USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Pembroke > Ancient landmarks of Pembroke > Part 12
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166
THE TOWN CLOCK AND ITS NEIGHBORS
An approximate statement of the value of current money during the period 1700-1750 may prove useful. From 1702 until 4 February 1736-7, the depreciation of the Old Tenour went on unregulated by law. From 4 Feb. 1736-7 until 15 Jan. 1741-2, its legal value was one third that of the New; which was then at par. From 15 .Jan. 1741-2 until 26 Jan. 1748-9, its legal value was one fourth that of the New; one pound of which, during that period, equalled £1:6:8 of the former New or Middle. After 26 Jan. 1748-9, six shillings of lawful money were legally equivalent to forty-five of the Old Tenour. or to eleven and sixpence of the New or of the Middle.
The fluctuation in the actual purchasing power of Old Tenour, is estimated by the following table-derived from Aaron Hobart's History of Abington; which purports to give, for each year mentioned, the value in hills of an ounce of silver: 1702-6s 10d; 1705-Ts; 1712 -- 8s; 1716-9s; 1717 -- 12s; 1722-14s; 1728-18s; 1730-20s; 1737-26s; 1741 -28s; 1749-60s.
All the Tenours were, like sterling money, reckoned in pounds, shillings, and pence ; but with a standard so low that their shilling, when at par, was worth little more than nine- pence sterling. It was the sixth part of a Spanish milled dollar or "piece of eight," and equivalent to nearly seventeen cents of our money. Sterling was also current; its shilling was then worth about twenty-two and one half cents. Span- ish coins were still more common than English ; the principal was the famous Pillar Dollar, or "piece of eight," worth two or three cents more than our dollar.
The standard of 1:49 continued in force throughout the Revolution. Credit declined with the progress of the war, and the large issues by Congress and the General Court of notes which they seemed unlikely ever to redeem. From the Town records we learn that in 1780 one silver dollar was worth eighty in paper; that in 1781 a silver pound was equivalent to 250 "old emission dollars ;" and that in 1782 the Town instructed its collectors to refuse paper altogether.
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
After the close of the war, and the consequent return of credit, came the coinage of the American dollar in 1794. Its value was a little below that of the Spanish dollar, which had long been the medium of Western commerce: New England con- tinned to reckon her shilling as one sixth of a dollar, or 16 2-3 cents. The New York shilling of 12 1-2 cents, our 1:inepence, became current here after 1800; and seems to have been in some places not less generally used than the native fraction.
Since this paper has already strayed so far from its subject, I may be forgiven if I conclude it with an extract from the Town Record which illustrates some of the foregoing state- ments, and gives us a glimpse at the grey side of village life . in Revolutionary days, with all its bargaining and dickering and striving to make one dollar do the work of eighty. It purports to be a schedule of prices taking effect early in the year 1777 :--
"The following are the Prices of articles agreed upon by the Selectmen and the Committee and Recorded By Order of the General Court-
Good Wheat at 7s a Bushill
good Grass fed Beef at 23/4d a Pound
good oak wood Delivered at the Buyers door to the North- ward and Eastward of a Line from Lemuel Little's to ye Widow Delanoes as the Road goes at 10s a Cord
good oak Wood Delivered at the Buyers Door to the South- ward and Westward of the afore Said Line at 8s
good oak Cole Delivered at the Works at 14s 8d a Lood
good Charcole Commonly used By Blacksmiths at 13s 4d a Lood
good all Wocl Cloath 7/8 wide of the Best Quality Well Dressed at 9s 4d a yard and so in proportion for a nar- rower width and Meaner Quality
Veal Mutton and Lamb at 31/2d a Pound
Horse Keeping a Night or Twenty-four hours on English hay at 1s a night
a Dinner on a Boyld Dish one Shilling on Boyld and Rosted 1s 2d a Breckfast 8d
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THE TOWN CLOCK AND ITS NEIGHBORS
a Supper 8d a nights Lodging 31/2d
a Potte of Oats 31/2d
a Mug of Phlip or Toddey made with new england Rum 9d made with west india Rum 1s
Cyder By the Barril at the Press at 7s
Mens Shoes made of good neats Leather at 78 6d
Womans Shoes 5s 8d and other Shoes in proportion ac- cording to their Size
Making Men Shoes at 2s 6d and woman Shoes the Same the Shoemaker finding heals
May June July August and September 3s a day for mens Labour and found as usual: October March and april at 2s 6d and found as usual : nour. Decmr. Janur. and febr. at 2s and found as usual : and in the usual proportion for trads- men
for Shewing a horse Plane 4s and if the Toes and Corks are Steele 6s
a Syth and narrow ax 8s each and other Smithing in the usual proportion
a good yoak of oxen 2s 4d a day
a good new ground Plow at 2s 8d a day and other Plows in proportion
a good Cart and Wheels at 1s 8d
Weaving all wool Cloath five Quarters Wide at 8d a yard and other Cloathe in proportion
Horse Hire By the mile 3d Single Dubble or otherwise : Looded Equal to Dubble 6d a mil.
