The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954, Part 1

Author: Northampton (Mass.). Tercentenary History Committee
Publication date: 1954
Publisher: Northampton, Mass., Tercentenary Committee
Number of Pages: 476


USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 1


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36



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M. L.


GENEALOGY COLLECTION


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 7030


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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019


https://archive.org/details/northamptonbookc00unse


THE NORTHAMPTON BOOK


Its surroundings have changed but the 1850 City Hall still stands


+


THE NORTHAMPTON BOOK


Chapters from 300 Years in the Life of A NEW ENGLAND TOWN 1654-1954


COMPILED AND EDITED BY THE TERCENTENARY HISTORY COMMITTEE


LAWRENCE E. WIKANDER, CHAIRMAN


HAROLD U. FAULKNER EDWIN C. ROZWENC


HARRIET C. BLISS FORD


EDITH C. SHEPHERD


THE TERCENTENARY COMMITTEE Northampton, Massachusetts 1954


COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY THE CITY OF NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS


All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in con- nection with a review for inclusion in magazine or newspaper.


DESIGNED AND PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY ALAN S. BROWNE, INC., BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT


Preface


1190336


I N the fall of 1952 some forty persons, interested in North- ampton and its history, gathered in Forbes Library. They met to discuss how the rich past of this city could be pre- sented to give depth and meaning to the coming Three Hun- dredth Anniversary. They determined that a series of narrative and topical articles should be undertaken.


Presented in the Daily Hampshire Gazette the articles would arouse in our citizens an appreciation of the city and its builders, and, collected in a book, they would provide a permanent record. The increasingly prevalent notion of hiring an outside author to write our history was given scant consideration. This would be a community history; and the author whose published works were limited to an occasional letter to the editor would be joined by him whose books could be measured by the shelf.


The editorial committee was elected. Because the first century and a half was covered in meticulous detail in the still-available History of Northampton (Northampton: Gazette Printing Com- pany, 1898-1902, 2 volumes) by James R. Trumbull, the early period is observed chiefly through biographies of its notable men. Where later research indicated, correction of the record has been made.


Detailed consideration is given to the 19th century through biographies, narrative articles, and exposition of economic de- velopment. Survey articles have been arranged to cover the first half of the 20th century.


From every church in the city a history was sought-each article was published in the paper and then formed a basis of the inclusive religious history printed in chapter forty-five.


The chore of marrying writer to topic took many months. The happiness of the pairings can be judged in the chapters of this book. Some of the articles have appeared in the daily paper; others comprised the editorial content of the 20-page Tercentenary


V


vi


Preface


Supplement of the Daily Hampshire Gazette of June 8, 1954. With the addition of supplementary articles, they make up this book.


Limitations of space have made it necessary to omit a few of the articles from this volume. They, and the individual church his- tories, are listed in Appendix III and preserved in the files of the newspaper.


More than seventy adopted and native sons and daughters worked to make this book. To bring to a larger circle an aware- ness of the essential quality of a distinguished New England city is adequate reward.


Northampton, Massachusetts LAWRENCE E. WIKANDER 2 I June 1954


Contents


PREFACE V


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .


.


. xiii


PART I


Puritans and River Gods


I. SETTLEMENT AND EARLY COLONIAL DAYS . 3 By Nora Flahive


2. THE CENTER OF PURITAN CONTROVERSY


.


9 By Susan Reed Stifler


3. JONATHAN EDWARDS .


I5


By Daniel Aaron .


4. SETH POMEROY: CITIZEN AND SOLDIER 22 By Elizabeth A. Foster


5. THE PART PLAYED BY NORTHAMPTON IN THE REVOLU- By Elizabeth A. Foster


6. MAJOR JOSEPH HAWLEY


40


By Francis Brown


7. THE ELY OUTBREAKS IN NORTHAMPTON: PRELUDE TO SHAYS REBELLION


By Sidney Kaplan


47


8. CALEB STRONG: THE LAST OF THE RIVER GODS 56


I. The Making of a Conservative Leader .


· 56


II. "Patriotism and Piety" .


62


III. Mr. Madison's War


. 67 By Edwin C. Rozwenc .


