USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Pembroke > Ancient landmarks of Pembroke > Part 6
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with the Parliament, abandoned the favor of King Charles for a command among the Roundheads. The fifth earl be- came a lord lieutenant under Cromwell. And although he and his successors acquiesced in the changes of the Restora- tion, they seem to have cherished faithfully the Puritan tra- dition. The eighth earl was somewhat of a Puritan in dress and manners. He had won fame by his patronage of
scholars ; and Dudley was a scholar. Viceroys as they were of neighbouring counties, it may be well believed that their acquaintance gradually ripened into friendship something closer than obtained between lords justices of the Realm and gentlemen from over-seas. Such a friendship Dudley might properly recognize by conferring upon his benefactor one of the few political honours at a provincial governor's disposal. Whether the General Court accepted his suggestion without a struggle, we are not told: perhaps we are to imagine a scene like that which took place in the Council when Rutland was named. "This Court," says Judge Sewall, under the date of its incorporation, "a large Township is granted near Wachuset. The Governor will have it called Rutland : I objected, because that was the
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name of a shire. The chief Justice said 'twas not con- venient except the Land was Red. But the Governor would not be diverted."
The eighth earl of Pembroke was one of England's great- est noblemen. His title dated from the beginning of her rise to power as a nation, and his estates included some of her most historic sites. His hereditary position he honored and enhanced by the added reputation of a statesman and a scholar. It would be long to relate the offices-some of the highest in the realm-which he held under James, William, Anne, George I. and George II : suffice it to mention those of keeper of the Privy Seal, regent, lord high admiral, lord president of the Council, and viceroy of Ireland. His own scholarship and his generous patronage of scholars made the name of Thomas Herbert no less esteemed among the cloisters of Oxford than was that of the Earl of Pembroke at St. James.' In his fiftieth year he was described as "a good judge of the Sciences ; an encourager of learning : a lover of the constitution of his country ; of no party, but esteemed by all parties: his life and manner after that of the primitive Christians ; meek, plain in dress, speaks little: of good coun- tenance, but ill shaped-tall, thin, and stooping." Would you find him pictured with romance befitting the namesake of the village, turn to Hon. Harvey N. Shepard's address de- livered at the dedication of its Soldiers' Monument. In- spired by Dr. Francis Collamore's reference in his History to Earl Herbert and contemporary worthies, the orator is calling up to light in long succession personages notable among the annals of Pembroke. After mention of Barker
and Davis its earliest settlers, he continues : "A shade of noble form, and with a coronet upon his brow, presses in amid the throng: it is the Earl of Pembroke, once keeper of the Privy Seal and member of the royal household, in whose honour the town was named." Remembering that the Gov- crnor's choice enriched our local history with these associa- tions, we may well forget that it cast a slight on Herring Brook and the herring.
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HERRING BROOK AND THE HERRING
At one of the earliest Pembroke town meetings, it was "voated yt iff any person shall from the 10th day of Apeirll to ye 20th day of may either build or sett up or continnew any dam or stopage in ye heren brook att pembrook so yt ye fish may not conveneintly pas to there pond yt. It shall be alowable for any person whome the town shall appoint to pull down or Remove ye same." In 1717 Isaac Barker and Ephraim Nichols were empowered "to higher a man or men to go with our Neighboring Indians and clear the Hering brook," and to prosecute the author of any obstruction. For some years, the fish were caught by individuals at their pleasure, without interference from the Town.
Our first notice of another fishery occurs in 1724, when the Town voted to petition the General Court "that Care may be taken that the Herrings or Alewives may have free passage up Indian head river to Indian head river pond their usual place of spawning." This stream seems to have maintained a flourishing business for many years. In 1743 the fish were caught "at the Sawmill called Stetson's Sawmill"- probably that which stood anciently on the south bank of the Indian Head near Ludden's Ford; and long after the Revol- ution, the Town continued to vote ineffectual restrictions of the mill privileges along that river.
On the Herring Brook, the chief manufactories were the Furnace, established in 1702 at the point where it flows out from the Furnace pond, and the Barker sawmill, erected about 1680, where that of Mr. Lemuel LeFurgey now stands. In 1714 the Town had granted to Josiah Barker "the priv- ilege of setting a corn mill upon ye heren brook," debarring all others provided he build within one year. In 1741 it granted to Nathaniel How the right to build a fulling mill on the northwest side of the brook, just above High Street bridge; reserving a way for the herring to pass by. These privileges continued to be improved, for one purpose or an- other, long after fulling and grinding corn became lost arts in Pembroke.
