roots of bitterness in the hearts of the people. At his settlement another church was formed under the lead of William Vassal, a man of decided ability. With him Mr. Chauncy soon found himself engaged in a controversy on the subject of the seals, particularly on the mode of baptism. This controversy must have been a source of great disquietude to him.

There are many evidences on record that Mr. Chauncy was unhappy at Scituate. "The circumstances by which he was surrounded, together with his ardent temperament, make an apology, in part, for his uneasiness. He was a studious man beyond what is often known, and was subject to the nervous sensibility peculiar to hard students. He was consciously endowed with great talents and learning. He was devoted to his profession, and he was too apt to accept it as an Indignity that his powers should not keep down all opposition, and his labors bring him at least the comforts of life in temporal things."-Deane's History of Scituate.

In 1649 Mr. Chauncy made known the poverty of his circumstances to the Governor and Assistants, though we do not find any grant was made with reference to this application. The following is a list of his property, extracted from the colony records :—

1. The house Mr. Hatherly bought of Mr. Vassal, with the enlargements. A new building and barn and other out-houses. 2. All the ground about it being six acres. 3. An enclosed stony field near the marsh. 4. An orchard behind the house. 5. The barn close, comprising the barn. 6. Twenty acres of upland, ten of it enclosed, called the new field. 7. Twelve acres of Cohasset marsh. 8. Twenty acres of land on Hooppole Island, with undivided land among the Cohasset purchasers. CHARLES CHAUNCY, 1649.

"In 1654, Mr. Hatherly, the untiring patron of the plantation, offered to make a deed of gift to Mr. Chauncy of a house and land on Statuit brook, on condition that he would spend his life in Scituate, which he declined. Mr. Hatherly then made a deed to the church, and submits the farm to their disposal. The same year the church conveys it to Mr. Chauncy by deed of gift.

66

Though this was given without any condition to be performed on Mr. Chauncy's part, at least specified in the deed, yet on his retiring at the close of the same year, the farm seems to have been relinquished to the church."

Besides performing his ministerial labors, he practised, to a considerable extent, as a physician, for which, Mather informs us, he was eminently qualified; and moreover was engaged in instructing his own sons, and preparing young men for the ministry. We state for a certainty that the celebrated Mr. Thomas Thacher, who came out from England before his theological education had been completed, was under the care of Mr. Chauncy at Scituate. He was the ancestor of the eminent ministers of that name.

While in Plymouth, or in Scituate, it does not appear that he published any of his writings. The following letter, written by him, is prefixed to the second edition of Leigh's Critica Sacra, ed. Lond., 1646 :—

'Enixgious amici cujusdam doctissimi, juxta atque piissimi.

Erudite vir,

Perlegi (ut per alia negotia licuit) horis subcisivis Lexicon tuum. Sacrum, sive Critica Sacra; & videtur mihi certè opus elaboratissimum, & multiplici eruditione refertissimum, & ab authore rà uio9nrígia dia την ἕξιν γετυμνασμένα ἒχοντι προς διάκρισιν καλέ τε καὶ κακέ, concinnatum. Verbo dicam, non solum tyronibus in lingua Græca, sed etiam Criticissimis Philologis, imò & Theologis, & politioris literaturæ studiovis quibuscunque, addo etiam, toti Reipublicæ, Christianæ & literariæ, summè profuturum esse judico. Tibi devotissimus,

HIS DEPARTURE FROM SCITUATE.

C. C.

At length Mr. Chauncy made up his mind not to remain in Scituate. He had encountered great trials during his residence there. He had found a controversy raging from which his predecessor was glad to escape with a considerable part of his church. He saw upon his settlement a new church formed upon former issues, but also from dissatisfaction with his doctrines. He found himself obliged to take a leading part in the controversy that followed. His admiring friends there were indeed faithful to him, and, for the times, generous, but he lived in actual want even of some of the necessaries of life. Dr. Charles Chauncy, of Boston, remarks, that he had more than once heard the Rev. Mr. Nehemiah Walter, of Roxbury, say, that he had seen a letter of his, wherein was his complaint to his friends, that his necessities were so great, that he might with truth declare, "deest quidem panis," indeed I have not bread

to eat.

Thus situated, he could hardly fail to contrast the privations he suf fered, with the abundance he once enjoyed; a new country and its privations, with an old country and its improvements; Puritan New England with merry old England. We can believe that the same spirit of dissent with which he sympathized while opposed to the powers that be in England, would be somewhat disgusting to him in America. His heart must have yearned for his mother country. Times had changed there. Laud had given his head to the block to expiate his crimes and his unpopularity. His old people in Ware had sent him an invitation to return and be their minister. Accordingly he came to Boston to make arrangements to remove his family to England.