good Marchantable White Pine Bords at the mill 42s 8d a Thousand and other Bords in Proportion
good marchantable Ceder Shingle or White Pine Without Sap at 15s 8d a Thousand and in Proportion fer other Shingle
good English hay of the Best Quality at 2s 6d a hundred and So in Proportion for a meaner Sort
good Fresh hay of the Best Quality Where it Can Be Come at With a Team at 28s a Ton and So in Proportion for a Meaner Sort
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
for Summering a Cow well at 24s and So in Proportion for other Cattle
and for horse Keeping in the Summer By Grass at 2 shil- ling a week and for keeping a horse a night or 24 hours By Grass 7d
fer Bording a man a week 6s 8d
for fulling Dying Shearing and Pressing a Clarret or Lon- don Brown Colour 1s 6d a Yard
fer fulling Shearing and Pressing mixt Cloath 8d a yard for fulling and Cording of Blanketing at 4d
fer Pressing worsted or worsted and wool Cloath at two Pence one farthing a yard and all other Cloath in the usual Proportion"
170
جوع
一
The Third Meeting House: 1837
XV. The First Church in Pembroke.
Cecinit quae prima futuros Aeneadas magnos, et nobile Pallanteum.
A BLEAK and arid moorland, barren save for brown poverty-grass and a growth of hardy savins deriving meagre support from the poor soil and stormbeaten air-until the year 1700, such was the site now known as Pembroke Centre. Commanding a wide view of fertile slopes and pleasant valleys where small home- steads were already beginning, it rose above these itself unpopulated, and unbroken by the settler's plough. Its southern extremity was the property of Abraham Pearce, Junior; on the north Isaac Barker held a large estate; and the central summit, with its approaches, remained still a part of the common or undivided lands of Duxbury.
Not many years after 1700, the village of Mattakeesett had grown large enough to become a parish by itself. The hardships of a weekly journey through the woods to Duxbury meeting-house, were great; and it was thought best in some degree to separate from the parent church. In 1708 a small building was constructed-we are told-near Sabbaday Orchard, home of Huguenot legend : it was raised on June 8, and within its walls thenceforth the little company met for weekly service. Apparently this building was moved before 1712 to the site of the present church, for on the earliest records we find evidence that its location was there.
THE FIRST CHURCH IN PEMBROKE
Of so much only can we be certain, that before 1712 there was a building near that site, used by the inhabitants of Upper Duxbury as a Meeting House.
Pembroke became a township early in 1712; and on the twenty-second of October in that year, the First Church was formally organized. The new parish-rulers of the area now Pembroke and Hanson: excepting Scituate Two-mile; the Marches next Abington, Halifax, and Bridgewater; and a narrow gore on the west bank of Indian Head River, then part of Scituate-looked about them for a minister to settle over their rude meeting-house and scanty congregation. Their choice fell on the Reverend Daniel Lewis of Hingham, a graduate of Harvard, and-as nearly as can be learned-a typical old-style minister. Mr. Lewis was ordained 3
December 1712. The town granted him a homestead just north of the church, near the site of the present sheds; and here he lived throughout his long ministry of over forty years. His wife was Elizabeth Hawke, a native of Hingham, and aunt of Governor Hancock: they had several children; of whom Elizabeth married the Reverend John Howland of Plympton, and Daniel, Esquire, was a magistrate in colonial days.
Under Mr. Lewis' ministry the parish prospered: the church was enlarged in 1717 to accommodate the Indians, and new pews were constantly building. Eleven years after bis ordination, the society voted to build a new meeting-house ; but plans and proposals were first entertained in 1726. On the twenty-sixth of December, the Town chose a committee of four to let out the building of a meeting-house which should be "forty by fifty, and twenty-two foot stud:" the contract was given to Isaac Thomas; who, for £600, undertook to perform the work faithfully according to specifications, and "cullor the square part of the Belfry and Cannopy with Spanish Brown and Oyl." Next year the structure was ready for occupation, and the old church was sold for what it would fetch : the frame is still to be seen, in good preserva- tion, on the homestead of Mr. Henry Bosworth in Pembroke
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THE FIRST CHURCH IN PEMBROKE
Centre. An affidavit of Daniel Lewis, made in 1737, tells us that "Pembroke Meeting House was raised 21-22 June 1727." Unfortunately the good minister omits details: and accord- ingly, has failed to specify for our benefit the quantity of rum provided for that operation; which, in conformity with the usage of those days, was doubtless large.
