of the Post, & you shall doe
no worse (but as much better as you will & I can helpe it) then I. Indeede I thinke
you should have beene with us before. . . . Good deare loving Sagamore, let
us have your companie if possible" (Winthrop Papers, i. 18-19). This would
seem to indicate that Winthrop was in London in July, 1642. On the other hand,
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 167
is quite within the bounds of possibility that they were travelling
companions for a portion of Comenius's journey from London to
Norrkoping.
Before the decision of Comenius to accept the invitation to Sweden
was reached, may not Winthrop have suggested to Comenius his
coming to America? No formal offer of the presidency of Harvard
could have been made, because no vacancy occurred in the office
from the time of Dunster's appointment on August 27, 1640, to his
resignation on October 24, 1654. But this does not preclude the
possibility that the matter was discussed between Comenius and
Winthrop, the latter suggesting that when a vacancy did occur the
place might be offered to the former. It has been objected that
Winthrop had no authority to make an offer. "I fail to find," says
Mr. Monroe, "that he had anything to do with the management of
Harvard College." l This objection is not so serious as it seems.
The first board of Overseers, appointed on November 20, 1637, con-
sisted of six magistrates, among them Governor John Winthrop of
Massachusetts, and six ministers; and on September 27, 1642, the
board was reorganized so as to include the magistrates and
the teaching elders of the six next adjoining towns. Thus from
that date until 1650, the younger Winthrop was entitled as a magis-
trate2 to take his seat as an Overseer, though whether he ever did
so is not known. But it is to be remembered that in the early days
of the College, the legislature constantly took a hand in the man-
agement of its affairs,8 even to the ignoring of the College charter
itself. By that instrument, dated May 31, 1650, the Corporation
consisted of a President, a Treasurer, and five Fellows, and the
Corporation was authorized "to elect a new President, Fellows, or
Treasurer, so oft, and from time to time, as any of the said persons
Winthrop's letter to Humfrey announcing his own arrival in England may have
been written weeks before its receipt by Humfrey. All we know for certain of
Winthrop's movements in the summer and autumn of 1642 is that he was in
Germany and the Low Countries in October and November.
1 Educational Review, xii. 380.
1 See p. 164 note 2, above.
1 On October 18, 1654, the General Court (Massachusetts Colony Records,
iii. 204) appointed as Overseers John Allin of Dedham, John Norton of Boston,
Samuel Whiting of Lynn, and Thomas Cobb«t of Lynn, though none of them
were eligible under the act of 1642.
168
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
shall die or be removed." Nevertheless, as we have already seen,
Dunster's final resignation in 1654 was made to the Overseers, the
selection and the election of his successor was placed by the General
Court wholly in the hands of the Overseers, and even Chauncy's
successor in 1672 may have been elected not by the Corporation
but by the Overseers.1 Indeed, nearly a quarter of a century went
by before the Corporation exercised what now is its unquestioned
right "to elect a new President." Thus the influence of the
younger Winthrop as a magistrate and as the son of the Governor
of Massachusetts would have been much greater than as a Fellow,
had he held that position, since for many years the Fellows were
practically merely Tutors.
The pastime of picking flaws in Cotton Mather's statements is
too easy to afford much amusement. The passage under discussion,
it seems to me, is distinctly one the basis for which is to be found in
a tradition. A college boy of thirteen when the younger Winthrop
died in 1676, Mather of course could not have derived the informa-
tion from Winthrop himself. But Mather was an intimate friend
of the younger Winthrop's sons John and Wait and of Wait's son
John,2 preaching a funeral sermon on each of the two former (in
1707 and 1717 respectively3); through his father Increase Mather
and his grandfather Richard Mather, the latter of whom became an
Overseer in 1642 and took an active part in the selection of Dunster's
successor in 1654, he must have been saturated with all the gossip
pertaining to Harvard College; and he appears to have made rather
a specialty of the traditions of the Winthrop family. This was
readily acknowledged by the late Robert C. Winthrop, who in 1864
wrote: "Now, Cotton Mather was certainly in the way of knowing
something about the facts which he states in regard to the Winthrop
1 See p. 367, below.
* In a letter to John Winthrop, F.R.S., dated December 10, 1707, Cotton
Mather said: "If there be a Family in the World, which I have endeavoured
alwayes to treat with all possible service and Honour, tis the Winthropian. If
there be a person in that Family, for whose welfare, I have even travailed with
Agony tis You; whereof the walls of a certain Biblioihecula in the World, are but
some of the many witnesses" (Mather Papers,'p. 405).
* These sermons, after the fashion of their kind, contain no biographical data
of value.
1919]
COMENIU& AND HARVARD COLLEGE
169
Family. . . . The family traditions, at least, must thus have been
abundantly familiar to him." l
I have endeavored to set forth, of course merely as a conjecture,
a possible explanation of Mather's story that may be plausible.
It should be added that another suggestion has been made in a ques-
tion recently asked me by a correspondent. " Do you not think,"
he writes, "that the projected college at New Haven was the one
really concerned? " Sporadic efforts to found a college at New Haven
were made between 1648 and about 1660,2 after which nothing
further is heard of the affair for many years.3 Cotton Mather was
not born until 1663, and it is doubtful in the extreme whether he had
ever heard of these abortive efforts. At all events, there can be no
possible doubt that in his mind it was Harvard College over which
Comenius was asked to preside. His exact words are, "and Illumi-
nate this Colledge" — that is, Harvard College, of which (and which
alone) he was writing the history,4 which was the only college in
existence not only in New England but in this country 6 during the
1 Life and Letters of John Winthrop, i. 12. With regard to one story, told
by Mather about the younger Winthrop, Mr. Winthrop, though pointing out
errors hi detail, concludes that "doubtless it must have had some foundation in
fact" (i. 27). And of the same story the late Frederick J. Kingsbury said: "Of
late years, however, it has become the fashion to throw doubt on anything
related by Cotton Mather. But it should be remembered that Mather did not
write as a historian but as a collector of interesting events which in any way
had come to his knowledge illustrating the life of his times. Doubtless Mather
had heard this story and there is no reason why it should not be true" (Proceed-
ings American Antiquarian Society, April, 1898, xii. 306).
1 See New Haven Colonial Records, i. 376, ii. 141, 141 note, 370; B. Trumbull,
History of Connecticut, 1797, i. 305-306, 566-571; Palfrey, History of New
England, i. 237, 373; HoUister, History of Connecticut, ii. 567-568, 577; E. E.
Atwater, History of the Colony of New Haven, pp. 271-285; B. C. Steiner,
History of Guilford and Madison, pp. 394-395.
* Yale College was incorporated October 19, 1701, but was not established hi
New Haven until October, 1716 (F. B. Dexter, Historical Papers, 1918, pp. 366-
381). For the controversy that occurred over the will of Governor Hopkins, see
Charles P. Bowditch's "Account of the Trust administered by the Trustees of
the Charity of Edward Hopkins" (1889).
4 The title-page of Book IV reads in part as follows: "The Fourth Book of the
New-English History. Containing An Account of the University, From whence the
Churches of New-England, (and many other Churches) have been Illuminated."
And the heading on p. 125 reads, "The History of Harvard-Colledge." In 1728
Mather specifically stated "Harvard College:" see p. 155, above.
• William and Mary College was founded in 1693.
170
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
lifetime of the younger Winthrop, and the only one in New England
at the time when Mather's passage * was written.2 In 1634-1635
and in 1641-1643 Winthrop could hardly have invited Comenius to
be head of an institution which was not thought of until 1648.
John Davenport was one of those who pushed the scheme hi 1660,
at which tune Winthrop was Governor of Connecticut3 and must
have known about his friend's cherished plan. But hi 1661 Comenius
was, as already stated, a man of nearly seventy.
Three other questions may be asked, the replies to which will not
be without interest. First, was Comenius personally known to any
of his New England contemporaries? So far as direct evidence is
concerned, this question must be answered hi the negative.4 Never-
1 Though not published until 1702, the Magnalia was finished on August 20,
1697, and sent to London on June 8, 1700 (C. Mather, Diary, i. 226, 229, 255,
352-353).
1 Even had Mather spoken merely of "the College,"' there could be no possible
doubt of his meaning Harvard. In his Life of Theophilus Eaton, Mather says:
"His Eldest Son he maintained at the Colledge until he proceeded Master of Arts "
(Magnalia, bk. ii. chap, be, § 9, p. 28), the allusion being to Samuel Eaton, who
graduated at Harvard in 1649. In 1690 was published Mather's "The Wonderful
Works of God Commemorated. ... In a Thanksgiving Sermon: Delivered on
Decemb. 19, 1689." The epistle dedicatory to Sir Henry Ashurst contains the
words: "And Sir, . . . you will pardon it if One born in that Countrey, and a
Son of the Colledge there, take the Liberty to acquaint you, Thai we are not in-
sensible," etc.
In September, 1644, the Rev. Thomas Shepard presented to the Commission-
ers of the United Colonies a proposition "for the mayntenance of poore Schollers
at the Colledg at Cambridge," whereby "euery famyly (wch is able and willing
to giue) throughout the plantacons to giue yearely but the fourth part of a bushell
of Corne, or somethinge equivolent therevnto" (Plymouth Colony Records,
ix. 20-21). This proposition was recommended by the Commissioners and was
favorably acted on by various of the "plantations." On November 11, 1644,
the New Haven Colony "fully approved off" "the propositio for the releife of
poore schollars att the colledge att Cambridg;" on March 16, 1646, "It was
propownded that the free gift of corne to the colledge might be continued as it
was the last year; " and thereafter are various allusions to "corne to the colledge"
or to "the colledge corne," where "the college" meant not the proposed college
at New Haven but Harvard College (New Haven Colonial Records, i. 149, 210,
225, 311, 318, 354, 357, 382). See also Connecticut Colonial Records, i. 112,
139, 250.
* Winthrop was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1657 and in 1659-1675,
both included. He resigned in 1667, 1670, and 1675 (Winthrop Papers, iv. 121,
137, 168-169), but his resignation was not accepted in the two former years
(Connecticut Colonial Records, ii. 62, 64, 145).
4 In a matter of this sort, negative evidence must be received with caution.
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
171
theless, it is not only possible but probable that Comenius was known
personally to the younger Winthrop, and he may well have met,
especially during his residence at Amsterdam from 1656 to 1670,
other New Englanders.
Secondly, did Comenius correspond with any of his New England
contemporaries?1 It was Samuel Hartlib who had invited Comenius
to come to England in 1641, and less than twenty years later Hartlib
and Winthrop were on terms of intimate friendship. How long had
this friendship lasted? On April 15, 1661 — or several months
before he went to England in that year — Winthrop wrote to Thomas
Lake : " I make bold w^ you to transmitt by your hand to Colonell
Temple those books . . . wch you will receive heerwth (want of fitt
artists heere must be my excuse that they appeare in that dessolate
forme) ; they were sent me before winter, from the great intelligence
of Europe, Mr Samuell Hartleb, a Germa gentlema, as conteinig
something of novelty." In a letter to William (afterwards Lord)
Brereton dated November 6, 1663, Winthrop spoke of some proposals
"wch I had formerly hinted to Mr Hartlib in a letter fro home"3 —
that is, before his departure for England in 1661. In a letter to
W'inthrop dated September 3, 1661, Hartlib, evidently not knowing
that his correspondent would arrive in London that very month,4
said: "Our Publique Miseries and my privat condition (to speak of
no Particulars at present) are such that yet I must answer briefely
your most loving Letters of Octob. 25, 1660 & May 10, 1661. I
heartily thank you again for ye barrel of Cramburies wch was very
safely delivered to mee. The present of the Indian Come I have not
received to this day, but professe mys. highly oblieged to your gener-
ous courtesy."6 In a letter to Winthrop dated August 11, 1660,
John Davenport said :
It has already been pointed out that very few letters written by the younger
Winthrop during his three tripe to Europe have been preserved, and in those
extant there is not the slightest allusion to his having been in Holland: yet we
know with certainty that he was there in 1642 and 1661.
1 It need scarcely be pointed out that in those days, as in these, New England
scholars had an extensive correspondence with foreign scholars whom they never
met, a notable instance being Cotton Mather himself, who never left America.
1 Winthrop Papers, iv. 73-74.
1 iv. 86.
* See p. 160, above.
' 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 212. "
172 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
My Brother Hooke l is valetudinarious, . . . His letter I send in-
closed, with some others, and one from Mr Hartlib, who thinckes you
live in this plantacon, and hath sent a large wrighting unsealed, that I
might peruse it, which though I want time to read over, I choose rather
to send it to you, then to detaine it. He hath sent also sundry wrightings,
and bookes, some to your selfe, some to me. But I cannot heare of them,
in the pinnases, which makes me doubt, they are stayed in the Bay,
at Mr Usher's,2 which I the rather suspect, because Mr Hartlib, and
brother Hooke certifie me that Mr Dury 3 also hath sent some papers
and bookes to the 2 Teaching Elders at Boston, and to me.4
Thus Winthrop and Hartlib were in correspondence before August,
1660, in which year Winthrop wrote "most loving letters," clearly
showing that the two men must have been friends of long standing.
In a letter to Winthrop dated August 19, 1659, Davenport wrote:
I shall onely, at present, add that since my wrighting to you, I have
received letters & bookes, & written papers from my ancient and hon-
oured freinds Mr. Hartlib, & Mr. Durie,6 wherein I finde sundry rarities
1 Rev. William Hook (1600-1677).
1 Hezekiah Usher.
1 This name is printed "Drury," but an examination of the original letter
shows that Davenport plainly wrote "Dury." See the next note but one.
* 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 38.
6 The Rev. John Durie (or Dury), though he never came to this country, was
well known to the New England clergy, and may well have been known per-
sonally to Winthrop, — if so, he would be another link connecting Winthrop and
Hartlib. ("This day Mrs. Dury with her husband went from hence to ...
Chester; from whence they intend to give a visit to Sir Richard Saltonstatt at
Wrexham:" Hartlib to Dr. Keffler, August 10, 1658, in Boyle's Works, 1772,'
vi. 113.) The Rev. John Norton of Boston died in 1663, and the next year was
published at our Cambridge "Three Choice and Profitable Sermons," to which
was appended "A Copy of the Letter Returned by the Ministers of New-England
to Mr. John Dury about his Pacification. Faithfully Translated out of the
Original Manuscript written in Latine, By the Reverend Author of the Three
former Sermons." The preface, which mentions "the late Synod 1662," is signed
by forty-four persons — President Chauncy, four Fellows of Harvard College,
and thirty-nine ministers. Mather says: "The Three Sermons thus Published
. . . are accompanied with the Translation of a Letter, which was composed in
Latin by Mr. Norton, and subscribed by more than Forty of the Ministers, on
this Occasion. The famous John Dury having from the Year 1635. been most
indifatigably labouring for a Pacification, between the Reformed Churches in
Europe, communicated his Design to the Ministers of New-England, requesting
their Concurrence and Countenance unto his Generous Undertaking. In answer
to Him, this Letter was written" (Magnalia, bk. iii. pt. i. chap. ii. § 25, p. 39).
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
173
of inventions, & projects for common good, of sundry kindes, which I
long for an opportunitie to communicate to your selfe, might your first
leasure give us an occasion of personal discourse together. They are
too many to be transmitted unto you by passengers, & yet such as, I
beleive, will affoard singular contentment to your publick spirit, & prob-
ably you will finde some particularities among them, which may be
advantagious to your private proffit, in the improvement of your
Fishers Island, &C.1
And on December 6, 1659, Davenport again referred to the books
mentioned in the letter just quoted :
Norton's original letter was written before 1661 (in which year the Rev. Ezekiel
Rogers, one of the signers, died), and in 1738 was in the possession of Samuel
Mather. Extracts from it were quoted by Cotton Mather in the Magnalia
(see the reference above), and it was reprinted in full by Samuel Mather in his
Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in New England (1738), pp. 151-166.
Davenport called Durie his "ancient and honored friend." They had doubt-
less met in Holland in 1633-1636. Durie was the son of Robert Durie, who in
1609 became the first pastor of the English Presbyterian Church at Ley den;
on August 3, 1611, at the age of twelve, he was admitted a student at Leyden
University (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 58) ; after the death of his
father in 1616 he returned to England; from 1628 to 1633 he was in Germany and
Holland; on December 17, 1633, he was in London (Calendar of State Papers,
Domestic, 1633-1634, p. 329); in 1634 he was in Germany, then again in England,
and in July, 1635, he started for the Continent and "laboured for a year in the
Netherlands:" see the notice of him in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Durie's daughter married Henry Oldenburg, a friend of the younger Winthrop's.
Davenport took refuge in November, 1633, in Holland, where he remained until
late in 1636 or early in 1637, and reached Boston in June of the latter year: see
tho notices of him in the Dictionary of National Biography, and in F. B. Dexter's
Historical Papers (1918), pp. 31-58. In 1738 Samuel Mather wrote: "I might
fitly subjoin to the Letter foregoing [Norton's letter to Durie] another Letter
of the famous Mr. JOHN DAVENPORT Batchelor of Divinity, who was Minister
of New Haven and afterwards Pastor of the first Church in Boston New-England,
to the pious DURT upon the same Occasion that the foregoing Letter was written;
which Letter was signed by the Ministers of Connecticut Colony. . . . But, lest
the Appendix should swell too much upon us, I consent to the dropping it.
N. B. As I signified concerning the former Letter; so I would advertize concern-
ing this, that if any Gentleman or others desire to see the Original Copy of it, I
have it at their Service" (Apology, etc., p. 166). Portions of Davenport's letter
were quoted by Cotton Mather in the Magnalia, bk. iii. pt. i. chap. iv. § 9,
pp. 54-55.
It may be added that Davenport, while in Holland, corresponded with Sir
William Boswell: see Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xlii. 228,
234; and cf. p. 164, above.
1 Winthrop Papers, ii. 504-505.
174
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
The booke concerning bees, which you desired, I now send you, l.y
John Palmer,1 & with it 3 others, viz., 1. An Office of Address, 2. An
Invention of Engines of Motion, 3. A Discourse for divisions & setting
out of Landes in the best forme, &c. These 3 are small bookes in 4*°:
I shall add unto them a 4th booke in 8°, called Chymical, Medicinal, &
Chirurgical Addresses. These are a few of many more which are sent
to me. I hoped for an opportunity of shewing them to you here, &
shall reserve them for you til a good opportunity.*
The "booke concerning bees," which Winthrop "desired," was no
doubt Hartlib's Reformed Common-Wealth of Bees, and the other
four books were all edited or published by him.3
Hence in 1659 Hartlib was an "ancient and honored friend" of
Davenport's. May he not also have been an "ancient and honored
friend" of Winthrop's? Various facts indicate that such a conclu-
sion is highly probable. Winthrop himself spoke of Hartlib as "the
great intelligence of Europe," a position acquired by him soon after
his coming from Germany to England about 1628; and "no person,"
as our associate Professor Kittredge puts it in a letter to me, of " John
Winthrop, Jr.'s scientific interests, family position, and character,
if in England at all, could have escaped Hartlib's acquaintance."
It will be recalled that in 1642 Sir William Boswell characterized
Winthrop not as an American colonist, not as a New Englander, not
even as the son of the Governor of Massachusetts, but as "a Suffolk
gentleman and student in physic."* Winthrop's studies had begun
at an early age. In 1628 he was giving medical advice; 5 before he left
England in 1631 he was corresponding with Edward Howes on medical
and chemical subjects;6 immediately on his arrival here he was re-
quested to send over some "Indian creatures alive;"7 by 1636 he
was known to the Kefflers (or Kufflers), who were correspondents
GO
That is, John Palmer was the bearer of the books.
Winthrop Papers, ii. 509.
See H. Dirck, Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib (1865), pp. 58, 59,
65, 77, 82, 83.
See p. 164, above.
Winthrop Papers, iv. 7.
Winthrop Papers, i. 468-472.
Henry Jacie to Winthrop, January 9, 1632 (3 Massachusetts Historical
Collections, i. 235).
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 175
of Hartlib;1 and before 1641 he was well known to Dr. Robert Child,2
who was also a personal friend of Hartlib 's.3 In a letter to Winthrop
dated January 31, 1655, Sir Kenelm Digby, who knew all the scien-
tific men in England, declared that he would not let " the fauourable
conueyance of Mr Downing . . . escape me without saluting you,
to reuiue me in yr remembrance, and to wittnesse that j retaine faith-
fully the respects j haue euer had for you since j haue had the happi-
nesse to be acquainted wth yr great worth," hoped that "att my
coming into England,4 j should haue had the comfort of finding you
here," urged Winthrop "to delay no further time in making yr owne
country happy by returning to it," and expressed his "great affec-
tion."6 Obviously, the friendship here had been of long standing.
1 Winthrop Papers, ii. 17, 18. A letter from Abraham Keffler (written in
1639) is printed in Winthrop Papers, iii. 270-271; and one from Dr. John Sibert
Keffler (written in 1659) in iii. 382-383. Both men are referred to in Digby's letter
of January 26, 1656 (3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 16), and the latter
in Winthrop's letter of November 12, 1668 (Winthrop Papers, iv. 136). Mr.
Kittredge, to whom I am indebted for information about the Kefflers, thinks that
Winthrop must have met Abraham Keffler in the Rochelle expedition, in which
both men were engaged — Keffler as an expert in explosives (Calendar of State
Papers, Domestic, 1628-1629, pp. 148, 161; 1629-1631, pp. 212, 215). In 1638
the latter received a grant of denization in England (id. 1638-1639, p. 176).
1 In a letter undated but written on or shortly after May 2, 1641, Child ac-
knowledged letters from Winthrop, and wished to be remembered to "yor father,
Mr Dudley, Mr Bellingham, Mr Humphreys, Mr Cotton, Mr Wilson, Mr Peters,
unto whome I am much beholde" (Winthrop Papers, iii. 149, 151), showing that
he was well acquainted with many of the chief men in New England before
Winthrop's visit to Europe in 1641. He had first come to this country between
1638 and 1641 (see p. 7, above). If, as Savage thinks (3 Massachusetts Historical
Collections, viii. 247; Genealogical Dictionary, i. 379), the Robert Child who
matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, at Easter, 1628, and pro-
ceeded A. B. in 1631-2 and A. M. in 1635 (Venn, Matriculations and Degrees,
p. 147), was our Dr. Robert Child, then the latter and Forth Winthrop (the
brother of John Winthrop, Jr.) may well have met at Cambridge; for Forth
Winthrop entered Emmanuel College in 1626 (see p. 156 note 5, above) and re-
mained there during 1627 and a part of 1628. From a letter to his brother undated
but written in the spring of 1628 (Winthrop Papers, iv. 192-195), it appears that
Forth Winthrop was still at,Emmanuel.
* In a passage published in 1655 but written as early as 1653 or 1654, Child
calls Winthrop "our" — that is, his and Hartlib's — friend: see p. 112, above.
4 Digby had returned to England for a time in January, 1654: see T. Longue-
ville, Life of Sir Kenelm Digby (1896), p. 278. He was at Hartlib's house on
May 14, 1654 (Boyle's Works, 1772, vi. 89).
1 3 Massachusetts Historical Collections, x. 5-6. In a letter to Winthrop
176
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Another early link between Winthrop and Hartlib is found in George
Stirk, afterwards famous in Europe under the name of Starkey.
When sent here from Bermuda, he was committed to the special care
of Governor Winthrop of Massachustts;1 he graduated from Har-
vard College in 1646; he was practising medicine in Boston in 1647
and 1648;2 while here he doubtless made the acquaintance of Dr.
Robert Child through the younger Winthrop; on going to England he
met Robert Boyle certainly as early as 1652, perhaps in 165 1,8
having been presented to him by Child;4 almost immediately after
his arrival in England Stirk, as Cardilucius testifies,6 made Hartlib's
acquaintance (which is also acknowledged by Hartlib in letters
written hi 1654);6 and in 1655 Stirk contributed two letters to
Hartlib's Reformed Common- Wealth of Bees.7
In his letter to Winthrop of September 3, 1661, Hartlib said: "Mr.
Comenius is continualy diverted by particular Controversies of So-
cinians & others from his main Pansophical Work, but some weekes
agoe hee wrote that hee would no more engage hims. in any Particu-
lar Controversy, but would refer yem all to his Pansophical Worke." 8
dated March 3, 1655, Hugh Peters said that "Sir Kenelme Digby . . . longs
for you here " (Winthrop Papers, i. 116). It is worth noting that in a letter dated
Leghorn, July 14, 1628, Winthrop wrote: "there is newes . . . from Marseilea
that the Duke de Guise is come to sea with 4 gallioones & 12 sailes of gallies, it
is supposed to meete with Sir Chillam Digby, who hath taken 3 or 4 Frenchmen,
hath beene at Algiers, & redeemed some 20 or 30 Christian slaves, hath mand
his prizes, & is gone againe towards the bottom" (Winthrop Papers, iv. 10).
Winthrop Papers, iii. 279.
iii. 353, 359.
George Starkey 's Pill Vindicated.
Stirk's dedication, to Boyle, of Pyrotechny Asserted, published in 1658.
Cardilucius calls Hartlib his "good friend:" "Und hat ihn [a certain Latin
tract] Heir G.S. [i.e. George Stirk] vom Authore mit aus West-Indien bracht,
und solchen alsofort meinem guten Freunde Herrn S.H. ubergeben, von dannen
ich ihn etliche Jahr hernach bekommen " (Magnalia Medico-Chymica Continuata,
1680, Vorbericht, p. 4).
• Hartlib to Boyle, February 28, 1654, December 8, 1657, in Boyle's Works,
vi. 78-83, 97.
7 For this information about Stirk I am again indebted to Mr. Kittredge.
8 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 213. This is the only
reference to Comenius in either the Proceedings or the Collections of the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society. His name does not occur in A. P. C. Griffin's Bibliog-
raphy of American Historical Societies (1907). Mr. Monroe says (Educational
Review, xii. 381) that "the only reference to Comenius in connection with the
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
177
It is reasonable to suppose that Comenius and Winthrop met in
1661, for both were then at Amsterdam, the former was famous,
while the latter was the most distinguished American then living;
and it is probable in the extreme that they met in 1642. But however
that may be, we are not left to conjecture as to the fact of Winthrop 's
having corresponded with Comenius as well as with Hartlib. The
John Winthrop who graduated from Harvard College in 1700 is
usually, to distinguish him from others of the same name, called
John Winthrop, F.R.S., though no fewer than three John Winthrops
were Fellows of the Royal Society.1 The Harvard graduate of 1700
was the son of Wait Winthrop, who was the son of John Winthrop, Jr.2
In 1741 was published the fortieth volume of the Philosophical
Transactions, with a dedication written by Dr. Cromwell Morti-
mer, then Secretary of the Royal Society. This dedication "To the
names of any of the Winthrops occurs" in the letter quoted in our text, but there
is one other important reference: see p. 178, below.
1 These were John Winthrop, Jr. ; John Winthrop, who graduated at Harvard
in 1700; and John Winthrop, who graduated at Harvard in 1732. The last is
usually called Professor John Winthrop, but sometimes John Winthrop, LL.D.,
because he was the first person to receive (hi 1773) that degree from Harvard
College: see our Publications, vii. 321-329.
* The following table shows the relationships at a glance:
JOHN WINTHROP
1587-1649
Governor of Massachusetts
JOHN WINTHROP, Jr., F.R.S. ADAM WINTHROP
1606-1676 1620-1652
Governor of Connecticut
1 1
JOHN WINTHROP WAIT WINTHROP
1638-1707 1642-1717
Governor of Connecticut
ADAM WINTHROP
1647-1700
H. C. 1668
1
P
JOHN WINTHROP, F.R.S.
1681-1747
H. C. 1700
ADAM WINTHROP
1676-1743
H. C. 1694
JOHN WINTHROP, LL.D., F.R.S.
1714-1779
H. C. 1732
Hollis Professor of Mathematics and
Natural Philosophy
178 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Honourable John Winthrop, Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society, &c.
&c.," reads in part as follows:
SIR,
PERSONAL Friendships and Favours are become the trite Topics
of Dedications and public Addresses, as if it concerned the Public
to have upon Record the mutual Regard, private Persons may
have to each other: Therefore without expatiating here, so far as Grati-
tude might lead me, on the many Favours you have honour'd me with, I
shall confine myself to the Relation Your Illustrious Grandfather had,
and Yourself have, to the ROYAL SOCIETY.
No sooner were the Sciences revived at the Beginning of the last
Century, and that Natural Knowledge began to be thought a Study
worthy a real Philosopher, but the ingenious JOHN WINTHROP, Esq;
your Grandfather, distinguish'd himself in the highest Rank of learned
Men, by the early Acquaintance he contracted with the most Eminent
not only at Home, but in his Travels all over Europe, by the strict Corre-
spondence he afterwards cultivated with them, and by several learned
Pieces he composed in Natural Philosophy; which indeed his innate
Modesty would not suffer him to publish immediately, and when pre-
vailed on by Friends to impart some of them to the Public, he concealed
his Name, not being solicitous of the Reputation they might reflect on
their Author.1
And in a footnote to the words "the strict Correspondence he after-
wards cultivated," Dr. Mortimer adds: "As might appear from the
great Treasure of curious Letters on various learned Subjects still in
your Hands, E. gr. from . . . Ds. Comenius. . . . Many of which
you have given me the Pleasure of perusing; besides a great Number
which it would take up too much Room here to recite." Dr. Mortimer's
list of Winthrop's correspondents contains the names of no less than
eighty-two distinguished persons, among them Boyle, Lord Brooke,
Clarendon, Charles II,Cromwell,"SirKenelmDigby, Galileo, Glauber,
Hartlib, van Helmont, Kepler, Dr. J. S. Kuffeler,2 Milton, Sir Isaac
Newton, Oldenburg, Dr. Pell,3 Prince Rupert, Lord Saye and Sele,
Dr. George Starkie, and Sir Christopher Wren. As Galileo died in
1 My attention was called to this dedication by Mr. Kittredge.
* See p. 175 note 1, above.
1 See p. 161, above.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 179
1642, van Helmont in 1644, and Kepler in 1630, Winthrop must
have begun early to correspond with celebrated men.
The succession of the Winthrop papers was presumably from Gov-
ernor John Winthrop of Massachusetts to his son, John Winthrop, Jr. ;
from John Winthrop, Jr., to his son, John Winthrop; from the lat-
ter John Winthrop, who had no son, to his brother Wait Winthrop;
and from Wait Winthrop to his son, John Winthrop, F.R.S. If the
letter or letters that passed between the younger John Winthrop
and Comenius — letters which were in existence in 1741, which
very likely had been seen by Dr. Mortimer, and which may perfectly
well have been seen by Mather — are ever recovered, who knows
but what they will corroborate Cotton Mather's discredited story
at least to the extent of proving that a discussion or correspondence
took place between Winthrop and Comenius in regard to the latter's
coming to this country and becoming President of Harvard when a
vacancy occurred?
Thirdly, to what extent were Comenius's works known to New
England scholars and used in New England schools and colleges in the
seventeenth century and early in the eighteenth century? Did his
fame, as was asserted in 1892, reach "even far distant America"?1
On this point there is an abundance of evidence. " Though Comenius
himself did not come to America," remarks Mr. Hanus, "his text-
books, especially the Janua, did come. They seem to have been used
as text-books here in Massachusetts; perhaps in Harvard College
itself, more probably in the Boston Latin School."8 It was not
the text-books alone, however, that early found their way across the
Atlantic. John Harvard, as is well known, came to New England in
1637 and died in 1638, leaving half of his estate and all of his books
to the infant College. In the list of the latter is "Anchorani porta
linguanim."4 Our associate Mr. Potter6 thinks that this was un-
doubtedly the copy of Comenius's Porta Linguarum Trilinguis pub-
1 It is only fair to add that Tycho Brahe, whose name occurs in the list, died
in 1601, and hence that letters from him which were in the possession of John
Winthrop, F.R.S., could not have been addressed to John Winthrop, Jr.
1 See p. 148, above.
1 Educational Aims and Educational Values, p. 209.
« College Book i. 264.
• See p. 195, below.
180; THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
lished at London in 1631 and listed in the Catalogue printed in 1723,
where (as in the above list) it is entered under the name of the editor,
Joannes Anchoranus.1 Thus within two years after the founding
of the College and within one year after its actual beginning, the
College owned at least one of Comenius's works. The Catalogue
of 1723 gives three other books by Comenius,2 but of course it is
impossible to say how long they had been in the library. In the in-
ventory of the estate of William Tyng, made on May 25, 1653, is
found a copy of " Janua Linguarum." 8 The Rev. Samuel Lee, who
died in 1691 and whose library was sold in Boston in 1693, owned
two of Comenius's works — "Comenij Physica" and "History of
the Bohemian Persecution."4 Jn his letter to Winthrop of Septem-
ber 3, 1661, which, it will be remembered, contained an allusion to
Comenius,5 Hartlib said :
I beseech you to remember my most hearty respects & services to that
Reverend & most pretious Servant of God Mr. Davinport, to whom I
cannot write for the present, but have sent him by these ships a smal
Packet directed to his name with a Book or two of the Bohemian Ch-
Government, & some Prophetical Papers, wch were sent to mee from my
deare friend Mr. Dury,6 who is now at Amsterdam . . . The fore-said
Booke is called — De Bono Unitatis et Ordinis Disciplinceq. ac Obedientics
In Ecclesia rede constituta vel constituenda. Ecclesice Bohemicce ad Angli-
canam Parcenisis. Cum prcemissa Ordinis ac Disciplines in Ecclesiis
F. F. Bohem. Usitatae Descriptione."1
This book by Comenius was published at Amsterdam in 1660. A
copy of the same book was bought by Increase Mather in London,
was sent to his father in January, 1661, and is now owned by the
1 Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae Collegij Harvardini (1723), p. 67.
* Janua Linguarum Reserata, 2d edition, Lissa, 1632; Janua Linguarum Gr.
& Lat., Amsterdam, 1642; Janua Linguarum Trilinguis, London, 1662 (Catalogus,
p. 74).
1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxx. 432. This refer-
ence came to me from Mr. Thomas G. Wright.
4 The Library of the Late Reverend and Learned Mr. Samuel Lee (1693),
pp. 11, 13. The History of the Bohemian Persecution, London, 1650, was a
translation of Comenius's Historia Persecutionum Ecclesiae Bohemicse, published
in 1648.
1 See p. 176, above.
* See p. 172 note 5, above.
T 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 212, 213.
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
181
American Antiquarian Society.1 It bears on a fly-leaf the following
inscription:2
1 In Proceedings American Antiquarian Society, xx. 322, the title-page is
said to be wanting and the title is wrongly given — a mistake due to the fact
that the book is in two parts, separately paged, and the title-page is bound in in
the wrong place. There being some doubt as to the identity of the book, Mr.
Brigham kindly sent it to me for my inspection.
A translation of Comenius's De Bono Unitatis et Ordinis, etc., was published
in London in 1661 under the title of An Exhortation of the Churches of Bohemia
to the Church of England, etc. There is a copy in the Yale University Library,
but with no clues to ownership.
1 To those who have struggled with Increase Mather's small and difficult
handwriting, the inscription will seem surprisingly large and legible. The Me
182
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Many books by Comenius have found their way to American
libraries, some of which are worthy of notice.1 Several were owned
by different members of the Mather family.2 In the Boston Athe-
chusetts Historical Society owns a copy of the Bible printed at London in 1599,
one of the fly-leaves of which is nearly filled with memoranda in the hand of
Increase Mather. First comes the signature "Crescentius Mather;" thentheworda
"I was marryed y8 6 day of y6 1 moneth being y* fifth day of ye week 166J;"
then other entries coming down as late as 1710. The signature at the top is nearly
as large as that of the facsimile, after which the hand dwindles in size.
With regard to the words "ccelu non solu," found in the inscription, Mr.
Kittredge writes me: "Horace says, 'Caelum non animum mutant qui trans
mare currunt,' and this became so proverbial that 'caelum non animum' by
itself was an intelligible motto. I take it that ' caelum non solum ' imitates this.
'I have changed climate (or clime), but am still an Englishman, not having
changed my natale solum, since New England is really England.' "
1 I have examined those owned by the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Public
Library, the Congregational Library, the Harvard College Library, and the
Massachusetts Historical Society. Our associate Mr. Brigham has sent informa-
tion about those owned by the American Antiquarian Society. The late Mr.
Thomas G. Wright of New Haven, at my request, kindly examined those in the
Yale University Library. Some of the copies contain notes or signatures not with-
out interest — showing, for instance, that the books were apparently used at the
English universities — but which have no bearing on the question under dis-
cussion.
• Professor Hanus describes (Educational Review, iii. 235 note; Educational
Aims and Educational Values, p. 209 note) several, but by no means all, of the
copies in the Harvard College Library. In an article, quoted by Mr. Hanus, on
"Boston as an Educational Centre," the late Arthur Oilman, speaking of Co-
menius, said:
"The connection of the great pioneer among pedagogical reformers with
Boston is not fanciful, though it may at first sight appear so. The writer has
before him a copy of the 'Gate of Languages,' printed in London in 1670. Fifty
years after its publication it was the property of the writer's great-grandfather,
a graduate of Harvard College in the Class of 1724. Following the family line,
it belonged in 1813 to one of the writer's uncles, who graduated from Phillips
Academy, at Exeter, in that year, and went out of Harvard a member of the
Class of 1818. It seems to have been a text-book in the college, and there are
other worn and stained copies in the library" (Christian Union, July 4, 1891,
xliv. 53 note).
Mr. Oilman's relatives were the Rev. Nicholas Gilman (1708-1748, H. C.
1724), who "went to the Latin School at Newburyport, at eight years of age,"
and Joseph Gilman (1792-1823, H. C. 1818): see A. Gilman, Gilman Family
(1869), pp. 55-64, 166.
J Two of these, besides the De Bono Unitatis et Ordinis, etc., are now in the
American Antiquarian Society (Proceedings, xx. 322). The Massachusetts
Historical Society owns a volume once the property of Cotton Mather containing
Physicse ad Lumen divinum Refonnatse Synopsis (1643), Pansophue Prodromua
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 183
nseum is a copy of Historia Revelationum (1659), which has three
signatures on the title-page: "J G Percival," who of course was
James Gates Percival; "Richard Salters," which is the autograph of
the Rev. Richard Salter who graduated at Harvard College in 1739;
and "John Norton," here reproduced:1
The Boston Public Library has a copy of Janua Linguarum
Trilinguis (London, 1685) which has on the title-page the words
"Ex libris Thomse Berry 1710;" and on the first page of the Praefatio,
in the hand of Judge Sewall, the words "August. 17. 1703;" and
also the signatures "losephum Sevallum," "John Rogers," and
"Josephum Sevallum" again, the last two with a line through each.
Thomas Berry of the Class of 1685 married Margaret Rogers,
daughter of President John Rogers (H. C. 1649), and their son
Thomas Berry graduated at Harvard in 1712.2 Perhaps the book
belonged to the elder Thomas Berry and passed from him to his
brother-in-law John Rogers of the Class of 1684, or to the latter's
son, John Rogers of the Class of 171 1.3 Joseph Sewall entered the
Boston Public Latin School in 1696 4 and graduated at Harvard
in 1707. Judge Sewall describes how he took his son to Cambridge:
Second-day of the week, Aug* 16, 1703. In the Afternoon I had
Joseph in a Calash from Charlestown to Cambridge, carried only his
little Trunk with us with a few Books and Linen; Went into Hall and
heard Mr. Willard6 expound the 123 [Psalm]. "Tis the first exercise
(1644), and De Sermonis Latin! Studio (1644); and also a copy of De Zelo Sine
Bcientia &, charitatc, Admonitio Fraterna J. A. Comenii ad D. Samuelem Mare-
sium (1659), which once belonged to Cotton Mather or to his son Samuel Mather
or to both.
1 This is not the autograph either of the Rev. John Norton of Boston or of
his nephew the Rev. John Norton (H. C. 1671) of Hingham, and I have been
unable to identify the writer.
* Sibley, Harvard Graduates, iii. 334-335. After the death of the elder
Thomas Berry in 1695, his widow Margaret married in 1697 John Leverett
(H.C. 1680).
* Or, of course, the book may originally have belonged to John Rogers of the
Class of 1684, and then have come into the possession of the elder Thomas Berry.
« Catalogue of the Boston Public Latin School (1886), p. 41.
1 Rev. Samuel Willard (H. C. 1659), then Vice-President of the College.
184
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
of this [College] year, and the first time of Joseph's going to prayer in
the Hall.
Aug* 23. 1703. I went to Cambridge to see Joseph settled in his study,
help'd to open his Chest.1
The Judge may have taken the book out to Joseph on August 23.
A copy in the Yale University Library of Janua Linguarum
Reserata (London, 1672) has on a fly-leaf the words "Timothy
Stevens his Book, Anno 1681." It is a fair guess that this was the
Rev. Timothy Stevens who graduated at Harvard in the Class of
1687 and settled at Glastonbury, Connecticut.2
In the same library is a copy of "A Reformation of Schooles, De-
signed in two excellent Treatises: . . . translated into English, and
published by Samuel Hartlib, for the general good of this Nation"
(London, 1642), on a fly-leaf of which are the words "Sam1 Andrews,
his booke." This may well have belonged to the Rev. Samuel
Andrew who graduated at Harvard in 1681, settled at Milford,
Connecticut, and became Rector of Yale College;3 or to his son
Samuel Andrew, who graduated at Yale in 171 1;4 or to the latter 's
son Samuel Andrew, who graduated at Yale in 1739 and to whom
his grandfather in 1717 left by will his library.6
It is the Harvard College Library, however, that owns the largest
number of books by Comenius, most of which were given to the
College soon after the destruction of the library by fire in 1764.6
The chief benefactors in this line were the Rev. John Barnard of
Marblehead of the Class of 1700, and Middlecott Cooke of the Class
of 1723. The latter was a son of Elisha Cooke (H. C. 1697), who was
a son of Elisha Cooke (H. C. 1657), who was a son of Richard Cooke.
Diary, ii. 87.
Sibley, Harvard Graduates, iii. 386-388.
Sibley, Harvard Graduates, ii. 457-462.
F. B. Dexter, Yale Annals and Biographies, i. 101-102.
i. 621.
Besides the books mentioned in the text, the fly-leaf at the end of a copy of
Janua Linguarum Reserata (London, 1673) contains the entry: "This belonged
to Middlecott Cooke the G. Son of the immortal Elisha Cooke & son of Elisha
Cooke, a family that guided Mass, for 80 years by their virtue and patriotism.
One of the best of Books in itself considered." This book was "The Gift of
Edward Soley, of Charlestown, Senior Sophister. 1827," who graduated in
1828.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 185
A copy of Janua Linguarum Reserata (London, 1650) has on a fly-
leaf "Elisha Cooke his Booke;" in another place "Elkanah Cooke
his B;" on another fly-leaf "Elkanah Cooke;" and finally, on the
same fly-leaf as the last, the following:
Elkanah Cooke was a younger brother of the first Elisha Cooke,
and no doubt the book was used by them at the Boston Public Latin
School.1 Born in 1640 or 1641, 2 Elkanah Cooke signed documents in
1656, 1658, and 1660,3 after which all trace of him is lost, and, as he
is not mentioned in the will of his father, dated December 18,
1673,4 the presumption is that he died young.
Among the many Comenius books given by the Rev. John Bar-
nard is a copy of Physicse ad Lumen divinum Reformat® Synopsis
(Amsterdam, 1645), on the fly-leaves of which are written "John
Barnard Ejus Liber Anno Domini 1693;" and "John Barnard His
Book Anno Dom 1696;" and also the following:
1 The name of Elkanah Cooke is not found in the Catalogue (1886) of the
School, but the early records are very defective. The two Elisha Cookes and
Middlecott Cooke are entered under the years 1646, 1686, and 1712, as probable
scholars (pp. 40, 41, 43).
* New England Historical and Genealogical Register, ii. 78; Savage, Genea-
logical Dictionary, i. 445, 449; Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, ix. 10.
1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, viii. 277, 353, nod. 105;
Suffolk Deeds, iii. 413.
« Suffolk Probate Files, no. 670.
186
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
John Barnard entered the Boston Public Latin School in 1689,1
and graduated at Harvard in the Class of 1700. John Swift gradu-
ated at Harvard in 1697.
On a fly-leaf at the beginning of a copy of Janua Aurea Linguanim
(Amsterdam, 1649) is inscribed:
Davenport: Sr these are to entreat you to step up to Swans study and
drink a glass of ale
So I rest yours to serve
JN° PHILLIPS
"From the Quinquennial Catalogue," remarks Mr. Hanus, "it ap-
pears that John Phillips was a member of the class of 1735, John
Davenport [who graduated in 1721] was a tutor from 1728 to 1732,
and Josiah Swan was a member of the class of 1733. If these are the
worthies named on the fly-leaf it looks as if the freshman was in-
duced to ask the tutor to step up to the junior's study for liquid
refreshments. Those must have been happy times!"
On fly-leaves at the end of the same book is written:
We have here what is perhaps the only extant autograph 2 of an
Indian student at Harvard College in the seventeenth century — a
student, moreover, of whom, oddly enough, the younger Winthrop
himself gave a very interesting account. In a letter to Robert Boyle
dated November 3, 1663, Winthrop wrote:
I make bold to send heere inclosed a kind of Rarity, the first perhaps
that your honor hath scene of that sort from such hands : it is two papers
of latin composed by two Indians now scollars in the Colledge in this
Country, & the writing is wth their owne hands. If your hon* shall
1 Catalogue (1886), p. 41.
1 The names of "Joel Jacoomis" and "Caleb Chesecheamuck " are attached
as witnesses to a deposition dated January 20, 1664, in Massachusetts Archives,
lix. 186; but that document is a copy, and hence the names are not autographs.
1919]
COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE
187
iudge it worth the notice of the Gentleme of the honbto Corporation l
& ye Royall Society, you may be pleased to give y™ a view of it. Possibly
as a novelty of that kind it may be acceptable, being a reall fruit of
that hopefull worke that is begu amongst them, and therewth may
please to give me leave to have my humble service presented to them,
testifying thus much that I received them of those Indians out of their
owne hands, & had ready answers fro them in latin to many questions
that I propounded to them in y* language, & heard them both expresse
severall sentences in Greeke also. I doubt not but those honorable
fautores Scientiaru will gladly receive the intelligence of such vestigia
dodrince in this Wildernesse amongst such a barbarous people : I humbly
crave your excuse for deteining your honr with these Indian matters,
it is but fit once this being ye first of such kind y* has beene represented
from this remote p* of y* world, otherwise should not have presumed
upon your patience.1
The two Indians whose exercises were thought worthy of being
sent to the Royal Society, though apparently not hitherto identified,
were unquestionably Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck and Joel Jacoomis,
both of the Class of 1665. The former duly graduated, being the
only Indian whose name adorns the Quinquennial Catalogue, though
by that fatality which seemed to pursue the educated Indians he
died of consumption the following year; while Joel met with a tragic
death shortly before the Commencement at which he was to have
graduated. Their story, as written by Daniel Gookin in 1674, is
worth repeating:
At the island of Nope, or Martha's Vineyard, about the year 1649,
one of the first Indians that embraced the Christian religion on that
island, named Hiacoomes' who is living at this day, and a principal
1 Corporation for Propagating the Gospel in New England, now known as
the New England Company, of which Boyle was then Governor. For the many
names by which this society has been called, see our Publications, vi. 180 note 2.
* 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi. 218-219. It is also
printed, with slight differences, in Winthrop Papers, iv. 84-85.
* Cotton' Mather speaks of, this Indian, calling him "I-a-coomes" (Magnalia,
bk. vi. chap. vi. sect, ii, p. 63). Elsewhere he is called "Hiacombs," "Hiacoms,"
"lacomoes," "Jacomes," "Jacoms," and "Sacomas" (Plymouth Colony Records,
x. 167, 210, 245, 262, 277, 405, 405 note). Cf. p. 260, below.
It will be observed that Joel spells his name " J:acoomis," and " Jacomis." In
the list of temporary students at Harvard College printed in our Publications
188 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
teacher among them, and is a grave and serious Christian, and hath had
a great blessing since upon his posterity; for his sons and his daughters
are pious, and one, if not more of his sons, teachers to them; and his eldest
son, called Joel, of whom we shall speak afterwards, was bred a scholar
at Cambridge in New-England, and was not only a good and diligent
student, but a pious man, — though he was taken away by death, before
he came to maturity. . . .
There was much cost out of the Corporation stock expended in this
work, for fitting and preparing the Indian youth to be learned and able
preachers unto their countrymen. Their diet, apparel, books, and
schooling, was chargeable. In truth the design was prudent, notable,
and good; but it proved ineffectual to the ends proposed. For several
of the said youth died, after they had been sundry years at learning, and
made good proficiency therein. Others were disheartened and left
learning, after they were almost ready for the college. . . .
I remember but only two of them all, that lived in the college at
Cambridge; the one named Joel, the other, Caleb; both natives of
Martha's Vineyard. These two were hopefull young men, especially
Joel, being so ripe in learning, that he should, within a few months, have
taken his first degree of bachelor of art in the college. He took a voyage
to Martha's Vineyard to visit his father and kindred, a little before the
commencement; but upon his return back in a vessel, with other passen-
gers and mariners, suffered shipwreck upon -the island of Nantucket;
where the bark was found put on shore; and in all probability the people
in it came on shore alive, but afterwards were murthered by some
wicked Indians of that place; who, for lucre of the spoil in the vessel, which
was laden with goods, thus cruelly destroyed the people in it; for which
fault some of those Indians was convicted and executed afterwards.1
Thus perished our hopeful young prophet Joel. He was a good scholar
and a pious man, as I judge. I knew him well ; for he lived and was taught
in the same town where I dwell.2 I observed him for several years,
after he was grown to years of discretion, to be not only a diligent
(xvii. 285 note), the name appears as " Jacoms," that being the form found in a
monitor's bill of the period: see 1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society,
x. 403-408; F. B. Dexter, Historical Papers, pp. 1^5.
1 In a document dated May 11, 1665, Edward Rawson said: "there are
eight Indian youths, one whereof is in the colledg, & ready to comence batchiler
of art, besides another, in the like capacity, a few months since, Vth seuerall
English, was murdered by the Indians at Nantucket" (Massachusetts Colony
Records, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 198).
1 Cambridge.
1919] COMENIUS AND HARVARD COLLEGE 189
student, but an attentive hearer of God's word; diligently writing the
sermons, and frequenting lectures; grave and sober in his conver-
sation.
The other called Caleb, not long after he took his degree of bachelor of
art at Cambridge in New-England, died of a consumption at Charles-
town, where he was placed by Mr. Thomas Danforth, who had inspection
over him, under the care of a physician in order to his health; where he
wanted not for the best means the country could afford, both of food
and physick; but God denied the blessing, and put a period to his
days.1
Finally, the New York Society Library owns two of Comenius's
books which no doubt were once in the possession of the younger
Winthrop — indeed, may possibly have been given to him by Co-
menius himself. These are Physicse ad Lumen divinum Reformatse
Synopsis (Amsterdam, 1645), and Janua Linguarum (London,
1652).*
Nor were the scholars of New England content with merely buying
the works of Comenius or with using them at school or college, —
they also studied them and quoted them in their own books. Thus
in "A Defence of the Answer and Arguments of the Synod Met
at Boston in the Year 1662. Concerning The Subject of Baptism
and Consociation of Churches," published at our Cambridge in
1664, Richard Mather more than once cited Comenius's Ratio
Discipline.3 In his Discourse Concerning the Subject of Baptisme,
published at Cambridge in 1675, Increase Mather wrote:
1 Historical Collections of the Indians in New England, in 1 Massachusetts
Historical Collections, i. 154-155, 172, 173. For Caleb, see also Sibley, Harvard
Graduates, ii. 201-204.
1 Alphabetical and Analytical Catalogue of the New York Society Library
(1850), p. 494, to which my attention was called by Mr. Wright. The so-called
Winthrop Library is catalogued on pp. 491-505, there being 269 titles. " This
Ancient and Curious Collection of Books was presented by the late Francis B.
Winthrop, Esq; they were the property of his distinguished ancestor, John Winthrop,
the Founder of Connecticut" (p. 491). This statement is not strictly accurate, for
I have noted at least fifteen books which were not published until after the
death of John Winthrop, Jr: Nevertheless, it is reasonable to suppose that the
two books in question did belong to the younger Winthrop, though Mr. F. B.
Bigclow (the librarian) kindly informs me that "The two volumes of Comenius
contain no mss. notes."
» Pp. 20, 28.
190 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
n Ratio ordin. As for those pure Churches, which (n) for a
Pratr. Bohem. p. j^g tjme flourished in Bohemia, Commenius
tesifyeth concerning them, that (discipline
subjacent omnes a sine ad Infantem) even Chil-
dren as well as others were under discipline.1
How Cotton Mather in a book published in 1726 imitated in his title
the same work by Comenius has already been pointed out.2 And
in 1738 Samuel Mather cited the same work.8
Whatever may be thought of the views expressed in this paper,
at least there can be no doubt that the fame of Comenius did indeed
reach "even far distant America."
Mr. ALFRED C. POTTER made the following communi-
cation :
CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY
In the Record Book of Harvard College known as College Book
No. I there occurs on pages 264-258 a list of the books bequeathed
to the College by John Harvard.4 This list, formerly erroneously
supposed to be in the handwriting of President Dunster, bears the
following heading:
Catalogus Librorii quos dedit Dominus n^Suif CoUePJ*
hujus Patronus.
The change from "Hervertus" to "Harvardus" shows a curious
uncertainty in the mind of the writer as to at least the Latin form of
the benefactor's name. The list comprises 250 entries, each num-
bered in pencil in a later hand. These are very brief, usually con-
fined to a single line, but on the other hand often including several
works by an author and occasionally books by more than one author.
The entries are made usually under the author but sometimes under
the title, with no attempt at uniformity. The arrangement is alpha-
1 P. 29. In some preliminary words "To the Reader," Mather said: "The
Judicious Reader will remember that this was written . . . tn America; where I
could not by any means come by the sight of some Books more fully discovering the
practice of Antiquity respecting the controverted Question. Yet such as I had, I
have spared no pains in revolving."
1 See p. 155, above.
* Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in New England, p. 174,
4 See our Publications, xv. 158-166.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 191
betical only under the first letter. The nature of many of the entries
would indicate that the binder's titles were used, and some of the
errors make at least plausible the suggestion that the list was taken
down by dictation.
Some years ago our colleague Mr. Andrew McF. Davis printed
this list, with identification of many of the baffling titles.1 But for
his excellent pioneer work the present writer would never have under-
taken the task of compiling a catalogue of John Harvard's library.
The Catalogue of the College Library published in 1723 2 has been
one of the main sources of identification, for it is a fairly safe assump-
tion that if a title given in the Harvard list reappears in this Cata-
logue it Is the book and edition that John Harvard owned. Rather
over half of the titles have thus been found. Unfortunately, this
Catalogue gives only the briefest of titles, often hard to recognize
owing to abbreviation, and has many misprints, especially in the
dates. Beyond these sources, the usual library catalogues and
bibliographies have been used, e.g., the catalogues of the British
Museum, the Bodleian, Trinity College (Dublin), the Bibliotheque
Nationale, and the bibliographies of Lowndes, Watt, Jocher, etc.
And occasionally some bookseller's catalogue would by chance
furnish a clue to a cryptic title. But there still remain some forty
titles that are either wholly unidentified or whose identification is
uncertain. Some of these are from entries that are so vague as to
render any attempt to discover the book out of the question: see
" Christianity " (no. 58), " H " (no. 15), and " N. Test. Lat." (no. 157).
Others, " Chareus in Epist." (no. 61), or " Household Phys." (no. 104),
ought to be found, but so far have eluded my researches.
The size of Harvard's library has been variously estimated.
Quincy 8 said there were 260 volumes; Mr. Davis in 1888 4 gave the
number as "evidently over 300," but twenty years later revised his
figures and said there were 373 volumes.6 This confusion arises
partly from counting titles rather than volumes and partly from the
1 A few Notes concerning the Records of Harvard College. Library of Harvard
University, Bibliographical Contributions, No. 27, 1888, pp. 7-13.
1 Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecse Collegij Harvardini quod est Cantabrigia
in Nova Anglia. Bostoni Nov-Anglorum: MDCCXXIII.
» History of Harvard University (1840), i. 10.
4 A few Notes, etc., p. 6.
1 John Harvard's Life in America, in our Publications, xii. 33 n.
192 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
uncertainty in the list itself. A count made from the present attempt
at a catalogue shows that there were 400 volumes, representing 329
titles.
But one, or at most two, of John Harvard's books escaped the
fire that destroyed the Library in 1764: Downame's Christian War-
fare against the Devill, World and Flesh (no. 78), and, possibly,
the English Statutes of 1587 (no. 69). But many of the others have
been replaced from time to time, until now the Library (including
the Andover-Harvard Theological Library) has over sixty per cent
of the identified titles. Attempts have been made of recent years
to pick up the rest, but without much success. Lists have been sent
the rounds of the English booksellers with only meagre results. One
dealer told me he recognized many of the titles as those of books he
had sold for waste paper. Of the books now represented in the Li-
brary, 111 are the same editions that Harvard had and 85 are in other
but contemporary editions.
A few words may be given to the general character of the books as
revealed by -the catalogue. Nearly three-quarters of the collection
is theological. About half of these consist of biblical commentary,
about equally divided between the Old and the New Testaments,
and mainly in Latin. While there are a number of volumes of ser-
mons, there is comparatively little of religious controversy. The
works of several Jesuit writers stand out among those of Puritan
divines. The classics are well represented, — often, rather curiously,
in English translations, as Chapman's Homer, Holland's Pliny, and
North's Plutarch. There are a number of grammars and dictionaries,
Greek, Hebrew, and English, and half a dozen books of extracts, or
phrases, as Ocland's Anglorum Prselia, La Primaudaye's French
Academy, and Peacham's Garden of Eloquence. These last are
probably among the books of Harvard's schoolboy days. English
literature and history find scanty place in this library, — Bacon's
Essays and the poems of Quarles and Wither representing the former,
and Camden's Remaines and a tract on the Plague and another on
the Gunpowder Plot (see nos. 132 and 158) covering the latter field.
There is some science, some scholastic philosophy, and several medi-
cal books. A few books on logic and two on law are also to be found
in the collection. It is worth noting that 86 books, or over one-
fourth of the whole library, were printed in or after 1630.
1919J CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 193
CATALOGUE1
1 Ambrosij Dixionariu.
CALEPINUS, AMBROSIUS. Dictionarium undecim linguarum.
Ed. 7. Basile*: 1627. f°. (Cat. 1723)
There were many other editions. H. C. L. has Basileae, n. d, 2 v. f°.
2 Antonius & Gralerus in Seneca.
SENECA. L. Annaei Senecse philosophi et M. A. Senecse rhetoris
quae extant opera. Parisiis: 1619. f°. (Cat. 1723)
The "Antonius" in the List probably stands for M. Antonius Muretua,
and the "Gralerus " is intended for Gruterus. Both of these commentators
were among the editors of the edition of Seneca noted above from the Cata-
logue of 1723, and it seems at least probable that this is the work meant
by the compiler of the List.
3 Abernethyes physick for the soule.
ABERNETHY, JOHN. *A Christian and heavenly treatise, con-
taining physicke for the soule. 3d ed. London: 1630. 8°. (Cat.
1723)
Entered twice in the List, — under both author and title: see no. 185.
4 Analysis Apocalypsews.
GRASERUS, CONRADUS. Plaga regia, hoc est Commentarium in
Apocalypsin Sancti Johannis. Tiguri: 1600. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
This identification is not certain.
5 Angloru prcelia.
OCLAND, CHRISTOPHER. *Anglorum pnelia. Londini: 1582.
16°. (Cat. 1723)
This work was appointed by Queen Elizabeth and her Privy Council to
be received and taught in every grammar and free-school within the
kingdom, "for the remouing of such lasciuious poets as are commonly
reade and taught in the said grammar schooles."
1 The following catalogue is arranged in the order of the original List, and the
first line of each entry reproduces the original verbatim. Then follow the fuller
titles as far as found, with any necessary notes.
Where a title has been found in the printed Catalogue of 1723, it is indicated
by the words "Cat. 1723" after the entry.
When the same edition of any work is now in the Harvard Library, an asterisk
precedes the title. If the book is now in the Library, but in a different edition,
the facts are given in a note.
194 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
6 Aquinatis Opa. Conclusiones.
AQUINAS, St. THOMAS. Opera omnia. Venetiis: 1593. 17 v.
f°. (Cat. 1723)
This is entered twice in the List: see no. 232.
AQUINAS, St. THOMAS. Totius summse conclusiones. Lugduni:
1613. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has edition of 1622.
7 Aynsworts workes.
AINSWORTH, HENRY. *Annotations upon the five bookes of
Moses, the booke of the Psalms, and the Song of Songs, or Can-
ticles. London: 1627. 3 pts. in 1 v. f°. (Cat. 1723)
Each part has a separate title-page, dated 1626, which is the date given
in the Catalogue of 1723.
8 Amesij Theologiae Medulla. De Consc: In Epistolas Petrj.
contra Armin : Bellarminus Enervatus.
AMES, WILLIAM. *Medulla theologise. Amstelodami. n. d.
(Cat. 1723)
AMES, WILLIAM. *De conscientia, libri quinque. Amstelodami:
1630. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
AMES, WILLIAM. *Utriusque Epistolae divi Petri Apostoli ex-
plicatio analytica. Amstelodami: 1635. 12°.
There was also an edition of 1625. The Catalogue of 1723 gives one of
the date of 1650.
AMES, WILLIAM. Coronis ad collationem Hagiensium, qua
argumenta pastorum Hollandise adversus remonstrantium quinque
articulos de divine prsedestinatione. Lugd. Bat. 1618. 4°.
This is probably the work meant by the brief entry in the List "Contra
Armin." There were also editions of 1628 and 1630. The Catalogue of
1723 quotes one of 1650. H. C. L. has edition of 1664.
AMES, WILLIAM. *Bellarminus enervatus. 3d ed. 4 torn, in 2.
Oxonise: 1629. 12°. (Cat. 1723)
9 Augustinj meditationes. Opa.
AUGUSTINE, Saint. Meditationes. Colonise: 1614. 12°.
There were also editions of 1631, etc. The work does not appear hi the
Catalogue of 1723.
AUGUSTINE, Saint. Opera. Paris: 1635-37. 11 vols. f°.
(Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of Basel, 1556. 10 v. f°.
1919]
CATALOGUE OF JOHN HAR\^JEU> 8 LIBRARY
195
10 Alstedij Physica Hannonia. Compendiu Thelogiae.
ALSTED, JOHANN HEINRICH. Physica harmonica. Herbornae:
1616. 12°.
This title, although clearly indicated in the List, does not appear in
the Catalogue of 1723, which gives his Logics systema harmonicum,
1628.
ALSTED, JOHANN HEINRICH. Compendium theologicum. Hano-
vi«: 1624. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
11 Apeius in Nov. Testam*.
. I have found no writer whose name resembles "Apeius." It has been
suggested that it is an error for Alexander Alesius, author of several com-
mentaries on different books of the New Testament. He does not appear
in the Catalogue of 1723.
12 Anatomy Arminianisme.
Du MOULIN, PIERRE. *The anatomy of Arminianisme: or the
opening of the controversies lately handled in the Low-Countryes,
concerning the doctrine of providence, of predestination, of the
death of Christ, of nature and grace. London: 1620. sm. 8°.
13 Anchorani porta linguarum.
COMENIUS, JOHANN AMOS. Porta linguarum trilinguis. London:
1631. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
This was edited by Joannes Anchoranus, under whose name the com-
piler of the List enters it. H. C. L. has the 3d edition, London, 1637.
14 Actus Synodi Nationalis.
DORT, Synod of. *Acta synodi nationalis
1620. f°. (Cat. 1723)
Lugd. Bat.
15 Acta Synodalia.
DORT, Synod of. *Acta et scripta synodalia Dordracena Mi-
nistrorum remonstrantium in Fosderato Belgio. Herderwiici.
1620. sm. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
16 Aschamj Epistolae.
ASCHAM, ROGER. Familiarum epistolarum libri tres. Londini:
1578. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has the edition of 1590.
The Catalogue of 1723 includes with this his "Apologia pro Cosna Domi-
nica," and so Davis in his List, but there is no other evidence that it was
in Harvard's library.
196
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
17 Arraingm* of the whole Creature.
[JEROME, STEPHEN.] *Arraignement of the whole creature at
the barre of religion. London: 1631. sm. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
18 Alicalj Emblemata
ALCIATI, ANDREA. Emblemata cum commentariis per Claud.
Minoem. Parisiis: 1583. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has the Paris edition of 1589.
19 jEsopi fabulse.
Fabulae.
London: 1624. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
20 jEgidius in Arist. Philos. & Metaph.
COLONNA, EGIDIO. Commentatiqnes physicce et metaphysicce.
Urseliis: 1604. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
21 Academia Gallica.
LA PRIMAUDATE, PIERRE DE. *The French academic, wherein
is discoursed the institution of maners, and whatsoever els con-
cerneth the good and happie life. . . . Translated into English
by T. B. London: 1594. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
Entered in the List under a Latin title, "Academia Gallica." This
work was written in French and does not appear ever to have been trans-
lated into Latin. This English translation (by Thomas Bowes) is in the
Catalogue of 1723, and furthermore is a work that frequently is included
hi the inventories of colonial libraries.
22 Bao-tXucop b&pov.
JAMES I. *Ba<ri\iKov 5a>pov, Or, His maiesties instructions to
his dearest sonne, Henry the prince. London: 1603. 12°.
There were several other editions.
23 Bezffi Test. N. cu Aimotat. Test. Greec. Lat. In Epist. ad Galat:.
Epfce.
BEZE, THEODORE. Novum Testamentum. Greece & Latine.
Ed. T. Beza. [Geneva]: 1565. 8°.
The Andover-Harvard Theological Library has a copy. The Catalogue
of 1723 has "Biblia S. Vet. Test., Junii et Tremellii, et Nov.j Testam,
Bezse. Amstel. 1628. 8°." See no. 43.
BEZE, THEODORE. In Epist. ad Galat.
BEZE, THEODORE. In Epist. ad Ephe.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 197
24 Baynes on Collos:. Ephes.
BAYNES, PAUL. Commentarie upon the first and second chap-
ters of S. Paul to the Collossians. London: 1635. 4°. (Cat.
1723)
H. C. L. has 1634 edition.
BAYNES, PAUL. Commentarie on Ephesians. London: 1618.
4°.
The Catalogue of 1723 has 1658 edition, probably a misprint for the
above.
25 Bethneri Gram: Hebraea.
BYTHNER, VICTORINUS. Grammatica Hebraea. Londini: 1635.
(Cat. 1723)
Title of 1638 edition now in H. C. L. : " Lingua eruditorum; hoc est, nova
et methodica institutio linguae sanctae."
26 Berchetj Catechismus.
CALVIN, JOHN. *Elementaria traditio Christianorum fidei, aut
Catechismus . . . et precum formulae. Omnia ... in Latinum
conversa . . . per T. Berchetum. Hanovise: 1628. 8°.
27 Buxtorfi. Dixionar. Hebr:. Gram: hebr:.
BUXTORF, JOHANN. *Lexicon Chaldaicum et Syriacum. Ba-
silese. 1622. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
BUXTORF, JOHANN. *Thesaums grammaticus linguae sanctae
hebraeae. Ed. 4*. Basileae: 1629. 8°.
There were also several other editions before 1637.
28 Beton displaying of ye popish Masse.
BECON, THOMAS. The displaying of the popish masse. London:
1637. 12°.
29 Bellarmin. de faelicitate sanctorii. In Psalm. In !• & 2s Epist:
ad Thessalon. Conciones.
BELLARMINO, ROBERTO. De aeterna felicitate sanctorum, libri
quinque. Amstelodami: 1616. 8°.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives an edition without place or date. There
were other editions besides that quoted above.
BELLARMINO, ROBERTO. Expositio in Psalmos. Colon: 1611.
4°. (Cat. 1723)
BELLARMINO, ROBERTO. In l*m & 2*™ Epist. ad Thessalon.
BELLARMINO, ROBERTO. Conciones habitae Lovanii ante annos
circiter quadraginta. Cameraci: 1617. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
198 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
30 Bolton in 4 volumnes.
BOLTON, ROBERT. *A discourse about the state of true happi-
nesse. 6th ed. London: 1631. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
BOLTON, ROBERT. ""Instructions for a right comforting afflicted
consciences, with antidotes against some grievous temptations.
London: 1631. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
BOLTON, ROBERT. "Three-fold treatise: containing the saints
sure and perpetuall guide. London: 1634. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
BOLTON, ROBERT. Some generall directions for a comfortable
walking with God. Ed. 4. London: 1634. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has the third edition, 1630.
31 Ball on faith.
BALL, JOHN. Treatise on faith. London: 1637. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1632.
32 Bastingius on Palatines Catechisme.
BASTINGIUS, JEREMIAS. Exposition or commentarie vpon the
Catechisme of the Christian religion ... in the Countie Palatine.
Cambridge: 1595. (Cat. 1723)
33 Brerewood on the Sabbath.
BREREWOOD, EDWARD. A learned treatise of the Sabaoth. Ox-
ford: 1630. 4°.
There were also editions in 1631 and 1632.
34 Bacons advancem*. Essayes.
BACON, FRANCIS. *Two bookes of the proficience and advance-
ment of learning divine and humane. Oxford: 1633. sm. 8°.
There were three editions, 1605, 1629, 1633.
BACON, FRANCIS. *Essayes or counsels, civill and morall. .Newly
enlarged. London: 1629. 8°.
There were twelve editions from 1597 to 1632. It seems probable that
Harvard's copies of the Essays and the Advancement of Learning were
bound together: in this case they would be likely to have been the Essays
of 1629 or 1632 and the Advancement of 1629 or 1633.
.35 Bannes in Arist: de Gen: & Corrup.
BANEZ, DOMINGO. Qusestiones & commentaria in duos libros
Aristotelis de generatione & corruptione. Colonise: 1616. 4°.
(Cat. 1723)
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 199
36 Bovilij Adagia.
*Adagia, id est: proverbiorum, paroemiarum et parabolarum
omnium, quse apud Graecos, Latinos, ... in usu fuerunt, collec-
tio. ... In qua continentur . . . Caroli Bovilli proverbia.
[Frankofurti a. M.] 1629. f°.
The work was edited by Johann Jacob Grynaeus. It is entered in the
List under Carolus Bovillus, the last of several authors mentioned on the
title-page. It does not appear in the Catalogue of 1723.
37 Bedse Axiomata Philosophica.
BEDE. *Axiomata philosophica, ex Aristotele & alijs preestanti-
bus philosophis diligenter collecta. Colonise: 1609. sm. 12°.
38 Brentius de parabolis.
BRENTZ, JOHANN. De parabolis.
39 Beards theatre of Gods judgm*".
BEARD, THOMAS. "Theatre of God's judgements. 3d ed.
London: 1631. 4°.
Other editions appeared in 1597,' 1612, and 1648. The Catalogue of
1723 gives the date 1651, probably a misprint.
40 Brerewoods Tractatus Logicus.
BREREWOOD, EDWARD. *Tractatus quidam logici de prsedi-
cabilibus et preedicamentis. Oxford: 1628. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
41 Brentij Pericopse &c.
BRENTZ, JOHANN. Pericopse Evangeliomm. Francofurti: 1559.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has the edition of 1556.
42 Bullingerus in Isaj.
BULLINQER, HEINRICH. Isaias excellentissimus Dei propheta
. . . expositus . . . authore H. B. Tiguri: 1567. f°.
43 Biblia Tremelij & Junij.
*Testamenti Veteris Biblia sacra . . . ab Imanuele Tremellio,
& Francisco Junio . . . Novi Testament!. . . . Ed. 7*. Hanoviae
1624, '23. f°. (Cat. 1723)
200
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
44 Bucani Institutiones. •
BUCANUS, GUUELMUS. *Institutiones theologicse, seu Locorum
communium christianee religionis analysis. Ed. postrema. Ge-
neva;: 1617. sm. 8°.
There were also editions in 1609 and 1630.
45 Bradshewes p'paration for the Sacram*.
BRADSHAW, WILLIAM. A preparation to the receiving of Christs
body and bloud. 7th ed. London: 1627. 12°.
The Catalogue of 1723 has an edition of 1643.
46 Broughton on the revelat: on Eccles. Positions on the Bible. On
Daniel, texts of Script, chronol. pamphlets.
BROUGHTON, HUGH. Revelation of the holy Apocalypse. Lon-
don: 1610. 4°.
BROUGHTON, HUGH. A comment upon Coheleth or Ecclesiastes.
London: 1605. 4°.
BROUGHTON, HUGH. Principall positions for grounds of the
holy Bible. London: 1609. 4°.
BROUGHTON, HUGH. *Daniel, with a brief explication. Hanaw:
1607. sm. 4°.
There were also several earlier editions published in London.
BROUGHTON, HUGH. Texts of scripture. London: 1591. 4°.
• BROUGHTON, HUGH. Sundry workes defending the certaintie
of the holy Chronicle, n. p. n. d. 4°.
The Catalogue of 1723 has Broughton's Works in one volume, folio, 1615.
47 Baylyes directions for health.
[VAUGHAN, SIR WILLIAM.] 'Directions for health. 6th ed.
Whereunto is annexed Two treatises of approved medicines for all
diseases of the eyes . . . the first written by Doctor Baily. Lon-
don: 1626. 4°.
As Walter Bayley's name is the only one on the title-page, the entry in
the List is easily explained. The book does not appear in the Catalogue
of 1723, and the above edition, which is now in H. C. L., may not be the
same one that John Harvard had.
48 Calvinus in Pent & Joshua. Sermons vpon Job in English.
prlectiones in Ezechiel. Institut. Religio. Christ. Tomus 4Ui
opu Theologicoru. Harmonia. In Prophetas min: I loin ilia
in Samuelem. In Epistolas Paulj. In Psalm.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 201
CALVIN, JOHN. In quinque Libros Mosis Commentarii . . .
ejusdem ... in Librum losue Commentarius. [Heidelberg.]
1595. f°. (Cat. 1723)
CALVIN, JOHN. Sermons upon the booke of Job. Translated
out of French by A. Golding. London: 1574. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1584.
CALVIN, JOHN. Pralectiones in Ezekielem. Geneva: 1616. f°.
(Cat. 1723)
CALVIN, JOHN. Institutio Christiana religionis. n. p. 1607.
f°. (Cat. 1723)
There is a copy of the edition of 1609 in the Andover-Harvard Theolog-
ical Library.
CALVIN, JOHN. Operum omnium theologicorum tomus quartus.
Geneva;: 1617. f°. (Cat. 1723)
CALVIN, JOHN. Harmonia e* tribus Evangelistis composita
Matthoo, Marco, et Luca. n. p. 1572. f°. (Cat. 1723)
There is a copy of the Geneva edition of 1582 in the Andover-Harvard
Theological Library.
CALVIN, JOHN. Prselectiones in duodecim Prophetas minores.
Geneva: 1610. f°. (Cat. 1723)
CALVIN, JOHN. "Homilies in primum librum Samuelis. Geneva:
1604. 1°. (Cat. 1723)
CALVIN, JOHN. *Commentarii in omnes Pauli apostoli epistolas.
Geneva: 1580. f°.
CALVIN, JOHN. In Librum Psalmorum commentarius. [Geneva?]:
1564. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
49 Camararij meditationes histor.
CAMERARIUS, PHILIPP. Meditationes historicae. Francofurti:
1624. (Cat. 1723)
50 Corradj Casus Consc.
CORRADUS, JOANNES BAPTISTA. Responsa ad cujuscunque pene
generalis casuum conscientia. Perusia: 1596. 8°
51 Church his God & man. Good mans treasure.
CHURCH, HENRY. Miscellanea philo-theologica: or, God and
man. London: 1637. 2 pts. 4°.
CHURCH, HENRY. Of the good mans treasury. London: 1636.
12°. (Cat. 1723)
202 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
52 Camdens remaines.
CAMDEN, WILLIAM. *Remaines concerning Britaine. London:
1637. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
53 Cleonardi
CLENARDUS, NICOLAUS. *Institutiones meditationes. Paris:
1566. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
The identification of this title is by no means certain; the entry has been
trimmed off by the binder, so as to be almost illegible. The title is gone
entirely, as well as the upper portion of the author's name.
54 Chysostinj homilia.
CHRYSOSTOM, Saint. Homiliae ad populum Antiochenum habitae.
London: 1590. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
55 Castanej Distinctiones.
CHASTEIGNER, HENRI Jx>uis. Synopsis distincrionum turn
philosophicarum, turn theologicanun. Col. Allobr.: 1618. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
56 Calliopseia.
DRAXE, THOMAS. Calliepeia; or, a rich store-house of proper,
choise and elegant Latine words and phrases, collected for the
most part out of all Tullies works. The second impression, en-
larged. London: 1613. 8°.
The Catalogue of 1723 includes a copy marked "Title page gone."
Other editions were published in 1612, 1618, 1625, 1631, and 1643. There
is a copy of the last in H. C. L. This work may be entered a second
tune in the List under the heading "Elegant Phrases," no. 89.
57 Chrystopolitanj opa.
This entry in the List is probably meant for Zacharias, Chrystopolitanus.
His name does not appear in the Catalogue of 1723, nor do his Opera seem
to have been published. His principal work was "In unum ex quatuor,
sive de concordia evangelistarum opus ab Ammonio redacta," 1535.
58 Christianity.
59 Corner j Psalteriu Lat:.
CORNERUS, CHRISTOPHORUS. Psalterium Latinum. n. p. 1578.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
60 Curiel in Epist. Thomee.
CUMEL, FRANCISCUS. Variarum disputationum tomi tres . . .
primus in primam partem S. Thomee . . . Lugduni: 1609. f°.
(Cat. 1723)
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 203
61 Chareus in Epist.
62 Cornelius de artibus & Scientijs. InEccles:. Prophetas majores,
& minoresi in Pent, in Epist: Paulj. in Acta. In Prov. in
7vol.
The compfler of the List has confused the German theologian and
mystic, Cornelius Agrippa, and the Jesuit, Cornelius a Lapide.
AGRIPPA, HEINRICH CORNELIUS. De incertitudine et vanitate
omnium scientiarum et artiurn liber, n. p. 1609. 8°. (Cat.
1723)
H. C. L. has editions published at Colonise in 1531 and 1575.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS A. Commantaria in Ecclesiasticum. Lug-
duni: 1634. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1638.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS A. Commentaria in Prophetas majores.
Paris: 1622. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1625.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS A. Commentaria in duodecim Prophetas
minores. Paris: 1630. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1628.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS X. Commentaria in Pentateuchum Mosis.
LutetiffiParisiorum: 1637. f°. (Cat. 1723)
. H. C. L. has an edition of 1618.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS A. In omnes divi Pauli Epistolas commen-
taria. Paris: 1631. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1692.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS A. Commentaria in Acta Apostolorum
. . . et Apocalypsin. Paris: 1631. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1627.
LAPIDE, CORNELIUS A. Commentaria in Proverbia Salomonis.
Antverpise: 1635. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1645.
63 Clavis grsec: Linguee.
LUBIN, EILHARD. Clavis grsecse linguae. London: 1620. 8°.
There was also an edition of 1629. H. C. L. has London, 1647.
64 Comentariu in Horatiu in Fol.
65 Coment: in 4 Euangel. & Acta Apost. On the Prov.
204 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
66 Cottons concordance.
COTTON, CLEMENT. ""Concordance to the Bible. London:
1631. f°.
67 Coment in Arist. Phys. de anima.
ZABARELLA, JACOPO. Commentarii in Aristotelis libros de
anima. Venetiis: 1605. f°. (Cat. 1723)
ZABARELLA, JACOPO. Commentarii in Aristotelis libros physi-
corum. Venetiis: 1605. f°. (Cat. 1723)
The Catalogue of 1723 gives the date as " 1650," — probably a mis-
print. The identification of the above two titles is not positive, as the entry
in the List is by title only. The second work may have been "Commen-
tariorum collegii Conimbricensis Societis Jesu in octo libros physicorum
AristoteUs prima [secunda] pars. Coloniac: 1616. 4°." This is also in
the Catalogue of 1723.
68 Cartwright in Eccles. & Prov.
CARTWRIGHT, THOMAS. *Metaphrasis et homilise in librum
Salomonis qui inscribitur Ecclesiastes. Marpurgi Cattorum:
1604. 16°.
CARTWRIGHT, THOMAS. *Commentarii succincti & dilucidi in
Proverbia Salomonis. Amstelodami: 1638. sm. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
69 Collection of statutes.
The whole volume of statutes at large . . . since Magna
Charta untill the 29th yeere of Ladie Elizabeth. London: 1587.
f°. (Cat. 1723)
The Catalogue of 1723 also gives a later volume of the Statutes from
35th of Elizabeth to 4th of Charles; but as the List does not indicate more
than one volume I quote only the former. The copy of this now in the
Harvard College Library was in the Library before the fire of 1764, and
may be John Harvard's own copy. But there are no marks of ownership
hi the book, nor is there, as in the case of Downame's Christian Warfare,
any tradition connecting it with him.
70 Conradus in Apocalyp.
CONRADUS, ALFONSUS. In Apocalypsim . . . Commentarius.
Basile«e: 1560. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
71 Carlton ag"* Pelag. & Armin.
CARLETON, GEORGE. *Examination of those things wherein the
author of the late Appeale holdeth the Doctrines of the Pelagians
and Arminians to be the Doctrines of the Church of England.
London: 1626. 4°.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 205
72 Chytreus in Apocal. in Levit. in Genes. Numer. in Deut. Ester.
Judices in 6 Tom.
CHYTILEUS, DAVID. Enarratio in Apocalypsin. Vitebergee:
1575. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
CHYTILEUS, DAVID. *Tertius Liber Moysis qui inscribitur
Leviticus. Vitebergae: 1575. 8°.
CHYTREUS, DAVID. In Genesin enarratio, recens recognita.
Vitebergae: 1568. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
CHYTREUS, [DAVID. Enarratio in Numeros et Josuam. Vite-
bergse: 1568. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
CHYTREUS, DAVID. Enarratio in Deuteronom. Vitebergae:
1575. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
CHYTREUS, DAVID. In Ester.
CHYTREUS, DAVID. Enarratio in Judic. et Evangel. Joannis.
Francofurti: 1589. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
i
73 Characciolus his life.
[BALBANI, NICCOLO.] *Newes from Italy of a second Moses, or
the Life of Galeacius Caracciolus, the noble marquisse of Vico.
Containing the story of his admirable conversion from popery.
Written first in Italian, thence translated into Latin by the Reve-
rend Beza, and for the benefit of our people put into English by
William Crashaw. London: 1608. 4°.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives the date as 1639, obviously too late to have
been in Harvard's library. Other editions were printed in 1612 and 1635.
74 Catin. Phrases.
Possibly this may be meant for some edition of the Dicta Catonis. An
English translation by Sir Richard Baker was published in 1636 under
the title "Cato variegatus, or Gate's Morall distichts: translated and
paraphrased with variations of expressing in English verse." It does not
appear in the Catalogue of 1723, and the identification is more than
doubtful.
75 Danej opa Theolog. Questiones. de salutaribus dej donis. in
Math, his comon Ethicks.
DANEAU, LAMBERT. *Opuscula omnia theologica. [Geneva]:
1583. f°. (Cat. 1723)
DANEAU, LAMBERT. Isagoges Christian® in Christanorum
theologorum locos communes Pars quarta. Genevee: 1586. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
Entered in the List as "Questiones de salutaribus Dei donis," which ia
contained in the fourth part of this work.
206
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
DANEAU, LAMBERT. In Evangelium domini nostri Jesu Christ!
secundum Matthaeum commentarii brevissimi. Rupellae: 1590.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1593.
DANEAU, LAMBERT. His common ethicks.
Perhaps his "Ethices christianae libri tres. Genevae. 1614. 8°."
find no English translation.
76 Dickson on hebr.
DICKSON, DAVID. *A short explanation of the Epistle of Paul
to the Hebrewes. Aberdene: 1635. 24°.
77 Dictionariu Anglic. HistoricQ. Geograp. Poeticu. Lat. Grcec.
ESTIENNE, CHARLES. *Dictionarium historicum, geographic
poeticum. Genevse: 1633. f°.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives only an edition of Oxford, 1671. The
Bibliotheque Nationale has 17 editions from 1561 to 1620. The copy of
the 1633 'edition [now in H. C. L. bears the autograph of President Ben-
jamin Wadsworth.
78 Douna his warfare.
DOWNAME (DOWNHAM), JOHN. *Christian warfare against the
devill, world and flesh. 4th edition. London: 1634-33. 4 pts.
inlv. f°.
The copy now hi the Harvard College Library is probably the only one
of John Harvard's books that survived the fire that destroyed the Library
in 1764. After this item in the List is written in pencil "Escaped when
the Library was burnt." Although there is no autograph or any other
early indication of his ownership, long tradition has held it to be Harvard's
own copy, and as such it is treasured. When the Library was moved into
the Widener Memorial Building in 1915, this was the first book to be car-
ried into the Library's new home. It is, however, possible that the "Vol-
ume of Statutes" of 1587 (no. 69) may also have been one of John Har-
vard's books.
79 Davenantius in Epist. ad Collos.
DAVENANT, JOHN. *Expositio epistolae Pauli ad Colossenses.
Cantabrigise: 1630. f°. (Cat. 1723) . .
80 Duns Scotus in 8 Libros Arist. Phys. «•• •
DUNS SCOTUS, JOANNES. In viii. libros Physicorum Aristotelis
qusestiones. Coloniae Agrippinae: 1618. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
81 Dove on the Cant.
DOVE, JOHN. The conversion of Solomon, being a commentary
on the book of the Canticles. London: 1613. f°.
..'\'.M
:
1919]
CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD S LIBRARY
207
82 Dike on the hart, his mischeife of Scandalls.
DYKE, DANIEL. *The mystery of selfe-deceiving, or a discourse
and discoverie of the deceitf ulnesse of man's heart. London : n. d.
4°. (Cat. 1723)
DYKE, JEREMIAH. *The mischief and miserie of scandals both
taken, and given. London: 1632. sm. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
83 Death subdued.
CROOKE, SAMUEL. Death subdued. London: 1619. (Cat.
1723)
84 Elton on the Comandmt§.
ELTON, EDWARD. *Gods holy mind ... or tenne commande-
ments. London: 1625. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
85 Epictetj Enchyridion.
EPICTETUS. Enchiridion, n. p. n. d. (Cat. 1723)
Probably in Latin. H. C. L. has an edition of 1585, etc.
86 Eustachij Philosophia.
EUSTACHIUS, o S. Paulo. Summa Philosophise quadripartita,
de rebus dialecticis, ethicis, physicis, & metaphysicis. Colonise:
1629. 8°.
There were several other early editions: H. C. L. has one printed at
Cambridge in 1648.
87 Euphoranius.
BARCLAY, JOHN. Euphonnionis] lusinini sive satyricon partes
quinque. Amstelodami: 1629. 24°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1637.
88 Erasmj Colloquia.
ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS. *Colloquia mine emendatiora. Lugd.
Bat. 1636. 24°.
This is not given in the Catalogue of 1723. There were many other
editions.
89 Elegant Phrases.
Davis suggests that this may be meant for the following title from the
Catalogue of 1723: "Hewes, John. Survey of the English tongue and
phrases. London: 1632." It might also possibly be " Valla, Lorenzo. De
I .:it in:!' lingua; elcgantia. Basileae: 1545," also in the Catalogue of 1723.
But it is more probably a duplicate entry for "Draxe, Thomas. Callie-
peia," no. 56.
208 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
90 Garden of Eloquence.
PEACHAM, HENRY. Garden of eloquence, containing the figures
of grammar and rhetorick. London: 1577. 4°.
91 Exon his meditations.
HALL, JOSEPH. Occasional meditations. By Jos. Exon. Lon-
don: 1630. 12°.
There was also an edition of 1633.
92 Essayes morall & Theol.
TUVIL, DANIEL. *Vade mecum: a manuall of essayes, morall,
theological, etc. London: 1631. 12°.
An edition had also been published in 1609.
93 Francklin 6p9oTovlas lib.
FRANCKLIN, RICHARD. *'Qp6oTovla, seu Tractatus de tonis in
lingua gnecanica. Londini: 1630. 24°. (Cat. 1723)
94 Funebres Conciones l 15.
SPANGENBERG, JOHANN. Funebres contiones quindecim. Fran-
cofurti: 1548. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
The Catalogue of 1723 gives the place as above, but no date. The edi-
tion here quoted is in the British Museum; an edition of 1564 is in the
Mather collection in the American Antiquarian Society.
95 Fabritius in Hosea.
FABRITITJS, STEPHANTTS. Conciones in Hoseam. Bernse: 1623.
(Cat. 1723)
96 Felthoms resolues.
FELLTHAM, OWEN. *Resolues, a duple century, the VI. ed.
London: 1636. sm. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
97 Fuebernes lapidua Pasmaliensis.
98 Fayus in Epist. ad Timoth.
LA FAYE, ANTOINE DE. Commentarii in priorem epistolam ad
Timotheum. Geneva; : 1609. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
The entry in the Catalogue of 1723 seems to indicate that this was bound
with the same author's Commentarium in Psalmos XLIX et LXXXVII.
