187 | To Richard Jackson

    Boston. Feb: 7. 1763.

    Dear Sr

    I have at length recieved my letters from N York & with them yours of Nov: 10,698 informing me that you presented the book of Verses to the King.699 As soon as the Assembly which is now sitting is up I shall communicate the contents of it to the Members of the College & have some care taken for the payment of the charges &c.

    I had some difficulty to persuade them to undertake this work, they being diffident (& with great reason) of the Ha^r^vard700 Muses, of whom I made a trial by giving premiums for different compositions on the Kings death, of which there were not many that deserved a place in the book. I was obliged to engage my assistance to get this business thorough & accordingly at different times flung in the first & the last Odes the Sapphic Epithalamium & all the Epigrams (excepting those two pretty Poems on the junction of Sol & Venus, which are too long to be called Epigrams) which specie[s]701 of Poetry they have but little idea of at Ha^r^vard College. I also undertook with another Gentleman to prepare the dedication, which was thought to be more proper to be in English Prose, as the College had never presented an Address. This I wrote wholly myself & it was recieved by them with great approbation. I hope the whole will have a good effect & not only set the College in a favorable light in England, but also help to enlarge the internal Discipline of it, which is at present too much narrowed by the old prejudices of the country, which still keep a considerable footing here tho they seem to wear off a pace every where else.

    You give me great comfort (the first I have had) in saying that Pownall thinks there will be no difficulty in getting my grant confirm’d: tho the Island is not to answer expectation in regard to it’s size: & the Value of it will greatly depend on the settling the adjacent Continent by the Grants of the 12 Townships: 6 of which extending from Penobscot river to mount desart which is not above 18 miles longitude, will be ready to send up in about a fortnights time. I shall also send a triplicate of my Grant the duplicate intended for the board of Trade being lost in its passage.702 I have said so much on this subject in my former letters, that I need add no more. This being intended as an Answer to yours I here conclude & am

    Dear Sr Yr M Affect &c.

    R Jackson Esq.

    PS. I inclose with this an Address from the two Houses to me upon my informing them of the Cessation of Arms &c. If this Testimonial of this Provinces approbation of the Terms of peace is like to do it any Credit or Service among you, It may be put into some London Paper: which if you think Proper, you shall recieve in a Boston News Paper; & then it will become only an Article of News. The republishing at London is left to your discretion. I send the Secretary of State & the Board of Trade a Copy each. ^Since I wrote this, The News papers are come in, & I find in one of them my message & the Address703 to me are printed, (not by my order or leave) & on the other side a whole page of Mr Otis’s libelling;704 which I should not have troubled you with if the address had been printed in any other paper If you think it fit to be reprinted cut it out &c^705

    L, LbC BP, 2: 260-262.

    FB authored or co-authored nine of the thirty-one contributions. He was the sole author of five (No. 6: “Adhortatio Præsidis”; No. 18: “Proximus A. Primo”; No. 19: “ Á ;” No. 20: “Epitaphium”; and No. 31: “Epitaph”) and the possible author of two (No. 8: “Cum Britonum Regem” and No. 9: “Cum Rex sciret Avum”). FB claimed authorship of another ode (No. 24: “In Regis Inaugurationem”) plus the Epithalamium. He also co-wrote with Thomas Hutchinson the dedication piece, No. 1: “To the King.” Justin Winsor, “Pietas et Gratulatio: An Inquiry into the Authorship of the Several Pieces,” Harvard University Library Bulletin 1 (1879): 305-308.