Memoir of the Rev. Francis Higginson

This very interesting First Edition copy of the Memoir of the Rev. Francis Higginson by Joseph B. Felt tells the life story of a man who died in 1630, was written and published in 1852. The memoir booklet, which measures approximately 6 x 9 ½ inches, contains 23 pages of text and was published in Boston by Thomas Prince, Printer for the Office of the N. E. Hist. And Gen. Register. The book is string-bound and in brown paper covers with black printing on the front. The pages are lightly tanned with text that is clear and easily read. The covers show signs of wear, including some pencil markings, an accumulation of dirt and problems along the spine. The overall condition of the booklet is good/very good.

Francis Higginson (1588–1630) was an early Puritan minister in Colonial New England, and the first minister of Salem, Massachusetts. The son of a minister, Francis Higginson received his B.A. degree from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1610 and his M.A. in 1613. About 1615, he became minister at Claybrooke, one of the parishes of Leicester, and acquired great influence as a preacher. Through his acquaintance with rthur Hildersham and Thomas Hooker, he became disenchanted with the church of England and began to associate himself with Puritan congregations. In 1628, Higginson was invited to join the Massachusetts Bay Company, which he did. In 1629 the Company obtained a Royal Charter from Charles I of England to form a "plantation" in New England. Higginson and his Puritan sympathizers were asked to lead the first expedition to New England's Massacchusetts Bay Colony and establish preliminary settlements.These were some of the first settlers of the Colony, the main body who would start coming in 1630 on the Winthrop Fleet. The Higginson Fleet set sail on the 1 May 1629, arriving in Salem harbor on the 24 June 1629, and was greeted by a small group of settlers, led by John Endicott. In Salem there were five houses besides Endicott's. They had no trained minister, however, so Higginson and Samuel Skelton began conducting services immediately. Higginson drew up a confession of faith, which was assented to, on 6 August, by thirty persons. In the following winter, in the general sickness that ravaged the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he was attacked by a fever, which disabled him, and finally caused his death at the age of 43, leaving behind a widow and eight children. [Wikipedia]

Joseph B. Felt (1789-1869) was a remarkable man and a trained scholar who dedicated much of his life to better understanding and documenting Salem's earliest settlement history and Puritan culture. Felt was arguably Salem's first professional historian. Due to his research, scholarship, writing and publication, Salem acquired fine early understandings of its history, culture, and Puritan material culture in the 1830s and 1840s — the transitional years between the Federal and Victorian eras. In addition to being an historian and antiquarian, Joseph B. Felt was an early Colonial Revivalist.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the front cover, the Title page, the first page of the Memoir texr, and a typical 2-page spread of further text.