USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 1 > Part 38
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FINANCIAL BASIS OF MASSACHUSETTS (1628-1630)
The establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was much more auspicious. · Preparations for economic welfare and development were made well in advance. The germ of this settlement was an unincorporated joint-stock association with a capital of £3000, known as the Dorchester Adventurers. It was formed to provide a settlement which would afford greater comfort and religious privileges for the transient sail- ors and fishermen who yearly visited the New England coast. As a settlement in Massachusetts it failed; but interest in the plan gained in England. Men with property and established social position were enlisted in a much more ambitious project which led to the creation of a chartered corporation, the "Gov- ernor and Council of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eng- land." Details as to the financial resources of this company
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are lacking; but it is evident that they were substantial and far in excess of those that promoted the Plymouth colony. The charter cost £2000; and no time was lost in sending (1628) six vessels carrying nearly 300 persons with provi- sions, clothing, tools, and live stock. This was followed in 1630 by the larger migration, which marked the founding of the colony. Among the leaders, Winthrop, who was chosen governor in 1629, had property in England of over £600 a year; Isaac Johnson owned land in three counties; another had been minister to the court of Denmark; and a fourth had accumulated wealth in the West Indies.
There was no fixed amount of capital, nor share certificates. Contributions were voluntary, but each contributor was en- titled to 200 acres of land, as well as a share in trading profits. In addition, if the subscriber went over as a colonist at his own expense, he was to receive 50 acres more for himself, and 50 acres for each member of his family. Settlers who were not contributors were granted 50 acres; and allotments were also made for servants. Apparently there was no plan to make profit for the joint-stock company at the expense of the wel- fare of the colonists. The company simply reserved to itself the exclusive fur trade for seven years.
Records as early as 1628 contain detailed lists of supplies to be sent over. Instructions as to outfitting called for an allow- ance to each man of four pairs of shoes, three pairs of stock- ings, a pair of Norwich garters, four shirts, a suit of doublet and hose of leather lined with oilskin leather and with hooks and eyes, a suit of Hampshire kerseys, four bands, a waist- coat of green cotton bound with red tape, a leathern girdle, a Monmouth cap, a black hat lined in the brow with leather, five red knit caps, two dozen hooks and eyes, two pairs of leather gloves, a blanket, and a pair of sheets.
Similar specifications were made for household utensils and the staple grains of agriculture. Special mention is made of liquorice, potatoes, madder, flax, and hemp. Currant plants, hop roots, saffron heads, seeds of apple, pear, quince and pome- granate, and stones of peaches, plums, cherries, and filberts are named. Cattle, horses, goats, and tamed turkeys are like- wise enumerated.
The need of skilled workmen and engineering talent was not
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overlooked. A concession was made to one group which agreed "to provide able men to send over for managing the business." Mechanics were engaged, including carpenters, wheelwrights, shipwrights, coopers, cleavers, saltmakers, and miners of iron. Preeminent among these early records is the agreement in 1628 with Thomas Graves, "skillful and ex- perienced in the discovery and finding out of iron mines and also of lead, copper, mineral salt, in surveying of buildings and lands, in describing a country by map, in finding out sorts of limestones and materials for buildings, and in manufactur- ing." This all-embracing engineer and chemist agreed to go for three years at a salary of £5 per month.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION (1620-1689)
The population which occupied these new settlements was not large as judged by modern ratios of density, but from the beginning there was constant complaint of over-crowding. The Plymouth Colony grew from 100 in 1620 to 300 in 1630; but even with that slight addition, the colonists felt the neces- sity of pushing northward to Duxbury, Marshfield, and Sci- tuate, and were turning southward toward Cape Cod. The Massachusetts Bay colonization brought several thousand per- sons between 1630 and 1640, until in the latter year there were probably close to 9000.
A traveller, William Wood who spent four years in New England, has left an interesting description of the Massachu- setts Bay settlements as he saw them in 1633. Beginning at the south, Dorchester was the largest town, well wooded and wa- tered, with good arable lands, hay land, fair corn fields and kitchen gardens. It possessed many cattle, goats, and swine.
