USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > More chronicles of a pioneer school, from 1792 to 1833, being added history on the Litchfield Female Academy kept by Miss Sarah Pierce and her nephew, John Pierce Brace > Part 25
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Such was the character of the period in which Thomas Welles lived. As we have said before, he was a truly religious man, yet there was not in his character or his instructions the holiness that had marked the two generations before him. The flame of vital religion was preserved unextinguished on his hearth-stone by the influence of his mother, to whom practical godliness and everyday holiness were of more impor- tance than doctrinal dogmas.
This morning's exercise and prayer partook of the character of the
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period. Instead of showing to his children the goodness of God and the causes of the observance of the day, and thus leading them through the exhibitions of the mercy of their Heavenly Father to repentance and obedience, he employed the time and the prayer in endeavoring to show how, and in what sense, God was the Author of Sin. Though well educated for those days, his mind wanted that distinctive clear- ness on such topics which a theological system of instruction might have given him, and we must confess that he "darkened counsel" by words without knowledge. He was a man of strong feeling and tender heart when the Puritan conventionalities allowed such traits to appear and he could, with the rude eloquence of unassisted nature, have set before his children on this Thanksgiving, the beneficence of God, the favors received from him, and the unexpected and undiscovered mer- cies of the year, in such a striking manner, as to have interested every heart, and conducted even the youngest to a love of their Father in Heaven. But we are sadly afraid that little Grace thought more of poor Clover than of the words her father was saying, and that Pru- dence, Moses and Aaron obtained no definite conceptions of the character of the Deity. It was not his fault, however, so much as the fault of the age.
As the snow was deep and the weather bad, it was decided that only the father should attend meeting. Directions were given that none of the family should be seen out of the house on that day, except in the performance of necessary duties, and that everything should be kept as quiet as possible in the house.
"Grandmother, you promised to give us, to-day, an account of your younger life; as we cannot go to meeting on account of the storm, will you not do it?"
"The early account of anyone's life, my dear Martha, presents but little interest, and a repetition of its events would be hardly worth the time it would occupy. I had no losses or crosses to sustain or encounter in early life. I lived happily ; grew up as other girls do; married and had children. There is nothing in such a life that will furnish romantic incidents for narration. My father, Judge Dudley, possessed property and station, and hence I was looked up to with respect and was blest with a good education."
"But, grandmother," interrupted Grace, "I thought your name was Welles. How came it to be Dudley?"
"Why, Grace, you foolish child," said Prudence, "don't you know that when girls marry they change their names to those of their hus- bands? Our Martha will be called Mrs. Hinsdale, when she marries Jim Hinsdale."
Martha blushed, while Grace looked up at first in wonder and then with the satisfaction of having received a new idea.
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At last, with a quizzical kind of solemnity, she turned to Prudence: "Will you be called Mrs. Strong when you marry Joel?"
Prudence simpered, while her grandmother smiled and shook her head at Grace.
"You are too young yet to think of such things. But, children, I was going on to say that I have long promised to tell the boys, Moses and Aaron, the history of the saving of the Charter, and as the snow will keep them at home, I will narrate it to-day. They need the his- tory of the past to nerve them for the trials of the future. We know not how soon they may be called upon to act for the colony."
CHAPTER VIII
The morning labor was soon over, and the young people assembled around the large kitchen fire. The grandmother had her usual corner with little Jeduthun on the floor at her feet. Prudence sat bolt up- right with abundant Puritanic primness, holding the infant in her lap, whose cunning little red face just peeped out from the blankets around it. Moses sat in one corner, quietly mending some harness, while Aaron was busy stitching a pair of little moccasins for his fav- orite Grace, who watched their progress on a stool near, and was con- stantly interrupting the work by coaxing Aaron to let her try them on. Martha was busy at her table in her culinary preparations, but listening with eagerness to her grandmother's detail.
"I was young then," commenced the old lady, "say, five and thirty. I was living happily in the house of my husband at Hartford. Your father, children, was then a little lad, just able to go out and collect the particulars of any important news that might be floating in the street."
