[17] In the ‘last revision’ Epoch Four is divided into unequal parts and the titles are reworded: Epoch first, ‘Britain overthrows the European colonial system,’ 1748–63; Epoch second, ‘Britain estranges America,’ 1763–74; Epoch third, ‘America takes up arms for self-defence and arrives at independence,’ 1774–76; Epoch fourth, ‘America in alliance with France,’ 1776—80; Epoch fifth, ‘The People of America take their equal station among the powers of the earth,’ 1780 to December, 1782.
[18] J. F. Jameson speaks of Bancroft’s ‘tendency to conventionalize, to compose his American populations of highly virtuous Noah’s-ark men.’ History of Historical Writing in America, 1891, p. 108.
V
William Hickling Prescott
REFERENCES:
George Ticknor: Life of William Hickling Prescott, 1864.
Rollo Ogden: William Hickling Prescott, ‘American Men of Letters,’ 1904.
H. T. Peck: William Hickling Prescott, ‘English Men of Letters,’ 1905.
I
HIS LIFE
The Prescotts are an ancient family as antiquity is reckoned in the United States. The first Anglo-American of that name, John Prescott, an old Cromwellian soldier, took up residence in this country about 1640, and after living awhile at Watertown, Massachusetts, made a permanent home for himself at Lancaster, then a frontier settlement. When thieving Indians plundered him, it is said that he used to put on helmet, gorget, and cuirass, and start in pursuit. Being a powerful man and stern of countenance, his terrific appearance in his armor had a salutary effect on the red men.
Jonas Prescott, a son of the old warrior, settled at Groton, Massachusetts, and there the family history centres for more than a hundred years. They were a vigorous race, useful and conspicuous in the military and civil affairs of the colony.