99 Feuardensius in Epist. ad Philemonem.
FEU-ARDENT, FRANgois. Commentarii in Epistolam ad Phile-
monem. Parisiis: 1587. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
1 Altered from "Consiones."
1919]
CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD S LIBRARY
209
100 Gualterus in Marcu.
WALTHER, RUDOLPH. *In Evangelium Jesu Christ! secundum
Marcum homiliae CXXXIX. Tiguri: 1570. f°. (Cat. 1723)
101 Golij Ethicae.
GOLIUS, THEOPHILUS. Epitoma doctrinse moralis ex decem
libris Ethicorum Aristotelis collecta. Argentorati: 1621. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1631.
102 Griners in Dan.
GRYN^JUS, JOHANN JACOB. Explanatio Danielis Prophet®
quinque primorum capitum. Basileae: 1583. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
103 Goodwins Aggravation of sin.
GOODWIN, THOMAS. Aggravation of sinne. London: 1638.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has edition of 1637.
104 Household Phys:
105 Haxions prelections.
106 The honest man.
FARET, NICOLAS. The honest man: or, the art to please in court.
Translated into English by E. G[rimestone]. London: 1632. 12°.
107 Hunnius in Joh: Evangel.
HUNNIUS, EGIDIUS. Commentarius in Evangelium secundum
Joannem. Ed. 3. Francofurti ad Meen. : 1595. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
108 Hindersham of fasting. On the Psal. on John 4. 2 Tom.
HILDERSAM, ARTHUR. The doctrine of fasting and praier and
humiliation for sinne. 2 pt. London: 1633. 8°.
HILDERSAM, ARTHUR. *CLII lectures upon Psalme LI. Lon-
don: 1635. f°.
HILDERSAM, ARTHUR. *CVIII lectures upon the fourth of John.
2ded. London: 1632. f°. (Cat. 1723)
109 Hieronus in Haddanu in Isai.
OSORIO, JERONIMO. *In Gualterum Haddonum, de religione
libri tres. Ed. 3*. Dilingse: 1576. 8°.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives the edition of 1574, with a slightly different
title: "Adversus Gualterum Haddonum."
OSORIO, JERONIMO. Paraphrasis in Isaiam. Colonice Agrip-
pime: 1579. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
210 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
110 Horatius cu Stephanj notis.
HORACE. *Poemata, novis scholiis et argumentis ab Henr.
Stephano illustrata. Ed. 3*. [Geneva]: 1575. 8°.
There were several other editions with the notes of Stephanus. The
edition given in the Catalogue of 1723 (Basilese: 1580), however, did not
contain them.
111 Hemmingius in 84 Psalm, in Epist. ad Collos:.
HEMMINGSEN, NIELS. The faith of the church militant, most
effectualie described in this exposition of the 84. Psalme, trans-
lated by T. Rogers. London: 1581. 16°.
The List does not indicate whether it was the original or the above
translation.
HEMMINGSEN, NIELS. In Epist. ad Colloss.
112 Homers workes in English.
HOMER. *Whole works; translated by Geo. Chapman. London:
n. d. f°. (Cat. 1723)
Chapman's Whole Works of Homer was first issued about 1616, and
again in 1620 (?) and 1625 (?), all in folio. Several editions of parts of the
Iliad and Odyssey had been printed previously.
113 History of the Church.
SIMSON, PATRICK. *The historic of the church. Third edition
inlarged. London: 1634. f°. (Cat. 1723)
114 Haylins Geography.
HEYLYN, PETER. Microcosmos, or Little description of the
great world. Ed. 5. Oxford: 1631. (Cat. 1723)
* H. C. L. has 6th edition, 1633.
115 H
This line, C9ming at the top of a page, is trimmed off, the letter "H"
only being legible.
116 Hutton agst Comon prayer booke.
HUTTON, THOMAS. Reasons for refusal of subscription to the
Booke of Common Praier. Oxford: 1605. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
117 Henshaws meditations.
HENSHAW, JOSEPH. Howe succesivse, or Spare-houres of
meditations. 3d ed. London: 1632. 12°. (Cat. 1723)
118 Jackej Instit. Philos:
JACK, GILBERT. *Prim» philosophise institutiones. Lugd. Bat.:
1628. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 211
119 Juvenalis.
JUVENAL. *Iunii luvenalis et Auli Persii Flacci Satyrae. Lon-
dini: 1615. 12°.
There were many other editions, any one of which might equally well
have been in John Harvard 's library. H. C. L. has the one noted above.
120 Isocratis Oat: Grsec & Latin.
ISOCRATES. Scripta quse quidem nunc extant, omnia Graecola-
tina postremb recognita; H. Wolfio interprete. ("Tit. deest."
Cat 1723)
Title taken from H. C. L. copy, Basileae, 1571.
121 Judic: Synodi Nationalis.
DORT, Synod of. *Judicium Synodi Nationalis Reformatarum
Ecclesiarum Belgicanun. Dordrechti: 1619. 4°.
122 Keckermannj Philos. Disput.
KECKERMANN, BARTHOLOMAUS. Disputationes philosophic®.
Hanovi*: 1611. 8°.
123 Keckennanj contemplat. de loco, et de terrae-motu.
KECKERMANN, BARTHOLOMAUS. Contemplatio gemina, prior
ex generali physica de loco; altera, ex special!, de terra; motu.
Hanovia;: 1607. 8°.
The Catalogue of 1723 does not give these two works of Keckermann's,
but does list his Operum omnium torn. I-1I, 1614.
124 Lutherus in Genesin. Tomus lui, 2U«, 3U', 4ui, 5U>, 6tti, 7Ui.
LUTHER, MARTIN. Tomus primus-septimus operum omnium.
Vitebergse: 1582, '62, '83, '84, '85, '80, '58. 7 vols. f°. (Cat
1723)
From the way in which the dates of the different volumes are given
in the Catalogue of 1723, this would seem to have been a set made up of
various editions. The "In Genesin" in the List is the special title of vol.
Ill of the Opera.
125 LukeAngl.
This is apparently meant'for a translation of the Gospel of Luke into
English; but 1 find no record of any separate translation as early as 1637.
126 Loscij Annotationes Scolasticae.
Loss, LUCAS. Annotationes in epistolas Dominicales. Franco-
furti: 1560. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
212 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
127 Lightfoots Miscelanes.
LIGHTFOOT, JOHN. *Erubhin, or Miscellanies Christian and
Judaicall, and others. London: 1629. 16°. (Cat. 1723)
12S Lucanus.
LUCAN. De bello civili vel Pharsalise libri decem, . . . studio
. . . emendati . . . G. Bersmani . . . illustrati. Lipsiae: 1589. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
129 Lewes right vse of pmises.
LEWIS, JEREMIAH. The right use of promises. London: 1631.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
130 Lexicon Graeco Lat:.
SCAPULA, JOHANN. ""Lexicon Graeco-Latinum novum. Lon-
dini: 1637. f°. (Cat. 1723)
Entered in the List by title only, but the above entry in the Catalogue
of 1723 seems to identify the book.
131 Lemnius medicus de complexione.
LEMNIUS, LEVINUS. *De habitu et constitutione corporis
quam . . . complexionem vocant. Francofurti: 1619. 12°.
132 Londons complaint.
SPENSER, BENJAMIN. *Vox civitatis; or, Londons complaint
against her children in the countrey. London: 1625. 4°.
This tract relates to the plague that visited London in 1625. Among
its victims were the father and four brothers and sisters of John Harvard.
133 Lamentations.
While positive identification of this 'entry is impossible, it seems prob-
able that "The Lamentations of Jeremy. Translated by Hugh Brough-
ton. London: 1615," is the work called for.
134 Lord Verul: Nat: History.
BACON, FRANCIS. Sylva sylvarum, or A naturall history. Lon-
don: 1631. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has the edition of 1627.
f
135 Livellj Vita & in Harding.
HUMPHREY, LAURENCE. *Joannis Juelli vita et mors . . . cum
refutatione quorundam objectorum T. Hardingi. Londini: 1573.
sm. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
The Catalogue of 1723 misprints the date as 1673.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 213
136 Leigh on ye pmises.
LEIGH, EDWARD. *A treatise of the divine promises. London:
1633. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
137 Lumberds Justice.
LAMBARDE, WILLIAM. Eirenarcha, or Of the Office of the jus-
tices of peace. London: 1588. 16°.
There were at least a dozen editions of this book; many of them are in
the library of the Harvard Law School.
138 Lycosthenjs Apophthegmata. Similia.
LYCOSTHENES, CONRADUS. *Apophthegmata. Genevse: 1633.
8°.
LYCOSTHENES, CONRADUS. Similia. n. p. 1602. 8°. (Cat.
1723)
139 Loscij Questiones.
Loss, LUCAS. Quffistiones in Evangelia Dominicalia. n. p.
1568. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
140 Laurentij opa.
Du LAURENS, ANDR£. Opera omnia, anatomica et medica.
Francofurti: 1628. 2 vols. f°.
The Catalogue of 1723 has his "Historia anatomica human! corporis.
Francofurti: 1602. 8°." H. C. L. has the edition of 1615 of this. The
title given above corresponds more nearly to the entry in the List.
141 Mollerus in Psalmos.
MOLLER, HEINRICH. Enarrationes Psahnorum Davidis. Ge-
nevse: 1591. f°.
The Catalogue of 1723 mentions the edition of Geneva, 1639, which
H. C. L. has. There was also an edition of 1603.
142 Marloratj Thesaurus Scripture.
MARLORAT, AUOUSTIN. ""Thesaurus sacrce scripture prophetic®
et apostolicse. Genevse: 1613. 8°.
There were several other editions of this work. It is entered twice in
the List: see no. 145.
143 Musculus in Psalmos. Matthaeu.
MUSCULUS, WOLFGANG. In Davidis Psalterium sacrosanctum
commentarii. Basileae: 1589. !°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1618.
214 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
MUSCULUS, WOLFGANG. Commentarij in Matthseum Evan-
gelistam tribus tomis digesti. Basilese: 1611. f°. (Cat. 1723)
There is a copy of the edition of 1569 in the Andover-Harvard Theolog-
ical Library.
144 Mollinaeus contra Anninios.
Du MOULIN, PIERRE. *Anatome arminianismi seu, Enucleatio
controversiarum quae in Belgio agitantur. Lugd. Bat. 1619. 4°.
145 Marlotj Thesaurus Scripture.
See no. 142.
146 Magirj Physica. Anthropologia.
MAGIRUS, JOANNES. Physiologies peripateticce libri sex. Franco-
f\irti: 1619. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has edition of 1610.
MAGIRUS, JOANNES. Anthropologia, hoc est commentarius in
P. Melanchtonis libellum de anima. Francofurti: 1603. 8°.
147 Maxes Sermons.
MAXEY, ANTHONY. *Certaine sermons preached before the
King's Miesty. 7th ed. London: 1636. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
148 Melanchj Logica.
149 Minshej Dictionariu.
MINSHEU, JOHN. *Ductor in linguas. The guide into tongues.
London: 1617. f°. (Cat. 1723)
The identification in this case is not certain. The entry in the List may
be for the above work, which was a dictionary of eleven languages; or it
may be for "Percyvall, Richard. A dictionarie in Spanish and English.
Enlarged by J. Minsheu. London: 1599. f°." This is also in the Cata-
logue of 1723.
150 A Manuduction to Divinity.
JAMES, THOMAS. *A manuduction, or introduction unto divi-
nitie. Oxford: 1625. 4°.
It does not appear in the Catalogue of 1723.
151 Martinij Gram: Hebr.
MARTINIUS, PETRUS. Grammatica Hebrcea cum Coddai notis.
Amstelodami: 1621. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1612.
1919J CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 215
152 Micomius in Marcii.
MYCONIUS, OSWALD. In Evangelium Marci. . . . Expositio.
BasUece: 1538. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
153 Montanj in Psal. Prov* Comt. & Hebr.
ARIAS MONTANUS, BENEDICTUS. Commentarium in 31 Psalmos
priores. Antverpia;: 1605. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
ARIAS MONTANUS, BENEDICTUS. Prov. Comt
ARIAS MONTANUS, BENEDICTUS. Hebr.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives "Comment, in Nov. Test. Antv. 1575."
154 Moses Vayled.
GUILD, WILLIAM. *Moses unvailed: or, Those figures which
served unto the patterne and shaddow of heavenly things, pointing
out the Messiah, Christ Jesus, briefly explained. London: 1626.
sm. 8°.
155 X. Test. Catholicj Expositio Eccles:
156 Xichols mirrour for Magistrates.
The mirour for magistrates; newly enlarged, with a last part
[by Richard Niccols]. 4 pt. London: 1610. 4°.
Niccols's edition of the Mirour for Magistrates appeared first in 1610
as above; it was reissued in 1619, 1620, and 1621. H. C. L. has a copy of
the earlier edition of 1587.
157 X. Test. Lat.
158 Xonee Xovemb. seternitatj consecrate.
COOPER, THOMAS. *Nonae Xovembris cetemitati consecrate
in memoriam admirandse illius h'berationis principis & populi an-
glicani a proditione sulphurea. Oxonise: 1607. 4°.
The copy of this tract on the Gunpowder Plot that is now in H. C. L.
was formerly in the Bindley and Huth libraries.
159 Natales Comes, in 29 l Tomis.
This entry is obviously wrong. Natale Conti (Natalia Comes), although
a somewhat voluminous writer, does not appear to have published as
many as 29 volumes, nor were his collected works issued. The Catalogue
of 1723 gives his Mythologia, 1681, 2 v. H. C. L. has an edition of 1616.
160 Osiandri Psalm.
OSIANDER, LUCAS. Explications in Psalmos. Vitebergse: 1579.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
1 This number has been altered.
216
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
161 Philosophers Banquet.
SCOTT, SIR MICHAEL. "The philosopher's banquet. Newly
furnished and decked forth with much variety of many sen-nil
dishes. 3d ed. London: 1633. 24°.
Originally issued in Latin, this work appeared in English translation
also in 1614.
162 Pfaltsgraues Church.
A declaration of the Pfaltzgraves: concerning the faith and cere-
monies proposed in his churches. London: 1637. 4°.
There is a copy in the Prince collection in the Boston Public Library.
163 Polanj Syntagma Theologice. De Legendo cu fructu.
POLANUS, AMANDUS. Syntagma theologicse christiance. Hano-
vi»: 1615. f°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1625.
POLANUS, AMANDUS. De ratione legendi cum fructu authores
sacros tractatus. Basilese: 1604. 8°.
164 Piscator 17 Tomis.
No edition of the complete works of Johann Piscator seems to have
been published. He was the author of many volumes of biblical com-
mentary; at least fifteen volumes of commentaries on the various books
of the New Testament are credited to him between 1594 and 1613. As
the Catalogue of 1723 lists only five titles under his name, as noted below,
it is impossible to identify the seventeen volumes of his writings that were
in the library of John Harvard:
Aphorismi doctrinae Christianae. Herbornae: 1599. 8°.
Commentarius in Genesim. n. d. n. p. f°.
Commentarius in Jobum. n. d. n. p. f°.
Commentarius in Novum Testamentum. Herbornse: 1658(7). f*.
Epitome operum D. Augustini. Agust. Vend.: 1537(?). f°.
The last two dates are probably misprints in the Catalogue of 1723.
165 Pelagius redivivus Prin.
[FEATLEY, DANIEL.] *Pelagius redivivus, or Pelagius raked out
of the ashes by Arminius and his schollers. London: 1626. 4°.
The List seems to attribute this to Prynne; or, possibly, Prynne's tract
"The church of England's old antithesis to new Arminianisme, 1629,"
was included with this.
166 Plin. Nat. Hist.
PLINY, the Younger. *Historie of the world, commonly called
Naturall historic; translated by P. Holland. London: 1601. f°.
2 v. (Cat. 1723)
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 217
167 Plutarchj Vitse Angl. Moralia Angl.
PLUTARCH. *The lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes
compared together. . . . Translated ... by Thomas North. Lon-
don: 1595. f°. (Cat. 1723)
PLUTARCH. *The philosophic commonly called, the Morals.
Translated by P. Holland. London: 1603. f°. (Cat. 1723)
168 Philippi Homil : in Jonam.
Can this be "Philipp Mclanchthon, In Evangelium Joannis Annota-
tiones. Tubingse: 1523. 8°." ?
169 Pike his worthy worthy comunicant.
DYKE, JEREMIAH. A worthy communicant: or, A treatise shew-
ing the due order of receiving the sacrament of the Lord's supper.
London: 1636.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives the edition of 1689, probably a misprint.
170 Pareus de doctrina XIan*.
PAREUS, DAVID. Operum theologiconim exegeticorum pars
1 [& 2], 1628. f°. (Cat. 1723)
This is probably the work meant by the compiler of the List. The
. Andover-Harvard Theological Library has vol. i of this edition. H. C. L.
has the edition of 1640-50.
171 Phochenius.
PFOCHEN, SEBASTIAN. Diatribe de linguae Grsecae Novi Test-
menti puritate. Amstelodami: 1633. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has a copy of an edition of 1629.
172 Plautus.
PLAUTUS. Comoediee. Amstelodami. 1619. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
173 Porcensis orationes.
174 Pet. Martyr, in Epist. ad Rom. Loci Comunes.
MARTYR, PETER. In Epistolam ad Romanes . . . commen-
tarii. Basilese: 1574. 1°. (Cat. 1723)
MARTYR, PETER. Loci communes. London: 1583. f°. (Cat
1723)
H. C. L. has Heidelberg, 1622.
175 Piccolominej Philos.
PICCOLOMINI, FRANCISCO. Universa philosophia de moribus.
Venet.: 1594. f°. (Cat. 1723)
218
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MABCH,
176 Patresius de Regin. & reg: Institutione
PATRIZZI, FRANCESCO. De regno et regis institutione libri IX.
Parisiis: 1582. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
177 Persij Satyrce.
PERSIUS. *Satyrse sex. Londini: 1614. 12°.
It is to be noted that over 260 editions of Pereiua had been printed
before 1637; as the Catalogue of 1723 does not help us to identify the one
in Harvard's library, the above has been selected almost at random as one
likely to have been in his possession.
178 Politianj Epist.
POLIZIANO, ANGELO. Epistolarum libri 13. Antverpiee: 1567.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of Basilese, 1522.
179 Passoris Lexicon. Grace. Lat.
PASOR, GEORQ. Lexicon Grceco-Latinum in Novum Testa-
mentum. Herbornae: 1637. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
Editions of 1644 and 1702 are in the Andover-Harvard Theological
Library.
180 Pellegronj Sylva.
PELEGROMIUS, SIMON. Synonymorum sylva. London: 1619.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
*Illustrium poetarum flores. Lon-
181 Poetaru flores.
MlRANDULA, OCTAVIANUS.
dini: 1598. 12°.
This work, a thick little volume of over 800 pages, was probably used
as a school reading book, and passed through many editions. It does not
appear in the Catalogue of 1723, and the edition noted above is quoted
only as a probable conjecture.
182 ParsWorkes.
PARR, ELNATHAN. *Works. 3d ed. London: 1632. f°. (Cat.
1723)
183 Pembles workes. de origine formarii.
PEMBLE, WILLIAM. Works. 3d ed. London: 1635. f°. (Cat.
1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1659.
PEMBLE, WILLIAM. *De fonnarum origine. Cantabrigise:
[1631.] sin. 8°.
There was also an edition of 1629.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 219
184 Preston on ye Attributes. 4 Sermons.
PRESTON, JOHN. *Life eternall, or a treatise of the knowledge
of the divine essence and attributes. 4th ed. London: 1634.
4°. (Cat. 1723)
PRESTON, JOHN. Sermons preached before his majestic. . . .
The fourth impression corrected and amended. London: 1634.
4°. (Cat. 1723)
II. C. L. has an edition of 1631.
185 Physick for y« Soule.
See no. 3.
186 Pavenij Ethicae.
PAVONE, FRANCESCO. Summa ethicae. Morgunt.: 1621. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has Oxford, 1633.
187 Quirbj coment: in Psalmos & Prophetas.
QUIROS, AUGUSTIN DE. Commentarii exegetici litterales in
postremum canticum Moysis . . . prophetas Nahum et Mala-
chiam, etc. Lugduni: 1623. 4°.
The work does not appear in the Catalogue of 1723, and the above
identification is by no means certain.
188 Quarles Poems.
QUARLES, FRANCIS. *Divine poems; containing the history of
Jonah, Ester, etc. London: 1634. 8°.
There were also editions in 1630 and 1633; the work does not appear in
the Catalogue of 1723.
189 Reinolds Vanity of ye Creature. Conference wth ye hart.
REYNOLDS, EDWARD. The vanitie of the creature, and vexa-
tion of spirit. London: 1637. 12°.
RAINOLDS, JOHN. *The summe of the conference betweene
John Rainoldes and John Hart. London: 1609. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
190 Rogers on Luke y6 15.
ROGERS, NEHEMIAH. The true convert, or an exposition upon
the XV. chapter of St. Lukes Gospell. London: 1632. 4°. (Cat.
1723)
191 Rami Grseca Gram: Lat. Logica cu Talsej Rhetorica, Molinej
Log. vno volum:
RAMUS, PETRUB. Grammatica grseca. Parisiis: 1562. 8°.
220 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
RAMUS, PETRUS. Grammaticse, libri quatuor. Avenion: 1559.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
The British Museum Catalogue describes this as a Latin grammar, and
it is no doubt the work indicated in the List.
RAMUS, PETRUS. Dialectic® libro duo. Parisiis: 1560. 8°.
Probably the work indicated in the List by the entry "Logica." There
were several other editions.
TAI^EUS, AUDORAMUS. Rhetorica. Lutetiae: 1552. 8°.
There were several other editions of this work.
Du MOULIN, PIERRE. Elementa logica. 7th ed. Parisiis: 1618.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1622.
192 Robinsons Essayes.
ROBINSON, JOHN. Essays moral and divine, n. p. 1628. 4°.
(Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has edition of 1638.
193 Royardus in Epist: Domin.
ROYARDUS, JOANNES. Homiliarum in Epistolas Dominicales
Pars sestiva. — Pars hyemalis. Anverpiae: 1543. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
194 Rogers, his Divinity. On Loue.
ROGERS, RICHARD. *Seaven Treatises, London: 1610. f°.
(Cat. 1723)
Possibly this is the work indicated in the List under " his Divinity."
ROGERS, JOHN. A treatise of love. London: 1629. 12°. (Cat
1723)
195 Roxanae Tragedia.
ALABASTER, WILLIAM. Roxana. Tragoedia olim Cantabrigise
acta in Col. Trin. nunc primum in lucem edita. Londini: 1632.
12°. (Cat. 1723)
This is a surreptitious edition; an authorized edition was published
later in the same year. There is a copy of the latter in H. C. L. This
play was acted at Trinity College while John Harvard was a student at
Emmanuel. Its author, William Alabaster, was a first cousin of John
Winthrop.
196 Reinoldi Liber de Idololatria.
RAINOLDS, JOHN. *De Romanse ecclesise idololatria libri duo.
Oxonise: 1596. 8°.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 221
197 StolainLuca.
ESTELLA, DIEGO DE. In Evangelium secundum Lucam enarra-
tionum toinus primus [et secundus], Antverpise: 1622. f°. (Cat.
1723)
H. G. L. has 1612 edition.
198 Scultetj opa.
SCULTETUS, ABRAHAM. Annalium Evangelii . . . per Europam
xv salutis partfie seculo renovati decas prima (secunda). Heidel-
berg: 1628. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
SCULTETUS, ABRAHAM. *Ethicorum libri |duo, tertium editi.
Argentina;: 1614. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
SCULTETUS, ABRAHAM. Exercitationes Evangelicse. Amstelo-
dami: 1624. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
The Andover-Harvard Theological Library has a copy.
SCULTETUS, ABRAHAM. In Epistolam ad Hebrseos concionum
idese. Hanovise: 1606. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
This title is somewhat doubtful; the Catalogue of 1723 gives merely
"Conciones," with this place and date. The fuller title is taken from an
edition of Franckfurt, 1616, in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library.
SCULTETUS, ABRAHAM. Medulla theologise patrum. Ambergse:
1603-9. 2 v. f°. (Cat. 1723)
The List merely gives "Sculteti Opera," but as the above five works by
this author all appear in the Catalogue of 1723, it is fairly probable that
they were all hi Harvard's library.
199 Schriblerj metaphorse.
SCHEIBLER, CHRISTOPH. Opus Metaphysicorum. Marpurgi:
1627. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
200 Schickardi gram. hseb.
SCHICKARD, WILHELM. *Horologium hebraeum. Tubing® :
1625. 24°.
The work went through many editions. The Catalogue of 1723 has
only an edition of 1646.
201 Sibbs fountaine sealed.
SIBBES, RICHARD. *A fountain sealed; or, the Duty of the
sealed to the spirit, and the work of the spirit in sealing. London:
1637. 12°
202 Spongia contra Jesuit. Goloniu cu alijsopibus vno vol. compressis.
Spongia qua absterguntur convitia et malt-dicta Equitis Poloni
contra Jesuitas. Cracoviee: 1590. 4°.
222
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
203 Sphinx Philosophy.
HEIDFELD, JOHANN. *Octavum renata sphinx theologico-
philosophica. Herbornse: 1621. sm. 8°.
There was also an earlier edition.
204 Speeds clowde of wittnesses.
SPEED, JOHN. A clowd of witnesses, and they the holy genealo-
gies of the Sacred Scriptures, confirming unto us the truth of the
histories in Gods most holie word. London :n.d. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
Many editions were published. H. C. L. has several bound in editions
of the Bible.
205 Scalliger de subtilitate.
SCAIIGER, JULIUS CAESAR. Exotericarum exercitationum Liber
XV de subtilitate ad Hieronymum Cardanum. Francofurti: 1601.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition, Hanover, 1620.
206 Scheibleri philosoph. compend.
SCHEIBLER, CHRISTOPH. Philosophia compendiosa. Ed. 4*.
Oxonice: 1628. 8°.
H. C. L. has 6th edition, Oxford, 1639.
207 Sebati Phys:
208 Setonj Dialectica.
SETON, JOHN. Dialecta. Emendatissime excusa. Canta-
brigian 1631. 8°.
This work, first published in 1572, was issued in five or six editions; it
does not appear in the Catalogue of 1723.
209 Sarcerj Postilla.
SARCERIUS, ERASMUS. In evangelia dominicalia postilla. Fran-
cofurti: 1561. (Cat. 1723)
210 Soules preparation.
[HOOKER, THOMAS.] The soules preparation for Christ; or, a
Treatise of contrition. London: 1632. 4°. (Cat 1723)
H. C. L. has edition of 1638.
211 Schenblerj sententiae.
SCHEIBLER, CHRISTOPH. Liber sententiarum. Giessse: 1615.
8°.
There were several other editions besides that noted above.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 223
212 Salustius.
SALLUST. Opera omnia quce extant. London: 1601. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
213 Smiths Logicke.
SMITH, SAMUEL. *Aditus ad logicam. Ed. 4». Oxonise: 1634.
24°.
214 Scarfij Symphonia.
SCHARP, JOHANN. *Symphonia prophetamm, et apostolarum,
Geneva: 1625. 2 pts. in 1 v. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
215 Saluthij Schola.
CAMBI DA SALUZZO, BARTOLOMMEO. Schola divini amoris.
Colonise: 1610. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
216 Sceiblerj Synopsis Philos.
SCHEIBLER, CHRISTOPH. Synopsis totius philosophise. Giessense:
1610.
217 Saints Legacyes.
F., A. The saints legacies, or A collection of certaine premisses
out of the word of God. Oxford: 1631. 16°.
This has been attributed to Anthony Farindon.
218 Test. N. Grsec.
Testamentum Novum Grsecum. n. p. n. d. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
219 Tossanj Diction. Hebr.
TOSSANUS, PAUL. Syllabus dictionum hebraicarum, in Psal-
terio occurrentium. Basiliae: 1615. 12°.
220 Terentius.
TERENCE. Comoedise sex. Amstelodami: 1622. 8°. (Cat.
1723)
221 Touchstone of truth.
[WARRE, JAMES.] The touchstone of truth, wherein veritie by
scripture is plainely confirmed and error confuted. London: 1624.
8°.
Another edition appeared in 1630.
o.
•
»
»
..
•
224
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
222 Thrapuntij rhetorica.
GEORGIUS TRAPEZUNTIUS. *Rhetoricorum libri quinque. Pari-
siis: 1532. 8°.
The Catalogue of 1723 gives the edition of Lugduni, 1647, — possibly
a misprint in the date.
223 Thesaurus poeticus.
BUCHLER, JOANNES. Thesaurus poeticus. Antwerp: 1618. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
224 Textoris Epitheta. Epist.
RAVISIUS TEXTOR, JOHANN. *Epithetorum epitome. London:
1617. 8°.
RAVISIUS TEXTOR, JOHANN. Epistoke. Geneva: 1623. 8°.
(Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition, London, 1683.
225 Test.
The rest of this entry is trimmed off; presumedly it is some edition of
the New Testament.
226 Twissus de gratia, potestate & Providentia.
TWISSE, WILLIAM. *Vindiciae gratia potestatis ac providentice
Dei. Amstelodami: 1632. f°. (Cat. 1723)
227 Taylour on Titus, on Revel. 12.
TAYLOR, THOMAS. *Commentarie upon the epistle of S. Paul
written to Titus. [London:] 1612. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
TAYLOR, THOMAS. *Christs victorie over the dragon, or Satans
downfall; exposition of the twelfth chapter of S. Johns Revelation.
London: 1633. sm. 4°.
228 Trunesse of X*° religion.
MORNAY, PHILIPPE DE. *A worke concerning the trunesse of
Christian religion. [4th ed.] London: 1617. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
229 Turnerj Orationes.
TURNER, ROBERT. Orationes et epistolae. Coloniae Agrippinse:
1615. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
230 Terus in Exod. Num. Deut. Josh. Jud.
TIRIN, JACQUES. Commentarius in Sacram Scripturam. Ant-
verpice: 1632. 3 vols. f°. (Cat. 1723)
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 225
The entry in the List is very blind, and the author's name has been read
as "Terns," "Terus," and "Teius." The Catalogue of 1723 gives vols. 2
and 3 only. H. C. L. has an edition of 1702.
231 Thesaurus linguae rom: & Brittanicse in fol.
COOPER, THOMAS. Thesaurus linguae Romance & Brittanicae.
n. p. n. d. f°. (Cat. 1723)
The first edition was 1565; H. C. L. has 1578.
232 Thomas Aquinatis opa.
See no. 6.
233 Tullij opa in 2 Tomis. de officijs.
CICERO. Operum omnium torn. 1-3. Basilece: 1528. 3 v. in 2.
f°. (Cat. 1723)
CICERO. De officiis libri tres. Lugduni: 1557. 8°. (Cat
1723)
234 Tyme well spent.
CULVERWELL, EZEKIEL. Time well spent in sacred medita-
tions, divine observations, and heavenly exhortations. London:
1634. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1635.
235 Treasury of God.
B., F. Gods treasurie displayed: or, The promises and threat-
nings of Scripture &c. methodically composed for the help of
weake memories: and contrived into question and answere, etc.
[By F. B. With prefaces by J. Rogers and J. Dyke.] London:
1630. 12°.
This title, taken from the British Museum Catalogue, may not be the
one called for in the List. In its notice of John Rogers (1572-1636), the
Dictionary of National Biography says that "He prefaced 'Gods Treasurie
displayed,' &c., 1630, 12mo, by F. B. (Francis Bunny?);" but in its notice
of Bunny that work is not listed.
236 Vorsius de Deo.
VORST, CONRAD. Tractatus theologicus de deo. Steinfurt:
1610. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
237 Vdalls Heb' Gram:.
UDALL, JOHN. Key of the holy tongue, wherein is conteined,
first the Hebrew grammar (in a manner) woord for woord . . .
out of P. M. Martinius. ... All englished by I. Udall. Leyden:
1593. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
226 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
238 VALERIUS MAX:.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS. *Dictorum factorumque memorabilium
libri nouem. Francofurti: 1627, 8°. (Cat. 1723)
The Catalogue of 1723 has "Lib 10, tit. deest."
239 Vocatio Judseoru.
GOUGE, WILLIAM. Of the calling of the jews. London: 1621.
4°. (Cat. 1723)
This title, taken from the Catalogue of 1723, may not be the work in-
dicated by the entry in the List.
240 Warwicks Meditations.
WARWICK, ARTHUR. Spare minutes, or Resolved meditations
and premeditated resolutions. 4th ed. London: 1635. 12°.
(Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has the 6th edition, 1637.
241 Wall on Acts 18. V- 28.
WALL, JOHN. The watering of Apollos. Delivered in a sermon
on Acts xviii. 28. Oxford: 1625. 8°.
242 Withers.
WITHER, GEORGE. *Abuses stript and whipt. London: 1613.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
WITHER, GEORGE. The shepheards hunting. London: 1615.
8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has an edition of 1622.
Both the above works of George Wither are in the Catalogue of 1723,
and presumedly it is one or both of them that John Harvard owned.
243 Weames 4th Vol. of ye Image of God in man. on the Lawes
morall, ceremoniall, Judiciall.
WEEMSE, JOHN. *A treatise of the foure degenerate sonnes
. . . Being the fourth volume of his workes. London: 1636. 4°.
The Catalogue of 1723 has Weemse's Works in 4 volumes, 1636-37.
An examination of the set now in H. C. L. shows it to have been made up
of various books published from 1632 to 1636, each with its special title-
page. It seems not improbable that the general title-pages were lacking
in all but the fourth volume of Harvard's copy and that the compiler of
the List therefore gave the separate titles.
WEEMSE, JOHN. The portraiture of the image of God in
man. London: 1632. 4°.
1919] CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD'S LIBRARY 227
WEEMSE, JOHN. *An exposition of morall law. London: 1632.
2v. 4°.
WEEMSE, JOHN. *An explanation of the ceremoniall lawes of
Moses. London: 1632. 4°.
WEEMSE, JOHN. *An explication of the iudiciall lawes of Moses.
London: 1632. 4°.
244 Willsons XM Dictionary.
WILSON, THOMAS. A Christian dictionary of the chief words
in the Old and New Testament, n. p. n. d. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
The first edition was in 1612, and the second in 1616, both in quarto;
the third edition was in 1622 and in folio. H. C. L. has a cony of the
latter.
245 Watsonj animse Gaudia.
WATSON, THOMAS. Amintce gaudia. London: 1692. 4°.
246 Whakly his new birth.
WHATELY, WILLIAM. The new birth, or a treatise of regenera-
tion. London: 1635. 4°. (Cat. 1723)
247 Wygandus de psec. piortl exilijs.
WIGAND, JOHANN. De persccutione piorum, exiliis piomm,
. . . martyriis piorum. Francofurti: 1580. 8°.
248 Wandelinj Contemplatio Phys. Tom 3.
WENDELIN, MARCUS FRIEDRICH. Contemplationum physica-
rum sectiones tres. Hanovise: 1626-28. 8°. (Cat. 1723)
H. C. L. has sectio i in the edition of 1625 and an edition published at
Cambridge (1648).
249 Wardes Sermons.
WARD, SAMUEL. *A collection of such sermons and treatises
as have been written and published by Samuel Ward. London:
1636. 16°. (Cat. 1723)
250 Zanchij Opa.
ZANCHI, GIROLAMO. Operum omnium tomus primus-(octavus).
Geneva: 1619, '17, '18. 8 v. in 4. f°. (Cat. 1723)
The Andover-Harvard Theological Library has 2 volumes of an edition
of 1613.
228
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF AUTHORS, EDITORS, ETC.
Abernethy. John 3 185
^Esop 19
Agrippa, Heinrich Cor-
nelius 62
Ainsworth, Henry 7
Alabaster, William 195
Alciati, Andrea 18
Alesius, Alexander 11
Alsted, Johann Heinrich
10
Ames, William 8
Anchoranus, Joannes 13
Aquinas, St. Thomas 6
232
Arias Montanus, Bene-
dictus 153
Ascham, Roger 16
Augustine, Saint 9
B., F. 235
B., T. See Bowes,
Thomas
Bacon, Sir Francis 34
134
Baker, Sir Richard 74
Balbani, Niccolo 73
Ball, John 31
Bafiez, Domingo 35
Barclay, John 87
Bastingius, Jeremias 32
Bayley, Walter 47
Baynes, Paul 24
Beard, Thomas 39
Becon, Thomas 28
Bede 37
Bellarmino, Roberto 29
Berchetus, Tussanus 26
Beze, Theodore de 23
73
Bolton, Robert 30
Bovillus, Carolus 36
Bowes, Thomas 21
Bradshaw, William 45
Brentz, Johann 38 41
Brerewood, Edward 33
40
Broughton, Hugh 46
133
Bucanus, Gulielmus 44
Buchler, Joannes 223
Bullinger, Heinrich 42
Buxtorf, Johann 27
Bythner, Victorinus 25
Calepinus, Ambrosius 1
Calvin, John 26 48
Cambi da Saluzzo, Bar-
tolommeo 215
Camden, William 52 •
Camerarius, Philipp 49
Carleton, George 71
Cartwright, Thomas 68
Castaneus. See Chas-
teigner
Cato, Dionysius 74.
Chapman, George 112
Chasteigner, Henri Louis
55
Chrysostom, Saint 54
Church, Henry 51
Chytrseus, David 72
Cicero 56 233
Clenardus, Nicolaus 53
Colonna, Egidio 20
Comenius, Johann Amos
13
Conradus, Alfonsus 70
Conti, Natale 159
Cooper, Thomas 158
231
Cornerus, Christophorus
59
Corradus, Joannes Bap-
tista 50
Cotton, Clement 66
Crashaw, William 73
Crooke, Samuel 83
Culverwell, Ezekiel 234
Cumel, Franciscus 60
Daneau, Lambert 75
Davenant, John 79
Dickson, David 76
Dort, Synod of 14 15
121
Dove, John 81
Downame (Downham),
John 78
Draxe, Thomas 56 89
Du Laurens, Andre" 140
Du Moulin, Pierre 12
144 191
Duns Scotus, Joannes 80
Dyke, Daniel 82
Dyke, Jeremiah 82 169
235
Elton, Edward 84
Epictetus 85
Erasmus, Desiderius 88
Estella, Diego de 197
Estienne, Charles 77
Estienne, Henri 110
Eustachius 86
Fabritius, Stephanus 95
Faret, Nicolas 106
Farindon, Anthony 217
Featley, Daniel 165
Felltham, Owen 96
Feu-ardent, Frangois 99
Francklin, Richard 93
Georgius Trapezuntius
222
folding, Arthur 48
Golius, Theophilus 101
Goodwin, Thomas 103
Gouge, William 239
Graserus, Conradus 4
Grimstone, Edward 106
Gruterus, Janus 2
Grynams, Johann Jacob
36 102
Guild, William 154
Hall, Joseph 91
Heidfeld, Johann 203 '
Hemmingsen, Niels 111
1919]
CATALOGUE OF JOHN HARVARD S LIBRARY
229
Henshaw, Joseph 117
Hewes, John 89
Heylyn, Peter 114
Hildersam, Arthur 108
Holland, Philemon 167
Homer 112
Hooker, Thomas 2JO
Horace 110
Humphrey, Laurence
135
H mm ius. Egidius 107
Hutton, Thomas 116
Isocrates 120
Jack, Gilbert 118
James, Thomas 150
James I 22
Jerome, Stephen 17
Junius, Francis 23 43
Juvenal 119
Keckermann, Bartholo-
maus 122 123
La Faye, Antoine de 98
Lambarde, WiUiam 137
Lapide, Cornelius a 62
La Primaudaye, Pierre
de 21
Leigh, Edward 136
Lemnius, Levinus 131
Lewis, Jeremiah 129
Lightfoot, John 127
Loss, Lucas 126 139
Lu! .in. Eilhard 63
Lucan 128
Luther, Martin 124
Lycosthenes, Conradus
138
Magirus, Joannes 146
Marlorat, Augustin 142
145
Martinius, Petrus 151
237
Martyr, Peter 174
Maxey, Anthony 147
Melancthon, Philipp 168
Mignault, Claude 18
Minois, Claudius. See
Mignault, Claude
Minsheu, John 149
Mirandula, Octavianus
181
Moller, Heinrich 141
Montanus. See Arias
Montanus
Mornay, Philippe de 228
Muret, Marc Antoine 2
Musculus, Wolfgang 143
Myconius, Oswald 152
Niccols, Richard 156
North, Sir Thomas 167
Ocland, Christopher 5
Osiander, Lucas 160
Osorio, Jeronimo 109
Pareus, David 170
Parr, Elnathan 182
Pasor, Georg 179
Patrizzi, Francesco 176
Pavone, Francesco 186
Peacham, Henry 90
Pelegromius, Simon 180
Pemble, William 183
Perceval (Percyvall),
Richard 149
Persius 119 177
Pfochen, Sebastian 171
Piccolomini, Francisco
175
Piscator, Johann 164
Plautus 172
Pliny, the Younger 166
Plutarch 167
Polanus, Amandus 163
Poliziano, Angelo 178
Preston, John 184
Prynne, William 165
Quarles, Francis 188
Quiros, Augustin de 187
Rainolds, John 189 196
Ramus, Petrus 191
Ravisius Textor, Johann
224
Reynolds, Edward 189
Robinson, John 192
Rogers, John 194 235
Rogers, Nehemiah 190
Rogers, Richard 194
Rogers, Thomas 111
Royardus, Joannes 193
Sallust 212
Sarcerius, Erasmus 209
Scaliger, Julius Caesar
205
Scapula, Johann 130
Scharp, Johann 214
Scheibler, Christoph 199
206 211 216
Schickard, Wilhehn 200
Scott, Sir Michael 161
Scultetus, Abraham 198
Seneca 2
Seton, John 208
Sibbes, Richard 201
Simson (Symson), Pat-
rick 113
Smith, Samuel 213
Spangenberg, Johann 94
Speed, John 204
Spenser, Benjamin 132-
Stephanus. See Estienne
Talseus, Audoramus 191
Taylor, Thomas 227
Terence 220
Tirin, Jacques 230
Tossanus, Paul 219
Tremellio, Immanuele
23 43
Turner, Robert 229
Tuvil, Daniel 92
Twisse, William 226
Udall, John 237
Valerius Maxim us 238
Valla, Lorenzo 89
Vaughan, Sir William 47
Vorst, Conrad 236
Wall, John 241
Walther, Rudolph 100
230
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [MARCH,
Ward, Samuel 249
Warre, James 221
Warwick, Arthur 240
Watson, Thomas 245
Weemse (Weemes,
Wemyss), John 243
Wendelin, Marcus Fried-
rich 248
Whately, William 246
Wigand, Johann 247
Wilson, Thomas 244
Wither, George 242
Wolfius, Hieronymus
120
Zabarella, Jacopo 67
Zacharias, Chrystopoli-
tanus 57
Zanchi, Girolamo 250
THE FOLLOWING NUMBERS ARE UNIDENTIFIED, OR ARE
IMPERFECTLY IDENTIFIED
4 11 23 29 38 53 57 58 61 64 65 67 72 74 75 89 97 104 105 111 115
125 133 148 149 153 155 157 159 164 168 170 173 181 187 191 194
198 207 230 235 239
NOTE
Since the above paper was in type, an English bookseller, Mr. Alfred Bull, haa
identified two of the doubtful entries. Chareus (No. 61) should undoubtedly read
Pareus. David Pareus, who also appears in the Last under No. 170, was the
author of commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Hebrews, to the Gala-
tians, and to the Romans, published separately between 1609 and 1617. Which
one of them John Harvard had, or if he had all of them, cannot be told, as none
appear in the Catalogue of 1723. The Andover-Harvard Theological Library has
"In divinam ad Hebrseos S. Pauli Epistolam Commentarius. Genevse. 1614.
8°." The other identification is No. 230: Tents should read Ferns, i. e. Joannes
Ferus (anglick Wild). His work " Annotations in Exodum, Numeros, Deutero-
nomium, Librum Joshuae, Librum Judicium. Colonise Agrippini: 1571. 8°." was
in the Catalogue of 1723, and a copy is now in the Andover-Harvard Theological
Library.
ALFRED C. POTTER.
1919] APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES 231
APRIL MEETING, 1919
A STATED MEETING of the Society was held, at the
*"*• invitation of the President, at his house in Longfellow
Park, Cambridge, on Thursday, 24 April, 1919, at eight
o'clock in the evening, FRED NORRIS ROBINSON, Ph.D.,
in the chair.
The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and
approved.
The CORRESPONDING SECRETARY reported that letters
accepting Resident Membership had been received from
Mr. SAMUEL WILLISTON and Mr. MORRIS GRAY.
The Rev. Dr. HOWARD NICHOLSON BROWN of Boston,
and Mr. JOHN LOWELL of Newton, were elected Resident
Members.
The PRESIDENT appointed the following Committees in
anticipation of the Annual Meeting:
To nominate candidates for the several offices, —
Messrs. CHESTER NOYES GREENOUGH, HENRY ERNEST
WOODS, and JAMES ATKINS NOYES.
To examine the Treasurer's accounts, — Messrs.
ROBERT GOULD SHAW and HENRY GODDARD PICKERING.
The PRESIDENT announced that he had been requested
by the Council to appoint a Committee on Memorials,
whose duty it shall be to identify interesting and impor-
tant historical sites, especially in Boston, and to solicit
the owners to mark them; and that accordingly he had
appointed the following: Mr. CHARLES SEDGWICK RACKE-
MANN, Chairman, and Messrs. SAMUEL CHESTER CLOUGH,
ROBERT HALLOWELL GARDINER, HENRY GODDARD PICKER-
232 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
ING, RICHARD CLIPSTON STURGIS, JOHN ELIOT THAYER,
GEORGE WIGGLESWORTH, and JOHN WOODBURY.
Mr. CHESTER N. GREENOUGH read the following paper:
JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
Seven years ago, in a paper read before this Society,1 I tried to
vindicate John Dunton from the charge of attempting to write his-
tory. I now offer a short supplement to that earlier paper.
Dunton, it will be remembered, was a London bookseller, pub-
lisher, and miscellaneous writer, who at the age of twenty-seven
came to Boston in January, 1686, and remained there or thereabouts
until the following July. In 1705, as a part of his Life and Errors,
he published a short account of his trip. In 1867 the Prince Society
published a very much more extended account of Dunton's visit
drawn from manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, — the so-called
Letters from New England. Of these letters, eight in all, six purport
to be written from New England and were formerly regarded by
some as "unique sketches of New England life, honestly drawn, and
defective rather than erroneous." 2 Unique they not improbably
are; but they come so far short of being honestly drawn or free from
error that they cannot safely be used by anyone who fails to realize
Dunton's extraordinary propensity for borrowing material. His
accounts of people and of places are particularly untrustworthy,
since for the latter he relies upon Josselyn and for the former upon
various seventeenth century writers of "characters," from whom he
copies almost verbatim, though he takes considerable pains to make
his work seem original.
The second of Dunton's eight letters, supposedly written to his
brother from Boston,3 and dated February 17, 1685-6, is an account
of the voyage. In the course of this voyage Dunton either saw or
just missed seeing a most remarkable variety of sea animals, — a
whale, flying-fish, shark, tortoise, dolphin, musculus, torpedo, sea-
calf, sea-horse, swordfish, thresher, sunfish, porpoise, and alligator.
1 Publications, xiv. 213-257.
1 William H. Whitmore, Introduction to Dunton's Letters from New Eng-
land, p. xriv.
1 "To my only Brother Mr. Lake Dunton. Lately Return'd from Surat in
the East Indies." The letter occupies pp. 20-55 of the Prince Society edition.
1919] JOHN DUNTON AGAIN 233
Each of these he describes, usually to the length of about half a
page.
In these descriptions there are several suspicious features. When,
for example, we find Dunton writing of the captured whales, "When
the victory is got over 'em, and the mighty victim lies at their Con-
quering Feet, they fearless then survey his huge and massy Body,
and tell all his goodly Fins, which like so many Oars in a great Gaily
do serve to row his Carcase through the Seas at his own pleasure," *
we feel that the style is obviously unlike Dunton's. Then there are
expressions which suggest either an earlier date than 1686 or a differ-
ent kind of book from his: "equalizeth," for instance, in the sense of
"is equal to," "chaps," for "jaws," and such forms as "swimmeth,"
"hath," "writeth," "saith," "massy," and such expressions as "in
this his large dominion" and "except they be affrighted with the
sound of Drums and Trumpets." Nor is one's confidence in Dunton
increased by his references to DuBartas and Munster, for with him
such apparent ingenuousness usually means not that he has used
the originals, but that he has been reading someone who cites them.
Moreover, the descriptions of the musculus, dolphin, flying-fish,
sunfish, and sea-horse conclude with moral applications which sug-
gest not only an earlier date than Dunton's, but also a more clerical
point of view.8 On the musculusf for instance, which swims before
the whale as a guide, Dunton moralizes thus: "Which office of that
little Fish, may serve as a fit Emblem to teach Great Ones that they
ought not to contemn their Inferiours; There may come a time
when the meanest Person may do a Man some good." Then too
the descriptions follow one another rather in the formal order of a
treatise than in the casual manner to be expected in an epistolary
account of a voyage. Again, the inclusion of the alligator in the
fauna of the North Atlantic in January gives considerable ground
for skepticism about the whole account; while the conclusion of
Dunton's description of the Tortoise — "it is observable that if any
of these Sea-Fowl be taken on the land, . . . they will never give
1 P. 43.
1 See Andrew D. White, History of the Warfare of Science with Theology
in Christendom, i, chap. 1, for a popular account, with many references, of the
Physiologus and similar books. See also the article "Physiologus" in the En-
cyclopaedia Britannica.
234 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
over sighing, sobbing, and weeping, . . .; yea, even Tears will
trickle from their Eyes in great abundance" — certainly looks like
one of those statements which caused Joseph Addison mildly to ob-
serve of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto that he was " a person of infinite
adventure, and unbounded imagination."
Altogether, there seemed justification enough for suggesting, as,
without conclusive proof, I did seven years ago, that the various
sailors who told Dunton so much about the fish that they had met
had managed to commit to memory large portions of some not very
reliable work on natural history.
At any rate, such now appears to be the fact, and my confidence
in Dunton was not in the least misplaced. In fact, I underestimated
his powers, for he has woven together passages almost literally
copied from three books.
The first of these books is a volume of travels, not to New Eng-
land, but to the East Indies, containing the "familiar letters" con-
cerning his travels which Pietro della Valle wrote to his friend Mario
Schipano. They were published in folio at London in 1665, trans-
lated by one G. Havers.1 To them is appended an account of Sir
Thomas Roe's voyage to the East Indies, and it is from this part of
the book that Dunton borrows.2
1 The / Travels / Of / Sig. Pietro della Valle, / A Noble Roman, / Into / East-
India / And / Arabia Deserta. / In which, the several Countries, together,with
the / Customs, Manners, Traffique, and Rites both / Religious and Civil, of
those Oriental Princes / and Nations, are faithfully Described: / In Familiar
Letters to his Friend / Signior Mario Schipano. / Whereunto is Added / A Rela-
tion of Sir Thomas Roe's Voyage / into the East-Indies. / London, / Printed by
J. Macock, for John Martin, and James Attestry; and / are to be sold at their
Shop, at the Bell in S* Paul's / Church-yard. 1665.
The Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Orrery, concludes thus concerning the
relation of Sir Thomas Roe's voyage:
"The other Piece hath been judg'd fit to be adjoyned, as one of the Exactest
Relations of the Eastern parts of the World that hitherto hath been publish' d
by any Writer, either Domestick or Forreign; having been penn'd by one that
attended Sir Thomas Roe in his Embassy to the Great Mogol; Than whom, 'tis
acknowledgM by one of that Country that trades most into those parts, none
ever gave a more faithful Account thereof."
This dedication is signed by G. Havers.
For a life of Pietro della Valle (1586-1652) and a bibliographical account of
his Viaggi, see Edward Grey's edition of The Travels of Pietro della Valle in
India, 2 vols., London, 1892 (Hakluyt Society Publications, Nos. 84 and 85).
» There is an account of Sir Thomas Roe (1580 or 1581-1644) in the Die-
1919] JOHN DUNTON AGAIN 235
The second of Dunton's sources is a curious work called Speculum
Mundi, by one John Swan.1
The third and principal source of Dunton's borrowings is a most
extraordinary work by Daniel Pell, which may be called for short
An Improvement of the Sea.2
tionary of National Biography by Stanley Lane-Poole, who does not mention
this relation. S. R. Gardiner mentions Roe frequently and with much respect:
see the general index in the tenth volume of his History of England, 1603-1642.
1 Speculum / Mundi. / Or / A Glasse Re- / presenting The Face / Of The
World; / Shewing both that it did begin, and must also end: /The manner
How, and time When, being / largely examined. / Whereunto Is / Joyned / an
Hexameron, or a serious discourse of the causes, / continuance, and qualities of
things in Nature; / occasioned as matter pertinent to the / work done in the six
dayes of the / Worlds creation. / The second Edition enlarged. / Aug. in Ser. de
Ascen. / Qui se dicit scire quod nescit, temerarius est. / Qui se negat scire quod
tcii, ingraius est. / Printed by Roger Daniel Printer to the / Universilie of Cam-
bridge, 1643. / For Troylus Adkinson, Stationer in Cambridge.
Swan's Speculum Mundi was rather popular: the British Museum catalogue
has editions as follows, — Cambridge 1635, Cambridge 1643, London 1665, and
London 1670. A recent bookseller's catalogue advertises a copy of the Cam-
bridge edition of 1643 with a "fine frontispiece by W. Marshall." This is, of
course, the well known William Marshall, on whom see the Dictionary of National
Biography. Possibly this frontispiece is the "second title-page, engraved" re-
ferred to by the British Museum cataloguer in describing their copy of the
second edition.
The author of the Speculum Mundi may be the John Swan who entered
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a sizar in the Lenten term of 1626-7 and pro-
ceeded A.B. in 1630-1 and A.M. in 1634. Another John Swan entered Queens
College, Cambridge, as a pensioner in 1627 and was A.B. in 1630-1 and A.M. in
1634. Still another entered Trinity in 1622 and was A.B. in 1625-6 and A.M.
in 1629. (Venn, Book of Matriculations and Degrees, 1913, p. 651.)
1 The copy of Pell in the Harvard College Library is imperfect, the first six
words of the title having been supplied in manuscript. The words so supplied
are indicated below within square brackets. It appears, however, from the
British Museum catalogue, Watt, the Thomason Catalogue, and other sources,
that the first word of the title should be lUXa-ye*, in part chosen, no doubt, for
the sake of the pun upon the author's name. The full title of Pell's book should
be, then, as follows:
Nee inter Vivos, nee inter Mortuos] Neither Amongst the living,
nor / amongst the Dead. / Or, An / Improvement / of the Sea, / Upon the Nine
Nautical Verses in the / 107. Psalm; / Wherein is handled / I. The several, great,
and many hazzards, that Ma / rinere do meet withatt, in Stormy and Tempestuous /(
Seas. II. Their many, several, miraculous, and stupen / dious deliverances out of
all their helpless, and / shiftless distresses. /III. A very full, and delightful de-
scription of all those / many various, and multitudinous objects, which / they behold
in their travels (through the Lords / Creation) both on Sea, in Sea, and on Land.
236
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
The extent of these borrowings and the curious way in which
passages from different authors are often combined make it seem
worth while to reproduce in full Dunton's fourteen descriptions of
sea animals and his sources, arranged in parallel columns. These
follow.
THE FLYING FISH
DUNTON'S SOUBCE
It hath wings like Reere-mice, but
of a silver hue; they are much per-
secuted of the other fishes, and for to
escape they flic in flockes, like Stares,
or Sparrowes. (A Treatise of Brasill,
in Purchas his Pilgrims, Glasgow, 1906,
xvi. 487.)
. . . the Flying-fish, whom God out
of wisdom has given wings unto, (like
a foul) for the preservation of its life
in the great waters. This poor creature
is often hunted, chased, and pursued,
by the Boneto, Porpise, and other rav-
enous fish, which follow it with as
much violence as the hungry hound
does the poor silly and shelterless Hare.
Insomuch that it is forced one while
to fly, and another while to swim; . . .
It is observed by the Mariners, that
this fish rather than it will bee taken
by its enemies in the waters, it will
DUNTON
Here we saw great quantities of
Sea-fowl flying, which seem'd strange
to me so far off of Land, tho' not quite
out of sight of it. But the Mariners
told me, that was very ordinary, even
when out of sight of Land; for that
these Fowls live generally upon Fishes,
and indeed they wou'd be often-times
popping at 'em: While we were thus
observing the Flying Fowles, one of
the Seamen affirm'd that he had seen
Flying Fishes, and that they had wings
like a Here-Mouse, but of a silver-
colour; and that under the Tropick of
Capricorn they fly in shoals like stares.
Nature has given this fish Wings (as
he affirm'd) for the preservation of its
Life, for being often pursued by the
Beneto, Porpoise, and other ravenous
Fish, with the same Eagerness as the
hungry Hound pursues the timorous
Hare, it is oftentimes forced to save
it self by flying. It is observed by the
Mariners, That this fish will rather
chuse to fly into a Ship or Boat, if any
viz. / All sorts and kinds of Fish, Foul, and Beasts, / Whether wilde, or tame; all
sorts of Trees, and / Fruits; all sorts of People, Cities, Towns, and / Countries; /
With many profitable, and useful rules, and / Instructions for them that use the
Seas. / By Daniel Pell, Preacher of the Word. / London, Printed for Livewett
Chapman, and are to be / sold at the Crown in Popes-head Alley. 1659.
Pell dates his preface from his Study "at my Lady Hungerfords in Hunger-
ford house upon the Strand, May 4, 1659." This was Lady Margaret Hunger-
ford, wife of Sir Edward Hungerford. He died before 1659, as appears from
Pell's separate dedicatory epistle to Lady Hungerford.
The publication of the book presumably occurred in November of 1659, accord-
ing to the Thomason Catalogue, ii. 268.
i A Daniel Pell, who may be our author, entered St. John's College, Cambridge,
as a sizar, in Easter term 1651. (Venn, Book of Matriculations and Degrees,
p. 520.)
1919]
JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
237
many times betake it self in its flight
into ships, or boats. And alas this
makes the Proverb good, Out of the
frying-pan into the fire. (Pell, p. 199.)
be near, than be taken by its Enemies;
tho' this only makes good the Proverb,
Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire.
(Dunton, p. 24.)
THE SEA-HOG
DUNTON'S SOURCE
DUNTON
The Sea-hog, or Swine. This crea-
ture is headed like an Hog, toothed,
and tusked like a Boar, . . . These
beasts take such delight in one an-
others company, that they are to be
seen in greater troops and herds, than
the greatest land-herds of Swine that
ever were seen, for they are not com-
parable unto the multitudes that bee
of them, and are in the Seas. (Pell,
p. 222.)
The Porpisces or Hogfish . . . are
(as if they came of the race of the
Gadaren Swine, that ran violently into
the Sea) very swift in their motion,
and like a company marching in rank
and file; They leap or mount very
nimbly over the waves, and so down
and up again, making a melancholy
noise, when they are above the water.
These are usually, when they thus
appear, certain presagers of very foul
weather. (Roe, p. 329.)
I have observed, that when this fish
hath been wounded by shot or Harp-
ing-iron, that hee is no sooner peirced,
and mortally wounded, but every one
of the same kinde will follow him with
the greatest violence that can bee,
striving and contending who should
beat him first, and have their teeth
and mouthes the deepest, and fastest
in his carkass. (Pell, p. 223.)
The weather being a little clear,
several Fishes were seen playing above-
water, not far from our Ship, which
made me do my utmost with the as-
sistance of Palmer and another of the
Passengers, to get above deck again;
and indeed I did not lose my labour,
for I saw a vast number of Fishes
called Sea-hogs, or Porpoises. They
were headed much like a Hog, and
tout KM and tusk'd much like a Boar;
These Sea-hogs take such delight in
one anothers Company, that they swim
together in great Numbers, exceeding
the largest herd of Swine I ever saw
by Land, for those by Land are far in-
ferior for multitude, to those that are
in the Seas. These Porpoises, or Hog-
fish, are very swift in their motion (as
if they came of the race of the Gadaren
swine that ran violently into the sea)
— and are like a company marching in
rank and file; they leap or mount very
nimbly over the waves and so down
and up again, makeing a melancholy
noyse when they are above the water:
when they appear they are certain
presagers of foul weather. There is one
thing very remarkable about this Fish,
and that is, That if one of them happen
to be wounded, either by shott or
Harping Iron; the whole Herd pursue
him with the greatest fury and violence
that may be, seeming to contend who
shou'd fall upon him first, and have
their Teeth deepest in his Carcase.
(Dunton, p. 32.)
238
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[Apan,
THE SHABK
DUNTON'S SOURCE
They have in the Salt-water a fre-
quent aspect of the ravenous, feral,
and preying sort of fish called a Shark,
of whom the Mariner is more afraid
than of all the fish in the Sea besides.
This Pickroon, if hee can but take any
of them bathing themselves . . . hee
will tear them limb from limb, so great
a lover hee is of the flesh of man.
Some have observed of this fish, that
they have not stuck to clammcr up
upon their ship sides, out of a greedi-
ness to feed upon the Sailors. ... To
describe you this creature, I must tell
you, that he is of very great bulk,
and of a double or treble set ... of
teeth, which are as sharp as needles,
but God out of his infinite wisdom con-
sidering the fierceness, and violence of
the creature, has so ordered him, that
hee is forced to turn himself upon his
back, before hee can have any power
over his prey, or otherwise nothing
would escape him. (Pell, p. 206.)
DUNTON
My constant indisposition would not
suffer me to stay long upon the Deck
at a time, and therefore having view'd
those Sea-Hogs, I was forc'd to retire
again into my Cabin: but Palmer after-
wards brought me word that they had
seen a FisL called Shark, a very danger-
ous and ravenous Fish, as the Mariners
told me, of whom they are more afraid
than of all the Fishes in the Sea beside;
for if he chance to meet with any of
them in the Water, he seldom suffers
them to Escape without the loss of a
Limb at least and many times devours
the Whole Body; so great a Lover is
this Fish of Humane Flesh; insomuch
that some have observ'd that they have
endeavour'd to clamber up the sides
of the Ship, out of a greedy desire of
Preying on the Sailors: This Fish, it
seems, is of a very great Bulk, with a
double or treble set of Teeth, as sharp
as Needles: But Nature has so order'd
it, that as an allay to his Devouring
Nature, he is forc'd to turn himself
upon his Back, before he can take his
prey, by which means many escape
him which else would fall into his
Clutches. It is, my Brother, from the
Devouring Nature of this Fish, that
we call those Men Sharks; who having
nothing of their own, make it their
business to live upon other Men, and
devour their Substance. (Dunton,
p. 33.)
THE SUN-FISH
DUNTON'S SOURCE
. . . whose usual property is to
come out of the depths in the sweetest
and calmest weathers, to lye sleeping
DUNTON
Being a little better, I got upon the
Deck again, and the weather being
pretty clear, the mariners discovered
a Fish called the Sun-fish, of a lovely
bright and shining colour, whose prop-
erty it is in Calm weather to come out
of the Depths, and lie sleeping and
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JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
239
and beaking [sit] of himself upon the
Surface of the Seas, . . . Mariners
sometimes will hoyse out their boats
and take them up.
It brought into my mind, that it is a
very perilous thing for a Christian to
bee found asleep (by that mortal and
deadly enemy Satan) when and whilst
hee is standing Sentinel upon his
guard. The Devil is of an indefatiga-
ble spirit, 6 T«pd£ojf, in the present
tense, which reports him not to bee
lazy but busy, not a loyterer but a
stickler, and a stirrer in his pernicious
work; . . . (Pell, p. 202.)
basking itself upon the Surface of the
Waters, by which means often-times
the Mariners have an opportunity of
taking them. This, my Brother, made
me reflect how dangerous a thing it is
for any one to sleep unguarded in the
midst of Enemies, especially so in-
dustrious and indefatigable an Enemy
as the Scripture represents the Great
Enemy of our Souls to be, who goes
about continually like a roaring Lion,
seeking whom he may devour. (Dun-
ton, p. 34.)
THE ALLIGATOR
DUNTON'S SOUBCB
They have a frequent aspect of that
wonderful and impenetrable sort of
Beasts which the Mariners call an
Alligator. . . . This Beast is of a vast
longitude and magnitude (some say
many yards in length) in colour, hee
is of a dark brown, which makes him
the more invisible, and indiscernable
when hee lyes his Trapan in the
waters. ... Of such strength is this
beast, that no creature is able to make
his escape from him, if hee get but his
chaps fastened in them. . . . This
beast hath his three tyer of teeth in
his chaps, and so firmly scaled and
armed with coat of Male, that you may
as well shoot, or strike upon or at a
Rock and Iron, as offer to wound him.
(Pell, pp. 228-229.)
DUNTON
Being laid down upon the Bed one
Day to repose my self, Palmer cornea
down to me, and tells me, I had lost
the sight of a very great and strange
Creature, which our Captain call'd an
Alligator; this Creature is of a vast
length and breadth, (some say many
yards in length:) in colour he is of a
dark brown, which makes him the more
imperceptable when he lies as a Trapan
in the Waters. He is of so vast a
strength that no Creature is able to
make his Escape from him, if he gets
but his Chaps fastened in them; for he
has three Tere of Teeth in his Chape
and so firmly sealed [sic] and armed
with Coat of Male, that you may as
well shoot at a Rock, or strike against
Bars of Iron, as offer to wound him.
(Dunton, p. 35.)
DUNTON'S SOUBCB
They oftentimes have a frequent
sight of that sociable & companionable
THE DOLPHIN
DUNTON
I must acquaint you, That whilst
I thus lay musing in my Cabin, one of
the Seamen came, and told me that
they had had a Dolphin swiming a
pretty while by the Ship side, as if it
did intend to vye with them in sailing:
240
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Sea-fish, called the Dolphin. Natural-
ists tell us that these creatures do take
great delight to accompany the swift-
Bailing ships that come through the
Seas. ... I have seen them accom-
panying of us for a long time together,
. . . some swimming on head, some on
stern, some on the Starbord-side of us,
and othersome on the Larbord, like BO
many Sea-pages, or Harbingers riming
before our wooden horses, as if they
were resolved by the best language that
fish could give us, to welcome us into
and through the waters, and telling us
that they would go along with us.
(Pell, p. 203.)
. . . not so much I think 'for the
love they bear unto man, (as some
write,) as to feed themselves with what
they find cast overboard: whence it
comes to pass, that many times they
feed us; for when they swim close to
our ships, we often strike them with a
broad instrument, full of barbs, called
an Harping-iron, . . . This Dolphin
may be a fit Emblem of an ill race of
people, who under sweet countenances,
carry sharp tongues. (Roe, pp. 328-
329.)
I made what haste I cou'd upon the
deck, but came too late to see it, for
the sociable Fish had now withdrawn
himself: But the account I had of it
from them that saw it, was, This Fish
takes great Delight in sailing along
by those Ships that pass through the
Seas; and one of the mariners affirm'd
that in some voyages he had seen sev-
eral of them accompanying their ship,
for a long tune together; some swim-
ming a head, and some a stern, some
on the Starboard, and others on the
Larboard side, like so many Sea-Pages
attending them, seeming to tell us we
were welcome into their Territories;
or as if they were resolved to be our
safe-conduct thorow 'em. But this is
not so much, I think, for the love they
bear unto man, (as some write,) as to
feed themselves with what they find
cast overboard,1 whence it comes to
pass, that many times they feed us, for
when they swim close to our ships we
often strike them with a broad instru-
ment, full of barbs, called an Harp-
ing-iron. The Dolphin may be a fit
emblem of an ill race of people who
under sweet countenances carry sharp
tongues. As to their being generally
represented as a Crooked Fish, I en-
quir'd about it, and am informed it if
only a vulgar errour of the Painters,*
for 'tis a straight a Fish as any swims
1 The contrary opinion is expressed in Dunton's Athenian Mercury, ii, No. 5,
Question 5, where the question "Why a Dolphin follows a Ship until he is
frightened away" is thus answered: "'Tis not from the same reason as Sharif
and other ravenous Fishes do, who expect a dead Body, or a Prey, but from the
great love and kindness which these sort of Fishes bear unto Man."
* This passage may indicate that Dunton had looked into Sir Thomas Browne's
Pseudodoxia Epidemica, bk. y. chap. 2 ("Of the Picture of Dolphins"), wherein
we read: "That dolphins are crooked, is not only affirmed by the hand of the
painter, but commonly conceived their natural and proper figure, which is not
only the opinion of our tunes, but seems the belief of elder times before us. ...
Notwithstanding, to speak strictly, in their natural figure they are straight, nor
have their spine convexed, or more considerably embowed, than sharks, porpoises,
whales, and other cetaceous animals" (Works of Sir Thomas Browne, ed. Simon
Wilkin, London, 1852, ii. 4-5).
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JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
241
Plinie hath written much of this
fish, . . . affirming that he is not
onely sociable and desirous of mans
company, but delighted also in sweet
and sense-charming musick.
Amongst the fishes that did swiftly throng
To dance the measures of his mournftUl
song,
There was a Dolphin did the best afford
His nimble motions to the trembling
chord.
But whether that in the stone of
Arion be true, I am not able to say. . . .
Howbeit this scruple may not take
away the love of the Dolphin towards
man. For besides those things related
in Plinie, of a boy feeding a Dolphin,
and carried on his back over the waters
to school, . . . others also have in a
manner written to the same purpose.
And amongst the rest, .-Elian tells a
storie of a Dolphin and a boy: this boy
being very fair, used with his com-
panions to play by the sea side, and
to wash with them hi the water, prac-
tising likewise to swimme: which being
perceived by a Dolphin frequenting
that coast, the Dolphin fell into a great
liking with this boy above the rest, and
used very familiarly to swimme by
him side by side: . . . sometimes the
boy would get upon the Dolphins back,
and ride through the waterie terri-
tories of Neptunes kingdome, as upon
some proud pransing horse, and the
Dolphin at all times would bring him
safely to the shore again. ... At last
it chanced that the boy, not carcfull
how he sat upon the fishes back, but
unadvisedly laying his belly too close,
was by the sharp pricks growing there,
wounded to death. And now the Dol-
phin perceiving by the weight of his
bodie, and by the bloud which stained
the Ocean: If I am in an Errour,
Brother, I hope you'll rectifie me, for
I am sure you must have seen of 'em
in your Voyage to Suratt: Dubartas
records of this Fish, that he's a great
Delighter in Musick: on which he has
these Verses:
Among the Fishes that did swiftly
throng
To dance the measures of his Mourn-
ful Song,
There was a Dolphin that did best
afford
His Nimble Motions to the Trembling
Chord:
But whether that in the Story of
Arion be true I cannot say: — How-
ever, very remarkable is the Story re-
lated by Pliny, of a Boy feeding a
Dolphin, and carried on his back over
the Waters to School: They did swim
sometimes side by side, and at last,
grew so familiar, that sometimes the
Boy would get upon the Dolphin's
Back, and ride in Triumph through
Neptunes Wat'ry Kingdom, as upon
some proud Prancing Horse: At last,
it so unhappily fell out, that the Boy
careless how he sat upon the Fishes
Back, was by his Sharp and brisly Fins
wounded to Death: which the com-
miserating Dolphin straight perceiving
swam to the Land, and there laid down
his wounded Burden, and for very
sorrow Died. In memory whereof, a
Poet writes,
The Fish would Live, but that the Boy
must Dye,
The Dying Boy, the Living Fish Tor-
ments:
The Fish tormented hath no time to
cry,
But with his Grief, his Life he sadly
vents.
(Dunton, pp. 37-39.)
242
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APEIL,
the waters, that the boy was dead,
speedily swimmeth with all his force
to the land, and there laying him down,
for very sorrow died by him. In mem-
orie whereof, let these few lines be
added,
The fish would live, but that the boy must
die:
The dying boy the living fish torments.
The fish tormented hath no time to crie;
But with his grief his life he sadly vents.
(Swan, 372-373.)
THE SWORD-FISH AND THE THRESHER
L>ONTON'S SOURCE
They have many times a frequent
sight of that pleasurable, and most
delightful fish-combat that is betwixt
the Sword-fish, the Whale, and the
Thresher . . . the Sword-fish is so
weaponed, and well armed to encoun-
ter his enemy, that hee has upon his
head a fish-bone that is as long, and as
like to a two-edged sword, as any two
things in the world resemble one an-
other, save onely that there bee amany
of sharp spikes . . . upon either edge
of it, and the property of this Fish is
to get underneath the Whale, and there
to riple him, and rake him all over the
belly, which will cause him to roar,
and exclaim upon the Theeves that be-
set him, as if there were a dart in the
heart of him, and the Thresher playes
his part above table, for when his
partner forces him upwards, hee layes
on to purpose upon the Whales back,
insomuch that his blows are audible
DUNTON
The Mariners discover'd two Fishes
of a different sort and size, which they
inform'd us were the Sword-fish and
the Thresher: and told us they belief d
the Whale was not far off; and when I
ask'd what reason they had to suppose
BO, they told me, That those two
Fishes were always at a Truce between
themselves, but always at open Wars
with the Leviathan: And that nothing
was more pleasant, than to sec the
combat between the Three, i.e. The
Sword-fish and the Thresher upon one
side, and the Whale on the other. For
this Sword-fish is so wellt weapon' d,
and ann'd for an Incounter with its
mighty Enemy, that he has upon his
Head a Fish-Bone, that's both as lot
and as like to a two-edged sword,
any two things can resemble one an-
other, save only that there are a great
many sharp spikes on either edge of it:
Nature has it seems instructed this
Fish what use to make of it; for being
thus ann'd the property of this Fish
is to get underneath the Whale, and
with his Two-edg'd Sword to rake and
riple him all over's Belly, which
causes him to roar and bellow at such
a prodigious rate, as if a Thousand
Darts were sticking in his heart, and
then the Thresher, (when by the
1919]
JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
243
two, or three miles in distance, and
their rage and fury is so great against
the Whale, that one would think they
would cut him, and thrash him to
peeces. (Pell, pp. 221-222.)
bellowing of the Whale he under-
stands the Sword-fish is assaulting
him below) straight get a top of him
and there plays his part, assaulting
him with such thick and massy blows,
as may be plainly heard at two or
three miles distance; and this rage
and fury is so great against the Whale,
that one wou'd think they'd cut and
thrash him all to pieces. (Dunton,
pp. 39-40.)
THE WHALE
DUNTON'B SOURCE
DUNTON
Verse 32. Hee makes a path to shine
after him, one would think the deep to
bee hoary. . . . The Whale puts as
admirable a beauty upon that part of
the Sea his body swims in, as the Sun
does upon the Rainbow, by gilding of
it with its golden, and irradiating
beams. (Pell, p. 219.)
I have seen . . . them . . . send-
ing forth such strange, and prodigious
smoaks and fumes, as if there were
Borne Town or Village of smoaking
chimneys in the Seas. (Pell, p. 217.)
Now may they take a view of his
head, in which are eyes as large as some
Whilst we all were walking up and
down, it was my hap to fix my Eye
on something I knew not what, which
unto me seem'd like a moving Rock;
and shewing of it to a Seaman, we soon
discover'd it to be one of those float-
ing Mountains of the Sea, the Whale:
As we came nearer him, I saw his very
Breath put all the Water round in
such a ferment, as made the very sea
boyl like a Pot. I do confess I had
a very great desire to take a more
particular view of him, because GOD
gives him such an Elaborate and accu-
rate Description in the 41st of Job:
And this I particularly observed, That
the Sun shining upon him, cast a very
orient Reflection upon the Water;
which is also confirm'd by the De-
scription given of him, Job 41:32.
He maketh a path to shine after him,
one wou'd think the Deep to be
hoary: Another thing I observ'd was,
That there was so great a smoak where
he was, that it seem'd to me as if
there had been a Town full of Smoak-
ing Chimneys in the midst of the Sea.
I do confess I never saw so large and
formidable Creature in my Life. He
appear'd to me as big as either of the
Holmes's, two little Islands that lie at
the mouth of the Severn, near Bristol
in England. It was impossible for
me to take the True Dimensions of
244
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
pewter dishes, and room enough in his
mouth for many people to sit in. Now
may they look upon his terrible teeth,
and handle his great and free-like
tongue, which is upwards of two yards
in breadth, and in length longer and
thicker than the tallest man that is
upon the earth. Out of which part
the Marines extract above an Hogs-
head of Oyle. (Pell, p. 216.)
This creature is of such an incredible
. . . strength . . . that in Greenland
(that great TFAoJe-elaughtering place
of the world) when they come once to
dart an Harping-Iron into him, hee
will so rage, rend, and tear, that if
there were an hundered . . . shallops
neare unto him, hee would make them
fly in a thousand shivers into the
Bkyes. (Pell, p. 214.)
When the victory is got over the
Whale, then they may go round about
him, and tell all his goodly fins, which
are as so many Oars upon his sides, to
row his great and corpulent carkass to
and again in the Seas at his pleasure,
which are reckoned to bee three hun-
dered and upwards, and by these hee
goes at what rate hee pleases in the
waters, as violently as an arrow out of
a bow, or a bullet out of a peece of
Ordnance. (Pell, p. 216.)
In smooth water, warm, and calm
weather, they are now and then to bee
seen sporting ... of themselves, and
shewing their great and massy bodies
above the waters, unto the aspect of
the ships that sail hard by them in the
Seas. One while rising up, and an-
other while falling down, one while
appearing, and by and by disappear-
ing. (Pell, p. 217.)
. . . Some Whales ... in calm
weather often arise and shew them-
selves on the top of the water, where
they appear like unto great Rocks, in
their rise spouting up into the Air with
him: His Eyes are as large as two
great Pewter-Dishes, and there's room
enough in his Mouth for many People
to sit round in, as those that have been
at the Taking of them affirm. His
teeth are terrible, and his Tongue is
above two yards in breadth, and in
length exceeds the tallest man on
Earth, out of which they extract
above a Hogshead of Oyl. Ex pede
Hercules. I have been told that the
Whale is of such incredible strength,
that in Greenland (where most of
them are taken) when they come once
to dart an Harping-iron into 'em, they
rage and rend at so extravagant a
rate, that if there were an hundred
Shallops near him, he'd make 'em fly
into a thousand shivers, and send 'em
up into the Skies. When the victory
is got over 'em, and the mighty victim
lies at their Conquering Feet, they
fearless then survey his huge and
massy Body, and tell all his goodly
Fins, which like so many Oars in a
great Gaily do serve to row his Car-
case through the Seas at his own
pleasure: and they are reckoned by
the most curious Anatomists of him
to be above three hundred, and by
these he can go, if he pleases, with
that swiftness and violence, as Arrows
scarce fly swifter from a Bow, nor
Bullet from a piece of Ordnance. The
Seamen tell me, That in smooth Water
and calm weather, they are often seen
sporting of themselves, and shewing
their great and massy Bodies upon
the Surface of the Waters, easily dis-
cernible by Ships that sail hard by
'em in the Seas, one while rising up,
and in a little time fall down again
and disappear. Some whales in calm
weather often arise and shew them-
selves on the top of the water, where
they appear like unto great Rocks,
in their rise, spouting up into the
Ayr with noyse, a great quantity of
water which falls down again about
1919]
JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
245
noise, a great quantity of water, which
falls down again about them like a
showre. The Whale may well chal-
lenge the Principality of the Sea, yet I
suppose that he hath many enemies in
this his large Dominion; for instance,
a little long Fish called a Thresher,
often encounters with him; who by his
agility vexeth him as much in the Sea,
as a little Bee in Summer, doth a great
Beast on the shore. (Roe, p. 327.)
Munslcr writeth, that near unto
Ireland there be great whales whose
bigness equalizeth the hills and mightie
mountains, . . . and these (saith he)
will drown and overthrow ships except
they be affrighted with the sound of
trumpets and drummes . . . (Swan,
p. 360.)
them like a showr. The Whale may
well challenge the Principalitie of the
Sea, yet I suppose that he hath many
enemies in this his large Dominion;
for instance, a Little long Fish called
a Thresher often encounters with him,
who by his agilitie vexeth him as
much in the Sea, as a little Bee in
Summer, doth a great Beast on the
shore. Munster writeth, That near
unto Ireland, there be great Whales
whose Bigness equalizeth the Hills and
mighty Mountains; and these, saith he,
will drown and overthrow the greatest
ships, except they be afrighted with
the sound of Drums and Trumpets.
(Dunton, pp. 42-44.)
THE MUSCULUS
DUNTON'S SOURCE
Plinie writeth of a little fish called
Muscidus, which is a great friend to the
whale: for the whale being big would
many times endanger her self between
rocks and narrow straits, were it not
for this little fish, which swimmeth as
a guide before her. Whereupon Du
Bartas descants thus,
A little fish that swimming still before
Directs him safe from rock, from shelf
and shore:
9Much like a child that loving leads about
His aged father when his eyes be out;
StUl wafting him through ev'ry way so
right, '
That reft of eyes he seems not reft of sight.
Which office of that little fish, may
serve as a fit embleme to teach great
ones and superiours, that they ought
not to contemne their inferiours; for
they are not alwayes able so to subsist
of themselves, that they never stand
DUNTON
Pliny writes of a little Fish called
Musculus, which is a great Friend to
the Whale; for the Whale being big,
wou'd many times endanger her self
between Rocks and narrow straits,
were it not for this little Fish which-
swimmeth as a Guide before her.
Whereupon Dubartus descants thus:
A little Fish, that swimming still be-
fore,
Directs him safe, from Rock, from
Shelf, from Shore-.
Much like a Child, that living Leads
about
His Aged Father when his eyes are out:
Still wafting him through every way
so right,
That reft of Eyes, he seems not reft of
sight.
Which office of that little Fish, may
serve as a fit Emblem to teach Great
Ones that they ought not to contemn
their Inferioure: There may come a
time when the meanest Person may
do a Man some good; and therefore
246
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
in need of their helps who are but mean
and base in the eyes of greatnesse: there
may come a time when the meanest
person may do some good, and there-
fore there is no time wherein we ought
to scorn such a one, how mean soever
he be. (Swan, p. 362.)
there is no time wherein we ought to
scorn such a one. To conclude, my
Brother, and sum up all I have to say
of him in one word, That what the
Spirit of God says of Behemoth, I
may say of the Leviathan, as to the
Sea at least, He is the Chief of the
Ways of God. (Dunton, p. 44.)
THE CALAMORIE
DUNTON'S SOURCE
The Calamarie is sometimes called
the Sea-clerk, having as it were a knife
and a pen. Some call him the Ink-horn-
fish, because he hath a black skinne
like ink, which serveth him in stead of
bloud. And of these fishes there be
more kinds than one: for the Cuttle
hath also an inkie juice in stead of
bloud. . . . Plinie, . . . affirmeth that
both male and female, when they find
themselves so farre forth discovered,
that if they cannot be hid they must
be taken, do then cast this their ink
into the water; and so by colouring it,
they obscure and darken it: and the
water being darkened, they escape.
For through the clouds of this black inkie
night,
They dading passe the greedie fishers
sight.
(Swan, pp. 378-379.)
DUNTON
About this time we discover'd an-
other Sea-Wonder, to wit, a Fish
called a Calamorie; which some call
the Ink-horn-Fish, because he hath a
black Skin like Ink, which Serveth
him instead of Blood; When they are
like to be taken, they then cast their
Ink into the Water, and so by colour-
ing it, they obscure and darken it,
and the Water being darken'd, they
escape.
For through the Clouds of this dark
Inky Night,
They dazling pass the greedy Fishers
Sight.
(Dunton, pp. 45-46.)
THE TORPEDO
DUNTON'S SOURCE
The Torpedo, or the Cramp-fish, . . .
is indued with a very prodigious &
clandestine quality, if it be but touched,
or handled, the body is presently
stunned, and benummed, as an hand
or leg that is dead, and without all
feeling. I have known some that have
taken of this kinde at unawares . . .
They have been for some hours in a
DUNTON
During the time that we were loll-
ing and rowling thus upon the restless
Ocean, our Mariners discover'd that
admirable Wonder of the Torpedo, or
Cramfish, a Fish much better to behold
than handle, for it has this prodigious,
yet clandestine quality, that if it be
but touch'd or handled, the person
touching it is presently benummed, as
a Hand or Leg, that is Dead, and with-
out feeling: In which condition they
1919]
JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
247
very desponding estate, whether they
should ever recover their pristine con-
stitution, and health again, or no?
(Pell, p. 226.)
sometimes continue for two or three
Days together; and with difficulty ob-
taining the use of their Limbs again.
(Dunton, p. 46.)
THE SEA-HORSE
DUN-TON'S SOUBCE
DUNTON
In their voyages to Greenland . . .
they have . . . hot disputes and skir-
mishes with the great and warlike
Horses of the Seas, which . . . range
upon the land, in great, and (almost)
innumerable Troops. Sometimes by
three or four hundred in a flock; some-
times more, and sometimes less. Their
great desire is to roost themselves on
land in the warm Sun; and whilst they
adventure to fall asleep, by their ap-
pointment, they give orders out to one
of the company to stand sentinel his
hour, or such a certain time, and upon
the expiration of it, another takes his
turn upon the watch whilst the rest
sleep, during such time till it goes
But that which brought us the first
Dawning of Hope, with respect to the
Discovery of Land, was the Discovery
which one of the Seamen made, of
three or four great Fishes, which he
call'd Sea-Horees; and not without
reason, for their fore-parts were the
perfect figure of a Horse, but their
hinder parts perfect Fish; when the
rest of the Seamen saw these Creatures,
they all rejoyc'd, and said we were not
far from Land; the reason of which
was, That these Sea-Horees were
Creatures that took a great delight hi
sleeping on the Shore, and therefore
were never seen but near the Shore:
This was but a collateral Comfort, for
tho' these Sea-Horses delight in Sleep-
ing on the Shore, yet they might swim
two or three hundred Leagues into
the Sea for all that: But we that look'd
upon our selves in a perishing Condi-
tion, were willing to lay hold on any
little Twigg of Hope, to keep our
Spirits up. One of the Seamen that
had formerly made a Greenland Voyage
for Whale-Fishing, told us that in
that Country he had seen very great
Troops of those Sea-Horses ranging
upon Land, sometimes three or four
hundred in a Troop: Their great de-
sire, he says, is to roost themselves on
Land in the Warm Sun; and Whilst
they sleep, they appoint one to stand
Centinel, and watch a certain time;
and when that time's expir'd, an-
other takes his place of Watching, and
the first Centinel goes to sleep, &c.
observing the strict Discipline, as a
Body of Well-regulated Troops. And
if it happen that at any time an Enemy
248
tHE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
round amongst them. And provided
any enemy approach them, the Sen-
tinel will neigh, beat, kick, and strike
upon their bodies, and never leave till
In c hath rowsed them up out of theii
snorting slumbers to shift for them-
selves, and betake themselves to the
Seas. But Sailors being too cunning
for them, get betwixt them and the
Sea, and fall a beating out the brains
of the first that comes to hand . . .
and . . . many . . . have averred
that they have killed of them whilst
they have been no longer able for
want of breath and strength. And
the reason why they kill so many of
these creatures is, because their teeth
is of great worth and value, and very
vendable in the Southern parts of the
world-.
From this Creature I have learned
to apply thus much unto my self in
particular, That it is a very dangerous
thing for a man to bee out of his
general and particular Calling. (Pell,
p. 209.)
approach, the Centinel will neigh, and
beat, and kick, and strike upon their
Bodies, and never leave till he has
wak'd 'em; and then they run to-
gether into the Seas for shelter. But
for all this Caution, the Sailors are, it
seems too cunning for them; and get
between them and the Sea, and beat
out the Brains of the first that comes
to hand; and so have done, till they
have kill'd so long, that they have
wanted strength to kill another; and
that which moves the Seamen to this
cruelty, is, because their Teeth are of
great worth and value, and are a very
vendible Commodity in the Southern
parts of the World. And since it is the
Shore on which these Creatures meet
with this Destruction; and that if
they had kept at Sea, they had been
safe: I cou'd not but reflect, That
those who leave their settled stations,
whether out of Principles of Profit or
of Pleasure, and will be trying New
Experiments, and putting of New
Projects on the Tenters, do often times
make very poor Returns; and are con-
vinc'd it had been better for 'em to
have kept that station which Provi-
dence at first had put 'em ia. (Dun-
ton, pp. 47-48.)
THE SEA-CALF
DTJNTON'S SOURCE
They are not without a frequent
sight of that admirable fish called the
Sea-calf, which is both headed and
haired like a Calf, swiming oftentimes
with his head above water. There be
very many of this kinde, in, and about
the several Islands in Scotland . . .,
at night they will come on shore to
sleep and rest themselves, and early
in the morning, they will betake them-
selves to the Sea, not daring to stay on
DtTNTON
The next day after our Codfishing
was over, and they were all gone out
of sight, I know not whither, we dis-
cover'd a Fish call'd the Sea-calf,
whose Head and Hair's exactly like a
Calf's: This Creature's an amphibious
Animal, living sometimes at Sea, and
sometimes on Land: I am told there
are several of this kind of Creatures
in the Islands about Scotland, (but
more of that in my rambles thither,)
and that at night they will come on
Shore to sleep and rest themselves;
and early in the morning return to
1919]
JOHN DUNTON AGAIN
249
land for fear of surprizals. (Pell, p.
224.)
Sea, not daring to stay on Land, for
fear of surprisals. This Fish was a
further Inducement to our Sea-men
to believe that we were upon the Coast
of America, and very neer Land: And
these distant Hopes we Emprov'd for
our support the beet we cou'd. (Dun-
ton, p. 48.)
