second of these anniversaries, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were kept in ignorance of the coming festivities until the guests began to arrive. The clan rallied from near and from far, bearing love-gifts and eager with loving congratulations and wishes. The night was clear and cold; the hoar-frost crisped the turf as we trod upon it to muffle our approach. In the very heart of the pulsing brightness and warmth of the interior sat the queen of the evening in the beauty of serene old age. The pleasurable excitement of the "surprise" flushed her cheeks and brightened her eyes, until we had a chastened vision of the bride who had been lifted over the worn threshold fifty years before, to dwell in the home of her husband's forefathers all the days of her blameless life.

I doubt if, in any other of our Colonial Homesteads, two Golden Weddings have been celebrated in consecutive generations of one family, and that of a race which has inhabited. the house without a break in the line ever since it was built, two hundred and fifty-odd years ago.

Mr. L. F. Pierce died in 1888 at the age of eighty. The Boston Advertiser paid him this just tribute:

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Those traits of character which gained for Mr. Pierce the confidence and esteem of his townsmen in his public capacity, made him as friend and companion beloved by all who knew him intimately. His cheerful greeting and gracious reception in themselves repaid the visitor. In conversation he was never at loss for a humorous turn or fitting anecdote. Though making no pretensions in a literary way, he was a reliable antiquarian, and his retentive memory was stored with facts of interest and value pertaining to the history of the town, which he took pleasure in relating.

During the war he visited with others in an official capacity the several companies at the front, and was. cordially received.

"This service, though of the civil routine, may fitly be mentioned as in a degree identifying him with the patriotic cause in this war, as his father, Lewis Pierce, had been in the war of 1812, and his grandfather, Col. Samuel Pierce, in that of the Revolution, both in the military service."

His son, Mr. George Francis Pierce, resides in the house built by his father within the grounds of the old homestead, which is now occupied by Mr. William Augustus Pierce.

"R

FIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

OBERT, ROXBURY, came from Norwich, in England, was admitted freeman in 1638, and is the common ancestor of the divines, civilians, and warriors of this name who have honored the country of their birth."

Thus ambles a clause of the introduction to the genealogical record of the " Williams in America, more particularly of the Family of Descendants of Robert Williams of Roxbury," prepared by Stephen W. Williams, M.D., A. M., "Corresponding Memb. of the New England Historic. Genealog. Society of the National Institute . . . Hon. Memb. of the N. Y. Hist. Soc., Memb. elect of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, Denmark, etc., etc."

We read, furthermore, that the Williamses