USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 2 > Part 50
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[CHAP. XLIX
been sufficiently smoked and cleansed, to such Towns as the Com- mittee shall Judge proper, giving them Certificates that they are of the poor of Boston and quite free from infection .- And it is recommended to the Committee that they retain at Point Shirley such of said Inhabitants as they shall apprehend may have been in the way of receiving the Small-Pox, for such a space of time, as may be necessary to determine whether they had the Infection; taking care that they are Supplied with such quantities of Pro- visions, Wood, &c., as they Judge will be Sufficient to keep them from Suffering .- It is further recommended to said Committee to provide, if they see occasion, Suitable Houses as Hospitals for the reception of those Persons who may be taken with the Small- Pox, or shall appear to have the Symptoms of the Distemper; as also to engage a Physician or Physicians to attend the sick, if required, and to place Sufficient Guard at the Infected Houses to prevent a promiscuous passing or repassing to & from said Houses .- 12
Dec. 11, 1775. In the House of Representatives. Ordered, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Pitts, and Colo. Lovel, with such as the Hon'ble Board shall join, be a Committee to take into Consideration a Letter from Thomas Crafts, Junr., concerning the people lately brought from the town of Boston, of Decr. 10, 1775.
The Council concurred, and joined Mr. Chauney & Mr. Fisher.13
This committee reported Dee. 12th. Whereas, that the Inhabi- tants lately come out of Boston to Point Shirley are under difficult circumstances for want of Fuel, and that two of sd. Inhabitants are now broke out with the Small Pox. -
Resolved, That the Com'tee, at sd. Point Shirley be and they are hereby directed to make use of any old, decayed Stores, barncs, or fish Houses as fuel for the relief of the sick and distressed, and if necessary to take down any publie building there, for the Purpose aforesaid; sd. Com'ttee to render an account of their pro- ceedings to this Court; and they are further directed to use their utmost endeavors to prevent the spreading of the Small-Pox, and make proper representations of the state of such Persons as are put under their care, to this Court.
This report was read and accepted in the Council, and sent down to the House, which concurred with the amendment, "that Capt. Foster & Cap: Searl be a Committee, to repair immediately to Point Shirley & cause such Buildings as may be thought neces-
12 Mass. Archives, cevii. 246, 247.
13 Ibid., ccvii. 268.
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531
CHAP. XLIX] IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
"sary, to be taken down for fuel, to be apprized ; and take any meas- ures & give any directions that shall appear to thein necessary to aid the Committee now there in procuring Wood, and in preventing the spread of the Small-Pox. The Council Concurred.14
In the house of Represent". Decem. 13, 1775. Resolved, That the Inhabitants of the Town of Chelsea, Malden, and Lynn be desired to furnish the Com'tee. of this Court at Chelsea, with a sufficient quantity of firewood on the present occasion, and the Com'fees. of Correspondence and the Seleetmen of cach of said Towns are desired to afford all necessary assistance to the Com'tee. of this Court in furnishing them with that article.
Sent up for Concurrence. 15
By several resolves between Dec. 27, 1775, and Jan. 30, 1726, the General Court provided for the payment of £300. for the transportation of the inhabitants of Boston from Winnisimmnet Ferry to Point Shirley, and their care and support while there.16
December 27, 1775. The House directed the Receiver-General to pay the committee, £100, to provide for the poor of Boston, sent or to be sent to Point Shirley; and Jan. 30, 1776, £200 (raised to £300, Jan. 30, 1776,) for those at Chelsea, and for preventing of the Small-Pox. Their report of expenditures was made, April 11.17
Ordered, that Lieut. Farley apply to the Committee, and agree upon a method for the speedy removal (to the Small-Pox Hos- pital in Cambridge) of Webber, who came out of Boston, to Point Shirley, last Decembr: was taken up by the Committee there as a suspicious Person, having been imploy'd in piloting Vessels up & down the Harbour for the Enemy; insisting upon returning back into Boston again, was sent up to my Gnard, where he was confined for two or three days; then taken with the Head & Back Ack symptoms of the Small-Pox, - was removed to a House remote from Inhabitants, near Noddle's Island, where he had that Distemper & [is] now recovered, as by the following Cer- tificate will a'pear.
