exceeding six miles square, the North Town and the South Town. The former was called Townshend, the latter Lunenburg. Townshend was incorporated in 1732. It was named by Gov. Jonathan Belcher, in honor of Viscount Charles Townshend, one of the members of the privy council, the secretary of war of king George the Second. Subsequently the letter h was dropped in this name. Rev. Phinehas Hemenway, the first minister of the town, it is said, was the first native born son of Framingham, who graduated at college. This event took place at Harvard, in 1730. The natural scenery of Townsend, we judge, is commanding and attractive. The chapters of the book which treat of the ecclesiastical history, of the various denominations, the ministers, the meeting-houses, the schools and the teachers, afford pleasant reading and entertainment even to a stranger, and we should think the work would be valuable and instructive to a citizen and a native. The Townsend Female Seminary has had a wide reputation. It was incorporated in 1839, though the institution was inaugurated some years before. We are sorry to learn that it is among the things that were. In every particular," says Mr. Sawtelle, "it had no peer in America, except, perhaps, Mrs. Willard's Female Seminary at Troy, N. Y." Interesting chapters are presented of the "Shays Rebellion," as also of the war of the revolution, and the late war of the rebellion. There seemed to be no lack of patriotism in Townsend, when, in either of these dilemmas, the country's need was known. The "minute men were ready at a moment's warning. The wives and daughters aided their husbands, sons and brothers to go forward at the trumpet's call. Sketches are drawn of the lawyers, physicians, college graduates, and prominent individuals of the place. Order and good government seem to have prevailed. And why should it not ever be so among these small democracies" of the people? The number of inhabitants, we suppose, are a little rising of two thousand. They have their mills, propelled by steam and water. Their coopering is the most extensive business. This, with the lumbering and manufacturing interests, employs about one-seventh of the whole population, besides the farming and other labors. The capital invested in manufactures in 1875, was more than half a million of dollars, and the whole value of goods made there, in the aggregate, according to the statistics given, amounts to nearly double that sum. 46 There are in the volume twenty-eight lithographic portraits of natives, or noted men of Townsend, among them that of the Rev. David Palmer, and the Rev. Luther H. Sheldon, the third and fourth pastors of the town; the Hon. Seth Davis, whose features and chirography would indicate a man seventy years of age or under, but whose autograph and likeness were made after he was ninety years of age; of Frederick A. Worcester, the lawyer, who gave five of his sons a collegiate education, of whom are Joseph E. Worcester, the lexicographer, and the Hon. Samuel T. Worcester, of Nashua, N. H., a contributer to the Register; of Joel Giles, Esq., a wellknown Boston lawyer, and others, most of whom are living. A list of the town officers from 1733 to 1878, inclusive, as also of the marriages from the incorporation of the town to the present time, a record of the descendants of Daniel Adams, who settled there in 1742, and a genealogy of the Whitneys, are furnished. A map of the town faces chapter one. Good paper and beautiful type are used. The book is well written, in a simple, clear and lively style. Taste and judgment are manifested in the arrangement. There is no index, but the deficiency is in some degree met by an excellent table of contents. W. B. TRASK. Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy. By EDWARD D. NEILL, Presbyter of the Reformed Church. [Virginia arms. Reprinted from the Episcopal Recorder. Philadelphia: 1220 Sansom Street. 1877. [Royal 8vo. pp. 35.] Early Settlement of Virginia and Virginiola, as Noticed by Poets and Players in the Time of Shakspeare; with Some Letters on the English Colonization of America never before Printed. [Virginia arms.] By Rev. EDWARD D. NEILL, A.B.,. . Minneapolis, Minn.: Johnson, Smith & Harrison. 