"But, grandmother," interrupted Grace, "was father once a little boy?"
"How foolish you are, Grace," said Prudence, "of course he was, and grandmother was once a little girl."
"Gracy does ask foolish questions, sometimes," said Aaron.
Grace looked up slightly grieved into her brother's face, though she took no notice of Prudy's attack. She made no reply but to go round and kiss her brother's cheek. Aaron patted her on the head.
"But we are always willing to answer them, even when we laugh at them."
"Grace," said her grandmother, "has always some reason for asking. She wishes information. If all children of her age should express their ignorance in words, they would as often ask as apparently foolish questions as our little Grace. I remember a young man," said she, looking hard at Aaron, "who was too shy or too careless for a long
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time to inquire, who thought for years that the Minister said 'Long and Short Meeting' when he read the psalms to be sung in long or short metre, and took that way of notifying the congregation of the length of the services."
Aaron blushed and laughed and took little Grace on his knee and kissed her, who nestled close to his bosom partly to hide her own shame at having asked a foolish question, and partly to console Aaron for the recollection of his own folly when he was little. Aaron felt the little girl's sympathy and pressed her still closer to him.
"To answer your question, Grace," said her grandmother, "every man on earth was once a baby like the little one on Prudence's lap. You know that you grow, so do Prudence and Aaron and all, until they become men and women, and then" - the old lady hesitated - decline, decay and death brought such a train of thought that she paused to think of their approach and mentally to utter an ejaculatory prayer for readiness and fitness.
"And then - grandmother - will they become little again? When I grow up and am the grandmother, telling stories to the little ones, will you be little like me, now?"
There was an unrestrained laugh among the other children, but the grandmother answered solemnly, "And then, they will grow old and finally die, and be buried. You have never seen death, dear Grace, and you know nothing of the end it brings to the employments of every man. But I will not chill your young blood with its anticipa- tions this Thanksgiving morning. You will learn its reality soon enough. Besides, if we talk so much I cannot finish my story.
"You must know, children, that we are the subjects of a great king whose name is George, who lives over the ocean. To the people who settled in this Colony a former king had given a Charter - that is, a written permission to them to govern themselves by their own forms."
"Govern - govern," says Grace; "Father says he governs us when he whips us or shuts us up in the dark closet. I wonder whether the people in grandmother's time had liberty to whip themselves" - this was said in a tone which would be theatrically called-aside-and hardly interrupted the story.
"A bad king reigned in England and was determined to rule here as tyrannically as he did at home. He therefore ordered Connecticut to give up her Charter and sent Sir Edmund Andros to seize it, and to assume the government. On the morning that he and his followers rode into town, your father came running in in breathless haste, 'Mother,' said he. 'The trainbands are out and Sir Edmund Andros is coming into town by the Wethersfield road, and Master Watson has dismissed school and may I go and see the parade?' Liberty was
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given, with directions not to run into danger. I thought that every boy should early learn the trials to which our liberty and religion were exposed, and to witness how their fathers warded off that danger. Boys cannot learn too soon that freedom and the laws are of value to them, as well as their fathers and to witness the struggle to preserve them."
Moses looked up with flashing eyes, and sighed to himself as he thought that his lot had been cast in peaceable times. The grand- mother proceeded:
"Your grandfather was one of the Magistrates and had early gone to the Court Room to resist the change of government by such means as the law had placed in his power. I was anxious on his account as well as on Thomas's and could work but little that day. Men were hurrying past to the public square - all with anxious and indignant countenances. Soon, I heard the unusual sound of a trumpet in the street, and a procession of perhaps sixty men on horseback came slowly up the street where we lived. Several soldiers with a trumpeter came first with their swords drawn and their horses and themselves dusty with travel. Ever and anon, the trumpeter would look with undisguised contempt upon the small buildings he was passing, and blow a blast of defiance to their inhabitants.