[Here follows Certificate, that said Webber is well of the Dis- temper, but, otherwise, sick, -a fit subject for the Hospital. Signed, THos. CRAFTS. JUR., WINTHROP GRAY, two of the Com- mittee for taking care of the small-pox at Point Shirley.]
14 Mass. Arch., cevii. 267.
15 Honse Jour., Nov. Sess., 1775, 38. Mass. Arch. cevii. 269.
10 Jour., 1775, 1776, pp. 84, 124, 225, 227, 287, and see Rep. of Expendi- tures, Jour. 11 April. 1776, p. 111.
17 Jour., 1775, 1776, pp. 84, 225, 227, 287, and 111.
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IHISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. XLIX
You are, therefore, to see that the sd. Webber be immediately removed to the Small-Pox Hospital in Cambridge, in as safe a manner as possible; both on account of his taking cold and spreading the distemper, and a copy of this order, crime, and certificate, sent with him.
Colonel's Quarters in Chelsea, Feby. 28th, 1776.
LOAMMI BALDWIN, Col., 26th Reg., & Commander in Chelsea.
To Michael Farley, Lieut. & Q. Master.18
8 January, 1776. An account of Winthrop Gray, for eash he paid, for horse hire, in procuring teams for earrying people, from the ferry at Chelsea, from Aug. 3, to Oet. 7, and for his attend- anee and expense of supporting himself during that time. Read, and committed to the Committee on Accounts.19
Though with the termination of the Siege of Boston, March 17, 1776, the British army evacuated the town, the Small-Pox did not, and was long a cause of anxiety to the people of Chelsea, who, in town meeting, passed the following votes :
Mareh 30, 1778: Not to allow of an Inoeulating Hospital for the small-pox to be set up in any house in the town of Chelsea.20
April 8, 1778: To have a smoke-house, or room to smoke per- sons in, at Winnisimmet Ferry, in order to prevent any person or persons coming out of the town of Boston from spreading the small-pox in any town in the Country. Voted, not to be at any eost, or charge, to any person, or persons, to tend said smoke- house.21
June 13, 1783: That, the town do not permit eertain Doetors to open an Inoeulating hospital at Point Shirley in Chelsea for the small-pox.
August 25, 1783: To allow Dr. John Warren, Dr. Thomas Weleh, and Dr. Aaron Dexter to open an inoeulating hospital in Point Shirley, in Chelsea, and that said hospital shall be under such regulations and for such term of time as the town shall order. 22
Voted, that said Doetors shall enoeulate small-pox at Point Shirley for one year next after this day. Chose Joshua Cheever,
18 Baldwin's Regt., Iviii. file 2, 120.
19 House Jour., 1775, 1776, page 124.
20 Town Rec., ii. 22.
Town Rec., ii. 23. Vide Acts and Resolves, v. 664, 715.
22 Town Rec., ii. 84.
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CHAP. XLIX] IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
Mr. John Low, and Capt. Samuel Clark a committee to act in behalf of the town in agreeing with said Doctors, in regard to the regulations for said hospital, and the cleansing those that come from there.23
August 12, 1784. To see if the town will grant liberty to the Doctors John Warren, Thomas Welch, Aaron Dexter, and Bartlet to inoculate small-pox at Point Shirley for the term of one year from this date npon certain conditions.
