TRANSACTIONS

         

    1911–1913

         
           

    TRANSACTIONS OF THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS

         
       

    APRIL MEETING, 1911

    A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at Gore Hall, Cambridge, on Thursday, 27 April, 1911, at eight o’clock in the evening, the Hon. John Adams Aiken, LL.D., in the chair.

    The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved.

    The Chairman announced that the President had appointed the following Committees in anticipation of the Annual Meeting:

    To nominate candidates for the several offices, — the Rev. Henry Ainsworth Parker, the Rev. Dr. Edward Caldwell Moore, and the Rev. Dr. William Wallace Fenn.

    To examine the Treasurer’s accounts, — Messrs. Edward Percival Merritt and Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe.

    The Corresponding Secretary reported that a letter had been received from Mr. John Trowbridge accepting Resident Membership.

    Mr. F. Apthorp Foster made the following communication:

    THE BURNING OF HARVARD HALL, 1764, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

    On Monday the 16th of January, 1764, while the Massachusetts Legislature was in session at Boston, —

    Colo Clap and Others a Committee of the House of Representatives waited upon his Excellency acquainting him that as the House are apprehensive that the Small Pox will soon prevail in the Town, it being as they are informed by the Selectmen in seven or eight houses; and desiring that his Excellency would please to adjourn them to Cambridge.

    Message to the Governor

    The Secretary delivered the following Message from his Excellency the Governor to the two Houses respectively vizt.

    Gentlemen, His Excellency directs that this Great and General Court be adjourned to Cambridge, to meet at Harvard College on Wednesday next at 10 o’clock in the Forenoon. And declared the Great and General Court to be adjourned accordingly.1

    Court adjourned to Cambridge

    Towards midnight of Tuesday, the 24th, Harvard Hall, in which the General Court had been holding its sessions, caught fire and was wholly destroyed together with its contents,2 which consisted not only of the library and philosophical apparatus but the private property of such students and others as had chambers in the building. The fullest description of the disaster is contained in President Holyoke’s letter to the press,3 which forms the basis of the accounts by Quincy,4 Peirce,5 and Eliot.6 There is little if anything to be added to what has been written of the occurrence,7 but there are, however, certain other sources of information which, though not unknown, have hitherto been ignored.

    It might be expected that the newspapers of the period would furnish something of value, but a careful search has failed to discover more than a few official notices. To be sure the tragedy did not go unsung, though it requires a stretch of the imagination to call the results poetry. The question of the stamp taxes was occupying the public mind at this time to the exclusion of all else, and it is, no doubt, to this fact that the paucity of other material in the press is due. Even the laying of the corner stone of the new Harvard Hall, 26 June, 1764, is dismissed with a few lines and a copy of the inscription on the stone.8

    In the State Archives, however, there is unpublished material of actual worth, not the least valuable part of which lies in the inventories of losses filed with the Legislature by the students whose quarters had been destroyed. These lists throw an interesting light upon the personal belongings of college men of the time, besides compelling admiration for the feats of memory required in their making.

    President Holyoke’s letter, already alluded to, was followed by this appeal by way of postscript:

    Cambridge, Jan. 26. 1764. As the General Assembly have this day chearfully and unanimously voted to rebuild Harvard-Hall, it encourages us to hope, that the Library and Apparatus will also be repaired by the private munificence of those who wish well to America, have a regard for New-England, and know the importance of literature to the Church and State.

    The appended notices are a direct outcome of the fire, and concern the students, borrowers of books from the College library, and intending donors:

    WHEREAS by the righteous Providence of GOD, the most antient of our Buildings is destroyed by Fire, and thereby the Hall and the Kitchen, as well as the Library and Apparatus, have been consumed; and especially whereas the Small Pox is now in several Places at Boston, and it is apprehended will increase: Therefore the Students of Harvard College, (whose Return to the College should, but for the above Considerations, have been on Wednesday the 8th Instant) are hereby notified, not to return to the College at that Time, nor till they have Notice of a proper Time for it, by the President, in the public News-Papers.

    In the mean Time we recommend it to them, that they diligently follow their Studies under the Influence and Direction of the Minister or Ministers of the several Towns to which they belong, or any other Gentlemen of Learning that they may converse with.

    EDW. HOLYOKE, President,

    In the Name of the President and Fellows of Harvard-College.

    Cambridge, February 1. 1764.9

    A VOTE of the Corporation of Harvard-College, February 1. 1764.

    THAT whosoever have in their keeping any of the Books belonging to the late Library of Harvard-College, do as soon as may be, make Return of them to the President; or at least an Account of every one of said Books, which they have in their Possession.

    Edward Holyoke, President.

    NOTICE is hereby given to such of the Students of Harvard-College as have a Desire to improve themselves in the Hebrew Language, during their Recess from the College, that they may have one of the new Hebrew Grammars10 by applying or sending to the President.

    Edward Holyoke, President.

    Cambridge, Feb. 2, 1764.11

    WHEREAS the Honorable and Reverend the Board of Overseers of Harvard-College have recommended it to the Corporation to appoint proper Persons to receive the Donations in Money or Books, of any Persons in America, who may be dispos’d to contribute to a new Library for the College, and that Notice be given in the public News-Papers, that such Persons are ready to receive such Donations; and that if any Person desires their Names may be concealed, and would signify any Mark or Word, by which they would have the Receipt of their Donations ascertained, such desires shou’d be comply’d with.

    Therefore in conformity to the above Recommendation, the Corporation make it their earnest Request, That the Reverend Ministers of all Denominations in this and the neighbouring Governments, would undertake to be Receivers of such Donations, as may be made by pious and charitable Persons in their respective Parishes; And that they will be pleas’d to signify to their People (in such manner as their own Prudence shall direct) that they stand ready to receive such Donations: And that they will be further pleas’d in convenient Time, to Inform the President at Cambridge, or the Hon. Thomas Hubbard of Boston, Esq; the Treasurer of said College, what Donations may be deposited with them.

    And We humbly hope, that all who wish well to the Interests of Religion and Learning, will compassionate our present destitute State (by which the Students are under much Disadvantage, as to their Learning) and will have their Hearts and Hands opened to contribute liberally to the Reparation of the great Losses, both in the Library and Apparatus, which GOD in his holy Providence hath suffer’d to befall the Society under our Care.

    EDWARD HOLYOKE, President.

    in the Name of the Corporation.

    Cambridge, March 5, 1764.12

    The first of the following two poems, which was given a place of honor on the front page of the Massachusetts Gazette of 2 February, 1764, is aptly described by the author of the second poem as a “school Boy’s Hexametric Toil.” A third poem appearing in the press, called Harvardinum Restauratum, has already been printed by this Society.13

    —THRENODIA—

    In Conflagrationem Aulæ Harvardinæ Cantabrigiæ Nov-Anglorum die 24io Janij 1764.

    QUIS lacrymas retinere potest, dum fatur Amicus

    Harvardi veteris Fatum? Nutricis ut almæ,

    Quâ. Juvenes dociles literatis artibus omnes

    Instructi benè sunt: sed nunc fundamine rasa

    Nobilis hæc domus est, flammarum vi furiatâ: —

    (Coctilibus Muris vim solùm obstantibus ignis,

    Chasmata multa manent illis ut Fulmine fracta.)

    Terribilis fuit Eventus per Numinis Iram! —

    Quarè Deus nobis voluit contendere tantis

    Ærumnis — Morbos varios rapidumque per Ignem,

    Non decet ignarum, secretas dicere Causas —

    Hoc mihi sufficiat, talis Divina voluntas: —

    Hâcce Domo curâ, sumptûque Volumina multa

    Musarum, assiduo Juvenum Studio esse repôsta:

    (Antiquos, Scilicet,14 literatos, atque modernos:)

    Unusquisque refert, simùl his consumtaque flammis:

    Heu! dolor eventû fatali corda Virorum

    Afficit immodicus, Fautores qui literarum

    Semper erant opibus! Jam, jam radientur at Ipsi

    Splendore, ut Sphæris distinctis Sidera Cæli.

    PHILOMUSUS.

    To the PRINTERS.

    You are requested, when you have Room, to give the following Lines a Place in your valuable Gazette.

    S P Q R.

    The Lamentation of HARVARD.

    ALAS! how am I chang’d! Revolving Suns

    Through many a Period joyfully have smil’d,

    On my once happy Seat; where uncontroll’d

    I sat, the Mistress of this western World,

    And sent my learned Youth throughout the Land,

    To guide with happy Skill, both Church and State.

    Around my sacred, venerable Elm

    My frequent Buildings rose; whose ample Domes

    Inclos’d my fav’rite Sons,15 an happy Tribe

    On either Side th’ Atlantic far renown’d.

    My Fame throughout the Land of Liberty

    Was circulated wide: Nor did I want

    Instructors of my own, to lead the Youth,

    Their younger Brethren, through the lovely Fields

    Of Science, humane and divine; whose Paths

    Delightsome, Hand in Hand they trod apace

    With eager Steps, till at the sacred Shrine

    Of fair Philosophy arriv’d, they paid

    Their humblest Adoration at her Feet.

    But now, how chang’d the Scene! behold the Walls,

    Not long ago the fam’d Repository

    Of solid Learning, levell’d to the Dust.

    Ye Flames, more merciless than the fell Hand

    Of all-devouring Time; more savage far

    Than Earthquake’s horrid Shocks;16 why did ye not

    Recoil with Shame, when near the sacred Volumes,

    Arrang’d with Care, your pointed Spires approach’d?

    Why could ye not, the fam’d Museum spare,

    Unrival’d in Columbia, where my Sons

    Beheld, unveil’d by Winthrop’s17 artful Hand,

    The Face of Nature, beautiful and fair?

    Ah fatal Night! why didst thou not remain

    Perpetual, and with dusky Pinions, veil

    These awful Ruins, Beauty laid in Dust?

    Where are my Comforters? where the whole Band

    Of laurell’d Bards, once nourish’d at my Breast,

    Who not long since condol’d Britannia’s Loss

    When George the great resign’d his earthly Crown?

    Where is my Ch—ch, my L-w-ll, H—p—r, D—n,18

    The Popes and Priors of our western World?

    Alas their Harps are on the Willows hung!

    Sated with Fame, and all the World’s Applause,

    Their tuneful Pens lie dumb; not one of all

    Can “pay the grateful Tribute of a Song.”||

    But should our Land again (which Heav’n forbid)

    Be call’d to mourn our happy Sov’reign’s Death,

    Should golden Prizes, once more be propos’d;

    How would their Fancies take poetic Fire;

    How would they mount the Pegasæan Steed,

    And soar aloft, to gain immortal Fame?

    Avri sacra Fames!— —

    What base Ingratitude then, to neglect

    Their Alma Mater in her mourning Weeds!

    Ye sleeping Bards! light up your wonted Fires,

    Let not the school Boy’s Hexametric Toil*

    Remain the only lasting Monument

    Of my sad Overthrow: But come my Bards

    Approach my awful Ruins, stand around

    Your once lov’d Nursery, behold my Woe,

    Gather my Ashes, and let that Reward

    Your pious Care to mitigate my Grief,

    And to perpetuate in elegiac Verse

    The sad Remembrance of that fatal Night,

    When Science fell a Victim to the Flames.

    || See Piet. & Gratulat. No VII. p. 20.

    * See the Massachusetts-Gazette of February 2. 1764, column 1.19

    We now reach the records of legislative action. For the sake of convenience the material bearing upon the claims for losses has been kept together, though this necessitates a departure from strictly chronological order.

    [25 January, 1764]

    Harvard College in which the Court held their Sessions while at Cambridge having been consumed by Fire, since the Adjournment the last Evening, the Council met at the Governors Lodgings, a Committee of the House there waited on his Excellency to acquaint his Excellency and the Board that they had appointed three of their Members to look out for some convenient House in Cambridge, to met in during the rest of the Session; Whereupon Thomas Hubbard and John Choate Esqrs, two of the Members of the Board were appointed to look out for some convenient place to accomodate the Governor and Council.20

    Committee to provide rooms for the Genl Court

    [26 January, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. Whereas the Files of the General Court, and the Minutes of Council for the present Session are consumed by Fire. Resolved That there be allowed to be paid out of the Public Treasury all such Grants and Allowances as shall appear upon the Journal of the House of Representatives to have been made by them before the 25th Instant, and which [shall] not appear to have been Nonconcurred by the Board, or refused by the Governor, and for which Warrants have not been already issued. Resolved also that the Records of the General Court for the time aforesaid be made from the said Journal, and laid before the General Court at the next May Session for their Correction or Approbation.

    Order respecting the Files that are burnt

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor21

    [26 January, 1764]

    The Secretary went down to the House of Representatives with the following Message from his Excellency the Governor vizt:

    Message from the Governor

    Gentlemen of the House of Representatives

    I heartily condole with you on the unfortunate Accident which has happened to the College, and We have been the melancholly Spectators of.

    As your Bounty has just now been largely extended to that Society, I should not so soon ask you to repeat it upon any common occasion: but as this extraordinary Event has come whilst the Building was in your immediate Occupation, there seems to be an Obligation that you should replace it. However, whether it is considered as a Duty, or a fresh call for your benevolence, I shall be glad to join with you and the Council, in proper measures to retrieve this Loss.

