the Society a dollar, and I much fear that, in this respect, he is likely long to remain unique. Before I sit down, I should like to make sure that gentlemen rightly apprehend the nature of this bequest. It was not intended to be the nucleus of any General Binding Fund, however desirable such a fund may be; it is limited to certain special purposes. The testator had upon his conscience the fifteen hundred operas to which I have alluded, and he had every reason to suppose other donors had been as indiscriminate and profuse as he. He was well aware of the temptation which besets societies, as well as individuals, to bind, when they can afford it, almost every thing, with the idea that a remote posterity may be eager to consult volumes which we ourselves have neither leisure nor inclination to open. He fully realized that the income of this little fund- and our Treasurer will be lucky if he gets $150 a year out of it—would be a mere drop in the bucket if applied to dealing with the 60,000 unbound pamphlets we already have upstairs, and the 600,000 unbound pamphlets we are likely, at no distant period, to possess, at the present rate of accumulation. In devising us this legacy, subject to the life-estate of certain parties now deceased, he was therefore careful to direct (and I quote his exact language) that "the whole of the annual interest and profits shall be applied and devoted to the binding, for better preservation, of the valuable manuscripts and books appertain ing to the Society." I emphasize this word valuable because I believe that, in so doing, I accord with the intentions of the testator, who used it in an immediate, and not a prospective, sense, and did not contemplate that a penny of his money should be devoted to binding any thing the value of which should be only among the possibilities of a remote future. His object was the preservation of what is really valuable and interesting to us here to-day and what may become valuable and interesting to our successors as the income shall gradually accrue. I would not, for a moment, be understood to intimate that there is the slightest danger that this income will be knowingly misapplied; but as librarians, who are practically irresponsible, succeed one another, the precise terms of a will are often forgotten or misunderstood; and therefore, as I am one of the few surviving friends of this unique benefactor, I have thought it prudent to take this early opportunity of entering a caveat. I beg, sir, to second Mr. Smith's motion. The vote was then adopted. Frederick W. Putnam, Esq., the Curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology at Cambridge, and James M. Bugbee, Esq., of Boston, were elected Resident Members. The Hon. E. R. HOAR presented the Memoir he had been appointed to prepare of the late Judge Ames, and it was referred to the committee to be published in the Proceedings. Mr. E. E. HALE gave some account of a recent visit which he had made to Emmanuel College, at Cambridge, England. He said nothing could exceed the kind courtesy of the welcome given to him because he was a graduate of Harvard; and that any Harvard man would be gratified to know with what interest the memory of John Harvard, the Master of Arts of Emmanuel, was preserved in the halls of his Alma Mater. Mr. Hale had examined, as many American gentlemen had done, the copy made by Dr. Bennett of the Register of Emmanuel of the beginning of the seventeenth century. To American genealogists the names from that Register, published below, may be of interest. Dr. William Bennett was Fellow of Emmanuel at the time he copied these Registers, and afterward Bishop of Cloyne. Dr. Bennett had also copied, from a manuscript not now preserved, the following letter from John Stoughton, written in 1632, when he resigned his preferment at the parish of Aller that he might go to London as a lecturer. The letter has some interest in showing the temper of the time, and the decided Puritan character of Emmanuel College then. The relationship of John Stoughton to our Israel Stoughton does not seem to be now known by the American descendants of the latter: Letter of John Stoughton to the Master of Emmanuel College on resigning Aller. HONOURD SIR: I signifyd the last week to Mr. Foster,-being so straightend of time that I could not write to yourself which I intended rather, that I have resigned my living the 18th of this month, And now I have sent you a Certificate of the instrument of the resignation, that you may have an authentical ground to proceed to a new Choice and Presentation. There are two other instruments by me, one signifying that the Resignation was admitted, and the other being an intimation to the Patron of the present Vacancy, which I would have sent now if I had *See below, page 35. — EDS. met with a convenient Messenger, and will instantly, if it shall be thought requisite. But I conceive them not of any necessity or use, but that they would draw money from me to the officers, and bring them in fees. I was not willing to make any longer delay before I resignd, seeing it pleasd God I found my health betterd here and myself encouragd by some acceptance of my service: though I perceived the Bishops unwillingness to my settling here expressed divers ways, So that I can promise myself no great encouragement or quiet from thence.