USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Cape Cod, the right arm of Massachusetts : an historical narrative > Part 12
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effect that a lodgement was to be attempted on their coast, The inhabitants of Truro, in a memorial to the general court, showed their exposed and impoverished condition, and asked for means of defence. A supply of small arms, a four-pound cannon and some ammunition were granted them. Some of the towns petitioned against impressments for the public service. The formidable armament did not, however, molest New England. The casualties of the sea, sickness of the troops and death of the commanders, decimated the ranks of the invading army, and those remaining returned to France, to the great joy and relief of the colonists, who regarded these disasters to their foes as a great deliverance, in which the hand of Providence was revealed in a striking manner. The peace of Aix-la- Chapelle, which occurred in 1748, was therefore a joyful event for our people, though the surrender of Louisburg to the French, in consideration of territory on the continent receded by France, was a source of profound mortification and grief to all New England. The feeling of exasperation was somewhat soothed, however, by the action of Parliament, voting £183,694, 2s., 7gd. to reimburse the colonists for the expenses of the reduction of Cape Breton. This money was used to call in and to redeem the "bills of credit," at the treasury, which was done at the rate of £2, 5s., old tenor, 11s., 3d. middle and new tenor, by one piece of 8-, that is, a Spanish dollar. It was provided that after March, 1750, all debts should be paid in coined silver which is said to be the origin of the term "lawful money."
The treaty of 1748 proved but a hollow truce. The rival pretensions of England and France did not admit of pacification, and infringements upon what the other nation assumed to be its own prerogative were constantly made by both of these powers. In 1755, war, which for three years
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had been carried on without formal proclamation by England, was now openly declared, and the conflict opened which was destined to deprive France of her possessions in North America, and which directly led to the loss by England of her most valuable provinces, by the revolt and successful resistance of the American States. Not only did the English government, by the result of this war give to France a motive for helping the Americans to establish their independence, but it suggested and helped along the union of the various provinces, which was found so effective in practice, that it was afterwards employed by the colonists to resist the measures of government in the efforts to subjugate them and return them to their allegiance to the crown. The plan of confederation of the colonies to the more effectually prosecute the war, first suggested by Gov. Shirley, was formulated by Benjamin Franklin just twenty-two years before that distinguished philosopher affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence. The people of this county continned their contributions of men and money for the army, and felt with redoubled force, the hardships of war, not only by their sufferings in common with the rest of the country, but in the interruptions to their commerce and the perils of maritime warfare. While bearing their full share of the pecuniary burdens, however, the men of this county were not so prominently identified with the leading military enterprises of these years as they had been in the wars which preceded this last and decisive struggle.
With one of the tragic and romantic phases of the French wars, our people were brought face to face. A party of Acadians, the story of whose sufferings and wrongs the poetical genius of Longfellow has invested with a touching and romantic interest, in seeking an asylum when banished
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from their homes in Nova Scotia, in July, 1756, landed at Monument from seven two-mast boats, and were held by the authorities until more definite information of them could be obtained. Silas Bourne, Esq., of that place, who- detained them, in a letter to Col. Otis, then in the council, communicated all the information respecting this party which he was able to gather, reporting that there were ninety of them, including women and children, that they stated they were last from Rhode Island but previously from Nova Scotia, and professed to be bound to Boston. To many at that time the character of these people was a profound mystery. They were, subsequently, by the action of the authorities, distributed among the several towns in this vicinity, and the vessels in which they came hither were taken and sold. Here, surrounded by strange and unfamiliar faces, listening to a new and to them a harsh language, this simple and inoffensive people lived and died and were committed to an alien grave,
"Unknown and unnoticed.
Daily the tides of life go ebbing aud flowing beside them, Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest forever, Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy, Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their labors,
Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their journey."
One of the legacies of the almost incessant wars, in which the colonies had been for a long time engaged, was a large public debt, and the natural and universal panacea which was resorted to, to tide over this indebtedness, was the issue of bills of credit. In 1711, £40,000 of this paper was issued, "to be loaned to merchants and others for a term of years." In 1713, it being found that the emission of bills of credit had afforded but a temporary relief, a new loan of £50,000 was effected. In 1721, another issue of £50,000:
.