Voted, in the affirmative by a large majority. Then the moder- ator desired the Doctors to make some proposals to the town, and they proposed to give the town thirty pounds, or so much per head as they could agree, but the town would not accept it; then they proposed to give the town forty pounds, and they would not accept it. Then the meeting was adjourned to Capt. Stowers', and after some debate upon the matter the town voted to reconsider the vote respecting forty pounds. Then the vote was put, if the Doctors would give the town forty pounds, and pay the money by the first day of May next with interest, the town would consent for them to inoculate for one year, and they agreed to it. Voted, Capt. Samnel Sargent, Joshua Cheever, and Capt. Green a Committee to see that the Doctors were put under the same restrictions and regulations that they were the last year.24
September 6, 1792. Voted to admit the small-pox by way of inoculation under the following regulations.
'That no person, after being inoculated and while belonging to any Hospital in this town, shall go without the bounds of the Farm whereon the Hospital stands, either by land or water, only to the town of Boston, under the penalty of thirty pound. to be sued for by the seleetmen and converted to the use of the town. That no person shall come from any Hospital in this town with- ont first being sufficiently cleansed and smoked, to prevent com- municating the distemper ; and no person to be inoculated after the twenty-fifth day of this instant September, under the above- said penalty, to be recovered in the way and for the abovesaid use.
That Mr. John Adams and Mr. Jesse Upham's houses be Hos- pitals under the above Regulations.
That Capt. Josiah Batcheldor's house be an Hospital under the abovesaid Regulations with this addition, that no person belong- ing to said hospital shall go within the distance of thirty rods. either of the town road or the line dividing Mr. Cary's farm from Capt. Batcheldor's, under the penalty of thirty pounds. [This
23 Town Rec., ii. S4.
24 Ibid., 92.
534
HISTORY OF CHELSEA [CHAP. XLIX
would indicate that there was a hospital, or hospitals, in the centre of the town.]
That Capt. James Berrey be not allowed to inoculate in the house he now dwells in.25
December 4, 1792 : Voted, to pay Jesse Upham for three weeks boarding Abel Patch, under the operation of the small-pox.26
25 Town Rec., ii. 227, 228.
20 Ibid., 228; Seleetmen's Ree., i. 157. [I have supposed that Upham lived near Saugus, in the " Pan-Handle."]
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535
CHAP. L] TAXATION AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS
CHAPTER L
TAXATION AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS
I IN the following chapter I shall treat, provisionally at least, taxation, mmmicipal and state, independence, and the formation of state and national constitutions, as matters of politics; and include in it all the recorded sayings and doings of the people of Chelsea, not already given, beginning a little before and continning through and somewhat after the Revolutionary period.
28 February, 1765. A petition of Mr. Samuel Floyd, represen- tative of the town of Chelsea, in behalf of said town, representing the unequal burden they labor under with respect to publie taxes : he prays the consideration of the Court thereon that they may be relieved.
Committed to Mr. Whitney, Col. Saltonstall, & Mr. Dix, to con- sider [ and ] report. March, the committee reported to refer to the May session, which was donc.1
Subsequently the town by a committee re-opened the matter in the following petition :
May 27, 1767
To his Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq' : Captain-general and Governor in chief, in & over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay. The honorable, his Majesty's Couneil & house of Representatives, in General Court assembled, this 27th May, 1767.
The Petition of Mess's. Thos. & Sam1: Pratt, a Committee of the Town of Chelsea, & in the behalf of said Town, most humbly shewetli -
That the real Destresses of the impoverished Town of Chelsea, through a very unequal proportion of publiek Taxes, together with an unexpected burden this present year, are such, that we con- ceive all impartial Reason must allow, justly claim Relief from this honorable Court.
1 House Jour., 280, 298.
536
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. L
In the year 1739, the Town was incorporated into a Township, and the year follow" a Valuation of Estates was taken, when, for the want of some person to Represent the poverty of the infant Town, it had such an unequal Weight of Taxes imposed & Con- tinued for a Course of years, as laid the foundation for the des- tresses it is now groans & sinks under.
