of the Historical Societies of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Admiral Preble was married, in 1845, to Susan Zebiah, daughter of John and Thankful (Harris) Cox, of Portland, who died in 1875. Of four children of this marriage, two - Susie Zebiah and George Henry Rittenhouse Preblesurvive. NOVEMBER MEETING, 1885. The monthly meeting was held on Thursday, the 12th instant, the Rev. Dr. GEORGE E. ELLIS occupying the chair. The record of the previous meeting having been read, and the donations to the Library reported, the PRESIDENT made the following address: Since our last meeting we have lost from our rôle the oldest, in years, of our members, the Hon. James Murray Robbins, who was elected to the Society in June, 1860. He was born on Milton Hill, on June 30, 1796, and died in his home on Brush Hill, in the same town, on the 2d of November. He had thus entered upon his ninetieth year, having till within the last few months engaged in his usual occupations and intercourse. He was a lineal descendant of the famous Mrs. Ann Hutchinson. His grandmother was a cousin of the royal provincial governor Thomas Hutchinson. His immediate ancestors came from Scotland to our Cambridge in 1670. His family, in its generations, have filled honorably many offices of professional service. His father, Lieutenant-Governor Edward Hutchinson Robbins (H. C. 1775), was a lawyer; member of the Constitutional Convention of this State; Representative in the Legislature for fourteen years, in nine of them being Speaker; for five years Lieutenant-Governor; and then for eighteen, till his death in 1829, Norfolk Judge of Probate. Our late member began his career as a merchant, was Deputy Consul at Hamburg, then Representative and Senator for his native State. He early formed historical and antiquarian tastes, being patient of research and accurate. He explored Dorsetshire, England, and particularly the old town of Dorchester. He furnished the first six chapters of the History of our own Dorchester, was the orator of the bi-centennial celebration of the town of Milton in 1862, and was one of a committee appointed by the town in 1883 to prepare its history, a work now in progress, which engaged his zeal and labor. He was educated at Milton Academy, largely founded by his father, who, with the son, were the presidents of it for seventysix years. Dying childless, he was the last of his generation, though his family is represented among us by Lymans, Howes, Reveres, etc. - In the last letter to his family, written by the late Dr. Rufus Ellis, minister of the First Church in Boston, - received here after an ocean cablegram had communicated the intelligence of his sudden death in Liverpool, on September 22, the night preceding his intended embarkation for home, he refers to a very interesting visit which he had just made to Dedham, in England. Ancestral ties on both sides attracted him to the old town. His first maternal ancestor in this country was the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, first minister of Ipswich, Massachusetts, whose son John was President of Harvard College. Nathaniel, a graduate of Emmanuel, Cambridge, was driven by persecution to New England in 1636. He was a son of the famous Puritan divine, John Rogers, of Dedham. Dr. Ellis's paternal ancestor was one of the company that, coming from the English town, first settled in our own Dedham. Dr. Ellis's visit was on the 11th of September. He made notes. of it which he hoped to write out on his homeward passage. A friend who accompanied him has furnished me some particulars of the excursion. An early train from London brought the travellers, in two hours, through the eastern country to Manningtree Junction, whence a drive of four miles, in a private conveyance, took them to Dedham, up and down a series of hills. Dedham lies in a valley on the river Stour, on the northeast of the county of Essex, bordering on Suffolk. A pretty village street creeping up the hill showed on its left side a fine old fifteenth-century church, with a lofty square tower, a large and imposing structure for such a small town. But Dedham was not always the unimportant place which it has now become. A gentlemanly old shopkeeper, of whom the visitors sought information in his back parlor, spoke mournfully of the falling away even within his own memory. In old times the manufacture of wool gave it prosperity. Almost every house then had its loom, when factories were not. Government made great efforts to promote this industry in Essex; and among them was the passage of a law that every one who died in the county should be buried in a woollen shroud. They were hospitably welcomed at the vicarage by the gentleman who was doing duty during the vicar's vacation, and who politely produced the pile of church records at Dr. Ellis's request. As the latter sat in a chair by the pleasant window overlooking the churchyard, and took up the baptismal record, he exclaimed, "Why, I have come directly on my own name." It was that of a little Richard Ellis, son of Robert, or Robet, as the name was spelt,-who was baptized about the year 1600. Though Dr. Ellis does not appear to have entertained the thought, there is a strong probability that the Richard Ellis on whose baptismal record his eye fell, was his first paternal ancestor in this country. The name appears among those who received the first allotments of land in our Dedham, in 1642; and from that date onward, in that town and the neighborhood, the family and its progeny have been numerous, as land-owners. Members of eight generations now rest in the village cemetery, the last one committed to it being the late Dr. Calvin Ellis of this city, by the side of his parents, both of whom bore the family name. Dr. Ellis found the old Dedham church books beautifully kept, owing, as he was informed, to a certain bishop of ancient times who made it his special care to see that within his range that duty was not neglected. The visitor pronounced the characters fair to look at; but he thought they might almost as well have been written in an unknown tongue, so strange were the letters and the spelling. He said, "If my brother George were here he could read them." On entering the church he found its interior not disappointing. On the outside the fine south porch was specially pointed out as much in need of repair. Dr. Ellis frankly expressed his surprise that some well-to-do parishioners did not do what was needful. Though he was informed that very few of the parishioners were so prospered, his professional instinct and experience led him to suggest that an effort by small weekly contributions would secure the desired. result. Dedham has an old endowed Elizabethan grammar-school, whose head-master was most civil and obliging in showing the visitors all of interest there was to see. None of its buildings dated back to the times when some of the people came over to this country, though the oldest of the school-rooms would seem to have suffered the wear and tear of centuries. Dr. Ellis's surprise was great at the amount of hewing and hacking suffered by the desks and forms; even the floor bore marks of hard treatment. His astonishment evidently was not shared by the head-master, who mildly remarked that he supposed if similar disfigurement was not seen in America, it was because the boys were not left alone in the school-rooms. The people whom they met were pleased and proud in doing their kindest services to the strangers, and were gratified at hearing Dr. Ellis say, "I am sure more people will come, now we have been." He was particular to note the time of the trains to and from London, for the information of others. A lady whom he met afterwards sent to him, in London, some little historical pamphlets of the town. In returning to the great city the visitors drove to Ardleigh, to take the train, and found the way more attractive than that to Manningtree. Special recognition should be made of the gift to our Library, by Professor Franklin B. Dexter, of Yale College, a Corresponding Member of this Society, of a valuable volume from his pen. It is a labor of love for his college; and though the author derived aid from predecessors in his own field, its preparation required of him much extensive and difficult research. Its title is "Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, with Annals of the College History. October, 1701, May, 1745." The names of four hundred and seventy-two graduates appear in these pages. The volume conforms to those from the pen of Librarian Sibley, of Harvard College ("Biographical Sketches," etc.), in giving memoirs of the alumni, under their classes, with their careers in life, a list of their publications, and references to the sources of information concerning them. It differs from Mr. Sibley's volumes in omitting the theses of the graduates at Commencement, and in introducing under each year the historical and the internal "Annals of the College" during the period. It thus happily combines with its personal sketches a sufficient history of the college. A discerning reader will find in the volume many significant suggestions of the matters and interests |