1878. [8vo. pp. 47.] The Rev. Mr. Neill, president of Macalister College, is one of the most successful explorers, in our day, for lost and forgotten documents illustrating the history of this country. His "English Colonization of America," "Virginia Company of London," "Terra Mariæ," Founders of Maryland," "Fairfaxes of England and America," and other works, contain valuable documents which have never before appeared in print. But not merely through his books does he communicate to the public the result of his researches, but he freely scatters them in periodicals and newspapers. Our own pages are indebted to him for some of the most valuable contributions with which they have been enriched. The two works before us are important additions to American history. The first contains biographical sketches and memoirs of the chaplains of the early expeditions to Virginia, and the most prominent settled and resident clergy in the colony to the time of the revolution. He has gleaned from obscure as well as familiar sources, a remarkably full account of the early clergymen there. The title of the second work describes its contents. President Neill has been very thorough in his search, among the poets and players of Shakspeare's time, for notices of and references to Virginia, and to Virginiola as Bermuda was once called. He has collected an interesting array of passages. The documents referred to in the title as never before printed," are two letters from Sir Edwin Sandys, dated March 21, 1610, and April 8, 1612, the former enclosing one from the Virginia Company dated Feb. 28, 1610, which letters were copied from the archives of the ancient town of Sandwich, England; also a letter from George Percy to his brother Henry, dated Virginia, James Towne, August 17, 1611, from the Northumberland papers. We have here, also, a reprint of a small quarto poetic tract, entitled: "Nevves from Virginia, The Lost Flocke Triumphant: With the happy Arrival of that famous and worthy knight Sr Thomas Gates; and the well reputed and valient Captaine Mr Christopher Newporte, and others, into England. With the manner of their distresse in the Iland of Devils (otherwise called Bermoothawes) where they remayned 42 weekes and builded two Pynaces, in which they returned into Virginia. By R. Rich, Gent., one of the voyage. London: Printed by Edw. Allde, and are to be solde by John Wright, at Christ-Church dore, 1610." This tract has an interest from the fact that it is the first printed account of the wreck of Gates and Newport's ship, the Sea Venture, which probably suggested to Shakspeare his play of The Tempest. It was discovered by the Shaksperian scholar and antiquary James O. Halliwell (now James Orchard Phillipps), F.S.A., in the library of the Earl of Charlemont at Dublin. Knowing of no other copy in existence, Mr. Halliwell had, in 1865, twenty-five copies printed, of which fifteen were destroyed and ten distributed. J. W. DEAN. Bi-Centennial of Old Dunstable. Address by Hon. S. T. Worcester, October 27, 1873. Also Col, Bancroft's Personal Narrative of the Battle of Bunker Hill and Some Notice of Persons and Families of the Early Times of Dunstable, including Welds, Tyngs, Lovewells, Farwells, Fletchers, Bancrofts, Joneses and Cutlers. By JOHN B. HILL, Nashua, N. H. Published by E. H. Spalding. 1878. [8vo. pp. 189. Price $5.00. Edition, 100 copies. Sold only by George M. Elliott, 48 Central Street, Lowell, Mass.] Dunstable was settled in 1674, and for more than half a century stood the outpost of English civilization in that quarter. In King Philip's war all the settlers fled, except Jonathan Tyng, who fortified his house and held it till the end of the wara watch-house for the neighboring towns." We have in these "Reminiscences of old Dunstable," as they are called in a second title-page, not the story of one town only, but of a region which now contains several towns. There is a sketch of the life of Brig. Gen. and Judge Blanchard, of whom little before has been written. In the Reminiscences of John B. Hill, Esq., the compiler of this work, the writer recognizes the valuable notes of an old friend. They give us light on many subjects. In this book is settled the controversies concerning the death of the Rev. Mr. Weld, and the true age of the centenarian, John Lovewell, father of the hero of Pequaket. Here, too, are new facts about the battle of Bunker-Hill; interesting details concerning the change of state line, in 1741, which cut this town in two; and a full history of the Tyng family, in which many errors that have appeared in print are corrected. Genealogies of the families of Farwell, Bancroft, and other names enumerated on the title-page, are also found here. The exposure which appeared in the " Expeditions of Lovewell," of the fabulous story of Chamberlain's killing Paugus, is fully endorsed. Mr. Hill has, for sixty years, been collecting historical facts and noting them down. In preparing them for the press, he has had the use of valuable manuscripts furnished him by E. H. Spalding, Esq., of Nashua, at whose expense the book has been printed. Among them are a large number of letters and papers formerly belonging to John Farmer, the learned New England genealogist, from whose notes extracts have been freely made, nearly if not quite all of which have not been printed till now; and the Tyng Family Papers, in possession of the Brinley family of Tyngsboro', who have never before allowed them to be taken from the house. The book is of great value to historical students. We are surprised to find that so rich materials have been gleaned from what we supposed to be a well ploughed and harvested field. Our readers are recommended to secure the book without delay, as the small edition will soon be exhausted. FREDERIC KIdder. Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, at the Semi-Annual Meeting held in Boston, April 25, 1877. [Seal.] Worcester: Printed by Charles Hamilton. 1877. [8vo. pp. 119.] The semi-annual proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society contain much valuable historical matter, and frequently present to the public for the first time the results of the latest antiquarian research. The number before us, which is the sixty-ninth, besides minutes of the proceedings and the reports of the council, librarian and treasurer, contains three papers read before the Society, namely, "The Copper Age of Wisconsin," by Prof. James D. Butler, LL.D., read in his absence by Col. Albert H. Hoyt; "The Davenport Tablets," by R. J. Farquhar son, an account of some remarkable inscribed stone tablets; and Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan," by Stephen Salisbury, Jr., in the last of which is an account of a remarkable ancient statue in Yucatan, called Chac-Mool, and "an interesting résumé of the antiquities of the country," derived by Mr. Salisbury, in part, from personal observation; with communications from Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon concerning exploration in the Yucatan peninsula. Mr. Salisbury's paper is illustrated by seve ral heliotypes of the statue in various stages of exhumation, and bas reliefs from the building under which it was found." The report of the council was written by Col. John D. Washburn. It notices two deceased members, the Ilon. Emory Washburn and the Rev. Andrew Bigelow, D.D., and pays a tribute to Edward Johnson, an early historian of New England, whose "Wonder-Working Providence" was ably edited a few years ago by William F. Poole, A.M., now of the Chicago Public Library. Samuel F. Haven, A.M., the librarian, in his report notices some of the late publications by members of the society, and discusses some topics suggested by recent archæological research. 66 J. W. D. The Centennial Celebration of the Wednesday Evening Club: Instituted June 21, 1777. Boston: Press of John Wilson & Son. 1878. [12mo. pp. 145.] This is supposed to be "the oldest social club in our country, and in the one hundred years has counted over one hundred members, of whom more than threequarters have long since been gathered to their fathers,-many eminent in public, more distinguished in the private walks of life, but all, without exception, of at least unimpeachable respectability." The celebration was held on Wednesday evening, May 9, 1877, at the residence of Nathaniel Thayer, 70 Mount Vernon Street, Boston. Áddresses were made by members, and are printed in the volume before us. The appendix contains an historical sketch of the club, a list of the members, and other interesting matters. J. W. D. Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. Vol. IV. [Seal.] Savannah: Morning News Steam Printing House. 1878. [8vo. pp. 263+64.] The Georgia Historical Society was organized June 4, 1839. The next year the first volume of its Collections was published. This was followed by a second volume in 1842, and a third in 1873. The fourth volume is now before us. It consists of two works with separate title-pages and separately paged. The first work is "The Dead Towns of Georgia," by Charles C. Jones, Jr.," and the second, ** Itinerant Observations in America. Reprinted from the London Magazine, 1745-6.” The Dead Towns" are those settlements in Georgia which for a time had more or less prosperity, but which, from the unhealthiness of the climate or other causes, were finally abandoned. The principal of these are Ebenezer (old and new) on the Savannah, Frederica on the Altamaha, Sunbury on the Midway, and Hardwick on the Ogeechee. Historical accounts, illustrated-by photographic plans, are given of these four towns. One of the places, Sunbury, has an especial interest for New Englanders, as descendants of the colonists from Dorchester, Mass., who settled in Dorchester, South Carolina, and thence removed to Midway, Georgia, are among the settlers of Sunbury. Notices of several other "dead towns" are also found here. The author, Mr. Jones, of Augusta, who has done much for the history of Georgia, makes these