In the year 1748, a Memorial to this honorable Court obtained some Relief, but in the year 1750, when a Valuation was again taken, the unfortunate Town, by some oversight or other, had that part of the burden added, that was taken off in 1748, and con- tinued till the year 1760; so that, for the Term of 19 years, the unhappy Town paid twenty shillings, as your petitioners humbly conceive, upon the thousand pound, above its equal proportion, which has so reduced the Town, notwithstands the utmost dili- gence and Frugality of its Inhabitants, as justly astonishes all acquainted with its present poverty & destress, but unacquainted with the Cause of them. The like Instance your petitioners con- ceive was never known in the Province: Nor ever a petition of the like kind prefer'd to this honorable Court, dictated from more real destress.2
Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray, that in Justice to the Oppressed & Compassion to the miserable, this honorable Court would consider our Grievances, and by grant'g us an order on the province Treasurer, or in Some other Method your Wisdom shall dietate, refund, in what proportion you shall think proper, that sum we have so unequally paid, and weh has so much impoverished us; that the sink& Town may be saved from Ruin. - And your petitioners, as in Duty bound, shall ever pray. -
THOS. PRATT, } SAMLL PRATT, J Com'ete.3
This presentation of the distressed condition of the people seems to have been unavailing; for there was an article in the warrant for a town meeting,
1768, May 19th. To see, if they would send a Representative. Passed in the Negative by a great Majority. Chose Thos. Pratt, Samuel Watts, Jr., and Samuel Pratt a committee to wait upon
2 Of the £1500, needed " for compleating the new Goal, and paying the other usual Charges of the County," Chelsea's share was £19. 8. - the low- est have three towns. Of the £3000, needed " in building the New Court- house," Chelsea's share was £38. 17. 6. - Moore's Extracts from the Record of the Court of General Sessions, 1764-1768.
3 Mass. Archives, cxviii. 286.
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537
CHAP. L] TAXATION AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS
the General Court, in order for some relief, by being over burdened by Taxes in years past.
And again,
May 28, 1770. Chose Thos. Pratt, Capt. Jonathan Green, and Mr. Samuel Floyd, a committee to wait on the General Court, to get some relief from our Taxes, by reason that the Valuation is likely to come on this present year.
Nov. 1770, Chelsea was fined £7, for neglect in not choosing some person to represent her in the General Court; but this fine was remitted the next JJnne, on the petition of Thomas Pratt, by reason of "the smallness of said | town] & the poverty of its inhabitants." +
March 13, 1775. The town of Chelsea's proportion of the Prov- ince tax, assessed by the General Court, in 1774, Nineteen pounds, fifteen shillings, and eleven pence.
Some time after 1770, dissatisfied with the participation in their local affairs by non-resident proprietors under false pre- texts, the following manifesto was issued :
Whereas, in and by an act made in the 14th year [1773] of his present Majesties' Reign, Intitled an act in further addition to and Explanation of an act Intitled an act for Regulation of town- ships, Choice of town offesors, &e.
It is provided that the Value of Lands Leased Shall not be Reconed to quallify the tertenant but to quallify the Leasor, if he be an Inhabitant in Such town, parish, or precinct. Yet, although Sd. act provids that the Value of Lands Leased Shall not be Reconed to quallify the ter-tenant, but to quallify the Leasor, if he be an Inhabitant in Such town, parish, or precenet : Desining men that have Sons, Grandsons, hired men, and other persons that Live with them, Do order their Sons & Grandsons, hired men, and other persons that Live with thein, to Give in an Invoice to the assessors, of part of their Estates, although the owners of the Estate Lives in the Same town: and, yet, don't Lease any part of their Estates to their Sons, Grandsons, hired men, and other persons that Live with them, nor Let them Either Improve their Estates, nor have any of the profitts thereof, yet make them Voters in town affairs, minding at the same time to Reserve of their own Estates anough to make the owner a Voter too: So that Some men that have Estates that are Ratable in a List of Valueation. but 10S., Do So Divide their Estates to those that Live with them,
' Acts and Resolves, v. 90, 142.
