GEORGE FOX TUCKER, Ph.D. GEORGE NIXON BLACK, Esq. DAVID RICE WHITNEY, A.M. LINDSAY SWIFT, A.B. 1896 CHARLES FRANK MASON, A.B. CHARLES ARMSTRONG SNOW, A.B. 1897 THOMAS MINNS, Esq. WILLIAM COOLIDGE LANE, A.B. LOUIS CABOT, A.B. Hon. WILLIAM CUSHING WAIT, A.M. 1898 JOHN ELIOT THAYER, A.M. 1899 ARTHUR THEODORE LYMAN, A.M. 1900 Rev. EDWARD HALE, A.B. HENRY LEE HIGGINSON, LL.D. 1901 GEORGE VASMEr Leverett, A.M. Hon. JAMES MADISON MORTON, LL.D. Rev. HENRY AINSWORTH PARKER, A.M. JAMES ATKINS NOYES, A.B. PREFACE VOLUME II, now completed, contains the extant Royal Commissions issued to certain of the Crown officials of the Massachusetts Bay from 1681 to 1774, both included. At the meeting of this Society held in March, 1893, our associate Mr. ABNER CHENEY GOODELL generously presented to the Society copies of the Royal Commissions and of the Royal Instructions issued to certain of the Crown officials of the Massachusetts Bay, 1681-1774.1 At that time it was supposed that the Commissions and the Instructions together would fill a volume of about five hundred pages, and printing at once began. But as this progressed, an occasional new Commission and many new Instructions were found, and soon it was obvious that the material would far outrun the limits of a single volume. In addition, the resources of the Society were adequate only to the task of paying for its Transactions. When, therefore, the Table of Regnal Years, the Charter, the Explanatory Charter, the Commissions of the Governors as Governor, and the Instructions from 1686 to 1702, had been set, printing was brought to a stop for lack of funds. In 1910, however, one of our resident members, ever alive to the needs of the Society, offered to provide for the expense of issuing the Commissions, which (as it was now clear) would fill an entire volume of our Collections. Printing was resumed as soon as possible, 1 Later Mr. Goodell gave copies of the Commissions of Vice-Admiral. |