There was one "inconvenience"; it had no alewife river. A mile away was Roxbury, "the inhabitants of it being all very rich." Here there was a clear and fresh brook, wanting alewives, but having "a great store" of smelts. A quarter of a mile north is Stony River with a water mill. Roxbury had "good ground" for corn, and meadows for cattle. The corn fields were sourrounded by a paling.
Northeast two miles, was Boston, located on a peninsula, and so located that a little fencing would protect the cattle from wolves. Boston lacked wood and timber, which had to
NEVV ENGLANDS PROSPECT.
A true, lively, and experimen- tall defcription of that part of America, commonlycalled NEVY ENGLAND : difcovering the ftate of that Coun- trie, both as it ftands to our new-come English Planters ; and to the old Native Inhabitants.
Laying downe that which may both enrich the knowledge of the mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the future Voyager.
By WILLIAM WOOD.
Printed at London by The.Cotes, for lobn Bellemsie, and are to be fold at his thop, at the three Golden Lyonsin Corne-bill, neere the Royal Exchange. 163 5. ---
From the Harvard University Library
AN EARLY ECONOMIC VIEW
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POPULATION
be fetched from the islands in the harbor by boats. Hay was likewise brought in on lighters. The inhabitants who had cattle were forced to own farms at a distance, as in Muddy River (Brookline), two miles away, where there was good soil, large timber, and marshlands. Here they could keep their cattle and swine during the summer while the corn was growing in their home lots in Boston. Boston was not the greatest or richest town at that time, but was the most noted and most frequented, for it was the seat of government.
Charlestown was another neck like Boston which was reached by a ferry boat over the Charles River. Mystic (Medford), a mile and a half away was very fertile and pleasant, "fit for more inhabitants." New-town (Cambridge) three miles south of Charlestown, was "one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England," and most of the in- habitants were very rich and well supplied with cattle. Many hundreds of acres were "paled in with one general fence a mile and a half long," remnants of which still exist. This town had one drawback; it was too far from the sea. Westward was Watertown, where there was a weir to catch fish, espe- cially shad and alewives. The traveller remarks that he had seen 100,000 caught in the span of two tides.
To the west of the Mystic River was the farm of Governor Winthrop where he kept his cattle; and to the east of this river was the plantation of an earlier governor, Craddock. This was impaled in a park. Another town in the bay was Winnisimet (Chelsea), also "fit for more planters." At Rum- ney Marsh, also now a part of Chelsea, were "fresh meadows" and "more English tillage than any place," suitable for barley, rye, and oats. There was also an abundance of ducks, geese, and fish, including bass, mackerel, and rock cod.
Six miles northeast was Saugus (Lynn), well wooded with oak, pine, and cedar, a "store of good land, fit for plow," used then only for young cattle and wether goats and swine, "to se- cure them from the wolves." Nearby was a weir with a her- ring-house, and again the traveller notes that he had seen 10,- 000 taken in two hours by two men without use of the weir. North of Lynn was Marblehead, "convenient for plantation and fishing," and still further north was Salem Neck. Its
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soil was sandy but good for corn. There was also timber, and the harbor supplied fish. Outlying farms were reached by small canoes, made of "whole pine trees," twenty feet long and two and a half feet wide. Akawam (Ipswich), nine miles from Salem was a "spacious place," with fish, game, and plain plowing fields. This and Merrimac (Newbury) fur- nished the greatest opportunities, and in the Merrimac River there was a great supply of sturgeon and salmon.
The ascendancy of Oliver Cromwell in England, which brought relief from persecution by land, slackened migration somewhat; while the Restoration in 1660 again gave it new impetus. In 1665, the population of Massachusetts is esti- mated at possibly 25,000, and by the end of the century, be- tween 50,000 and 60,000. Of these about 7500 lived in Bos- ton; an equal number in the dozen townships of the Plymouth Colony, and the remainder scattered in settlements located in the eastern third of Massachusetts, and in a few towns bordering the Connecticut River. If the more populous towns, like Boston and Salem be omitted, the density of popu- lation in the farming towns did not probably much exceed ten to the square mile.