just observations : "If it be praiseworthy in their descendants to erect monuments in honor of the illustrious dead, and to perpetuate in history the lives and acts of those who gave shape to the past and encouragement to the future, surely it will not be deemed in appropriate to gather up the fragmentary memories of towns once vital and influential within our borders, but now covered with the mantle of decay, without succession, and wholly silent amid the voices of the present. Against the miasmatic influences of the swamps, Spanish perils, the hostility of the aborigines, and the poverty and sometimes narrowmindedness of the Trust, did the colonists grievously struggle in asserting their dominion over the untamed lands from the Savannah to the Altamaha. Nothing indicates so surely the vicissitudes and the mistakes encountered during that primal period of development as the DEAD TOWNS OF GEORGIA." Mr. Jones has gathered a vast amount of facts concerning these places, and has presented them to his readers in an attractive form. He furnishes a full index. The Itinerant Observations in America" are reprints of articles that appeared in the "London Magazine and Monthly Chronicler." The person who furnished them to the magazine makes this statement about them: "A Young Gentleman, who has made the tour of most Parts of America, is preparing for the Press Some New and Curious Observations made in several Voyages and Travels in that Part of the Globe. I have, out of Regard to your Collection, prevailed upon him to favor the Publick, now and then, thro' your Channel, with Descriptions of the most remarkable Places he has visited." The pictures of life which they present in Georgia, South Carolina and Maryland, are quaint and interesting. From a footnote on page 64, it appears that in 1744, a work by the author, whose name is not given, entitled "Expedition to St. Augustine," was "printed for T. Astley," of London. J. W. D. Home Reminiscences of John Randolph of Roanoke. By РowHATAN BOULDIN. [Vignette.] Danville, Va.: Published by the Author. Richmond, Va. Clemmitt & Jones, Printers. 1878. [12mo. pp. 320. With Portrait. Price $2. By mail, 2.10. For sale by the author, Danville, Va., and by Little, Brown & Co., Boston.] "About fifteen years ago," says Mr. Bouldin in his preface, "I resided in Charlotte, my native county, and my business called me to the homes of nearly all the old citizens. Around the social circle they often spoke of John Randolphnever seeming to tire of the theme. So interesting were they that I determined to write down their recollections, intending, at some future day, to arrange them for a book. I had the reminiscences of my father, the Hon. James W. Bouldin, to begin with. To his were soon added those of William H. Elliott, Esq., who generously came forward with a most valuable contribution. The manuscripts of these two old citizens of Charlotte, Mr. Randolph's own county, formed the nucleus around which many others were gathered. So that, in the course of time, I found myself in the possession of a fund of choice ana which had never been published." It will be seen from this statement that Mr. Bouldin enjoyed remarkable oppor tunities for obtaining authentic information of Mr. Randolph's home life," for the author makes no pretence to giving more than this. His political career, with which the public are familiar, is but slightly touched upon in this book. We have here many interesting and instructive passages in the life of the brilliant and eloquent, though eccentric Virginian. Much has been written concerning his eccentricities. Mr. Bouldin attributes the freaks which have led some to question his sanity, to the excessive use of stimulants. This has provoked discussion in the newspapers, but the author maintains his opinion. The book is very interesting, and has attractions for every class of readers. A friend, a native of Virginia, thus writes to us concerning it: "It is a striking compilation, and one of the most truthful that have ever been given to the public. It really presents the morbid, erratic Randolph as he was at his home or in private life, and convincingly explains his remarkable phases of character." J. W. D. Historical Records of the Town of Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut. Collected and Arranged by THEODORE S. GOLD. Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company. 1877. [8vo. pp. 339. To be purchased of the author, West Cornwall, Ct. Price $4. By mail, $4.17.] 