USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Cape Cod, the right arm of Massachusetts : an historical narrative > Part 11
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Barnstable, were connected with the expedition, the former in charge of the whale-boat fleet. This was a novel and original feature of the expedition. The method of fighting adopted by the enemy was to keep so far up the rivers that the ordinary fleet could not reach them. Church's plan contemplated the fitting up of forty-five or fifty good boats, such as are employed in whaling, each supplied with five oars, and twelve or fifteen paddles to each boat. Upon the wale of these, five pieces of strong leather were fastened on the sides, so that when the boat touched the bottom the men might step overboard, and slip the bars through and take it up. Two kettles were furnished each boat for cooking food. The crafts were hauled up at night, and in stormy weather were upset, serving for shelter in the place of tents. In this way four or five hundred men could be transported to the scene of operations, with their arms, ammunition and provisions for several days' consumption. This expedition was only partially successful.
From this period, until the peace of Utrecht, which was concluded in the year 1713, the Cape towns, in common with the people of the whole of New England, were sub- jected to continual expense, preparation and alarm. It is estimated that for some years not less than a fifth of the inhabitants able to bear arms were in actual service. To say nothing of the sacrifice of health and life in these expeditions, the detriment to the industrial pursuits of the people was very great, constituting a continual drain upon the resources of all classes. These wars were filled with stirring and startling episodes. "For years after, the old sailors, seated in their round-about chairs, within their capacious chimney corners, would relate to the young the story of their adventures in the 'Old French Wars.'"*
*Otis's Barnstable Families.
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The death of Ex-Governor Thomas Hinckley, which occurred at his home in Barnstable, April 25, 1706, closed a career of great usefulness and eminence in this community. He was born in England, in 1621; came to Boston in 1634; was in Scituate in 1639. He was elected a deputy from Barnstable in 1645, and from that time until his death was almost continuously in public life, being many times re-elected as deputy ; twenty-three years as assistant ; governor from 1680 to 1692, except during the interruption of Andros, when he was nominally one of his council; and of the council of the province of Massachusetts Bay, from 1692 until his death. He was also for several years one of the commissioners of the United Colonies. His tastes and abilities fitted him for administrative trusts, and his probity was never impeached. Although of a somewhat imperious temper, he seems to have accommodated himself rather closely to the popular side of public questions, and to have followed, rather than directed, public sentiment. When repressive measures were tried against the Quakers, Mr. Hinckley was vigorous in the use of means to that end, but yielded, somewhat tardily, to the rising tide of liberal ideas. He was on familiar terms with the Anabaptists, who were numerous in Barnstable. It was claimed for Mr. Hinckley, that he was the best lawyer in the colony. This might well be, as of professional lawyers none were there at that time ; and certainly no man in the jurisdiction had acquired so wide an experience, both in framing statutes and executing them, as Mr. Hinckley. His first marriage was to Mary, daughter of Thomas Richards, who died in 1659, and the following year he was united to Mary, widow of Nathaniel Glover of Dorchester, a woman "of uncommon excellence and great accomplishments." Among her descendants was Prince, the historian, who spoke of her in these terms :
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THE CAPE IN THE OLD FRENCH WARS.
"To the day of her death she shone in the eyes of all as the loveliest, and brightest for beauty, knowledge, wisdom, majesty, accomplishments, graces, throughout the colony." Her husband, who survived her for nearly three years, wrote some verses to her memory, which have been preserved, and which were more creditable to the affectionate phase of his character than to his poetic faculty. Gov. Hinckley has many descendants.
The year 1709 added another to the towns of the county. July 16, of that year, on the petition of Capt. Thomas Paine of Pamet, the region was incorporated which has since been known by the name of TRURO, making the seventh township on the Cape ; and Aug. 1, pursuant to the terms of the act, the town was organized, with the provision "that they procure and settle a learned and godly minister." Rev. John Avery was settled here Nov. 1, 1711. This region, it is evident, had been settled by a number of families, long before this time, and in connection with the fisheries of Cape Cod, occupied before the settlement of Eastham or any other places on the Cape .* In 1674, the Court ordered that Paomet (Truro) and Satucket (Harwich) be included in the town of Eastham. Certain proprietors from Eastham also settled here in 1700. The records of the general court for the year 1705 contain this order: "The part of the Cape lying between Eastham, and known as the Indian Pamet, shall be a separate town by the name of DANGERFIELD." This is all that is known, however, of this designation. No such town was ever recognized, and no intimation of its existence is contained in any local records or traditions of its people. It was doubtless intended to make this a district, but the name did not come into use. It is somewhat singular that the act of the general court
*Rich's Truro.