    Cambridge January 26: 176422

    Fra Bernard

    [26 January, 1764]

    The following Order passed on his Excellency’s Message of this day vizt

    Vote to rebuild the College

    In the House of Representatives. Read and Resolved unanimously that the College be rebuilt at the Charge of the Province.

    In Council Read and unanimously Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor

    In the House of Representatives Resolved That Mr Tyler, Mr Otis, Mr Cushing, Mr Boardman and Mr Trowbridge with Such as the honourable Board shall join be a Committee to begin and carry on the work of rebuilding the College; and that the Sum of Two thousand pounds be now granted them out of the Publick Treasury for that purpose.

    Committee to effect the same

    Resolved That the Committee abovenamed procure a Water Engine for the use of the College, not exceeding One hundred pounds

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor

    Samuel Danforth, William Brattle, James Bowdoin, Thomas Hubbard and James Russell Esqrs; were on the part of the Board joined to the Committee abovementioned.23

    [26 January, 1764]

    John Choate, Esq; bro’t down a Vote of Council, viz.

    In Council, Jan. 26, 1764. Ordered, That the Committee appointed to Rebuild Harvard-College be directed to take the most proper Measures immediately to remove the Rubbish from that part of the Building where the Hall stood, in order to find the Province Seal which was buried in the Ruins: And that they employ some Persons of Credit to make diligent Search for the same, taking Care to set a trusty Watch on the Place in the mean time.

    Vote of Council bro’t down

    And all Persons whatsoever, excepting such as shall be employed or permitted by the said Committee, are prohibited entring upon the Ruins, until the said Committee have finished their Search.

    Sent down for Concurrence. Read and Concur’d.24

    [31 January, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. Ordered That Cap’ Henly be added to the Committee of both Houses appointed to rebuild Harvard College &c

    Comtee for rebuildg the College

    In Council Read and Concurred, and Ordered That Mr President Holyoke be likewise added to said Committee.25

    [31 January, 1764]

    Ordered, That Mr. Speaker, Judge Russell, Major Livermore, Col. Bowers, Mr. Thacker, Col. Dwight, Mr. Trowbridge, Mr. Foster of Plymouth and Col. Gilbert, view the most commodious Place for erecting a new College, and Report.26

    Committee to view a commodious Place for erecting a new College

    [3 November, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives Ordered That the Sum of Two thousand pounds be paid out of the Public Treasury to the Committee appointed to take care of the rebuilding Harvard College, to enable them to proceed in that Affair.

    Grant of £2,000 for rebuilding H: College

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor27

    [18 June, 1765]

    The Committee appointed to rebuild Harvard-College, in obedience to the order of the Honble House of Representatives of the thirty first of May A D 1765. “directing the committee to lay their proceedings in that affair, before the house”

    Humbly Shew.

    That the Great & General Court having in their Session at Cambridge in January 1764. Resolved “that Harvard College be rebuilt at the charge of the Province” — were pleased to order us to begin and carry on that work, without further ascertaining the dimensions or form of the building, or the place where it should be erected.

    That as the Hall and Library, the apparatus-room, and Hebrew-school, the Kitchen and Buttery were in the old house & were absolutely necessary for the college, it appeared to the committee that those rooms must be made a part of the new building, and that besides those, there cou’d not be half so many other rooms or chambers for schollars as were necessary for them, without making the building much larger than we supposed the Court ever intended or designed it should be.

    That as sufficient provision for the schollars could not be made in this building, and the having any chambers for the schollars therein would endanger the library, apparatus, &c. The Committee were of Opinion that if other provision cou’d be made for the schollars, it wou’d be best to have all the rooms for public use, and none other, in this building.

    That his Excellency the Governor was of the same Opinion and assured us that he would give his consent to an act for raising by Lottery a sum sufficient to build another college for the Schollars: and Cap’ Thomas Dawes offered to build it upon the credit of such a lottery & to enter upon the work so soon as this College should be finished.

    That it appearing to the committee that in this Method of proceeding a sufficient number of rooms for public use and for the schollars to dwell in, might be procured with much less expence to the Government than it could in any other manner be done; and not doubting but that the other Branches of the Legislature, would readily agree with his Excellency in making such an act, the Committee concluded to have all the rooms for public use and none other in the college they were about to erect.

    That upon surveying the College ground, the Committee found that if this new building was erected North of Hollis-Hall, as was proposed by some, the next College, if set as a wing to answer Massachusetts-Hall, would extend to the middle of the highway, and Considering it would be most convenient that all the rooms for public use, and especially the Chapel & Hall should be as near the Centre as might be, the Committee were fully of Opinion that it would be best to set this building where old Harvard stood, and in order effectually to secure it from fire, in case of Stoughton or Hollis-Hall’s being burnt, that the Cornishes under the Eves of the roof should be made of Stone & not of wood, as in Hollis-Hall.

    That the Committee being sensible of his Excellency’s Superior knowledge in architecture,28 requested him to favor them with a plan of the proposed Building, & having examined & approved the same, They have ever since been carrying it into execution.

    That the building is one hundred and seven feet long — forty feet wide, & forty feet high — att the west end above the celler is the Chapel, and over that is the Library. At the east end is the Kitchen & Buttery, and over them is the Hall & above that are the apparatus-room, & the Mathematical and Hebrew-schools.

    The walls of the house are of Brick & stone — and its cover’d with slate. The house is glazed and the outside of it finished — except the Cupola, the doors and steps leading to them. The Kitchen, Buttery, & Hall are nearly finish’d. The rough floors, throughout the house, are all laid — and the Masons and Carpenters are Now at work in finishing the Building. — and the Committee have expended & paid for Materials & Workmanship — three thousand six hundred forty two pounds thirteen shillings and 2d

    which is submitted ꝓ order

    Saml Danforth

    [Endorsed]

    Report of the Commee

    for rebuilding Harvard

    College June 18 Read

    176529

    [20 June, 1765]

    In the House of Representatives, Resolved, That the Sum of One thousand pounds be paid out of the public Treasury to the Committee appointed to rebuild Harvard College to enable them to proceed in that affair, they to be accountable.

    £1000 allowed the College—

    In Council, Read and Concurred.

    Consented to by the Governor.30

    Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from the original by Du Simitière in the possession of The Library Company of Philadelphia

    1765 — Province of Massachusetts Bay for Building Harvard College

    Dr

    To Messrs Crafts and Tileston acco for the Carpenters work &c

    2102

     

    10

    To Capt Thomas Dawes for the Mason’s work and sundrys which he paid by order of the Committee

    2439

    12

    6

    To Messrs Codner and Homer for the Stone work

    595

    12

    5

    To Messrs Waters & Crafts Painters

    158

    16

    6

    To Mr Wm Burbeck Carver

    33

    5

     

    To the Honble Samuel Danforth Esqr for sundrys paid by him as ꝓ acco

    399

    2

    To the Honble Thos Hubbard Esqr as ꝓ acco

    284

    3

    11

    To the Honble Royall Tyler Esqr as ꝓ acco

    100

    4

    8

     

    6112

    18

    Supra

    Cr

    By Sundry Warrants on the Treasurer amo to

    £5000

       

    Balance

    £1112

    18

    Errors excepted

    S: Danforth

    ꝓ order31

    [13 June, 1766]

    In the House of Representatives. Resolved that the Province Treasurer be, and hereby is directed to pay out of the public Treasury to the Committee appointed to rebuild Harvard College the Sum of Eleven hundred and twelve pounds eighteen shillings and seven pence halfpenny to enable them to pay the several balances now due to the Workmen &c which is in full for the charge and cost of rebuilding said College.

    Grand to Harvard College

    In Council, Read and Concurred.

    Consented to by the Governor32

    This last resolve was the final grant for rebuilding Harvard Hall. What follows covers individual losses.

    [26 January, 1764]

    Ordered, That Judge Russell, General Winslow, Mr. Trowbridge, Major Livermore and Major Morey, consider the state of the Sufferers by the late Fire at Harvard-College, that so they may have a suitable Recompence, &c. and make Report.33

    Committee to Consider the state of the Sufferers by Fire &c.

    [3 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. It appearing to the House that Mr Belcher Hancock34 by the burning of Harvard College had wearing Apparrell, Household Goods and Books to the value of £88–11–2 consumed in that Fire, and that he had Silver Utensils to the Value of £30–2–8 melted, and Silver money to the value of £69–13–10½ so much diminished and damnified as that but little if any of it, ought to pass as money, and that he also had Securities for money due to him burnt in the same fire. Resolved That the said Silver money and the melted Plate that is or may be found be delivered to the Province Treasurer to be by him disposed of to the use of the Province, and that the said Belcher Hancock be paid out of the Public Treasury the sum of £188–7–8½, and with regard to the Securities burnt, that the consideration thereof be referred to the next Session of the General Court.

    Allowance to Mr Belcher Hancock

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor35

    [3 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. It appearing to this House that several Students at Harvard College had Goods and Chattles destroyed and consumed by the burning of that College viz’: Timothy Langdon36 Goods and Chattles to the value of £57–12– Samuel Fairer37 Goods and Chattles to the value of £15–6–8, Joseph Farrer38 Goods and Chattles to the value of £13–4–6, Isaac Morrell39 Goods and Chattles to the value of £14–10–2 and Increase Sumner40 Goods and Chattles to the value of £16–3–10 burnt and destroyed. Resolved That as all the said Sufferers are Infants, the aforesaid Value of the Goods and Chattles by the faid Samuel Farrer and Joseph Farrer respectively lost, be paid out of the Public Treasury to Chambers Russell41 Esqr for their use, and that the aforesaid value of the Goods and Chattles lost by the other Sufferers aforesaid be paid out of the Public Treasury to their respective Fathers or Guardians.

    Allowances to sundry Students

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor42

    [3 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. Ordered That the Sum of Fourteen pounds three shillings and seven pence be granted out of the Publick Treasury to Ebenezer Bradish43 for House Rent and other Expences since the Sitting of the House of Representatives at his House.

    Allowance to Ebr Bradish

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor44

    [3 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives Ordered That the Sum of Nine pounds be granted out of the Public Treasury to Jonathan Sprague45 for House Rent and other Expences since the Sitting of the honble Board at his House

    Allowance to Jona Sprague

    In Council Read and Concurred — Consented to by the Governor46

    [3 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives; Ordered That the Sum of Four pounds, eighteen shillings be granted out of the Public Treasury to Mr: William Baker, Doorkeeper, in consideration of his Goods & Chatties lost in the late Fire.

    Allowance to Wm Baker

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor47

    A Memo of Sundries wch I the Subscriber Lost in the late Fire at Harvard Colledge

    viz

    1 New Beaver Hatt

    £1

    16

     

    1 do Wigg

    2

    8

     

    1 pr black shoe Buckles & cap

    0

    4

     

    Sundry other Articles

    0

    10

       

    £4

    18

    ꝓ Wm Baker48

    [3 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives (Janry 28) The House entered into the consideration of the State of the Sufferers by the late Fire at Harvard College, and particularly considering the Sufferings of Mr Andrew Eliot49 the Butler: The following Resolve passed vizt:

    Allowance to Mr Andrew Eliot

    Resolved That the sum of Forty three pounds sixteen shillings and three pence be now allowed him out of the Public Treasury in consideration of the Loss of his Goods and Chatties. Also Resolved that the Loss which the said Eliot has sustained by his Account Book’s being burnt, be referred for further consideration.

    In Council (Janry 30) Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor50

    To his Excellency Francis Bernard Esqr Governor & Commander in chief over his Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts Bay

    The Honorable His Majesty’s Council, and The Honorable House of Representatives

    The Petition of Andrew Eliot Bachelor of Arts

    Humbly sheweth

    That your Petitioner was Butler of the College when Harvard Hall was consumed by Fire, At which Time he lost Goods & Chattells to the Amount of 43£ 16s 3d Which Sum the Honorable Court were pleased in their great Goodness to allow him out of the public Treasury — of which Kindness your Petitioner hopes he shall ever retain a grateful Remembrance.

    Your Petitioner when he gave in his other Account to the Committee of the late Honorable House, laid before them the Loss he was like to sustain by the Burning of his Accompt Book containing the Debts which the Scholars had contracted the last four Weeks they were together. The Quarter before amounted to one hundred & twenty five Pounds two Shillings & a penny. Your Petitioner has computed this Month at thirty three Pounds six shillings & eight Pence, which Computation is considerably short of what was contracted in any four Weeks of the former Quarter. Your Petitioner being willing rather to suffer Loss than desirous to be a Gainer by a Public Calamity.

    This Part of your Petitioner’s Loss the Honorable House was pleased to refer to further Consideration in Order as your Petitioner was informed that he might know what he could obtain from those who were indebted to him — Your Petitioner has been able to collect only the sum of six Pounds ten shillings & six Pence halfpenny. Several Gentlemen have allowed him in Proportion to the former Quarter but the most were inclin’d to allow him little or Nothing — Your Petitioner begs leave to suggest that what is not paid of this Debt is as real a Loss to him, as is that of the Goods that were in his Possession & that unless this Honorable Court grant him Relief he is like to be the only Sufferer of those who resided in the College at the Time when it was consumed.