In 1741 the Town started out in earnest on its long and
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elaborate policy of herring regulation. From this time, whole pages of its record are devoted to minute prescriptions with regard to their price, preservation, and the methods of taking them. That year the alewives were farmed out for £70 to James Randall: who must sell for no more than a shilling the hundred, or five shillings the barrel, or more than two barrels to a family; was forbidden to catch from sunset to sunrise, or on Saturdays ; must keep all others from catching; must "leave no wares in;" and must give full credit to all persons belonging to the Town, the amount of such credit to be deducted from the stipulated £70. Evi- dently James, who was a worthy blacksmith of North Pem- broke, did not find the Brook, under these conditions, a gold- mine; for it appears that his bond was soon after put in suit, and even six days of grace refused him. Of the £70, but £25 were recovered; and it was long before the Town repeated this farming experiment.
In 1742 the mills were ordered to keep their gates up from April first until May fourteenth, and a committee au- thorized to make either limit ten days later. Nights, Mondays, and Saturdays, were close season ; and the fish were to be caught at or near the "old Wast way by the Grist mill." Isaac Jennings and Thomas Burton, the Committee, proved remiss in performance of their duty ; and on April fifth, were sternly admonished "to see that the gates on the Herring Brook be hoisted with all convenient speed in order for the Fish to have a free passage to the Ponds." Three years later, the citizens were allowed to catch "in the Waste way from the Widow Nicols Bridge and so up the Brook to the Pond's mouth," with scoop nets only ; but were forbidden to "take ym to fish Corn as they come down:" the penalty for each infraction of these rules was a fine of ten shillings.
"The Widow Nicols Bridge" was probably close by the site of the present weir: The Widow herself lived beyond the brook, on the narrow island formed by the main stream and the waste way. The history of her cottage is little known. She was the widow of Nathaniel Nichols, and after his death
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The Herring Brook: The Weir 1742
PUBLIC LIBRARY
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HERRING BROOK AND THE HERRING
had removed thither from the Deacon Whitman place. Her homestead descended to her daughter Rebecca, widow of Na- thaniel Davis-for in 1749 we read of the Widow Davis' Bridge; and later, to her grandson Frederic Davis, born in 1733. In 1780 the bridge is called "the first bridge against Frederic Davis." Old residents had formerly much to say of Aunt Becky Davis, and the little shop beyond the Herring Brook where she dispensed thread, needles, and snuff to the neighborhood.
In 1754 the Town changed the season of hoisted gates, making its limits April twelfth and May thirtieth ; and voted "that no man who has taken one Barrel or more of fish shall assume to take to himself any place or stand for taking them at any time and place appointed by the Town, but must yield the same on demand to any person who has not taken a Barrel." The open season was gradually reduced ; until, by 1770, it included for each week only the time between Wed- nesday morning and Friday morning. "" We can readily be- lieve that the Widow got little sleep on the nights of Wednesday and Thursday; and that, at other times, a small army of brookwatchers was necessary to guard the long stretch of easy fishing that led from the Barker fulling mill through the woods and swamps into Furnace Pond.
Pembroke was slowly but surely awakening from its quiet colonial repose, and responding to the stirring in- fluences of foreign oppression. In 1772 it sought a diver- sion in farming out, for a second time, the alewife industry ; and voted "that the Poor have one tenth of what the Fish fetch payable in fish at one shilling per hundred, that whosoever shall purchase sd fish shall deliver to all persons six score for one Hundred, and that John Turner may re- quire of the Parcher 5 Barrells to distribute among the Indians." Captain Edward Thomas was chosen a "Vendue Master" to sell the fish; which went, at "Publick Vendue," for 42-16-00 to John Chamberlain. This venture was successful, but was not renewed, apparently because certain citizens were too fond of supervising the herring business to
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leave another in power. In 1774 a committee of fifteen overseers, no less, was chosen to regulate the fishery; the Town wisely provided that the Fifteen should be paid with the fines by them collected, "and those only."
