THE NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY AND ITS FOUNDER.

BY VICTORIA REED.

Thomas Prince was an eminent divine and accomplished scholar, well known throughout New England during the first half of the 18th century. His life is worthy of consideration on many accounts, but particularly for the great work he accomplished outside of his profession. He is, perhaps, best known to this generation as the collector of the Prince Library, now incorporated with many other private collections in the Public Library of Boston, although his published work, “The Chronology of New England,” confers an equal benefit on posterity, and both together entitle him to a place of honor in our annals.

His library was gathered as much for the instruction of others as for his own gratification. It is interesting to know that this bequest, now one hundred and fifty years old, obsolete in some respects, is still highly valued. Some writer says, that, if for no other reason, there should be a new fire-proof building for the Public Library for the better preservation of the Shakespeare collection and the Prince Library. The valuable editions of Shakespeare arranged in glass cases in the Bates Hall are no doubt familiar to many people, but it is possible that the majority even of the daily visitors to this institution have no definite knowledge of the Prince Library, which is found, on examination, to contain a fund for the curious, as well as many things of importance to the antiquarian.

This library was added to the Public Library twenty-four years ago, and was originally a gift to the Old South Church. It is a collection which should be treasured, not only by Bostonians and all New England people, but is also of importance to the country at large, as it was, in a limited sense, the forerunner of all public libraries in the land. It is of a twofold nature,—an historical section, with the other devoted to ecclesiastical works. Mr. Prince designed the ecclesiastical or Old South collection, as he called it, for the use of the pastors and church of which he was associate pastor forty years. This contained all the Latin and Greek books, and all in oriental languages.

His will states: “That whereas I have been many years collecting a number of books, pamphlets, maps, prints and manuscripts, either published in New England or pertaining to its history and public affairs, to which collection I have given the name of ‘Ye New England Library,’ and have deposited in the steeple of the Old South Church; and as I made this collection from a public view and desire that many important transactions might be remembered, which otherwise would be lost, I hereby bequeath the collection to the Old South Church forever, to the end that this collection may be kept entire. I desire that this collection be kept in a different department from the other books, and that it may be so made that no person shall borrow any book or paper therefrom, but that any person whom the pastors and deacons of the church for the time being shall approve, may have access thereto, and take copies therefrom.”

The Prince catalogue states that, “at his death, the New England Library was the most extensive of the kind that had ever been formed. It contains, in its depleted state, not less than 1,500 books and tracts relating to America during the period of our colonial history.”

The Mather family and Gov. Hutchinson are alone to be compared with Mr. Prince as collectors of books, and theirs avail little, as they have been scattered and destroyed. It is a matter of congratulation that the greater portion of Mr. Prince’s books have been preserved, each of which had been carefully selected, “many bearing name, date of purchase, cost, and place where it was acquired.” He frequently noted contemporaneous events of public importance on fly-leaf.

A great number were purchased during a seven-years’ residence in Europe, and some one says, “By means of this memoranda, we can easily trace the stages of his sojourn abroad.” He invented a very quaint book-plate, with flowered border, in which he inscribed his name.

Many valuable books and manuscripts were destroyed at the beginning of hostilities, which resulted in the Revolutionary war. The library, when entire, was a rare monument to the energy and perseverance of Mr. Prince, who, through a long and laborious life, never lost sight of this cherished project of his youth. It has never been merged into any other collection, but remains entirely separate, in accordance with the will of the testator. It has a special catalogue, and no book is ever taken from the building, though accessible for reference in the main hall. The books are deposited in an alcove at the top of the house, reached by a spiral stairway. Many of them are of immense size, in heavy leather bindings, while others are of the smallest dimensions. The pages are yellow with age, and the majority will have only the ravages of time to contend with, as the contents are not of a nature to make them attractive to the youth, or even to many maturer minds of this generation; but to the antiquarian, and as a picture of the growth of a mind in Puritan days, from its earliest years to advanced age, this collection is unequalled; for it was carefully selected, subject to the taste and needs of Mr. Prince’s nature, and each book was familiar and favorite ground to him.

