List of Members of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts

    1892–1922

    FOREWORD

    ON December 6th, 1892, a call was issued inviting certain persons to attend a private Conference at the St. Botolph Club on the 10th “to consider a proposal to form a Society to be composed exclusively of gentlemen whose ancestors were residents of the Colonies of Plymouth or the Massachusetts Bay.” The Conference was duly held at the time and place specified; it was voted that “it is expedient to organize a Society to commemorate the Founders of the Colonies of Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay, and their deeds;” and a Committee was appointed “to prepare a Statement of the purposes of the proposed Society and the draft of a Code of By-Laws.” At an adjourned meeting of the Conference on December 17th, the Committee made a report recommending “that the proposed Society be named The Massachusetts Society, and that its purposes be such as are expressed in the words subsequently used in the Articles of Association, dated 19 December, 1892, and in the Certificate of Incorporation;” and also presented a draft of a code of By-Laws. The meeting was then adjourned to the 27th, on which day an organization was effected, a code of By-Laws was adopted, and officers were elected. The Certificate of Incorporation, in which occur the names of fourteen gentlemen,722 was executed on the 27th, and the Charter passed the Seals on the 29th.

    The first Stated Meeting of the Society was held on January 18th, 1893, and at an adjourned special meeting on the 25th the following preamble and vote were adopted:

    Whereas, it has appeared that the name of this Society might create confusion by its resemblance to that of another Society, it is, therefore,

    Voted, That the name of The Massachusetts Society be changed, and that it hereby adopt the name of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts.723

    Thirty years have elapsed since the Society was thus happily organized. In commemoration of this event, at its meeting on the 14th of December, 1922, the Council authorized the Editor to prepare and print lists of members of the Society from the beginning to the present time.

    The Society has published twenty volumes, as follows:

    volume contents meetings included year724

    I

    Transactions

    Dec.

    1892–1894

    Dec.

    1895725

    II

    Collections726

         

    1913

    III

    Transactions

    Jan.

    1895–1897

    April

    1900

    IV

    Collections727

         

    1910

    V

    Transactions

    Nov.

    1897–1898

    Dec.

    1902

    VI

    Transactions

    Jan.

    1899–1900

    March

    1904

    VII

    Transactions

    April

    1900–1902

    April

    1905

    VIII

    Transactions

    Nov.

    1902–1904

    Nov.

    1906

    IX

    Collections728

         

    1907

    X

    Transactions

    Dec.

    1904–1906

    Nov.

    1907729

    XI

    Transactions

    Dec.

    1906–1907

    Dec.

    1910

    XII

    Transactions

    Jan.

    1908–1909

    Dec.

    1911

    XIII

    Transactions

    Jan.

    1910–1911

    March

    1912

    XIV

    Transactions

    April

    1911–1913

    Feb.

    1913

    XVII

    Transactions

    March

    1913-1914

    Dec.

    1915730

    XVIII

    Transactions

    Jan.

    1915-1916

    April

    1917

    XIX

    Transactions

    Nov.

    1916-1917

    Nov

    1918731

    XX

    Transactions

    Dec.

    1917-1919

    Feb

    1920

    XXI

    Transactions

    March

    1919-1919

    Dec

    1920

    XXII

    Collections732

         

    1920733

    Volumes XXIII (Corrections734) and XXIV (Transactions735) will be ready for publication in 1923; it is hoped that Volumes XV and XVI (Collections736) will be completed in 1924; Volume XXV (Transactions737) is in type to date, and its completion may be expected about 1924. An Index Volume to the first twenty-five volumes of our Publications is in active preparation, and the Society has in hand manuscript material738 for two or three volumes of Collections.

    For the Committee of Publication,

    Fred Norris Robinson,

    Chairman.

    Boston, 31 December, 1922