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mary would not answer to such a description, for his second compilation on church history extended only to 1620, with which year Mather says the Bradford manuscript begins.

When Morton learned of the destruction of his compilation he began a second work, "and for that end did once again repair to the study of my much honored uncle, William Bradford, Esquire, deceased, for whose care and faithfulness in such like respects we stand bound . . . whose labors in such respect might fitly have been published to the world, had they not been involved in and amongst particulars of other nature." This second narrative by Morton forms the "Introduction to the Ecclesiastical History of the Church of Christ at Plymouth, in New England," and was prepared in 1679-1680.2 Morton gave full credit to Governor Bradford-"This was originally penned by Mr. William Bradford, Governor of New Plymouth," - but much was omitted as not suitable to his immediate purpose. As Hazard attributed the authorship to Morton, some confusion resulted. Morton also copied into the church records the Memoir of Elder Brewster, of which he had used parts in his Memoriall, and had expressly named Bradford as the author.

Hubbard used the History in the preparation of his General History of New England, a work completed in 1680, but not published until 1815.3 Although he makes no direct acknowledgments to Bradford, he includes matter which could have been derived only from the Bradford History. Cotton Mather is also believed to have seen the manuscript while compiling the Magnalia, but Dr. Young expresses the opinion that he used the Plymouth Church records.5

1 Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 5, 6.

2 Extracts were first printed in Hazard, Historical Collections (1792), 1. 349, and it appeared in full in Young, 3, but the Ms. was used by Rev. John Cotton in 1760. 1 Mass. Hist. Collections, IV. 107.

3 2 Mass. Hist. Collections, v. VI.

Young, Chronicles, 58, 76, 78, 85; Deane, in Bradford, 62.

Chronicles, 30.

In 1728 Rev. Thomas Prince, seeking material for his Annals, learned of the existence of the History, then in the keeping of Judge Samuel Sewall. Obtaining the manuscript from Sewall he made the following memorandum on one of the blank leaves:

Tuesday, June 4, 1728.

N. B. Calling at Major John Bradford's at Kingston near Plimouth, son of Major Willia]m Bradford formerly Dep[uty] Gov[erno]r of Plimouth Colony, who was eldest son of W[illiam] Bradford, Esq. their 2d Gov[erno]r and author of this History; the s[ai]d Major John Bradford gave me several Manuscript Octavoes w[hich] He assured me were written with his said Grandfather Governor] Bradfords own Hand. He also gave me a little Pencil Book wrote with a Blew-lead Pencil by his s[ai]d Father the Dep[uty] Gov[erno]r. And He also told me that He had lent and only lent his s[ai]d Grandfather Gov[erno]r Bradford's History of Plimouth Colony wrote by his own Hand also, to Judg Sewall; and desired me to get it of Him or find it out, and take out of it what I think proper for my New England Chronology; w[hich] I accordingly obtained, and This is the s[ai]d History; w[hich] I find wrote in the same Hand-writing as the Octavo Manuscripts above s[ai]d.

THOMAS PRINCE.

I also mentioned to him my Desire of lodging this History in the New England Library of Prints and Manuscripts, w[hich] I had been then collecting for 23 years, to w[hich] He signified his willingness — only that He might have the Perusal of it while he lived.

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T. PRINCE.

The manuscript contains another note by Prince, probably of a later date:

But Major Bradford tells me and assures me that He only lent this Book of his Grandfather's to Mr. Sewall, and that it being of his Grandfather's own hand writing He had so high a value for it that He would never Part with the Property, but would lend it to me and desired me to get it, which I did, and write down this that so Major Bradford and His Heirs may be known to be the Right Owners.

The evidence shows that Major Bradford deposited the manuscript with Prince, but did not intend to part with his property

rights therein. None the less Prince's book-plate was inserted beneath the memorandum of June 4, 1728, but without the name of a donor to the New England Library. When the book-plate was attached cannot be determined,' but its presence has suggested that the ownership was given to Prince at some time subsequent to 1728. The volume remained in the tower of the Old South Church in the Prince Library, with another manuscript of Bradford - the Letter Book - until the War of Independence. It is probable that Governor Hutchinson used it while writing his history, the first volume of which appeared in 1764 and the second in 1767; and it is possible that in spite of the express injunction of Prince's will the manuscript was allowed to go out of the church building, even to the house of the governor of the Province. In June, 1765, extracts from the History were used in a law suit, and Rev. Joseph Sewall, colleague of Prince, deposed that the notes on the fly leaves of the manuscript were in the writing of Thomas Prince; and Thomas Hutchinson and Benjamin Lynde certified to the correctness of the eighteen pages of extracts.3

