until 1642, except by the dropping out of Roger Harlakenden, who died in 1638. John Endicott appears as a member in 1642, the full Board being then made up of twelve men, as follows: John Winthrop, John Endicott, Thomas Dudley, Richard Bellingham, John Humphrey, Israel Stoughton, also John Cotton, John Wilson, John Davenport, Thomas Weld, Hugh Peter, Thomas Shepard, "inspectoribus."1 At the first Commencement only six were probably present, viz. Winthrop, Endicott, Bellingham, Cotton, Wilson, Shepard. Of the other members, Weld, Peter, and Humphrey were then in England, Stoughton was apparently on the way thither, and Davenport had gone to New Haven in 1638. Sibley says, "I do not find any record of the day or the month, in 1642, when the first Commencement was held. Probably it was in October." Although quoted by him on his next page, he overlooks the fact that the letter sent over by the governor and divers of the ministers describing the manner of the late Commencement is plainly dated "September the 26. 1642.” 2 This proves that Commencement took place before September twenty-sixth.

On the very next day after this letter was written the General Court changed the membership of the Board of Overseers:

Coll.

College overseers.

Whereas ... there was appointed & named six matrats & six eld's to order the colledge at Cambridge, of wch twelue some are removed out of this iurisdiction,— It is therefore ordered, that the Govern & Deputy for the time being, & all the matrats of this iurisdiction, together with the teaching eld's of the sixe next adioyning townes, that is, Cambridge, Watertowne, Charlestowne, Boston, Roxberry, & Dorchester, & the psident of the colledge for the time being, shall have from time to time full power & authority to make & establish all such orders, statutes, & constitutions as they shall see necessary

3

From 1642 until 1780 it is an easy matter to tell who was an Overseer for a given year by referring to Whitmore's Civil List and six town histories, some of which have indexes.

Hugh Peter, fourth pastor of the Salem church, was one of the

1 New Englands First Fruits, p. 18.

* Massachusetts Colony Records, ii. 30.

2 P. 17.

RELATION

Of the Progrefs of the Parlaments Forces in SCOTLAND:

Together with the

KINGS

Wholly abandoning Scotland, and, in defpair, with what Forces were left them, marching into England: with part of our Forces in his Van: and my

LORD

GENERAL

following in his Reer.

By an Express Messenger to the Council of State.

London, Printed by William Du-Gard, by the appointment of the Council of State, Anno Dom. 1651,

first Board of Overseers. He wrote about twenty books and tracts, and many of his letters were printed during his lifetime in the English journals of the day. Everything he wrote has a certain historical value, and, apart from his official relations with Harvard, deserves a place in some corner of the College Library. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his degree of A.M. in 1622. As preacher of a monthly lecture at Sepulchre's, London, he attracted crowds of people, but the authorities of the established church forced from him a written submission to their discipline. Again he found himself in trouble. This time we read:

Master Hugh Peter was apprehended by a Pursevant, imprisoned for a time in the New-prison, silenced here from his Ministry, and forced into Holland by the Arch-bishop, onely for praying at Sepulchers Church for the Queen, in these words, That as shee came into a Goshen of safety, so the light of Goshen might shine into her soule, that shee might not perish in the day of Christ; as himselfe and sundry others will depose.1

When in Holland he wrote the first book that has come to our notice. It is a little catechism, of which there were many in those days before they were superseded by the Westminster Assembly's Longer and Shorter Catechisms. As no bibliographical description of the volume has yet appeared, and as it is of undoubted rarity, I venture to lay it before you for examination and comment.

Milk for Babes, / And / Meat for Men. / Or/Principles necessary, to bee known/ and learned, of such as would know / Christ here, or be known of him/hereafter. / [5 lines from Bible] / [Printer's mark] / [3 lines from Bible] / Imprinted Anno 1630.

Collation: Title-page, verso blank, 1 leaf; "Epistle to those... I... hold deere in Sepulchers London," etc., 1 leaf; "Epistle to those whom my ministry," etc., 1 leaf; text, pp. 1-39; verso of p. 39 blank.

Signatures: A-B in eights, C in seven (copies in original binding probably have a blank leaf, completing C in eight). "D4" is a misprint for C4. [6]+39 p. 24 mo. No place or name of printer.

The two Epistles follow:

Epistle.

To those, whom I have reason to hold deere in Sepulchers London, & elswhere in England, where I have spent the poore Talent, the Lord hath lent mee.

1 William Prynne, Canterburies Doome, London, 1646, p. 421.