Captives among the Algerines, 193 Centennial and other Celebrations in Franklin, Conn., 342 Charlestown, History of the First Church, 273 Connecticut, Address of the Colony to Queen Anne, Deerfieli, N. II., in 1776, and Resistance to the Deposition of Col. Wm. Lithgow, 1767, about the Documents relating to Colonial History of Connecti- Election Sermon of Thomas Shepard, 1638, 361 Genealogies - Barker, 297; Bryant, 315; Coffin, 149, 305; Hassam Family, 414 Haynes Family, notes on, 125, 422 Hutchinson, on the Witchcraft Delusion, 381 Adams, John, to Bentley, Wm. (1810), 295; 113 Life-members of the N. E. Historic, Genealogical Local Laws in Connecticut, 33, 137 Marblehead, Capt. Goelet's description in 1750, 58 Mayflower Compact, Resolves to commemorate the Members of the N. E. Historic, Genealogical Society, Coffin, Mr. Nath'l W., 200; Felt, Joseph B. Merriams and other families of Concord. Mass., 164 New-England Historic, Genealogical Society- - Advertisements, the old newspaper, 191; Ameri- Peabody, Resolves on the death of George, 428 Felt, Joseph B., 1; Preble, Miss Harriet, 258; Preble Family, 253 Prisoners, list in Canada in 1695, 289 Quarter-Centennial Address of Rev. Mr. Slafter, 225 Charlestown, Mass., 7, 131, 273; Durham, N. Revolution in New-Hampshire, 354 Ship Building, by Josiah Barker, 297 JOSEPH BARLOW FELT, LL.D.' [Communicated by Hon. J. B. F. OSGOOD, of Salem, Mass.] JOSEPH BARLOW FELT, son of John and Elizabeth-Curtis Felt, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, December 22, 1789. Of his parents he used to say that he had "stronger faith in their declarations than in those of all the world beside." He received, however, little training from his father, who was a ship master in European and India trade, and who died on Martha's Vineyard, August 23, 1802, aged 38 years, after a long and trying passage from India; leaving little property to his wife and five children. The energy and influence of the mother moulded the character of the son, who ever spake of her with grateful reverence. After the death of his father, and at the age of fourteen years, he obtained employment in a store in order to qualify himself for mercantile life. Here he remained several years, improving his few leisure hours chiefly in reading biographical works. Among these was the life of Ledyard, the traveller, and of others who obtained a collegiate education by their own efforts. Stimulated by these examples, he resolved to obtain such an education, and, in June, 1808, entered the academy in Atkinson, N. H., then under the charge of Mr. (afterwards the Hon.) John Vose, a distinguished educator of that day. In 1809, he became a member of the freshman class in Dartmouth College, whence he was graduated in 1813. During the winters of his college course he taught school. In May, 1813, he was disabled, by a cold which, settling in one of his eyes, baffled medical skill, and was ever afterwards a source of severe suffering and self-denial, with regard to his studies. In despair of ever being able to pursue his contemplated preparation for the ministry, he became a partner in a mercantile business in Salem, but this was soon after put to an end by the revulsion that accompanied the war then going on between Great Britain and the United States. In January, 1814, although still suffering under defective eye-sight, he began special preparation for the ministry, under the direction of Rev. Samuel Worcester, 1 The original of this paper, with some additions by Rev. Dorus Clarke, D.D., here incorporated, was read by him, as Historiographer, before the NEW-ENGLAND HISTORICGENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, Oct. 6, 1869.-ED. VOL. XXIV. 1 D.D., of Salem. While pursuing his studies he taught a private school, and continued this avocation until December 17, 1819. Meanwhile he received, March 2, 1815, from the Essex Association, a license to preach, and was frequently employed by congregations in Salem and its vicinity. He was married, September 18, 1816, to Abigail-Adams Shaw, daughter of Rev. John Shaw, who died at Haverhill, Mass., Sept. 29, 1794, and of Elizabeth-Smith Shaw, who was a sister of the wives of Judge Richard Cranch and President John Adams. Mrs. Shaw subsequently became the wife of Rev. Stephen Peabody, of Atkinson, N. II., where she died April 9, 1815. After declining several calls from other congregations, Mr. Felt was ordained as a minister of the Congregational Society at Sharon, Mass., December 19, 1821, and remained there till April 19, 1824. On the 16th of June, following, he was settled at Hamilton, Mass., as successor of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., and continued to perform his parochial duties with exemplary punctuality and faithfulness until December 4, 1833, when, owing to ill health, he dissolved his pastoral relation with that church. It was a trying dispensation to one, so devoted as he was to the service of his Divine Master, to be compelled to lay aside a profession, " of which," to use his own language, "my experience can verily testify, that however subject to many and peculiar trials, yet, when heartily cherished and properly honored, it is the perennial spring of purer, more abundant and sublimer joys, than those of all other human vocations though rewarded with incalculable riches, blazoned with the most dazzling of earthly honors, and inscribed highest on the scroll of worldly fame." During his residence at Hamilton, an address delivered before the Masonic Assembly at Ipswich, in 1825; another, before the Ipswich Academy in 1829; the preparation of many articles in Farmer's New-England Genealogical Register; the publication of his invaluable "Annals of Salem" in 1832, and also his "History of Ipswich, Essex and Hamilton," in 1833, afford ample testimony to his patient industry, indefatigable research and antiquarian taste. His love of antiquarian pursuits was acknowledged in a variety of ways: one of which was by his election, September 25, 1830, to membership in the Massachusetts Historical Society, and, subsequently, to membership in ten other similar societies in the United States. Mr. Felt removed with his family, October 31, 1834, to Boston, where he engaged in the congenial pursuits of an antiquary and historian; contributing, in 1835, "Ecclesiastical Statistics of Essex County" to the pages of the American Quarterly Register; in 1836, supplying a large portion of the materials of a volume of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections— besides the delivery of a lecture in each of four successive courses of that society. The state-archives also bear ample evidence of his labors and patient research. In April, 1736, he was commissioned by Governor Everett to arrange the ancient papers in the state-archives, which were found in indescribable confusion, and were steadily diminishing in numbers and value. Two hundred and forty-one bound volumes of these papers, classified and chronologically arranged, attest the usefulness of his task and his diligence. He was engaged in this work until April, 1839, when he was appointed to visit England to obtain duplicates of provincial records and papers, the originals of which had been lost. His visit to England, however, was prevented at that time, because the British authorities declined to allow to Americans access to their offices, lest, as was supposed, they might find evidence |