66 "The importance of preserving in permanent form the history of every community has induced me," says Mr. Gold, to gather the materials for this volume. No one untried in such a work is aware of the difficulties encountered in collecting unpublished facts. My honored father, Dr. Samuel W. Gold, in his advanced years undertook this work, and I shall confine myself mostly to editing his papers, adding such historical discourses as present our life in its home details, omitting in large VOL. XXXII. 33 degree what the sons of Cornwall have done in national affairs, as finding its appropriate place in national history." Cornwall is in the northwestern part of Connecticut, not far from the state lines of New York and Massachusetts. It was one of five towns-Goshen, Canaan, Cornwall, Kent and Norfolk-laid out under an act for the sale by auction and the settlement of the western lands, passed by the General Assembly of Connecticut at the October session, 1737. Cornwall received its name from the legislature at the following May session. The town was soon after settled, the first settlers being chiefly from Windham county and its vicinity. The first house erected was that of Peter Eastman, where a meeting of the proprietors of the township was held as early as September, 1739. This town was the seat of the Foreign Mission School established in 1818, and the birthplace of Gen. John Sedgwick, whose patriotic services in the war for the preservation of the union are well known. Here also Samuel W. Gold, M.D., and the Hon. Theodore S. Gold, to whose united labors we are indebted for the present book, established the "Cream Hill Agricultural School," which was continued successfully for twenty-four years. A great deal of information concerning the history of Cornwall and the life of its people will be found in these pages. The book is particularly rich in church and military history, those who risked their lives in revolutionary and civil wars receiving their just praise. Much space is given to biography, and superior photographic portraits of thirty people of note connected with the history of the town are given. We understand that the author furnishes the book at barely the cost of production. Natives of Cornwall, and others interested in the town, owe it to him that the sale of his book should defray this. J. W. D. Potter's American Monthly. An Illustrated Magazine of History, Literature, Science and Art. John E. Potter & Company, Philadelphia. [Sm. 4to. vol. x. pp. 480.] The tenth semi-annual volume of this periodical so often noticed in the REGISTER, is completed by the issue of the number for June, 1878. Its six numbers contain many interesting historical and biographical articles, illustrated by numerous engravings; besides tales, current memoranda, and notes and queries on literature, art and science, with a few pages of facetiæ and literary gossip. The subscription price is only three dollars a year. W. Parsons Lunt, 42 Congress street, is the Boston agent. J. W. D. The Pastors of New Hampshire, Congregational and Presbyterian. A Chronological Table of the Beginning and Ending of their Pastorates. By HENRY A. HAZEN. A Supplement to the Annual Minutes. Bristol, N. H.: Printed by R. W. Musgrove. 1878. [8vo. pp. 34.] In a previous number of the REGISTER (ante, xxxi. 240), we noticed the Rev. Mr. Hazen's valuable work, the "New Hampshire Ministry and Churches." In that work he gives: 1st, an alphabetical list of the towns in that state, with the ministers of the congregational and presbyterian churches, the dates of their settlement and dismission, and other statistics; 2d, an alphabetical list of the ministers, with statistics of their education, ordination, ministry, birth and death. The present pamphlet supplements and completes that work. It gives a list of the pastors in New Hampshire, chronologically arranged according to their settlement. The compiler has rare qualifications for this work, and, to our knowledge, has been assiduous in his labor to make the work perfect as to details. He has succeeded in producing a very useful work. J. W. D. The Capture of Gen. Richard Prescott by Lt. Col. William Barton; an Address delivered at the Centennial Celebration of the Exploit at Portsmouth, R. 1.. July 10, 1877. By J. LEWIS DIMAN. Providence: Sidney S. Rider. 1877. [Fep. 4to. 65.] Visits of the Northmen to Rhode Island. By ALEXANDER FARNUM. Providence: Sidney S. Rider. 1877. [Fcp. 4to. pp. 41.] These are the first two numbers of the "Rhode Island Tracts" which Mr. Rider of Providence has commenced the publication of. A third number, the "Journal of Lieut. Hadden of Burgoyne's Army," is announced as in press. The capture of the British Gen. Prescott, by Col. Barton-whose life by Mrs. Catharine R. Williams was published in 1839-was a bold exploit. Its centenary was commemorated last summer by appropriate services. An able historical address was delivered by Prof. J. L. Diman, D.D., of Brown University, and poems, |