A Congregational minister, pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, 1718–58, and one of the most fair-minded, accurate historical writers that America has had. His library now forms a separate collection in the Boston Public Library. “Earthquakes of New England” (1755); “Chronological History of New England.”
Personal
The 22d of October [1758], will be remembered as a remarkable day in the history of the Town, and not only of Boston, but of New England; for on that day died the Rev. Mr. Thomas Prince, a benefactor of his country; leaving a name which will be venerated to the remotest ages, if literature shall then be valued; a name which may with pride be emulated by the inquirers after historical knowledge, and the admirers of precision and accuracy in the paths of history.
He was pronounced by Dr. Chauncy the most learned scholar, with the exception of Cotton Mather, in New England, and maintained a high reputation as a preacher, and as a devout and amiable man. Six of his manuscript sermons were published after his death, by Dr. John Erskine, of Edinburgh.
That 22d of October was the Sabbath; the day on which his collection of Psalms and Hymns was used, for the first time, by his people. The lips of their beloved pastor were forever sealed; but they still had his life and spirit embalmed in those sacred poems, to be with them, guiding them and comforting them. In the twinkling of an eye, had he been changed; mortality had blossomed into immortality; his own sweetest thoughts awoke in music on the tongues of his weeping congregation, as he sank into that blessed sleep which Christ giveth to His beloved. The mystery of the two lives was made perfect by his departure, for he still praised God in the voices of the living, though gone to be a member of the choir of angels.
He was a man of most tolerant and brotherly spirit; his days were filled by gentle and gracious and laborious deeds; he was a great scholar; he magnified his office and edified the brethren by publishing a large number of judicious and nutritious sermons; he also revised and improved the New England Psalm Book, “by an endeavor after a yet nearer approach to the inspired original, as well as to the rules of poetry;” he took a special interest in physical science, and formed quite definite opinions about earthquakes, comets, “the electrical substance,” and so forth. For all these things, he was deeply honored in his own time, and would have been deeply forgotten in ours, had he not added to them very unique performances as an historian. No American writer before Thomas Prince, qualified himself for the service of history by so much conscious and specific preparation; and though others did more work in that service, none did better work than he. The foundation of his character as a historian was laid in reverence, not only for truth, but for precision, and in willingness to win it at any cost of labor and of time. He likewise felt the peculiar authority of originals in historical testimony, and the potential value, for historical illustration, of all written or printed materials whatsoever; and while he was yet a college-boy, driven by the sacred avarice of an antiquarian and a bibliographer, he began to gather that great library of early American documents, which kept growing upon his hands in magnitude and in wealth as long as his life lasted, and which, notwithstanding the ravages of the time, of British troops, of book-borrowers, and of book-thieves, still remains for him a barrier against oblivion, and for every student of early American thought and action, a copious treasurer-house of help.
General
Some may think me rather too critical, others that I relate some circumstances too minute. As to the first, I think a Writer of Facts cannot be too critical: It is Exactness I aim at, and would not have the least mistake, if possible, pass to the World…. As to the Second, those Things which are too minute with Some, are not so with Others…. And there’s none who attentively reads a History either ancient or modern, but in a great many Cases, wishes the Writer had mentioned some minute Circumstances, that were then commonly known, and thought too needless or small to be noted.
The most important event of 1735, in this connection, was the issue of the first volume of the “Chronological History of New England.”… The list of manuscript authorities to which he refers is indeed extensive and most valuable, and though several of them have since been printed, their publication does not detract from the worth of his labors in arranging them, or alter our appreciation of his honesty and exactness in transcribing them. If we add to the work to be performed the necessity of examining the numerous letters and papers collected by him, and the chronological letters and registers sent to him by the various New England clergymen, we shall no longer wonder at the small number of theological tracts produced by him, but we shall feel surprised at the possibility of his paying any attention to all his clerical duties. In fact, without the strong impulse of a pious trust imposed upon him, he could hardly have written his history in the time he occupied upon it…. The work was too learned or too precise to suit the taste of the public, and the second volume, after a languishing life through three Parts, perished for want of patronage in 1755. Though the author had been so poorly appreciated, he had made very extensive preparations to continue his labors, and the cover of the last Part bore an Advertisement soliciting information from the public to enable him to render his book complete.
He was a devotee to historical accuracy, a knight-errant of precise and unadorned fact, an historical sceptic before the philosophy of historical scepticism was born.
The author was a slow worker and a busy man; there was waiting for such work as his a real but not an enthusiastic nor a lasting welcome; and he apparently allowed his zeal to flag towards the close of his life. In what he did he displayed the internal qualities needed in an historian: painstaking care for accuracy, and a philosophic temper; and though his book is somewhat forbidding in form and lacking in beauty of style, it marked an improvement upon the slipshod work of Morton. Prince was the direct forerunner of the eminent list of Boston historians; his name is fitly commemorated by one of the historical societies of that city.
In his love of accuracy and original sources Prince belongs to the contemporary “erudite” school of historians, who all over Europe were amassing, with a painstaking and critical spirit that was new, vast stores of material for the rewriting of history.
