USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > Dedham tercentenary 1636-1936 > Part 9
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SCENE 4. The same. Interior.
The members of the Committee proceed to business. The additional members are: Miss Rosanna F. Lynch, Mrs. Frank H. Clarke, Mr. Theodore T. Marsh, Mr. J. J. Smith, Mr. Boyd Whiting, Mr. Lyman Matta, Mr. George C. Willard, Mr. George Phillips, Mr. Frank Smith, Mr. H. Wendell Endicott, Mr. Earl W. Pilling, Rev. Lyman V. Rutledge, Mr. John W. Connors.
SCENE 5. Church Green, children of Dedham searching out ber history.
MR. TUTTLF. What are you after?
CHILDREN. The oldest spot in Dedham. What is it? The Pillar of Liberty? The First Free Public School? MR. TUTTLE. Neither. It might be the Fairbanks house, but the Avery Oak's older, and the Charles River, bearing the name of a far-off king is older than the oak.
CHILDREN. . And the hills are older than the river and the sun is older than the hills.
MR. TUTTLE. And the stars are older than the sun, when it comes to that. CHILDREN. But in Dedham, what really is the oldest spot in Dedham?
MR. TUTTLE. If we had a light that would shine back into the dark corners of the past we might see.
CHILDREN. What kind of light? Where can we find one?
MR. TUTTLE. We'll see, we'll see. Suppose seven of you serve as torch bearers, --- for there are seven ages in the story of Dedham, if you divide our 300 years into periods of fifty years each and then add one for the future. And one of you shall hold the candle for each age. Go to the top of the hill at dawn and light your candle in the rising sun.
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SCENE 6. The Candle of the Dawn.
First Candle Bearer-Betty May Campbell-now seen as a silhouette against the sunrise. The light of her candle reveals the first episode.
ACT I. From the Beginning to Sept. 8, 1636 A-DEDHAM, ENGLAND .
Historical Notes-Dedham, England, is a quiet village of perhaps 1800 inhabitants on the banks of the Stour in Essex. It was a city of weavers, about eight miles north of Colchester, -the early centre of the weaving industry in England. In the Doomsday Book the name is given as Delham, meaning evidently the hamlet of the dell, or the home in the dell; but in other references, some earlier, the name appears as Didd or Didd's ham, meaning the home or hamlet of the Didd family. Canon Gerald H. Rendall, who is now engaged in writing a history of the town, accepts the latter view.
At the time of the Puritan exodus to America, Dedham was a flourishing centre · of weaving, and the Rev. John Rogers was attracting large numbers of people from the countryside to hear his fiery denunciation of tyranny and extravagance. He was educated at Cambridge University, and served as rector of the church in Dedham from 1605 until his death in 1636. His second son, Nathaniel, (1598-1655 ) was likewise educated at Cambridge and in 1636 came to Ipswich, Mass.
Cambridge was the centre of the Independents, who were not so rigid as the Calvinists nor so exacting as the other Puritans. Her sons were zealous fighters in the cause of freedom and righteousness. Nearly 100 ministers in early American pulpits were nurtured there.
John Milton entered Christ College, Cambridge, in 1625, and remained some time after receiving his degree. He became the great literary exponent of the Independents, and his earliest poems are charged with passion for freedom.
Among the early settlers of Dedham, (Mass. ) we find the names of five men who were educated at Cambridge: Timothy Dalton and Thomas Carter took their degrees at St. John's College in 1613 and 1629 respectively, and Ralph Wheelock received a degree from Clare College in 1626. John Allin took his master's degree at Cain's College, Cambridge, in 1619. Samuel Morse was also a graduate. Carter and Wheelock were contemporary with Milton. There is also a John Rogers in our American annals. He was a signer of the town covenant, and attended the first town meeting on Dedham soil, although he did not tarry long among us. Tradition has it that he came from Dedham, England. If so, he must have been the son, doubtless the eldest, of the Vicar, and brother of Nathaniel, who went to Ipswich.
Dedham in Essex is no more than 50 or 60 miles from Cambridge, and it is therefore entirely possible that the Rev. John Rogers should invite a group of Cam- bridge men, acquaintances of his sons, to his home in Dedham. Such a possibility we assume for the opening scene. The young men meet in the Vicarage. Milton has just composed a poem, "Comus," (1634) which sets forth his ideals of integrity and freedom. It is a mask to be presented at Ludlow Castle for the Earl of Bridgewater. The battle of life, as Milton saw it, was to save human intelligence, and the graces of man's highest nature from the seductions of greed and passion. The ideals set forth in this poem were fresh and strong in the minds of those who settled our Dedham. We need no other evidence than the clear-sighted energy with which they set about the building of their meetinghouse, gathering of their church, and establishing of a free school, -- the first of its kind in history.
