He continued his quest into history, seeking ways to report and preserve historic sources. On January 24, 1791, he invited nine friends with similar interests to meet at his home. They agreed to help build a repository for these records. The meeting resulted in the Massachusetts Historical Society, which was the first historical society and served as a prototype for many later ones. They also pledged to contribute family papers. John Eliot, a fourth-generation descendant of the 17th-century "Apostle to the Indians" and himself a minister, added Governor Thomas Hutchinson's manuscript for the "History of Massachusetts Bay", which his father Andrew Eliot had saved during the Revolution when a mob looted the governor's home.