A greater misfortune is the mutilation of a page in the earliest Town book, containing records of a meeting held ten days before the raising to decide the location of the new struc- ture. The site actually chosen was identical with, or very near, the former site. This was in a central position on the Common ; surrounded by associations always dear, and begin- ning to be time-honoured. As early as 1715, and no doubt for some years before that, the present cemetery had been used as a burying ground by the villagers. Here on the south lay the graves of their fathers; the parsonage on the north already had a history ; somewhere in the neighborhood was the wooden Pound, to which came every owner of stray swine, sheep, horses, or cattle to buy at a price their liberty ; and the highways leading to the earlier meeting house had been laid out with considerable care and expense. The ap- proach on the north was a lane coming from the home of the Honourable Isaac Little : on the east, a highway led toward the houses of Abraham Pearce and Elisha Bisbee, Esquire, and the Barker estates: southward, the road ran past Thomas Burton's to Indian Bridge between Monument and Furnace ponds: going west, you came to the homestead of James Bonney ; and farther on, through the woods, to the Thomas manor in Hanson-then an outlying district of Namassakeesett.
The new building little resembled a modern church; if we are to judge by the records, and a picture preserved in the Smith Memorial. It was a roomy two-story hall, sur- mounted by a low belfry or canopy. There were thirteen windows in front, and ten on either end: the front door, fac- ing the south, was double; as were also those on the east and the west ends. Of course no chimney was needed; for all
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
heat received by the long-suffering congregation, came from hot bricks, footstoves, and the fires of their enthusiasm. Each pew was a high, square, uncomfortable enclosure, with doors, a cushionless bench on two sides, and high railings around the top. A gallery ran along three sides of the church-here the unhappy Indians were posted-reached by stairs on either hand of the front door: the flight in the east corner being known as "ye Women's Stares;" and that in the west, as "ye Men's Stares." The walls of the house were bordered by a single tier of pews; next within these, a narrow aisle went round, enclosing and giving access to the spacious centre pews occupied by the squires and gentry of the parish ; through these, from the front door, stretched a broad aisle to the foot of the pulpit stairs. This oldtime mercy-seat was placed at the back of the church-a lofty antique structure: which, by raising the minister above his flock
"Aloft in awful state,"
gave added dignity to his presence ; and with its huge sound- ing-board, increased the volume of his voice tenfold. To this place-Sunday after Sunday, winter and summer, year in and year out-came the faithful band to twist their aching toes in decorous silence through the lengthy prayer and still longer sermon, till the endurance of minister and people failed. There was no instrumental music; and the little vocal music they had, consisted of Puritan psalm tunes-made yet inore dreary by the practice, then universal, of "deaconing" hymns. No wonder the children took cold, and sickened and died of consumption and like diseases: no wonder the youngsters grew restless; and tithingmen were told off "to see that the Boys-poor fellows -- be still and regular in time of Divine exercises."
The space for pews was sold, by public auction, at from £10 to £25 a pew : these were then built by the owners; and amounted to over thirty in number, exclusive of the space reserved for Indians. The list of proprietors comprises the following names: Henry Josselyn, Jonathan Crooker, Aaron Soule, Joseph Stockbridge, Isaac Wadsworth, Isaac Taylor,
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THE FIRST CHURCH IN PEMBROKE
John and Ichabod and Elisha Bonney, Thomas and Francis and Ebenezer Barker, heirs of Isaac Thomas, Isaac Little, Nehemiah Cushing, Barnabas Perry, John Foord, John Keen, Josiah Hatch, Abraham Pearce, Israel Turner, Joseph Chandler, Isaac Tubbs, Elijah Cushing, Josiah Bishop, Elisha Bisbee, Ephraim Nichols, Jacob Mitchell, Daniel Lewis, Josiah and Benjamin Keen, Joseph Ford, and Samuel Jacob. From every village and outlying farmstead they came, with unfailing constancy, to hear a gospel which told more of the torments of Hell than the delights of Heaven, and sought to terrify rather than to charm : a message harsh but well-pleasing to these stern warriors against heathendom and the Wilderness; and one most apt to train up children who should raise England's banner above the turrets of Quebec, and stain with free blood the bleak plain and snowy hillsides of ever-hallowed Valley Forge.
