[619] [Rich priced this book in 1832 (no. 375) at £1 10s.,—an extraordinary high sum for those days. I have seen the London edition priced recently at £26, and $75; and the Boston edition in the Menzies sale (no. 990) brought $200. It was reprinted in New England at least six times (all spurious editions) between 1775 and 1814 (Brinley Catalogue, 5,523, etc.; Carter-Brown Catalogue, ii. 1,167, 1,168, 1,170); and S. G. Drake brought out an annotated edition in two volumes in 1865. Cf. Hist. Mag., i. 252, 348; ii. 62.
Perhaps the most popular book touching the events of the war was one which was not published till 1716, from notes of Colonel Benjamin Church, and compiled by that hero’s son, Thomas Church, and called Entertaining Passages relating to Philip’s War. It is an extremely scarce book, and has brought $400. (Brinley Catalogue, no. 383; Sabin, Dictionary, no. 12,996; Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., iii. 293.) A second edition, Newport, 1772, is said to have been edited by Dr. Stiles, but it is not supposed he was privy to the fraud practised in that edition of presenting an engraving of the portrait of Charles Churchill, the English poet, with the addition of a powder-horn slung over the shoulder, as a likeness of Church. (Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xix. 243; also iii. 293; and Hist. Mag., December, 1868, pp. 27, 271.) Drake first reissued it in 1827, and made stereotype plates of the book, and they have been much used since. He continued to use the spurious portrait as late as 1857. Sabin, iv. 12,996; Brinley, no. 5,514. Dr. H. M. Dexter did all that is necessary for the text in his edition (two volumes) in 1865-67. Another class of books growing out of the war during its long continuance, particularly at the eastward, is what collectors know as “captivities,” the most famous of which is, perhaps, that of Mrs. Rowlandson, of Lancaster, printed in 1682. The Brinley Catalogue, nos. 469, 5,540, etc., groups them, and they are scattered through Field’s Indian Bibliography. The Brinley Catalogue also groups the works on the Indian wars of New England (nos. 382, etc.); and a condensed exposition of the authorities on Philip’s War will be found in the Memorial History of Boston, i. 327. The local aspects of the war involve a very large amount of citation and reference. What are known as the “Narragansett Townships” grew out of the war. Before the troops marched from Dedham Plain, Dec. 9, 1675, they were promised “a gratuity of land beside their wages,” and not till 1737 were the promises fulfilled, when 840 claimants or their representatives met on Boston Common, and dividing themselves into seven groups, they took possession of seven townships in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, granted by the General Court. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1862, pp. 143, 216.—Ed.
[620] For reference to the recovery of the preface and other missing lines, see Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xvi. 12, 38, 100; also, cf. i. 243; ii. 421; iii. 321. Hubbard, besides the above aid, had a large number of official documents which he incorporated into his History. Cf. Sabin, Dictionary, viii. 499; Field, Indian Bibliography, no. 730.
[621] [Mr. Whitmore also epitomized the history with references in the Memorial History of Boston, ii. chap. i. Cf. also Carter-Brown Catalogue, ii. 1,351, 1,370, 1,372, 1,388, 1,398, 1,400, 1,403, 1,408, 1,420, 1,421.—Ed.]
[622] A copy of Dudley’s commission (Oct. 8, 1685) has been recently printed in 5 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., ix. 145.
[623] [Dr. N. B. Shurtleff, an eager Boston antiquary, died in that city, Oct. 17, 1874, and his library was sold at auction, Nov. 30, 1875, etc.—Ed.]
[624] The preface of the Memorial History enumerates the sources of Boston’s history.
[625] [A law was placed on the statute book of Massachusetts in 1854, by which towns may legally appropriate money for publishing their histories. The authorities on the town system of New England are cited in W. E. Foster’s Reference Lists, July, 1882.—Ed.]
[626] [The different keys to the genealogy of New England are indicated in Memorial History of Boston, ii. Introduction.—Ed.]
[627] “Maine” took its name probably from the early designation, by the sailors and fishermen, of the main land—that is, “the main,”—in distinction from the numerous islands on the coast. See Weymouth’s “Voyage,” in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 132, 151; Palfrey, i. 525; Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., i. 371. The earliest use of the name, officially employed, that I have met with, is in the grant to Gorges and Mason of Aug. 10, 1622, which recites that the patentees, “by consent of the President and Council, intend to name it the Province of Maine.” See the Popham Memorial Volume, p. 122. This grant was never made use of, but the name was inserted in the royal charter to Gorges of April 3, 1639, which secured its future use. Sullivan’s Maine, Appendix, 399. The territory had been previously included in the European designations of Baccalaos and Norumbega. The Indian name was Mavooshen. See Purchas, iv., 1873; Maine Hist. Coll., i. 16, 17.