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in bills of credit was made. This scheme, however, instead of bringing relief, resulted in pecuniary embarrassments ; the bills depreciated, and suffering to many was the result .. Another issue of £50,000 followed, "to relieve the decline of trade," but the real result was to stimulate speculation, especially in Eastern lands, for which there seemed to be almost a mania. The towns on the Cape suffered with the other parts of the province from this vicious system of finance, and it was many years before they recovered from its baleful effects.
In a petition to the general conrt, made by representatives of the several towns of the county, was set forth "the great inconvenience and expense incurred by the people of the Cape, especially by those remote, in being obliged to attend the Superior Court of Judicature and Court of Assize, at Plymouth ; and they asked that such order might be had that the courts might sit once a year in the county of Barnstable. The application was favorably received and a term was ordered to sit in Barnstable.
By the terms of an act of the general court of June 14, 1727, the "Precinct of Cape Cod" was incorporated as a township, by the name of PROVINCETOWN. Owing to the peculiarity of its situation, and in its in many respects anomalous position, the inhabitants were exempted from taxation, except for municipal purposes, and from military duty. The provincial government also continued to aid in the support of the ministry of the place. The right of the province to the title of these lands was especially reserved, and has not been alienated to the present day. The value of the harbor to the commercial world led the provincial court to be especially watchful of its interests, and the next year we find that body passing laws to protect the beaches from devastations by those who pasture cattle
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there, stripping them of foliage, and thus exposing the sands to liability of being blown into the harbor. And legislation in the same direction was had again in 1740.
The increasing population of the lower towns of the Cape, and the difficulties of travel, led the inhabitants of Harwich, Chatham, Eastham, Truro and Provincetown, at a meeting held in Eastham, Nov. 20, 1734, to prepare a memorial to the general court, praying to be set off into a new county, distinct and separate from the county of Barnstable. The reasons assigned in their petition were, their great distance from the shire town of the county, the loss of time to the jurors and all others obliged to attend the courts, and the great expense attending it. This petition not being granted, they again presented a memorial to the general court that they would order two sessions of the peace of the inferior Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions for the county of Barnstable to be held annually in Eastham. But this, also, was not granted. The next year Dukes county was associated with Barnstable in the terms of the courts of General Sessions.
The religious movement, known at the time and since as " The Great Awakening," pervaded New England about the middle of the eighteenth century. The writings of Jonathan Edwards, by which the faith and doctrines of extreme puritanism were reduced to a system, powerfully affected the members of a community given to the serious contem- plation of spiritual concerns. But Edwards's doctrines, though metaphysically exact and symmetrical, did not appeal to the affectional nature. This lack was more than made up by George Whitefield, who came upon the scene at a time when the public mind was a good deal agitated by serious thoughts, and by his marvelous eloquence and contagious enthusiasm drew multitudes after him, and his converts were
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gathered by thousands, from all ranks and classes of society. His adherents are known as Calvinistic Methodists, and were called "New Lights ;" his opponents, "Old Lights." The latter were numerous, and denounced him as an "itinerant scourge." The disputes waxed warm, and almost all the clergymen in the country took sides and wrote or preached on the subject. The press teemed with pamphlets and more extended books from the pens of excited partisans. The clergymen of this county took concerted action on the subject which was engrossing so large a share of public attention. Ten of them, Feb. 20, 1745, subscribed to a declaration of the evils, which, in their view, flow from itinerant preaching. These were stated to be: "That it tends to destroy the usefulness of ministers among their people, in places where the gospel is settled and faithfully preached in its purity, and that it promotes strife and contention, a censorions and uncharitable spirit, and those numerous schisms and separations which have already destroyed the peace and unity, and at this time threaten the subversion of many churches."
