The Barrell papers, in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Cabinet, derive their chief interest from a series of letters written by John Andrews of Boston, between 1772 and 1776, to William Barrell, a merchant of Philadelphia, which were discovered by Capt. Geo. Gibson in the garret of the Schuylkill Arsenal in 1859. These letters vividly picture life in Boston during the siege, and have been printed, under the editorial eye of Winthrop Sargent, in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., viii. 316, etc. The Remsen Catalogue (April, 1883, p. 92) shows some of the papers of Francis Baylies, which include a MS. History of the Revolution, with various Revolutionary documents. The manuscripts collected by Jeremy Belknap, and now in the Mass. Historical Society, contain various papers of the Mathers, Joseph Dudley, and Jeremy Dummer. The papers of Governor Bernard, which belonged to Chalmers, passed finally to Sparks, and are now in Harvard College Library.2 They begin in 1758 with his term as governor in New Jersey, and after 1760 per- . tain to his executive service in Massachusetts; and in vol. iii. (1763–1765) they begin to touch the period of the revolutionary agitation. The letters, of which he preserved copies in these letter-books, are mostly addressed to officers, agents, or servants of the home government, and report his observations on the current events in his province. He usually writes from Boston, though frequently in the summer from Castle William, and sometimes from "Jamaica Farm, near Boston." The letter-books end with vol. viii. (1769–1772), and in this last volume is a long paper, "State of the disorders, confusion, and misgovernment, which have prevailed and do still continue to prevail in his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay in America," which Sparks has dated "Jan., 1774;" and a "List of papers relative to the Province of Massachusetts Bay, selected from the papers concerning riots and tumults in North America, laid before the House of Lords, from the first day of January, 1764, to the present time" [Jan. 28, 1774?] Vols. ix., x., xi., xii. contain original correspondence (1758-1779), consisting of letters received by Bernard, with other papers pertaining to his rule in Massachusetts. Occasionally public papers are recorded not directly his own, as for instance the resolutions of Virginia and Massachusetts in respect to the right of Parliament to impose taxes, and a report thereon of a committee of the Privy Council, 1765 (vol. x.). Various papers about Mount Desert occur in these years. Bernard's recall (vol. xii.) is dated March 23, 1769, and it is followed by his petition to be heard before the Privy Council in answer to charges made against him by the House of Representatives of Massachusetts (pp. 147-167). There are other papers in relation to the charge, and to the other troubles of the time. The final volume (xiii.) covers his orders and instructions (1758-1761), together with the royal permission for his return to England in 1768 (p. 243).8 There are in the Mass. Historical Society copies of the correspondence of Bowdoin and Pownall, 1769-1784, and of Bowdoin and Lafayette, 1780-1788. The Hon. R. C. Winthrop possesses a portion of the papers of Gov. Bowdoin, which came to him from his brother, James (Winthrop) Bowdoin.4 George Cabot destroyed most of his papers before his death; and Mr. H. C. Lodge, in his Life of Cabot (1877), depended almost wholly upon the letters of his ancestor which remained in the hands of Cabot's correspondents or of their descendants. From the papers of Thomas Cushing, a series of letters, 1767-1775, are in the Mass. Hist. Society's Cabinet, and have been printed in their Collections, xxxiv. p. 347, etc.5 Others of his papers were seized in Boston by Gage. A small remainder of the papers of Francis Dana is preserved in the family. They include some Ellery and Trowbridge papers; the correspondence of Francis Dana with Count Ostermann, the Vice-Chancellor of Russia, 1783; a copy of Jay's secret journal, with letters appertaining; three of Francis Dana's letter-books; and letters from Adams, Franklin, Jay, Livingston, Gerry, Arthur Lee, etc. There are copies from his letterbooks in the Sparks MSS., xxxii., vol. ii. The papers of Gen. Henry Dearborn, as well as those of his son, Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, were arranged Wells, referring to the replies of Adams to Hutchinson in 1773, says: "His original drafts have not been preserved; perhaps they were dispersed with the bulk of his papers after his decease. The MS. copies on file in the public archives are in the handwriting of one who often acted as his amanuensis." John Temple, are also in Mr. Winthrop's possession. (Note of R. C. Winthrop, Fr.) I am informed by Profes sor Little, the librarian of Bowdoin College, that there are no papers of consequence by Gov. Bowdoin now there. A miniature likeness of Gov. Bowdoin, by Copley, and in Perkins's judgment painted about 1770 (Life and Works 1 He bought them in 1848 of a gentleman in Providence. of Copley, p. 