NUMBER FOUR.

Almanacs and their Authors. Communicated by Mathew A. Stickney (continued),
Baptisms of the First Church in Salem. Communicated by Henry Wheatland (con-

Page

193

Diary of Rev. Joseph Green, of Salem Village. Communicated by Samuel P. Fowler, 215
Browne Family. By William P. Upham,

225

A Journey to the West in 1817; Notes of Travel by a Salem Mechanic on his way to
the Ohio Fifty Years ago. Selected from his Journal by James Kimball,
An Account of the Dwelling-houses of Francis Higginson, Samuel Skelton, Roger
Williams, and Hugh Peters. Communicated by William P. Upham,
Index of Names,

226

250

260

Since the publication of these Collections began, America has entered

In beginning the publication of the upon a new career. Self-government, eighth yearly volume of the HISTORICAL heretofore an experiment, has been vinCOLLECTIONS OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE, dicated and established. Our forms of a word touching the scope and purpose society have shown themselves able to of the work may not be out of place. bear the severest shock and strain to Antiquarian pursuits require no apol- which communities are ever subjected,— ogy, it is to be hoped, in this day and able to produce and bring into notice generation. While the precept-"Hon- men equal to the highest exigencies, or thy father and thy mother"-remains whether military or political. Under in force, the study of genealogy will not the most burthensome taxation imposed lack its disciples. So long as the teach- by the equal votes of citizens, some of ings of example are accepted as more whom bear much and some little ofthe burweighty than those of precept, and hu- then, property is secure and wealth man experience is recognized as, after and its attendant comforts accumulate. Religion, the best guide of human ac- It is shown that high average intellitions and the heroism of the past is gence and close attention to the arts of the inspiration of the present, he who peace, have not unfitted us for the rigid endeavors to preserve and transmit discipline of war. It is seen that steadwhatever is note-worthy in his own or iness of purpose in a vital struggle is a former epoch will entitle himself to not more characteristic of a government grateful regard. of one absolute head or of a privileged

few, than it is of a government of the dred pages.
It will be issued in quar-
whole people, whose powers are wielded terly numbers, therein departing from the
by a majority, discharging carefully cir- practice of former years. No other
cumscribed functions, and acting within change in the form of publication is con-
limits prescribed and agreed to in ad- templated. It will be made up largely,
vance. The chivalrous and the heroic as heretofore, of extracts from Church
are found to be not more the heritage and Court Records and private memo-
of aristocracies than the offspring of randa of a historical and genealogical
equal laws and popular institutions. nature. It will not be devoted wholly
The history of America, therefore, is to the earlier colonial period, for the
fast coming to be examined, not only for study of which the county affords so
the instruction of Americans and for the rich a field. Events of more modern oc-
gratification of national pride, but, in a currence and of local importance, not
philosophic spirit by the most advanced likely to be otherwise preserved, will
minds of Europe, whether hostile or find a place in its pages.
friendly. The marked acknowledge- The curious fragments from which we
ment recently offered by the English reproduce to the imagination the life of
nation, through their sovereign, to a son the past, are often as insignificant to the
of Essex County, is only typical of the contemporary observer as are, to the
deference beginning to be shown by the uninstructed eye, the disjointed bones
intelligence of that nation toward Amer- from which the great naturalist revives
ican ideas. Hence every fact bearing the lost types of animal life. While
upon the origin of a society so consti- Agassiz is willing to be a collector of
tuted, every point of likeness or dis- materials for the use of future students,
similarity between the rising states of never aspiring to be himself the author
America and the historic governments of of a system, it is an ambition not un-
the old world has acquired a new sig- worthy of us, to hope to preserve some
nificance in our eyes as well as in those of characteristic facts, perhaps too trivial
students, who, before the war, never look- for the pen of history, which shall help
ed westward for a lesson. New England the future antiquary to a right under-
has contributed her full quota to the standing of us and our times.
intellectual forces which have prevailed. A series of sketches, Historical and
And the history of no part of New Biographical, of American Almanacs
England sheds more light upon the ori and their authors may be expected from
gin of the ideas now dominant in the a contributor whose collection of alma-
country, than does that of Essex County. nacs is admitted to be the most com-
The forthcoming volume will contain plete and interesting in the country
from two hundred and fifty to three hun- An examination of the collection shows