The first book with date bears this inscription: “Thos. Prince, his book, 1697, 10 years of age.” The book was “Marrow of Modern Divinity,” with “Awakening Call to the Unconverted” attached, and in his 16th year the following book was added: “Some Account of Holy Life and Death of Mr. Henry Gearing, late citizen of London, who departed this life Jan. 4th, 1693, aged 61. Boston in New England, printed for Sam’l Phillips, at the Brick Shop, 1704.” Underneath is written, “Anno Domini, 1704, Thomas Prince, Duke of Landwich, Earl of Pen^apog.”

The taking down of the first Old South and “Ye day of laying foundation of y^e South Church, New Meeting House, March 31, 1727,” are duly chronicled in books of those dates. All through his life Thomas Prince showed a wonderful adaptability in noting the minutest as well as greatest events, and we trace a thorough command of detail in his published work, both lay and clerical. This, joined with enthusiasm and unflagging zeal, caused him to master all difficulties, and to accomplish tasks that would be appalling to an untrained or undisciplined mind.

One of the cards used for reference in the Public Library contains the following: “The Prince Library has some rare specimens of the earliest typographical art in British America, and other books of peculiar interest in the history of New England, though not printed in America. The Bay Psalm Book, which was printed at Cambridge, Mass., in 1640, being the first book ever printed in the British Possessions, ‘The Freeman’s Oath’ and a small almanac only preceding it. What is supposed to be the original draught of the preface of this book, in the handwriting of one of the editors, the Rev. Richard Mather, is among the Prince MSS. Elliot’s Indian Bible,—first edition printed at Cambridge, 1663,—also Eliot’s Indian Primer, 1720, in original binding, and thought in that style to be unique. Capt. John Smith’s description of New England, printed in London, 1616, with the early map. This copy contains the old and new names, and has differences from most copies that have been preserved.”

Mr. Prince collected the original manuscripts of the “Mather Papers,” and arranged them chronologically with notes. He seemed to know intuitively that everything should be preserved that would be of the least advantage to future historians. The salvation of the records of this most important family, who, with extreme rigor and cruelty even, in some cases, ruled the Puritans of their day, was a natural and thoughtful act on Mr. Prince’s part.

The “Hinckley Papers” are of great interest also. The catalogue of this portion of the library has been very carefully prepared, as each letter in all these manuscript collections is designated by subject, the name of the writer, date, and volume that contains it. The Hinckley papers were those belonging to Mr. Prince’s maternal grandfather, Gov. Hinckley, who had a very extensive correspondence during the twenty years he was governor of Plymouth Colony. It contains letters from all men of note of that period,—Roger Williams, the Cottons, the Mathers, Gov. Winslow, a letter of King Charles II. to Gov. Josiah Winslow, Gov. Hinckley’s address, and petition to James II.; also many personal letters to wife and daughters. Mr. Prince says “that on his grandfather’s death he took these papers from his study, but while he was in Europe some of curiosity and value were unhappily lost.” There are some Prince papers, mostly letters of distinguished divines to his brother, Rev. Nathan Prince. In his brother’s commonplace book he inscribes, “This book belongs to the New England Library. Begun to be collected by Thomas Prince upon his entering Harvard College in 1703, and was given by Prince to s’d library in memory of his late dear brother, y^e Rev. Nathan Prince, M.A., formerly Fellow and Tutor of Harvard College. Born at Sandwich, November, 1698; died at Rattan, 1748, and wrote this manuscript before he left s^d college in 1742.” The catalogue remarks: “Two vols. MSS., evidently companions to this book, are in the Library of Bishop of London at Fulham.”

There is in the Prince Library quite a large collection of ecclesiastical history and biblical literature.

The psalms in numberless versions, metres, and paraphrases, in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek; one hundred and six volumes on natural, polemic, and practical theology. All his own works are to be found here; as many as thirty-three sermons, mostly funeral discourses, others commemorating great events, such as victories at Culloden and Louisburg. He gave frequently the genealogy of the person eulogized in his funeral orations, thus making them valuable for family reference, and often of historical significance. We easily trace the early bent of his mind toward chronology. It gathered force throughout his whole career, and finally bore fruit in his own “Chronology of New England,” on which he spent many years of preparation.