    Your Petitioner begs Leave further to observe that he gave in his Account of his Loss within two Days after the Burning of Harvard College in which Account he believes the Honorable Court were fully satisfied his Goods & Chattells were valued at a very moderate Price. For want of further Time for Recollection he omitted several Articles to the Amount of £4.. 18.. 1 — As he thinks he can make evident to the Honorable Court —

    He therefore prays this Honorable Court to take his Case into their Consideration and grant such Relief as they in their great Wisdom shall see meet —

    And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray &c.

    Andrew Eliot.51

    [14 January, 1765]

    A Petition of Andrew Eliot A B. Butler of Harvard College Setting forth That the General Court have been pleased to allow him, upon his Petition, the Sum of £43.16.3 for the Loss he sustained by the burning of the said College; and were pleased to refer the consideration of the Loss he might sustain by the burning of his Books of Accounts, until he could more fully ascertain the same. That after receiving what he could of the several Scholars, he finds that according to the best computation he can make he is like to lose the Sum of £26.16.2 — besides the further Sum of £4.18.1 the Amount of sundry Goods omitted in his last Memorial. And praying allowance.

    Petition of Andr Eliot

    In the House of Representatives. Read and Ordered That the prayer of this Petition be granted: and the Province Treasurer is hereby directed to pay the Petitioner the Sum of Thirty one pounds fourteen shillings and two pence half peny infull consideration for the Loss sustained by him when Harvard College was consumed by Fire.

    Order thereon

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor.52

    [4 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. It appearing to this House, That Jonathan Hastings53 Esqr lost Goods and Chatties to the value of Thirteen pounds one shilling and six pence in the burning of Harvard College Resolved That the said Sum be paid him out of the Public Treasury.

    Allowance to Jona Hastings

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor54

    [4 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives Ordered That the sum of Eight pounds be granted out of the Public Treasury to Captain Gideon White55 in consideration of the Loss he sustained by exerting himself in an extraordinary manner for the preservation of Hollis Hall and Stoughton Hall in the late Fire.

    Allowance to Gidn White

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor56

    [22 May, 1768]

    To his excelency Francis Barnard Esqr Captain General and Govenor in chief in and over his Majestys provence of The Massachusetts bay. And to the Honble his Majestys Council and House of Representatives now in General Coart at Boston assembled, —

    The petition of Gideon White of Plymouth humbly shews That at the Great fire at Cambridge in January 1765 [sic] Your petitioner exposed and exerted him self to such a degrie for the extinguishing thereof, and praservation of the Colleges that he thereby brought on himself a fit of Sickness which Confined him almost intirely to his house and the greater part of the time to his room, for two years and an halfe afterwards by which he was prevented from transacting, his Affairs and business, which has Greatly hurt and injured him in his Trade and intrest: has been put to great cost an charges for Doctors, Physicians and Nurses: and by reason of exposing himself, and the mannor he did, that night to fire and Cold, has intirely broke and ruined his constitution wherefore your petitioner humbly prays this honble Court would take his deplorable case into their wis consideration and make him such amends and satisfaction for the same, as they in their great judgment shall think proper and he as in duty bound shall ever pray —

    Gideon White

    Plimouth May 22the 1768.

    [Endorsed]

    Petn Gideon White

    May 27 176857

    [4 February, 1764]

    In the House of Representatives. Ordered That the Sum of Eleven pounds fifteen shillings and ten pence be granted out of the Public Treasury to Mr Daniel Whitney for the use of Nathaniel Bond58 in consideration of the Loss he sustained by the late Fire.

    Allowance to Nathl Bond

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor59

    An Account of Furniture and Books Lost in the Late fire by Nathaniel Bond Student of College

     

    £

    S

    D

    Three Locks

    00

    06

    00

    A Bed and Bedding

    05

    01

    00

    A chest

    00

    10

    08

    A Salver

    00

    02

    00

    A Toaster and Skillet

    00

    04

    00

    A Book Shelves and Lap [sic]

    00

    02

    00

    Sundries

    00

    01

    08

    Guthree on Tully

    01

    01

    06

    Trap on Virgil

    00

    12

    00

    Virgil

    00

    09

    00

    Tully

    00

    10

    00

    Cæsars Commentaries

    00

    12

    00

    Lock on humane understanding

    00

    13

    04

    euclid

    00

    06

    00

    greek and Latin gramars

    00

    04

    00

    bratles Logicks

    00

    01

    06

    A bible

    00

    03

    06

    Botles

    00

    10

    08

    A rasor

    00

    02

    08

    Total

    11

    15

    10

    [Endorsed]

    Nathaniel Bonds

    Account of his Loss

    Allowd to Nathll Bond

    Feby 4th 176460

    Province of the Massts Bay in New-England

    To His Excellency Francis Bernard Esqr Captain Generall & Governour in Chief in & over the Province aforesaid

    To the Honourable the Council & House of Representatives in Generall Court assembled at Boston the Eighteenth day of October A D 1764. H[umb]ly Shew

    Stephen Hall.61 Joseph Lee.62 Joseph Willard.63 Nicholas Pike.64 Samuel Curtis.65 Samuel Barnard66John Barrows.67 Samuel Cheney.68 Silvanus Ames.69 Nicholas Dudley.70 Moses Holt.71

    That your Petitioners at the burning of Harvard-College in Cambridge New-England, having Chambers in the sam[e] Building, suffered the Loss of all their Goods & Chattels then & there being, Accounts of which they have already drawn up & Sworn to — And as many of your Petitioners stand in great need of some Assistance in order to enable them to purchase necessary Furniture for their Chambers, & Books for the better & further prosecuting of their Studies at said College — And as they understand that many of the private Losses have already been made up to the Sufferers, agreable to a Vote of the Great & Generall Assembly that was at that Time sitting, your Petitioners are very desirous that their Case might be taken into Consideration, & that a Committee may be appointed to Examine their severall Accounts, (or that any other Means that you in your great Wisdom may think proper, may be taken) & if they be just & honest the same may be speedily allowed And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray &c

    [Endorsed]

    Petn of Stephen Hall & others

    Octr 24 176472

    Novr 3

    [3 November, 1764]

    Upon the Petitions of Stephen Hall & others the following Resolve passed vizt;

    Grant to divers Sufferers by the Fire at H: College

    In the House of Representatives; Resolved That there be allowed and paid out of the Public Treasury to the Petitioners, who were Sufferers at the late fire at Harvard College, as follows vizt,

    To Stephen Hall

    £13

     

    To Joseph Willard

    20

    10

    To Saml Curtis

    14

    15

    To John Barrows

    8

    16

    To Sylvanus Ames

    7

    5

    To Moses Holt

    14

    10

    To Ensign Man73

    38

    4

    To Joseph Lee

    £10

     

    To Nicho Pike

    26

    10

    To Ebr74 & Saml Barnard

    72

    10

    To Saml Cheney

    15

     

    To Nicholas Dudley

    11

     

    To Silas Biglow75

    15

    4

    In Council Read and Concurred

    Consented to by the Governor76

    An Accompt of ye Things burnt in Harvard College belonging to Stephen Hall

    Under Bed

    £ 0

    12

    0

    0

    Bedsted & Cord

    0

    11

    0

     

    jacket

    0

    10

    0

     

    Beaver hat

    0

    12

    0

     

    10 ℔ of Sugar at 11D 1S ꝓ ℔

    0

    9

    4

    2

    A stone Mug

    0

    1

    8

     

    19 Pictures at 9D ꝓ Picture

    0

    14

    3

     

    Wig

    0

    12

    0

     

    1 Pair of hose

    0

    5

    4

     

    Towel

    0

    1

    2

     

    2 Boxes

    0

    2

    0

     

    3 pewter Plates

    0

    4

    0

     

    2 Tea Pots

    0

    2

    8

     

    1 ℔ of Candles

    0

    1

    0

     

    Candle-Stick

    0

    1

    8

     

    Bottom of a Desk with a Draw

    0

    3

    0

     

    Book-Shelves

    0

    4

    8

     

    3 Knifes & Forks

    0

    3

    0

     

    2 Locks

    0

    8

    8

     

    Rasor & Case

    0

    3

    0

     

    Book-holder

    0

    0

    8

     

    Tea Kanister with ¼ ℔ of Tea

    0

    2

    5

    2

    Grid-Iron

    0

    4

    8

     

    2 Chains

    0

    2

    11

     

    A Beaker & 2 Wine Glasses

    0

    1

    9

     

    A Rundlet

    0

    2

    5

     

    1½ Load of Wood

    0

    11

    1

     

    A Slate

    0

    1

    6

     

    2½ Dos of Bottles

    0

    10

    8

     

    A Chafindish

    0

    2

    0

     
     

    £8

    2

    7

    0

    Trap’s Translation of Virgil

    £ 0

    18

    0

    0

    1st Vol. of Locke on human Understn

    0

    7

    2

    2

    Polyanthea

    1

    4

    0

     

    1st Vol. of Pope’s Homer

    0

    6

    8

     

    2d Vol. of Tatler

    0

    6

    0

     

    Hebr. Grammar

    0

    2

    4

     

    Aristocles Syst of Morality

    0

    1

    8

     

    13 Maps

    1

    2

    8

     

    6 Plays Phamphlets

    0

    6

    0

     

    Ink Pot

    0

    1

    8

     

    Sundries

    0

    18

    0

     
     

    £ 5

    14

    2

    2

     

    8

    2

    7

     
     

    £13

    16

    9

    2

    Stephen Hall.

    [Endorsed]

    Stephen Hall’s Acct.

    Allow’d 13 —

    Ex.77

    2 Combs

    £ 0

    2

    2

    Bottle of Oyl.

    0

    0

    10

    Cake of Chocolate

    0

    0

    10

    2 Necks78

    0

    1

    2

    Riding Cap

    0

    0

    8

    2 Papers of Tobacco

    0

    1

    2

    2 Snuff-Boxes

    0

    3

    0

    Grater, Case & Nutmeg

    0

    0

    8

    a Bowl

    0

    0

    4

    Whet-Stone

    0

    0

    4

    a File

    0

    1

    2

    an Hammer

    0

    1

    0

    Pair of Garters

    0

    0

    8

    2 Codlines

    0

    2

    0

    a Paper of Ink Powder

    0

    0

    6

    1 qt of Rum

    0

    1

    6

     

    £ 0

    18

    079

    An Account of what was lost by Joseph Lee, Student at the College, in the Burning of Harvard-Hall; January 1764 —

     

    £

    S

    D

    Ten Chairs

    1

    8

    0

    An Oval Table a £1. A common Table a 6/

    1

    6

    0

    Tea Furniture

    0

    17

    2 Candlesticks a 8d each. & Snuffers a 1/

    0

    2

    4

    Andirons a 9/4. Shovel & Tongs a 8/

    0

    17

    4

    1 Pair Bellows a 3/. Tinder Box & Steel a 1/4

    0

    4

    4

    2 Locks a 4/ each. 1 Lock a 2/8

    0

    10

    8

    Tea Kettle

    1

    0

    9

    1 poringer a 1/4. 2 spoons at 4d each

    0

    2

    0

    2 pewter Plates a 1/6 each. Knives & forks 10d

    0

    3

    10

    1 Brush a 1/6. 2 Bowls a. 1/7 each

    0

    4

    8

    3 wine Glasses a 6½d each. 1 Beker a 8d

    0

    2

    9 glass Bottles a 4d each

    0

    3

    0

    A Set t of Large Maps a 14/5. other Cutt s a 3/7

    0

    18

    0

    A writing Desk

    0

    14

    8

    A pair of Dividers

    0

    2

    0

    Barnard’s Sermons on ye Imperfection of ye Creature &c

    0

    6

    8

    Cooper’s Do on Titus. 2.6

    0

    0

    2d Volume of Locke on Hum: Understanding

    0

    8

    Watts’ Logic & Improvement of the Mind 2. Volumes

    0

    16

    8

    New-England’s Lamentations

    0

    0

    Owen on ye Divine Original of the Scriptures

    0

    2

    The Sin & Folly of unlawful Pleasures, A Sermon

    0

    0

    Philosophic Solitude; a poem. 1/2¼. 1½ quire of Paper 2/

    0

    3

    Boyer’s French Grammer

    0

    2

    6

    Sundries

    0

    12

    0

    Per Joseph Lee Total

    £11

    10

    October 24th 1764

    Joseph Lee Made Oath to ye Truth of ye Above Acct

    Coram Edm Trowbridge

    [Endorsed]

    Allow’d £10 —

    Joseph Lee

    Ex-80

     

    £

    S

    D

    Crisping Irons

    0

    2

    8

    2 pencil Cases

    0

    2

    0

    hatchet

    0

    2

    o

    hammer

    0

    0

    8

    Tea-Kettle-holders

    0

    1

    0

    Almanack

    0

    0

    4

    Pipes & Tobacco

    0

    0

    8

    Spirits

    0

    1

    4

    Cork Screw

    0

    0

    4

    Sundries

    0

    1

    0

     

    0

    12

    0

    file

    81

    Box

    Sugar

    Joseph Willards account of Things supposed to be burnt in Harvard College.

