USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 2 > Part 26
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In 1692, for instance, it was enacted that ". . . no Taverner, Ale-House keeper or Victualler shall have or keep in or about
BOSTON, January 29, 1770.
Laft Wednefday Frening there was a grand Rout and Card-party at the . morable Mr. Comm.ikoner Burch's, in Milk Street, at which were prefent his Honor the Lieutenant Governor and Family ; the honorable Charles Paxton, Efq; the honorable Mr. Commillioner Hutton and. Lady ; the honorable Mr. Flucker his Lady and family ; Nathaniel Rogers, Samuel Waterhoufe and John Erving, Efq'rs; with their Ladies ; and many other Gentlemen and Ladies, to the Number gz .-- The Night bring very cold and formy, prevented many others from b .. ng prefent that intended themfeives that Pleafure. The Ceremonies of the Evening was conducted with great Emre and Politenefs.
One Day lait Week Meffirs. James Hearfey and Wil- liam Bradley, both of Abington, purchafed a few Arti- cles for their Families Ufe, of WILLIAM JACKSON, not knowing that he was an Importer : This being known at their Lodgings, the whole Compmy refufed to have any Intercourte with them ; and thofe of them who were to be their Fellow-'Travellers the next Day, refufed to keep .. Company with them on the Road, unlefs they returned the Goods. - This Refentment, together with their own Inclination, (for they would not have traded with Mr. Jacklon, had they known he was an Importer) led them the next Morning to carry the Goods back to him, hut they could not prevail upon him to take them, as they might poffibly, lie long on his Hands, The foregoing we were requested to publith by the above- mentioned Hearfy and Bradley.
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C A CARD.
LERICUS RUSTICUS prefents his Compliments to the C-r in C-f, and theMajority of his Privy C --- irs, and defires to know their Opinion of the meet- ing of a Number of his Female Parithioners at a Spinning Match. If fuch Meeting be illegal, he will ufe all his Influence to prevent it, altho' it hurt his own Intereft, the Fruits of their Induftry being defigued as a Free Gift to him ; defiring to approve himfelf aLover of the Laws and Conftitution of his Country, as well as a Promoter of Induftry, and Manufactures .---
From an original in the Harvard College Library The Boston Gasette ON SOCIETY AND POLITICS, 1770
Courtesy of The Wayside Inn
TAP ROOM, THE WAYSIDE INN, SOUTH SUDBURY
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their Houses, Out-Houses, Yards, Backsides, Gardens, or Places to them belonging any Dice, Cards, Tables, Bowls, Shuffle-board, Billiards, Coyts, Cales, Logats, or any other Implements used in Gaming." In subsequent years legislation of increasing severity was passed in the attempt to check the tavern's popularity. What was doubtless a frequent after- math of "excessive Drinking and Tipling" was provided against by a law of 1711 to the effect that "no persons either singly or together in Company shall presume to Sing, Dance, Fidle, Pipe, or use any Musical Instruments in any of the Streets, Lanes, or Alleys, within any Town in the Night Time; or make any Rout, or other Disturbance, to the disquiet and dis- rest of any of the Inhabitants."
More directly traceable to the change in government and to the appearance of new ideas and people thus involved was a growing custom of duelling. As early as 1687 Sewall recorded : "Two persons, one array'd in white, the other in red, goe through the Town with naked Swords advanced, with a Drum attending each of them and a Quarter Staff, and a great rout following as is usual. It seems 'Tis a chalenge to be fought at Capt. Wing's next Thorsday." Heavy fines against duellers were authorized by a law of 1719, but as it was not effective enough, more stringent measures were taken in 1728. At that time it was provided that the person found guilty should be "carried publickly in a Cart to the Gallows, with a Rope about his neck" and should sit there for one hour ; in addition there was to be a jail sentence of one year, after which the offender should give security for good behavior for a like period. The law further declared that the body of one killed in a duel should not have Christian burial : it was to be buried without a coffin, with a stake driven through the body, at or near the usual place of execution, or else in the most public spot in the town.
EXECUTIONS AND FUNERALS
An interesting commentary on the Puritan frame of mind is that, while such seemingly moderate diversions as dancing or card playing were savagely discountenanced, the populace were allowed, well along into the eighteenth century, to in-
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dulge themselves in the thrills of a public execution. The proceedings began with the special sermons for the benefit of the doomed criminal on the last Sunday and Lecture-Day before his death, and continued to the final scene on the scaf- fold. All were matters of widespread interest. John Dunton, writing of such an exhibition in 1686 said that, since there had not been such an affair for seven years, some had come fifty miles to see it. Increase Mather's sermon, he reports, was preached before five thousand people. "They went first to the New Church, but the Gallery crack'd, and so they were forced to remove to Mr. Willards ... Some thousands fol- lowed to see the execution."