538
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. L
that they make five Voters, and the owner a Voter too: and those that are Rated in a List of Valueation for their own Estates 15s. or 20s., and have no Sons nor Servants of age, and are Honest, Can put in but one Vote in one affair: Which by many is Esteemed a Great hardship, that the Number of persons in a town, though they own nothing in the town, and are moveing men, and Care nothing about the welfare of a town, Should Rule, and not be owners of the Estates of a town, that must bare the burdain of a town, &e: which, in many towns, proves Very Detrimental and hurtfull to towns, preeincts, and parishes, Especialy to Little and poor ones, by such foreed Voters Voting away town's benefitts, Commons, town's . Stoeks of money, and other things into their own hands, or Spending up the Same, which otherwise would be kept for future Strengthing, as well as present Easement, of town's parishes, & preeinets.
Therefore, it is Desired that it may be Enaeted that no man may be Deemed a Lawfull Voter in town, Distreet, parish, and pre- eent affairs, but Sueh only whose own Estates in fee Simple is in the Town, &C: where they Live, and are Rated in the List of Valueation (besides the pole) with faculty, Ineome of money, and Gain of traid, 20d.
And that those that are assessors of any town, &C: who have made any List of Valueation that Shall or may be Disputed, Shall under oath, at or before the meeting of any town, &e., if Requested by any, Dertermine what part of the Last List of Value- ation was for Estates, owned in fee Simple, and Lodge the Same with the town Clerk.
and that for the future all Lists of Valueation that Shall be made, the assessors makeing the same Shall make a Distinet Collomn for Estates in fee Simple, owned by those to whom they may be Set (under oath, to be adminestred by a Justice of the peace, and in Such towns, &e: where there Dwells no Justice of the peace : by the town, &e. : Clerk), Lands Leased for more than 7 years and mortgag'd Lands excepted.
Chelsea followed most other towns when, June 3, 1776, it Voted to instruet [its ] Representatives, aeeording to a Resolve of the House, pass'd May 10th, that if the Honourable Con- gress should for the safety of the said Colonies, deelare them independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, they, the said inhabitants, will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support them in the measure.5
5 Town Rec., ii. 9. June 20, 1776. Order to pay Deacon John Sale for attending the Congress, £6. 15.
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CHAP. L] TAXATION AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS
The Declaration of Independence was copied in the Town Records agrecably to the following order.
In Council, July 17, 1776
Ordered, that the Declaration of Independence be printed, and a coppy sent to the ministers of each parish, of every Denomina- tion, within this State, and that they, severally, be required to read the same to their respective congregations, as soon as Divine ser- vice is ended, in the afternoon, on the first Lord's Day after they shall have received it, and after such publication thereof, to deliver the said Declaration to the Clerks of their several towns or Dis- tricts, who are hereby required to record the same in their respec- tive town or District Books, there to remain as a perpetual memorial thereof. In the name and by order of the Council,
R. DERBY, JR., President. A true copy, Attest : JOHN AVERY, Dept. See'ry.
Salem, Massachusetts Bay. Printed by E. Russell, by order of authority.
In June, 1776, it was proposed in the General Court, that a committee should be appointed to prepare a form of govern- ment, and such a committee was appointed; but the business was not proceeded in, as the opinion was generally expressed that the subject should originate with the people, who were the proper authorities to attend to this matter.6
Chelsea, November 25, 1776, voted that they would not give their consent, that the present House of Representatives of this State, together with the Council, should not enaet any form of Government for this State, and voted to ehuse a member for that business.7
March 10, 1777. Chose Capt. Sammel Sprague, Lieut. Jonathan Williams, Mr. Richard Shute, Mr. Joseph Green, and Mr. Edward Wait, to be a committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety. agreeable to the Resolve of the General Court of this State, Feb- ruary 6, 1777.8
The subject of a constitution recurred the next year, when Chelsea, May 26, 1777, voted to adjourn the affair relative to the establishing a form of Government, to the next meeting.º
" Barry's Hist. of Mass., iii. 173. 8 Ibid .. 11.