37), is owned by the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., ii. 363, 384. Many of the letters of Bernard and Hutchinson to Hillsborough and Dartmouth are in the Chalmers papers in the Sparks MSS. (no. x., vols. iii. and iv.) 3 Cf. Winsor's Calendar of the Sparks MSS., no. iv.published by Harvard College Library. The governor's papers were divided in unequal proportions between James Temple Bowdoin, of England; James (Winthrop) Bowdoin; Bowdoin College; and Mrs. George Sullivan. Some letters of Gov. Bowdoin's son-in-law, Sir and is engraved in the Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. p. 195. Ed- A portrait of Thos. Cushing is in the Essex Institute, and is engraved in the Mem. Hist. Boston. by the latter for preservation in eleven quarto volumes.1 By some arrangement between the executors of the younger Dearborn they passed into the hands of the late John Wingate Thornton (who was a co-executor), and were broken up, and what remained in Thornton's hands at the time of his death were sold at auction in Boston, Oct. 15 and 16, 1878.2 The papers of Elbridge Gerry were used by Austin in his Life of Gerry. There are in the Essex Institute the letter-book of Gen. John Glover, and his orderly-books, beginning at Cambridge, June 29, 1775, and ending in 1781. Some of the letters are printed by Wm. P. Upham in his Memoir of General John Glover (Salem, 1863),1 as taken from the Essex Institute Hist. Collections, v. 49, 97, 159. Copies of some of Gen. Glover's papers are in the Sparks MSS. (no. xlvii.). Occasional letters of Gen. Glover are found in the Trumbull Papers (vol. ix., etc.). It is not known that the papers of Christopher Gore exist, though his letters to others are preserved, as among the papers of Rufus King, with whom he had a voluminous correspondence. The military papers of Capt. Moses Greenleaf (1775-1780) are in the cabinet of the Mass. Hist. Society. In 1817 Mrs. Dorothy (Quincy) Scott, formerly the wife of John Hancock, placed with the Massachusetts Historical Society seven volumes of John Hancock Papers, containing minutes of the proceedings of the Congress of 1774, Hancock's own letter-books while president of Congress and governor of Massachusetts, and letters and minutes, copied from the originals, 1775, 1776. Most, if not all, of the material has been printed in Force's American Archives. Such of the Hancock papers as were not included in this formal collection remained in the possession of the family, stored in the coach-house of the mansion on Beacon Street, Boston, till upon the sale of that estate in 1863 they were removed, and finally in large part passed into the collections of Charles P. Greenough and Mellen Chamberlain, though a portion is supposed still to be in the hands of a member of the family. The papers of Maj.-Gen. William Heath were used by himself, but not with any skill, in the Memoirs of his life, which he printed in 1798. They fell under Sparks's observation when he was engaged upon his Washington; and in 1838 were bought of the family by Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, who arranged them and caused them to be bound and indexed, so that they formed twenty-six volumes of letters and papers, with two volumes of orderly-books, in 1859, when Mr. Lawrence gave them to the Mass. Hist. Society.5 The Hollis Papers, 1759-1771, in the Mass. Hist. Society's cabinet, cover the correspondence of Thomas Hollis, of London, and Jonathan Mayhew from 1759 to the time of Mayhew's death in July, 1766, — particulars of whose character and death, in letters from Samuel Mather, Edmund Quincy, Harrison Gray, Mrs. Elizabeth Mayhew (the widow), and Andrew Eliot, are also among these papers. There is among the Hollis Papers a series of letters from Andrew Eliot to Thomas Hollis, 1766-1771, which have been printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, xxxiv. p. 398, etc. The story of the vicissitudes of Gov. Hutchinson's papers is an interesting one. When the mob sacked his town-house, Aug. 26, 1765, "all of my papers," as he says,6" of every kind were scattered about the street, and I never afterwards attempted to separate my mercantile papers from those of another kind, when part of what had been thus scattered had been picked up and brought to me."7 Among these papers thus exposed was the MS. of his history, which, after lying for several hours in the street, was gathered up by "my good friend and neighbor, the Rev. Mr. Eliot," so that after several days' search only seven or eight sheets were No. 441. Journal of Henry Dearborn, June 20 to Dec. 13, 1782, at Saratoga. (Bought by the Boston Public Library for $3.50.) Printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1886. No. 501. Journal of Henry Dearborn during the Kennebec expedition to Quebec, 1775-1776 (printed by Judge Chamberlain in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1886), and his journal at Stillwater and Saratoga, Aug. 3 to Dec. 3, 1777. (This lot was bought by the Boston Public Library for $14.) No. 1158. Military journal of Henry Dearborn, Dec. 5, 1777, to June 16, 1778. (Bought by the Boston Public Library for $35.) Printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1886. There is also a journal of the Sullivan expedition in the possession of C. P. Greenough of Boston (Journals of the Mil. Exped. of Sullivan, p. 63). 