THE HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETS-BAY, FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT THEREOF IN 1628 UNTIL ITS INCORPORATION WITH THE COLONY OF PLYMOUTH, PROVINCE OF MAIN, &C. BY THE CHARTER OF KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY, IN 1691. BY MR. HUTCHINSON, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE MASSACHUSETS PROVINCE

Boston, New-England: Printed by Thomas & John Fleet, 1764. [with] THE HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETS-BAY, FROM THE CHARTER OF KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY, IN 1691, UNTIL THE YEAR 1750. Boston, New-England. Printed by Thomas & John Fleet. 1767.
[with] A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETS-BAY. Boston, New-England. Printed by Thomas & John Fleet. 1769. (iv), iv, 566; (iv), iv, 539; (ii), ii, 576 pp. Scattered minor foxing, in attractive modern quarter red calf, gilt spine rules, marbled paper over boards. Original spine labels laid down. Ownership signature of Thomas Clap, American Congregational (truncated) minister and Yale president, mounted on front blank of first volume; ownership inscription on title-page of first volume, dated 1857 ("John Heale Pilsbury / from E.J. Demoor.") Very Good plus.

First edition of Massachusetts colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson's history of Massachusetts, "a work of permanent value...indispensable in any American collection" [Sabin]. These are the three contemporary volumes of Hutchinson's History. A fourth volume, not included here, was published posthumously in 1828.
In the preface, Hutchinson writes that "the repeated destruction of ancient records and papers, by fire in the town of Boston, first inclined me to endeavor the preservation of such materials as remained proper for an history of the Massachusets [sic] colony."
The first volume discusses the early years of the colony, from its first settlement in 1628, up to 1691. The second volume covers the colony from its 1691 charter up to 1750. The third volume, published by Hutchinson as supplemental to the first two, is, according to Sabin, "a necessary adjunct."
"Besides being a colonial historian, Hutchinson was governor of Massachusetts from 1771 to 1773 and a staunch Loyalist. He left Boston for London in late 1773, after his actions were one of the precipitating causes of the Boston Tea Party, and remained in exile in England until his death in 1780" [Reese].
Sabin 34069020, 34075, 34082. Evans 9705, 10658, 11300; Howes H-853; Adams, The American Controversy, 64-11a, 67-7a; Reese, The Struggle for North America 65; ESTC W20456, W20464, W31190. (Inventory #: 40731)