     

    S

    D

    Baileys Dictionary

    12

    0

    Coles Ditto

    12

     

    Hill’s Lexicon

    12

     

    Virgil

    6

     

    Lock on the human Understanding

    15

     

    Watt’s Logick

    8

     

    Edwards on the Affections

    5

    4

    Hebrew Psalter

    6

     

    Hebrew Grammar

    2

    5

    Wolebius

    4

    4

    Mason on self Knowledge

    3

    7

    The Mariners Compass

    2

    8

    Clark’s Introduction

    3

    9

    Two Exercises for making latin

    3

     

    Erskins Gospel Sonnits

    3

     

    Clarks Erasmus & a Bible

    5

    4

    Greek Testament

    4

    5

    latin Ditto

    2

    8

    Greek Grammar

    1

    4

    latin Ditto

    2

    5

    two Psalm Books

    3

    6

    Confutation of the Arians

    2

     

    An Essay on Prayer

    6

     

    three Coppy Books & an ordination Sermon

    3

    8

    Mr Flavils Method of Grace

    12

     

    1 Vol. of the Rambler

    6

     

    1 Vol. of Spectator

    6

     

    A Lexicon

    6

     

    Horace in 2 Volumns

    18

     
     

    £8

    18

    4

     

    £

    S

    D

    A feather Bed Under Bed, Blanket and Coverled

    5

    4

     

    Six Chairs

     

    16

     

    Two Tables

     

    12

     

    A pair of handirons

     

    8

     

    A tea Kettle

     

    18

     

    A Chest and Trunck

     

    11

     

    A Book Case

     

    4

     

    Thirty Glass Bottles

     

    10

    8

    Three Maps & 10 picture

     

    12

     

    A pair of Bellows

     

    4

    4

    5 Locks

     

    10

     

    A Drinking jack & mugg

     

    4

     

    A Set of Tea Dishes

     

    2

    6

    A Tea Pot and Plaits

     

    3

     

    Three punch Bowls

     

    4

     

    Two wine Glasses

     

    2

     

    A Banyand82

    1

       

    Cloth for a jacoat

     

    15

    4

    Two pair or Wosted Stockings

     

    6

    8

    A Handkerchief

     

    2

     

    A pair of Boots & Shoes

     

    8

     

    A Hat

     

    6

     

    Tea Shelves & Cubboard

     

    4

     

    A Small Looking Glass

     

    1

    4

    Some Tea & Sugar

     

    2

     

    Sundry Small Articles

    1

       

    A Quire of Writing paper

     

    1

    4

     

    £15

    12

    4

     

    8

    18

    4

    Sum Total

    £24

    10

    8

    Cr to Mr Flavils method of Grace charged in Mans account

    0

    12

    0

     

    £23

    18

    8

    Errors excepted by me Joseph Willard.

    [Endorsed]

    Allow’d £20 10

    Joseph Willards acet

    Sworn

    Ex.83

    An Acompt of the Loss yt Nicholas Pike, (an Inhabitant of Harvard College), sustain’d by the Consumption of the same by Fire.

     

    £

    S

    D

     

    A Looking Glass

    2

    12

    6

     

    ½ Dozen Chairs

    6

    10

    0

     

    Sett of Maps, 1 Picture

    6

    10

    0

     

    3 Brushes, Pair of Tongs

    1

    18

    6

     

    2 Shovels, pair of Bellows

    3

    10

    0

     

    Chiney & Earthen Ware

    09

    00

    0

     

    Tea Shelves & Book Do

    2

    10

    0

     

    Case of Knives & Forks

    2

    15

    0

     

    Sugar Box & 7½ ℔ of Loaf Sugar

    3

    00

    0

     

    1 ℔ of Chocolate, ½ ℔ of Tea, & a Canistera

    2

    6

    6

     

    2 ℔ of Candles

    0

    15

    0

     

    ⅓ of a Barrel of Cyder with ye Barrel

    2

    05

    0

     

    4 ℔ of Butter, 2 Iron Candlesticks

    1

    15

    6

     

    a hammer, a Coat, 2 jackets, pair of Breeches

    50

    00

    0

     

    2 Linnen Shirts; 3 new Cotton Do

    27

    09

    0

     

    6 Pair of Stockings, 3 Necks

    14

    10

    0

     

    Dictionary Latin, Eng. Do 2 Virgils

    17

    10

    0

     

    Traps Translation of Virgil

    8

    00

    0

     

    Chest & 2 Double Locks, 2 Tables

    15

    10

    0

     

    ¼ Cord of walnut Wood cut & carried in,

    1

    16

    0

     

    ½ Dozen of Bottles, a Spilter Box

    5

    5

    0

     

    a Work’d Pocket Book, Sunglass

    5

    12

    6

     

    Grid Iron, Chafendish, & Snuffers

    2

    15

    0

     

    Gordens Geographical Grammer

    3

    15

    0

     

    2 Euclids, a Tully & Greek Lexicon

    13

    00

    0

     

    Hebrew Psalter & Grammer Do

    3

    00

    0

     

    Hebrew Bucstorf, & Eng. Bible

    6

    00

    0

     

    1 Greek Testament, 2 Latin Do

    3

    00

    0

     

    2 Greek Grammers

    1

    10

    0

     

    An Accidence & 3 Rhetoricks

    1

    15

    0

     

    Cæsars Commentaries

    4

    10

    0

     

    Seneca’s Morals & a Homer

    4

    10

    0

     

    Sermons on various Subjects

    2

    10

    0

     

    Wollebius

    2

    10

    0

     
     

    £239

    15

    6

     

    Another Hebrew Grammar

    2

    5

    0

     

    Priz’d by Docter Kneeland

    241

    10

    6

    Old Tenor

    and

    Lawfull money

    32

    1

    4

    03

     
         

    4

     

    Attested to before Mr Trowbridge.

    The Loss sustain’d by John Tompson in ye Consumption of H. College, other Things being sav’d

    A Bedstead & Cord

    4

    12

    0

    A Looking Glass

    1

    5

    0

    ⅓ of a Barrel of Cyder

    0

    15

    0

     

    £6

    12

    6

    [Endorsed]

    Allow’d 26.10.

    Nichs Pike’s Accot,

    Ex84

    Here follows a List of Books and other Articles belonging to Curtice an Inhabitant of Harvard Hall which Articles were Burnt in said Hall.

    An English Bible 4s/ Vinsons Catechism 2/5

    0

    6

    5

    0

    Spiritual Warfare a new Book

    0

    4

    8

    0

    Quakerism display’d

    0

    1

    0

    0

    Oldfield’s Logick

    0

    6

    8

    0

    Ozels Logick

    0

    5

    4

    0

    Wats’s Astronomy

    0

    8

    8

    0

    Gordons Grammar 9/4 Otis on Prosodia 3/

    0

    12

    4

    0

    A Small Number of Pamplets

    0

    3

    0

    0

    Euclides Elements

    0

    8

    0

    0

    Lattin Dictionary

    0

    8

    0

     

    Tully 3/ Virgil 10/8 Lillies Grammar 1/4

    0

    15

    0

     

    Wolebius 3/ latin Testament 3/

    0

    6

    0

     

    Clarkes Introduction 4/8 Dugards Rhetorick 1/

    0

    5

    8

     

    Caesars Commentaries 10/8 Hedericus’es Lexicon 36/

    2

    14

    0

     

    Greek Testament 6/ Homers Iliads 24/

    1

    10

    0

     

    Greek Catechism 1/ Buxtorf Lexicon 13/4

    0

    14

    4

     

    Monies’s Grammar 2/ Sewalls Grammar 3/

    0

    5

    0

     

    Schiekards Grammar 3/ Hebrew Salter 6/

    0

    9

    0

     

    Two black Walnut Tables 16/ Lookg Glass 8/

    1

    4

    0

     

    Shovel & Tongs 4/

    0

    4

    0

     

    Bellows 4/8. Three Maps 6/

    0

    10

    8

     

    Tea Shelves 3/ Tea furniture 1/6

    0

    4

    6

     

    6 Chairs 30/ Chest 6/ 6 Bottles 2/ Cannester and Sugar Box with Sugar 2/8

    2

    0

    8

     

    Bookshelves & Flap 4/– An Old Hat 5/

    0

    9

    0

     

    A Square Hatt 10/8 a Coat 1–6–8

    1

    17

    4

     

    To four Locks 12/

    0

    12

    0

     

    A Hammar 1/

    0

    1

    0

     
     

    16

    17

    3

     

    The Above Apprisement is just in the Judgement of Us the Subscribers

    17

    6

    0

     

    Samuel Dean

    Christor Bridge Marsh

    Saml Curtice. Son of Phillip Curtice of Stoughton Clerk.

    [Endorsed]

    Saml Curtices Loss.

    Allowd 14. 15.

    Ex85

    The following is a List of the Things belonging to Ebenr and Sam. Barnard, yt were lost at ye Burning of Harvard College, 1764.

    [Endorsed]

    Ebenr & Saml Barnard’s

    Allowd 72 1086

    Acct Ex

    An Account of my Books, that were burnt in Harvard College.

    Names

    Price

     

    £

    S

    D

     

    Hebrew Psalter

    1

    0

    0

     

    Bible

    1

    5

    0

     

    Psalm Book

    1

    2

    6

     

    Greek Lexicon

    4

    0

    0

     

    Greek Testament

    1

    10

    0

     

    Greek Grammar

    0

    7

    0

     

    Homer

    0

    18

    0

     

    Latin Testament

    1

    0

    0

     

    Virgil

    3

    10

    0

     

    Rhetorick

    0

    9

    0

     

    Caesar’s Commentaries

    4

    0

    0

     

    Tully

    0

    15

    0

     

    Trap’s Translation of Virgil

    3

    0

    0

     

    Geography

    2

    0

    0

     

    Euclid

    2

    10

    0

     

    Logick

    1

    10

    0

     

    Logick

    0

    6

    0

     

    Accidence

    0

    6

    0

     

    Total

    £29

    08

    6

    old Tenor

    Furniture

    47

    05

    8

     
     

    £

    S

    D

     

    Sum Total

    76

    13

    11

    old Tenor per me John Barrows. Lawfull money 10 3 5¾

     

    £

    S

    D

     

    Book-Shelves

    1

    2

    6

    Allowd 8 16

    Jno Barrows Accts

    Ex

    Study-Lock

    0

    14

    0

    Chest

    6

    15

    0

    Shovel & Tongs

    2

    5

    0

    Andirons

    1

    10

    0

    Chairs

    6

    15

    0

    Table

    4

    10

    0

    Tea Kittle

    4

    10

    0

    Looking Glass

    1

    2

    6

    Tea pot

    1

    10

    0

    Coffee pot

    0

    10

    0

    Quarter of a Ticket87

    1

    13

    9

    Cups and Saucers

    0

    11

    3

    Carriage

    9

    0

    0

    Spoons

    0

    5

    0

    Candlestick

    0

    7

    6

    pot & butter

    0

    15

    0

    Bottle & Glass

    0

    5

    0

    Razor & Soap

    0

    9

    0

    Mug

    0

    5

    0

    Almanack

    0

    2

    11

    Spoon & plate

    0

    3

    0

    Knife & fork

    0

    7

    0

    bellows

    0

    19

    0

    Snuff-box

    0

    7

    6

    Snuffers

    0

    7

    6

    Shoe brush

    0

    3

    0

    72

    6

    9

    47

    05

    5

    42

    14

    9

    0

    3

    3

    29

    12

    4

    0

    3

    6

    72

    10

    0

    72

    6

    9

    42

    18

    388

    Lost by Fire in Harvard Hall — Jany 24 — 1764

    Dictionary

    0

    12

    0

    Lexicon

    0

    10

    8

    Trapps Virgil

    0

    18

    0

    Tully with Guthries Translation

    1

    12

    0

    Latin & Greek Testament

    0

    6

    0

    Latin & Greek Grammar

    0

    4

    0

    Hebrew Grammar

    0

    3

    0

    Exercise for making Latin

    0

    2

    6

    Eutropius

    0

    4

    0

    A Book by Mr Wigglesworth

    0

    3

    0

    Bible

    0

    6

    0

    Bed & bedding

    10

    6

    8

    Chest & Table

    0

    18

    0

    Two Jackets

    0

    8

    0

    Writing Instruments

    0

    6

    0

    Locks

    0

    2

    0

    Tea Dishes

    0

    2

    4

    Bowl

    0

    1

    6

    Curling Tongs

    0

    1

    8

    Half a Dozen Bottles

    0

    2

    4

    Total

    17

    9

    8

    Lawful Money

    By your Humble Servant

    Samuel Cheney

    Febry 6: 1764 Sworn to

    [Endorsed]

    Saml Cheneys Acct

    Father is Ebenr Cheney

    Ex-89

    Allow’d 15£

    Lost by Fire in Harvard Hall Jany 25 1764

     

    £

       

    Virgil

    0

    12

    0

    Tully

    0

    10

    8

    Lexicon

    0

    12

    0

    Guthries Translation 4 Vol

    1

    14

    8

    Greek & Latin Testaments

    0

    6

    0

    Greek & Latin Grammars

    0

    4

    8

    English Exercise

    0

    2

    6

    Nomen Clator

    0

    1

    6

    Accidence

    0

    1

    4

    Cordery

    0

    2

    0

    Bible

    0

    6

    0

    Chest

    0

    8

    0

    Bottles Inkhora & Ink

    0

    4

    0

    Pewter

    0

    3

    0

    Toasting Iron

    0

    2

    8

    In Money

    0

    12

    0

    Hebrew Grammar

    0

    3

    0

    Two Razors

    0

    2

    8

    Total

    6

    8

    8

    Lawful Money

    All of which Is humbly offer’d by your humble Servant

    Silvanus Ames

    Febry 6th 1764

    Sworn

    [Endorsed]

