_The American Loyalists, or Biographical Sketches of Adherents to the
British Crown in the War of the Revolution; alphabetically arranged;
with a preliminary Historical Essay. By James Sabine._ Boston:
Charles C. Little and James Brown. MDCCCXLVII.
Mr. Sabine, it is believed, is a merchant at Eastport, Me., but
still has been in the habit of composing for the press. He has
written articles for the North American Review, and is the author
of the Memoir of Commodore Preble in Prof. Sparks's American
Biography.
The subject of his present work is both novel and interesting,
and one upon which we are too ignorant. The most intelligent and
best informed among us have but little knowledge of the names
and characters of the Loyalists, or Tories of the Revolution,
(probably twenty thousand in number,) and of the reasons which
influenced, of the hopes and fears which agitated, and of the
rewards or miseries which awaited them. Separated from their
homes and kindred, outlaws, wanderers, and exiles, they have
left but few memorials to their posterity. The difficult task
of collecting and arranging fragmentary events and incidents
relating to them, scattered here and there, we think the author
has succeeded admirably in accomplishing. We find among the
sketches, notices of many distinguished and influential men,
and while some were notorious for their want of principle,
there were many who, we cannot doubt, were true and honest in
espousing the cause of the mother country. Then, though we cannot
justify any, let us not censure all. "The _winners_ in the
Revolutionary strife are now twenty millions; and, strong, rich,
and prosperous, can _afford_ to speak of the losers in terms of
moderation."
The Historical Essay, containing one hundred and fourteen pages,
which precedes the "Biographical Sketches," indicates much
acquaintance with the Revolution and its causes, and is very
valuable and highly appropriate.
The work makes a handsome volume of 733 pages, and is well worthy
of being perused, and of a place in the library of the historian.
_A Genealogical and Biographical Sketch of the Name and Family of
Stetson; from the year 1634 to the year 1847. By John Stetson Barry.
"Virtus nobilitat omnia."_ Boston: Printed for the author by William
A. Hall & Co. 1847.
The name of Stetson is spelt differently in old records; as
Stitson, Sturtson, Studson, Stedson, Stutson, and Stetson. The
last is the usual method of spelling the name, though some
families spell it Stutson. The first of the name and the ancestor
of all in this country was Robert Stetson, commonly called
_Cornet_ Robert, because he was Cornet of the first horse company
raised in Plymouth colony, Ms., in the year 1658 or '9. He
settled in Scituate, Ms., in the year 1634, but it is not known
satisfactorily whence he originated, though tradition says he
came from the county of Kent, England.
Among his descendants are many who have held offices of trust and
responsibility, and who have stood high in public esteem.
The pamphlet contains 116 pages, and gives a pretty full account
of the Stetson family. We hope it will be an additional incentive
to others to prepare memorials of their ancestors.
_An Oration delivered before the New England Society in the city
of New York, December 22, 1846. By Charles W. Upham._ New York:
Published by John S. Taylor, Brick Church Chapel, 151 Nassau Street.
1847.
This is an excellent address, written in a clear, graceful, and
forcible manner. After describing the influences, both in the Old
World and in the New, which were at work, and the combination
of which resulted in the advent of our fathers to these desert
shores, the orator remarks upon the Puritans, and the chief
elements of their character and the result of their labors. The
blessings of a free government and religious liberty are largely
descanted upon, and the address closes as follows: "If the sons
of New England rear the school-house and the church wherever
they select their homes; if they preserve the reliance upon
their own individual energies, the love of knowledge, the trust
in Providence, the spirit of patriotic faith and hope, which
made its most barren regions blossom and become fruitful around
their fathers, then will the glorious vision of those fathers be
realized, and the Continent rejoice, in all its latitudes and
from sea to sea, in the blessings of freedom and education, of
peace and prosperity, of virtue and religion."