Sewall gives an account of a similar occasion in 1704. "After Dinner, about 3, p. m. I went to see the Execution .. . Many were the people that saw upon Broughton's Hill. But when I came to see how the River was cover'd with People, I was amazed; Some say there were 100 Boats. 150 Boats and Canoes, saith Cousin Moody of York ... Mr. Cotton Mather came with Capt. Quelch and six other for Execution from the Prison to Scarlet's Wharf, and from thence in the Boat to the place of Execution about the midway between Hanson's point and Broughton's warehouse ... When the Scaffold was let to sink, there was such a Screech of the Women that my wife heard it in our Entry next the Orchard, and was much sur- prised at it; yet the wind was sou-west. Our house is a full mile from the place."
Perhaps not fairly to be described as a diversion, yet ap- parently not regarded as a wholly unpleasant social duty, was attendance upon funerals. Doubtless this interest can in part be explained by the old Puritan preoccupation with death as the most important moment in a man's life, and by the survival of the frontier-day attitude when the difference be- tween life and death was a matter of the utmost practical significance. Yet by the end of the seventeenth century the emphasis was somewhat changed. A social formula had come to surround the funeral and exercised a fascination of its own, even when at the same time the service itself remained totally devoid of any trace of what might be called a ritual. For instance, accoutrements were worn which, at the funeral of a person of great importance, served to mark the wearer as
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one of the aristocracy; and which on humbler occasions con- ferred a passing though pleasing distinction. Such were the funeral ring, scarf, and gloves, all three of which, where wealth permitted, were given to the minister, pall-bearers, relatives, and at times, as Sewall's diary shows, to close family friends. Sewall always made a particular point of mentioning the in- stances when he received any of these ceremonial trappings. The diary suggests that it was more than a morbid interest that led him to make those notes and prompted him to men- tion the times when he had a position at or near the head of the procession following the corpse and the mourners to the grave.
With the passing of years, while the Puritan burial service was slowly accommodating itself to a prayer or a funeral ser- mon for its embellishment, the indulgence in these externals was growing to such a degree that in 1724 there came from the General Court the first of a series of laws curbing the extravagance. The year before, the funeral of Governor Bur- net had been carried out on a most extravagant scale, and might well have given public opinion a shock, if it became necessary to go to such limits to make this occasion sufficiently vivid. The records of the General Court-for this was a public funeral-show elaborate arrangements prescribing with due regard for grades of social distinction the insignia of mourning for the Governor's family and servants and for all the worthies of the Province. The appropriation from the public treasury for these obsequies amounted to £1,097. 11. 3.
An interesting law regarding funerals was passed in 1727 as part of a campaign for stricter observance of the Sabbath. Funerals on the Lord's Day were forbidden because they caused violations of the day "by Servants and Children gather- ing in the Streets and Walking up and down, to and fro from the Funerals," and were the reason for "many disorders and Irregularities then committed."
SPORTS AND DIVERSIONS
Perhaps the closest approximation to organised athletics known in eighteenth century Massachusetts was football. John Dunton describes a game which he saw in 1686. "The place
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we went to was a Town call'd Rowley, where most of the Inhabitants had been Clothiers: But there was that Day a great Game of Foot-Ball to be play'd, which was the occasion of our going thither; There was another Town that play'd against them . .. they play'd with their bare feet, which I thought was very odd; but it was upon a broad Sandy Shoar, free from Stones, which made it more easy. Neither were they so apt to trip up one anothers heels and quarrel, as I have seen 'em in England." One learns from the statute book that then as now apparently a football was part of every normal boy's equipment. In 1715 it was enacted that because there had been many of late "so mischievous, more especially in the time of Publick rejoycings, as to break the Glass Win- dows of several Houses, and to commit divers Insolencies in one or more of the Towns," a fine of from 20s to £5 should be imposed for wilfully breaking windows "by throwing stones, Snow-Balls, kicking Foot-Balls, or any other ways."