    Allow’d £7 5

    Ames Acct

    Father Thos Eames

    Sworn

    Ex

    Whereas the Exhibiting of my first Account being very Sudden, the following Articles were omitted by me: which I would Now Beg Leave to Offer

     

    £

    S

    D

    An English Dictionary

    0

    10

    8

    A Greek Catechism

    0

    00

    8

    A pair of gloves

    0

    02

    0

    Two pair of Shoes

    0

    08

    0

    A pair of Stockings

    0

    08

    0

    Two Earthern Pots

    0

    01

    2

    Total

    1

    10

    6

    Which are Humbly Offerred by 3’ouor Humble Servant

    Silvanus Ames

    Plymouth ss May 21 1764

    The said silvanus Ames made oath to the Truth of the aboue account Before me Daniel Johnson

    Just of Peace

    [Endorsed]

    Allowd £7. 5

    A Further account of

    Silvanus Ames90

    Things left in my Chamber and study at the vacation

    An English Bible with silver clasp & corners

    0

    10

    8

    Coles dictionary 12/. Hebrew Bethny 8/

    1

    00

    0

    Greek Lexicon 8/ Virgil in usum 8/

    0

    16

    0

    Greek Testamt 4/. lattin testamt 3/4

    0

    07

    4

    Greek Grammar 2/4, lattin Grammar 2/4

    0

    04

    8

    Tate and Brady’s psalms 2/8 Accedence /8

    0

    03

    4

    Rhetorick /9 two Greek Chatechisms 1/2

    0

    01

    11

    Clarks introduction 2/

    0

    2

    0

    A sagathee91 Coat 21/4. a Rug 21/4

    2

    02

    8

    3 Garlich92 shirts 18/. a Cloath Jacket 10/8

    1

    08

    8

    a Grogrum Jacket 6/. a pair of stockings 4/

    0

    10

    0

    a pair leather Breeches 3/4. a hat 10/4

    0

    13

    8

    6 Chairs 16/. a tea Kettle 11/4

    1

    07

    4

    Hand Irons 5/4. Shovel & Tongues 4/8

    0

    10

    0

    a pair of Bellows 3/4. a looking Glass 5/4

    0

    08

    08

    ten pictures six of them glass ones 16/

    0

    16

    0

    A door lock 6/8 a study lock 4/

    0

    10

    8

    Book shelves and flap 7/4

    0

    07

    4

    A Chest and lock 6/8 a knife and Fork 1/

    0

    07

    8

    A brass ink pot /11 a block tin tea pot 3/4

    0

    04

    3

    A puter plate 1/4. 2 glasses 1/4

    0

    02

    8

     

    £13

    05

    6

     

    12

    15

    6

    Nicholas Dudley

    Errors excepted

    Jno Dudley is his Guardian

    [Endorsed]

    Niehos Dudleys Acct

    Allowd. 11£93

    The account of what I Left in My Chamber & Study at Vacation

     

    £

    S

    D

    A Bible 3s/6d T: & B: Psalms 2/4

    0

    5

    10

    A Book Titled the Spiritual warfare

    0

    1

    0

    A Treatise of Guthrees

    0

    4

    0

    Virgil in usum 10/8 the Second Vol: of Traps Transl: 5/4

    0

    16

    0

    Greek Lexicon 9/4 Greek Catachism 1/

    0

    10

    4

    Greek Testament 4/ Latin Testament 2/8

    0

    6

    8

    Guthrees Translation of Tullys Orations 3 Vol:

    1

    4

    0

    Latin Grammar 1/8 — an Accidence 1/

    0

    2

    8

    Doct Watses Logick 7/6 Brattles Logic 1/6

    0

    9

    0

    An Hebrew Psalter 3/ two Hebrew Grams 4/4

    0

    7

    4

    A Feather Bed Bolster & two Pillows & under Tick

    5

    6

    8

    A Pair of Cotten Sheets

    1

    12

    0

    Coverlet

    0

    14

    8

    Two Bed Blankets

    0

    14

    4

    Two Pillow Cases

    0

    5

    0

    Bed Stead

    0

    8

    0

    Bed Cord

    0

    3

    0

    A Garment of wareing Apparrel

    0

    12

    0

    A Chest & Lock

    0

    10

    8

    A Pair of Worsted Hose

    0

    6

    0

    Half a Dozen of Glass Bottles

    0

    2

    0

    Half a Case of knives & fork

    0

    2

    6

    A Pewter Plate

    0

    1

    4

    A Lock to my Study Door

    0

    2

    0

    Sum Total

    15

    7

    0

    brought from backside

     

    15

    2

     

    16

    2

    2

    Moses Holt

    [Endorsed]

    Moses Holts Loss by

    Spatterdashes.

    3/

    The Burning ye College

    1 pr Book Shelves.

    2/6

    his Father is Jona Holt

    2 lb Candles.

    1/8

    of Andover

    1 lb sugr. Box.

    8/

    Ex

     

    15 294

    An Account of my Books, Apparel & Houshold-Furniture left in Harvard: Hall ye begining of ye Vacancy 1764. & Burnt with ye Sd Hall.

     

    £

    S

    D

     

    Hill’s greek Lexicon 12/ Greek Testament, 4/4

    0

    16

    4

     

    Two greek Grammars 4/ Greek Catechism 1/4

    0

    5

    4

     

    Hutchinson’s Xenophontis de Cyri &c

    0

    9

    4

     

    Virgil’s Works 12/ Coles Dictionary Lat & Eng 12/

    1

    4

    0

     

    Lock on human Unders. 12/ Tully’s Orations 4/4

    0

    16

    4

     

    Two Bibles (Eng.) 6/ Wollebius 4/4

    0

    10

    4

     

    Seven Quires of Paper 8/6. Heb. Psalter 5/4 Do. Grammar 2/

    0

    15

    10

     

    Gordon’s Gram. 6/. mariners Compass 2/8

    0

    8

    8

     

    Eight Maps 9/4. Horace 12/. 2d & 3d Vols Sherlock’s Serm 12/

    1

    13

    4

     

    Maul’s Sermon on moral Virtue, a Book against it & a Vindication of Sad Sermon

    0

    4

    0

     

    Clerks Introduction 3/. two latin Grammars 3/4

    0

    6

    4

     

    A Tea Kettle 20/. fire Shovel & Tongs 4/8

    1

    4

    8

     

    Table 5/4 Six Chairs 14/8

    1

    0

    0

     

    Bed-stead & Cord 9/. Looking Glass 6/

    0

    15

    0

     

    Chest 2/8 Trunk & two Locks 4/4 Sieve Buttons 1/4

    0

    8

    0

     

    Rasor 1/4 Slate /8 Knife & Fork 1/

    0

    3

    0

     

    Two Dozen Glass Bottles 8/ Cupboard 1/4

    0

    9

    4

     

    A Set of Tea Dishes 2/. Coffe Pot 1/4 Book Shelves 3/

    0

    6

    4

     

    Pair of Sizers /8 Tea Canester /8 Dozen of Pipes. – & writing flap 1/8

    0

    3

    0

     

    A Coat

    1

    6

    8

     

    two Pillars 6/8. a Wollen Blanket 6/8

    0

    13

    4

     

    two Shirts 12/. Jacket 6/9

    0

    18

    9

     

    a black Gound & Hat

    1

    16

    0

     

    Errors Exceptd

    £16

    14

    3

    L.M.95

    Shrewsbury feb. 17. 1764

    Silas Biglow

    £16:14:3

    [Endorsed]

    Allowd £15. 4 Silas Biglow

    Biggelow

    Ex96

    Acct of Books & Apparrell &ca belonging to, and in the possession of Ensign Man, and consum’d in the Chamber improv’d by him, & Timothy Langdon — Viz.

    a compleat Hebrew Bible, wth a Greek Testament at the End

    £ 1

    4

     

    Septuagint Translation of the Bible, compleat

    2

       

    Latin Bible 8vo. 8/2 Greek Testaments 10/. a Latin Testament 3/

    1

    1

     

    Virgil Delp. 12/. Ovid Metamorph. 12/. de Tristibus 6/8

    1

    10

    8

    Homers Ilias 12/. Homer’s Odyssey 5 Vol. by Pope 28/

    2

       

    a Quarto Bible with a Concordance & annotations Comn prayer &ca

    1

    12

     

    a Small Bible 4/. Reusneri heroica Symbola 6/

     

    10

     

    a Commentary on the Revelations Folo 20/ Galen’s Works 8/

    1

    8

     

    Aristotle’s Ethicks 8vo. 12/. Martin’s Philosophl Grammar 30/

    2

    2

     

    Hebrew Psalter & 3 Grammars by Robinson Monis & Sewall 8/

     

    8

     

    Select Dialogues of Lucian by Dugard

     

    5

     

    2 Wollebius Compend 12/. Berry Street Sermons 17/

    1

    9

     

    Flavel’s Method of Grace 4to

     

    6

     

    Justin’s History by Clerk 12/. Seneca’s Morals Englishd 8/

    1

       

    Erasmus’ Dialogues 8vo. 8/. Select Ditto by Clerk 3/

     

    11

     

    2 Clerks introduction to the Latin Tongue 10/ Baileys Exercise 3/

     

    13

     

    Milner’s Greek Grammar 10/8. Westminster Ditto 2/8

     

    13

    4

    Greek Catechism, Tully’s Epistles, Textor’s Do

     

    8

     

    Boyle’s Voyages 8vo. 12/. Italian Convert 3/

     

    15

     

    Pasor’s Lexicon in Nw Testm 6/. Book of Job in Greek heroic Verse 4/

     

    10

     

    Littlton’s Dictiony Eng. & Lat. 4to 18/. Coles Ditto 12/

    1

    10

     

    Castalio’s Dials & Select Fables of Æsop by Clerk

     

    4

     

    Lily’s Grammar, English Prosodia, & Pomfrett’s Poems

     

    8

     

    Various prospects of Mankind, Providence &ca 8vo

     

    9

     

    Ward’s Mathematicks 9/. Gravesand’s Mathl Elements 28/

    1

    17

     

    Horace Delp.’ 12/. Cicero Delp.’ 12/

    1

    4

     

    Travels of 14 Eng. Men to Jerum 6/. Drake’s Voyages 2/

     

    8

     

    Three clean paper Books, a Quire in Each

     

    6

     

    A parehmt cover’d Book 2/4. Tate & Brady’s Psalms 4/

     

    6

    4

    Dares’ Trojan War 4/. Guthrie’s Tryal of Int. in X 3/

     

    7

     

    King’s Heathen God’s, & Sylvanus’ Homer

     

    8

     

    Duke of Buckingham’s Works, & Doct Chauncey’s Dudleian Lectures

     

    8

     

    Carried over

    £28

    11

    4

    Brought over

    £28

    11

    4

    Mariners Compass new rectified 3/ Brattle & Burgers dics Logic 6/

     

    9

     

    Farnaby & Dugard’s Rhetorc 3/. Livy’s Roman History 2 Vol. 18/

    1

    1

     

    Origin of Human Soul 3/. Whole Duty of Man 4/

     

    7

     

    Kennett’s Roman Antiquities

     

    9

     

    Smith’s Theory of moral Sentiments

     

    12

     

    Freeholder 6/. Watts’ Strenght & weakness of humn Reason 4/

     

    10

     

    a Large Demy clean paper Book Cost

     

    6

    8

    a Red Morocco pocket Case

     

    8

     

    Candlesticks Snuffers & Chaffingdish

     

    6

     

    a Small Round Table & 1 Chair

     

    10

     

    3 pewter plates & 2 Wine Glasses

     

    6

     

    a Small Looking Glass 6/. a Book Case 6/

     

    12

     

    a Table Cloth, 3 Towells & a Good Hammer

     

    8

     

    An Exquisite Violin presented to me for its intrinsic Worth, with a Compleat Tutor for the Same

    1

    8

     

    Apparel.

         

    2 Shirts, 3 pr Hose, a black Gown & Hat, a plad and Calimanco Gown, a Coat, a Jacket, a pair Breeches, Shoes & night Cap

    10

       
     

    £46

    04

     

    Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from the original by Du Simitière in the possession of The Library Company of Philadelphia

    Boston Feby 16th 1764.

    Errors excepted

    pr Ensign Man97

    [12 February, 1765]

    A Petition of Richard and Samuel Draper, Pinters, shewing That in January 1764, they had in the Hands of Mr. Andrew Eliot, Butler of Harvard-College, a number of Books particularly mentioned, which were consumed by Fire, for which they pray an Allowance of eleven Pounds fourteen Shillings, for the Reasons mentioned.

    Petition of Richard and Samuel Draper.

