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| WELD or WELDE
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| Volume 4, Page 461
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Against the errors of Wheelwright, and the fantastic revelations of Mrs.
Hutchinson, Welde could not more sincerly show his zeal, than Winthrop
but his zeal is denunciatory, fierce, and virulent, while that of the Gov.
seems cautious, calm, and moderate in terms, decisive in spirit. Even
in type of the same forms, it may be followed, like the fabled river,
in its nameless course under the sea, as told by Virgil, En. III. 686,
bearing the true, unmixed proof of its fountain:
nunc
Ore. Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis.
Some slight regard to a charge, publish, 26 May 1853, in the Hist. of
Boston by Mr. Drake, against my argum. as to the authorship of the
"Rise, Reign, and Ruin," p. 249 of Vol. I. of Winthrop Hist. of N.
E. may decent. now be shown. That my remarks therein involve an
accusat. of Welde "as absurd as it is unjust," may pass without comment;
but as the Histor. of Boston proceeds to observe on my criticism
that "it is criminal so to do," I appeal from his decision to the competent
tribunal of gentlemen and scholars in this and all succeed. ages.
Weld had gone him, in comp. with Hugh Peter and Mr. Hibbins in
Aug. 1641, they being jointly charg. with a commiss. from the governm.
to represent our means and wants, in wh. they met extraord. good success,
procuring benefact. to extent of L500. bef. Hibbins's ret. in Aug.
foll. I have seen among MSS. in the Col. Libr. copious acco. of Dr.
and Cr. of Weld, wh. seems to have suffer, no little suspecion, and rec.
some unkind treatm. from our Gen. Ct. wh. hardly ever fail. to be dissatisf.
with their agents in Eng. and wh. in Oct. 1645, adopt. a vote,
that Mr. Peters and Mr. Weld "having been long absent, may understand
the Ct.'s mind, that they desire their presence here, and speedy
return." On this ungracious invit, neither came, but ea. gain. destinct. in
the mother land. Weld obt. a living at St. Mary Gateshead, Co. Durham,
and d. says the rec. of Roxbury ch. (not likely in such a case to be
wrong), 23 Mar. 1661; I think it is said, at London. This was soon
aft. the Restorat. of the k. and bef. the great ejectm.
Perhaps I may be excus. for along explanat. as to what is said in my
sec. ed. of Winthrop in a note on I. 248, publish. 1853. Having never
bef. 1842, heard any doubts of the agency of Weld in the publicat. of
that interest. little volume of wh. everybody knew he acknowledg. the
preface and conclusion, and my suspicion being excited, at the British
Museum, by the unexpl. address to the Reader, that suspicion in 1843,
was express. by me in a single line of my Gleanings in 3 Mass. Hist.
Coll. VIII. 285. Attention was thus drawn to the matter, and it was
supposed by some that in Baylies's "Dissuasive from the Errours of the
Time," London 1645, and Cotton's "Way of Congrega. Chhs. cleared,"
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