[371] The first and second editions are extremely rare. (Brinley, i. 818, 1392.) A third edition was printed in London, coming down to 1719, for the Lords of Trade, the charter being dated 1721 and the laws 1724. Other editions were printed in Boston in Jan., 1726-27 (Brinley, i. 1,394); 1742 (Ibid. i. 1,398); 1755 (Temporary Laws); 1759-61 (Perpetual Laws); 1763 (Temporary Laws). These had supplements in needful cases as the years went on. Such of the Province Laws as remained in force after the province became a State were printed as an appendix to the State Laws in 1801, 1807, 1814. (Ames and Goodell’s edition, preface.)
[372] A summary of the work done by the Commissioner on the Province Laws is set forth in D. T. V. Huntoon’s Province Laws, their value and the progress of the new edition, Boston, 1885 (pp. 24), which also contains a history of the various editions. From this tract it appears that Massachusetts, for what printing of her early records she has so far done, for historical uses solely, has expended as follows:—
| Mass. Colony Records, five vols. | $41,834.44 |
| Plymouth Colony Records, twelve vols. | 47,117.66 |
| Provincial Laws, five vols. (to date) | 77,505.75 |
| ————— | |
| $166,457.85 | |
A synopsis of the contents of these volumes of the Province Laws is contained in H. B. Staples’ Province Laws of Massachusetts, in Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc., Apr., 1884, and separately.
[373] An address on the life and character of Chief-Justice Samuel Sewall, Oct. 26, 1884. Boston, printed for the author, 1885. It also appeared in the volume which the occasion prompted, when its early ministers, with Samuel Adams and other worthies of its membership, were commemorated.
[374] Proceedings, x. 316, 411; xi. 5, 33, 43.
[375] Vols. xlv., xlvi., and xlvii. (1878, 1879, 1882). They are richly annotated with notes under the supervision of Dr. Ellis, as chairman of the committee of publication, who was assisted by Professor H. W. Torrey and Mr. Wm. H. Whitmore, the latter being responsible for the topographical and genealogical notes, of which there is great store. Dr. Ellis communicated to the society in 1873 (Proc., xii. 358) various extracts from the letter-book, which accompanied the diary when it was transferred to the society; but these with other letters and papers will be included in a fourth and fifth volume of the Sewall Papers, now in press.
[376] Probably no personal record of the provincial period of New England history has excited so much interest as the publication of Sewall’s diary. The judgments on it have been kindly, with few exceptions. Cf. D. A. Goddard, Mem. Hist. Boston, ii. 417; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, ii. 345, 364; H. C. Lodge, Short Hist. of the Eng. Colonies, 426; Mag. of Amer. Hist., ii. 641; Poole, Index to Period. lit., p. 1181. Tyler (Hist. Amer. lit., ii. 99) gives a generous estimate of Sewall’s character, written before the publication of his diary. Palfrey in his vol. iv. made use of the diary after it came into the society’s library. (Proc., xviii. 378.)
There are genealogical records of the Sewalls in Family Memorials, a series of genealogical and biographical monographs on the families of Salisbury, Aldworth-Elbridge, Sewall, etc. ... by Edward Elbridge Salisbury, privately printed, 1885, two folio volumes. Cf. also volume i. of Sewall Papers.
[377] Address, etc., p. 5.