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| WELD or WELDE
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| Volume 4, Page 462
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London 1648, wh. had a reply to some of Baylie's aspersions, it might
appear, that Gov. Winthrop was as much engag. as Weld in the publicat.
of Short Story of The Rise, Reign, and Ruin. A friend lent me these
two works, and they did not produce on me the impress. some persons
receiv. perhaps without close examinat. For instance, in Ecclesiast. Hist.
of N. E. I. 329, Mr. Felt observes on my suppos. that Welde compos.
and arrang. the greater part of the work so publish. and that Gov. W.
was auth. of the rest, entit. a Brief Apology, &c. and adds, "But it is
clear from Baylies and Cotton, that Winth, did write "The Book" as
stated by Weld "to the Reader." Now each of the three parts of this
affirmat. is wrong. Weld hims. does not state "that Winthrop did write
the Book," wh. is too bold and direct assert. for the crafty writer of that
addr. wh. does nothing more than suggest that somebody beside T. W.
was the writer or editor. Baylies, p. 57, in strong desire to censure
Cotton for his familism and antinom. relies upon "the witness of Master
Winthrop the wisest of all the N. E. Governors hitherto, and of Master
Wells, a gracious minister of that land in their printed Relations of the
Schisms there;" and he preceeds to cite passages equally from the
Preface or conclusion, as well as from the Proceedings or the Apology,
a dozen or twenty from each, but a diligent, not a superficial scrutiny
through his quotations will give a great preponderance to those acknowledg.
to be Weld's On p. 64 also, Mr. Felt refers to Winthrop's
Narration, but in the very last line preced. refers to this work as the
testimony also of Weld. In defence of hims. Cotton follows Baylie
very closely, quoting the exact phrases of his antagon. and so. p. 56,
refers to "the witness of Winthrop and Wells," not even correct. the spell.
of his name. On p. 57 citing from B. the "testimony from the Court,
wh. (it is likely) was deliv. by Mr. Winthrop being then Gov. [as in]
p. 35 of the Short Story," &c. so that the weight of his evidence is, to
the least scruple or even grain, of the same weight, and no more, with
Baylie's, to prove in Mr. Felt's words "that Winth, did write the
Book." Prob. Mr. Felt had not, when he compos. that passage,
examin. those authors, or, at least, his survey was cursory, for in Ib.
534, speaking of the publicat. of this pamphlet in 1644, he uses similar
words: "Its preface was by Mr. Weld, and the rest of it by Gov. W."
overlook. the acknowledgm. of Weld, that the conclusion, wh. even
slight observ. must make seven pages, was by him. Writing of the end
of Weld's life, Mr. Felt uses more precision, p. 436. "He was engag.
with Gov. W. sen. in prepar. the Rise, Reign, and Ruin," &c. in N. E.
Yet what Gov. W. contrib. was in Mar. 1636-7, the Apology and perhaps
part of the Proceedings in Nov. 1637, publ. in Boston as much as
in London, but NOT PRINT. in either, while Weld was the publisher, by
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