Roughly a line drawn from the present Lowell at the north, southwesterly to Worcester, and then bending to the east to the southern border, marked the boundary between which and the ocean most of the inhabitants lived. A few settlements had been planted on the Connecticut River by 1665. Spring- field, Westfield, Northampton, Deerfield, Northfield, Hatfield, and Hadley were outlying settlements in the west, which could only be reached by vessels rounding Cape Cod, or by an ar- duous horseback journey or on foot overland by Indian trails, marked by blazed trees.
During King Philip's war (1675) fourteen of the interior settlements, extending from Groton, Worcester and New Bed- ford, were abandoned, as well as Deerfield and Northampton on the Connecticut. The Indian population was small. At the beginning of the seventeenth century there may have been a good many thousand; but as already noted, in the chapter on Plymouth, a plague destroyed at least half of the natives, and weakened the rest.
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LAND ALLOTMENT
ALLOTMENT OF LAND (1620-1680)
No instructions were given to the Plymouth colonists as to how their common property was to be divided at the end of seven years. Some distribution of 100 one-acre lots was, how- ever, made in 1624; and in 1627, when the partnership with the Adventurers was formally dissolved, allotments of 20 acres were given.
The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company was more precise in its instructions. Instead of a right to an indefinite amount of property, each shareholder in the migration re- ceived a grant of a stated number of acres of land. Allot- ments were also planned on a generous scale; for the total area open to settlement was far more extensive than was possible under the conditions existing at Plymouth.
Although each of the original shareholders of the Bay Colony was entitled to 200 acres, the right of locating every community settlement was under control of the General Court. When grants were made to a group of persons to settle a plantation - and frequently in the case of special grants to individuals,- the Court appointed a committee to view the location and determine whether it was suitable. Settlers were enjoined to keep together ; and care was taken to prevent the scattering of the population beyond the limits of protection against possible attacks by unfriendly Indians.
The several town settlements established regulations as to distribution for the members of their own particular group. Lands were in some instances allotted by a vote in town meet- ing ; sometimes by selectmen, and again by special committees. Two tests were prominent in the assignment of acreage - the amount of the settler's estate and his vocation and capacity to cultivate the land. A typical illustration of the method fol- lowed is seen in the settlement of Woburn. Seven freemen were given by the General Court a grant of Woburn, four miles square; these seven in turn made grants to those who agreed to settle. Those who lived nearest the meeting-house were given less land about their houses; those living farther away received more. To the poorest was given a meadow lot of 6 or 7 acres, and an upland lot of 25 acres.
Again, the settlers of Springfield, in almost their first town
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meeting in 1636, voted that "planting ground and meadow" should be divided among persons "who are most apt to use such ground." The value of the settler's resources and the number of his cattle were taken into account. A person who had no cattle was, however, granted not less than 30 acres of mowing ground; while those who had cows, steers, or year-olds had at least two acres for each animal, and for a horse not less than four acres.
To some of the grants was annexed the consideration that the grantees should bring testimonials of their peaceable be- havior, or that they would agree to remain in town for five or more years. Unfriendly settlers in many instances were excluded, and grants were frequently ordered to be forfeited if not cultivated within a reasonable time.
Special allotments were made for ministers, for schools, and for other public purposes; and an outlying acreage was often reserved for future needs. Worcester, for example, settled in the latter part of the century (1684), was divided into 480 lots; out of which 60 were tax-free, for a school, training ground, ministers' houses, cemetery, gristmill, sawmill and fulling mill.
To the extent that allotment was based upon the amount of stock subscribed, the settlement might be regarded as a capi- talistic enterprise. In actual evolution, however, it was essen- tially democratic, not only in its political relationships, but in its economic characteristics. A few of the leaders assumed, either by contributions or by loans, a considerable amount of the initial expense; but not enough to justify the grants of extensive tracts of land, even if there had been a disposition to build up great estates, such as existed in the home country. There is abundant evidence that no such desire existed in the planning.
In 1653 when a request was made for a further division of the plantation of Springfield, the Court ordered that not more than 100 acres be granted to any one settler; in Sher- born, laid out in 1674, it was ordered that no man should have more than 50 acres until twenty families were settled; and in Salem, the customary grant to late comers was 50 acres.
