The Book branch of Trade, and you Can't but be Senceable that it was my Regard to you has Occasioned it's being forced from me in this way." About the month of May, 1738, Cox appears to have become wellnigh intolerable. On the 24th of that month our bookseller writes to Longman,-" Cox has Sent some more Books here this Spring, & I Cannot Learn that he 's Called his man home Yet. I am a Great Sufferer by him, as well as you, having above £250 Sterling in Books by me, before what Came from you now." Sometimes, however, Cox makes a slight mistake, and then our bookseller again takes heart of courage. Thus, under date of October 29, 1739, he again writes to Longman, "Cox's man Came in Hall's ship about a month Agoe, brought Eight Trunks and a Box or two of Books, has opened his Shop, but makes no Great Figure & is but little taken Notice off, which is a Good Symtom of a bad Sortment, his Return here was Surprising to me; truly I did not Expect it. At present I don't know how to Govern myself as to the Book Trade, but am willing to do the Needful to Discountenance him, and will write you again in little Time." But, alas! by the 10th of December following, Cox had rallied bravely, and, accordingly, Hancock again writes in despair, 'I know not how to Conduct my Affairs as to the Book Trade. Cox's Shop is opened, & he has a pretty Good Collection of Books. He brought with him 8 Trunks, & 4 Came in ye next Ship. His Coming is A Great Damage to me, having many Books by me unsold for Years past, & most all which I had of you this Year. I am Ready Sometimes to Give up that part of my Business, & I think I should have done it ere now, were I not in hopes of Serving you in that Branch of Trade. Could you propose any Scheem to discountenance our Common Enemy I will Gladly Joyn I fear he will have more Goods in the Next Ship. I have Nothing to Add at this time only that I am with Great Esteem Your Assurd Frd &c. T. H." you. We may remark, that, if Longman were not by this time brought to be fully Senceable of the sacrifices which had been made here for his interest, it was assuredly through no fault of his Boston customer. In a letter dated April 30, 1736, Hancock had felt emboldened to inform him, "I have Occasion for Tillotson's Works, Rapine's History of England, Chamber's Dictionary & Burkitt on N. Testament for my own use, and as the Burthen of ye two Last years Sale of Books & Returns for them has mostly Laine on my Self, & as I have rec'd no Commitions, Some Debts yet outstanding, and many books by me now on Sold, which shall be glad to Sell for what I allowed you & now have paid for,-I say if you 'l please make a Present to me of y* above named, or any part of 'em They will be very Acceptable to me. My Last to you was of ye 10th & 14th Instent, which hope you have Rec'd ere This & I am "Your obliged Humb. Serv. "T. H." Once only, in the whole correspondence, are we able to find that this interloping caitiff of Cox's was fairly circumvented. With what an inward glow of satisfaction must our Boston bookseller have found himself sufficiently master of the situation to be able to write to Longman (under date of May 10th, 1739),— "Pr. this Conveyance Messr. Joseph Paine & Son of London have Orders from this place to buy £50. Sterling worth of Books; I have Engaged Mr. Cushing, who writes to Paine to Order him to buy them of you, & that you would Use them well, which I Desire you to Doe; it will be ready money & I was Loth you should miss of it, (this is the Case,- Cox's man had Engaged to Send for them & let the Gentleman have 'em at the Sterling Cost,) but the Gentleman being my friend, I interposed, & So Strongly Sollicited on your behalf that I fix't it right at last & you may Certainly depend on Longman's next trunk brings a copy of Chambers's Dictionary, then just published, as a present to Mr. Hancock, and we might almost fancy it an acknowledgment of this letter about the Comition in more ways than one. We ought in justice to observe, however, that in those days, in the absence of any generally recognized and accepted standard of authority, gentlemen of the best condition in life appear to have felt at liberty to spell pretty much as they pleased, in New England. So far, at least, as Mr. Hancock's credit for orthography is concerned, it must be allowed, from his repeatedly spelling the same word in two or three different ways on the same page, that he probably gave the matter very little thought at any time,-taking as small pains as did Mr. Pepys, and really caring as little as Sir Thomas Browne for "the Barpaxouvoμaxía and hot skirmish betwixt S and T in Lucian, or how grammarians hack and slash for the genitive case of Jupiter."