F 
 
 ?f 
 
 •Z^/<r Cr'y 
 
^ If 
 
 3 /<t Cry 
 
THE TOWN OF BECKET. 
 
 At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
 Society, on Thursday, January 9, 1890, Dr. Samuel 
 A. Green made the following remarks : — 
 
 In a letter of our late associate, General Palfrey, written to 
 me last summer, he quotes from Mr. Whitmore's article on 
 the Names of Towns in Massachusetts, published in the Pro- 
 ceedings (vol. xii. pp. 393-419), and refers to the statement 
 there made on page 405, that the name of Becket, as applied 
 to the town in Berkshire County, " can hardly be traced." 
 General Palfrey suggests that it came from Beckett, the name 
 of the estate in English Berkshire, owned by the Lords 
 Barrington. On mentioning the suggestion to Mr. R. C. 
 Winthrop, Jr., he at once concurred in the opinion, and said, 
 furthermore, that the name of the Barringtons was originally 
 Shute, and that one of the family was Colonel Samuel Shute, 
 Governor of the Province of Massachusetts from the year 1716 
 to 1723. A niece of Colonel Shute was married to Sir Francis 
 Bernard, Governor of the Province from the year 1760 to 
 1769 ; and accordingly, when, in 1765, Governor Bernard was 
 called upon to name certain towns in the western part of the 
 State, he seems to have called one of them after the family- 
 seat of his wife's cousin, Lord Barrington. 
 
 Akin to this subject, there is another statement, in the 
 same article on the Names of Towns in Massachusetts, which 
 

 r 
 
 will bear modification. In a note at the bottom of page 407, 
 Mr. Whitmore refers to the town of Winchester, formerly 
 called Arlington, and says that it was in Hampshire County, 
 but that he " cannot find its present representative." This 
 town was in territory once claimed by Massachusetts, but 
 which, by the running of the new provincial line in 1741, was 
 brought within the limits of New Hampshire, and comes now 
 in Cheshire County of that State. 
 
 Ai 
 
.7 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 013 338 3