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and aid of His Excellency, E. Everett, then our minister
at London, no trace could be found, except in his signature to
the rules on taking his degrees at the University, when he is titled
of Middlesex. Perhaps out of such research sprang my resolution
to prosecute the genealogical pursuits of John Farmer.
In fulfillment of this great undertaking more than fifteen years
are already bestowed, and near two years longer may be necessary.
Yet the rule imposed, of admitting upon these pages
only the dates of birth and marriage, and names of children, of
a child born on our side of the ocean to a settler whose tent
was pitched here before May 1692, is severely adhered to, with
the exception only of so distinguished a man as Cotton Mather;
and even this variety may seem forced upon me by Farmer,
who had received him to the copious honors of marriage and
family. Yet, in many cases, will be named great grandchildren
of first comers, and even in a very few, another generation,
making a fifth. Explanation of this apparent deviation from
my own law is easy. When Gov. Bradford and Gov. Winthrop
came here, each brought a son, or sons, and the same is seen of
Gov. Dudley and numberless others. Now each child must be
rated as an emigrant no less than its father, so that John Brad.
ford, John and Adam Winthrop, and Samuel Dudley are
equally entitled as their parents to have their grandchildren
entered in these pages; but William and Joseph Bradford, and
Jaseph Dudley, sons of the Govs. born on our side of the
water, shall not have grandchildren in their respective lines.
My apparatus for this work will sometimes be found incomplete,
yet to a great extent, the public records of Colonies,
Counties, and towns, where accessible, have been examined by
myself or friends. Of the first ten folio volumes of our Suffolk
registry of deeds I had an abstract always lying near me, and
these embraced near one third of all the names of New England
and more than half those in Massachusetts Colony; indeed
for very many years, after the emigration from Europe
ceased, only two other counties, Essex and Middlesex had been
constituted. lt will be recollected, that large parts of Plymouth,
New Hampshire, and Maine were occupied by those
who removed from Massachusetts, as was almost the whole of
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven colonies. But
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