The party in the Vicarage is discovered in animated conversation. Milton is urged to read his poems. As he reads our vision is opened to a wooded dell, where gods and spirits are at play.
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SCENE 1.
The Vicarage, Dedham, England, Canon Gerald H. Rendall and his family in the rose garden. St. Mary's in the distance.
SCENE 2.
A study in the Vicarage, Dedham, Essex, 1634. John Rogers, Sr. and his sons are welcoming their guests from Cambridge, -- John Milton, Thomas Carter, Ralph Wheelock, John Allin and Samuel Morse.
ROGERS, SR. Could you but know, gentlemen, the welcome which these halls give you. The very flames on the hearth dance more merrily on your approach. What word have ye from Cambridge?
ALLIN. That the fires of the soul are unquenchable.
WHEELOCK. Verily, I believe our beloved Alma Mater is the rising sun of a new day.
ALLIN. I have just been scanning the lines of a poem by our esteemed guest, Milton. I wish you might read it. Poetry too may serve our ends.
ROGERS, SR. Most gloriously! Read, Milton. Let the heart of our enterprise be stirred by music as well as argument.
MILTON. It is a little piece, -a mask to be played at Ludlow for the Earl of Bridgewater. He must have elves and fairies in his woods. We had as well give him noble spirits, too. In these lines you will find the virtues assailed by their ancient foes, avarice and deceit.
SCENE 3. The Enchanted Forest As Milton reads the scene changes to a wooded dell.
The Attendant Spirit, Guardian of all whom Jove would favor, descends to warn us against the wiles of Comus, the son of Bacchus and Circe who
"Excells his mother in her mighty art, Offering to every weary traveller, His orient liquor in a crystal glass."
The magic potion changes the human countenance, the express resemblance of the gods, into some brutish form of wolf or bear, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
"Therefore, when any favored of high Jove, Chance to pass through this adventurous glade, Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star, I shoot from heaven to give him safe convoy, As now I do. But I hear the tread Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now."
Comus followed by his bewitched rabble. (Spirit disappears)
COMUS. "What hath night to do with sleep? Night hath better sweets to prove. Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, -- Come knit hands, and beat the ground With a light, fantastic sound."
Comus fills glasses and transforms rabble by changing head of each into the shape of a monster. Soon be bears the approach of human footsteps and hastily dismisses the rabble saying,-
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"Break off, break off, I feel the different pace Of some chaste footing near about this ground. Run to your shrouds, within these brakes and trees."
(Spirit vanishes) "Now to my charms, And to my wily trains" "Thus I hurl My dazzling spells into the spongy air. I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, Shall appear some harmless villager."
(Changes to garb of villager.) "But here she comes."
SCENE 4.
The Wilderness
THE LADY. (-wandering lost through woods and by the lake at last enters the dell.)
"This way, the noise was, if mine ear be true, My brothers, when they saw me wearied out, Stepped, they said, the next thicket-side
To bring me berries ---
But where are they, why do they not return? A thousand fantasies
Begin to throng into my memory. O welcome, pure-eyed faith, white-handed hope.
Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings.
I see ye visibly, and now believe, That He, the Supreme Good, --- Will send a glistening guardian To keep my life and honor unassailed."
COMUS. (entering as a villager) "I'll speak to her, and she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign wonder! Dwellest here with Pan?"
LADY. "Nay, gentle shepherd, -but I am lost, and hope my brothers to regain. COMUS. "Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?
LADY. "They were comely youths. COMUS. "Two such I saw, If those you seek, It were a journey like the path to heaven To help you find them. I know each lane, and every alley green; Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood.
LADY. "Shepherd, I take thy word; lead on. (Exit)
Two Brothers enter. FIRST BROTHER. "Unmuffle, ye faint stars, and thou fair moon. Or be it only a rush candle of some cottage, To guide us through this black night.
SECOND BROTHER. "I fear lest some dread circumstance befall our sister.
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FIRST BROTHER.
"I do not, brother. My sister is not so defenseless as you imagine; She has a hidden strength, which you remember not. SECOND BROTHER. "What hidden strength. Unless the strength of heaven, if you mean that?
FIRST BROTHER.