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incorporating the town of Truro makes no reference to any previous act recognizing the former name, but says, "An act for making Pawmet, a District of Eastham, within the County of Barnstable, a township, to be called Truroe." The name is derived from that of an old borough and present city, in Cornwall, England.
A similar mystery exists in regard to Wellfleet. An order which passed Nov. 1, 1718, on petition of Thomas, Peter and Josias Oakes, agents for that part of Eastham called Billingsgate, by the name of "POOL," defines its boundaries, and the rights of whaling and oyster fishing. But the name was never recognized.
Two years after the incorporation of Truro, an effort was made by the people of Monnamoit to secure its incorporation as a township, and a notice was served in due form on the town of Harwich. The settlement, occupation and proprie- torship of this town had been from the beginning, as has already been shown, a subject of much acrimonious and heated controversy. After being attached, first to Yarmouth, and afterwards to Eastham, in 1688, the place was made "a constablerick by itself," and enjoined to raise £5 per annum for "the enabling them to build a meeting-house for a minister." In 1686, it was ordered by the court to choose a grand juror, and in 1691, it was granted liberty to send a representative to the general court, and its western bounda- ries were considerably enlarged. With these privileges and requirements, it would seem that the region was entitled to all the prerogatives of a township, and a formal act of incorporation was passed in 1712, since which time the town has been known as CHATHAM. This name, also, is from an English town, in the County of Kent.
The common lands of the town of Yarmouth, remaining undisposed of, were divided among the descendants of the
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THE CAPE IN THE OLD FRENCH WARS.
original proprietors during the year 1712-13-14. The principle upon which this division was made was laid down in a town meeting held in April, 1712, viz. : "One-third to be assigned to tenements, of such as were inhabitants of the town, not to exceed two tenements to each person ; one-third according to the value of the real estate of each person as rated in 1709; one-third to all male persons twenty-one years of age and over, born in the town and now inhabitants, or those who have been inhabitants 21 years, and have possessed a tenement 21 years." Nine shares were assigned to each tenement right, 7} shares to each personal right, and all the residue, was on account of the proportionate ownership in the taxable real estate in town. Two-thirds of the town was thus divided into 3118 shares, and apportioned among the inhabitants. A final division of the other third of common lands remaining unreserved was made in 1715. The town reserved a considerable tract on the borders of Bass river-a large portion of the present village of South Yarmouth-for the native Indians, and also ministerial lands, training fields, and a lot for the convenience of those watching for whales, on the northerly side of the town.
In 1713, the treaty of peace negotiated at Utrecht put an end to the French and Indian war, which, with the short interception after the peace of Ryswick, had been waged for twenty-five years, and which had been a constant drain upon the resources of the colonists and an interruption of their peaceful pursuits. The people of this county had largely engaged in these warlike enterprises, particularly those of a maritime nature, and the dawn of peace was a welcome release to them. Nor were our people so far removed from the seat of hostilities as to be entirely free from apprehensions on their own behalf. The rumors of
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invasions and of the incursions of a French fleet were frequently renewed to the dwellers in the seaboard towns. The following "Protection," of which a copy is extant, brings the distress of the times vividly before the present generation :
"PROTECTION .- Boston, Jan. 26, 1711-12. Upon appli- cation made to me, setting forth the danger that the village of Monomoy is in, of the French privateers, and the weakness of the inhabitants to defend themselves, being so few, I do hereby decree, order and direct that no men of the foot-company of the place be taken by impress for any service other than their own village aforesaid, without my especial orders, and under my hand, for so doing. This to continue until further order. Signed, J. DUDLEY. "To the Hon. Col. Otis, Barnstable."
Henceforth, for thirty years, these fears and alarms were to be dismissed, and peace again to resume its sway.