He said himself, when he presented it in person to the House, of which Hon. Mr. Quincy was speaker, in 1736: “I most humbly present to your honor, and this honorable house, the first volume of my ‘Chronology of New England,’ which at no small expense and pains I have composed and published for the instruction and good of my country.” He published three parts of the second volume, and made elaborate preparations for its continuance. He began his work at the patriarchal period, and brought it down with careful attention to reliable facts into the earliest annals and descriptive history of Plymouth Colony, throwing light on the mode of living and thinking of the Puritans by copious quotations from their diaries. If his diligent and inquisitive mind could have completed this wonderful production,—bringing it to the middle of the 18th century,—it would have been such a perfect and minute account of the early history of New England that there would have been nothing for later historians to glean. It was, however, unappreciated at the time of its publication, which was a discouragement to him, though he always maintained, with his peculiar insight into the needs of coming ages, that the time would surely arrive when his patient and laborious work would meet with some reward,—a prophecy which has been more than fulfilled as far as the historians of New England are concerned.

The last work of his busy life was the revision of the Bay Psalm Book. Mr. Prince, in his account of this undertaking, gives an idea of the thoroughness of his preparatory work. He says: “The old Psalm Book,—the first book printed in all North America, or in the New World,—this version of 1640, by the clergymen, John Elliot, of Roxbury, Mr. Richard Mather, of Dorchester, and Mr. Thomas Weld,—was liked so much, that it was used by some congregations in England while I was there.” “To gain sentiment,” he says, for his own version, “I read every verse in English Bible and Polyglot; also in Hebrew, with Moulane’s Interlineary, the Septuagint, the Chaldee, the ancient Latin, Latin versions of Syriac and Arabic, Castalio, Tremilius and Junius, Ainsworth and De Mies. When I met with difficulty I searched the following ancient lexicons: Avenarius, Schindler, Pagnini, Mercer, Buxtorfs two lexicons, namely, Hebrew and Chaldaic, Leigh, Castillus, Bythun, and Martin Albert.” There were also various interpretations from another long list of names; while he looked into New England version for groundwork, he compared with twelve metrical versions.

A contemporary says: “It showed his wonderful industry and remarkable scholarship.” His professional labors throughout fifty years were very arduous, but he brought the same careful preparation into all branches of his daily occupations that we find in his published work. In addition to his theological studies, which were naturally absorbing, and his historical research, he was thoroughly conversant with polite literature. At his death his library, which he had deposited in the belfry of the Old South Church, said to be his study, remained there intact and undisturbed for seventeen years. The books were on shelves, the manuscripts and maps in boxes and barrels. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war they were still left where Mr. Prince placed them, though the old meeting-house became the camping ground of British soldiery. Pews and pulpit were burnt, to enable the riding school—which the soldiers inaugurated—a better opportunity for its operations. Gov. Winthrop’s old residence, next door to the church, opposite the foot of School street, which had been used some time as a parsonage, fell a victim to the lawlessness of the soldiers, who used the beams and rafters of this memento of the earliest Puritan days for firewood, while many of Mr. Prince’s books and manuscripts were immolated on the same altar. It has been suggested that some were taken by the spectators who thronged to witness the exhibitions, as manuscripts known to have belonged to this library were found—so the catalogue states—as remote as in a grocer’s shop in Nova Scotia. It would be difficult to conjecture which would have caused the greater grief to Mr. Prince,—the desecration of the church, whose construction had been a daily delight, and where he had earnestly labored for so many years, or the sacrifice of a portion of the results of the patient toil of a lifetime. This material, however, which was consigned to the flames, would have been of great benefit to historical societies, who now treasure the minutest facts that bear upon our past history. In 1814, when society had recovered its equilibrium, and began to feel a dawning pride in the great achievement that made of the colonies a free and independent nation, an interest naturally increased in those things that pertained to their earliest chronicles. The Historical Society looked over the books and pamphlets belonging to Mr. Prince, removing the historical portion to their rooms, while the ecclesiastical was sent to the house of the pastor of the Old South. In 1860 it was considered desirable to place them all together in the Public Library of Boston, where they would be under the guardianship of the city, and be far more accessible, though still the property of the Old South.

