New-England's Rarities Discovered

Part 1

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by underscores.

A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example y^e.

The character ſ (long-form s) has been replaced by the normal s.

Footnote anchors are denoted by a number in [ ], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book.

This edition of 1865 is a faithful reproduction of the original Josselyn edition of 1672, and the original spelling and punctuation have been carefully preserved without change, in both the printed 1865 book and in this etext.

The page numbering of the 1672 book has been preserved and inserted at the appropriate points of the text. These page numbers were in [ ] in the 1865 edition, but have been changed to { } in this etext to avoid confusion with the footnote numbering notation.

Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.

NEW-ENGLAND’S RARITIES.

NEW-ENGLAND’S

RARITIES

DISCOVERED IN BIRDS, BEASTS, FISHES, SERPENTS, AND PLANTS OF THAT COUNTRY.

By JOHN JOSSELYN, Gent.

With an Introduction and Notes,

By EDWARD TUCKERMAN, M.A.

Boston: WILLIAM VEAZIE. MDCCCLXV.

Two Hundred and Fifty Copies printed, Small Quarto.

BOSTON: PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.

Publisher’s Advertisement.

In the reproduction of this quaint and curious treatise, which is one of the earliest, on the Natural History of New England, it has been the intention of the Publisher to enhance its value as a literary curiosity, by making it as nearly as possible an exact Fac-simile of the original edition, in accordance with the projected plan of a series of reprints, in which the present work is comprised.

In the furtherance of this intention, the precise orthography, punctuation, and also the arrangement,—with the exception of the commencement and termination of pages,—have been preserved.

The valuable Introduction and Notes of Prof. TUCKERMAN, incorporated in this edition, have been previously issued in vol. iv. of “The Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society,” which contains a reprint of “The Rarities” in a more modern style. The notes have, however, undergone a thorough revision by the author; and some few additions have been made by him, during the progress of the present edition through the press.

Some additional matter concerning the Genealogy of the Josselyn Family may be found contained in the Preface of the “Two Voyages to New England in 1638 and 1663, by John Josselyn,” published in uniform style with the present work.

BOSTON, MAY 15, 1865.

INTRODUCTION.

Mr. John Josselyn, the writer of this book, was only brother, as he says, to Henry Josselyn, Esq., many years of Black Point in Scarborough, Me.; and both were sons to Sir Thomas Josselyn, Knt., of Kent, whose name is at the head of the new charter obtained by Sir Ferdinando Gorges for his Province in 1639, but who did not come to this country. Mr. Henry Josselyn was at Piscataqua, in the interest of Capt. John Mason, at least as early as 1634; but, in 1636, he is one of the Council of Gorges’s Province in Maine, and continued in that part of the country the rest of his life. He succeeded in 1643, by the will of Capt. Thomas Cammock, to his patent at Black Point, and soon after married his widow. He is afterwards Deputy-Governor of the Province; and until 1676, when the Indians attacked and compelled him to surrender his fort, he was, says Mr. Willis,—whose valuable papers are cited below,—“one of the most active and influential men in it;” holding, “during all the changes of proprietorship and government, the most important offices.” He is then a magistrate of the Duke of York’s Province of Cornwall, and, as late as 1680, a resident of Pemaquid; when he is spoken of, in a letter of Gov. Andros to the commander of the fort at Pemaquid, as one “whom I would have you use with all fitting respect, considering what he hath been and his age.” He is living in 1682; but had died before the 10th of May, 1683, leaving no descendants.

Notwithstanding the evidence, above afforded, of the social position of the family of which Henry and John Josselyn were members, the present writer failed in tracing it, doubtless from not knowing in which county it had its principal seat. In this uncertainty, it occurred to him to make application to the eminent English antiquary,—the Rev. Joseph Hunter, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of London,—to whom he was indebted for former kind attentions; and was favored by this gentleman with such directions as left nothing to be desired. “The Josslines,” writes Mr. Hunter “(the name is written in some variety of orthographies, and now more usually Joceline), are quite one of the old aristocratic families of England, having several knights in the early generations; being admitted into the order of baronets, and subsequently into the peerage.... Their main settlement was in Hertfordshire, at or near the town of Sabridgeworth; and accounts of them may be read in the histories—of which Chauncy’s, Salmon’s, and Clutterbuck’s are the chief—of that county. But a fuller and better account is to be found in the ‘Peerage of Ireland,’ by Mr. Lodge, keeper of the records in the Birmingham Tower, Dublin: 4 vols. 8vo, 1754.”

