mastery of profound thought and transcendental philosophy has found expression, if not in Sibylline inspiration, at least in mysterious and Orphic utterance; but when he had once assimilated a fact, he never lost sight of it, when he had once formulated an opinion, it rested upon some substantial foundation.

He considered, and he rightly considered, that the position he occupied in this community was an important one; and it was not merely important, but unique. The possessors of the great fortunes of Boston during the first three-quarters of the present century have for the most part been industrious and ambitious natives of other places, attracted hither by the opportunity of trade, and during the earlier portion, sometimes the whole, of their careers engrossed by the absorbing process of accumulation. The famous Billy Gray, for instance, came from Marblehead, Peter C. Brooks from Medford, Colonel Thorndike and his son-in-law, Mr. Francis, from Beverly, the brothers Appleton from New-Ipswich, the brothers Lawrence from Groton, the brothers Thayer from Lancaster, Mr. Hemenway from Salem. David Sears, on the contrary, was born in Boston and bred in the purple; and he never forgot it. He never forgot that the wealth and social position which were his birthright entailed upon him the duty of a bright example; and from the very outset he set that example before him, an example of public spirit, of domestic virtue, of religious faith, an example in preferring his own country to any other, in endowing charities, in promoting education, in displaying urbanity, courtesy, and moderation in all things, and, last but not least, an example of an elegant but not extravagant mode of life.

It was not with the exhibition of "damnable pomp and outrageous superfluities" (to use the forcible but expressive language of King Henry VIII.), it was not with profuse entertainments or costly furniture or sumptuous equipages that he ever permitted himself to become associated in the public mind; but rather with the maintenance of a dignified and graceful hospitality, and the observance of that luxury which Goldsmith so well defines as the "luxury of doing good."

In nothing was the refinement of his taste more conspicuous than in the house he built in Beacon Street in 1821. The domestic architecture of Boston had even then begun to

exhibit a tendency towards a style which has become more and more accentuated in recent years, and which, with some rare exceptions, may not unfairly be described as the occasional interjection of the incongruous, the pretentious, or the grotesque upon wide reaches of monotony. Mr. Sears's house, the most expensive of its day, is open to no such criticism; and although, since his death, it has suffered cruel adaptation to the exigencies of a fashionable club, and the unsparing hand of the "decorator" has been allowed to daub and darken its walls and ceilings, enough remains to suggest distinctively, as so few houses do, that it was built by and for a gentleman.

During his lifetime it suggested something more, and was remarkable as the home of a rich man who was too conscientious to betake himself to some rock-bound coast or inclement hillside at the most unpleasant season of the year in order to lessen his share of municipal taxation, and who still less contemplated a removal to Philadelphia for a similar purpose; who never sought to add to his estate by fencing unclaimed lands; who set his face against hazardous speculations; and who even carried his scruples so far as to decline to receive more than the legal rate of interest at periods when other capitalists were eagerly demanding double.1

The world moves rapidly in fifteen years. The leading taxpayer in Suffolk County is still named Sears, but he is only a remote congener of the tribe of David. Outside of a continually decreasing circle of relatives and friends, the latter is already more than half forgotten. His great property is becoming gradually subdivided; the memory of his good example is becoming slowly effaced; but his portrait still hangs in the hall of the Charity building in Chardon Street as the founder of far the largest endowment for the benefit of the poor of Boston, and who of us could ask a nobler or more enduring monument?

I have not thought it worth while to enumerate the various societies with which Mr. Sears was honorably associated; and, in accordance with our usage, I have left it to the last to speak briefly of his connection with our own. He was elected a

1 Our venerable associate, Mr. William Amory,- -so much missed from his accustomed seat at our meetings during the past winter, but the charm of whose conversation will linger in our memories long after he himself can sit with us no more, assures me that this last-mentioned trait is the only serious defect he can recall in the character of his revered father-in-law, after nearly forty years of intimate association.

Resident Member in April, 1848, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. Nine years later, in April, 1857, he was chosen one of our two Vice-Presidents, and during a long absence of the President in Europe he was repeatedly called upon to preside over our meetings, which he did with characteristic courtesy, besides extending to us his hospitality on more than one occasion. Some older members cannot fail to recall a very memorable evening-meeting at his house in Beacon Street, Dec. 15, 1859, when eloquent and appropriate tributes to the character and writings of Washington Irving, then recently deceased, were successively uttered by Mr. Everett, Professor Longfellow, Colonel Aspinwall, Professor Felton, and Dr. Holmes. On his retirement from the Vice-Presidency, at his own desire, five years later, the Society acknowledged his services by a special vote of thanks, and gladly accepted for its Cabinet a portrait of himself by Pratt, which he modestly preferred to present to us through our late President.

