Recent Books

RECENT BOOKS * SCOTT FAMILY LETTERS. THE LETTERS OP JOHN MORIN SCOTT AND HIS WIPE MARY EMLEN SCOTT ; WITH NOTES RELATING TO THEM, THEIR AN¬ CESTORS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS. Compiled and edited by their greatgranddaughters, Maria Scott Beale Chance and Mary Allen Evans Smith. Privately printed. The Biddle Press, Philadelphia, 1930. Octavo, cloth, pp. 392 -f- 15; por. 59; ills. 23, including two charts and the armorial bearings of Scott of Ancrum and Emlen of Shepton- Mallet, Somerset¬ shire and Philadelphia. Part I of the volume is the story of four generations, as set forth in the six 'hundred or more letters exchanged between John Morin Scott, Mary Emlen and their children from 1816 to 1857; the story of four generations of Philadelphians who lived in an atmosphere of unsullied dignity and peace, overflowing with the joy of life and family love. Rarely has the public come so intimately in touch with the fundamentals of family life as here; rarely has a family so pigeon-holed its epistolary treasures that it could at will produce from its bulging store a prose poem of such concision. Part II is given over to the Descents of the principal dramatis personae , and the editors call attention to such de¬ scents as “a good illustration of the melting-pot of America, ” for therein “are English, English Quakers, Scot Border gentry, French, French Huguenot and Dutch.’ 1 Among them: Emlen, Sitgreaves, Rut¬ gers, de Hooges, Vanderwater, Duycking, Byvanck, Hooglandt and Rapalje. Part III contains Ancrum Notes and Letters. Part IV, Bio¬ graphical Sketches, all written with sincerity and charm, beginning with John Morin Scott, 1789-1858, Mayor of Philadelphia 1841-3, and ending with his youngest daughter, Helen Scott, 1829-1892, the famous Phila¬ delphia belle and beauty of her day. The well-arranged woric concludes with the DESCENDANTS OF JOHN MORIN SCOTT AND MARY EMLEN HIS WIFE, 1930; NOTES, on the factors in the letters, and the grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Scott in several pages of portraiture. A remarkable book. A companion-piece to an earlier one, in point of printing and period spanned: RECOLLECTIONS OF JOSHUA FRANCIS FISHER. WRITTEN IN 1864. Arranged by Sophia Calwalader, his granddaughter, and printed at Merry Mount Press, Boston, 1929. Upon these two delightful works on men and things socially, Philadelphia can calmly await the judgment of the future. COMMEMORATIVE MEETING HELD AT PROVIDENCE MEETING HOUSE, UPPER PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, SEVENTH DAY NINTH MONTH 1929. By Charles Major. This book has been issued, says its comprehensive preface, for the purpose of presenting a record of the proceedings of a Commemorative * By members of, or contributors to the Society, or relating to Pennsylvania. (201) 202 Recent Books. Meeting held twenty-eighth ninth month, 1927, at the site of the New Providence Friends Meeting House, which was built about 1730 and re¬ built in 1828. It also contains a History of the Meeting, the names of many of its early members, together with genealogical records of some of their families. Much of the data has been found in the Minutes of the Gwynedd Monthly Meeting; the rest obtained from sundry sources and used to make the records more complete. A list of recorded mar¬ riages occurring at the houses of members from 1717, or at the New Providence Meeting House from 1734 to 1836, is given, as well as brief histories of the families, all of Providence township, unless otherwise specified: Adamson, Ambler, Coates of Providence and Charlestown, Corson, Cox, Evans, Hamer, Harper, Hobson of Limerick township, Hop¬ kins, Jacobs, Jarrett, Potts, Richardson, Robinson, Rogers, Starr of Charlestown township, Thomas, Tyson and Watson. Multvm in parvo might have been the motto of this most excellent work. THE DANCE OF DEATH. Edited from MSS. Ellesmere 26/A. 13 and B.M. Lansdowne 699, Collated with the other extant MSS. by Florence Warren, with Introduction, Notes, etc. by Beatrice White, M.A., King's College, London. Published for the Early English Text Society by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, E.C., 1931. Octavo, cloth, pp. 118 -j- xxxi -f- 8; frontispiece facsimile of Lansdowne MS. 699 f. 41 b. In 1891, again in 1896 and subsequent years, Miss Florence Warren of the Kent County, Delaware, Warren family, who had been teaching for some time in the United States, worked at Oxford, England, under Professor Napier. When her studies were advanced she was asked to edit the Bodleian MSS. of the Dance of Death In connection with this she subsequently worked in Wales, Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere. She continued to collect materials for her Introduction and in 1914 was in Berlin at the outbreak of the war. In her departure she was obliged to leave behind all literary papers, and these were only recovered after 1918. Miss Warren herself never saw them again, as on 10 December, 1917, she died at Oxford. The generosity of her family made it possible for her comprehensive work to be completed by Miss Beatrice White. The Danse Macabre has inspired poets and painters of Europe from very early times; is synonymous with the French Danse des Marts and the German Totentanz; as well as used to describe certain mural paint¬ ings with appropriate moral verse, and to point the question which first inspired the other. Its popularity was never as great in England as in France, though there were numerous painted mural dances throughout the kingdom. English balladry, as well as French and German, affords examples of its widespread interest to the folk-mind; and scholars aplenty have worked on its theme, the inevitability of death. First, perhaps, because of its element of satire that in death all men are equal; second, the gruesomeneas of confronting the living, at the height of temporal enjoyment, with death; and third, the dance itself, whose . origin may be found in the soul ’s revolt against the melancholy medieval discourses on death. The Introduction is a rare bit of scholarship and the documentation of the British Museum Mss., noteworthy. Recent Books. 