THE TORTOISE
DUNTON'S Sotmcu
They are not destitute of a frequent
aspect of that wonderful, and Jehovah-
extolling-creature called the SettrTurtle,
or the Tortoise. This Bird-fish at the
time of the year constantly leaves the
Sea, and betakes her self to the shore,
where shee will shoot an infinite num-
ber of Eggs, and cover them in the
sand, and as soon as ever she hath
done, shee departs the place, and
makes for the Sea again, not daring to
stay and brood them, as other birds
will do, because shee hath no wings to
flye withall, and to help her self, if in
case shee should bee set at. And when
her young ones are once hatched (which
come to that maturity by reason of
that warmth that is in the sand) they
will go as directly towards the Sea, as
if they had been in it many a time
before they had their being, and al-
though the Sea bee a mile or two from
the place, the old one left her Eggs in,
out of a natural instinct they will finde
the Sea, although it bee out of sight.
It is observable, that if any of these
Sea-fowl bee taken on land (as often-
times they are by Sea-men) that they
will never give over sighing, sobbing,
weeping, and bewayling of their Cap-
tivity as long as life is in them, tears
will drill, and trickle from their Eyes
as from children, in great abundance.
(Pell, pp. 224-225.)
DTTNTON
This morning we saw a Sea-Turtle,
or Tortoise, (which it seems are fre-
quent on the New-England Coast:)
And its flesh is a very delicious Food.
It is the property of this Creature at
one time in the year constantly to
leave the Seas, and betake her self to
the Shore, where she will lay an in-
finite number of Eggs, and cover them
in the Sand; and as soon as she has
done, she leaves them, and goes to
Sea again, not daring to sit and hatch
them, as other Birds will do, because
she has no wings to fly away, in case
of an attack. And when her young
ones by the Heat of the Sun are hatch'd
they'll all go as directly to the Sea,
as if they had been there before, or
that they had been bred in't; yea,
tho' sometimes the old one leaves her
eggs a mile or two from Sea, and quite
out of sight on't; such is the mighty
Power of Natural Instinct. It is ob-
servable, that if any of these Sea-fowl
be taken on the Land, as oftentimes
they are by Sea-Men, that they will
never give over sighing, sobbing, and
weeping, as long as Life is in them;
yea, even Tears will trickle from their
Eyes in great abundance. (Dunton,
p. 52).
These borrowings amount in all to twenty-one, — one from Pur-
chas, three from Roe, four from Swan, and thirteen from Pell. If
250
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
to these we add the eighty-four cases previously indicated,1 John
Dunton's total score of passages incorporating borrowed material
reaches the not inconsiderable figure of one hundred and five. The
relative proportions of original and borrowed matter in the passages
referred to in this article are approximately as follows: of matter
borrowed from Roe, seven per cent; from Swan, fourteen per cent;
from Pell, fifty-eigjht per cent; and of matter apparently original,
twenty-one per cent.2
The way in which these sources came to my notice prompts me
to make two observations that may perhaps be of interest to those
engaged in similar investigations. After having spent many hours
in fruitless efforts to find these authors by turning over such books
of voyages as I could think of, and after having with similar lack of
success pursued the search from the point of view of zoology,8 I at
length remembered that Dunton is a person who copies not merely
ideas but also words. I accordingly made a short list of unusual
words used by Dunton in these descriptions. Two of these words
were " harping-iron " (i.e., harpoon) and " calamorie. " Looking up the
first of these in the invaluable Oxford Dictionary, I found, ascribed
to Pietro della Valle, a sentence which I remembered in Dunton;
and similarly the article on "calamorie" in the Oxford Dictionary
led me to John Swan. To those, therefore, who deal with authors
that are in the habit of borrowing without much change of phrasing,
I recommend the Oxford Dictionary.
Pell was much harder to find. Indeed I should probably have
missed Pell altogether if it had not been for the late Daniel Butler
Fearing. There could hardly be a severer test of the range of Mr.
Fearing's great collection of books on angling than to search in it
for such a book §,s Pell's. Fortunately, the officials of the Harvard
Library, to which Mr. Fearing's collection came in 1915,4 have ar-
ranged in chronological order some of the older angling books. As
1 Our Publications, xiv. 253.
* I have not taken into account the single sentence borrowed from Purchas.
1 Here I received the most generous assistance from our associate Mr. Samuel
Henshaw.
4 See an article on the Fearing Collection, by our associate Mr. George P.
Winship, in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin of November 3, 1915, xviii. 92-94; and
an article by Mr. Fearing in the Harvard Graduates' Magazine for December,
1915, xxiv. 263-274.
1919] TOPOGRAPHY OF BOSTON, 1648 251
a result I found Pell within an hour after the notion of looking
through the Fearing Collection first occurred to me. This seems to
me a striking illustration of the help that a great collection of "dead"
books may give to workers hi fields apparently remote from that of
their collector.
These passages about the sea-animals in John Dunton — par-
ticularly since the more misleading parts of his letters have been
cleared up — were perhaps not so likely to mislead historians of
New England as to justify the labor of discovering their sources.
Nor has any zoologist, so far as I know, ever been tempted to cite
Dunton as evidence that alligators formerly abounded in the North
Atlantic. But to trace Dunton's sources is at least an amusing
pastime, and it throws some additional light on his methods. These
methods are so extraordinary that I have long since ceased to be
astonished at anything he does. Yet I do confess to some surprise,
in view of these revelations concerning Dunton, at one sentence in
his account of the whale: he was particularly glad to see a whale, he
says, "because GOD gives him such an Elaborate and accurate
Description hi the 418t of Job." I must say that when Dunton
ventures to comment on the accuracy of God, he seems to me to be
going pretty strong, even for him.
Mr. SAMUEL C. CLOUGH exhibited a map of Boston in
1648, measuring nine by five feet, drawn by himself, and
spoke as follows:
When I became interested in the history of Boston, some twenty
years ago, my study fell naturally into line with that of my profession
as an engineer, draughtsman, and cartographer. Although there was
a great deal of published matter in the form of histories, guide books,
pamphlets and brochures, very little had been done to visualize this
information. The absence of such data and the reason for this
absence so excited my curiosity that, hi an effort to supply the
deficiency, I at once became a willing and enthusiastic student of our
topography. In Mr. Whitmore's Introduction to the second volume
of the Boston Record Commissioners' Reports he thus refers to
George Lamb's map of Boston founded on the Book of Possessions:
" It is a very creditable beginning, but the boundary lines are purely
imaginary, and will require almost entire revision. This must be the
252
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
work of years, if correctness is attainable at all." This challenge
alone, at the outset of my work, acted as an incentive more powerful
than any prize which might have been offered. Research of this kind
had always appealed to me, and surveying and mapping became a
hobby as well as a business; yet after a thorough investigation of what
would constitute a reliable map of Boston at this early period, my
ardor was somewhat cooled and for a time I abandoned all idea of
producing one.
My estimate of the requirements was as follows:
(1) A good, dependable base-map as a starting-point.
(2) The correction of this base-map, by street changes, back
John G. Hales's survey of 1814, thence, further back, to Osgood
Carleton's survey of 1795. From that date all the street changes
would have to be gleaned from the numerous Reports of the Record
Commissioners, and from such plans as were available in the office
of the City Engineer.
(3) The copying or abstracting at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds of
all such data as would verify and establish the street and property
lines. My first intention was to abstract thirty volumes; the work
has required the abstracting of more than seventy-six volumes.
(4) Abstracting all data affecting real estate found in the Town
Records, the Suffolk Probate Office, the Note Books of Lechford and
Aspinwall, and the Diaries of Chief-Justice Sewall and others. The
Records of the First Church also would have to be copied.
(5) Aside from this copying or abstracting would be the systematic
filing, sorting and arranging necessary to bring all this information
into line for any particular date or period, which would also require
a vast amount of indexing and cross-referencing. Truly, I felt that
Whitmore had stated the case none too strongly when he said "this
must be the work of years."
My interest in the study of the topography of Boston, however,
was by no means lost, but merely arrested, and I soon began to plot,
on a 50-foot scale, two-thirds of the estates listed in the United States
Direct Tax of 1798.1 This led to the harder task of making a set of
yearly plans (from 1630 to 1800) of the district known as the Town
Dock, embracing the area between the present North Street, Dock
1 Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, xxii.
1919] TOPOGRAPHY OF BOSTON, 1648 253
Square, Washington Street, State Street and the water. It was the
success of this undertaking which impelled me to revert to my
original project of treating the entire town in the same manner, and
to-day I am happy to say that I have completed this task and have
my information so systematized that I can not only exhibit this map
of the town as it was in 1648, but can produce a similar map of
Boston at any other date prior to 1800.
The work has entailed plottings of 50 feet to the inch, by decennial
periods, of a good part of the town, in some instances using as large
a scale as 20 feet to the inch.
Shortly before making this map I compiled a plan of the entire
town in 1678 on a scale of 50 feet to an inch. This was done in sec-
tions, as there is no paper wide enough to plot the entire town on
that scale, which would make a map twice the size of the one now
exhibited.
The map before you is based entirely on information drawn from
what are recognized as original and reliable sources and in no instance
has any similar work been used in its production. Our knowledge of
the size and location of the several buildings on the lots in 1648 is
meagre, but such references as are found in the public records, and
in notations in subsequent deeds wherein these properties have been
divided or alienated, have been carefully followed in order to produce,
as nearly as possible, a correct map of this period.
The irregularities which appear in many of the property lines are
the result of plotting the actual dimensions recorded in deeds and
proved by conveyances of the abutting properties: in fact, the plot-
ting of the estates has been done by piecing together an enormous
picture-puzzle in which each piece has a definite place, and all
together form a perfect whole.
There are about 350 buildings shown on this map, 315 being
dwellings; of the remainder, there are two churches, a schoblhouse,
jail, three tide mills and two wind mills; the other buildings are stables,
warehouses and shops.
In conclusion, let me say that it is through the plotting of such
maps as this that one realizes under what a handicap some of our
hard-working, conscientious historians have labored in the past.
There are many instances where deeds and notations have been mis-
located and I myself, in sorting my data, have been at times per-
254 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
plexed by the fact that some long-standing popular opinion did not
fit the topographical conditions. These erroneous opinions, in many
cases, were due to centering partial or inaccurate information around
some specific landmark, — the mistake of treating separately some
particular section of the town instead of dealing with the subject in
its entirety. There are many reasons for these misplacements,
which it would take too much time now to explain, among the
principal ones being the numerous separate holdings by the same
person, misinterpretation of street appellations, and in many in-
stances mistakes or twists in the compass-points used in the deeds.
As already said, the plan before you is merely a rough, working,
base-map to be used only in plotting the different sections of the
town upon a larger scale, and upon this I am now engaged.
Mr. JOHN W. FARWELL exhibited a charter party dated
at Boston, 22 October, 1659, between John Jackson of
Boston, master of the ketch Rebecca, and Mahalaleel
Munnings of Boston, merchant, in behalf of John Allen of
Barbados. As Munnings died before the completion of
the voyage, and as Allen refused to pay the amount due
in Barbados, a suit was brought against John Wiswall and
Hannah Munnings (a daughter of Wiswall and the widow
of Munnings), the administrators of Munnings's estate.1
The document follows:
This Charter party Indentid of a fraightment made the two and
twentieth day of October, in the yeare of our Lord one thousand six
hundred fifty and nine, Betweene John Jackson of Boston in the Massa-
chusetts Colonie of New-England Master of the Catch Called or Knowne
by the name of the Rebecca, now rideing at Anchor in the River of the
said Boston burthen about sixty tuns, In behalfe of the owners of the
said catch of the one part, And Mahalaleell Munnings of the said Boston
1 Born in or about 1632, Munnings was brought to this country in 1635;
married Hannah Wiswall in 1656; and was drowned in Boston on February 27,
1660. See Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts, Essex County, ii. 203-204;
Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, iii. 21, iv. 3, 15, 26, 29, 38, 80, 105,
xxi. 5; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, i. 132, vi. 73, vii.
273-274, x. 176-177, xiv. 316, xviii. 270, xxxvii. 378; Suffolk Deeds, iii. 298-299;
Robbins, History of the Second Church, p. 265; History of Dorchester (1859),
pp. 137-138; Orcutt, Good Old Dorchester, p. 60.
1919] A CHARTER PARTY, 1659 255
Merchant in the behalfe of Mr John Allen of Barbadoes Merchant on
the other part, Witnesseth that the said John Jackson hath leaten the
said catch with all her furniture, to fraight to the said Mahalaleell Mun-
nings And that the said Mahalaleell Munnings in the behalfe of the said
Allen, hath hired the said Catch for a voyage with her to be made by
Gods grace from the said Boston to Puscataque, there to take in her full
ladeing, and from thence to the Maderes, from the Maderes to the
Barbadoes, and from hence to the Luard Islands (if the said merchant
see cause), and so to the said Boston as her last port of discharge, which
said Catch is to be ymployed in the service of the said merchant his
factors agents or assignes for six months certayne and eight months
vncertayne, from the twenty fourth Day of this present October. And
that the said John Jackson the said master in behalfe of the said owners,
doth covenant and grannt to and with the said Marchant, That they
the said owners shall and will sufficiently victuall and man the said
Catch during the whole voyage, untill she com to her said last discharging
Port. The Seamen belonging to the said Catch with the said Master
to be eight in number, and one boy, And that the said Master and
owners shall provide all other things necessary for the said Catch in all
the said voyage from Port to Port as a aforesaid, for and in consideration
of which the said Mahalaleell Munnings the said Merchant doe by these
presents for himselfe his executors and administrators covenant and
grannt to and with the said John Jackson the said Master his executors
administrators and assignes, That he the said merchant his executors
administrators agents or assignes, shall and will pay or cause to be paid
vnto him the said Master in behalfe of the said owners their executors
or assignes the sume of seauventy pounds p month at some convenient
stoore house in S* Michaells towne in the said Barbadoes in good drey
well cured m'chantable muscavadoe sugar at three pence per pound,
within twenty days after the paid Catches arrivall at the said place in the
Barbadoes aforesaid. And what is not paid at the said place of the
Barbadoes, To be here paid in the said Boston as her last Port of Dis-
charge within tenn Dayes after her arrivall and Discharge as aforesaid,
vidett one third part thereof in money and coyne of New England, one
third in merchantable provisions at currant price and the other third
pte thereof in English goods, The said vessell to enter in pay on the said
twenty fourth Day of this present October. And the fsaid John Jackson
the said Master in the behalfe of the said owners, doth by these presents
covenant and grannt to and with the said Merchant his executors ad-
ministrators Agents or assignes, That he the said Merchant his executors
administrators agents or assignes, shall and may haue the said Catch
250
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
seamen and boate, ready vpon all occasions to serue the said inch1 his
executors administrators agents or assignes to and from land in any
navigable river or rivers in any of the said Port or Ports During the
whole tyme of the said voyage, according to the Custome of the said
place or places aforesaid. And the said John Jackson the said Master
in behalfe of the said owners of the said Catch, doth by these prsents
for himselfe covenant promise grannt and warrant That the said Catch
shalbe During the whole tyme of the said voyage as aforesaid strong and
stanch and well and sufficiently tackled calked apparrelled and furnished,
with masts sayles sayle yards Anchors cables ropes cords tackle apparrell
boate and furniture meete and convenient for such a vessell and such a
voyage And to all and singular the covenants grannts and agrem*1 herein
specified which on the part of the said John Jackson the said master in
behalfe of the said owners ar to be kept and pfonned in all things as
aforesaid, he the said John Jackson doth bind the said Catch with all her
furniture vnto the said merchant his executors and administrators in
the penalty & sume of fiue hundred pounds sterling payable in Boston
aforesaid, And in like manner the said Mahalaleell Mannings the said
merchant to all the covenants and agrem*8 herein specified which on his
part ar to be pformed and kept, he binds himselfe his executors and
administrators vnto the said John Jackson the said Master in the like
sume of fiue hundred pounds sterling payable in Boston as aforesaid.
In Witness whereof the said John Jackson the said Master in behalfe of
the said owners on the one part and the said Mahalaleell Munnings the
said merchant on the other part have herevnto interchangably put their
hands and seales the day and yeare first above written.
MAHALALEEL MUNNINGS [Seal]
Signed sealed and deliued
in the p'sence of
JOHN DAVIS
his O marke
Ita Attest jj ROBERT HOWARD Not: pubh
[On the back]
These p'sents Witnesseth That I John Jackson of Boston the within
mentioned Master of the Ketch Rebecca Doe assigne over this Charter
ptie Writen one the other side my right & Title: the full extent thereof
in all pticulers vnto Mr Christopher Chark in the behalf of himself &
owners: to be & remaine to them their executors & assignes To their
sole vse & behoof forever Witnes my hand the one and twentie daye of
Aprell Anno: one thousand six hundred & sixtie
Witnes heereunto JOHN JACKSON .
WILLIM HOWARD
K I
a ,
: N
-
N
. S ^ '
1919] A WATER-COLOR VIEW OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 1807 257
June 11 1660
John Jackson did acknowledge this assignem* and subscribed to the
same his hand
Ri. BELLINGHAM dep* gov*
These p'esents Witneseth That I Christopher Clark of Boston haue-
ing this Instrument or Charter ptie assigned vnto mee by John Jack-
son now of Boston as is aboue sayd ffor & in Consideration that Mr
Willim Browne of Salam is the Cheife & prinsiple owner of the ketch
abouesayd, I doe therefore assign ouer this sayd Charter ptie writen
as one the other side the full extent thereof in all pticulers, as it was
assigned vnto mee as aboue To be & remaine to him the sayd Willim
Browne In the behalf of himself and the rest of the owners, their execu-
tors & assignes To his & their sole vse & behoof for ever Witnes heerevnto
my hand this eight of May Anno: one thousand six hundred and six tic
Witnes heereunto CHRISTOPHER CLARKE
JN° PAINE
WM HOWARD
June 11 1660
Christofer Clarke did acknowledge this his assignem* affd y* that he
did subscribe the same
Ri. BKLLINGHAM dep*. govr
W™ Hayward came before me this 11°. 4'. 1660 and did testifie upon
oath that he see the above named John Jackson and Christofer Clarke
when each of them did subscribe their names to these several assigne-
ments
Ri. BELLINGHAM Dep* Govr
[Endorsed]
The papers yt Conserena Charter pty Mahalaleel
Mr Browns Action Mannings to John Jackson
Mr. WALDO LINCOLN exhibited a water-color view of
Harvard College, made about 1807, and remarked upon
some features of the buildings portrayed. It belongs to
the American Antiquarian Society, by whose courtesy it
is here reproduced.
Mr. WILLIAM C. LANE has written the following
comment:
In connection with this early view of Harvard University, it is
interesting to note that a print of the same view has been in the
possession of the Harvard Library since June, 1888, when it was
258 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS • [APRIL,
received from the "heirs of Eliza M. Judkins."1 The Harvard
copy of this print, which so far as is now known seems to be unique,
has been colored and is much darkened by age. It is the same size
as the original, and is a close copy except for a few small figures
introduced in the foreground and for the inscription beneath —
"VIEW OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN CAMBRIDGE, MAS-
SACHUSETTS." Just below the margin, in small letters, and at
the left, are the words "Painted by a Student," and at the right
"Snyder, Sculp.," while the names of the several buildings —
Stoughton Hall, Holden Chapel, Hollis Hall, Harvard Hall, Massa-
chusetts Hall — are engraved beneath the respective buildings.
Under the title, in script letters, is the line "This view is Respect-
fully Dedicated to the President2 of the University."
Stauffer's American Engravers upon Copper and Steel speaks of
H. W. Snyder as engraving in New York in 1797 to 1805, while in
1811 he made some good stipple portraits for the Polyanthos of
Boston. He also made line illustrations for the American Builders'
Companion, published in Boston in 1816.
The Harvard view could not have been made before 1805, when
Stoughton Hall was built, nor later than 1812, the date of Holwor-
thy Hall. No mention is made of it in the records of the Corpora-
tion or in the files of Harvard College Papers between 1805 and
1810, where some clue to the original artist might be expected. The
Librarian's correspondence for 1888 also contains nothing that
throws further light on the plate. The letter accompanying the
plate in 1888 speaks of its being "published by Act of Congress
June 17, 1807." I have not, however, myself found these words in
the plate, but they give a clue to the date of publication. A
search of the Boston papers for 1807 might perhaps reveal some
advertisement and settle the date of the plate more accurately.
MR. JULIUS H. TUTTLE spoke as follows:
Many of the surnames found in early records of towns and churches
in the Bay Colony are known to-day in their original forms, some
1 Miss Judkins was of Cambridge, and was a great-granddaughter of Jonathan
Hastings (H. C. 1730; College Steward, 1755-1779).
1 Samuel Webber was President from May 6, 1806, to July 17, 1810. He
succeeded Joseph Willard (1781-1804), and was succeeded by John Thornton
Kirkland (1810-1828).
L
v
• / . • .••• • **•> -T y
/
^
J * • *1 v> «
EXTRACTS FROM THE DEDHAM CHURCH RECORDS
ENGRAVED FOR THE COLONIAL SOCICTY OF MASSACHUSETTS
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 259
have undergone a change, and others have disappeared. It may be
of some interest to record in our Transactions the mention of two
surnames among the early settlers of Dedham.
The records of the Church of Christ there were kept with great
care by the Rev. John Allin, a graduate of Cambridge University,
who settled in Dedham in July, 1637, and became the first minister.
The records began with the gathering of the church in November,
1638, and were continued by him to the end of his pastorate at his
death in 1671.
The names to which attention is called are " Damat " and
"Checkery,"' which appear in the entries reproduced in facsimile
facing page 258.
In 1648 and 1649 a "John Damant" was listed in the town rates,
but no further trace is found of the "Damatt" family in Dedham or
elsewhere, nor has the surname been found in any lists. However,
the modern name of " Damant " is known.
"Henry Checkery" was later Henry Chickering, and became the
first deacon of the church. He had a grant of land hi Salem in 1640,
but the fact that his grant hi Dedham was next to the minister's leads
to the supposition that he was won away from Salem by the desire
for his church service in Dedham.1
Mr. ALBERT MATTHEWS communicated the following
paper:
EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON
Here and there can be found a bit of evidence that religious in-
struction was given in New England to children or others on Sun-
day in the seventeenth century. Thus on June 10, 1644, an order
relating to Indians was passed by the Massachusetts General Court:
Whereas it is ye earnest desire of this Courte, that these natiues . . .
should come to y* good knowledge of God, & bee brought on to subiect
to ye scepter of ye Lord Jesvs, it is therefore ordred, that all such of y*
Indians as haue subjected themselues to or goum1* bee henceforward
enioyned (& y* they fayle not) to meete att such seuall places of ap-
poyntmta as shalbee most convenient on y* Lords day, where they may
1 In documents dated 1665, Henry Chickering's name appears as "Chickerol,"
"Chickrol," and "Chickerin:" see our Publications, rx. 260, 262, 263.
260 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APEIL,
attend such instrucdn as shalbee giuen them by those whose harts God
shall stirr vpp to y* worke; and it is hereby further declared . . . y1
those townes that lye most conuenient to such places of mee tinge of ye
Indians would make choyce of some of theire brethren (whome God
hath best quail if led for y* worke) to goe to them, ... & instruct
them, . . . yl if possible God may haue ye glory of ye conusion (at
least) of some of them in ye vse of such meanes God giues vs to afoard
them.1
To what extent religious instruction was actually given to In-
dians on Sunday in the early days here, I do not know; but at least
it is certain that in 1660 a payment of £10 was made "To hiacoms
an Indian Scoolmaster and Teacher of them on the Lords day" at
Martha's Vineyard.2 Another early allusion to instruction on
Sunday occurs in an entry made by the Apostle Eliot on Sunday,
December 6, 1674, in reference to the First Church in Roxbury:
This day we restored or primitive practice for the training up o*
youth, first or male youth (in fitting season, stay every sab: after the
evening exercize, in the Pub: meeting house, where the Elders will ex-
amine theire remembrance y* day, & any fit poynt of catechise. Sec-
ondly y* or female youth should meet in one place, where the Elders
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 6-7.
* Plymouth Colony Records, -x. 245. Hiacoms (Hiacombs, I-a-coomes, Ja-
comes, Jacoms, Sacomas) was a man of note. His son Joel was in the Harvard
Class of 1665, but was murdered shortly before Commencement Day in that
year: see pp. 187-189, above. Of Hiacoms Cotton Mather wrote:
The first Indian embracing the Motion of forsaking their gods, and praying to
the true God, was called I-a-coomes; Esteemed by the Indians as a contemptible
Person among themselves: Unto this Man, God who ordereth all things for his
own Glory, gave so great a Measure of Faith and Confidence in his Power, that
he is soon beyond the fear of concealing his Contempt of their Gods: The Sachems
and Powaws being much inraged, threaten his Life; the Powatos or Wizzards told
him (a thing publickly known) that he could not be ignorant, that they could
kill such as displeas'd them, viz. by Witchcraft.
He answers for himself before the Sachems, Witches, and a great Assembly;
acknowledges the god they worshipp'd had great Power, but limited, and was
subservient to the God he now had chosen : Therefore although by their means
many had suffer'd much, and some were killed, he despis'd their Power, as being
himself a servant of Him, whose power over-Tided all Powers, and ordered all
things: The Expecting Multitude wait the Event, which while they concluded to
be Sickness or Death; the good Man remains wholly sound to their Astonishment
(Magnalia, bk. vi. chap. vi. sect. ii. p. 53).
1919]
EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON
261
may examine ym of theire remembrance yesterday. & about catechise,
or what else may be convenient.1
Quoting this passage in 1899, the Rev. Dr. James De Normandie
remarked:
While in such records and religious experiences these churches were,
I take it, much the same, the First Church in Rockesburgh was dis-
tinguished from the others apparently by two interests. Its care for
the young was most marked. Here, as far as any records can be found,
was the first Sunday-school in the New World; but its work is hardly
that which would commend itself to the members of our Young People's
Religious Union.2
Eliot, it will be observed, stated that "our primitive practice" was
restored. By "primitive practice" he may only have meant the
practice of catechizing children. If he meant catechizing them on
Sunday, it would be interesting to know exactly when it began,
but until that is determined precedence must be given to the In-
dians of Martha's Vineyard for having established "the first Sunday-
school in the New World."
On March 22, 1675-6, the Church in Norwich, Connecticut, de-
clared :
We do therefore this Day Solemnly Covenant to Endeavour uprightly
by dependance upon the Grace of God in Christ Jesus our only Saviour.
First, That our Children shall be brought up in the Admonition of
the Lord, as in our Families, so in publick; that all the Males who are
eight or nine years of age, shall be presented before the Lord in his
Congregation every Lords Day to be Catechised, until they be about
thirteen years in age.*
And in 1694 at the Church in Plymouth, —
1 Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, vi. 191.
* The Second Church in Boston: Commemorative Services held on the com-
pletion of Two Hundred and Fifty Years since its Foundation (1900), p. 73.
1 "The Covenant Which was Solemnly Renewed by the Church in Norwich
in Connecticut Colony in New-England, March 22. 1675," in the Rev. James
Fitch's An Explanation of the Solemn Advice, Recommended by the Council in
Connecticut Colony, to the Inhabitants in that Jurisdiction, Respecting the
Reformation of those Evils, which have been the Procuring Cause of the late
Judgments upon New-England (1683), p. 69.
262 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APBIL,
Notice being before given of it, on May 13 : the Pastor began againe
to Catechise the children of the chh in the shorter Catechisme of the
Assembly of Divines, in the publick meeting house between the morning
& evening worship, the males one sabbath & the females another suc-
cessively & then preached on each head of Divinity as they lye in
order in that Catechisme; this course was constantly attended for more
than 3 yeares, till August, 1697: from Sabath to Sabbath, only on
Sacrament dayes & in the short winter dayes & very unseasonable
weather, there was a necessary omission thereoff. Many of the congre-
gation did heare the sermons preached at the catechising; & God
strengthned & encouraged in the work.1
1 Mayflower Descendant, xiv. 191. The extracts dated 1644, 1660, and 1694
have not hitherto, so far as I am aware, been cited. There are to be found,
however, in several works on Sunday schools, two or three extracts which are
either misleading or actually erroneous. In an address delivered before the
Society of Alumni of Williams College, August 16, 1843, the Rev. Dr. Thomas
Robbins remarked: "A distinguished gentleman in New York, not long since,
said, without qualification, . . . that the first Sabbath school in the United
States was established at Hanover, in Virginia, by Bishop Asbury, in the year
1785. There were Sabbath schools in New England before that Bishop or John
Wesley were born." And in a footnote he added: "The earliest Sabbath school
of which I have seen an authentic account, was at Plymouth, commenced in No-
vember, 1669" (pp. 39-40). Dr. Robbins gave no authority for that statement,
but no doubt it was derived from John Cotton's "Account of the Church of Christ
In Plymouth, The first Church in New England, From it's Establishment to the
present Day," appended to the Rev. Philemon Robbins's Sermon Preached at
the Ordination Of the Reverend Mr. Chandler Robbins, To the Pastoral Office over
the First Church and Congregation In Plymouth, January 30th 1760, Appendix,
p. 17. Instead of quoting Cotton's words (which are substantially correct), I
give the passage as it appears in the church records themselves, written by the
then pastor, the Rev. John Cotton (H. C. 1657) : "Also in November [1669],
began the Catechizing of the children by the Pastor, (the Elder also accompanying
him therein constantly) once a fortnight, the Males at one time & the females
at the other: the catechisme then used was Mr: Perkins" (Mayflower Descend-
ant, iv. 214). Mr. Cotton is silent as to the day of the week on which this cate-
chizing took place, and Dr. Robbins was unwarranted in assuming that it was
Sunday.
In his Dictionary of Congregational Usages and Principles, published in 1852,
under the heading " INTERMISSIONS, Sabbath, how spent in New England,"
Preston Cummings quoted a passage from Cotton Mather and remarked: "Thus
they were in advance of Raikes in devising virtual Sabbath-schools" (p. 45).
Mather's statement is as follows r
"The Hours taken from the two Meetings on the Lord's Day, are such as
they Judge may most suit their Edification. Where any number of the People
have their living very remote from the Meeting- House, the Time of Intermission
between the two Meetings is usually shortened for their sake; and they stay
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 263
However, such Sunday schools — if, indeed, they can properly be
called by that term — were occasional and sporadic, and there does
in or near it. But how do they spend this Time? The more faithful and watch-
ful Pastors, are put upon using their best Contrivances, that their Employments
may be most agreeable, and most serviceable to the Interests of Hol[i]ness. It
has been proposed That Repititions of, or Conferences on, the Word of Christ
may be some of the Employments" (Ratio Discipline Fratrum Nov-Anglorum,
1726, p. 45).
This passage does not warrant Cummings'a deduction about " virtual Sabbath-
schools."
In his Rise and Progress of Sunday Schools, published in 1863, John C. Power
said:
" Many places in America claim the honor of having Sabbath schools prior to
1781. In fact, as early as 1680, (a century before their general introduction,)
the records of the Pilgrim's Church, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, then under
the care of the Rev. John Robinson, show that a Sabbath School was organised
at that time in connexion with the church.
"A vote of the church in the form of a request is as follows — "That the Dea-
cons of the church be requested to assist the minister in teaching the children
during the intermission on the Sabbath '" (p. 22).
It is obvious at a glance that there is something wrong about this passage.
First, the Plymouth Church was "under the care" not of a "minister" but of a
"pastor." Secondly, the only John Robinson who was ever connected with the
Pilgrims was the famous English divine who died in 1625 and who, it is needless
to add, never came to this country. Thirdly, the pastor of the Plymouth Church
in 1680 was the Rev. John Cotton. And finally, the church records themselves
for 1680 yield no such passage nor anything resembling it: see the Mayflower
Descendant, xii. 28. Apparently the only Rev. John Robinson who flourished
in New England in the early days was the one who graduated at Harvard Col-
lege in 1695 and became pastor of the Duxbury Church in 1702.
The Rev. John Cotton was ordained pastor of the Plymouth Church on June
30, 1669, and during the nearly thirty years of his pastorate there are in the
church records several allusions to the catechizing of children. The first of these is
the one under date of 1669, already quoted in this note, though, as above stated,
there is no evidence that this then took place on Sunday. A second is under
the year 1678: " Catechizing .was againe begun, December 4: in the Assemblies
Catechisme" (Mayflower Descendant, xii. 27). Now December 4, 1678, was a
Friday. A third is under the year 1693 (or possibly 1694): "At a chh-meeting
Feb: 4: the chh voted to sing the spirituall songs in scripture as translated into
meeter in our new Psalm-booke the chh was then desired to warne their children
4 servants not to depart the Assembly before the Blessing, as also to acquaint
them, that the ordinance of c[atech]izing them should shortly be revived, the
chh unanimously agreed hereunto" (xiv. 189). A fourth is the one under date
of May 13, 1694, quoted in our text. A fifth is under the year 1696: "July,
26: at the conclusion of the sacrament, the Pastor called upon the chh, desiring
them after the example of Abraham, Gen: 18: 19: to command their children etc
to attend more upon <fe not neglect the ordinance of publick catechiaing, wherein
264 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
not appear to be any historical connection between them and the
modern system of Sunday schools which, as is well known, began in
England towards the end of the eighteenth century. With this
movement the name of Robert Raikes is indissolubly connected,
though there are other claimants to the honor of having established
the first Sunday school in England.1 The differences between the
old system and the new system will be patent to every one who
reads the extracts about to be presented. What pastors did here
before 1790 was merely, so far as the evidence indicates, to cate-
chize on Sunday (though more often on a week day) the children
of their own parishes. Very different was the aim of Raikes, whose
purpose was to give secular instruction on Sunday to poor children
who otherwise would be running about the streets and who, because
employed at work, were unable to go to school on week days.1
That there was a Sunday school of the modern type in Philadelphia
in 1791 is well authenticated,3 and that is generally regarded as the
of late there had bin some remisness, upon which followed a Reformation hi
that respect" (xv. 22).
For the references to the Plymouth Church Records taken from the Mayflower
Descendant, I am indebted to Mr. George E. Bowman.
1 Raikes's first school was opened in 1780 or 1781. Others had certainly been
opened earlier. See the notices of Joseph Alleine (1634-1668), Hannah Ball
(1734-1792), Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808), and Robert Raikes (1735-1811)
in the Dictionary of National Biography.
1 "Consequently," writes Marianna C. Brown, "the few Sunday-schools dat-
ing back to the seventeenth century .whose names have come down to us belong
to an entirely different movement from the Sunday-schools started at the close
of the eighteenth century " (Sunday-School Movements in America, 1901, p. 19.
Though Miss Brown accepts without examination two or three doubtful state-
ments, her account of early Sunday schools in this country is much more accu-
rate than that found in the Rev. Dr. Edwin W. Rice's "The Sunday-School
Movement, 1780-1917, and the American Sunday-School Union, 1817-1917,"
1917, pp. 42-44, 153). Between 1791 and about 1819 a still further. change took
place in this country: instruction, at first secular, became religious; and the
children of the wealthy as well as poor children attended. Finally, so far as
Boston is concerned, between 1815 and about 1830 a Sunday school became
attached to a particular parish and was attended by the children of that parish
only.
1 "On recurring to the records it appears, that from the third month March,
1791, to the first month January 1800, there had been expended on the education
of children 3968 dollars and 56 cents" (Constitution of the Society for the In-
stitution and Support of First-Day or Sunday Schools in the City of Philadel-
phia, and the Districts of Southwark and the Northern Liberties, 1810, p. 18).
Preliminary meetings having been held on December 19 and 26, 1790, that soci-
1919]
EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON
265
earliest in this country.1 It has been claimed that the first in New
England was begun at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, hi 1791 or 1792,
though the earliest certain date that can be assigned to ft is 1797;2
and that the earliest one in Massachusetts was started at Beverly
in 1810.3 But these knotty matters are beyond the scope of this
ety was organized on January 11, 1791 (Marianna C. Brown, Sunday-School
Movements in America, pp. 26-27).
1 For other earlier or early schools in this country see, under the titles "First
Sunday Schools" and "Sunday-School History, Middle Period of," the En-
cyclopedia of Sunday Schools and Religious Education (1915), ii. 411-416, iii.
1025-1033.
1 Rev. Edward H. Randall, A Discourse commemorative of the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the Consecration of St. Paul's Church, Pawtucket, R. I., de-
livered on Sunday, October 20th, A.D. 1867 (1868), pp. 18-27; Rev. Massena
Goodrich, Historical Sketch of the Town of Pawtucket (1876), pp. 128-129.
1 "The sabbath-school system originated by Robert Raikes in England, for
the benefit of the neglected children of his neighborhood, now began to attract
public notice,* and one of the earliest trials of it in New England was made in
this town. In 1810, two ladies of the first church (Miss Joanna Prince, now
Mrs. Ebenezer Everett, of Brunswick, Me., and Miss Hannah Hill,) collected a
number of children and commenced a Sunday-school. Their efforts were crowned
with entire success, and they before long enjoyed the pleasure of witnessing the
establishment of similar institutions in each of the religious societies in town"
(E. M. Stone, History of Beverly, 1843, pp. 299-300). In some reminiscences
written between 1848 and 1858, Robert Rantoul (1778-1858) epoke of this
school: see Essex Institute Historical Collections, vi. 89-90.
But three years before the Beverly school is supposed to have started, a Sun-
day school was certainly projected at Salem, though whether it actually came
into existence I have been unable to ascertain. The following advertisement is
copied from the Salem Gazette of September 4, 1807 (p. 3/4) :
Sunday School.
rilirE subscriber respectfully advertises the public, that he proposes to open
-L a SUNDAY SCHOOL for the benefit of any children who may wish to
profit by such an establishment.
It is essential to the success of this plan to state, that the pupils will be ex-
posed to no expence, except for bibles, blank-books, Ac.
The exercises will commence at the subscriber's school-room, on Sabbath day
next, the 6th inst. .
Hours of instruction from half past 6 to 8, A.M. and from half past 4 to
6P.M.
Salem, sept. 4. 8. Cleveland Blydon.
Stephen Cleveland Blyth was born at Salem on January 29, 1771; entered
Harvard College in the class of 1790, but did not graduate; had a varied and
interesting career in the West Indies and in Europe; in 1807 changed his name
to Blydon; in 1809 became a Roman Catholic; later, but exactly when is not
266 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
paper, the purpose of which is to bring together some scattered notes
on Sunday schools in Boston previous to 1819.
Four years ago the notice board in front of the Park Street Church
contained this statement: "First Sunday School in Boston, 1817." 1
In 1918 this read "Sunday School Organized 1817." There is now
no reference at all on the notice board to the Sunday School. From
an historic sketch of the Park Street Church, printed in a volume
published in 1861, is taken the following:
SABBATH SCHOOL, in the Orthodox churches in Boston, it is sup-
posed, originated in a meeting of members of Park Street Church, in
the year 1817. . . .
A -free conversation was held, in which objections were raised, viz:
that it might be a desecration of the Sabbath; that children ought to
be instructed at home by their parents; and that professing Christians
ought to be at home, engaged in reading, meditation, and prayer, in-
stead of going abroad to f teach the children of other families, on the
Sabbath.2
known, changed his name back to Blyth; and practised medicine at Boucher-
ville, Canada, where he died in 1844.
1 Boston Transcript, March 23, 1915, p. 12.
* "The first mention of Sabbath schools in this country, in the 'Boston Re-
corder,'" wrote the Rev. Asa Bullard in 1876, "so far as we can find, was in
vol. xi., for 1817, in an article by Thomas Vose, Secretary of the Boston Society
for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor" (Fifty Years with the
Sabbath Schools, p. 46). That article was printed in the issue of October 7, 1817,
ii. 173 (not xi). This religious paper, first published under the name of The
Recorder on January 3, 1816, contains many references to Sunday schools in this
country before the article in question appeared. The paper was at first opposed
to their establishment hi New England, an editorial in the issue of September 4,
1816, reading in part as follows:
"It has been suggested, that the notices which we have occasionally published
of the establishment and success of Sunday Schools in the southern and western
States might induce the idea that similar institutions would be equally advan-
tageous in this part of the country. This is far from our intention. — The design
of Sunday Schools is, and ought to be, the gratuitous instruction of poor chil-
dren whose parents are unable to spare them from labor or pay for their
instruction during the week. In the populous manufacturing districts of Great-
Britain, where large numbers of poor children are confined to manual labor for
six days in the week, such schools are an invaluable blessing. . . . But in New-
England, where Schools are brought to every man's door, and where the chil-
dren of the poor may be educated without expence during the week, there are
few cases where Sunday Schools would be attended with any solid advantage.
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 267
To this it was answered, that Sabbath-day teaching was a missionary
work, designed to gather, from the streets and wharves, children who
were neglected by their parents, and suffered to go abroad on the Sab-
bath, when they were generally engaged in play or mischief. It was for
this purpose that they were established in England, by ROBERT RAIKES,
and they had there been the means of doing great good.
It was finally determined, at that meeting, that a school of that de-
scription should be commenced; and WILLIAM THURSTON, Esq., (the
first name attached to the covenant of Park Street Church,) . . . was
requested to act as superintendent of the school. This school was
established in the Town Schoolhouse, on Mason Street.
Schools similar to this were afterwards established in other sections
of the town. The "Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of
the Poor," being organized about that time, took the general super-
intendence of all the schools, appointed the superintendents when
vacancies occurred, visited and examined the schools, by committees,
quarterly, and contributed to their pecuniary wants. . . .
In the fall of 1829, two members of the Park Street Church, — a lady
They might even prove injurious, by inducing a neglect of common schools"
(i. 143).
But in an editorial in the issue of October 14, 1817, Sunday schools were
"vindicated" (ii. 177). In the Columbian Centinel of August 21, 1816, appeared
the following:
Sunday Schools — are found, on experiment, to -succeed in N. York, . . . We
wish them success. In Massachusetts, we desire to be thankful, these institutions
are not needed, and our youths can [attend the public worship of God without
any' impediment to their education. Our laws — cheerfully obeyed — make
ample provision for the education of all classes of the community, the children
of the poor particularly. The teachers are liberally endowed — at least this is
the case in Boston, and other places within the circuit of our knowledge; and
the schools are kept constantly filled with pupils of both sexes, at separate times;
and exhibitions are given in those schools of reading, writing, arithmetic, gram-
mar, composition, and eloquence, which are not excelled at the best academies
(p. 1/4-5).
The complacent view that the Boston schools furnished "'ample provision for
the education of all classes of the community " was not shared by others, and at
a town meeting held May 25, 1818, " The application of a number of the Inhab-
itants for the establishment of Schools for the instruction of children under seven
years of age" was read and the matter was placed in the hands of a committee.
The report of this committee, dated June 3, was read at a town meeting held
June 11, its recommendations were adopted, money was appropriated, and thus
the primary schools were established: "Most of the Schools were opened in
August, and all by the first week in September," 1818 (Boston Record Commis-
sioners' Reports, xxxvii. 100, 105-106, 124-126).
268 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS J [APRIL,
and a gentleman, — after conversation on the subject, determined to
attempt the establishment of a Sabbath school in Park Street Lower
Vestry, to be gathered principally from the congregation. . . . The
first meeting of the school was held "Sunday, December 13, 1829." . . .
At the time that Park Street School was established, many teachers
and scholars belonging to Park Street congregation were engaged in
other schools, from which they were not disposed to withdraw. It was
stated at the time, that about one hundred members of Park Street
Church, of both sexes, were thus engaged.1
In 1890 Hamilton A. Hill, referring to the year 1817, said:
On Wednesday afternoon, October 8, Mr. Huntington preached at
the Old South, in behalf of the Society for the Moral and Religious In-
struction of the Poor. A large number of Sunday-school children were
present. This society . . . was founded in 1816, and, as its original
name2 indicates, began as a Sunday-school society; during the first
year of its existence, it gathered five hundred children into its two
schools, one of them in Mason Street, the other in School Street.1
The Rev. Joshua Huntington was at that tune pastor of the Old
South Church and also president of the Boston Society for the Moral
and Religious Instruction of the Poor, while William Thurston was
its vice-president. In its first Report, presented October 8, 1817,
we read:
The field to which we allude, and which we now earnestly recommend
to the cultivation of all classes, is presented to us in the form of Sunday
Schools. Two of these schools have been established by the Board in
the town school houses, one in Mason and another in School Street,
the use of which has been granted, on application for that purpose, by
the selectmen and school committee.4 Into the first 336 children have
1 Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Park Street Church and Society; held
on the Lord's Day, February 27, 1859 (1861), pp. 162-164.
1 The Seventeenth Annual Report (1834) was the last published by the Bos-
ton Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor under that name.
The operations of the society were suspended from January, 1838, to January,
1841, when it began a new career under the name of the City Missionary Society,
1 History of the Old South Church, ii. 406.
4 June 4, 1817: "An application was made for the use of the school houses for
the accommodation of Sunday schools. — referred to the School Committee"
(Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, xxxviii. 234).
March 18, 1818: "On the application of the Rev. Mr. Huntington & Mr.
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 269
been admitted, and into the latter 164 — making together 500. The
first mentioned school was opened on the llth of May last, and has
been constantly attended by about 20 instructors, besides a super-
intendant. The latter school was commenced on the 15th of June, and
has one superintendant with ten teachers; the boys being taught by
male, and the girls by female instructors. . . . All that apply above
five years of age are admitted and equally entitled to this gratuitous
instruction; . . .
The Board of Directors of this Society have published their intention
of supplying with their books and papers any religious society or in-
dividuals in this town, that may hereafter think proper to establish
Sunday Schools, and provide them with superintendants and teachers,
and have aided in this way a Sunday School established at South Bos-
ton 1 upon the plan above described.
We have already observed, that into the two schools opened under
the sanction of the Board, and supported by the funds of this society,
500 children have been admitted. Of 336 received into the Mason-
street school, none of whom are under five years of age, not one fourth
could read words of one syllable when admitted, and most of them did
not know their letters.2
From subsequent Reports it is learned that a school was estab-
lished in North Bennet Street about March 1, 1818,3 and another
in Hawkins Street on April 5, 1818 ;4 that in 1828 no fewer than
eighteen schools were under the society's patronage; 5 and that in
Thurston leave was granted to occupy the North School house and the school
house in Mason street for Sunday schools" (id. p. 279).
1 An account of this was printed in the Boston Recorder of April 24, 1818,
beginning as follows: "During the latter part of last summer, a Sabbath School
was established in the Congregational Society at South Boston, under the super-
intendence of the Instructor of the public school there, assisted by the Sabbath
School Society in Boston; into which about 60 children were received and in-
structed in the elements of Reading, and the Holy Scriptures, about three
months" (iii. 67).
1 Report of the Boston Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of
the Poor, October 8, 1817, pp. 2-3, 4. This Report was also printed in the
Boston Recorder of October 28, 1817, u. 183.
' "The School in North-Bennet street was opened about seven months since"
(Second Annual Report of the Boston Society, etc., October 22, 1818, p. 8).
4 "The School in Hawkins-street was commenced on Sunday, April 5th"
(Second Annual Report, etc., p. 9).
• Twelfth Annual Report, etc., December 4, 1828, p. 21.
270
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
1829 its Sunday schools were "resigned to the care of an appro-
priate institution." *
Very recently it has been claimed that the Park Street Church
Sunday School was in existence at the outbreak of the War of 181 2,2
1 Thirteenth Annual Report, December 30, 1829, p. 4. In a footnote the
name of the "appropriate institution" is given as "The Massachusetts Branch
of the American Sabbath School Union." In the Fifth Annual Report of the
Massachusetts Sabbath School Union, May 27, 1830, it is said: "These difficul-
ties were foreseen by the Board and other friends of the Union, before the ex-
periment was tried; but it was not' then known, that each denomination was
willing to be organized into Unions by themselves. As soon as this fact was
ascertained, the Board were unanimous in the wish that all their schools might
be formed into Auxiliary Unions, in connection with each Association of Ministers,
or Conference of Churches, in the whole State" (p. 3). A long notice in the
Boston Recorder of April 16, 1829, reads in part as follows: "It is well known
that the Congregational Evangelical Sabbath Schools in this city have hitherto
been under the care of the Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of
the Poor. . . . Recently ... it was determined that the management of these
schools should be entrusted to those who were engaged as instructors in them.
. . . The design of relinquishing the schools having been communicated to the
Superintendents and teachers; they held a meeting, accepted the trust, formed
themselves into a union under the style of the Boston Sabbath School Union,
auxiliary to the Massachusetts Sabbath School Union, adopted a constitution,
and chose the following persons as officers" (xiv. 62). The first article of the
new society's constitution, adopted March 10, 1829, reads: "This Society shall
be known by the name of the BOSTON SABBATH SCHOOL UNION, and shall be
auxiliary to the Massachusetts Sabbath School Union" (First Annual Report
of the Board of Managers of the Boston Sabbath School Union, February 20,
1830, p. 28: cf. p. 5).
1 Letter of Harry J. Jaquith dated December 30, 1918, in Boston Transcript
of December 31, 1918. Mr. Jaquith says in part:
"The records of Park Street Church were in my possession in the early '70i
and while hi my possession I had frequent talks with original members of the
church, one of them, my venerable friend Peter Hobart, in telling of the gather-
ing of the church narrated that when the split came between the Trinitarian and
Unitarian wings of the Congregational Church, many families withdrew from the
Unitarian churches and for years maintained a Sunday school for their children
and youth in Deacon Bumstead's house on Beacon Hill. Finally, out of the
Sunday school grew the organization of Park Street Church and the erection of
the present (altered) structure. Mr. Hobart was an original member of the
Sunday school and later of the church. He told me of the boys of the Sunday
school organizing a drum and fife corps and parading the streets upon the out-
break of the War of 1812; so it is easy to fix the date as five or six years earlier
than the Christ Church School, and add to that the fact that its services were not
discontinued but removed into the church edifice as soon as the building was
ready for occupancy.
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 271
but the data presented above show conclusively that, as stated in
the historic sketch of- the Park Street Church published in 1861, it
was not organized before 1817.
In 1899 the Rev. Nathan E. Wood wrote:
Wednesday, Sept. 4, 1816, a society was organized and called "The
Sabbath School Society of the First Baptist Church and Congregation
for the Instruction of Indigent Boys." They were to be instructed "in
reading and spelling," and were to be "provided with books and Cloth-
ing." Within a year the range of instruction was increased, and " the
instructors are to teach the children, spelling, reading, the catechism
& the doctrines & duties of the Christian Religion." This school was not
intended for boys from families of the church, but for neglected and
indigent boys. The officers and instructors were all men, and it was their
duty to take these boys to the public worship on Lord's Days and
sit with them (usually in the gallery) to preserve order. . . . The first
Sunday-school organized in the vicinity of Boston, for the religious
instruction of the young, seems to have been the one in Beverly, in
1810, in the First Parish Church.1 The first one in Boston was begun
in June, 1816, in the Third Baptist Church (afterward known as the
Charles Street), and was in two divisions, a "Female Sabbath School"
and a " Sabbath School for Indigent Boys." In the next month a " Fe-
male Sabbath School" was begun in the Second Baptist Church (Bald-
" There are no 'if a, ands or huts' about these facts. I do not state them to
claim 'first' for any Sunday school, indeed, Mr. Hobart did not speak of the
school as anything new or novel and it is my impression that we would have to
go back many years to correctly apply the label, 'first.' "^ ,
Mr. Peter Hobart was born on November 19, 1806, and, consequently, lacked
five months of being six years old at the outbreak of the War of 1812 (June 18):
aee New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxiv. 107-108. Ob-
viously, what he told Mr. Jaquith cannot be accepted as anything more than
the hazy recollections one would naturally expect sixty years or more after the
event. Moreover, the historic sketch printed in 1861 was "chiefly from copious
statements prepared" by three persons, one of whom was Mr. Hobart (p. 131).
"Of my first three or four years," a distinguished psychologist has recently writ-
ten, "... I have managed to preserve only one dim fragmentary impression,
that of mounted horsemen splashing through our street, on the occasion, without
doubt, of an exceptionally high tide. But who can say what those first so-called
impressions really mean: whether they are in part at least true memories of
things seen by us refreshed from time to time, or merely reverberations of tales
repeatedly told us by our elders?" (James Sully, My Life and Friends, 1918,
p. 10).
1 See p. 265 note 3, above.
272 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS j_
win Place). It was soon after the settlement of Mr. Winchell that the
question of organizing a Sunday-school in the First [Baptist] Church
was agitated, but no decision was reached until August, 1816, when a
"Female Sabbath School" was commenced in the vestry. It enrolled
eighty-seven members, seventy-five of whom were in attendance in
October, 1818. The records of this school cannot be found, but it was
conducted by women exclusively. In the next month, September, 1816,
"the Sabbath School for Indigent Boys" was begun, and more than one
hundred boys were enrolled, seventy of whom remained in October,
1818. In November, 1816, the First African Baptist Church began a
school with about fifty pupils.1 Thus from June to November in 1816
all of the four Baptist churches in Boston equipped themselves with
Sabbath-schools.2
In an historic sketch of the First Parish Sabbath School, Charles-
town, published in 1867, we read :
A half century has passed since, in October, 1816, two societies were
formed in connection with this our old and honored church. One,
called "The Charlestown Sabbath-school Society," was composed of
gentlemen; the other, composed of ladies, called "The Charlestown
Female Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools."
The officers of the first named were chosen Oct. 25, 1816, . . . The
officers of the female society, chosen the same year, but probably a
little earlier, were . . .
The object of these societies, as designated by their "constitutions,"
was "to ascertain the situation of the children and youth of this town
within the Neck, in regard to moral and religious instruction ; to provide
suitable places, where those of them who are disposed may meet on the
Sabbath to receive such instruction; to provide a sufficient number of
proper instructors; and to make the necessary arrangements for the
decent, orderly attendance of the scholars on public worship." Also
1 "An attempt was made to establish a Sunday School for children of color
in the African Meeting-house in Belknap-street in the month of November,
1816" (Boston Recorder, November 25, 1817, ii. 200, from an account "fur-
nished by the Rev. Thomas Paul, Pastor of the African Church, Belknap-
street"). ."„".
1 History of the First Baptist Church of Boston, pp. 306-307, 353. "Ex-
tracts from the Report of the Union Committee of the Sabbath Schools in the
three Baptist Societies in Boston" were printed in the Boston Recorder of No-
vember 25, 1817, ii. 200, where it is stated that "It was in June, 1816, that the
females of the Third Baptist Church and Congregation, formed the first Sunday
School in this town."
1919]
EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON
273
(as incorporated in the constitution of the Female Society), " to furnish
the indigent with such clothing and books as may enable them to at-
tend the schools and public worship in the house of God."
These societies resulted in the formation of three schools, — one for
girls (first formed), one for boys, and another to be held at the Point.
The records of these two societies, written in a clear and beautiful
hand by the secretaries, with the list of officers chosen, and the general
minutes relating to their action, are in the possession of the school at the
present time. We have also the names of the teachers and scholars of
the girls' school. The record of the boys' school, and of the school at
the Point, is either mislaid or wholly lost.1
Charlestown was of course at that tune a separate town, as it was
not annexed to Boston until 1874.
The Christ Church Sunday school was begun on June 4, 1815.
The following account was written in 18?6 by Joseph W. Ingraham,
then the superintendent of the school:
A school of this description was projected in 1808 or 1809, when it
was contemplated by some of the proprietors of Christ Church to erect,
on the land belonging to the church, a school house for the children of
those who worshipped there. It was at that time a subject of con-
versation between the rector o£ the church 2 and the late Shubael Bell,
Esq., a gentleman whose zealous exertions in the cause of benevolence
entitle him to a high rank among the useful members of society, and
whose memory should ever be retained by us in grateful remembrance.
It was owing to his zealous co-operation with the Rector of the church
that our school was commenced; and it is an interesting fact, in the
history of these institutions, that these gentlemen were the founders of
the first Sunday school opened in New England. They had long felt
the importance of having a school on Sundays for the religious in-
struction of the children attending Christ Church; but as the vestry
was not large enough, and it was not convenient to have the school in
the body of the church, the execution of their plan was postponed till
circumstances should be more propitious to the undertaking. And
when Mr. Bell so zealously engaged in the design of erecting the acad-
emy, he was stimulated in a great measure by the hope of having a Sun-
1 Semi-Centennial Celebration of the First Sabbath-School Society in Massa-
chusetts, and the First Parish Sabbath School, Charlestown, held on the Lord's
Day, October 14, 1866, at the First Church, Charlestown (1867), pp. 47, 48.
• Rev. Dr. Asa Eaton.
274 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
day school kept in the same building. But circumstances not proving
favorable, the execution of the design was postponed till May, 1815,
when Mr. John R. Cotting became preceptor of [the] academy, and
consented to take charge of the Sunday school. It was opened on the
Sunday after he commenced his duties as preceptor, being the first
Sunday in June, 1815.
At this time no other Sunday school was known to have been opened in
America; 1 and this was therefore modelled on the 'plan of those estab-
lished by the Church in England. While the subject of the school was
under discussion, the rector of the church prepared for publication a
small tract entitled the Youth's Manual, which was enlarged in several
editions, with a view to its introduction into the school whenever it
should be established. The first edition of the Manual was published
in 1808. . . .
As soon as the establishment of the school became known, children
flocked from all parts of the town, to enjoy its privileges; and as there
was no other institution of the kind in town, it was not thought ex-
pedient to confine its benefits to the children of those who worshipped
at Christ Church. Its doors were therefore opened for the admission
of all who might apply, and it was consequently soon filled. . . .
Early in 1816, a new edition of the Youth's Manual was printed for
the use of the school; in which some alterations were made by Mr. Bell,
who added " A Form of Prayer for Sunday Schools." z
In June, 1816, the second Sunday school hi this town was established
by the ladies of the third Baptist society; and soon after, others were
opened, by other congregations. Our number of scholars consequently
greatly diminished, as the parents of many of them naturally preferred
sending their children to their own schools.
Previously to April, 1817, the school was supplied only with occa-
sional teachers. At that tune, however, it was thought advisable, for
the benefit of the scholars, to devise some means to procure more regular
assistance. A meeting of several members of the Church was accord-
ingly held on the 17th April, 1817, which resulted in the organisation
1 Evidently news about Sunday schools travelled with extreme slowness, but
it is certainly surprising that an Episcopal parish in Boston in 1815 should have
known nothing of the society that had been organized in Philadelphia twenty-
four years before and of which William White, Episcopal Bishop of Pennsyl-
vania, was the first president. Cf. p. 264 note 3, above.
1 The Boston Athenseum owns a copy, the title reading in part: "The Youth's
Manual. Containing the Catechism, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. . . .
To which is prefixed A Form of Prayer, for the Use of Sunday Schools. Poston:
. . . 1816." It is a pamphlet of 54 pages, but "The Form of Prayer" is lacking.
1919]
EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON
275
of the Salem Street Sunday School Society.1 This name was adopted for
several reasons. As the school was not confined to members of Christ
Church, but was open for the admission of children of all denominations,
it was thought inexpedient to adopt a name which might have even
the appearance of an exclusive spirit; and as the school was kept in
Salem Street Academy, it was thought most convenient to adopt that
title, particularly as it would designate its location to any person who
might be seeking for it. These reasons not now existing, the name has
been changed; and our school will hereafter be known as the Christ
Church Sunday School*
In a letter dated April 22, 1915, the Rev. Harold L. Hanson
stated that "the Sunday school of the First Baptist Church in
Charlestown has had a continuous existence since 1813. It cele-
brated its 102d anniversary last Sunday [April 18]." 3 The Rev.
1 "Salem Street Sunday School. List of the Officers of the Society, and of
the Scholars belonging to the School, Dec. 14, 1817," copied from a manuscript
(now framed and hanging in the vestry of Christ Church), will be found in Bos-
tonian Society Publications (1913), x. 119-125.
1 Report of the Superintendent of the Christ Church Sunday School, [Late
Salem Street Sunday School,] presented . . . April 6, 1826, pp. 10-12.
"In June, 1815, Dr. Eaton, with the concurrence and help of his Wardens
Shubacl Bell and Thomas Clark, established the first Sunday School in this
region. ... It was at first called the Salem street Sunday School. Its sessions
. . . were held in the Academy that stood next to the Church on the north
side" (Rev. Henry Burroughs, Historical Account of Christ Church, 1874,
pp. 33-34).
"On June 14, 1815, the church organized the first Sunday-school known in
this part of the world" (Charles Downer, A Visit to the 'Old North Church,'
Boston, 1893, p. 18).
In a sermon preached on December 29, 1898, the Rev. Charles W. Duane
stated that "In June, 1815, Dr. Eaton . . . established, as claimed by -some,
the first Sunday school in New England" (Historical Sermon, 1901, p. 12).
"The church was part owner of the [Salem Street] Academy, and on June 14,
1815, organized the first Sunday-school known in this part of the world, if we
except Samuel Slater's private Sunday-school at Pawtucket, established in
1793" (Charles K. Bolton, Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston, 1912, p. 15).
For the Pawtucket school, see p. 265 note 2, above.
The date June 14 is an error for June 4, since Mr. Ingraham states that Mr.
dotting became preceptor of the Salem Street Academy in May, 1815, and that
the Sunday school was "opened on the first Sunday after he commenced his
duties as preceptor, being the first Sunday in June, 1815 " — that is, June 4th.
• Boston Transcript, April 23, 1915, p. 12. In 1915, in 1917, and in 1918
discussions took place in the Boston Transcript as to the earliest Sunday school
in Boston. See the editorial pages of the following issues: March 22, April 10,
276
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
William Collier became pastor of the church on April 15, 1804. In
a sermon preached on April 15, 1888, the Rev. George E. Horr, Jr.,
said:
Mr. Collier . . . soon after his settlement here, gathered the chil-
dren of the families connected with the church together at his house
Saturday afternoons. He catechised the children and required them to
recite verses of Scripture they had learned during the week. . . . The
year the school, which met at the pastor's house Saturday afternoon,
became a Sunday-school, is not certain. Sunday-school records were
not kept until 1825. It was probably about 1809 or 1810, the year the
meeting house was erected in Austin Street. But by general consent
the year 1813 has been fixed upon as the time from which to date the
anniversaries, a date which, however, is probably too late by a year or
two. But 1813 makes this school the oldest hereabouts. The school
connected with the First Parish of Charlestown was organized Oct.
25, 1816.1 The First Sabbath-school in Boston was formed by the
women of the Charles Street Baptist Church in June, 1816, . . . The
school connected with the First Parish Church in Beverly, (now Uni-
tarian), was probably organized in 1810, but it seems to have been
without systematic organization and unconnected with the minister or
parish, and was not held in the meeting house until 18 19.2 Our claim
then is a fair one, even upon the basis of 1813, to be regarded as one of
the oldest Sunday-schools in these parts, «and perhaps the oldest.8
It thus appears that the date 1813 is conjectural.
16, 23, 26, 1915, and December 28, 31, 1918; and the Notes and Queries de-
partment, no. 3504, July 21, 28, August 4, September 8, 1917.
1 See pp. 272-273, above.
* See p. 265 note 3, above.
1 Sermon on the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of "the First Baptist Sunday-
School, Charlestown, . . . preached . . . April 15, 1888, pp. 8-9. Mr. Collier,
a graduate of Brown University in 1797, had taught at the Pawtucket school:
cf. p. 265 note 2, above. Mr. Hanson kindly sends me a pamphlet entitled,
"Centennial of the First Baptist Sunday School of Charlestown, Mass. Histor-
ical address by Rev. Arthur Warren Smith, Librarian, New England Baptist
Library. Sunday, April 27, 1913." Mr. Smith says:
"Like many important beginnings the exact date when there began to be a
Baptist Sunday school in Charlestown can not be determined. The probable
reason for this is that the pastor and deacons of that early day followed a natural
impulse in gathering together a company of twenty persons for religious instruc-
tion. But their plan which proved so efficient probably had little organisation
for some years, though, doubtless, carried on with consecrated energy. Then
in 1813 other local occurrences in the interest of great moral influences gave
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 277
In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Ezra S. Gannett dated September 28,
1831, the Rev. Dr. Charles Lowell wrote:
You request me to give you an account of the origin of the West
Parish Sunday school, the oldest, as far as I know, in this city. In 1811,
a charity school was established in the west part of Boston, chiefly
through the exertions of Mr. Bartlett, then chaplain at the almshouse,
now one of the ministers of Marblehead. In October, 1812, the teacher
of that school, Miss Lydia K. Adams, then a member of the West Parish,
having learned, on a visit to Beverly, that some young ladies of that
town were in the practice of giving religious instruction to poor chil-
dren on the sabbath,1 consulted her minister on the expediency of
giving like instruction to the children of her school, and to those who
had been members of it, on the same day. The project was decidedly
approved, and immediately carried into effect. In December of the
same year, Miss Adams was compelled by ill health to leave the school,
and ladies of the West Church took charge of it, and, in turn, instructed
the children, both on the week days and the sabbath, till a suitable
permanent teacher could be obtained. On this event, they relinquished
the immediate care of the week day school but continued the instruc-
tion of the Sunday school, till it was transferred to the church, and was
enlarged by the addition of the children of a different description.1
larger significance to the school more or less informal hitherto. This probably
explains how it was that leaders in the 'church years ago always spoke of this
school as in operation as early as 1813. Consequently the long series of school
anniversaries, which are known to have been a regular feature ever since as early
as 1849, has fixed the above date as the latest which can be assigned for the
founding of this school. But there is full reason to recognise the actual origin
to have taken place years earlier. It is a question if there was ever a time after
1804, when Pastor Collier, with his [definite Sunday school experience in Paw-
tucket and New York, had not a practical interest hi the religious instruction of
the youth of his parish. Therefore, in (this 'observance you have a reasonable
right to think of this school as more than a hundred full years old " (pp. 3-4).
1 See p. 265 note 3, above.
1 E. S. Gannett, Address delivered before the Boston Sunday School Society,
on the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Sunday School Institution,
at the Federal Street Church, September 14, 1831, p. 40. Dr. Lowell says that
the "ladies of the West Church . . . continued the instruction of the Sunday
school, till it was transferred to the church," but does not state when that trans-
ference took place. It must have been between May 26 and November 6, 1822.
The Boston Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the Poor contem-
plated " the establishment of another [Sunday school] at West Boston " in 1820,
but had been obliged to defer it "from want of ... a (Sufficient number of suit-
able Teachers " (Fourth Annual Report, October 11, 1820, p. 6). The Fifth
Annual Report, October 17, 1821, stated that "No new School has been founded
278
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
A more detailed account was given by the Rev. Dr. Cyrus A.
Bartol in 1856:
For some time prior to the year 1811, a society of young ladies had
been formed, under the name of the " Gleaning Circle," for the purposes
of mutual entertainment and improvement by literary exercises, and
of contributing, by their needles and otherwise, to the relief of the poor,
consisting of members from various religious societies, but chiefly from
that under Dr. Lowell's pastoral charge, . . . Early in that year, the
Rev. John Bartlett, afterwards settled at Marblehead, was chaplain
of the almshouse in Leverett Street; and . . . perceiving the destitu-
tion of all means of education for the very young children of the poor
to prepare them for entering the public schools, he established by sub-
scriptions two charity-schools — one at the North End, and one at the
western part of the town — for that purpose, and also for the instruc-
tion of the female children in sewing, there being then no primary
schools; . . . The one last named, of course, soon attracted the atten-
tion and interest of Dr. Lowell, . . . who commended it to the benevo-
lence of the "Gleaning Circle." Several of its members immediately
took the school under their patronage; became themselves, and after-
wards procured others to become, contributors for its support; and as-
sisted in the instruction of the children, and in the clothing of those
the most destitute. In a short time, it fell entirely into the hands of the
ladies of the West-Boston Society, including many besides the members
of the Circle, and was wholly maintained and managed by them. In
the year 1813, while Miss Lydia Adams was the matron of the school,
she, being on a visit in Beverly, saw the children of the Society then
the past year, although two more might be established with every prospect of
doing good — the one to accommodate adults at the Seamens' meeting, and the
children, who attend there — and the other at West Boston, where it has been
so long needed. Hitherto, however, the want of suitable Teachers in sufficient
numbers has prevented these labours of love" (p. 14). But in the Sixth Annual
Report, November 6, 1822, we read: "The subject of a new Sabbath School at
West Boston, hi connection with the Society's place of worship there, has been
repeatedly mentioned in preceding Reports. The Directors have now the pleas-
ure to state, that one is at length established, and is ... conducted under the
superintendence of Mr. William G. Lambert, . . . who observes in his Report:
"The Sabbath School in the Mission-house was organized the 26th of May
last. . . . Soon after we commenced, a school was opened in a neighboring con-
gregation, and as a number of our scholars belonged to that society, they have
generally gone from this to that school '" (p. 14). And a footnote states that
the "neighboring congregation" was "The Rev. Mr. Lowell's," which w&p also
alluded to on pp. 5-6 of the same Report.
1919]
EARLY SUNDAY SCIIOOLS IN BOSTON
279
under the charge of Rev. Dr. Abbot,1 and now under that of the Rev.
Mr. Thayer,2 assembled after service for religious instruction by mem-
bers of the Society; thus constituting, as is believed, the first Sunday
school in America. Being greatly impressed with the utility and effect
of such a school as there exhibited, upon her return she communicated
her views to the ladies then in charge of her school, who, uniting in senti-
ment with her, immediately made arrangements for the religious in-
struction of the children under her care, on Sunday, by the attendance
of two of them, in regular rotation, for that service. At that time there
were about fifteen children in the school, all of whom were girls, and
who attended church, and were seated together in the gallery. The
number, however, was gradually increased by the accession of chil-
dren of members of the Society, who had become sensible of its great
utility; and the name was changed, from being the "West-Boston
Charity School," to that of the "West-Parish Sewing School." It con-
tinued to flourish until the establishment of the public primary schools
for the same ends entirely superseded its necessity, when it was given
up. ... It was the parent of the Sunday school of the West-Boston
Society, the first established in Boston. . . . The ladies who had thus
undertaken the religious instruction of the children on Sunday became
so deeply interested in their work, and rendered their ministrations so
attractive, that other children, not connected with the school, were in-
duced to partake of the benefits of them, until the number, at the time
of its dissolution, amounted to about fifty, with a complement of about
eight teachers, who were accustomed to assemble, in mild weather, in
the room under the belfry, and, in winter, in the galleries, and subse-
quently, as the school increased, at the Derne-street Schoolhouse. And
thus was formed the first of those institutions in this city, which are now
esteemed an essential department in most of the religious societies
throughout the United States.8
Writing in October, 1794, Thomas Pemberton said:
Whatever plan may appear, on deliberate examination, to be of
publick utility, should be undertaken and promoted. It is worthy of
consideration whether Sunday schools would not be a very beneficial
institution in this town. Many children are kept from attending pub-
lick worship through the inability of their parents suitably to clothe
them; and their parents not being able to keep them within doors, they
1 Rev. Abiel Abbot (H. C. 1792).
* Rev. Christopher Toppan Thayer (H. C. 1824).
1 The West Church and its Ministers, pp. 214-219, 221.
2M)
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
repair to the wharves and alleys to recreate themselves as on other
days, to the great disturbance of the families in the vicinity of such
places, and the profanation of the day. If Sunday schools were insti-
tuted, both these evils might be prevented. The only requisites for
attending the schools are clean hands and faces and combed hair. The
master or mistress should refuse none who are sent to them; and the
school committee might appoint such hours for the children to attend,
AS they may think proper. Portions of scripture should be read by those
scholars who can read, and those who cannot should be taught to read.
A catechism suitable for their ages, should also be a part of their employ-
ment at these schools. ... In 1790 Sunday schools were established
in Philadelphia; and in 1791, some patriotick gentlemen of this town,
by a liberal subscription, enabled the late Mr. Oliver Lane to open a
Sunday school. It embraced in its object both sexes under a certain
age. The writer hopes such an establishment will not be wholly laid
aside; and if it cannot be continued by voluntary subscription, that the
publick will take it into consideration, as perhaps publick monies can-
not be appropriated to a more useful design.1
The school mentioned by Pemberton was opened on Sunday,
April 17, 1791, as appears from a notice printed in the Columbian
Centinel of Wednesday, April 20, 1791 :
A SUNDAY SCHOOL,
Established by the liberal subscription of a number of patriotick
Gentlemen of this Metropolis, was opened on Sunday last. It is under
the management of Mr. OLIVER W. LANE, and embraces in its object,
those of both sexes, under a certain age, whom habits of industry or
other causes, debar from instruction on week-days (xv. 43).
Under date of April 25, 1791, is found this passage:
On a letter received from the Gentlemen Proprietors of the Duck
Manufactory requesting the approbation of the Selectmen for their
opening a Sunday School and their Opinion on the subject — The
Selectmen are of opinion that however eligible the measure may be the
Law respecting Schools had not in contemplation such as is requested
and therefore does not authorise them to approbate it.2
Whether the "Gentlemen Proprietors of the Duck Manufactory"
were identical with the "patriotick Gentlemen of this Metropolis"
1 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iii. 266-267.
* Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, xxvii. 147.
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 281
who liberally subscribed to Mr. Lane's school, as seems not im-
probable, or whether they desired to establish still another Sunday
school, I have been unable to ascertain. Nor do I know exactly
how long Mr. Lane's Sunday school, assuming that it survived the
adverse decision of the selectmen, remained in existence, though
certainly this could not have been for a longer period than about
two years and a half. A brief sketch of (so far as now known) the
first Sunday school teacher in Boston will not be out of place, es-
pecially as Oliver Wellington Lane 1 was a man of some local re-
pute in his day. The son of James and Mary (Wellington 2) Lane of
Bedford, he was born there on October 27, 1751; 3 in 1768 he en-
tered Harvard College, graduating in 1772; at the outbreak of the
Revolution he entered the army, and in May, 1775, was "reported
recruiting"4 — facts no doubt accounting for his not taking that
year his A.M., which was given him out of course in 1779. On
October 23, 1784, he married Susanna Newman,5 who survived
him, and was then — or soon after became — a schoolmaster. In
the Boston Directory of 1789 he is entered as "Lane Oliver Wil-
lington, school-master, Staniford-street." 6 Glimpses of him are
obtained about that time from two pupils — General William H.
Sumner and Lucius Manlius Sargent, the noted temperance writer.
In "Some Recollections of Washington's Visit to Boston" in October,
1789, written sixty-one years later, General Sumner said: "I will
remark that I, then a boy of between nine and ten years of age, was
a pupil at Master Lane's West Boston writing-school. . . . Master
Lane's boys were placed in front of Mr. Jonathan Mason's hard-
ware store, near the bend hi Washington Street (then Cornhill)
opposite Williams Court. I well remember the laugh which our
salute created, when, as the General passed us, we rolled in our
1 His middle name sometimes occurs as "Willington."
1 O. W. Lane's mother was presumably that Mary Wellington who was born
at Lexington on October 20, 1732 (Lexington Vital Records, p. 84; C. Hudson,
History of the Town of Lexington, ii. 728).
* Bedford Vital Records, p. 36. The Faculty Records (iii. 119) give his name
as "Oliver Lane," the date of his birth as November 7, 1752, and his age as
"16-8" — that is, sixteen years and eight months — on June 7, 1769, "about"
which time the Freshman class 'was placed.
4 Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, ix. 482.
1 Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, xxx. 90.
• x. 190.
2S2
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
hands our quills with the longest feathers we could get." l Mr.
Sargent, according to his biographer, "was then sent to Master
Lane's school, in West Boston, which he reached by going up Han-
cock Street and round by the Beacon monument, on the sides of
which were four historic tablets. He says that in 1793 it was 'a
lonely spot to travel.' The master was 'harsh;' he did not like
him. One mode of his punishment was to make a boy stand on a
very narrow log, with scarcely any foothold, with a large chip in
his mouth, for an example; yet if any urchin lifted up his eyes to
look at him, he was condemned to a similar punishment." Such
a whimsical and tantalizing punishment naturally seemed "harsh"
to a boy of seven. Mr. Lane was an ardent Universalist, and when
the noted John Murray was installed pastor of the First Universal-
ist Church on October 23, 1793, it was Deacon Lane who "intro-
duced" him and delivered an address.3 That must have been one
of Mr. Lane's last appearances in public, for he died on November
3d following, as appears from an obituary:
On Sunday evening, at half past 9 o'clock, Master OLIVER WILLING-
TON LANE, one of the Deacons of the first Universal Church, departed
this life, aged 42.
The Religious Society, in which he had attained unto a good degree,
have met with an afflictive bereavement by the death of Mr. LANE.
The Civil Community, of which he was a valuable and useful member,
will long regret the loss of an excellent Preceptor, whose modes of in-
struction gained the confidence of the Parent, and won the affections
of the child. • A widow, a widow indeed, whose husband is dead, and six
small children, lament the kindest of husbands and the best of fathers.
ttdp3 Mr. LANE'S funeral will move from his late dwelling house at
West-Boston, to-morrow afternoon, at three o'clock. The Church,
Congregation and Society are respectfully invited to attend. The
pupils of the now departed are requested to pay the last tribute of re-
gard; and all the relatives and numerous friends of the deceased, are
called to the house of mourning.
How blest, is our BROTHER bereft
Of all that could burthen his mind!
How easy the soul that hath left
This wearisome body behind!
1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xiv. 261, 262.
1 John H. Sheppard, Reminiscences of Lucius Manlius Sargent, id. xxv. 211.
« See the Columbian Centinel of October 23, p. 2/3, and October 26, p. 3/1.
1919] EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN BOSTON 283
This earth is affected no more
With sickness, or shaken with pain:
The war in the members is o'er,
And never shall vex him again.1
Our extracts may appropriately end with what is, so far as I am
aware, the earliest known allusion to Sunday schools in a Boston
newspaper, taken from the Massachusetts Centinel of August 27,
1785 (p. 4):
Preparation for SUNDAY.
TT has been before observed, that the " want of Piety arises from the want
•*• of sensibility" — That the vulgar, when arrived at a state of manhood,
are either infidels or bigots, experience has reduced to a certainty — But
asks the judicious observer, what remedy is there for the fault — Ignorance
is the attendant on poverty; and. the poor form a large proportion of the peo-
plef The Preparationalist cannot answer the enquiry but with the pro-
posal for the institution of SUNDAY SCHOOLS. This benevolent
measure has been lately adopted in England and Ireland, and is highly
worthy of imitation here — Fas est etiam ab hoste doceri. Experience
has fully evinced that the more enlightened nations are, the more amenable
are they to the laws, to order, and to police; and the less frequently do they
perpetrate those species of violence and barbarity, which reduce humanity
to a level with the brute creation. What good can be reasonably expected,
from that part of the community, whose infancy and youth are consumed in
one uninterrupted scene of idleness, villainy, and all kinds of low craft and
theft (in which they are but too often countenanced and encouraged by their
parents) untinctured by the very elements of cultivation and knowledge;
and who, of course, can hardly, when arrived at maturity, be supposed
capable of a relish but for dissipation, drunkenness, blasphemy, and de-
bauchery f That this is the case with too many in all countries, their prison
calendars will afford irrefragable proofs.
To various sources may this evil be traced. Of these perhaps the following
is not the least : The lower classes of people, generally speaking, can hardly
afford their children an education; and it frequently happens, that, from the
most mercenary motives, they debar them of schooling, if they can hope to
derive any emolument, however paltry, from employing them in the vilest
drudgery. Now, if Sunday Schools were established, where children would
be instructed gratis, — both the foregoing part to the improvement of the
1 Mercury, Tuesday, November 5, 1793, p. 3/3. The inscription on his tomb-
stone in the Granary Burying Ground is given in T. Bridgman's Pilgrims of
Boston (1856), p. 118.
284
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
people would be removed, — and we might entertain a well founded hope
that the rising generation (of the above classes,) would prove very different
from their fathers.
But should this institution take place — a consummation devoutly to
be wished — great caution will be requisite to guard against the abuses it it
liable to from party, civil and relegious. Bigotry, superstition, fanaticism,
and intolerance, have too long lorded it over mankind, who bent a supplient
knee to the demons. Should Sunday schools be opened here, it is to be hoped
they will steer clear of them. If religion be made a part of instruction, let
it be confined to those points in which the various professors of Christianity
agree, whether of credence or practice — such as, the creation, the fall of
man, the flood, the election of the Jews, the redemption, that the base on
which Christianity has been founded, is " Love of God above all things —
and love of our neighbour similar to what we feel for ourselves" • — the last
judgment, — a future state of rewards and punishments, <fcq. &c. But let
those speculative points, wherein they differ, and which have for centurie*
past, drenched the earth with the gore of her children, be taught by the various
pastors to their respective flocks. Would to Heaven, that they exerted them-
selves to instil therewith that universal benevolence, which embraces all man-
kind in the bands of brotherhood, and which truly fulfils the law and the
gospel!
A chronological list of Boston Sunday schools before 1819 is
appended :
Oliver W. Lane's school, p. 280.
West Church, p. 277.
First Baptist Church, Charlestown, p. 275.
Christ Church, p. 273.
Third Baptist Church, p. 271.
Second Baptist Church, p. 271.
First Baptist Church, p. 272.
First Church, Charlestown, p. 272.
First African Baptist Church, p. 272.
Mason Street, p. 269.
School Street, p. 269.
South Boston, p. 269.
Park Street Church, p. 266.
1818 March North Bennet Street, p. 269.
April 5 Hawkins Street, p. 269.
With two exceptions, the dates here given are either exact or
approximately so, having been drawn from contemporary or nearly
1791
April 17
1812?
1813?
1815
June 4
1816
June
July
August
Oct.
Nov.
1817
May 11
June 15
Summer
1919] IS THERE A MARK BASKETT BIBLE OF 1752? 285
contemporary sources. But the dates assigned to the West Church
and to the First Baptist Church of Charlestown require further
inquiry before they can be accepted.
These notes are submitted in the belief that they will afford a
useful summary of facts as at present known, and in the hope that
they will bring out further information on an obscure but interest-
ing subject. It will perhaps be objected that some of the extracts
are quoted at too great length, but this seems justifiable in view of
the extraordinarily conflicting statements and of the difficulty in
obtaining exact data.
Dr. CHARLES L. NICHOLS communicated the following
paper:
IS THERE A MARK BASKETT BIBLE OF 1752?
In 1810 Isaiah Thomas wrote:
Kneeland and Green printed, principally for Daniel Henchman, an
edition of the Bible in small 4to. This was the first Bible printed, in the
English language, in America. It was carried through the press as pri-
vately as possible, and had the London imprint of the copy from which
it was reprinted, viz: "London: Printed by Mark Baskett, Printer to
the King's Most Excellent Majesty," in order to prevent a prosecution
from those, in England and Scotland, who published the Bible by a pat-
ent from the crown; or, Cum privUegio, as did the English universities of
Oxford and Cambridge. When I was an apprentice, I often heard those
who had assisted at the case and press in printing this Bible, make men-
tion of the fact. The late governor Hancock was related to Henchman,1
and knew the particulars of the transaction. He possessed a copy of
this impression. As it has a London imprint, at this day it can be dis-
tinguished from an English edition, of the same date, only by those who
are acquainted with the niceties of typography. This Bible issued from
the press about the time that the partnership of Kneeland and Green ex-
pired. The edition was not large; I have been informed that it did not
exceed seven or eight hundred copies.*
This statement of Thomas has been given in full as it contains,
in detail, all that is known of this important alleged fact, that a Bible
1 John Hancock (1737-1793) was the nephew of Thomas Hancock (1704-
1764), who married Lydia Henchman, a daughter of Daniel Henchman (1689-
1761), the Boston bookseller. Cf. our Publications, vi. 321.
• History of Printing in America, 1810, i. 305; 1874, i. 107-108.
2SG
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
was printed in Boston in the English language about the year 1752.
No public interest seems to have been awakened to this until
1852, when George Bancroft wrote: "And yet to print that Bible in
British America was prohibited as a piracy; and the Bible, except in
the native savage dialects, was never printed there till the land be-
came free." 1 In a note on the same page is the following: "My
friends, Mr. James Lenox and Mr. J. G. Cogswell, agree with me,
that no trace of an American edition of the Bible, surreptitious or
otherwise, previous to the Declaration of Independence, has been
found." In a later statement Bancroft said: "Till a copy of the pre-
tended American edition is produced, no credit can be given to the
second-hand story." 2
At this time, 1852, there were already a number of eager collectors
of Americana, like James Lenox, John Carter Brown, George Brin-
ley, and George Livermore, who would have gladly added a copy of
this Bible to their libraries but who searched in vain for it. George
Livermore, however, manifested his disagreement with Mr. Ban-
croft's conclusions;3 yet he wrote Mr. Lenox on March 4, 1853, that
careful search by the Hancock family failed to find the Governor's
copy, thus destroying one more hope of success.
At the sale of the Thomas J. McKee library in 1902, appeared a
Bible with the imprint as described by Thomas and with date 1752.4
1 History of the United States, 1852, v. 266.
1 History of the United States, 1855, v. 266.
* On January 13, 1853, Livermore "read a series of remarks pointing out
sundry errors in the fifth volume of Mr. Bancroft's 'History of the United States,'
in relation to the printing of the Bible in this country before the Revolution"
(1 Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, ii. 510-511: cf. x. 450-451).
Presumably the remarks were identical with those printed, under the heading
"The Bible before the Revolution. Mr. Bancroft and his Authorities," in the
Boston Daily Advertiser of January 18, 1853, p. 1/8. Livermore pointed out
that the Bible had been printed here in the German language before 1776, and
in later editions of his History of the United States Bancroft's sentence reads:
"And yet to print that Bible in British America would have been a piracy; and
the Bible, though printed in German and in a native savage dialect, was never
printed there in English till the land became free" (Centenary Ed., 1876, iii. 464).
With regard to the alleged Bible printed by Kneeland & Green, Livennore could
only quote Thomas at length — a clear begging of the question.
4 Catalogue of the Library of the late Thomas Jefferson McKee, pt. vi, May
12-13, 1902, no. 4714, pp. 881-882. Cf. E. B. O'Callaghan, List of Editions of
the Holy Scriptures and Parts thereof, printed in America previous to 1860 (1861),
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1919] IS THERE A MARK BASKETT BIBLE OF 1752? 287
This Bible was claimed to be a copy and the only known copy of that
issue and advanced as proof positive of the truth of Thomas's state-
ment. It was bought by Mr. McKee several years before, of George
P. Philes, a bookseller of New York. This claim was first made by
John Anderson, Jr., but there is no record of any publicity to it until
the statement in the sale catalogue of 1902. The Bible was purchased
by George C. Thomas of Philadelphia for $2025, and held a prom-
inent position in his choice library. In 1910, after the death of
George C. Thomas, the Bible was advertised for sale in the catalogue
of George H. Richmond, and later in that of the Rosenbach Com-
pany in 1913 and again in 1917.
If this Bible is genuine, it holds an important position in the history
of Americana because its evidence confirms the truth of the state-
ment of Isaiah Thomas. If, on the contrary, this evidence is not
worthy of credence, it should not be allowed to stand and the Bible
should be relegated to a place where it can no longer mislead us in our
search for the solution of this problem.
An opportunity of examining this Bible was courteously afforded
the writer in 1910 by Mr. Richmond and again in 1917 by Dr. Rosen-
bach, and it is writh regret that my conclusions oblige me to set aside
its value in the evidence towards which my prejudice in favor of the
Isaiah Thomas story had led me to investigate the book.
In 1907 a careful study was made by me of the Mark Baskett
Bibles in the Bodleian Library, in the British Museum, and in the
British and Foreign Bible Society, with the hope that familiarity
with the English editions of this Bible would enable me to confirm
the statements in the McKee catalogue and to recognize other copies
of the Boston edition if any such should come into the market.
When the opportunity was offered me in 1910 by Mr. Richmond of
examining the Bible, it appeared to me that the date was not as clear
as it should be, but a decision upon such an important matter seemed
outside my province. In 1917, however, a careful study of the text
was made by me in comparison with several other Baskett Bibles;
notably a copy of the 1763 edition in the Harvard College Library,
one dated 1761 in my own possession, and a 1766 edition belonging
to the American Antiquarian Society.
pp. xiii-xvi; J. Wright, Early Bibles of America (1892), pp. 55-58 (1894),
pp. 60-63; J. Wright, Historical Bibles in America (1905), pp. 69-72.
288 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
In looking over the New Testament a curious typographical error
was discovered in St. Matthew, Chapter 17. In the second line of
the chapter heading the letter/ in the word foretelleth had fallen down
because of loss or misplacement of a lead. In verse 1 the letter e in
the second word, after, was misplaced upward. In verse 3, second
line, the letter / in Elias had fallen down and had separated the letters
of the word then in the next line and verse. Such a typographical
error would be practically impossible of duplication and would be
positive proof that all copies in which it occurred were of the same
edition, although it might not be found in the whole edition as it
could have been discovered and rectified during printing.1 See the
facsimile, facing this page. Examination of three copies of the New
Testament with title-page dated 1763 revealed the same error in
each, which had been found in the 1752 copy, the New Testament
of which lacked title-page, and seemed to prove conclusively that
this part of this Bible was dated 1763 also.
This fact did not, however, prove the date of the Old Testament
part to be of this date, as it was customary to bind different editions
together.
A somewhat careful study of the typography of the Old Testament
of this 1752 Bible was made with the discovery of a number of inter-
esting facts.
In Exodus, Chapter 14, verse 18, the word Egyptians is spelled Epyp-
tians. See the facsimile, facing this page.
In Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 6, the letter t in thou has fallen out into
the space at the side. See the facsimile, facing this page.
In Leviticus, Chapter 5, verse 6, the letter i in his is missing.