Everything seemed to conspire to make the life of Thomas Prince an exceptionally happy and fortunate one. He had remarkable opportunities from his birth to develop all his natural capabilities, and in spite of his Puritan surroundings he gained a liberal view of life, and appreciated and profited by the facilities for culture that were open to him. He traced himself the genealogy and characteristics of the Prince family, and we find in him the modified traits of his English and Puritan forefathers, who, though strictly religious, were not so fanatical as many about them. His great-grandfather, the Rev. John Prince, who lived in the reign of James I. and Charles I., was educated at Oxford, and became rector of East Shefford, Berkshire, Eng. Thomas Prince says of him: “Of whom there was this remarkable, that he was one of the Puritan ministers of the Church of England who in part conformed and who greatly longed for a further reformation. He had married a daughter of Dr. Toldenburg, D.D., of Oxford, by whom he had four sons and seven daughters. Every one of the children proved conscientious non-conformists even while their parents lived, without any breach of affection. Thus they continued pretty near together until the furious and cruel Archbishop Laud dispersed and drove their eldest son, with many others, to this country.”

Walter Money, F.S.A., local secretary of Berks, writes of the old church at East Shefford, of which Rev. John Prince was rector from 1620 to 1644: “The church where he preached still stands, being used only for a mortuary chapel, a new one for use having been erected near by. The old chapel is a most interesting building of the time of Henry VIII., and considered worthy to be described in full in archæological works found in the British Museum. It contains a remarkable monument of Sir Thomas Fettiplace and his wife Beatrice, whose old manor-house adjoined the church. There is an exquisite view of the latter in the British Museum.”

The rector’s oldest son, also named John, was destined for the ministry, and had been three years at Oxford before coming to this country. On arriving here, thinking his preparatory work too meagre for his profession, he devoted himself to husbandry. He settled in Hull, in 1633. His son Samuel, the father of Thomas, was born in 1649, and his son chronicles of him, “That he was healthy and strong in body, vigorous and active in spirit, thoughtful and religious from youth, esteemed for his abilities and gifts, especially of his power of arguing; a zealous asserter of New England liberties, with charity to others, instructive in conversation.” He represented the town of Sandwich nineteen times in legislative councils. He had two wives; the second was Mercy, daughter of Governor Hinckley, and Thomas was her oldest son. Governor Hinckley was a man of superior ability, distinguished in the history of Plymouth Colony. “He had been from first to last the associate, in weal or woe, of its great and good men, and had lived himself chief among the survivors to see the last chapter written in its immortal annals.” His grandmother Hinckley was a daughter of Quartermaster Smith, who came from England. Her grandson, Thomas Prince, says of her: “To the day of her death she shone in the eyes of all as the loveliest and brightest for beauty, knowledge, wisdom, majesty, accomplishments and graces throughout the colony.” Governor Hinckley had seventeen children, their names corresponding to the spirit of the times. Among them we find Mataliah, Mehitable, Mercy, Experience, Thankful, Reliance, Ebenezer, and Bathsheba. Thomas Prince himself, one of fourteen children, was born at Sandwich, the first town settled on the Cape in 1687. When eleven years old he went to his grandfather Hinckley’s, and remained with him until he entered college. Here he imbibed his taste for chronology and his love of books. His grandfather fostered him in his youthful ambition of founding a library, and gave him many from his own collection. During his long life of eighty years Governor Hinckley became thoroughly acquainted with all events of importance that had happened in the new world, and the eager boy was fed and stimulated by companionship with him, and all the moving spirits of the day who frequented his grandfather’s house. His early attention to religious subjects, his wide culture, and remarkable sympathy with everything pertaining to his own times, was the blossoming fruit instilled into him by an honorable ancestry, who from the early part of the seventeenth century had been consistent Puritans, and filled places of trust with honor and fidelity.

