WILLIAM SUMNER APPLETON. G45 



in 1867, of the "Ancestry of Mary Oliver," wife of Samuel 

 Appleton, Jr., of Ipswich, son of the first immigrant, with an 

 Appendix. His next publication was an elaborate account, 

 printed in the following year, of the " Cranes of Chilton," from 

 whom also he was descended. In the Introduction to it he 

 makes a very characteristic statement, which shows how 

 thorough and accurate was his work : " In preparing this 

 record of a line of my own ancestry, I am glad to have an 

 opportunity of showing the richness of genealogical material 

 in England, and also the great difficulty of forming a sure and 

 true pedigree. The Cranes of Chilton, though belonging to the 

 gentry of the county of Suffolk, were by no means an impor- 

 tant family in English history ; yet I have been able to examine 

 at least twenty manuscripts, giving a genealogy of this race, 

 no one of which is free from mistake." This was followed 

 two 3'ears afterward by a third contribution to his family 

 genealogy, in a still larger volume on the "Ancestry of Pris- 

 cilla Baker," wife of Isaac Appleton, of Ipswich. " The chief 

 reason for printing this volume," he says in his Introduction, 

 "is the opportunity which it gives of preparing better and 

 fuller genealogies of the families of Symonds and Reade than 

 can be found in any book which I have ever seen." It is a 

 perfect storehouse of wills and other documents relating to 

 the families mentioned. Next we have, in 1873 and 1874, two 

 editions of the " Genealogy of the Appleton Family." Of 

 these only a very small number of copies were printed, as a 

 rough sketch of a larger Genealogy of the family in its various 

 branches which it was his intention and hope to prepare, but 

 which was left unfinished at his death. His largest and most 

 important work in this field was the " Record of the De- 

 scendants of William Sumner, of Dorchester, Mass., 1636," 

 published in 1879, and continued by supplementary leaflets 

 almost to the last year of his life. After a considerable inter- 

 val he printed, in 1893, an important collection of " Early 

 Wills illustrating the Ancestry of Harriot Coffin, with Genea- 

 logical and Biographical Notes"; and this was followed in 

 1896 by " Gatherings toward a Genealogy of the Coffin Fam- 



