BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DEDHAM.

BY GEORGE WASHINGTON HUMPHREY.

It is intended by the compiler to include in the following list the titles of all books, pamphlets, etc., which relate to Dedham. It will contain also works of persons, natives of the town, and some Dedham imprints. The whole will be divided into periods. The first colonial period, as defined by Moses Coit Tyler in his "History of American Literature," covers the years 1607 to 1676, and fills the largest part of that century in which American civilization had its planting. The authors who produced the works of that time were mostly those of English birth and culture. Their earliest motives for writing books was exemplified in their desire to send back to their old homes news of themselves, their condition and prospects, with descriptions of the country, and its resources, climate, etc. They wished to repel the charges of certain ill-conditioned persons who were either dissatisfied or who were obliged to return, as to certain gradual innovations in politics, laws, creeds, religious and domestic usages, etc. By far the larger portion were composed for themselves, with special reference to their own interests, inspirations and needs, and included sermons and other religious treatises, histories, poetry and miscellaneous prose. In this first period we have but few works.

(To be continued.)

NOTES AND QUERIES.

QUERIES.

Information is wanted concerning Nathaniel and Benjamin Heaton, who published "The Columbian Minerva" in Dedham in 1796-7.

In the History of Dorchester, page 547, occurs the following notice.

Benjamin Heaton was a son of Nathaniel of Wrentham. His

mother it is said was Margaret (Metcalf) Heaton of that place. He graduated at Brown University R. I. in 1790. In the year 1796, a newspaper called the Columbian Minerva was started in Dedham. It was published by Nathaniel and Benjamin Heaton. This Benjamin was doubtless the teacher in the Butler School in Dorchester in the winter of 1798-9. He is said to have been a good teacher. He was sometimes engaged in preaching, but was never ordained or settled as a minister. In a Minerva published June 12, 1800, is the following obituary notice: "Died at Wrentham, Mr. Benjamin Heaton, formerly one of the editors of the Minerva." He died on the 8th day of the above mentioned month. Mr. H. was never married. His brother Nathaniel, it is said, published a spelling book, called Heaton's Spelling Book. H. O. H.

2. The parentage of Joseph Ellis, and his wife, Mary Graves. According to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for January, 1879, page 48, Lusher Gay, born Sept. 26, 1685, married before 1716 Mary, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Graves) Ellis. Was Joseph Ellis the son of Joseph Ellis and Ruth Morse (daughter of John and Annis Morse)? Anything on the Ellis, Graves or Morse lines previous to 1700 is desired by

FRANK B. GAY, Hartford, Conn.

3. Barnum Field published "The Village Register" in Dedham in 1821-2. Can anyone inform me whether Mr. Field taught school in Dedham, and afterwards in Boston? He graduated at Brown University in 1821, and died in 1851. H. O. H.

4. Abigail Fairbanks married Ephraim Colborn March 31, 1743, according to the Dedham Records. Who were the parents of 'Abigail Fairbanks? The records give the following entries under births. Abigail, daughter of Joseph and Abigail Fairbanks, born March 9, 1720-21; Abigail, daughter of Benjamin and Abigail Fairbanks, born March 15, 1725-6. Which of these Abigails married Ephraim Colborn? Н. Т. В.

5. In 1666 the General Court of Massachusetts "layed out unto the Worshipful Major Eleazer Lusher" of Dedham for services rendered the government, a lot or 500 acres of land in the town of Stow. Was this land ever occupied by Lusher and what disposition was made of it? Major Lusher and his wife died in 1672 and there is no record of any descendants. H. O. H.

6. Can any of the readers of the REGISTER give the meaning of the word hake? Johnson's dictionary published in England in 1798 says, hake, a kind of fish. Worcester's dictionary gives hake, a kind

of fish, and hake, a hook. An acquaintance familiar with the use of the spinning-wheel, tells me that a hake is that part of a spinningwheel on which the flax is wound. Can any one confirm the statement? H. T. B.

7. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 33, page 48, states that Jabez Gay, b. Dec. 16, 1721, d. in Attleboro', Oct., 1801, married Hannah Bradford of Plymouth. Who was Hannah Bradford? Was she the daughter of Perez and Abigail (Belcher) Bradford? In the Register, volume 4, page 234, Hannah, daughter of Perez, is said to have married a Gay. In the latter article Perez's wife is called Abigail Belch. It should be Belcher. She was a daughter of the Rev. Joseph Belcher of Dedham. S. B. B.