Although in the first half of the eighteenth century religious fanaticism was on the decline in Europe it held sway still, in a measure, in the colonies. There had been many instances of intolerance and tyranny on the part of the clergy in the past. Cotton Mather’s implacable spirit found vent in the superstition and cruelty that characterized the Salem Witchcraft, while other ministerial leaders were prominent in the persecution of the Quakers. Joseph Sewall and Thomas Prince were educated under the Cottons and Mathers, but their lives presented a striking contrast to these fiery expounders of the Christian faith. Tolerance, benevolence, and humility shone conspicuously in their united careers. The serious character of the books collected and read by young Prince from his tenth year shows not only his daily training, but the inherent tendency of his mind toward that profession which he afterwards adorned. Mr. Sewall, his colleague, says of him, “That his crowning glory was that he was pious from his youth.” He entered Harvard College at sixteen, and, after graduating, devoted two years to the study of divinity in Cambridge. His acquirements in theology, science, and history were marvellous, and, with his diligence and love of research, he turned with great energy to Europe as a wider field, where he could add indefinitely to his already fine attainments, and where the ease and grace of an older civilization left their stamp on his future deportment and endeared him to his people and the whole community. In 1709 he sailed for England by the way of Barbadoes, thence to Madeira, and, after another trip to Barbadoes, he finally settled in England in October, 1710, making his home there seven years. There is one volume of his journal covering this period, bound in vellum, at the Massachusetts Historical rooms, presented by the Rev. Chandler Robbins. It is a miracle of neatness and precision, but in such fine penmanship that it is difficult to decipher. His love of detail is manifest in the most accurate information in regard to the ship’s progress in her various voyages; and in his account of the small-pox and measles, both of which diseases assailed him at this time, the daily symptoms were chronicled in the most vivid manner. He attended theological lectures in London and at various universities, becoming in 1711 pastor of a church in Combs, Suffolk County, England. For six years this young American pursued his profession with enthusiasm, in the midst of a population who were devoted to him. Before returning to America he formed a church at Battisford, next parish to Combs, and when he returned to his native land many of his congregation came with him.

The chapel was then closed; one part of the flock settled at Needham Market, the other at Stowmarket,—these churches still existing. In Combs began the romantic period of his life. He became interested in Deborah Denny, a child of twelve when he came to the village, who grew up under his ministrations. Her family for centuries was famed for its piety and was thoroughly devoted to the interests of the church. Her training had been as strict in religious matters as Mr. Prince’s. In her eighteenth year Deborah sailed for America, with her brother Samuel, to join another brother, who had settled here previously. Mr. Prince took passage on the same vessel, and two years later they were married at the house of her brother, Daniel Denny, at Leicester, by Rev. Joseph Sewall, Mr. Prince being ten years older than his bride. He had been urged to continue his residence abroad; but his longings for home were too powerful for their inducements, and later in life he was known to have regretted spending so many years away from what he then had learned to consider his true sphere of usefulness.

He landed in Boston on a July Sunday, 1717. He notes it thus in his journal: “The captain sent his pinnace to carry me up. I landed at Long Wharf about three quarters of an hour before the meeting began, and by that means escaped the crowds of people, five hundred it was said, who came down on the wharf at noon, inquiring for me. But now, the streets being clear, I silently went up to the Old South Meeting House, where no one knew me but Mr. Sewall, in the pulpit.” The churches of Hingham, Bristol, and the Old South gave him urgent calls to become their pastor. His choice fell upon the Old South, whose pastor, Mr. Sewall, was a cherished friend and classmate.

Mrs. Grace Denny, Mrs. Prince’s mother, in her letters to “daughter Prince,” regretted that she was to be subject to the temptations of a city life, fearing it would be a snare and hindrance to her growth in grace, and advocated the choice of Hingham as a residence. In 1719 Boston was a goodly town of only twelve thousand inhabitants, governed with strict Puritan laws, some of which were even oppressive, giving small opportunity to indulge in the frivolities of life, even if one desired, and least of all to a pastoress of the Old South Church.