* But I have cast myself upon the providence of the Lord, and recommend the care of my Living to the wisdom and piety of my worthy Patrons: reqesting only that you would be pleased to propound it to my Successor and be a means that he may deal indifferently with me, and in case there should fall any difference, as I hope none will, arbitrate the matter between us according to equity. I have parted with greater means for lesser by half the value, with certaine for uncertaine, as for other reasons so in truth the more willingly to accommodate the college, with a possibility of preferring one of their company. I have not dealt so warily as the World useth in such cases because I know with whom I have to deal and presume I shall be met with a mutual ingenuity. I recommend it wholly to your consideration having had much experience both of the College in general whose loving respect to me hath always exceeded the merit of so unworthy a Member, and of yourself in particular, whose continued love to myself and my Son, though I can do no more, yet I can do no less, than most thankfully acknowledge: not ceasing to sollicit the Lord daily for a rich blessing upon that place, and your government there, and all your endeavours for the advancing of his own glory, and the good of his church. To his gracious protection I commit you and rest always yours in the Lord to be commanded. ALDERMANBURY, LONDON, Feb: 4, 1632. To the Right Worshipful Dr. Sanderoft Mr. of Emanuel College in Cambridge, These Jo: STOUGHTON. Names copied from Dr. Bennett's copy of the Emmanuel Register. 1597, Oct. 12. Thomas Evered. Pensioner. Again, April 12, [1598?] Thomas Everard. S[izar]. A.M. 1604. 1603, April 23. Daniel Maud. [Sizar at Emmanuel.] * Dr. Bennett adds in his copy of the letter above: "In fact, Stoughton, who was an active Puritan, had accepted a lectureship in London to serve his party, and could not therefore expect much countenance from above. The turn of his letter shows the sentiments of the Mr. at least, and indeed the college in general, to agree with him, or that he thought they did."-E. E. H. 1618. Freegift Tilden. Pensioner. 1619, May 22. Thos. Elyot. Sizar. [Took no degree.] 1620. Jonathan Hutchinson. S[izar]. A.B. 1625. Sam. Johnson. S[izar]. A.B. 1623. A.M. 1628. William Bridge. Sizar. A.M. 1626. Camb. Soc. 1622-23, Mar. 12. Thos. Dudley. Pensioner. A.B. 1626. A.M. 1630. Sam. Briarly. S[izar]. 1624. Perkins. [S]. 1625. Nahum Weld. S[izar]. A.M. 1631. Sam. Dillingham. Pensioner. A.B. 1629. A.M. 1631. Hen. Dillingham. Pensioner. A.B. 1629. A.M. 1633. 1626, April 8. Samuel Bridge. P[ensioner]. A.M. 1633. 1626. 1627, April 18. 1627, Nov. 19. Forth Wintropp. P[ensioner]. Gil: Pickering. Fellow Commoner. Ambrose Salisbury. Pensioner]. A.M. 1634. Jno. Harvard. Pensioner. Middlesex. A.M. 1635. [Repeated as above next year. Observe Middlesex.] William Hutchinson P[ensioner]. A.M. 1635. 1628, April 17. John Everard. Pensioner. A.B. Midsummer, 1631. 1629, Sept. 13. Theophilus Hutchinson. Pensioner. A.M. 1637. 1632-33, Jan. 12. Ezekiel Cheever. 1632, June 3. Sizar. Middlesex. Jeremiah Horrocks. S[izar]. Was a very curious astronomer. John Batchelor. Sizar. Oxford. A.M. 1634. Richard Goodwin. Sizar. [Sussex.] A.M. 1639. 1636, April 22. W. Dillingham. Sizar. Northampton. Soc. Mag. Coll. A.B. 1639. A.M. 1643. B.D. 1650. D.D. 1655. Resigned 1662. 1636, June 20. July 2. 1649, Jan. 8. Howard Beecher. P[ensioner]. Bedf: A.M. 1643. Mr. HALE read the following passage from a recent letter from a Fellow of Emmanuel : "Here in Emmanuel we feel that our chief boast will be to have sent out Mr. Harvard to the New World, as there is no knowing what his foundation may not reach to, with the boundless resources of your wonderful country. In 1884 we celebrate the tercentenary of our foundation, and I hope we shall make it the occasion of a representative gathering from both sides of the Atlantic, and that you will seize the opportunity of being present. No arrangements have yet been made, but the date should be fixed so as to fit in with your vacations. I suppose some time in August would be best. When you come again you ought to look over the books of Sidney Sussex, as they are an unworked mine for the Puritan genealogist." It may be of use to students attempting to unravel the mysteries of John Harvard's birth, to observe that John Havard was one of the three "principal factors" chosen by the East India Company at its first meeting in London, Nov. 18, 1600. John Havard made one of the first voyages of that Company, and, on the 20th of February, 1601, received £200 from the Company. See Prince's Annals of E. India Company, i. 131, and Calendar of State Paper Office, East Indies, at the dates. Mr. T. C. AMORY called the attention of the Society to the possibility of the Cradock house, at Medford, being demolished, unless steps were taken to preserve it. The property, consisting of five acres, was for sale. It was subject to a mortgage of twenty-two hundred dollars, of which payment was pressed. The price asked was five thousand dollars, and thirty-five hundred has been offered. A committee has been raised in Medford to collect subscriptions for its purchase, to preserve it; and Captain Foster, one of the Selectmen, and the Representative elect of the town to the General Court, a member of the committee, has already procured more than fifteen hundred dollars, and has reason to believe that at least the sum of two thousand dollars can be obtained from Medford for the object. Subscriptions to the amount of about four hundred dollars have been obtained in Boston and other places. Application has been made to the owner, who resides in the West, for a bond of the property; and Captain Foster feels confident that it will soon be received. It is proposed that when sufficient subscriptions are procured to effect the object, the subscribers shall be called together to determine what course shall be taken. It has been suggested that, in the first instance, the property shall be conveyed to trustees, who later, if so directed by the subscribers, can convey it to the town of Medford, or to some historical society, the building perhaps extended as it was |