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WHO DID IT-a question momently on the lips of somebody or other anxious to know human agents in deeds however grave or trivial. Put for any purpose of folly, of indolence, or of sin, and it is a question that wastes breath, wastes intellect, and wastes character. But put in order to learn the authors of good deeds, to ascertain those particularly, who, in Church and State, have moved the machinery of society and advanced its civilization, it is then the question of the mind's thirst-of the mind panting for knowledge, for that -which we may love, and venerate, and imitate, and think upon-and thoughts, we know, 11 are heard in heaven." Of augmented interest the question under this view-deep, lofty, thrilling-when it involves those personally dear to us-when it summons our own immediate progenitors, whose blood throbs in our own veins, the Founders of our own family, our own Town, our own Commonwealth, when it summons these

" To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast."

Scaeva has had occasion already to notice many such in his history of the founding and of the progress of Hartford, during its First Period. They have been welcome visitors, we trust, to the Dwellers in this Town. However faint the traces of them which Time has spared, you, and you, and you, Reader, can not have failed to recognize in them some of your own lineaments, for they, thee parents of Hartford, were your parents too, And worthy seem; for in their looks The image of their glorious Maker shone, Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pureWhence true authority in men."

Far as we could describe, you have seen the work of our Town for its first fourteen years. Who now, besides those with whose names you are already familiar, performed this work? As chief instruments, as the trusted agents of the primitive community, who did it? We can show you, in civil life, nearly all-the town's Selectmen, its Clerk, its Constables, and its members of the General Court-and this we propose to do. But alas it is with their names alone, save in a case or two, that we can deal. Aught in the shape of their biography is in most instances impossible, for we can pluck nothing scarcely from the wallet' which Time, 41 on his broad pinions swifter than the wind," carries at his back. Would that we could!

Who then, first, were the Selectmen, in the Period upon which we dwell? For the sake of completeness we shall give the names of all that we can ascertain, whether they have been mentioned in former Articles, or not, and in the order so far as is practicable, of the years of their service.
Previous to 1639, we find the names of but three, viz.: Tohn Talcott, William Wadsworth, and Samuel Wakeman.

In 1639, and after, down to 1650, they are recorded as follows:

In 1639, William Westwood, William Spencer, Nathaniel Ward, and John Moody.,

In 1640, William Pantry, Andrew Bacon, John Hopkins, and William Lawes.

In 1641, John White, John Pratt, Richard Goodman, and Toseph Mygatt.

In 1642, William Wadsworth, Timothy Stanley, Thomas Hosmer, and William Gibbins.

In 1643, John Cullet, Tohn Talcott, Nathaniel Ely, and George Steele.

In 1644, Nathaniel Ward, Richard Lord, Nathaniel Richards, and Tohn Barnard.

In 1645, William Pantry, Tohn White, Gregory Wilterton and William Lawes.

In 1646, William Westwood, Richard Goodman, Thomas Hosmer, and Toseph Mygatt.

In 1647, Nathaniel Ward, William Wadsworth, Edward Stebbing, and George Stocking.

In 1648, John Talcott, Richard Webb, Tohn Barnard, and Richard Butler.

In 1649, John Wilcox, George Graves, Nathaniel Ely, and William Phillips.

The Town Clerkship, from the establishment of the office in 1639, down to 1650, remained in the bands of John Steele. This same individual filled the same office also for Farmington, from the commencement of this Town about 1645, down through the First Period of our History, Mr. Steele having been, by the General Court, particularly "intreated for the present to be recorder, there, untill the Towne have one fitt among themselves." The constant Representative of Hartford in the General Court till his removal to Farmington, well informed, a man of business, judicious, grave, godly-such was John Steele.

We trust that upon this announcement our present Town Clerk, with all the reverence due to the stock from which he is officially descended, will pause over that desk where, honest, industrious gentleman, he is ever at work, and turn to contemplate his great Original, and the glorious legacy he has left to his successor of personal worth, and pious devotion, and clerical ability. We doubt not that he will-that he often does-for somewhere, prominent on a page of one of the volumes of Town Records, not far from the tall desk over which he bends, is written the following reference-Jeremiah, Chap. xxxii., vs. 9, 10, 11, 12. Ah!--the Clerk that thus calls in the Bible, as well as man, to legitimate his vocation, and inspire him with a sense of responsibility-true descendant of John Steele must he surely be! Little did we dream be officer fore that the Town had in him so devout an yet here we find him tracing his pedigree back to Jeremiah's time-back to "Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah"-and invoking the spirit "which [was] in the country of Benjamin," thousands of years ago, to preside over his pen while he takes the I evidences, this evidence of purchase,' and that, and that, and another, and all that he can get, and I puts them'-no not, like Baruch, I in an earthen vessel,' but in a Book, "that they may continue many days!" We congratulate the Town that it has a Clerk who possesses so godly a spirit-that "With him Gospel and Deeds each has its columnHis head an index to the sacred volume; His very name a title page; and next His life a commentary on the text."