The church in which Mr. Prince was ordained by Increase and Cotton Mather, and Mr. Sewall, and where he delivered his own ordination sermon to admiring crowds, was not the historical structure of the present day, although it occupied the same site. The street in front was lined with beautiful mulberry trees, and bore the name of ‘Marlboro’, from the great Duke and General. The parsonage was next door north, and opposite, on Milk street, was the home of Josiah Franklin, where Benjamin was born. There were handsome residences in the vicinity, and the streets even then were paved with cobble-stones.

Rev. Mr. Wisner, on the one-hundredth anniversary of the erection of the present Old South, gave a pleasing account of the lives and work of Joseph Sewall and Thomas Prince. He said, “Forty years these excellent men associated and labored for this congregation, in firm friendship, in perfect unity, which few can emulate. Their journals show never a shadow of difference. They had remarkable tempers. Mr. Sewall notes in his journal that he and Mr. Prince always prayed together before their different church services, and occasionally spent portions of a day mutually devoted to private humiliation in united prayer.”

The present meeting-house was erected in 1729. A day was set apart “to humble themselves before God, for all their unfruitfulness under the means of grace enjoyed in the old meeting-house, and to bless the building of another one.”

Mr. Sewall prayed with the workmen before they began to take down the house. It is curious to note the remarkable faith in direct answer to prayer in those days. President Dwight lays emphasis upon the fact, and gives the following instance in the life of Mr. Prince as evidence: “It was the destruction of the French fleet, under Duke D’Anville, in 1746. Forty ships of war, destined for the destruction of New England, were fitted out at Brest for the purpose. Our pious fathers, apprised of the danger, called a meeting for fasting and prayer. While Mr. Prince was officiating and praying most devoutly to God to avert the calamity, a sudden gust of wind arose (the day had been perfectly calm and clear), so violent as to cause a loud clattering of the windows. The reverend pastor paused in his prayer, and, looking around upon the congregation with a countenance of hope, he again commenced, and with great devotional ardor supplicated the Almighty to cause that wind to frustrate the object of our enemies, and save the country from conquest and popery. A tempest ensued, in which a greater part of the French fleet was wrecked on the coast of Nova Scotia. The Duke D’Anville committed suicide. Many died with disease, and thousands were consigned to a watery grave. The small number who survived returned to France, broken in health and spirits,—the enterprise was abandoned, and never renewed.” Many who were present have left accounts of Mr. Prince’s earnestness on this occasion.

Probably no two men could be more devoted to the religious interests of their church and the community at large than these, yet Mr. Prince records, eighteen years after the beginning of his pastorate, that the ministers of Boston made an extraordinary effort to arrest the decay of godliness, but with no abiding results, and this was particularly noticeable in his own congregation. There seemed to be no change in this respect until the coming of Whitfield, in 1740, when he preached “to breathless thousands in the old South Church.” Mr. Prince welcomed this apostle with enthusiasm. His own sermons were full of vigor, and a brilliant imagination embellished them with abundant illustrations, but depth of thought and zealous research made the majority of his writings far above the comprehension of the multitude. His printed funeral sermons are quaint in their deep, black borders, with drawings of death’s heads similar to those that adorned the tombstones. His sermon after the death of George I. may have embodied the feeling prevalent at that time; but, in view of the more critical light thrown upon the character and reigns of the Georges by historians and satirists of our day, this eulogy is a curiosity, with its almost childish enthusiasm and simple-hearted loyalty. The following are passages from his sermon:—