.


vii


TION 32


viii


Contents


PART II Enterprisers and Forerunners


9. ECONOMIC TRANSITION: 1817-1860 . . 77 By Frank H. Hankins


IO. THE NEW HAVEN AND NORTHAMPTON CANAL . 85 . By William P. Donovan


II. THE HANGING OF DALEY AND HALLIGAN By Richard C. Garvey


· 90


12. OLIVER SMITH, ESQUIRE By Richard C. Garvey · 96


13. DR. SYLVESTER GRAHAM By Richard C. Garvey


· IO2


14. THE NORTHAMPTON ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY


· 108 By Hope Hale Davis


15. THE WATER CURES I2I


·


By Dorothy B. Porter with the collaboration of Edwin C. Rozwenc


16. NORTHAMPTON IN THE CIVIL WAR · 127


I. "Old Hampshire's Favorite Company" ·


· I27


II. "The Gallant 10th" .


·


I32


By Edwin C. Rozwenc


PART III The Athens of the Connecticut Valley


17. NORTHAMPTON ARCHITECTURE: A SEQUENCE .


· 141 By Karl S. Putnam


18. ART AND ARTISTS .


By Oliver W. Larkin


19. MUSIC AND MUSICIANS . 166 By Henrietta B. Schmitter


Contents ix


20. THE THEATRE By Ransom Waterman


172


21. EARLY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS . · 184 By Anna Gertrude Brewster


22. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM · 194


By Frederick D. Meehan


23. THE CLARKE SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF .


By George T. Pratt .


· 201


24. FORBES LIBRARY By Florence Bannard Adams


. 207


25. FAITH BUILDS A COLLEGE


·


2 14


I. Under Laurenus Clark Seelye 2 14


II. Under Burton and Neilson ·


219


III. The College Completes Seventy-Five Years · 223 By Edith N. Hill and Annetta I. Clark


PART IV Earning a Living


26. INDUSTRIAL HISTORY: 1860-1900


· 233 By Archibald V. Galbraith


27. HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN AND HAMPDEN AGRICULTURAL · 240


SOCIETY .


By Lilla Stone Parsons and John Gordon


28. BANKS AND THE GREAT NORTHAMPTON BANK ROBBERY By Isabel A. Holden 245


29. MANUFACTURING IN NORTHAMPTON: 1900-1952 . . 255


By Esther Lowenthal


30. NORTHAMPTON LABOR UNIONS .


By Leo Leopold . 260


31. HOW OUR PEOPLE LIVED By Harold U. Faulkner


.268


X


Contents


PART V Town, City, and County Seat


32. "A HOUSE FOR THE TOWNE" By Harriet C. Bliss Ford


279


33. NORTHAMPTON'S LAWYERS By William H. Brownell


. 288


34. CALVIN COOLIDGE By Lawrence E. Wikander .


. 295


35. THE TROLLEY-CAR ERA: 1901-1918 . By Persis Putnam


· 305


36. THE HOME FRONT: UPS AND DOWNS, 1919-1936 . 314 By Josephine S. Starr


37. WORLD WAR II AND AFTER: 1937-1953 · · 32 1 By Eleanor S. Upton and Lucy O'Meara


PART VI A "Supremely Likable Town"


38. IMMIGRATION TO NORTHAMPTON · 331 By John Francis Manfredi


39. NARRATIVE HISTORY OF FLORENCE: 1850-1900 . . 337


By Elizabeth S. Duvall


40. EARLY HISTORY OF LEEDS .


. · 348 By Ruth K. Burke


41. FLOODS AND DISASTERS By Lucy Wilson Benson · 355


42. HOTELS AND TAVERNS By Nancy Bowker Brownell . 364


43. NORTHAMPTON STATE HOSPITAL: 1858-1952 . · 371 By Priscilla Bartlett Hill


44. THE HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE By Richard C. Garvey · 377


Contents xi By Virginia Corwin · 383


45. RELIGIOUS LIFE IN NORTHAMPTON: 1800-1954


.