8. Information is wanted with regard to the ancestry of Joseph Heaton, who settled in Charlestown, N. H., in 1810, and died in 1853, aged 88 years. D. G. H.

REPLIES.

6. Hake, (provincial English for hook).

1. A hook from which kettles are hung over the fire.
2. A notched iron rod attached to a crane. To the iron
rod an iron bowl containing fat and a wick was
attached.

3. Applied (by synecdoche) to the whole apparatus for

lighting; crane, rod, bowl, fat and wick.

6. The word hake was given to me by Mr. Erastus E. Gay, and I have described it on page 1 of a printed sermon, entitled "Other Men Have Labored," Dec. 7, 1879. A hake (provincial English for hook) consisted of a wooden crane with its attachments fastened above the fire. The crane could be swung out several feet into the room. From the end of the crane hung a notched iron rod on which an iron bowl containing grease might be raised or lowered. lay in the bowl and thus a lamp was finished, very convenient for change of position, but perhaps more primitive in form and construction than the ancient ones exhumed at Cyprus. These lamps were sometimes called "Brown Betties" in Masssachusetts.

C. S. LOCKE.

BOOK NOTICES.

This department of the REGISTER, under the direction of Erastus Worthington, will contain reviews of new publications of local histories of New England towns, genealogies, centennial proceedings, and other historical works presented to the Society.

THE HUNTING OR HUNTTING FAMILY IN AMERICA. By T. D. HUNTTING. Brooklyn, N. Y. 8vo. pp. 84.

This book records the names of descendants of one of the most interesting and important characters in the early annals of the town, John Hunting, the first ruling elder of the Dedham Church, which was gathered here over 250 years ago. The book makes no attempt to exalt one man above another; it contains no biographical sketches, no titles, but gives simply and plainly the facts of the birth, marriage and death of each, as the same would appear upon the public records. The author has met with the usual obstacles which beset the path of all genealogical students who try to do something for their kinsfolk, in the indifference and even obstinacy of other members of his family who could, but would not, furnish information within their knowledge, thus causing, to the regret of the author, omissions which should not occur. But the book shows a great amount of faithful labor, and is a credit to the author, and will be appreciated by many.

The author's address is 124 Quincy Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.

D. G. H.

BUTLERIANA, GENEALOGICA ET BIOGRAPHICA, OR GENEALOGICAL NOTES Concerning Mary Butler and her descendants, as well as the Bates, Harris, Sigourney and other families with which they have intermarried. By JAMES DAVIE BUTLER. Albany, N. Y.: Joel Munsell's Sons, Publishers. 1888. pp. 161. These Genealogical Notes concerning the families named on the title-page, beside being an important contribution to the fund of genealogical information, is especially interesting from the fact that Prof. Butler, its author, married Anna, daughter of Rev. Joshua Bates, D. D., Pastor of the Dedham Church, 1803–1818, and afterwards President of Middlebury College. The genealogy of the Bates family includes Dr. Bates and his fourteen children-seven sons and seven daughters-some of whom will be well and gratefully remembered in this town. Dr. Bates married his first wife, Miss Anna Poor of Andover, Sept. 4. 1804. Fisher Ames, in a letter to Thomas Dwight, Sept. 12, 1804, thus speaks of him: "Our Parson Bates is married and brought his wife home the last week. Report considered her as a very good Madam." Two of Dr. Bates' sons were well known in Boston. Joshua Bates, Master of the Brimmer School, had an unusually prolonged career as a successful teacher. Samu W. Bates was a lawyer of reputation, who died only a few years ago.

Of Dr. Joshua Bates probably there are few now living here who have any recollection. After his removal from Dedham, however, he made visits to Dedham, and occasionally preached. The writer well remembers in his youth hearing him preach in the Congregational Church. He was the last minister of the Dedham Church before the division. He was a man of the old school of Congregationalists and pronounced in his theological position, which was with the Orthodox party. He was a forcible preacher and a prolific Writer. Prof. Butler says, "In the catalogue of the British Museum I have counted twenty-eight titles of sermons and other works published by him, and now in the library of that institution." He was buried at Middlebury, Vt., where a suitable monument commemorates his services and his virtues. E. W.