ADVERTISEMENT, 



THE respect which the Author of the following: sheets 

 entertains for the Society, over which he has the honor to 

 preside, compels him to submit his own judgment to theirs; 

 on the question of giving to the public, what was originally 

 designed only for their information and amusement. 



He is conscious that the work has no other claim to notice 

 than the interest which the subject of it may impart, and the 

 industry with which the materials have been collected. 



Though the labor of the collection has, he confesses, been 

 great, the approbation, which he has received from the 

 Society, is to him a sufficient recompence. 



It has frequently been the subject of regret, that so little 

 attention is, in general, paid to the literary history, and 

 especially the local biography, of our provincial Towns, 

 The consequences of this defect are, the difficulties en- 

 countered by writers of general history, in tracing and 

 connecting facts, frequently of the most interesting kind, 

 and the impossibility, in many instances, of referring im- 



