Annual Meeting November, 1962

    THE Annual Meeting of the Society was held at its House, No. 87 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 15 November 1962. At the dinner which preceded the meeting, the Reverend Richard D. Pierce said grace.

    The President, Mr. Clifford Kenyon Shipton, called the meeting to order at half after eight o’clock. Mr. Samuel Eliot Morison read the Mayflower Compact.

    The Annual Report of the Council was read by Mr. Walter Muir Whitehill.

    Report of the Council

    IN the late nineteen twenties the Colonial Society settled into a pattern of four meetings a year: the annual dinner in November, afternoon meetings in December and February, and an evening one in April. Accordingly on 21 December 1961, I spoke on the work of the Boston Historical Conservation Committee; on 15 February 1962 Bruce Sinclair described the Merrimack Valley Textile Museum in North Andover, of which he is director, and on 26 April Jere R. Daniell read a paper on “Politics and Society in Revolutionary New Hampshire.” Two additional meetings were held to take advantage of the presence in Boston of distant members. On 15 March Lawrence W. Towner, then Editor of the William and Mary Quarterly at Williamsburg and now Director of the Newberry Library in Chicago spoke on “Apprenticing of Poor Children in Eighteenth-Century Boston,” while on 18 October a special meeting was held in honor of F. G. Emmison, County Archivist of Essex, who spoke on the work of the Essex Record Office.

    During the year Leo Flaherty of the Massachusetts Archives, and the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Francis J. Lally, Editor of The Pilot, were elected Resident Members. The Reverend Charles Edwards Park, Minister-Emeritus of the First Church of Boston and a Resident Member since 29 February 1908, died on 23 September 1962 at the age of 89. From 1909 to 1927 Dr. Park was Corresponding Secretary of the Society; only a few years ago he read an admirable paper on the mistreatment of Quakers in seventeenth-century Boston. We have lost two non-resident members: Chandler Bullock of Worcester, long Treasurer of the American Antiquarian Society, elected in 1933, died on 2 March 1962, aged 90, and Edward Allen Whitney of Augusta, Maine, the first Master of Kirkland House, a member of this Society since 1931. George Macaulay Trevelyan, elected an Associate Member in 1929 and transferred to Honorary Membership in 1934, died at Cambridge, England, in August.

    Election to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts almost carries with it the promise of longevity. Trevelyan was a mere 86 at the time of his death; Dr. Park and Chandler Bullock were 89. But we still have on our list of honorary members Samuel Williston, first elected in 1893 who has passed the century mark, while the Massachusetts Historical Society recently lost its only centenarian, Godfrey Lowell Cabot. The list of resident members is headed by Frederic Haines Curtiss, elected in 1899. Then comes Francis Apthorp Foster, elected in 1902. With the death of Dr. Park, the next in seniority are Clarence Brigham, Fritz Robinson, and Sam Morison, who this year completed half a century as members of the Society. We have always tried to follow Mr. Edes’s principle of “catch ’em young,” a corollary of which is “keep ’em long.”

    The chief event of the year was the publication of Richard Pierce’s great edition of The Records of the First Church in Boston 1630–1868, which comprises volumes 39, 40, and 41 of our Publications. Our founder, H. H. Edes, must have leaped for joy in his grave at the appearance of these records, so painstakingly edited and so handsomely printed. The Treasurer’s report this year will show a lean and hungry look in consequence, but this is to be expected, for our practice has long been to accumulate income in certain off years against heavy printing bills in others. During my fifteen years as editor, two volumes of Transactions and five volumes of Collections have been issued, which is the equivalent of a volume every other year. Volumes 42 and 43, which will contain Transactions down to 1962, are now entirely in type and will shortly go into page proof. They will further contribute to the deficit in 1963, but they will also bring us up-to-date and permit a brief spell of financial recuperation with a clear conscience. The Society has also continued its co-sponsorship of the New England Quarterly.

    The Treasurer submitted his Annual Report as follows:

    Report of the Treasurer

    In accordance with the requirements of the By-laws, the Treasurer submits his Annual Report for the year ending 30 September 1962.

    Statement of Assets and Funds, 30 September 1962

    ASSETS

    Cash:

    Principal

    $36,053

    Income

    10,587

    $25,466

    Savings Bank Deposit

    4,380

    Savings and Loan Association Deposits

    40,000

    Investments at Book Value:

    Bonds (Market Value $266,567)

    269,353

    Stocks (Market Value $364,692)

    97,871

    Total Assets

    $437,070

    FUNDS

    Principal Funds

    $447,657

    Income (deficit)

    10,587

    Total Funds

    $437,070

    Income Cash Receipts and Disbursements

    Balance of Income Cash, 30 September 1961

    $ 1,315

    RECEIPTS:

    Dividends

    $12,018

    Interest

    12,450

    Annual Assessments

    905

    Sale of Publications

    1,986

    Gifts to Income

    1,401

    28,760

    Total Receipts of Income

    $27,445

    DISBURSEMENTS:

    Publications:

    New England Quarterly

    $ 3,500

    Volumes 39–41

    21,712

    Volume 42

    1,651

    Expenses of 87 Mount Vernon Street Property:

    Renovations, maintenance and furnishings

    2,113

    Heat and light

    753

    Insurance

    437

    Telephone and telegraph

    233

    Water

    120

    Editor’s Salary and Expense

    1,125

    Secretarial Expense

    1,400

    Annual Dinner

    1,104

    Notices and Expenses of Meetings

    407

    Auditing and Accounting Services

    400

    Miscellaneous Supplies and Expenses

    99

    Gifts

    65

    Total Disbursements of Income

    $35,120

    Balance of Income, 30 September 1962

    $ 7,675

    TRANSFERS TO PRINCIPAL FUNDS:

    Sarah Louise Edes Fund

    $2,576

    Albert Matthews Fund

    336

    2,912

    Income Cash Overdraft, 30 September 1962

    $10,587

    Mr. John Bryant Paine, Jr., read the report of the Auditing Committee, indicating that they had employed the firm of Messrs. Arthur Young and Company to make an audit of the accounts and to examine the securities, and presented the report of that firm to the meeting.

    The several reports were accepted and referred to the Committee on Publication.

    On behalf of the committee appointed to nominate officers for the ensuing year the following list was presented; and a ballot having been taken, these gentlemen were unanimously elected:

    • President Clifford Kenyon Shipton
    • Vice-Presidents Samuel Eliot Morison
      • Lyman Henry Butterfield
    • Recording Secretary Robert Earle Moody
    • Corresponding Secretary David Britton Little
    • Treasurer Carleton Rubira Richmond
    • Member of the Council for Three Years John Petersen Elder

    At the conclusion of the business meeting, Mr. R. A. Skelton, Superintendent of the Map Room, British Museum, and a Corresponding Member, then addressed the Society.