own hand-writing, yet having several corrections made thereby."-Again, " And whereas I observe some mistakes in Mr. Hubbard's History of New England; the reader may consider, that as we have only a copy of that VALUABLE WORK, the substance whereof 1 propose to give the Publick: some of these mistakes may be owing to the Transcriber only, and some, that LEARNED and INGENIOUS AUTHOR fell into for want of Gov. Bradford's History, and some other materials, which I happen to be favoured with."* 66 His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, in "The History of Massachusetts Bay," says, Many such [materials for an history of the Colony] came to me from my ancestors, who, for four successive generations, had been principal actors in publick affairs: among the rest, a manuscript history of Mr. William Hubbard, which is carried down to the year 1680, but after 1650 contains but few facts. The former part has been of great use to me: it was so to Dr. Mather in his history, of which Mr. Neale's is little more than an abridgment." The opinion of his biographer, than whom no one was better able to appreciate duly the relative as well as absolute merit of our early writers, is given in the prefatory remarks to his valuable ecclesiastical history, in the Historical Collections.‡ * Vol. i. 12mo. pp. 254, Boston, 1736. Preface, p. vii. and x. xi. Mr. Prince made few corrections, for he brought down his annals only to 1633. That the copy from which this edition is printed, is the same which he consulted, is little doubted. This is not in Mr. Hubbard's hand writing, yet has his emendations. † 8vo. 2 vol. Lond. 1765. vol. i. pref. Vol. vii. First Series, p. 263. Of the MS. copy a few pages at the beginning and end are mutilated, and the writing, in some places, is scarcely legible. These passages are given, as far as the editors could spell them out. Where they have supplied words, or portions of words, conjecturally, such are printed in italicks. Where they were at a loss, they have used asterisks.* They had hoped to obtain an entire copy of this defective portion. This fond expectation was derived from their knowledge that a transcript was made by Hon. Peter Oliver, Esq. LL. D. Chief Justice of Massachusetts.† Application has been made to the family in England, for a part or the whole of this precious document; but without success.‡ A. HOLMES, Cambridge, Mass. 1815. Committee of the Historical Society. * From the ninth page, the manuscript is entire; pages 7 and 8 are nearly so; 3, 4, 5, and 6, considerably torn and effaced; 1 and 2 appear to be wanting. At the end, page 337 is a little defective; 338 is nearly effaced; the remainder is lost. The editors had contemplated retaining the author's mode of spelling; but soon finding that this was not uniform, they concluded not to continue the attempt, after the first seven chapters. †"1773. June 10. Judge Oliver came and drank tea with me. He has a copy of the Rev. Mr. Hubbard's MSS. of Ipswich, which he himself copied from a copy which had corrections in Mr. Hubbard's own hand writing. I think it contains 3 or 400 pages folio. This with Gov. Bradford's and Gov. Winthrop's MSS. are the three most considerable historical accounts of the first settlement of New England.” President Stiles' Literary Diary. Every relick or document which related to the settlement of the country or was curious, had a value stamped upon it. He collected many papers and records, and even transcribed William Hubbard's MS. history with his own hand. All these, except such as Hutchinson made use of, were carried away with him when he went to England.” Art. Oliver, (P.) Eliot's N. E. Biogr. Dict. p. 350. + See the letters on this subject; Histor. Collections vol. iii. New Series. t * The Ms. copy is carefully preserved in the library of the Historical CHAP. X. O The necessities and sufferings of the inhabitants of The council established at Plymouth in the county of Devon, for the ordering the affairs of New The addition of more assistants to the government of Plymouth colony, with some passages most re- markable there, in the years 1624, 1625. Affairs in the colony of New Plymouth, political 1631. Several planters transport themselves into New England. Ministers invited to join with them. CHAP. XXI. O The affairs of religion in the Massachusetts Colony in New England, during the first lustre of years Transactions of the patentees at London after the patent was obtained; debates about carrying it The first planting [of] the Massachusetts Bay with towns, after the arrival of the governour, and company that came along with him; and other occurrents that then fell out. 1630, 1631, 1632. The first courts kept in the Massachusetts, after the coming over of the governour. The carrying on of their civil affairs, from the year 1630 to Ecclesiastical affairs of the Massachusetts, during Memorable accidents during this lustre of years. The small pox among the Indians. Pestilential fever at Plymouth; with other occurrences wor- |