AN ACT 



TO INCORPORATE THE 



ESSEX HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



SECT. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House, of Representatives^ 

 in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That 

 EDWARD AUGUSTUS HOLYOKK, of Salem, in the county of Essex, doc- 

 tor of medicine, and such other persons as have associated or may 

 hereafter associate themselves with him for the purpose of collect- 

 ing and preserving materials for the civil and natural history of the 

 said county of Essex, be, and they hereby are, made a body corpo- 

 rate and politic by the name of the ESSEX IIISTOIUCAL SOCIETY; 

 and by that name they and their successors may sue and be sued, 

 and shall be capable in law to take and hold in fee simple, or othei'- 

 wise, lands, tenements, rents and hereditaments, not exceeding in 

 the whole the yearly value of two thousand dollars, exclusive of 

 the building or buildings which may be actually occupied for the 

 purposes of the said corporation ; and they shall also be capable in law 

 to take, receive and hold personal estate, to an amount, the yearly 

 value of which shall not exceed the sum of two thousand dollars, 

 exclusive of the books, papers, memorials and other articles com- 

 posing the library and cabinet of the said corporation ; and they shall 

 also have power to sell, demise, exchange, or otherwise dispose of, 

 all or any part of their lands, tenements, rents, hereditaments and 

 other property aforesaid, for the benefit of the said corporation ; and 

 shall also have a common seal, which they may break, alter and re- 

 new at their pleasure ; and shall also have power to make by-laws, 

 with suitable penalties, not repugnant to the laws of this common- 

 wealth. 



SECT. 2. Be it further enacted, That the said corporation shall 

 have power, from time to time, as they may think fit, to elect a 

 president and such other officers as they shall judge necessary; and 

 at their first meeting they may agree upon the manner of calling 

 future meetings, and proceed to execute all or 'any of the powers 

 vested in them by this act. 



SECT. 3. Be it further enacted, That the library and cabinet of 

 the said corporation shall be kept in the town of Salem aforesaid. 



SECT. 4. Be it further enacted, That the said Edward Augustus 

 Holyoke be and hereby is authorized to notify the said first meeting 

 of the said corporation by an advertisement thereof under his hand 

 for seven days before such meeting, in any newspaper printed in 

 Salem aforesaid. 



Approved by the Governor, June 11, 1821. 



The first corporate meeting was held on Wednesday, the 27th 

 June, 1821, and the society was organized, pursuant to their Act of 

 Incorporation, by the adoption of a Constitution and the choice of 

 officers to serve until the first annual meeting on the 6th of Septem- 

 ber, in commemoration of the day of the landing of Governor Endl- 

 cott, at Salem, in 1628. The venerable and learned Dr. E. Augustus 

 Holyoke, who always took the most lively interest in whatever 

 concerned American literature and science, was elected the first 

 President, and presided at this meeting. 