During the Revolution, the inhabitants of Pembroke were occupied with affairs which they considered of greater moment than even the alewife industry; accordingly, the record for those years shows a summariness of dealing as praiseworthy as it is unexpected. 'The fish question re- mained in abeyance till the new state and national constitu- tions were settled : we find the first symptom of reviving in- terest in a weird resolution, passed 1786, "that the Fish called Alewives Take their Course Through the Course of the week Excepting from Saturday Sun Set untill Monday Morning at Sun Rise no Body is to Take them." By 1787, most of the Town's notables had returned from camp and council-board; and as talent was now abundant, the modest committee of war times gave place to a body of ten super- visors.
The Ten reported in 1788: on their recommendation, it was voted "that catching the Fish be let to the lowest bid- der ; . that Amos Standish catch at one seventh tithe; that a Committee of Three be chosen to apportion the fish among the Inhabitants according to the numbers in each family; that a Committee of Ten be chosen to Oversee the Brook; that the Three allow the Ten for their trouble; that the Fish be taken between Davis' Bridge and the Bridge next below the fulling mill; and that the time for Catching and the time to Let the fish Run Unmolested be the Same as last year, Viz. After the Sun Sets on Saturday until She Shall Rise Monday Morning, they may not be Catcht." The work of the Ten seems not to have been quite conclusive; for, through 1788 and 1789, men like Col. Jeremiah Hall, Capt. Seth Hatch, Esquire Joseph Smith, and Judge John Turner, constituted a board of commissioners "to revise the Bylaw inade in 1787 respecting the Alewives." Their solution of the problem involved the choice of a committee of two to
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regulate the dams, and a committee of six to oversee the brook. Every member of both committees was placed under oath.
The veterans of '76 plainly found administration of the Herring Brook a pastime congenial to their declining years. Five of them chosen in 1790 to report on the alewives, failed to realize the gravity of their mission ; and accordingly, "the Verble Report of the Alewife Committee was Not accepted, after which a Written Report was accepted and ordered to lay on File with the Town papers." This year a nine was chosen to oversee the brook. In 1792 Deacon Smith, Judge Turner, and Rev. Kilborn Whitman were instructed to farm out the alewives: they were sold to Bailey Hall; who was to have seventeen fish from each hundred, and govern him- self in accordance with a code of fifteen regulations, and such others as an inspecting committee of five should appoint. The tenth regulation bound him, upon request, to "make out and sing" a certificate of the number of fish sold to any par- ticular person.
Nathaniel Cushing was that year granted leave "to take out of the Great Ponds 250 Herrings, to be put into Indian River head Pond." If the Town had devoted more thought to such measures, and less to developing bureaucracies and Councils of Ten, we should reap a rich harvest of their plant- ing today. Instead, they proceeded next year to elaborate the system by voting "that a Committee have power to deal out the alewives, giving not more than 500 to any family, or six score to the hundred: and whereas in 1792 a hundred of fiva score brought one shilling; now the prise shall be nine- pence a hundred of six score, except that Green Alewives sold to other towns shall be at one shilling per hundred of six score: and Thomas Fish shall catch the same at fifteen per cent six score per hundred." The object of such playing fast and loose with the multiplication table, is as inconceiv- able as a green alewife. In 1797 the Town came to the conclusion that five score was the equivalent of a hundred : Micah Foster was chosen to "catch under oath, and render
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due accompt of the number Cetched;" while on one John Baker was conferred the high distinction of "Commissioner for Regulating the alewive fishrey Extreordrany."
A sane policy was first adopted in the year 1799; when the Selectmen were made a fish committee with full au- thority, and instructed to appoint an agent for superintend- ing the business. In 1807 the price of alewives was set at twenty-five cents the hundred. That singular institution the Herring List was first employed in 1812, about which time the supply seems to have been considerably below the demand. On the incorporation of Hanson, 22 February 1820, the herring fishery was expressly resigned to the old town; on the condition that residents of Hanson should have all the rights of purchase possessed by residents of Pembroke.
Some enterprising citizen must have manipulated a corner in alewives during 1821, for the price rose that year from thirty-three to fifty cents the hundred. Elated by such prospects, the Town in 1822 "rejected by a vote of 89-13 the offer of Robert G. Mcfarling and others for the right to keep down his gates on the Brook or all right to the alewife fishery forever." Meantime, the schools were steadily becoming fewer and smaller; not until the year 1830 did a return of prosperity set in. Our town record perpetuates the glad tidings that in 1838 shad were taken in the Herring Brook.
