WILLIAM SUMNER APPLETON. 641 



active interest in the work of the Society. In a letter to the 

 writer of this memoir, from Pyrmont in June, 1887, he ex- 

 pressed a strong wish to have the serial parts of the Pro- 

 ceedings sent to him, and added : " It is a pleasure to keep 

 up with the work of the Society, and there might chance 

 occasionally to be a suggestion of something which one could 

 do on this side the water." 



In February and March, 1871, he visited the Southern States 

 and Cuba. But this seems only to have increased his fond- 

 ness for more distant travel ; and in the following June he 

 went again to Europe, remaining abroad rather more than a 

 year. On this visit, August 12, 1871, he was married, at the 

 United States Legation in Berne, Switzerland, to Edith Stuart, 

 daughter of his cousin William Stuart Appleton, of Baltimore, 

 Maryland. His eldest child, a daughter, was born in Paris, 

 before his return to Boston. 



The next four years were passed at home ; and at the annual 

 meeting of the Historical Society in April, 1873, he was elected 

 a member of the Standing Committee. At the end of a year's 

 service he was elected Cabinet-Keeper, which office he filled for 

 six years. On the creation of the Record Commission of Bos- 

 ton, in 1875, he was appointed one of the two Commissioners, 

 and he held this office, to which no salary was attached, until 

 the Commission was abolished in July, 1892. As a Commis- 

 sioner he edited the Ninth Report, " Boston Births, Bap- 

 tisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699 " ; the Twenty-first 

 Report, " Dorchester Births, Deaths, and Marriages " ; and 

 the Twenty-fourth Report, " Boston Births, 1700-1800." 



In November, 1876, he went to Europe for the fifth time, 

 returning in June, 1877. During this visit he extended his 

 travels to the islands of Sicily and Malta. After his return, 

 in November, 1878, he was elected a Fellow of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences in Class III., Section II., Phi- 

 lology and Archaeology. He never, however, contributed 

 anything to the printed Transactions of the Academy. 



After remaining at home for nearly nine years, actively 

 engaged in his favorite pursuits, he sailed, in May, 1886, for 



VOL. x.\ xix — 41 



