Various

“ Judge Sewall was warmly attached to that system of faith, and to those forms of worship and government in the church, which were embraced and practised by the Puritan settlers of New England. Occasionally he employed his pen in their illustration and defence. And he was strongly opposed to any innovations in doctrine, as well as jealous of any ceremonies or usages in divine service, that savored of human invention. Still he abhorred persecution, and exercised candor towards those who differed from him in their modes of worship or discipline. ”

“ What Lord Brougham, of England, has said of the North American colonies in general, is most strictly and emphatically true of these individuals in particular. "All idea of wealth or pleasure was out of the question. The greater part of them viewed their emigration as taking up the cross, and bounded their hopes of wealth to the gifts of the Spirit, and their ambition to the desire of a kingdom beyond the grave. A set of men more conscientious in their doings, or simple in their manners, never founded any commonwealth." ”

“ Show then, Madam, the sincerity of your Heart in leaving of them in the Hand of God—Do you say they are lost? not out of God's sight, and God's World, tho' they are out of our sight and our World. All live to God. You may hope the spreading Covenant of Grace has shelter'd them from the second Death. They live tho' not with you. ”

“ Early in the eighteenth century, a wonderful attention to religion had been excited in various parts of Connecticut. It seems to have been a genuine revival, not unmingled, perhaps, with some slight alloy of enthusiasm. Soon after this the celebrated Mr. Whitefield, whose sincere and honest piety Cowper has immortalized in the most glowing colors, whose eloquence vanquished on one occasion even Franklin's philosophical caution, after preaching with the greatest applause and effect, at the South, came to New England at the pressing invitations of the clergymen of Boston. ”

“ He continued in the voyage till the passing of the Straits of Magellan, when a storm, which for its fury and duration, had never been known to him or his companions, made every heart quail but the Admiral's, and compelled him, for his own safety, as he contended, to forsake the voyage and return to England. How many returned with him, we have no means of knowing, at present.
To form an estimate of the violence of the tempest which deprived Drake of all his ships but that in which he himself was, one must recur to the original Journal of the voyage before noticed. ”

“ Wendell possessed a rare combination of talents and virtues, alike adapted to the offices of public and of private life. Mild in temper, benevolent in disposition, upright in principle, and resolute in action, he was conciliatory in address, and exemplary in life; and uniformly had the esteem and confidence of his friends and of the community. He was in the consultations of the early patriots of the American Revolution, and contributed to the acquisition and maintenance of the liberty and independence of the Commonwealth and country. ”

“ On his return, he passed through Connecticut, where the people crowded to hear him, and sunk under the weight of his powerful Christian eloquence. His example seems to have been followed by others of weaker intellect and less judgment; by men, who mistook the illusions of their own minds, for the operations of the Holy Spirit. There was particularly a Mr. Davenport of Long Island, who had been a sound and faithful minister, but, unfortunately, partook of the same spirit, and by his precepts and example, encouraged the wildest extravagances of sentiment and conduct. ”

“ This Act of willing Resignation will turn a painful Affliction into a holy Sacrifice. Are the two dearest things torn from the heart of a Mother, then you may ever set looser by this World, and you have the fewer dangerous Attachments to this life. 'Tis a happiness for a Christian not to have the heart strings tyed too fast to any thing beneath God and Heaven. Happy the Soul that is ready to move at the Divine summons. The fewer Engagements we have on earth, the more we may live above, and have our thoughts more fixed on things Divine and heavenly. ”

“ A family pride, either innate or acquired, leads other inquirers to their task. It is the height of their ambition to be able to trace their lineage to the first settlers of our country. To have derived their existence from the noble band who left a home rendered insupportable by religious persecution, and crossed the stormy Atlantic in the frail Mayflower, is to them a source of the highest pleasure. In their efforts to establish this derivation, facts of great importance in the local history of our country have been elicited. ”

“ My Brother's Wife in London has buried seven or eight Children, and among them, all her Sons. This tho't has reconciled her to the Providence of God, that the Temptations of young men in this Age are so exceeding great, and she has seen so many young Gentlemen of her acquaintance so shamefully degenerate, that she wipes her Tears for the Sons she has buried, and composes herself to Patience and Thankfulness with one only Daughter remaining. ”

“ Governor Carver died greatly lamented on the 5th of April following, having sustained the office of chief-magistrate but four months and twenty-four days. "He was a man of great prudence, integrity, and firmness of mind. He had a good estate in England, which he spent in the migration to Holland and America. He was one of the foremost in action, and bore a large share of suffering in the service of the colony, who confided in him as its friend and father. Piety, humility, and benevolence, were eminent trails in his character."—Dr. Belknap. ”

“ For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; whatever part of his will our good God has revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it ”

“ A worthy Husband is a living Comfort and may God preserve and restore him to you in safety. Food, Raiment, Safety, Peace, Liberty of Religious access to the mercy seat, Hope of Heaven;—All these are daily matters of thankfullness. ”

“ The upper part of the railing is encircled with a wreath of iron castings, in imitation of heraldry curtains, fringed with festoons; of these there are forty-one, bearing the names in bass-relief of the forty-one Puritan fathers who signed the memorable compact while in the cabin of the Mayflower, at Cape Cod, in 1620. This valuable and interesting acquisition reflects honor on all who have taken an interest in the undertaking. ”

