Suffolk County MA Archives Obituaries.....Prescott, William Hickling February 1, 1859 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ma/mafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Leslie Sears http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006250 February 1, 2015, 4:16 pm Massachusetts Historical Society Subject: 1859 Death of Wm. Hickling Prescott - Mass. Hist. Soc. honored his life & work. (He was the grandson of Col. William Prescott of Bunker Hill fame.) Source: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society In Memory of William Hickling Prescott p.1 In Respect to The Memory of William Hickling Prescott. February 1, 1859. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society. Printed by John Wilson and Son, 22 School Street, Boston. p.2 PROCEEDINGS. A Special Meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society was held at their rooms, in Tremont Street, on Tuesday evening, February 1, to express their respect for the character and services of their late eminent associate, William Hickling Prescott, who died in Boston, on Friday, January 28, 1859. Among other arrangements for the occasion, the beautiful bust of the lament- ed Historian, by Richard S. Greenough, and copies of his various Works, pre- sented to the Society by himself, and placed upon the officers' table, were touching memorials of the loss which has been sustained. p.3 The meeting was called to order, at half-past seven o'clock, by the President, the Honorable Robert C. Winthrop; who, immediately on taking the chair, addressed the members as follows: - "Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Historical Society, you are already but too well aware of the event which has called us together. Our beautiful rooms are lighted this evening for the first time; but the shadow of an afflicting bereavement rests darkly and deeply upon our walls and upon our hearts. We are here to pay a farewell tribute to him whom we were ever most proud to welcome within our cherished circle of associates, but whose smile is now left p.4 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. to us only as we see it yonder, in the cold though faithful outlines of art. We have come to deplore the loss of one who was endeared to us all by so many of the best gifts and graces which adorn our nature, and whose gentle and genial spirit was the charm of every company in which he mingled. We have come especially to manifest our solemn sense that one of the great Historical Lights of our country and of our age has been withdrawn from us forever; and to lay upon the closing grave of our departed brother some feeble but grateful acknowledgment of the honor he had reflected upon American literature, and of the renown he had ac- quired for the name of an American historian. For indeed, gentlemen, we have come to this comemoration not altogether in tears. We are rather conscious at this moment of an emotion of triumph - breaking through the sorrow which we cannot so soon shake off, - as we recall the discouragements and infirmities under which he had pressed forward so successfully to so lofty a mark, and as we remember, too,l how modestly he wore the wreath which he had so gallantly won. And we thank God this night, that although he was taken away from us while many more years of happy and useful life might still have been hoped for him, and while unfinished works of the highest interest were still awaiting his daily and devoted labors, he was yet spared until he had p.5 WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. completed so many imperishable monuments of his genius, and until he had done enough - at once for his own fame and for the glory of his country. "Satis,satis est, quod vixit, vel ad aetatem vel ad gloriam." Nor will we omit to acknowledge it as a merciful dispensation of Providence, that he was taken at last by no lingering disease, and after no protracted de-cline, but in the very way which those who knew him best were not unaware that he himself both expected and desired. Inheriting a name which had been associ-ated with the noblest patriotism in one generation, and with the highest judi-cial wisdom in another; and having imparted a fresh lustre to that name, and secured for it a title to an even wider and more enduring remembrance, he was permitted to approach the close of his sixty-third year in the enjoyment of as much happiness, as much respect, as much affection, as could well accompany any human career. "The, with no fiery, throbbing pain, No cold gradations of decay, Death broke at once the vital chain, And freed his soul the nearest way. It is not for me, gentlemen, to attempt any delineation of his character, or any description of his writings. There are those among us who have known him longer than myself, and who have p.6 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. established a better title to pass judgment upon his productions. Let me only say, in conclusion, that, immediately on hearing of his sudden death, permis-sion was asked for this Society to pay the last tribute to his remains; but it was decided to be more consonant with his own unostentatious disposition, that all ceremonies obsequies should be ommited. Having followed his hearse yesterday, therefore, only as friends, we have assembled now as a Society, of which for more than twenty years he was one of the most brilliant ornaments, to give formal expression to those feelings, which, in justice either to him, to ourselves, or to the community of which he was the pride, could not longer be restrained. It is for you, gentlemen, to propose whatever in your judgment may be appro- priate for the occasion. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the close of the President's remarks, Mr. George Ticknor rose and said: "Mr. President - You have well told us why we are here at this unwonted hour. We feel the truth of every word you have uttered. The name that shone brighter than any other that was ever set on the rolls of our Society, in its distinctive attribute as a Society for the promotion of historical research, has been strick-en from them, so far as such a name can be, by p.7 WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. the hand of death. And we come to mourn together for our loss. We do not come to praise the friend and associate whom it has pleased a wise and merciful God to take away from us. His praise is beyond our reach. It extends as far as letters are valued or known. We can neither add to it nor diminish it. We come to mourn together. I have no words of formal eulogy to offer. In this moment of sorrow, I cannot say what I would. But this I am able to say, - and it becomes the occasion that it should be said - that to those of us who knew him from the days of his bright boyhood, down to his latest years, when he stood before the world crowned with its honors, the elements that constituted the peculiar charm of his character always to be the same; that his life - his whole life - was to an extraordinary degree a happy one, governed by a prevalent sense of duty to God and love to man; and that he has been taken from us with unimpaired faculties, and with a heart whose affections grew warmer and more tender to the last. At the end of a life like this, although suddenly terminated, he naturally left few wishes for posthumous fulfilment; and the few that he did leave were of the simplest and most unpretending sort. But one was most characteristic and touch-ing; and, as it has been accomplished, it may fitly be mentioned here p.8 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. for a time in the cherished room where were gathered the intellectual treasures amidst which he had found so much of the happiness of his life. His wish was ful-filled. There he lay, - it was only yesterday, sir, - his manly form neither wasted nor shrunk by disease; the features, which had expressed and inspired so much love, still hardly touched by the effacing fingers of death: there he lay, and the great lettered dead of all ages and climes and countries seemed to look down upon him in their earthly and passionless immortality, and claim that his name should hereafter be imperishably united with theirs. And then, when this his wish had been fulfilled and he was borne forth from those doors which he had never entered except to give happiness, but which he was never to enter again - then he was brought into the Temple of God, where he had been used to worship, and into a company of the living such as the obsequies of no man of letters have ever before assembled in this land; and there a passionate tribute of tears and mourning was paid to the great benefits he had conferred on the world, and to his true and loving nature, which would have been dearer to his heart than all the intellectual triumphs of his life. And now that all this is past; now that we have laid him beside the father whom he so truly reverenced - whom we all so reverenced, sir - and the mother whom he so tenderly loved, and who was loved p.9 WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. of all, and especially of all in sorrow and suffering - now what remains for us to do? It is little, very little. We can express our respect, our admiration, and our love; we can mourn with those who were nearest and dearest to him. These, indeed, constitute our incumbent duty; and therefore, sir, I propose to you now, even in this season of our bitter sorrow, to fulfil it, and, as becomes such a moment, to fulfil it in the fewest and the simplest of words. Mr. George Ticknor then read the following resolutions: Resolved, That as members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, we look back with gratitude and pride upon the brilliant career of our late associate, WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, who, not urged by his social position to a life of literary toil, and dis-couraged by an infirmity which seemed to forbid success, yet chose deliberately, in his youth, the difficult path of historical research, and, by the force of genius, of courage, and of a cheerful patience, achieved for himself, with the full assent of Christendom, an honored place in the company of the great masters of history in all countries and in all ages. Resolved, That, while we mourn the loss of one who has thus made our country and the world his debtors, we yet, in this moment of our sudden bereavement, grieve rather that we miss the associate and friend whom we loved, as he was loved by all who knew him p.10 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. for the beauty, the purity and the transparent sincerity of his nature; for his open and warm sympathies; and for the faithful affections, to wich years and the changes of life only added freshness and strength. Resolved. That we request the President of this Society to transmit these resolu-tions to the family of our lamented and honored associate, expressing to them thedeep sympathy we feel in their affliction and commending them to the merciful God in whom he trusted, and to the influences of that religion in which he was wont to find consolation under trial and suffering. Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth. Note: the tributes of the members of the Massachusetts Historical Society continue. The full report is online with google books online. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society on the death of historian, William Hickling Prescott. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ma/suffolk/obits/p/prescott202gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mafiles/ File size: 12.1 Kb