46. OUR GOODLY HERITAGE


By Mary Ellen Chase


· 394


APPENDIX I-Chronology of the Northampton Tercen- tenary Celebration


· 398


APPENDIX II-The Tercentenary Committee


·


405


APPENDIX III-List of Church Histories and Supplemen- tary Articles


· 412


INDEX . . 413 Compiled by Nora Flahive


List of Illustrations


Frontispiece


THE CITY HALL


JONATHAN EDWARDS .


Facing page 48


CALEB STRONG . 48


MANSION HOUSE AND CANAL BOAT


. 49


NORTHAMPTON STATE HOSPITAL


· 49


CARDINAL CHEVERUS .


. 80


FLORENCE WATER CURE ESTABLISHMENT .


. 80


ELBRIDGE KINGSLEY'S STUDIO ON WHEELS .


· 81


MAIN ST. FROM WARNER'S TAVERN .


81


JENNY LIND


. 144


RED CASTLE


. I44


BODMAN HOUSE


. 145


ROUND HOUSE .


. 145


LOCKE HOUSE .


. 176


WILLISTON HOUSE .


· 176


ISAAC CHAPMAN BATES


· I77


CHARLES C. BURLEIGH


. I77


THE GOTHIC SEMINARY


. 240


NORTHAMPTON HIGH SCHOOL


240


THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY


. 241


WILLIAMS MANUFACTURING COMPANY


272


KOLLMORGEN OPTICAL COMPANY


272


ST. MICHAEL'S HIGH SCHOOL


273


SAMUEL L. HILL AND THE HILL INSTITUTE .


· 273


SMITH COLLEGE PRESIDENTS .


336


SMITH COLLEGE BASKETBALL 1904 AND 1954


·


337


THE MILL RIVER FLOOD .


· 368


WAVES DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS


· 368


PRESIDENT AND MRS. CALVIN COOLIDGE


· 369


X111


PART I Puritans and River Gods


Chapter One


Settlement and Early Colonial Days


By NORA FLAHIVE


I N May 1653 twenty-four men, twenty-three from Connecti- cut and one from Dorchester, Massachusetts, petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for permission to "plant posess and Inhabit the place being on Conetequat Riuer Aboue Springfeild Called nonotack As their owne Inheritance." Their petition was supplemented by another, dated May 6, 1653, and signed by three of Springfield's outstanding citizens, John Pyn- chon, Elizur Holyoke, and Samuel Chapin. They requested that "Liberty may be granted to erect a plantation about Fiueteene miles aboue vs on this River of conetiquat if it be the will of the Lord the place being we think very commodius consideratis con- siderandis or the containing Large quantitys of excelent Land and Meadow and tillable ground sufficient for two larg plantta- tions a work wch if it should go on might as we conceiue proue greatly Advantagas to your Commonwealth."


The petitions were presented simultaneously, and on May 18, 1653 the Court appointed Messrs. Pynchon, Holyoke, and Chapin as a committee "to diuide the land peticoned for into two planta- cons, and that the peticoners make choice of one of them, where they shall haue libertje to plant themselves, provided they shall not apropriate to any planter above one hundred acres of all sorts of land, whereof not above twenty acres of meadow, till twenty inhabitants haue planted and setled themselves vppon the place, who shall have power to distribute the land, and give out propor- cons of land to the seuerall inhabitants, according to theire estates or eminent qualiffications, as in other tounes of this jurisdiccon."


The negotiations of the commissioners with the Indians were successful, and for a purchase price of "one hundred fathum of


3


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The Northampton Book


Wampam by Tale and for Tenn Coates" and a few trinkets the territory comprising the present towns of Northampton, East- hampton, Westhampton, and part of Hatfield and Montgomery was conveyed by deed from the Nonotucks to John Pynchon on September 24, 1653. The agreement provided that sixteen acres of land should be plowed for the Indians in 1654 and that they be allowed to plant their cornfields that year, relinquishing all claim to the land after that time.