The Old South Church was utilized by the royalist forces during the siege of Boston, and some of the Prince books were removed by the soldiers at the evacuation of the city in March, 1776. The Bradford Letter Book was among the volumes thus removed, and before 1793 a fragment of it, beginning with page 330, was found in a grocer's shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Mr. James Clarke. In 1793 Mr. Clarke gave this fragment or a transcript of it to the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the letters were printed in the Collections. The original manuscript has disappeared. The manuscript of this History was, as is supposed, taken at the same time and carried to England. All trace of it was lost for nearly 1 Prince Catalogue, Introduction, x.

2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XIX. 112, 113.

3 Suffolk Court Files, 139,599. This reference is supplied by Mr. John H. Edmonds. 4 I Mass. Hist. Collections, 111. 27. Mr. Clarke was elected a Corresponding Member in 1795. See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1. 52.

seventy years, and a tradition arose that it was destroyed in the sacking of Governor Hutchinson's house.

The Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, published in 1844 a History of the Protestant Church in America, and in it referred to a "manuscript history of the Plantation of Plymouth" in the archives of Fulham Palace. A second edition appeared in 1846, and an American issue was announced at the same time, but was not made until 1849. In 1848 Rev. James S. M. Anderson, in his History of the Colonial Church, quoted the manuscript as Bradford's, thus making it certain that the Bishop of Oxford had used the Bradford, then in the possession of the Bishop of London, and in the Fulham Palace Library. This explicit statement attracted no attention either in England or the United States, and the Bradford History was still believed to be among lost records.

In 1855 the importance of the reference in Wilberforce was recognized by two gentlemen of Boston, and a controversy later arose between them as to the credit for the discovery.1 One of them, Mr. Barry, took the Wilberforce volume to Mr. Charles Deane and, stating his belief that the Bradford manuscript had been located, suggested that a full copy be obtained. Being then in correspondence with the English antiquarian, Mr. John Hunter, Mr. Deane wrote, February 17, 1855:

Now I am going to ask a favor of you, if not too much; namely to see what this manuscript [at Fulham Palace] is, and, if what we suppose it to be, either copy or original, to have an exact transcript taken by a copyist, for publication in our Collections. I happen to have the charge of the next volume, and I should like much to secure so rare a gem for publication. If it should not prove to be Bradford's History, but is a History of the early Church, as it appears, it would be desirable to have a copy taken.2

1 The two were John Wingate Thornton and Rev. John S. Barry. The facts of the controversy are given in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XIX. 118. Deane, who examined the matter, makes no mention of either in his Introduction to Bradford.

2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 11. 602.

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To assist the identification Mr. Deane enclosed an original letter of Bradford to Winthrop. Mr. Hunter saw the manuscript volume and replied, "There is not the slightest doubt that the manuscript is Governor Bradford's own autograph." The absence of any record to show how or when the volume reached Fulham Palace Library gave a wide play to supposition. The presence in that library of two other manuscript volumes, known to have been in the Prince Library,2 tends to confirm a belief that all had probably been spoils of war. A transcript of the History was made and sent to Mr. Deane, who edited it for the printed Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

The original manuscript of the History having been located in a Library in which it would be of secondary interest,3 it was natural to suggest a return to the United States, where its interest would be far greater. Mr. Robert C. Winthrop made the suggestion to the then Bishop of London, in 1860, through a friend John Sinclair, Archdeacon of Middlesex, and proposed that, with the sanction of the Queen, it could be taken to America by the Prince of Wales, then about to visit the United States, and presented to the people of Massachusetts. The Bishop replied that an act of Parliament would be necessary before property of that description could be alienated. Seven years later, in 1867, some volumes of British State Papers were voluntarily returned to Great Britain by the Philadelphia Library, and in 1869 this act of courtesy was urged as a precedent for the return of the Bradford manuscript. The then American Minister to England, Mr. John Lothrop Motley, pre

1 His letters are in the "Editorial Preface" of Deane's Bradford.

? One was a Dictionary of Authors, and the other a commonplace book of Nathan Prince, brother of Thomas Prince. Both contain the book-plate of the New England Library, filled in by Prince. Mr. Winsor points out that neither volume would be of service to Hutchinson.

3 "It has been kept at Fulham among the papers of no use to the See. It is not in the catalogue of the library, and probably is not reckoned in any inventory of the property." Rev. Dr. John Waddington, at Southwark, 1858.

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