ANNUAL MEETING, NOVEMBER, 1901.

    The Annual Meeting was held at the University Club, No. 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 21 November, 1901, at six o’clock in the afternoon, the President, George Lyman Kittredge, LL.D., in the chair.

    The Records of the last Meeting were read and approved.

    The Corresponding Secretary reported that letters had been received from Mr. George Vasmer Leverett, and Mr. Justice Morton of the Supreme Judicial Court, accepting Resident Membership.

    The Annual Report of the Council was presented and read by the Recording Secretary.

    REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

    We have now completed nine years of existence as a Society. The character of our Publications, and the interest that has been manifested in the papers read and in the historical documents exhibited at our meetings, have shown that there is a wide field for work of the kind that we are doing. There are still unpublished countless letters, manuscripts, diaries, and other documents which would be of deep interest to the student of history, and which would throw much light upon the life and actions of many an old New England worthy or family. The Council urges every member to look carefully through the old papers and letters that he may have or that may belong to other members of his family, and when he finds one that would be of interest in our work to bring it to a meeting of the Society; or, if he has a portrait or other relic of Colonial or Provincial times to exhibit that at a meeting. In that way almost every member can do something to show his interest in our work.

    There have been added to our Roll six Resident Members,

    • Charles Greely Loring,
    • Arthur Richmond Marsh,
    • Ephraim Emerton,
    • George Vasmer Leverett,
    • Edward Charles Pickering,
    • James Madison Morton;

    and one Corresponding Member,

    • General Joseph Wheeler.

    We have lost by death six Resident Members,

    • Roger Wolcott,
    • Edward William Hooper,
    • Henry Williams,
    • John Chester Inches,
    • Robert Noxon Toppan,
    • James Bradstreet Greenough;

    and two Corresponding Members,

    • Moses Coit Tyler,
    • Herbert Baxter Adams.

    Moses Coit Tyler died at Ithaca, New York, on the twenty-eighth of December, 1900, at the age of sixty-five. He was born in Connecticut, graduated from Yale in 1857, studied for the ministry at Andover and preached for a few years; but the greater part of his career was spent as Professor of Literature and of History at the University of Michigan and at Cornell. He left as an enduring monument several fascinating volumes upon the American Literature of the Colonial and Revolutionary times. Correct in statement, accurate in critical judgment, and with a simplicity of style that is delightful, these works will long remain as models of their kind.

    Herbert Baxter Adams of Baltimore died on the thirtieth of July, 1901. He was born at Amherst, Massachusetts, on the sixteenth of April, 1850, graduated from Amherst College in 1872, and spent three years in study and residence in Europe. Since 1876, he had been connected with Johns Hopkins University as Instructor and Professor in History, and also as Editor of their serial publication known as Studies in Historical and Political Science. To these he had contributed many able articles upon American history. He was also Secretary of the American Historical Association, a position he had held since the formation of that organization in 1884.

    The By-Laws have been changed so that our Stated Meetings are now held on the fourth Thursday instead of on the third Wednesday of the month. At these meetings many papers and communications were read, and rare letters, documents and portraits exhibited.

    We have received the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars from the estate of our late President, being one-half of his bequest to the Society and all that is now available. This has been named the Edward Wheelwright Fund, the income of which is to be used to defray in part the cost of our Publications. In mentioning this bequest, the Council cannot refrain from again reminding the Society of the debt of gratitude that it owes to the memory of Mr. Wheelwright, — that modest, kind-hearted gentleman, himself a scholar and a patron of literature. It was fortunate, indeed, when our choice fell upon him to be our leader. This Fund together with one of like amount raised in memory of our first President, Dr. Gould, and a small fund of about nine hundred dollars, made up of sundry gifts, are all that are available for our work of publication. We have also a General Fund of about thirty-eight hundred dollars, the income of which can be used for general purposes. From this statement, our members can readily see that our income is still very limited. We are, however, prepared to do greater work when greater means are at our command.

    One of our needs at the moment is a place of habitation, even though it be but temporary, for if we had such a place, we should receive many gifts of books, manuscripts, pictures, and other relies of Colonial times.

    The Report of the Treasurer was then submitted, as follows:

    REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

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

    CASH ACCOUNT.

    receipts.

    Balance, 17 November, 1900

     

    $6.45

    Admission Fees

    $60.00

     

    Annual Assessments

    710.00

     

    Commutation of the Annual Assessment, from five members

    500.00

     

    Interest

    1,184.53

     

    Sales of the Society’s Publications, etc.

    16.60

     

    Mortgage (assigned)

    350.00

     

    Withdrawn from Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    700.00

     

    Bequest of Edward Wheelwright (in part)

    10,000.00

    13,521.13

       

    13,527.58

    expenditures.

    University Press, printing

    $68.94

     

    A. W. Elson and Company: photogravure of Mr. Wheelwright and plate printing

    80.88

     

    John H. Daniels and Son, plate printing

    17.40

     

    Suffolk Engraving Company, relief plates

    21.20

     

    Hill, Smith and Company, stationery

    5.75

     

    Library Bureau, Cabinet and Cards for Indexing

    19.65

     

    Eva G. Moore, on account of Index of Volume V

    50.00

     

    William H. Hart, auditing

    5.00

     

    Clerical service

    72.05

     

    Miscellaneous incidentals

    309.35

     

    Deposited in Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    210.00

     

    Mortgages on improved Real Estate in Boston, principal and interest payable in gold coin

    11,600.00

     

    Interest in adjustment

    154.23

    12,614.45

    Balance on deposit in Third National Bank of Boston, 16 November, 1901

     

    913.13

       

    $13,527.58

    The Funds of the Society are invested as follows:

    $24,750.00

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

    30.00

    deposited in the Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank.