Meetings were held to set up regulations for establishing the plantation, and the first settlers arrived in the spring of 1654. Among the earliest arrivals were Edward Elmer, John Webb, Alexander Edwards, William James, Thomas Root, Thomas Ma- son, Samuel Wright, Sr., and William Miller. Other early settlers were George Alexander, John King, Thomas Bascom, Henry Curtis, John Broughton, William Hannum, Joseph Parsons, Jo- seph Bliss, Joseph Fitch, and David Burt. They were assigned home lots of approximately four acres. In addition each settler was granted meadow, upland, or plain land. The first home lots were located on what is now Pleasant Street, King Street, Market Street, Bridge Street, and Hawley Street. The meadows were divided into twelve sections named Old Rainbow, Young Rain- bow, Walnut Trees, Venturer's Field, Last Division, Bark Wig- wam, Middle Meadow, First Square, Second Square, Third Square, Manhan Meadow, and Hog's Bladder. Other settlers ar- rived from time to time, two of whom were especially welcome, Medad Pomeroy, a blacksmith, and Jonathan Hunt, a cooper. As the town grew home lots were settled on what are now Elm, Main, West, Conz, Fruit, and South Streets.


The town was called Northampton, and the machinery for government was soon organized. At one of the first town meetings provision was made for the erection of a meeting house. In May 1655 the General Court decreed, "In ansr to the peticon of the inhabitants of Nonotucke, humbly desiring the establishment of a goument amongst them, their peticon is graunted, and itt is ordered, that Willjam Houlton, Thomas Bascome & Edward Elmer shall & hereby are impowred as the threemen to end all smale causes, according to lawe here, they repayring to Spring- feild, to Mr Pinchon, Mr Holiock, &c, who are authorized to give them theire oathes, as also the connstables oath to Robert Bart- lett."


5


Settlement and Early Colonial Days


In the beginning anyone who had any subject to discuss pre- sented it to the town meeting, but to avoid confusion and assure that only one person had the floor at a time it was decided that subjects for discussion should first be brought to the attention of the townsmen, later known as selectmen, who would then present them to the town meeting when it convened. For many years citizens were summoned to meeting by a trumpet or a drum, and it was not until 1682 that plans were made to buy a bell for this purpose. Attendance at town meetings was required, and fines were imposed on those who were absent, ranging from twelve pence for failure to attend an ordinary town meeting to two shillings and six pence for not appearing at the annual meeting at which the selectmen were chosen. Those who attended but were not present when the meeting opened were fined one penny.


Among the early appointments made, in addition to those men- tioned in the Court's order of 1655, were those of cowkeeper, re- corder, tavern keeper, shepherd, "clarke" of the military com- pany, and tithing men, whose duty it was to see that all attended meeting, to keep order in the meeting house, and "to have a vigelent eye upon such Persons yt shall without just and necessary cause be unseasonable abroade in ye Evenings from yr parents & masters ffamielies all Persons being to repaire to their Lodgeings or homes by nine of ye Clocke at night or rather Before."


Religion played a very important part in the lives of the fami- lies who settled Northampton, and they were eager to settle a minister in the town. On June 7, 1658 Reverend Eleazar Mather of Dorchester was invited to come to Northampton as pastor. He accepted the call and served the town until his death in 1669. After Mr. Mather settled in Northampton some of his friends from Dorchester came here to live, among them Lieutenant Wil- liam Clarke, who became Northampton's first representative to the General Court. The second minister was Reverend Solomon Stoddard whose service extended from his arrival not long after Mr. Mather's death to 1729 when he died, two years after his grandson Jonathan Edwards had been installed as colleague pas- tor.


By order of the General Court, the County of Hampshire was established on May 7, 1662. The order provided that the courts and the shire meetings should be held one year at Springfield and the next at Northampton. Springfield remained a part of Hamp-


6


The Northampton Book


shire County until Hampden County was organized as a distinct unit in 1812.