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INDIVIDUAL HOLDINGS
INDIVIDUAL HOLDINGS
Farms, particularly in the early years, were small, as might be expected in an uneven, hilly country where there were few open stretches of cleared land. In general the large ma- jority of the farms in the coast towns varied from ten to forty acres each, the latter being nearly the acreage of the present Boston Common.
For special meritorious public service by magistrates, clergy- men, and promoters of industrial undertakings, a few large grants were directly made by the General Court. A 4200-acre grant was given in return for £400 "adventured in the com- mon stock," 2000 acres were granted in 1657 "for the en- couragement of Harvard College," and a few years later 500 acres to its president ; the widow and sons of Mr. Nowell, long secretary of the colony, were rewarded with 2000 acres in two or three farms. Such exceptional wholesale grants, how- ever, always carried the proviso that they did "not frustrate any previous grant," or hinder a plantation which had already been established.
The allotment to each settler was generally in scattered tracts. To each of the twenty or thirty heads of families, who formed the community seeking to found a new town- ship, was given a home lot of four or five acres, and frequently the Court ordered that these be not more than half a mile from the meeting house. In addition the newcomer received lots of upland or meadow more remote from the center and rights in common lands.
It was difficult to secure equality of location owing to dif- ferences in soil, and the interruption of barren hill-tops, marsh lands, and swamps. Fields were consequently subdivided, and the holdings of individual proprietors broken up in different parts of the town. Thus fields were apt to be small; later, however, by exchange or purchase the farmer created more compact holdings around the home lot.
Although the "planting land" and meadows were divided among several proprietors, the several divisions were not sep- arated by fences. The whole crop field was frequently fenced, each proprietor contributing his share according to the size of the allotment. Not only was each settler responsible to a com- mon group for fencing, but he was subject to regulations as
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to kind of crops to be cultivated and the date of harvest. Af- ter the crops were harvested, the common fence might be re- moved, and the field opened to the village cattle for pasture.
COMMONS
Neighborliness and need of easy opportunity for mutual counsel and assistance prevented the scattering of the popula- tion, except in village groups. Nor could a large settlement thrive, until commercial and manufacturing enterprises were developed. Agriculture alone could not support a population of more than a few hundred in a single township. Even in the latter half of the century, as seen in the instructions for the laying out of Groton, a plantation eight miles square was considered appropriate for sixty families. This would give to each family a farm of approximately one square mile. This did not mean, however, that the homes of the farmers were widely separated; these were compactly grouped in the center, a policy which was the more necessary for interior towns sub- ject to attack by the Indians.
A part of the common land was held by the original pro- prietors, and rights to its use were inherited or could be sold, as was the home lot and meadow which the settler held in fee. A part, generally the larger portion, was held in com- mon by the village community collectively. This naturally lay on the outskirts of the settlement. Such land was open to pasturage, the cutting of wood, or free taking of any other products which the land afforded. Squatters frequently set- tled on this land, and late comers were made grants from this source. There were thus two kinds of commons, the proprie- tors' commons, in which the owners had fractional rights, and town commons which comprised land not allotted. In the first years of a settlement, the proprietors' commons furnished pasturage for the several owners, and little use was made of land more distant from the center of the new community. In some towns the commons were divided off and each devoted to a special use of pasturage; in Newbury, for example, there was a cow common, an ox common, a calf common and a sheep common. As late as 1880 titles on Cape Cod existed to· "one-eighth-of-a-cow right."
From the portrait in the Essex Institute, Salem WILLIAM PYNCHON, CONNECTICUT VALLEY PIONEER
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AGRICULTURE
LAND FROM INDIANS
In the acquisition and settlement of land, the colonists were disposed to give some respect to the rights of the Indians. In this they found a difficult problem. According to English jurists, discovery and possession gave a valid title to lands; and the ultimate title rested in the Crown which in turn could make royal grants. Expediency and a sense of justice led the colonial authorities to apply this principle in a liberal spirit. Fortunately for the colonists, the Indian population in the east- ern part of Massachusetts was not large. The plague which a few years before the Pilgrims arrived had swept through that section, left in many sections but a small number of the natives. Abandoned clearings accordingly were not infre- quent. The General Court frequently qualified a grant by the proviso that the just right of any Indian to possession be re- spected. In a grant to Simon Bradstreet, an active leader in colonization, in 1657, the Court specifically provided that he "compound with the Indians for their interest thereon."
