y subject, the name
of the writer, date, and volume that contains it. The Hinckley papers
were those belonging to Mr. Prince's maternal grandfather, Gov.
Hinckley, who had a very extensive correspondence during the twenty
years he was governor of Plymouth Colony. It contains letters from all
men of note of that period,--Roger Williams, the Cottons, the Mathers,
Gov. Winslow, a letter of King Charles II. to Gov. Josiah Winslow, Gov.
Hinckley's address, and petition to James II.; also many personal
letters to wife and daughters. Mr. Prince says "that on his
grandfather's death he took these papers from his study, but while he
was in Europe some of curiosity and value were unhappily lost." There
are some Prince papers, mostly letters of distinguished divines to his
brother, Rev. Nathan Prince. In his brother's commonplace book he
inscribes, "This book belongs to the New England Library. Begun to be
collected by Thomas Prince upon his entering Harvard College in 1703,
and was given by Prince to s'd library in memory of his late dear
brother, y^e Rev. Nathan Prince, M.A., formerly Fellow and Tutor of
Harvard College. Born at Sandwich, November, 1698; died at Rattan, 1748,
and wrote this manuscript before he left s^d college in 1742." The
catalogue remarks: "Two vols. MSS., evidently companions to this book,
are in the Library of Bishop of London at Fulham."

There is in the Prince Library quite a large collection of
ecclesiastical history and biblical literature.

The psalms in numberless versions, metres, and paraphrases, in Hebrew,
Latin, and Greek; one hundred and six volumes on natural, polemic, and
practical theology. All his own works are to be found here; as many as
thirty-three sermons, mostly funeral discourses, others commemorating
great events, such as victories at Culloden and Louisburg. He gave
frequently the genealogy of the person eulogized in his funeral
orations, thus making them valuable for family reference, and often of
historical significance. We easily trace the early bent of his mind
toward chronology. It gathered force throughout his whole career, and
finally bore fruit in his own "Chronology of New England," on which he
spent many years of preparation.

He said himself, when he presented it in person to the House, of which
Hon. Mr. Quincy was speaker, in 1736: "I most humbly present to your
honor, and this honorable house, the first volume of my 'Chronology of
New England,' which at no small expen