Without making any pretence to be himself a close student of New England history, he was cordially interested in the promotion of historical studies by others; and he practically exhibited that interest, not merely by occasional gifts to our Library, but by repeated subscriptions to objects which we had at heart, and by the important gift of twenty-five hundred dollars to found the "Massachusetts Historical Trust Fund" (now amounting to more than four times that sum, and the income of which is, without restriction, at the disposal of the Society), thereby enrolling himself prominently among our by no means numerous benefactors.

It may be convenient to add that at the present time the family of Mr. Sears is represented by the widow and children. of his son David; by his two surviving sons, Frederick Richard and Knyvet Winthrop Sears, and their families; by his two surviving daughters, Mrs. William Amory and Mrs. William C. Rives, and their families; and by the children of Mrs. George Caspar Crowninshield and Mrs. d'Hauteville, his two deceased married daughters.

NOTE. Since the foregoing memoir was in type, an article in the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register" for July, 1886, has drawn attention to the fact that the earlier portion of the commonly accepted Sears, pedigree, like the earlier portions of the commonly accepted pedigrees of many other New England families, rests upon family traditions of doubtful origin, and cannot thus far be proved. Further investigation is clearly necessary to explain certain apparent discrepancies and verify conflicting dates.

MEMOIR

OF THE

REV. WILLIAM STOODLEY BARTLET, A.M.

BY THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M..

THE Rev. William S. Bartlet was born in Newburyport on the 8th day of April, 1809, and died in the city of Chelsea on the 12th day of December, 1883. He was the son of William Bartlet, who graduated at Harvard College in 1801, and grandson of the Hon. William Bartlet, an opulent merchant of Newburyport, and a munificent benefactor of the Theological Seminary at Andover. He received a good academical education in the public schools of his native town and in the incorporated academies of the neighborhood. He served an apprenticeship of about three years in the mercantile house of Benjamin T. Reed, of Boston. He afterward entered into mercantile business in Newburyport, in which he continued for several years. He was confirmed in St. Paul's Church, Newburyport, by Bishop Griswold, in 1820, and under the tuition of its rector, the late Rev. James Morss, D.D., he early became an earnest and enthusiastic churchman.

In 1836 he became a candidate for Holy Orders in the Diocese. of New York, and entered the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, where he remained three years, completing the prescribed course of study in 1839. He was admitted to Holy Orders by the Rt. Rev. Benjamin T. Onderdonk, D.D., on the 30th of June in the same year. On the 15th of November, 1839, he was elected rector of Emmanuel Church, at Little Falls, on the Mohawk, in the State of New York, where he remained nearly three years. On the first day of September, 1842, he took charge of a congrega

tion newly organized under the title of Mount Zion Church, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The next year the parish assumed the name of St. Luke's Church, of which Mr. Bartlet was chosen rector, where he continued until Sept. 1, 1849, when he resigned. On Dec. 29, 1850, he became rector of St. Andrew's Church, Providence, Rhode Island, where he continued until July 6, 1851, when he accepted an invitation to return to St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, of which he had previously been rector for the period of seven years. Here he continued until July, 1859, completing a service of fifteen years as rector of that parish.

From this time onward Mr. Bartlet officiated from time to time as occasion offered, but made no permanent engagements. The parish of St. Luke's in its early years contained many discordant elements, which, together with the infirmity of deafness, which came upon Mr. Bartlet at a very early period, rendered his duties difficult and discouraging; and his labors were not attended with that eminent success which he anticipated and desired.

In 1853 Mr. Bartlet published "The Frontier Missionary; a Memoir of the Life of the Rev. Jacob Bailey, A.M., a Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." The work was issued by the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society, and was the second volume of its publications. A preface accompanied the work, by the accomplished scholar and divine, the Rt. Rev. George Burgess, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Maine.

In this memoir Mr. Bartlet traces the career of the Rev. Mr. Bailey from his graduation at Harvard College, in 1755, to his death, in 1808, skilfully introducing large extracts from Mr. Bailey's journal, and many letters of local and historical interest, enriching its pages with learned and elaborate annotations. Mr. Bartlet happily finds occasion to give important historical and personal information, drawn largely from Mr. Bailey's correspondence and journals, in regard to many of the clergy of the English Church settled in New England previous to the American Revolution. As these clergymen were mostly, if not all, loyalists during that protracted struggle, a record of the events in which they were involved, and of the experiences through which they passed, sheds a beneficent light upon their character and integrity, over whose