For my part, I shall never forget the joy that swelled my heart when in the Splendid Procession, at his Coronation, preceded by all the nobles of the kingdom and his son and heir-apparent, one other hope, with their Ermine Robes and Coronets, that Royal face at length appeared, which Heaven had in that moment sent to save these Great Nations from the Brink of Ruin. Nor do I speak of it as my case alone, but as what appeared to be the equal transport of the multitudes around me. The tears of joy seemed to rise and swell in every eye, and we were hardly able to give a shout thro’ the laboring passions that were swelling in us. He was in some respects a Father to the Kings of the earth, or at least a powerful and decisive mediator and umpire among them. The eyes of the greatest princes were turned to him. In these distant parts of his Dominion we have felt the happy influences of his happy reign. He was the darling and protection of his people, the great support of the reformed interest and the arbiter of Europe. George II. is a Prince of winning countenance and manly aspect, had considerable treasure of useful learning, and with him a most amiable Princess, the reigning glory of her sex for beauty, knowledge, wit, discretion, the sweetest temper, the most cheerful, affable and engaging countenance and carriage, with every charming virtue; in the bloom of her youth preferred her chaste religion to all the glories of the Imperial family, and became the love and admiration of every protestant.

President Cheney says of Mr. Prince “he may be justly characterized as one of our great men;” but he deplored that he sometimes devoted so much attention to minute and trifling circumstances of things, and gave too great credit to surprising stories. This, no doubt, may at times have been unnecessary, and would certainly be a failing at the present time, when writing on all subjects is so universal; but in Mr. Prince’s case it took the form of an advantage to posterity, as this love of detail caused him to hand down to all generations the most life-like descriptions of daily life and conversation of his own and remote times. Although he saw a particular providence in every act, every word, every wind that blew, and every storm that arose, yet Mr. Sewall said of him, “that the great truths and doctrines of the Gospel were his chosen subjects. He spake as the oracles of God, as one that felt the Divine Excellence. Some of his discourses even have received impressions in England.”

The great tenderness of his nature was particularly prominent in his family relations. He trained his children in the paths of knowledge, his well-disciplined mind making him a safe and wise teacher; while, like him, they were pious from their youth. His only son graduated with honor from his own college, and had just started on a literary career with flattering success, when consumption caused his death, in his twenty-fourth year. Two daughters, also, at the early ages of twenty and twenty-two, were taken from the household, and in their old age one daughter only was left to these parents. Mr. Prince’s contemporaries speak of his wonderful resignation at these repeated afflictions. His sermon on the death of his daughter Deborah gives the religious experience of a young girl who, in those rigorous Calvinistic days, had her sweet young life overshadowed by the terror of God’s wrath for what she considered her unbelief. A few extracts will give a good idea of Mr. Prince’s impassioned, pathetic, and even dramatic style, and his apparently “trifling details” add vividness to the picture. His son besought him to dispense with the custom of a funeral oration in his case; but the feelings of the father were sacrificed to what he considered his duty to the youth of his congregation on the occasion of his daughter’s death.

He said: “You have known her character; I need not give it to this assembly, and I am more especially restrained, not only by my near relation, but by what she said to me, with all the emotions of a grieved heart, three or four days before her death. ‘Dear father, I have been told you speak to people in my commendation. I beg you would not. I am a poor, miserable sinner; you cannot think how it grieves me.’ On these accounts I must forbear her character; but because God’s dealings with her, both before and in her sickness, have been remarkable, I cannot but think it will be for his glory and your advantage to present some of them to you. As she grew up, God was pleased to refrain her from vanities, move her to study her Bible and best of authors, both of history and divinity. Dr. Watts and Mrs. Rowe’s writings were familiar to her. The spirit of God worked upon her at fourteen, but she did not join the church until two years later, when she narrowly escaped drowning, in her father’s bosom. For, as I had just received her in my arms, in a boat, in order to go on board a vessel in the harbor, bound to her Uncle Denny’s, at Georgetown, on the Kennebec river, the boat steered off, and I fell back with her into the salt water, ten feet deep, with which she was almost filled, and we both continued under it, out of sight of her brother and sister looking on, for about a minute. If a couple of strangers from Connecticut had not been near at hand to reach her quickly, in a minute or more she had been past recovery....