According to Lodge, the family begins with a Sir Egidius, who passed into England in the time of Edward the Confessor, and was descended from “Carolus Magnus, King of France, with more certainty than the houses of Lorraine and Guise.” Of this Sir Egidius was Sir Gilbert de Jocelyn, who accompanied the Conqueror, and had Gilbert—called St. Gilbert, being canonized by Pope Innocent III. in 1202—and Geoffry. To this Geoffry is traced back John Jocelyn, living in 1226; who married Catherine, second daughter and co-heir to Sir Thomas Battell, and had Thomas, who married Maud, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Hide, of Hide Hall in Sabridgeworth, county of Hertford, Knt., by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Sudeley; Baron Sudeley, in the county of Gloucester. He had Thomas Jocelyn, Esq., who married Joan, daughter of John Blunt, and had Ralph, who married Maud, daughter of Sir John Sutton alias Dudley, and had Geoffry of Hide Hall, 1312. Geoffry married Margaret, daughter of Robert Rokell or Rochill, and had Ralph, who married Margaret, daughter and heir to John Patmer, Esq., and had Geoffry (died 1425), who married Catherine, daughter and heir to Sir Thomas Bray, and had four sons and two daughters. Of these, the eldest was Thomas Jocelyn, Esq., living in the reign of Edward IV., who married Alice, daughter of Lewis Duke of Dukes in Essex, Esq., by his wife Anne, daughter of John Cotton, Esq., and had issue George, his heir, called Jocelyn the Courtier, who married Maud, daughter and heir to Edmond Bardolph,—Lord Bardolph,—and had one daughter and three sons. John Jocelyn, Esq.,—“auditor of the augmentations, upon the dissolution of the abbeys by King Henry VIII.,”—was son and heir to the last-mentioned George, and married Philippa, daughter of William Bradbury, of Littlebury in Essex; by whom he had Sir Thomas, of Hide Hall,—created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Edward VI.,—who married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Geoffry Gales or Gates, Knt., and had issue; one daughter marrying Roger Harlakenden, of Carnarthen in Kent, Esq.; and the fifth son being Henry Jocelyn, Esq., who married Anne, daughter and heir to Humphrey Torrell, otherwise Tyrrell, of Torrell’s Hall in Essex,—became seated there, and had six sons and six daughters. The second son of this family was Sir Thomas Jocelyn (father to our author), who was twice married. His first wife was Dorothy, daughter of John Frank, Esq.; by whom he had six sons and five daughters,—Torrell, born 28th May, 1690; Henry, and Henry, both died infants; Thomas, who died without issue, in 1635, at Bergen op Zoom; Edward, who, by a lady of Georgia, had a daughter Dorothy, and died at Smyrna in 1648; Benjamin, born 19th May, 1602; Anne, married to William Mildmay, Esq., by whom she had Robert, John, Anne, and Elizabeth; Dorothy, married to John Brewster, Esq., and left no issue; Elizabeth, married to Francis Neile, Esq., and had Francis, John, and Mary; Frances, born 26th March, 1600, and married Rev. Clement Vincent; and Mary, died unmarried. The second wife of Sir Thomas Jocelyn was Theodora, daughter to Edmond Cooke, of Mount Maschall in Kent, Esq.; and by her he had Henry, John, Theodora, and Thomazine. Torrell, the eldest son, married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Brooke of Cheshire,—heir to her grandfather (by the mother), Dr. Chaderton, Bishop of Lincoln,—by whom he had a daughter, Theodora, married to Samuel Fortrie, Esq., to whom our author dedicates the present volume, with acknowledgment of the “bounty” of his “honored friend and kinsman.”

Part 2

The principal line of the family was continued by Richard, heir to Sir Thomas of Hide Hall; the said Richard being brother to our author, John Josselyn’s grandfather. In 1665, Sir Robert Jocelyn of Hide Hall was advanced to the dignity of baronet. The fifth son of this Sir Robert was Thomas; whose son, Robert Jocelyn, Esq., was bred to the law; was Solicitor-General and Attorney-General and Lord High Chancellor of Ireland; and created, in 1743, Baron Newport of Newport, and Viscount Jocelyn in 1755. Robert, son and successor of this nobleman, was created, in 1771, Earl of Roden, of High Roding, County of Tipperary; and was ancestor to the present Lord Roden.

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