An investigating committee chosen that year reported "that the destruction of the herring is inadvisable." It is a tradition in Pembroke and North Easton that Oliver Ames once petitioned this town to grant him a location on the Herring Brook with necessary privileges; and that his request was refused by a great majority of votes, because it involved the loss of their herring. Perhaps 1838 was the year of that inomentous decision.
In 1865 the present method of seeding the ponds was adopted. It has proved surer and more economical than the old. Ten thousand herring are deposited annually in Furnace Pond; their offspring descend to the sea in August
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and September, and return-Mr. LeFurgey tells me-in the third year. In spite of all precautions, the shad was last seen in the waste way some fifteen years ago, and even its kinsman the herring-which is after all no true herring, and answers only to the Indian name alewife-appears to be slowly retreating before the poison-tainted waters of Forge Brook. Pembroke may waken, some fine spring morning, to find herself left with half a manufactory, and of herrings, never a one.
The Brook has in its day seen a vast deal of practical joking. The unhappy Indians, on their way to the weir, became targets for many a ripe apple thrown from gable windows of the Salmond house by young Peter and his brother. Later, the suspicious brookwatcher became a general butt. It was in youth a favorite pastime of my grandfather Whitman and Captain Otis Little to shoulder a bag of shavings toward nightfall; steal along the stream until "spotted" by the enemy; and then lead him a merry chase off through the dusk, leaping from tussock to hum- nock, before the innocent nature of their burden was discovered. When such pranks and a hundred others were to cope with, well might the Report for 1847 premise: "The Fish Committee of the town of Pembroke have attended to the arduous and perilous duties of their office."
Let us remember kindly the Brook and its children, for the good times they have given us, and the small but steady revenue they still yield the Town. Lament for "lost Oliver" is futile now. Somewhere back in dark unrecorded past ages, the herring fishery came to stay. We may not like herring; and we may disagree with the old rhyme I used to hear in herring season :
"Herrin' up, herrin' down, Herrin' all about the town! Herrin' be Pembroke's joy and pride; If it hadn't been for herrin', old Pembroke would have died."
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
We may even think her vitality suffered from her prefer- ence of herring to shovels. But surely something is due the now despised alewife, that preserved for us an autumn landscape of purple hills and russet meadow unequalled in all the country round.
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The Friends' Meeting House : 1706
VIII. The Friends' Meeting House.
In the still waters needs must be Some shade of human sympathy: The dull by-sitter guesseth not What voices haunt that silent spot ; No eyes save mine alone can see The love wherewith it welcomes me! There still. with those alone my kin, In doubt and weakness, want and sin, I strive (too oft, alas! in vain) The peace of simple trust to gain, Fold fancy's restless wings, and lay The idols of my heart away.
I N the northernmost part of Pembroke, on a lofty hill round which North River circles in a vast curve, stands a famous old building known as the Friends' or Quaker Meeting House. The spot shares with Ward Hill in western Pem- broke, Bonney Hill in Hanson, and Telegraph and Carolina Hills in Marshfield, some dis- tinction as the highest land in our part of Plymouth County; and this edifice is visible for miles around. "Quaker Meeting House," says Dr. Francis Collamore in a recent article, "and Quaker Meeting House plain have been noted landmarks for a great many years. When Captain Woodward drove the Plymouth and Boston stage about eighty years ago, he said Quaker
ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
Meeting House plain was the coldest place between Plymouth and Boston.
