for an authentic history of this part of our Commonwealth. It 

 was supposed that much valuable information, of a purely local na- 

 ture, would thus be collected, which from the peculiar relations of 

 this county to the country at large, especially in its early history, 

 would possess a great and general interest. At this meeting a com- 

 mittee was appointed to prepare a constitution and report at an ad- 

 journed meeting which took place on the 28th hist. ; the report was 

 then accepted and officers elected in conformity thereto. The 

 standing committee was also directed to prepare and present a pe- 

 tition, to the Legislature, for an act of incorporation. 



PETITION FOR INCORPORATION'. 



To the Honourable the Senate and the Honourable the House of 



Representatives in General Court assembled. 



THE petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the county of Es- 

 sex, humbly shews, that your petitioners, cherishing a grateful rec- 

 ollection of their ancestors, whose love of civil and religious liberty 

 led them to relinquish the peaceful enjoyments of polished life, and 

 to establish in a rude and unexplored country such institutions as 

 should best secure those inestimable blessings ; and being solicitous 

 to transmit to posterity all memorials which shall tend to perpetuate 

 the remembrance of those distinguished men, more especially of 

 such as were conspicuous in the county where your petitioners re- 

 side, which is the most ancient settlement in the territory original^ 

 known by the name of Massachusetts ; have formed themselves into 

 an association, under the name of the ESSEX HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

 the object of which is, to cooperate with other institutions of the 

 like nature, in collecting and preserving all authentic memorials relat- 

 ing to the civil history of the county of Essex, and the eminent 

 men who have been inhabitants of it, from its first settlement, as 

 well as all facts relating to its natural history and topography ; and 

 thus to provide the most ample materials for an authentic history of 

 this part of our commonwealth. 



Your petitioners therefore pray, that they may, for the more or- 

 derly conducting of their affairs, be made a corporation, with all 

 necessary powers for carrying into effect the design of their associ- 

 ation ; and as in duty bound will ever pray. 



EDWARD AUGUSTUS HOLYOKE, JOSEPH STORY. 



JOHN PRINCE, BENJAMIN PICKMAN, 



JACOB ASIITON, NATHANIEL BOWDITCII. 



NATHANIEL SILSBEE, JOHN PICKERING, 



ICIIABOD TUCKER, JOHN S. APPLETON, 



LEVEICETT SALTONSTALL, GEORGE CLEVELAND, 



BENJAMIN- MERRILL, FREDERICK HOWES, 



THOMAS CARLILE, JOHN BRAZER, 



DANIEL A. WHITE, JOHN GLEN KING, 



GIDEON BARSTOW, WILLIAM GIBBS, 



CHARLES C. CLARKE, JOSEPH A. PEABODY, 



THOMAS P. BANCROFT, BENJAMIN K. NICHOLS, 



STEPHEN WHITE and GEORGE A. WAIID. 



Salem, June 2, 1821. 