The Cape had hardly been settled a century before emigration to more favored regions was projected. The cleared lands had been so often divided and sub-divided that the area remaining had become inadequate to the wants of the community. The system of agriculture practiced in those days did not provide for the enrichment and replen- ishing of the land, which had been reduced in productiveness by the removal of crops, but rather for breaking up of virgin soil, which in turn was again abandoned for still newer regions. In consequence of this system, or want of system, tillage land became scarce. The first concerted system of emigration, however, was to the eastward, instead of westerly, as at the present day, and the lands occupied
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were the indirect conquest of their arms. The veterans of Philip's war were the first to claim the bounty of the government for their exertions and privations in the field, and most assuredly they merited some degree of consider- ation for services which had received but scanty pecuniary consideration. Though but few of the veterans lived to receive the benefit of their sacrifices, their heirs and legal successors kept up the agitation with a greater degree of success. In 1727, after many postponements and delays, the Massachusetts legislature granted to the officers and soldiers, who served in the Narragansett expedition, a township equal to ten miles square, in the Province of Maine, to each 120 persons where claims should be established within four months from the passage of the act. It was found that the whole number of persons amounted to 840, and the lands for seven townships, numbered respectively from 1 to 7, were subsequently granted. The latter, known as Narragansett No. 7, was assigned to the company of Capt. John Gorham and a few others, which territory was afterwards incorporated into a township by the name of "Gorham," by which it is now known. The grantees commenced their settlement in 1736, Capt. John Phinney and family, from Barnstable, being the pioneers, and were soon followed by a considerable number of families from the Cape, especially of the four towns which sent forth Capt. Gorham's company. The names of Bacon, Bangs, Bourne, Crocker, Davis, Doane, Freeman, Harding, Higgins, Hinckley, Hamblin, Lewis, Knowles, Linnell, Lombard, Paine, Phinney, Sturgis, are encountered as often as on the records of the Cape, and a monument in the centre of the town is inscribed with the name of the pioneer and founder, from Cape Cod, Capt. John Phinney.
The Indians of Mashpee, becoming dissatisfied with their
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political condition, in 1762 asked for larger liberties, and the "District of Marshpee," in which enlarged civil rights were conceded them, was erected the next year by the general court. The district was represented as contain- ing 237 inhabitants and 63 " wigwams."
The northern precinct of Eastham was in 1763 created a town by the name of WELLFLEET. It had been known as Billingsgate, and had for ministers, Revs. Josiah Oakes and Isaiah Lewis.
By the treaty of Paris, concluded in 1763, Canada, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton were conceded to the British. Glorious as were the results of the long series of wars between France and England, in which this county bore so prominent and creditable a part, the relief to the people from the burdens and casualties incident to this state of affairs, was most welcome. None could then foretell that in the next conflict of arms the relative positions of the colonies to the combatants would be entirely changed.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS, 1692-1763.
1693. Rev. Thomas Thornton of Yarmouth closed his ministry and removed to Boston.
1695. Mrs. Mary Prence, widow of Gov. Thomas, died at the house of her son-in-law, Jeremiah Howes, in Yarmouth.
In 1696, the town of Yarmouth in settling the compensation of Rev. John Cotton, provided that "he shall remit yearly the proportion of all those neighbors called Quakers."
1701. The selectmen of Sandwich and Plymouth settled the bounds between the two places. Also the selectmen of Barnstable, Sandwich and Sackoneset, defined the boundaries of their respective towns.
1702. The town of Sandwich gave to Rev. Roland Cotton "all such drift whales as shall, during the time of his ministry, be driven or cast ashore within the limits of the town, being such as shall not be killed with hands."
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1703. Sandwich voted to appropriate £200 to build a uew meeting- house.
1705. Mr. Cotton resigned the pastorate of Yarmouth church, on account of ill health. He died the next year.
1706. A purchase was made by the town of Sandwich of lands at Herring River, belonging to Zachariah Sias, an Indian.
- 1707. A "further division of the 40 acre lots" was made in Sandwich. Leave was granted, by the town, to certain persous "to box and milk 2,000 pine trees for two years, £? to be paid the town for the use."-£20 was appropriated to secure the services of Mr. Thomas Prince "to instruct the children in reading, writing, arithmetic and Latin," and voted "that they who send shall pay £10 more."-is. per day was fixed upon as the pay for town representatives in general court .- The town agreed to pay for wolves £4, " in addition to what is provided by law."- Barnstable voted permission to several Indians to dwell on Oyster Island, at South Sea .- Harwich voted that "every house- keeper shall kill or purchase 12 blackbirds or 4 crows before the first of May, annually, as aforesaid," uuder penalty of 6s. for housekeepers, or 2s. on single men .- Rev. Joseph Metcalf settled over the society in Falmouth.