It was required by law in Massachusetts that when a town reached the size of fifty households a schoolmaster must be ap- pointed. To conform with this law the first meeting house in Northampton was used as a schoolhouse, and James Cornish, who came here from Saybrook, Connecticut in 1660, was appointed schoolmaster in 1664. He was hired at a salary of six pounds and given the privilege "to take the benifet of the scollers provided that he teach Sex moneths in the yeare together." This practice of supplementing the schoolmaster's small salary by payments from the students was continued for several years. When Joseph Hawley was schoolmaster he received part of his salary from the town and the remainder from tuition fees. He taught both boys and girls, charging boys four pence a week for reading and writ- ing, and six pence for Latin. The tuition for girls was usually four pence a week, although in some cases it was six. In 1687 Warham Mather, the son of the first minister, was engaged as schoolmaster at a salary of forty pounds. As much of this amount as possible was to be obtained from fees on the basis of three pence per week for reading and four for writing, and the town assumed the responsibility of providing whatever part of the forty pounds was not realized in this manner.


In the first few years of the settlement Northampton's rela- tions with the Indians were friendly, and the Indians were al- lowed to build forts in the town. During King Philip's War, however, the Indians suddenly departed, and Northampton shared in the uneasiness which prevailed throughout the colony. On the 28th of September 1675 two men who had gone out to cut wood were killed by Indians. A month later seven or eight men who were gathering the harvest in the meadows were attacked. They escaped, but the Indians who pursued them burned four houses in the vicinity of South Street. The following day the In- dians appeared again, and two men and a boy working in the meadows were killed. As a protection against such attacks a forti- fication or palisade was erected. It was constructed of sections of cleft wood, about eight feet high, and some two inches in diame- ter, set closely together and joined at the top by a flat strip of wood bound to the posts. The earliest fortification enclosed the meeting house and the dwellings nearest it. A later one began


7


Settlement and Early Colonial Days


above the Bridge Street Cemetery, followed the boundary of home lots along the highway near Pomeroy Terrace to Mill River, then ran along the bank of the river to the site of Forbes Library, crossed West Street, and continued across Elm, State, and Trumbull Road to King Street and then back to the starting point. On the 14th of March in 1676 the town was attacked from three points. The Indians broke through the fortification at Pleas- ant Street but were repulsed. In this attack four men and one girl were killed, and six men were wounded. Two of the men killed were soldiers from the group billeted at Northampton at that time. Northampton men engaged in scouting expeditions against the Indians and aided settlers attacked in other towns. To with- stand the onslaught of the Indians it was suggested that smaller towns unite with larger ones for protection, and Northampton was advised to join with Hadley at Hadley, although in this par- ticular instance Hadley was the smaller town. The Northampton settlers were unwilling to abandon the town which they had spent twenty years building and made this clear to the authorities at Boston. They expressed their willingness to support a garrison but did not wish to give up the settlement. The danger from the Indians lasted over a period of some 37 years and various sugges- tions for combating it were put forth. Reverend Solomon Stod- dard wrote a letter to Governor Dudley in 1703 outlining the feasibility of training dogs to hunt Indians. The last Indian attack in Northampton occurred at Pascommuck in May 1704. Of the thirty-three people living there, nineteen were killed, three es- caped, eight were rescued, and three were taken to Canada.


The early settlers lived very simply and frugally. Their diet consisted chiefly of corn, wheat, and rye, with pork, beef, mut- ton, wild game, and fish. At first beer was the principal beverage, then cider came into use, and in the 18th century tea and coffee became popular. In general the manner of dress was very simple. Yet, in spite of the rigors of life in a pioneer community, some of the residents gave more attention to personal adornment than was considered suitable, and in 1676 twenty-three young men and women appeared in court in Northampton to answer to the charge of "wearing silk in a flaunting manner and for long hair and other extravagances contrary to honest and sober order, and demeanor not becoming a wilderness state, at least the profession of christianity and religion."


8


The Northampton Book


Another trial which aroused much interest was based on a charge of slander brought in 1656 by Joseph Parsons against Mrs. Sarah Bridgman who had declared that Mr. Parsons' wife, Mary, was a witch. Mrs. Bridgman was found guilty and was ordered to make public acknowledgment of her fault in lieu of which her husband should pay ten pounds sterling. In 1674 Mrs. Parsons was again accused of witchcraft. Her case was tried in the court at Boston, and she was acquitted.


