you shall Immediately push forward to put y'
Resolve of Congress into Execution their Party
by the most authentick Intelligence which I ob-
tained by sending of a Party at 12 oClock last
Night & takeing 4 Men who ware with them last
Sund': does not Exceed 50 or 60 Men I am afraid
the Principalls are flown I am S
Your Very Hum Serv

CHARLES READE.

IMLAYS TOWN, July ye 6th, 1776. SAML. TUCKER, ESQ.

The John Lawrence, here alluded to, was arrested apparently on the 5th of July, as Major Duyckinck reported his arrest on the 6th. The squire, or doctor, seems to have been a great favorite with the ladies, who sent a very urgent petition to Gen. Livingston to obtain his release, " apprehending fatal and melancholy consequences to themselves." But patriotism was proof against the blandishments and entreaties of the ladies, and the reply was, that as Dr. Lawrence has fallen under the suspicion of our generals, we are under the necessity of abiding by the steps which are

taken."

་

This John Lawrence is probably the same who was in the Assembly in 1767, and then a member of a committee to correspond with the agent of the colony in Great Britain. Sabine, in his "Loyalists," mentions but one of the name, who was in 1781-2, lieutenant in the 1st battalion New Jersey Volunteers, and died in Upper Canada, in 1820. If we have erred in making one man of "Squire," "Doctor," and "Lieutenant Lawrence," our New Jersey friends will correct us.

THE MARCH OF DE SOTO.

have given his work much celebrity, added to the circumstance of his being the only narrator of the events in the Spanish language.

About the year 1841, there appeared in France, translated from the Spanish, a letter written by Soto in the year 1539, from Tampa Bay (where he had just landed with his forces), to the mayor and Board of Aldermen of St. Jago, in Cuba, and also a relation of circumstances attending the march, as given by Biedma, a captain in the expedition; the original papers having been discovof Spain, by Muñoz, in his explorations for mateered during the last century among the archives rial to write a work on the discovery of America, by order of the king, and who unfortunately died duction-after having made a large collection of on completing the first volume-a masterly probounded care and critical acumen. copies of originals, for his future use, with unFrom these labors, composing some ninety volumes, and those of a like nature made later by Navarrete, are drawn by copies, much of the material that has been in America. About the year 1855, was pubwritten from of late years, respecting early events cient prints and partly from manuscript unpublished the history of the Indies, partly from anlished, from the pen of the chronicler Oviedo, in which is contained another account of the march of Soto, to near the time of his death, by Rangel, private secretary to the governor, which is of very of the commander, and the machinery that kept in great importance, as showing the secret thoughts play the ambitious hopes of his tireing companions. The circumstances, the dates, the quantities, as given here, range well with those of the Portuguese narrator, and show the account from the happy pen of Garcilasso, unreliable, and little else than a very pleasing romance. The account, or rather report, of Biedma throws in its weight against the Ynca, and produces some new features not to be found in the other relations. As written in the Spanish it was not known until about 1857, when Buckingham Smith had it printed at Madrid, and published in London, in his "Colecciones," or papers concerning the early history of the country now covered by the United States, and which were to that time in great part unknown, or known in some few cases only, through French translations. A translation recently made by the same gentleman, from the Spanish original at Seville, is soon, we are informed, to appear.

AN account of the march of Soto, was first given by a knight of Elvas, one of the company of Portuguese gentlemen who, returning from Florida, made it known by publication, in the year 1555. This was followed by the History of Adelantando Hernando de Soto, written in the Spanish by an illustrious half-breed descendant of the Ynca, likewise printed in Portugal, and has for its woof and substance the anterior relation in the Portuguese; the narrator having gathered somewhat likewise, from living sources, though a distance of time lay between the periods of their severally being written of about forty years. It Mr. Smith, who will we trust soon be able, as is from these two accounts that the "Conquest of our representative in Spain, to continue his invesFlorida," by Theodore Irving, is compiled, and tigations into our early history, has already diswere all the authorities known at the time he covered much bearing on the history of de Soto, wrote, the matter in the volumes of the Spanish and the readers of the Magazine are aware how chronicler, Herrara, being taken from that writ-kindly he has given us gleanings of his treasures. ten by Garcilasso de la Vega, the Indian of Peru, We shall give in our next a copy of the will of whose graceful narrative and simple naturalness | De Soto, sent us by him.