1 This book has a lithographed portrait of Glover, which is better engraved in The Campaign of 1776. There is a statue of Glover by Martin Millmore in Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Cf. Harper's Monthly, liii. p. 343; N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1868, p. 284. There are also in the Essex Institute library various records of the Mass. Eighth Regiment (of the Revolution), and other papers. 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., i. 271; xiv. 184; Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 45. For Hancock's library, see Hist. Mag., iv. 150. 3 Mostly of the Stamp Act time. • Washington, hearing of his intention, wrote to Heath: "Having always understood that you were exact and copious in noticing occurrences at the time they happened, a work of this kind will, from the candor and ability with which I am persuaded your notes were taken, be uncommonly correct and interesting" (Sparks, xi. 200). Sparks adds: "To skill in composition and elegance of style this book cannot lay the slightest claim; but as a record of facts chronologically arranged, and of events occurring under the writer's own observations, detailed with apparent candor and accuracy, it is not without merit" (Ibid. p. 200). 5 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., iv. 287, etc., where notice is made of them by Sparks and Richard Frothingham; and a few of those relating to the siege of Boston, together with a correspondence between Heath and Charles Lee in Nov. 1776, are printed. The collection is rich in letters of Washington (1775-1783) addressed to Heath, and these have been printed in the same society's Collections, vol. xliv. A considerable number of the Heath papers were discovered to have been in the hands of John Wingate Thornton when his manuscript collection was sold in 1878. They relate in the main to the period when Heath commanded in Boston in 1778, and include letters of Burgoyne, Gen. Phil lips, and Baron Riedesel (from Cambridge), with one or two from Washington. There are occasional letters of Heath in the Trumbull MSS., vii, etc. On the scattering of the Heath papers, see Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., March, 1888, p. 83. Diary and Letters, ed. by P. O. Hutchinson, i. 67, 71. 7 "They scattered or destroyed all the MSS. and other papers I had been collecting for thirty years together, beside a great number of public papers in my custody." (Letter to Richard Jackson in Mass. Archives, xxvi. 146; Mass. Senate Doc., 1870, no. 187, p. 3.) left missing. This MS., being that of the second volume of his History, is now in the Archives of the State,2 and bears marks in some parts of soaking in the dirty street.3 When Hutchinson deserted his house at Milton in 1774, he left his furniture in it. His letter-books had been brought to it from his town-house the previous year, at the season of the Tea-ship troubles, and disposed of "where he thought no person could find them;" and he adds: "When I left the province it did not occur to me where they were."4 The day after Lexington the Committee of the Town of Milton removed the furniture, and put it in the keeping of Col. Wm. Taylor. This gentleman, going with Samuel Henshaw later to the house, discovered in a dark garret some trunks of papers, several of which were taken to Taylor's house, while Henshaw secured one of Hutchinson's letter-books. Word of this reaching Dr. Warren, the Committee of Safety directed Gen. Thomas, then commanding the nearest lines of the besieging army, to secure what he could of Hutchinson's papers.5 He obtained what others were found in the house, and made a demand on Taylor for the trunks "suspected to contain papers." 6 The papers thus seized were taken to Watertown, and committees were appointed to report upon them. Gordon says that one letter was suppressed because it afforded a rather awkward revelation of John Hancock's kind of patriotism; while, as Samuel Dexter says, others were carried off during the time that the papers were exposed to the inspection of everybody. Gordon, meanwhile, was directed (May 29) to receive one of the copy-books which a certain Capt. McLane, of Milton, was said to have, and others were appointed to discover what else might be "hid in or near Milton." In August, Samuel Dexter was empowered to hold such of the papers as he then had, and to receive all others; also to publish as he saw fit any among them; and Dr. Gordon was joined with him for that purpose, and Dexter's custody of them was confirmed by the legislature the next year (1776). He retained them during the war. In Oct., 1783, Samuel Dexter and William Gordon, and any others possessing such papers, were directed to give them up to be filed among the papers of the State.7 The State Archives now contain two collections of Hutchinson manuscripts: one lot which has never been out of the State's keeping since it acquired the governor's papers, which is called "Hutchinson's Correspondence," and is numbered 25, 26, and 27; and a lot which was a few years ago transferred to the State by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and is added to the archives as "Hutchinson Papers, 1625-1771,❞ three volumes, numbered 240, 241, and 242 of the Archives. This last lot has been the subject of a prolonged controversy.s There are also in the cabinet of the Historical Society, among the papers of Israel Williams of Hatfield, beside some letters of Governors Pownall and Barnard, a series from Hutchinson addressed to that stanch loyalist, and to Oliver Partridge, between 1748 and 1774. We note sundry other letters of Hutchinson, as of 1769 in the Trumbull MSS., vol. ii.; of 1771-1772 from the Public Record Office in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xix. 129–140; of 1774-1777 in Ibid. v. 360. 1 See Vol. III. 344. 2 Mass. Archives, no. 28. 3 Many of the papers making up the three volumes lately in the Mass. Hist. Soc. library are also so soiled, and this as well as their general character would indicate that they were of the material gathered for his History. P. O. Hutchinson, i. 502, 505. society made up and bound, in three volumes, a collection consisting of these papers (with others previously in its possession, as was claimed), making 466 folios, of which 170 were letters, none, however, in Hutchinson's hand, and all but eleven were dated before 1700. Twenty years later (1841), when the State Archives were arranged, the Hutchinson Papers still left there were 5 This order is among the Thomas Papers at Kings- bound in four volumes; one containing the MS of the first ton. part of the second volume of his History, together with Thomas' letter, May 2, 1775, and Gordon in his History, copies of certain witchcraft papers and a commission, and -not exactly agreeing. The publication of Hutchinson's diary has revealed the governor's indignation at this enforced betrayal of his private records; but he seems to have no equivalent feelings in behalf of Thomas Cushing, when he learns that that gentleman's papers had been seized by Gage in Cushing's house in Boston, "which makes great discoveries." (P. O. Hutchinson's Gov. Hutchinson, i. 500, 557; ii. 9) That editor speaks of the seized letters of Gov. Hutchinson as being "made such infamous use of by Bancroft in his socalled history" (Ibid. i. 395). There are stories of the letter-books being discovered in sacks of beds among Hutchinson's effects, which were sold, and that £50 were paid to recover them (Senate Doc. no. 187 of 1870, pp. 28, 40). 8 In 1821 Alden Bradford, then secretary of the commonwealth, in a report on the Archives, said that he had selected some of the Hutchinson Papers, which were judged "to be no part of the files in the secretary's office," and had (Jan., 1820) with the governor's approval deposited them in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The word used in one of his communications was "deposited," in all others "presented." Two years later that the other three volumes containing 1500 letters, most of Among the papers which are now in the possession of Hutchinson's representative in England, beside the correspondence which had accrued after the governor's expatriation, is his diary, beginning June 1, 1774;1 an account of his life in New England; a series of original letters in bound volumes (beginning in 1741); a letter-book, beginning apparently in 1774; the domestic letters of the governor's son, Elisha Hutchinson, to his wife, while they were separated by the ocean, 1774-1777; Elisha's diary; books of instructions and other data, given to Governors Pownall and Bernard, -the one for Hutchinson is missing; the diary of Dr. Peter Oliver, son of the chief-justice; the letter-book of Lieut.-Gov. Andrew Oliver; a manuscript by the governor, entitled "The origin and progress of the American Rebellion to the year 1776, in a letter to a friend" (dated Mar. 1, 1781); the diary of Chief-Justice Peter Oliver, beginning upon the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, and the letters of the same. When the third volume of Hutchinson's history 2 was published by a descendant in 1828, in London, he indicated in a general way that there was a mass of family papers still unprinted which might in time be made use of; and in Notes and Queries (vii. pp. 111, 240) Mr. P. Hutchinson makes record of the manuscripts left by the governor at his death in 1780. Upon them, as indicated above, the present custodian of the papers has based two volumes, the first of which appeared in London in 1883, and in Boston in 1884, as the Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, with an account of his administration when he was member and speaker of the house of representatives [of Massachusetts], and his government of the colony during the difficult period that preceded the war of independence. Compiled from the original documents by Peter Orlando Hutchinson, one of his great-grandsons. The second