FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE 9 



John Avery Jr. C. Gore 



Joseph Barrell Jona. Mason Jun' 



Sa: SaHsbury Jona° Mason 



Chas Vaughan Henry Hill 



Chas Bulfinch D. Sears 



Ja: Sullivan John Codman 



Sam'l Phillips Stephen Higginson 



Thomas L. Winthrop 



The act of incorporation bore the signature of John 

 Hancock as governor of the Commonwealth. In it the 

 petitioners were named as the corporators in alpha- 

 betical order, Samuel Adams being at the head of the 

 list. The final clause of the act is as follows: 



That the place of holding the first meeting of the 

 said society shall be in the town of Boston; and that 

 Samuel Adams, Esq., be, and he hereby is authorised 

 and empowered to fix the time for holding the said 

 meeting, and to notify the same to the members of the 

 said society, by causing the same to be published in 

 one of the Boston newspapers, fourteen days before 

 the time fixed for holding the said meeting. 



Mr. Adams, mindful it may be surmised, of the 

 desirabihty of beginning on a propitious day, named 

 April 19, following. The meeting was held accord- 

 ingly in the Council Chamber of the State House, the 

 same in which, as declared by John Adams, "the child, 

 Independence, was born," and the same where Samuel 

 Adams had demanded of Governor Gage "the removal 

 of both regiments," in air and attitude as the artist has 

 represented him in Boston's familiar statue. The only 

 business done at this meeting of April 19 was to take 

 the first step in organization, by electing John Avery, 

 Jr. secretary of the society pro tern. The organization 

 was completed at an adjourned meeting of June 14, 

 1792. 



