ter of Giles Master, of the same city. Both parents were of gentle lineage, and of high character and standing. Edward Randolph married Jane Gibbon, of West Cliff in the county of Kent. Her brother, Richard Gibbon, Doctor of Physic, married Anne Tufton, the sister of Robert Mason. It is proper to observe that Robert Mason, alias Tufton, assumed the surname Mason to inherit his grandfather Mason's estate in New England. Upon the death of his wife in 1679, Randolph again came to New England, bringing his family, designing, it would seem, to remain here permanently. He had been appointed by the Commissioners of Customs Collector of Customs in New England. Having other public employments, he appointed his brother Gyles deputy in this office. The latter soon after died, and he appointed another brother, Bernard, to this place. Bernard Randolph was an author of considerable note in his time.

In 1691, Edward Randolph was appointed Surveyor-General of Customs in all the English Provinces in North America. This fact shows that he was recognized as an able and faithful officer by the English Government.

Dr. ELLIS spoke of the value of the Pickering Papers recently presented to the Society, and paid an appreciative tribute to the labors of our associate, Mr. Upham, in completing the Memoir of Timothy Pickering.

The Recording Secretary, Mr. DEANE, communicated the following memorandum relating to the death of Mathew Cradock:

In the Proceedings of this Society for November, 1871, I submitted a statement of reasons for believing that Mathew Cradock, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Company, must have died between the 14th and 28th of May, 1641, and intimated that it must have occurred near the last-named date. Since that statement has appeared in print, my attention has been called by an antiquarian friend to the " to the Obituary of Richard Smith," published by the Camden Society in 1849, "being a catalogue of all such persons as he knew in their life, from A.D. 1627 to A.D. 1674." In this record is given the exact time of Cradock's death. Under date of May 27, 1641, we read," Math. Cradock, merchant, one of the Members of Parliament for ye City of London, died." This happily confirms my conjecture, and it is satisfactory to have the exact date.

John Ward Dean, Esq.

This entry had been already copied into the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for Oct. 1857.-C. D.

Mr. BROOKS presented, in the name of Mr. A. H. Safford, of Cambridge, a pen-and-ink sketch of Washington, executed by J. Hiller, Jr., in 1794. Mr. Safford's belief was that the miniature was presented by General Washington to Captain Thomas Hartshorn, of Reading, who died in 1819. It had been in Mr. Safford's possession for over fifty years, he having been a foster-son of Captain Hartshorn. The drawing is sketched on the back of a playing card, the ten of diamonds: the name of "George Washington" is inscribed on a scroll beneath the picture, and beneath the oval in which the picture is enclosed is "J. Hiller, Jr., scrip. [or sculp.] 1794." From subsequent inquiries, Mr. Brooks had ascertained that there had been published in 1851, in Boston, a portrait of Washington, purporting to be engraved from the original sketch by a young artist by the name of Fullerton, taken from life in 1776,which greatly resembles this sketch of Hiller's, and that probably Hiller's sketch was made from Fullerton's original.

Mr. Safford also presented a miniature in profile of Captain Hartshorn, and some letters written from the army during the Revolutionary War, one of which, written by Colonel John Brooks" from the Camp, near Valley Forge, January 5, 1778," Mr. Brooks read to the meeting. It is given below:

CAMP NEAR VALLEY FORGE, Jan' 5a, 1778.

DEAR SIR, With high satisfaction I received your's of the 14th ultimo; but feel myself very unhappy that my last should give you any disagreeable feelings. It was far from my intention. A Vindication of myself (not with so much seriousness as you imagine) was my design. But, concluding it will be more pleasing to you, I will change the Subject.

You make me smile when you observe that you are not so sanguine about matters in this quarter at present as you were. My dear friend, what ever made you sanguine? Could How's marching through a vast extent of country- a country very well formed for defence; could the Action at Brandywine, at which time Gen! Washington's Army was entirely routed for that day, with as great loss, at least, as ever was published; could the Germantown Affair, in which our army were again broke, dispersed, and persued for more than ten miles from the place of the first attack, with the loss of more than one thousand men; in short, could a large superiority of number on the side of M! How through the whole campaign, and in consequence thereof, his being able to go to what point he pleased, I ask, could any of these make you sanguine? Even now, since the northern troops have joined, How's army is the largest, which is now some above ten thousand, ours not eight thousand.

With respect to the clothing, &c., &c., of our army, believe it, Sir, to be bad enough. Ever since our march from Albany our men have

At the next meeting, April twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and twenty, "The additional Hutchinson papers, presented by Mr. Secretary Bradford, were referred to the Publishing Committee," by vote of the Society.

In a report which Mr. Secretary Bradford made to the Legislature by its own order, February thirteenth, eighteen hundred and twentyone, on the present condition of the public records and documents belonging to the Commonwealth," we find the following:

"Several files of papers saved from the riot at Governor Hutchinson's house, some of them of a private nature, and some of them public documents, collected by him probably as materials for his History of Massachusetts, and a volume of State Papers which he had published. These not being considered as belonging to the Government, or as any part of the Records of the Commonwealth, or ancient Colony or Province, some of them, valuable chiefly for their antiquity, were selected by the undersigned, with the consent and approbation of the Supreme Executive, and deposited in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a list of them being first made and kept in the Secretary's office." Neither of the lists referred to has been found.

August twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty-three, it was voted by the Society: "That the additional Hutchinson papers, received this day from the Secretary of State, be referred to the Publishing Committee."

In the X. Volume, second series of the Society's printed Collections, page 181, published eighteen hundred and twenty-three, occur these words: "By direction of the Governor and Council of this Commonwealth, the Secretary of State has deposited with the Massachusetts Historical Society a large collection of documents, public and private, which appear to have been used by the late Thomas Hutchinson, Esquire, Governor of His Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay, in the composition of that History which will probably continue to be the best narrative of any of the settlements on this continent. Several of these papers are printed in the collection of papers by Hutchinson, sometimes called the third volume of his History.

"Those here printed have been transcribed with great care by gentlemen of experience in the chirography of the different seasons of their date. In succeeding volumes other pieces may enrich our Collections."

In a memoir of the Society prepared by appointment by Rev. Dr. Jenks for publication in the " American Quarterly Register" for eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, and afterwards incorporated in the Society's printed Collections, it is said that "the zeal of Alden Bradford, Esq., LL.D., one of the few survivors among its earliest members, and a large contributor to the history of his country, as well as to the Collections of this Society, induced him to obtain from the Government of the State permission to extract from the Hutchinson Papers in the Secretary's office such as the Society might deem worthy of publication."

It appears, then, that the collection for which we seek consisted of letters and papers, some of them of a private nature and some of them public documents; that it was a large collection; that its matter was of early date, some of which had been printed in Hazard, some in Hutchinson, and much not at all; that it was such as Governor Hutchinson might have used as material for his two volumes of Massachusetts History, and for his volume of State Papers, sometimes called the third volume of his History; and that it was such as Mr. Secretary Bradford and the State authorities of the day thought might be spared from the Secretary's office. No vote authorizing the transfer of these papers is found on the records of the Executive Council or elsewhere at the State House.

The outbreak which scattered Hutchinson's library occurred at his house near North Square on the evening of August twenty-sixth, seventeen hundred and sixty-five.

He left the country, superseded by General Gage, June first, seventeen hundred and seventy four.

The first volume of his History appeared seventeen hundred and sixty-four, and covered the period embraced between the settlement of the Colony and sixteen hundred and ninety-two. His second volume appeared seventeen hundred and sixty-seven, and covered a succeeding period ending with the year seventeen hundred and forty-nine.

His volume of State Papers, intended to support with documentary proofs the authority of his first volume of History, appeared seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, and covered papers dated between sixteen hundred and twenty-nine and sixteen hundred and eighty-nine.

He contemplated the publication of a second volume of papers, which never appeared, and which was in like manner intended as an appendix to his second volume of History.

He also left in manuscript, afterwards printed, a volume of History covering the period from seventeen hundred and forty-nine to seventeen hundred and seventy-four.

His family had been domiciled here since sixteen hundred and thirty-four. He says that he had himself spent thirty years in collecting these historical materials, and that "many ancient records and papers came to me from my ancestors, who for four successive generations had been principal actors in public affairs; among the rest a manuscript history of Mr. William Hubbard, &c. I made what collection I could of the private papers of others of our first settlers."

That the mass of such material collected at Hutchinson's house was very great, and that a very considerable quantity of it must have found its way to the State House in consequence of the Confiscation Acts passed, and the vigorous measures adopted in enforcing them, will not be questioned. His friend and neighbor, Dr. Andrew Eliot, not only made his house a haven for these scattered treasures, but public' notice was advertised requesting all persons into whose hands they might fall to return them there.

When Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson's house was pillaged and pulled to pieces by an infuriated mob, his books and MSS. were

The thanks of the Society were ordered for these gifts. The Cabinet-keeper announced as gifts to the Cabinet two photographs of the "burnt district" in Boston, printed in carbon, by the artists, Allen & Rowell.

SOCIAL MEETING, FEBRUARY 26, 1874.

A Social Meeting of the Society was held on the evening of the 26th February, at the house of Mr. WILLIAM AMORY, in Beacon Street; the President in the chair.

The meeting was called to order at 8 o'clock, and the President spoke as follows:

Meeting to-night at the house of the brother-in-law of PRESCOTT, from whom we have recently received the Noctograph used by that charming historian in writing, and some of the autograph manuscripts which it helped him to write, nothing could be more opportune than the return of these precious memorials from the case-maker to whom they were intrusted, just in season to be exhibited to the Society in the shape in which they have been prepared for our cabinet. They have been arranged under the direction of our Recording Secretary and Librarian, at the request and at the cost of Mr. Amory, and a statement to that effect has been inscribed on the case. Our grateful acknowledgments of the gift have been already returned by order of the Society

The following letter of Mr. Prescott, communicated by Dr. Ellis, describes his manner of using the "Noctograph," and is no less interesting for the additional particulars it furnishes as to his methods of study induced by his comparative loss of sight:

BOSTON, June 1st, 1857.

MY DEAR MR. ELLIS,I hope I have not abused your patience in delaying so long to give you the information which you desired respecting the modus operandi in my historical composition. My defective eyesight has rendered it somewhat peculiar. But I suspect most of the peculiarities have been already noticed by me on other occasions.

I suppose you are aware that when in college I received a blow on the eye which deprived me of the use of it for reading and writing.