1708. Rev. Daniel Greenleaf was settled over the society in Yar- mouth.
1709. The town of Eastham, having been presented for not having a schoolmaster, John Doane, Esq., was appointed to appear in the town's behalf, and the selectmen were instructed to take especial care to obtain a teacher.
1710. Mr. John Avery was settled over the society in Truro; £60 per year salary, and £20 to aid in building him a house, was voted by the town.
1712. An agent was appointed by Eastham, to meet the agent of Harwich, "to determine and settle a line between the two towns, running through the land formerly reserved for the Indians." The presumption is that there were no Indians left to occupy the lands. -The proprietors of Truro voted, that "in consequence of the great waste being made of wood in burning lime to be sent out of the town, which may cause a scarcity of fire-wood, no person must cut on the commons for this purpose."-The "new purchase," in Falmouth, was laid out in lots, by a committee consisting of Thomas Bowerman and Philip Dexter, assisted by Mr. Samuel Jennings of Sandwich .- Rev. Jonathan Russell succeeded his father, of the same name, as pastor of the Barnstable church; salary £80, and £200 settlement .- May 13, Col. John Thacher of Yarmouth died, aged 75. He was a member of the provincial council, and was buried uuder military orders.
1713. The province voted £40 to the town of Falmouth "towards building a meeting-house; one-half to be paid when the frame shall
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have been raised, and the balance when the edifice shall have been completed."
1714. The "Province Lands" were constituted by the general court the "Precinct of Cape Cod." The "lands lately purchased of the Quasons" in Harwich were divided among its sixteen proprietors.
1717. Rev. Samuel Treat of Eastham died.
1718. Sandwich voted that no more herring shall be taken in future to "fish corn," the supply before this being in excess of the demand thereof for food .- Rev. Thomas Prince, son of Samuel, Esq., of Sand- wich, and grandson of Gov. Thomas Hinckley, was ordained associate pastor of Old South church, Boston .- Rev. Samuel Osborn called to the pastorate of the South parish of Eastham.
1720. Rev. Joseph Lord settled over the church in Chatham, and Rev. Benj. Webb the North church in Eastham.
1722. Rev. Roland Cotton of Sandwich died March 29, and Mr. Benj. Fessenden succeeded him .- The eastern portion of Yarmouth was set off as a separate parish or precinct.
1723. Rev. Joseph Metcalf of Falmouth died Dec. 24 .- Billingsgate became the 3d parish of Eastham. Rev. Josiah Oakes was first pastor, and continued a short time as such.
1724. Rev. Josiah Marshall settled over the Falmouth society.
1725. Rev. Josiah Dennis became acting pastor of the East Parish, Yarmouth, though not installed until 1727 .- Rev. Joseph Green ordained pastor of East Parish, Barnstable, then newly organized.
1729. Samuel Prince, Esq. of Sandwich died at Middleboro, July 3 .- Rev. Thomas Smith became pastor of the first church, Yarmouth.
1726. "An awful and surprising Providence" occurred Aug. 6, to Ebenezer Taylor of Yarmouth, who on going down a well about 40 feet, the stones below caved in, and those above pressed together, leaving an arch midway, in which he was imprisoned for ten hours, hanging by his hands on the well-rope, at the end of which time he was rescued, in a very weak condition of body .- Rev. Daniel Green- leaf was dismissed from the pastorate of the first church in Yarmouth.
1730. Rev. Isaiah Lewis became pastor of the second parish of Eastham.
1731. Rev. Samuel Palmer settled over the church in Falmouth.
1736. Judge Peter Thacher of Yarmouth died May 26 .- Joseph Parker aud others of Falmouth were granted leave to establish a ferry between Falmouth and the Vineyard.
1739. Rev. Joseph Crocker was settled as minister of the third Eastham parish .- A grant of one hundred and fifty acres of land was made by the general court to Matthias Ellis of Sandwich, "in consideration of the great services rendered by him in the expedition to Port Royal, especially in guarding the artillery at the great hazard of his life."
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1745. An act was passed for the protection and preservation of Provincetown Harbor, and of East Harbor in Truro .- John Hallet, in behalf of the town of Yarmouth, petitioned that by reason of the interruption of their whale fisheries, the inhabitants being much impoverished, they be excused from sending a representative to the general court.