"I mean that, too, but yet a hidden strength Which if Heaven gave it may be termed her own. So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so A thousand liveried angels lackey her.
But when lust
Lets in defilement . . the soul grows Clotted by contageon, and embrutes Till she quite lose The divine property of her first being. SECOND BROTHER.
"How charming is divine philosophy; not harsh; and crabbed as dull fools suppose.
FIRST BROTHER.
"List, list .- Some roving robber calling to his fellows. SECOND BROTHER.
"Heaven keep my sister."
Enter the Attendant Spirit
SPIRIT. "What voice is that? My young Lord? Speak again. SECOND BROTHER. "O Brother, 'Tis thy father's shepherd. SPIRIT. "But where is thy sister? FIRST BROTHER. "We lost her as we came.
SPIRIT. "Oh me unhappy; then my fears are true. And I must tell ye, Comus dwells within this wood, Here waits to give his pleasing poison to those he may allure, which when they drink it, transforms the face from the glory of reason to the likeness of a beast. But I have learned the way to break his spell, if by fortune's turn we may find your sister ere she takes the cup."
SCENE S. The Rendezvous of Comus. COMUS. "Nay Lady, sit; If I but wave this wand, Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, and you become a statue. LADY. "Fool, do not boast; thou canst not touch the freedom of the mind with all thy charms.
COMUS. "Why are you vexed, Lady? Why do you frown? There is no danger here. Fair virgin, drink this, and be restored.
LADY. "False traitor; 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty. None but good men can give good things; And that which is not good is not delicious To a well governed and wise appetite.
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COMUS. (aside) "She fables not, I do fear Her words, set off by some superior power. I must not suffer this. I must dissemble.
(to Lady) "One sip of this Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and taste."
Enter Brothers and Attendant Spirit.
The Lady and Rabble are restored.
(Comus vanishes)
SCENE 6.
The Study once more.
ROGERS, SR. Milton, as you read, my eyes were open to a new vision on a distant shore.
MILTON. America?
ROGERS, SR. New England.
ALLIN. I have thought of it often.
MORSE. It is a vision never to be lost. We must plant this seed of virtue in that virgin soil.
MILTON. You may reap the harvest of a new civilization there.
ALLIN. To test the power of the free spirit.
MORSE. The Winthrop fleet is making up her crew.
CARTER. We shall take passage.
MILTON. My lot is cast in England. Our liberties must be defended here.
ROGERS, SR. Old Cambridge shall be the mother of a New Enterprise. Would that I might follow you, but age forbids.
MORSE. But I shall go, and if Heaven guides my steps to the bank of some winding stream as fair as the Stour there shall be a Dedham on it.
MILTON. May the lamp of wisdom guide you.
ROGERS, SR. A home in the wilderness.
B-CONTENTMENT SOCIETY
Historical Notes-The true history of Dedham begins with the early meetings in Watertown among citizens who were not permitted to remain there because the village was becoming overcrowded. They organized a society which they called Contentment, and began at once to enter all items of civil import in their records. The first entries are of John Balden, born July 24, 1635, and Mary Dwight, born Aug. 25, of the same year. The first child born on Dedham soil appears to have been Ruth, the daughter of John and Annis Morse, July 3, 1637.
The first grant of land open to these settlers was dated Sept. 3, 1635. The General Court was then held at Newtowne, now Cambridge. Ensign Jennison, Mr. Danforth, and Mr. Wm. Spencer were deputed to set out the bounds of the plantation.
During the year following the citizens of Contentment Society perfected their organization, drew up a covenant, visited the meadows along the banks of the Charles far beyond the areas granted to them, selected individual lots and began to cut timber for building. At last, Sept. 5, 1636, they drew up a petition to the General Court for a larger grant of land and for the privilege of naming their town Contentment. On Sept. 10, the Court granted the petition but assigning the name Dedham. Twenty- five men signed the petition. The covenant must have been open to signers some time for there are more than 125 names to it, many of whom came at a later date. The covenant is not dated.
The first settlers held eight town meetings in various houses in Watertown, dated Aug. 18, (18 present ) ; Aug. 29, (18); Sept. 5, (19); Sept. (do date given), (13);
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Nov. 25, (14); Dec. 31, (15); Jan. 28, (16); Feb. 1, (13). The first meeting on Dedham soil was held March 23, 1636-7 and there were upwards of 40 men at the meeting. The meeting of Sept. 5 was at the home of John Gaye, at 6 a. m., and that of Jan. 28 was with John Hayward at 8 a. m.