1

nac.

among other things, how insidiously were ly to be forgotten as is its hiding-place. inculcated the doctrines of resistance to To lock up a valuable manuscript is not British Tyranny through the ingeniously the best way to secure it. The only designed medium of the Family Alma- safety lies in multiplying copies, and this can best be done by the aid of printing. A Parochial History of the County It is not too much to say that whatever may safely, it is thought, be promised, gets into print, is indestructible. since local historians of acknowledged History of the Christian Church, in its authority in several of the older towns, efforts to suppress obnoxious publicasome of them clergymen, long familiar tions, is significant as to the impossibilwith the aspect of parish records, have ity of destroying what has once been entered upon the preparation of such a printed. With so ready a means for work. Comment upon the value of re- preserving them at hand as is here ofsearch so pursued and in such a field fered, there will be little excuse for the loss of valuable records in this county. would be superfluous.

work a re-
It is not

THE MUNICIPAL SEAL OF SALEM.

Finally the Publication Committee appeal to all those who have charge of ancient records in the perishable form of manuscript, or who, in the settlement of estates, are constantly sending old manuscripts to the paper-mill or the fire-place, which cannot, when once destroyed, be replaced. It is the plan of the committee to make this ceptacle for such material. their plan, such was never the purpose of the work, to fill it with original matter of their own, but merely to edit the contributions of others, which if possessing value, will be welcome, however frag- Thirty years have now gone by since mentary their condition. Genealogies this ancient settlement took its place and Historical papers are too often laid among the cities of the Earth. "An aside to be completed in some indefinite act to establish the City of Salem," apfuture. The readiest way of eliciting the information needed to complete them is, oftentimes, to print that already gathered. A paper carefully put away is like

ATIS REGIMINE

proved March 23d, 1836, by Edward Everett, Governor of the Commonwealth, and signed also by Horace Mann, then President of the Massachusetts Senate,

The

was immediately accepted with due for- semble that borne by the seal of any mality, by the legal voters of the town,* other city. It should, if possible, be and went into operation in the follow- characteristic also, so that it could not ing May. The City of Salem is, accord- fitly be borne by the seal of another ingly, a generation old. city. For it is an enduring link between

On the ninth day of May, A. D. 1836, the past and the future. It may bear the first city government met in the upon its face an epitome of the City's Tabernacle Church, where, after prayer History, which it carries down to a reby the Rev. Dr. Brazer, the oaths of mote posterity. While books perish office were administered by Judge Cum and monuments crumble, the seal is mings to the several members. An ad- among the most imperishable of memodress was delivered by Hon. Leverett rials. Being multiplied in large numSaltonstall, Mayor elect, and, as the bers and in a variety of lasting materecord says, they then retired to their rial, a design perpetuated in this form own rooms in the Court House. Hon. is well nigh indestructible. Thus we John Glen King was chosen President have seals which time has spared us from of the Common Council. the earliest civilizations, and collections

The corporate scal of a city is, in of such works, commemorating eminent modern times, almost its only badge of men and great events, form a most valmunicipal character. Our first City uable chapter in the history of civic Government, however, being fully occu- progress as well as of art. pied perhaps with the necessary changes incident to the beginning of civic life, did not concern themselves about procuring a city seal. And it was not until the official term of our second City Government was far spent, that the matter received the attention it deserved. Once entered upon, it seems to have been prosecuted with vigor and enthusiasm.

The seal of Salem seems to meet the conditions of a historic work. Its design was not adopted without discussion, occupying many sessions of the City Government, sometimes protracted beyond midnight, and resulting in repeated ref erences of the subject to committees, in the making up of which, the scholarship of the infant city was well represented. We put on record, while there are those living who were contemporary with the origin of the work, and who can correct any misapprehension as to *Charter adopted Monday, April 4th, 1836, at a town meeting holden at the Town Hall, of which its source and meaning, such documents, Hon. Benj. Merrill was moderator. 802 votes were bearing upon the origin of the seal of cast, of which 617 were for the charter, and 185 against it.

The design upon the seal of a city should be unique, that it may not re

Salem, as could readily be collected.