1746. Josiah Ellis and others of Harwich petitioned to be made a distinct precinct, which was granted .- Rev. Benj. Fessenden of Sandwich died Aug. 7.
1747. Rev. Edward Pell made pastor of south precinct of Harwich. - Richard and David Sears, sons of David, of Chatham, having gone to England, and joined the army while there, both fell in the battle of Culloden, April 27.
1748. Rev. Josiah Lord of Chatham died.
1749. Rev. Abraham Williams settled in Sandwich, and Rev. Stephen Emery in Chatham.
1751. Rev. Edward Cheever settled in Eastham.
1752. Rev. Edward Pell of Harwich died.
1754. Rev. John Avery of Truro retired from the ministry in consequence of old age, and Rev. Thomas Smith from Yarmouth, because of inadequate support .- Rev. Benj. Crocker settled over the south precinct of Harwich.
1755. Rev. Nathaniel Stone of Harwich died, aged 88 .- Rev. Grin- dall Rawson settled in Yarmouth, and Rev. Caleb Upham in Truro.
1757. Small pox raged with peculiar virulence in Barnstable, and several citizens died.
1760. Rev. Oakes Shaw settled over the West parish, Barnstable, and Rev. Wm. Rawson retired from the Yarmouth parish.
1762. Rev. Joseph Green, Jr. became pastor of the church in Yarmouth.
1763. Col. Joseph Thacher of Yarmouth d. June 17, and Rev. Josiah Dennis of the eastern precinct, Yarmouth, Aug. 31 .- Hon. Sylvanns Bourne of Barnstable d. Sept. 18.
CHAPTER XI.
GATHERING OF THE STORM.
Colonists' interests unheeded in the Wars-Lessons learned by them- Otis on the "Writs of Assistance," and Isaac Sears on the Stamps -Timothy Ruggles-Stamp Act, "Mutiny Act," and Duty on Tea-Mr. Greenough's complication- Resolves of the Cape towns -County Congress-Divided sentiment of the County at first - Obstruction of Sessions of the Courts-News from Lexington and Concord.
HE almost intermittent wars of the previous C half century between England and France, had developed a state of feeling in the colonies which the mother country viewed with apprehension. So far as this continent was concerned, the American colonists had been left to bear the brunt of the fighting, and their interests and safety had been but little consulted in the frequent treaties and readjustments that followed the hollow truces which, from mere exhaustion, had from time to time been arranged by the combatants. The restoration of Louisburg to the French, after the arduous and brilliant campaign which accomplished its capture, surrendering it as an equivalent for the restoration of French conquests in other directions, was most repugnant to the feelings of the colonists. The people of New England, who had braved and suffered so much to maintain the supremacy of England on this continent, were thus left to calculate how much these exertions counted with the mother country in the great
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game of diplomacy, and were made sensible that their welfare was secondary to other, and what was regarded as ,the more important, interests of the English nation. The restrictions with which their commerce and trade were hampered, the impressment of their citizens, both in the naval and military service, and the encroachments of the royal governors upon the prerogatives of the popular legislative bodies, were the occasion of much apprehension and discontent. The final conquest of Canada, accomplished in so great a degree by the valor of colonial troops, had educated them in the lessons of self-reliance, and of military skill, which was soon to be directed to upholding their own rights against the oppressions of their former allies. "The same old drums that beat at the capture of Louisburg rallied the troops on their march to Bunker Hill; and the same Col. Gridley who planned Pepperell's batteries, marked and laid out the one where Gen. Warren fell; and when Gage was erecting breastworks across Boston Neck, the provincial troops sneeringly remarked that his mud walls were nothing compared with the stone walls of old Louisburg."*
The reluctance of the colonial assemblies to grant supplies to the governors and judges appointed by the crown, upon the requisition of those officers, until they had carefully scrutinized all the items, had been remarked upon by the British ministers with grave disapproval on more than one occasion ; but the exigencies of the times had led to the temporary waving of the question at issue. After the peace of Paris, the ministry had more leisure to pursue their schemes of repression, and the vast debt of the late wars led them to look about for the means of defraying the greatly augmented expenses of the government. Before
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