The Reverend Daniel Lewis was at first little inclined to soften the hard dogmas of salvation for the elect and eternal damnation for the many. Trained in a strict though for those days liberal school of theology, he showed himself in the pulpit a stanch disciple of Calvin. His sermons, how- ever, were little at variance with the taste of his hearers: and in private life he is reputed to have been a man of cheerful temperament ; fond of joking his people, and highly esteemed
by them as a neighbour and as a minister. He became know to fame through his love for horses, and richly enjoyed passing a parishioner on the road. His salary varied con- siderably with the need or abundance of his parish: in 1719 he was settled here for life at £80 annually; in 1733 the Town voted to make his salary £150 "for one year and no more." No serious trouble occurred during his ministry ; which ended only with his death, having covered the now- adays unparalleled period of over forty years. He died 29 June 1753, having survived by eighteen days only his "vir- tuous consort" Elizabeth : and his funeral sermon was preached from the text "Daniel, a man greatly beloved."
Late in the ministry of Mr. Lewis occurred the separation
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
of the West Parish. This region-colonized first by Isaac and Nathaniel Thomas, and later by Elijah Cushing-had become an important district; its centre was some miles distant from either Pembroke or Bridgewater meeting-house, and the vil- lage was amply able to support a minister of its own. About 1745 the question of separation was agitated, at first with little success : the parent church was reluctant to lose some of her strongest supporters; and it was rightly felt that such a division would intensify disagreements between the eastern and the western sections of the town. At length a decision was taken, and a meeting-house erected on the northern ex- tremity of Bonney Hill : on 19 May, 1746, the Town declared the bound between the two precincts a line drawn perpendic- ular to a line connecting their respective meeting-houses "at a point eighty rods west of the centre of said line measured by the road." Apparently this pretty problem in mensuration proved too much for the Town surveyor; for, in July follow- ing, the bound was changed to be "a south line, beginning four rods down stream below the new Forge so called, and thence extending southerly to Halifax line." Still another bound is appointed by the act of incorporation, passed 6 August 1746.
The first minister of the new parish was the Reverend Gad Hitchcock, of Revolutionary fame; who proved himself a strong spiritual and political leader for this part of Pem- broke. The boldness of his great Election Sermon, delivered in presence of Governor Gage, and his distinguished services in the State Constitutional Convention, are matters of his- tory. Although his biography rightfully belongs to the an- nals of the West Parish, I venture to introduce here an anec- dote which the Doctor himself used to tell with keen appre- ciation. It chanced one day that he was returning from Bos- ton by stage coach with a solitary companion. Rendered desperate by the Doctor's silent meditation during much of the journey, the other addressed him : "I'm so-and-so; now, who are you ?"-"Why, sir, I am Gad Hitchcock, of Tunk, at your service."-"Wal, I snum, that's the three homeliest
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THE FIRST CHURCH IN PEMBROKE
names I ever did hear; and now I think on't, you're as homely as any !" But if the good Doctor's name was un- musical, he soon made it a watchword with the friends of liberty and justice throughout the Old Colony and large part of the Commonwealth.
Pembroke church in 1750 had seen about a century and a half of existence. Having started with the company of Separatists at Scrooby, it passed over to Leyden in 1607; and ten years later, made a still longer pilgrimage to Plymouth in 1620. Before 1630 the settlement at Duxbury had been made; and shortly afterward, a branch of the Pilgrim church established there. From this body the church in Pembroke had broken off in 1712, and was flourishing after forty years of separate existence. It now entered upon its most pros- perous period, under the ministry of a man remarkable alike for learning and sound common-sense. In 1754 the Rever- end Thomas Smith was ordained as Mr. Lewis' successor.
Thomas Smith was a graduate of Harvard, and had preached at Yarmouth for a space of twenty-five years : his religious views were now so advanced and liberalized that he could not honestly remain in his former parish ; but was an acceptable relief to Pembroke from the stricter Calvinism of Mr. Lewis. He removed at once from Yarmouth to Pem- broke with his family; built the low gambrel-roof house which stood, until a few years ago, nearly opposite the Judge Whitman place; and prepared to spend the rest of his days in Pembroke. He was a scholar of great attainments, and a minister who commanded the love and respect of his people. Many are the stories told of his kindly nature, and his quick appreciation of wit.
