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Bancroft (GEORGE an American historian)

GEORGE, an American historian, born near Worcester, Mass., Oct. 3, 1800. He was educated at Harvard and in Germany. In 1824 he published a translation of Heeren's "Politics of Ancient Greece," and a small volume of poems. Between 1834 and 1840 three volumes of his History of the United States were published. In 1845 he was appointed Secretary of the Navy. He was American Minister to England from 1846 to 1849, when the University of Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of D. C. L. The fourth and fifth volumes of his history appeared in 1852.

The sixth appeared in 1854, the seventh in 1858, the eighth soon after, but the ninth 'id not appear till 1866. From 1867 to 1874 he was Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Berlin. The 10th and last volume of his great work appeared in 1874. An additional section appeared, first as a separate work, in 1882: "History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States," and the whole came out in six volumes in 1884-1885.

He settled in Washington on returning from Germany, in 1875, and died there Jan. 17, 1891.