In the beginning of 1714, the extreme end of the Cape, which had heretofore heen regarded as a portion of Truro, was constituted the "Precinct of Cape Cod," and put under the constablerick of Truro. No legislative act with express reference to this region had been passed, prior to this time. The harbor, from its size, accessibility and security, had been from the earliest times resorted to by marine traders and fishermen, but only a few settlers had as yet made their homes there. Now, its great value and the dangers to which it was exposed were recognized ; and by an act of the general court, it was "forbidden to box or bark pine trees growing on the precinct's land;" a tax was levied on sojourners not inhabitants, such as fishermen, of fourpence a man per week, to be applied to the maintenance of "a learned and orthodox minister ;" the balance of his salary of £50 per annum, to be assessed upon the inhabitants of the
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THE CAPE IN THE OLD FRENCH WARS.
precinct, by the selectmen of Truro. At the same time the line between the Province lands and Truro was defined.
The advent of peace with the French and the Indians gave the authorities a long-wished-for opportunity to make an effort to suppress the pirates, whose depredations upon commerce had become so frequent and harassing. During the administration of the Earl of Bellamont as Governor of New York and Massachusetts, the attention of the author- ities had been especially directed to this matter. The Earl came over "particularly instructed to put a stop to the growth of piracy, the seas being constantly endangered by freebooters." During his administration the notorious Capt. Kidd was apprehended, tried and convicted. The old ballad ran :
"My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed."
But history records that William Kidd was executed. While commanding a vessel commissioned to cruise as a privateer, he turned pirate himself, and became the terror of the sea. After burning his vessel and venturing to make his appearance in Boston, thinking his character and acts unknown, he was apprehended, sent to England, tried and executed. The popular imagination, from that time to the present, has been periodically inflamed by legends of treasures hid in the sands on the seashore of New York and New England; but with the exception of one "find," of which the schedule was rendered to Gov. Bellamont in 1699, no record of success in this direction is extant. This lack of fortune does not, however, seem to dampen the ardor of treasure-seekers, and every year or two witnesses a renewal of futile attempts to penetrate the sands of the seacoast for hidden pirate-booty.
The execution of Kidd by no means daunted or discouraged the efforts of the large class of maritime
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adventurers who sought to make reprisals upon commerce, no matter nnder what flag it sailed. Peace with France released them from the restraints of authorized warfare, and some of them turned their attention to the ships sailing under their own flag. The depredations and fate of one of these fleets was tragically connected with these shores. The Whidlah, a pirate ship of about 200 tons, carrying twenty- three guns and one hundred and thirty men, commanded by Samuel Bellamy, some time in April, 1717, while cruising off this coast took seven prizes. The captain was obliged to transfer men from his ship to the prizes in order to send them into port. The captain of one of these vessels, observing that the pirate crew were drunk, regained possession of his craft and anchored in Provincetown harbor, where several of the pirates were apprehended, and afterwards tried and executed in Boston, the others managing to escape. The captain of the Whidah, having captured a snow on the coast, and a storm evidently approaching, offered the captain of the prize the release of his vessel, if he would pilot the ship into Provincetown harbor. The night being dark a lantern was hung in the shrouds of the snow. But distrusting the good faith of the pirate, the captain managed, by the light draft of his vessel, which enabled him to pass over the shoals with safety, to inveigle the pirate ship onto the outer bar, while the snow struck much nearer the shore .* A tradition exists that he threw a burning tar barrel overboard which the pirate followed. The fleet, consisting of the pirate ship, her tender, (the snow, of 90 tons,) a wine ship and a sloop, was put in confusion, a violent storm soon after arose, and on the 26th of April the fleet was shipwrecked near the Wellfleet shore. It is said that all but two in the large ship perished, an English- *Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. Vol. 3, P. 120.
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THE CAPE IN THE OLD FRENCH WARS.
man and an Indian. The sloop and the snow got off and escaped.