"Then came one who I knew was a nobleman by his more costly dress and haughty bearing. It was Sir Edmund Andros. He rode a large black horse, richly caparisoned. His long, slender sword was undrawn and he had no armor such as the soldiers around us wore. He had a three-cornered hat on his head, adorned with a profusion of lace, and the curls of his powdered wig hung far down his back and over his shoulders, scattering their perfume at every step of his horse. His long boot hose were drawn up over his knees. He had on a dark colored velvet coat, much embroidered, which, swinging open occasionally, displayed a richly worked vest beneath.
"There was a haughty, self willed, overbearing character stamped on every line of his countenance, and an habitual sneer upon his lip. His eye glanced with indifference or contempt upon the mean, wooden houses and rail fences of the town as he passed them and he felt little inclined doubtless to favor a people, dressed in the old fashioned costumes of the Cromwellian Republic, whose stern faces, as he rode by them, showed no excitement or enthusiasm, but a rigid determi- nation to do what they could for the preservation of their liberties. The indifferent manner in which he moved along manifested that his scrutiny had led him to the conclusion that he had not much oppo- sition to encounter but that this portion of his future subjects would furnish him with no congenial spirits.
"I heard afterwards that he alighted at the public house, where he
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was very annoying from the contempt he expressed for his accommo- dations, and the difficulty he made of being properly served. He continued so long at table, that the Assembly, who were waiting to hear his imperious demands, was out of all patience. After dinner, he marched haughtily into the Assembly room and took the Speaker's chair. The Governor and the Magistrates were all collected with the Assembly, resolved to try the effect of what reasons they could urge for the retention of their old mode of Government, trusting that Providence who has the hearts of all men in his hands - rulers as well as subjects - would soften his heart to grant their request to be allowed to retain their privileges. His first demand was to have the Charter of the Colony and its Records laid before him."
"Where was father all this time?"
"He became as much interested in the events of the day as the older people, and brought notes to me at home, written by my husband or my father, Judge Dudley, relative to the progress of the affair. Some of the facts I learnt from him, and others from your grand- father when he returned at night."
"Go on, grandmother," said Moses.
"Governor Treat replied to the demands of Sir Edmund by urging the supposed security of the Colonists under this charter, and their loyalty to both the present king and his brother. He described the privations and sufferings they had undergone in planting themselves here in the wilderness as a reason why they should still enjoy the privileges which King Charles had granted them. They felt that liberty under their charter was a just compensation for all that they had suffered in planting the colony. He made a long speech upon the occasion. He was an eloquent man possessing great feeling and warmth, and spoke with much vehemence.
"Thomas, on one of his visits home, when I asked him what was doing in the Court Room, said that Governor Treat was speaking with the tears running down his cheeks, and every man looking at him with pale, earnest faces while Sir Edmund was scowling at his appeals and fidgeting in his seat. He would occasionally shake his wig pet- tishly, Thomas said, and the powder would fly from its long curls all over his coat. This was when he dissented from the Governor's re- marks. He heard his speech, however, to the end without interrup- tion, and only said at its close 'You mistake my character wholly, if you suppose I shall treat you tyrannically. I demand your Charter simply as a recognition of my sole authority to govern all these colonies.' "
"But, grandmother," said Moses, "did Sir Edmund speak the truth? Was that his character?"
"No, my dear; his subsequent government of nearly two years was
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a very tyrannical one. He took away all the privileges he could from the Ministers of religion; refused permission for a tax to be raised for their support, and would not allow them to perform the rites of marriage. Well, little Grace, do you understand what I am saying?"
"Not all of it, grandmother, and I am growing sleepy. What did Sir Edmund want?"
"He wanted to take away the Charter."
"What is a Charter? Was it something good to eat or drink?"
"What a foolish question, Grace," said Aaron. "What made you think so?"
"Why, grandmother said that Governor Treat talked about the colonists having sufferings in settling Hartford. You once told me about the sufferings as you called them, of those who settled this country - that they had nothing to eat and were tired and hungry - and I did not know but what Governor Treat meant that the Charter was something to quiet those sufferings. But what is a charter, grand- mother?"