In Psalms, Chapter 21, verse 7, the letter i in high is missing.
In Psalms, Chapter 33, verse 3, the letter s in noise is missing.
More than two dozen cases of broken letters, irregularities of type
or of line were found, in addition to the above noted omissions.
In all these cases, these omissions, errors and broken letters were
identical in the 1752 copy and in the copy dated 1763 belonging to
the Harvard College Library. In addition to this positive evidence,
none of these errors occurred in the 1761 edition or in that of 1766, the
inference being that the 1761 edition had been correct and the errors
1 The New York Public Library owna a copy in which this error has been
rectified.
CHAP. XVH.
i Tit travfatra tion 0f Chriji : 1 4 li* **>?'**> **<
lunatick, ^^ ^rtteUcth bis ffutnpqju*, 14 and
paytth tribute.
• u«k 9. A N D • alt^r fix days, Jefus uketh Peter,
J[\ James, and John his brother, andbnnge.h
* them up into an h'gh mountain apart,
^ And was transfigured before them: and his
face d«d (hine as the fun, and his raiment was
white as the light.
3 And behold, there appeared unto them Mo-
les and E,\as talking with him.
4 Then anfwered Peter, and faid umo Jefus,
Lord, it is good tor us to be here : if thou w.lt,
let us make here three tabernacles ; one for tUec,
and one for Mofes, and one for Elias. _
ST. MATTHEW. XVII. 1-4
.7 And I, bebokL I wffl harden the _
„* Egyptians, and they fliall fctiow them :
and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and
upon all his hoft, upon his chariots, and upon
his horfemen.
1 8 And the Epymmns (hall know that I am
the LORD, when i have gotten Hat honour upon
Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his hoffc-
EXODUS. XIV. 17-18
But unto Cain and to his offering he had not • Hctr. n.
ctt. And Cain was very wru'h, and his *
countenance fell.
6 And the LORD faid unto Cain, Why art
t hou wroth ? and why is thy countenance fallen f
7 If thou docft well, (halt thou not | be ac- J^JCT.
ccptcd ? and if thou doeft not well, fin lieth at „.
the door. And f unto thcc /ball bt his defirt, |OrJijrff
and thou (halt rule over him.
GENESIS. IV. 5-7
EXTRACTS FROM THE ALLEGED 1752 BIBLE
CNGRAVCO FOB THC COLONIAL fOCIITY OF HAISACHUSCTTt
1919] IS THERE A MARK BASKETT BIBLE OF 1752? 289
in the 1763 edition had been rectified in the 1766 edition by new
type.
Turning to the title-page, the word TESTAMENTS on the fourth
line contains two letters S of a different font and they are put in
with the wide end at the top. In addition the first S has the hair line
of that upper part broken near the serrif. This applies to the 1761
edition, but the two letters S in the 1752 and the 1763 copies have
been turned so that their position is correct and the broken hair line,
still present, is at the bottom. In the 1766 edition new letters are
used in this word.
The letter D in the ninth line of the title-page in the last word has
an imperfection in the 1761, 1763, and 1752 copies, but new type is
found in the 1766 copy.
These typographical similarities between the 1752 and the 1763
Bibles seem to be sufficient evidence that by some error the date of
the McKee-Thomas Bible was misprinted or changed and should be
1763. In corroboration of this suggestion, it is to be noted that the
date M.DCC.LXIII is not exactly centered, being about -£s of an
inch too far to the left; and that in the alleged 1752 edition the date,
though containing two figures less, begins at precisely the same point
and so is still more out of centre, being about \ of an inch too far to
the left.
The watermarks in the paper used in both, indeed all, of the Mark
Baskett Bibles seen, are identical, showing that the paper came from
the same manufacturer. This, however, cannot be used as positive
evidence of the identity in edition of these books because the same
paper might have been imported by Kneeland & Green for this special
work, although no such watermarks have been found in the books of
this firm which have been examined.
If from this examination of the 1752 Bible and comparison with
the editions of 1761, 1763, and 1766 it is proved, as it seems to be,
that this Bible is not what it was supposed to be, then the inference
is that it cannot be used as positive evidence of the truth of the story
printed by Isaiah Thomas. Because of the removal of this evidence,
we can go one step further and show that the imprint could not have
been "Mark Baskett."
Thomas wrote, "This bible issued from the press about the time
that the partnership of Kneeland and Green expired" (which was
290
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APEIL,
the year 1752 *) ; and again, "As it has a London imprint, at this day,
it can be distinguished from the English edition of the same date only
by those who are acquainted with the niceties of typography."
Mark Baskett printed Bibles in London from 1761 to 1769 and then
sold the family patent to print Bibles to Charles Eyre,2 whose firm
continues to print them at the present day. It is certain that Mark
Baskett did not print Bibles in 1752 and it is improbable that the
Boston printers would have used the name of a man who had not
printed such books. It is also certain that if they had used the name
of another printer, in the Boston Bible, the officers of the Crown would
have discovered the fact. Moreover, Thomas expressly states that
the authorized and the unauthorized editions could only be distin-
guished from each other by one skilled in the niceties of typography,
the change in name not requiring such skill.
How, then, did Thomas make the mistake of using the name
"Mark"? It can be said, with strong probability, it was because he
had at hand to consult only a copy of the Mark Baskett Bible. It
must be remembered that the History of Printing was written in
1810, forty years after the Baskett Bibles had ceased to be printed
and before either any study of printers or any collection of Bibles had
been undertaken, so that he had few data for reference and few books
for examination.
Like all pioneer works it was impossible for such a history to be
written without errors of detail due to the fact that it was the first
in that field of investigation. As an illustration, let me cite the
following mistake in the History of Printing. Thomas states 3 that
the New Hampshire Gazette, Number 1, was published "Friday,
August, 1756." Examination of the only known copy of the first
1 The partnership between Samuel Kneeland (d. 1769) and Timothy Green
(d. 1763) was dissolved on or a few days after December 26, 1752: cf. our Pub-
lications, ix. 443.
1 " He [John Baskett] received afterwards a new grant from George II. for
sixty years, with the additional privilege of serving Parliament with stationary.
In this manner Baskett's right would have endured from 1709 to 1799; but the
last thirty years of this patent were conveyed to Charles Eyre and his heirs for
£10,000. Eyre took possession of hia reversion in 1769, and assumed William
Strahan as his partner. When the term of this patent expired, a new one was
granted to the same family " (John Lee, Memorial for the Bible Societies in
Scotland, 1824, p. 180 note).
1 History of Printing in America, 1810, ii. 280; 1874, ii. 93.
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1919]
IS THERE A MARK BASKETT BIBLE OF 1752?
291
number shows that it was published on Thursday, October 7th, and
continued to be published on Thursday for several months and then
the day of publication was changed to Friday. Thomas had in his
possession a copy of this newspaper after the day of issue had been
changed to Friday and had evidently never seen an earlier number.
This error, unfortunate though it was, does not prove that the New
Hampshire Gazette was never printed but that the change in the day
of printing had escaped him. So in the case of the Baskett Bible,
Thomas was evidently ignorant of the fact that Thomas Baskett
printed the Oxford and London Bibles from 1742 to 1761 and that
Mark Baskett did not print them until the last date. This igno-
rance, however, while throwing doubt on the Boston imprint, does not
militate against the fact that a Bible was printed there. It would
seem, therefore, that the name of Mark Baskett should be eliminated
from this question and that Thomas Baskett, the bible printer of that
period, whose death occurred in 1763, was the one whose name will
be found in the imprint of the Kneeland & Green Bible.1
While Isaiah Thomas made errors of detail in his descriptions be-
cause of circumstances beyond his control, he has not been found at
fault in his essential facts, and no chance of error can exist in regard
» Apparently the only Bible published by Thomas Baskett in 1752 was printed
not at London but at Oxford (T. D. Darlow and H. F. Motile, Historical Cata-
logue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the Library of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, 1903, i. 280, 285-286). The title-page of that edition,
taken from a copy in the Boston Public Library, is as follows, the capital, small
capital, and italic letters being as here given:
THE HOLY
BIBLE,
Containing the OLD and NEW
TESTAMENTS:
Newly Translated out of the
Original Tongues,
And with the former
TRANSLATIONS
Diligently COMPARED and REVISED.
l&p Jl)i& jfttajestp's Special Commanb.
Appointed to be read in CHURCHES.
OXFORD:
Printed by THOMAS BASKETT, Printer to the
UNIVERSITY. M DCC LIT.
292
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
PHIL,
to the Kneeland & Green Bible because of his circumstantial de-
scription.
It would seem to me that the solution of this important problem
can only be attained by an extensive examination and comparison
of copies known to have been in this country at that tune with the
same imprints from England by a person skilled in the study of the
ornaments, types, and style of printing found in the books of Knee-
land & Green.
Mr. TUTTLE also made the following communication:
LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688
The State Archives contain a volume bearing on a fly-leaf the
words, "Sr Edmund Andros, Once a Governor, and rascally petty
Tyrant, under the King, and grand Tyrant of Britain." It con-
tains 118 warrants to survey lands, issued by Andros from June 17,
1687, to July 28, 1688.1 In the name of the King he claimed the
title in all our lands, and obliged the payment of a quit rent to se-
cure a new survey and grant to confirm all former titles. During
his short administration he had only time to make a beginning in
his new order of government. While light charges were at first
made, the way was opened for great extortion later.
These warrants are but the expression of one feature of the op-
pressive rule of Andros, and they furnish some interesting informa-
tion as to the ownership of property in various places. The Colony
charter had been vacated in 1684, and, following the presidency of
Joseph Dudley in 1686, the King had granted commissions to Andros
on June 3, 1686, and again on April 7, 1688, as Governor of the
Territory and Dominion of New England. These warrants, here
printed for the first tune, do not cover the closing months of his
1 The volume is labelled on the back of the cover (which is not old): "Sir Ed
Andros Land Warrants. 1687 and 1688." The pages containing the warrants
are numbered from 2 to 137, and at the beginning there is an alphabetical list
of names. Many documents relating to the warrants are in vols. cxxvi-cxxix of
the Massachusetts Archives, and other information will be found in vol. ii of the
Council Records, in the Dudley Records (2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings,
xiii. 226-286), in the Andros Records (Proceedings American Antiquarian Society,
xiii. 239-268), and in Toppan's Edward Randolph (Prince Society). The hand-
writing, which appears to be that of two clerks, is singularly legible for that
period, though occasionally a proper name is obscure.
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1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 293
administration. The disturbance caused by his arbitrary methods
ended with his seizure on April 18, 1689, and his subsequent de-
parture for England.
Appended to the warrants is an alphabetical list of grantees and
of locations, containing 129 names of persons. Some of the grantees
were distinguished men like Dudley, Sewall, Stoughton, and vari-
ous members of Andres's Council. Others were men of note, but
difficult to identify with certainty either because their places of resi-
dence are not given, or because there were several of the same name.
Others, however, were settlers in the towns of Falmouth, North
Yarmouth (now Freeport), Saco, and Scarborough, many of whom
it is quite out of the question to identify, and a few of whom are not
even mentioned by Savage in his Genealogical Dictionary of New
England. For these, the reader should consult Willis's History of
Portland,1 Goold's Portland in the Past, Russell's History of North
Yarmouth,2 Folsom's History of Saco and Biddeford, and South-
gate's History of Scarborough.3
Finally, a word should be said in regard to the locations of grants.
It will be remembered that the Narragansett Country or King's
Province is now that part of Rhode Island west of Narragansett
Bay; that the Nipmug (Nipmuck) Country was in the neighborhood
of Worcester, Mendon, Sutton, Oxford, etc., then in Massachusetts
but now partly in Connecticut; that in 1658 Black Point and Blue
Point were established as a town under the name of Scarborough ; 4
and that in the same year Casco Bay and Spurwink were estab-
lished as a town under the name of Falmouth, now Portland, Maine.4
The frequent changes in English names; the conflicting claims of
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Plymouth, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut in the matter of jurisdiction, claims which about the
middle of the eighteenth century were invariably settled by the
Privy Council adversely to Massachusetts; the extraordinary vari-
ety of forms in which Indian names occur, and the reduplication of
such names throughout New England — all combine to make exact
1 Facing p. 94 is a map of "Ancient Falmouth, from 1630 to 1690," which
shows the locations of most of the grants mentioned in the warrants.
1 Collections Maine Historical Society (1847), ii. 165-188.
* Collections Maine Historical Society (1853), iii. 1-237. At the beginning
of the volume are maps of Black Point and of Blue Point.
4 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. i. 359.
294
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
identification of localities difficult,
spect is not claimed.
Hence infallibility in this re-
LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688
1
Warrant to lay out Land for Mr Symon Lynde1 at Paucatuck neck.1
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles3 Surveyor Whereas Symon Lynds of Boston Merchant hath by
his Peticon desired a grant & Confirmacon of a certaine parcell of Land
upon Paucatuck or Squamacack neck neer Paucatuck River conteining
Eight hundred seventy four Acres whereon he hath already setled and
improved with a further addicon thereunto These are therefore to au-
thorize & require yow forthwith to survey and lay out the said parcell of
Lands with an addicon thereto adjoyneing if vacant to make in ye
whole One thousand Acres and that yow make due returne thereof to
the Secryes Office accordingly. And for so doing this shall be yor warr*
Given undr my hand and scale at Boston the 17th day of June in the
third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
Warrant to survey the Land of Narraganset
By His Excellency
Yow are with the first Conveniency to make a generall survey and
draught of the Narraganset Countrey or Kings Province and therein to
1 Though nominated a Councillor on November 4, 1687, Simon Lynde did
not serve, as he died on the 22d of the same month.
1 Pawcatuck River separates Westerly, R. I., from Stonington, Ct. Pawcatuck
Neck is the neck of land at Watch Hill, Westerly. "Squamacack" occurs in
various forms: Ascomicutt, Misquamicoke, Misquamicuck, Misquamicuk, Mis-
quamicut, Squamicut, Squamocuck, etc.
1 Philip Wells had been Andros's steward, and may have come with him to
New York in 1674 or in 1678. At all events, he was there on October 16, 1680,
and on December 2 following a lot was surveyed for him in New York City. On
August 30, 1683, he was appointed deputy-surveyor in New Jersey, and in June,
1686, he was one of the surveyors who ran the line between New Jersey and
New York. On June 17, 1687, then described as of Boston, he was appointed by
Andros to the "Office of Surveyor within y* Territory and Dominion" of New
England. In March, 1700, he was one of the commissioners to run the line be-
tween 'New York and Connecticut. (New York Colonial Documents, iii. 302,
312 note, iv. 630; Calendar of Council Minutes, 1668-1783 [1902], pp. 40, 45, 49
60, 61, 86, 122; Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, i. 87;
New Jersey Archives, i. 517, 518, 521, ii. 22, 23, 24, iv. 412, 413, 414, vi. 148, 149,
viii. 205, 227, 247, 249, xiii. 105, 111; Massachusetts Archives, cxxvi. 341.)
19193 LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 295
observe and marke the severall settlements Claimes and pretencona
made by any person or persons to the same or any parte or parcells
thereof of which to make Returne to me with all possible speed And for
so doing this shall be yor Warrant Dated at Boston the 22th day of
June 1687
To Mr John Smith1 D. Survey'
3
Warrant to survey the Lands at ffeversham.*
By His Excellency the Govern1"
Whereas John Maxson8 and William Champlain4 have in behalf e of
themselves and the Town of ffeversham in the Kings Province by their
Peticon6 prayed that A survey may be made of the Lands in sdrTowne
and that the same may be granted and confirmed to them These are
1 On June 22, 1687, John Smith, described as of "New Bristol! in y* County of
Bristoll," was appointed by Andros "Deputy Surveyor of Land within this his
Maties Territory and Dominion " of New England (Massachusetts Archives, cxxvi.
341).
1 At that time there were three townships in the Narragansett Country —
Kingston, Westerly, and Greenwich. On May 25, 1686, Joseph Dudley was in-
augurated President of the Council for New England, and on June 23 following
a court was held at Kingston by "his Majesty's Commissioners and Justices . . .
in the King's Province," Dudley himself and three other members of the Council
being present. The names of Kingston, Westerly, and Greenwich were changed
respectively to Rochester, Feversham, and Deptford — doubtless after the three
places so called in Kent, England. A curious error is sometimes made in regard
to the name of Feversham. In the document printed in our text; in documents
dated July 18, 1687, and July 15, 1688 (Massachusetts Archives, cxxvi. 392,
cxxix. 51-52); and in a letter dated September 13, 1687, from John Rodman to
John Usher (in the Jeffries Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society),
the name is clearly "Feversham." But the old spelling "ff," merely of course a
capital F, has misled some copyists, and in 1 Massachusetts Historical Collec-
tions, v. 247; in the Rhode Island Colonial Records, iii. 201, 202; in Arnold's
History of the State of Rhode Island (1878), 1-485; and in the New England
Historical and Genealogical Register, xxxv. 182, the name is wrongly given as
"Haveraham." Similarly the name Deptford, sometimes in the old documents
written "Dedford," has in the Calendar of State Papers, America and West
Indies, 1685-1688, no. 925, p. 261, been misread as "Bedford."
» The Rev. John Maxson died December 17, 1720.
* William Champlin died December 1, 1713.
1 The petition, dated July 18, 1687, of "the subscribers for our seluels and in
behatfe of the Towne weeterle allias ffeversham in Kings Province," is in Massa-
chusetts Archives, cxxvi. 392-393. It is signed by five persons, among them John
Maxson and William Champlin.
21)0
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
therefore to authorize & Impower yow to survey the Lands whereon the
inhabitants of the said Towne are settled & have improved and likewise
such Lands as are conveniently adjoyning to them and thereof to make
a due returne that right may be done to the Peticoners therein accord-
ingly Dated at Boston the 24th day of June 1687
To AT Jn° Smith D Survey'
Warrant to lay out 50 Acres of Land for Jn° Swarton1 in North-
yannouth in Caskobay
By His Excellency
Whereas John Swarton hath by his Peticon Desired to have a parcell
of Land surveyed and layd out to him in the Towne of Northyarmouth
in Casco bay for his p'sent settlement & improvem* These are therefore
to authorize & impower yow to Lay out for the sd John Swarton the
quantity of fifty acres of Land in some Convenient place within the sd
Towne and thereof to make returne to the SecTyes Office that the same
may be Patented to him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yop
warrant Given undr my hand at Boston the 29th day of June 1687
To Cap* Walter Gendall
5
Warrant to survey a fanne at Charlestoune for Charles Ledgett*
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Phillip Welles
Esq Surveyo* of the Territory & Dominion aforesaid Whereas Charles
Ledgett Esq hath by his Peticon desired a grant & confirmation of a
certaine fanne or parcell of Land lyeing in Charlestoune and to have
an addicon of some vacant land adjoyning to the same These are there-
fore to authorize and require yow forthwith to make a survey and draft
of the sd fanne or parcell of Land and of the Lands adjoyneing to or
about the same and thereof to'make due Returne that such grant & con-
firmacon may be given to the Peticoner as shall be thought requisite
and for so doing this shall be yo* warr* Given undr my hand and scale
1 John Swarton's name is wrongly printed "Swanton" in Toppan's Edward
Randolph (Prince Society), ii. 33 note 70. In his own petition, dated June 16,
1687 (Massachusetts Archives, cxxvi. 358), in other documents (id. cxxvi. 375,
cxxvii. 132), and in the present warrant, the name is clearly "Swarton," though
the "r" is of the old fashioned kind that might easily be mistaken by a careless
copyist for "n."
1 Charles Lidgett died in 1698.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 297
at Boston the 5th day of July in the third year of his Majestyes Reigne
Annoq Dom 1687
6
Warrant to lay out Lands in Charlestoune for Jn° Cutler Jun*1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor Whereas John Cutle Junr of Charlestoune hath desired his
Majestyes Patent of confinnacon for severall peeces and parcells of land
within the Bounds of Charlestoune aforesd whereon he hath built
planted and improved and being herein possessed that is to say a peece
of wharfe Land conteining fifteene pooles another peece of ground con-
teining seven poole and three quarters Eleven Acres of meadow at
wormers point two acres and halfe of Land in ye westfield two Orchards
in the Eastfield conteining twenty five Acres of Land in the Comon
called the stinted pasture and sixty four acres of woodland in the Com-
mon behinde Cap* Wades2 farme these are therefore to Authorize and
require yow to survey & lay out for the said John Cutler the before-
menconed severall peeces & parcells of Land and p'misses according to
the severall Ord" Deeds & conveyances for the same & inclosures and
to make due Returne with a platt or Draft thereof into the Secryes
office that the sd Lands may be confirmed to him accordingly and for so
doing this shall be yor warr* Given under my hand and scale at Boston
the 20th Day of July 1687
7
Warrant to lay out Land at Charlestoune for Samuell Ballatt8
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to M* Phillip Welles
Survey' Whereas Samuell Ballatt of Charlestoune shipwright hath by
his Peticon Desired his Majestyes Confirmacon of severall peeces or par-
cells of ground within Charlestoune aforesd on which are severall houses
warehouses and wharfes built & Erected and which for many yeares he
hath peaceably possessed and Enjoyed These are therefore to authorize
& require yow forthwith to survey and lay out for the said Samuell
Ballatt the sd severall Deeds & Conveyances for the same buildings &
improvem** made and to make Due Returne with a platt or Draft
thereof into the Secryes Office that the said ground may be Confirmed
1 John Cutler, Jr., died August 12, 1708.
* Probably Jonathan Wade, who died November 24, 1689.
1 Samuel Ballatt died November 12, 1708.
298 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
to him by Patent accordingly and for so Doeing this shall be yor warr*
Given undr my hand and scale at Boston the 20th day of July 1687
8
Warrant to survey Land for Joseph Dudley Esq in Roxbury
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* GenH & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor Whereas CoH Joseph Dudley hath Desired his Majes-
tyes Patent of Confirmacon for severall houses & parcells of Land within
the towneship of Roxbury (that is to say) for his mansion house and
Land thereunto belonging Conteining about seven Acres the Greyhound
inn with the Land & Orchard thereunto adjoyneing Conteining about
four Acres About Eight acres of meadow by the Land of Thomas Weld
about seven Acres of pasture by the schoolland about nine Acres more of
pasture by the highway About One Acre of salt marsh by the sea, a
farme called Smithfield conteining about One hundred & forty Acres
About four Acres more of salt marsh by Jacob Pepper about twenty
Acres of woodland by Samuell Weld a parcell of land Conteining about
One hundred & thirty Acres by Nathaneel Garey l A tenem* and about
thirteene Acres of Land in the Road to Dedham and the halfe of a house
barne & thirty Acres of Land by Gyles Payson2 And alsoe One other
peece of woodland at Muddy River3 being about sixteene Acres all
which he hath long beene and now is in the actuall possession and en-
joyment off, These are therefore to Authorize and require yow to survey
and lay out for the said Joseph Dudley the beforemenconed severall
houses & parcells of Land according to the severall Deeds made and
given for the same and inclosures and to make due returne with a Platt or
Draft thereof into the Secryes office that the sd Lands may be con-
firmed to him by Patent Accordingly And for so doing this shall be yor
warr* Given undr my hand & scale at Boston the 22th day of July in
the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dom 1687
9
Warrant to lay out for Charles Ledgett Esq 150 Acres of Land as an
addicon to his farme at Charlestoune
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern* in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor Whereas by the survey and draft by yow made of the
1 Nathaniel Gary was one of the Roxbury men to whom New Roxbury in the
Nipmug Country was granted.
1 Giles Payson died January 28, 1689. » Now Brookline.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 299
farme belonging to Lieu* Colt Charles Ledgett in Charlestoune and of
the vacant lands adjoyneing Pursueant to warrant of the fifth of
July past there appeares to be a parcell of of Common vacant & unim-
proved land part of which the sd Charles Ledgett hath desired may be
granted to him as an addicon to the said farme these are therefore to
authorize & require yow to survey and stake out for the sd Charles
Ledgett the Quantity of One hundred & fifty Acres of the sd Common
vacant & unimproved land as an addicon to his sd fanne to beginn at
the Corner of the sd farme by Mistick bridge and to runn a streight
line to the road or way that goes to Monotomyes bridge as will include
about the Quantity of Acres which Road yow are likewise to survey and
lay out as straight to the sd bridge as the Land will permitt and thereof
to make Returne into the Secfyes Office that a Patent may be Given
for the same accordingly Dated at Boston the first day of August 1687
10
Warrant to Survey 210 Acres of Land for Daniel Wilcock.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gener11" and Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To John Smith
Deputy Surveyor Whereas Daniel Wilcock of Litle Campton2 in ya
County of Bristoll hath by his Peticon desired a graunt & Confirmation
for One hundred & sixty Acres of Land on seconct* and for fifty Acres
of Land on a small neck thereto adjoyneing Called Nasinnah* for
1 In 1680 the "lands att Pocassett and places adjacent," in the Plymouth
Colony, were bought by eight persons, among them Benjamin Church "of
Puncatest," Daniel Wilcox of " Portsmouth, in the Colony of Rhode Island," and
Thomas Waite "of Puncatest" (O. Fowler, History of Fall River, 1862, p. 61:
cf. Plymouth Colony Records, vi. 29-30).
1 On June 6, 1682, Sakonnet (Seaconet, Seconet, etc.) was incorporated as
Little Compton (Plymouth Colony Records, vi. 88).
1 The clerk's error for "Seconet:" see the next note.
4 Perhaps "Natinnah." It should be "Natimnah." In a petition undated
but referred to John Walley and Nathaniel Byfield on June 6, 1687 (Massachu-
setts Archives, cxxvi. 339-340), Daniel Wilcox said: "That in Julij 1679; There
was granted by the seuall Courts holden att Plymouth vnto Samuell Leonard
and John Lennard in right of their father Solomon Lennard the Quantity of One
Hundred and fifty Acres of Land And that the second day of July 1686 Yor Petr
for a Valuable Consideracon purchased of the said Samuell and John all their
right and title in and to the said grant and Whereas yor Petr the Three & Twenty-
eth of June 1683 [altered from 1686, or 1686 altered from 1683] Did for a valuable
Consideracon Likewise purchase of Mamanewatt Cheife Sachem of Seconett and
the Lands Adjacent; One Hundred acres of Land being part of a Large Neck
of Land called Seconett butted and bounded as in the Deed thereof is Expressed
300 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
which he hath satisfyed the Indians p'tences and on parte thereof
settled and improved These are therefore to Authorize and Require yow
to survey and lay out for the sd Daniel Wilcock the sd Parcells of Land
and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the
Secryes Office at Boston with all convenient speed that the same may be
Graunted and Confirmed to him accordingly and for so Doing this shall
be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 17th day
of August 1687
11
Warrant to survey Land on Boston neck1 for Francis Brinley1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes territory and Dominion of New England To Mr John
Smith Deputy Surveyor Whereas ffrancis Brinley of Road Island Mer-
chant Hath by his Peticon sett forth that for severall yeares past he
hath beene possessed of a certame tract of Land or farme on the souther-
most end of Boston neck in the Narragansett Countrey which according
to its knowne bounds conteines about Eight or nine hundred Acres
whereon he hath made Considerable settlement & improvement pray-
ing that the same may be Granted & confirmed to him These are there-
fore to authorize & require yow to survey and lay out for the said
ffrancis Brinley the sd Tract of Land or farme according according to
its knowne bounds and Contents with an Addicon of ninety acres more
And to make a Platt or Draft thereof and the same to Returne into the
Secryes Office with all Convenient speed that A Pattent may be Granted
therefore accordingly And for so doeing this shall be yor warrant Given
under my hand and scale at Boston the 18th day of August 1687
12
Warrant to Lay out Lands at Pocassett3 for Tho: Waite4
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory And Dominion of New England To Mr John Smith
And Likewise the 21th of June 1686 Hath also purchased of another Indian called
Kewegue ate Chackamuck brother to the said Mamanewatt for a Like Valuable
Conracon ffifty acres of Land Lying on a Small neck within the sd Large Neck
called Natimnah butted and bounded as in the deed thereof is sett forth." Cf.
Plymouth Colony Records, vi. 18, 202, 245.
1 Boston Neck is still so called, lying between Wickford and Narragansett
Pier, R. I.
• Francis Brinley (1632-1719).
* In June, 1694, Pocasset was incorporated as Tiverton (Massachusetts
Province Laws, i. 174), but in January, 1747, was reincorporated by Rhode
Island (Rhode Island Colonial Records, v. 204).
4 Cf. p. 299 note 1, above.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 301
Deputy Surveyor Whereas Thomas Waite of Little Compton hath by
his Peticon sett forth that he being One of the Purchasers of the Lands
called Pocassett in the County of Bristoll hath layd out a Considerable
Estate In building & improvement on parte thereof, & thereby praying
that the same may be confirmed to him with an Addicon of so much
Land adjoyneing thereto as will make up in the whole the Quantity of
three hundred Acres with Eight Acres of meadow now in his possession
lyeing on the southward end of Punckatest neck1 These are therefore
to Authorize & require yow to survey and Lay out for the said Thomas
Waite the said Quantity of three hundred Acres of land in manner
aforesd together with the said Eight Acres of meadow And to make a
Platt or Draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office
Att Boston with all convenient speed that a Pattent may be Granted
therefore accordingly Given under my hand & scale at Boston the 18th
day of August 1687
13
Warrant to Lay out Land at Shawomett2 for Ralph Chapman.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap1 Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr John Smith
Deputy Surveyor Whereas Ralph Chapman of Newport in Road Island
Shipwright hath for the Conveniency & Accomodacon of building of
ships and other Vessells prayed that about two hundred Acres of Land
might be granted to him on a certaine neck of Land called Shawwomett
ats wickopinsett on the westside of Taunton River These are therefore
to Authorize & Require yow (in Case yow in case yow shall finde the sd
neck of Land to be vacant & unappropriated) to survey and lay out for
the said Ralph Chapman in some Convenient place there the said Quan-
tity of two hundred Acres of Land and to make a platt or Draft thereof
and Returne the same into the Secryes Office att Boston with all con-
venient speed that A Pattent may be Granted therefore Accordingly
Given under my hand and scale at Boston the 18th day of August 1687
14
Warrant to Survey severall houses and Ground in Boston for Cap1
Benjamin Davies*
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen1* And Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New Engld To Mr Phillip Welles
1 Puncatest Neck was in Sakonnet now Little Compton, R. I. See p. 299 note
1, above.
1 Now Somerset. • Benjamin Davis died November 26, 1704.
302
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Surveyor Whereas Benjamin Davies of Boston Merchant hath by his
Peticon sett forth that for many yeares past he and those under whome
he Claymes have beene possessed of a Certaine house Outhouses &
Garden wherein he now dwelleth a house & Garden thereto adjoyneing
two Warehouses joyneing to Mr Parsons & Mr Eyers and two more
joyneing to Mr Shippen and some Ground and wharf e by him made out
of the sea within the Towne of Boston aforesd praying that the same
may be Granted and Confirmed to him These are therefore to Author-
ize & Require yow to measure & survey for the said Benjamin Davies
the said severall houses outhouses Gardens warehouse Ground and
wharfe before menconed and to make platts or Drafts thereof and the
same to Returne into the Secryes Office with all Convenient speed that
a Pattent may be Granted therefore Accordingly And for so doing this
shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 4th
day of Sep* 1687
15
Warrant to Survey 2000 Acres of Land neere Punkeponge in
Dorchester
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* & Govern' in Chiefe of his Maj-
esty es Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles Sur-
veyor Whereas Richard Thair hath by his Peticon sett forth that by
vertue of a lease from Wompatuck Josias and Indian Sachem he is
possessed of a certaine tract of Land lyeing neere Punkapange pond on
the south side thereof conteyneing about two thousand Acres thereby
praying that the same may be surveyed & Graunted unto him which
lyeing within the bounds of Dorchester and Constable of sd towne
having upon my Order to view the same reported that the sd Land is
vacant & unimproved These are therefore to authorize and require yow
to make a survey and draft of the sd Tract or parcell of Land And
WTiereas Rodger Clap1 layes Clayme to five hundred Acres of Land
and meadow which is parte of or adjoyneing to the Land before men-
coned for which he hath likewise prayed a Graunt Yow are therefore to
make a particular survey and draft thereof And the same to Returne
into the Secryes office with all convenient speed that such further ord™
may be Given therein as may be necessary and for so Doeing this shall
be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 12th day
of Sep* 1687
Roger Clap died February 2, 1691.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688
16
303
Warrant to survey severall houses & Land in Boston for Edward
Shippen l
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gentt and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor Whereas Edward Shippen of Boston Merchant hath by his
Peticon sett forth that for many yeares past he and those under whome
he Claymes have beene possessed of a certaine house and Ground
wherein he now liveth One other house & Ground in ye Occupacon of
Thomas Savage One other house and ground in the occupacon of George
Dansen severall warehouse and ground belonging thereto and about
four acres of ground hi pasture all within the Towne of Boston aforesaid
praying that the same may be Granted and confirmed to him These are
therefore to Authorize and Require yow to measure and survey for the
said Edward Shippen the sd severall houses warehouses and ground be-
foremenconed and to make platts or Drafts thereof and the same to
return into the Secryes Office with all convenient speed that a Pattent
may be Granted therefore accordingly and for so Doeing this shall be
yor warrant Given under my hand & scale att Boston the 12th day of
Sep* 1687
17
Warrant to lay out Land in Worcester2 for George Danson8
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Governour in Chiefe of of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr John Gore4
Deputy Surveyor whereas George Danson of Boston Baker hath by his
Peticon prayed my confirmacon of a certaine pcell of Land lyeing within
the bounds of Worcester whereon he hath settled & unproved conteyne-
ing about two hundred & forty Acres with fifteene Acres of meadow and
that as an addicon to the same I would grant unto him one hundred and
fifty Acres more out of the vacant lands that lye to the Eastward thereof
& adjoyneing To the same These are therefore to Authorize and Re-
quire yow to survey and lay out the said two hundred and forty acres
1 Edward Shippen moved to Philadelphia about 1693 and died October 2, 1712.
Cf. our Publications, xx. 266.
* On October 15, 1684, it was ordered that the "plantation at Quansigamond
be called Worcester" (Massachusetts Colony Records, v. 460).
1 The will of George Danson was dated December 10, 1689, and proved July 29,
1696. (Suffolk Probate Files, no. 1956). The name sometimes wrongly appears
as Dawson.
4 John Gore of Roxbury died June 26, 1705. Cf. p. 306 note 1, below.
304 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
of upland & fifteen acres of meadow with the Addition of One hundred
and fifty Acres more to the Eastward thereof & adjoyneing to the same
of which yow are to make due Returne with a platt or Draft into the
Secryes Office that such further Order may be Given therein for accomo-
< hit ing the Petitioner as may be propper and for so doeing this shall be
yor warrant Given under my hand & seale att Boston the 19th day of
Sep* 1687
18
Warrant to lay out Lands in the Napmuge Country for Joseph Dud-
ley Esq & at.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern* in Chiefe of his
Majestyes territory and Dominion of New England To Mr John Gore
Deputy Surveyor Whereas Joseph Dudley and William Stoughton Esqrs
have in behalfe of themselves Major Robert Thompson1 and Doctor
Daniel Cox2 Desired a grant and confirmacon for a certaine tract of
land In the Nipmuge Country of the Contents of Eight myles square
which was granted to them in the yeare 1683,8 by the Genw Assembly
of the late Massathusetts Collony These are therefore to Authorize &
Require yow to survey and lay out for the sd Joseph Dudley William
Stoughton Robert Thompson & Daniell Cox the said tract of Land con-
teyneing Eight myles square in the Nipmuge Country aforesd neere
Worcester and to make returne thereof with a platt or Draft Describing
the same into the Secryes Office that the same may be Granted and
Confirmed to them Accordingly and for so Doing this shall be yor war-
rant Given under my hand & seale att Boston this 19th day of Sep* 1687
19
Warrant to lay out Lands in Worcester for Charles Crossthwaithe
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** & Govern* in Chiefe of his Majes-
tyes territory and Dominion of New England to Mr John Gore Deputy
Surveyor Whereas Charles Crossthwaite of Road Island hath by his
1 Major Robert Thompson was of London.
1 For Dr. Daniel Coxe (1640-1730) of London, see Pennsylvania Magazine,
vii. 317-337.
* On May 16, 1683, the General Court, "hauing information that some gentle-
men in England are desirous to remoove themselues into this colony, & (if it may
be) to setle themselues vnder the Massachusetts; for the incouragement of such
persons, . . . this Court doth grant to Major Robert Thompson, Willjam
Stoughton, & Joseph Dudley, Esq, and such others as they shall associate to
them," the tract mentioned in the warrant (Massachusetts Colony Records,
v. 408).
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 305
Peticon prayed my confinnacon for a certaine Parcell of Land lyeing
within the bounds of Worcester at a place there called and knowne by
the name of Burntcoat Playne conteyneing one hundred Acres And that
as an Addicon to the same I would Grant unto him One hundred and
fifty acres more adjoyneing These are therefore to Authorize and Re-
quire yow to survey and lay out the sd One hundred acres of land with
the Addicon of One hundred & fifty acres more adjoyneing to the same
if so much vacant & unappropriated And to make a due Returne
thereof with a platt or Draft into the Surveyors Office that such further
order may be given therein as shall be thought propper for the accomo-
dacon of the Peticoners and for so doeing this shall be yor warrant
Given under my hand and scale at Boston the 19th day of Sep* 1687
20
Warrant to survey the vacant Land about Worcester.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen1* and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes territory and Dominion of New England to Mr John Gore
Deputy Surveyor Yow "having finished the severall surveyes of Land in
the Nepmuge Country & within the bounds of Worcester according to
the particular Warrants for the same These are to Authorize & Require
yow to make a Generall survey of the Lands lyeing to the Eastward of
Worcester & Oxford & betweene these places and the severall townes
of Malborough Wrensham & Mendham And likewise to the westward of
the towne of Worcester and betweene that and Quinnebague River and
to import as well the Quality as Quantity of the sd Lands And to Re-
turne the particular platt or Draft thereof in the performance of which
all Officers and persons whatsoever are hereby required to be ayding
assisting & helpfull to Yow therein as yow shall have occacon or see
cause to Require the same and for so Doeing this shall be your warrant
Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 20th day of Sept 1687
21
Warrant to Survey nonsuch farme1 in the Province of Mayne
Claymed by Sarah Jourden2 & John Hincks.3
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Richard
1 Nonsuch farm was in Scarborough.
* Sarah Jordan was the daughter of John Winter and the widow of the Rev.
Robert Jordan, who had died in 1679.
' John Hinckes was a member of the Council: cf. our Publications, xvii. 39.
306
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
Clements 1 Deputy Surveyor Whereas Sarah Jorden widdow and John
Hincks have by their Peticon sett forth that the Predecessors of the
said Sarah Jorden now the first possessors of a certaine farme or neck of
Land lyeing about six myles from the water side in the Province of
Mayne Comonly called and knowne by the name of Jordens or nonsuch
farme on which in the life time of her husband severall improvements
were made and that since his Decease the sd John Hincks for a valuable
consideracon is become Intituled to one moyety of the same which they
desire joyntly to improve praying the same may be confirmed to them
by Pattentt under his Majestye These are therefore to authorize & Re-
quire yow to make a survey & draft of the sd ffarme or neck of Land and
the same to Returne to the surveyors Office at Boston that Orders may
be given therein for accomodateing Of the Peticoners And for so doeing
this shall be your warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston
the 6th day of October 1687
22.
Warrant to survey severall parcells of Land, in Cascobay for Cap*
Silvanus Davies.2
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Richard
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas Sylvanus Davies of ffalmouth in
the Province of Maine Gentt and James English of Boston Marriner
have by their Peticon sett forth that for severall yeares past they have
been possessed of severall messuages or Tenements Mills Lands & Isl-
ands in the sd Province of Maine (that is to say,) A mossuage and lott
of Ground in which the said Davies now liveth neer the ffort3 being
about One Acre Another lott belonging to the sd messuage Qt about six
Acres and a small Island Called Little Chabawk4 Qt. about sixty acres
Alsoe another house lot on the west side the Cove neer the ffort about
One Acre A lott on the neck q* six Acres and sixty Acres of Outland
neer their great saw mill Alsoe sixty Acres of Land lyeing to the West-
ward of Mr Thaddeus Clarke Alsoe another parcell of Land at Kippi-
sick6 being a myle square whereon is a dwelling house & sawmill and
1 Richard Clement (Clemente, Clements) was appointed deputy surveyor
September 16-19, 1687 (Massachusetts Archives, cxxvii. 106). On the order is
written "The like warr* for Jn° Gore to be Deputy Surveyor."
1 Silvanus Davis died in 1703.
* Fort Loyal, Falmouth.
4 Little Chebeag.
• Capisick, a small stream flowing into Casco River.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688
307
six or Eight Acres of meadow adjoyneing thereto Alsoe another parcel!
of Land about three hundred Acres and about six Acres of fresh meadow
in nonsuch meadowes with a streame of water on which is a house saw-
mill and Gristmill, Alsoe another parcell of land att Long Creeke about
two hundred Acres with a streame whereon is two houses & a sawmill
and another parcell of Land att nonsuch point and neere adjoyneing to
it with about fifteene Acres of fresh meadow att nonsuch mashes whereon
is severall buildings and other improvem*' praying that the same may
be Granted and confirmed to them These are therefore to Authorize &
Require yow to survey and lay out for the sd Sylvanus Davies And
James English the said severall lotts peeces and parcells of Land meadow
& prmisses and to make Platts or Drafts thereof and the same forthwith
to Returne into the Surveyors Office att Boston that the same may be
Granted & Confirmed to them accordingly and for so doeing this shall
be yr warrant Given under my hand and scale at Boston the 6th day of
October 1687
23
Warrant to survey severall parcells of Claymed by Walter Barefoot1
in Kittery.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** and Govern' in Chiefe of his Maj-
estyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Richard Clements
Deputy Surveyor Whereas Walter Barefoot Esq hath by his Peticon
sett forth that for severall yeares past he hath been possessed of a par-
cell of upland and swamp in Kittery in the Province of Maine att a
place there called spruce Creeke Conteyning two hundred and sixteene
Acres Alsoe another parcell of Land adjoyneing in length upon the Bath
Conteyning five hundred Acres Alsoe another parcell of Land att a
place Called the mill Creeke or point conteyneing about one thousand
Acres And alsoe one other parcell of Land lyeing by the harbours mouth
on the Eastside of Piscataqua River Conteyneing five hundred Acres
upon which he hath made considerable settlem** and improvements
And praying to have confirmacon for the same under his Majestye
These are therefore to Authorize & Require yow to make a survey and
Draft of the said severall parcells & quantityes of Land and the same
to Returne to the Surveyors Office att Boston that Orders may be given
therein for accomodateing the Peticoner as Desired And for so doeing
this shall be your warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston
the 6th day of October 1687
1 Walter Barefoot, Deputy-Governor of New Hampshire, died late in 1688 or
early in 1689.
308
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
24
[APRIL,
Warrant to Survey the Lands claymed By Robert Lawrence1 in
Cascobay
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes territory And Dominion of New England to Mr Richd
Clements Deputy Surveyor jWhereas Rob* Lawrence of ffalmouth in
Cascobay hath by his Peticon sett forth that for severall yeares past he
hath beene possessed of a Certaine tract of Land & marsh lyeing at
sapissick* on the northerne side of the River to Extend to the River
side of Amencongen3 whereon he now lives and hath made consider-
able settlement & improvement Praying to have confirmacon for the
same under his Majestye (Excepting therout a parcell of Land about a
myle square where on Cap* Silvanus Davies hath built a sawmill) These
are therefore to Authorize & Require yow to make a survey and Draft
of the sd tract of land & marsh (Except before Excepted) and the same
to Returne to the Surveyors Office att Boston That further Orders may
be given therein for accomodateing of the Peticoner And for so doeing
this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand & scale att Boston the
6th day of October 1687
25
Warrant to survey severall parcells of Land at Cascobay for Edward
Ting4 Esq
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Richard
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas Edward Tyng Esq hath by his
Peticon sett forth that in his own Right and by severall grants from
diverse persons and from the towne of ffalmouth he is possessed of a
messuage or Tenement and halfe an Acre of Land lyeing neere ffort
Loyall As alsoe three Acres of upland belonging to the said Tenement
And alsoe another house & barne with forty two Acres of upland And
one hundred Acres of Land lyeing betweene the Land of Thaddeus
Clarke and Ralph Turner & four Acres of marsh adjoyning to the sd
Land being Divided from the marsh of the sd Thaddeus Clarke by a
1 Robert Lawrence was killed by Indians in May, 1690.
1 Capisick.
1 Ammoncongin (variously spelled), "now universally called Congin, was ap-
plied to a portion of Presumpscot river around the falls next below Saccarappa"
(Willis, History of Portland, p. 242 note).
4 Edward Tyng, a member of the Council, died about 1701.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDRO8, 1687-1688 309
certaine Creeke called Buck Creeke And alsoe one halfe of Barbary
Creeke marsh the whole conteyning Eight Acres next adjoyneing to the
Land of Peter Bodwin l all in the Province of Maine praying that the
same may be Granted and Confirmed to him These are therefore to
Authorize and Require Yow to Survey & lay out for the said Edward
Tyng the said severall peeces & parcells of land meadow & premisses
and to make platts or drafts thereof and the same forthwith to Returne
into the Surveyors Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted to
the sd Edward Tyng accordingly and for soe Doeing this shall be yo'
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 6th day of
October 1687
26
Warrant to Survey 110 Acres of Land in Cascobay for Richard
Sacombe1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Richard
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas Richard Sacombe hath by his Pe-
ticon sett forth that he is possessed of a certaine parcell of Land or farme
lyeing in the back Cove in ffalmouth in Cascobay Conteyneing One
hundred Acres of upland and tenne Acres of marsh where he Hath beene
at Great Charge in building ffenceing and improvement the same being
betweene the Land of John Smeath3 and the Land of James Rosse4
praying the same may be Granted & Confirmed to him under his Majes-
tye These are therefore to Authorize & Require yow to survey and lay
out for the said Richard Sacombe the said hundred Acres of land and
tenne Acres of marsh in the ffresh marsh at the Easterne End belonging
to the sd ffarme and to make a Draft thereof and Returne the same to
the Surveyors Office Att Boston That a confirmacon may be Granted
thereupon to the Peticoner as Desired and for so doeing this shall be yor
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 6th day of
October 1687
27
Warrant to survey 100 Acres of Land in Caskobay for David
Phippen.6
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Richard
1 Peter Bowdoin: see no. 29.
* Richard Seacomb (Seccomb, etc.) died in 1694.
* John Smith: see no. 41.
4 See no. 39. * David Phippen was killed by Indians in August, 1703.
310 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas David Phippen of Salem in the
County of Essex shipwright hath by his Peticon sett forth that his
father Joseph Phippen l sen' about thirty seven yeares since purchased
of George Cleve2 a parcell of Land in Caskobay Conteyneing One
hundred Acres the which by himselfe & Children was quietly possessed
and buildings and other improvements made thereon untill disturbed
and Destroyed by the late Indian warr And that the fifth day of August
last past his said father did by Deed Give and Grant the same to the
peticoner And praying a confirmacon for the same under his Majestye
These are therefore to Authorize and Require yow to survey & lay out
for the said David Phippen the said One hundred Acres of Land and to
make a Platt or Draft thereof and the same to Returne to the Sur-
veyors Office at Boston that a Confirmacon may be there upon granted
to the Petitioner as Desired and for so Doeing this shall be yor warrant
Given under my hand and seale at Boston the 8th day of October 1687
28
Warrant to Survey 200 Acres of land at Blackpoint for Joshua
Scottow.8
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap1 Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr Richard
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas Joshua Schottow Esq hath by his
Peticon sett forth that about twenty seven yeares since He did purchase
of Abraham Josseline4 a parcell of upland and marsh conteyneing
about two hundred Acres lyeing in the Towne of Scarburough ais
Black point praying to have a confirmacon for the same under his Maj-
estye These are therefore to authorize and Require yow to survey and
lay out the sd parcell and quantity of upland & marsh and to make a
platt and draft thereof And the same to returne to the surveyors office
att Boston That a Confirmacon may be thereupon Granted to the Peti-
coner accordingly and for so doeing this shall be your warrant Given
under my hand and seale att Boston the 8th day of October 1687
29
Warrant to Survey 100 Acres of Land in Cascobay for Pierre Baudouin6
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Richard
1 Joseph Phippen made his will July 21, 1687, and died soon after.
* George Cleeves died between 1666 and 1671.
• Joshua Scottow died January 20, 1698.
4 Abraham Jocelyn was a brother of Henry Jocelyn and of John Josselyn.
1 Peter Bowdoin died in September, 1716.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 311
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas Pierre Baudowin hath by his Pe-
ticon Desired a Grant of One hundred Acres of vacant Land in Casco-
bay for his present settlement & improvement these are therefore to
authorize & Require yow to survey and lay out for the sd Pierre Bau-
douin the sd Quantity of one hundred Acres of vacant Land in Casko-
bay aforesaid in such place there as yow shall be directed to by Edward
Wing1 Esq One of his Majestyes Council. and to make a Platt or Draft
thereof & Returne the same into the Surveyors office att Boston that a
Pattent may be Granted to him Accordingly And for so doeing this
shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the 8th
day of October 1687
30
Warrant to survey severall parcells of Land in Caskobay for Walter
Gendall.1
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Matyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Richard Clem-
ents Deputy Surveyor Whereas Walter Gendall of North Yarmouth
hath by his Peticon sett forth That by Purchase and Allottment he is
possessed of a certaine parcell of Land in North Yarmouth conteyne-
ing about four hundred Acres whereon he now Liveth and hath made
Considerable improvement and likewise of another parcell of Land in
the Towne of Scarburough conteyneing One hundred And fifty Acres
Praying a Grant & confirmacon for the same These are therefore to
Authorize & Require yow to survey and lay out for the said Walter
Gendall the said parcells of Land and to make platts or Drafts thereof
and the same forthwith to Returne into the Surveyors Office att Boston
that the same may be Granted & Confirmed to the Peticoner accord-
ingly and for so doeing this shall be Your warrant Given under my
hand & scale att Boston the Eight day of October 1687
31
Warrant to Survey 1000 Acres of Land in Watertowne.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Govern* in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor Whereas Mary Sherman the widdow of John Sherman*
1 Error for "Tyng."
1 Walter Gendall was killed by Indians in September, 1688.
1 The Rev. John Sherman, who died July 8, 1685, married for his second wife
Mary Launce.
312
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
late of watertowne Deceased hath by her Peticon sett forth that the
said Towne Granted to her husband who was Minister there for about
forty yeares a certaine Remainder of Land after a Division made which
amounted to about one thousand Acres which when surveyed was by
some of the Towne thought too much for him and difference ariseing
about the same for A Peaceable Issue the Peticoners husband was by a
Comittee psuaded to conten^ himselfe with One third parte thereof to
be forthwith divided which being hitherto refused to be Done she prayed
a Grant for the whole One thousand Acres of which Peticon notice being
Given to the Inhabitants of Watertowne aforesd severall appeared be-
fore the Councill the seven & twentyeth July past & acknowledged that
there was about One thousand Acres of vacant Land within the said
Towne of which the Peticoners husband was to have a third parte but
not the whole as Desired whereupon after full hearing and Debate of
the matter It was Ordered that the sd vacant Tract of Land be sur-
veyed and that the Peticoner have about a third parte thereof Granted
to her accordingly These are therefore to Authorize & Require yow to
survey the said Vacant tract of Land in Watertoune aforesd and to
make a Platt or Draft thereof having reguard to the Quality as well as
Quantity of the same And thereof to make returne to the SecTyes Of-
fice that a parte may be granted to the sd Peticoner And for so doeing
this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the
12th day of Sep* 1687
32
Warrant to survey 107 Acres of Land at Saco for Thomas Sheppard
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Richd
Clements Deputy Surveyor Whereas Thomas Sheppard Gentr hath by
his Peticon prayed a Grant & Confirmacon for seven Acres of land at
Saco River in the Province of Maine which he hath lately purchased
and One hundred Acres more of upland lyeing between Little River &
Goose faire adjoyneing to the said Land These are therefore to author-
ize & Require yow to" survey and lay out for the sd Thomas Shippard
the said seven Acres and one hundred Acres of Upland and meadow
proportionable if vacant there and to make a Platt or Draft thereof and
Returne the same into the surveyors Office att Boston That a Grant
may be Given to the Peticoner Accordingly Given under my hand and
seale att Boston the 13th day of October 1687
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 313
33
Warrant to Survey & lay out 300 Acres of Land to Humphrey Johnson
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Govern' in Chief e of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor Whereas Att a Councill held the two & twentyeth of
June last past it was Resolved that Humphrey Johnson had three
Rights of Land in the towne of scituate to be ascertained to him accord-
ingly These are therefore to Authorize & Require yow to survey and lay
out for the said Humphrey Johnson for his said three Rights the Quan-
tity of three hundred Acres of vacant Land within the bounds of the sd
Towne in three severall parcells or places where he shall direct and yow
shall fino!e it convenient and not prejudiciall to other settlements and
to make a Platt or Draft thereof and Returne the same into the
Secfyes office att Boston that a Pattent may be Granted thereupon
and for so Doeing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand &
scale att Boston the 25th day of November 1687
34
Warrant to survey and lay out Mayanexit farme in the Nipmug
Country in the County of Suffolke for Joseph Dudley and Wm Stough-
ton Esqrs
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govr in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to M* Phillip Welles
Surveyor Whereas Cofr Joseph Dudley and Wm Stoughton Esqrs have
desired his Majestyes Pattent of confirmacon for a certaine tract of
Land or farme called or knowne by the name of Mayanexit1 lyeing
and being in the Nipmug Country within the County of Suffolke Con-
teineing three thousand Acres These are therefore to authorize and Re-
quire yow to survey and lay out for them the said Joseph Dudley and
William Stoughton the said tract of Land and to make due Returne
with a platt or draft thereof into the Secryes Office that the same may
be confirmed to them by Pattent accordingly and for so doing this shall
be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale Att Boston the second
day of January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom
1687
£ ANDROS
By his Kxcdt comand
JOHN WEST D:Scry
1 The source of Mayanexit River ia now in Leicester.
314
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
35
Warrant to survey and lay out Manchaog farme for Joseph Dudley
and William Stoughton Esqrs
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** Govern* in Chiefe of his Maj-
estyes Territory and Dominion of New England to M* Phillip Welles
Surveyor Whereas Coft Joseph Dudley and Wiftm Stoughton Esqrs have
desired his Majestyes Pattent of confinnacon for a certaine tract of
Land or farme called or knowne by the name of Manchaog1 lyeing
and being in the Nipmug Country within the County of Suffolke con-
teineing two thousand acres These are therefore to authorize and re-
quire yow to survey and lay out for them the sd Joseph Dudley and
William Stoughton the said tract of Land and to make due returne
with a platt or draft thereof into the Secryes Office that the same may
be confirmed to them by Pattent accordingly and for so doeing this
shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the 2d
day of January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq 1687
By Comand of his Excel* E AlWKO9
JOHN WEST D Scry
36
Warrant to survey and lay out a farme in Sherbome and 4? Acres
of meadow in Mi<Hx County for Coll Joseph Dudley
ST Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor Whereas Coll Joseph Dudley hath desired his Maj-
estyes Pattent of confirmacon for a certaine farme lyeing in Sherborne
within the County of Mid3x conteineing about two hundred and thirty
Acres with four acres and a halfe of meadow lyeing distinct from the
said farme in Medfield bounds within the Lands of George ffayerbanke
These are therefore to authorize and require yow to survey and lay out
for the said Joseph Dudley the said farme and meadow and to make
due returne with a platt or draft thereof into the Secryes office that the
same may be confirmed to him by Pattent according and for so doeing
this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the
Second day of January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne
Annoq Dom 1687
_ ,. _ „. „ _ , E ANDBOS
By his Exceir Comand
JOHN WEST D Scry
1 Probably in Sutton.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDR08, 1687-1688 315
37
Warrant to survey the great bay Called the Narrogansett Bay &c:
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* General! and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majesty es Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr John
Smith Deputy Surveyor Whereas by my warrant of the two and twen-
tyeth June last past I did order and appoint yow to make a Generall
survey and draft of the Narrogansett Country or Kings Province These
are further to appoint and Authorize yow forthwith to make the like
survey & Draft of the Lands and shoare round ye great Bay Called
Narrogansett Bay & of all the Necks of Lands Islands & Isletts within
or neere the same and of all the Land and shoare along to Cape Codd
therein observing and markeing the severall settlements Claymes &
ptencons made by any person or persons to any parte or parcell thereof
of which yow are to make returne to me with all possible speed and for
so doing this shall be yor Warrant Given under my hand and scale att
Boston the 18th day of January in the third year of his Matyes Reigne
Annoq Dom 1687
Warrant to Survey Land at Spurwinck for Dominicus Jourden l
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Deputy Surveyors Whereas Dominicus Jour-
den of Spurwinck in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett
forth that Robert Jourden his late father Diced did by his Last will
and testament bequeath unto him One thousand Acres of Land besides
meadow thereto belonging lyeing upon the river of Spurwinck aforesaid
And that By virtue thereof he hath possessed the same for the space of
tenne yeares past and hath built and improved a considerable parte
thereof and settled five or six tennants thereon praying his Majestyes
confirmacon for the same I do therefore hereby require and authorize
yow to survey and lay out for the said Dominicus Jourden the said One
thousand Acres of land and meadow thereto belonging and to make a
platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office att
Boston that a Pattent may be granted to him accordingly and for so
doing this shall be your warrant Given under my hand and seale att
Boston the Eightenth day of January in the third yeare of his Maj-
estyes Reigne annoq Dom 1687
1 Dominicus Jordan, a son of the Rev. Robert Jordan, was killed by Indians
in 1703.
316
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
39'
Warrant to Survey Land in Falmouth for John Rosse l
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Deputy Surveyors Whereas John Ross
of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth
that for about thirty yeares past his father and himselfe have been pos-
sessed of a certaine parcell of Land in the said Towne lyeing att the
Back Cove Betweene the Land Claymed By Richard Sacombe and Ed-
mund Gale containing One hundred and forty Acres and about tenne
Acres of marsh att the westward end of the great marsh adjoyning to
the said Land and have beene at great Charge in the improvement
thereof praying his Majestyes Confirmacon for the same I do hereby
require and authorize yow to survey and lay out for the said John Ross
the said Land and marsh and to make a platt or draft thereof and to
returne the Same into the SecTyes office att Boston that a Pattent may
be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be your
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the eightenth day
of January in the third yeare of his Matyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
40
Warrant to survey Land in Falmouth for Thomas Sanford et at
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Thomas San-
ford and Robert Sanford2 of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine have
by their Peticon sett forth that for about five and thirty yeares past
they have beene and now are possessed of a certaine parcell of Land in
the said Towne on the Southward side of Casco River over against the
fforte conteining about two hundred and forty Acres with about twenty
Acres of meadow lyeing att the great marsh on that side the said River
and thereon have made very large improvement Praying his Majestyes
Confirmacon for the same I do hereby require and authorize yow to
survey and lay out for the said Thomas Sanford and Robert Sanford
the said Land and meadow and to make a platt or draft thereof and the
same to returne into the SecTyes Office att Boston that a Pattent may
be granted to them accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor war-
1 John Ross was a son of James Ross.
1 This name appears variously as Samford, Stamford, Standford, Stanfort,
and Stamford. The last form is the one usually employed by Willis.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 317
rant Given under my hand & scale att Boston the Eightenth day of
January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
41
Warrant to survey Land in Falmouth for John Smith
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* & Govern' in Chiefe of his Maj-
estyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas John Smith of Fal-
mouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth that for
many yeares past he hath beene and now is possessed of a certaine par-
cell of Land in the said Towne lyeing neere the Back Cove Conteining
fifty Acres whereof he hath made considerable improvement praying
his Majestyes confinnacon for the same and grant of an Addicon of
fifty Acres more of vacant Land adjoyning with four Acres of marsh att
the great fresh marsh I do hereby require and authorize yow to survey
and lay out for the said John Smith the said fifty Acres of Land and if
there be vacant Land adjoyning to enlarge the same to One hundred
Acres with the said four Acres of marsh if vacant and to make a platt
or draft thereof and to returne the same into The Secfyes Office att
Boston that a Pattent may be granted unto him accordingly and for so
doing this shall be your warrant Given under my hand and seale att
Boston the Eightenth day of January in the third yeare of his Maj-
estyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
42
Warrant to survey Land in Falmouth for Samuel Ingersell.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* & Govern' in Chiefe of his Maj-
estyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Samuel Ingersell of
Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth that
for severall yeares he hath beene and now is possessed of severall par-
cells of Land in the said Towne that is to say a house lott neere the
fforte a three acre lot upon the neck and about two hundred acres of
Land on the north side of Stroudwater River adjoyning to the Land of
Cap* Davyes whereon he hath beene att great charge in improvement
Praying his Majestyes confinnacon for the same I do hereby require
and authorize yow to survey and lay out for the said Samuel Ingersell
the said severall perils of Land and to make a platt or draft thereof and
the same to returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Pattent
1 Samuel Ingereoll was a son of George Ingersoll, Sr.
318
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yo*
warrant Given under my hand and seale at Boston the Eightenth day
of Jan'7 in the third yeare of his Matyes Reigne annoq Dom 1687
43
Warrant to survey Land in Scarborough for John Howell
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap1 Gen* & Govern' in Chiefe of his Maj-
estyes Territory and Dominion of New England to M' Phillip Welles
Survey' or to any of the Dep* Survey" Whereas John Howell of Scar-
borough Planter hath by his peticon sett forth that for about thirty
yeares past he hath beene possessed of a parcell of upland and meadow
to the quantity of about fifty acres lyeing in Scarborough aforesaid ad-
joyning to land Claymed by Joshua Scottow thereby praying his Maj-
estyes Confirmacon for the same I do therefore Require and authorize
yow to survey and lay out for the said John Howell the said upland and
meadow and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne
into the Secryes office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted to him
accordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under my
hand and seale att Boston the Eightenth day of January in the third
yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
44
Warrant to survey Land att Scarborough for Richard Hum well1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To M' Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Survey" Whereas Richard Hum-
well of Scarborough hath by his peticon sett forth that for many yeares
past he hath beene and now is possessed of about sixty Acres of Land
and about tenne Acres of salt and fresh marsh in the said Towne and
thereon hath built a very fair house thereby praying his Majestyes Con-
firmacon for the same with the grant of an Addicon of One hundred
Acres more I do therefore require and authorize yow to survey and lay
out for the said Richard Humwell the said sixty acres of Land and
tenne Acres of marsh and if there be vacant Land sufficient adjoyning
yow are to enlarge the same to the Quantity of One hundred and fifty
acres and to make a Platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into
the SecTyes Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted to him
accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my
Richard Hunnewell was killed by Indians in 1703 or 1713.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDRO8, 1687-1688
319
hand and seale att Boston the Eightenth day of January in the third
yeare of his Majesty es Reign Annoq Dom 1687
45
Warrant to survey Land in Scarborough for William Bun-age
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen11 and Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Survey" Whereas William Burrage
of Scarborough Planter hath by his peticon sett forth that for many
yeares before and since the late indian warr he hath beene possessed of
a small peece of Land conteining about fifty acres with some addicon
of meadow which he purchased of One Henry Watts thereby praying
his Majestyes Confirmacon for the same I do therefore require and
Authorize yow to survey and lay out for the said William Burrage the
said peece of Land and meadow and to make a platt or draft thereof
and the same to Returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Pat-
tent may be granted to him accordingly and for so doing this shall be
yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the Eightenth
day of January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom
1687
46
Warrant to Survey houses & Land in Boston and att Rumley Marsh
for Liev* Coll. Nich: Page1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen11 & Govern' in Chiefe of his Maj-
estyes territory and Dominion of New England To M' Phillip Welles
Survey' or to any of the Dep* Survey" Whereas Liev* Coll Nicholas
Page and Anna his wife have by their peticon sett forth that they Are
seized of certaine houses and Lands in Boston and Rumley Marsh2 as
rightly descended to the said Anna from Cap* Robert Keayne3 her
Grandfather she being the only child descended from him that is to say
their dwelling house in Boston wi$h some tenements and outhouses
about it and the ground thereto belonging a Certaine farme in the oc-
cupacon of Benja : Mosey att Rumley marsh Conteining about seven or
Eight hundred acres and a small farme in the occupacon of Isaac Luwes
at the same place conteining about One hundred and fifty Acres Pray-
ing that they may have a Pattent of Confirmacon for the same These are
1 Nicholas Paige died in 1717.
1 Rumley or Rumney Marsh, now Chelsea.
1 Anna (Keayne) Paige was a daughter of Benjamin Keayne, a son of Robert
Keayne.
320
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
therefore to require and authorize yow to survey for the said Nicholas
Page and Anna his wife the said dwelling house tenements and out-
houses about it and ground thereto belonging and also the said farmes
att Rumley marsh aforesaid and to make a Platt or draft thereof and
returne the same into the Secryes office att Boston that Confirmacon
may be granted accordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant
Given under my hand and scale att Boston the Eightenth day of Jan-
uary in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
47
Warrant To Survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine,
for John Spencer.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majesties Terrytory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillipp
Wells Surveyor or any of the Deputy Surveyo's Whereas John Spencer
of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon desired a
grant of One Hundred Acres of Vacant Land for his p'sent Settlem*
and Improvement adjoyning to Stroud water River and fronting to
Cascoe River over against Cape Sick1 with Six or Eight Acres of
Swamp or meadow neere the same if to be had These are Therefore to
require and Authorize you to Survey and lay out for the said John
Spencer ye sd 100 Acres of Land wth and Addicon of 100 Acres more if
to be had in ye Said place & Twelve acres of Swamp or Meadow neere
the same if to be had And to make a platt or Draft thereof and ye Same
to returne into the Sec'ys Office att Boston y* a Pattent maybe Granted
to him accordingly And for soe Doeing this shall be your Warrant
Given vndr my hand & Scale att Boston the Eighteenth day of Jan'y
in ye 3d yeare of his Majesties Raigne Annoq Dni 1687
48
Warrant to Survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine for
Richard Powsley2
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Grail and Governour in Cheife of his
Majesties Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillipp
Wells Surveyor Or to any of the Deputy Surveyo's Whereas Richard
Powsley of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon sett
forth that for this Thirteen or foureteene yeares past hee hath beene in
1 Capisick.
* Richard Powsland.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688
321
possion of about Seaventy Acres of Land and Marsh within the said
Towne and hath made Considerable Improvement thereon by building
ffenceing and planting thereby praying his Majesties Confinnacon for
the same according to the bounds already Settled I Doe therefore re-
quire and Authorize you to Survey and lay Out for the said Richard
Powsley the said Land and Marsh according to the bounds already
Settled and to make a platt or Draft thereof and the same to returne
into the Sec'ys Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted to him
accordingly aad for soe doeing this shall be your Warrant Given vnder
my hand & Scale att Boston the Eighteenth day of January In the
Third yeare of his Ma*ies Raigne Annoq Dni 1687
49
Warrant to Survey Land in ffalmouth in the Province of Maine for
Mr George Ingersolld Junr l
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Grail and Governour in Cheife of his
Majesties Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillipp
Wells Surveyor Or to any of the Deputy Surveyors Whereas George
Ingersolld Junr of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Pe-
ticon Sett forth that for many yeares past hee hath beene and now is
possessed of Seuall peeces & pcclls of Land in ye sd Towne (that is to
say) A house Lott neere the ffort of about two acres a three acre Lott
vpon ye Neck neere the back Cove fourty acres of Land att the head
of Barbary Creeke abovt a hundred acres of Land adjoyning to Stroud-
water River next the Land of Cap* Silvanus Davis and about Tenn
acres of Marsh In Nonsuch Marshes whereon he hath made greate Im-
provement praying his Maties Confirmacon for the same I Doe hereby
require and Authorize you to Survey & lay out for ye Sd George Inger-
soll y* sd seuall peeces of Land and Marsh and to make a platt or Draft
thereof and the same to returne into y* Secry's Office att Boston y* a
Pattent may be granted to him accordingly and for soe doeing this shall
be your Warrant Given vndr my hand and Scale at Boston the Eigh-
teenth day of January In the 3d yeare of his Majesties Raigne Annoq
Dni 1687
50
A Warrant to Survey Land in Falmouth in y* Province of Maine for
Mr John Browne Sen'
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Grail & Governour in Cheife of his Maj-
esties Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillipp Wells
1 George Ingersoll, Jr., was a son of George Ingersoll, Sr., and died about 1730.
322
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APBIL,
Surveyor or to any of the Deputy Surveyo's Whereas John Browne
Sen' of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon Sett
forth y* for seuall yeares past hee hath beene and now is possessed of a
Certaine parcell of Land in the Said Towne Lyeing att Back Cove Con-
taineing Sixty Acres and alsoe another parcell of Land lyeing neere the
Greate Marsh Containeing two Hundred and fifty Acres Alsoe a house
Lott neere the ffort about halfe an Acre whereon att his great Charge
hee hath made seuall buildings and other Improvements praying his
Majesties Confirmation for the Same and grant of Three Acres of Land
on the Neck for an Accomodation to his house and Lott neere the ffort
and ffive Acres of Marsh in the said Great Marsh I Doe hereby require
and authorize you to Survey and Lay out for the said John Browne the
said seuall parcells of Land with the addition of Land and Meadow as
desired if vacant and to make a Platt or Draft thereof and the same to
returne into the Secretaryes Office att Boston that a Pattent may be
Granted vnto him accordingly And for soe doeing this shall be your
Warrant Given vnder my hand and Scale att Boston the Eighteenth
day of Janry In the Third yeare of his Majesties Raigne Annoq Dm 1687
51
A Warrant to Survey Land in ffalmouth In the Province of Maine
for Mr Thomas Clayce1
Sr Edmvnd Andros Kn* Cap* Grail and Governour in Cheife of his
Majesties Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillipp
Wells Surveyo* Or to any of the Deputy Surveyors Whereas Thomas
Clayce of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon sett
forth that for many yeares past hee hath beene and now is in possession
of seuall peeces and parcells of Land within the said Towne (that is to
say) a house Lott att the head of the Cove neere the ffort being about
two acres and a Six acre Lott vpon the Neck and alsoe a parcell of
Land Lyeing neere Cap* Davyes Sawmill att Cape Sick betwixt the
Land Claymed by Joseph Ingersell & John Ingersell Containeing about
One Hundred acres with two or Three Small Coves of Salt Marsh
and Creeke thatch within the bounds thereof whereon att his greate
Charge hee hath made Considerable Improvem* Praying his Matieg
Confirmation for the Same I Doe hereby require and Authorize you to
Survey and lay out for ye Said Thomas Clayce ye Sd Seuall peeces and
parcells of Land and Marsh and to make a platt or Draft thereof and
to returne ye Same into the Sec'ys Office att Boston that a Pattent may
Thomas Cloice (Clayce, Cloyse, Cloyes) was killed by Indians in 1690.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 323
be granted vnto him accordingly and for Soe doeing this Shall be your
\Yarrt Given vnd* my hand and Scale att Boston the Eighteenth day
of January In the 3d yeare of his Majesties Ilaigne Annoq Dni 1687
52
A Warrant to Survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine
for Mr John Lane.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Grail & Governo* in Cheife of his Maj-
esties Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillipp Wells
Surveyor or to any of the Deputy Surveyo's Whereas John Lane of
Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon Sett forth that
in Seuall yeares past hee hath beene and now stands possessed of Seuall
peeces and parcells of Land in the said Towne (that is to say) a Lott
wherein hee Dwelleth being on the South side of Cascoe River neere
Papadock1 of seaven Acres and a parcell of Marsh and Swamp belong-
ing thereto Att the North Marsh being about Tenne Acres Alsoe Sixty
Acres of Land att a place called pond Cove without Portland2 and Six
acres more of Swamp neere adjoyning and thereon hath made Consider-
able Improvement Praying his Majesties Confirmation for ye same with
y* Grant of ffourty Acres of Vacant Land to be added to the Said Sixty
Acres I Doe hereby require and Authorize you to Survey and Lay out
for the Said John Lane ye Said Seuall peeces and parcells of Land and
Marsh wth the Addicon aforesaid if Vacant and to make a platt or
Draft thereof And ye Same to returne into ye Secrys Office att Boston
that a Pattent may be granted vnto him accordingly And for Soe doe-
ing this shall be your Warrt Given vndr my hand & Scale att Boston
y* Eighteenth day of January In ye 3d yeare of his Matiei Raigne Annoq
Dni 1687
53
A Warr* to Survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine for
Mr Edward Davies.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Cheife of
Majesties Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillipp
Wells Surveyo' or any of the Deputy Surveyo's Whereas Edward Davis
• •f fTalmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon Desired a
Grant of ffive hundred acres of vacant Land and Meadow for his Settle-
1 Purpooduck Point is at the mouth of Casco River.
1 Portland Head is south of Purpooduck Point, and Pond Cove is between
Portland Head and Cape Elizabeth.
324
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
ment and Improvement within y* Townes of ffalmouth or Scarborough
These are therefore to require and Authorize you to Survey and Lay
out for the said Edward Davis the said Quantity of five Hundred acres
of Vacant Land in some convenient place within either of the said
Towshipps with about twenty acres of meadow neere therevnto and to
make a Platt or Draft thereof and the same to returne into ye Secre-
taryes Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted to him accord-
ingly And for soe doeing this shall be your Warrant Given vndr my
hand and Scale att Boston the 18th day of January In the Third yeare
of his Majesties Raigne Annoq Dni 1687
54
A warrant to survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine for
Richd Sacombe
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of. New England To Mr Phillip
Wells Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Richard Sa-
combe of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his petition sett
forth that he is possessed of two severall lotts of ground in the said
Towne that is to say a house lott neere the Fort about halfe an acre
and about six Acres upon the neck and thereon hath beene at a great
charge in buildings and other improvements desireing his Majestyes
Confinnacon for the same I do hereby require and authorize yow to
survey and lay out for the said Richard Sacombe the said two severall
lotts of ground and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to
returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted
unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given
under my hand and scale att Boston the nintenth day of January in
the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1687
55
A Warrant to survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine
for Joseph Webber1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
hisj Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Deputy Surveyors Whereas Joseph
Webber of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett
forth that he is possessed of severall peeces of Land In the said Towne
(that is to say) a house lott neere the fforte of about one acre and half
1 Joseph Webber was probably the son of Mary Webber: see no. 56.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 325
a three acre lott neere adjoyning and about Eighteen acres of Land neere
Stroud water mill adjoyning to the Claymes of George Ingersell Whereon
he hath beene at Charge in building and making other improvements
praying his Matyes confirmacon for the same and grant of so much
vacant Land as will make his said Eighteen acres Lott One hundred
These are therefore to require and authorize yow to survey and lay out
for the said Joseph Webber the said severall parcells of Land with the
addicon aforesaid & to make a Platt or draft thereof and the same to
returne into the Secryes Office in Boston that a Pattent may be granted
to him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warr* Given under
my hand and scale att Boston the four and twentyeth day of January in
the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Domini 1687
56
A Warrant to survey Land in ffalmouth in the Province of Maine
for Mary Webber
Sp Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Mary Webber of
Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by her peticon sett forth that
for severall yeares past she hath beene and now is in possession of sev-
erall peeces and parcells of Land in ye said Towne that is to say a house
lott neere the Fort of about halfe an Acre and about two acres belong-
ing thereto next Cap* Da vies lott and also a parcell of Land lyeing on
the Eastward side of Long Creeke at the head of nonsuch point adjoyn-
ing to Cap* Davies containing about sixty acres whereon she hath
beene at great charge in buildings and other improvements thereby
praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the same and that to the said
sixty Acres an Addicon of vacant Land might be granted to make it
One hundred These are therefore to require and Authorize yow to sur-
vey and lay out for the said Mary Webber the said severall parcells of
Land with the Addicon aforesaid and to make a platt or draft thereof
and the same to returne into the Secryes Office at Boston that a Pattent
may be granted to her accordingly And for so doing this shall be yor
warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the four and twen-
tyeth day of January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq
Dom 1687
326
TUB COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
57
A Warrant to survey Hog Island In the Province of Maine for Vines
Ellicott
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chief e of his
Matyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Vines Ellicott of
Hog Island in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth that
Cap* Richd Vines1 his Grandfather about fifty yeares since was pos-
sessed of the said Island called Hog Island lyeing in Cascobay and that
he as heir to his said Grandfather is now in possession and improvem*
thereof praying his Majestyes Confirmacon for the same I do hereby
require and authorize yow to survey and lay out for the said Vines
Ellicott the sd Island called Hog Island and to make a platt or draft
thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that
a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this
shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale at Boston the
nintenth day of January in the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne
annoq Dom 1687
58
A Warrant to survey land In Scarborough in ye Province of Maine
for Robert Tydye and others.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Robert Tydye
Thomas Bickford Henry Lybbey2 David Libbey Daniel Hogg Matthew
Libbey Daniel Libbey John Libbey Thomas Leatherby Thomas Backer
John Slaughter Anthony Row and Moses Durant all of Scarborough in
the Province of Maine have by their peticon sett forth that for many
yeares they have been inhabitants within the said Towne and severall
of them have great familyes which they are not able to mantaine and
support by reason of the small quantity of land they are confined to not
having above six or Eight Acres a peece and no meadow and that there
is great quantityes of Lands and meadows neere adjoyning which lye
vacant and unimproved praying that their said small Letts of Land
may be made up to Each of them about fifty or sixty acres and that
they may have about tenne acres of meadow Each These are therefore
to Require and Authorize yow to repayre to the dwellings Of the said
1 Richard Vines died in 1651.
* Daniel, David, Henry, John, and Matthew Libbey were brothers.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 327
severall persons and view the lotts they now live on and what vacant
Land and meadows is adjoyneing thereto or lyes convenient for them
and how they may have their said lotts Enlarged as desired and to make
a platt or draft thereof and returne the same into the Secryes Office att
Boston that such further Orders may be given therein for the accomo-
dation of the Peticoners as may be propper and for so doing this shall
be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the nintenth
day of January in the third yeare of his Matyes Reigne Annoq Dom
1687
59
A Warrant to survey Land in Scarborough in the Province of Maine
for Edward Bennett
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* & Govr in Chiefe of his Maj-
esty es Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Edward Bennett of
Scarborough in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon sett forth
that for severall yeares past he hath beene possessed of a certaine par-
cell of Land in the said Towne containing about thirty acres whereon
he hath made a considerable settlement and Improvement praying his
Majestyes confirmacon for the same with an Addicon of so much
vacant Land adjoyneing as will make the whole to be One hundred
acres I do hereby require and impower yow to survey and lay out the
said parcell of Land with such addicon as may make up the same One
hundred acres and to make a platt and draft thereof and the same to
returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted
unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be your Warrant Given
under my hand and seale att Boston the nintenth day of January in
the third yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dm 1687
60
A Warrant to Survey Land in Scarborough in the Province of Maine
for John Teney
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** and Govern* in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Survey™ Whereas John Teney of
Scarborough in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth
that for many yeares both before and since the Late Indian warr he
hath beene possessed of a certaine parcell of Land in the said Towne
on the westerly side of Spurwinck River containing about fifty acres
328
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
and thereon made considerable improvement praying his Matyes con-
firmacon for the same and grant of an Addicon of fifty Acres more I do
hereby require and authorize yow to survey and lay out for the said
John Teney the said parcell of Land at Spurwinck River aforesaid and
fifty acres more if vacant And to make a platt or draft thereof and the
same to returne in the Secryes office at Boston that a Pattent may be
granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant
Given under my hand and scale att Boston the nintenth day of Jan-
uary in the third yeare of his Matyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
61
A Warrant to survey land att Blewhills
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas there is a
parcell of Vacant Land conteining about three thousand Acres lyeing
neere the blew hills within the County of Suffolke for parte of which
severall persons have by their peticons Desired grants I do hereby
authorize and require yow to make a generall survey and Draft of all
the said parcell of Land and to inspect as^well the Quality as quantity
thereof and to returne the same to me accordingly For which this shall
be your warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the third
day of february Annoq Dom 1687
62
A Warrant to survey Land in Casco Bay in the Province of Maine
for Maj: Earth: Gidney1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Major
Bartholomew Gidney One of his Majestyes Councill hath by his peticon
desired his Majestyes Grant & confirmacon of One thousand Acres of
vacant Land on the west side of a River called Wesgustagoe att the
head of Casco Bay in the Province of Maine neere the Entrance of the
River and alsoe five hundred acres of more of vacant Land higher up
on the said River with One hundred Acres of meadow being parte of a
greater tract by him said to be many yeares since purchased in that
place and whereon before the late Indian warr he hath beene at great
1 Bartholomew Gedney, a member of the Council, died March 1, 1698.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 329
charge in improvement I do hereby authorize and require yow to survey
and lay out for the said Bartholomew Gidney the said parcells of Land
and meadow and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to re-
turne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted
unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given
under my hand and scale att Boston the fourth day of febmary in the
third yeare of his Matyes Reigne annoq Dom 1687
63
A Warrant to survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine for
John Skilling
S' Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Matyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas John Skilling of Fal-
mouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth that for
severall yeares past he hath beene possessed of severall peeces and par-
cells of Land within the said Towne (that is to say) a house lott about
seven acres and about two acres and a halfe of ground neere adjoyning
about seventy acres of Land at the Back Cove and about sixty acres
neere Cap* Davies mill about three acres and halfe of salt marsh neere
the said mill and about tenne acres of fresh meadow in nonsuch meadow
and thereon hath beene at great charges in buildings and other im-
provements praying his Majestyes Confirmacon for the same I do
hereby authorize and Require yow to survey and lay out for the said
John Skilling the said severall peeces of Land meadow and Marsh and
to make platts and drafts thereof and the same to returne unto the
Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him ac-
cordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under my
hand and scale att Boston the seventh day of february in the fourth
yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
64
A Warrant to Survey Land in Falmouth hi y* Province of Maine for
Walter Gendall
S' Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Matyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Walter Gen-
dall of Northyarmouth hath by his peticon sett forth that he hath
beene about five and twenty yeares in the possession of a certaine par-
cell of Land lyeing on the East side of Spurwinck River in the Towne
330
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
CAPBIL,
of Falmouth containing about fifty acres and thereon hath made con-
siderable buildings and other improvements praying his Majestyes
confirmacon for the same with an addicon of fifty acres more I do there-
fore authorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the said Walter
Gendall the said fifty acres of Land with an addicon of fifty acres more
if vacant and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne
into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto
him accordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under
my hand and seale att Boston the seventh day of february in the fourth,
yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dni 1687
65
A Warrant to Survey Land at Blackpoint River in the Province of
Maine for Rob* Elliot1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Robert El-
liot of Portsmouth in the Province of Hampshire hath by his petition
sett forth that for severall yeares past he hath beene possessed of a
certaine parcell of Land or fanne lyeing in the Westerne side of Black-
point River in the Province of Maine conteining about two hundred
and twenty acres and also of another parcell of Land or fanne lyeing
at Dunston on the west side of of the said River Containing about two
hundred and thirty acres and hath made considerable improvement on
the said parcells of Land praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the
same I do hereby authorize and Require yow to survey and lay out for
the said Robert Elliott the said parcells of Land or farmes and to make
platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office
att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly and for
so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and Seale at
Boston the seventh day of february in the fourth yeare of his Maj-
estyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
66
A Warrant to survey Land at Cascoe River for John Wallis8
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas John Wallis
of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth
1 Robert Elliot died in 1720.
• John Wallis died in 1690.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 331
that he and those under whome he claymes have beene possessed of a
certaine paroell of Land in the said Towne on the south side of Cascoe
River att a place there called Papadock lyeing between the Land
Claymed by Sampson Penly and Joel Madiford1 containing two hun-
dred acres and of about seventeene Acres of meadow & Swamp att a
place called the great marsh and about fifteen acres att two Other
small marshes called the little marshes and have beene at great charge
in the improvement thereof praying his Majestyes Confinnacon for the
same I do therefore Require and authorize yow to survey and lay out
for the said John Wallis the said Land meadow and marshes and to
make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secfyes
Office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted unto him accordingly
and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and
scale att Boston the seventh day of february in the fourth yeare of his
Majestyes Reigne annoq Dm 1687
67
A Warrant to Survey Land for Suball Dummer2 neere yorke Rivers
mouth
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Suball
Dummer of Yorke in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett
forth that for severall yeares past he hath beene in y* actuall possession
and Enjoyment of the One halfe or moyety of the neck of Land comonly
knowne by the name of Alcocks neck lyeing in Yorke aforesaid neere
Yorks River mouth conteining about sixty Acres as also a parcell of
meadow lyeing on the Westerne branch of said River knowne by the
name of Alcocks marsh containing about four Acres whereon he now
liveth and hath made considerable improvement Praying his Majestyes
Confirmacon for the same I do hereby Require and authorize yow to
survey and lay out for the said Suball Dumer the said Land and meadow
and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the
Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be Granted unto him ac-
cordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under my
hand and scale at Boston the seventh day of february in the fourth
yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dom 1687
1 See no. 96.
* The Rev. Shubael Dummer (H. C. 1656), a son of Richard Dummer (d.
December 14, 1678), was killed by Indians on January 25, 1692.
332
TUB COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
68
[APRIL,
A Warrant to survey Land in Falmouth in the Province of Maine
for James Andrews.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of l^ew England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas James
Andrews of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his Peticon
sett forth that for about forty or fifty yeares he hath beene possessed
of severall parcells of Land within the said Towne (that is to say) a
parcell of Land lyeing neere A place called Monticko2 containing about
one hundred and twenty acres another parcell of Land neere Mussell
Cove of about One hundred acres which he Claymes in right of his
Grand Child and another parcell of Land lyeing betweene John Tucker
and Cap* Gendall of about One hundred acres whereon he hath made
severall buildings and other improvements praying his Majestyes Con-
firmation for the same and grant of One hundred acres of vacant Land
to be added to the first mentioned parcell These are therefore to require
and authorize yow to survey and lay out for the said James Andrews
the said severall parcells of Land with the Addition aforesaid and to
make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes
Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly
and for so doing this shall be yop warrant Given under my hand and
seale att Boston the seventh day of february in the fourth yeare of his
Majestyes Reigne annoq Dom 1687
A warrant to survey Land at Blew point for Edward Shippen
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Rhichard
Clements Dep* Surveyor Whereas Edward Shippen of Boston Mer-
chant hath by his peticon desired a grant and Confirmacon under his
Majesty for a Certaine farme or parcell of Land lyeing at Blewpoint in
the Province of Maine conteining One hundred and sixty acres butting
& bounding upon the north East side of the River being in breadth
sixty Rodd with forty acres of meadow adjoyning to the same upon the
west side thereof the which was taken upon Execution as the Estate of
Robert Edmunds Deced for satisfaccon of a Judgement of two hundred
1 James Andrews died in 1714.
* Perhaps "Monticke."
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 333
pounds one from him to the said Shippen and by vertue thereof he is
now possessed of the same These are therefore to authorize and re-
quire yow to survey and lay out for the said Edward Shippen the said
parcell and quantity of upland & meadow and to make a platt or draft
thereof and returne the same into the Surveyors Office att Boston that
a confirmacon may be granted thereupon to the peticoner as desired
and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and
scale att Boston the tenth day of October 1687
70
A Warrant to survey Land by Back Cove at Cascoe Bay in y* Prov-
ince of Maine for Edmund Gale
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Matyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Edmund Gale of
Beverly Marriner hath by his humble peticon prayed his Majestyes
Grant and Confirmacon for two hundred and fifty acres of vacant Land
in Cascoe Bay by Back Cove in ye Province of Maine whereon he doth
intend to settle and improve I do hereby authorize and require yow to
survey and lay out for the said Edmund Gale two hundred and fifty
acres of Land as abovesaid next unto the Land to be layd out for John
Rosse of Falmouth in the Province of Maine aforesaid with tenne acres
of marsh in the fresh marsh if to be had and to make a platt or draft
thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes office att Boston that
a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this
shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the
fiftenth day of february in the fourth yeare of his Matyes Reigne Annoq
Domini 1687
71
A warrant to Survey Clarkes Island for Mr Nathan** Clarke1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen*1" and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Mr Nathan-
iell Clarke of Plymouth hath by his Peticon desired that a certaine
small Island Called Clarkes Island2 lyeing neer New Plymouth being
vacant and unappropriated may be granted to him for the better settle-
1 Nathaniel Clark died January 31, 1717.
* Clark's Island was the summer home of our late associate, Professor William
W. Goodwin: see our Publications, xiv. 299.
334
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APIUL,
men t and improvement thereof I do hereby authorize and require yow
to survey and lay out for the said Nathaniel Clarke the said Island
called Clarkes Island and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same
to returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be
granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant
Given under my hand & seale att Boston the 23th day of february in
the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1687
72
A Warrant to Survey a tract of Land in or neere the Nipmug Coun-
trey for Mrs Margu Corwin widdow1 & Mri Ann Winthrop2
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or any of the Deputy Surveyors Whereas M" Mar-
garett Corwin widdow and M" Ann Winthrop have By their Petition
Desired his Matyes Grant and Confirmacon for a certaine tract or par-
cell of vacant Land lyeing in or neere the Nipmug Countrey of the Con-
tents of seven miles Square which they alleadge in the first settlement of
the Countrey was granted to their Grandfather3 by the Indyan Pro-
prietor thereof and beginning att the Northward End is bounded
Easterly by the whole length of Chapnocongo pond and runs south-
ward seven miles and Westward square betweene the northerne and
Southerne line till seven miles square be compleated I do hereby au-
thorize and Require yow to survey and lay out for the said Margarett
Corwin and Ann Winthrop the said Tract or parcell of Land and to
make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes
Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto them accordingly
and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant Given under my
hand & seale att Boston the fifth day of march in the fourth yeare of
his Majestyes Reigne Annoq Dni 1687
1 Margaret Corwin, a daughter of the younger John Winthrop and the widow
of John Corwin (d. July 12, 1683), died November 30, 1711.