TWO PRINCES OF WALES VISITING THE might perhaps have been raised in support of the

UNITED STATES AT THE SAME TIME:

One the actual Prince of Wales, and the other would have been, had Henry the Eighth's will been carried into effect.

validity of the will, even on the admission that
the signatures were merely stamped. The instru-
ment was, it seems, deposited, by order of the
Council, in the Treasury of the Exchequer, on the
9th of March, 1547; and there it remained for
all the rest of the sixteenth and for nearly all of
the seventeenth century. At last it was removed,
probably along with other papers, about the
1695, to the Chapter House, at Westminster,
where it now is. It appears to have been gener-
ally forgotten throughout the era of the Stuarts,
till somebody fell upon it and brought it once
more to light, in the reign of Queen Anne. By
that date it had become harmless enough.

year

There is a remarkable passage about this will of Henry the VIII. in Leicester's Commonwealth." It is assumed that there was then (in 1584), no lawful or authenticated copy of the will extant, "but only a bare enrolment in the Chancery;" and it is further affirmed that the Council, in the reign of Mary, on being convinced by the declarations of Lord Regent Chief-Justice Montague, and William Clark, who put the stamp upon the paper, that the will had never been signed by King Henry-"caused the said enrolment lying in the Chancery, to be cancelled, effaced, and abolished." (See "Craik's Romance of the Peerage," vol. ii., pp. 224-6.)

In 1536 Parliament passed an Act (28 Hen. viii., c. 7), which gave to the king the power of disposing of the crown, in case of failure of his own issue, to any person he chose, either by his letter-patent under the Great Seal, or by his last will signed with his hand. Seven years later, the Act of 1536 was confirmed in respect to that portion of it, and such continued to be the law of the land to the end of Henry's reign. A will was undoubtedly drawn up by Henry's direction, by which, in default of issue by his children, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, he limited the succession to the descendants of his younger sister, Mary, passing over those of his elder sister, Margaret. If this will was really executed by his majesty according to the power prescribed by the statute, the legal right of succession on the death of Elizabeth was not in the King of Scotland, who was the representative of Margaret Tudor, but the representative of Mary Tudor, whoever that might be. The original will, or what was produced as such in the next reign, still exists, and bears what professes to be the signatures of Henry the VIII., in two places; the question is, whether the signatures The declarations of Lord Paget and others in were written with his own hand? A few months the reign of Mary, do not invalidate the genuinebefore his death, Henry had appointed three per-ness of the will, their evidence was merely to the sons to sign with a stamp all instruments requiring his signature; but it has been generally allowed that the signatures to the will are evidently formed with a pen. Hence it has been concluded that we have here, not the stamp, but, as required by the statute, the king's own handwriting. Dr. Lingard, however, has overthrown that inference, by pointing out a circumstance which had escaped attention, namely, that even when the stamp was used, a pen also was employed; the impression was to be made with a dry stainp, and was then to be filled up with ink; two signatures to the will, therefore, though formed with a pen, may still not have been by the king's own hand.

Forged or genuine as the signatures may be, it is somewhat strange that such a document should have been preserved to the present day. There have been moments in the course of the three centuries that have elapsed since it was fabricated, in which it might have done mischief. It might, indeed, have been contended, as Burnet says it was, by many, when the Act of 1536 was first passed, that such an Act was of no force, inasmuch as "the succession to the crown was not within the Parliament's power to determine about it." On the other hand, an argument VOL. V. 2

HIST. MAG.

effect that Henry did not himself sign the will; and this is corroborated by evidence still in existence. In the State-paper Office in London, are the docquets or lists, made up monthly, commencing in September, 1545, and ending in January, 1547 (only a month before the king's death). These docquets are on parchment, and each monthly list is signed by "William Clark." The will, which is the last but one of the documents so signed by stamp, is entered in the following words: "85. Your Majesties last will and testament bearing date at Westmin' the thirtie daie of Decembr last past written in a book of paper Signed above in the beginning and benethintende and sealed w' the Signet, in the presence of Therle of hertf., Mr. Secretarie Pagett, Mr. Denny, and Mr. harbert, and also in the presence of certain other persons whos names ar subscribed in their own handes as Witnesses to the same, whiche testament your maiestie dely vered then in our sightes with your own hande to the said Erle of hertford as your own dede, last will and testament, revoking and adnulling all other your highnes former Willes and Testamentes. W. Clark."

The writer carefully examined the will some few years since. The signatures, both at the beginning and at the end, are evidently made with a

of Buckingham, who would, in that case, have
been the present King of England, and his son,
the Marquis of Chandos (who recently visited the
United States, and returned to England by the
Africa, last month), would have been Prince of
Wales; so that we have had the singular coinci-
dence of two Princes of Wales visiting us at the
same time.
G. A.

Nov. 1, 1860.

[It is no less strange that, but for the Law of the Protestant Succession, by which the Catholic members of the Stuart line were deprived of all rights, on account of their religion, the King of Sardinia, V. Emanuel, would be not Prince of Wales indeed, but King of Great Britain and Ireland.]

Societies and their Proceedings.

MARYLAND.

MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.-Baltimore, Oct. 4, 1860.-The first meeting after the summer recess, was held on Thursday evening, the President in the chair.

After the reading of the minutes of the last meeting by the Secretary, donations were announced from the Smithsonian Institution; State of Maryland; Commissioners of Public Schools, Baltimore; Essex Institute, Mass.; Conn. Historical Society; Geo. L. L. Davis, Esq.; Am. Philosophical Society; State of Wisconsin; H. B. Dawson, Esq., N. Y.; Department of the Interior of U. S.; Wm. Wallace, Jr.; Brantz Mayer; A. J. Crossman, R. I.

Nov. 1.-Owing to the political excitement, the attendance on Thursday evening was small. In the absence of the President, Rev. Dr. Morris was called to the chair, Rev. N. R. Chamberlain and John A. Whitridge, were elected active members.

Dr. Joseph Palmer, of Boston, Mass., was elected a corresponding member.

After the reading of correspondence by the Corresponding Secretary, and a brief discussion of unimportant subjects, the Society adjourned.

MASSACHUSETTS.

BOSTON NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.-Boston, Nov. 2, 1860.—The monthly meeting was held at the rooms of the Historic-genealogical Society, the Vice-president presiding; in the absence of the Secretary, Mr. Henry Davenport was appointed secretary pro tem.

The business of the Society having been first transacted, Mr. Colburn presented a series of eight medals, in white metal, of the Presidents and others-a donation to the Society from Mr. Henry M. Brooks, of Salem, a resident member; also a jetton from Lt.-col. J. D. Graham, U. S. A. Mr. Endicott presented various brass and copper coins of the French empire. Mr. Davenport presented a Franco-Americana coin, in bronze, and exhibited a rare medal of Washington, copper, size 21. Ob.-Head of Washington, to the right; hair long, tied in a queue; epaulet; shirt ruffle seen in the bosom; legend, “GEORGE WASHINGTON, OF VIRGINIA. Rev. In the centre a pyramid of fifteen cannon-balls; underneath, two sabres crossed; edge upwards; legend in two lines, "GENERAL OF THE AMERICAN ARMIES 1775. RESIGned the Rev. Dr. Morris, from the Library committee, COMMAND 1783. ELECT PRESIDENT of the Unimade a brief report on the State of the Library. TED STATES 1789." A gold coin of Philip II., Charles F. Mayer, from the special committee and a consular, or family coin, in the same metal, appointed to consider and report upon the So- and in most beautiful condition; also a stater of ciety's proprietary rights over the Library finally Antiochus VIII. Gryphus,―B. c. 124-97,—in the transferred to it by the Library Company of Bal-finest condition and of great rarity; together timore, presented a report with a resolution for obtaining the signatures of the original stockholders, authorizing the transfer of a portion of the books to the Library of the Peabody Institute, if desired.

The Recording Secretary stated the intention of Mr. John Murphy, to publish a series of historical tracts; whereupon a resolution was passed, directing the President and Secretaries to confer with Mr. Murphy, and give the enterprise the sanction of the Society.

Notice was given that the first of the Society's soirées would be held on Thursday evening, Nov. 15th. Adjourned.

with a number of French medals of the present emperor, and some fine medals struck lately at the medal mint in Berlin, were shown. The thanks of the Society were voted to the gentlemen above named, for their donations. journed to Friday, December 7.

Ad

NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.-Boston, Nov. 7.-The regular monthly meeting of this Society was held at the above place on Wednesday afternoon, the President, Almon D. Hodges, in the chair.

Mr. Trask, the Librarian, reported that nine bound volumes, ninety-six pamphlets, and seven

newspapers had been presented to the Library and Eleventh-street. Notwithstanding it was during the last month. election evening, there was an attendance of Dr. Palmer, the historiographer, read a bio-about 350 persons. The minutes of the last meetgraphical notice of Jeffrey Richardson, Jr., a resi- ing being read and approved, the Corresponding dent member of the Society, who died in Boston, Secretary, Dr. Osgood, read a plan of a work en6th October last, aged 29 years; and one of Fred-titled "The Doomsday Book of the State of New erick Palmer Tracy, a corresponding member, who died in Lowville, Lewis county, Ñ. Y., 10th October last, aged 45 years.

There seems to be an appropriateness in thus noting this day, which is perhaps the most important of all the days of that honest, earnest, exiled band of our Puritan Fathers, after giving up their dear native country and starting in quest of civil and religious liberty, inasmuch as it was not only the first day of landing on New England soil, but also the day on which was signed one of the most remarkable civil compacts ever writtenthe foundation in no small degree of the civil lib-J. H. Pierson, Henry Brewster, Jno. Chadwick, erty and good order which their stalwart moral natures sought, obtained, and enjoyed.