WOOD, William, colonist, born in England about 1580; died in Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1639. He emigrated to this country in 1629, and returned to England in 1633. He soon afterward sailed again for Massachusetts, and settled at Lynn, which town he represented in the general court in 1636 He removed to Sandwich the following year, became town-clerk, and resided there until his death After his return to London he published " New England's Prospect," the first printed account of Massachusetts, and styled it "A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that part of America commonly called New England; discovering the State of that Countrie, both as it stands to our New-Come English Planters and to the old Native Inhabitants" Laying downe that which may both enrich the Knowledge of the Mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the future Voyager" (1634). The perfect copies are enriched with a curious map of the country, and the text is interspersed with rhymed descriptions of natural history that strongly resemble those of Spenser. The "Prospect" was republished with an " Introductory Essay," which is ascribed to James Otis (Boston, 1764), and again by the Prince society (1865).