* Ann Winthrop, a daughter of the younger John Winthrop, married John
Richards in 1692, and died June 27, 1704.
* According to a deposition dated May 14, 1684, the land was given to Gov.
John Winthrop by Tacomus; and on May 2, 1685, was deeded by John and Wait
Winthrop to their sisters Margaret Corwin and Ann Winthrop: see Suffolk Deeds,
xiii. 344, 429-430.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 335
73
A warrant to survey Land Comonly called Quobeague afe Brook-
field &c:
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen**1 and Govern* in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or any of the Dep* Survey*' Whereas there is a certaine tract
or parcell of Land within this Dominion att and neere to a place called
and knowne By the severall names of Quoboague ais Brookfield con-
venient for settlement and improvement These are therefore to au-
thorize and require yow forthwith to repayre to the said place and make
a survey and draft of the said lands called Quoboague afe Brookfield
and of all such Lands as yow shall finde or discover Betweene that and
Connecticutt River or neere or adjoyneing thereunto fitt and conven-
ient for settlement and what persons settled there or improvements
made and thereof to make a due returne into the Secryes Office att
Boston that further Order may be Given for the effectual settling and
better improving thereof Accordingly in the doing whereof all Officers
and persons whatsoever are to be helping ayding and assisting to yow
as occasion and for so doing this shall be yo* warrant Given under my
hand and scale att Boston the nintenth day of march 1687
74.
A warrant to survey Land in Brantry for William Veazie
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour hi Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas William
Veazie of Brantry hath by his peticon sett forth that for many yeares
past he hath beene an inhabitant within the said Towne and settled
and improved there a lott of Land of about tenne acres whereon his
dwelling house standeth about twenty six acres of pasture and tenne
acres of fresh meadow all within fence and in his possession praying his
Matyes confirmacon for the same and grant of two hundred acres more
of vacant and unappropriated Land lyeing by a Brooke called Sirketts l
Ordinary about four miles from said Towne but within the bounds
thereof of which publiq notice having' beene given to the inhabitants
there severall persons have made pretences but know not the certainty
thereof These are therefore to authorize and require yow to survey and
lay out the said severall peeces and parcells of Land and to make a
1 Perhape "Sicketta."
336 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
plate or draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office
att Boston that the certainty thereof may be knowne and such further
Order given therein as shall be necessary and for so doing this shall be
your warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the three and
twentyeth day of march in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne
annoq Dni 1687
75
A Warrant to survey Land in Brantry for John Yardly
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern* in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas John Yardly
of Brantry hath by his peticon prayed his Majestyes Grant of two
hundred acres of vacant and unappropriated Land lyeing on the east
side of Monatinitt River att a place there called and knowne by the
name of Cutchecoe about a mile distant from the Saw mill for his pres-
ent settlement and improvement of which publiq notice having beene
given to the inhabitants there severall persons have made pretences but
know not the certainty thereof These are therefore to authorize and re-
quire yow to survey and lay out the said Land and to make a platt or
draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office att Boston
that the certainty thereof may be knowne and such further Order may
be given therein as may be necessary and for so doing this shall be yor
warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the three and
twentyeth day of March in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne
annoq Dni 1687
76
A Warrant to survey Land in Brantry for Samuell Niell1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Surveyors Whereas Samuell Niel
of Brantry hath by his peticon sett forth that he is by purchase pos-
sessed of sixty seven acres of Land in the said Towne and thereon hath
built and improved praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the same and
grant of one hundred acres of Waste Land adjoyneing on the north-
east side thereof and fifty acres more on the northeast side of the litle
1 In his petition (Massachusetts Archives, cxxvi. 421) the name is "Niles,"
and is so entered in the index to that volume; but the petition is not in the hand
of Niell, and his autograph signature reads "Samuell Nielld." In documents
dated April 11, 1689, he is called "Niel" (id. cxxix. 364).
1019] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 337
pond about three miles from the said Towne of which publiq notice
having beene given to the inhabitants there severall persons have made
pretences but know not the certainty thereof These are therefore to
authorize and require yow to Survey and lay out the said severall peeces
of Land and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne
into the SecTyes Office att Boston that the Certainty thereof may be
knowne and such further Order may be given therein as may be neces-
sary and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under my hand
and scale att Boston The three and twentyeth day of March in the
fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1687
77
A Warrant to survey Land in Brantry for John Cleverly.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep* Survey™ Whereas John Cleverly
of Brantry hath by his peticon sett forth that for many yeares past he
hath beene an inhabitant within the said Towne and settled and im-
proved there a home lott of about two acres where his house standeth
forty acres of Land more and about Eight acres of salt meadow all
within fence and in his possession praying his Majestyes confirmacon
for the same and grant of fifty acres of vacant Land neere Babell brooke
and One hundred and fifty acres more beyond a place called Moores
farme within the bounds of the said Towne of which publiq notice
having beene given to the inhabitants there severall persons have made
p'tences but know not the certainty thereof These are therefore to
authorize and require yow To survey and lay out the said severall
peeces & parcells of Land and meadow and to make a platt or draft
thereof and the same to returne into the SecTyes Office att Boston that
the certainty thereof may be knowne and such further Order may be
given [therein as may be necessary and for so doing this shall be your
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the three and
twentyeth day of march in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne
annoq Dom 1687
78
A Warrant to survey Land in Cascobay for Peter Houseing
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governo' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Dep*y Surveyors Whereas Peter Houseing
338
T1IE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
hath by his peticon sett forth that there is a certaine parcell of land on
the westside Pesumpscott River in Falmouth in Cascobay contain-
ing about sixty acres whereof his father Peter Houseing ' Deceased was
in his lifetime for many yeares possessed Praying his Majestyes confir-
mation for the same with the Grant of fifty acres of vacant and unappro-
priated Land neere adjoyning I do hereby authorize and require yow
to survey and lay out for the said Peter Houseing the said sixty acres
with the said Addition if vacant and to make a platt or draft thereof and
the same to returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent
may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the tenth day of
Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dm 1688
79
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Walter
Gendall.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas Walter
Gendall of Northyarmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peti-
con sett forth that he is possessed of a certain messuage or tenement
and a small parcell of Land about tenne acres lyeing neere Maines
point2 on the southside of Ryalls River in the said Towne as alsoe four
Acres of meadow in Cozins River belonging thereto alsoe one other mes-
suage or tenement lyeing neere Fort Loyall next to Cap* Tings and
three severall parcells of meadow belonging to his fanne at Spurwinck
on the eastside of the said River conteining about twenty acres and also
a parcell of meadow att the head of the great cove being about six acres
and one other peece in Cozins River of about twelve acres which be-
longs to his fanne att Northyarmouth Praying his Majestyes confirm-
acon for the same and grant of and addicon of fifty acres of vacant Land
adjoyning to his said tenne acres as alsoe a grant of two hundred acres
1 The elder Peter Housing died about 1673.
* Russell says that "in 1652, John Maine lived on the Foreside; and a point
which yet retains his name, directs us to the place of his settlement " (History of
North Yarmouth, p. 171). In a petition not dated but referred to Walter Gendall
on June 10, 1687, John Maine said that "about thirty yeares since [he] purchased
an house in Casco Bay, with sixty Acres of Land adjoyneing Scittuate neare the
Middle of Casco Bay; on the Westerly side of Westgostuggo River; at a Certaine
place there, Comonly Called and knowne by the name of Maines Point" (Massa-
chusetts Archives, cxxvi. 347-348).
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688
339
more or vacant Land att Arriscott1 where the Illutherean people2
were lately settled but deserted with twelve acres of meadow if cann be
found convenient and alsoe sixty acres of Land more against little Clap-
board Island formerly layd out to John Ockman I Doe hereby au-
thorize and require yow to Survey and lay out for the said Walter Gendall
the said severall peeces and parcells of Land and meadow with the ad-
dicons as desired if vacant and to make platts or drafts thereof and the
same to returne into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent may be
granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant
Given under my hand and scale att Boston the tenth day of Aprill in
the fourth yeare of his Matyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
80
A Warrant to Survey Land in the Province of Maine for Nathaniell
Wallis.'
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Survey'8 Whereas Nathaniell
WTallis of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett
forth that for many yeares past he hath beene possessed and made im-
provements on severall parcells of Land in the said Towne of Falmouth
and Northyannouth (that is to say) fifty Acres of Land lyeing att the
Back cove betweene the Land Claymed by John Smith and John
Browne One hundred acres of Land lyeing on the westside of Pesump-
scott River Betweene the Lands claymed by Mr Jones and John Nicolls
with tenne acres of meadow or swamp belonging to it where was for-
merly his gristmill and housing one hundred acres of Land in the great
Cove in North Yarmouth neere to Cap* Gendalls with tenne acres of
swamp or meadow neere adjoyning And alsoe one hundred acres of Land
and four acres of meadow lyeing on the eastside of Cozins River in
1 Russell gives Harriseket as the Indian name of the present Freeport (History
of North Yarmouth, p. 167). What is called Arriscicott River in no. 90 and
Arrisicket River in no. 92, elsewhere appears as Harriseeket River (Collections
Maine Historical Society, iv. 105) and even as "Henery Sickett his River" (York
Deeds, iii. 53).
* Eleuthera, one of the Bahama Islands, was laid waste by the Spaniards, and
in 1686 some of the inhabitants came to Boston and were settled at North Yar-
mouth, which, however, they "were forced to desert" because they "had not
food to subsist there to or great damage & vndoing:" see 2 Proceedings Maroa-
chusetts Historical Society, xiii. 15-16, 265. Cf . our Publications, iii. 421 note 2.
• Nathaniel Wallis died October 18, 1709.
340 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
Northyarmoiith aforesaid praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the
same and Grant of an addicon of fifty acres of vacant land adjoyning
to the fifty acres aforemenconed att Back cove with four acres of
meadow in the great fresh marsh if vacant and two hundred acres of
vacant Land neere adjoyning to tb^ said hundred acres neere Cap*
Gendalls I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out
for the said Nathaniell Wallis the said severall Parcells of Land and
meadow with the said Addicons as desired if vacant and to make a
platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes Office att
Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly And for so
doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale att
Boston the tenth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes
Reigne annoq Dm 1688
81
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Abraham
Collings.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Deputy Survey" Whereas Abraham Collings
of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble peticon
prayed his Majestyes Grant and confirmacon of about sixty acres of
vacant and unimproved land in the southside of Casco river next ad-
joyning on the east of the Claymes of Isaac Davies neere Silvanus
Da vies sawmill and Gristmill with tenne acres of swamp where the same
may be found convenient and vacant I doe hereby authorize and re-
quire yow to survey and lay out for the said Abraham Collings the said
sixty acres of Land and tenne acres of swamp if vacant and to make
platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes office
att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly and for
so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att
Boston the eightenth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Matyes
reigne annoq Dni 1688
82
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Matthew
Palling.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
1 Matthew Paulling married a daughter of John Wallia.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 341
Welles Surveyor or to any of the DeptJP Surveyors Whereas Matthew
Palling Of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett
forth that he is possessed of a house lott of about halfe an acre neere the
ffort whereon he hath a dwelling house and about thirty acres belonging
to the said house lott on the west side of Pesumpscot river betwixt the
lands claimed by John Nicolls & Nathaniell Wallis And alsoe of about
Eight acres of land given him by his father in Law and whereon he
hath erected two dwelling houses and made other improvements pray-
ing his Majestyes confirmacon for the same with the Grant of the ad-
dicon of seventy acres of vacant Land neere maiden Cove neere unto
the Land Claimed by Nathan* White and Eight acres of swamp neere
adjoyning to the little marsh I doe hereby authorize and require yow
to survey and lay out for the said Matthew Palling the said severall
parcells of Land and premisses with the addicon desired if vacant and
to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes
Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly
And for so doing this Shall be your warrant Goven under my hand and
seale att Boston the eightenth day of April in the fourth yeare of his
Matyes Reign annoq Domini 1688
83
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Nathan**
White.
S* Edmund Andres Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Survey™ Whereas Nathaniell
White of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble pe-
ticon sett forth that he is possessed of one hundred acres of Land neere
maiden cove in ffalmouth abovesaid whereon are two houses and sun-
dry other improvements alsoe tenne acres of marsh and swamp in a
place called the Northmarsh praying his Majestyes confirmation for the
same I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out the
same for the said Nathan* White and to make platts or drafts thereof
and the same to returne into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent
may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor
warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the Eightenth day
of Apr ill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
342
TUB COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for George
Bremhall.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion c / New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas George Bremhall
of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon sett forth
that for many years past he hath beene and now is possessed of a house
and house lott in the Towne aforesaid neere the ffort of about halfe an
acre and alsoe of a certaine tract or parcell of Land in the said Towne
on the north side of Casco river next adjoyning on the west side of a
tract of Land belonging to Cap* Silvanus Davies in quantity about four
hundred acres whereon Att his great charge and expence he hath made
considerable buildings and other improvements praying his Majestyes
confirmacon for the same I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to
survey and lay out for the said George Bremhall the said house lott and
tract of Land or so much as can be conveniently layd out for him in the
said place and to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne
into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto
him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under
my hand and seale att Boston the Eightenth day of Aprill in the fourth
yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
85
A Warrant to survey land in the Province of Maine for John Harris.
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Genw and Govern* in Chiefe of his
Matyes territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas John Harris of
Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble peticon sett
forth that he is possessed of a certaine tract of Land in the said Towne
next adjoyning to the Land of Mp Peter Bodwin on the South side of
Casco River conteining about sixty acres whereupon is Erected a dwell-
ing house alsoe of a house and house lott neere the ffort of the quantity
of about three fourth parts of an acre And alsoe of about three acres of
Land upon the neck praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the same
together with an addicon of forty acres more to the first menconed par-
cell adjoyning to the same att the head of Silvanus Davies lott att the
head bounds of nonsuch point towards Scarborough I doe hereby au-
1 George Bramhall was killed by Indians in September, 1690.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 343
thorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the said John Harris
the said severall parcells of Land with the addicon if vacant and to
make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes
Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly
and this shall be your warrant Given under my hand and scale att
Boston the Eightenth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes
Reigne annoq Dni 1688
A Warrant to survey land in the Province of Maine for John Ilollman
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas John Holhnan of
Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his petition sett forth that
for many yeares past he hath beene and now is possessed of severall
peeces and parcells of Land in the said Towne (that is to say) about
four acres att a place there called Sandfords point about seventeen
acres on the Soutside of Cascoe river adjoyning to Lawrence Davies
and alsoe a certaine parcell of Land in North yarmouth on the east-
ward side of the great cove against Ellicotts Island whereon he hath
beene att great charge and expence in building and other improvements
praying his Majestyes Confinnacon for the same and Grant of one hun-
dred acres more of vacant Land and tenne acres of swamp or meadow
if vacant in the said Towne of Falmouth neere the sd seventeene acres
on Casco river I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey & lay
out for the said John Holhnan the said severall peeces and parcells of
Land with the addicon of Land and meadow desired if vacant and to
make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes
office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly
and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and
scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare
of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
87
A Warrant to survey land in the Province of Maine for George Inger-
soll senior.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
1 George Ingersoll, Sr., who was living at Salem in 1694, was the father of
Joseph, Samuel, and George Ingersoll, Jr.
344
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas George
Ingersoll senr of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble
peticon sett forth that he is in the actuall possession of a certaine par-
cell of Land lyeing in the said Towne fronting to Thames streete con-
teining about one acre alsoe a tb'iee acre lott neere to Laev* Coll Tings
and alsoe about five acres of Swamp on the north side of Pesumpscott
river praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the same with the grant of
an addic. m of one hundred acres of vacant land on the south side of
Casco river backward from Liev* Colt" Tings land neere Barberry Creeck
I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the
said George Ingersoll the said severall parcells of land with the addicon
desired if vacant and to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to
returne into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent may be granted
unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given
under my hand and scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of
Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
88
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for John
Ingersoll.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep*y Surveyors Whereas John
Ingersoll of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon
sett forth that for many yeares past he hath beene and now is possessed
of a house lott in the said towne neere the fforte fronting to Thames
streete of about two acres and another parcell of ground neere adjoyn-
ing fronting to Queens streete being about six acres And alsoe a cer-
taine tract or parcell of Land lyeing in the said Towne on the North
side of Casko river Betweene the Lands of Richard Powsley and Thomas
Cloyce over against Stroud water mills conteining about one hundred
and sixty acres whereon he hath beene att greate Charge and Expence
in buildings and other improvements praying his Majestyes Confirmacon
for the same And grant of forty acres of vacant Land adjoyning to the
said tract I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay
out for the said John Ingersoll the said severall peeces or parcells of Land
with the addicon desired if vacant and to make platts or drafts thereof
& the same to returne into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent
may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yo*
1 John Ingersoll, a brother of George Ingersoll, Sr., died about 1716.
1919J LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 345
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the one and twen-
tyeth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne Annoq
Dm 1688
89
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for John Jones
& Isaac Jones.1
S' Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Govern' in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Survey" Whereas John Jones
and Isaac Jones of Falmouth in the Province of Maine have by there
peticon sett forth that for many yeares they have beene and now are
possessed of a certaine parcell of land lyeing on Pesumpscott river
neere the ffalls conteining one hundred acres where They have made
considerable improvements praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the
same and grant of an addlcon of two hundred acres more of vacant land
adjoyning to and in the reere of the said One hundred acres with a
house lott in the said Towne neere the ffort of about halfe an acre and
a six acre lott over against the Back cove formerly layd out to him if
vacant I doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out
for the sd John Jones and Isaack Jones the said Land and premisses
with the addicons as desired if vacant and to make platts or drafts
thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes office att Boston that
a Patent may be granted unto them accordingly and for so doing this
shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att Boston the
one and twentyeth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes
Reigne annoq Dni 1688
90
A Warrant to survey Land for John Leane Henry Leane Samuell
Leane and Job Leane of Nortyarmouth in the Province of Maine.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory And Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
\Vflles Survey' or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas John Leane
Henry Leane Samuell Leane and Job Leane of North yarmouth in the
Province of Maine have by their peticon sett forth that for many yeares
past they have beene and now are possessed of a certaine tract or par-
cell of Land in the Towne aforesaid lyeing betweene the Lands claymed
1 John and Isaac Jones were probably brothers. They were of Charlestown,
aad both died about 1690.
346
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
by Mr Wiswell1 on the east and that Claymed by m* Atwatter2 on
the west conteining about one hundred acres with a small Island joyn-
ing thereto of about twenty five acres and also two other small Islands
fronting against the said Land called by the name of Mosiers Islands8
conteining about one hundred v$ces and two peeces of meadow att the
head of Arriscicott river conteining about Eight acres alsoe another
tract or parcell of Land lyeing in the east side of Cozens river to the
westward of Mr Atwaters Claymes conteining about sixty acres and a
small peece of Land on the west side of the said River being about
twenty acres with tenne acres of meadow thereto adjoyning whereon
they have beene att greate charge In buildings and other improve-
ments praying his Majestyes Confirmacon for the same and grant of
forty acres of vacant Land adjoyning to the said sixty acres I Doe
hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the said
John Leane Henry Leane Samuell Leane and Job Leane the said sev-
erall parcells of Land and meadow with the addicon desired if vacant
and to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the
Secryes office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto them
accordingly And for so doing this shall be yor sufficient warrant Given
under my hand and seale att Boston the One and twentyeth day of
Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
91
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for John Skilling.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen* and Governour in Chiefe of his
Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Survey' or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas John Skilling
of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his peticon prayed his
Majestyes Grant for a certaine tract or parcell of vacant Land adjoyn-
ing to his marsh in nonsuch marshes conteining about two hundred
and Eighty acres I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey
and lay out for the said John Skilling the said tract or parcell of vacant
Land and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into
the Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him
1 Doubtless Enoch Wiswall (Massachusetts Archives, cxxviii. 284, cxxix.
95).
* Doubtless J. Atwater (Massachusetts Archives, cxxviii. 214).
* John and James Mosier, sons of Hugh Mosier (d. about 1666), "occupied
two islands, now in Freeport, called great and little Mosier's, but since, by cor-
ruption, the Moges" (Willis, History of Portland, p. 60).
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 347
accordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under
my hand and scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in
the fourth yeare of his Majesty es Reigne annoq Dni 1688
92
A Warrant to survey land in the Province of Maine for William
Gilbert.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory And Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas William
Gilbert of North yarmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his pe-
tition sett forth that he is possessed of a peece or parcell of Land in the
great cove neere Cap* Gendalls in the east side of the falls called ffelter
ffalls whereon he hath a dwelling house Erected and made severall
other improvements conteining about tenne acres praying his Majestyes
Confirmation for the same with a grant of an addition of one hundred
and fifty acres of vacant Land adjoyning and neere his dwelling house
also a lott of meadow in the said townshipp conteining about six acres
if the same be to be found in Cozens river or arrisicket river vacant
and alsoe fifteene acres of swamp to make meadow if to be found va-
cant and convenient I doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey
and lay out for the sd William Gilbert the sd parcell of land with the
several additions as desired if found vacant and convenient and to make
platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes office
att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him accordingly and for
so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and seale att
Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his
Matyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
93
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Joseph
Ingersoll.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas Joseph
Ingersoll of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble
petition sett forth that he is possessed of severall tracts of Land (that is
to say) a house lott upon the neck neere the forte fronting to Thames
1 Joseph Ingersoll (1646-1700) was a son of George Ingersoll, Sr.
348
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Streete conteining about three acres also a three acre lott neere to Liev*
Coft Edward Tings also one hundred acres of Land lying betweene
Thomas Cloyce and Silvanus Davies's Sawmill att Capisick whereon
the said Joseph hath made sundry buildings and other improvments
and alsoe two hundred acres o*;Land and seven acres of meadow att
the back cove betweene John Skillings land and fall Cove the seven
acres of meadow being in the great marsh which two hundred acres of
Land and seven acres of meadow Did belong to his Grandfather Thomas
Walkley1 and father in law Matthew Cooe who were thereupon killed
by the Indians in the warr time praying His Majestyes confirmacon for
the same I doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out
the same and to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne
into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto
him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under
my hand and scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in
the fourth yeare of his Majestyes reigne annoq Dm 1688
94
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Robert
Nicholson.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Governour in Chiefe of his
Matyes Territory & Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas Robert Nicholson
of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble petiicon sett
forth that he is possessed of a certaine house lott neere the forte front-
ing to ffleetstreete conteining about two acres alsoe a tract of Land
lyeing upon the westward side of Pesumpscott river betweene the
claymes Of John Nicholson* and Robert Gresem3 conteining about
sixty acres praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the same with the
grant of the addicon of one hundred acres of land and tenne acres of
swamp where it may be found most convenient and vacant I Doe hereby
authorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the said Robert
Nicholson the sd severall parcells of Land with the addicon as desired
if found vacant and to make platts or drafts thereof & the same to re-
turne into the Secryes office att Boston that a Patent may be granted
unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor warrant Given
1 Joseph Ingersoll married a daughter of Matthew Coe, whose wife was Eliza-
beth Wakely, daughter of Thomas Wakely.
z John and Robert Nicholson were brothers.
* Robert Greason was captured by Indians in 1690.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS,. 1687-1688 349
under ray hand and scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of
Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
•
95
A Warrant to survey land in the Province of Maine for Thomas
Bacor.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall & Govern' in Chiefe of his
Matyes Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip Welles
Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas Thomas Bacor of
Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble peticon prayed
his Majestyes grant of one hundred acres of vacant Land upon the
northside of Back cove next adjoyning to the head of Nathaniell Wallis
Claymes whereupon he is willing to improve and settle a Plantacon I
Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the
said Thomas Bacor the sd one hundred acres of vacant Land as desired
and to make a platt or draft thereof and the same to returne into the
Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto him ac-
cordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under my
hand and scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in the
fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
96
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for Joell
Madiford.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Dep*y Surveyors Whereas Joell Madi-
ford Senr of Falmouth in the Province of Maine hath by his humble
peticon sett forth that he is possessed of a certaine tract of Land and
marsh on the southside of Casco river betweene the Lands of John
Wallis and Thomas Sandford the Land conteining one hundred acres
and the marsh being about seven acres lyeing in the great marsh ad-
joyning to John Wallis marsh and whereon he hath made considerable
improvement praying his Matyes confirmacon for the same I doe hereby
authorize and require yow to survey and lay out for the sd Joell Madi-
ford the said Land and marsh and to make a platt or draft thereof and
the same to returne into the Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent
may be granted unto him accordingly and for so doing this shall be yor
1 Joel Madiver was killed by Indians in August, 1703.
350
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
warrant Given under my hand and scale att Boston the one and twen-
tyeth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq
Dnil688
97
A Warrant to survey land for Robert Morrell in the Province of
Maine
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory & Dominion of New England To Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas Robert
Morrell of Falmouth in the Provence of Maine hath by his humble
peticon sett forth that he is possessed of severall tracts of Land within
sd Towne (that is to say) of a house lott neere the forte fronting to
Thames streete whereon is a dwelling house conteining about two acres
alsoe a three acre lott next adjoyning to Silvanus Davies's six acre
lott upon the neck fronting to Back cove And also Eighty acres neere
stroudwater mills of sd Silvanus Davies whereon is a dwelling houses
and severall other houses praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the
same with the grant of an addicon of fifty acres of vacant Land neere
adjoyning if to be found I doe hereby authorize and require yow to
survey and lay out for the said Robert Morrell the said severall tracts
of Land with the addicon of vacant Land Desired if to be found and
to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the Secryes
office att Boston that a Patent may be granted him accordingly and for
so doing this shall be yor warrant Given under my hand and scale att
Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in the fourth yeare of his
Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
98
A Warrant to survey Land in the Province of Maine for George ffelt
Samuell ffelt and Jonathan ffelt.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Generall and Governour in Chiefe of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England to Mr Phillip
Welles Surveyor or to any of the Depty Surveyors Whereas George ffelt
Sam11 ffelt and Jonathan ffelt all of ffalmouth in the Province of Maine
have by their peticon sett forth that they and their father have beene
for many years possessed of a certaine parcell of Land in a place called
The mussell cove betweene their uncle Mr James Andrews2 and
Samuell Pykes conteining about one hundred acres with two small par-
1 George, Jonathan, and Samuel Felt were the sons of George Felt, who was
killed by Indians on September 23, 1676.
1 The elder George Felt married a sister of James Andrews.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 351
cells of marsh one called the little broad marsh and the other called
Morris Marsh praying his Majestyes confirmacon for the same with a
grant of the addicon of one hundred acres of vacant Land adjoyning to
the aforesaid parcell as neere as it may be found also an Island neere
to their improvements called and knowne by the name of Lower Clap-
board Island which was formerly granted to their father by a Towne
Grant I Doe hereby authorize and require yow to survey and lay out
for the said George Felt Samuell Felt and Jonathan Felt the said parcell
of Land and marsh Island and premisses with the addicon as desired
and to make platts or drafts thereof and the same to returne into the
Secryes Office att Boston that a Patent may be granted unto them ac-
cordingly and for so doing this shall be your warrant Given under my
hand and scale att Boston the one and twentyeth day of Aprill in the
fourth yeare of his Majestyes Reigne annoq Dni 1688
99
A Warrant to Survey a House and Ground in Boston for John Eyres1
Merchant.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captaine Gen4* and Governour in Cheife of
his Maj*ie§ Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip
Wells Survey' or to any of the Deputy Survey" Whereas John Eyres
of Boston Merchant hath by his Petition sett forth that att his great
Charge and Expence he hath built a faire Brickhouse in Prison Lane in
Boston aforesaid on ground which he before had purchased but sub-
mitted praying his Majesties grant for the said house with a small way
or passage on the West Side thereof Leading into his backside. I Doe
hereby Authorize and Require you forthwith to make a Suruey and
Draft of the said House and Ground thereunto belonging with the said
way or passage and the same to returne into the Secretaryes Office that
a grant may be passed to him Accordingly And for soe Doeing this
shall be your Warrant Giuen under my hand and scale att Boston the
22d Day of June in the fourth yeare of his Majesties Reigne Annoq
Domini 1688.
100
A Warrant to Survey Land neere a place Called Weymesitt for
Jonathan Tyng Esq.*
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Gen** and Governour in Cheife of his
Majesties Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Philip
1 John Eyre died June 17, 1700.
1 Jonathan Tyng, a member of the Council, died January 19, 1724.
352
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Welles Surueyor or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Jonathan
Tyng Esq one of the Memb" of his Majties Councill hath by his Peti-
tion prayed his Majesties Grant and Confirmation for a Certaine par-
cell of Improued Land Lyeing on the West Side of Concord Riuer neere
a place there Called Weymesitt1 £ontaineing about Seauenty Acres
whereof he is possess'd I doe hereby Authorize and Require you to
Survey and Lay out for the said Jonathan Tyng the said parcell of
Land and make a platt or Draft thereof and Returne the same into the
Secretarys Office That a Pattent may be granted to him accordingly
And for soe Doeing this shall be your Warrant Giuen under my hand
and scale att Boston the Sixth Day of July in the fourth yeare of his
Mat§ Reigne Annoq Domini 1688.
101
A Warrant to Survey Noddles Island for Coir. Samuell Shrimpton8
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captaine Gen4* and Governour in Cheife of
his Majtie8 Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip
Wells Suruey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Coit Samuell
Shrimpton one of the Members of his Majtie" Councill hath by his Peti-
tion sett forth that for many yeares past amongst other Estate he hath
beene and now is possessed hi his owne Right of a Certaine Island Com-
monly Called Noddles Island ate Notles Island Lyeing neare the Towne of
Boston Whereon att his great Costs & Charge he hath made severall
buildings and other Improvements praying his Majties grant and Con-
firmation for the same I Doe hereby Authorize & Require you to suruay
and Lay out for the said Samuell Shrimpton the Island aforesaid and
make a platt or Draught thereof and Returne the same into the Sec-
retaryes Office That a Pattent may be granted to him Accordingly and
for soe Doeing this shall be your Warrant Giuen under my hand and
scale at Boston the Sixth Day of July in the fourth yeare of his Majtie§
Reigne Annoq Domini 1688.
102
A Warrant of Suruay for severall Houses Wharfes and Warehouses
for Cott- Sam11 Shrimpton.
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Captaine Generall and Governour in Cheife
of his Mats Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Philip
Wells Survey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Cofr Samuell
1 Now Chelmsford.
* Samuel Shrimpton, a member of the Council, died February 8, 1698.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 353
Shrimpton one of the Members of his Mat1'1 Councill hath by his Pe-
ticon set forth That for many years past he hath bin and now is pos-
sessed in his own right of Severall Houses & Lands within the Town of
Boston for which prays his MatieB grant and Confirmation (That is to
say) his now Dwelling house and ground thereunto belonging a piece of
ground adjoyning to the house of John Usher Esq Whereon is a small
Brick house and a Larger building A Warehouse by the Dock ag* Benj*
Murfords l A House Bakehouse and ground att the bottom of Shrimp-
ton's Lane a Stable Coachhouse and ground by Samuell Philips a peece
of Land on the Side of Beacon Hill another peece of Land att the North
End of the Towne next Edward Ransfords Another peece of land att
the South end of the Towne next Mr Ransfords a Small House and
ground att the North end of the Towne next mr Atkins and a Wharf e
and ground adjoyning to Samuell Nowells Warehouse. I doe hereby
Authorize and Require you tc Suruay and Lay out for the said Samuell
Shrimpton the said sevall Houses Lands and ground and to make a
platt or Draft thereof and Returne the same into the Secretary's Office
That a Pattent may be granted him accordingly and for so doeing this
shall be your Warr* Giuen under my hand and seale at Boston the 6th
Day of July in the fourth yeare of his Majesties Reigne Annoq Dom
1688.
103
A Warrant to Suruey a Certaine Tract of Land Lyeing betweene
Spye pond and Saunders brooke
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Gen* and Governour in Cheife of his
Matie* Territory and Dominion of New Engld To mr Phillip Wells
Suruey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Edward Randolph
Esq by his Petition sett forth that there is a Certaine parcell or Tract
of Vacant and unapproprieted Land Containeing about Seauen hun-
dred Acres Scituate Lyeing and being betweene Spy pond and Saunders
Brooke neere Water-Towne in the County of Middlesex for the which
prayed his Majtu" Grant, I Do hereby Authorize and Require you
forthwith to make a Suruey and Draft of the said parcell of Land and
other Vacant Lands thereto adjoyneing and Returne the same into the
Secretaryes Office that the quality and Scituation thereof as well as
quantity may be knowne and such Order giuen for the Dispossall
thereof as shall be proper for which this shall be your Warrant. Giuen
under my hand and seale at Boston the Seaventh Day of July in the
forth yeare of his Majtlfl" Reigne Annoq Domini 1688.
1 Benjamin Munford (Mountfort, Mumford) died in 1714.
354
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
104
[APRIL,
A Warrant to Suruey a Certaine Tract of Land Nigh the Towne of
Lyn called Nahant neck.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Capfr-jne Gen* and Governour in Cheife of
his Majtie8 Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip
Wells Suruey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Edward Ran-
dolph Esq hath by his Peticon sett forth that there is a Certaine Tract
of Land Nigh the Towne of Lyn in the County of Essex out of ffence
and undevided. Containeing about fiue hundred acres Commonly Called
Nahant Neck for woh prayes his Majties Grant And Whereas Severall
persons Inhabitants within the said Towne of Lynn haue Likewise pe-
titioned for the grant of the said Land. I Doe hereby Authorize and Re-
quire you forthwith to make a Suruey and Draft thereof and other
Vacant Lands thereto adjoyneing and Returne the same into the Secre-
taryes Office That the Quality and Scituation thereof as Well as the
quantity may be knowne And such Orders giuen for the Disposall thereof
as shall be proper for which this shall be your Warrant Giuen under
my hand and scale att Boston the Seauenth Day of July in the forth
yeare of his Majesties Reigne Annoq Domini 1688
105
A Warrant of Suruey for a House and Land in Boston for Savill
Simpson 1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Gen* and Governour in Cheife of his
Maj*ie" Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Philip Welles
Suruey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey'8 Whereas Savill Simpson hath
by his Petitition Sett forth that he is in the Actuall possession of a
Certaine house and ground thereto belonging Lyeing neere the South
Meeting-house in Boston in his owne Right praying his Majesties
Grant and Confirmation for the same I Doe hereby Authorize and Re-
quire you to survey and Lay out for the said Savill Simpson the said
house and Land thereto belonging and to make a platt or Draft thereof
and the same to Returne into the Secretaryes Office That a Pattent
may be granted to him Accordingly for which this shall be your War-
rant Giuen under my hand and scale att Boston the 13th Day of July
in the forth yeare of his Majesties Reigne Annoq Domini 1688
1 Savill Simpson died in 1725.
19193 LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 355
106
A Warrant to Suruey a Certaine Tract of Land neere Magaguncock
hill l for Savill Simpson
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap*" Gen11 & Gouernour in Cheife of his
Majesties Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Philip Wells
Suruey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Savill Simpson of
Boston Cordwainer hath by his Petition Sett forth that he is Possess'd
of a Certaine Tract or parcell of Land Lyeing and being neere a place
Called Magaguncock Hill by the Cold Spring in the County of Middle-
sex on the South Side of a Branch of Sudbury Riuer about Nine Miles
distant from the Towne Containeing about fiue hundred Acres with a
Small Peece of Meadow Adjoyning Containemg about Seaven Acres on
which Some Improuement hath beene already made and he is Desirous
to make further praying his Majesties Grant and Confirmaon for the
same I Doe hereby Authorize and Require you to Suruey and Lay out
for the said Savill Simpson the said Parcell of Land and Meadow and
to make a platt or Draft thereof and the same to Returne into the
Secreys Office that a Pattent may be granted to him Accordingly for
which this shall be your WTarrant Giuen under my hand and seale in
Boston the 13th Day of July in the fourth yeare of his Majesties Reigne
Annoq Domini 1688
107
A Warrant to Suruey forty Nine Acres of Land in Charlestowne
Called the Stinted Pasture for Joseph Lynde.2
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Generall and Governour in Cheife of
his Majestyes Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Philip
Wells Suruey' or to any of the Deputy surv" Whereas Joseph Lynde
of Charlestowne in the County of Middlesex hath by his Petition
prayed his Maj*lM grant of about forty Nine Acres of Land within the
bounds of Charlestowne aforesd att a place there Called the Stinted
pasture I doe hereby Authorize and Require you forthwith to Suruey
and Lay out the said parcell of Land and make a platt or Draft thereof
and Returne the same into the Secrys Office att Boston that a Patent
may be granted to him Accordingly, for wch this shall be yo' Warrant
Giuen under my hand & Seale att Boston aforesd the 23d Day of July
1688.
1 Now called Magunco Hill, in Ashland. Cf. Hurd, History of Middlesex
County (1890), iii. 535; Handbook of American Indians (1907), i. 786.
1 Joseph Lynde died January 29, 1727.
356
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
108
[APHIL,
A Warrant to Survey Seuerall Messuages & tenements in Charles-
towne for Andrew Belcher.1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap -f Gentt and Govern' in Cheife of his
Majtl*§ Territory & Dominion of New England To mr Philip Welles
Suruey* or to any of the Deputy Surueyors Whereas Andrew Belcher
of Charlestowne Marriner hath by his Petition sett forth that for Sev-
erall yeares past he hath beene possessed of a Certaine Messuage and
Lott of ground- Lyeing in Charlestowne aforesaid neere the meeting
house And of an other Messuage and Lott of ground in the said Towne
neere the house of Edward Collins,2 and alsoe of an other Messuage
and Lott of Ground in the Towne of Cambridge adjacent to the Land of
Nathaniell Greene all within the County of Middlesex praying his
Majties grant for the same, I Doe hereby Authorize and Require you
forthwith to suruey the said Severall Messuages and Lotts of ground
and make a platt or Draft thereof And Returne the same into the Sec-
retaryes Office att Boston that they may be granted to him Accord-
ingly for which this shall be your Warrant. Giuen under my hand and
scale att Boston the 23d Day of July 1688.
109
A Warrant to Survey Severall houses & parcells of Land within the
Townes of Dorchester Milton & Boston for William Soughton Esqr
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Gen1* and Governour in Cheife of his
Majesties Territory & Dominion of New England To mr Philip Welles
Suruey* or to any of the Deputy Survey'8 Whereas William Stoughton
Esq hath Desired his Majtie8 Patent of Confirmation for Severall houses
and parcells of Land within the Townes of Dorchester Milton and
Boston (That is to say) his Mention house in the Towne of Dorchester
with Barns Dovehouse & other out houses, Orchards and Lands ad-
joyning Lyeing all within one outside fence, and Containeing about
Thirty Acres, One small lott in the Towne field behind his house of
two Acres Three quarters One small lott in the Common feild neere the
bunying place about two Acres, A Close before his house part Salt
Marsh, part upland of about Eight Acres and halfe Lakes Hill Pasture
Containeing four Acres and Three quarters, Glouers Hill Pasture with
other Inclosed grounds, adjoyning Lyeing within one outside ffence of
about Thirty Seauen Acres, Severall other Inclosed grounds butting on
» Andrew Belcher (1647-1717).
1 Edward Collins died in April, 1689.
19193 LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 357
the Road Leading to Napousett Mill Joyning all one to another on part
Whereof stands a Dwelling house and Barne Containeing Ninety Eight
Acres Another pasture on the Same abouesd Road about Twenty one
Acres two small lotts Lyeing on the Little Necke of one Acre & a quarter
A parcell of salt Meadow with upland adjoyning thereunto Lyeing on
the North side of the Little Necke Containing fourteen Acres A parcell
of Salt Meadow with a Skirt of upland lyeing on the South side of the
little Necke of Seauenteene Acres A parcell of Salt Meaddow lyeing on
the great Neck at the Nooke Containing fiue Acres & an halfe, A par-
cell of Salt Meaddow in the great Lotts about four Acres A parcell of
Salt Meadow with a Skirt of upland lyeing in the upper Calue pasture
Meaddow fiue Acres and an halfe and neare thereunto another parcell
with upland adjoyning of three Acres A parcell of Meaddow in the
Lower Calue pasture Meaddow Containeing Six Acres One Woodlott in
the Third Diuissions Thirty Acres One Woodlott neare Mother Brookes
of ab* fifty one Acres, One Small Woodlott of Three Acres and an halfe
with an other of two Acres Three quarters Twenty Eight Rodd A fanne
Containeing upland and Meaddow Lyeing upon Dedham bounds, the
greater part Whereof belongs to his Sister Tayler1 quantity uncer-
taine within the bounds of Milton a peece of Woodland Containeing
Two hundred and ffifty Acres, within the Towne of Boston Three par-
cells of Lands with the Tenments thereon Standing (Viz*) The Greene
Dragon Tenments Gills house and Kanes house. All wch he hath beene
and now is in the Actuall possession and Injoyment off. These are
Therefore to Authorize and Require you to Survey and Lay out for the
said Wm Stoughton the before mentioned houses And parcells of Land
According to the severall Deeds and Writeings made and giuen for the
same and Inclosures and to make a platt and Draft thereof and Returne
the same into the Secrys Office without Delay That a Patent may be
granted Accordingly, And for soe Doeing this shall be your Warrant
Giuen under my hand and seale att Boston the 23d Day of July in the
fourth yeare of his MajtlM Reigne Annoq Dom 1688.
110
A Warrant to Suruey a Certaine Messuage and fanne with some
small parcells of Land adjoining in Charlestowne for James Russell.2
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Geri** & Governour in Cheife of his
Majtlei Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip Wells
1 Stoughton'a sister Rebecca married William Taylor (d. 1682), and was the
mother of Lt.-Gov. William Tailer.
1 James Russell died April 28, 1709.
358
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Surrvey' or to any the Deputy Suruey's Whereas James Russell of
Charlestowne Mrchant hath by his Petition prayed his Majesties Grant
for a Certaine Messuage and farme with some small parcells of Land
adjoyning Lyeing within the bounds of Charlestowne aforesd in his pos-
session being in all about forty a-Tes and Whereon he hath made Con-
siderable Improuement. I doe Hereby Authorize and Require you to
make a Suruey and Draft of the said Messuage farme and parcells of of
Land adjoining and make Retume thereof into the Secretaryes Office
that the same may be granted Accordingly and for soe Doeing this
shall be your Warrant Giuen under my hand and scale att Boston
aforesd the 23d Day of July 1683-
111
A Warrant to Survey 300 Acres of Vacant Land on Road Island for
Thomas Newton Gen*.
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Generall and Governo' in Cheife of
his MajtieB Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Phillip
Wells Suruey' or to any of the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Thomas
Newton Gent, hath by his Petition Prayed his Majties Grant for Three
hundred Acres of Vacant and unlmproued Land Lyeing and being on
Road Island within the Limitts of Portsm0 betweene the Lands pos-
sess'd by the Widdow Martha Layes and Robert Denis or Adjoining
thereto. I doe hereby Authorize and Require you forthwith to make a
Suruey and Draft of the said quantity of Land and such other vacant
Lands as you shall find there adjoineing and make Returne thereof
into the Secretaryes Office att Boston And you are Likewise to giue
Notice in the said Towne That if any person or persons haue any Title
Clayme or pretence to the said Land or any part thereof they forth-
with Shew the same unto me that such Order may be giuen thereupon
as shall be proper Whereof you are not to faile, And for soe Doeing this
shall be yor Warrant Giuen under my hand and seale att Boston the
23d Day of July 1688.
112
A Warrant to Suruey 400 Acres of Vacant Lands neere the Blew Hills
for Captn Rauenscroft1
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Capta Genw and Governour in Cheife of his
Majtu" Territory and Dominion of New England To mr Philip Welles
Suruey* or to any of the Deputy Sum™ Whereas Samtt Rauencrof2
1 The "s" was perhaps inserted later.
* Apparently altered from "Rauenscrof."
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 359
hath by his Petition prayed a grant of some Vacant and unappropriated
Land lyeing neere the Blew Hills adjoyning unto Unkety line for his
prsent Settlem* & Improuem* These are therefore to Authorize and Im-
power you to Survey and Lay out for the sd Samuell Rauencroft the
quantity of four hundred Acres of Land in the sd Place if vacant and to
make a platt thereof and Returne the same into The Secretaryes Office
att Boston that a Pattent may be passed Accordingly for woh this Shall
be yor Warrant Giuen under my hand and scale att Boston the 25th
Day of July 1688.
113
A Warrant to Survey and lay out 600 acres of land in Casco bay for
Mr George Turfrey l
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Genal and Govern* in Chief of his
Matiei Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip Wells
Survey* or to any of the Deputy Survey" Whereas George Turfrey
hath by his Peticon prayed his Mat'8' grant of Six hundred acres of
unimproved Lands lying on the Westward Side of Saco River at a place
there called Salisbury brook for his present Settlement and improvment.
I do hereby Authorize and require you to Survey and lay out the said
quantity of Land and make return with a Plat or Draft thereof into the
Secretaries Office and a report of the Lands and Meadows adjoyning or
neer the same That such Order may be given therein as shall be proper
for which this shall be your Warrant Given under my hand and Seal at
Boston the 27th day of July 1688:
By his Exny> Comand E ANDROS
JOHN WEST Dscry
114
A Warrant to Survey a Certaine Tract of Land Called New Roxbury.
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Generall and Governour in Cheife of
his Maj*'M Territory and Dominion of New England To M* Philip
Wells Suruey* or to any the Deputy Survey's. Whereas Nathaniell
Johnson and John Chandler2 in behalfe of themselues and others the
Planters & Settlers of the Plantation Called New Roxbury8 and Sev-
1 George Turfrey died in 1714.
1 John Chandler died April 15, 1703.
1 Now Woodstock, which became a part of Connecticut about 1750. Under
date of March 18, 1690, Sewall wrote: "I gave New-Roxbury the name of Wood-
stock because of its nearness to Oxford, for the sake of Queen Elizabeth" (Diary,
i. 315).
:;tio
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
erall other persons Desireous to Settle there haue by their Petitions
prayed his Majtiei Grant for the Seuerall quantityes and parcells of
Land there. I doe therefore hereby Authorize and Require you forth-
with to make a Suruey and Draft of the whole Tract or parcell of Land
Called and knowne by the Name of New Roxbury and Returne the
same into the Secrys Office att Boston with an Account of the severall
Settlements and Improuem11 there & quality thereof That such further
Orders may be giuen for Settleing & Disposeing the same as shall be
proper, And for soe Doeing this shall be your Warrant Giuen under my
hand & scale att Boston the 27th Day of July 1688.
115
A Warrant to Survey a farme in Rumny Marsh with 30 Acres of
Marsh on hogg Island for Nathan1* Newgate l
S* Edmund Andros Kn* Captn Gentt and Governour in Cheife of his
MajtiM Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip Wells
Survey* or to any of the Deputy Survey" Whereas Nathaniell Newdi-
gate ais Newgate hath by his Petition Prayed his Majesties Grant for a
Certain Messuage and farme Lyeing in Rumny Marsh Joyning unto the
farme of Cott Nicholas Page Containeing about fiue hundred Acres, and
about Thirty Acres of Marsh or Meaddow on Hogg Island of the which
he is in Actuall possession I doe Therefore Authorize and Require you
to make a Survey and Draft of the sd farme and Meaddow and Re-
turne the same into the Secretaryes Office That such further Order may
be giuen thereupon as shall be proper And for soe Doeing this shall be
your Warrant Giuen under my hand and scale att Boston the 27th Day
of July 1688.
116
A Warrant to suruey a Certaine Island Called Hogg Island for
Samuell Sewall.
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Captaine Generall and Governeur in Cheife
of his Majtie§ Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip
Welles Suruey' or to any the Deputy Suruey" Whereas Samuell Sewall
hath by his Petition sett forth That he and those under whom he
Claymes haue for the space of forty yeares or upwards by past beene
Possessed of a Certaine Island Called Hogg Island prayeing his Majties
Confirmacon for the same I doe hereby Authorize & Require you forth-
with to make a suruey and Draft of the said Island and Returne the
1 This was the second Nathaniel Newgate, a London merchant: see Chamber-
lain, History of Chelsea, i. 166-168.
1919] LAND WARRANTS ISSUED UNDER ANDROS, 1687-1688 361
same into the Secrys Office That such further Orders may be giuen
thereupon as shall be proper And for soe Doeing this shall be your War-
rant Giuen under my hand and scale att Boston the 27th Day of July
1688.
117
A Warrant to Suruey 200 Acres of Vacant Land in Charlestown
Comon for George farwell Gent1"
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap*0 Gen** and Governour in Cheife of his
Majties Territory & Dominion of New England To mr Phillip Welles
Suruey' or to any the Deputy Suruey" Whereas George ffarewell Gent*
hath by his Petition sett forth that in the Common of Charlestowne in
the County of Middlesex there is a Certaine parcell of vacant Land Con-
taineing ab* Two hundred Acres bounded part by the Road Leading to
Menotomy part by the line of Lieuten* Cofr Lidgetts farme and part by
Mistick Riuer prayeing his Majtie§ grant for the same, These are There-
fore to Authorize and Require you forthwith to make a suruey And
Draft of the said parcells of Land and Returne the same into the Secrys
Office That such further Orders may be giuen thereupon as shall be
proper for weh this shall be your Warrant Giuen under my hand and
scale att Boston the 27th Day of July 1688.
118
A Warrant to suruey a Tract of vacant Land in the Nipmug Country
Containeing about two Thousand acres
Sr Edmund Andros Kn* Cap* Genw and Govr in Cheife of his Maj*1"
Territory and Dominion of New England To Mr Philip Wells suruey'
or to any the Deputy Survey" Whereas Samuell Rugles Thomas Curtis
Jonnathan Curtis and Sam11 Rice haue by their humble petition prayed
his Majtie* grant of a Certaine Tract or parcell of vacant Land Lyeing
in the Nipmug Country Neer new Roxbury containeing about Two
Thousand acres Whereon they are Desirous to make present settlement
and Improuement I Doe hereby Authorize and Require you to sur-
uey and lay out for the sd Samuell Rugles Thomas Curtis Jonathan
Curtis and Samuell Rice the sd Two Thousand acres of Land and to
make a platt or Draft thereof and the same to Returne into the Secrys
office att Boston that a Pattent may be granted unto them accordingly
and for soe Doeing this shall be yo' Warrant Giuen under my hand and
scale att Boston the 28th July in the 4th yeare of his Mau Reigne Annoq
Dom 1688
302
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
LIST OF GRANTEES AND OF LOCATIONS *
Andrews, James 68
Baker, Thomas 58 95
Ballatt, Samuel 7
Barefoot, Walter 23
Belcher, Andrew 108
Bennett, Edward 59
Bickford, Thomas 58
Black Point 28 65
Blue Hills 61 112
Blue Point 69
Boston 14 16 46 99
102 105 109
Boston Neck 11
Bowdoin, Peter 29
Braintree 74-77
Bramhall, George 84
Brinley, Francis 11
Brookfield 73
Browne, John 50
Burrage, William 45
Cambridge 108
Casco Bay 22 24-27 29
30 62 66 70 78 113
Champlin, William 3
Chandler, John 114
Chapman, Ralph 13
Charlestown 5-7 9 107
108 110 117
Clap, Roger 15
Clark, Nathaniel 71
Clark's Island 71
Cleverly, John 77
Cloice, Thomas 51
Ceilings, Abraham 81
Corwin, Margaret 72
Coxe, Daniel 18
Crossthwaite, Charles 19
Curtis, Jonathan 118
Curtis, Thomas 118
Cutler, John, Jr. 6
Danson, George 17
Davis, Benjamin 14
Davis, Edward 53
Davis, Silvanus 22
Dorchester 15 109
Dudley, Joseph 8 18
34-36
Dummer, Shubael 67
Durant, Moses 58
Ellicott, Vines 57
Elliot, Robert 65
English, James 22
Eyre, John 99
Falmouth 39-42 47-^56
63 64 68 80-89 93-98
Farwell, George 117
Felt, George 98
Felt, Jonathan 98
Felt, Samuel 98
Feversham 3
Gale, Edmund 70
Gedney, Bartholomew 62
Gendall, Walter 30 64
79
Gilbert, William 92
Harris, John 85
Hinckes, John 21
Hog Island, Mass. 115
116
Hog Island, Me. 57
Hogg, Daniel 58
Holman, John 86
Housing, Peter 78
Howell, John 43
Hunnewell, Richard 44
Ingersoll, George, Sr. 55
87
Ingersoll, George, Jr. 49
Ingersoll, John 88
Ingersoll, Joseph 93
Ingersoll, Samuel 42
Johnson, Humphrey 33
Johnson, Nathaniel 114
Jones, Isaac 89
Jones, John 89
Jordan, Dominicus 38
Jordan, Sarah 21
King's Province. Set
Narragansett
Kittery 23
Lane, John 52
Lawrence, Robert 24
Leane, Henry 90
Leane, Job 90
Leane, John 90
Leane, Samuel 90
Leatherby, Thomas 58
Libbey, Daniel 58
Libbey, David 58
Libbey, Henry 58
Libbey, John 58
Libbey, Matthew 58
Lidgett, Charles 5 9
Lynde, Joseph 107
Lynde, Simon 1
Madiver, Joel 96
Magaguncock Hill 106
Manchaog 35
Maxson, John 3
Milton 109
Morrell, Robert 97
Nahant 104
Narragansett 1-3 11
Narragansett Bay 37
Newgate, Nathaniel 115
NewRoxbury 114 118
Newton, Thomas 111
Nicholson, Robert 94
Niell, Samuel 76
Nipmug 18 34 35 72 118
Noddle's Island 101
Nonsuch 21 91
North Yarmouth 4 30
79 80 90 92
1 Not all place-names mentioned in the warrants are given in this list, but only
those which hi a general way indicate the location of the grants.
1919]
THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672
Paige, Anna 46
Paige, Nicholas 46
Paulling, Matthew 82
Phippen, David 27
Pocasset 12
Portsmouth, R. I. Ill
Powsland, Richard 48
Quobeague 73
Randolph, Edward 103
104
Ravenscroft, Samuel 112
Rice, Samuel 118
Ross, John 39
Row, Anthony 58
Roxbury 8
Ruggles, Samuel 118
Rumney, Marsh 46 115
Russell, James 110
Saco 32
Sakonnet 10
Scarborough 30 43-45
58-60
Scituate 33
Scot t ow, Joshua 28
Seacomb, Richard 26 54
Sewall, Samuel 116
Shawomet 13
Sheppard, Thomas 32
Sherborn 36
Sherman, Mary 31
Shippen, Edward 16 69
Shriinpton, Samuel 101
102
Simpson, Savill 105 106
Skilling, John 63 91
Slaughter, John 58
Smith, John 41
Spencer, John 47
Spurwink 38
Spy Pond 103
Staniford, Robert 40
Staniford, Thomas 40
Stoughton, William 18
34 35 109
Swarton, John 4
Teney, John 60
Thayer, Richard 15
Thompson, Robert 18
Turfrey, George 113
Tydye, Robert 58
Tyng, Edward 25
Tyng, Jonathan 100
Veazie, William 74
Waite, Thomas 12
Wallis, John 66
Wallis, Nathaniel 80
Watertown 31
Webber, Joseph 5
Webber, Mary 56
Weymesitt 100
White, Nathaniel 83
Wilcox, Daniel 10
Winthrop, Ann 72
Worcester 17 19 20
Yardly, John 75
York 67
Mr. MATTHEWS also communicated the following
paper:
THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672
The administration of Leonard Hoar,1 though it lasted only two
years and three months, presents more puzzling questions than that
of any other President of Harvard College. Born in England in or
about 1630, he was brought to this country at an early age, graduated
at Harvard in 1650, took his A.M. in 1653, and in the same year went
to England, where he became rector of Wanstead, Essex,2 but was
ejected in 1662. Shortly after the death of Chauncy, which occurred
February 19, 1672, Dr. Hoar * came to Boston at the invitation of
the Third or Old South Church, but also, apparently, with an eye
to the presidency. At all events, he brought letters of recommenda-
1 For Hoar, see Sibley's Harvard Graduates, i. 228-252, 587-590.
1 Hoar's patron was Sir Henry Mildmay (died about 1664) of Wanstead,
the father of William Mildmay (H. C. 1647): cf. our Publications, xviii. 309
note 2.
• Hoar received the degree of M.D. from Cambridge University in 1671.
364 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
tion for that office and, reaching here July 8, 1672,1 was in the same
month elected President. Yet the exact date of his election is un-
known with certainty; we are left in some doubt as TO whether he was
chosen by the Corporation or by the Overseers; the date of his in-
auguration is variously given; the mystery surrounding his failure has
never been cleared up; and the charter which was granted by the
General Court in October, 1672, has been completely misunderstood
by the historians of the College since 1812.
The object of this paper is not to attempt the apparently hopeless
task of reconciling the discrepancies, or of elucidating the exact pur-
pose of the charter of 1672. But there are in existence some data
that have been previously overlooked, and as they throw much light
on the vexed problems, particularly that of the charter, no apology
is needed for presenting them. Before taking up the charter itself,
let us glance at some of the other questions.
First, as to the date of Hoar's election and inauguration. In a
passage written about 1697 and published in 1702, Cotton Mather
said:
After the Death of Mr. Chancey, which was at the latter End of the
Year 1701.2 The Alma Mater Academia, must look among her own Sons,
to find a President for the rest of her Children; and accordingly the
Fellows of the Colledge with the Approbation of the Overseers, July 13.
1672. elected Mr. Leonard Hoar, unto that Office; whereto, on the Tenth
of September following he was Inaugurated.*
At College Book I. 75 John Davis, who was Treasurer of the College
from 1810 to 1827, has written: "Mem0 President Hoar was elected
July 30. and inaugurated 10. Sept' 1672. J.D." At the right of this
entry Sibley wrote in pencil: "No: it was 10 December. J.L.S."
And underneath the entry President Quincy wrote: "This mem° was
made by Treasurer Davis within the present century. His authority
must have been College Book N°. 3. P. 54. — J.Q." That September
1 Under date of July 8, 1672, William Adams (H. C. 1671) wrote: "Dr. Hoare
came in from England" (4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 17).
* This is of course a misprint for 1671. As March was then the first month,
Chauncy's death was " at the latter End of the Year 1671," Old Style. As Mather
did not see proofs of his magnum opus, there can be no doubt that various errors
in the Magnalia, like the date 1701, are due not to the author but to the printer.
Cf . p. 154 note 2, above.
* Magnalia, bk. iv. pt. i, § 5, pp. 128-129.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 365
10 is an impossible date is made certain by the fact that on October 8
the General Court, —
hauing duely considered of the motion * in refference to allowance to be
given to the maintenance of a president at the colledge, & the settlement
of what may give due encouragement to that worke, doe judge meet &
order, that there be allowed one hundred & fifty pounds p anum. to be
pajd in money by the country Treasurer out of such revenues as are
payd in money into the treasury, provided Doctor Hoare be the man for
a supply of that place, nowe vacant, & that he accept thereof, and that
when this order of one hundred & fifty pounds p anu takes place, the
former order of one hundred a yeare setled vpon the president, in the
printed law, be made voyd, & that this allowance be continued vntill
the Generall Court or ouerseers shall finde some other way for the making
it good, and that the annuall allowanc be payd quarterly.8
In a passage dated July 8, but obviously written some months later,
John Hull stated in his Diary that "Dr. Leonard Hoar arrived at
Boston from London, being sent for by the third church in Boston:
but, the President of the College being dead, it was the earnest desire
of the ministers and magistrates that they would spare him for that
work; and, upon Nov. 15, they did yield him up to that service." *
Under the year 1672, Hull also noted: "llth, 10th. Dr. Leonard Hoar
constituted President of the College." 4 This date might be either
December 11, 1672, or January 10, 1673, according as to whether the
first figure stands for the month or for the day. More satisfactory
is an entry in the Diary of William Adams, then a resident graduate
1 From an unexpected source it is learned that this "motion" originated with
the Overseers — a fact which appears to have escaped the attention of the histo-
rians of the College. In the Index to College Books i-vi, compiled by President
Wadsworth, are these entries: "When y* President's place was offerM to mr
Chauncey. A.D. 1654. an. 100" salary was offer'd at y* same time. B. 2. p. 15.
. . . President's Salary (An. 1654. B. 2. p. 3) p. 7, Judg'd by y* overseers. 1672.
ehd be. 150» at least y* General Court to be address'd about it. B. 2. p. 47. 49."
Evidently the order of October 8, 1672, was in response to an address from the
Overseers. College Book ii was destroyed in the fire of 1764, and those particular
entries were not (like many others) copied into College Book iii.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. ii. 535.
1 American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, iii. 233. Cf.
Hill's History of the Old South Church, i. 182-190.
4 American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, iii. 235. The
preceding entry is dated " Dec. 7," and the entry after is dated " 1673, 21st of 1st."
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
at the College: "Anno 1672. . . . Dec. ... 10. Leonardus Hoare,
Medicinse Doctor, . . . Collegii Harvardini Freses, Cantabr. N.A.
inauguratus." l In a letter to Robert Boyle dated " Cambridge, New-
England, December the 13th, 1672," Hoar himself wrote: "It hath
pleased even all to assign the college for my Sparta. I desire I may
adorn it; and thereby encourage the country in its utmost throws for
its resuscitation from its ruins. And we still hope some helpers from
our native land; of which your honoured self, Mr. A.2 and some others
have given a pledge." 8 It is a fair assumption that he was already
President. In College Book I. 75-78, are entered, in the hand of
Hoar himself, the "Acts of ye Corporation since ye 10th of Decembr
1672" — clearly indicating that he became President on that day.
Finally, in his Index to College Books I-VI, which must have been
compiled while he was President from 1725 to 1737, Wadsworth made
this entry: "Dr Hoar Inaugurated President. 10. 10. 1672." 4 It is
certain, then, that Hoar was inaugurated on December 10, 1672; and
this is the date now given in the Quinquennial Catalogue.6
As for the date of Hcar's election, Cotton Mather gave it as July 13,
1672. The entry at College Book III. 54, referred to by Quincy,
ought, one would think, to be decisive. The entry itself, in the hand
of Thomas Danforth, though when made is not known, clearly reads:
"Docto* Leonard Hoar was elected President of the Colledge. The
1 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 18.
* Henry Ashurst (d. 1680).
1 Boyle's Works (1772), vi. 653. In reprinting this interesting letter, Sibley
says that it was written "a few weeks after Hoar's inauguration as President n
(Harvard Graduates, i. 588), forgetting that he had previously (p. 235) given
the date as December 10, and overlooking his own pencilled note in College Book
i. 75 (though that note may have been made after the publi cation of his Harvard
Graduates).
4 So far as I have noted, this is the only entry in the Index to which no reference
is attached. The omission is unfortunate; but since neither College Book iii nor
College Book iv contains such an entry, it is a fair assumption that the entry in
question was taken from College Book ii (not now extant). Though Wadsworth
notejf Hoar's inauguration and resignation, he did not note Hoar's election.
• Down to and including 1827, the Triennial Catalogues gave only the years
in which a President was inaugurated or died or left office. In the 1830 Triennial
full dates were given for the first time, and from 1830 to 1885, both included,
the Triennial and Quinquennial Catalogues gave September 10 as the date of
Hoar's accession to office. In the 1890 Quinquennial, the correct date of Decem-
ber 10, 1672, appeared for the first time.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 367
which he accepting he was inaugurated. 10. 7. 1672." l But the
heading to this entry is, unfortunately, somewhat blind. It appears
to read: "At a meeting of the Overseers July. 30. 1672." But
the date may not be "July 30, 1672," though apparently both
Davis and Quincy so read it, since "July" is written over another
word, perhaps "June;" and "30" is written over other figures,
perhaps "27." Attention should be called to a letter written to John
Winthrop, Jr., dated "Cambr. 1. 6. 1672" — that is, August 1, 1672
— in which Thomas Danforth said:
As for Dr. Hoare, He came over under some (though not severe)
obligattion to y* new church. Himselfe seems to referr ye matter to y*
Determination: yet do not in ye least decline ye motion made in behalf
of y* colledge. but as his disposition of mind is thought to be y* way,
so also it is app'hended y* he will be a better prsidl, yn a pulpitt man
(at least) as to vulgr acceptation, yet I perceiue ye church do not freely
come of in ye matter, nor do I apprhend y* anything will be fully con-
cluded on before ya Gefiall court meet.2
Finally, on this point, we may quote Hutchinson's statement that
"Doctor Leonard Hoar . . . returned [to New England] not long
before he was elected July 30, 1672." 8 Hoar's election must have
been between July 8 (the date of his arrival) and August 1.
Secondly, Was Hoar elected President by the Corporation or by
the Overseers? Cotton Mather, as we have seen, states that he
was elected by "the Fellows of the Colledge with the Approbation
of the Overseers." By the charter of 1650 the Corporation was
empowered "to elect a new president, ffellowes, or treasurer, so oft
and from time to time as any of the sajd persons shall dye or be
remooved." 4 This method of election had not been established in
1672, and it is by no means certain that it was followed in the case
of Hoar. "At a meeting of the Magistrates and Elders at Boston.
27. of August. 1640. The Reverend mr Henery Dunstar was by
them invited to accept the place of President of the Colledge, which
he accordingly accepted."6 In the charter of 1650, the members
1 Danforth, it will be observed, gives the date of the inauguration as September
10. Perhaps this was Mather's authority for the same date.
* 1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, xiii. 235.
* History of Massachusetts (London, 1765), i. 174 note.
< See p. 396, below. • College Book iii. 3.
368
of the Corporation were of course named by the General Court.
Dunster's final resignation in 1654 was made not to the Corporation
but to the Overseers, who presented it to the General Court, and both
the selection and the election of his successor Chauncy was placed
by the General Court wholly in the hands of the Overseers.1 The
entry at College Book I. 75 ought to be decisive, but it again fails us;
for though the heading appears to read " At a meeting of the Over-
seers," the word "Overseers" is written over the word "Corpora-
tion"— making it impossible to say with absolute certainty by
whom Hoar was elected.2
Thirdly, it is pertinent to the discussion to ask, Who were the
members of the Corporation early in the year 1672? Even this
question, simple as it seems, cannot, owing to the meagreness of the
early College records, be answered with absolute certainty. But
apparently the make-up of the Corporation at the beginning of 1672
was as follows:
Charles Chauncy,
John Richards,
Samuel Danforth,
Alexander Nowell,
Joseph Browne,
John Richardson,
President
Treasurer
Fellows
It will be observed that there were only four Fellows, instead of
the five called for in the charter of 1650.3 But for all practical pur-
poses, there were only three Fellows, for in the early years the work
of the Corporation appears to have been done chiefly by the Presi-
dent, the Treasurer, and the three resident Fellows who, recent
graduates, were Tutors and had actual charge of the classes. Grad-
uating in 1643, Samuel Danforth was a Tutor from about 1644 to
about 1649; in 1650 he was named a Fellow in the charter; on
September 24, 1650, he was ordained pastor of the church at Roxbury ;
1 See pp. 152-154, above.
1 In his Index to College Books i-vi, President Wadsworth made the entry,
"D* Hoar resign'd his Presidentship. 15-1. 1675. B. 2. p. 63;" but made no
entry in regard to Hoar's election.
* Thomas Shepard was elected a Fellow on November 27, 1654 (College
Book iii. 39), and the Quinquennial Catalogue states that he held the position
until 1673. I cannot help thinking that this is a mistake, and that he was not
a Fellow early in 1672: see p. 396 note 4, below.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672
he ceased to be a Fellow about 1654; and in 1668 his name again
appears in the list of Fellows, though there is no record of his election.
Alexander Nowell, who graduated in 1664, was elected a Fellow on
November 28, 1664.1 Joseph Browne and John Richardson, both of
whom graduated in 1666, are supposed to have been elected Fellows
in 1671, though, curiously enough, there is no record of their election.*
But that they were Fellows early in 1672 is proved by a letter sent
to John Winthrop, Jr., thanking him for a gift of astronomical instru-
ments, etc., made to the College. This letter, dated February 2,
1672, is signed by Nowell, Browne, and Richardson, who say: "Our
reverend President (who has been sickly of late) does present his
service to your Worship, and renders you many thankes for that
extraordinary care and respect manifested in this case." And the
letter is endorsed by Winthrop: "Mr Alexander Nowell & the other
Fellows of the Colledge. Rec: Feb: 10: 1671." 8
In his letter to Boyle, already quoted, Hoar expressed his desire
to "adorn" the College, and "thereby encourage the country in
its utmost throws for its resuscitation from its ruins." The allusion
is to the low condition into which the College had fallen in the years
1671-1672 and which had given great concern to the friends of the
College on both sides of the Atlantic.4 This condition was to sink
still lower, for on February 19, 1672, Chauncy died, and was buried on
the 21st, when "Mr. Oakes turned his lecture into a funeral sermon
1 College Book ill. 43.
1 Joseph Browne was probably a Fellow before 1671, for in a letter dated
February 14 or 15, 1672, Sewall, who entered College in 1667, said: "Prethee
present my service to Mr. Nowell, Mr. Richardson; and in special, to Mr. Brown
my Tutor" (Letter-Book, i. 19). The editors say in a footnote that this letter
"was written March 16, 1672;" but the letter is dated "Newbury; 16. Calend.
Martij, 1671," which was not March 16 but February 14 or 15, 1672.
1 2 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, iv. 266.
4 On May 1, 1671, the Rev. John Knowles, then in England, wrote to the
Overseers in regard to the condition of the College. That letter has not been
preserved, but the letter of the Overseers in reply, dated August 21, 1671, is
printed in our Publications, xi. 336-341. This last letter, in its turn, drew from
thirteen ministers in and about London a letter dated February 5, 1672, which is
printed in Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers (1769), pp. 429-431.
This letter contains a recommendation of Dr. Hoar, as does also a letter written
by the Rev. John Collins (H. C. 1649) to Governor Leverett (printed in id. pp. 435-
436). In March, 1672, Richard Saltonstall wrote a letter recommending the
Rev. John Knowles for the presidency (printed in our Publications, viii. 193-198).
370
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
on y* 2. Kings 2. 12," and "Mr. Nowell Soci. made a funeral oration
in ye Hall." 1 He was soon followed by the orator, as on July 13
"Died Mr. Alexander Nowel Senr Fellow 2 of Harv. Coll. he lay sick
of (as is conjectured) an hectic fever above a quarter of a year being
most of ye time distempered in his head, yet rational a little before
his death." * Thus within five days after the arrival of Hoar and on
the very day when, according to Mather, Hoar was elected President
by the Corporation, that body was reduced to three active members
— Treasurer Richards, the two resident Fellows or Tutors Joseph
Browne and John Richardson — and one nominal Fellow, Samuel
Danforth.4 Is it not highly questionable whether, in such a serious
condition of affairs, three or even four men would have taken upon
themselves the grave responsibility of electing a President and two
Fellows? Indeed, would they have been allowed to do so? In 1654,
as already stated,5 the Corporation had no hand at all in the selection
or election of Dunster's successor; and it seems to me far more prob-
able that in 1672 Chauncy's successor was elected by the Overseers
than by the Corporation. But however that may have been, it is
certain that in the end it was the General Court which filled up the
Corporation.
And thus we are brought to the charter of 1672. The allusions to
this instrument are apparently so few that they may well be given
practically in full. Previous to 1812 that charter was, so far as I am
aware, mentioned in print only twice: by Nathan Prince hi a pamphlet
written in 1742 and published late in that year or early in 1743, and
by Hutchinson in 1764, both of whom will be quoted later.6 With
a single exception, also to be quoted later,7 there appears to be no
mention of the charter hi the College records until January 27, 1812.
1 W. Ames, 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 15-16.
f During the time when there were three resident Fellows or Tutors, they
were called respectively "Senior" Fellow, "Second" or "Middle" Fellow, and
"Third" Fellow. By the charter of 1672, the number of resident Fellows or
Tutors was reduced from three to two: see p. 396, below.
* W. Ames, 4 Massachusetts Historical Collections, i. 17.
4 I should also be inclined to think that Samuel Danforth could not have been
a Fellow early in 1672, were it not for the peculiar way in which he is spoken of
in the charter of 1672: see p. 396, below.
1 See p. 368, above.
• See pp. 382, 379, below.
7 See p. 381, below.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 371
On January 14, 1812, the Legislature ordered the President and
Fellows to lay before it "a true copy of the Charter of the College,
together with all the Laws, Bye Laws, Rules and Regulations, which
have at any time been made or passed and are now hi force," etc.1
On January 27 President Kirkland laid this order before the Corpora-
tion, which " took the said request into their respective consideration
and voted the following statement." 2 In that statement occurs this
passage:
It ought however to be remembered that after the two ordinances
above referred to establishing the Corporation that is to say the Charter
of Sixteen hundred and fifty, and the Appendix of Sixteen hundred and
fifty seven, the Colonial General Court passed an Ordinance in October
Sixteen hundred and seventy two, now in the Records of the Court,
providing for a new Charter for the College, with very extensive and
important powers, both civil and collegiate; and enacting that the
Provisions of that Ordinance should be Law, any Law, Grant or Usage to
the contrary notwithstanding. — But in fact there remains no evidence
that the Corporation ever accepted this Charter, or exercised any of the
powers therein granted; and it is not on the records of either the Over-
seers or Corporation.8
There was then pending a bill for repealing the act of March 6, 1810,
reorganizing the Board of Overseers, and on February 18, 1812, the
Corporation voted "That the President — the Treasurer,4 and Mr
Lowell,6 be a Committee to defend the rights of the College against
any attempt of the Legislature to alter or annul the Constitution of
the present Board of Overseers and for this purpose that they be
authorized to prepare and present any Memorial that the said Com-
mittee may think proper and at such tune as they may think best." *
On February 24 the committee "appointed to defend the rights of
the College &e presented the following report which being read was
accepted. In pursuance of a Vote of the Corporation passed Feb*
18th — the Committee preferred the following Memorial, which they
procured to be printed, and distributed among the members of the
General Court." 7 In this memorial, after alluding to the act of 1642,
1 College Records, x. 67. • x. 68.
• x. 70. « John Davis (H. C. 1781).
• John Lowell (H. C. 1786). • College Records, x. 80.
T x. 80.
372 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
reorganizing the Board of Overseers, the charter of 1650, and the
appendix to the charter passed in 1657, occur the words, "Your
Memorialists conceive, that these are the legislative and public Acts,
on which the Foundation and Government of the College rest. The
Colonial General Court," etc.,1 the remainder of the passage being in
precisely the same words as in the statement voted by the Corpora-
tion on January 27, 1812.
Notwithstanding this memorial, the act of March 6, 1810, was
repealed by an act of February 29, 1812, and by a vote of the Corpora-
tion on April 15 2 there was published by the College a 36-page
pamphlet entitled "The Constitution of the University at Cambridge,
with an Appendix." 3 In this are printed the act of 1642, the charter
of 1650, the appendix to the charter passed in 1657, the articles of
the State Constitution of 1780 relating to the College, and the act
of 1810 reorganizing the Board of Overseers, with the acceptances
of this last act by the Corporation and by the Overseers (on
March 16, April 12, 1810, respectively). The Appendix contains
a sketch of what may be called the constitutional history of the
College, and in it are printed various documents, among them the
charter of 1672. This is preceded and followed by the following
statements:
Afterwards the general court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay
appear to have intended a new college charter with much larger powers,
including a measure of civil jurisdiction; and passed the ordinance of
1 College Records, x. 83.
* x. 101.
* The genesis of this pamphlet is as follows. On January 9, 1811, the Corpora-
tion voted "That the President & Chief Justice be a Committee to prepare &
cause to be printed five hundred copies of the documents, which relate to the
foundation & existing powers of the Corporation & Overseers of Harvard College"
(College Records, x. 12-13). On April 15, 1812, the Corporation voted "That
the Committee (The President and Chief Justice Parsons) appointed to prepare
and print the Constitution of the College with the history of the Proceedings
under it, be requested to cause to be printed One thousand Copies" (x. 101).
Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons (H. C. 1769) was a Fellow from 1806 to 1812.
At the bottom of p. 33 of the pamphlet are the words:
The foregoing charters and acts relating to the constitution of Harvard College
with the appendix are printed by vote of the corporation.
JOHN T. KIRKLAND, President.
Cambridge, April 18, 1812.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 373
1672 — a copy of which here follows. . . . But there is no evidence that
the President and Fellows ever accepted this charter, or acted under it.
They never assumed the name there designated of President, 'Fellows,
and Treasurer of Harvard College, but acted under the name by which
they were originally incorporated.1
Writing about 1831 Peirce said:
An ordinance was passed by the General Court October 8, 1672,
which was intended as a substitute for the existing charter. It altered
the name of the Corporation from "President and Fellows" to that of
"President, Fellows, and Treasurer of Harvard College"; it modified
their powers in some respects, and granted important additional ones,
civil and collegiate; but the Corporation do not appear to have accepted
this charter; and it is regarded as never having possessed any validity.1
In 1840 Quincy wrote:
In the ensuing October, the General Court passed also a new College
charter. By this act the name of the Corporation was changed from
"The President and Fellows" to that of "The President, Fellows, and
Treasurer." The number of its members was not increased. It was
permitted to hold personal property to any amount whatsoever, and real
estate to the value of five hundred pounds per annum. Ten menial
servants of the Corporation were exempted from all civil and military
exercises, and the personal estates of the members of the Corporation
and their officers, not exceeding one hundred pounds a man, were
exempted from taxes; and any three of the Corporation, of which the
President was to be one, had committed to them full power to fine,
sconce, or otherwise correct any officer or member of said Society,
according to the laws of the country; and for this purpose, taking aeon-
stable, to enter into any house licensed for public entertainment, where
1 Constitution of the University at Cambridge, pp. 19, 21.
The first edition of the Harvard University Catalogue to contain a section on
"The Government of the University" was that for the year 1872-73, where
appears (p. 15) a paragraph of twelve lines about the charter of 1672, practically
taken from Quincy's History. This paragraph appeared in every succeeding
edition of the Catalogue down to and including that for 1882-83; but no edition
of the Catalogue issued since that for 1882-83 has contained any allusion to the
charter of 1672.
1 History of Harvard University (1833), p. 43. In a footnote Peirce refers to
"Constitution of the Univ., App. p. 27." In that pamphlet the memorial pre-
sented to the Legislature by the Corporation on February 24, 1812, is printed
on pp. 25-32.
374 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
they should be informed, or have reason to suspect, enormities were
plotting or acting by any members of said Society.
Although this charter is entered at large in the journal of the General
Court, it does not appear in the records of the seminary; nor is any
notice taken of it in those records, nor in the general history of the
times. The probability is, that it was the work of President Hoar,
and had some connexion with that evanescent influence, which he
seemed, in the year 1672, to have acquired among the members of the
General Court; and, in consequence of that unpopularity, which imme-
diately followed his entering upon the government of the institution, its
authority was never recognised by the Corporation. It is certain, that
they never assumed the name given by the act, and there exists no
evidence of their having, in a single instance, modified their proceedings
according to its provisions.1
In 1864 Palfrey, speaking of Hoar, said:
The General Court shared, or caught, the enthusiasm of the London
ministers. They voted to raise the President's annual allowance from
a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds, " provided Dr. Hoar were the
man for a supply of that place now vacant, and that he accepted
thereof"; and they offered to the College a new charter (which, however,
did not take effect) embracing some extension of its privileges.2
In 1874 Sibley remarked that "At the same time, probably in
conformity with Hoar's wishes, the General Court granted to the
College a new charter;" and, after quoting the passage in the charter
conferring on the Corporation "the ffull power of sconsing, fineing, or
otherwise correcting all inferiour officers and members," etc., declared
that "This charter, however, never went into effect." 3
Finally, in 1894 our associate Mr. Andrew McF. Davis said:
There were no other incorporations or attempts at incorporation until
after the promulgation of the Province Charter, with the exception that
in 1672, in President Hoar's day, there is an alleged new charter for the
College extended in the Colonial Records. Whether the act passed is not
known. No recognition of it appears to have been made by the College.
It does not appear in the published laws of the Colony. No stress, how-
ever, can be laid upon this omission, inasmuch as the Charter of 1650, as
1 History of Harvard Universit}', i. 32-33.
* History of New England, iii. 94.
1 Harvard Graduates, i. 234, 235.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 , 375
I have already stated, is also conspicuous in its absence from the same
publications. If this Charter was actually enacted to be a law, it was at
best merely a substitute for the Charter of which it was practically an
amendment. . . .
The draft of a charter which, in 1672, appears in the Colony Records
is so inconsistent with any theory of the needs of the College, and the
total omission of reference to it in the records at Cambridge so peculiar,
that I have no explanation to offer for it. If it was passed it violates
my idea that there was a persistent effort to avoid cumbering the records
with needless conflicts with the Crown on law points, although it may
of course be said that this act being in effect a mere amendment of an
existing charter, its passage would not have been regarded in the same
way as the creation of a new corporation would have been.1
It is at once obvious that all later statements, though in some cases
amplified, were based on the statement voted by the Corporation on
January 27, 1812. These various statements may be summarized as
follows: (1) that the charter of 1672 was intended as a substitute for
the charter of 1650; (2) that the charter of 1672 was never accepted
by the Corporation; (3) that the charter was never recognized by
the Corporation ; (4) that the Corporation never assumed the name
of President, Fellows, and Treasurer, designated in the charter; (5)
that the Corporation never exercised any of the powers granted in
the charter; (6) that no notice is taken of the charter in the general
history of the times; (7) that the number of the Corporation was not
increased by the charter; (8) that the charter is not on the records
either of the Corporation or of the Overseers; (9) that no notice is
taken of the charter in the College records; and (10) that the charter
was without validity.
Before commenting on these points, let us examine Quincy's
analysis of the provisions of the charter of 1672.
(a) The Corporation, he said, "was permitted to hold personal
property to any amount whatsoever." A similar clause is in the
charter of 1650: see page 397, below.
(6) The Corporation, he said, was permitted to hold "real estate
to the value of five hundred pounds per annum." A similar clause is
in the charter of 1650; see page 397, below.
(c) "Ten menial servants of the Corporation," he said, "were
» Our Publications, i. 201-202, 204-205.
376
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
exempted from all civil and military exercises." A similar clause is
in the charter of 1650: see page 400, below. Quincy's statement,
however, that all ten servants belonged to the Corporation is not
quite accurate. In the charter of 1650 the words are: "the serv-
ants and other necessary officers to the sajd president or colledge
appertajning, not exceeding ten, viz., three to the praesident, and
seven to the colledge belonging." And in the charter of 1672 the
words are: "the sayd President, ffellowes and Schollars together
wth then* maMiiall servants and other necessary officers (not ex-
ceeding the number of Ten)." 1
(d) "The personal estates of the members of the Corporation and
then- officers," he said, "not exceeding one hundred pounds a man,
were exempted from taxes." A similar clause is in the charter of
1650: see page 400, below.
(e) "Any three of the Corporation," said Quincy, "of which the
President was to be one, had committed to them full power to fine,
sconce, or otherwise correct any officer or member of said Society,"
etc. There is no similar clause in the charter of 1650. The Court
order of September 27, 1642, reorganizing the Board of Overseers,
gave that body "full power & authority to make & establish all such
ordrs, statutes, & constitutions as they shall see necessary for the
instituting, guiding, & furthering of the said colledge & the sevrall
memb's thereof from time to time in piety, morality, & learning." 2
In the earliest code of College laws, "published to ye Scholars" in
the years 1642-1646, it was provided that "If any Scholar shall tran-
gresse any of ye Lawes of God or the House out of perversnesse or
apparent negligence, after twice admonition hee shall bee liable if not
adultus to correction,3 if Adultus his name shall bee given up to ye
Overseers of ye Colledge that he may be publikely dealt with after
ye desert of his fault but in grosser offences such graduall proceeding
shall not be expected " 4 — thus leaving to the Overseers the mode of
punishment. The College laws drawn up on March 28, 1650, specified
that for certain offences the scholars "shall bee punished threepence
1 See p. 400, below. * Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 30.
* By "correction," Sibley (Harvard Graduates, i. 12, 15 note) appears to
understand whipping; but that does not seem to be a necessary interpretation of
the word.
« College Book i. 43.
19193 THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 377
but more at the Presidents discretion if perversnes appear." l This
is apparently the earliest allusion to fines. On October 14, 1656, the
General Court ordered —
that the psident & fellowes of Harvard Colledge, for the time beinge,
or the major pt of them, are hereby empowred, accordinge to their best
discretion, to punish all misdemeno's of the youth in their societie, either
by fine or whippinge in the hall, openly, as the nature of the offence shall
require, not exceedinge ten shillinges or ten stripes for one offence, &
this law to contynue in force vntill this Court, or the oiiseers of the
colledge, pvide some other order to punish such offences.2
This is apparently the earliest specific allusion to whipping. The
appendix to the charter of 1650 passed in 1657 ordered that —
the corporation shall haue power from tjme to tjme to make such orders
& by lawes for the better ordering & carrying on of the worke of the
colledge, as they shall see cawse, wthout dependance vpon the consent
of y" ouerseers foregoing; provided, alwajes, that the corporation shall
be responsable vnto, & those orders & by lawes shallbe alterable by»
the ouerseers according to theire discretion.3
Thus the clause in the charter of 1672 committing to the Corpora-
tion "full power to fine, sconce, or otherwise correct any officer or
member of said Society," etc., was merely a reaffirmation of powers
granted by the General Court between 1650 and 1672. There is
some uncertainty with regard to the word "sconce." As entered
in the Court Records, IV. 708, the passage reads: "shall haue the
ffull power of sconsing fineing or otherwise correcting all Inferiour
office's or membe's to the sajd Society;" and in the margin are the
words: "Their power to sconse fine &c." And the word "sconcing"
also is found in a draught of the charter.4 But in a copy of the
charter attested by Edward Rawson, the word is not "sconsing"
but "scourging."6 If "scourging" is the word intended, then the
Corporation was given full power to whip as well as to fine.
1 College Book i. 50.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 417; iv. i. 279-279. In 1644 two studenta
were whipped by President Dunster himself: see Winthrop, Journal (1908),
ii. 170.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. i. 315.
4 For this draught, see pp. 395-402, below.
1 For this copy, see pp. 395-401, below.
378
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
Let us now return to the ten points summarized above.
(1) Peirce said that the charter of 1672 was "intended as a sub-
stitute .for" the charter of 1650. In 1723 the Corporation char-
acterized the charter of 1672 as "for the Perpetuation of the
Charter of 1650; "' in 1742 Nathan Prince called the charter of
1672 "the most proper Appendix to the Charter of 50; "2 and in
1894 Mr. Davis said that the charter of 1672 was "in effect a mere
amendment of an existing charter" — that is, the charter of 1650.8
(2) "The Corporation," said Peirce, "do not appear to have
accepted this charter." But all who were members of the Corpora-
tion in December, 1672, owed their existence as such to the charter.
See also under (8), (9), and (10), below.
(3) The authority of the charter, said Quincy, "was never recog-
nised by the Corporation." It was recognized by the Corporation
in its representation of August 23, 1723: see under (9), below; and
cf. under (8) and (10), below.
(4) It may be true that the Corporation, as Quincy said, "never
assumed the name given by the act;" but the fact would be difficult
to prove, and the point, even if well taken, is of slight importance.
At all events, the corporate name appears to have been a matter
with regard to which the College officials were for many years de-
cidedly indifferent. Though under the charter of 1650 the corporate
name was " President and Fellows of Harvard College," yet appar-
ently that name was never once used in the headings of the Cor-
poration meetings previous to 1708, those meetings being invariably
headed (when headed at all) "At a meeting of the Corporation,"
or words to that effect.4 The heading " At a meeting of the Presi-
dent and Fellows of Harvard College" first occurs, apparently,
on January 26, 1708,5 and was frequently employed by Leverett,
See p. 386, below.
1 See p. 381, below.
» See p. 375, above.
4 So far as I have noted, only two meetings before 1672 had any heading at
all: "At the meeting of the Corporation, June 10, 1659 " (College Book iii. 36);
and "At a Corporation meeting held June 17, 1667" (iii. 28). When, on be-
coming President, Hoar made the entry "Acts of y* Corporation since y6 10th
Decembr 1672," and continued to use the word Corporation, he was following
what little precedent there was.
6 Though the words "President and Fellows of Harvard College" are not
found in the heading of any meeting before 1708, yet on November 25, 1685,
1919] TUE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 379
though he also often used the words "At a meeting of the Corpor-
ation of Harvard College." Wadsworth followed Leverett's practice
of using either form of words, while Holyoke almost invariably
wrote "At a meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard
College."1
(5) "There exists no evidence," said Quincy, speaking of the
Corporation, "of then* having, in a single instance, modified their
proceedings according to its provisions." It is difficult to see wherein
the charter of 1672, so closely did it resemble the charter of 1650,
required a modification of the Corporation's proceedings.
(6) "Nor is any notice taken of" the charter, said Quincy, "in the
general history of the times." Even if this statement were strictly
accurate, it would amount to little, since there were so few who
wrote on " the general history of the tunes." But as a matter of fact,
as already pointed out, the charter was mentioned hi two books
printed before the Revolution. The extract from Nathan Prince
will be given presently.2 "The college at Cambridge," wrote
Hutchinson in 1764, "became more and more an object of atten-
tion, and in the year 1650 was made a body corporate, by act of the
general court, and received a charter under the seal of the colony."