' Town Rec., ii. 10.
º Ibid., 14.
540
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. L
At the May session of the General Court, in 1777, a com- mittee was appointed to prepare a constitution, which was reported carly the next year, and finally rejected by the people.
The action of Chelsea on this subject is contained in the following votes :
April 2, 1778. The Constitution and form of Government for the State of Massachusetts Bay, agreed upon by the Convention of said State, February 28th, 1778, was read at this Town's Meeting, for the Town's consideration, to be aeted upon at some future Town meeting.10
May 29, 1778. The vote was ealled, to see if the Town would aet upon the Constitution and form of government, and passed in the negative by a great majority.11
Chelsea persistently turned to what she deemed her over- taxation, as appears from the following votes :
September 28, 1778. Voted to choose a committee to wait on the General Court, to get an abatement of Chelsea State tax. Lieut. Thomas Pratt, Capt. Samuel Sprague, and Capt. Jonathan Green were ehosen.12
December 17, 1778. Voted, that the former Committee, Lieut. Thos. Pratt, Capt. Samuel Sprague, and Capt. Jonathan Green, wait on the Great and General Court to get an abatement of the Provinee Tax laid on the town of Chelsea by the Court in the year 1775.13
The following is the petition of the town's committee, and the action of the General Court thereon :
To the Hon/ble Couneel and Hon/bl House of Representatives, in General Court Assembled.
The petision of Thomas Pratt, Samuel Sprague, & Jonathan Green in behalf of the Town of Cheleey, in the County of Suffolk, Humbly sheweth, -
That in the year 1775 there was Laid on said Town a State Tax to the amount of £99.3.71/4, which Sum Never Sinee hath ben Assest, by Reason at that time the Greater Part of the in- habitenee of said Town was Driven from their farmes and have Greatly Suffer'd, not only by the Enemy but by their own army, Great numbers of which were ineampt in said Town, which naturly
Town Rec., ii. 22. 12 Ibid., 32. 18 Ibid., 35.
11 Ibid., 30.
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TAXATION AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS
CHAP. L]
Prodused Gret Distruction, not only of the Produce of the land but also of fences and Buildings, - your Petitioners, therefore, Humbly Pray that you, in your wonted wisdom and Justis, would Relax the above tax, or some part thereof and if any Part thereof shall be thought Propper to be Paid by said Town, that the Hon/bl Court would innabel the Preasent assessors to assess the same on the inhabitence of said Town, or otherwise Relieve the above-said Town, as you, in your Great wisdom, shall think Propper; and your Petitioners, in Denty Bound, shall Ever Pray.
THOS. PRATT, SAM/LL SPRAGUE, JONATHAN GREEN. Chelcey, Feb/r 3/d, 1779.
The General Court Resolved, That the prayer of the Petitioners be so far granted as that the present Assessors be and they are hereby directed and impowered, to assess the Inhabitants of the said Town of Chelsey, the sum of £99. 3. 7. 1, it being the sum Laid on said Town as a State Tax in the Year 1775, which sum said Town have by some Means hitherto neglected to assess, or colleet of said Inhabitants, And the Treasurer is hereby directed to issue his Warrants to the Constables of said Chelsey, in due form of Law, for collecting the same.14
March 8, 1779. Chose Capt. Samuel Sprague, Abijah Hastings, and Samnel Floyd Committee of Correspondence.15
In 1779, when our affairs were at a low ebb, and the people dissatisfied with high prices of commodities, in consequence of the depreciation of paper money, Congress asked for a loan of twenty millions to maintain the credit of her issues. In- stead of convening the General Court a convention was called, which met at Concord July 14, and passed many resolutions, among which were several fixing the priecs of merchandise, produce, and labor.
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