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allowed to fall into American hands,1 and it has not therefore been practicable for me to consult them.

How much it has been possible to achieve appears in the following pages. And I purpose to continue the narrative, in two more volumes, to the death of Sir Francis Bernard's youngest child. For this second portion the materials are more ample, though occasionally defective.

In the meantime my thanks are due to all those who have given me help; their names, in most cases, will be found recorded in the notes to these volumes. Some, at least, of these friends have passed away, but a tribute is due to their memory.

NETHER WINCHENDON:

November 1902.

SOPHIA ELIZABETH HIGGINS.

[The papers of Governor Bernard, thirteen volumes, are in the Sparks MSS., in Harvard College Library. Vols. i.-viii. are letter-books, 1758-72; ix.-xii., correspondence, 1758-79; xiii., orders and instructions, 1758-61. Sparks bought them in London in 1846.-Ed.'] This is a note to 'The Royal Governors,' by George Edward Ellis, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Winsor's Memorial History of Boston, vol. ii. ch. ii.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME

. PAGE

Cs 439 ·B52

464

V.1

1081884-190

PREFACE

wan 540 N. 6-0

IN writing this book, my first wish has been to leave a record of a family which in its time played some little part Min the affairs of this country. As the last scion of the last known branch of those Bernards whose history is here traced, the task seemed to devolve on me. It has been laborious, owing to the extensive destruction of documents which has evidently taken place at different times. The co-heiresses of the eldest branch no doubt carried off many parchments and papers, which cannot now be recovered. Some others probably went to Huntingdonshire, where the second branch was located. Further havoc must have been occasioned by the frequent moves of the third branch, with which these volumes are chiefly concerned, and especially by the chequered career of Sir Francis Bernard, the early ages at which he lost both parents and left his first home, his subsequent departure for America, and even his return. Since that time additional losses appear to have been sustained through the zeal of executors in sorting, and, as they considered, weeding family papers.

But the mischief is not only of this private nature. Documents illustrating the most critical period of the history of England in its relations with America have been

allowed to fall into American hands,1 and it has not therefore been practicable for me to consult them.

How much it has been possible to achieve appears in the following pages. And I purpose to continue the narrative, in two more volumes, to the death of Sir Francis Bernard's youngest child. For this second portion the materials are more ample, though occasionally defective.

In the meantime my thanks are due to all those who have given me help; their names, in most cases, will be found recorded in the notes to these volumes. Some, at least, of these friends have passed away, but a tribute is due to their memory.

NETHER WINCHENDON:

November 1902.

SOPHIA ELIZABETH HIGGINS.

[The papers of Governor Bernard, thirteen volumes, are in the Sparks MSS., in Harvard College Library. Vols. i.-viii. are letter-books, 1758-72; ix.-xii., correspondence, 1758-79; xiii., orders and instructions, 1758-61. Sparks bought them in London in 1846.-Ed.'] This is a note to The Royal Governors,' by George Edward Ellis, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Winsor's Memorial History of Boston, vol. ii. ch. ii.

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