PROCEEDINGS. SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING, APRIL 25, 1888, AT THE HALL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, BOSTON. THE President, STEPHEN SALISBURY, A.M., in the chair. The following members were present (the names being arranged in order of seniority of membership): George E. Ellis, Edward E. Hale, Charles Deane, George Chandler, Nathaniel Paine, P. Emory Aldrich, Samuel A. Green, Francis Parkman, Elijah B. Stoddard, George S. Paine, Edward L. Davis, Henry M. Dexter, James F. Hunnewell, Egbert C. Smyth, John D. Washburn, Thomas W. Higginson, Edward H. Hall, Reuben A. Guild, Charles C. Smith, Hamilton B. Staples, Edmund M. Barton, Thomas L. Nelson, Lucius R. Paige, Franklin B. Dexter, John J. Bell, George H. Moore, Charles A. Chase, Samuel S. Green, Justin Winsor, Henry W. Haynes, Edward I. Thomas, Solomon Lincoln, Andrew McF. Davis, J. Evarts Greene, Henry S. Nourse, William B. Weeden, Daniel Merriman, Reuben Colton, Robert N. Toppan, Henry H. Edes, Grindall Reynolds, George E. Francis, Frank P. Goulding, James P. Baxter, Thomas Chase. The record of the last meeting was read by the Recording Secretary and approved. The PRESIDENT read a report which had been prepared by him, and adopted by the Council as part of their report. NATHANIEL PAINE, Esq., Treasurer, submitted his report in print, and EDMUND M. BARTON, Esq., Librarian, read his report. These reports, as together constituting the report of the Council, were, on motion of CHARLES DEANE, LL.D., accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication. The Council having recommended for membership in the Society, WILLIAM FRANCIS ALLEN, A.M., of Madison, Wisconsin, and AUGUSTUS GEORGE BULLOCK, A.M., of Worcester, they were, by separate ballot, elected members. GEORGE H. MOORE, LL.D., read a paper entitled "The Bibliology of American Witchcraft." Hon. HAMILTON B. STAPLES presented to the Society, in behalf of Mr. Thomas L. Winthrop of Boston, the sword of Fitz-John Winthrop. In making the presentation Mr. STAPLES said: On the 11th of December last, I received a letter from Mr. Thomas L. Winthrop of Boston, grandson of a former President of the Society, the late Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, in which, through me, a very interesting proposition was made to the Society. I give entire this part of the letter. "Miss Winthrop has much interested me in her account of our family relics in the rooms of the Antiquarian Society, and I have thought it possible that it might be agreeable to the Society to become the depository of yet another which I have held for many years, uncertain where to bestow it. The article in question is a baskethilted Andrea Ferrara,' bearing upon its blade the name and 'punches' of that famous maker and accompanied by the following inscription, in the handwriting of Mr. Robert C. Winthrop: Sword of Fitz-John Winthrop, sometime a captain in Monk's army, second in command of the expedition against Canada in 1690, agent for Connecticut in London, 1693-8, and afterward for nine years Gov of Connecticut. Born Mch. 14, 1638-died Nov. 27, 1707. WINTHROP SWORD, Buried in the Kings Chapel graveyard.' This sword, which is in perfect preservation, I inherited from my father, Grenville Temple Winthrop, who was an older brother of Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, and son of that namesake of my own, who presented various family relics to the Society, the late Honble Thomas Lindall Winthrop. Would you sometime at your leisure ascertain if it would be pleasing to the Society to receive the sword." I immediately laid the proposition before Mr. SALISBURY, the President of the Society, and was asked by him to inform Mr. Winthrop that if the American Antiquarian Society should become the custodian of the sword, it would be regarded as a trust to be most carefully guarded and that the sword would have a conspicuous place among our most valued relics. I communicated the President's answer to Mr. Winthrop in a letter, first submitted to Mr. SALISBURY for his approval. On March 29, 1888, the sword was forwarded to me accompanied by a letter which clearly explains itself, and should be formally communicated to the Society. "38 BEACON ST., 28 March, 1888. MY DEAR JUDGE STAPLES: Your letter of the 13th February was duly received by me in which you express the willingness of Mr. Stephen Salisbury, on behalf of the American Antiquarian Society, to become the trustee of the sword of Governor Fitz-John Winthrop and to give it a suitable place in the hall of the Society. The acceptance of the trust by the American Antiquarian Society is a high compliment to my family, and assists in confirming my opinion that the sword, although borne by a distinguished Governor of Connecticut, has at least equal claims to interest in the State with which my family was first and most intimately identified. Upon quite different grounds the sword claims the attention of the antiquary of every State and Country, from its being a blade of the most famous sword-maker of the Renaissance, whose name and punches are to be found upon it. Allow me to thank you for your kind trouble taken in this matter, and believe me, my dear Judge Staples, yours very truly, THOMAS L. WINTHROP." In presenting the sword to the Society at this time, I comply with the request of the President in giving a somewhat more extended sketch of the wearer of the sword, and of the sword itself. Fitz-John Winthrop was the son of John Winthrop, the first Governor of Connecticut under the charter, and grandson of John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts. His father, born at Groton, England, in 1605, educated at the University of Dublin, was a fine scholar and an eminent physician. He died in Boston, April 5, 1676. Fitz-John Winthrop was born at Ipswich, March 14, 1638. Before attaining his majority he went to England to seek service in the civil war. The time of his arrival there is indicated by a letter from his uncle, Emanuel Downing, at Edinburgh, dated 24 February, 1657, congratulating him upon his safe arrival, and also by a letter from his uncle, Colonel Thomas Reade, Governor of Stirling Castle, dated February 15, 1657, in which young Winthrop is advised to remain in Scotland, and assured of the willingness of Colonel Reade to assist him in obtaining military preferment. The promise was soon fulfilled. In a letter dated December 8, 1658, he is addressed as "Lt: Winthrope at Sterling." In the following February he was at Cardross as Governor of the castle with the same title. In 1660 he was a captain in Colonel Reade's regiment. That he was with General Monk in London shortly before the Restoration is shown by his letter to his brother Wait Winthrop, afterwards Chief Justice, from London, dated May 8, 1660. Returning to New England, at or near the end of 1661, he identified himself with the Connecticut colony, became a representative, served in King Philip's War as Major, and for a time was a member of the Council |