HIS REMOVAL TO CAMBRIDGE.

But while he was in Boston in order to take passage, the Overseers of Harvard College, not willing that the country should suffer the loss of so valuable a man, 66 on November 2, 1654, deputed Mr. Richard Mather and Mr. Norton to tender to him the place of President, with the stipend of one hundred pounds, to be paid out of the county treasury, and also to signify to him, that it is expected and desired that he forbear to disseminate or publish any tenets concerning immersion baptism, and the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the evening, or to expose the received

doctrine thereon." "IIe made no difficulty in complying with this desire, and was after punctual in the regard he paid to it." If his opinions had not undergone any change, his feelings, at least, had become mellowed by time. His inauguration was solemnized Nov. 29, 1654. In the language of Cotton Mather, he concluded his excellent oration, made unto a venerable assembly then filling the college hall, with such a passage as this, to the students there: Doctiorem certe presidem, huic oneri ac stationi multis modis aptiorem, vobis facile licet invenire, sed amantiorem, et vestri boni studiosiorem, non invenistis."

He was now placed in his appropriate sphere in the new world, where his influence could be proportioned to his talents and learning. Cotton Mather, speaking of the manner in which he performed his duties, says, "How learnedly he now conveyed all the liberal arts unto those who sat at his feet; how wittily he moderated their disputations and other excesses; how constantly he expounded to them the scriptures in the college hall; how fluently he expressed himself unto them in Latin of Terentian phrase, in all his discourses; and how carefully he inspected their manners, and above all things was concerned for them-will never be forgotten by many of our most worthy men, who were such men, by their education under him."

"He was a most indefatigable student, which, with the blessing of God, made him a most incomparable scholar. He rose very early, about four o'clock both winter and summer; and he set the example of diligence hard to be followed. But, Bene orasse, est bene studuisse; by interweaving of constant prayers into his holy studies, he made them indeed holy; and my reader shall count, if he pleases, how oft in a day, he addressed Heaven with solemn devotions, and judge whether it might not be said of our Charles, as it was of Charles the Great, Carolus plus cum deo, quam cum hominibus loquitur, when I have told, that at his first getting up in the morning, he commonly spent near an hour in secret prayer, before his minding any other matter; then visiting the college hall, he expounded a chapter (which was first read from the Hebrew) of the Old Testament, with a short prayer before, and after, in his family; about eleven in the forenoon, he retired again about three quarters of an hour for secret prayer. At four in the afternoon he again did the like. In the evening, he expounded a chapter (which was first read in Greek) of the New Testament, in the college hall, with a prayer in like manner before and after; the like he did also in his family; and when the bell rang for nine at night, he retired for another hour of secret prayer before the Lord. But on the Lord's day's morning, instead of his accustomed exposition, he preached a sermon on a text, for about three quarters of an hour in the college hall. Beside this, he often sat apart whole days for prayer, with fasting alone by himself; yea, and sometimes he spent whole nights in prayer, before his Heavenly Father who sees in secret. Many days of prayer with fasting, he also kept with his religious consort; and many such days he also kept with his family, calling in the assistance of three or four godly neighbors; besides what he did more publicly among the people of God. Behold, how near this good man approached unto the strictest and highest sense of praying always!"

(To be Continued.)

THE STOWES OF LONDON.

[For the New England Historical and Genealogical Register.]

STOWE OF STOw, (for the word is spelt both ways,) is a very ancient name in England, and is found particularly in Middlesex and Lincolnshire. My great-uncle, Timothy Stowe of Dedham, who died some thirty years since at a very advanced age, frequently told me, that our ancestor was from Middlesex, and that his wife, who was a Wetherbee, was from the adjoining county of Essex. It is then from the London branch of the family, and not from the Lincolnshire, that we are descended.

JOHN STOWE came over in one of the Winthrop companies, settled in Roxbury, and took the freeman's oath Sept. 3d, 1634. He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, which was instituted in 1638. Samuel Stowe, a preacher, was graduated with the third graduating class of Harvard College in 1645. Another of the same name took his degree at the same university in 1716. I know nothing of his profession or his place of residence.

The principal facts which I have been able to collect in regard to the family previous to the settlement of this country, are recounted in the following pages.

In 1285 King Edward II. presented John de Stowe, of London, to the living of Rotherfield.

