Archive:NEHGR, Volume 34

Archives > Archive:Extracts > Archive:The New England Historical and Genealogical Register > NEHGR, Volume 34

"Book Notices", NEHGR, vol. XXXIV (1880), pp 213-234.

[p. 231]

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, embracing a Comprehensive History of the County from the first settlement to the present time, with a History and Description of its Cities and Towns. Illustrated. Boston C.F. Jewett & Company. 1879. [2 vols. 4to. pp. 662 and 710. Price $12 for the set]

[p. 232]

[snip]

The remaining pages of the county history are devoted to a brief account of the press of the county, and a short notice of military affairs, closing with a chapter on four celebrated inventors -- Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, Thomas Blanchard, who invented machines for turning irregular forms, Erastus B. Bigelow and the carpet loom, and Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine. [snip]

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Peirce, Benjamin Osgood, of Beverly, Mass.,"Capt. Hugh Mason's Gravestones"", NEGHR, vol. XXXIV (1880), pp. 280-281.

[p. 281]

In this connection I may make mention of a curious document discovered a short time since among some loose papers in the court-house at Cambridge. It bears no date, but announces to the court the choice, on the part of the "traine band," of Lieutenant Mason as captain, and Sergeant Beeres as lieutenant, and then gives the names of forty-one persons who, according to an endorsement, had "taken the oath of fedelity at Watertowne." A reference to the court records shows that the appointment of Captain Mason and Lieutenant Beers was confirmed 5 (2) mo. 1653. The document is as follows:

"Let this honored court know that wee the traine band of Watertowne have chosen Lieutenant Mason to be our captaine and sergent Beeres to be our Leeutenant."

"Here is also the names of certaine men whom upon this occasion haue taken the oath of fidelity."

Jonathan Whitney

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