And in a footnote he added : " Under this charter the college was
governed until the year 1685, when the colony charter was va-
cated; saving that in 1673, by an order of the general court, some
addition was made to the number of the corporation." *
(7) Quincy's statement that " the number of its members was not
increased " is true — that is, the Corporation still consisted of seven
persons : a President, a Treasurer, and five Fellows. What Hutchinson
meant when he said that "some addition was made to the number
of the corporation," was not that the total number of the Corporation
was made more than seven by the charter, but merely that the
"It was then agreed by the President A ffellows," etc. (College Book i. 95), and
on April 25, 1686, it was "Ordered by y* president A Fellows," etc. (iii. 96).
1 It need scarcely be pointed out that very often the words "President and
Fellows of Harvard College" meant not the corporate name but the particular
persons who were holding the positions of President and Fellows at the time.
1 See pp. 386-387, below.
1 History of Massachusetts, i. 171. Hutchinson's dates are a trifle inaccurate.
The Colony charter was vacated in 1684, but the College continued to be gov-
erned under the College charter of 1650 until July 23, 1686. The date 1673
should of course be 1672.
380
TIIE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
charter filled the vacancies that had occurred and brought the
number of the Corporation up to its full complement of seven.
(8) Admitting that "this charter is entered at large in the journal
of the General Court," Quincy yet asserted that "it does not appear
in the records of the seminary." If by "records" Quincy meant, as
is probable, those of the Corporation or of the Overseers, the state-
ment is correct. But neither was the appendix to the charter of 1650
passed in 1657 entered hi the Corporation Records (though it may
have been entered in the Overseers' Records1), yet no historian of the
College has ventured to assail its validity. But if by "records"
Quincy meant what are now commonly called the College archives,
then the statement is inaccurate and is of interest as tending to show
that many documents now in those archives were either not in the
possession of the College in 1840 or were then overlooked. For
to-day there are in the College archives no fewer than five copies of
the charter of 1672. These will be described later.2
(9) " Nor is any notice," said Quincy, "taken of it hi those records,"
— that is, the College records, presumably meaning the records of
the Corporation or of the Overseers. During the years 1721-1723
occurred the noted controversy hi regard to the claim of Nicholas
Sever and William Welsteed, then Tutors, to seats at the board of
Corporation. The culmination came at a meeting before Lieutenant-
Go vernor Dummer and the Council on August 23, 1723, which is
described by President Leverett in his Diary. From this it appears
that the Rev. Benjamin Colman, a Fellow, — .
read in his Place the Representation of the Corporation, and laid it
down upon the Board. After which Mr Sever read a long argum* for
1 See p. 386 note 2, below. On November 15, 1866, a committee consisting
of President 'Walker, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, and Charles G. Loring made a
report to the Corporation in which, referring to the appendix passed in 1657,
they said: "it is never mentioned, as they believe, in any subsequent record
[i. e., record subsequent to 1657] of the doings of either Board, nor in any of the
legislative enactments concerning the College, excepting in one instance of a ref-
erence to it by the Corporation, in a vote of July 20, 1722, relating to an order
or by-law, and in one by the Overseers hi December, 1778, relating to appoint-
ments " (Report on the Rights and Duties of the President and Fellows of Har-
vard College in relation to the Board of Overseers, 1856, pp. 29-30). The ap-
pendix is twice mentioned in the Corporation Records: once on July 30 (not 20,
as misprinted in the Report), 1722; and again on August 23, 1723: see College
Book iv. 79, 89. » See pp. 388-389, below.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 381
the Support of the Petition he with Mr Welsted had prefer'd to the
Court, and laid it upon the board. The Presid* and all the Members
of the Corporation Except Mr Flynt l and Mr Treasurer 2 in their turns
Speak and offer'd their Answers and remarks upon the argum*1 and
records offer'd by Mr Sever, and then the Corporation . . . Agreed,
That The Representation to be Entred in the College Book of Records,
and it is accordingly Entred, fol.8
In the representation so entered in College Book IV. 87-92, occur
these words:
That the Charter of ye College was never Interpreted or understood,
that we know of, by our Worthy Predecess™ in the State or in the
Church, to mean — That the Tut™ & Instruct™ in ye College must
necessariely be Fellows of the Corporacon. None of o* Gen1 Courts,
or Boards of Overseers have so ludged, that we can hear of. The
Charter of 1672 requires no Such thing, nor seems at all to look that
way; wch Act is for the Perpetuation of the Charter of 1650.4
The argument of Sever, not entered in the College records, and
of which there is apparently no copy in the College archives, has
since Quincy's day come to light, and contains the following passages:
And I would observe that in the year 1650 the College was first founded
upon a charter, which it subsisted upon for twenty-two years, till 1672;
that in that year there was an additional grant of charter, and the
College subsisted upon them both for twelve years longer, till 1684;
and about that time the old country charter was vacated, and the
College charter was supposed to fall of course with it. ... And this
(with submission) is the common method in the University, and the only
regular and effectual method that can be taken for the service of a
college in its advanced state. And this method has already been taken
in this College. Witness the charter of 1672, which made out some
further powers for the College than it did possess by the charter of 1650.5
1 Henry Flynt (H. C. 1693).
* Edward Hutchinson (d. 1752).
* Leverett's Diary, p. 262. Leverett's omission to give the number of the
folio was supplied by Quincy, who has here written in ink "v. iv. P. 86" — that
is, College Book iv. 86.
* College Book iv. 89-90. This representation is printed in full by Quincy
in his History, i. 546-556, the extract quoted in the text appearing on p. 551.
Thus when Quincy stated that "nor is any notice taken of it in those records,"
he overlooked a document printed by himself.
1 1 Massachusetts Historical Proceedings, xvi. 54, 61.
382
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
Though the only reference to the charter of 1672 in College Books I,
HI, and IV is in the extract dated August 23, 1723, quoted above, yet
there are in the College archives several documents in which that
charter is alluded to.1
(10) Though Peirce and Quincy admitted, the former that the
charter of 1672 "was passed by the General Court" and the latter
that it "is entered at large in the journal of the General Court," yet
Peirce declared that it "is regarded as never having possessed any
validity," while Quincy asserted that "its authority was never
recognised by the Corporation;" and even Mr. Davis writes "if it
was passed," implying that there may be some doubt on that point.
In no other instance, so far as I am aware, has the validity of a law
entered hi the Court Records been questioned. Nor, in the present
instance, will the contention that the charter of 1672 was invalid for
a moment bear examination. The extracts already given or referred
to under (8) and (9) prove beyond the possibility of a doubt that the
charter was passed, that it was accepted by the College, and that it
was recognized by the Corporation. But there is other proof of the
validity of the charter. This is to be found partly in a pamphlet
written by Prince in 1742, and partly in documents some of which
are in the College archives and others in the Massachusetts Archives.
Prince's pamphlet is both interesting in itself and important as
being the only extended account of the government of the College
printed before 1812.2 The circumstances under which it was written
were so peculiar that they may be briefly given. Graduating hi 1718,
Nathan Prince was chosen a Tutor on February 25, 1723,3 and was
elected a Fellow on December 30, 1728,4 retaining that position until
1742, when, "on Account of Sundry Crimes & Misdemean™ whereof
He was Convicted before" the Overseers, he was on February 18
removed by the Overseers.6 The Corporation on April 5 committed
1 There are many documents (most of which appear to be in the hand of Sever)
in the College archives (Harvard College Papers, i; Supplement, i) relating to
this controversy, in several of which there are allusions to the charter of 1672
(Harvard College Papers, i. 88, 117, 119, 125). A careful examination of these
documents would doubtless yield many other references to that charter.
1 Quincy devotes nearly a page to the pamphlet (History, ii. 34-35), but makes
no mention of Prince's discussion of the charter of 1672.
« College Book iv. 84. « iv. 135. V
6 iv. 238.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 383
Prince's pupils to Henry Flynt; on April 27 acquiesced in the action
of the Overseers, electing Joseph Mayhew a Fellow and Belcher
Hancock a Tutor in place of Prince; on May 10 and June 7 assigned
Prince's chamber to Hancock; on June 7 ordered Prince to "remove
out of the Chamber He now Possesses" on or before June 23; and
on June 24 warned Prince, who still refused to budge, to remove by
June 30 on pain of having his doors broken open and his goods
removed. Finally, the vote of June 24 was executed on July 2 " by
the President Tut" & Professors all together & Mr Prince's goods
carried over to Henry Prentice's, where a room was hired to recieve
them, upon the College Acc° at five shillings p Week." l Smarting
under these indignities and holding that, as a member of the Corpora-
tion, he could legally be dismissed only by the Corporation itself,
Prince was naturally incensed and wrote "The Constitution and
Government of Harvard-College.2 "The subsequent Collection of
1 College Book iv. 237, 238-239, 239, 241, 242, 243. The following document
is in Harvard College Papers, i. 171:
This may Certify whom it may concern, That I the Subscriber have, (upon
the Account of Harvard College) hired a Chamber of Henry Prentice of Cam-
bridge in the County of Middlesex hi New-England Cooper, at the rate of three
pounds five shillings ^* the Quarter of a Year, in Order to put therein the Goods,
of Mr Nathan Prince, late a Fellow of Harvard College affored, & hereby I
promise, that I will indemnify, the sd Henry Prentice, from any Loss or Damage
to Him on Account of the Premises, as Witness my hand
Sign'd in Presence of Us
BELCHER HANCOCK EDWD HOLTOKB
THO* MARSH
Copy
This document is in the hand of President Holyoke, who has written on the
back: "Copy of my Note to Henry Prentice to pay for his Chamber." It is
endorsed in a different hand: "Holyokes indemnification against Nathan Prince
about 1740." The note was of course written in 1742.
* Prince had evidently begun writing his pamphlet long before his chamber
was broken into. As the pamphlet presents some curiosities, bibliographical and
otherwise, and has apparently never been described, an account of it will be
pertinent. Neither date, nor place of publication, nor author's name, nor pub-
lisher's name appears on the title-page. It is assigned to 1743 by Sabin, but
to 1742 by Evans. The following advertisement was printed in the Boston
News Letter of January 13, 1743:
JUST published, a Piece entitled "The Constitution and Government of
Harvard College." Wherein its CHARTER and all the Laws that constitute
the Government of that College are laid together and compared; and the
acveral Powers belonging to the Corporation and Overseers of said College are
»
p
384 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS L
Laws," he begins, "which founded the Government of Harvard-
College, was made on a late extraordinary Case, wherein the Overseers
considered; and what Powers over it still remain in the General Court. And from
the whole 'tis argued that the Court alone are the Visitors of that College. A
work useful to all Persons related to that Society, and in particular to those
whose Children are Educated in it. To be sold by Rogers and Fowle at their
Printing House, and by J. Blanchard Bookseller at the Head of the Town-Dock
Boston', & by Deacon Samuel Whittemore Shopkeeper in Cambridge (p. 2/2).
Two editions were published, one containing 28 pages and a later edition
containing 44 pages. The title-page and the first twenty-four pages are identical
in both editions, even to misprints. The title-page, which has an ornamental
line above it and below it, the whole being in the middle of the page (thus more
like a half-title than an ordinary title-page), reads as follows:
THE
Constitution and Government
OF
Harvard-College.
As already stated the first twenty-four pages are identical in both editions.
All of the text on p. 25 of the first edition also appears on p. 25 of the second
edition. But two footnotes on p. 25 of the first edition are omitted in the second
edition; and their place is taken by four lines of text which are not in the first
edition. Prince had evidently written to the end of p. 25 when his chamber was
broken into. The two footnotes on that page are somewhat wild in tone, and the
text on p. 26 is still wilder. It reads as follows:
The Writer of this Paper was going on to exhibit to View the Management of
the College-Stock from Age to Age And how it was scarce looked into [here
the word but is interlined in Prince's hand] once or twice in an Age! . . . And
thereon the Writer of this Paper proposed to give Instances of some general
and perpetual Grievances, and particularly the enormous Grievance of abusing
Gentlemen's SONS in the Arbitrary fixing them below their Just Place in College-
Classes, There to stand degraded (for ever!) in the publick Catalogues. . . .
But while the Writer of this Paper (who is absolutely RESOLVED to set his Name
to it, and at the End to stile himself Nathan Prince) was Demonstrating how the
College Constitution provided Such Remedy He received a College-Vote, as
he Thinks, (though by the very Words of the Vote it self it can be no College
Vote at all!) whereby "The President, TUTORS and Professors [Poor Professors t '
"settled by Vote below Tutors!] were empowered and directed to break open or
"cause to be broken open the Doors of his Chamber and Studies, and to remove
"out of them the said Prince's Goods." And so to SEIZE all his Books and Plate
and Papers to then- OWN Use and Behoof (for ought any Thing he knew by This
Vote!) He Flung his Pen aside and cared not what became of
such an iNGRATEFtjL Society Till it was RESTORED to a Better Government
Nor of all the &c. &c. **** Tr ! D ! H ! C I
A ! C ! F ! D ! G ! B C !
ge» AMEN. But KAI and again and again. all in DUE
Time.
t Dr. W. is degraded below 2 Ms. and an H. "What are Things coming to/
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 385
of said College assumed to themselves a SOVEREIGN Power over that
College, and the SOLE Right to judge and censure and dismiss the
This extraordinary outburst, coming at the end of twenty-five pages of per-
fectly rational argument, would be inexplicable but for some words written at
the bottom of p. 25 in a copy of the pamphlet in the Boston Public Library.
There the Rev. Thomas Prince has written: "My Dear Brother's Hardships
growing upon Him; He begins to grow Disordered in his Brain, & continues so
for a week or two." The initials at the end of the outburst stand, I suppose, for
various Overseers or members of the Corporation or Tutors.
"Dr. W." is Edward Wigglesworth; "2 Ms. and an //." are Joseph Mayhew,
Thomas Marsh, and Belcher Hancock.
The text of the first edition ends on p. 26 with the passage quoted above.
There is, however, a second footnote on that page, which ends about the middle
of p. 27. The signatures of this first edition are B, C, D, E, F, G.
Upon his recovery, Nathan Prince completed his pamphlet in a second edition
of 44 pages. The above passage is omitted and the text ends on p. 43 as follows:
As to any indecent Reflections in this Piece, which might be occasioned by the
Unexampled Treatment he has lately met with, he would only say, that "He has
not the Inhumanity to wish the most malicious of his UNREASONABLE Enemies
to change Circumstances with him, and then be put upon the Trial to write a
Piece on this Subject with fewer Reflections in it. But with These and all Other
Defects in the Piece itself, it may still be of publick Service to Harvard College,
whose Treasury! Whose Constitution! Whose very BEING/ it so nearly concerns.
He therefore offers it to the serious Perusal of ALL the true Friends to that
Society; and subscribes himself
Nathan Prince."
Then follows a list of Errata, also on p. 43. The signatures of the second
edition are B, C, D, E, F, F, H, I, K, L. On p. 26 is an allusion to "this present
Day July 7. 1742."
An advertisement inserted by Prince in the Boston papers in March and April,
1743, is here given because it shows that, many months after his ejection from his
chamber, he still called himself a Fellow:
r I THESE may inform the Public, that Nathan Prince, Fellow of Harvard
1 College proposes, on suitable Encouragement, to open a School in this
Town for the instructing young Gentlemen in the most useful Parts of the
Mathematicks, Natural Philosophy and History. Particularly in the Elements of
GEOMETRY and ALGEBRA; in TRIGONOMETRY and NAVIGATION; in GEOGRAPHY and
ASTRONOMY; with the Use of the Globes and the several Kinds of Projecting the
Sphere: In the Arts of SURVEYING, GAUGING and DIALING; and in the General
Rules of FORTIFICATION and GUNNERY. To these will be added, LECTURES on
History and natural Philosophy.
The Terms, on which the said Nathan Prince would engage to instruct young
Gentlemen in the above-mentioned Arts and Sciences, may be seen at his Lodgings
at the House of Seth Gushing in Exchange Lane, Boston (Boston News Letter,
March 3, p. 2/2, March 10, p. 2/2; Boston Evening Post, March 14, Supplement,
p. 1/1, March 21, p. 2/2, March 28, p, 2/2, April 4, Supplement, p. 2/2).
386
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APBIL,
PRESIDENT or ANT Member of the Corporation of said College,
without the Consent or any Act of that Corporation for the same." :
After quoting the act of 1642 reorganizing the Board of Overseers,
the College charter of 1650, and the appendix to the charter passed
in 1657, Prince goes on to say:
This APPENDIX, or the greater Part of it, seems to be NULLED
by a succeeding Law of the Colony (called the College Charter of 1672)
which ends with this Sanction of the Court. "All and every of which
"Premsies we do ordain and enact to be FULLY established for LAW; any Law,
"GRANT, or Usage to the CONTRARY, in any wise notwithstanding." Now
the greater Part of said Appendix is contrary to this posteriour Law of 72.
And indeed this latter Law is the most proper Appendix to the Charter
of 50; for in express Terms 'tis grounded on said Charter as on its Founda-
tion; nor does it alter any Thing in that Charter but in some few Cases.
So there is no Occasion to insert it here, Reference being had thereto in the
Court Records. The greatest Alteration it makes in said Charter of 50
is that in some Things it gives more Power to the Corporation of said
College, and less to the Overseers, than the Charter of 50 does. Which
may be one Reason why this Law of 72 was not entered in due Form
into some College Records, as the said Appendix of 50 has been.2 . . .
The four proceeding Laws of 42, 50, 57, 72, were all the standing Laws,
on which the Government of said College was founded, in old Charter
Times. . . .
After the vacating the old Colony Charter of the Massachusets in
1684, there were some new Laws or College-Charters made by the
general Court of this Province. But these Laws (as all others made
under our present Province-Charter) were of Course to be sent Home
for the Royal Approbation; And they all were sent Home accordingly,
and have been disallowed. So that no Laws whatever remain, but the
four proceeding Laws of 42, 50, 57 and 72, as the Foundation on which
It is well known that soon after this Nathan Prince went to England to receive
Anglican orders, became an Episcopal missionary, and died July 25, 1748: cf.
our Publications, xviii. 335 note 1, xix. 332 note 3.
1 Constitution and Government of Harvard College, p. 3.
* The College charter of 1650 was twice entered "in due Form" — once in
College Book i. 59-60, and again in College Book iii. 12-14, both of which are
noted in Wadsworth's Index. The appendix to the charter of 1650 passed in 1657
was not entered in College Books i, iii, or iv, and is not noted in Wadsworth's
index. If Prince's statement is correct, and there is no reason for thinking that
he was mistaken, the appendix was probably entered in College Book ii, which
was destroyed by fire in 1764.
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 387
the Government of the said College now stands. And all or some of
these Laws are valid to this Day on the following Grounds. 1. These
Laws were made in old Charter Times, when it was not requisite to send
them Home for Approbation; and so they never were disapproved at
Home. 2. As they never were disapproved at Home, so they never
were repealed by the General Court who made them; Only so far as the
succeeding do interfere with, supersede or repeal the Proceeding, or any
Clauses in the Proceeding, and in such a Case the succeeding take
Place; and particularly the Charter of 50, and the last of these Laws
made in the Year 1672 which is properly an APPENDIX to the said
Charter of 50. And 3. What of those Laws remained valid, in old
Charter Times, was virtually and implicitely confirm'd by a Clause in
our present Province-Charter and by a declarative Order of the General
Court in 1707 respecting the College Charter of 50; BOTH of which here
follow as the last Regulation made of the Constitution and Government
of said College. . . .
2. It appears in particular that the Overseers and Corporation of
said College owe their Being and all the standing Powers They now have,
or ever had over the said College, To Four Laws of the General Court
which were made in the Year 1642, 1650, 1657 and 1672. The First of
which Laws originally constituted Overseers of said College; The Second
incorporated the said College, and is called the Charter of 50; The Third
is called an Appendix to said Charter; And the Fourth confirmed, added
to or altered, some or all of these proceeding Laws. So that no Powers
can now belong to the Overseers and Corporation of said College but
those Powers which the Court granted to them in some or all of these
four Laws. 3. That in the two latter Laws of 57 and 72, the Court gave
to the Overseers of College no l New Powers of any Importance over
the said Corporation; And so there is no Occasion to consider any of
these four Laws, but the two First, in order to determine whether the
Overseers of said College have an Independent and Sovereign Power
over the said Corporation.2
1 Most of the copies of Prince's pamphlet I have seen have corrections in ink
in his own hand. In several such copies, after the word "no" is a caret and in
the margin are the words "Independent or."
* Constitution and Government, pp. 8, 9, 13, 15. In Harvard College Papers
i. 88, is a document thus described by Mr. Brown in his Calendar (see p. 392
note 1, below) of those Papers:
"A series of statements, extracts, &c., from various proposed charters, &
concerning the government of the college, apparently set down with a view to
a forensic use of them. The purpose of the whole is not clear.
388 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [APRIL,
Prince had been a Tutor for six months before the controversy
over Sever and Welsteed was finally decided in August, 1723, and
consequently was thoroughly conversant with all the details of that
dispute; for fourteen years he was himself a member of the Corpora-
tion; and had there been the slightest doubt as to the validity of the
charter in the mind of any College official at that period, Prince
certainly would have recorded it. But apart from Prince's failure
to record such a doubt, the documents already alluded to furnish
irrefragable proof that the charter was regarded as valid by the
officials of the Colony when the charter was passed, by the officials
of the Province when the Sever- Welsteed controversy was raging,
and by the officials of the College during the same period. These
documents consist of no less than ten copies of the charter: five now
in the College archives, three now in the Massachusetts Archives,
and two which formerly must have existed but are not now known to
be extant. For the sake of convenience these will be lettered from
(A) to (J).
(A) This copy, in the College archives, is in an unknown but con-
temporary hand and is preceded and followed by these entries, both
in the hand of Edward Rawson, who was Secretary of the Colony hi
1672: "At A Generall Court held at Boston, the 8th of octobw 1672.
. . . That this is A true Copie taken out of the Courts Records.
Attests. Edward Rawson Secfety." 1
(B) This copy was entered in his Diary by President Leverett. The
copy begins, "At the Second Sessions of the Gen1 Court for Elections
held at Boston 8th of Octob* 1672 On their Adjournment;" and at
the end Leverett has written: "This is Transcribed here from A
True Copy as of Record. Attested ^ J Willard Seer Vid. Countrey
Records p. 707." 2 LeVerett's Diary, which is really a book of College
records and was sometimes referred to by President Wadsworth as
"College Book V in Quarto," was given to the College in 1797 3 and
"Note. — My conjecture is that the paper was used by one of the contro-
yersialists about 1721, on the question of admitting Tutors to the corporation."
This document is in the hand of Nathan Prince, a fact which escaped Mr.
Brown, and without doubt it was compiled while Prince was preparing his
pamphlet in 1742.
1 Harvard College Papers, Supplement, i. 16.
* Leverett's Diary, pp. 265-262.
1 In 1912 I wrote: "In addition to this 'College Book V in Folio' [Treasurer
ss 1^> L* » is K5 *v
•4'<f u Hh
$wHtti*£
<*.»**:! V? *> *» V
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1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 389
was well known to Quincy; l hence it is singular that the copy of the
charter entered by Leverett should have been overlooked by all the
College historians.
(C) This copy, in the College archives, is wholly in the hand of
Benjamin Wadsworth, then a member of the Corporation. It begins,
"At the second sessions of ye General Court for Elections, held at
Boston 8th of oct. 1672. on then* Adjournment;" and at the end
Wadsworth has written: "Apr. 15. 1722. I transcrib'd y* above
Instrument or Law, from a writing I borrow'd of ye Revnd President
Leverett, wch writing was thus subscrib'd, viz. a true Copy as of
Record, P' J. Willard Secretary. Page. 707." 2
(D) This copy, in the College archives, is hi an unknown and
modern hand and has written at the end: "Page 707. J Willard
Sec'y," though these words are not in Willard's hand.8
(E) This copy, in the College archives, is in an unknown hand and
has at the end: "A true Copy as of Record V" J Willard Seer7"
(though these words are not in the hand of Willard) ; and is endorsed,
"Act of 1672 Coll. charter, in. 1672," the words "Act of 1672"
being in the same hand as that of the copy, and the words "Coll.
charter, in. 1672" being in the hand of Wadsworth.4
(F) This copy is in the Court Records, IV. 707-709, where it was
entered by Rawson himself.6
(G) This copy, made by Rawson, is hypothetical since it is not
known to be extant; but that such a copy must once have existed
seems pretty certain from what is said under (I), below.
(H) This copy, made by Josiah Willard (who was Secretary of the
Province from 1717 to 1756), is not known to be extant: but that it
Brattle's Account Book, 1693-1713], there was also atone time a volume known as
'College Book V in Quarto,' as appears from various references to it by Wadsworth
in the marginal entries in the Corporation Records. This volume was either
burned in the fire of 1764, or has disappeared, or cannot now be identified"
(our Publications, xiv. 314 note 1). I have since identified the volume as Presi-
dent Leverett's Diary (cf. id. xiv. 316).
1 Quincy prints extracts from it hi his History, i. 291, 292, 295, 520, 522,
546. Cf . p. 388 note 3, above.
1 Harvard College Papers, Supplement, i. 17.
• Harvard College Papers, Supplement, i. 18.
4 Harvard College Papers, i. 20. Possibly this copy is in the hand of Sever.
• This is of course the copy printed in Massachusetts Colony Records, iv. ii.
635-537.
390
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
once existed is proved by what is said under (B-E) above, and under
(I) below.
(I) This copy, in the Massachusetts Archives, LVTII. 86-87, is
wholly in the hand of Nathan Prince, and presumably was made by
him either hi 1723 (when the Sever-Welsteed controversy was at its
height) or in 1742 (when Prince was writing his pamphlet). In
making this copy, Prince used (F), (G), and (H), for he has collated
all three. In the margin he notes certain variations and generally
labels these "W." (H), though one is labelled "Rec." (F), and sev-
eral are not labelled at all. Prince's copy (I) begins:
At the Second Sessions of the General Court for Elections held at
Boston Oct. 8. 1672. on their Adjournment. J.W.
At a General Court held at Boston Oct. 8th 1672. E.R. {p. 550.
The second heading appears to indicate that Rawson's copy (G)
was entered on page 550 of some volume, though what that volume
was is not known as it apparently no longer exists.1 Prince's copy (I)
ends:
That This is a true Copy taken out of the Court Records, Attests
Edward Rawson Secretary
A True copy as of Record "F J. Willard Secretary Pag. 707 2
(J) This, in the Massachusetts Archives, LVTII. 82-85, is not a
copy of the completed instrument, but is a draught of the charter.
For that reason it has particular value. It is written, in an unknown
hand, on a folio sheet, the main portion of the charter filling the first
and second pages. In this, however, there are notable omissions, and
these are supplied on the third and fourth pages. Thus, the members
of the Corporation are not named on the first page, but their names
are given on the fourth page. There are throughout various inter-
1 It may have been one of those destroyed when the Town House was burned
in 1747: cf. our Publications, vol. ii. pp. xviii-xbc. On the other hand, the hy-
pothetical copy (G) may never have existed, and Prince may have used for colla-
tion the Rawson copy (A) now in the College archives. But if that was the
case, it is impossible to explain the reference to "p. 550." Besides, copy (A)
contains the word "sconsing," while Rawson's copy (G) evidently had "scourg-
ing:" see p. 398 note 3, below.
* Prince's copy (I) is endorsed, apparently in a different hand, "Votes about
College Oct'1672."
1919] THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672 391
lineations, some of which appear to be in a hand different from that
in which the main portion of the charter is written. It is possible
that these interlineations were made by Hoar. An entry on the third
page reads: "Mem whatever materiall passage is newly inserted is
lined underneath." Probably this and three other entries on the
same page were also written by Hoar.1 The memorandum appears
to show one of two things: either that, in drawing up the draught,
the charter of 1650 was used as a basis and certain passages not in
that charter were underscored to show exactly what was "newly
inserted;" or else that the present document is a revised draught,
the underlined passages not being in the original draught. Not all
the passages "newly inserted" were accepted by the General Court,
for a good many words have been crossed out. On an attached slip
of paper (numbered 84a in Volume LVIII in the Massachusetts
Archives), Rawson has given the names of all the members of the
Corporation except those of Joseph Browne and John Richardson,
the two Tutors; and it also bears the entry, "21 JL 1672 past
E R S" — thus giving us the exact date (October 21, 1672), not
hitherto known, of the passing of the charter.
In view of the evidence presented in the present paper, it may be
wondered how the historians of the College could have gone so far
astray about the charter of 1672. Perhaps the following explanation
will account for this. As already pointed out, the historians have all
relied on the statement adopted by the Corporation on January 27,
1812, and on the pamphlet published three months later. College
Books I, III, and IV, as printed in Volumes XV-XVI of our Publica-
tions, will fill 864 pages. It is not surprising that a single allusion to
the charter in such an extensive amount of material should have
eluded the committees which drew up that statement and prepared
that pamphlet. As for the numerous copies of the charter here
described, it cannot be said with certainty that more than one of
them was in the possession of the College in 1812. That was the one
1 Apparently not many specimens of Hoar's handwriting have been preserved.
A letter of his (printed in 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, vi. 100-108)
dated March 27, 1661, is in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Another, dated
January 7, 1675, is reproduced in facsimile in Hill's History of the Old South
Church, i. 184. Entries from 1672 to' 1674 on pp. 75-78 of College Book i are
in his hand. The most characteristic feature of his writing is the letter "1,"
which is made with an odd twist in the downward stroke.
392
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
CAPRIL,
entered by Leverett in his Diary. This is a small volume, not one
of the regular books of College records, and 262 pages must be turned
over before the charter can be found. The members of the 1812
committees, even if they knew of the existence of the Diary, might
well be excused for thinking that it could contain nothing to their
purpose. Nor would it, had it not been for the Sever- Welsteed con-
troversy, for no doubt it was solely on that account that Leverett
copied into his Diary the charter of 1650, the appendix to the charter
passed in 1657, and the charter of 1672. As for the four other copies
of the charter of 1672 now in the College archives, one (E) was
certainly there in 1852, but how long it had then been in the posses-
sion of the College cannot be determined.1 The remaining three copies
— (A), (C), and (D) — were apparently acquired by the College
after 1852.2
1 Copy (E) is in Harvard College Papers, i. 20. How the volumes so called
came to be collected is explained at the beginning of the first volume:
At a Special Meeting of the President and Fellows of
Harvard College, February 6th 1850.
"Voted, That the President cause to be examined and arranged all the manu-
script papers relating to the College, . . . and procure such as are worthy of
preservation to be substantially bound."
Harvard College, October, 1852.
In compliance with the above order, a thorough inquiry and examination have
been made. AH the papers that could be found relating to the history and general
affairs of the College have been collected, arranged, & bound in the following
volumes.
JARED SPARKS,
Presd*
The papers then arranged were bound in eleven volumes. Over forty years
later other documents were arranged, called Supplements to vols. i-vii, and
bound in four volumes. (The book-plate pasted into vol. i says that that volume
was received March 4, 1893.) The late William G. Brown compiled in one
volume, presumably while he was Deputy Keeper of the University Archives
from 1896 to 1901, a Calendar to both series, adding notes. These notes are
valuable, but Mr. Brown occasionally went astray in assigning dates to undated
documents.
1 Copies (A), (C), and (D) are in Harvard CoUege~Papers, Supplement, i. 16,
17, 18.
It is of course "well known that certain important books of College records
(among them Treasurer Richards's Account Book, 1669-1693; Treasurer Brattle's
Account Book, 1693-1713; and Treasurer Hutchinson's Account Book, 1721-
1752) were carried off by John Hancock while he was Treasurer (1773-1777)
and were not restored to the College until about 1862: cf. 1 Massachusetts
cf •
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1919]
TIIE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672
393
Finally, a word as to the purpose of the charter of 1672. Mr.
Davis thinks that it is " inconsistent with any theory of the needs of
the College." It seems to me that the historians, in considering this
charter, have had in mind too much the nineteenth century and too
little the seventeenth century. The unquestionable right of the
Corporation, under the charter of 1650, to elect a new President is
now so well established that it is taken as a matter of course; yet that
right was not established until the election of Leverett in 1707.
Not only was Dunster's successor not elected by the Corporation,
but apparently the Corporation was not even consulted in the
matter. In the numerous charters either actually passed or proposed
between 1692 and 1700, in every case the members of the Corporation
were appointed by the General Court. And when the election of
Leverett was consented to by the General Court and the College
was once more placed on the charter of 1650, the number of the
Corporation, which under the proposed charter of 1700 consisted of
a President, a Vice President, and fifteen Fellows, was reduced to
the seven called for in the charter of 1650 by Governor Dudley
himself.
The situation with which Hoar found himself confronted on his
arrival in July, 1672, was a difficult one. The College had sunk so
low that at the Commencement on August 13 not a single candidate
for the degree of A.B. presented himself. The Corporation was
reduced to a Treasurer (Richards), two Tutors (Browne and Richard-
son), and a nominal Fellow (Danf orth) ; and, in addition, the powers
granted to the Corporation by the charter of 1650 had been repeatedly
infringed on by the Overseers. • Is it surprising that Hoar desired a
new charter which should confirm the powers granted to the Corpora-
tion by the charter of 1650 and by laws passed between 1650 and
1672; or that the filling up of the Corporation to its full complement
of seven was imperative? The charter of 1672 accomplished both
of those objects. One was emphasized by the Corporation in 1723,
when it declared that the charter of 1672 was "for the perpetuation"
of the charter of 1650; and the other by Hutchinson in 1764, when
Historical Proceedings, vi. 337, 342-343. And documents that once actually or
properly belonged to the College but had fallr.n into private hands, are constantly
being returned to the College.
394
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[APRIL,
he said that the charter of 1672 made "some addition to the number
of the corporation."
A consideration of the causes which led to the failure of President
Hoar's administration does not come within the scope of this paper,
which may fittingly conclude with the reproduction in parallel
columns, for purposes of comparison, of the charter of 1650, of
the draught of the charter of 1672, and of the completed charter
of 1672. As, owing to interlineations, erasures, etc., the draught
is difficult to reproduce in type, it is also reproduced in facsimile.
1919]
THE HARVARD COLLEGE CHARTER OF 1672
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1919] REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 403
ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1919
ANNUAL MEETING of the Society was held at the
Algonquin Club, No. 217 Commonwealth Avenue,
Boston, on Friday, 21 November, 1919, at half-past six
o'clock in the evening, the President, FRED NORRIS
ROBINSON, Ph.D., in the chair.
The Records of the last Stated Meeting were approved
without being read.
The Annual Report of the Council was presented on
behalf of the Rev. Dr. CHARLES EDWARDS PARK.
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL
In an age which manifests an increasing tendency to value all
human activity by the pragmatic test, and which looks with indiffer-
ence, not to say scorn, upon all efforts to cultivate the quieter inter-
ests and refinements of life, it needs a certain degree of courage to call
attention to such a Society as ours, and to advertise the fact that we
have completed our twenty-seventh year without any perceptible
departure from the calm and even tenor of our way. The genius of
industrial unrest has thrust no inflamed visage inside our door.
Bolshevism has dropped no bomb, literal or figurative, into our
occasions. International diplomacies have left unruffled the deep
tranquillity of our deliberations. The high cost of living has wrought
no confusion in our economies.
If it requires some courage to make these admissions, it also en-
genders a profound satisfaction. There is more in life than its tem-
poral storms and superficial upheavals. Your Council conceives it to
be the function of the Colonial Society to maintain a due share of
interest in the deeper aspects of our life, and, like a Benedictine
monastery of the Dark Ages, to conserve so far as it may some under-
standing of the subtler continuities which bind age to age, and make
all history one.
404 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Nov.
And in fact to more than one of our members the meetings of the
Society have been retreats of almost a monastic sanctity, whither
they could resort to find respite from the outward passions of life,
and to indulge undisturbed the interests and affections that are dear
to them. There have been the usual five stated meetings; four of
them held in the quiet comfort of the house of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences; one of them held under the hospitable roof of
our President, Professor Robinson. Papers and communications of
solid value have been presented at these meetings, which will all go
to the permanent enrichment of our publications.
The present condition of the Society's Publications is as follows:
Volumes XV and XVI, containing the Corporation Records of
Harvard College down to 1750, are well advanced, and will, it is
hoped, be completed in 1921.
Volume XIX, containing the Transactions from November, 1916,
to November, 1917, was distributed last April.
The text of Volume XX, containing the Transactions from Decem-
ber, 1917, to February, 1919, is wholly completed, the index is in
type, and the volume will be ready for publication early in 1920.
The text of Volume XXI, containing thus far the Transactions for
March and April, 1919, is at present in type to page 402, and the
volume will no doubt be ready for publication in the spring of 1920.
Volume XXII, projected last spring, will contain the Plymouth
Church Records. The preparation of the material is well advanced,
and the volume will, it is expected, be completed in the fall of 1920.
During the year the following gentlemen have been elected to
Resident Membership in the Society:
JAMES PARKER PARMENTER,
CHARLES ROCKWELL LANMAN,
HENRY GODDARD PICKERING,
ROBERT GOULD SHAW,
SAMUEL WILLISTON,
MORRIS GRAY,
HOWARD NICHOLSON BROWN,
JOHN LOWELL.
And during the year the Society has lost from its membership by
death:
SAMUEL SWETT GREEN, Librarian Emeritus of the Worcester
Public Library, a lover of good books, and of all to whom good books
1919] REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 405
are dear, whose eighty-two years of life were crowded full of a quiet,
happy usefulness in making more available to all the rich stores of
human knowledge and the companionship of great minds.
FRANKLIN PIERCE RICE, an enthusiast by nature in the local his-
tory and antiquities of his surroundings, whose timely solicitude and
personal industry have rescued many a valuable town record from
oblivion; and whose chief claim to his reputation for eccentricity
consisted in an unusual diligence in the work he loved, and a life-
long devotion to his mother.
HORACE EVERETT WARE, publisher of the Old Farmer's Almanac,
an accurate and painstaking investigator, to whom carelessness in
fact or judgment was sin, and who embodied in his own simplicity,
courtliness and generosity the grace and charm of the by-gone days
which he loved to study and understand.
HENRY AINSWORTH PARKER, clergyman and soldier, rich in spirit-
ual graces, who enjoyed prosperity with humble and grateful appre-
ciation while it lasted, and, when adversity came, bore it without a
word of complaint or bitterness, with cheerful fortitude and uncon-
quered faith.
MOSES WILLIAMS, lawyer and trustee, a man of wide interests and
large usefulness, whose opinions commanded respect, and whose
moral integrity inspired universal confidence; to whose nature pas-
sions of every kind were strangers, and whose only enthusiasms were
those that survived the analysis of a singularly clear and searching
judgment.
HENRY ERNEST WOODS, State Commissioner of Public Records,
who dignified his office by his own faithfulness and worth; whose life,
both public and private, was an uphill battle. He had the reserve of
suffering, the loneliness of bravery, the modesty of self -sacrifice; and
his real value as a friend and a public servant is fully revealed only by
his death.
HENRY LEE HIGGINSON, Fellow of Harvard College, whose name
will ever stand as a synonym for American citizenship in its fulness
and beauty. His patriotism did not end on the battlefield, but made
him a life-long warrior against every form of wrong and injustice; a
life-long champion of every refinement of heart and nobility of soul.
Wealth to him was a stewardship, and, with spiritual insight, he
employed it to ennoble our American life by enriching that life at its
406
TUB COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[Nov.
sources. In war and in peace, in great things and in small, he walked
humbly and joyously in the footsteps of Him who came not to be
ministered unto but to minister.
The TREASURER submitted his Annual Report, as
follows:
REPORT OF THE TREASURER
In accordance with the requirements of the By-Laws the Treasurer
submits his Annual Report for the year ending 17 November, 1919.
CASH ACCOUNT
RECEIPTS
Balance, 18 November, 1918 $31.03
Admission Fees $80.00
Annual Assessments 590.00
Sales of the Society's Publications 93.10
Sales of the Society's paper 1.86
Contribution from a member 5.00
Editor's Salary Fund, subscriptions 1,300.00
Interest 4,091.34
Henry H. Edes, demand loan without interest 500.00
Mortgages, discharged or assigned 11,700.00
Horace Everett Ware Fund, interest on Mr. Ware's be-
quest, received from his executors 53.34 18,414.64
$18,445.67
DISBURSEMENTS
The University Press $1,676.77
A. W. Elson & Co., photogravure 192.05
Folsom Engraving Company 206.28
Photostating documents and records . 301.47
Consolidated Index to Volumes 1-20 50.00
Salary of the Editor 1,000.00
Women's Educational and Industrial Union 40.16
Andrew Stewart, auditing 10.00
Postage, stationery, and supplies 93.62
Clerk hire 111.45
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fuel, light and
janitor service 20.00
Boston Storage Warehouse Company 24.00
J. Franklin Jameson, annual subscription toward the
Bibliography of American Historical Writings .... 50.00
Miscellaneous incidentals . . . f 578.50
Mortgages on improved real estate in Boston 3,750.00
1919]
REPORT OF THE TREASURER
407
Interest in adjustment $167.12
Henry H. Edes, demand loan 500.00
Western Telephone and Telegraph Company's 5% Bonds
of 1932, $10,000 face value 8,890.00 $17,661.42
Balance on deposit in State Street Trust Company, 17
November, 1919 784.25
$18,445.67
The Funds of the Society are invested as follows:
$68,000.00 in First Mortgages, payable in gold coin, on improved property in
Greater Boston
8,890.00 in Western Telephone and Telegraph Company's 5% Bonds of 1932
($10,000 face value) guaranteed by the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company
200.00 on deposit in the Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of
Boston
$77,090.00
TRIAL BALANCE
DEBITS
Cash $784.25
Mortgages $68,000.00
Provident Institution for Savings 200.00
Western Telephone and Telegraph Company's 5% Bonds,
$10,000 face value 8,890.00 77,090.00
$77,874.25
CREDITS
Income $784.25
Editor's Salary Fund $600.00
Publication Fund 10,000.00
Benjamin Apthorp Gould Memorial Fund 10,000.00
Edward Wheelwright Fund 20,000.00
Robert Charles Billings Fund 10,000.00
Robert Noxon Toppan Fund 5,000.00
Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. Fund 3,000.00
Andrew McFarland Davis Fund 2,000.00
William Watson Fund 1,000.00
Horace Everett Ware Fund 658.34
General Fund 14,831.66 77,090.00
$77,874.25
HENRY H. EDES
Treasurer
BOSTON, 17 November, 1919
408 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Nov.
REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE
The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the Accounts
of the Treasurer for the year ending 17 November, 1919, have at-
tended to their duty and report that they find the accounts correctly
kept and properly vouched, and that proper evidence of the invest-
ments and of the balance of cash on hand has been shown to them.
This Report is based on the examination of Andrew Stewart, Cer-
tified Public Accountant.
HENRY G. PICKERING
ROBERT G. SHAW
Committee
BOSTON, 19 November, 1919
The several Reports were accepted and referred to the
Committee of Publication.
On behalf of the Committee appointed to nominate
officers for the ensuing year, Mr. CHESTER N. GREENOUGH
presented the following list of candidates; and, a ballot
having been taken, these gentlemen were unanimously
elected:
PRESIDENT
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON
VICE-PRESIDENTS
ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS
ARTHUR PRENTICE RUGG
RECORDING SECRETARY
HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM
[CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
CHARLES EDWARDS PARK
TREASURER
HENRY HERBERT EDES
REGISTRAR
ALFRED JOHNSON
MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL FOR THREE YEARS
SAMUEL WILLISTON
1919]
GUESTS AT THE ANNUAL DINNER
409
After the meeting was dissolved, dinner was served.
The guests of the Society were Dr. Elbridge Gerry Cutler,
the Rev. Dr. Kirsopp Lake, and Messrs. George Hubbard
Blakeslee, Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare, William Brad-
ford Homer Dowse, John Henry Edmonds, Franklin
Tweed Hammond, Charles Francis Jenney, John Doug-
lass Merrill, James Duncan Phillips, Arthur Stanwood
Pier, William Bernard Reid, Eliot Dawes Stetson, Harry
Walter Tyler, Arthur Gordon Webster, and Irvah Lester
Winter. The PRESIDENT presided.
410 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS* [DEC.
DECEMBER MEETING, 1919
A STATED MEETING of the Society was held at the
***. house of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, No. 28 Newbury Street, Boston, on Thursday,
18 December, 1919, the President, FRED NORRIS ROB-
INSON, Ph.D., in the chair.
The Records of the Annual Meeting hi November were
read and approved.
The CORRESPONDING SECRETARY reported the death
on the twenty-second of November of Mr. FRANKLIN
CARTER, a Corresponding Member.
The PRESIDENT announced his appointment of Messrs.1
EDWARD CHANNING, WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER, and
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER as delegates from this
Society to the annual Conference of Historical Societies
to be held in Cleveland this month in connection with
the meeting of the American Historical Association.
MR. WILLIAM C. LANE exhibited a water-color view of
Harvard College made by Houdin d'Orgemont in 1795,
and spoke as follows :
This early water-color view of Harvard College is the property of
Miss Ada Bouve of Hingham, who inherited it from her mother, Mrs.
Thomas Tracy Bouve, to whom it had come from her grandfather,
Mr. Nathan Thayer of Hingham.
Mrs. Bouve sent a photograph of the drawing to the Library in
1895, and at that time communicated the following information in
regard to it:
It was painted in 1795 by Houdin-d'Orgemont, a young Frenchman,
who fled from Guadeloupe, one of the French West Indies, in fear for
his life during the troublous times preceding and subsequent to the
execution of Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette. He found
refuge hi Hingham, Mass., where he lived, with a younger brother, at the
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 411
house of Mr. Nathan Lincoln. Upon the restoration of order in France,
he was called home; but, not being permitted to land when he reached
the island, returned to Hingham, where he resided some time longer.
The two brothers were young men of considerable culture, and
probably went to sketch many places in the vicinity, though I do
not learn that any other of their sketches have remained in the
family of their friends in Hingham.
Mr. ALBERT MATTHEWS read the following paper,
written by Professor Kenneth Colegrove of Northwestern
University:
NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE DEPUTIES IN COLONIAL LEGISLATURES?
One of the characteristics of the New England town-meeting sys-
tem in colonial days was the practice of voting instructions to the
deputies in the popular assemblies. By means of these votes of in-
structions, the freemen in the towns attempted to control the action
of their representatives upon measures of both local and general in-
terest. This practice began concurrently with the establishment of
representative government in the Puritan colonies; and it continued
until the third decade after the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States, being abandoned about the same time that New Eng-
land Federalism expired. During tJus extensive period, the initiative
and the referendum were also frequently employed by the towns as
means of controlling their deputies; and occasionally the recall.
I
THE RISE OP REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IN NEW ENGLAND
The first Charter of Massachusetts provided that the governor,
magistrates and freemen of the Company of Massachusetts-Bay
should hold a Great and General Court four tunes each year for the
management of the affairs of the corporation. At the Easter session
of the General Court, the freemen were to elect the governor and
1 This paper is a brief survey of material collected by the writer several years
ago when a member of the seminar in American History of Professor Frederick
Jackson Turner in Harvard University.
412
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[DEC.
magistrates for the ensuing year. The Court also possessed the
power to admit individuals to the freedom of the Company. The
original grantees had intended that the administration of the Com-
pany should remain in London. Eventually, however, the seat of
government was removed to Boston, thereby producing a chain of
events remarkable in the history of free government.
Apparently the Charter had created a pure democracy, for all
the freemen possessed the right to attend the General Court, and
all had a voice in making the laws and electing the rulers. In reality,
however, the government for several years was what John Winthrop
called a "mixed aristocracy." The magistrates and the elders of
the churches overawed the simple freemen of the Bible common-
wealth and carried measures in the quarterly Courts according to
their own notions.
John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, had come to
the New England "wilderness" hi the year 1630, bringing with him
the original copy of the Company's Charter. Of him the poet has
tunefully sung —
Why leaves! thou, John, thy station, in Suffolk, thy own soile,
Christ will have thee a pillar be, for's people thou must toyle;
He chang'd thy heart, then take his part, 'gainst prelates proud invading
His Kingly throne set up alone, in wildernesse their shading.1
Deeply imbued with the stern spirit of Puritanism, the lord of the
manor of Groton in old Suffolk heartily took up the burden of found-
ing "Christ's glorious Kingdome" in New England; and, rejoicing
in his task, he started out to govern this commonwealth without
much reference to the opinions of the governed.
In the meanwhile the Puritan settlers were pushing out along the
coast and into the interior parts of Massachusetts. Salem, Dorches-
ter, and Charlestown had been settled even before the "City-like
Towne of Boston" was founded. Watertown, Roxbury, Lynn, Cam-
bridge, Ipswich, and Newbury were soon established; and Marblehead
gained the notice of the Court in the year 1632. It was incon-
venient for the freemen in the more remote settlements to attend the
General Court in Boston four times each year; and quite likely these
freemen would have remained for a considerable time unrepresented
1 Johnson's Wonder- Working Providence (ed. J. F. Jameson), p. 76.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 413
in the General Court, had not this body levied a tax upon all the
plantations. The freemen of Watertown immediately protested
against the principle of taxation without representation; and their
protest was the beginning of a movement which led to a revolution
in the Bible commonwealth.1
In the spring of 1634 the outlying towns took the unusual step of
appointing deputies to attend the May session of the General Court.
Upon arriving in Boston these defenders of constitutional liberty de-
manded a "sight" of the royal patent, and Winthrop was compelled
to comply with this demand. Eagerly scanning the parchment which
bore the great seal of England, the deputies found that its legal
phraseology confirmed their assumption that the legislative and ap-
pointive power of the Company lay within the grasp of the majority
of the freemen. Accordingly, when the General Court was convened,
the discontented freemen boldly claimed their rights. They ousted
the Governor, elected in his place a man of their own choice, and
passed a law permitting the towns to send two or three deputies to
the General Court with power to make laws and grant lands.2 Thus
began the system of representative government in Massachusetts,
which was copied in time by Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New
Hampshire.3
II
THE TOWN-MEETING SYSTEM
Several years before the revolution of 1634 the system of town
government in Massachusetts had already appeared. As soon as a
new settlement was established, the proprietors and other inhabitants
would meet from time to time in town-meeting to transact the busi-
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 93; Winthrop, Journal (ed. J. K. Hosmer),
i. 74, 122. The standard treatise upon the beginnings of the representative
system of Massachusetts is Professor George H. Haynes's Representation and
Suffrage in Massachusetts, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, Twelfth
Series, viii.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 117; Winthrop, i. 125. The law of 1634
did not give the deputies power to cast the vote of their townsmen in the election
of the magistrates of the Company. The freemen were still required to bring in
their votes personally. In 1636 the freemen of the outlying towns were permitted
by law to send their votes by proxy. (Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 166.)
Thus arose the system of proxy voting.
• Rhode Island Colonial Records, i. 147, 149; Early Records of the Town of
Providence, xv. 9; Staples, Annals of the Town of Providence, p. 64; Connecticut
Colonial Records, i. 24.
414 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
ness of the town. The freemen, however, soon found it convenient
to appoint selectmen to execute the orders of the town-meetings.
These officials were carefully instructed as to what to do and how to
do it; and they were required to make a detailed report of their
actions to the town. The voting of instructions to the selectmen and
the hearing of the report of the selectmen was the most important
business that usually came before the town for discussion and de-
cision.1 This mode of government was very convenient for a small
democracy, and the New England people took pride in the possession
of a system whereby, for purposes of efficiency, they delegated the
exercise of certain powers to a committee of their fellow-citizens while
at the same time they kept these officers constantly under their
thumb. When the towns began to send deputies to the General
Court, they treated their deputies as they treated their selectmen,
and not only voted instructions to govern their conduct in the colonial
assembly but also required the deputy upon his return from Boston
to make a report concerning the business which had been transacted
at the General Court.
m
EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF TOWN INSTRUCTIONS
The practice of voting instructions for the deputies began almost
immediately upon the establishment of representative government
in Massachusetts. In Plymouth Colony, as early as September, 1640,
a law was passed providing for instructions to the deputies. The
General Court enacted "That the Constables of euery Towne wthin
the Gou* shall warne the townes men whereof they are to come to-
gether as they doe for other townes businesse when the Committees
[the deputies of the towns] shall think it fitt, as well to acquaint them
with what is ppounded or enacted at the Court, as to receive instruo
cbns for any other busbies they would haue donne." 2 In Massa-
chusetts, the General Court in the June session and in the Oc-
tober session of the year 1641 asked the towns to instruct their
deputies upon two projects.3 One of these projects was a proposal
1 Cf . Boston Record Commissioners' Reports (hereafter cited as Boston Rec-
ords), ii. 103, 114, 150, 154; Records of Town of Cambridge, 1630-1703, pp. 11,
13, 99; Watertown Records, i. 1-5; Braintree Records, pp. 5, 11, 22. ,
8 Plymouth Colony Records, xi. 36.
8 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 333, 340, 346; Winthrop, i. 223, ii. 48.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 415
to change the method of electing magistrates, the other was the
adoption of a new code of legal procedure. From Winthrop's ac-
count we learn that the deputies returned to the General Court
at the following sessions with the mandates of their towns upon
these questions.
In the year 1642 the towns appear to have initiated action in the
case of Sherman versus Keayne. This celebrated episode concerning
the lost pig of Goody Sherman has furnished considerable merriment
for historians; but the Great and General Court gravely considered
the case for seven days, while an extraordinary meeting of the Gov-
ernor, magistrates, deputies, and elders was convened for the purpose
of putting an end to the bitter quarrel which had so violently upset
the Puritan commonwealth. The story of a poor woman robbed of
her pig by a rich and grasping merchant of Boston, denied justice
by the magistrates, and fined twenty pounds sterling for having at-
tempted to recover her property, resounded from one end of the little
colony to the other, and seriously undermined all respect for law and
magistracy. The country was greatly agitated. And Winthrop,
who was now back in the graces of the freemen and serving as Gov-
ernor, indicates in his diary that the towns commanded their depu-
ties to see that justice was done.1 The end of the affair was that
Goody Sherman and the Boston merchant came to an understanding
in regard to her claim for damages. But, in the meantime, a pro-
found change had occurred in the constitutional organization of the
colony. The deputies no longer sat with the magistrates in the Great
and General Court. Hereafter they met in separate rooms; and
thus arose the two houses of the General Court.
While the Massachusetts Colony Records prove that the practice
of voting instructions had begun at least as early as 1641, there is no
evidence of these votes to be found in the records of the towns for
this year. Unlike the minutes of the proprietors' meetings, the rec-
ords of the town-meetings in the early days were not kept with the
same care which marked a later generation, and in many cases these
documents have been totally lost. From such scant records as re-
main, however, we have considerable evidence of votes of instruc-
tions after the middle of the century. Thus the Boston Records show
that Boston gave a mandate to its representatives on March 14, 1653.
1 Winthrop, ii. 118.s,
416 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
Altogether, there are records of eighteen votes of instructions by
Boston town-meetings previous to the Revolution of 1689.1 In 1655
the town of Hampton in New Hampshire (which then acknowledged
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and sent a deputy to the General
Court at Boston) instructed its representative to demand from the
General Court permission to hold a market once each week.2 In 1658
another New Hampshire town, Dover, commanded its deputy to
oppose any interference by the General Court with the freedom of the
beaver trade. The deputy was also instructed to "Bring all such
lawes as are macked at this Cortt as other Debeties do." Hereafter,
Dover voted instructions to its deputy once every year immediately
upon his election.3 Among other Massachusetts towns, evidence of
the early use of instructions can be found in the published records of
Salem, Scituate, Hingham, Springfield, Plymouth, Ipswich, and
Duxbury.4
The epoch of the Revolution of 1689 saw considerable activity on
the part of the towns in the matter of instructing their deputies.
Votes of instructions were employed not only to resist the usurpations
of the Stuart despotism in 1683-1686, but also for the purpose of
establishing the provisional government of the colony after the down-
fall of Sir Edmund Andros.5 In this connection it is worthy of note
that in the year 1689 the town of Newton instructed its deputy to
demand for the new government a more liberal franchise with the
abolition of religious qualifications — "an enlargement of freemen, —
that all free-holders, that are of an honest conversation and com-
petent estate, may have their vote in all civil elections." 6
1 Boston Records, ii. 114, 118, 132, 159, vii. 6, 15, 20, 26, 48, 103, 110, 128, 133,
142, 160, 169, 177.
2 J. Dow, History of Hampton, p. 50.
• A. H. Quint, Historical Memoranda concerning Persons and Places in Old
Dover, pp. 50, 66, 70, 94.
4 Salem Town Records, 1659-1680, in Essex Institute Historical Collections,
xl. 277; Deane, History of Scituate, p. 100; S. Lincoln, History of Hingham, p. 81;
Burt, First Century of History of Springfield, ii. 131; Records of Town of Plym-
outh, i. 170; Felt, History of Ipswich, 123; Winsor, History of Duxbury, 109.
• Massachusetts Archives, cvii. 8, 44, 52; Boston Records, vii. 160, 177; T. F.
Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, p. 234; Felt, History of Ips-
wich, p. 123; Felt, Annals of Salem, pp. 280, 282; Winsor, History of Duxbury,
p. 109; Deane, History of Scituate, p. 101.
• S. F. Smith, History of Newton, p. 51.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 417
IV
PROCEDURE FOR THE VOTING or INSTRUCTIONS m TOWN-MEETINGS
On March 14, 1653, the town of Boston appointed a committee to
draw up instructions for her newly elected members.1 This procedure
was generally adopted, not only in Boston, but throughout New
England. After the annual election of deputies a committee on in-
structions would be named. This committee would then retire, while
the town-meeting gave its attention to other business; or else the
meeting would adjourn to a later date. In either case the committee
reported their instructions to the town-meeting; and this report was
debated by the town — not infrequently for several days — and
adopted, amended, or rejected as the town saw fit. Throughout the
year, other town-meetings might be summoned, on the demand of
ten freemen, to vote new instructions to the representatives. As a
rule, free-speech seems to have dominated the assemblies. Sometimes
there was too much of it. "Each individual," said the Rev. William
Gordon in his description of the town-meetings on the eve of the
American Revolution, "has an equal liberty of delivering his opinion,
and is not liable to be silenced or browbeaten by a richer or greater
townsman than himself." 2 Samuel Sewall, the worthy jurist of
witchcraft fame, has left us a picture of the "contentions" and "fer-
ments" which prolonged the Boston town-meeting through the
afternoons until candles had to be lighted to finish the business.
And William Pyncheon has given us a glimpse of similar meetings in
Salem.3 Although every freeman in Boston, even in the early nine-
teenth century when they numbered seven thousand, had a right to
express his opinion in town-meeting, the exigencies of a large as-
sembly naturally limited the exercise of his legitimate powers. And
the humble freeman in Boston was not so apt to ventilate his opinions
in a speech to his fellow-citizens as was the freeman hi the smaller
towns like Groton, or Hadley, or Braintree, where two or three score
was a goodly number at any town-meeting.
1 Boston Records, ii. 114.
1 History of the Rise, progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the
United States (London: 1788), i. 382.
• Diary, i. 125, 424, 473, 478, ii. 8, 74, 275, iii. 257; W. Pyncheon, Diary, pp.
24, 75, 122.
418 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
A TYPICAL BOSTON ELECTION IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
The month of May was the usual time for the Speaker of the
House of Representatives to send out writs for the election of the
members to the Great and General Court. By the Charter of 1691
Boston was entitled to return four deputies. The election of deputies
took place in the freemen's meeting; and the duty of issuing the war-
rants to summon the freemen's meeting devolved upon the selectmen.
Frequently the warrants contained a clause declaring that a vote
would be taken upon the question of instructing the deputies.1
As Boston grew in size the number of voters greatly increased. At
the election of deputies in 1696, Sewall noted that 134 ballots were
cast.2 Under date of February 16, 1703, he records the following:
"2 p.m. Town-Meeting at Boston to chuse Representatives. Mr.
Colman pray'ed. Chose S. Sewall Moderator. Voters 459. . . .
This was the most unanimous Election that I remember to have seen
in Boston, and the most Voters." 3 In the May election of 1744 there
were 532 votes cast; in the election of 1754 there were 603 votes.4
The great increase in the number of freemen invited the applica-
tion of new methods of democratic control; and hi 1763 a promising
young lawyer, John Adams, who in later years was to succeed Wash-
ington as President of the United States, complained that the manage-
ment of Boston's politics had fallen into the hands of a "clique of
intriguers." 5 Adams made this complaint after he had ferreted out
the secret of the Caucus Club, which met in the garret of the mansion
of Tom Dawes.6 Dawes was a master-mason, or, better say, archi-
tect and contractor. He designed the Brattle Street Church built
in 1772-1773, drew plans of the parsonage and other property
owned by the Old South Church, and was one of three commission-
ers appointed in 1795 to erect the State House on Beacon Hill.7 He
1 Boston Records. * Diary, i. 424. 8 ii. 74.
4 Boston Records, xiv. 45, 255. ' Works, ii. 144.
8 Mr. Samuel C. Clough states that this locus, now numbered 214 to 228
Purchase Street, is on the southerly side of that street, between Summer and
Congress Streets. When owned by Dawes, the estate ran to the water's edge,
which was then north of the present Atlantic Avenue. It is owned to-day by
Mr. William A. Gaston.
7 Cf. H. W. Holland, William Dawes and his Ride with Paul Revere (1878),
pp. 23, 60-36; H. A. Hill, History of the Old -South Church, i. 347, ii. 135 note,
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 419
owned considerable property in houses, held the position of adjutant
of the Boston regiment, and, when his bones were at last laid to rest
in King's Chapel Burying-Ground, he well deserved the following
epitaph which his descendants in a later generation bestowed upon
him!
Of his taste for the Grecian Simplicity
in ARCHITECTURE there are many Monuments
which he raised when that Art was new to us.
The Records of Massachusetts shew
that he was one of her active LEGISLATORS
.... and discharged various trusts
To his own honor and the PUBLIC WEAL.*
The garret of the Dawes mansion on Purchase Street was large and
comfortable, and here the Caucus Club was accustomed to hold its
meetings. Among other associates came John Ruddock, a lawyer
and selectman, William Story, the Deputy Register of the Court of
Vice-Admiralty, William Cooper, for forty-nine years the town-clerk
of Boston, William Fairfield, an assessor of long standing, and Samuel
Adams, the maltster, the good-natured, careless, eloquent Master of
Arts of Harvard College, a man so well-beloved by his fellow-citizens
that his negligence as tax-collector was forgiven by vote of the town.
Among these cronies, John Adams complained, the policies of the
town were determined upon, prior to every town-meeting, and
"selectmen, assessors, collectors, wardens, fire-wards, and representa-
tives were regularly chosen before they were chosen in the town."
Having discussed their plans in secret, the Caucus Club frequently
came to an understanding with the Merchants' Club,2 which was
composed of such men as John Hancock, John Rowe, Thomas Cush-
ing, James Otis, and Josiah Quincy, and frequently united with this
organization upon a ticket of candidates. The ticket was often
33G-338; J. G. Palfrey, Sermon Preached to the Church in Brattle Square,
July 18, 1824 (1825), p. 64. The " architect of the State House" was Charles
Bulfinch, and not Dawes (as stated by Holland, p. 60). Dawcs's plans of the
Old South property are reproduced by Hill (i. 347, ii. 134-135). In 1765 Dawes
received from the Province the sum of £2439.12.6 for "the Mason's work and
sundrys which he paid by order of the Committee" in the erection of the present
Harvard Hall (Publications of this Society, xiv. 17).
1 Bridgman, Memorials of the Dead, p. 125.
* For the Merchants' Club, see Publications of this Society, xix. 159-259.
420 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
printed and distributed as a broadside. Sometimes it was published
in the newspapers, as in the Boston Evening Post for May 14, 1764.
The student of Boston's government may obtain a vivid picture
of election proceedings by a perusal of the Boston Records. On the
day of election at ten o'clock in the morning, the selectmen call the
freemen to order in Faneuil Hall. A minister of the gospel is requested
to "pray with the town." Then the town-clerk reads the warrant for
summoning the meeting and sundry election laws of the Great and
General Court; whereupon the chairman of the selectmen proposes
that the town shall proceed to elect four representatives by ballot.
A motion to this effect is carried by unanimous consent, and the
chairman announces that the poll will close at twelve o'clock. The
voters write the names of their candidates upon slips of paper and
hand them to the selectmen. Throughout the morning the crowd of
freemen come and go. At noon the hall is filled with excited spec-
tators and the result of the poll is announced. Technically the free-
men's meeting is now at an end, but the assembly does not break up.
There is further business to transact, and a town-meeting will be
held. The selectmen call for nominations for moderator; and after
the election of this presiding officer an adjournment is usually taken
for dinner.
The worthy freeman who has assiduously attended the freemen's
meeting finds that the election of representatives has consumed the
best part of the morning unless he has returned to his business imme-
diately after casting his vote, and the town-meeting will take the
greater part of his afternoon. It is in the afternoon meeting that the
question of instructing the representatives will come up. If the motion
to instruct the deputies is passed in the affirmative, the procedure will
be to appoint a committee to draw up the instructions. To the ob-
scure freeman this may appear to be a cut and dried performance; for
the committee will be composed of a bare hah* dozen of the "most re-
spectable characters," and the paper which they draft will sometimes
be adopted at the end of the town-meeting without any alterations.
There will not be lacking those who complain that the instruc-
tions are secretly drawn up in dark corners, whereas the liberties of
freemen require that instructions to representatives should be framed
in an open assembly.1 But, oftentimes, the substance of the instruc
1 Cf . a communication in the Boston Evening Post, October 28, 1765.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 421
tions will evoke a sharp debate, and the simple freeman will thus hear
the affairs of the town and of the commonwealth discussed by the
keenest wits of the province; while, if his boldness gets the better of
his prudence, he will attempt to gam the floor to express his own
sentiments on the question before the meeting.
It is not only at the annual election of representatives that instruc-
tions may be voted. The selectmen, upon their own motion, may call
a meeting for this purpose at any time during the year. Or, if the
selectmen fail to call such a meeting, and any ambitious or discon-
tented citizens think that the selectmen are delinquent in their duty,
they may circulate a petition about town praying the selectmen to
summon a special town-meeting. If the petition bears a goodly num-
ber of names the selectmen will grant the request.1 In fact, there is a
law upon the statute-books, enacted in the fourth year of the reign
of King William and Queen Mary (1692), which requires the select-
men to include in the warrant for calling the next town-meeting any
proposition which ten freeholders may petition to have submitted to
the town.2 And should the selectmen refuse the demand of the peti-
tioners, the aggrieved freemen may complain to the justices of the
peace at the next session of the County Court and there obtain a
warrant addressed to the constable, commanding him to summon a
meeting of the town for the purpose of voting upon the proposals of
the petitioners.
VI
CORPORATE CAPACITY or THE NEW ENGLAND TOWNS
The corporate capacity of the constituencies was one of the features
which distinguished the New England representative systems from
those of the middle and southern colonies. In the former systems the
town was the basis of representation; in the latter systems, the county
or shire or parish was the basis.8 As we have already seen, town-
1 Boston Records, xvii. 77, xiv. 57.
1 Acts and Resolves of His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts-Bay,
(Boston, 1759), p. 18.
» In Massachusetts, by the law of 1634, the towns were to send two or three
deputies to the Great and General Court. Ten years later the General Court re-
ferred to the towns a proposal for a law to abolish the representation by towns
and to substitute in its place representation by shires or counties. (Massachusetts
Colony Records, i. 118, ii. 88; Winthrop, i. 125, ii. 170.) The proposal, however,
did not pass into law. Under the State Constitution of 1780 the townships were
422 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
meeting government was highly conducive to the growth of the prac-
tice of instructing. An orderly meeting was at the disposal of the
electors, summoned at least once a year, and generally several times
in each season of the year; and by means of this incorporated as-
sembly the freemen were able to address their representatives with
considerable show of authority. On the other hand, the members of
the popular assemblies in the middle and southern colonies were
elected at the hustings, as in England, where the sheriff took the
"view of hands" on the open green before the court house, or else
checked the voters' names off a list as they filed past his table.1 The
freemen of the counties and shires were not organized in any corporate
capacity; and, accordingly, no meeting of freemen at the hustings
could claim to be anything else than an extra-legal mass-meeting of
citizens. It was not until the year 1765, at the beginning of the
American Revolutionary era, that the freemen of the middle and
southern colonies undertook to meet in an organized manner and to
vote instructions to their deputies in the popular assembly.2
In the motherland, a similar tendency to employ instructions and
positive mandates was a consequence of the corporate nature of cer-
tain constituencies. The freemen of the English shires seldom under-
retained as the election districts of the lower house of the legislature. Finally, by
the constitutional amendment of 1857 the districts were re-arranged without pre-
serving the old townships as units.
1 The English statute of 1696 (7 and 8 William III, C. 25) was widely copied in
the colonies. The preamble of the Maryland election law of 1716 contained the
following: "And foreasmuch as the safest and best Rule for this Province in elect-
ing . . . Delegates and Representatives is the Precedents of the Proceedings in
Parliament in Great Britain, as near as the Constitution of this Province will
admit . . ." (Compleat Collection of the Laws of Maryland, Annapolis, 1727,
p. 174.) Cf. Hening, Virginia Statutes at Large, iii. 172, 236; Colonial Laws of
New York, i. 405; Allinson, Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New
Jersey (Burlington, 1776), p. 69; Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to
1801, ii. 212; Laws of the Government of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex Upon
Delaware (Philadelphia, 1741), p. 76.
2 There were a few exceptions. In 1652 a meeting in Northampton County,
Virginia, voted a paper of instructions. (William and Mary College Quarterly,
i. 191.) Professor Charles W. Spencer has called my attention to a pamphlet in
the British Public Record Office entitled "To the Inhabitants and Freeholders
of Westchester County (New York)" issued by Lewis Morris, the leader of
the Governor's party, who proposed that the towns of the county should ap-
point delegates "to joyn with me in drawing up necessary Instructions to our
Representative."
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 423
took to instruct their knights in Parliament. But the corporations
of the boroughs frequently instructed the burgesses. In 1681 the
freemen of the City of London in Common Hall instructed the four
members in Parliament to refuse their assent to money grants until
security against Popery was obtained; in 1696 to urge an investiga-
tion of the conspiracy against the monarchy and the adoption of
measures to safe-guard merchant ships from falling into the enemy's
hands; in 1697 to pursue a strong policy against France; in 1714 to
impeach the ministry for mismanagement of the war against Louis
XIV; and in 1740, to reduce the number of "placemen" in the House
of Commons.1 The practice of voting instructions was not limited to
London. In 1742, for instance, when the clamor for the impeachment
of Sir Robert Walpole was at its height, the boroughs of London,
Stirling, Aberdeen, York, Hereford, and Coventry, among other
cities, sent instructions to their burgesses demanding that the ex-
minister be brought to punishment.2
Thus, both in the motherland and in the colonies, wherever the
constituencies of the legislative assembly were organized in a cor-
porate capacity there appeared a tendency to control the representa-
tives by means of authoritative mandates.
vn
THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
By means of a vote of instructions the inhabitants of any town
could initiate such legislation as they saw fit. In one feature, how-
ever, there was a difference between this colonial practice and the
modern initiative. Our Puritan forefathers in the town-meetings did
not as a rule draw up the exact wording of the new laws which they
demanded. They merely stated in more or less general terms what
they desired in the way of legislation; it was seldom that the con-
stituents of a deputy actually undertook to frame the law which they
1 W. Maitland, History and Survey of London (London, 1760), i. 469, 500,
602, 518, 600. The Common Council of London very frequently voted instruc-
tions. (Id. i. 548, 623, 624, 628; H. Chamberlain, History and Survey of the
Cities of London and Westminster, London, 1769, i. 378; Addresses Presented
from the Court of Common Council to the King . . . [and] Instructions at Differ-
ent Times to the Representatives of the City in Parliament, London, 1778, pp.
20, 30.)
1 These documents were reprinted in the Boston Evening Post, March 7, 1743.
424
THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
[DEC.
desired to be put on the statute-book. With the initiative went the
referendum. In Rhode Island, during the years 1647 to 1663, every
law passed by the General Assembly had to be referred to the towns
for acceptance or rejection.1 But this requirement was exceptional.
The referendum hi New England was more frequently a specialized
form of instruction of deputies, a practice by which the members of
the lower house had recourse to their constituents for instructions or
advice upon particular bills or questions of policy.
The first use of the referendum hi Massachusetts appears to have
been in the year 1641, seven years after the freemen from the out-
lying towns had overturned the aristocratic regime of John Winthrop
and inaugurated the representative system. In the June session, as
we have already mentioned in another place, the General Court sub-
mitted to the towns a new plan for collecting the annual vote for
magistrates. On this occasion the deputies were ordered to carry
copies of the proposed law to the towns and to " make returnes at the
next Court, what the minds of the freemen are hearin, that the Court
may pceede accordingly." :l Governor Winthrop tells us hi his diary
that the greater number of the towns "refused" the proposed law.3
In the October session, in the same year, another referendum was
ordered, this time upon the question of the adoption of a newly
drafted legal code.4 As a result of this referendum, the curious mix-
ture of Scripture, Puritan political notions, and the Common Law
of England, known as the " Body of Liberties," was voted to be " the
law of the land," as we learn from the scribbling in the hand-writing
of Governor Winthrop upon the last yellow page of the first volume
of the Massachusetts Colony Records preserved in the State House in
Boston.
Hereafter the referendum was frequently used throughout the
colonial period. No unusual constitutional process, therefore, was
required when the House of Representatives in 1776 desired to ascer-
tain the will of the commonwealth upon the question of independence
from Great Britain. On May 10, 1776, the following resolution was
adopted :
1 Rhode Island Colonial Records, i. 148, 229, 401, 429.
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 334.
» Winthrop, ii. 223.
* Massachusetts Colony Records, i. 340.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 425
Resolved, As the Opinion of this House that the inhabitants of each
town in this Colony, ought in full Meeting warned for that Purpose, to
advise the Person or Persons who shall be chosen to Represent them in
the next General Court, whether that if the honorable Congress should,
for the Safety of the said Colonies, declare them Independent of the
Kingdom of Great-Britain, they the said Inhabitants will solemnly engage
with their Lives and Fortunes to Support the Congress in the Measure.1
In response to this referendum or appeal to the country, the towns of
Massachusetts held meetings in May and June, and, after electing
their deputies for the next General Court, instructed them in vigorous
terms to support the Continental Congress in any of its measures
looking towards independence.2 Many of the towns on this occasion
drew up elaborate instructions, which reviewed the grievances of the
American colonies and gave the history of the controversy with Great
Britain.
During the four years following the Declaration of Independence
the referendum was employed upon several occasions, particularly
when the question of making a State constitution was referred to the
towns.3 The Constitution of 1780 was adopted as the result of these
votes. Throughout the colonial history of Massachusetts, as well as
in the Revolutionary epoch, there had been a tendency to confine
the use of the referendum to constitutional questions. And after
the establishment of the Federal Government, the referendum was
strictly limited to questions of fundamental law.
VIII
THE RECALL
Our Puritan forefathers attempted to use the recall, with varying
degrees of success. In 1644, the townsmen of Gloucester " dismissed "
William Stevens who represented them in the General Court and
chose another in his place. The General Court, however, refused to
seat the new deputy, and an order was sent to the town of Gloucester
1 Massachusetts House Journal, pp. 266, 276.
1 Massachusetts Archives, clvi. 98-120.
1 Cf . E. M. Hartwoll, Referenda in Massachusetts and Boston, in the City of
Boston, Monthly Bulletin of the Statistics Department (1909), ri. 151-160; H. A.
Gushing, History of the Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Govern-
ment in Massachusetts, in Columbia University Studies, vol. vii. chaps, vii, viii.
426 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
for the return of Stevens. The town was informed that it might
bring complaint against their deputy, and, if they were able to show
that he was " vnfitt for ye service of this Courte, y * then this howse
shall acc° it theire dutie to deale wth him as an offending member
thereof." * Against this decision of the General Court the town was
unable to prevail. In the year 1686, however, Salem asserted the
right to withdraw her deputies at the General Court.2 And in the
following year, the town of Fairfield in Connecticut stripped its depu-
ties of their offices for having weakly yielded to the demands of Sir
Edmund Andros at the memorable meeting of the Council whereat
the popular leaders are said to have plucked the charter out of the
hands of the Stuart despot and hid it in the hollow of an oak.3
A century later, at another constitutional crisis, the New England
towns very generally exercised the right of recall, without objection
on the part of the legislature. In 1774, among other instances, the
town of Rehoboth summarily dismissed Captain John Wheeler as
their delegate to the Provincial Congress and elected a more enthu-
siastic patriot in his place.4 Four years later, when the adoption of
a State constitution was under discussion in Massachusetts, the
same town proposed as one of the fundamental laws a provision
" enabling each town in this State at any time, to elect a Representa-
tive or Representatives to represent them in the General Court, and
thereby to recall their former Representative or Representatives as the
pleasure of any town may be. " 6 Other towns likewise urged the adop-
tion of the recall as a part of the new constitution. The suggestion
was not followed by the Conyention which framed the Massachu-
setts Constitution of 1780. But, on the other hand, the Conven-
tion retained a feature of the old Massachusetts system, which was
practically as effective as the recall would have been in controlling
the representatives of the towns. This was the provision for annual
elections, a habit so deeply rooted in Massachusetts political life that
the people have been loath to abandon it even in the twentieth cen-
tury when the inconvenience of a yearly contest for governor and
Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 3.
Felt, Annals of Salem, p. 282.
Schenck, History of Fairfield, i. 237-239.
Bliss, History of Rehoboth, pp. 145, 146.
Continental Journal (Boston), February 4, 1779. The town voted the
resolution on June 1, 1778.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 427
representatives has become very distressing. John Adams and the
revolutionary patriots of Massachusetts considered the annual return
of public officials to the status of simple citizens as a panacea for the
majority of political ills.1 They believed in the maxim: "Where
annual elections end, there tyranny begins." So they would have all
great men —
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
This would teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience
and moderation, without which, in John Adams's opinion, every man
in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey!
A few years after the adoption of the first State Constitution the
town of Cambridge passed a resolution in town-meeting succinctly
describing the Massachusetts system which had then been in existence
for nearly two centuries, and which, under the influence of modern
life, was soon to become somewhat modified. "The Constitution of
Massachusetts," said the townsmen of Cambridge, "has provided
for the annual choice of every branch of the Legislature, and that
the people in the several towns may assemble to deliberate on public
grievances, and to instruct their Representatives. By annual elections
there are frequent opportunities to change the Representatives if
their conduct is disapproved." 2
IX
GENERAL AND LOCAL CHARACTER or TOWN MANDATES
The instructions voted by the various towns reflected the economic
and social conditions of each particular locality. For instance, the
towns-people of Scituate in 1665 experienced some hardship with
reference to the ease with which debtors defrauded their creditors,
and in this year the town commanded their deputy to move the Court
for a new law to prevent debtors from paying their debts "with old
rusty barrels of guns that are serviceable for no man, unless to work
up as old iron."8 Boston, the metropolis of New England, where
strangers could easily come and go, was frequently compelled to in-
1 J. Adams, Works, iv. 197; 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv. 377.
* Paige, History of Cambridge, p. 166.
* Deane, History of Scituate, p. 100.
428 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OP MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
struct her deputies to secure laws guarding the town from the charge
of paupers who flocked in from the smaller towns or from the neigh-
boring colonies. The Boston deputies were also often reminded by
the town of the need for promoting trade and commerce.1 Salem,
another sea-port town which was chiefly interested in the fishing and
whaling industries, was not content to rely upon the "ancient repre-
sentation of a cod fish" mounted on a mahogany board and hung
back of the Speaker's chair in the Hall of the Representatives as a
constant reminder that New England's farm was on the seas; but we
find the town, among other occasions, instructing its deputies in 1735
to move the General Court to send an appeal to England against the
acts of Parliament which hampered the American trade in fish.2 On
the other hand, an inland town like Worcester was more interested in
promoting agriculture than in fostering commerce or fishing. Worces-
ter was near the centre of the interior district which became the scene
of Shays's Rebellion in 1786. During this period of agricultural dis-
content a hundred or more instructions were voted by various towns
in the middle and western part of Massachusetts, demanding relief
for the debtor class by increasing the circulation of paper money, and
for the encouragement of farmers by a deduction in the land tax and
a shifting of the burden of taxation upon the population engaged in
commerce. Some small towns made even more radical demands,
calling upon then* deputies to exterminate the profession of lawyers,
to abolish the quarterly sessions, and to remove the State House out
of the wicked city of Boston into some more democratic and accessible
inland town!3
1 Boston Records, vii. 134, viii. 135, xii. 122, 146, 198, 226, xiv. 12, 277, xxxv.
117.
» Felt, Annals of Salem, p. 410.
• Among other examples, the town of Sutton on January 24, 1787, voted "that
our Representative be instructed to use his influence in the General Court that
any man may be permitted to keep a half score of sheep that they may not be
liable to be taken from him by Warrant or Execution" (Benedict and Tracy,
History of Sutton, p. 127). Concord instructed its deputy in May, 1787, "to
provide some way for raising some supplies for the public expense, which shall
be less burdensome on the landed interest " (Shattuck, History of Concord, p. 142).
Worcester demanded in October 1786, "the annihilation of the courts of common
pleas and general sessions" (Worcester Town Records, 1784-1800, pp. 24, 89).
Among other radical instructions, see Smith, History of Pittsfield, p. 412; Free-
man, History of Cape Cod, ii. 135; Hudson, History of Marlborough, p. 195*
Weston, History of Middleboro, p. 577; Braintree Records, p. 567. For the
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 429
Thus, local opinions, prejudices, and interests found expression in
the mandates voted by the freemen to their deputies in the lower
house of the colonial assembly. Like the cahiers of the French, these
documents were the voice of the people. It was not alone upon mat-
ters of local interest that the deputies were instructed. The whole
realm of colonial legislation was covered by the freemen in town-
meeting. Particularly in the struggle over the revocation of the
Charter hi 1684-1689 and in the contest over the governor's salary
in 1728-1733, the towns stood out for the liberties of the colony. In
both of these conflicts Boston led the way in arousing concerted ac-
tion. In the year 1684, when the House of Representatives was
greatly disturbed by the demand of the British Crown for the sur-
render of the Massachusetts Charter, the deputies of Boston applied
to their town for instructions in the matter. A town-meeting was
accordingly summoned, and the leaders of the popular party invited
the celebrated divine, Mr. Increase Mather, to address the meeting
and give " his Thoughts on the case of Conscience before them." x
Mather came, bursting with eloquence; and in a passionate harangue
he reminded the freemen of Boston that their forefathers had pur-
chased the Charter at great sacrifice. "And would they deliuer it
up, even as Ahab required Naboth's Vineyard: 0h, their Children
would be bound to curse them! " The orator called attention to the
manner in which the Stuarts had lately treated the city of London,
and in closing he drew a warning therefrom for the metropolis of New
England. " Upon this pungent Speech, many of the Freemen fell into
Tears; and there was a General Acclamation, 'We thank you, Sire!
We thank you, SireP" The question of sustaining the deputies in
their refusal to surrender the Charter was then put to a vote, and
carried nemine contradicente.3 This action on the part of Boston, of
course, was not without effect upon the country, as the pious son of
the eloquent divine tells us in his Parentator. The deputies of Ips-
wich, for instance, were informed by their constituents that every
action taken by the "instructed" members in the House of Representatives, see
House Journal (Massachusetts Archives), v. 90, vi. 471, vii. 297, 317, 459, viii.
66, 70, 110, 111, 266, 289, 496, 505; Massachusetts Centinel, March 29, 1788.
1 Cotton Mather gives an account of this affair in his Parentator (1724), p. 91.
1 The above quotation is from " Extract of a Letter from New England to Mr.
Randolph. Reed. 30 May [16]84 " in Edward Randolph (Prince Society), iii. 283.
* Boston Records, vii. 164.
430 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Dec.
freeman at the town-meeting voted to instruct them never to resign
the liberties of Massachusetts.1 These spirited resolutions of the
towns, however, did not immediately save New England from the
despotism of the Stuarts. The Charter was annulled in the King's
Court, and in 1687 the Council of Sir Edmund Andros prohibited the
holding of all town-meetings save the annual freemen's meeting for
electing officers.2 But as we have already seen, after the downfall of
the Stuarts an interim government was set up by the authority of
town mandates.
Another occasion when town mandates were employed in the
struggle with the Crown was in the year 1728, when the House of
Representatives and the Governor were at odds over the question of
making a permanent settlement of the Governor's salary. Under
the leadership of the astute politician, Elisha Cooke, the House issued
a circular letter to the towns, calling upon them for instructions as to
future action in the conflict.3 A town-meeting was immediately sum-
moned in Boston, at which the Rev. Joseph Sewall offered prayer and
Jonathan Belcher presided as moderator. After the freemen had
listened to the speeches of the Governor's opponents, they voted to
resist the settlement of a permanent salary upon the King's repre-
sentative.4 As soon as he was informed of the action of the Boston
town-meeting, Governor Burnet sent a message to the General Court
bitterly complaining of Boston's "unnecessary forwardness," which
had set an " Example of doing the like to the Towns in the Country." 5
And he arbitrarily adjourned the Court to meet a week later in Salem.
The tragic death of the Governor in 1729 as the result of a fever
which he contracted when his coach fell into the Charles River as he
was passing from Cambridge to Boston, did not end the conflict.
His successor Belcher also urged the grant of a permanent salary;
and in the summer of 1731 the House sent another appeal to the
towns for support.6 In response, town-meetings were summoned
1 Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 234; Felt, History of
Ipswich, 123.
1 Connecticut Colonial Records, iii. 427.
• Massachusetts House Journal, 1728, pp. 61, 64, 67; Hutchinson, History of
Massachusetts (London, 1767), ii. 345.
4 Boston Records, viii. 226, xiii. 178.
• House Journal, 1728, pp. 103, 105.
• Id., 1731, p. 119.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 431
throughout the colony and the deputies were again instructed to
oppose the Governor.1
X
PUBLICITY IN COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND
Publicity was not lacking even in the earliest colonial period when
roads were few and wretchedly kept. In 1632, Governor Winthrop
paid a visit to Governor Bradford. It took him two days to make
the journey of forty-six miles, over unbridged streams and danger-
ous swamps between Boston and Plymouth.2 Soon, however, each
settlement had a highway of some sort leading to Boston or Plym-
outh. In certain seasons of the year, the freemen who lived hi the
inland towns were accustomed to haul their wheat or corn by wagon
as far as Boston, stopping at the way-side inns when night overtook
them on then* journey to or from market. The Puritan farmers thus
learned at first hand the gossip of the metropolis. Frequently the
ministers and elders travelled to Boston for spiritual, fraternal or
other reasons; and the deputies made the trip sometimes four times
a year. After attending the sessions of the Great and General Court
the deputies would return to then* homes, bringing with them copies
of the laws passed at the Court and the news of the province which
they had gathered as they wined and dined at the good Ship Tavern
on North Street, or as they attended with becoming reverence the
weekly lecture at the First Church. It was only the remote and re-
cently settled towns that elected deputies who were not inhabitants
of their jurisdictions and who thus did not come back to their small
constituencies at the adjournment of the legislature. John Hull, the
coiner of the pinetree shilling, and the indulgent parent who is said
to have dowered his daughter with the amount of her weight in silver,
served seven years in the General Court as a deputy for Wenham,
Westfield, Concord, and Salisbury at the same tune that he was a
resident of Boston.8 But such representation was rare.
1 Boston Records, xii. 26; Hi-Centennial Book of Maiden, p. 206; Felt, History
of Ipswich, Essex and Hamilton, p. 127; Watertown Records, iii. 62; Hazen,
History of Billerica, p. 226; Weston, History of Middleboro, p. 572; Benedict and
Tracy, History of Button, p. 44; Braintree Town Records, p. 166; Brooks, History
of Medford, p. 105.
• Winthrop, i. 94.
* American Antiquarian Society Transactions and Collections, iii. 121; Massa-
chusetts Colony Records, iii. 147, 297, iv. ii, 362, 485, 507, 561, v. 2, 98, 260.
432 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
Upon the return of the deputy, it was customary to have the clerk
read aloud in town-meeting the acts which had been passed by the
General Court, while the deputies were called upon to explain any
ambiguities in the laws or to make a report upon their efforts in carry-
ing out the instructions of the town.1 In a later period, when trans-
portation facilities had greatly increased, many of the towns carried
on a correspondence with their deputies throughout the session of the
Great and General Court.2
In case the freemen of any town were suspicious as to the conduct
of their deputy at Boston they had recourse, in the eighteenth cen-
tury, to the printed Journals of the House of Representatives. The
custom of publishing these journals began in the last days of the
governorship of Joseph Dudley, the Massachusetts politician and
courtier, of whom Thomas Hutchinson well said: "Ambition was
his ruling passion, and perhaps, like Caesar, he had rather be the first
man in New England than second in Old." In 1715, a controversy
between. the Governor and the House of Representatives led the
deputies to order the printing of their Journals for the purpose of
vindicating themselves before their constituents. The precedent
thus established was followed consistently until after the American
Revolution.3
Even before the beginning of the publication of the printed Jour-
nals of the House of Representatives, newspapers had appeared in
Massachusetts. As early as 1704 the Boston News-Letter was estab-
lished; and in 1719 a rival sheet called the Boston Gazette came out.