“In all weathers she sought the house of God, and she was afraid of being deceived. Though her jealousies and fears were troublesome, I think they were useful. Sometimes she had light and comfort; oftener otherwise. In her twentieth year she had a fever, and from the first she thought she should not live, complained of her stupidity of mind, impenitence and unbelief. I came home from afternoon exercise, found her so ill that her mother thought herself obliged to tell her, upon which she thanked her for her kindness, but quickly fell into great distress on being unprepared for eternity. It would break a heart of stone to hear her: ‘Oh! dear sir, what shall I do?’ ... Oh! the horrors of that night. It was one of the most distressing I ever knew. She wouldn’t close her eyes for fear of dying. In the morning was a little more resigned, fell asleep, awoke refreshed, but still in darkness. ‘Oh! dear father,’ she would say, ‘I have dreadfully apostatized from Christ.’ Mr. Sewall and I labored with her for days, but we found nobody but the Almighty could do it.

“Dr. Sewall said, ‘If she died in darkness, we should have good ground to hope that she would awake in glory.’ To everything he would say she would reply, ‘I cannot believe.’ You must be sensible of a distressed father’s heart, putting his soul in her soul’s place for many weeks.

“Incessant prayers were offered for her in public and private, by relations and friends who loved her, but until the last half hour of her life were unanswered. She was in agonies of death all the while Mr. Sewall was praying. When he and the physician left, I told her they could do nothing more. She was calm and composed, but did not speak.... It was so dismal to see her depart in darkness. Oh! the distress in that room. I held her in my arms, she opened her eyes and spoke a new language: ‘Oh! I love the Lord with all my heart. I see such an amiableness in him, I prize him above a thousand worlds.’ I said, ‘Dear child, what have you to say to me?’—‘Oh! sir, that you may be more fervent in your ministry, in exhorting and expostulating with sinners.’ I never saw such a change in a sick room, from distress to joy when I reported her words. I could scarcely have thought a father, mother, brother and sister could have been so transported in the expiring moments of one so dear to them.”

This discourse was published in Edinboro’ after his death. His daughter Sarah, afterwards wife of Lieut.-Gov. Gill, survived her parents a few years, but died, without children in 1771. She was also deeply religious, and some of her writings were published in Edinboro’ after her death.

Mr. Prince’s life, aside from his domestic afflictions, seems to have flowed on in peaceful paths, that ran their quiet course between the hardships of the early years of the colonies and the rising passions and frequent strifes that reigned, particularly in New England, for years before the Revolutionary war. His whole nature, tuned to harmony and peaceful avocations, developed in its proper channel. The comparative quiet of the first half of the eighteenth century permitted a thorough devotion to his allotted pursuits. His forty years’ pastorate in Boston left their trace of love and good-will in seed which can never be destroyed, and his indefatigable industry and painstaking perseverance are lessons that could be of benefit to all generations.

He inherited a large property from his father. Beside other lands, acquired and inherited, he owned the tract which is covered by the town of Princeton, including Wachusett mountain, the town deriving its name from him. In the Boylston Mansion at Princeton, there is a beautiful crayon portrait of Mrs. Sarah Gill, his daughter, executed by Copley. There is also a fine tall clock, which belonged to Mr. Prince, in the possession of Mrs. Addison Denny, at Leicester. Mr. Prince brought it with him from England in 1717; the whole case is in raised Japanese work, and the face decorations very elaborate. It was made by Thomas Wagstaffe, of London, and his descendants still make clocks at the same shop, by hand and under the same name.

Mr. Prince died in 1757, after a year’s illness, at seventy-two years of age. The Weekly Gazette said, in announcing his death: “His performances in pulpit evidence a vast compass of thought, a sublime imagination, a great faith and zeal. In printed composures there is a fertility of invention, correctness of sentiment, sprightliness of expression, that must delight every reader, and transmit his name to posterity in the most advantageous light. His private life was amiable and exemplary, adorned with grace and virtues. A useful member of civil society. His consort has lost an affectionate husband; his only surviving daughter, a tender father; his servants, an indulgent master; his acquaintances, a kind, condescending friend; his church, an enlightened and vigilant pastor; his country, a zealous advocate of civil and religious liberty. Took farewell to this world with humble resignation to the will of God, and entire dependence on our Lord Jesus Christ, and a good hope of Immortality.”