Agriculture was the chief occupation of Northampton's pio- neers. Almost everybody was a farmer, although some were en- gaged in the operation of grist mills, saw mills, malt houses, brick yards, and other activities. One of the most ambitious projects undertaken in this early period was the diversion of the course of the Mill River to prevent flood damage to the meadows in the spring. Late in the 1670's Robert Lyman discovered lead, and sev- eral efforts were made to mine it profitably. One of the people who came to Northampton in connection with this venture was Ethan Allen, later to become famous for his exploits in the Ameri- can Revolution.


Wheat was the usual medium of exchange in the colonial period. The county tax, as well as other debts, was paid in bushels of wheat. In the early days of the settlement this wheat was taken from Northampton to Hartford by horse cart and then shipped to Boston. Some years later, when boats began to operate between Hartford and Springfield, Northampton was given a landing place below Willimansett, and thereafter some produce was transported down the Connecticut River.


Chapter Two


The Center of Puritan Controversy


By SUSAN REED STIFLER


I N the opening years of the 18th century Northampton was a thriving country town of Hampshire County, the citizens known as a "well instructed" and "high spirited" people. At this point it became the center of one of the most serious con- troversies in the history of New England Puritanism. How did this come about?


The settlement of Massachusetts is one of the best-known epi- sodes in American history. Let us remind ourselves that the Plymouth people were Separatists who believed that the national churches of Europe, Catholic or Protestant, were all wrong in what made up a "true church." To them a church was a small group of devout believers who met together for worship in the manner of the earliest Christian communities as described in the New Testament. These people, who felt that they must separate themselves completely from the Church of England, represented the left wing of Protestantism in the days of Elizabeth I and her successors.


Less extreme in their views but quite as hostile to the forms in the Anglican Church was the great mass of English Puritans. Some of them supported the idea of an all-inclusive national church but wanted it organized along the lines which had been laid down by John Calvin at Geneva. These were the Presby- terians. A third group took a stand between the other two. Fol- lowing the Separatists in the way they believed that churches should be formed, they still insisted that the whole Anglican es- tablishment could be made over and set up in this fashion. These came to be known as Congregationalists.


The leaders of the great migration to Massachusetts Bay were


9


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The Northampton Book


men who put their faith in the Congregational way and they left England because they became convinced that it could never be established there, that only in a new country could they build from the beginning the one true Christian commonwealth. For men of this stamp to get permission to set up a government on land belonging to the English crown would have been very diffi- cult in the days of Charles I. What they did was to secure the charter of a business corporation which was to settle the shores of Massachusetts Bay and trade in fish and lumber. Its organiza- tion was that of a typical business company, including stockhold- ers, directors, and an executive. Nothing was said as to the place where the corporation was to reside. When the leaders of the group brought the charter to Massachusetts with them and set up their organizations they were acting in accordance with English law. By this astute move a trading company became the first gov- ernment of Massachusetts. The stockholders or "freemen" of the company elected the directors or "assistants" and the "governor." Eventually the "freemen" elected deputies from their own num- ber who made up the lower house of the legislature, the "Gen- eral Court." As time went on the number of "freemen" was in- creased but the government, by admitting to this position only persons whose views coincided with the purpose of the leaders, could channel legislation in the direction it chose. The strong re- ligious purpose of these leaders is indicated by the fact that church members only were admitted as "freemen."


The purpose of the founders can be seen also in the immediate "gathering" of the first church in Boston and this was followed by others as the settlements spread. These churches became the nuclei of the new towns but they were not identical with the towns. Voters in church meetings were the adult male church members. Some of these became "freemen" or qualified voters of a town. This is the basis of the statement that in 17th century Massachusetts it was the church members only who had the fran- chise. As there were many church members who were not "free- men," such as women and servants, the voting privilege was even narrower than that. On the other hand there were questions of less importance coming up in town meetings, on which many people voted who were not qualified as "freemen." So it was that, in practice, the system was not quite as rigid as it sounds.




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