The standard authority on the subjects treated in the volume is J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, 5 vols. (1858-1864, 1875-1890), a work of broad scholarship and written in a not uninteresting style, but indiscriminating in its defense of Massachusetts and without any understanding of the purpose and attitude of the English authorities. In somewhat the same class are G. E. Ellis, The Puritan Age (1888), a dry book but less given to special pleading, and Justin Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, 4 vols. (1880-1882), a series of essays with elaborate notes and bibliographies, presenting in a fragmentary way the conventional view of the period. Less frankly favorable to New England is J. A. Doyle, English Colonies in America: The Puritan Colonies, 2 vols. (1887), a work of value, but diffuse in style and often confused in treatment, and, though written by an Englishman, displaying little interest in the English side of the story. The chapters in Edward Channing, History of the United States, vol. i (1905), that relate to the subject, are scholarly and always interesting; while those in H. L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 3 vols. (1904-1907), contain the ablest accounts we have of the institutional characteristics of the period.There are few good histories of the individual colonies. Those deserving of mention are: Thomas Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts Bay, 2 vols. (1764-1767); S. G. Arnold, History of the State of Rhode Island, 2 vols. (4th ed. 1894); Irving B. Richman, Rhode Island (1904, American Commonwealth Series); B. Trumbull, Complete History of Connecticut, 2 vols. (new ed. 1898); A. Johnson, Connecticut (2d ed. 1903, American Commonwealth Series); E. Atwater, History of the Colony of New Haven (1881); W. H. Fry, New Hampshire as a Royal Province (1908); W. D. Williamson, History of the State of Maine (1832); H. S. Burrage, The Beginnings of Colonial Maine (1914). Hutchinson and Trumbull are classics; Arnold is one of the best of the state histories; Richman and Johnson are short and readable; Fry deals with the institutional life of the colony; Williamson is old-fashioned and poor; but Burrage is authoritative.

Special works are: H. M. Dexter, The England and Holland of the Pilgrims (1905), a very valuable and learned account; C. F. Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, 2 vols. (1892), treating of the antecedents of Boston, the Antinomian Controversy, and church and town government, the first essay especially being indispensable; R. M. Jones, The Quakers in the American Colonies (1911), the fairest account of the Quakers in New England. W. De L. Love, The Colonial History of Hartford (1914); W. E. Weeden, Early Rhode Island (1910); and G. S. Kimball, Providence in Colonial Times (1912), are in every way excellent, that of Love being a minutely critical analysis of the Connecticut settlement. W. E. Weeden, Social and Economic History of New England, 2 vols. (1891), is a valuable collection of information. Certain chapters in Edward Eggleston's Transit of Civilization (1901) treat of the mental outfit of the colonists; and M. W. Jernegan in the School Review, June, 1915, deals with the beginnings of public education in New England; G. L. Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, 1660-1688, 2 vols. (1912), and C. M. Andrews, British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675 (1908), concern British policy and administration in the seventeenth century.

Biographies varying greatly in value and manner of treatment follow: R. C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop, 2 vols. (2d ed. 1869); G. L. Walker, Thomas Hooker (1891, Makers of America Series); J. H. Twichell, John Winthrop (1891, id.); A. Steele, Elder Brewster (1857); L. G. Jones, Samuel Gorton (1896); A. Gorton, The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton (1907); O. S. Straus, Roger Williams (1894); M. E. Hall, Roger Williams (1917); T. W. Bicknell, Story of Dr. John Clarke (1915); J. M. Taylor, Roger Ludlow (1900); J. K. Hosmer, Young Sir Harry Vane (1888); A Memoir of Sir John Leverett, Knt. (1856); and in American Biography, 10 vols., are lives of John Mason by G. E. Ellis, Roger Williams by William Gammell, Samuel Gorton by John M. Mackie, and Anne Hutchinson by G. E. Ellis, though none of them is particularly satisfactory.

The original sources for the period are: the Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial, vols. i, ii (1908-1910); The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, vols. i-viii, 1574-1692 (1860-1901); and the colonial records of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Collections of narratives and letters may be found in the publications of the Prince Society [C. H. Bell, John Wheelwright and his Writings (1876); C. F. Adams, Morton's New England Canaan (1883); C. W. Tuttle, Capt. John Mason (1887); J. P. Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 3 vols. (1890); C. F. Adams, Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay (1894); R. N. Toppan, Edward Randolph, 7 vols. (1898-1909, last two volumes edited by A. T. S. Goodrick)]; and in the Original Narratives of Early American History [W. T. Davis, Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation (1908); J. K. Hosmer, Winthrop's Journal, 2 vols. (1908); J. F. Jameson, Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence of Sion's Saviour in New England (1911); C. H. Lincoln, Narratives of the Indian Wars (1913); G. L. Burr, Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases (1914); C. M. Andrews, Narratives of the Insurrections (1915)]. A sumptuous edition of Bradford's history has been edited for the Massachusetts Historical Society, by W. C. Ford, 2 vols. (1915). S. Sewall's Diary, 3 vols. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 5th series, 1878-1882) and Cotton Mather's Magnalia, 2 vols. (1853) are important. W. Walker, The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (1893) is of great value. C. W. Sawyer, Firearms in American History (1910), has an excellent chapter on firearms in colonial times.

The articles on Boston, New England, Massachusetts, Plymouth, Friends (Society of), etc., in The EncyclopÆdia Britannica, 11th Edition, should be referred to for additional bibliographies.