"The first Friends' meeting house was built at Scituate, on the land of Henry Ewell, in 1678. The land was subse- quently owned by Judge William Cushing, and his garden marked the spot ; it is now called the Shaw Place, and owned by the heirs of James Sampson. Later, another Friends' meeting house was built, in the year 1706, on the Michael Wanton estate; and this was the one moved to Pembroke. Briggs in his Shipbuilding states that, according to tradition, the house was moved up North River to its present location on 'gundaloes.' The Cudworth place takes in the Wanton
estate, I believe. Deane, in his history of Scituate, has much to say about Edward Wanton, the father of Michael. His sons William and Joseph-the latter a graduate of Harvard-were both governors of Rhode Island. Michael, like his father, lived in Scituate, and was a leader of the Friends. He was contemporary with Rev. Nathaniel Eells of the South Parish, now Norwell, and lived in more harmony with him than could have been expected of one fired with the zeal of a new sect. He was contemporary also with Thomas Turner, a lawyer of facetious memory ; whose sarcasms were often aimed at Wanton, and always received with such undisturbed good humor that at length they became sincerely attached to each other, though of dif- ferent temper and different sects. On one occasion, Wanton had been successful in a fishing expedition, and had loaded his boat with fine halibut; calling on his return at the tavern of White's ferry, he found an assemblage of gentlemen attending a trial by reference. He caused an entertainment to be prepared of his fish, and invited the whole company to dine. This was done in consequence of a sarcasm of Lawyer Turner, who had thus addressed him: 'Friend Wanton, you are like the apostle Peter. In the first place, he was a fisherman, and so are you; he was a preacher, and so are you; he denied his Lord, and so do you.' It was agreed that Wanton had the advantage on this occasion.
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The Friends' Meeting House : Interior
THE FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE
"According to one tradition, the meeting house was brought up the river from Scituate on the ice. Nathan T. Shepherd, who was clerk of the society a good many years ago, told me the present building was one built in 1706; and that large headed tacks forming the figures 1706, were in one of the doors previous to an alteration made in 1832. The original house had a peaked roof. The story has always been current that, when young Edward Little went courting Edith Rogers, her father Joseph Rogers told him, 'If thee wants to marry Edie, thee must go to the peaked meeting house.' Mr. Little had served in his father's privateer dur- ing the war of 1812, and had always taken a good deal of pride in his midshipman's uniform; but like many another young man, he was conquered by the God of love. When an old man, he was chosen representative to Congress; and sat out his term with head covered, as he sat in Quaker meet- ing. The dress of Friends in the olden time was peculiar. In meeting, the men sat on one side of the house, and the women on the other. Often not a word was spoken during the whole long hour's session; signal for closing would be given by the older members on the raised back seats, by shak- ing hands.
"Fifty years ago and less, the meeting house was well filled on Sundays. From Marshfield came Edward P. Little's and Moses F. Rogers' families, the Nyes and Phillipses ; from Hanover, Otis Ellis, Zaccheus Estes, Simeon Hoxie- earlier, the Baileys, Percivals, and Wings; from South Hingham, Reuben Tower and Joshua Wilder; from Scituate, Daniel Otis, Adam Brooks, and Consider Howland; from Pembroke, the Browns and Shepherds and Keens and Bark- ers. They were nearly all people well to do; if any needed help, they were taken care of in the society. Meetings were held on the forenoons of Sunday and Thursday-which they called First and Fifth Days. The business was largely transacted on the last Thursday of each month. No votes by yes and no, or by raising of hands, were taken; but each member expressed his or her opinion, and the chairman pro-
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nounced the sense of the meeting. In old times, the Friends were exempt from taxes to pay for preaching, also from military duty.
"Of members attending regularly the Pembroke meeting, James Keen's wife and Calvin Shepherd were more apt to be moved by the Spirit. Yearly meetings of all the societies of the northern states, were held at Newport; and were looked forward to with very pleasant anticipation. The pleasant acquaintances made there furnished a very fruitful subject of conversation among the young Friends. Quarter- ly meetings were held at Sandwich, New Bedford, and other places. Sometimes yearly and quarterly meetings would send speakers to the society at Pembroke, and a series of meetings would be held.
"Charlotte Wade, who lived on the Bigelow place in Hanover, and taught private school there, was a Friend. My recollections of her school and of her, are pleasant; although she punished me for being good, the only time I was ever punished for it. One of her rules was that pupils who carried their dinners should not go out of the school yard at intermission. One noon my brother, my cousin, John Shepherd, and I, went down the hill into the river. When school was called, Mrs. Wade noticed that the apparel of the three first named was deranged, and their hair wet. She sent them home one after another, with letters to their parents, at intervals of about fifteen minutes. About fifteen minutes after the last one had gone, I told her I went into the water too. "Thee has been so good as to tell,' said she, 'thee need not go home.' About fifteen min- utes later, I asked if I might go home. She excused me, and I caught up with the others near the Quaker Meeting House.
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