When the news reached Boston of the disaster which had overtaken the pirate fleet, Capt. Cyprian Southack, was sent by Gov. Shute, in His Majesty's sloop Nathaniel, to the Cape to look after the government's interests here. He reached Provincetown May 2, sent a whaleboat and crew to Truro, where horses were procured, and he proceeded to Wellfleet. A watch was set upon the wreck and the shore. Capt. Southack soon followed, but com- plained that he was not very cheerfully aided by the inhabitants, whom he evidently suspected of designs to appropriate the goods washed ashore from the wreck. He found the vessel on his arrival broken to pieces, with the wreck of a wine vessel some four miles from her, also broken up. There had been, he was told, at least 200 men to visit the wreck, some coming the distance of 20 miles, helping themselves to whatever came on shore. The gale had not yet subsided and continued for several days after his arrival. Capt. Southack secured the pirate's cable and anchors, and in consequence of an advertisement which he issued, threatening with the displeasure of the government all who were found with any of the shipwrecked goods on their premises, several cart loads of stores were reclaimed and sent to Boston, via Billingsgate (Wellfleet.) One hundred and two men, the crew of the pirate ship, were buried on the beach. In closing his communication with the government respecting this transaction, Capt. Southack speaks approvingly of the conduct of Joseph Doane, Esq., of Eastham, for his aid in securing the shipwrecked property, and recommended the arrest of Caleb Hopkins, (of Freetown, as he writes,) for obstructions in the performance of his duty. It does not appear that his advice
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was heeded. * But Gov. Shute ordered the eight captured pirates to be brought to trial, and they were convicted and promptly executed in Boston. For many years after, as the legend runs, a man of "a very singular and frightful aspect," used every season to visit the Cape. He held but little intercourse with the people, but from his ejaculations during his troubled sleep, and blasphemous and ribald remarks which at that time passed his lips, he was popularly credited with holding intercourse with evil spirits, or of being disturbed by recollections of the bloody scenes in which he had been engaged. He was generally believed to be one of the pirate crew, who came down here to visit a concealed hoard in order to supply his present wants, and when he died, a girdle filled with gold pieces was said to be found on his person. t To recent days, King William and Queen Mary coins have been picked up on this shore, and the Wellfleet Oysterman, about the year 1852, told Thoreau that he had seen the iron caboose of the Whidah, on the bar at extreme low tide.
A remarkable physical fact was developed in connection with this shipwreck. The accounts of the "Bellamy storm" state that the sea forced a passage through the Cape very near the boundary line between the present towns of Orleans and Eastham, and Capt. Southack sailed with a whale boat through from the Bay to the Atlantic Ocean ! It required a general turn-out and strenuous exertions of the people to close the channel.}
The preceding pages have on several occasions recorded the efforts and expenditures of the people to exterminate wolves, which still continued to be, as they had been from the earliest times, numerous, savage and voracious. In
*State Archives.
+Alden's Col. of Epitaphs, vol. IV.
*See Council documents in Secretary's office.
15 -
IX +
35
35
Gray Owve
Race Point 5
10
2 7X
وه
35
1
10-S
. Cod
10
25
35
40
15
30
30
15
2
20
X
AA
4
25
Griffins F
20
Tony
2 X 20
30
40
Run a Show, and have got of again Jama I.
10
Note that the Darth of Water at some
:30
Bars are but little the Depths of Water
40
are set down in feet at high and low
2
( Table Land 2º
1
Barnftable
7 Bay
5
+ Eacham 2 2
Story 4
30
35
Coarse Bronn Sand
3
The Place where I came
2
+
ordered by y Govern" to look fler 5
+
123
2
1
Wreach Point
Fine Brown Sand
25
arnitable
2 the Sealy Islang Junker 3
gheimed
3 Channel way 2
5 -
10
2
5
Bishops & Clarks
: 2
Coarse Brown Sand
3
51
3
23.2
60
25
35 40 Story ground
10
20
Barnftable Bay is not dangerous by Great?
reason of so many Flatts treftells have
35 Crab Bank
35
Water and to be known from Fathoms
The Pirate Ship White & lost
Story ground
Here is the letter F placed by them I
2
25
F
through with a Whale Bout being
y Pirate Ship Whydo. Bellame Command!
castaway y 26 of aprilivy where Iburied 4 One Hundred & Two, Men Drowned 20
+
2
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High Land of C. Coa
35
10
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Cape 15 cod
Section of a map recently discovered in the British Records office, probably executed about -20, and re-published by U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1891.
20
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THE CAPE IN THE OLD FRENCH WARS.
1717, at the instance of the people of Sandwich, the general court was petitioned to construct a fence 6 feet high across the Cape from Picket Cliff, the northeast boundary between Sandwich and Plymouth, to Wayquauset Bay in Wareham, "to keep wolves from coming into the county." Sandwich offered to pay whatever over £500 the fence should cost. Falmouth agreed to the plan, but the lower towns declined to pay their part of the cost. The towns to the westward of the county very naturally objected to having all the wolves on their side of the line, and the project was subsequently abandoned.