Horse racing had been frowned upon in an earlier period as a "mispence of time" and a source of vicious gambling. Such an advertisement as the following indicates that former prejudices had weakened somewhat with the passing years. "A plate of Thirty Pound value to be Run for from Anatomy House to Cambridge on Thursday the 13th of September [1772] next at 3 a Clock in the Afternoon, by any Horse, Mare or Gelding, each carrying 10 Stone weight, allowing weight for Inches, and not above Six in number."
Diaries of the period are filled with references to hunting and fishing. The latter sport was the occasion of a pamphlet by Joseph Seccombe which should rank among the classics in the literature of angling. The title page reads: "Business and Diversion inoffensive to God and necessary for the comfort and support of human society. A Discourse utter'd in Part at Ammauskeeg-Falls, in the Fishing-Season, 1739." Citing the "sacred storey" of the "Lucky Draught of Fishes," his first conclusion is that "Fishing is innocent as Business or Diversion." It may be objected, he says, that fishing is in- humane and that a fisherman is considered "a filthy Wretch." "But here, in Fishing, we are so far from delighting to see our Fellow-Creature die, that we hardly think whether they live. . We have no more of a murderous Tho't in taking them,
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than in cutting up a Mess of Herbage." God, furthermore, "has implanted in several Sorts of Fish a strong Instinct (or Inclination) to swim up these Rivers a vast Distance from the Sea. And is it not remarkable, that Rivers most incumbered with Falls, are ever more full of Fish than others . . . Does the forming and disposing of these Things argue nothing?" Fish- ing is equally valid as a diversion. "If we consider, that the End of Business and Diversion are the same, we shall clearly conceive the Truth. The End of both are the Refreshment and Support of Man in the Service of God. If I may eat them for Refreshment, I may as well catch them, if this recreate and refresh me. It's as lawful to delight the Eye, as the Palate."
There were many diversions which mirror for later days the spirit of the life of the time. Such, for instance, was "hauling the fox," described by Dr. Hamilton. "It is prac- tised upon simple clowns. Near the town there is a pond of about half a quarter of a mile broad. Across this they lay a rope, and two or three strong fellows concealed in the bushes hold one end of it. To a stump in view there is tied a large fox. When they can lay hold of an ignorant clown, on the op- posite side of the pond, they inveigle him by degrees into a scrape, two people pretending to wager,-one upon the fox's head, and the other upon the clown's-twenty shillings or some such matter, that the fox shall not or shall pull him thro' the water in spite of his teeth. The clown easily imagines himself stronger than the fox, and for a small reward allows the rope to be put round his waist, which done, the sturdy fel- lows on the other side, behind the bush, pull lustily for their friend the fox, who sits tied to his stump all the time of the operation,-being only a mere spectator,-and haul poor pil- garlick with great rapidity thro' the pond, while the water hisses and foams on each side or him as he ploughs the surface, and his coat is well wet."
Redolent of the rural life is the classic passage on husking parties in Barlow's poem The Hasty Pudding.
The days grow short; but though the falling sun
To the glad swain proclaims his day's work done, Night's pleasing shades his various tasks prolong, And yield new subjects to my various song.
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For now, the corn-house fill'd, the harvest home, The invited neighbors to the husking come; A frolic scene, where work, and mirth, and play, Unite their charms, to chase the hours away.
Where the huge heap lies centred in the hall, The lamp suspended from the cheerful wall, Brown corn-fed nymphs, and strong hard-handed beaux, Alternate ranged, extend in circling rows, Assume their seats, the solid mass attack; The dry husks rustle, and the corn-cobs crack; The song, the laugh, alternate notes resound, And the sweet cider trips in silence round.
The laws of husking every wight can tell- And sure no laws he ever keeps so well: For each red ear a general kiss he gains, With each smut ear he smuts the luckless swains; But when to some sweet maid a prize is cast, Red as her lips, and taper as her waist, She walks the round, and culls one favored beau, Who leaps, the luscious tribute to bestow. Various the sport, as are the wits and brains Of well-pleased lasses and contending swains; Till the vast mound of corn is swept away, And he that gets the last ear wins the day.
Equally characteristic is a later account of a spinning party given in the local newspaper of Falmouth, Maine, for May 1, 1788.