Once he took tea at the house of a notable cook; and of course the best was set before the minister: the hostess, expecting a compliment, chose to depreciate her food, and said, "Mr. Smith, let me give you some very poor apple pie." -"No, madam, I thank you," responded Mr. Smith, "but I never eat poor pie;" and much mortified, she could not per- suade him to touch it. His criticism upon a serinon read to
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
him by his colleague, Mr. Whitman, which began with a long preamble, was: "Very good; but your porch is larger than your house." It was said of him, while preaching at Yarmouth, that he could preach a sermon an hour long in twenty minutes. He was a profound Hebrew scholar, and very absent-minded-so much so that once, returning from some meeting at Hingham, he drove home the wrong horse; and failed to discover his mistake till next day, when the owner came for it. When the minister came to call at his son's house, the children were ranged around the room in the most solemn manner, and not allowed to speak : for, although their Grandpa, he was still the Minister ; and none must be too familiar : yet he always had a smile and a kind word for all. He said to his children: "I am content to bear noise and headache at any time to gratify you; and shall think myself happy, if none of you do anything to make my heart ache." It is related of Mr. Smith that he had a dog which always accompanied him to church, and behaved as a pious dog should, except on the day the singing quarrel was at its height; when he barked furiously.
The popularity of Mr. Smith was shown conclusively in the numbers and devotion of his congregations. Old resi- dents have told us strange tales of days when the only seats to be had in the Meeting House were on the gallery stairs. The long needed addition came in 1763. As early as 1741, the Town had very wisely refused to let John Keen, Junior, "cut a door out of his pew through the Meeting House." They now ensured a symmetrical exterior by providing plenty of room within for passageways as well as for pews. At a Precinct meeting held in January, 1763, it was "Voted to Inlarge the Meeting House By Putting a Piece of fourteene feet in the Midle and to New Cover the Same Meaning the Whol House With good Shingle New Window frames Sashes and Glas Set in Wood With Water tables New front Doers and proper fruntes Piece to gether Withal Needfull Repaiers as Well things not mentioned as Mentioned Provided it May be Done Well and Workman Like And allso to Repare the
178
The Elijah Cushing House : 1724
1
THE FIRST CHURCH IN PEMBROKE
Square Part of the Spire and make a New Walk on Sd Square Said House Painted in Manner as Marshfield Meeting House the Spier Included and their Must be a Proper Passage Way to get into the four Pews in the front gallery the said Hous to be Shingled With Pine Shingles Without Sap or good Ceder Shingle: Voted that the undertakers Shall not Sell Neither of the Pews out of the Preceinct the undertakers to Have all the Stuf taken of of Sd House: Voted yt Capt Benjamin Turner Mr Aaron Soul Mr John Turner Be a Precinct Commity to Agre With Sum Person or Persons to go on With the Sd Meeting House agreable to the Above Sd Vote and to See that the Worke Be Completed Workman Like"
It was in the course of Mr. Smith's ministry at Pembroke that the famous singing quarrel occurred. Upon his eldest son, Deacon Josiah, devolved the duty of "deaconing" the hymns-a duty he evidently enjoyed; for, when the young people wished to change the style of singing, he refused to give up his position. The minister took sides against his deacon. Affairs at this time became very seditious, and civil war seemed imminent. Rev. Thomas proved himself equal to the occasion. The climax came on Sunday; when the new choir stationed itself in a pew below, the old choir occupying the gallery. The minister gave out the hymn : the new choir began one tune; and the old choir, another-after being "deaconed" by Josiah. Then the minister arose, and said, "Josiah, sit down." Josiah attempted to protest by saying it was a vote of the Parish for him to read. "I don't care if it is," said the parson. "I command here myself : by and by, the clods in yonder church-yard will cover me; then you can do as you please : now I command myself : sit down !" That ended the singing quarrel.
Perhaps the minister's share in this reform may have been the occasion of a certain ecclesiastical skirmish, otherwise of indefinite date, mentioned by Rev. Morrill Allen in his sketch of Pembroke's political history. Having spoken of the Revolutionary period, Mr. Allen continues: "After political
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
parties were organized and acted in opposition to each other, the leaders of the party called Federals, were Briggs, Cush- ing, Hitchcock, Hobart, Turner, and Whitman ; of the party called Republicans, Barker, Collamore, Hall, Hatch, and Torrey. Of the leading living men we will not venture to write, lest we should come under the censure that was once cast on the minister of the place: a serious difficulty had occurred in the parish, the minister was conversing with a neighbor on the subject, and said the principal men thought such a course of measures would conduce to the peace and welfare of the parish; the neighbor replied,-'I would have you know, Mr. Smith, there are more principal men in this parish than you suppose.'"
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