    Read and committed to Col. Nichols, Mr. Whitney, and Col. Ward, to consider and report.98

    On behalf of Mr. George L. Kittredge, Mr. Charles S. Rackemann read the following note:

    Our associate, Mr. Albert Matthews, in his important paper on Sir Matthew and Lady Holworthy, remarks:

    It would be pleasant to know how Sir Matthew Holworthy became interested in the small, far-away college in New England, and what influences led him to bequeath so large a sum, but the facts are beyond recovery.99

    He conjectures that Sir Matthew was influenced by Henry Henley, probably a relative of his third wife.

    It is worth noting that Lady Holworthy (probably this same third wife) was interested in the dissenting clergy. This appears from a passage in the Papers of Thomas Woodcock, a Puritan minister, who was ejected from the living of St. Andrew Undershaft, London, in 1662, and died in 1695. The passage is as follows:

    Of persecutors. — The Mayer of Taunton by a new charter was to goe in scarlet, he said jestingly, as threatned to Dye his gown by persecuteing the Dissenters. On the first Lords Day he was at church, a great Rat came and sate on his shoulder, which amazed him: and after another day, came and sate on the Desk before him.

    Justice Parr of Exceter came to Mr Atkins house to cary him prisoner to the Gaol, they not opening the door he broke it: Mr Atkins was sick of the Gout in bed, not able to rise, but he forced him when he could neither go nor stand, caused him to be caryed in a chair to Jail. A friend laid down the fine required: so he was left to be caryed home. This Justice not long after fell ill of the Gout (as Naamans leprosy clave to Gehazi) but he got ease, would rise and put on his clothes, said he was well: but as he put on his stockins, fell down and dyed.

    These 2 storys are writ from credible hands to my Lady Holworthy.100

    Woodcock, it may be added, shows his own interest in New England by telling two stories about Thomas Shepard (one referring to a storm which endangered the ship in which he was sailing to this country) and a brief anecdote of “Laud’s speech of men going to New England.”101

    Mr. Albert Matthews spoke as follows:

    It is possible to add a few bits of information in regard to the extracts just quoted by Mr. Kittredge. The town of Taunton received from Charles I a grant of incorporation on March 20, 1626–27,102 and the first mayor to be elected under the charter was Andrew Henley.103 This Andrew Henley was the grandfather of Mary Henley, the first wife of Sir Matthew Holworthy, and the great-uncle of Susanna Henley, Sir Matthew’s third wife. For the double reason, therefore, that both branches of the Henley family were from Somerset and that a Henley was the first mayor of Taunton, anything relating to the history of that place would be of interest to Lady Holworthy and would naturally be communicated to her. But it is possible to go a step farther and show that the Lady Holworthy to whom the above stories were written was, as Mr. Kittredge conjectures, Sir Matthew’s third wife. It could not have been his first wife, for she died in 1658, or seven years before he was knighted, and so would not have been alluded to as “Lady” Holworthy. It could not have been his second wife, for she was not a Henley, and, moreover, she died before 1669, and the episode of the rat did not occur until 1677. Speaking of the granting of the charter in 1627, the Rev. Joshua Toulmin says:

    This instance of royal favour was not, however, sufficient to attach them to the interests of the king in the civil wars. But, in this town a spirited stand was made against the unconstitutional measures of Charles I. and the cause of the parliament found here firm adherents and a most important support. This conduct drew on it, afterwards, the resentment, and awakened the jealousy of Charles II. who demolished its walls and took away its charter, by a quo warranto, in 1660. . . . It continued without its charter for seventeen years, when the same king, at the suit and intercession of Dr. Peter Mew, then bishop of Bath and Wells granted it a new charter.104

    Now “the Mayor of Taunton by a new charter,” according to the story, “was to goe in scarlet.”105 Hence the episode could not have occurred before 1677, and I think we may safely assume that its hero was the first mayor under the new charter — namely, Roger Gale.106

    The Rev. Robert Atkins was twice ejected from Exeter, once in 1660 from East Peter’s, and again in 1662 from St. John’s. His harsh treatment by Justice Parr may have occurred at any time between 1660 and his death in 1685, but the precise date cannot be determined. For many years after the Restoration Exeter was the scene of violent measures against the Nonconformists. On May 27, 1676, Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State, wrote to Thomas Walker, Member of Parliament for Exeter, as follows:

    His Majesty having received an account from Sir James Smith, your fellow member, on his arrival here of the great care of the magistrates and justices of Exeter for effectually putting in execution the laws against Nonconformists, and that there had been spread abroad a malicious report, as if such their proceedings were disliked by him, at least that they were not altogether according to his mind in that matter, I am commanded by him to assure you of the contrary, and that he takes very kindly from them their care and diligence in that particular, and desires they will not only continue it, but that they do by all means endeavour to find out who they are that spread those false and malicious reports of his mind in this point, that they may be proceeded against with fitting severity.107

    Freeman states that “besides ministers who lost their livings by. the Act of Uniformity, there were in 1683 thirty-eight men and four women in Exeter gaol . . . on charges of non-conformity.”108 Calamy refers to the story about Mr. Atkins sent to Lady Holworthy, though he does not assign a precise date.109 It is related of Mr. Atkins that “he was hindered in his administration of the Sacrament of Baptism by Mrs. Payne, of Weymouth, who stood on the bench, and shouted, ‘Woe! woe! woe! which brother?’”110

    Mr. Kittredge’s extracts have caused me to make a fresh assault on the perplexing genealogy of the Henley family, with the gratifying result that I have succeeded (as I think) in identifying the Henry Henley who in 1669 gave £27 to Harvard College. That benefactor is described as “of Lime in Dorsetshire.” In “An Account of the Charities of Lyme Regis, as tendered to the Commissioners, May 5th, 1834,” are these two items among others:

    Sir Matthew Holworthy, by will,111 dated 9th May, 1677, gave £100 in money, the interest to be paid to the poor; vested in the churchwardens and overseers.

    Henry Henley of Leigh, by will, dated 13th August, 1695, gave in money £40. The interest to be mainly employed in the schooling and maintenance of young children, and binding them out to handicraft trades; and maintenance and support of ancient people past their labour.112

    Why should Sir Matthew Holworthy, whose family came from Gloucestershire, have been particularly interested in Lyme Regis? And why should Henry Henley of Leigh, who belonged to a Somerset family, also have taken a similar interest? When preparing my previous paper, I noted that Henry Henley of Leigh had a son, also named Henry, who was described as “of Colway.” This Henry Henley of Colway was a son of Henry Henley of Leigh by the latter’s first wife Susan Morridge,113 and so was an own brother of Susanna Henley, the third wife of Sir Matthew Holworthy. If, now, a reason can be given why Henry Henley of Colway took a deep interest in Lyme Regis, our curiosity in regard to the similar interest displayed by Henry Henley of Leigh and by Sir Matthew Holworthy is at once satisfied. That reason is found in the fact that Colway was, as Hutchins wrote in 1774, “anciently a manor, now a farm, about half a mile N. W. from Lyme,”114 and so was practically part of the latter; and the Henley family was a noted one in Lyme Regis for many years — perhaps is so still.115 I think, therefore, that we need not hesitate in identifying the Harvard benefactor with the brother of the third Lady Holworthy. As Henry Henley’s gift of £27 was acknowledged in June, 1669, or only a few months after the marriage of Sir Matthew Holworthy to the benefactor’s sister, and as Sir Matthew’s wife, as now appears from Mr. Kittredge’s extracts, was interested in the dissenting clergy, we have a reasonable explanation of the influences which led Sir Matthew to make his large bequest to the New England college.

    Mr. Charles K. Bolton communicated a sketch of Edward Breck, of Dorchester, prepared by Dr. Edward Breck of Boston, and a letter about the Quakers written by Edward Breck at Dorchester on 17 August, 1655, and published the next year in London. These follow.

    Edward Breck, the author of the vigorous letter printed below, was an excellent specimen of the sturdy type of Briton that settled New England. The name which, in different variations, means “ruddy” in the several Gaelic tongues, points distinctly to a Celtic origin, but whether Scottish, Irish, or Welsh is unknown. A vague family tradition derives the stock from the highland Stewarts of Appin; but it is significant that the country about Liverpool and Chester, where the name of Breck was common, lies not far distant from the marches of Wales. As early as 1323 Robert del Brek and his son Thomas (Robert is a persistent family name) are mentioned in the roll of inhabitants of West Derby, Lancashire, and in 1325 Thomas is put down as Thomas del Breck at Liverpool, a part of which West Derby now forms. In and about Liverpool the name still persists, there being a Breck Road, Breck House, Breck Side Park, and Walton Breck Road to this day, though no Brecks now reside in England.

    Edward Breck (or Brecke, as the name was generally spelled in the earliest days) who came to Dorchester with the company of the Rev. Richard Mather in 1635, is usually called yeoman, though of ancient lineage, and possessing kinsmen mentioned in the heralds’ visitations (e. g. Chester) as gentlemen. He was the son of Robert and the grandson of Hugh or Thomas, probably the former, who died at Rainforth (now Rainford), part of the parish of Prescot, Lancashire, in 1591. Edward, who was born in or near the year 1600, was probably left by his father in good circumstances, for he was a landholder and “man of distinction” before he left Rainforth for New England, and he brought with him to Dorchester a man-servant, as appears from the letter written him about the year 1646 by his old pastor, the Rev. James Wood, from Ashton, near Rainforth: “I pray you commend me dearly to your sonn Robert, & to your man John Birchall, that went over with you frō our towen.”116 Edward began at once to take an important part in the public life of the Dorchester settlement, and served the town in various capacities, including repeated terms as selectman, while his eldest son, Robert, moved to Boston and became a prominent merchant. The latter bought many tracts along the water-front, the deeds of which are recorded, and also received in 1655 from his father, Edward, a house and garden in Boston, recovered by law-suit. Robert left no descendants, and in all probability left the country soon afterwards for Galway in Ireland.117 One of Edward’s daughters, Elizabeth, married John Minot, from whom the American family of that name is descended. Edward’s eldest son (after the departure of Robert) was John, who held the rank of Captain in the colonial forces, and whose grave-stone, in perfect condition, still stands in the old grave-yard at Upham’s Corner, next that of his son, Ensign Edward. John, from whom all the Brecks of this branch are descended, was the son of Edward’s second wife, Isabell, who was the widow of John Rigby. The loss of Edward’s first wife, as well as of a son and a daughter, is referred to in the letter of the Rev. James Wood as follows: “but me thinkes my thoughts returne this Apollogie for my old frend, he is in sorrowe for his dear wife, for his sweet daughter, both which I hear God hath of late taken vnto himselfe. So hopefull a sonne here, so gracious & sweet a wife & daughter there, cannot but lye closse to a tender father & loueing husband’s hart.” Edward Breck died in the year 1662, leaving an estate, the value of which ran into hundreds of pounds sterling, a large sum for his day, while his son, Captain John, died in 1690, worth over £1350. From John descend the families of Breck, Minot, Parkman, Blake, Tuckerman, Denny, Shaw, Sturgis, and others prominent in the Colony.

    It is significant of the degree of refinement obtaining among even the earliest pioneers of New England, that in the inventory of Edward Breck’s estate occurs the mention of a bath-tub; while the general culture of the period and place is proved by the large number of well written letters still extant.

    Among the latter none is more interesting than that printed below from the copy of the quarto pamphlet in the British Museum, London.118 It forms but one-fifth of the pamphlet, the remainder being made up of the answer of the Quakers to Mr. Breck’s accusations. It may be pointed out that Breck could not have known anything about the Quakers except through hearsay, since the first persons of that sect to tread New England soil were the women, Anne Austin and Mary Fisher, who arrived in 1656, a year after Breck’s letter to his old friends at Rainforth was written. Since there can be no doubt that the colonists were well informed upon all such subjects as those of witchcraft and Quakerism, which they were sure to confound, it may be imagined into what a hostile atmosphere these two wretched women were plunged. Thrust into prison at once, they were then stripped and examined, and soon afterwards shipped off to Barbados. Mr. James Bowden119 opines that it was a happy thing for Austin and Fisher that no abnormal feature, such as a mole, was found on their bodies; but the letter of Edward Breck shows us that it was not natural, physical features that were sought, but rather something in the nature of the “silk thred” that was found on the woman of Bristol, the story of which was no doubt as familiar to the majority of Massachusetts citizens as to Mr. Breck. As Edward Breck died in 1662, he saw only the beginnings of the persecution of both the Quakers and the alleged witches, which in a few years reached such a tragic climax.120

    Edward Breck to the Church of CHRIST at RAINFORTH.