"On the 1st instant, assembled at the house of the Rev. Sam- uel Deane, of this town, more than one hundred of the fair sex ... most of whom were skilled in the important art of spinning. An emulous industry was never more apparent than in this beautiful assembly. The majority of fair hands gave motion to not less than sixty wheels. Many were occupied in preparing the materials, besides those who attended to the entertainment of the rest ... Near the close of the day, Mrs. Deane was presented by the company with two hundred and thirty-six seven knotted skeins of excellent cotton and linen yarn, the work of the day, excepting about a dozen skeins
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which some of the company brought in ready spun. Some had spun six, and many not less than five skeins apiece . . . To conclude, and crown the day, a numerous band of the best singers attended in the evening, and performed an agreeable variety of excellent pieces in psalmody."
STAGE-PLAYS, SHOWS
The theatre, condemned of old by Puritan codes, was slow in establishing itself in Massachusetts in the eighteenth cen- tury. The continued prejudice against plays and the modern- ity of the accessories are illustrated by a remark of Sewall's in 1714. "There is a Rumor, as if some design'd to have a play acted in the Council-Chamber, next Monday; which much surprises me ; And as much as in me lyes, I do forbid it. The Romans were very fond of their Plays : but I never heard they were so far set upon them, as to turn their Senat-House into a Play-House ... Let it not be abused with Dances, or other Scenical divertisements ... Let not Christian Boston go be- yond Heathen Rome in the practise of shameful Vanities."
Notwithstanding the ban on "Stage-Plays" which remained in force in the Province till the end of the eighteenth cen- tury, the youth of Harvard occasionally found opportunities to taste the pleasures elsewhere forbidden. The diary of Na- thanael Ames records several such dramatic occasions between the years 1758 and 1765. Nor were the college authorities steadfastly opposed to it. There is indeed mention in the "Faculty Records" of a performance of "a Scene in Terrence" given at the request of the Committee of the Overseers, "but in private in the Library, none being present but the Commit- tee, the President & Tutors." At the same time, for a student to be involved in any "Stage-Plays, Interludes or theatrical Entertainments, in the Town of Cambridge or elsewhere" was to expose him to heavy penalties.
The general public had to satisfy their craving for the the- atrical in less dramatic forms. Among the substitutes were one-animal menageries which occasionally made a tour of the towns. On two occasions lions were thus exhibited; on an- other a "Fine Large White Bear" was offered in competition, "a Sight far preferable to the Lion in the Judgment of all
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Persons who have see them." Salem once had an opportunity to pay twenty-five cents to see a "Sapient Dog" whose talents ranged from lighting lamps to discharging a loaded cannon.
For those possessed of more sophisticated tastes appropriate entertainments were provided. Benjamin Lynde, Jr., for in- stance, mentions (1732) a "Poppet show." Some years later (1764) John Rowe entered in his diary: "Went after dinner to see a show at the White Horse which was a very faint Representation of the City of Jerusalem, in short it is a great Imposition on the Publick."
CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN NEW ENGLAND
With the establishment of the Episcopal Church in Boston in 1686 a new element of discord was introduced into Massa- chusetts society. From the time of the first clash between Randolph and the local clergy it became clear that the original gap between Puritans and Episcopacy was as wide as it had ever been, if indeed the long monopoly had not intensified that hatred. The Mathers, marshalling the Puritan forces, were bitter in their denunciations of the monster in their midst. In- crease derided "those broken Responds and the shreds of Prayer which the Priests and People toss between them like Tennis Balls," and utterly condemned the use of the cross as "the greatest among all the Idols of Rome."
Cotton Mather in the Election Sermon of 1690, the year after the opening of King's Chapel, made little attempt to disguise the point of the following sentences. "Let all man- kind know, that we came into the Wilderness because we would quietly worship God without that Episcopacy, that Common Prayer, and those unwarrantable Ceremonies, which the Land of our Fathers' Sepulchres has been defiled with . . . Deliver thyself, O New-England, from every thing that may look like a Daughter of Babylon . . . Let us not so much as Touch the Unclean Thing, or hide so much as a Rag or Pin of a Babylonish Garment with us."
Traditional doctrinal differences in a time when moderation in controversy was not considered a virtue will go far toward accounting for such language. But it is also undeniable that any attack against the Episcopal Church was regarded as a
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blow against an enemy threatening Puritan political and so- cial control. Certain customs, social and religious at the same time, were thought sure to come in on the wave of invasion, containing within them the seeds of corruption. The celebra- tion of Christmas, according to Increase Mather, had neither scriptural nor historical warrant and as generally observed was "highly dishonorable to the name of Christ." What he was referring to was doubtless the kind of thing which prompted Cotton Mather to enter in his diary for December 30, 1711 : "I hear of a Number of young People of both Sexes, belong- ing, many of them, to my Flock, who have had on the Christ- mas-night, this last Week, a Frolick, a revelling Feast, and Ball, which discovers their Corruption, and has a Tendency to corrupt them yett more, and provoke the Holy One to give them up to eternal Hardness of Heart." Sewall, too, reflects in his diary the anxiety with which Puritan Boston watched for any signs of a growing fondness for Christmas celebra- tions. Year after year, however, he was able to record, with a sigh of relief still almost audible as one turns the pages, that shops were open as usual and that carts were being driven into town as on any other day.