The Constables of Hartford, down to 1639, those of whom we can find mention, were two only, viz.:

Samuel Wakeman and Jeremy Adams. Subsequent to these, and down to 1650, were-in 1639,

Nathaniel Ely and Thomas Hosmer-in 1640,

Thomas Olcott and Arthur Semith-in 1641,

Nathan Richards and Stephen Post-in 1642,

Richard Lord and Gregory Wilterton, the latter a man who was born in the reign of queen Bess, who used to tell stories to the Settlers about the "Virgin queen," and who now lies interred, with a monument above him, behind the Centre Church-in 1643,

Thomas Stanton and Wil. liam Hills-in 1644,

John Pratt and Nathaniel Willett-in 1645,

we have no record of any-in 1646

William Gibbins and Richard Olmstead-in 1647,

Thomas Stanley and Thomas Burr-in 1648,

William try and James Ensign--and in 1649, Nathaniel Richards and Thomas Selden.

Of the above, Samuel Wakeman deserves particular notice, as having been the first Constable of Hartford, and consequently the great progenitor of all who, since his time, have wielded in our Town and City he staff of constabular authority. He received his appointment April 26th, 1636, with two other officers like himself, one for Windsor and one for Wetherseld, in the first General Court held in the Colony of Connecticut. He was also one of our earliest Selectmen. He enjoyed the special confidence of our primive Legislature, for with George Hubbard he was appointed by this Body to survey and report upon the readth of the whole township of Windsor, and with the addition of Ancient Stoughton for a colleague, as directed to perform the same duty for Wethersfield. Their joint report settling the bounds of these early sisters of Hartford, and moreover extending their territory, on the east side of Connecticut River, three miles to the eastward, was at once accepted and confirmed by the General Court. So Windsor and Wethersfield thank Samuel Wakeman, among others, or your primitive consequence in acres! Revere the memory of one who took at once a three-mile stride enlarge your territorial domain-and shed a tear of over the fact that early as 1646, after being permitted to regale his senses with but a few roses only the wilderness which he was aiding to make bud and blossom, he fell a victim to death, and left a son and three daughters to the meagre patrimony, apparently, but of ninety pounds, and to the cold charity of the world!

May his lineal official successors, of this day, in our Town, all share his worth, but oh not his pecuniary fate! To die and leave to three daughters and a son but ninety pounds-not enough, scarcely, to last 44 the best blood chambered in one's bosom" for six moons! Why our own Sheriff Waterman could not lift his sinewy arm in duty, or sound his stentorian voice, with the prospect, when Sheriff Death attaches hint, and Constables the Worms levy on his stalwart body, of leaving but Wakeman's pittance only to his bright babies two! Nor could brave Deputy Alden do his duty-with no babies at all! The solemn melody of the Riot Act would never again, as recently, thrill on his neatly-chiselled lips! Nor could even any Constable endure the prospect of Wakeman's fate! Too sure it would be, at once, with the film of blindness to seal up both his eyes! Too sure in amoment to paralyze his ministerial hand-that Hand which, stretched ever out in the sunlight of fees, when but touched by the spring of a warrant or a writ, and sometimes when untouched by the spring of either, clutches like the quick grasp of Fate, and with an iron and remorseless hug, squeezes both the collars and the dollars of all the subjects, liege or not liege, of her Majesty the Law!

But to go on with our I prime actors.' Who, during the First Period, were the Members of the General Court from Hartford, either as Magistrates or Deputies?* Prior to the Constitution of 1639, they were John Steele, William Westwood, Thomas Welles, William Whiting, John Webster, John Talcott, John Haynes, John Hopkins and Andrew Bacon.

The Members after the Constitution of 1639, and down to 1650, were as follows:

1. John Haynes, Magistrate during the whole Period, and who was six times elected Governor, and three times Deputy Governor.

2. Edward Hopkins, Magistrate during the whole Period, and who was four times elected Governor, and four times Deputy Governor.

3. George Wyllys, Magistrate for a few years, six only, but constantly in office till he died in 1644. He was once elected Governor, and once Deputy Governor.

4. Thomas Welles, Magistrate during the whole Period, and most of this time either' Secretary or Treasurer of the Colony.

5. John Webster, always a Magistrate.

6. William Whiting, Magistrate for seven years, and for several years also the Treasurer of the Colony.

7. John Cullick, Magistrate and Secretary of the Colony for two years, and three years a Deputy.

8. John Steele, during the whole Period a Deputy.

9. John Talcott, the same.

10. Andrew Bacon, seven years a Deputy.

11. William Westwood, five years a Deputy.

12. Edward Stebbing, five years a Deputy.

13. John Pratt, two years a Deputy.

14. William Spenser, two years a- Deputy.

Our arrangement apparently limits the service of those whom we mention to the close of 1649. This to us is a matter of convenience, but it is not to be understood that their term of service, (lid, of course, thus expire. Many served after, and some long after 1650, as our Readers will have occasion to see, when we 'set foot' upon the Second Period of our Town History.

The names we have given in the present Article, show the direct ancestors of a wonderfully large brood of bipeds, who walk about our streets to-day, and snuff the air, and perhaps care not a fig whether they are descended from a man of consequence, a monkey, or a donkey. We trust, however, they may feel far otherwise. Reader, awake thy spirit "Think through whom Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake, And then strike home!"

SCaEVA.