Corresponding Members. on Mr. R. H. GARDINER, Gardiner, Maine. Rev. CHARLES BURROUGHS, D.D., Portsmouth, N. H. The corresponding members are agents of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society in their several dioceses. Where no corresponding member is elected the member or members of the Executive Committee in that diocese performs the duties. Direct Church papers, donations of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, &c., to the Rev. BENJ. FRANKLIN, Philadelphia. Subscriptions and moneys to F. S. WINSTON, Esq., Treasurer, 60 Cedar street, N. Y. 87 Letter of Mr. Henderson Walker to the Bishop of London (1703), 182 Tictise PREFACE. 1 THE Executive Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society have, at length, the pleasure of presenting to its members the first volume of its collections. That it has not sooner appeared is less the fault of the Committee than of some of the members of the Society. The former adopted as a rule, to which they have inflexibly adhered, to contract no debt which they had not the means of paying at any moment when it might be demanded. Hence they were unwilling to print until they had funds in hand to pay for the work. Some of the members, from inattention, delayed their payments for a time, and the Committee waited to receive them. The volume is as large as their means enabled them to make it. The Committee indulge the hope that it will not, in its contents, disappoint the reasonable expectations of the Society. It will be found to present the record of past events only; interesting, as they hope and believe, to all the members of the Church alike. It is made up of the early documents themselves, with but two exceptions. Those two consist merely of a condensed summary of the facts connected with two past events of historical interest to churchmen (occurring in colonial times), chronologically arranged, and embodying the substance of many scattered documents. These two were prepared by two members of the publishing Committee. Nearly the whole of the book consists of that which has never before been published, and a part of it presents probably the best history extant of the earliest labors in America of the venerable Society for Propagating the Gospel. The book will afford to the members of the Church a specimen of the general nature of the materials, which (should the Society be sustained) will compose the future volumes of the series. The materials at the disposal of the Committee are abundant enough for many such volumes as this; and some of them are of deep interest, and indeed importance to the Church. To Churchmen, therefore, we must look for support. The historical student or antiquary who is not a churchman, may here and there be found to attach a value to such a publication as ours; but the number of such is not large, and, therefore, our support must be derived from Protestant Episcopalians, alive to the importance of preserving the documen tary history of their portion of the Church of Christ. Our subscription list of members is at present small; it consists of but little more than three hundred names; but among those are to be found that of every bishop, as well as those of many of the oldest and most influential clergy. Had the Society some twelve or fifteen hundred members, the Committee would pledge themselves to publish annually four volumes like the present, to a copy of which each member would be entitled by virtue of his annual payment of two dollars. The present members of the Society are, for the most part, derived from the ranks of the clergy. The laity have not yet had their attention drawn to the subject; and, in fact, most of them are probably ignorant of the existence of the Society. The Executive Committee would, therefore, respectfully solicit the co-operation of the conductors of Church periodicals, in making known to the laity the plans and purposes of the Society; and would ask also for the efficient aid of our numerous parochial clergy, in causing the Society to be known in their respective congregations. If each clergyman would procure but a few lay members, the Society might pursue its work on a larger scale, and more than repay to every member the amount of his annual subscription. The Committee deem it proper to say that the management of the affairs of the Society costs nothing. It has no paid agent, and the services of every officer are gratuitously rendered. It only remains to add that the following gentlemen compose the Publishing Committee who have prepared the present volume: Rev. F. L. HAWKS, D.D., LL.D. Rev. BENJ. FRANKLIN. |