NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL HISTORY 2Vol In 1~Rev War~Salem Witchcraft~&c. RARE 1ST1800

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EXCEEDINGLY RARE, ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION "COLLECTIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR 1799" PRINTED BY SAMUEL HALL, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1800. BOUND WITH "COLLECTIONS" FOR THE YEAR 1800 WITH SEPARATE TITLE PAGE, PRINTED IN 1801. TWO VOLUMES BOUND IN ONE. These important, early historical treatises are loaded with rare information that quite possibly might not be found elsewhere. The Massachusetts Historical Society [est.1791] is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history and is the oldest historical society in the United States. These "Collections" of history pertaining to the early settlement of the United States is both fascinating and incredibly important. The Massachusetts Historical Society was founded on January 24, 1791, by Reverend Jeremy Belknap to collect, preserve, and document items of American history. He and the nine other founding members donated family papers, books, and artifacts to the Society to form its initial collection. Its first manuscript was published in 1792, becoming the first historical society publication in the United States. The society incorporated in 1794; signatories included William Baylies, Jeremy Belknap, Alden Bradford, Peleg Coffin, Manasseh Cutler, John Davis, Daniel Davis, Aaron Dexter, John Eliot, Nathaniel Freeman, James Freeman, Thaddeus Mason Harris, Isaac Lothrop, George Richards Minot, John Mellen Jr., Thomas Pemberton, William Dandridge Peck, John Prince, Ezekiel Price, James Sullivan, David Sewall, Peter Thacher, William Tudor, Samuel Turell, Dudley Atkins Tyng, James Winthrop, Thomas Wallcut, Redford Webster, and William Wetmore. Indeed, the Society claims to have been the only historical collection in the United States until establishment of the New-York Historical Society (1804) and the American Antiquarian Society (1812), after which time the Society's collecting activities began to focus primarily on Boston and New England.The society, for several years after its organization, met in the attic of Faneuil Hall; afterwards rooms were occupied in Hamilton Place, and then in Franklin Street. In 1833 quarters on Tremont Street were occupied" in the building of the Provident bank through the 1890s. The society's current building in the Back Bay was built in 1899. Among contents addressed: There is no way to fully describe the vast, varied and history contained here with important articles, letters, notices, &c. in these first editions with errata; Pre Revolutionary War Era and Post Revolutionary War history to include: Sketch of the Life and Character of the late Reverend Doctor Jeremy Belknap [who died in 1798], numerous pages on Specimen of the Mountaineer, or Sheshatapooshshoish, Skoffie, and Micmac Indian Languages, General John Winslow's Letter to the Earl of Halifax, relative to his conduct, and that of the troops under his command, on the Ticonderoga expedition in 1756, Major Washington's Letter to Governor Hamilton, [George Washington went on to become President of the United States], Secretary Willard's Letter to Mr. Bollan, Agent for the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, relative to the failure of Crown-Point expedition, and reimbursement from Great Britain. A brief state of the Province of Quebec, as to its constitution, member of inhabitants, laws, commerce, population, circulating property, tenure of real property, Science, &c. written in the year 1787, Continuation of the Narrative of Newspapers published in New England, from the year 1704 to the Revolution; in a letter from one of the members to the President of the Society, James Cudworth's Letter to Governor Josiah Wiinslow, declining his appointment to a military command, Prince and Bosworth's Petition to the Government of Plymouth relative to the Mackerel Fishery, Report of a Committee, Chosen by the General Assembly of Connecticut, Respecting the Foregoing Plan of Union, October 1754, An account of the whole trade and shipping of the Island of Newfoundland for the year 1799, taken from the Custom House books... read more

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