Local town records give abundant testimony to the purchase of land from the Indians. The latter were easily satisfied if they could retain fishing rights and a claim to a small parcel for planting corn. Typical of the indifference of the natives to ownership of land was the sale of a tract on the west side of the Connecticut River in 1641. Title was formally trans- ferred by Indians on payment of 15 fathoms of wampum, 134 yards of double shag bags, 1 bow, 7 knives, 7 pairs of scissors, 7 awls, "with certain fishhooks and other small things." In this instance, the only reservation was that the Indians had the "liberty of fishing in Chicoppy at the usual weirs that now are in use."
AGRICULTURE
The first business of the settlers was to get food, either from the soil or from the ocean and the forest. Especially worthy of record is the struggle of a poorly equipped band of pioneers to support life and provide for material wants in a new and strange country. As a group, the Pilgrims had no special aptitude or training for farming, and least of all for farming in a new country, with a harsh climate, soil
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not characterized by high fertility, and land heavily timbered, with but few clearings suitable for immediate cultivation. The outlook for the first colonists at Plymouth in 1620, about 100 in number, of whom less than half were adult men, was forbidding. They did not make their first landing until No- vember and New England's on-coming winter denied them any opportunity for agricultural activity. More than half of the adult males died that first winter; the labor force to estab- lish a new settlement was weakened at the outset.
In the first spring at Plymouth six acres were planted to barley and twenty to corn, the latter from seed hidden by Indians, but discovered by exploring parties during the win- ter. This grain was new to the settlers, but the friendship of an Indian taught them the method of cultivation. Hence- forth it played a large part in satisfying the food wants of the colonists. Fish, particularly cod and bass, game, includ- ing wild turkeys, pigeons, and deer, and wild fruits helped to supply their needs. From such humble beginnings the eco- nomic life of Englishmen in Massachusetts had its origin.
The colonists quickly added to the cultivation of corn, beans, and pumpkins, which they found in their new land, some of the principal grains and vegetables of Europe, as wheat, rye, buckwheat, and oats; and the vegetables, cabbages, turnips, onions, carrots, and parsnips. Corn, however, was the prin- cipal food crop, except in a few favored spots where there were extensive clearings adaptable for wheat. Barley was grown for the making of beer which was a common drink until the apple orchards furnished fruit to be converted into cider. Oats were sown for food for horses.
The cultivation of hemp was attempted to provide cordage for vessels, but little success was attained. The settlers were more fortunate in the growing of flax, especially along the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers; this was raised for its fibre to make linen for household consumption, and also for its seed to be crushed into oil. The colonists early introduced fruit trees, including apples, pears, plums, and cherries, partly from seeds and partly from trees brought over from Europe.
STOCK
The farming tools used during this period were the simple
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STOCK
hand implements with which we are familiar today, the hoe, fork, spade, shovel, ax, grub-ax, mattock, pick-ax, rake, scythe, sickle, flail and wheelbarrow. The Pilgrims did not use the plow until twelve years after landing, and by the middle of the century probably half the farms in Massachusetts did not possess this tool. Towns were encouraged to buy plows, and for this service bounties were paid. Carts were crude affairs; frequently the wheels were sawn from solid plank and had no tires. Sleds were often used in place of carts even in the summer.
The farm home except in the few larger settlements was the center of economic activity. The settlers lived by hand labor ; in most of the communities their food, clothing, shelter, furniture and farming implements were home-made from raw materials of the fields and forests in the immediate neighbor- hood. Neighbors were few; roads to the outlying settlements were but rude paths or trails; each family in the farming set- tlements at the outset was to a large extent a self-sufficing unit. Gradually there was introduced a division of labor, seen first in the establishment of a sawmill, followed by a gristmill, and then possibly a fulling mill.
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