    DEerly beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, I have sundry times had a mind to salute you in the Lord, but partly my own rudeness, and partly other obstacles in the way, I have not yet communicated any thing to you, as to the Church of Christ since my departing; but because God hath removed me so far distant, by reason whereof I am never like to see your faces, and age and weakness coming upon me, putting me in minde of my end; that I might do something at last whereby to testifie my love & dear respects to you, and that in all this length of time of absence, you might perceive that I have not wholly forgotten you, but with many secret desires breathed after your eternal welfares; I have therefore for your sakes, pressed myself to break through many difficulties, presuming upon your kind acceptance, notwithstanding you finde in me much weakness in expression, matter, argument, &c. But not to trouble you with a long Preface, where my work is small, little I have to say, and slenderly I shal deliver it, unless God make known his power through weaknes; that which I have to say is a friendly exhortation to continue in the grace and faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and not to be carried away with every wind of Doctrine, whereby you should be spoiled of your faith and hope [ii]121 which you have in the Lord Jesus Christ: Oh Beloved! Remember the dayes of old, and the yeers of ancient times, when after the Marian-times that Religion began to spring God honoured Rainforth with many godly pillars, men famous in their days, for faith and holiness, and the profession of true Religion, when the Country was overwhelmed, or greatly clouded with Religion, or Superstition, yet these men (whose names are not yet worn out of memory) cleave fast to the truth; the face of opposing, jeering, scorning and reproaching enemies, their reproaches did not dant the spirits of these men, but they patiently bare it with joy, and prest on forward in the waies of Truth of the Gospel, for the price and high calling of God in Iesus Christ: The next Generation I was a little better acquainted with, whose names are fresher in your memories, divers godly people God raised up to do him some Service, and to profess and defend his Truth, & maintain his Ministery, which was a great thing they laboured after; these men gave not their mindes with Balaam, to look out for visions, to curse Gods People, nor to rail on Magistracy, nor Ministry, but humbly and in the feare of the Lord, submitted themselves to Jesus Christ in the use of his owne Institutions, so farre as he gave them liberty and ability thereunto.

    And now, what the present Generation is since I left the Countrey, I do not so well know, many of the old flock being dead and removed; [iii] yet (I hope) there is some breathings of Spiritual life amongst you, and men holding forth the faith, and profession of faith and true Religion in sincerity, notwithstanding what may be otherwise found among you: My Exhortation therefore is, To hold forth this Faith, and continue faithfull therein untill Death, never leave it, forsake it not lest God forsake you, and cast you off for ever; but Truth is Beloved, and that which is my griefe, that I have been informed, and dare not but believe it, that there are men among you who are departed from the faith and purity of the Gospel to depend up Jesuiticall and Satannical delusions, I mean such as go under the name of QUAKERS, who depend not upon the Scriptures, for Light, but on what they receive from a Spirit which casteth them into a Trance, what these Trances are, let men of understanding judge, for I am weak, onely tell you what I think, they are either from the good Spirit of GOD, as hee spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets in Visions, &c. or from the DEVILL; if they bee from the good Spirit of GOD, then they are like to that Spirit which spake by the PROPHETS, they accord with all the writings of the Prophets, and most of all with all the doctrins and sayings of Jesus Christ, his Ordinances and Institutions. Secondly, they bring a man that receive them, into a humble, low, and meane esteeme of HIMSELFE, [iv] so that he will be ready to fall down with the Prophet, Esay 6. 5. and to cry, Wo is me, I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among men of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King of the Lord of Hosts; his neer approach to God laid him low, but for brevities sake, I give you no more Arguments, but let the spirits of these Quakers be tried a little by these briefly, Doth that spirit which casts you into your trances make you like the old Prophets? Doth it accord with the Law, and Testimony? with Moses and the Prophets? with the Writings of the holy Apostles, and the Doctrines of Christ, his Orders and Institution? then something might be favourably spoken in defence and excuse thereof; but if on the contrary, the spirit which bringeth you into your Trances, when your bones quake, and you think you hear the voice of God, if the revelations and visions of this spirit speak contrary to the Prophets and Apostles, yea sometimes contradict and blaspheme, yea and sometimes amongst yourselves be contrary to your owne visions; yea, if this spirit when you speak, teach you to speak non-sense, idle, rediculous and foolish things, bee said false doctrine, and contradictions, if it provoke you to speak blasphemously against the Lord Jesus Christ, crying downe his Institutions, as Magistracy, Ministry, Sacraments, Sabboths, &c. let me ask you, Did that spirit ever proceed from the Father and the Son, that breathed out Blasphemies in his face? Judge [v] in your selves. You think it no blasphemy, but I pray consider it, Christ held forth in his Ordinances he breatheth in them, and walketh in the middest of the Golden Candlesticks, conveying his heavenly Grace through them as through so many golden pipes: Now to have Magistracy, and Ministery, Sacraments, &c. spoken against, trodden underfoot, and held in contempt, and esteemed as very sleight and slender things, and those that cleave to the Scriptures and Ordinances to be accounted as Antichristian, Carnall, &c. I pray you whom doth this strike? on whom doth it light, if not on Christ the Author? and it not then Blasphemy? what do you call it? You may try a little what spirit it is that lets you into your trances by the effects, if your spirit make you more sensible of Originall sin, more sensible of your own vileness, more humble you, and cast you down in the sight of God, and lay you low, so that you can cry out with Job, Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? and with Isaiah cry out, Woe is mee, I am undone, Isa. 6. 5. then it were considerable; but if on the contrary, it makes the heart swell, and to cry, Stand apart, I am more holy then thou; and all that come not up to your attainments are of small value, little worth, just as the Pharisees, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: If I say it be thus, then judge you [vi] what spirit it is, I dare be hold to affirm, it is the Spirit of Satan, and not of God; you may think this hastily, and suddenly conclude; and I confess, I have not waded very deep into this matter, yet what is not from God I can easily conclude it is from the Devil, or man corruption, which is no better, I know no medium, unless it be the Jesuits, who no doubt have had a large hand this way by their sorceries to deceive the people, and have been known in London to quake and speak in the Congregations; these men (it is little doubt) might make a covenant with the Devil, & in the finest way of witchcraft & sorceries convene it over unto others; by an implicite covenant seduce men, thinking no such thing, but rather as though God had more abundantly declared his love to them more then to any people in the world, whenas indeed the matter is nothing els but Satan transformed into an Angel of light; for this purpose let me make bold to report unto you this story which is credibly reported to have been in or about Bristol, There was a mans wife desired to go to one of the Quakers meetings, her husband was unwilling, but after importunity he gave her leave, but she was so wrought upon in that meeting, that when she came home againe shee was filled with REVELATIONS, and spoke as though shee had spoke with the Tongue of ANGELS, to admiration farre above her selfe, her HVSBAND told her, she was bewitched, [vii] she was far enough from believing that, but he could not satisfie himselfe, but would search her body, to see what tokens he could find, & about her arm he found a silk thred; he inquired, how that came there; she seriously confessed, she knew nothing of it; well, saith he, this shall not remain here; then they took it away, and then she returned to be the same woman that shee was before she went to the Quakers Meeting: If this be a true Story, as I credibly believe, tell me, if there were witchcraft used in this Quakers meeting, yea, or nay?122

    Oh Beloved I you may well think the Devil hath a finer way of witchcraft now, then ever he had since the world began; no doubt yee can very well paint men to come to the Lords Table, and to preach Christ, for he hath sometime been a Preacher of Christ himself, you know, for no good will to Christ, you may be sure; but who are they that are most apart to be taken? Are they men who of old hath been most neer to God, and walked before God, as your father Abraham did, and lived the life of faith and holiness, and injoyed many sweet, and pleasant Soliloquies, peace and joy in believing, and many unspeakable consolations? I am apt to think few of these men are taken, if any at all; but rather, fickle minded men, unconstant, and unstable in their ways, such as perhaps, do change their God and Religion divers times, or proud persons, such as affect singularity to be alone, & think it a brave thing to be taken up with Rapters above other [viii] men, who but they in the world! & in the mean time, who more proud, more fickle, and unconstant, more wrathful & passionate, more railing & blaspheming? can you think the Spirit of God doth close better with, those men then any other? Truly no: And what can you imagine wil be the issue, after a curse driven this way? a certain time truly it is probable their works wilbe made manifest, & the tree wil be known by its fruit, if it be not already a little; I have learned what befel Grinton,123 a people come up to Trances and Revelations, fel at last to Popery and prophaneness, as I have been informed, and Popery I think is the main thing the Devil drives at now, rather I think, because the Jesuits hath been the chief fomenters of this Quaking Religion, and how do you finde it for the present in these people? do you often see them upon their knees? bewailing their sin? fill’d with godly sorrow & repenting-hearts? a thing God much delights in; with hearts weary and heavy laden, such as Christ calls to come unto him? do you finde them frequent in Familie-Duties, Catechizing, praying, &c. if you do, I shall be glad to hear it, and how it is I will not censure; but if you find it otherwise, then consider what fruit it is. Oh beloved! what shall I say? my hearts desire is, that you may be establish’t in the faith of Gods elect, and that those that are already deluded may be reclaimed, and that all men may prevent the danger; if what I have said be but slender, as well it may be, that which I shall say can be but of [ix] like nature: Yet if I may not weary you too much, I would propose some Quaeries to these men, and present the matter to consideration in another view. 1 Qu. By whom do you hope to be saved? My charity bids me make your answer, By Jesus Christ the Son of God, who also in time became man, and made satisfaction-to divine justice for the sin of his people, &c. I hope you will accept my Answer. 2 Qu. How came you to know there was ever such a man in the world? Here also I will presume to answer for you, By the Prophets which went before him, and by the witness of his holy Apostles, and Evangelists, who have left the Story in their holy record of the new Testament. I trust you will not deny this neither. 3 Qu. If Christ be the Saviour, and that the light and knowledg of him do spring from holy Scriptures, I ask, whether the Scriptures be any rule of Faith and Life in these days? Or are they abrogated, and put an end to by Christ, and hath he appointed another way for bringing his Elect to eternal life and salvation? This Question I must leave you to answer your selves, onely for my part, I know no other way whereby to come to Christ my Saviour, then the holy Scriptures, which he hath commanded me to search, and which hee promised eternal fife, Iohn 5. and whereof he curseth all men that addeth to them, or detracteth from them, Revelations 21. What you have to say to these things I know not, but these things I know; and this I know, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus execrable, and what they do less that [x] vilifie and slight his Word and Ordinances, and upon a Spirit which crosseth and contradicteth Christ, and his Word and Ordinances; but I weary you too much, I shall leave this Quaking Religion to its tottering, untill it fall to its utter Ruin, which will be in Gods due time accomplish’t, onely one word more, my Dearly Beloved, as I earnestly desire you to take heed of this Quaking Religion, so also of all other Sects and Schismes, Errors, and Heresies, whatsoever, and to settle your selves in the Faith and holy Order of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to worship and serve him according to his appointment, but what that is I determine not, but whether Presbyterian or Independant, as many use terms which are better forborn, as God shall guide your Judgements, so walk in holiness of life, and beware of corrupt conversation; I have heard of too much that way, sundry, if not many, given up to lasciviousness, Covetousness, Drunkenness, Drinkings, Tiplings dayly, to the wasting of their Estates, and Ruine of their own souls: Take heed, take heed, O beloved take heed; I shall not need I hope to oppress you with many words, you have the LAW of GOD ingraven upon hearts, which convinceth your Consciences here, and will Judge you at the last Day, if Repentance prevent not; But I shall say no more, but commend you to God and to the WORD of his GRACE, which is able [xi] to build you up further, and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, and alway: Amen.

    Dorchester, in

    New-England,

    Aug. 17.

    1655.

    Your old Friend, and

    Brother in the Lord

    Iesus,

    Edward Breck.

    Mr. Matthews made the following remarks:

    To Miss Pauline Willis124 I am indebted for copies of four letters written by members of the Washington family of which the originals are in her possession, and for the introductory note which follows.

    In his last visit to New England, in 1789, Washington spent the night of November 4th at Haverhill and the next day went to Andover, where he was entertained at the house of Judge Samuel Phillips. An interesting account of this visit was given in 1856 by the Rev. John L. Taylor,125 and under date of November 5th, 1789, Washington himself wrote:

    About sunrise I set out, crossing the Merrimack River at the town, over to the township of Bradford, and in nine miles came to Abbot’s tavern,126 in Andover, where we breakfasted, and met with much attention from Mr. Phillips, President of the Senate of Massachusetts, who accompanied us through Bellariki127 to Lexington, where I dined, and viewed the spot on which the first blood was spilt in the dispute with Great Britain, on the 19th of April, 1775. Here I parted with Mr. Phillips, and proceeded on to Watertown, intending . . . to take what is called the middle road from Boston. The country from Haverhill to Andover is good, and well cultivated. In and about the latter (which stands high) it is beautiful. A mile or two from it you descend into a pine level, pretty sandy, and mixed with swamps, through which you ride several miles, till you begin to ascend the heights on which the town of Bellarika stands, which is also pleasantly situated 10 miles from Andover.128

    As a result of this visit, Colonel William Augustine Washington, a nephew of the General’s, was induced to send his two sons, Augustine and Bushrod, to the Andover Academy, where they lived in the family of the Rev. Jonathan French. This school for boys having been founded by Judge Phillips with financial assistance from his father Samuel Phillips of North Andover, and his uncle John Phillips of Exeter, it was but natural that he should take an interest in all the scholars, and particularly in these great-nephews of our first President.

    Three of the following letters were addressed to Judge Phillips by members of the Washington family regarding the two young men, the fourth is a letter from their father William A. Washington to his uncle, which the latter speaks of and encloses with his own; it was never returned to him. The first was published by Mr. Taylor,129 the others have not been printed before, so far as is known.