"I do not know that I can make you understand it, Grace. It was a written promise made and signed by King Charles that the colonists of Connecticut should be allowed to govern themselves. It was written on parchment, rolled up, enclosed in a large case, and locked up. Do you understand me?"
"Pretty well, grandmother; but go on, I'll try to keep awake. The others will understand you, if I don't, for they are older, and they will be pleased. Won't you, Aaron?" and she kissed him again.
The old lady resumed her tale: "Judge Dudley, my father, then rose and went through the legal arguments belonging to the subject. His speech I learnt from my husband afterward. He represented the rights which the people of Connecticut had, under the voluntary grant of the King, which rights they had never forfeited by rebellion or disobedience. They had likewise received, both from the last king and the present one, assurances that, as long as they were loyal, they should not lose these privileges. He claimed that no act of disloyalty on their part had cancelled these concessions which the king had granted them. Your grandfather said that Judge Dudley was listened to with greater attention than Governor Treat had been, though with no greater effect upon his determinations. He knew the noble origin of my father and the reputation which he had acquired for the extent of his legal attainments.
"While he was speaking it grew dark, and a few candles were brought in and set on the clerk's table, together with the Charter and the Records which Sir Edmund had demanded. After the inter-
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ruption which this occurrence produced, Judge Dudley resumed his speech and continued at some length, when Sir Edmund interrupted him with the declaration that his mind was made up, and that he had heard enough of their rebellious sophistry.
"As he rose at this announcement, the whole Assembly rose, and the large crowd that was standing near pressed towards the tables round which the Governor and Magistrates were sitting, and towards the Clerk's desk. Thomas said he saw Captain Wadsworth, and old Mr. Bull, and several young men of the train bands-Seymour, Nichols, Whiting, Allyn and others crowd near. The Clerk, as if by accident, snuffed out the candles that stood near him, when suddenly they were all extinguished, and the room was left in darkness. Whiting and young Wyllys were very busy in striking a light, but it was some time before they could find a tinder-box, though they called out aloud for one, and made a great deal of noise and fuss in getting it. When the candles were re-lighted, the Charter was gone from the desk. No one seemed to know who took it, or where it was, but your father said he saw Captain Wadsworth go out quick with something under his cloak, and he rather conjectured what he was hiding so closely. In an in- stant, every one of the young men were indignantly wondering who had been so careless as to extinguish the candles and were officiously engaged in relighting them, while the old men sat silent and grave around the council table.
"Sir Edmund was in a rage when he discovered the Charter gone, and talked of imprisonment and punishment. But the sober resolu- tion which he saw in the faces of all around him, and the smallness of his escort prevented violence. He seized the Records and on the first blank page he wrote the word 'Finis,' and held the power of the govern- ment for two years."
"Grandmother," said Aaron, "what became of the Charter?"
"When Sir Edmund was put down and the old magistrates restored, the Charter was brought from its hiding place in the hollow of an old oak tree in Mr. Wyllys' yard, between the two Wethersfield roads, on the side of the lane that runs to the ox-pasture."
"I have seen the tree," said Moses, "Father showed it to me, when he took me to Hartford. It is talked about already in the town."
"It will still be talked about for many years, perhaps centuries, of freedom, and will live green in the memories of the future freemen of Connecticut, as a sacred relic of Liberty in past time. But the people are coming home from meeting and Martha needs the fire for the preparation of her dinner. Aaron, you had better renew the fire in the West room and we will remove thither. Your father will go through with the Thanksgiving exercises there."