    $24,780.00

     

    TRIAL BALANCE.

    debits.

    Cash

     

    $913.13

    Mortgages

    $24,750.00

     

    Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank

    30.00

    24,780.00

       

    25,693.13

    credits.

    Income

     

    $913.13

    Publication Fund

    $900.00

     

    General Fund

    3,880.00

     

    Gould Memorial Fund

    10,000.00

     

    Edward Wheelwright Fund.

    10,000.00

    24,780.00

       

    $25,693.13

    Henry H. Edes,

    Treasurer.

    Boston, 16 November, 1901.

    The Committee, consisting of Messrs. Henry L. Higginson and Samuel Wells, appointed to examine the Treasurer’s Accounts, reported, through Mr. Wells, that the Accounts had been correctly kept and properly vouched, and that proper evidence of the Investments and of the balance of cash on hand had been exhibited.

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

    Mr. Charles Armstrong Snow, on behalf of the Committee to nominate Officers for the ensuing year, made the following Report:

    president.

    • GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE.

    vice-presidents.

    • WILLIAM WATSON GOODWIN.
    • JAMES BRADLEY THAYER.

    recording secretary.

    • HENRY WINCHESTER CUNNINGHAM.

    corresponding secretary.

    • JOHN NOBLE.

    treasurer.

    • HENRY HERBERT EDES.

    registrar.

    • FREDERICK LEWIS GAY.

    member of the council for three years.

    • ALBERT MATTHEWS.

    The Report was accepted; and, a ballot being taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected.

    After the Annual Meeting had been dissolved, dinner was served. The guests of the Society were Winslow Warren, President of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati; Charles Francis Adams, Henry Williamson Haynes and Charles Card Smith, representing the Massachusetts Historical Society; the Reverend Samuel Atkins Eliot, President of the American Unitarian Association; Alfred Hemenway, representing the Bar Association; and James Phinney Baxter, a Corresponding Member. President Kittredge presided, and the Reverend Edward Henry Hall invoked the Divine Blessing.

    After dinner, speeches were made by the President and the guests.

    During the evening Mr. Henry H. Edes, having been asked to make a statement in regard to the condition of the Publications of the Society, said:

    Mr. President, — I am not so vain as to suppose, for a moment, that our members will care to hear my voice — what is left of it — when you have such a galaxy of good speakers sitting above the salt; but as we all yield obedience to your commands, I am on my feet. Before making the statement which you ask of me, I have great pleasure in offering for the acceptance of the Society a collection of unpublished manuscripts, about a hundred in number. The collection includes Letters, Reports, Petitions, Indentures, Commissions, Military Orders and Muster Rolls, covering a period of half a century from 1754 to 1804, although the bulk of the papers relate to the Revolutionary period. The matters and events treated of occurred in Boston, Saratoga, West Point, Valley Forge and other places; while the letters bear the autographs of Washington, James Warren, Benjamin Lincoln, Rufus Putnam, John Scollay, Samuel Dexter, and others.

    I have brought with me to-night for inspection an interesting relic of Washington. It is a miniature of the first President painted on glass and long preserved in the Lee family. Until the Civil War it was in the possession of Mrs. Caroline (Lee) Macrea, a cousin of General Robert E. Lee, and is now owned by one of my friends, who married a scion of that house.

    It is sometimes asked, Why cannot our Serials be brought out with the same promptness and regularity with which the Serials of the Massachusetts Historical Society are brought out by our friend Mr. Smith, whom we are all glad to welcome here to-night as one of our guests? The answer is not difficult. The Historical Society, with its large endowment and its accomplished and industrious paid Editor, can do much that is not possible to a Society a hundred years its junior, with a modest endowment of barely $25,000, which is obliged to depend upon the voluntary service of a few busy men who can give only a portion of their time to our editorial work. With larger funds at our disposal, more work could be done on our Publications, but until our income is considerably increased we shall fail to realize fully our ambitions in this direction.

    Mr. Edes then gave in detail the present condition of the Publications, and continuing said:

    Volume II is to contain the Commissions and Instructions of the Royal Governors of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and their Commissions as Vice-Admirals, besides the remarkable Commission to Gibson, then Bishop of London, authorizing him to exercise Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the Colonies, and another to Randolph as Collector, Surveyor, and Searcher of the Customs. Mr. Goodell’s introductory notes to those Instructions which were received by the Authorities in Boston between the overthrow of Andros and the arrival of Phips with the Province Charter are of the greatest interest and value, and present for the first time in print a mass of letters and legislative proceedings of the first importance which have slumbered in the Massachusetts Archives for more than two centuries.

    Since I have referred to the publications of the Historical Society, I wish to say, before I sit down, how profoundly I realize from year to year the great debt of gratitude which all historical students and scholars owe to our elder sister for the magnificent work she has done during the past hundred years and is still doing. Her representatives who have honored us with their presence to-night do not need to be assured of the entire respect in which the members of this Society have always held her, or of our willingness to sit at her feet and learn the lesson which her industry, her faithfulness, her wisdom and her scholarship teach.