LETTER TO THE COUNTESS OF LINCOLN, MARCH, 1631. WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES, BY DR. JOHN FARMER, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. WASHINGTON: NOTE. GOVERNOUR DUDLEY was one of the five undertakers of the Settlement of Massachusetts, and came over with the Charter in 1630. The following Letter, addressed to the Countess of Lincoln, in whose family he had been steward nine or ten years, was written nine months after his arrival, and contains the events pertaining to the Colony during that period. It has never to the knowledge of the copyist been published entire. A part of it was printed more than a hundred years ago, and this portion of it was reprinted in 1802, in the 8th volume of the Collections of the Mass. Historical Society. Very material parts, it will be seen by comparison, are omitted in the printed copy. This copy is made from a MS. one, judged to be at least 180 years old. A part of it, which describes the Bays and Rivers, and a few lines which gives an account of the Indian Sachems, is missing, but the most valuable portions are preserved almost entire, and have been copied with scrupulous care in retaining not only the orthography, but the abbreviations and division into paragraphs. J. FARMER. |