* That such spelling would hardly be admissible on India Wharf to-day, we freely admit, - nay, would even rush, were it necessary, to maintain,- but we must still claim for our favorite, that a century and a quarter agone he seems to have spelt about as well, on the whole, as the generality of his neighbors. There is one most extraordinary escapade of his, however, in this line of performance, which we do not know how we can undertake wholly to defend. To Mr. John Rowe, a little doubtful about New-England Bills of Exchange, he writes, "As to the £100 Draft of Mr. Faneuil's above mentioned, I doubt not but any merchant in London will take that Gentleman's Bill, when accepted, as Soon as a Bank Note, he being the * Religio Medici, Part II., Sec. 3. Topinest merchant in this Country, & I Gave 20 per Cent Extra for it." If there be really a proper superlative of the adjective topping, our letter-writer, it must be confessed, has made a wide miss here of the mark he aimed at. "Priscian 's a little scratch'd here," rather too much, indeed, even for 1739. That the reader may not suspect Mr. Hancock of monopolizing all the cacography of his time, we give verbatim the following letter from Christopher Kilby,* a letter among many of the same sort found with Mr. Hancock's papers. "London, 15 February 1727. "HONEST FR'D. This not only advises you of my arrival but acknowledges the rec" of your favour. By your desire I waited upon Mr. Cox, & have told him and every body else, where it was necessary, as much as you desired, & account it part of my Felicity that I have so worthy a friend as Mr. Hancock. When you arrive here you'l find things vastly beyond your imagination, I shall give you no other Character of England than this, that it is beyond expression, greater and finer than any thing I could ever form an Idea of. I wish you may arrive before I leave it, that you may with me, gaze and Wonder at a place that wee can neither of us give a good Discripsion of. Pray present my Services to Mr. *Christopher Kilby was one of the Representatives of the Town in the General Court, (1739,) and was appointed by that body to go to England, as an agent for the Province. He soon after embarked for London, where he resided for several years. He was called the "Standing Agent" of the Province, and was likewise the Special Agent of the Town. Five years after this, we find a record of his election, at which he had 102 votes out of 109. When the General Court passed an act granting the King an excise on spirituous liquors, wines, limes, lemons, and oranges, the Town "voted unanimously to employ him to appear on behalf of the Town, and to use his utmost endeavour to prevent said Act's obtaining the Royal Assent," and likewise to be its agent in other matters. This action of the Town was June 3d, 1755.-See Drake's History of Boston, p. 606. Wood, Mr. Cunnington, and if Mr. Lev- "Your sincere friend & yery "CHRISR. KILBY." whole of the first third of the volume before us. Gradually, however, Hancock had been growing into a larger way of business, and his Bills of Exchange for £500 and £600, drawn generally by Mr. Peter Faneuil,* begin to be of more frequent occurrence, -bills which he writes his London correspondents "are Certainly very Good, & will meet with Due Honour." We read here and there of ventures to Medara and to Surranam, and of certain consignments of “Geese and Hogges to ye New Found Land." "Be so Good," he says, in a letter of May 17th, 1740, to a friend then staying in London, "as to Interist me in ye half The following letter from Mr. Faneuil's own hand, found among Mr. Hancock's papers, is sufficiently curious to warrant its insertion here: "Boston, February 3d. 1738. "CAPT. PETER BUCKLEY, "SR, Herewith you have Invoice of Six hh. fish, & 8 Barrells of Alewifes, amounting to £75. 9. 2-which when you arrive at Antiguas be pleased to Sell for my best advantage, & with the net produce of the Same purchase for me, for the use of my house, as likely a Strait limbed Negro lad as possible you can, about the Age of from 12 to fiveteen years, & if to be done, one that has had the Small pox, who being for my Own service, I must request the fav', you would let him be one of as tractable a disposition as you can find, wch. I leave to your prudent care & management, desireing after you have purchased him you would send him to me by the first good Opportunity, recommending him to a Particular care from the Captain by whom you send him. Your care in this will be an Obli put a final Stop to his unjust proceedings gation,- I wish you a good Voyage, & am & Trade to New-Engd. I pray God it may have this long wished for Effect, the Good fruits of which, I hope you & we shall soon partake of." The correspondence with Longman is kept up with great activity through the "Sr. your humble Servant "PETER FANEUIL "P. S. Should there not be Eno to purchase the Boy desir'd be pleased to Add, & if any Overplus, to Lay it out for my Best Advantage in any thing you think proper. P. F." Truly, in confronting this ghost of departed manners, may we say with the Clown in "Twelfth Night,” . -"Thus the whirligig of Time brings in his revenges." The Hall which was the gift to the town of this merchant, who proposes to trade codfish and alewifes for a slave, afterward became everywhere known to the world as the very "Cradle of Liberty." of 8 or 10 Ticketts when any Lottery 's going on, you think may doe, and am oblidged to you for mentioning your Kind intention herein. Please God ye Young Eagle, Philip Dumerisque Com' comes well home, and I believe I shall make no bad voyage." It is easy to see that the snug little business of the "Stationers' Arms" is soon to be given up, for what Drake describes as "the more extensive field of mercantile enterprise."