_A Sermon preached at Northwood, N. H., March 12, 1847, on the death
of Dea. Simon Batchelder. By Elliot C. Cogswell, Pastor of the
Congregational Church. Published by request._ Concord: Printed by
Morrill, Silsby, & Co. 1847.
The text on which this discourse is founded is contained in Acts
viii: 2. "And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made
great lamentation over him." It is divided into six heads. When
the good man dies the people of God lose, 1. His society. 2. His
sympathy. 3. His counsels. 4. His prayers. 5. His coöperation. 6.
His admonitions. The subject is well treated, and the language
affectionate and appropriate. Dea. Batchelder was born, March
5, 1758. He was the son of Davis Batchelder of Northampton, who
moved to Northwood about 1770; who married, 1. Mary Taylor of
Hampton, by whom he had four children; 2. Ruth Palmer; and 3. a
Widow Marston; by whom, (the last two wives,) he had fourteen
children, four of whom survive. Dea. Batchelder at the age of
eighteen enlisted in the war of the Revolution, in 1776, and
served in Capt. Adams's company and Col. Poor's regiment at
Winter Hill in Charlestown, Newport, R. I., and Ticonderoga, N.
Y. April 4, 1778, he married Rachel Johnson, daughter of Benjamin
Johnson, with whom he lived about fifty-two years, she dying Jan.
5, 1830, aged 73. By her he had seven children, five of whom
still survive. He died March 10, 1847, aged 89 years and 5 days.
_A Discourse delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society,
on the evening of Wednesday, January 13, 1847. By Hon. Job Durfee,
Chief-Justice of Rhode Island. Published at the request of the
Society._ Providence: Charles Burnett, Jr. 1847.
The subject of this discourse is "Rhode Island's Idea of
Government." Judge Durfee speaks of the "origin of this idea--of
the various forms which it took in its progress towards its
realization in that state, in minds of much diversity of
character and creed; and of that 'lively experiment,' which it
subsequently held forth, that 'a most flourishing civil state may
stand, and be best maintained, with a full liberty in religious
concernments'--a liberty which implied an emancipation of reason
from the thraldom of arbitrary authority, and the full freedom of
inquiry in all matters of speculative faith."
Though to the founders of Rhode Island, and particularly to Roger
Williams, belong the fame and glory of having realized this idea
in the form of a civil government, they were by no means the
first to maintain it. Long before the Reformation it originated
among the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont, and by means of
the crusade against them by Innocent III., it was spread far and
wide. The Reformation and the coming of the Puritans to America
tended to confirm it, but never was it fully realized till Roger
Williams and his followers came to "the forest-shaded banks of
the Mooshausic," and established a government on the principle
that "the State has no right to interfere between conscience and
God."
After dwelling largely on the early history and influence of
Rhode Island, the author passes to the time of the Revolution. We
find that this little state, though royally armed in her Charter,
stood among the foremost in the great struggle for independence.
She was the first to direct her officers to disregard the Stamp
Act, and to assure them indemnity for so doing; the first
to recommend the permanent establishment of a Continental
Congress; the first to adopt the Articles of Confederation; the
first to brave royalty in arms; the first to enact and declare
independence; the first to establish a naval armament of her own;
and the first to recommend to Congress the establishment of a
Continental Navy. The oration closes with an eloquent appeal to
preserve the history and early records of the State. Appended is
a Poem by Sarah Helen Whitman, recited before the Rhode Island
Historical Society, previous to the delivery of the address.
_A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury,
from 1635 to 1845. By Joshua Coffin, A. B. S. H. S._
"_For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe,
Cometh the new come from yere to yere,
And out of old bookes in good faithe
Cometh this new science that men lere._"
_Chaucer._
"_Lives there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own my native land?_"
_Scott._
Boston: Published by Samuel G. Drake, No. 56 Cornhill. Printed by
George Coolidge. 1845.
This is an exceedingly valuable and highly interesting work, and
appears to have been written with great labor, and _con amore_.
