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Unavoidable omissions in these two thousand five hundred closely
marshalled pages ought, therefore, to be expected; but if neither
residence nor time were given, no right to a place for a new
surname on my page would be yielded, though popular opinion
traced the pretender to a Plantagenet, or his veins swelled with
all the blood of all the Howards. Half a million, I presume, of
those incidents may be found in this work. Blanks, not above
two or three in the thousand, I believe, may remain in the myriads
of names of family or baptism, and, I hope, the erroneous
may only slightly outnumber the deficient.
Some notes of events and of men have been lost, probably,
though only a single instance, but of half a line, occurs to my
recollection, and this is more cause of sorrow, than surprise,
when I remember how many hundred have been written twice,
thrice, and even four times over. To a few, who consult these
volumes, such vacancies may give no disquiet, as thereby room
was gained for a little general biography or historical criticism
in place of the multitudinous ocean of numerals, or names as
little discriminated as fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.
But never was such occasion made, however easily found by
one who will feel pleasant surprise at a rare deviation from
predominant dulness. I have dared to express, in a very few
instances, my sense of the need of correction in old contemporary
statements of history, either public or private, and more
gladly to detect the modern adoption of idle traditions that
kept long out of sight, when their small value would not have
saved, the perpetuation of trifing fictions.
May not some degree of favor be extended to my departure
from the narrow circle of universal genealogy to snatch a few
additional lines or some and sentences for others bearing prominent
names like Bellingham, Burrows, Chauncey, Clark, Davenport,
Dudley, Eaton, Endicott, Goffe, Hoar, Hopkins, Hull,
Jackson, Johnson, Leverett, Mather, Osgood, Paddy, Parker,
Phips, Pratt, Rogers, Saltonstall, Scroop, Sherman, Smith,
Temple, Welde, Whalley, Wigglesworth, Williams, Wilson,
and Winthrop.
The prosecution of this work has continued without interruption
in this long course of years, except twice, in both cases
from illness, first, short but severe, more than fourteen years
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