203 PUBLICATIONS. SPECIAL NUMBER. This number, The Church Visita¬ tions of The Deanery of Kusel in the Palatinate, 1609, was discovered and compiled by Professor Herm, Friedr. Maeco of Berlin-Steglitz, Ger¬ many, and translated by and printed through the generosity of Ricardo W. Staudt of Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic. The brief foreword by Professor Macco, “A description of the Protestant Parochial Visita¬ tion, ’ ’ contains a wealth of information, and carries the reader across the years and miles of ocean to the small towns and hamlets which con¬ stitute the Beanery. The book is not only a directory wherein is set forth the age and occupation of the inhabitants, but their social and even religious status is in a measure indicated. Scattered here and there in this almost human document are the comments of the Protestant parish priest written in his quiet study upon his return from customary rounds. The entire work of transcription, compilation and translation is scientifically arranged, and will more and more commend itself to libra¬ ries and the descendants of those Palatines who, in the early years of the eighteenth century, found a new home in Pennsylvania. FIRST SETTLERS OF YE PLANTATIONS OF PISCATAWAY AND WOODBRIDGE, OLDE EAST NEW JERSEY, 1664-1714. By Orra Eugene Monnette, LL.D., Los Angeles, California, 1931. Part Two. Octavo, heavy suede paper, pp. 166, ills. 7, por. 3, 1 map. Part One, Surname Lists, of this work, to quote from a recent review, contains the most complete list of early inhabitants of Piscataway and Woodbridge ever printed.’ 1 Part Two presents the Vital Records of the two plantations in great detail. Many errors, found in prior peacemeal publishments, are here corrected, with statistical additions of various origins, making a most admirable volume as to text and format. Four more Parts are promised, one of which is now in press. These will embrace source material of unusual value and will include, with amplifi¬ cations, the articles by Gerer, published in the Department of Jersey Genealogy of the Newark Evening News, 1914 and subsequently, to¬ gether with three generations of genealogical data, as complete as pos¬ sible, of each surname in these New Jersey districts. Dr. Monnett, author, banker, broker, and genealogist for pleasure, has devoted his spare hours of twenty-five years to the pursuit of family and local history. He has sown diligently and has reaped a golden harvest, particularly in this the most outstanding contribution made in years to the genealogical history of New Jersey. “ THE CAPE MAY COUNTY, NEW JERSEY, MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY. Volume 1, Number 1. Published by the County Historical and Genealogical Society, 1931. Octavo, paper, pp. 39 1, The table of Contents sets forth the purpose of the publication: Inception and History of the Society. By Hon. Lewis T. Stevens. The Historical Museum. By Edward M. Post. The Pilgrim Ancestry of Cape May County. By Rev. Paul Sturtevant Howe. Articles of Incor¬ poration, Charter Membership of the Society. In Memoriam. A new star in the genealogical firmament; may it continue in everincreasing effulgence- 204 Recent Books. THE AMERICAN ANCESTRY OF FREDERIC LOUIS HUIDEKOPER AND REGI¬ NALD SHIPPEN HUIDEKOPER OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. By Frederic Louis Huidekoper. Geneva, Switzerland, 1931. Octavo, paper, pp. 62, ills., Huidekoper eoat-of-arms. This attractive Reprint from The Compendium of American Genealogy, augmented by important data not contained in the original lines of descent as therein given, is of particular interest to Pennsylvanians. Lineages other than Huidekoper are traced in brief. Among them: Colhoun, McDowell, Shippen, Budd, Galloway, Evans, Wallis, Luikens, Christie, des Marets, Cresson, Bertholff, Shryock and Holliday. Several pages of bibliographical material in re Huidekoper complete the wellrounded work. YEAR BOOK OF THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF FINLAND. Volume XIII, 1929. Helsingfors, 1930. Octavo, paper, pp. 455 -j- Index 90, ills. 16, por. 78. Since 1917, the Genealogical Society of Finland has issued an annual publication of importance, of considerable pagination and wide interest to those of Finnish descent in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States, as well as on the continent of Europe. Its publication committee is a guarantee of scholarship; its list of contributions a promise of continuing excellence, as a few titles from Volume VIII will attest: Names of Commanding and Subaltern officers, Civilian Officials and Musicians serving in the Finnish Regiments in 1658; Finland Knight¬ hood; Tax Records and their use in Genealogical Research. The Grave¬ stone Inscriptions of the present number with the familiar names: Anderson, Bostrom, Charpentier, Lindberg, Lindstrom, Mattson, Nybery and Sandelin, together with the Genealogies of Kristinestad Families: Backman, Berg, Bjork-man, Brunck, Holstrom, Le Bell, Sundman, Uddman, Krakau and Svanljung, make it of lasting value to all investigators. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SWEDISH COLONIAL SOCIETY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING HELD IN THE ASSEMBLY ROOMS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, APRIL, 1929. TOGETHER WITH THE CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE SOCIETY AND A LIST OF ITS OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. Philadelphia, 1931. Octavo, cloth, pp. 56, ills., Insignia of the Society; por., the Honorary President. The Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Society was of special interest; made so by the distinguished gathering, the felicitous address of its Honorary President, His Excellency Wollmar Filip Boetrom, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Sweden to the United States of America, and the address of the Society's able President, Colonel Henry D. Paxson. Both of these are printed in the Proceedings.