“ Kennett in 1713. to the Society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts. this society, being a chartered one, still, as I believe, existing, and probably their library also, I suppose that these and the other books of that immense collection, the catalogue of which occupies 275. pages 4 ^to. are still to be found with them . . . ”

Jefferson’s copy of White Kennett’s Bibliothecae Americanae Primordia is in the Library of Congress. The entry referred to by him is on page 77, under date 1632.

The origin of this mistake in the date is given by Justin Winsor, History of America III, 348: “The New English Canaan, by Thomas Morton, Amsterdam, 1637, “written upon ten years’ knowledge and experiment of the country,” is a sort of satire upon the Plymouth and Massachusetts people, who looked upon the author as a reprobate and an outlaw. He came over, probably, with Weston’s company in 1622, and on the breaking up of that settlement may have gone back to England. In 1625 he is found here again with Captain Wollaston’s company on a plantation at “Mount Wollaston,” where he had his revels. He was twice banished the country, and before his final return hither wrote this book. His descriptions of the natural features of the country, and his account of the native inhabitants are of considerable interest and value, and the side-light which he throws upon the Pilgrim and Puritan colonies will serve at least to amuse the reader. Morton’s book, though printed in Holland “in the yeare 1637,” was entered in the Stationers’ Register in London “Nov. 18, 1633,” in the name of Charles Greene as publisher; and a copy of the book is now (1882) in the library of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 19 Delahay Street, Westminster, London, bearing, this imprint: “Printed for Charles Greene, and are sold in Paul’s Church-Yard;” no date, but “1632” written in with a pen. See White Kennett’s Bibliothecæ Americanæ Primordia, p. 77, where this copy is entered, and where the manuscript date is printed in the margin. This date is, of course, an error. Morton’s book was not written till after the publication of Wood’s New England’s Prospect to which reference is frequently made in the New English Canaan. The New England’s Prospect was entered at the Stationers’, “7 Julii, 1634,” and was published the same year. Morton’s book is dedicated to the Commissioners for Foreign Plantations.--a body not created till April 28, 1634. The book must have been entered at the Stationers’ some time in anticipation of its printing; and when printed, some copies were struck off bearing the imprint of Charles Greene, though only one copy is now known with his name on the titlepage . . .”

For Nathaniel Morton’s New England’s Memorial, of which Jefferson’s copy is unfortunately no longer in the Library of Congress, see no. 453, and for Jefferson’s copy of White Kennett’s catalogue, see no. 472.

Thomas Morton, d. 1646, an attorney of Clifford’s Inn, first landed in New England in 1622, and remained for only three months. In 1625, having bought a partnership in Captain Wollaston’s venture he sailed for Massachusetts Bay. For an account of him and his adventures, see his life by George Goodwin in the Dictionary of National Biography. The New English Canaan was reprinted in the Force Tracts, Volume II.

Francis Higginson, 1587-1630, English Puritan divine, emigrated to Massachusetts, on account of his nonconformist principles, in 1629, but died of a fever in the following year. Three editions of this tract were published in 1630, of which the second and third have the author’s name on the title page. It is reprinted in Young’s Chronicles of the First Planters , and in the first volume of Force’s Tracts.