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CHAPTER IX
The Thanksgiving exercises of Thomas Welles would be thought peculiar now. He read a chapter adapted to the occasion, and then commented upon the objects of the day. He urged upon his children the idea of thanksgiving to God for temporal blessings, but did not remain long enough upon their repetition to excite the attention of the younger children to them. It would have been an excellent oppor- tunity to have drawn their young minds to the contemplation of the constant and minute superintendence of Providence, by a repetition of the particular benefits they had personally enjoyed. Each mind would then have been rivetted upon the dealings of God with them and would have been thus gently drawn to him. But Welles was in a hurry to proceed to that part of his religious family teachings which he considered as of the highest importance - a right instruction on the doctrines of the bible. He therefore urged upon his young hearers thankfulness for the clear exposition of these doctrines - that they should be grateful to God for the proofs given them in the scriptures of His Sovereignty, the election of the faithful, their own total de- pravity etc., of which doctrines were true enough and important enough in their place, but their exhibition at such a time was not the best means of drawing his children into close communion with their beneficent Father in Heaven on a Thanksgiving day. The little ones slept. Those who were old enough not to fidget or gape, were thinking, we fear, of something else, and even Martha, with all her conscientiousness, could not prevent her thoughts from reverting to the probable condition of her dinner, and we are very certain that Aaron's mind was more upon the wolf-hunt of the night before. But all things have an end, so did Thomas Welles's exposition of the doctrines of religion as a theme of Thanksgiving.
We pass over the dinner as a simple one of that period. Sundown had arrived, and, after taking care of their stock, the boys were looking around for wolf-tracks in the snow.
Martha had finished her work, and, in her neat Sunday attire, was sitting at the west window, looking earnestly towards the top of the hill for the passage of anyone down the road.
At the period of which we are writing, a violent controversy had arisen in Connecticut respecting the singing of sacred music. The very few old tunes, that had been handed down by tradition and sung by ear, as the psalm or hymn was read off to the congregation by the good Deacon, did not satisfy a new generation, whose fastidious ear required something newer and better. A tremendous innovation burst upon the churches in the introduction of the mode of singing by note and in the use of new tunes contained in printed books. The congre-
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gation generally procured books and learnt the new fangled system of singing much to the indignation and grief of the older class, who resisted the innovation with all their power. The good Deacon felt that his privilege of lining the psalm was over. Others feared the introduction of tunes which had been desecrated by secular use. Many felt towards the few old tunes as if they had a spiritual authority and a divine origin equal to that of the Bible. There was much excitement all over the Colony and much ill feeling in the churches. Glastenbury early gave in her adhesion to the new music, and the change so pleased the congregation that the young people of both sexes were encouraged to attend schools for musical instruction under the new system.
Martha Welles was a beautiful singer, though not in the bravura style of the Italian imitators in the churches of modern times. Her voice was full and clear but never prominent. It was like the low tinklings of silver bells as it warbled and trilled forth some new melody. Such voices always sing to the heart rather than to the ears.
It need then hardly be said that she was now waiting for James Hinsdale to escort her to the singing school, which was over the hill about two miles nearer the river, at the place of junction of those roads where the primitive region meets the secondary, and where many of the wealthy farmers lived.
She had not to look long, for James was soon seen coming down the hill on his horse with the pilion behind him on which she had so often sat. His face was eager and animated, and, as he rode up to the house, she could not but admire his stalwart frame, and the ease with which he sat in his saddle. She was soon ready, and mounted behind him on the pilion from the high horse-block which stood in front of every house, ascended by steps for the accommodation of the women.
Let me assure you, reader, that this pilion-riding, primitive as it may appear, was no unpleasant affair. The lady placed her little arm around the gentleman's waist, and steadied herself by him. In case of danger or rapid motion, the little arm would cling the closer, and the whole body crowd near enough to be protected. Oh! pilion-riding was a pleasant institution! - there was such an idea of protection on the one hand and support on the other - such an acknowledgment of man's physical superiority and such a delight in trusting to it, that no modern mode of travelling can equal it!
Our ancestors went to meeting in that way. The farmer and his wife behind him on one of the old team horses, and the older brother and the sister on the other. While the little boys and girls trudged on afoot, with their Sunday shoes in their hand, to put on when they came in sight of the meeting-house. The right arm of the old dame steadied her as she rode by her grasp on her husband's coat, while the left held a bunch of dill or fennel to keep her awake in meeting. The
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