Both of these papers began their existence at a time when the royal
instructions of the Governors still contained a demand for the censor-
ship of the press, and when no one in the province could legally print
Springfield, Andover, and Oxford for a few years elected non-resident deputies.
(Burt, First Century of the History of Springfield, L 34; Bailey, Historical
Sketches of Andover, p. 136; Daniels, History of Oxford, p. 12; Freeland, Records
of Oxford, p. 147.)
1 Massachusetts Colony Records, iii. 204, iv. i. 22, 182, v. 4, 562; Quint, His-
torical Memoranda concerning Old Dover, p. 144; Green, Historical Sketch of
Groton, p. 198; Shattuck, History of Concord, p. 142.
* Worcester Town Records from 1753 to 1783, p. 244; Essex Gazette (Salem),
June 7, 1774; Shattuck, History of Concord, p. 142.
1 See the introduction to W. C. Ford's edition of Journals of the House of
Representatives, 1715 (Boston, 1902).
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 433
a book or a pamphlet without " license first obtained." l Thus, both
of the papers were cautious journals, without any political complexion;
and both announced the fact that they were " Published by Author-
ity." 2 In 1721, the New England Courant began its career. The
publisher was James Franklin, the elder brother of Benjamin Franklin
who at this time served in his brother's office as an apprentice. James
Franklin was a radical. He attacked the theologians; and was con-
sequently assigned by one worthy divine to the " Hell-Fire Club of
Boston." He also assailed the Governor and the House of Repre-
sentatives. This impudence resulted in his arrest and imprisonment,
but the failure of the House to secure a conviction against him for
libel, greatly encouraged the freedom of the press throughout New
England. The New England Weekly Journal followed in 1727; and
in 1731 the Weekly Rehearsal was printed by John Draper, but in
1732 was transferred to Thomas Fleet, who in 1735 changed its name
to the Boston Evening Post. Thus, soon a large array of newspapers,
pamphlets, and broadsides provided the freemen of the province with
every variety of political information.3 The inhabitants of the towns
were not unaware of the importance of this literature as a political
asset. In 1751, a writer declared that the Massachusetts freemen
were jealous of the "Liberty of the Press" because it enabled them
" to come to the Knowledge of what their Delegates are about." 4
XI
THE EXCISE BILL OF 1754
The growth of the means of publicity hi New England was inti-
mately connected with the practice of voting mandates to the depu-
ties. We have already seen how the popular party in Massachusetts
1 Concerning the censorship of the press in Massachusetts, see C. A. Duni-
way, Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts, ch. v.
1 Cf. Publications of this Society, ix. 422, 441.
* For an account of this remarkable increase in publishing, see Thomas, His-
tory of Printing in America, ii. 309; Narrative and Critical History of America,
v. 120; Memorial History of Boston, ii. 387; S. N. D. North, History and Present
Condition of the Newspaper and Periodical Press of the United States, Tenth
Census of the United States, viii. passim; J. L. Bishop, History, of American
Manufactures from 1608 to 1860, vol. ii. ch. vii; Tyler, History of American
Literature, 1607-1765, ii. 93.
* Appendix to Massachusetts in Agony (Boston, 1751), in A. McF. Davis,
Colonial Currency Reprints (Prince Society), iv. 464.
434 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
from time to time appealed to the towns in order to win support in
the contest with the Governors. But it was not alone in the struggles
with the British Crown that resort was had on a general scale to the
town-meetings for instructions. Frequently when the contest be-
tween the sea-port towns and the country towns, or between the paper
money party and the sound money party waxed hot, the representa-
tives carried the disputed issue to the towns for local advice. An
incident of this sort occurred in 1754, after William Shu-ley had per-
suaded the General Court to fall into line with the British imperial
policy and to send another expedition against the French hi Canada.
More money was needed for the undertaking in hand, and the depu-
ties from the agricultural regions proposed that the new tax should
be a duty on wines and spirits, which, in their ignorance of economic
laws, they believed would fall entirely upon the rich dwellers in the
sea-port towns and upon the inn-keepers everywhere. The New
England farmers always had a grudge against the dispensers of hos-
pitality at the cross-roads; while the unpopularity of rich men has
not been limited to colonial days.
The proposed Excise Bill contained a provision authorizing excise-
men to search the cellars of inns and houses. This was a necessary,
but very aggravating provision; and the deputies from the sea-port
towns made the most of it to discredit the bill, taunting the country
members with having proposed a measure which was inquisitorial
and highly objectionable to the free people of Massachusetts. They
moved that the bill should be printed and sent to the towns for their
consideration. The country members could hardly refuse to accept
this challenge; and accordingly the new tax was referred to the towns
for their instructions.1 The contest which followed was very close,
and before it was ended the weakness of the Massachusetts system
had been exposed in its most vulnerable point. For, what was there
to prevent a member from quietly putting his instructions in his
pocket and voting as he saw fit? When the Court convened after
the recess, the commercial party believed that they had secured
the larger number of instructions, and consequently they moved
that the returns from the towns should be canvassed in a public
sitting of the House.2 This motion to lay the town votes before
1 House Journal, 1754, p. 45.
« Id. p. 60.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES }.°>.~>
the General Court was not to the liking of the country members,
and was voted down; while the Excise Bill was passed by a narrow
majority.1
The refusal of the country members to disclose their instructions
was the occasion of much gossip. An opponent of the Excise Bill
published a pamphlet in which he declared that the bill had been
carried in the House against instructions from the majority of the
towns.2 Another writer in the Boston Gazette for December 31, 1754,
maintained that a large number of the towns had failed to vote in-
structions, thereby leaving their deputies free to vote as they pleased.
A war of pamphlets and broadsides ensued, which was ultimately
checked when one particularly provoking scribbler penned a satire
called The Monster of Monsters, and was summarily punished by the
scandalized House of Representatives.3
It may have been that upon this occasion a few deputies violated
their instructions. As a rule, there were means whereby a constitu-
ency could test the faithfulness of its representative, namely, by an
examination of the "printed journals." The instructions which the
1 House Journal, 1754, pp. 61, 62, 101. I have not examined the unpublished
town records for action taken upon the Excise Bill. Among the published 'rec-
ords, and in the Massachusetts Archives, I have found only five town votes in
favor of the bill. Cf. Barry, History of Framingham, p. 48; Paige, History of
Hardwick, p. 47; Marvin, History of Lancaster, p. 266; Bi-Centennial Book of
Maiden, p. 207; Pierce, Town of Weston, p. 38. A copy of the vote of the town
of Weston is in the Massachusetts Archives, cxix. 475a. Twenty-one town
votes against the Excise Bill have been found. Cf. Boston Records, xiv. 260;
Felt, Annals of Salem, p. 444; Worcester Town Records for 1753-1783, p. 19; Bab-
son, History of Gloucester, p. 344; Felt, History of Ipswich, p. 128; Brooks, His-
tory of Medford, p. 109; Hadley Town Records (MS. in Town Clerk's house),
August 5, 1754; Records of the Town of Plymouth, iii. p. 63; Early Records of
Lunenburg, p. 166; Braintree Records, p. 337; Coffin, Sketch of Newbury, p. 221;
Frothingham, History of Charlestown, p. 263; Barry, Historical Sketch of Han-
over, p. 170; Washburn, Historical Sketches of Leicester, p. 65; Merrill, History
of Amesbury, p. 220; Roads, History of Marblehead, p. 63. The Boston Ga-
zette, August 20, 1754, stated that Dorchester and Weymouth had voted instruc-
tions against the Excise Bill. The Boston Post-Boy, September 23, 1754, re-
ported similar action taken by the town of Kittery. The instructions of
Eastham and Stoughton are in the Massachusetts Archives, cxix. 474, 475.
1 The Relapse (Boston, 1754) . Copies of this pamphlet are in the library of the
Massachusetts Historical Society and in the Boston Athenaeum. The author is
unknown. Other 'pamphlets on the subject are The Eclipse, The Review, and
The Crisis, the last by the Rev. Samuel Cooper.
» House Journal, 1754, pp. 63, 67, 72.
436 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
deputies received as a result of a referendum were occasionally turned
over to the Speaker or Secretary of the Commonwealth and preserved
in the archives of the House of Representatives.1 On the other hand,
no official record was made of the instructions which had been re-
ceived without a referendum having been ordered; and this sort of
mandate was the greater in number. Notwithstanding the oppor-
tunities for disregarding the commands of the towns, I have failed to
find another case of disobedience on the part of any deputy previous
to the American Revolution. And in this later epoch, as we have
already seen, the towns created their own remedy for disobedience by
successfully reviving their claim of the right to recall their deputies.
XII
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
On the eve of the American Revolution the practice of voting in-
structions in the town-meetings of New England was a century and
a half old. As a means of arousing public opinion and as an instru-
ment for voicing the will of the people, it was an institution whose
usefulness had already been thoroughly tested. Accordingly, in the
struggle for independence (and the formation of the new State gov-
ernments, instructions from the towns constituted one of the chief
weapons of the patriots of the Revolution. Samuel Adams, the Man
of the Town-Meeting and the Father of the American Revolution,
pinned his faith to these votes of the towns. His ablest state papers
were the mandates which he composed as chairman of the Boston
committee on instructions in the years 1764 and 1765; and in a letter
to Arthur Lee he said: "It is a ivery common practice for this town
to instruct their representatives; which among other good purposes
serves to communicate their sentiments and spirit to the other towns,
and may be looked upon as fresh appeals to the world." ;| Another
patriot, John Adams, then a young lawyer residing in Braintree, first
1 On November 5, 1765, the House ordered: "That the Instructions of the
several towns fo their Representatives, relative to the Stamp Act, be printed in
the Journal of the House; and that the Boston Members place them in proper
Order for that end" (House Journal, p. 167. Of. Boston Evening Post, Novem-
ber 11, 1765). These instructions were not the returns of a referendum. The
order of the House was never carried out.
1 R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, ii. 204; Gushing, Writings of Samuel Adams,
iii. 37.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 437
came into public notice as a leader in the popular cause by penning
the instructions of his native town against the Stamp Act. The Brain-
tree instructions of 1765 were adopted a few days after an enthusias-
tic meeting in Faneuil Hall had voted upon the instructions which
Samuel Adams had drawn up for the guidance of the Boston depu-
ties.1 Both of these bold and eloquent documents were printed in
the Boston newspapers; and within a month, a hah* hundred and more
Massachusetts towns had called town-meetings and adopted instruc-
tions which were couched in the same words as those used by the
Adamses.2
Throughout the period of transition from colony to statehood the
revolutionary leaders relied upon town mandates as the constitutional
basis for their political action. In 1774, the towns of Massachusetts
established the first Provincial Congress by means of their votes of
instructions. The circumstances were as follows. General Gage had
summoned the House of Representatives to meet at Salem on Octo-
ber 5. In September the town of Boston instructed its deputies to
refuse to recognize the Mandamus Council, " and, as we have Reason
to believe that a Conscientious Discharge of your Duty, will produce
your Dissolution, as an House of Representatives — We do hereby
impower & instruct you to join with the Members [from the other
towns in forming a Provincial Congress]." 8 A considerable number
of towns copied the action of Boston; and as a result the deputies,
having met in Salem on October 5, withdrew to Concord and set up
the First Provincial Congress of Massachusetts.
1 Works, ii. x, 152, ix. 610, 616; Gushing, Writings of Samuel Adams, i. 7;
Braintree Records, p. 404; Boston Records, xvi. 155.
* The instructions of the Boston town-meeting of September 18, 1765, were
published in the Boston Gazette on September 23. The Braintree instructions
were adopted 'on September 24, but not published until October 14. I find a
record of mandates voted by the following towns: Andover, Beverly, Boston, Box-
ford, Braintree, Bridgewater, Byfield, Cambridge, Charleatown, Danvers, Ded-
ham, Duxbury, Framingham, Gloucester, Groton, Haverhill, Ipswich, Leicester,
Lexington, Maiden, Marblehead, Marshfield, Medfield, Medford, Medway,
Mendon, Middleboro, Milton, Newburyport, Newton, Norton, Oakham, Pem-
broke, Plymouth, Quincy, Reading, Rowley, Roxbury, Salem, Sandwich, Shirley,
Southampton, Stoughton, Westborough, Westford, Weston, Weymouth, Worces-
ter and Yarmouth.
* Boston Records, xviii. 192. Cf. the instructions of Barnstable, Billerica,
Bn><>k lim-, Cambridge, Danven, Framingham, Gorham (Maine), Hardwiok,
Middleboro, Portland (Maine), Weymouth.
438 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
The constitutional struggle with the British Crown and Parlia-
ment, like the Revolution of 1689, quickened the civic life of the
New England towns. The freemen vigorously exercised their right
to instruct. The question of the adoption of a State constitution
occasioned a deluge of town mandates. Moreover, the horizon of the
New England towns was not limited by the boundaries of their re-
spective States. They took under consideration all the problems of
the Confederacy, and frequently instructed their deputies to move the
State legislature to instruct its delegates in Congress to pursue certain
policies. Thus the town of Mendon in 1784 demanded the repeal of
the Impost Act.1 And in 1781, when ugly rumors were afloat con-
cerning the malfeasance of Silas Deane, Weymouth and Medway
instructed their deputies to move the General Court to instruct the
delegates in Congress "to demand of their foreign ministers, com-
missioners and agents a faithful account of their management and
expense of public money, and that no character however great, be
screen'd from public scrutiny." : In the same year the town of
Stoughton, after instructing its deputy to vote for the repeal of a
Massachusetts currency act which was not consistent with the orders
of Congress, admonished him: "And you are instructed to be very
cautious hi giving your vote . . . for any Law or Resolve, until you
are well informed that they are not repugnant to the authority of
Congress." 3 In 1778 the Great and General Court ordered a refer-
endum on the question of ratifying the Articles of Confederation and
Perpetual Union.4
Until a late day the town of Boston continued to play its role of
leader. In 1781 the freemen in Faneuil Hall voted to instruct the
deputies to move the General Court to urge upon Congress the neces-
sity of including an article in the impending treaty of peace to secure
American rights in the Newfoundland fisheries. The town, further-
more, ordered that a circular letter be sent to other Massachusetts
towns urging them to take similar action.5 As a result, many towns
1 Metcalf, Annals of the Town of Mendon, p. 417.
* Jameson, History of Medway, p. 58.
' Huntoon, History of the Town of Canton, 423. Sutton passed a similar vote:
Benedict and Tracy, History of Sutton, p. 93.
4 House Journal, 1777, pp. 143, 206, 208; Massachusetts Archives, clvi. 294-
303.
6 Boston Records, xxvi. 211-219.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 439
like Plymouth ordered their deputies to conform with the require-
ments of the Boston instructions.1 In 1783, after the publication of
the Treaty of Paris, Boston again led the way in eliciting a flood of
instructions directed against the policy of leniency to the Loyalists.1
XIII
TOWN MANDATES AS EVIDENCE OF POLITICAL CAPACITY
After the American Revolution John Adams declared that town
instructions had been one of the most important means by which the
independence of the colonies was won. In his opinion, the birth of
American liberty lay in the town-meetings where the freemen met
" to deliberate upon the public affairs of the town, or to give instruc-
tions to their representatives in the legislature." "The consequences
of these institutions," he went on to say, "have been, that the in-
habitants, having acquired from their infancy the habit of discussing,
of deliberating, and of judging of public affairs, it was in these assem-
blies of towns or districts that the sentiments: of the people were
formed in the first place, and their resolutions were taken from the
beginning to the end of the disputes and the war with Great Brit-
ain." 8 Adams always delighted to discourse on the beauties of the
town-meeting government, where —
every man, high and low, every yeoman, tradesman, and even day-
laborer, as well as every gentleman and public magistrate, had a right
to vote, and to speak his sentiments upon public affairs, to propose meas-
ures and to instruct the representatives . . . This right was constantly
used under the former government and is now much more frequently
used under the new. The world has seen some hundreds of sets of in-
1 Records of Town of Plymouth, iii. 439. Cf. Chamberlain, History of Chelsea,
ii. 549; Hanson, History of Danvers, p. 100; Felt, Annals of Ipswich, p. 123;
Smith, History of Newburyport, 120; Willis, History of Portland, Maine, ii. 174;
Felt, Annals of Salem, p. 513; W. Pyncheon, Diary, p. 114.
* Boston Records, xxvi. 310. Mention should also be made of a communica-
tion by "An American" published in Thomas's Massachusetts Spy for May 1,
1783, which advised the towns in the county of Worcester to "bind by instruc-
tions " their deputies elected to the next General Court to the end that they vote
for no law permitting the return of the Loyalists or for rendering them compensa-
tion or restitution for confiscated property.
* Defence of the American Constitutions (1787), i. 384; Works, v. 495.
440 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
structions to representatives under the former government, wherein they
enjoined an open opposition to judges, governors, acts of parliament,
king, lords and commons of Great Britain.1
John Adams was right. The town-meeting government of New
England was a school for political thought and action. For a century
and a half the Puritans and their descendants had received a political
education such as few Englishmen could boast. The royal governors
frequently complained of the democratic tendencies of the town-
meetings; and the British Crown, acting upon this advice, more than
once sought to suppress them. Sir Edmund Andros when he issued
the edict prohibiting all town-meetings save the annual election meet-
ing, the British Parliament when it passed the Regulating Ordinance
in 1774, and General Gage when he interdicted town-meetings, knew
that they were striking at the essence of the New England democracy.
It was in these bodies that the people dared to frame their instruc-
tions which the deputies carried with them to the General Court to
the end that when the royal governor said: The King demands so
and so, the representatives could reply: But our constituents demand
thus and thus.
Our New England forefathers were more extensively initiated in
the arts of self-government than were their fellow-countrymen in
Old England. In 1729 Governor Burnet had informed the Duke of
Newcastle that the people of Massachusetts were then aiming at in-
dependence.2 And although this faithful representative of the Crown
was in error when he made this judgment, yet it was true that the
New England town-meeting system was eminently provocative of a
hardy, stubborn and independent public opinion, and that the colo-
nial assemblies were a stalwart political growth. The relationship
between these two bodies — the towns and the assemblies — was a
relationship more direct and more unimpaired than was that which
existed between the English constituencies and the House of Com-
mons. In New England's representative system there were no rotten
boroughs, no nomination seats, and no " brute votes." And moreover,
while the middle class in England was never fairly and fully repre-
sented in Parliament until the Electoral Reform of 1832, the middle
1 Works, vii. 182-183.
* Burnet to the Board of Trade, March 24, 1729, in the Sparks Manuscripts
(Harvard College Library), Series X, i. 56.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 441
class in the colonies was almost completely enfranchised. With rare
exception every freeholder and every man with a small estate pos-
sessed the right to vote. And more than this: the greater part of
the population were freeholders. In other words, the middle class
was in the majority.1 A landless class, it is true, had already appeared
in Boston and in the sea-port towns. And large numbers of immi-
grants and wanderers were coming into the country towns, only to
find that all the land was in the hands of the original proprietors or
in the hands of then* descendants who were too frequently unwilling
to grant a share of the "common" to the newcomer. And year after
year the selectmen were warning more poor and indigent wanderers
out of the bounds of the townships. But after all, the landless and
property-less class was small in comparison with this class in Old
England. The man of small means, or of no means at all save health
and enterprise, had the opportunity to join the proprietors of some
new town in the west; and there by his industry and prudence it was
possible for him to build up an estate as substantial as that of any
other farmer in New England. Thus, while the Massachusetts Char-
ter of 1691 limited the franchise to forty shilling freeholders, and
while Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire had similar
limitations of the right to vote, the economic equality of the citizens
in the country towns — and in a large measure in the sea-port towns
— removed the apparent unfairness of the qualifications for voting,
while there is considerable evidence to show that in many towns the
legal requirements for voting were consistently ignored and all able-
bodied men gave then* voice in town-meeting whether or not they
were freemen in the eyes of the law.2
1 Returns of the tax assessments for the Massachusetts towns are preserved in
the Archives in the State House in Boston. I have made an examination of these
returns for a number of typical towns in 1738 and 1755, and I have found that
more than one half of the persons whose names appear on the list of the poll tax
payers were possessed of, or heirs to, personal or landed property of a value suf-
ficient to entitle them to vote.
* G. H. Haynes, Representation and Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1620-1691, in
Johns Hopkins University Studies, Twelfth Series, viii. 418-429; C. F. Bishop,
History of Elections in the American Colonies, in Columbia University Studies,
iii. 219-223.
442 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
XIV
THE RIGHT TO INSTRUCT REPRESENTATIVES
When the people of Massachusetts adopted their first State con-
stitution they looked upon the right to instruct representatives as
one of the liberties reserved to freemen. The Bill of Rights of the
Constitution of 1780 contained the following article: "The people
have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble to
consult upon the common good; give instructions to their representa-
tives, and to request of the legislative body, by way of addresses,
petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done .them, and
of the grievances they suffer." Massachusetts, however, was not
the first State to include this guarantee in its constitution. On
September 28, 1776, the General Convention of Pennsylvania
adopted a Constitution and Declaration of Rights, the sixteenth
article of which read: "That the people have a right to assemble
together, to consult for their common good, to instruct their Repre-
sentatives, and to apply to the Legislature for redress of grievances,
by address, petition, or remonstrance." l In the following Decem-
ber, the Provincial Congress of North Carolina adopted a similar
guarantee in its Declaration of Rights.2 It is not remarkable that
these States which did not have the town-meeting form of local
government should have inserted in their constitutions these pro-
visions upon the right of the people to instruct their representa-
tives. In the Revolutionary epoch, New England's methods for
collecting public opinion were widely copied throughout the col-
onies. In the southern and middle colonies, the counties, parishes,
and towns very generally began the practice of voting instructions
for their representatives. It may have been, however, that the in-
clusion of a guarantee of the "right to instruct" in the constitution
of Pennsylvania was due to the suggestion of Samuel Adams, who
appears to have had a hand in the making of this constitution.3
There is less reason for belief that John Adams was responsible for
1 Constitution of the Common- Wealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1776),
p. 9; Proceedings Relative to the Calling of the Conventions of 1776 and 1790
(Harrisburg, 1825), p. 57.
1 Colonial Records of North Carolina, x. 974, 1004.
1 Gordon, American Revolution, ii. 369; Wells, Life and Public Services of
Samuel Adams, ii. 438.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 443
the guarantee in the North Carolina constitution, although he gave
the people of that colony some "thoughts" on how to draft a new
constitution.1
As we have already seen, in 1780 the people of Massachusetts
adopted an article safe-guarding the " right to instruct " in their Bill of
Rights. Other States copied this provision in their constitutions. In
all, twenty-one States have adopted a constitutional guarantee of this
right; besides those already mentioned, New Hampshire in 1784, Ver-
mont hi 1786, Tennessee in 1796, Ohio in 1802, Indiana in 1816, Illi-
nois in 1818, Maine in 1820, Michigan in 1835, Arkansas in 1836,
California in 1849, Kansas in 1855, Oregon in 1857, Nevada in 1864,
Florida in 1868, West Virginia in 1872, and Idaho in 1889.2 A glance
through this list will show that few southern States made provision
for the "right to instruct," and that in the West it was chiefly those
States settled by the New England migration that made provision
in then- constitutions for this right. In this connection it is necessary
to note the fact that in the South, shortly after the Revolutionary
War, there was a marked tendency to break the chains which held a
representative bound to serve the dictates of his constituency. This
tendency was instanced in the refusal of the Maryland Senate in 1786
to pass a paper money bill at the mandate of the majority of the
constituencies of the legislature.8 On this occasion Samuel Chase,
whose violent partizanship as a Justice of the federal Supreme Court
resulted in his impeachment in 1805, entered into a newspaper con-
troversy with Judge Alexander Contee Hanson for the purpose of
upholding the "right to instruct" and the corresponding "obligation
of obedience" on the part of the representative.4 In the battle of
wits, Judge Hanson easily carried off the honors.
1 Ashe, History of North Carolina, vol. i. chap, xxxii; Works of John Adams,
i. 208; iv. 185, 203; Warren-Adams Letters, i. 230.
1 F. N. Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, pp. 270, 392, 705, 919, 983,
1059, 1125, 1179, 1648, 1892, 1932, 2403, 2457, 2600, 2788, 2911, 3000, 3084, 3423,
3754, 4037.
1 Votes and Proceedings of the Senate of Maryland, November, 1786, pp.
18, 38, 111; Maryland Journal and Baltimore Public Advertiser, Novem-
ber 14, December 19, 1786; January 16, February 2, 9, 13, March 2, April 27,
1787.
4 Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, February 9, 13, 20, March 2,
16, April 13, May 18, June 22, July 13, August 3, 14, 31, 1787; Maryland Gazette
(Annapolis), February 22, 1787.
444 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
In later years, the " right to instruct," or the Doctrine of Instruc-
tions as it was then called, became one of the chief principles of
the State Rights faction of the southern Democracy. The doctrine
was applied mainly to the relationship between the Senators of the
United States and the State Legislature which elected them; and, in
accord with this doctrine, William C. Rives resigned from the United
States Senate when the Virginia Legislature in 1834 instructed him
to vote for Clay's resolution of censure upon President Jackson.1
Rives was a Democrat, and the Virginia Legislature at this time was
in the hands of the Whigs. Two years later, John Tyler also resigned
when instructed by the Virginia Legislature to vote against his con-
victions.2 Throughout the history of the State Rights party, the
Doctrine of Instructions occupied an important place. But it is
sufficient to point out here that this doctrine was not historically
related to the New England town mandate.
XV
DECLINE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN
MANDATE
With the rise of the American nationality came the decline of many
New England provincialisms. Some of these provincialisms have
been eminently persistent, including, of course, the essential features
of the town-meeting government in the small towns. The practice
of voting instructions to deputies, however, disappeared in the early
part of the nineteenth century. This did not occur without a struggle.
In 1794, the Anti-Federalists at a Boston town-meeting attempted to
instruct the representative of Boston's district in the United States
Congress.3 And a few years later the towns of Berlin and Belfast in
Maine actually voted positive mandates to their congressional Repre-
1 Register of Debates, 1833-1834, p. 636; Congressional Globe, 1833-1834,
p. 193; Richmond Enquirer, February 25, 1834.
* Register of Debates, 1835-1836, p. 636; Niles' Register, 1. 25; Journal of
the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia, December, 1835 (Rich-
mond, 1835), p. 171; Richmond Enquirer, March 2, 1836; Richmond Whig,
March 4, 1836; L. G. Tyler, Letters and Tunes of the Tylers, i. 537.
1 Boston Records, xxxi. 347, 348"; Boston Gazette, February 10, 24, 1794;
Columbian Centinel, February 12, 15, 26, March 8, 1794; Independent Chronicle,
February 13, 17, 27, March 3, 6, 13, 1794.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 445
sentatives.1 The town of Wells at the same time undertook to disci-
pline a member of Congress by a vote of censure.*
While the extreme particularism of the New England towns failed
to establish the custom of instructing Representatives in Congress,
the exaggerated ego of these little democracies died hard. The New
England towns which, as John Adams naively said, had made war
upon the British "kings, lords, commons, governors, councils, repre-
sentatives, judges, and whole armies," could not easily shake off their
excessive individuality. And in the early days of our federal history
we find them solemnly engaged in carrying on a correspondence with
the chief magistrate of the nation. Many of them made bold to
address the President of the United States in rather haughty tones;
and, as a result of this supreme confidence in local autonomy, the
curious visitor may read to-day preserved in the archives of several
New England villages the autograph letters of our first Presidents
answering in painstaking manner the protests of some persistent
town-meeting against the policies of the national government or
explaining hi tactful phrases the gravest matters of state.*
Boston, hi particular, was loathe to abandon the exalted position
which the town had occupied in the American Revolution, when the
Bostonians had led Massachusetts, and Massachusetts had led the
other States in the contest with George III. The town made several
attempts in the first decades of our federal history to revive this
leadership; notably in 1808, when it invoked a uniform voting of
memorials to President Jefferson against the Embargo; and again
in 1812 by an address to the other towns of the Commonwealth for
the purpose of securing a strong public opinion back of the movement
in the General Court to oppose the war with England.4 The response
in the latter case was not so general as in the year 1808. Pittsfield, for
instance, passed a resolution to this effect: "That it will conduce
1 Houghton, History of Berlin, p. 49; Williamson, History of Belfast, p. 696.
* Bourne, History of Wells and Kennebunk, p. 592.
1 Notably in the town records of Andover, Cambridge, Duxbury, Gardner,
Haverhill, Ipswich, Lynn, Newburyport, and Rowley.
4 Boston Records, xxxiii. 380, xxxv. 237, 239, 316. Among other towns, Long-
meadow on August 9, 1808, "Voted to send a Petition to the President of the
United States for the Removing of the Embargo Law, and Voted that this Peti-
tion be in form and words conformable to a like Petition from the Town of Boston "
(Centennial Celebration of the Town of Longmeadow, p. 174).
44G THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
much to the quiet of the state, if the inhabitants of the town of Boston
would attend more to their own concerns, and cease to harass the
good people of the commonwealth with their impracticable 'notions'
and then* ambitious and illusory projects." 1
On all sides nationalism was triumphing over particularism. The
American people were even beginning to think in terms of empire.
It is true that sectionalism in America has always produced demands
that the representative should faithfully reflect the opinions of his
constituents. But the new era brought repeated assertions of the
principle that freedom of action should be vested in the representa-
tives of a great and prosperous people.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the custom of voting
instructions to the members of the State legislatures was on the de-
cline. Town-meetings still continued to vote occasional mandates
to their representatives; but these instructions were largely limited
to local business. For example, the town of Goshen in 181 1 instructed
its representatives to prevent a proposed division of the county of
Hampshire.2 And Pelham in 1821 instructed its representatives to
oppose the setting off the East Parish as a separate town.3 Boston
had long since outgrown the town-meeting system. There were ten
tunes as many freemen as could crowd into Faneuil Hall if all should
make up then- minds to attend a particular town-meeting. But Bos-
ton traditions are stubborn traditions; and it took a long hard fight
on the part of the progressives to beat the antiquarians and change
the old town-government into a modern city. This was finally ac-
complished in 1822.4
Josiah Quincy, whose father had been one of the foremost oppo-
nents of the movement for a reform in the Boston government, has
left us a vivid picture of the town-meeting in its last days in Boston :
When a town meeting was held on any exciting subject in Faneuil
Hall, those only who could obtain places near the moderator could even
hear the discussion. A few busy or interested individuals easily obtained
the management of the most important affairs, in an assembly in which
the greater number could have neither voice or hearing. When the sub-
1 Smith, History of Pittsfield, 1800-1876, p. 231.
* Barms, History of Goshen, p. 27.
* Parmenter, History of Pelham, p. 186.
4 Cf. Publications of this Society, x. 345-356.
1919] NEW ENGLAND TOWN MANDATES 447
ject was not generally exciting, town meetings were usually composed of
the selectmen, the town officers, and thirty or forty inhabitants. Those
who thus came were, for the most part, drawn from some official duty or
private interest, which, when performed or attained, they generally
troubled themselves but little, or not at all, about the other business of
the meeting.1
The absurdity of the situation was illustrated when the lamp-lighters
of Boston were in the majority at a certain town-meeting and carried
a vote to raise their own wages! 2
The venerators of tradition, however, were reluctant to obliterate
one of the instrumentalities by the means of which the American
Revolution had been won. Said one:
We earnestly hope . . . that the Bostonians may never destroy the
Temple of Democracy, in which was kindled the flame of the revolution
of 1776, the nursery of genius, and the bulwark of liberty. It was in the
town meetings of that town we so often witnessed the triumph of plebian
genius over purse proud dulness, and the pedantry of the schools.*
On the other hand, the opponents of reform felt that the abandon-
ment of the town-meeting government would deprive the people of a
means to express their demands in authoritative tones to their repre-
sentatives in the General Court and in Congress. A writer in the
Boston Patriot under the nom de guerre of "A Native Bostonian" ex-
tolled the town-meeting as the instrument of the people to control
officials, instruct representatives, and generally in a legal way to ex-
press the wishes of the people. A town-meeting in Faneuil Hall was
the "organized capacity of the town" whereby the people possessed
not only the means of expressing their opinions but also of enforcing
them.4
In reply to the arguments of the "Native Bostonian," the advo-
cates of reform assured the good people of Boston that the incorpora-
tion of their town would not put an end to the public meetings of
1 Municipal History of the Town and City of Boston, p. 28. Cf . Report of the
Committee appointed at a Town Meeting on the 22d day of October (Boston,
1821), p. 5; Journal of the Convention to Revise the Constitution of Massachu-
setts, 1820, p. 193.
f Boston Patriot, December 12, 1821.
• New-England Galaxy, January 4, 1822.
« December 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 29, 1821.
448 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
protest for which Faneuil Hall had been so justly famous.1 The doors
of Faneuil Hall would always remain open for the aggrieved to as-
semble there and exercise their ancient privilege of declaring their
wrongs and demanding their rights.
Regardless of the merits of the controversy hi its entire aspect, the
modern student must admit that there was much truth in the con-
tention of the "Native Bostonian." The act of incorporation
destroyed the "organized capacity of the town in Faneuil Hall
assembled." Hitherto the pronouncements of these assemblies had
been clothed with the peculiar effectiveness conferred by the cor-
porate nature of the town-meeting. But thereafter the meetings of
inhabitants hi Faneuil Hall assumed the character of mere mass-
meetings of citizens. The Cradle of American Liberty gave dignity
and historic adornment to such occasions; but the resolutions de-
bated and adopted in these meetings were hereafter no more authori-
tative than similar action taken by a mass-meeting of citizens in
New York City or a gathering of farmers in some prairie church on
the banks of the Mississippi.
Other large towns in Massachusetts followed Boston's example and
secured charters of incorporation from the General Court. But the
majority of the towns, in fact all of the small towns, made no change
in then: form of government. They have retained to this very day
the ancient town-meeting system, a system which is peculiarly well
adapted to the needs of a small community. In these minor towns
the annual election of officers is customarily followed by the general
town-meeting at which the selectmen give their report and receive
their instructions. But no longer are instructions voted to the mem-
bers of the House of Representatives. The growth of political parties
and the attendant loyalty to party organization, the rapid develop-
ment of legislative business which has obscured the individual
legislator in a maze of committees and rules and precedents, the ap-
pearance of a new economic and social system following upon the
industrial revolution in America, and finally, the redistricting of the
constituencies of the General Court in 1857, have drawn the towns
more and more away from the old relationship with the General Court
which was so eminently characteristic of the Massachusetts system
1 Cf. the articles signed "Franklin" and "Amicus Civitatis" in the Boston
Patriot, December 19, 1821, and the New-England Palladium, December 21, 1821.
1919] TRADITION ABOUT THE REGICIDES GOFFE AND WHALLEY 449
in the eighteenth century.1 And to-day the representative in Massa-
chusetts is quite as independent of the vote of a town-meeting as the
representative in any other State is independent of the resolutions
passed by any assemblage of citizens within his district. Both of
these votes are expressions of public opinion, but neither of them im-
poses an obligation of obedience upon the representative.
Mr. JULIUS H. TUTTLE made the following remarks:
It is interesting when a tradition relating to an event can be veri-
fied;2 and the more so when after nearly two centuries and a half of
wandering the much desired information about it drifts back to the
vicinity of its source and final resting place. An entry from a diary
authenticating such a tradition is found pasted into a scrap-book
which has recently come into the possession of the Dedham Historical
Society. This tradition which has persisted in the Fisher family of
Dedham relates to Lydia Fisher (1652-1737), who was said to have
waited upon the Regicides Goffe and Whalley for a time while they
were in hiding at Hadley.
The entry in question is from the Diary of the Rev. Jonathan
Townsend, and runs as follows:
Needham . July .17.1 737. This Day died here M" Lydia Chickering
in the Eighty Sixth Year of her Age. She was born at Dedham in New-
England on July 14th 1652, and about the Year 1671 went up thence to
Hadley where, for the space of about a Year, she waited upon Col:
Whalley, and Col. Goffe (two of King Charles I8*8 Judges) who had
fled thither from the men who sought their life. She was the Daughter
of Capt: Daniel Fisher of Dedham, one of the Magistrates of this Colony
under the Old Charter. Having lived a virtuous life, she died univer-
1 One instance of the use of instructions as late as the year 1851 should be
cited. In the spring of this year a deadlock in the General Court prevented the
election of a United States Senator. Twenty-three Democrats and all the Anti-
slavery Whigs were opposed to Charles Sumner. In a town-meeting on April 12,
1851, the town of Fall River instructed its representative, Nathaniel Borden, to
vote for Sumner. Mr. Borden changed his vote as instructed; and the shifting of
a few other votes broke the deadlock on April 24, 1851. This secured the election
of Sumner. Cf. Pierce, Memoirs and Letters of Charles Sumner, iii. 242; Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, ii. 349. Mr. George
W. Rankin has kindly verified for me the vote of instructions in the town records
of Fall River.
* For two remarkable cases of the verification of family traditions, see Pro-
ceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, xlii. 193-195.
450 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [DEC.
sally respected, and came to her grave in a full age as a shock of corn
cometh in in his season.1
Lydia Fisher was married at Dedham on December 3, 1674, to
Nathaniel Checkering, and for twenty years they lived on Dedham
Island. In 1694, they removed to that part of Dedham which is now
Dover, where he died on October 21 of that year, leaving her with
six children. She later moved across Charles River into that part of
Dedham which became the town of Needham in 1711. In 1720, the
Rev. Jonathan Townsend (H. C. 1716) was settled there as the first
minister of the church, and counted Lydia Chickering as one of his
parishioners. His statement of the fact of her service to the Regicides,
kept as her long secret, was without doubt given by her word of
mouth to him, and is not only of local interest, but of wider historical
significance. •
The reasons for her undertaking such a perilous mission from
Dedham to Hadley in 1670 or 1671 can only be surmised. Hadley
was then a frontier town but recently settled, with the Rev. John
Russell (H. C. 1645) as its first minister, in whose house the Regicides
were secreted. It so happened then that her brother, Sergeant
Daniel Fisher, was making journeys to the Pocumtuck region about
twelve miles north of Hadley. He was one of the Dedham proprietors
of lands there, and went to aid in the laying out of the new grant of
eight thousand acres at Pocumtuck to the town of Dedham in place
of that part of her home plantation which the General Court had set
apart for the Natick Indian township. On one of these occasions
Lydia Fisher, then only nineteen years of age, may have gone to
Hadley with her brother Daniel; and then later have returned with
him to her home in Dedham.
There is another tradition about Lydia Fisher and the Regicides:
that her father, Captain Daniel Fisher, "concealed the Regicides
near his house in Dedham for a time, and that Lydia here minis-
tered to them and rode behind one of them on a pillion to Hadley."
Nothing has yet been found to substantiate this statement. Her
probable going with Daniel may have led to the confusion in the
matter.
It was in May, 1660, that Charles II took steps to avenge the
execution of his father in 1649, which was ordered by the High
1 For a facsimile of this entry, see p. 453, below.
1919] TRADITION ABOUT THE REGICIDES GOFFE AND WHALLEY 451
Court of Justice. Of the judges of this court who escaped from Eng-
land, Goffe, Whalley, and Dixwell reached Boston in July, 1660, and
on February 26, 1661, they began their nine days' journey through
Dedham to New Haven. If Captain Daniel Fisher secreted them as
stated, and was interested in protecting them during their sojourn in
the Colony, there might appear to be some reason to influence Lydia
Fisher ten years later, when Goffe and Whalley had gone to Hadley
to live, to go there on her mission.
The scrap-book, the medium through which this valuable entry
from the Townsend Diary comes to our hands, was originally an
account book of "Family Expenses," from August 10, 1784, to
October 12, 1798, kept at Halifax by Gregory Townsend, the youngest
child and son of the Rev. Jonathan and Mary (Sugars) Townsend,
of Needham. Gregory, who was born on November 28, 1732, and
died at Halifax on October 22, 1798, left Boston with the loyalist
refugees in 1776, and was proscribed in 1778. At the time of his
death Horatio Townsend, of Dedham, his nephew, went to Halifax,
and probably brought the book back with him. This book was used
by Horatio's daughter, Mary, who married John B. Derby, from
about 1818 to 1841, for the purpose of pasting in cuttings of news-
papers, letters, and a few pieces of the diary of her great-grandfather,
the Rev. Jonathan Townsend. In this way the cutting about Lydia
Fisher happened to be saved. Recent correspondence with a book-
seller in Atchison, Kansas, who wanted to sell the book and who had
written to me to learn whether the book was wanted here as it had
some Dedham, Needham, and Medfield items in it, sent the book for
examination. The discovery of the item hi question quickly brought
the book into the possession of the Dedham Historical Society. It
was previously owned by Dr. F. D. Morse, of Lawrence, Kansas,
who received it from his grandfather, Andrew Morse, a native of
Sherborn, who probably obtained it from the Derby family.
Lydia Fisher deserves to be remembered for her courageous and
it may be timely service; and no one can now fully tell its importance
in behalf of the Bay Colony.
Another passage in the same diary is of interest in connection with
Mr. Matthews's recent paper1 on Early Sunday Schools in Bos-
1 See pp. 259-264 and notes, above. Mr. Matthews tells me that since writing
his paper he has found a pamphlet to which it is worth calling attention: " Report
452 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
ton. The extracts there quoted show that New England pastors
catechized the children of their parishes during the seventeenth
century. Under date of April 4, 1737, the Rev. Jonathan Townsend
wrote:
I began again to Catechize the Children after it had been discontinued
for some time: I propose to repair to several parts of the Town that the
Children may attend it w*11 the more ease, & conveniency: about six or
seven places may be sufficient; I begin with a short prayer, then preceed
to Catechize, afterwards read part of Mr Vincent's Explanation of y8
Assembly's Catechism,1 (or some other instructive Book) and then make
a somewhat longer prayer, & so conclude. I design to attend it about
once a month, more or less. I made my application to the Selectmen
for y" Year 1736, desiring 'em to tell me which they judg'd were the
most convenient places, & they nam'd to me Six Houses, viz: The Meet-
ing House, Jon* Smith's, Capt: Fisher's, Samuel Parker's, Samuel
Smith's, & John Goodenow's.
Mr. HENRY H. EDES read copies of the two following
receipts, dated 26 and 30 April, 1776, showing that the
record books and papers of the Middlesex Registry of
Deeds had been lodged for safekeeping at the house of
John Reed of Bedford:
CAMBRIDGE April 26: 1776
JOHN REED of Bedford Esq.
Please deliver into the hands of Thaddeus Mason Clerk of the In-
ferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of Middlesex for his safe-
of the Union Committee of the Sunday Schools of the three Baptist Societies in
Boston. Together with an Address, delivered at the General Meeting of the
Schools, October 29th, 1817. By Rev. Daniel Sharp, A. M. Boston . . . 1817."
In the Report, written by the Rev. James M . Winchell, we read : " It was in June,
1816, that the females of the Third Baptist Church and Congregation, formed
the first Sunday School in this town" (p. 5). In his Address, Mr. Sharp said:
"The attention of some pious females in this town, was called to the subject, by
accounts which they received in private letters of the first meetings in New-
York. ... It became the topic of conversation; and on June 1, 1816, the first
female Sabbath School was organized in Boston. Others followed in succession,
till seven schools were formed among the Baptist "churches in this town. We
are happy to say that since these were organized, similar societies have been
formed by the members of the church in Park Street, and of the Old South"
(p. 12).
1 The Rev. Thomas Vincent's Explanatory Catechism: or, an Explanation
of the Assemblies Shorter Catechism, was republished at Boston in 1729.
-*,(> ;.
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1919]
MIDDLESEX REGISTRY OF DEEDS, 1776
453
keeping at your House Those Chests containing the Record Books for
ye County of Middlesex and you'l oblige your very H'ble Servt
JOHN FOXCROFT
BEDFORD April 30 1776.
Reed, into my custody the chests above mentioned] containing the
Record books of the Registry of Deeds & Papers as now lodged in the
House of the above named John Reed Esq.
Att. THAD MASON
Clerk of the Common Pleas.
Kt«kAAf £-< tJrfj
/• <Li
Cw.r<{ *- v\n
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t«OM^A». iw
INDEX
INDEX
Places are in Massachusetts unless otherwise stated
Name* of vessels are grouped under the heading Ships
Names of Indians are grouped under the heading Indiana
ABBOT, Rev. Abiel (d 1828), 279,
279 n
Adams, Brooks, 88 n; quoted, on New
England theocracy, 40; on R. Child's
religious connections, 61
Charles Francis (d 1915), 88 n;
cited, on right of appeal to Parlia-
ment, in Massachusetts, 81
John, President, quoted, on Boston
politics, 418, 419; opinion of, on an-
nual elections, 427; writer of Brain-
tree's instructions to deputy, con-
cerning the Stamp Act, 437; cited, on
importance of town mandates, 439;
assists North Carolina in framing
constitution of 1776, 442; quoted, on
power of New England towns, 445
Lydia K., active in establishing
Sunday school in the West Church,
Boston, 277, 278
Gov. Samuel, 138; member of
Caucus Club, 419; quoted, on system
of instructions to deputies, 436; Bos-
ton instructions written by, 436, 437;
assists Pennsylvania in making con-
stitution of 1776, 442
Rev. William (H. C. 1671),
quoted, on L. Hoar, 364 n, 365
Addison, Joseph, quoted, on F. M.
Pinto, 234
Agrippa, Henry Cornelius, 102 n, 125
Alabaster, Rev. William, 220
Alchemy, modern prejudice against,
123; popularity of, in seventeenth
century, 124
Alleine, Rev. Joseph (d 1668), 264 n
Allen, Bozon, 38 n, 55 n
John, of Barbados, agreement in
behalf of, with J. Jackson, 254-256
Alligator, description of, 239
Allin, Rev. John (d 1671), 74 n; Over-
seer of Harvard College, 167 n; his
careful church records in Dedham,
259
Amber, Irish superstition concerning,
122n
American, An, quoted, on Loyalists,
439 n
American Antiquarian Society, owns
book by Comenius, given to R. Ma-
ther, 1661, 181, 181 n; water-color
view of Harvard College, about 1807,
belonging to, exhibited, 257
Ammoncongin River, Me., 308, 308 n
Anabaptists, 23, 27, 90; harshness
against, in Massachusetts, believed
detrimental to the colony, 29 n; H.
Dunst cr'b connection with, 146, 148 n
Anchor anus, Joannes, edits book by
Comenius, 180, 195
Anderson, John, Jr., 287
Andover, represented by non-resident
deputy, 432 n
Andrew, Rev. Samuel (H. C. 1681),
184
— Samuel (Y. C. 1711), son of Rev.
Samuel (H. C. 1681), 184
Samuel (Y. C. 1739), eon of Sam-
uel (Y. C. 1711), 184
— James (d 1714), 332 n, 350, 350 n;
land grant to, 1688, 332
Andros, Gov. Sir Edmund, 71, 416, 426;
M. Hooke's petition to, 57, 57 n; land
warrants issued under, 1687-1688,
communicated by J. H. Tuttle, 292-
363, commissioned Governor of New
England, 292; prohibits town-meet-
ings, 430, 440
Anti-Federalists, 444
Antimony, interest of alchemists and
physicians in, 128 n
458
INDEX
Apollonius, Willem (d 1657), 74 n
Appeal to Parliament, question of right
of, in colonies, 32, 48, 49, 64, 76, 77,
79, 81, 82, 86
Arnold, , 61 n
Benedict, Governor of Rhode Is-
land, interpreter, in dealings with
Indians, 44 n
Arriscott. See Harriseket
Asbury, Bishop Francis (d 1816), 262 n
Ashland, land grant in, 1688, 355, 355 n
Magunco (Magaguncock) Hill,
355, 355 n
Ashmole, Elias (d 1692), interested in
alchemy, 100; meets R. Child and
R. Fludd, 100; W. Cooper's letter to,
132
Ashurst, Henry (d 1680), 366 n; bene-
factor of Harvard College, 366
Sir Henry, son of.Henry (d 1680),
170 n
Aspinwall, William, 16 n; commands
trading expedition to the Delaware,
15 n
Atkins, , 353
Atwater, John, 346, 346 n
Avery, Jonathan, son of William (d
1687), alchemical studies of, 124
William (d 1687), alchemical
studies of, 123, 124
Awbrey, William, connected with iron
works in Massachusetts, 13 n
&ACHSTROM, Johann Friedrich,
sketch of, 145 n
Bacon, Sir Francis, Baron Verulam and
Viscount St. Albans, cited, regarding
small-pox, 110, 110 n; his design for
a universal college, 165
Bacstrom, , unidentified writer,
cited on Philalethes, 145. See also
Bachstrom
Baillie, Rev. Robert (d 1662), 2; atti-
tude of, toward aberrant sects, espe-
cially Independents, 72, 87-91
Baker, Thomas, land grants to, 1688,
326, 349
Ball, Rev. John (d 1640), 74 n
Hannah (d 1792), 264 n
Ballatt, Samuel (d 1708), 297 n; land
grant to, 1687, 297
Bancroft, George, his treatment of the
Remonstrance of 1646, 17 n, 85 n; his
doubt of I. Thomas's story of Eng-
BANCROFT (continued)
lish Bible printed in Boston about
1752, 286, 286 n
Banks, Dr. Charles Edward, 89 n;
quoted, on treatment of Remon-
strants of 1646, 74 n
— John (d 1685), 161 n
Baptism, of children of non-church-
members, 22, 22 n; by immersion, 153
Barclay, Alderman. See Berkeley,
William
Barefoot, Walter, Deputy Governor of
New Hampshire, 307 n; land grant to,
1687, 307
Barlow, Capt. , 53, 53 n
Barnacles, legend that geese develop
out of, 115, 116
Barnard, Henry (d 1900), probable
author of statement about Comenius,
147 n
— Rev. John (H. C. 1700), 186; gives
books by Comenius to Harvard Col-
lege, 184, 185; autograph of, 185
Barney, Jacob, connection of, with sec-
ond trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n, 56
Barry, Rev. John Stetson, 89 n
Bartholomew, Henry, 38 n
— William, connection of, with sec-
ond trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n
Bartlet, , 137
Bartlett, Rev. John (d 1849), establishes
charity schools in Boston, 277, 278
Bartol, Rev. Cyrus Augustus, his ac-
count of establishment of a Sunday
school in the West Parish, Boston, 278
Baskett, John (d 1742), printer of
Bibles, 290 n
Mark, printer of Bibles, 1761-
1769; I. Thomas's statement of use
of his name on Bible printed hi Bos-
ton about 1752, 285; Bibles of, in
various libraries, 287, 288 n; period
of his printing, 290; Thomas's use of
his name probable error for Thomas
Baskett, 291
Thomas (d 1763), son of John,
printer of Bibles, 1742-1761, 291;
title-page of his Bible of 1752, 291 n
Baylie. See Baillie
Beaver trade, monopoly for, granted by
Massachusetts General Court, 15
Beex (Becx), John, interested in iron
works in Massachusetts, 13, 13 n, 14,
INDEX
BEEX (continued)
65 n; buys interest in Saco patent, 65;
one of thirteen petitioners to the
Council for Foreign Plantations, 1661,
67
Belcher, Andrew (d 1717), 356 n; land
grant to, 1688, 356
Gov. Jonathan, son of Andrew
(d 1717), 430
Belfast, Me., votes mandate to congres-
sional representative, 444
Bell, Shubael, assists in establishing a
Sunday school in Christ Church,
Boston, 273, 275 n; revises the
Youth's Manual for its use, 274
Thomas, one of thirteen petition-
ers to the Council for Foreign Plan-
tations, 1661, 67
William, jumps bail, 1641, 29 n
Bellingham, Gov. Richard, 8, 38, 39,
152, 175 n, 257; on committee to an-
swer the Remonstrance of 1646, 30;
complains of S. Maverick to Sir W.
Morice, 1665, 68
Dr. Samuel, son of Gov. Richard,
137 n
Bendall, Edward, 27
Bennett, Edward, land grant to, 1688,
327
Berigard, Claude, his alleged transmu-
tation of mercury into gold, 133, 144
Berkeley, William (d 1653), suit of
Mme. la Tour against, 29 n
Berlin, Me., votes mandate to congres-
sional representative, 444
Bermuda, government and church con-
ditions in, 1647, 36, 36 n
Berry, Margaret (Rogers), wife of
Thomas (H. C. 1685). See Leverett
Thomas (H. C. 1685), 183, 183 n
Thomas (H. C. 1712), son of
Thomas (H. C. 1685), 183
Beverly, earliest Sunday school in
Massachusetts claimed for, 265, 265 n,
271, 276, 277
Bible, English, I. Thomas's statement
of first printing of, in America, about
1752, 285; this doubted by G. Ban-
croft and others, 286; paper on the
question by C. L. Nichols, 286-292
Bickford, Thomas, land grant to, 1688,
326
Bigolow, Frank Barna, 189 n
Black Point, Me., 293. See alto Scar-
borough, Me.
Blakeslee, George Hubbard, 409
Blanchard, Joshua, Boston bookseller,
384 n
Blodgett, James Harvey, 151
Blue Hills, survey of lands near, or-
dered, 1688, 328; grant of lands near,
358
Blue Point, Me., 293, 332. See alto
Scarborough, Me.
Blyth (Blydon), Stephen Cleveland,
sketch of, 265 n
Boate, Dr. Arnold, 114, 117 n, 118 n,
123 n; cited, on caviare, 63; his anno-
tations on R. Child's Large Letter,
108, 109, 109 n, 116; spelling of hia
name, 109, 109 n; practises in Dublin
and later settles in Paris, 117; dies
when returning to England, 119,
119 n
Dr. Gerard, brother of Dr. Arnold,
109 n, 116; sketch of, 116, 117 n; his
Naturall History of Ireland, 118, 119,
122; appointment as State Physician
for Ireland, 118; death of, 118
Body of Liberties, adoption of, 424
Bolton, , 112 n
Bond, Nicholas, 10 n
Bonighton, Richard, buys interest in
Saco patent, 63
Boot. See Boate
Borden, Nathaniel, 449 n
Boston, makes land grants for iron
works, 12; Mauris t Fathers in, ac-
knowledgment to, 143 n; map of, in
1648, by S. C. Clough, exhibited, 251;
Early Sunday Schools in, paper by A.
Matthews, 259-285; condition of edu-
cation in, 1818, 267 n; land grants in,
1687, 301, 303; 1688, 319, 351, 352,
354, 356; records of early mandates
to representatives of, 415—416, 427;
committees appointed to prepare
mandates, 417; leadership of, 438,
445 ; change in, from town to city gov-
ernment, 1822, 446
Baptist churches, establishment of
Sunday schools in, 1816, 271, 272 n,
276, 452 n
Brattle Street Church, 1773, archi-
tect of, 418
Caucus Club, 418, 419
Christ Church, Sunday school,
270 n; history of, 273-275; first called
Salem Street Sunday School Society,
275
460
INDEX
BOSTON (continued)
City Missionary Society, estab-
lishment of, 268 TO
Faneuil Hall and the town-meet-
ing, 447-448
First African Baptist Church,
Sunday school established in, 1816,
272, 272 n
Hell-Fire Club, 433
Latin School, probably used text-
books by Comenius, 179, 185
Merchants' Club, 419
Noddle's Island, deeded by S.
Maverick to his son, 57; later to G.
Briggs, 57 n; granted to S. Shrimp-
ton, 1688, 352
Old South Church, invites L.
Hoar to its ministry, but releases him
to accept presidency of Harvard Col-
lege, 363; early parsonage of, 418; its
Sunday school, 452 n
Park Street Church, Sunday
school, claimed to be first in Boston,
266; history of, 266-271, 270 n, 271 n,
452 TO
St. John's Ecclesiastical Seminary,
Brighton, acknowledgment to staff
of, 143 n
Salem Street Academy, 274, 275,
275 TO
Salem Street Sunday School So-
ciety, 275, 275 n
Ship Tavern, 431
South, Sunday school established
in, 1817, 269, 269 n
Town Dock, 252
West Boston Charity School, 277,
278, 279
West Church, Sunday school, his-
tory of, 277-279, 277 n; claimed to
be first in Boston, 279; Gleaning
Circle, 278; Sewing School, 279
Boston Athenseum, books by Come-
nius in, 182
Boston Neck, R. I., 300 TO; land grant
in, 1687, 300
Boston Recorder, quoted, on establish-
ment of Sunday schools, 1816, 266 n;
quoted, on care of schools, 270 n
Boston Sabbath School Union, forma-
tion of, 270 n
Boston Society for the Moral and Reli-
gious Instruction of the Poor, 266 n;
takes charge of all Sunday schools in
Boston about 1817, 267-269, 270 n;
BOSTON SOCIETY (continued)
its first report quoted, 268; succeeded
by the City Missionary Society, 1841,
268 TO; establishes Sunday school in
West Boston, 1822, 277 n
Boswell, Sir William, 10 n, 161 n, 173 TO;
letter of, to Sir H. De Vic, in behalf
of J. Winthrop, Jr., 164; quoted, on
J. Winthrop, Jr., 174
Bourne, Maj. Nehemiah, 39 n, 93 n
Bouv6, Ada, daughter of Thomas Tracy,
410
Emily Gilbert (Lincoln), wife of
Thomas Tracy, gives to Harvard
College a photograph of water-color
view of the College by H. d'Orgemont,
410
Bowdoin, Peter (d 1716), 309, 309 n,
310 TO, 342; land grant to, 1687, 310
Bowles, Joseph, buys land in Maine,
63n
Bowman, George Ernest, 264 n
Boyle, Richard, first Earl of Cork, with
Lord Chancellor Loftus destroys St.
Patrick's Purgatory, 1632, 115, 116
Robert (d 1691), son of Richard,
first Earl of Cork, 98, 107, 115, 118 TO,
119, 120 TO, 122, 161 TO, 166 TO, 366,
369; friend of R. Child, 98 TO; of G.
Stirk, 101, 101 TO, 176; urged to assist
in continuing G. Boate's Natural!
History of Ireland, 119; Irish inter-
ests of, 120; one of founders of Royal
Society, 124; correspondent of J.
Winthrop, Jr., 178, 186; Governor of
Corporation for Propagating the
Gospel in New England, 187 TO
Roger, first Earl of Orrery, son of
Richard, first Earl of Cork, 234 TO
Bradford, William, Governor of Plym-
outh Colony, quoted, on E. Wins-
low's conduct of case for the Massa-
chusetts Bay Colony against the
Remonstrants of 1646, 65; visited by
Gov. Winthrop, 431
Bradstreet, Gov. Simon, 16 TO, 38
Brahe, Tycho (d 1601), letters of, in
Winthrop papers, 179 TO
Braintree, iron works at, 11, 14, 60, 61;
land grants in, 1688, 335, 336, 337
Bramhall, George (d 1690), 342 w; land
grant to, 1688, 342
Breedon, Capt. Thomas, one of thirteen
petitioners to the Council for Foreign
Plantations, 1661, 67, 67 TO
INDEX
461
Brereton, Sir William (d 1661), quoted,
on A. Hill's plantation in Ireland, 122
William (d 1680), third Baron
Brereton of Leighlin, 161 n, 171; let-
ter of, to J. Winthrop, Jr., quoted,
160 n
Bret, , 112 n
Brewster, Jonathan, son of William
(d 1643), 23; alchemical studies of,
123, 124, 124 n
William (d 1643), 124
Bridges, Capt. Robert, 13, 43
Briggs, Capt. George, Noddle's Island
deeded to, 57 n
BRIOHAM, CLARENCE SATJNDERS, A.M.,
181 n, 182 n
Brinley, Francis (d 1719), 300 n; land
grant to, 1687, 300
George (d 1875), 286
Brooke, Lord. See Greville, Robert
Brookfield, survey of, ordered, 1688, 335
Brookline, Muddy River early name of,
298, 298 n
BROWN, Rev. HOWARD NICHOLSON,
D.D., elected Resident Member, 231,
404
John Carter, 286
Marianna Catherine, quoted, on
early Sunday schools, 264 n
William Garrott, 387 n, 388 n; his
Calendar of Harvard College manu-
scripts, 392 n
Browne, John, 339; land grant to, 1688,
321
Joseph (H. C. 1666), 391, 393;
Fellow of Harvard College, 368, 369,
369 n, 370, 396, 396 n, 402
William, assignment of charter
party to, by C. Clarke, 257
Brownists, 87, 90
Bruen, Obadiah, connection of, with
second trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n
Brydges, Sir Egerton, 107 n
Bulfinch, Charles, 419 n
John, 95 n; informs against Maj.
J. Child, 96; asks hearing, 97
Bull, Alfred, identifies two books owned
by J. Harvard, 230 n
Bullard, Rev. Asa, quoted, on first men-
tion of Sunday schools in the United
States, 266 n
Bumstead, Josiah (d 1859), Sunday
school in house of, 270 n
Bunny, Francis, 225
Burnet, Gov. William, complains of
Boston's action in conflict concerning
Governor's salary, 430; death of, 430;
in 1729 declares Massachusetts aims
at independence, 440
Burrage, William, land grant to, 1688,
319
Burton, Margaret (Otis), wife of
Thomas, 24, 26 n
Sarah, daughter of Thomas, bap-
tism of, 26
Thomas, 59, 67; a signer of the
Remonstrance of 1646, 17, 24, 24 n,
25, 26, 28, 29; tried and sentenced,
37; with other Remonstrants tried a
second time for conspiracy against
the government and sentenced, 1647,
50-56
Bury St. Edmund's, Eng., Free Gram-
mar School, J. Winthrop, Jr., and F.
Winthrop students at, 156 n
Buryada, Gaetano, 5 n
Bushnel, , 54, 54 n
Byfield, Nathaniel (d 1733), 299 n
C
ADA, Frantifiek, 149 n
Csesalpinus, Andreas, R. Child's refer-
ence to his De Metallicis, 113 n
Caillet, Albert L., 145, 145 n
Calamorie, description of, 246
Cambridge, land grant in, 1688, 356;
resolution of, describing Massachu-
setts political system, 427
Capek, Thomas, 151 n; quoted, on Co-
menius, 150 n
Capisick River, Me., 306, 306 n, 308,
308 n
Cardilucius, Johann Hiskias, quoted,
on association of G. Stirk and 8.
Hartlib, 176, 176 n
Carleton, Edward, connection of, with
trials of the Remonstrants of 1646,
38 n, 55, 55 n, 56
Osgood, his survey of Boston,
1795, 252
Carnobie, name of an alchemist perhaps
identical with Eiremeus Philalethee
(G. Stirk), 144, 145
CARTER, FRANKLIN, !.!..!>., death of,
xv, 410
Casco Bay, Me., 293; land grants at,
1687, 296, 306, 308, 309, 310, 311;
1688,328,330,333,337,359. Seeabo
Falmouth; North Yarmouth
4C2
INDEX
Cavendish, Sir Charles (d 1654), 166 n
Caviare, discussed by R. Child, 63
Chalmers, George, quoted, on the Re-
monstrance of 1646, 85 n
Chambers, Edmund Kerchever, cited,
on identity of Philalethes, 141
Champlin, William (d 1713), 295 n;
land grant to, 1687, 295
Chandler, John (d 1703), 359 n; land
grant to, 1688, 359
CHANNING, EDWARD, Ph.D., appointed
delegate to annual Conference of
Historical Societies, Cleveland, 410
Chapman, Ralph, land grant to, 1687,
301
Charles I, King of England, 21 n, 83,
165, 449
Charles II, King of England, 71, 143,
450; colonial attitude toward, 50; ap-
points royal commissioners to regu-
late affairs in New England, 1664, 68,
71; interest of, in alchemy, 143 n;
correspondent of J. Winthrop, Jr.,
178
Charlestown, land grants in, 1687, 296,
297, 298; 1688, 355, 356, 357, 361
Female Society for the Promotion
of Sabbath Schools, 272
First Baptist Church, Sunday
school, 275
First Parish Church, history of
Sunday school work in, 272, 276
Stinted Pasture, 355
Charter Oak incident, 426
Chase, Samuel (d 1811), upholds right
to instruct representatives, 443
Chauncy, Rev. Charles, President of
Harvard College, 149, 172 n, 368;
inauguration of, 1654, 147, 154, 163;
preceding negotiations, 153; death of,
363, 364, 364 n, 369; his salary as
President of Harvard College, 365 n
Checkery. See Chickering
Chelmsford, 352 n; land grant in, 1688,
351
Chelsea, 319 n; land grants in, 1688,
319, 360
Chichester, Sir Edward, Baron Chiches-
ter of Belfast and Viscount Chichester
of Carrickfergus, 122
Chickering, Henry, 259, 259 n
Lydia (Fisher), second wife of
Nathaniel, her service to the regi-
cides, Goffe and Whalley, 449-451
Nathaniel, nephew of Henry, 450
Child, John, 4, 4 n
Maj. John, son of John, 4, 4 n,
17 n, 47, 61, 64, 72, 94 n; quoted, on
the Remonstrance of 1646, 17; on
controversy regarding baptism, 24 n;
his book, New-Englands Jonas, 35,
45, 45 n, 46, 46 n; quoted, on status
of Presbyterians in Massachusetts,
71; his importance in the Presby-
terian party, 84; quoted, on Inde-
pendents, 87; on toleration, 91; home
of, 93, 95 n; commands an insurrec-
tion in Kent, 1648, 93-96; later life of,
97
Mary, wife of Maj. John, petitions
for husband's release, 97
Peter de la, 4 n
Dr. Robert, son of John, 63 n, 67;
paper on, by G. L. Kittredge, 1-146;
general statement of Child's work and
his clash with the government of
Massachusetts, 1-3; sketch of, 4-8,
4 n-8 n; his religious connection, 8-9;
his interest in chemistry, alchemy,
vine-growing, etc., 9, 9 n; takes part
in establishment of iron works in
Massachusetts, 8-15; H. Peter's let-
ter concerning, 16; purchases rights
under Saco patent, 1645, 16, 16 n,
65 n; with others, presents to the
General Court, in 1646, a "Remon-
strance and humble petition," de-
manding rights of freemen for "all
truely English," with extension of
church privileges and English law,
17-18, 74; his associates in the Re-
monstrance, 20-27; their real purpose
the establishment of the Presbyterian
Church in Massachusetts, 28-30, 85,
86, 96; summoned by the General
Court and given opportunity to re-
tract, which is refused, 31-32; tried
by General Court, 1646, and sen-
tenced to pay fines, 37-39; fines not
paid and Child arrested on eve of de-
parture for England, and revolution-
ary papers seized, 39-41; bound over
to next Court of Assistants, 41; at
Court of Assistants, 1647, case re-
ferred to next General Court, and
Child imprisoned, 42; two cases
against him, 43; his hopes dashed by
letter from the English commissioners
to the Governor and Company, 48-
50; tried, with others, a second time,
INDEX
•103
CHILD (continued)
for conspiracy against the govern-
ment and sentenced, 1647, 50-56;
payment of his fine, 60, 61 n; accused
of being a Jesuit, 61-63, 61 n; his
departure from New England, 63;
sale of his Saco lands, 63, 65, 65 n;
his discussion of caviare, 63; end of
his fight over the Remonstrance, 64,
65; his quarrel with F. Willoughby,
64; his reverses of fortune, 65; his pur-
pose to procure abrogation of Massa-
chusetts charter, 69, 70, 86; wrong
views of Child's case, 74-76; not pun-
ished for petitioning, 76; connection
of Child's Remonstrance and the Gor-
ton petition, 80; conspiracy against
the government, 82; the Remon-
strance intended for English eyes,
82-85, 87; Child violently anti-Inde-
pendent, 87; no champion of religious
liberty, 83 n, 89 n, 91 ; but so regarded
by some, 88 n; his friendship with
J. Winthrop, Jr., unbroken, 91, 92, 98,
99; from England, writes of lead min-
ing projects, 92, 99, 114; of political
disturbances, 93; interest of, in al-
chemy, agriculture, etc., 93, 93 n, 98,
100; J. French's book dedicated to,
102, 102 n; his Large Letter concern-
ing English Husbandry included in
Samuel Hartlib his Legacy, 103-108;
his answer to A. Boate's annotations,
109; his observations on New Eng-
land products, 110-112, 115; goes to
Ireland and is desired by Hartlib to
continue G. Boate's Naturall History
of Ireland, 99, 108, 119-122; death
of, 122; never married, 123; his al-
chemical pursuits, 123-126, 128-131;
rumor that he discovered secret of
transmutation, 133; belief that he
wrote the Philalethes tracts, 133, 135-
137, 140, 141, 144; confusion of, with
G. Stirk and T. Vaughan, 143-146;
multifarious interest of his life, 146;
acquaintance of, with New England
men, 175, 175 n
Thomas, 4 n
Church, Benjamin (d 1718), joins in pur-
chase of lands at Pocasset, R. I., 299 n
Cider, R. Child quoted on making of,
5n
Clap, Roger (d 1691), 302 n; request for
land grant considered, 1687, 302
Clarendon, Earl of. See Hyde
Clark, Katherine, wife of William (d
1647), 52, 52 n
Thomas, assists in establishing a
Sunday school in Christ Church,
Boston, 275 n
William (d 1647), of Salem, an
associate of the Remonstrants of
1646, 42; affairs of, at Salem, 51, 51 n;
active regarding petition to commis-
sioners, 51; death of, 51
Clarke, Christopher, assignment of
charter party to, by J. Jackson,
256, 257; assigns it to W. Browne,
257
Nathaniel (d 1718), 333 n; Clark's
Island, Plymouth, granted to, 1688,
333
Thaddeus (d 1690), 306, 308
Thomas, member of fur trading
company, 15 n
Clay, Henry, 444
Cleeves, George, 310, 310 n
Clement (Clements), Richard, 306 n;
warrants to, for survey of land grants,
306, 307-312, 332
Clements, Robert (d 1658), connection
of, with second trial of the Remon-
strants of 1646, 55, 55 n, 56
Cleverly, John, requests land grant,
1688, 337
Clod (Clodius, Claudius), , Lon-
don physician, 119 n
Clogie, Rev. Alexander, quoted, on A.
Boate, 117 n
Cloice (Clayce, Cloyes, Cloyse), Thomas
(d 1690), 322 n, 344, 348; land grant
to, 1688, 322
Clotworthy, Sir John, first Viscount
Massereene, J. Winthrop, Jr., at
house of, 159; letter of, quoted, 159 n;
interested in S. Hartlib, 159 n
CLOUGH, SAMUEL CHESTER, 120 n;
cited, on location of house of keeper
of Boston prison, 1647, 43 n; on Com-
mittee on Memorials, 231; exhibits
his map of Boston in 1648, and speaks
on labor involved in such work, 251-
254; cited, on location of T. Dawes's
house, Boston, 419 n
Cobbet, Rev. Thomas, Overseer of Har-
vard College, 167 n
Coddington, William, Governor of
Rhode Island, 29 n, 100 n; writes of
R. Child, 100
464
INDEX
Coe, Elizabeth (Wakely), wife of Mat-
thew, 348 n
Matthew, 348, 348 n
Cogswell, Joseph Green (d 1871), 286
Colegrove, Kenneth, his paper, New
England Town Mandates, 411-449
College, the, a term often applied to
Harvard College, 170 n
Collier, Rev. William (d 1843), Sunday
school work of, 276, 276 n, 277 n
Ceilings, Abraham, land grant to, 1688,
340
Collins, Edward (d 1689), 356, 356 n
Rev. John (H. C. 1649), recom-
mends L. Hoar for presidency of Har-
vard College, 369 n
Colman, Rev. Benjamin (H. C. 1692),
380, 418
COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS,
Annual Meeting, 403
Auditing Committee, appointed,
231; report of, 408
Corresponding Member, death of,
410
Corresponding Secretary, reports
new members, 1, 231; election of,
408; reports death of member, 410.
See also Park, Charles Edwards
Council, Annual Report of, 403-
406; member of, elected, 408
Memorials, Committee on, ap-
pointed, 231
Nominating Committee, ap-
pointed, 231; report of, 408
President, 231, 403, 410; election
of, 408. See also Robinson, Fred
Norris
Publications, report of progress on,
404
Recording Secretary, election of,
408. See also Cunningham, Henry
Winchester
Registrar, election of, 408. See
also Johnson, Alfred
Resident Members, election of, 1,
231,404
Stated Meetings, 1, 231, 410
Treasurer, Annual Report of, 406-
407; election of, 408. See also Edes,
Henry Herbert
Vice-Presidents, election of, 408.
See also Davis, Andrew McFarland;
Rugg, Arthur Prentice
Colonies, middle and southern political
conditions in, 422, 442
Comenius, John Amos, 154 n, 155 n,
160 n; and Harvard College, paper
by A. Matthews, 146-190; C. Math-
er's statement that he was offered
the presidency of Harvard College
but was diverted to Sweden, 146, 155;
this not mentioned in histories of
the College, 147; various versions of
the-story, 147-150; possible sources,
150 n; Mather apparently only au-
thority, 148 n, 150, 150 n; truth of
statement doubted by W. S. Monroe
and P. H. Hanus, 151; formal offer
not possible, 154, 160, 163, 167;
travels of Comenius and possibility
of meetings with J. Winthrop, Jr.,
who may have mentioned Harvard
presidency as future possibility, 155,
157, 157 n, 159, 161 n, 163, 165-170,
166 n; losses of, in sack of Lissa, 1656,
160, 160 n; date of his birth, 163 n;
hia possible personal knowledge of or
correspondence with New England
contemporaries, 170, 171, 177, 178;
books of, early owned and used in
New England, with present where-
abouts and former owners of, 179-
186, 181 n, 182 n, 189
Concord, instruction of, to deputy,
1787, 428 n; represented by non-
resident deputy, 431
Conference of Historical Societies, dele-
gates to, appointed, 410
Congin River, Me., 308 n
Congregationalism in New England, as
described in the Remonstrance of
1646, 91 n
Conti, Natale, works of, 215
Continental Congress, support of, voted
by Massachusetts towns, 1776, 425
Conybeare, Frederick Cornwallis, 409
Cooke, Elisha (H. C. 1657), son of
Richard, 184, 184 n, 185, 185 n
Elisha (H. C. 1697), son of Elisha
(H. C. 1657), 184, 184 n, 185 n; active
in politics, 430
Elkanah, son of Richard, 185
Middlecott (H. C. 1723), son of
Elisha (H. C. 1697), 185 n; gives
books by Comenius to Harvard Col-
lege, 184, 184 n
Richard, 184
family, 184 n
Cooper, Rev. Samuel (H. C. 1743), his
pamphlet, The Crisis, 435 n
INDEX
465
COOPER (continued)
William, English bookseller,
quoted, 132
- William (d 1809), brother of Rev.
Samuel (H. C. 1743), 419
Copland, Rev. Patrick, 101 ; quoted, on
voyage of the Supply to England, 34 n
Cork, Earl of. See Boyle, Richard
Corporation for Propagating the Gos-
pel in New England, 187 n; work of,
for Indians, 187, 188
Corwin, John (d 1683), 334 n
Margaret (Winthrop), wife of
John (d 1683), 334 n; land grant to,
1688,334
Cotting, John Ruggles, teacher in
Salem Street Academy and Salem
Street Sunday school, 274, 275 n
Cotton, Rev. John (d 1652), 8, 175 n;
quoted, on intolerance in New Eng-
land, 30 n; warning of, to persons
carrying complaints to Parliament,
34, 35; quoted, on Jesuit feeling to-
ward New England, 62; invited to
England to advance cause of the In-
dependents, 73; controversial writ-
ings of, 74 n, 91
Rev. John (H. C. 1657), son of
Rev. John (d 1652), 263 n; quoted,
on catechizing of children in the
First Church, Plymouth, 262 n, 263 n
County, shire, or parish, basis of repre-
sentation in middle and southern
colonies, 421
Coxe, Dr. Daniel (d 1730), land grant
to, 1687, 304, 304 n
Cramp-fish, description of, 246
Cranberries, R. Child quoted on, 107;
gift of, from J. Winthrop, Jr., to S.
Hartlib, 171
Creiling, Johann Conrad, quoted, on
Philalethes and his identity, 143
Crisis, The, pamphlet on the Excise
Bill, 1754, 435 n
Cromwell, Oliver, 178
Crossthwaite, Charles, land grant to,
1687,304
Cummings, Rev. Preston, quoted, on
establishment of Sunday schools,
262 n, 263 n
CUNNINGHAM, HENRY WINCHESTER,
A.B., elected Recording Secretary, 408
Curtis, Jonathan, land grant to, 1688,
361
— — Thomas, land grant to, 1688, 361
Cushing, Seth, 385 n
Lt.-Gov. Thomas, 419
Cutler, Dr. Elbridge Gerry, 409
John, Jr. (d 1708), 297 n; land
grant to, 1687, 297
AMANT, John, 259
Damatt (Damant), surname in Ded-
ham, seventeenth century, 259
Dand, John, 43, 89 n; a signer of the
Remonstrance of 1646, 17, 21, 22, 28,
29, 67; tried and sentenced, 37; revo-
lutionary papers found in possession
of, 39-41, 53 n, 54 n, 69, 85; arrested,
41, 42; with other Remonstrants,
tried a second time for conspiracy
against the government and sen-
tenced, 1647, 50-56; imprisonment
and release of, with remission of fine,
56, 59; one of thirteen petitioners to
the Council for Foreign Plantations,
1661, 67
Danforth, Rev. John (d 1730), son of
Rev. Samuel (d 1674), 138
Rev. Samuel (d 1674), 395; Fel-
low and Tutor of Harvard College,
368, 370, 370 n, 393, 396, 396 n, 401,
402; ordained pastor at Roxbury, 368
— • — Judge Samuel (d 1777), son of Rev.
John (d 1730), 137, 138 n, 140 n;
sketch of, 138; a student of alchemy,
123, 126 n, 138; his library, 139
Dr. Samuel (d 1827), son of Judge
Samuel (d 1777), 139 n, 140 n; sketch
of, 139; believed Philalethes to be
R. Child, 140 ,
Thomas (d 1699), brother of Rev.
Samuel (d 1674), 189, 367 n; quoted,
on L. Hoar's election to presidency of
Harvard College and his inaugura-
tion, 366, 367; named as treasurer in
Harvard College charter of 1650, 396
Dr. Thomas, son of Dr. Samuel
(d 1827), 139 n
Dangerfield. See Truro
Danson, George, 303, 303 n; land grant
to, 1687, 303
Davenport, Rev. John (d 1670), 21 n,
26, 74 n, 158 n, 172 n; invited to Eng-
land to advance cause of the Inde-
pendents, 73; anxious to have a col-
loRe founded at New Haven, 170;
letters of, to J. Winthrop, Jr., quoted,
171, 172, 173; friend of J. Durie and
466
INDEX
DAVENPORT (continued)
Sir W. Boswell, 173 n; S. Mather
quoted on letter of, to Durie, 173 n;
book by Comenius sent to, by S.
Hartlib, 180
John (H. C. 1721),. at Harvard
College, 186
DAVIS, ANDREW MCFARLAND, A.M.,
195, 207; prints from original record,
list of books given to Harvard Col-
lege by J. Harvard, 191; his egtimate
of their number, 191 ; quoted, on Har-
vard College charter of 1672, 374,
378; his statements answered, 382,
393; elected Vice-President, 408
Benjamin (d 1704), 301 n; land
grant to, 1687, 301 *
Edward, land grant to, 1688, 324
Isaac, 340
John, 1659, 256
John (H. C. 1781), 367, 371 n;
quoted, on L. Hoar's election to presi-
dency of Harvard College and his in-
auguration, 364; on committee (1812)
to defend rights of Harvard College
before the General Court, 371
Lawrence, 343
Silvanus (d 1703), 306 n, 317, 321,
322, 325, 329, 340, 342, 350; land
grant to, 1687, 306; his sawmill, 308,
348
Dawes, Thomas (d 1809), sketch of, 418,
418 n, 419 n
William (d 1703), manager of iron
works in Massachusetts, 13 n
Deane, Silas, 438
Dedham, early surnames in, 259; land
grant to, at Pocumtuck, 450
Dedham Historical Society, secures
scrap-book, originally an account book
•of G. Townsend, containing extract
from diary of J. Townsend, relating
to Lydia Chickering, 449
Denis, Robert, 358
De Normandie, Rev. James, claims
First Church, Roxbury, had first
Sunday school in the new world,
261
Deptford, R. I., 295 n; sometimes
wrongly called Bedford, 295 n
Derby, John Barton, 451
Mary (Townsend), wife of John
B., scrap-book made by, 451
Devereux, Col. Nicholas, 97
De Vic, Sir Henry, 164
Dexter, Rev. Henry Martyn, quoted,
on the Remonstrants of 1646, 30 n
Digby, Sir Kenelm (d 1665), 7, 7 n, 128,
175 n, 178; extraordinary stories told
by, 115; his alchemical pursuits, 124;
friend of J. Winthrop, Jr., 175
Dircks, Henry, 107 n
Dixwell, John, regicide, comes to New
England, 451
Dolphin, description of, 239
Dorchester, land grant in, 1687, 302;
1688, 356
Douglass, Dr. William, quoted, on J.
Winthrop, Jr., 128 n
Dover, N. H., instructs its deputy, 1658,
416
Downame (Downham), Rev. John, his
Christian Warfare, owned by J. Har-
vard, now extant, 192, 204, 206
Downing, Emanuel, 175; his connection
with the attempt at iron manufacture
in Massachusetts, 10 n, 11, 11 n, 12 n,
14; signs petition for alteration of
laws against Anabaptists, 1645, 23 n;
agent in England for promoting lead-
mining schemes of J. Winthrop, Jr.,
114; letter of, to J. Winthrop, Jr.,
quoted, 158 n
Lucy (Winthrop), wife of Eman-
uel, 157 n; letter of, to J. Winthrop,
Jr., quoted, 160 n
Downshire, Marquesses of, descendants
of Col. Arthur Hill, 121
Dowse, William Bradford Homer, 409
Draper, John (d 1762), 433
Duane, Rev. Charles Williams, quoted,
on Christ Church Sunday school,
275 n
Du Bartas, Guillaume de Saluste, 233
Duck Manufactory, gentlemen proprie-
tors of, request approbation of the
selectmen of Boston for a Sunday
school, 280
Dudley, Gov. Joseph, son of Gov.
Thomas, 292, 293, 295 n, 304 n, 432;
land grants to, 1687, 298, 304; 1688,
313, 314
Mary (Winthrop), first wife of
Rev. Samuel, son of Gov. Thomas,
letter of, quoted, 158 n
Gov. Thomas, 8, 175 n, 393; mem-
ber of committee to answer the Re-
monstrance of 1646, 30
Dummer, Richard (d 1678), 16 n; con-
nection of, with second trial of the
INDEX
DUMMER (continued)
Remonstrants of 1646, 55, 55 n, 56,
331 n
Rev. Shubael (H. C. 1656), son of
Richard (d 1678), 331 n; land grant
to, 1688, 331
Lt.-Gov. William, 380
Duncan, Nathaniel, on committee to
answer the Remonstrance of 1646,
30
Dunster, Rev. Henry, President of Har-
vard College, 149, 154 n, 167, 190,
395; his connection with the Ana-
baptists, 146, 148 n; his resignation,
1654, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 153,
154, 168; manner of his election, 367;
of his resignation, 368; whips students,
377 n
Dunton, John (d 1733) Again, paper by
C. N. Greenough, 232-251; his visit
to New England, and accounts of it,
in his Life and Errors, and Letters
from New England, 232; suspicious
character of his descriptions of sea
animals alleged to have been seen on
his voyage, 232-234; much of his
matter borrowed from older books,
by T. Roe, J. Swan, and D. Pell, 234,
235; borrowings shown by arrange-
ment of parallel columns, 236-249;
summary of his indebtedness, 249;
method of finding his sources, 250;
his extraordinary methods, 251
Lake, brother of John, 232
Durant, Moses, land grant to, 1688, 326
Durie (Dury), Rev. John, son of Rev.
Robert, friend of S. Hartlib, 161 n,
180; in correspondence with New
England clergy, 172, 172 n, 173 n;
sketch of, 173 n
Rev. Robert, 173 n
Dutch West India Company, letter of,
to P. Stuyvesant, 1662, cited, 162 n
Dymock, Cressy, 107 n
dATON, Ann Yale, second wife of
Theophilus, tried by New Haven
church, 1644, 27
Rev. Asa, 273 n; establishes a
Sunday school in Christ Church, Bos-
ton, 273, 275 n; publishes the Youth's
Manual for its use, 274
Nathaniel, brother of Theophilus,
5n
EATON (continued)
Samuel, son of Theophilus, 170 n,
Theophilus, Governor of New
Haven, 27, 158 n, 161 n, 170 n; ar-
rives in Connecticut, 26
Eclipse, The, pamphlet on the Excise
Bill, 1754, 435 n
EDES, HENRY HERBERT, A.M., 1;
elected Treasurer, 408; reads two
papers regarding early record books
of Middlesex County, 452
Edgar, Eliaz., 103 n, 104 n
Edmonds, John Henry, 409
Edmunds, Robert, 332
Election law of 1716, in Maryland,
422n
Eleuthera, one of the Bahama Islands,
people from, settled at North Yar-
mouth, Me., 339, 339 n
Ellas (Helias) Artista, mythical adept
in alchemy, traditions concerning,
129, 131, 132, 133; title bestowed on
Eirenspus Philalethes (G. Stirk), 132
Eliot, Charles William, President of
Harvard College, son of Samuel At-
kins (d 1862), quoted, as to S. A.
Eliot's authorship of statement about
Comenius, 147 n
Rev. John (d 1690), charges the
petitioners of 1646 with being Jes-
uited agents, 62; quoted, on E. Wins-
low's conduct of the case, 65; on reli-
gious instruction of youth on Sunday,
260, 261
Rev. John (d 1813), quoted, on
S. Danforth, 138
Samuel Atkins (d 1862), possible
author of statement about Comenius,
147 n
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 359 n;
book approved by, for schools, 193
Ellicott, Vines, Hog Island, Me.,
granted to, 1688, 326
Elliot, Robert (d 1720), 330 n; land
grant to, 1688, 330
Embargo Law, petitions against, 1808,
445, 445 n
England, use of mandates to represent-
atives in, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, 422
Commissioners for Plantations,
letters of, to the Governor and Com-
pany of Massachusetts, concerning
appeals to Parliament in matters
468
INDEX
ENGLAND (continued)
under the jurisdiction of the Massa-
chusetts government, 48-50, 64
Long Parliament, 71
Parliament, electoral reform of
1832, 440
English, James, land grant to, 1687,
306
William, connection of, with sec-
ond trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n
Euer, , 130
Evanson, Capt. , 94
Evelyn, John, quoted, on A. Boate,
117 n
Everett, Joanna (Prince), wife of Eben-
ezer, active in organizing a Sunday
school in Beverly, 1810, 265 n
Eyers, , 302
Eyre, Charles, printer of Bibles, 290,
290n
John (d 1700), 351 n; land grant
to, 1688, 351
E
ABRE, Dr. Pierre Jean, 9, 9 n
Fairbanks, George, 314
Fairfield, William, 419
Fairfield, Ct., recalls deputies, 1687, 426
Falmouth (Portland), Me., establish-
ment of, 1658, 293; land grants in,
1687, 306, 308, 309; 1688, 316, 317,
319-325, 329, 330, 332, 337-350
Fort Loyal, 306, 306 n, 308, 338
Fanshawe, Ann, Lady, quoted, on Sir
K. Digby's story-telling habits, 115
Farwell, George, land grant to, 1688,
361
JOHN WHITTEMORE, Litt.B., ex-
hibits charter party (dated 1659),
between J. Jackson, master of the
Ketch Rebecca, and M. Munnings,
merchant, in behalf of J. Allen, 254-
257
Fast Days, appointed by General Court,
1646, 36
Fearing, Daniel Butler, his collection of
books on angling, in Harvard College
Library, 250, 250 n
Felt, George (d 1676), 350, 351; mar-
riage of, 350 n
George, son of George (d 1676),
350 n; land grant to, 1688, 350
Jonathan, son of George (d 1676),
350 n; land grant to, 1688, 350
FELT (continued)
— Rev. Joseph Barlow, quoted, on
fear of Jesuits in New England, 62 n
Samuel, son of George (d 1676),
350 n; land grant to, 1688, 350
Ferdinand III, Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire, his alleged use of
alchemic gold, 129, 130
Ferguson, John, 145, 145 n
Ferrar, Virginia, experiments with silk-
worms, 104, 105 n
Feversham, R. I., land grants in, 1687,
295; sometimes wrongly called Haver-
sham, 295 n
Field, Darby, 15
Fiennes, William, first Viscount Saye
and Sele, with Lord Brooke commis-
sions J. Winthrop, Jr., to found and
govern a colony in Connecticut, 159,
164; correspondent of Winthrop, 178
Figuier, Guillaume Louis, his account
of Philalethes, 145, 145 n
Fines, as punishment, at Harvard Col-
lege, 374, 376-377
Firmin, Giles, quoted, on H. Peter, 30 n
Fish, as fertilizer, 106
Fisher, Daniel (d 1683), 449, 452
Daniel, son of Daniel (d 1683),
450
Lydia, daughter of Daniel (d 1683).