The author seems, as he says, "to have made a broad distinction
between fact and tradition, and to have related nothing as fact,
which he did not believe to be true." The representation of the
character of the inhabitants of Newbury and their transactions,
we think is accurately given, and seems to have been given "_sine
ira, sine studio_." Copious extracts are made from the town
records, and many from the church records, which latter exhibit
more fully the peculiar traits of our ancestors.
The town of Newbury was originally one of the largest towns in
the county, being about thirteen miles long, and about six miles
broad in the widest place, and containing about thirty thousand
acres, of which nearly two thousand were covered with water. In
1764 it was divided into two towns, Newbury and Newburyport, and
in 1819 West Newbury was set off and incorporated as a separate
town.
This volume is embellished with portraits of Dr. John Clarke,
the physician in Newbury from 1637 to 1651, who died in Boston
in 1664, aged 66, Chief-Justice Sewall, Rev. Mr. Whitefield, and
Rev. Dr. Parish, and also with a map of the town and engravings
of the old-town meeting-house which stood one hundred and six
years, from 1700 to 1806, and of a house which "was infested
with demons" in 1679, and where, "before the devil was chained
up, the _invisible_ hand did begin to put forth an astonishing
_visibility_!" The Appendix, containing among other things a List
of Grantees, and Genealogies of the First Settlers from 1635
to 1700, is a very important part of the work. The conclusion,
comprising about fifty pages, is also valuable.
_Brookline Jubilee. A Discourse delivered in Brookline, at the
request of its Inhabitants, on 15 March, 1847, the day, which
completed half a Century from his Ordination, by John Pierce, D. D.,
fifth minister of the first Congregational Church and Society in said
town._ Boston: James Munroe and Company. MDCCCXLVII.
The text on which this discourse is founded is in Psalm xxxvii:
25. "I have been young and now am old."
It is indeed pleasant in these "moving times," when ministers
are not settled during even good behavior, but only so long as
they please the fastidious taste of their people, to behold a
pastor who has remained with his flock a long series of years,
who stands among them, a relic of a former generation, to guide
them by his counsels and guard them with his watchful care. It
is alike honorable to the pastor and his people to meet in one
common jubilee, to thank the bounteous Giver of all things for
his mercies, and strengthen the ties which have so long bound
them together. In the present case, however, not a church merely,
but a whole town have united to honor one who may be regarded as
their father, and whose name is identified with the town.
The sermon contains, as might be expected from Dr. Pierce, an
immense amount of historical facts, some of them of a general,
but most of them of a local character. The town of Brookline was
incorporated Nov. 13, 1705, O. S., and the first Congregational
church was gathered Oct. 26, 1717, O. S., of which Dr. Pierce
is the fifth pastor. Since his settlement nearly all who were
then around him have departed this life, while he, now enjoying
a "green old age," stands almost alone. The discourse is very
valuable for the history it contains, and is written in a
candid and an affectionate manner. Appended is an exceedingly
interesting account of the proceedings of the day, which was
published in the Christian Register, and other papers in Boston.
We regret that we have not room to insert extracts from it. Dr.
Pierce will go down to the grave beloved and respected by all
ministers and people who knew him, whether of his own or other
denominations.
_A Discourse on the Cambridge Church-Gathering in 1636; delivered in
the First Church, on Sunday, February 22, 1846. By William Newell,
Pastor of the First Church in Cambridge._ Boston: James Munroe and
Company. 1846.
The text is from Psalm xliv. 1-3. "We have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their
days in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen
with thy hand, and plantedest them.... For they got not the land
in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save
them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy
countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them."
This discourse contains an account of the formation of the church
in Cambridge, and of some of the events preceding it, and brief
notices of the principal actors. It contains also many other
valuable facts. There is an appendix containing nineteen pages of
great value, embracing among other things a list of the members
of the church, "taken and registered in the 11 month, 1658,"
and brief genealogical notices of one hundred and seventeen
individuals. In giving this sermon to the public, Mr. Newell has
rendered an important service.