For a period of thirty-one years, peace with the French was maintained, and the colonies had an opportunity to recuperate their energies, after the wars of a generation. But in 1744 King George's war commenced, and was waged with all the more zeal and activity from the respite which the foregoing thirty years had given the combatants. The reduction of Louisburg became the prime object of exertion. This place, known as the Dunkirk or Gibraltar of America, had been fortified by the French at great expense and labor. It had long been the hiding place of French privateers, and when the expedition to attempt its reduction was planned, the Massachusetts seaboard towns entered with patriotic alacrity into the undertaking. The Seventh Massachusetts Regiment in this expedition, made up of companies from Barnstable county, was under the command of Col. Shubael Gorham of Barnstable, whose grandfather sacrificed his life in the Narragansett expedition in King Philip's War, and whose father had rendered most important services as commander of the Whaleboat expeditions under Col. Church, during Queen Anne's War, and fell a victim of diseases when the victory was won. His brother, Capt. John Gorham, was lieutenant-colonel, and Capt. Joseph Thacher
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of Yarmouth was commissioned as major. The lieutenant of Capt. Thacher's company was Joshua Freeman of Harwich ; ensign, Joshua Bassett of the same town. The Fourth company was officered by Elisha Doane, captain ; Theophilus Paine, lieutenant ; William Clark, ensign, all from Eastham. Subsequent changes occurred in this company, William Paine afterwards taking the place of his brother Theophilus, and Elisha Doane, Jr., serving as ensign. Lieut. Paine died and was buried at Louisburg. The first company was officered by Edward Dimmick, captain ; and Nathaniel Fish, lieutenant ; both of Falmouth.
On the 20th of March, 1745, 3850 troops, "principally substantial persons and men of beneficial occupations," most of them from Massachusetts, embarked from Boston, under the command of Sir Wm. Pepperell, and the siege of Louisburg was continued with considerable vigor, until the 16th of the following June, when the city of Louisburg, together with the island of Cape Breton, was surrendered by the French commander. The troops from this county actively participated in the several attacks upon the "Island battery," so called. Col. Gorham commanded the "Whale- boat" fleet, as his ancestor did before him, and though his attack was repulsed, his conduct was marked by gallantry and courage. Of the forty men from Yarmouth, thirteen of whom were Indians, ten fell victims to disease or the casualties of war. It was said that the first of the provin- cials to enter the "Grand Battery" was one of Capt. Thacher's Indians, who crawled into an embrasure, at the suggestion of an officer who had given him a bottle of brandy, to induce him to perform the hazardous feat, and opened the gate through which the force entered, not knowing at the time that the enemy had retired from the position.
15]
THE CAPE IN THE OLD FRENCH WARS.
The brilliant achievement of the capture of this fortress was received with demonstrations of great joy and exulta- tion in all parts of New England, but nowhere was the degree of satisfaction greater than in this county, whose troops had been so actively engaged in this important enterprise. The pulpits even resounded with acclamations over an event which had in some measure during its inception, been regarded as a religious crusade, and the rude poetry of those days celebrated, in stumbling numbers, it must be confessed, the victory and the victors. In Niles's "Wonder-working Providence," printed in 1645, appear the names of the leading officers of the expedition. Some of those in Col. Gorham's regiment are, with himself thus mentioned :
"Whilst we in honor these commanders have,
Let's turn our thoughts to Col'nel GORHAM's grave, Who with his ancestors distinguished are As men of courage, mighty in the war; He lies interred in that new-conquered soil- The fruit of his and others' warlike toil. Lieutenant Col'nel GORHAM, nigh of kin To his deceased Head, did honor win, Unite in nature, name, and trust, they stood- Unitedly have done their country good. May Major THACHER live, in rising fame Worthy of ancestors that bear his name, And copy after virtuous relations
Who so well filled their civil, sacred, military stations.
*
* * *
* *
And Captain DIMMICK slain by heathen's hand, *
As was his father, under like command."
No sooner had this victory been won than the people of the sca-coast were filled with apprehensions on account of the intelligence of a powerful expedition which was to be sent from France to recover Louisburg and harass and conquer New England. The dwellers in this county were greatly distressed by the rumors which reached them, to the
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