The incumbrances on the real estate of the Society are the mortgage debt, now amounting to $43.000; the principal of the Appleton Fund, amounting to $12,203; the principal and accumulated income of the Massachusetts Historical TrustFund, amounting to $8,528.75; the principal of the Dowse Fund, amounting to $10,000; and a part of the General Fund, amounting to $1,150, — making in the aggregate, $75,881.75. There must be reserved during the ensuing year from the rent of that part of the building which is leased to the city of Boston $4,552.90, for interest on the mortgage debt and on the funds chargeable on the real estate; and a further sum of $2,000 must be set aside for the Sinking Fund. The residue of the rent, amounting to $2,447.10, will be available for the ordinary uses of the Society; and the interest on that part of the General Fund which is invested in the building is also available for the same uses, the whole amount available from this source being $2,516.10. Of this sum a considerable part will be required for the publication of the Sewall Papers.

CHARLES C. SMITH,

Treasurer.

BOSTON, March 31, 1880.

Report of the Auditing Committee.

The undersigned, a Committee appointed to examine the accounts of the Treasurer of the Massachusetts Historical Society, as made up to March 31, 1880, have attended to their duty, and report that they find them correctly kept and properly vouched; that the securities held by him for the several funds correspond with the statement in his Annual Report; that the balance of cash on hand is satisfactorily accounted for; and that the Trial Balance is accurately taken from the Ledger.

BOSTON, April 3, 1880.

AMOS A. LAWRENCE,
GEORGE B. CHASE,

}

Committee.

Mr. W. WARREN, from the Committee to nominate a list of officers for the ensuing year, reported the following list, and the gentlemen named were elected by ballot: -

On motion of Judge Chamberlain it was

Voted, That the thanks of the Society be returned to Mr. William S. Appleton, the retiring Cabinet-keeper, who declines a renomination, after a service of six years; and to Messrs. Winslow Warren and Charles W. Tuttle, whose term of office, as members of the Executive Committee of the Council, has expired by limitation.

The Memoir of the Hon. John Glen King, by William P. Upham, and that of the Hon. John A. Andrew, by Peleg W. Chandler, here follow.

MEMOIR

OF THE

HON. JOHN GLEN KING, A.M.

BY WILLIAM P. UPHAM.

THE Hon. John Glen King, whose death took place at his residence in Salem, on the 26th day of July, 1857, after a few weeks' illness of paralysis, was born in Salem, March 19, 1787, and accordingly had reached the age of seventy years. He was descended from William King, who sailed from London for Salem in the "Abigail," July 1, 1635, through John,2 Samuel, John, and James, and was the second son of James and Judith (Norris) King. His mother was a sister of the Hon. John Norris, who, with his wife, Mary (Herbert) Norris, contributed largely to the foundation and endowment of Andover Theological Seminary; and was a lineal descendant of the Rev. Edward Norris of the First Church in Salem, 1640 to 1659.

Mr. King's baptismal name was John King. This was changed by an Act of the Legislature, June 21, 1811, to John Glen King. He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1807, but did not receive his degree till 1818, having, like many others of that and the succeeding class, left college in May, 1807, during what is known as the "Grand Commons Rebellion." He studied law with Hon. William Prescott (H. C. 1783) and Judge Story (H. C. 1798), and was admitted as attorney at the September Term of the Court of Common Pleas, 1810, and as counsellor at the November Term of the Supreme Judicial Court, 1814, having practised in the latter court two years. He established his law office, in 1811, at Salem, in rooms on the second floor of the building recently destroyed by fire, on the site now occupied by the Price Building, on the south-west corner of Essex and Washington Streets, continuing there, until his death, forty-six years; a case of prolonged occupancy hardly to be paralleled."

* "Boston Transcript," July 29, 1857.

He attained an eminent rank as a judicious and learned counsellor, and was for many years considered one of the most distinguished members of the Essex Bar. He was repeatedly elected to offices of honor and trust, having been a member of both branches of the State Legislature and of the Executive Council. He was also the first President of the Common Council of Salem at the organization of the City Government, and was for many years a Master in Chancery and Commissioner of Insolvency for the County. As first President of the Common Council, during the mayoralty of Mr. Saltonstall, much of the labor incident to the first organization in detail of the municipal government was intrusted to him, and the city of Salem is largely indebted to him for the code of rules and regulations now in use. He was one of the founders of the Essex Historical Society, afterward the Essex Institute, and for many years the Corresponding Secretary and one of the Vice-Presidents. He was for some years President of the Salem and Danvers Aqueduct Company. Mr. King delivered the oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, in 1820.

While a member of the House of Representatives, he had an important share in the management of the celebrated Prescott Impeachment Case, in 1821, being appointed to make the impeachment at the bar of the House, in the name of the House and of the people of Massachusetts, and also one of the seven managers to conduct the impeachment before the Senate. Although younger than several of the managers, he was selected as chairman, and made the opening argument. In the performance of the duties assigned him in this important and novel case, Mr. King exhibited marked ability and skill. It was, however, in the responsible and confidential relations of a trusted counsellor rather than in the more active pursuit of a pleader that Mr. King was known. His character for honor and integrity caused him to be much employed in matters relating to the settlement and distribution of estates and the execution of trusts, and as referee in civil controversies. He possessed remarkable acuteness and firmness of judgment; and, while conservative in his tendencies, was ever ready and quick to investigate and search out the truth, and resolute in the maintenance of the right. A somewhat sensitive nature led him to avoid an ambitious public life, although appreciative of attention, and desirous of the good opinion of others.

Mr. King was pre-eminently a scholar, and his love of literature and of books was well known to his contemporaries.