TRANSACTIONS OF THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS JANUARY MEETING, 1920 ASTATED MEETING of the Society was held at the of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, No. 28 Newbury Street, Boston, on Thursday, 22 January, 1920, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the President, FRED NORRIS ROBINSON, Ph.D., in the chair. The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and approved. Mr. GEORGE HENRY HAYNES of Worcester, Mr. CHARLES FRANCIS JENNEY of Hyde Park, and Mr. EDWARD MUSSEY HARTWELL of Boston, were elected Resident Members. Mr. CHESTER N. GREENOUGH read a paper on Thomas Hollis (1720-1774) of Lincoln's Inn and the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1765) of the West Church, Boston. Mayhew's liberal theology, his determined efforts to resist the attempts of the Society for Propagating the Gospel to advance the interests of the Church of England in the American colonies, and his republican political theories, all commended the Boston minister to the warm regard of Hollis. The correspondence of the two men, as preserved in the Hollis Papers, was spoken of as among the most interesting and valuable documents of the period. Largely through Mayhew's prompting and personal agency, Hollis became an important friend of the radical group in church and state affairs in Massachusetts. Hollis's part in the republication of Mayhew's works in London was commented on, and special emphasis laid upon Hollis's vigorous efforts to bring Locke, Milton, Algernon Sidney, and other republican writers-usually in editions published, bound, and inscribed in Hollis's striking way to the attention of the colonies, and especially to those who used the "public library at Cambridge" (that is, the Harvard College Library). Mr. Greenough showed a manuscript, in Hollis's own hand, of verses addressed to Mrs. Mayhew explaining the device under Cipriani's print of Mayhew's portrait, and alluded to other prints and inscriptions which indicate Hollis's generosity to Harvard and his special wish that the College might be fully supplied with works on government -"that first subject"—and might use these books to advance the cause of liberty. Mr. Greenough also exhibited fine portraits of Dr. Mayhew and of Algernon Sidney.1 Mr. GEORGE P. WINSHIP exhibited the book-plates of Edward Holyoke and Gershom Rawlins, which were printed in Boston in 1704. Holyoke and Rawlins were classmates, graduating from Harvard College in 1705, so that these are perhaps the earliest known book-plates belonging to undergraduates of the College.. Mr. ALBERT MATTHEWS Communicated the following NOTE ON GERSHOM RAWLINS (H. C. 1705) AND When Mr. Winship showed me these book-plates a week or two ago and asked whether I knew exactly who Gershom Rawlins was, I replied that I did not but had no doubt that it would be easy to 1 Mr. Greenough's paper, together with the illustrations, will appear in the Transactions of a future meeting. ascertain from the manuscript continuation of Sibley's Harvard Graduates, now owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Sibley's printed work is so singularly free from errors that in quoting the few words which follow it is only fair to point out that in this instance Sibley merely took what data he had at hand and evidently had made no attempt to verify the identification. This is what he wrote: Rawlins, Gershom, Rev., an eminent dissenting clergyman took his degree of A.M. in 1744, returned to England and died at his house in St. Johns Square, London 14 Dec 1757 Then follow six references, an examination of which shows that Sibley accepted the above identification from John R. Rollins, who made it on three separate occasions - first in 1854,1 again in 1870,2 and finally in 1874. As his last account is fuller than the others, it is here given: RAWLINS, Rev. GERSHOM. Two Sermons; 1715; 8vo. He was for a time in America; graduated at Harvard College, 1705; M.A., 1744. He returned to England and died at his residence in St. John's Square, London, Dec. 14, 1757," an eminent dissenting minister." . . . Rev. GERSHOM RAWLINS grad. Harvard University, 1705; M.A., 1744. He went to England and died at his residence in St. John's Square, London, Dec. 14, 1757; "an eminent dissenting minister." " In neither of the three instances did Mr. Rollins cite any authority, but no doubt he had seen a notice of the death of a clergyman of that surname in an English magazine or newspaper, and had jumped to the conclusion that it was Gershom Rawlins. Thus the London Magazine for December, 1757, recorded the death on the 15th of that month of the "Rev. Mr. Rawlings, an eminent dissenting minister; "4 while the Gentleman's Magazine for the same month stated that the death of the "Rev. Dr. Rawlins, in St. John's Square,' occurred on the 16th.5 That these two notices referred to the same 1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, viii. 258. 2 Notes relating to Rawlins, or Rollins, etc., p. 37. • Records of Families of the Name of Rawlins or Rollins, in the United States, pp. xi, 303. 4 xxvi. 619. 5 xxvii. 578. person is made certain by an extract from the London Chronicle of December 15-17, 1757: "Yesterday died, at his House in St. John's Square, the Rev. Dr. Rawlings, an eminent Dissenting Minister." This eminent dissenting minister," however, was not Gershom Rawlins, but the Rev. Richard Rawlin, of whom a sketch will be found in the Dictionary of National Biography. It is not a little curious that almost nothing should be known about a Harvard graduate, and that a man who took orders in England should be mistaken for an "eminent dissenting minister;" and the few data here presented are offered in the hope that they will be the means of obtaining further information. Gershom Rawlins, the son of John and Judah Rawlins, was born in Boston on January 29, 1686.2 Entering Harvard in 1701, in 1703 and again in 1704 he was "Scholar of the House "3 — one of those, that is, appointed to look after the college buildings, etc., receiving therefor a small gratuity- and graduated in 1705. On the same Commencement Day Judge Sewall "Gave Gershom Rawlins a 20o Bill."4 For the next six months Rawlins taught the grammar school at Woburn, receiving £15.5 As he did not take his second degree of A.M. in course in 1708, it is a fair assumption that he had already gone to England. At all events, we next hear of him on May 14, 1714, on which day he wrote the following letter to the Bishop of London: 6 MY LORD, SIDNEY STREET, NEAR LEICESTER FIELDS, May 17, 1714. The uneasiness which my personal address seemed to give your Lordship yestermorn has obliged me to take this method to acquaint your Lordship that I last night performed ye last office for my late friend and countryman M. Bradstreet who I may venture to say was very deserving of the favour and esteem wherewith your Lordship was pleased to honour him whilst alive. Your Lordship not being at leisure to hear me explain myself upon the favour I came yesterday to entreat for him since his death, I beg leave to do it here. There are people my Lord in 1 ii. 578. The paragraph is headed "Friday, December 16." 2 Boston Record Commissioners' Reports, ix. 166. • College Book iv. 23, 24, 25. • Diary, ii. 134. 5 S. Sewall, History of Woburn, p. 586. • John Robinson (1650-1723). ! |