In 1297, Henry Stowe, draper of London, bought of Sir John Abel a lot of land on the Thames, in Allhallows ad Fænum, where goods were landed.

Two centuries after this, Thomas Stowe, tallow-chandler, dwelt in St. Michael's parish, Cornhill, London. In his day a great prodigy occurred, which excited the wonderment of the good citizens. The steeple of St. Michael's church was famous for its superior chime of bells; and on St. James's day, as the ringers were ringing, there came up a dreadful tempest of thunder and lightning, and suddenly there rushed in at the south window an ugly shapen sight, and lit on the north side; and presently the terrified ringers let go the bells, and lay as dead for fright. When they came to themselves, they found the stone sill of the north window razed, and scratched and marked with a lion's claw, as if (says the narrative) it had been a lump of butter. Stowe himself measured the depth of the print with a stick, and found it to be between two and three inches. Nothing in Cotton Mather is more marvellous than this.

Thomas Stowe died in 1526, and his will, which is recorded in the Bishop of London's Register, is as follows:

"In the name of God, Amen. In the year of our Lord God, 1526,

the last day of December, I, Thomas Stowe, citizen and tallow-chandler of London, in good and hole mynd, thanks to our Lord Jesu, make this my present testament. First, I bequayth my soul to Jesu Christ and to our blessed lady Seynt Mary the Virgin, etc. My body to be buryd in the little grene church-yard of Seynt Mychel, Cornhill, between the crosse and church wall, nigh the wall as may be, by my father and mother, sisters and brothers, and also my own children. Also I bequayth to the hye altar of foresaid church for my tyths forgotten 12. Item, to Jesu's Brotherhedde 12. I gyve to our Lady's and Seynt Brotherhedde 124. I gyve St. Christopher and St. George 124. Also to the VII altars in the church aforesaid, in worship of the VII sacraments, every year during three years, 20. Item, v shillings, to have on every altar a washyng candel burning from VI of the clock till it be past VII, in worship of the VII sacraments. And this candel shall begin to burn, and to be set upon the altar, from Allhalloween day till it be Candlemass day following; and it shall be washyng candel of VII in the lb. Also I give to the Brotherhedde of Clerks to drynke 20a. Also I give to them that shall bayre me to church, every man 4. Also I gyve to a pore man or woman every Sunday in 1 year 14 to say v pater nosters and aves and a creede for my soul. Also I gyve for the reparation of pales 84. Also I will have vi new Torches, and II torches of St. Mychel and St. Anne, and II of St. Christopher, and II of Jesus, of the best Torchys.

Also I bequaith to Tho's Stowe, my son, xx lb. in stuff of household, as here followyth, that is to say, my grate melting panne, with all the instruments that longeth thereto. Also I bequaith to my son Thomas 6, 13 and 5, as hereafter followith. Item, a nest of silver and gilt, 55', 4a. Item, a pounced piece weiing 6 ounces and more, 40'. Item, a mass of a pynt 26 84. Item, a little maser, 13' 4'. Item, of this my present Testament I make Elizabeth my wife mine executrix, and Thomas Stowe my son my overseer, and Mr. Tindal as a solicitor with my son Thomas, and he to have for his labor 10."

Thomas, Jr., being thus enriched with his father's "grate melting panne and all the instruments longing thereto," pursued his tallowchandler's trade with such success, that besides his city house in Cornhill, for his pleasure and diversion he rented a garden and cottage in the country, situated on the back side of Throckmorton street in Broad street ward, near to the place where Draper's Hall now stands. This garden, which was five and forty foot in length, he rented of Sir Thos. Cromwell, King Henry the Eighth's great minister and secretary of state, for the yearly sum of six shillings and eight pence. Here an incident occurred strikingly illustrative of the condition of our fathers in their native land, which stands recorded as follows: "A garden house, close by Stowe's south wall, stood somewhat in Sir Thos. Cromwell's way, and obstructed his convenience, whereupon, without any more ado, or asking leave of the proprietor, Sir Thomas's workmen loosed it from its foundations, and bare it on rollers 2 and 20 foot, into Master Stowe's garden, before he heard any thing thereof. Whereupon remonstrating with Sir Thomas's steward, he got no answer, but that Sir Tho's commanded them to do it, and none durst argue the matter. And notwithstanding he was fain to continue to pay his old rent for the garden without any abatement, though the half of it was covered with Sir Tho's his garden house."

This Thomas Stowe died in 1559, and was buried in St. Michael's,