Three who signed the Contentment Covenant never came to Dedham. They were Robert Feke, John Huggins and John Coolidge, (although the latter has descend- ants in Dedham today.)
Edward Alleyn was a man of some education; seemingly the scribe of the group during the first years. John Sherman, (noted in Act II, Scene 1) was born in Ded- ham, England, in 1613, and came to America in 1636, but never to Dedham, Mass. John Coolidge was brother of Mrs. John Sherman, the clerk of the town and careful re- corder of events.
SCENE 7. On the Placid Charles, 1635
Birch caneo on the Charles. Springtime. John and Hannah Dwight and their four-year-old son, Timothy, put out from shore in Watertown.
JOHN. The settlement of Watertown is already over-crowded.
HANNAH. Was it for this wilderness that we left our beloved home in England?
JOHN. Aye, -but the wilderness is ours, -to make of it what we will.
HANNAH. And can!
JOHN. I mean that we shall have a home of our own, and a church, and a school. HANNAH. A school? But the cost of it.
. JOHN. The Town should build it and pay the Master, too. HANNAH. But where? Not in Watertown, surely? JOHN. Is there not a fair meadow up the Charles?
HANNAH. Thou are a Dreamer of the Wilderness.
SCENE 8.
The Great and General Court, Cambridge September 3, 1635
CLERK. It is ordered that there shall be a plantacion settled, about two myles above the falls of Charles Ryver, on the north east syde thereof, to have ground lyeing to it on both sydes the river, both upland and meadowe, to be layde out here after, as the Court shall appoynet.
Ensigne Jennison, Mr. Danforth and Mr. William Spencer are deputed to sett out the bounds of this plantacion.
SCENE 9.
The Home of John Dwight, Watertown Writing the Covenant August 18, 1636 Early Evening.
Neighbors meet at the home of John and Hannah Dwight.
Enter Richard and Mary Everard, Edward Alleyn, Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Shawe and Mrs. Samuel Morse; Phillemon Dalton, Ralph Shephard and John Coolidge; Thomas Hastings, Nicholas Phillips, Mr. and Mrs. John Kingsbury, Mr. and Mrs. John Rogers, John and Joanna Gaye, Daniel and Lidia Morse and Joseph and Hannah Morse.
JOHN COOLIDGE. Watertown is already overcrowded. We could use more land ourselves, and there is no room for our children.
DALTON. There is a broad valley up the river, beyond the falls, for those who will settle it.
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GAYE. The Great and General Court hath ordered a new settlement there, but no one hath taken it.
JOHN DWIGHT. Some of our freemen have been there to blaze out the trail. SHEPHERD. Is it not time to draw a covenant?
Table is cleared, ink born, quill pen, paper and sand are brought. DWIGHT. Edward Alleyn shall write for us. He hath a fair hand. Alleyn writes.
1. We whose names are here unto subscribed do in the fear and Reverence of our Almighty God, Mutually and severally promise amongst ourselves and each other to professe and practice one trueth according to that most perfect rule, the foundation whereof is everlasting Love.
2. That we shall by all means Laboure to keepe from us all such as are contrarayre minded.
4. That every man that now, or at any time here after shall have Lotts in our said Towne shall pay his share.
5. And every man shall subscribe his name hereunto as we have done.
All sign.
SCENE 10. Pioneers explore the river.
SCENE 11. Home of John Gaye, Watertown September 5, 1636, 6 a. m.
Enter citizens as in Scene 10.
GAYE. We have been over the grounds but they lye beyond the grant allowed by the Court.
ALLEYN. The Great and General Court hath made a large grant to the settlement called Concord to the north, but ours is small and ill-favoured.
Shows maps of grant of 1635 and of area desired.
A. SHAWE. We must send a petition to the Court.
Writing materials are produced and Edward Alleyu writes as before.
May it please this Honoured Court to Ratifie unto your humble petitioners your grante formerly made of a Planta- cion above the Falls that we may possesse all that Land which is left out of all former grants upon that side of the Charles River. And upon the other side five miles square.
To have and enjoye all those Lands, Meadowes, Woodes, and other grounds together with all the waters and other benefits what-so-ever to us with our associates and assignes for ever: To distinguish our Towne by the name of Contentment or otherwise what you shall please. To be freed from all Countrey Charges for foure years. And to assign unto us a Constable that may regard peace and trueth.
Subscribed by all that have underwritten in Coven't at present.
Petition is signed by all present, dried with sand, carefully folded and entrusted to the scribe.