See Chickering
Fiske, William, connection of, with sec-
ond trial of the Remonstrants of 1646,
55, 55 n
Flajshans, V&clav, cited, on Comenius,
150 n
Fleet, Thomas (d 1758), 433
Fludd, Dr. Robert (d 1637), a Rosicru-
cian, 100, 129
Flying fish, description of, 236
Flynt, Henry (H. C. 1693), 381, 381 n,
383
Foley, Thomas, 13 n
Foot, Joshua, 13
Fowle, Thomas, 25, 36, 37, 37 n, 39 n,
50; a signer of the Remonstrance of
1646, 17, 23, 28, 29, 29 n, 67; ship of,
attached by Alderman Barclay, of
London, 29 n; summoned to Court
in matter of the Remonstrance, 31-
32, 32 n, 33; sails for England, 33, 35;
work of, there, for the Remonstrance,
47; ill fortune of, 64
Foxcroft, John (d 1802), 453
Foy, Capt. , 53, 53 n, 54
INDEX
-ill!)
For (continued)
Dorothy, wife of Capt. John
(d 1715), 63 n
Capt. John (d 1715), 53 n
Capt. John (d 1730), son of Capt.
John (d 1715), 53 n
Franchise, in New England colonies,
441
Franklin, Benjamin, 433; scorns al-
chemy, 126 n
James, brother of Benjamin, his
course as publisher of New England
Courant, 433
Frederick III (d 1659), Duke of Hol-
stein-Gottorp, 129; correspondent of
J. Winthrop, Jr., 131, 131 n
Freeholders, in New England colonies,
proportion of, 441, 441 n
Freeman's oath, 51, 54 n, 82
Freeport, Me., Indian name of, 339 n
French, Dr. John (d 1657), dedicates
book to R. Child, 102, 102 n
Fresh River, Dutch name for the Con-
necticut, 163, 163 n
Fuchs, Georg Friedrich Christian, 137
"AGE, Gen. Thomas, summons
House of Representatives to meet at
Salem, 437; interdicts town-meetings,
440
Gale, Edmund, 316; land grant to,
1688, 333
Galilei, Galileo, 178
Gannett, Rev. Ezra Stiles, letter of Rev.
C. Lowell to, 277
Garbet, Dr. , 93, 98
Gardener, Henry, quoted, on treatment
of Church of England men, in Massa-
chusetts, 31
GARDINER, ROBERT HALLOWELL, A.B.,
on Committee on Memorials, 231
Samuel Rawson, 235 n
Gary, Nathaniel, 298, 298 n
Gaston, William Alexander, 418 n
Gavius of Consa, 81
Gay, Frederick Lewis, his knowledge of
R. Child's work, 108
Gedney, Bartholomew (d 1698), 328 n;
land grant to, 1688, 328
Geer, Laurence de, son of Ludwig de,
160
Ludwig de, 160; agent of Swedish
government in negotiation with Co-
menius, 150, 150 n, 166
Geese, legend that barnacles develop
into, 115, 116
Gendall, Walter (d 1688), 296, 311 n,
332, 338 n, 339, 340, 347; land grant
to, 1687, 311; 1688, 329, 338
George II, King of England, 290 n
George III, King of England, 445
Gessman, Gustav W., his account of
Philalethes, 145
Gibbons, Edward, connection of, with
second trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n
Gifford, John, 65 n; manager of iron
works, 12, 13, 13 n, 14; one of thirteen
petitioners to the Council for Foreign
Plantations, 1661, 67, 67 n; various
projects of, 67^ n
Gilbert, William, land grant to, 1688, 347
Gillam, Benjamin, 16 n
Gilman, Arthur, quoted, on book by
Comenius in Gilman family, 182 n
Joseph (<f 1823), 182 n
Rev. Nicholas (d 1748), 182 n
Glauber, Johann Rudolf, 178
Gloucester, recalls representative, 1644,
425; this action not sustained by Gen-
eral Court, 425
Godfrey, Edward, Governor of Maine,
one of thirteen petitioners to the
Council for Foreign Plantations, 1661,
67, 67 n
Goffe, William, regicide, service of
Fisher family to, 449—451
Gold, transmutation of other metals in-
to. See Transmutation of metals
Golding, Rev. William, 33, 34 n
Goodenow, John, of Needham, 452
Goodwin, Rev. John (d 1665), a leader
of Independency, 21, 21 n
William Watson, 333 n
Gookin, Daniel (d 1687), his account of
J. Jacoomis and C. Cheeshahteau-
muck, 187-189
Goose livers, R. Child's opinion of, as a
delicacy, 6
Gordon, Rev. William, quoted, on town-
meetings, 417
Gore, John (d 1705), 303 n; warrants to,
for survey of land grants, 303-305
Gorton, Samuel, references to his quar-
rel with the Massachusetts Bay Col-
ony, 19, 25, 30, 44, 44 n, 45, 46 n, 47,
48, 49, 64, 65, 66; Maj. J. Child's
opinion of, 46; appeals to Commis-
sioners for Plantations, 79, 80
470
IXDEX
Goshen, in 1811, instructs represents
tives, 446
Governor's Ring, mountain, East Had-
darn, Ct., 127, 128, 169 n
Grahame, James, quoted, on transfer of
R. Vines's interest in Saco patent to
R. Child, 16 n, 65 n; on intolerance in
colonial times, 85 n
GRAY, MORRIS, LL.B., 404; elected
Resident Member, 1; accepts, 231
Greason, Robert, 348, 348 n
Great Britain. See England
GREEN, SAMUEL SWETT, A.M., tribute
to, 404
Timothy (d 1763), partnership of,
with S. Kneeland, 290 n
Greene, John, associate of S. Gorton, 44
Nathaniel, 356 .
GREENOUQH, CHESTER NOTES, Ph.D.,
on Nominating Committee, 231, 408;
his paper, John Dunton Again, 232-
251
Greenwich, R. I., name changed to
Deptford, 1686, 295 n
Greville, Robert, second Baron Brooke,
with Lord Saye and Sele commis-
sions J. Winthrop, Jr., to found
and govern a colony in Connecti-
cut, 159, 164; correspondent of Win-
throp, 178
Gross, Pastor, alleged transmutation of
tin and mercury into gold, in presence
of, 134, 134 n, 144
Gruterus, Janus, 193
Guise, Charles de Lorraine, Duke of,
176 n
.ADLEY, refuge of regicides, 450
Hale, Rev. Edward Everett (H. C.
1839), 156 n
Hales, John Groves, his survey of Bos-
ton, 1814, 252
Hammersmith, iron works at, 12, 14
Hammond, Franklin Tweed, 409
Hampton, N. H., instructs representa-
tive, 1655, 416
Hancock, Belcher (d 1771), son of
Nathaniel (d 1755), 383 n, 384 n,
385 n; elected tutor at Harvard Col-
lege, 383
Gov. John, 285 n, 419; Bible said
to have been possessed by, printed in
Boston, 1752, not discoverable, 285,
286; Harvard College record books
HANCOCK (continued)
carried off by, 392 n; restored about
1862, 392 n
— Lydia (Henchman), wife of
Thomas, uncle of Gov. John, 285 n
Thomas, uncle of Gov. John, 285 n
Hanover, Va., Sunday school estab-
lished in, 1785, 262 n
Hanson, Alexander Contee, opposes
right to instruct representatives, 443
Rev. Harold Libby, 276 n; quoted,
on Sunday school of the First Baptist
Church in Charlestown, 275
Hanus, Paul Henry, 182 n; quoted, on
Comenius, 148; doubts offer of presi-
dency of Harvard College to him, 151 ;
quoted, on use of his text-books in
America, 179; on Harvard College
customs, about 1731, 186
Harding, Capt. Thomas, 33, 33 n; sent
against Narragansett Indians, 1645,
44 n
Harris, John, land grant to, 1688, 342
Harriseket, Indian name of Freeport,
Me., 339 n
Harte, Rev. Walter, 107 n; commends
R. Child's Large Letter concerning
English Husbandry, 105
Hartlib, Samuel, 98 n, 115, 116, 120 n,
172, 172 n, 176; friend of R. Child, 1,
98, 175 n; his Legacie: or Discourse
of Husbandry, including R. Child's
Large Letter, 5, 6 n, 103, 103 n, 107,
107 n, 108, 108 n, 109; letter of, to
Child, urging his consideration of
Irish natural history and husbandry,
108, 115; quoted, on death of A.
Boate, 119; desires Child and R.
Boyle to continue G. Boate's Naturall
History of Ireland, 119, 122, 122 n,
166 n, 175; Sir J. Clotworthy's inter-
est in, 159 n; letter of, to J. Winthrop,
Jr., cited, 160 n; letter of, to J. Pell,
quoted, 161 n; association of, with
Comenius, 165, 166, 171 ; friend of J.
Winthrop, Jr., 171, 172, 174, 177, 178;
of J. Davenport, 172, 174; of Sir K.
Digby, 175 n; quoted, on Comenius,
176; sends book by Comenius to J.
Davenport, 180; issues English trans-
lation of book by Comenius, 184
Harvard, Rev. John, owned book by
Comenius, 179; catalogue of his li-
brary, by A. C. Potter, 190-227; only
one or two books now extant, 192,
INDEX
471
HARVARD (continued)
204, 206; character of his books, 192;
list of authors, editors, etc., men-
tioned in catalogue, 228-230; rela-
tives of Harvard victims of the plague
1625, 212; a play among his books,
acted while he was a student at Cam-
bridge, 220
Harvard College, C. Mather's statement
that presidency of, was offered to J. A.
Comenius, 146; this not mentioned
in the college histories, 147; President
Dunster's resignation, 1654, 146, 152,
153, 154; C. Chauncy inaugurated,
1654, 147, 154; New Haven Colony
contributes to support of, 170 n; often
referred to as "the college," 170 n;
first LL.D. granted by, 1773, 177 n;
text-books by Comenius perhaps used
in, 179; original record of books given
by J. Harvard, 190; water-color view
of, about 1807, exhibited by W. Lin-
coln, 257; print of this view in the
College Library, 257; record book
destroyed in fire of 1764, 365 n; low
condition of, in 1672, 369; London
ministers interested in, and recom-
mend L. Hoar for President, 369 n;
punishments used at and power of
punishment, 376; water-color view of,
by H. d'Orgemont, 1795, exhibited
by W. C. Lane, 410
Board of Overseers, 152; elects
C. Chauncy President, 1654, 147, 153,
154; accepts President Dunster's res-
ignation, 153, 154; composition of
first board and its reorganization, 167;
powers given to, by General Court,
168; action of, on President's salary,
1672, 365 n; question of election of
L. Hoar as President by, 367-370;
act of General Court, 1810, reorgan-
izing the board, repealed, 1812, 371-
372; powers of, 376, 384, 386, 387
Catalogues, notes on, 366 n, 373 n
Charters: some provisions of the
charter of 1650, 167, 367; A. Mat-
thews's paper, The Harvard College
Charter of 1672, 363-402; this char-
ter first mentioned in College publi-
cations in 1812, 370-371 ; statements
of the Corporation regarding the
charters, 371-372; quotations from
Peirce, Quincy, and others declaring
that the charter of 1672 was not r«--
HARVARD COLLEGE (continued)
corded by the College, was without
validity, etc., 373-375; summary of
points asserted, 375; these points an-
swered, 375-388; ten copies of the
charter of 1672 described, 388-391;
error of historians regarding it, 391;
purpose of this charter, 393; draught
of charter of 1672 reproduced, 394;
text of charters of 1650 and 1672,
395-402
Corporation, 168; provisions of
charter of 1650 concerning, 167, 367;
members of, 1672, 368; question of
election of L. Hoar as President by,
367-370; statement of, 1812, con-
cerning charters of the college, 371;
appoints committee to defend rights
of the College before the General
Court, 1812, 371 ; publishes pamphlet,
The Constitution of the University,
1812, 372, 372 n; powers of, under
various charters, 375-377, 386, 387;
official name of, not clearly fixed in
early times, 378, 378 n; number of
members of, 379; vote of, regarding
preservation of college documents,
392 n; right of, to elect presidents,
393; members of, 1692-1700, ap-
pointed by General Court, 393
— Fellows, care of the college com-
mitted to, in interim of presidencies,
1654, 153, 154; early position of, 168;
names of, 1672, 368; grading of, 370 n
Harvard Hall, T. Dawes's receipts
for work on, 419 n
Laws, extract from earliest code
of, 376
Library, books by Comenius in,
179, 184-186; J. Harvard's books be-
queathed to, remarks on, and cata-
logue of, by A. C. Potter, 190-227;
catalogue of library published, 1723,
191; destruction by fire, 1764, 192,
206; the Fearing Collection on an-
gling, 250
President, salary of, 1672, 365,
365 n, 374
Widener Memorial Building, book
given by J. Harvard the first carried
into, 206
Hastings, Jonathan (H. C. 1730), 258 n
Hathorne, William (d 1681), 65 n; pro-
moter of fur trading company, 1645,
16 n
472
IXDEX
Havers, George, translator of the Viaggi
of Pietro della Valle, 234, 234 n
Havereham, a name sometimes wrongly
given to Feversham, R. I., 259 n
Hawkins, Capt. Thomas (d 1648), 34 n
HAYNES, GEORGE HENRY, Ph.D., 115
Hayward, William, 256-257
Helbig, Johann Otto von, 136 n; cited,
on the Philalethes tracts, 136; pas-
sage quoted, in Dr. S. Bellingham's
translation, 136 n
Helmont, Jan Baptista van, 119, 128 n;
alchemist, 129, 144; correspondent of
J. Winthrop, Jr., 178, 179
Helvetius, Johann Friedrich, 143; his
alchemical work, and tract, The Gol-
den Calf, 132 .
Henchman, Daniel (d 1761), 285, 285 n
Lydia, daughter of Daniel (d
1761). See Hancock
HENSHAW, SAMUEL, A.M., 250 n
Hertodt, Johann Ferdinand. See Tod-
tenfeld, Johann Ferdinand Hertodt
von
Hewes, Joshua, 15 n
Heydon, John, practices astromancy
and geomancy, 125, 125 n
HIGGINSON, HENRY LEE, LL.D., death
of, xv, 405
Hill, Col. Arthur, son of Sir Moyses,
Irish landowner and friend of R.
Child, 121-123
Hamilton Andrews, quoted, on
the Boston Society for the Moral and
Religious Instruction of the Poor, 268
Hannah, active in organizing a
Sunday school in Beverly, 1810, 265 n
Sir Moyses, 121
Richard/writes to J. Winthrop, Jr.,
on black lead in New England, 114
- Valentine (d 1662), 15 n
Hillsborough, Viscounts and Earls of,
descendants of Col. Arthur Hill, 121 n
Hinckes, John, 305 n; land grant to,
1687, 305
Hingham, troubles incident to a mili-
tary election at, 17 n, and petition
sent to England, 1645, 25, 26
Hoar, Rev. Leonard, President of Har-
vard College, 363 n, 378 n, 391, 396,
401, 402; questions connected with
his administration, 363; sketch of,
363; invited to ministry of Old South
Church, but released to accept presi-
dency of Harvard College, 363, 365;
HOAR (continiied)
his election and inauguration, 364,
366, 366 n, 367, 374; his salary, 365;
quoted, on accepting the position,
366, 369; question of the manner of
his election, 364, 367-370; difficulties
confronting him and his probable de-
sire for, and work upon, a new char-
ter, 1672, 374, 393; handwriting of,
391 n
Hobart. See also Hubbard
— Joshua, brother of Rev. Peter
(d 1679), 38 n, 55 n
— Rev. Peter (d 1679), practice of,
concerning baptism, 24,- 24 n; takes
part in quarrel about a military elec-
tion in Hingham and joins in petition
to England, 1645, 25, 26, 35; refuses
to observe fast day appointed in De-
cember, 1646, 36
Peter (d 1879), 271 n; cited, on
early history of Park Street Church
and Sunday school, 270 n
Hogg, Daniel, land grant to, 1688, .326
Hogg Island, Mass., land grants on,
1688,360
Hog Island, Me., grant of, to V. Ellicott,
1688, 326
Holden, Randall, associate of S. Gorton,
44, 79, 80; manifesto of, quoted, 80 n
Hollman, John, land grant to, 1688, 343
Holyoke, Rev. Edward, President of
Harvard College, 379; statement of,
concerning storage of N. Prince's
goods, 383 n
Hook, Rev. William (d 1677), 172, 172 n
Hooke, Francis (d 1694), marriage of,
57 n
Mary (Maverick) Palsgrave, wife
of Francis (d 1694), petition of, to
Andros, 57, 57 n
Hooker, Rev. Thomas (d 1647), 74 n,
invited to England to advance cause
of the Independents, 73
Hopkins, Ann, wife of Gov. Edward,
27 n
Edward, Governor of Connecticut,
27 n, 41, 169 n
Horace, quoted, 182 n
Horr, Rev. George Edwin, quoted, on
Sunday school of the First Baptist
Church of Charlestown, 276
Housing, Peter (d c 1673), 338, 338 n
Peter, son of Peter (d c 1673), land
grant to, 1688, 337
INDEX
473
Howard, Robert, 256
William. See Hayward, William
Howchin, Jeremy (d 1670), 13
Howell, John, land grant to, 1688, 318
Howes, Edward, 15, 15 n; friend of J.
Winthrop, Jr., and student of alchemy,
126, 129, 174
Hubbard. See also Hobart
William, member of fur trading
company, 1645, 16 n
Rev. William (d 1704), son of
William, 17 n
Hull, John, quoted, on L. Hoar's invi-
tation to Old South Church, Boston,
and his appointment as President of
Harvard College, 365; represents sev-
eral towns while resident of Boston,
431
Humfrey, John (d 1651), 8, 167 n, 175 n;
letter of, to J. Winthrop, Jr., quoted,
166 n
Hungerford, Sir Edward, 236 n
Lady Margaret, wife of Sir Ed-
ward, 236 n
Hunnewell, Richard, 318 n; land grant
to, 1688, 318
Hunting! on, Rev. Joshua, 268 n; presi-
dent of the Boston Society for the
Moral and Religious Instruction of
the Poor, 268
Husbands, Maj. Azariah, 94 n; puts
down insurrection in Kent, Eng.,
1648,94
Hutchinson, Anne, 40
Edward (d 1752), 381, 381 n
Gov. Thomas, 17 n, 41 n, 370;
quoted, on R. Child's medical studies,
5; on L. Hoar, 367; on Harvard Col-
lege, 379, 379 n; on J. Dudley, 432
Hyde, Edward, first Earl of Clarendon,
178; cited, on S. Maverick, 68
.INDEPENDENTS, struggle of, with
Presbyterians, for control of England,
3, 72-74; Maj. J. Child and R. Baillie
quoted on, 87. See also Presbyterians
Indian corn, J. Winthrop, Jr., sends gift
of, to S. Hartlib, 171
Indians: at Harvard College, 186-189;
order of General Court for religious
instruction of, 1644, 259; Sunday
school for, on Martha's Vineyard,
perhaps first in the new world, 260,
261
INDIANS (continued)
Chackamuck. See Kewegue
— Cheeshahteaumuck, Caleb (H. C.
1665), 186 n; sketch of, 187-189
Hiacooms. See Jacoms
Jacoms (Hiacooms, lacomoes),
187, 187 n; teaches Sunday school for
Indians at Martha's Vineyard, 1660,
260; C. Mather quoted on, 260 n
Jacoomis (Jacoms), Joel, son of
Jacoms, 186 n, 260 n; autograph of,
186; student at Harvard College, 187;
D. Gookin's account of, 187-189
Kewegue, land bought of, 300 n
— Mamanewatt, land bought of,
299n
— Mohawks (Maquaes), 158 n
Mohicans, 158 n
— Narragansett tribe, trouble with,
1645, 44 n
Tacomus, gives land to J. Win-
throp, 334 n
Wompatuck, Josias, 302
Ingersoll, George, 317 n, 321 n, 343 n,
344 n, 347 n; land grant to, 1688,
343
George (d c 1730), son of George,
321 n, 325; land grant to, 1688,
321
John (d 1716), brother of George,
322, 344 n; land grant to, 1688,
344
Joseph (d 1700), son of George,
322, 343 n, 347 n, 348 n; land grant
to, 1688, 347
Samuel, son of George, 317 n; land
grant to, 1688, 317
Ingraham, Joseph Went worth, his ac-
count of Christ Church Sunday
school, 273-275, 275 n
Initiative, in politics, use of, in colonial
New England, 411, 423
Ipswich, instructs deputies never to re-
sign liberties, 429
Ireland, kind of promise for English in-
vestors and speculators, in seven-
teenth century, 120
Irish forfeited lands, money made and
lost in, in seventeenth century, 117,
117 n
Iron works in Massachusetts, J. Win-
throp, Jr., and R. Child interested in,
7, 9, 10, 10 n, 11, 12 n, 15; foundries
at Braintree and Lynn, 11, 12, 14;
disappointing results, 13-14, 66 n
474
INDEX
V ACKSON, Andrew, President, 444
John, seaman, 257; and M. Mun-
nings, agreement between, concern-
ing use of a ship, 1659, 254-256; as-
signs right to C. Clarke, 256, 257
Jakubec, Jan, 149 n; quoted, on Co-
menius, 149 n
James II, King of England, 71, 292
Jaquith, Harry J., quoted, on Park
Street Church and Sunday school,
270 n
Jeffarel, John. See Gifford, John
Jefferson, Thomas, President, 445
Jeffries, , manager of iron works in
Massachusetts, 12 n
JENNET, HON. CHARLES FRANCIS,
LL.B., 409
Jesuits, in New England, 61, 61 n, 62;
their feeling toward New England,
62
Jocelyn, Abraham, 310, 310 n
• Henry, brother of Abraham, 310 n
Jogand-Pages, Gabriel Antoine (d 1907),
extraordinary hoax of, concerning T.
Vaughan, 142, 142 n, 143, 143 n
JOHNSON, ALFRED, Litt.D., elected
Registrar, 408
Capt. Edward (d 1672), 17 n, 85 n;
quoted, on iron works at Braintree,
14; on signers of the Remonstrance
of 1646, 20
Humphrey, land grant to, 1687,
313
Nathaniel, land grant to, 1688, 359
Jones, Isaac (d c 1690), 339, 345 n; land
grant to, 1688, 345
John (d c 1690), 345 n; land grant
to, 1688, 345
Jordan, Dominicus (d 1703), son of Rev.
Robert, 315 n; land grant to, 1688,
315
Rev. Robert (d 1679), 305 n, 315,
315 n
Sarah (Winter), wife of Rev.
Robert, 305 n; land grant to, 1687,
305
Josselyn, John, brother of Abraham
Jocelyn, 310 n
Judkins, Eliza M., 258, 258 n
K
EATINGE, Maurice Walter,
quoted, on movements of Comenius,
166 n
Keayne, Anna, daughter of Benjamin.
See Paige
Benjamin, son of Robert, 319 n
Robert (d 1656), 13 n, 14, 319,
319 n
Keayne, Sherman vs., 415
Keffler, Abraham, friend of J. Win-
throp, Jr., 174, 175 n
Dr. John Sibert, friend of J. Win-
throp, Jr., 172 n, 174, 175 n, 178
Kent, Eng., insurrection in, 1648, 93-
96, 96 n
Kepler, Johann, 178, 179
Kerker, Henry, 157 n
Kiesewetter, Joannes Augustinus, his
account of Philalethes, 145
Kilkenny, Ireland, project for new
academy at, 99
King's Province, location of, 293; sur-
vey of, ordered, 1687, 294; land grant
in, 1687, 295. See also Narragansett
Country
Kingsbury, Frederick John, quoted, on
C. Mather, 169 n
Kingston, R. I., name changed to
Rochester, 1686, 295 n
Kinsley, Steven, connection of, with
second trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n
Kirby, Francis, letter of, to J. Win-
throp, Jr., quoted, 164 n
Kircher, Rev. Athanasius, his fantastic
theory of barnacles and geese, 116
Kirkland, Rev. John Thornton, Presi-
dent of Harvard College, 258 n, 371;
with T. Parsons, prepares pamphlet,
The Constitution of the University,
372 n
Kittery, Me., land grant in, 1687, 307
KlTTREDGE, GEORGE L.YMAN, LL.D.,
174, 175 n, 176 n, 178 n; his paper,
Dr. Robert Child the Remonstrant,
1-146; quoted, on inscription by I.
Mather, 182 n
Kneeland, Samuel (d 1769), partnership
of, with T. Green, 290 n
Kneeland & Green, alleged printing of
Bible by, at Boston, about 1752, 285,
286 n, 289, 291, 292
Knowles, Rev. John, reference to letter
of, 1671, to Overseers of Harvard
College, 369 n; recommended for
presidency, 369 n
Kopp, Hermann, quoted, on Philalethes,
141
INDEX
475
±JAKE, Rev. Kirsopp, 409
Thomas, 171
Lake discovery, 15, 16
Lamb, George, his map of Boston, 251
Lambarde, William (d 1601), his Jus-
tice, 213
Lambert, William G., superintends Sun-
day school in West Boston, 278 n
Lamp-lighters, majority in a Boston
town-meeting, 447
Lancaster, iron mine at, 15
Land warrants, issued by Gov. Andros,
1687-1688, 292-361; list of grantees
and locations, 362
Landholders, proportion of, in New
England colonies, 441, 441 n
Lane, James, 281
John, land grant to, 1688, 323
Mary (Wellington), wife of James,
281, 281 n
Oliver Wellington, son of James,
283 n; his Sunday school, at Boston,
1791, 280; sketch of, 281, 281 n;
obituary notice of, 282
Susanna (Newman), wife of Oliver
Wellington, 281
WILLIAM COOLIDGE, A.B., 5 n;
describes print in Harvard College
Library, from water-color view of
the college, about 1807, 257; exhibits
water-color view of Harvard College,
made by H. d'Orgemont, 1795, 410
Lange, Johann, 134
LANMAN, CHARLES ROCKWELL, LL.I >.,
404
La Tour, Mme., suit of, against Alder-
man Barclay, of London, 29 n
Laud, William, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, 8, 142
Launce, Mary. See Sherman
Lawrence, Robert (d 1690), 308 n; land
grant to, 1687, 308
Layes, Martha, 358
Lead mines in Massachusetts, 92, 92 n,
99, 112-115; R. Child quoted on,
113
Leader, Richard, comes to Massachu-
setts as manager of iron works, 11,
12, 12 n, 13 n; R. Child confined in
house of, 1646, 41, 71; represents
Child in financial matters, 60, 61,
61 n, 92, 92 n; interest of, in Ireland,
120; residences of, in Massachusetts,
120 n
Loane, Henry, land grant to, 1688, 345
Job, land grant to, 1688, 345
John, land grant to, 1688, 345
Samuel, land grant to, 1688, 345
Leatherby, Thomas, hind grant to,
1688, 326
Lee, Arthur (d 1792), 436
Henry, cited, on legend of geese
and barnacles, 116
Rev. Samuel (d 1691), 180
Lenglet-Dufresnoy, Nicolas, 143;
quoted, on Philalethes, 141, 141 n
Lenox, James, 286
Leonard, John, son of Solomon, land
grant to, 1679, 299 n
Samuel, son of Solomon, land
grant to, 1679, 299 n
Solomon, 299 n
Leverett, Gov. John, 33, 67, 67 n, 369 n
John, President of Harvard Col-
lege, 378, 381 n, 389, 393, 399; mar-
riage of, 183 n; quoted, on contro-
versy concerning claims of N. Sever
and W. Welsteed to seats in Harvard
College Corporation, 380; on the
College charter of 1672, 388; his
Diary, 388, 392 ; identification of , 389 n
Margaret (Rogers) Berry, wife of
President John, 183, 183 n
Lewis, Isaac, 319
Libbey, Daniel, 326 n; land grant to,
1688, 326
David, brother of Daniel, 326 n;
land grant to, 1688, 326
— Henry, brother of Daniel, 326 n;
land grant to, 1688, 326
— John, brother of Daniel, 326 n;
land grant to, 1688, 326
Matthew, brother of Daniel, 326 n;
land grant to, 1688, 326
Liberty of conscience, not sympathised
with by colonial Congregationalists,
or by Presbyterians or Episcopalians
of the time, 23, 88, 89 n
Lidgett, Charles (d 1698), 296 n, 361;
land grants to, 1687, 296, 298
Lime, making of, in New England, 105
Lincoln, Nathan, 411
WALDO, A.B., exhibits water-color
view of Harvard College, about 1807,
257
Lindsey, Theophilus (d 1808), 264 n
Liquor, various material'' uwd for, aa
observed by R. Child, in his travels,
110
476
INDEX
Lissa, Poland, Back of, 1656, 160, 161 n
Little Chebeag, island, Me., 306, 306 n
Little Corapton, R. I., incorporation of,
299 n; land grant in, 1687, 299
Livermore, George, on printing of
Bibles in America before the Revolu-
tion, 286, 286 n
Loftus, Adam, first Viscount Loftua of
Ely, with the Earl of Cork, destroys
St. Patrick's Purgatory, 115, 116
Longmeadow, vote of, 1808, concern-
ing Embargo Law, 445 n
Lord's Supper, quarrels over right to
partake of, 22, 22 n; time of celebrat-
ing, 153
Loring, Charles Greely (d 1867), 380 n
Losers, proverb concerning, 66, 66 n
Lothrop, Thomas, connection of, with
second trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n, 56, 56 n
Louis XIV, King of France, 423
Lowell, Rev. Charles (d 1861), 278,
278 n; letter of, to E. S. Gannett, on
Sunday school of West Church, Bos-
ton, 277
John (H. C. 1786), brother of Rev.
Charles (d 1861), 371 n; on committee
to defend rights of Harvard College
before the General Court, 1812, 371
JOHN, A.B., elected Resident
Member, 231, 404
Lower Clapboard Island, Me., 351
Loyalists, Boston's feeling toward, 439;
An American quoted on, 439 n
Lucerne, a forage plant, 109, 109 n
Lfitzow, FranteSek, Count, 149 n, 150 n;
quoted, on Comenius, 149, 150
Lynde, Joseph (d 1727), 355 n; land
grant to, 1688, 355
Simon (d 1687), 294 n; land grant
to, 1687, 294
Lynn, iron works at, 12, 60, 61
M,
.ACCAMBOY, 115
McKee, Thomas Jefferson, owned Bible
claimed to be the Mark Baskett Bible
of 1752, described by I. Thomas, 286,
287-289
Mader, Wilhelmus, 74 n
Madiver, Joel (d 1703), 331, 349 n; land
grant to, 1688, 349
Magunco (Magaguncock) Hill. See
Ashland
Maine, John, 338 n
Maine's Point, Me., 338, 338 n
Mallet, John, 101 n
Manchaog Farm, grant of, to J. Dud-
ley, 1688, 314
Mandates. See New England Town
Mandates
Manget, Johann Jakob, 134 n, 136
Marblehead, founding of, 412
Marsh, Thomas (H. C. 1731), 383 n,
384 n, 385 n
Marshall, Chief-Justice John, opinion
of, on Remonstrance of 1646, 76 n
William, English engraver, 235 n
Martha's Vineyard, Christian Indians
on, 187; Sunday school for them,
1660, 260, 261
Marvin, William Theophilus Rogers,
46 n, 88 n; his treatment of the Re-
monstrance of 1646, 17 n; quoted, on
R. Child, 39 n
Maryland, election law of 1716, 422 n;
Senate, refuses to obey mandate of
constituencies, 1786, 443
Mason, Jonathan, 281
Thaddeus (d 1802), 452, 453
Massachusetts, first use of referendum
in, 1641, 424; later use, 425; annual
elections in, 426; Excise Bill, 1754,
433^36
Colony, contest of, with the Re-
monstrants, 1646, 2
Colony Charter, vacated, 1684,
292, 429, 430; provisions of, for ses-
sions of General Court, and its pow-
ers, 411
Constitution of 1780, 425; provides
for instructing representatives, 427,
442,443
General Court, grants monopoly
for iron works to J. Winthrop, Jr.,
and others, 12; issues call for sub-
scriptions, 13; declares works not
likely to continue and grants other
privileges, 14, 15; grants monopoly
for beaver trade, 15; recommends a
synod of the New England churches,
19, 22 n; appoints committee to ar-
range the laws, 20; other measures
which may have been influenced by
the Remonstrance of 1646, 20; ap-
points a fast day, 1646, as a reproof
of the Remonstrants, 36; tries the
Remonstrants, 37-39; tries them a
second time for conspiracy against
the government, 50-56; order of, on
INDEX
477
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL COURT (con-
tinued)
resignation of H. Duns tor as Presi-
dent of Harvard College, 152, 168;
takes important part in early man-
agement of the College, 167; Over-
seers of, appointed by, 1654, 167 n;
order of, for religious instruction of
Indians, 1644, 259; 1672, concerning
salary of President of Harvard Col-
lege, 365; fills vacancies in Harvard
Corporation, 370; orders to be laid
before it the charter of the college,
with all laws, regulations, etc., 371;
repeals, 1812, act of 1810, reorganiz-
ing Board of Overseers, 371-372;
grants powers to Overseers, 1642,
376; to Corporation, 1650, 1656,
1657, 1672, 377; laws of, relating to
Harvard College, 387; general powers
of, as granted by Colony charter, 411;
in 1641 asks towns to instruct depu-
ties, 414; establishment of two houses
in, 1642, 415; does not sustain recall
of representative by town of Glouces-
ter, 425; passes Excise Bill, 1754,
433-435; orders referendum on rati-
fication of Articles of Confederation,
438
House Journal, publication of, 432
Province Charter, franchise pro-
vision of, 441
Provincial Congress, 437
Massachusetts Historical Society, owns
Bible containing memoranda by
I. Mather, 181 n
Massachusetts Sabbath School Union,
report of, 1830, quoted, 270 n
Massereene, Viscount. See Clotworthy,
Sir John
Mather, Cotton, son of Rev. Increase,
106, 112, 147 n, 150 n, 151, 154 n,
168, 169, 169 n, 170 n, 171 n, 173 n,
179, 183 n, 367 n; his tribute to the
alchemical knowledge of J. Winthrop,
Jr., 127; states that presidency of
Harvard College was offered by J.
Winthrop, Jr., to J. A. Comenius,
146, 154, 155; sole authority for this
tradition, 148 n, 150, 150 n; possible
explanation of it, 154-168; errors in
his Magnalia perhaps due to printer,
154 n, 364 n; imitates title of work
by Comenius, 155, 155 n, 190; his
intimacy with Winthrop family, 168,
MATHER (continued)
168 n; quoted, on J. Norton's letter
to J. Durie, about 1661, 172 n; quo-
ted, on Hiacoms, 260 n; on use of
intermission between Sunday serv-
ices, 262 n; quoted, on L. Hoar's
election to presidency of Harvard
College, and inauguration, 364, 366,
367
Rev. Increase, son of Rev. Rich-
ard, 168, 190 n; sends to his father,
1661, book by Comenius, 180; fac-
simile of inscriptions in the book, 181 ;
handwriting of, 181 n; cites Come-
nius, 189; addresses Boston town-
meeting, 1684, on surrender of the
colony charter, 429
— Rev. Richard, 147, 168; appointed
by Overseers of Harvard College to
confer with C. Chauncy concerning
the presidency, 153, 154; book by
Comenius presented to, 1661, 180;
cites Comenius, 189
Rev. Samuel (d 1671), son of Rev.
Richard, 395
Rev. Samuel, son of Rev. Cotton,
183 n; quoted, on letters of J. Norton
and J. Davenport to J. Durie, 173 n;
cites Comenius, 190
MATTHEWS, ALBERT, A.B., 411, 451 n;
his paper, Comenius and Harvard
College, 146-190; his paper, Early
Sunday Schools in Boston, 259-285,
451; his paper, The Harvard College
Charter of 1672, 363-402
Maverick, Mary, daughter of Samuel.
See Hooke
Nathaniel, son of Samuel, Noddle's
Island deeded to, 57, 57 n
Samuel, 8, 32, 51, 54 n, 78 n; a
signer of the Remonstrance of 1646,
17, 22, 28; not always law-abiding,
28 n; charged with being an in-
formant against his country, 29 n;
tried, with other Remonstrants, and
sentenced, 37, 38; charged with
breach of his freeman's oath, 42;
tried a second time, with othrr Re-
monstrants, for conspiracy against
the government, and sentenced, 50-
56, 82 n; transfer of Noddle's Island
in effort to avoid payment of fine,
and final payment, 57; petitions Gen-
eral Court for review of his trial, 57-
59, 57 n, 58 n; quoted, on exaction of
478
INDEX
MAVERICK (conliiwed)
fines from himself and other Re-
monstrants, 59; paper of, concerning
the Remonstrance of 1646, 66; one of
thirteen petitioners to the Council for
Foreign Plantations, 1661, 67, 67 n;
petitions the King, 1663, 68; ap-
pointed one of commissioners for reg-
ulation of New England affairs, 1664,
68
Maxson, Rev. John (d 1720), 295 n;
land grant to, 1687, 295
Mayanexit River, 313 n
Mayhew, Joseph (d 1782), 384 n, 385 n;
elected Fellow of Harvard College,
383
Medal, struck by command of Emperor
Ferdinand III, from alchemic gold,
130
Medfield, land grant in, 1688, 314
Medway, instruction of, to deputy, 438
Mendon, demands repeal of Impost
Act, 1784, 438
Merrill, John Douglass, 409
Mersenne, Marin, 166, 166 n
Michelet, Jules, 151
Middlesex Registry of Deeds, housing
of records of, 1776, 452
Mildmay, Sir Henry, of Wanstead,
Essex, Eng., patron of L. Hoar, 363 n
William (H. C. 1647), son of Sir
Henry of Wanstead, 363 n
Milton, John, book of, burned, 21 n;
correspondent of J. Winthrop, Jr.,
178
Milton, land grants in, 1688, 356
Mines in New England, legislation con-
cerning, 1641, 113 n
Mitchell, Rev. Jonathan (H. C. 1647),
Fellow of Harvard College, 396
Mobby, a liquor, 110
Mobby-faces, 111
Moges, islands, Me., 346 n
Monroe, Will Seymour, 156 n; doubts
that presidency of Harvard College
was offered to Comenius, 149 n, 151,
167; quoted, on Comenius and the
Winthrops, 160 n, 176 n
Monster of Monsters, The, pamphlet
on the Excise Bill, 1754, 1754, 435
MOORE, Rev. GEORGE FOOT, LL.D.,
139 n
Jacob Bailey, error of, concerning
date of arrival of E. Winslow in Eng-
land, 45 n
Moravians, settlement of, in America,
150, 150 n
Morgan, Maj. , 122 n
Morgenbesser, Michael, alleged trans-
mutation of lead into silver, in pres-
ence of, 133, 134 n, 144
Morice, Sir William (d 1676), 68
Morrell, Robert, land grant to, 1688,
350
Morrice. See Morice
Morris, Lewis, 422 n
Morse, Andrew, 451
Dr. Frederic D., 451
Mortimer, Dr. Cromwell, 179; quoted,
on J. Winthrop (H. C. 1700), 131 n;
his dedication of Philosophical Trans-
actions, vol. xl, to J. Winthrop (d
1747) quoted, 177
Morton, Thomas, 40
Mosey, Benjamin, 319
Mosier, Hugh (d c 1666), 346 n
James, son of Hugh, 346 n
John, son of Hugh, 346 n
Mosiers Islands, Freeport, Me., 346,
.346 n
Muddy River, early name of Brookline,
298, 298 n
Munford (Mountfort, Mumford), Ben-
jamin (d 1714), 353, 353 n
Munnings (Mallins), George (d 1658),
R. Child confined in house of, 42, 43
Hannah, wife of Mahalaleel, 254,
254 n
Mahalaleel (d 1660), 257; and J.
Jackson, agreement between, con-
cerning use of a ship, 1659, 254-256;
sketch of, 254 n
Munroe, James Phinney, quoted, on
Comenius, 149
Munson, Dr. JDneas, interest of, in al-
chemy, 123
Munster, Sebastian, 233
Muret, Marc Antoine, 193
Murray, Rev. John (d 1815), 282
Musculus, description of, 245
Muskrat, 106
Mystic, Ct., iron found at, 15
IN AHANT Neck, survey of, ordered,
1688, 354
Nantucket, shipwreck and murder at,
1665, 188, 188 n
Narragansett Bay, survey of, ordered,
1688, 315
INDEX
179
Xarragansett Country, location of, 293;
survey of, ordered, 1687, 294; land
grant in, 1687, 295. See also King's
Province
Nashawake (Lancaster), iron mine at,
15, 15 n
Natick, 450
Natimnah (Nasinnah), Little Comp-
ton, R. I., 299, 299 n, 300 n
Native Bostonian, cited, on power of
the town-meeting, 447
Neal, Rev. Daniel, quoted, on J. Good-
win, 21 n
Needham, establishment of, and first
minister, 450
Negroes, Sunday school for, Boston,
1816, 272, 272 n
New England Company, 187 n
New England Town Mandates, paper
by K. Colegrove, 411-449; practice
of voting mandates to deputies a
characteristic of town-meeting sys-
tem and concurrent with establish-
ment of representative government,
411-414; earliest evidence of town in-
structions, 414-416; procedure for
voting instructions, 417; a typical
18th century Boston election, 418-
421; corporate capacity of New Eng-
land towns as giving authority to
instructions, and comparison with
conditions in middle and southern
colonies and in England, 421-423;
initiative and referendum, 423-425;
recall, 425-427; specific examples of
mandates, 427-431; publicity given
to proceedings of General Court a
means of ensuring fidelity to man-
dates, 431-433; infidelity to instruc-
tions charged in case of Excise Bill
of 1754, 433-436; importance of the
mandate system during the American
Revolution, 436-440; the town-meet-
ing a school of politics, 440; extent of
the franchise in colonial New Eng-
land, 441; right to instruct repre-
sentatives declared in many state
constitutions, 442—444; decline and
disappearance of the town man-
date, 444-449; late instance of use of,
449 n
New-England's Jonas, naming of, 35
Newgate, Nathaniel, 360 n; land grant
to, 1688, 360
New Hampshire Gazette, 290
New Haven, Ct., a college projected at,
1648-1660, 169, 169 n, 170 n
New Haven Colony, contributes to sup-
port of Harvard College, 170 n
New London, Ct., Fishers Island, 173
Newman, Susanna. See Lane
New Roxbury, Ct., land grants in,
1688, 359; name changed to Wood-
stock, 359 n
Newspapers in colonial Massachusetts,
432
Newton, Sir Isaac, 178
Thomas, land grant to, 1688, 358
Newton, in 1689, instructs its deputy
to demand more liberal franchise, 416
New York Society Library, owns books
by Comenius, 189, 189 n
NICHOLS, CHARLES LEMUEL, M.D.,
Litt.D., his paper, Is there a Mark
Baskett Bible of 1752? 285-292
— John, 339, 341
Nicholson, John, 348, 348 n
Robert, brother of John, 348 n;
land grant to, 1688, 348
Niell (Nielld, Niles), Samuel, 336 n;
land grant to, 1688, 336
Nipmug (Nipmuck) Country, location
of, 293; land grants in, 1687, 304;
1688, 313, 314, 334, 361
Nonsuch Farm, Scarborough, Me.,
granted to S. Jordan and J. Hinckes,
305
Nonsuch marshes, Me., 346
Nope, island. See Martha's Vineyard
North Carolina, Declaration of Rights,
1776, 442
North Yarmouth, Me., land grants in,
1687, 296, 311; 1688, 338, 339, 343,
345, 347; refugees from Eleuthera in,
339 n
Norton, Francis, member of fur trad-
ing company, 1644, 15 n
Rev. John (d 1663), 74 n, 183 n;
appointed by Overseers of Harvard
College to confer with C. Chauncy
concerning the presidency, 147, 153,
154; Overseer of Harvard College,
167 n; letter of, for New England
clergy, to J. Durie, 172 n, 173 n
Rev. John (H. C. 1671), nephew
of Rev. John (d 1663), 183 n
— John, unidentified, autograph of,
183
Norwich, Ct., First Church, catechis-
ing of children in, 261
480
INDEX
Novak, J., quoted, on Comenius, 150 n
Nowell, Alexander (d 1672), brother of
Samuel (d 1688), 370; Fellow of Har-
vard College, 368, 369, 369 n; his
funeral oration on C. Chauncy, 370;
death of, 370
Samuel (d 1688), 353
NOTES, JAMES ATKINS, A.B., on Nom-
inating Committee, 231
'AKES, Rev. Urian, President of
Harvard College, his funeral sermon
on C. Chauncy, 369; named as a Fel-
low of Harvard College in charter of
1672, 396, 396 n, 401
Ockman, John, 339
Ocland, Christopher, his Anglorum
Prselia appointed by Queen Elizabeth
to be used in schools, 193
O'Connor, Rev. Daniel, 116
Oldenburg, Henry (d 1677), 173 n, 178
Orgemont, Houdin d', his water-color
view of Harvard College, 1795, ex-
hibited, 410; sketch of, 410
Orrery, Earl of. See Boyle, Roger
Otis, James (d 1783), 24, 419
John, 24; will of, 26 n
Margaret, daughter of John. See
Burton
Owen, Thomas, 28 n
Oxenstiern, Count Axel, 149; invites
Comenius to Sweden, 147, 155, 166
Oxford, represented by non-resident
deputy, 432 n
_L ADUA, Italy, University of, con-
fers degree on R. Child, 5, 5 n
Paget, Rev. John, 74 n
Paige, A"nna (Keayne), wife of Nicholas
(d 1717), 319, 319 n
Nicholas (d 1717), 319 n, 360;
land grant to, 1688, 319
Paine, John, 257
Painter, Stephen, 101 n
Palfrey, Rev. John Gorham (d 1881), 2;
his treatment of the Remonstrance
of 1646, 17 n; quoted, on L. Hoar,
and the Harvard College charter of
1672, 374
Palmer, John, 174, 174 n
Palsgrave, John, marriage of, 57 n
Mary (Maverick), wife of John.
See Hooke
Papists, fear of, in New England, 62
Paracelsus, Philippus Aureolus, 119.
132
Pareus, David, 230 n
Parish, , 62
PARK, Rev. CHARLES EDWARDS, D.D.,
Annual Report of Council, presented
on behalf of, 403; elected Correspond-
ing Secretary, 408
Parker, , 54
Rev. HENRY AINSWORTH, A.M.,
tribute to, 405
John, of Gravesend, Eng., 97
Samuel, of Needham, 1737, 452
PARMENTER, Hon. JAMES PARKER,
LL.B., 404
Parsons, , 302
Chief Justice Theophilus, with
Pres. Kirkland, prepares pamphlet,
The Constitution of the University
at Cambridge, 372 n
Patershall, Robert, 120 n
Paucatuck Neck, Westerly, R. I., land
grant at, 1687, 294, 294 n
Paul, Rev. Thomas, quoted, on Sunday
school for colored children, 272 n
Paulling, Matthew, 340 n; land grant
to, 1688, 340
Pawtucket, R. I., earliest Sunday
school in New England claimed for,
265, 275 n, 276 n
Payne, Henry, instigates charges against
Maj. J. Child, 97
Robert, connection of, with sec-
ond trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n, 56
William, 16 n, 120 n
William Harold, quoted, on offer
of presidency of Harvard College to
Comenius, 148
Payson, Giles, 298, 298 n
Peirce, Benjamin (d 1831), quoted, on
Harvard College charter of 1672,
373; his statements answered, 378,
382
Pelham, Herbert, 33; petition of, to
General Court, 1646, 33 n; quoted,
on progress of colonial matters, in
London, 45 n; on E. Winslow's con-
duct of the case of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony against the petitioners
of 1646, 66
William, connection of, with sec-
ond trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n, 56
INDEX
481
Pelham, instructs representative, 1821,
446
Pell, Daniel, 250; his Improvement of
the Sea borrowed from by J. Dun-
ton, 235, 235 n, 236 n, 237-240, 243,
244, 247-249; his identity uncertain,
236 n
— Rev. John, 166 n; quoted, on losses
of Comenius in sack of Lissa, Poland,
160 n; friend of J. Winthrop, Jr.,
161 n, 178
John, son of Rev. John, 161 n
Thomas, brother of Rev. John,
sketch of, 161 n
Pemberton, Thomas (d 1807), 280; ap-
peal of, for establishment of Sunday
schools in Boston, 279
Pendleton, Brian, connection of, with
second trial of the Remonstrants of
1646, 55, 55 n, 56
Penly, Sampson, 331
Pennsylvania, Constitution and Decla-
ration of Rights, 1776, 442
Pentograph, invention of Sir W. Petty,
98, 98 n
Pepper, Jacob, 298
PercivaX James Gates, 183
Perkins, Rev. William (d 1602), 262 n'
Perry, R. Child quoted on making of,
5n
Persius, works of, 218
Peters (Peter), Rev. Hugh, Overseer of
Harvard College, 8, 10 n, 61 n, 175 n;
quoted, on R. Child, 16; on persecu-
tion in the Massachusetts colony,
29 n, 30 n; G. Firmin's opinion of,
30 n; quoted, on right of appeal, 45 n
Rev. Thomas, brother of Rev.
Hugh, 93 n; fears to sail for England
in company of those carrying com-
plaints to Parliament, 34, 34 n
Petraeus, Benedictus Nicolaus, 143 n;
quoted, on Eirenseus Philalethes, 143
Petty, Sir William, 122 n, 166 n; in-
vents pentograph, 98, 98 n; requested
to make inquiries in Ireland for the
Royal Society, 116 n; government
position of, in Ireland, 120; friend of
R. Child, 120, 120 n
Philadelphia, Pa., earliest Sunday school
of modern type in America in, 264,
264 n, 274 n
Society for the Institution and
Support of First-Day or Sunday
Schools in Philadelphia, 264 n, 274 n
Philalethes, Eirenseus, name under
which many alchemical tracts were
issued, really by George Stirk, 124,
132, 134, 134 n, 135, 136, 137 n; but
attributed also to R. Child, 133, 135,
136, 137, 140, 141, 144, 145, 146; to
Bartlet, 137; to T. Vaughan, 141,
141 n, 142, 143, 144, 145. See alto
Stirk, George
Philalethes, Eugenius, pseudonym of
T. Vaughan, 125 n, 141
Philes, George Philip, 287
Phillips, James Duncan, 409
John (H. C. 1735), note of, quoted,
186
Samuel, 353
William, buys Saco patent, 1659,
65n
Philosopher's stone, references to belief
in, 126 n, 127, 130, 132, 134, 139,
140 n, 144
Phippen, David (d 1703), son of Joseph,
309 n; land grant to, 1687, 309
Joseph, 310, 310 n
PICKERING, HENRY GODDARD, LL.B.,
404; on Auditing Committee, 231,
408; on Committee on Memorials, 231
Pier, Arthur Stanwood, 409
Pike, Samuel, 350
Pinto, Ferdinand Mendez, J. Addison
quoted on, 234
Piscator, Johann, works of, 216
Pittsfield, resolution of, concerning ac-
tivity of Boston, 1812, 445
Plymouth, 439
Clark's Island, granted to N.
Clarke, 1688, 333; summer home of
W. W. Goodwin, 333 n
First Church, catechizing of chil-
dren in, 261, 262 n; earliest Sunday
school claimed for, by Rev. T. Rob-
bins, 262 n; J. C. Power quoted on
the Plymouth school, 263 n; proposed
publication of church records of, 404
Plymouth Colony, passes law providing
for instructions to deputies, 1640,
414
Pocasset, R. I., sale of lands in and near,
to B. Church and others, 1680, 299 n;
land grant in, 1687, 300; incorporated
as Tiverton, 300 n. See al*o Tiverton
PoriiMiturk, land grant to Dodham at,
450
Pond Cove, Me., 323, 323 n
Portland, Me. See Falmouth, Me.
482
INDEX
Portsmouth, R. I., land grant in, 1688,
358
POTTER, ALFRED CLAQHORN, A.B.,
identifies book by Comenius, in Har-
vard College Library, 179; his Cata-
logue of John Harvard's Library,
190-230
Power, John Carroll, quoted, on early
Sunday schools in America, 263 n
Powsland, Richard, 320 n, 344; land
grant to, 1688, 320
Prentice, Henry, 383, 383 n
Presbyterians, contest of, with Inde-
pendents for control of England, 3,
90; Remonstrance of 1646, in Massa-
chusetts, made in interest of, 18, 28,
39, 40, 69, 86, 87; standing of, hi New
England, 22 n, 46, 71, 72, 73; atti-
tude of, toward toleration and lib-
erty of conscience, 23, 89 n; attitude
of, toward Independents in England,
72; Presbyterianism established in
England, 1646, 72, 72 n
Press, censorship and freedom of, 432, 433
Presumpscot River, Me., 308 n
Prince, Joanna. See Everett
Rev. Nathan, brother of Rev.
Thomas (d 1758), 370, 383 n, 387 n,
388 n, 390, 390 n; quoted, on Har-
vard College charter of 1672, 378; is
removed from his tutorship and fel-
lowship at Harvard College, 382.
384 n; writes The Constitution ana
Government of Harvard College, 383,
383 TO, 385 n; quoted, on powers of
the Overseers and the Corporation,
and on the charters, 384-387; his
temporary derangement of mind,
385 n; later life, 385 n, 386 n
Rev. Thomas (H. C. 1707), note
of, on N. Prince, 385 n
Proxy voting, origin of, 413 n
Puncatest Neck, Little Compton, R. I.,
301, 301 n
Punkapog, Dorchester. See Dorchester
Purchas, Rev. Samuel, borrowed from,
by J. Dunton, 236, 249, 250 n
Purpooduck Point, Me., 323, 323 n
Pynchon, William (d 1662), quoted, on
R. Child and his associates, 41, 41 n
William (d 1789), 417
IvJUANSIGAMOND. See Worcester
Quincy, Josiah (d 1775), 419
QUINCY (continued)
— Josiah, President of Harvard Col-
lege, son of Josiah (d 1775), 367, 389;
cited, on size of J. Harvard's library,
191; on L. Hoar's inauguration, 364,
366 n; quoted, on Harvard College
charter of 1672, 373; his statements
answered, 375-382; quoted, on last
town-meetings of Boston, 446
Quobeague, survey of, ordered, 1688,
335. See also Brookfield
ACKEM ANN, CHARLES SEDGWICK,
A.M., on Committee on Memorials,
231
Raikes, Robert (d 1811), 262 n, 265 n;
purpose of his Sunday schools, 264,
267; date of his first school, 264 n
Randolph, Sec. Edward, land grant to,
1688, 353; requests grant of Nahant
Neck, 354
Rankin, George W., 449 n
Rathbone, William, 74 n
Rattle-snake-weed. See Snakeweed
Raumer, Karl von, 147 n
Ravenscroft, Capt. Samuel, land grant
to, 1688, 358
Rawson, Sec. Edward, quoted, on edu-
cated Indian youths, 188 n; attest of,
377, 388, 390, 398, 399, 401; copy of
Harvard College charter of 1672, in
Court Records, and passages in other
copies, in handwriting of, 389, 395,
402
Raynsford, Edward, 353
Reade, Col. Thomas, 159 n
Recall, in politics, use of, in colonial
New England, 411, 425-427
Reed, John (d 1805), of Bedford, Mid-
dlesex County record books kept at
house of, 1776, 452, 453
Referendum, use of, in colonial New
England, 411, 424
Rehoboth, dismisses J. Wheeler, dele-
gate to Provincial Congress, 1778,
426; proposes state law authorizing
recall of representatives, 1778, 426,
426 n
Reid, William Bernard, 409
Relapse, The, pamphlet on the Excise
Bill, 1754, 435 n
Remonstrance of 1646, a part of the
general struggle between Presby-
terians and Independents, 2-3; sub-
INDEX
-183
REMONSTRANCE (continued)
mitted by R. Child and others, 17;
rights of freemen demanded for "all
truely English," with extension of
church privileges, and English law,
18; effect on the magistrates, 18-20;
attempt to satisfy the Remonstrants,
21; sketches of the signers, 21-27;
their diversity of views and real pur-
pose, 28; committee appointed by
the General Court to make answer
to the Remonstrance, and E. Wins-
low selected to go to England as
agent of the colony, 30; Remon-
strants summoned and given oppor-
tunity to retract, 30-33; copy of the
Remonstrance carried to England,
33-36; its authors tried by the Gen-
eral Court, 37-39, 91 n; second trial
of the Remonstrants for conspiracy
against the government, 1647, 50-56,
92 n; review of principles involved,
69-87
Rener, William, quoted, on church and
government conditions in Bermuda,
1647, 36 n
Review, The, pamphlet on the Excise
Bill, 1754, 435 n
Rhode Island, referendum in, 1647-
1663,424
Rice, Rev. Edwin Wilbur, 264 n
FRANKLIN PIERCE, tribute to, 405
Samuel, land grant to, 1688, 361
Richards, Ann (Winthrop), second wife
of John, 334 n; land grant to, 1688,
334
John, Treasurer of Harvard Col-
lege, 334 n, 368, 370, 393, 396, 402
Richardson, Rev. John (H. C. 1666),
391, 393; Fellow of Harvard College,
368, 369, 369 n, 370, 396, 396 n, 402
Richmond, George H., 287
Richthausen, Johann Conrad von,
transmutes silver to gold, 130
Rives, William Cabell (d 1868), 444
Roads in New England colonies, 431
Robbins, Rev. Chandler (d 1799), son
of Rev. Philemon, 262 n
Rev. Philemon, 262 n
- Rev. Thomas (d 1856), quoted, on
first Sabbath school in the United
States, 262 n
Robinson, , 10
FRED NORRIB, Ph.D., 231, 403,
410; elected President, 408
ROBINSON (continued)
- Rev. John (d 1625), 263 n
Rev. John (H. C. 1695), 263 n
Rochester, R. I., 295 n
Rodman, John, letter of, cited, 295 n
Roe, Sir Thomas, the Relation of his
Voyage into the East-Indies, bor-
rowed from by J. Dunton in his
letters from New England, 234, 234 n,
237, 240, 245, 249; note on, 234 n
Rogers, Rev. Ezekiel (d 1661), 173 n;
quoted, on the Remonstrants of
1646, 52 n
Rev. John (d 1636), 225
John, President of Harvard Col-
lege, 183
Rev. John (H. C. 1684), son of
President John, 183, 183 n
Rev. John (H. C. 1711), son of
Rev. John (H. C. 1684), 183
Margaret, daughter of President
John. See Leverett
Rogers & Fowle, booksellers, 384 n
Rosenbach, Abraham S. Wolf, 287
Rosenbach Company, 287
Rosicrucians, 125 n, 126 n, 129, 142, 145
Ross, James, 309, 316 n
John, son of James, 316 n, 333;
land grant to, 316
Row, Anthony, land grant to, 1688,
326
Rowe, John, 419
Roxbury, land grants in, 1687, 298
— First Church, claims first Sunday
school in the new world, 260, 261
Greyhound Inn, 298
Ruddock, John, 419
RUGG, Hon. ARTHUR PRENTICE, LL.D.,
elected Vice-President, 408
Ruggles, Samuel, land grant to, 1688,
361
Rumney Marsh, 319 n; land grants in,
1688, 319, 360
Rupert, Prince, of Bavaria, 178
Russell, James (d 1709), 357 n; land
grant to, 1688, 357
— Rev. John (H. C. 1645), first min-
ister of Hadley, 450
— Richard (d 1676), 29 n, 38 n, 55 n
Rutherford, Rev. Samuel, 74 n, 91
AGO, Me., land gr»t in, 312
Saco patent, R. Child's purchase and
sale of, 16, 16 n, 63, 65, 65 n
484
INDEX
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. See
Lord's Supper
Sadler, Richard, 33; destroys copy of
the Remonstrance of 1646, 35
Sainfoin, a forage plant, 109, 109 n
St. Patrick's Purgatory, Ireland, 115;
destruction of, 1632, 116
Sakonnet, R. I. See Little Compton
Salem, advertisement of projected Sun-
day school in, 1807, 265 n; asserts
right to recall deputies, 1686, 426; in-
structions of, to deputies, 428
Salisbury, represented by non-resident
deputy, 431
Salter, Rev. Richard (H. C. 1739), 183
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 172 n
Richard (d 1694), son of Sir Rich-
ard, 16 n, 38; petition of, to General
Court, 1646, 33 n; recommends J.
Knowles for presidency of Harvard
College, 369 n
Sanford. See Staniford
Sargent, Lucius Manlius (d 1867), 281;
pupil of O. W. Lane, 282
Sarsaparilla, R. Child quoted on, 115
Sassafras, 11. Child's observations on,
111
Savage, Thomas, 303
Saye and Sele, Lord. See Fiennes,
William
Sayles, William, Governor of Bermuda,
33, 34 n
Scarborough, Me., establishment of,
293; land grants in, 1687, 305, 305 n,
309, 310, 311; 1688, 315, 318, 319,
323, 326, 327, 328, 333, 359
Schipano, Mario, 234
Schmieder, Karl, 145 n; his History of
Alchemy, and belief concerning Phi-
lalethes, 144-145
Schroeder, Wilhelm, Freiherr von (d
1688), 137
Schweinitz, Edmund de, Bishop of the
Unitas Fratrum, quoted, on offer of
presidency of Harvard College to
Comenius, 148
Scituate, land grant in, 1687, 313; in-
structs deputy to move General
Court for law regarding payment of
debts, 1665, 427
Sconce, use of the word in Harvard Col-
lege charter of 1672, 374, 376, 377
Scottow, Joshua (d 1698), 310 n, 318;
land grant to, 1687, 310
Sea-calf, description of, 248
Seacomb (Seecomb), Richard (d 1694),
309 n, 316; land grant to, 1687, 309;
1688, 324
Sea-hog, description of, 237
Sea-horse, description of, 247
Seamen, meetings held for, in Boston,
about 1821, 278 n
Seccombe, Thomas, error of, concern-
ing date of E. Winslow's arrival in
England, 45 n
Sedgwick, Robert (d 1656), 15 n; charged
with being an informant against his
country, 29 n
Selectmen, 414
Sendivogius, Michael, 125
Sever, Rev. Nicholas (H. C. 1701),
382 n, 389 n; controversy on claim
of, to seat in Corporation of Harvard
College, 380, 388, 392; quoted, on the
College charters, 381
Sewall, Rev. Joseph, son of Judge
Samuel, 430; possessed book by
Comenius when student at Harvard
College, 183, 184
Judge Samuel, 293, 369 n; book
by Comenius probably given by, to
his son J. Sewall, 183, 184; re-namea
New Roxbury, Ct., 359 n; Hogg Is-
land granted to, 1688, 360; cited, on
town-meetings, 417, 418
Shark, description of, 238
Sharp, Rev. Daniel, quoted, on estab-
lishment of Sunday schools in Boston,
452 n
Shaw, Chief Justice Lemuel, 380 n
ROBERT GOULD, A.M., 404; ac-
cepts Resident Membership, 1; on
Auditing Committee, 231, 408
Shawomett (Somerset), R. I., land grant
in, 1687, 301
Shays's Rebellion, 428
Shepard, Rev. Thomas (d 1649), 74 n;
his proposition for maintenance of
poor scholars at Harvard College, 170 n
Rev. Thomas (d 1677), son of
Rev. Thomas (d 1649), Fellow of
Harvard College, 368 n, 396, 396 n,
402
Sheppard, Thomas, land grant to, 1687,
312
Sherborn, land grant in, 1688, 314
Sherman, Rev. John (d 1685), 311, 311 n
Mary (Launce), second wife of
Rev. John (d 1685), 311 n; land grant
to, 1687, 311
INDEX
Sherman vs. Keayne, 415
Shippen, Edward (d 1712), 302, 303 n;
land grants to, 1687, 303, 332
Ships: Abigail, 159; Ann Cleve, 10;
Arent, 163, 163 n; Hope, 163; Klock,
163 n; Lyon, 157 n; Rebecca, 254,
256; Supply, 18 n, 25, 31, 32 n, 33,
34, 35, 47, 54 n; Trowe (Trou), 162,
163, 163 n
Shirley, Gov. William, 434
Shovelboard, law against playing, in
public houses, 51 n
Shrimp ton, Samuel (d 1698), 352 n;
Noddles Island granted to, 1688,
352; property in Boston granted to,
1688,352
Sibley, Rev. John Langdon, 376 n; note
of, on L. Hoar's inauguration as
President of Harvard College, 364;
quoted, on letter of L. Hoar to R.
Boyle, 366 n; on Harvard College
charter of 1672, 374
Silkworms, 104 n; culture of, in Eng-
land, recommended by R. Child, 104;
V. Ferrar's experiment with, 104,
105 n
Simpson, Savill (d 1725), 354 n; land
grants to, 1688, 354, 355
Skilling, John, 348; land grants to,
1688, 329, 346
Slater, Samuel, his Sunday school in
Pawtucket, R. I., 275 n
Slaughter, John, land grant to, 1688,
326
Small-pox, R. Child quoted on, 110
Smith, Rev. Arthur Warren, quoted, on
Sunday school of First Baptist
Church in Charlestown, 276 n
John, of Providence, R. I., 43, 59;
a signer of the Remonstrance of 1646,
17, 23, 28, 29; summoned to Court,
31-32, 32 n; tried and sentenced, 37;
arrested later, 39, 41, 42; tried and
sentenced, 50-56; his disrespect to
authority, 54, 54 n
John, Deputy Surveyor, appoint-
ment of, 295 n; warrants to, for sur-
vey of land grants, 295, 296, 299, 300,
301, 315
John, of Falmouth, Me., 309,
309 n, 339; land grant to, 1688,
317
Jonathan, of Needham, 452
Samuel, of Needham, 452
Snakeweed, R. Child quoted on, 112
Snyder, H. W., his work as an engraver,
258
Soland geese, 116
Solemn League and Covenant, Scot-
land, 1643, efforts to make it effective
in Massachusetts, 28, 40, 85
Soley, Edward (H. C. 1828), 184 n
Somerset (Shawomett), R. I., land grant
in, 1687, 301
Southwell, Sir Robert (d 1702), 116
Sparks, Rev. Jared, President of Har-
vard College, note of, on preservation
of Harvard College manuscripts,
392 n
Spencer, Charles Worthen, acknowledg-
ment to, 422 n
— John, land grant to, 1688, 320
Springfield, represented by non-resi-
dent deputy, 432 n
Spurwink, Me., 293. See also Falmouth,
Me.
Spy Pond, survey of land near, ordered,
353
Squamacack Neck, Westerly, R. I.,
land grant at, 1687, 294, 294 n
Stagg, Capt. , seizes prize in Bos-
ton Harbor, 79
Stamp Act, action of Massachusetts
towns concerning, 437, 437 n
Stamford (Sanford), Robert, land grant
to, 1688, 316; various forms of the
name, 316 n
Thomas, land grant to, 1688, 316
Starkey, George. See Stirk
Starr, Rev. Comfort (H. C. 1647), Fel-
low of Harvard College, 396
State constitutions, provisions of, con-
cerning right to instruct representa-
tives, 442-443
State Rights party, 444
Stetson, Eliot Dawes, 409
Stevens, Rev. Timothy (H. C. 1687),
184
William, dismissed as representa-
tive of Gloucester, 1644, 425
Stiles, Rev. Ezra, President of Yale
College, interest of, in alchemy, 123,
126; disclaims alchemical knowledge,
126 n; quoted, on S. Danforth, 138,
139 n
Stirk, Rev. George (d 1637), 100
George (d 1666), son of Rev.
George (d 1637), 5 n, 101 n; friend of
R. Child, 1, 100, 125, 176; of R.
Boyle, 101, 101 n, 102 n, 176; student
486
INDEX
STIRK (continued)
of alchemy, 100, 101, 123; practices
medicine in Boston, 101; goes to Eng-
land, 1650, 101 n; his authorship of
the tracts on alchemy issued under
name Eirenseus Philalethes, 124, 132,
134-136, 134 n, 143; as Philalethes,
receives title Elias the Artist, 132;
work of, confused with that of R.
Child and T. Vaughan, 143-146;
sketch of, 176; friend of S. Hartlib,
176; of J. Winthrop, Jr., 178
Stone, Rev. Samuel (d 1663), 163 n
Story, William, 419
Stoughton, Israel (d 1644), will of, 26 n
Rebecca, daughter of Israel (d
1644). See Taylor
Lt.-Gov. William, son of Israel
(d 1644), 293, 304 n; land grant to,
1687, 304; 1688, 313, 314; 1688, 356
Stoughton, instruction of, to deputy,
438
Strafford, Earls of. See Wentworth, Sir
Thomas; Wentworth, William
Strahan, William (d 1785), 290 n
Stubbe, Dr. Henry, quoted, on drink
called mobby, 110
STURGIS, RICHARD CLIPSTON, A.B., on
Committee on Memorials, 232
Stuyvesant, Peter, Governor of New
Netherland, 161, 162 n; letter of, to
J. Winthrop, Jr., 162, 162 n; salute
to, 163
Suchten, Alexander von, 128, 128 n, 129
Sugar, price of, in Barbados, 1659, 255
Sugars, Mary. See Townsend
Sully, James, quoted, on early impres-
sions, 271 n
Sumner, Charles, election of, as Sena-
tor, 1851, 449 n
William Hyslop, 89 n, 281
Sunday Schools, in Boston, Early, paper
by A. Matthews, 259-285; seven-
teenth century forerunners of the
modern Sunday school, 259-263; reli-
gious instruction of the Indians, 259;
instruction of children in First Church
of Roxbury, 260, 261; in Norwich,
Ct., 261; in Plymouth, 261; modern
Sunday school movement begun in
eighteenth century, by R. Raikes
and others, 264, 264 n; original pur-
pose to give secular instruction to the
poor, 264, 264 n; change to religious
. instruction, 1791-1819, 264 n; schools
SUNDAY SCHOOLS (continued}
claimed to be earliest in the United
States, in New England, in Massa-
chusetts, 264-266, 265 n; schools in
Boston before 1819, 266-284; in Park
Street Church, 266-271, 270 n, 452 n;
in North Bennet Street and in Haw-
kins Street, 269; in Baptist churches,
271, 272 n, 452 n; in First Parish,
Charlestown, 272; in Christ Church,
273-275; in First Baptist Church,
Charlestown, 275, 275 n; in West
Church, 277-279, 277 n; in Old South
Church, 452 n; O. W. Lane's school,
280; earliest known allusion to Sun-
day schools in a Boston newspaper,
283; chronological list of, before 1819,
284
Sutton, land grant in, 1688, 314 n; in-
struction of, to representative, 1787,
428 n
Swan, John, 250; his Speculum Mun-
di borrowed from by J. Dunton, 235,
235 n, 242, 245, 246, 249; his identity
uncertain, perhaps of Emmanuel
College, Cambridge, 235 n
John, of Queens College, Cam-
bridge, 235 n
John, of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, 235 n
Rev. Josiah (H. C. 1733), 186
Swart on, John, 296 n; land grant to,
1687, 296
Swift, Rev. John (H. C. 1697), 186; au-
tograph of, 185 ,
Sword-fish, description of, 242
Symonds, Samuel (d 1678), 16 n
AILER, Lt.-Gov. William, 357 n
Tantousq (Sturbridge), black lead mine
at, 10, 113-115
Taxation without representation, pro-
test against, in Watertown, 413
Taxil, L6o. See Jogand-Pages, Gabriel
Antoine
Taylor, Rebecca (Stoughton), wife of
William (d 1682), 357 n; real estate
belonging to, 357
William (d 1682), 357 n
Temple, Sir Thomas (d 1674), 171
Teney, John, land grant to, 1688,
327
Thayer, Rev. Christopher Toppan (d
1880), 279, 279 n
INDEX
4S7
THATER (continued)
JOHN ELIOT, A.M., on Committee
on Memorials, 232
Nathan, 410
Richard, request for land grant
considered, 1687, 302
WILLIAM ROSCOE, LL.D., ap-
pointed delegate to annual Confer-
ence of Historical Societies, 410
Thomas, George Clifford, 287
Isaiah, his statement that an Eng-
lish Bible was published in Boston
about 1752, 285; this doubted by G.
Bancroft and others, 286; discussion
of the question, 286-292
Thomason, George, 45 n, 46, 46 n,
236 n
Thompson, Maj. Robert, 304 n; land
grant to, 1687, 304
Thor, George, 132
Thresher, a fish, description of, 242
Through, as a verb, 55 n
Thurston, William, 268 n; first super-
intendent of Park Street Church
Sunday school, 267; vice-president
of Boston Society for the Moral and
Religious Instruction of the Poor,
268
Tinge. See Tyng
Tiverton, R. I., incorporation of, 300 n
Tobacco, R. Child quoted on, 112
Tobias, Rabbi, of Poland, 126 n
Todtenfeld, Johann Ferdinand Hertodt
von, 136 n, 143; cited, on authorship
of Philalethes tracts, 135-137
Toleration, not sympathized with by
colonial Congregationalists, or by
Presbyterians or Episcopalians of the
time, 3, 23, 88; W. Vassall's efforts
for, 47, 47 n
Tompson, Benjamin (d 1714), extract
from his Funeral Tribute to J. Win-
throp, Jr., 127
Torpedo (cramp-fish), description of,
246
Torrey, William (d c 1691), 58 n
Tortoise (sea-turtle), description of, 249
Town, in New England, basis of repre-
sentation, 421, 421 n; districts re-
arranged, 1857, 422 n
Town Mandates, New England, paper
by K. Colegrove, 411-449
Town-meeting system of New England,
411, 413, 417-420, 430, 436-441, 446-
449
Towns of Massachusetts, action of, on
the Stamp Act, 437, 437 n
Townsend, Gregory (d 1798), son of
Rev. Jonathan (d 1762), sketch of,
451; account-book of, recovered, 451
— Horatio, 451
— Rev. Jonathan (d 1762), 451; ex-
tract from diary of, relating to Lydia
Fisher's service to the regicides Goffe
and Whalley, 449; same in facsimile,
453; first minister of Needham, 450;
quoted, on catechizing children, 452
— Mary, daughter of Horatio. See
Derby
— Mary (Sugars), wife of Rev. Jona-
than (d 1762), 451
Transmutation of metals, alleged cases
of, 129, 129 n, 130, 133, 144
Treaty of Paris, 1783, 439
Trerice, Nicholas, 29 n
Trumbull, Jonathan (d 1785), Governor
of Connecticut, 127 n; quoted, on re-
lation of colonies to Parliament, 78
Truro, ordinance passed in, regarding
removal of shells which might be use-
ful for lime, 105
Tucker, John, 332
Turfrey, George (d 1714), 359 n; land
grant to, 1688, 359
TURNER, FREDERICK JACKSON, LL.D.,
411 n; appointed delegate to annual
Conference of Historical Societies,
410
— Ralph, 308
TTTTTLE, JULIUS HERBERT, speaks on
early surnames in the Bay Colony,
citing two from Dedham church
records, 258; communicates Land
Warrants under Andros, 1687-1688,
292-363; exhibits scrap-book con-
taining extracts from a diary of Rev.
J. Townsend, 449-452
Twisleton, Col. John, 97
Tydye, Robert, land grant to, 1688,
326
Tyler, Harry Walter, 409
John, President, 444
Tyng, Edward (d c 1701), nephew o£
William (d 1653), 308 n, 311, 311 n,
338, 344, 348; land grant to, 1687,
308
Jonathan (d 1724), brother of
Edward (d c 1701), 351 n; land grant
to, 1688, 351
William (d 1653), 15 n, 180
•kss
INDEX
NITED States, Articles of Con-
federation, a referendum on ratifying,
ordered by Massachusetts General
Court, 1778, 438
Urbiger, Baron, 143, 143 n
Usher, Hezekiah (d 1697), 172, 172 n
John (d 1726), brother of Hezekiah
(d 1697), 295 n, 353
Ussher, James, Archbishop of Armagh,
117, 117 n
V AGAN, Thomas de. See Vaughan,
Thomas
Valle, Pietro della, 234 n, 250; his Trav-
els into East India, 234
Vassall, William, 36, 39 n; efforts of, to
get up petitions to Parliament,
against New England government,
18, 18 n, 25, 34 n, 35, 54 n; connec-
tion of, with the Remonstrance of
1646, 33, 47; authorship of New-
England's Jonas ascribed to, by E.
Winslow, 46 n, 47 n; petitions of, re-
jected, 48, 48 n; no copy known, 47 n
Vaughan, Diana, alleged descendant of
Thomas, really Gabriel Antoine Jog-
and-Pages. See Jogand-Pages
Henry (d 1695), brother of Thomas
(d 1665), 141, 141 n
Thomas (d 1665), his Anthropo-
sophia, 99, 125; death of, 125, 142;
writing under pseudonym Eugenius
Philalethes is confused with Eire-
IUPUS Philalethes, 141, 143, 144; ex-
traordinary hoax concerning, by L.
Taxil, 142, 142 n, 143; J. C. Creiling's
inferences concerning, 144, 145
Veazie, William, requests land grant,
1688, 335
Verres, Caius, cited, by C. F. Adams,
81; his treatment of Gavius of Consa,
81, 82
Vines, Richard (d 1651), 326, 326 n;
conveys interest in Saco patent to
R. Child, 1645, 16, 16 n, 63, 63 n, 111
Vose, Thomas, article by, on Sabbath
schools cited, 266 n
ADE, Jonathan (d 1689), 297,
297 n
Wadsworth, Rev. Benjamin, President
of Harvard College, 206, 366 n, 379,
WADSWORTH (continued)
388, 389, 389 n; college records com-
piled by, 365 n; quoted, on L. Hoar's
inauguration, as President of Har-
vard College, 366; on his resignation,
368 n
Waite, Arthur Edward, exposes L.
Taxil, 142 n; quoted, on T. Vaughan,
145; on mysterious alchemical adept,
145 n
Thomas, 299 n; land grant to,
1687, 300
Wakely, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas.
See Coe
Thomas, 348, 348 n
Walker, Rev. James, President of Har-
vard College, 380 n
Wall, Capt. John, 79
Walley, John (d 1714), 299 n
Wallis, John (d 1690), 330 n, 340 n, 349;
land grant to, 1688, 330
- Nathaniel (d 1709), 341, 349; land
grant to, 1688, 339
Walpole, Sir Robert, first Earl of Or-
ford, 423
WARE, HORACE EVERETT, A.B., death
of and tribute to, 405
Warner, John, cited, on S. Gorton, 44 n
Warrants to survey lands, issued by
Gov. Andros, 1687-1688, 292-363
Watertown, land grant in, 1687, 311;
1688, 353; early protest of, against
taxation without representation, 413
Watts, Henry, 319
Webb, Henry (d 1660), 13, 13 n, 14
Webber, Joseph, son of Mary, 324 n;
land grant to, 1688, 324
Mary, 324 n; land grant to, 1688,
325
Rev. Samuel, President of Har-
vard College, view of college dedi-
cated to, 258, 258 n
Webster, Arthur Gordon, 409
Wedel, Georg Wolfgang, identifies Phi-
lalethes with T. Vaughan, 141, 141 n,
143
Weld, Capt. John, suit brought against,
by Alderman Barclay, of London,
29n
Samuel, 298
Thomas, 298
Wellington, Mary. See Lane
Wells, Philip, warrants to, for survey
of land grants, 294, 296-298, 301-
303, 311, 313-361; sketch of, 294 n
INDEX
489
Wells, Me., censures member of Con-
gress, 445
Welsteed, Rev. William (H. C. 1716),
controversy on claim of, to seat in
Corporation of Harvard College, 380,
388,392
Wenham, represented by non-resident
deputy, 431
Wentworth, Sir Thomas, first Earl of
Straff ord, 8 n, 117, 117 n
William, second Earl of Straff ord,
115
Wesley, Rev. John, 262 n
West, Dep.-Sec. John (d 1691), signa-
ture of, to documents, 313, 314,
359
Rev. Samuel (d 1807), 126 n
Westerly, R. I., land grants in, 1687,
294, 294 n, 295; name changed to
Fevershana, 1686, 295 n
Westfield, represented by non-resident
deputy, 431
Weston, Sir Richard, his Discours of
Husbandrie, 103 n
Weymouth, instruction of, to deputy,
438
Weysemitt, 352 n; land grant in, 1688,
351
Whale, description of, 243
Whalley, Edward, regicide, service of
Fisher family to, 449-451
Wheeler, Capt. John, delegate to Pro-
vincial Congress, from Rehoboth,
dismissed, 1774, 426
Whipping, at Harvard College, 376,
376 n
White, Nathaniel, 341; land grant to,
1688,341
Rev. William, Bishop of Penn-
sylvania, first president of Society
for the Institution and Support of
First-Day or Sunday Schools in Phila-
delphia, 264 n, 274 n
William, miner, 1647, 63 n
Whiting, Rev. Samuel (d 1679), Over-
seer of Harvard College, 167 n
Whitmore, William Henry, cited, on
maps of early Boston, 251, 252
Whittemore, Samuel, 384 n
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 88 n; quoted,
on treatment of R. Child, 74 n
Wigglesworth, Rev. Edward (d 1765),
384 n, 385 n
GEORGE, A.M., on Committee on
Memorials, 232
Wilcox, Daniel, 299 n; land grant to,
1687,299
Wild, John, 230 n
Willard, Rev. Joseph, President of
Harvard College, 258 n
Sec. Josiah, son of Rev. Samuel
(H. C. 1659), 399; attest of, 388, 389,
390
Rev. Samuel (H. C. 1659), 183,
183 n
Willett, Thomas (d 1674), 158 n, 162
William and Mary College, 169 n
WILLIAMS, MOSES, A.B., death of, xv;
tribute to, 405
Rev. Roger, 74 n
Samuel Gardner, quoted, on Co-
menius, 148
WILLISTON, SAMTTEL, LL.D., 404; elected
Resident Member, 1; accepts, 231;
elected Member of Council, 408
Willoughby, Dep.-Gov. Francis, quarrel
of, with R. Child, 64
Wilson, Rev. John (d 1667), 8, 158, 175 n
Winchell, Rev. James Manning, 272,
452 n
Wing, Edward. See Tyng
Winslow, Edward, Governor of Plym-
outh Colony, 33, 34 n, 39 n, 44, 45 n,
47 n, 79; quoted, on R. Child, 5, 6,
7; quoted, on Remonstrance of 1646,
19, 21; on P. Hobart, 24 n; goes to
England as agent of the Massachu-
setts colony in the Gorton business,
30, 36, 45, 45 n; quoted, on voyage
of the Supply, 1646, 35; on fines of
the Remonstrants, 38 n; issues Hy-
pocrisie Unmasked, 45; New-Eng-
1 HI n Is Salamander, 46; quoted, on
New-Englands Jonas, 46 n; his con-
duct of case for the Colony against
8. Gorton and R. Child, 47-50, 65-
66,76
Winslow, Josiah (d 1674), brother of
Gov. Edward, 13 n
Winter, Irvah Lester, 409
John, 305 n
Sarah, daughter of John. Ste
Jordan
Winthrop, Adam, father of Gov. John
(d 1649), 156 n
Adam (d 1652), son of Gov. John
(d 1649), 16 n; letter of, quoted,
158 n
Adam (d 1700), son of Adam (d
1652), 177 n
490
INDEX
WINTHBOP (continued)
Adam (d 1743), son of Adam (d
1700), 177 n
Ann, daughter of John, Jr. (d
1676). See Richards
Forth, son of Gov. John (d 1649),
156 n; may have met R. Child, at
Cambridge, Eng., 175 n
Francis Bayard, gives Winthrop
Library to New York Society Library,
189 n
Gov. John (d 1649), 8, 26, 40, 43,
45 n, 58 n, 78, 93 n, 150 n, 159 n, 179,
220, 415; quotations from, 10 n, 29 n,
33 n, 34 n, 36 n, 39, 41 n, 77 n, 79;
letters to, quoted, 16, 19, 66; on com-
mittee to answer the Remonstrance
of 1646, 30; quoted, on the Answer,
31; on conduct of the case, 32, 38 n,
39, 41 n; on P. Hobart, 36; re-elected
Governor, 1647, 43; quoted, on re-
newal of charter, 1641, 77 n; G. Stirk
commended to care of, 101, 176; said
to have met Comenius, 148, 155; not
in Europe after 1630, 156; at Cam-
bridge University, 156 n; on first
Board of Overseers of Harvard Col-
lege, 167; land given to, by Tacomus,
334, 334 n; quoted, on early govern-
ment of Massachusetts Bay Colony,
412; character of his rule, 412-413,
424; visits Gov. Bradford, at Plym-
outh, 1632, 431
John, Jr. (d 1676), Governor of
Connecticut, son of Gov. John (d
1649), 93, 98 n, 101, 148, 149, 150 n,
156, 156 n, 161 n, 169 n, 170, 174,
179, 179 n, 367; intimacy of, with R.
Child, 7, 8-11, 91, 92, 98, 99; sails for
Boston, 10; interest of, in iron mines
in Massachusetts, 10-12, 10 n, 14, 15;
mention of, and extracts from, letters
to, 33 n, 34 n, 38 n, 39 n, 42, 44, 74 n,
93 n, 100, 114 n, 120, 120 n, 131 n,
141; connection of, with payment of
R. Child's fine, 60, 61 n; interest of,
in lead mines in Massachusetts, 92,
112, 113, 114, 114 n; friend of Sir K.
Digby, 115; alchemical pursuits of,
123-129, 128 n; a founder of the
Royal Society, 124, 178; his library,
128, 128 n, 129; believed by Bacstrom
to have been Eirenaeus Philalethes,
145; C. Mather's statement that he
invited Comenius to become Presi-
WINTHKOP (continued)
dent of Harvard College, 146, 155;
confusion of, in this matter, with
other Winthrops, 150, 150 n, 155;
education of, 156, 156 n; travels of,
and possibility of meetings with Co-
menius and mention of Harvard presi-
dency as future possibility, 156-164,
157 n, 158 n-160 n, 162 n, 163 n,
166-168, 166 n, 171, 171 n, 177; his
commission to found and govern
colony in Connecticut, 159, 164;
duration of his governorship, 170,
170 n; friend of S. Hartlib, 171, 172,
172 n, 174, 180; of H. Oldenburg,
173 n; of many men of note, 175-179,
175 n, 176 n; extensive correspond-
ence of, with distinguished men, 178;
letter of, to R. Boyle, about Indian
students at Harvard College, 1663,
186; books by Comenius owned by,
189, 189 n; daughters of, 334 n; gift
of, to Harvard College, 369
— John (d 1707), Governor of Con-
necticut, son of John, Jr. (d 1676),
179; friend of C. Mather, 168; deeds
land to sisters, 334 n
— John (d 1747), son of Wait (d
1717), 128, 131 n, 177 n, 179, 179 n;
friend of C. Mather, 168, 168 n; Fel-
low of the Royal Society, 177,
178
— John (d 1779), son of Adam (d
1743), 177 n
— Margaret, daughter of John, Jr.
(d 1676). See Corwin
— Richard Charles, erroneously
named by Count Lutzow as Governor
of Massachusetts, 150, 150 n
— Robert Charles (d 1894), 150 n;
quoted, on C. Mather's knowledge of
the Winthrop family, 168, 169 n
— Stephen, son of Gov. John (d
1649), 14; suit brought against, by
Alderman Barclay of London, 29 n;
quoted, on severity toward Anabap-
tists, 29 n; quoted, on establishment
of Presbyterian government in Eng-
land, 74 n; agent in England for pro-
moting lead-mining schemes of his
brother, John, Jr., 114, 114 n
Wait (d 1717), son of John, Jr.
(d 1676), 156, 177, 177 n, 179; friend
of C. Mather, 168; deeds land to sis-
ters, 334 n
INDEX
491
WINTHBOP (continued)
family, C. Mather's epitaph on,
127; his special interest in, 168, 168 n;
several Winthrops members of Royal
Society, 177; genealogical table of,
177 n; papers of, 179
Winthrop Library, 189 n
Wiswall, Enoch, 346, 346 n
John, 254
Hannah, daughter of John. See
Mannings
Witchcraft, alchemy unjustly associated
with, 123
WoUnough, Joshua, one of thirteen peti-
tioners to the Council for Foreign
Plantations, 1661, 67
Wood, Anthony a, cited, on Eiren-
seus and Eugenius Philalethes,
141 n
Rev. Nathan Eusebius, quoted,
on early Sunday schools in Boston
and vicinity, particularly in the Bap-
tist churches, 271
WOODBURY, JOHN, A.B., on Committee
on Memorials, 232
WOODS, HENRY ERNEST, A.M., death
of, xv, 405; on Nominating Commit-
tee, 231
Woodstock, Ct., land grants in, 359;
naming of, 359 n
Worcester, land grants in, 1687, 303,
304, 305; instructions of, to deputies,
428, 428 n
Worsley, Benjamin, 118 n, 122 n; friend
of R. Child, 98 n, 120, 120 n; govern-
ment position of, in Ireland, 120,
120 n
Worthington, Rev. John (d 1671),
quoted, on Soland geese, 116
Wren, Sir Christopher, 178
Wright, Thomas Goddard (d 1919),
180 n, 182 n, 189 n
Wylbour, , sent against Narragan-
sett Indians, 1645, 44 n
JL ALE, Ann, wife of David. See
Eaton
David (d 1690), a signer of Re-
monstrance of 1646, 17, 26, 27 n, 29,
29 n, 67; tried and sentenced, 37; not
concerned in second case against the
Remonstrants, 50
Elihu (d 1721), son of David (d
1690), 26, 27
Ursula, wife of David (d 1690), 26
Yale College, founding of, 169 n
Library, owns books by Comenius,
181 n, 182 n
Yardly, John, requests land grant, 1688,
336
York, Me., land grant in, 1688, 331
Young, Dr. Thomas (d 1777), 138
Young People's Religious Union, 261
Youth's Manual, published by A.
Eaton and revised by S. Bell, for
Sunday school use, 274; copy in Bos-
ton Athenaeum, 274 n
Z
ACHARIAS, Chrystopolitanus,
works of, 202
Zcheil, 143, 144, 145. See Child, Dr.
Robert
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