OF THE AMERICAN PORTION OF THE LIBRARY OF The Rev. Thomas Prince. WITH A MEMOIR, AND LIST OF HIS PUBLICATIONS, BY WM. H. WHITMORE. BOSTON: J. K. WIGGIN & WM. PARSONS LUNT. 1868. PREFACE. THE Library collected by the Rev. Thomas Prince, and left by him in the charge of the Old South Church in Boston, as a public trust, has been wisely deposited by its custodians in the building of the Boston Public Library. The trustees of the City Library have caused to be prepared a thorough catalogue of all the books thus committed to their care, and in due season will print it, uniform with their previous large catalogues. By their kindness, we have been able to use the type of their edition, and in consequence the titles are given from the transcripts made by the officials at the Library. In the present catalogue, the cross-references have been omitted, and the titles thus brought together have been numbered consecutively. The object has been to present to the reader a list of the books now remaining in the Prince collection, in form and style most convenient for examination and use in references. Owing to the difficulties involved in the mode of printing, it is possible that in a few cases a book has been entered under two titles and received two numbers; possibly a few unimportant titles may have been dropped accidentally. The preliminary pages of this catalogue contain a brief memoir of Thomas Prince, and the full titles of all his publications; as many of them are not now found in his library, we believe this list will be of special value to all interested in the bibliography of New England. MEMOIR OF THE REV. THOMAS PRINCE. THOMAS PRINCE, the founder of the library of which the following pages are a catalogue of the portion relating to America, was born at Sandwich, Mass., May 15th, 1687, and was the oldest son of Samuel Prince by his second wife, Mercy, daughter of Gov. Thomas Hinckley.* His paternal grandfather was John Prince, of Hull, Mass., one of the early colonists, son of the Rev. John Prince, Rector of East Shefford, in Berkshire, Eng. Thus advantageously connected by birth, every opportunity was afforded to Thomas Prince to attain an honored position in New England; and, as will be seen, he fully justified the hopes entertained of him. In 1703, he entered Harvard College, where "he made a laudable proficiency in the study of the liberal Arts," and where he was, as Increase Mather writes, "a praying student." After he was graduated, he probably spent two years in * Various brief biographies of the Rev. Thomas Prince are extant. We ma specially cite one by S. G. Drake, Esq., in the N. E. Histal and Genealogical Register, and an article in the Nor American Review for October 1860. |