    It may be well to preface the letters by explaining the relationship of the writers to General Washington. Colonel William Augustine Washington, born in 1757 at Wakefield, Bridge’s Creek, Virginia, was the son of Washington’s half-brother Augustine, who married Anne Aylett. In 1780 Colonel Washington married his first cousin, Jane, a daughter of Washington’s own brother, John Augustine of Bushfield, whose wife was Hannah Bushrod. It was the last who wrote one of these letters, in which she speaks of her grandsons as the children of “a darling daughter of mine.” Of the two sons of Colonel Washington who were at Andover Academy, the elder, Augustine, was born in 1778 at Haywood, Virginia, and died at the age of twenty. Bushrod was born in 1785 also at Haywood, died in 1830, and is buried in the vault at Mount Vernon. He married his second cousin, Henrietta Spotswood, a daughter of General Alexander Spotswood and his wife Elizabeth Washington, who was a sister of Colonel William A. Washington.

    I

    Mount Vernon. 28th. Sep. 1796.

    Sir,

    The enclosed letter, from my nephew to me, accompanying one from him to you, (which have been to Philadelphia & back), must be my apology for giving you the trouble of reading this address. I shall only add, that if there are any arrearages yet due to you, & you will let me know the amount, it shall be remitted from Philadelphia; at which place I expect to be by the first of November.

    I am sir

    Your Most Obedt Hble Servt

    Go Washington.

    The Honble Saml Phillips Esqr

    II

    Haywood. Sep. 12th. 1796.

    My Dr Unkle,

    Wishing to make a remittance to Judge Phillips for the use of my sons, I dispatched my Steward with the inclosed letters to Fredericksbg with 150 Dollars Alexandria Bank Notes, desiring him to exchange them for Bank Notes of the United States, which he was not able to accomplish in the towns of Port Royal, Fredericksbg, Falmouth or Dumfries, he brought back my letter & money. As you were so obliging as to say you would make remittances for me, “the means being put into your hands;” I have taken the liberty of inclosing you, with the inclosed letters, 150 Dollars Notes of the Bank of Alexandria, & shall esteem it a particular favr if you will exchange them for United States, or a Bill on Boston, & remit it with the inclosed letter to Judge Phillips. I have in my letter to Judge Phillips taken the liberty of mentioning that the remittance would now be made thro’ you, mentioning at the same time my disappointment. I do not know whether he is advance or not for me, having made a remittance of 200 Dollars this Spring — & when I left Boston I had paid up in advance for their schooling & Board, & left some money with Judge Phillips for their necessary supplys, but I would allways wish to keep money in his hands, so that he should never be in advance for me.

    Our relation Mrs Mildred Lee, is no more, I have just recd a letter from Mr Corbin Washington130 informing me that she expired the 8th Inst.

    It gives me much pleasure to hear that you & Mrs Washington enjoy good health, which may you long continue to do is the fervent prayer of my Dr Sir

    Your Affectionate Nephew

    WM AugT Washington.

    III

    Bushfield. May 22nd. 1797.

    My Dr Sir,

    It is a long time since I have had the pleasure of a letter from you; a few lines now & then informing me of the progress of my sons, would confer a singular obligation on me, I have proof of your candor wh. I assure you my Dr Sir I consider as the surest token of Friendship & esteem. The affectionate manner in which my son, in all his letters mentions you, seems as if you were considered by him more as a parent than a common Friend. You have certainly Sir placed me under obligations to you that I fear I can never repay — accept the acknowledgments of a grateful heart, whilst you have thus confered obligations on me, to ask for farthur favors would be ingratitude, I shall therefore only inclose you my son Augustines last letter to me, & unless it should be perfectly convenient to you to comply with his request, I would not wish you to put yourself to the smallest inconvenience; If it should be otherwise; I can only say that I should be rendered extremely happy. In my last letter to my son I mentioned to him a remittance which I expected would have been made about that time, a disappointment took place which I was not apprised of till last month; The difficulty of procuring Bills on Boston or United States Bank Notes, in the part of the Country I live induces me to give this letter open to my Friend Genl Lee, who is on his way to Alexandria & will procure one or the other & inclose in this letter to you, I hope it will speedily get to your hand with 300 Dollars — & that I shall never in future be so backward.

    I have met with severe affliction since I had the pleasure of seeing you; the loss of a beloved wife,131 myself a cripple almost with the gout, which has confined me the whole Winter to my Bed & Room; & now my Dr Sir I am beholding the dayly decline of a beloved Daughter; cast off in the Bloom of youth by an incurable pulmonary complaint, she is now so far gone that we expect her dissolution dayly.

    With the sincerest Respect & Esteem

    I am Dr Sir Your Most Ob Sert

    WM AugT Washington.132

    IV

    Bushfield Virginia October 5. 1795.

    Sir,

    Although I have not the pleasure of your acquaintance, give me leave to address you as one under whose prudent care Col. Washington has placed his sons Augustine, & Bushrod. I am Sir grandmother to these dear children & from the account given me by their Father of their situation I am perfectly satisfied. Col. Washington who is an affectionate & attentive parent read you letter with much pleasure & approbation, he also favored me with a perusal of it. Augustine possesses a great fund of sedateness & goodness of heart — his Brother is of a very sprightly disposition, or as it is generally termed wild, yet very innocently so, their young minds are both humane & accommodating, & I trust will conduct themselves in such a manner as to obtain the regard of those who may have the care & instructing of them — at our parting I gave them my promise of a correspondence, when ever it shall be convenient for them to write to me, it will give me extreme happiness — their dear departed mother was a darling daughter of mine — their loss in her has rendered them doubly dear to me — I think I was told that your lady had been much indisposed — before this I hope she has recovered her health — with compliments to Mrs Phillips.133 I am very respectfully — Sir

    Your most ob’ Humbl Servt

    Hannah Washington.134

    The Chairman, himself a graduate of Andover Academy, spoke of the interest taken in the Washington youths at Andover, and said that it was hoped to procure copies of portraits of them to be placed in the Academy.

    Mr. Julius H. Tuttle read the following paper:

    What the Bay Colony might have gained if Dr. William Ames had lived to enter into the work of the founders here must be left to conjecture. It was his design to come over to help the struggling settlements; but before his plans could be carried out he died in 1633 at Rotterdam,135 where he had entered into the ministry only a short time before. There and at the University of Franeker he had as colleague the Rev. Hugh Peter, and at the latter place as pupil, Nathaniel Eaton, whose united interest in his family probably led later to an important service to Harvard College in its earliest years.

    Of Dr. Ames, Cotton Mather said that he had “a scholastical wit . . . joined with an heart warm in religion,”136 and called him “that Phœnix of his age;”137 but he sheds no light upon his material possessions, especially the value and extent of his library. Hugh Peter settled in Salem in 1635, where he soon became the minister of its church. The next year, October 28, 1636, the General Court records its gratuity “towards a schoale or colledge” of £400, “the next Court to appoint wheare & wt building.”138

    In the early summer of 1637 the Mary Ann brought over Joan (Fletcher), the widow of Dr. Ames, and her three children; and we have Mather’s statement that Dr. Ames’s library was “translated hither” with them.139 Mrs. Ames settled also in Salem, and here the friendly interest of Mr. Peter appears. Felt in a sketch of his life says:

    Peters is elected an Overseer of the College. At the same session, he enjoyed the high satisfaction of knowing, that the Legislature granted to Joan Ames, the worthy relict of his colleague in Rotterdam, Dr. Ames, £40. Thus generously dealing, they mention her deceased husband, as “of famous memory.” She, having come over with her children and his valuable library, had been granted land at Salem, and received as a member of the church there. Such beneficence was most probably manifested through the kind regard and exertion of Peters, who was a sincere friend of Ames and his family.140

    Nathaniel Eaton, the other friend, as well as pupil, of Dr. Ames, at Franeker, came to New England also in 1637, and was chosen “Professor” of the “School or Colledge” at Newtown,141 and on November 20, only five days later than the gratuity to Mrs. Ames,142 it is recorded that “Mr Eaton is left out of this rate, leaveing it to his discretion what hee will freely give towards these charges.”143 His service to the College was recognized also by the General Court on June 6, 1639, when five hundred acres of land were granted to him, “if hee continew his imployment wth vs for his life, to bee to him & his heires.”144

    Mr. Eaton attended to the instruction of the first students of the College, the management of the donations, and the superintendence of the first college building till 1639, when the unfortunate difficulty with Nathaniel Briscoe brought his usefulness to an end and hastened his departure. It was near the close of his first year that John Harvard died, on September 14, 1638, leaving a bequest of one-half of his estate and his library to the College.145 How soon afterward the students had the use of this collection is not known. It appears that the estate was not settled for some time, although on June 6, 1639, Thomas Allen the executor was granted by the General Court five hundred acres of land “in regard of Mr Harvards gift.”146 It is likely that at the very outset the College was in great need of a library for the use of the students, and that the friends of the school were striving to accomplish the purpose which they had at heart.

    At the time of the gratuity to Mrs. Ames, in November, 1637, it was voted by the General Court to establish the college at “Newetowne,”147 that Mr. Eaton should be relieved from the payment of his rate, and that twelve persons named, including Mr. Peter, should be a committee on the College.148

    No record has been found to show that there was a library in the possession of the College before that of John Harvard was received; but it may be inferred from what is here given, and perhaps from the gratuity to Mrs. Ames, that the students had the use of a collection of books in that early day of small things. Daniel Neal, in his History of New England, says:

    Harvard College being built, a Foundation was laid for a Publick Library, . . . The first Furniture of this Library was the Books of Dr. William Ames, the famous Professor of Divinity at Franequer, whose Widow and Children, after the Doctor’s Death, transported themselves, and their Effects, into these Parts.149

    Another reference to Dr. Ames’s family is found in the Dictionary of National Biography: “He appears to have died in necessitous circumstances, for his family received assistance from the town council at Rotterdam and eventually sailed to New England.”

    In 1634 there was printed a catalogue of Dr. Ames’s Library, whether for the purpose of the sale of the collection by Mrs. Ames, or for its use in Rotterdam while she remained there, is not known. The title is:

    Catalogvs | Variorum & insignium | Librorvm | Clariss. & celeberrimi viri | D. Gvilielmi Amesii S S. Theologiæ | Doctoris, & Professoris olim in illust. | Acad. Franekeranâ. | [Printer’s emblem.] Amstelodami. | Typis Joannis Janssonii An. mdcxxxiv. 4to. pp. 22.

    By a rough approximation, from the entries in this Catalogue, the library must have contained about six hundred volumes. In the Prince Collection at the Boston Public Library, the catalogue is bound in at the end of a volume of tracts. Thomas Prince’s handwriting appears in several places in the volume; and one of his entries is on the farewell sermon of Thomas Hooker (second edition, London, 1641): “about mid July. 1633. He sail’d from the Downs for N E.”

    If the assumption is correct that Mrs. Ames brought the whole of this collection with her to Salem, and shortly afterward to Cambridge for the use of the College, that these books became an important part of its library150 to which later the bequest of John Harvard was added, then the expressed desire of Dr. Ames to follow his friend Thomas Hooker to New England, and to render such service as he could here, was in part fulfilled.

    Mr. Frederick L. Gay stated that three drawings of Harvard College, done by Du Simitière, were in the possession of the Library Company of Philadelphia.151

    View of Harvard College about 1764

    Engraved for The Colonial Society of Massachusetts from the original by Du Simitière in the possession of The Library Company of Philadelphia

    Mr. William C. Lane exhibited some recent acquisitions to the College archives, and two volumes called Harvard Degrees and Diplomas, collected and compiled in 1909 by our late associate, Mr. Morris H. Morgan.

    Mr. Henry H. Edes read extracts from documents relating to the contributions from several towns in 1653 toward the support of Harvard College and to the searching investigation of that seminary ordered in the same year by the General Court. These documents were recovered by the Corporation last year and include the rough draft of the long-sought report of the investigation and many papers of deep interest to the student of the early history of the College, including abstracts of the accounts of both Eaton and Dunster.

    On motion of Mr. Lane, it was —

    Voted, That the President be authorized to appoint a Committee to examine the evidence in regard to the foundations of two early houses lately uncovered by the excavations in Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, and report thereon for the benefit of the Harvard Memorial Society, which desires to erect a tablet commemorating these houses.

    Mr. Edes, the delegate from this Society appointed at its last meeting to attend the conference held in New York on 25 March, to consider the preparation of a dictionary of American biography, reported that the meeting was largely attended; that tentative plans for the preparation of such a dictionary were made; that committees to further the undertaking were appointed; and that much interest and enthusiasm were manifested by those in attendance.

    NOTE

    John Tompson, whose losses by the burning of Harvard Hall in 1764 are recorded on page 35 above, was inadvertently overlooked in the biographical notes. He was the son of the Rev. William Tompson (William, Samuel, Edward) of Marshfield, and Scarborough, Maine, and wife Anna Hubbard; was born at Scarborough 3 October, 1740; Harv. 1765; ordained in 1768 at Portland, Maine; pastor at Standish and South Berwick, Maine; married first, 22 November, 1768, Sarah Small of Somersworth, New Hampshire, who died 30 August, 1783, aged 35 years; married secondly, in February, 1784, Sarah, daughter of Elisha Allen and widow of Capt. Samuel Morrill, born at Salisbury 14 February, 1743, and died at South Berwick 24 August, 1825. He died at South Berwick 21 December, 1828. (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xv. 114–115; Ridlon, Saco Valley Settlements and Families, p. 1176.)