GLOSSARY

ADAMS, THE ELDER

Second President of the United States (1797- 1801).

ALCOTT, AMOS BRONSON

19th century Transcendentalist philosopher and founder of the vegetarian Utopian community Fruitlands. He was also the father of Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women.

ANTINOMIAN

A heretic, according to the Puritans; Antinomians believed that God's grace freed men and women from the obligation to follow civil and moral law. -

APPLE-PERU

A plant of the nightshade family; in literature, if not in botany, nightshade is always poisonous.

ASSABETH

A river near Concord.

BACON, COKE, NOYE, AND FINCH

Late 16th-early 17th-century legalists who made major contributions to British common law.

BEADLE

A minor parish official whose duties included keeping order; here the beadle seems to function as a town-crier.

BELLINGHAM, GOVERNOR

Governor of Massachusetts on three different occasions during the 1640s, 50s, and 60s. Hawthorne keeps him in office for reasons of economy and simplicity; also, for his sister's sake. One historical source listed Mistress Hibbins, the witch, as Bellingham's sister.

BLACKSTONE, THE REVEREND MR.

The first settler on the land that later became Boston. He was a church of England man who didn't get along with the Puritans. He sold out and moved away to what is now Rhode Island.

BRADLEY, ENDICOTT, DUDLEY

All governors or deputy-governors of the young New England colony. Bradley's wife was the Puritan poet, Anne.

BROOK FARM

A Utopian experiment that flourished outside of Boston in the 1840s. Hawthorne joined the commune for a year, but left disillusioned. He later made Brook Farm the subject of a novel, The Blithedale Romance.

BUNYAN'S AWFUL DOORWAY

The entrance to hell in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, a popular allegorical work of the late 17th century.

BURDOCK

A coarse weed with burrs.

CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY

A Unitarian minister and social reformer who was involved in the anti-slavery movement.

CHRONICLES OF ENGLAND

Holinshed's history of England, written in 1577.

DIGBY, SIR KENALM

17th-century chemist and founder of a science circle in Paris.

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