The Church of England brought with it many other new- fangled things which it was thought wise to frown upon from the very first. What defense could there be for Shrove Tues- day and its accompaniment of buffoonery which to Mather smelled "both of Popish and Paganish superstition?" Yet as early as 1687 Sewall recorded (Tuesday, February 15), "Jos. Maylem carries a cock at his back, with a Bell in 's hand, in the Main Street; several follow him blindfold, and under pre- tense of striking him or 's cock." The traditional New England Fast Day, too, was threatened with superstitious appendages. "The Governour and Council" wrote Sewall, October 1, 1702, "agree that Thorsday October 22 be a Fast-Day. Governour moved that it might be Friday, saying, Let us be English-men. I spake against making any distinction in the Days of the week; Desired the same Day of the Week might be for Fasts and Thanksgiving." Bostonians were now being placed in their graves to the accompaniment of the Burial Office, "a Lying, very bad office," says Sewall; "makes no difference between the precious and the vile." Such services as were said
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for Lady Andros were too distressing for Sewall even to stay and witness.
Who could tell what it might lead to if Boston got started going to church on St. Paul's Day or on what "in their language," as Sewall contemptuously remarks, was Ascen- sion Day? In fact there was too much loose talk about saints ; and Sewall felt it necessary to take up the matter with an offender in a position of influence. August 23, 1708 he wrote to Henry Flint: "According to the simplicity of the Gospel, the saying Saint Luke, and Saint James. &c has been disused in New England. And to take it up again, is distasteful to me; because it is a Change for the worse. I have heard it from several; but to hear it from the Senior Fellow of Har- vard is more surprising; lest by his Example he should seem to countenance and authorise Inconvenient Innovations."
Further discussions with the Senior Fellow, Tutor Flint, in his time Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, ensued from this letter. "He argued that saying Saint Luke was an indifferent thing; and twas commonly used; and therefore he might use it ... I argued that 'twas not Scriptural; that 'twas absurd to Saint Matthew &c and not to say Saint Moses, Saint Sam- uel, &c. And if we said Saint we must goe through, and keep Holy-days appointed for them, and turn to the Order in the Common-Prayer Book."
CHALLENGE OF THE OLDER GENERATION
Such were the social problems and customs which marked Massachusetts life during the provincial period. What was the general character of that life as it appeared on the surface to some contemporary observers?
As the seventeenth century came to its close and the eight- eenth started its course one could have heard loud cries of distress in certain influential quarters. Clearly something was wrong. For instance, Joshua Scottow uttered a clarion call, Old Men's Tears for their own Declensions, mixed with Fears of their and Posterities further falling off from New-Eng- land's Primitive Constitution. "What is become of the Primi- tive Zeal, Piety and Holy Heat found in the Hearts of our Parents ... Is not their Love to God and his Ordinances, per-
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verted in us, to slighting and neglecting not only of Instituted but of his Natural Worship, ... their Souls Lively Thirstings and Pantings after God and his Ways, metamorphosed into Land and Trade-Breathings . .. so as now we may and must say New-England is not to be found in New-England nor Boston in Boston; it is become a lost town."
This was at the same time a lament and challenge of the new order by the old, and many echoes of it were heard from other lips. Cotton Mather was spurring on his flock to repent- ance for their "offensive evils," including the "unrighteous Discouragements" which they inflicted upon the magistrates and ministers in their attempts to serve the public. Fasts were being held for the youth, "a carnal, giddy, rising genera- tion" as Mather characterised them. The clergy were be- sieging the General Court with petitions for legislation which would check the growing degeneration of society. They even went so far in 1725 as to ask authorization for the long unused device of a Synod which should consider "what are the mis- carriages whereof we have reason to think the judgments of heaven, upon us, call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the most evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop to these or the like miscarriages." The spirit which prompted that extreme measure could not be extinguished by a mere rebuff from England.
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