“ The fact of witchcraft was admitted by Lord Bacon and Mr. Addison. Dr. Johnson more than inclined to the same side of the question; and Sir William Blackstone quite frowns on opposers of this doctrine. These facts are mentioned not to justify Mr. Sewall and his associates on the bench; but to show the injustice of selecting them as peculiarly guilty. The severe charges which have been brought against the people of Salem, Gov. Winthrop, Dr. Cotton Mather, and others of this country, lie equally against the most learned, pious, and eminent of mankind. ”

“ Let every man be at his post, never ashamed of the plain rigging of his good ship, but always hearing that voice of duty, and of the God of our Fathers, which will speak above the roar of every tempest ”

“ We cannot close this lengthened digression, (if so it may be considered,) without an extract from a Poem on the Death of Drake by Charles Fitz-Geffrey; who in the following passage seems to have had the wild scenes of Terra del Fuego, in a dismal winter's night, vividly before him:—
"Huge mountain islands of congealed ice,
Floating (like Delos) on the stormy main,
Could not deter him from his enterprise,
Nor blood congealing winter's freezing pain,
Enforce him, coward like, turn back again:
Valor in greatest danger shines most bright,
As full-faced Phœbe in the darkest night." ”

“ In some cases property has been carried to collateral heirs, because lineal descendants could not sufficiently prove their derivation, and in other cases, those who would have inherited at law as the representatives of a deceased parent, are excluded by the intrigues of living co-heirs. Frauds, as the reports of our courts attest, have been perpetrated by those, who, from a similarity of name, though unrelated, have emboldened themselves to step in and exclude others who were legally entitled to the property, but who were unable to furnish sufficient evidence to establish their claim. ”

“ On February 24, 1820, the Society was incorporated and made a body politic, by the name of the "Pilgrim Society." The design of the institution may in part be learned from a clause in the first section of the act of incorporation, which is, "to perpetuate the memory of the virtues, the enterprise, and unparalleled sufferings of their ancestors."
The "Landing of our Forefathers" was first celebrated by the Pilgrim Society, December 22, 1820, that being the completion of the second century since the settlement of New England, or the landing of the Pilgrims. ”

“ They will rather wonder at the wisdom of the views, the disinterested nobleness of principle, and self-sacrificing heroism, displayed by these wonderful men, to whom the world is indebted for the most perfect institutions of civil and religious freedom known among men. ”

“ These efforts have given birth to most of our town histories, whereby materials, invaluable to our future historiographers and biographers are preserved from the ravages of time. These men in consequence of their researches become the nuclei of associations for historical, genealogical, and biographical pursuits, which, here and there, are springing into existence. These associations are awakening the mass of the people to a sense of the importance of the objects for which they were formed. ”

“ The desire of securing their offspring against want, is a prevalent characteristic of New England parents. Assiduity and energy in the pursuit of wealth, which have overcome so many obstacles in our inhospitable climate, have their origin in the desire to advance the interests of posterity. ”

“ All by the name of Minot in America are supposed to have descended from George Minot, whose posterity forms the subject of this Memoir. There was a Thomas Minot, probably a brother, who was a proprietor of Barbadoes in 1638, but I can neither trace his history, nor ascertain that he left posterity. None of the name could be found in the New York or Philadelphia Directories for 1846. The family are all descended from Thomas Minot, Esq., Secretary to the Abbot of Walden, England, by whom he was advanced to great possessions. ”

“ If properly conducted, if the severest scrutiny is exercised by the writers over the materials which come under their notice, in the preparation of genealogical articles, the Register will become an authority in our courts, and will save immense amounts of money to the large number of individuals, who are attempting to trace their descent from European families. The policy of the law which invests, first, lineal descendants with intestate estates, and in the absence of lineal descendants, carries the estates to collateral heirs, in preference to an escheat to the State, is generally admitted. ”

“ Mr Lee your Venerable Grandfather was Predecessor to Mr Thomas Rowe my Honour'd Tutor and once my Pastor in my younger years. Mr Peacock who married your eldest Aunt was my intimate Friend. Mrs Bishop and Mrs Wirly were both my Acquaintance tho' my long Illness and Absence from London has made me a stranger to their Posterity whom I knew when Children. But now I know not who of them are living or where. Docr Cotton Mather your late Father in Law was my yearly Correspondent, and I lament the loss of him. But the loss you have sustained is of a more tender and distressing kind ”

“ Some of these individuals appear to be urged on by curiosity alone. If, through their inquiries, they ascertain that they have descended from an old and celebrated family, the discovered fact seems to repay them for all the toil at the expense of which that fact may be brought to light. ”

“ Our Fathers sought for religious freedom, and God led them on to the practical recognition of those principles laid down by Christ in accordance with which alone man can obtain that political and social and moral inheritance of which his nature is evidently capable, and which we believe God intended for him. ”

“ To establish their claim to descent from some noted warrior of the age of chivalry, or from some distinguished statesman of a later date, they are willing, not only to spend laborious days and sleepless nights, but their purses are open, and their gratitude is freely expressed, to any one who shall furnish them with a link to perfect the chain which may connect them with their supposed ancestors. ”