volume appeared in 1886. The work has been welcomed by historical students for its helpful assistance in the study of the character of Hutchinson, while they have been annoyed at the garrulous, misinformed, and ill-assorted additions of the editor.5 The papers of Rufus King passed to his eldest son, John A. King; thence to Charles King, president of Columbia College, who had the intention of editing them. This purpose not being reached, the papers passed to Rufus King's grandson, their present owner, Mr. Charles R. King, of Andalusia, Penna., who informs me that the only use which has so far been made of them was by John C. Hamilton in his work on Alexander Hamilton, and that some letters from them have appeared in Lodge's Life of George Cabot and in Ellis's Count Rumford. The collection is not known to have been despoiled, though there are some gaps in important periods, and it is the completest during King's official residence in London as American minister. The papers in the main consist of letters, public and private, but they contain also essays on current questions, drafts of speeches, and personal statements respecting his public views. The editing of the papers is at present in progress for publication. The papers of General Henry Knox, as preserved by him, were placed about 1840, on the recommendation of Jared Sparks, in the hands of Charles S. Davies, who undertook the preparation of a memoir of Knox; but being obliged by ill-health to abandon the work, the papers passed to Joseph Willard, who died before he, in turn, could perfect the work. Coming into the possession of Rear-Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher, a grandson of the general, the manuscripts were finally in 1873 presented to the N. E. Hist. Genealogical Society, and have since been bound and indexed, making a set of fifty-five large folio volumes, containing 11,464 papers in all. Sixty-six of these are Washington letters, some of which are deficient in signature; and probably many papers, particularly those of Washington, have in the past been given away or abstracted from the collection. These papers form the basis of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Knox, by Francis S. Drake, Boston, 1873,6 who had also the use of the material which had been arranged by Mr. Willard.7 1 This is said to have passed lately into the British Mu seum. Cf. P. O. Hutchinson, ii. 78, etc.; Barry's Mass., ii. 258. 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xx. 269. The family seem to have copies of Hutchinson's first and second volumes of his History, enriched with his corrections and annotations. (Notes and Queries, 2d ser., vii. 240.) He is the son of Andrew (born on shipboard in Boston harbor, Mar. 24, 1775), the son of Thomas, the son of the governor. 5 Cf. Geo. E. Ellis in Atlantic Monthly, May, 1884. There are two known portraits of Gov. Hutchinson, and both are preserved in the gallery of the Massachusetts Historical Society. One is a half length, youthful in appearance, painted by Edward Truman (1741), and is thought to be the one left in his house at Milton, and later damaged by being run through the eyes by a rabid patriot. It has been restored, and is engraved in the Mem. Hist. Boston, ii. 68, and a photograph of it is given by P. O. Hutchinson (vol. i.). Cf. Catal. Cab. Mass. Hist. Soc., no. 7; Proceedings, ii. 17. The other represents more mature life, and is of smaller size, showing the head and shoulders only. P. O. Hutchinson, who gives a photograph of it (vol. ii.), attributing it to Copley, is inclined to doubt its authenticity, VOL. VIII. — 28 because he does not see in it the Hutchinson characteristics of face and head (vol. i. p. 565). There is an engraving of it in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., i. 297 (with memoir by S. G. Drake); Drake's Boston, 700, 701; Dearborn's Boston Notions, 263. (Cf. Catal. Cab. Hist. Soc., no. 8; Perkins's Copley, p. 76; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., i. 101, 417.) A paper by Col. Chester on the connection of the English and American Hutchinsons is in the N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1866, p. 355; 1868, p. 236. This memoir is abridged by the author in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1880, p. 35. 7 Memoir of Joseph Willard in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., ix. 292. There are also a few of Knox's letters among the Tudor MSS. in the Mass. Hist. Society's cabinet, and others are in the library of the Maine Historical Society. Reminiscences of Knox by H. G. Otis are in the New Eng. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., July, 1876. The best known likeness of Knox represents him at half length, leaning his left hand on a cannon in a way to hide two broken fingers of that hand. This has been engraved by J. F. E. Prud'homme and others, and there is a woodcut in the Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 95. This picture was painted by Stuart, and given by the family to the city of Boston, and was then placed in Faneuil Hall. It is now in the Boston |