Some not unfitly compare the saints of all ages to a fleet of mariners all bound for the same Ports, tho some arrive sooner and some later, and they who have been first there welcome those that come afterward with joy and great affection. And what tho our friends have outsailed us? "T is likely we may come in with the next good wind and meet each other in the celestial Habitations, and then our love will be satisfied again.1

Mr. HENRY H. EDES spoke of the third Simon Bradstreet, the father of the Marblehead clergyman. He succeeded the Rev. Charles Morton as the minister of Charlestown; was "a man of great learning, strong mind and lively imagination;" and when presented to Governor Burnet by Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, was introduced as "a man who could whistle Greek."

1 Cf. A. H. Clough, Qua Cursum Ventus.

A

MARCH MEETING, 1920

STATED MEETING of the Society was held at the house of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, No. 28 Newbury Street, Boston, on Thursday, 25 March, 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. ·

On the recommendation of the Council it was

Voted, That this Society join the Bay State League.

Mr. LAWRENCE SHAW MAYO exhibited two photographs of Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire, one from a portrait by Wilson given by the Governor himself to the Marquis of Rockingham and now at Wentworth-Woodhouse, Rotherham, England, and the other from a pastel by Copley now owned by Mrs. Gordon Abbott of Boston; and read a paper on the Church of England, Governor Wentworth, and Dartmouth College, speaking in substance as follows:

For nearly sixty years the royal governorship of the Province of New Hampshire seemed to be a family possession of the Wentworths, the office having been held by three generations: LieutenantGovernor John Wentworth (1717-1729), his son Governor Benning Wentworth (1741–1766), and the latter's nephew Governor John Wentworth, who was appointed to office at the age of twenty-nine, and held it till the outbreak of the Revolution.

The first settlers on the banks of the Piscataqua were contented churchmen, and the first religious society organized at Portsmouth worshipped according to the ritual of the Anglican Church. When

New Hampshire was taken under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, about 1640, the Puritan government of the Bay Colony put an end to those services, and sent ministers of its own belief to Portsmouth. The people appeared to conform to the new teachings, but actually they and their descendants remained loyal to the Church of England, and patiently awaited the day when they might worship as they chose. About 1730 a number of the leading families organized an Episcopal society, which soon became a flourishing parish. The Governor and most of the Portsmouth aristocracy belonged to this flock. The rest of New Hampshire believed in Congregationalism. Thus there existed side by side the church of the court and the church of the people.

Benning Wentworth, who governed New Hampshire for twentyfive years, laid a foundation for the extension of Episcopalianism by reserving land for the benefit of the Church in every township granted by him after 1750-one share for a glebe, and one for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. When John Wentworth succeeded his uncle as governor in 1766, he determined to bring about the gradual conversion of his Province by settling Episcopal ministers on these lands and by organizing Anglican parishes in the new towns before the people were prosperous enough to support ministers of their own persuasion. The Connecticut valley offered a particularly attractive field for this experiment.

When the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock moved his Indian school from Connecticut to Hanover, about 1770, Governor Wentworth granted a charter which converted that institution into a college. Wheelock suggested that it might be named for Wentworth, but the final decision was to call it Dartmouth College. The Governor appeared to take a genuine interest in the school, but it soon became evident to Dr. Wheelock, its president, that Wentworth intended to place the control of the institution in the hands of churchmen. His first move was to attempt to add the name of the Bishop of London to the list of English trustees mentioned in the charter. Wheelock, who was a Connecticut dissenter, skilfully prevented this. Then the Governor tried to place as many Episcopalians as possible on the American board. In this he was only partially successful. Perhaps the most subtle bit of undermining was his effort to induce a promising young tutor to forget his Presbyterianism and take orders

in the Church of England. If he would do so, Wentworth assured him of an appointment to King's Chapel in Boston. The tutor, however, remained true to his convictions.

Was Governor Wentworth's interest in Dartmouth College genuine, or did he regard the infant institution merely as a means to his end -the establishment of the Church of England in New Hampshire? His general character gives us one answer; his persistent efforts for Anglican control give us another. How long Dr. Wheelock could have continued to prevent the realization of Wentworth's scheme is also a question. Fortunately for him the outbreak of the Revolution put an end to the Governor's ecclesiastical manœuvres.

Mr. OTIS GRANT HAMMOND, a Corresponding Member, spoke of the criticism of Governor Benning Wentworth, who, it is said, entered upon his office poor and retired rich, and who bestowed very many offices within his gift upon his kindred and family connections. Mr. Hammond remarked upon the tradition that the Governor exacted a fee of £100 for each of the many township charters he granted, besides reserving to himself in each charter a tract of five hundred acres, which became known as "the governor's farm." These farms were generally located in the corners of the townships, with the result that, as the towns were built up, two, three or four of these "farms" were found to be contiguous and constituted large and valuable tracts.

Mr. Hammond also remarked upon the intimacy of Governor John Wentworth and young Benjamin Thompson, afterwards Count Rumford, who, as a youth, removed from Woburn to Concord, New Hampshire, where he became a great social favorite, married the young, beautiful and wealthy widow Rolfe, and finally incurred public jealousy and distrust because of his appointment by the royal governor to high military office over the heads of many officers of mature age and long service.

Mr. Hammond exhibited a large and peculiar ther

mometer which had belonged to the governor, and is now in possession of the New Hampshire Historical Society. He also showed a volume of the Weare Papers, recently recovered by the State of New Hampshire from private hands, in which they had remained for more than half a century. This volume contained, among other interesting documents, the original draught of the charter of Dartmouth College.

Mr. ALFRED JOHNSON gave an account derived from his uncle, the late Ralph Cross Johnson, of two visits of Daniel Webster to Belfast, Maine. The first was made with his brother Ezekiel early in the last century. Having but one horse, they "rode and tied"- that is, one rode for some miles, then tied the horse and continued on foot, the other. mounting the horse when he came up to where it was tied. They found the main highway in pretty poor condition, the ascents and descents often steep and rugged. On approaching Belfast, Daniel was obliged to lead the horse down the precipitous side of the bluff, while Ezekiel held him back by hanging onto his tail, at times running, at others sliding.

Some thirty years later Daniel again visited Belfast, and remarked upon the improvements in the roads, the houses, and the general appearance of the place, and the excellent quality of the new rum then shipped to Belfast in bulk from the West Indies.

Among his friends and political associates who resided in Belfast during a part or the whole of the period covered by these two visits were the Rev. Alfred Johnson (who, like Webster, was a graduate of Dartmouth), John Wilson, a fellow Member of Congress with Webster, and William George Crosby and Hugh J. Anderson, Governors of the State of Maine, the latter afterwards a Member of Congress.

Mr. PERCIVAL MERRITT gave an account of the later history of Robert Ratcliffe, first rector of King's Chapel,