† By this time, too, the signs of the French War began to loom alarmingly upon the horizon of the little colony, and Hancock rose with the occasion to the character of a man of large and grave affairs. Cox's man, and his Trunks and Sortments of Books, appear, after this, to have but little of his attention. There was need of raising troops, and of fitting out vessels; and when the famous expedition against Louisburg was determined on, Hancock had a large share in the matter of providing its munitions and equipment. His correspondence with Sir William Pepperell in these great affairs still lies preserved in good order in boxes in the attic of the old mansion. Meanwhile, as he rose in the world, he had been laying out his grounds, and building and furnishing his house; his first letter from which is addressed to his "Dear Friend," Christopher Kilby, then in London, and is dated, rather grandly, “At my house in Beacon Street, Boston ye 224 Mar. 1739-40." Let us look back, then, a little over the yellow, time History of Boston, p. 681. † Mr. Hancock, although a merchant "of the approved Gresham and Whittington pattern," appears, for some reason or other, to have judged no small degree of secrecy expedient in regard to some of his ventures. Thus, under date of October 22d, 1736, he writes to Captain John Checkering, then absent on a voyage on his account: I "I hope ere this, you Safe arrived at Surranam, & your Cargo to a Good Market. Press you make the best dispatch possible, & doe all you can to serve the Interist of ye concerned, & Closely observe when you come on our Coasts not to Speak with any Vessells, nor let any of your men write up to their wives, when you arrive at our light house." stained record of the letter-book before us, and see what were the experiences of a gentleman, in building and planting in Beacon Street, so long before our grandfathers were born. Under date of the 5th of July, 1736, Hancock writes to his friend and constant correspondent in London, "Mr. Francis Wilks Esq","* inclosing a letter to one James Glin at Stepney, with orders for some trees, concerning which he tells Wilks, "I am advised to have 'em bought, but if you Can find any man Will Serve us Better I Leave it to your Pleasure." He must have thought it a great pity, from the sequel of this affair, that Mr. Wilks's Pleasure did not happen to lie in another direction. "I am Recommended by Mr. Tho'. Hubbard of This Town," runs the letter inclosed to Glin, "to you for A number of Fruit Trees, - be pleased to waite on Mr. Wilks for the Inv of them & Let me have ye best Fruit, & pack't in ye best manner, & All numbered, with an Acco' of ye Same. I pray you be very Carefull That ye be Took up in ye Right Season, and if these Answer my Expectations I shall want more, & 't will Ly in my way to Recommend Some Friends to you. I Intreat the Fruit may be the best of their Kind, the Trees handsome Stock, well Pack't, All No'd & Tally'd, & particular Inv° of 'em. I am St. &c. &c. T. H." Trees This careful order was evidently duly executed by the nurseryman, and at first all appears to have gone smoothly enough, since, on the 20th of December following, (1736,) we find another letter to Glin, as follows: : "SIR,-My Trees and Seeds pr. Capt. Bennett Came Safe to hand and I Like "At length wearied with the altercation and persuaded of the justness of their cause," (in refusing to settle a fixed salary on Gov. Burnet,) the House resolved to apply to his Majesty for redress, and Mr. Francis Wilkes, a New-England merchant, then resident in London, was selected as their agent."-Barry's History of the Provincial Period of Massachu setts, p. 126. them very well. I Return you my hearty "Your most Obedt. Servant, But neither Esquire Hancock nor Mr. Glin at Stepney could control the force of Nature, or persuade the delicate fruittrees of Old England to blossom and flourish here, even on the south side of Beacon Hill. The maxim, "L'homme propose, et le bon Dieu dispose," was found to be as inevitable in 1736 as it is in our later day and generation. It is true that no ancestral Downing was then at hand, with wise counsels of arboriculture, nor had any accidental progenitor of Sir Hen ry Stuart of Allanton as yet taught the Edinboro' public of the Pretender's time the grand secrets of transplanting and induration. Esquire Hancock, therefore, was left to work out by himself his own woful, but natural disappointment. On the 24th of June, 1737, he writes to the unfortunate nurseryman in a strain of severe, and, as he doubtless thought, of most righteous indignation. - "SIR, I Recd. your Letter & your Baskett of flowers per. Capt. Morris, & have Desired Francis Wilks Esq' to pay you £26 for them Though they are Every one Dead. The Trees I Rec Last Year are above half Dead too, the Hollys all Dead but one, & worse than all is, the Garden Seeds and Flower Seeds which you Sold Mr. Wilks for me Charged at £6. 8. 24. Sterling were not worth one farthing. Not one of all the Seeds Came up Except the Asparrow Grass, So that my Garden is Lost to me for this Year. I Tryed the Seeds both in Town and Country & all proved alike bad. I Spared Mr. Hubbard part of them and they All Serv'd him the Same." (Rather an unlucky blow this for poor Glin, as Mr. Hubbard had been his first sponsor and perhaps his only friend in New England.) "I think Sir, you have not done well by me in this thing, for me to send a 1000 Leagues and Lay out my money & be so used & Disapointed is very hard to Bare, & so I doubt not but you will Consider the matter & Send me over Some more of the Same Sort of Seeds that are Good & Charge me nothing for them, if you don't I shall think you have imposed upon me very much, & 't will Discourage me from ever Sending again for Trees or Seeds from you. I Conclude, "Your Humble Serv1. |