GAYE. Goodman Alleyn shall convey our Peticion to the Great and General Court and others may goe with him as may desire.
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SCENE 12.
The General Court September 8, 1636
Sir Harry Vane, Gov., presiding with attendants. Receives petitioners: Edward Alleyn and others.
ALLEYN. May it please the Honoured Court.
Court gives attention. Alleyn concludes.
To distinguish our Towne by the name Contentment or otherwise what you please. Court receives Petition from Alleyn.
VANF. Your answer will be posted in due course.
ACT II
THE PIONEERS - 1636-1686
Historical Notes .- The petition signed Sept. 5, 1636, and presented to the General Court on Sept. 8, at the opening of the session, was granted two days later, designat- ing the name Dedham, granting three years exemption from taxation, and in other respects meeting the desires of the petitioners. The season is passing. Citizens blaze new trails and set out the boundaries to the lots which have been assigned to them. Several primitive houses must have been built during the autumn and winter, for the first town meeting on Dedham soil was held March 23, 1636-7. The eight previous town meetings were held in Watertown. Rules governing the actions of citizens were quickly in evidence. Some were laws of the Bay Colony, others were orders of their own making.
All rivers and ponds should be kept free for fishing and other use.
Citizens half an hour late to town meeting were fined 12 pence. Those absent without excuse must pay three shillings and fourpence. (1637).
Fences, "whether of Rayles or pales or whatsoever other manner of fencing may be alowed," must be three and one half ft. high, and must be kept in good repair during the period from Mar. 20 to Oct. 12 each year.
Every householder was required to keep "one good strong and sufficient Ladder," which would reach to the top of his chimney. Failure in this was fined five shillings.
Swine found running at large without yokes were driven to the pound and the owner must pay poundage and damage.
All corn must be taken in before Oct. 12. Penalty for neglect, five shillings. Cutting timber was carefully regulated.
December 31, 1636, Nicholas Phillips was fined six pence for every tree which he had felled "without his Lott, without license, contrary to an order." Ezechiell Holliman was fined ten shillings for cutting one large timber tree which he had felled contrary to law. He was "moreover Fyned the sum of Fiftene shillings" because he had covered his house with clapboard, contrary to an order.
The law provided that citizens must not cut trees over six inches in diameter "in the carfe," except on their own land. Violation was fined 20 shillings. It is also ordered that a citizen who cuts a tree less than six inches in diameter within one mile of the place where the meetinghouse is to be shall pay 12 pence for every tree so felled. Citizens were allowed to cut firewood for their own use "alwayes pro- vided that no Oake trees be felled."
Persons taking canoes without permission of owner were fined five shillings.
Samuel Morse was chosen collector at the fourth meeting at Watertown on Sept. 14, 1636.
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Wood reeves were later appointed to view the fences, and report violations of various orders. In 1643 it was ordered that the constables "shall performe the office of Collector."
Feb. 21, 1636-7 Abraham Shawe was granted liberty to build a Cornmil !. Edward Alleyn, Samuel Morse, Ezekiell Holliman, Thomas Bartlet, and Nicholas Phillips were designated to help him find a convenient place.
Fines against N. Phillips and Ezekiel Holliman were remitted at that time and on January 28.
March 23. Shaw was granted 60 acres for his mill.
April 25, 1637. Daniel Morse was chosen Serjeant at Arms.
July 18, 1637. A group of notables were admitted, including John Allin, Michael Metcalf, Anthony Fisher, Thomas Wight, Eleaser Lusher, Robert Hinsdall, John Luson, John Fisher, Thomas Fisher, Timothy Dalton, and John Morse.
A bridge over Little River was considered at the meeting of Aug. 11, 1637, and on Nov. 28 of that year, John Kingsbury and John Hayward were to make a foot bridge over the great river, "over against Mr. Carter's lott at a Common Charge." (Where Cart Bridge was built in 1644.)
Jan. 1, 1637-8. Michael Metcalf, John Luson, Ant. Fisher, and Jos. Kings- bury were "Chosen to contrive the Fabricke of a Meetinghouse to be in length 36 Foote & 20 foote in bredth, & between the upp and nether sell in ye studds 12 foote."
Jan. 18, 1637-8. Thomas Wight, John Dwight, Nicholas Phillips and John Eaton undertook to fell trees for the building of the meetinghouse.
Samuel Morse, Philemon Dalton, Ferd. Adam and Raffe Shepheard were engaged to saw the timber.
John Morse was empowered to secure what help he needed to dig pits for the sawing.
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