History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 22

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292

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The need of a regular meeting house, for a better accommodation of public worship than private houses could afford, soon began to find expression. In 1717 Richard Landers was appointed by the monthly meeting to dig graves for Friends in Falmouth; and at the next monthly meeting those who had promised to pay money for fencing the burying ground were requested to bring it to him. This grave yard, though now grown up with trees, may still be found in the woods eastward of the houses at present occupied by Judah Bowman, or Maria F. Hamblin. Traces of the stone wall which in 1730 John Lan- ders and Stephen Bowman were appointed to build about the burial ground are still to be discerned; but all marks of the graves are obliterated, except such rude natural stones as might be found by digging. Here were the remains of West Falmouth Friends gen- eraly buried, until the second grave-yard surrounding the present meeting house facing the new road below, was laid out.

The main road to Falmouth village lay between the first burying ground and the first Friends' meeting house; and that road may still

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

be traced in places in the woods for a mile or two. The ground over which the first Friends' meeting house stood is marked at its central spot by a stone post, chiseled with the figures " 1720," and erected by the late Daniel Swift and others. The building, which was begun in the year 1720, was thirty feet square on the ground, and one story high, having a "hopper roof,"-that is, coming to a point like a pyra- mid. On meeting days in cold weather an attempt was made to warm the room, or at least some of the worshippers' feet, by a large pot of charcoal standing on the ground or floor in the middle of the room. For the escape of the fumes, an opening was made in the roof. Meetings were regularly held here for fifty years. Of all the Friends traveling in the ministry who preached in this house, Samuel Fothergill, from England, seems remembered as the most eminent.

The building of this meeting house was authorized by the follow- ing minutes of Sandwich monthly meeting: "At our monthly meet- ing, at our meeting house in Sandwich the 2d of the 7th month, 1720, were the several weekly meetings belonging to the same, called on : For Sandwich John Wing and Edward Perry present, for Falmouth Richard Landers and Stephen Harper present, for Yarmouth none appears. At this meeting it is agreed and concluded that there be a meeting house built at Falmouth, and Friends subscribed towards the building of it as follows :

£ sh.

Ebenezer Wing 1 Gidian Hoxie. 0 1 0 Stephen Bowerman .. 2

Benjamin Allen. 10 Nicolas Davis. 10 Isaac Robinson* 3

Edward Perry 0 1 Richard Landers 6

0 John Robinson 1

Obediah Butler 1

10 Thomas Bowerman .. 3

0 Peter Robinson 1

Gershom Gifford. 1

0 Stephen Harper. . 5

0 William Gifford. 2

John Strobridge 10

Joseph Landers. 3

0 Benjamin Swift. 3

Joshah Wing.

10 Benjamin Bowerman. 2 0 John Wing. 2

Joseph Hollway

10 Justes Gifford. 2

0 Daniel Allen. 1 0

Total. 44 pounds."

The first ten names on this subscription list appear to be those of residents in Sandwich ; and the remaining fourteen, beginning with Richard Landers, residents of Falmouth. Accordingly Falmouth Friends subscribed thirty-six pounds toward the building of their own meeting house, and Sandwich Friends eight pounds. Consider- ing the much larger value of money in those days than its purchasing power now, and the hard work to obtain it by farming, the subscrip- tion was a generous one. Sandwich monthly meeting had a few years before liberally responded to a call to help build meeting houses in Salem and in Boston.

It does not appear how long a time was taken in bringing the build-

* If this Isaac Robinson was the son of the original settler, he was then at least seventy-eight years of age ; if the grandson, he was fifty-one.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

ing to completion. We read that at the monthly meeting held at Fal- month, 6th mo., 1722, Ebenezer Wing was appointed to gather the money contributed by Sandwich Friends toward building a meeting house in Falmouth, and bring whatever he received to the next monthly meeting ; and at the next monthly meeting held at Sand- wich in 7th mo., he turned in £9, 1s., 6d., which he had collected. And the first meeting recorded as held in Falmouth meeting house was 2d day, the 6th month, 1725.

Whether Benjamin Swift, whose name appears among the sub- scribers, was then a member, or his wife, who was a member, was sub- scribed for in his name, is not clear. But Daniel Swift, a beloved and venerable Friend who died in 1879, desired the writer to preserve for future memory, along with some of the information above given ; that Benjamin Swift, being formerly a staunch Congregationalist, persisted in regularly attending his own meeting in Falmouth village, even when on extraordinary occasions his wife was anxious to have him go to meeting with her. At length one First-day morning, having in- formed him that two ministers from abroad were to be at Friends' meeting, she went her usual way. But while sitting in the meeting, she was surprised to see her husband hitching his horse at a fence, .coming up toward the house, and taking his seat among the rest. He never attended the meeting at town afterward, but went regularly with his wife, and in due time joined the Friends. Benjamin Swift served as the monthly meeting's clerk, the first from Falmouth, in the years 1745-47. His grave was the first in the new, or present burial ground, and is to be seen beside his good wife's at the northwest corner of the ·original portion.

In 1731 a stable, sixteen feet square, was ordered to be built, to accommodate the horses of Friends coming to meetings. How long that building stood has not been learned. But one of apparently larger size gave place to the present commodious sheds, which were completed in 1861. Stephen Dillingham offered to give the meeting one hundred dollars toward the proposed sheds, or if the meeting would raise $175 by subscriptions, he would build the sheds. The latter offer was accepted. And Stephen Dillingham, in rendering to the Preparative meeting a report of his care, concluded by saying in substance : "I have done the best I could for the meeting's benefit. The sheds are finished, and offered to Friends ; and I hope they will be of use to many, long after I am laid away." He died in 1872. Many marks and memories remain in West Falmouth, as reminders of his ·enterprise, public spirit, and sagacity in business. He was for 40 years postmaster. None but Friends (Gilbert R. Boyce, and now James E. Gifford) have succeeded him in the West Falmouth post- ·office.

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

In 1742 the monthly meeting complains of "a cowardly spirit about training "; that is. some members not having courage to main- tain their testimony against war, by refusing to train.

In 1755 the women Friends of Falmouth requested a preparative meeting. The holding of a women's meeting for religious business separate from that of men Friends, and co-ordinate with it, has contin- ued (developing in many women valuable traits of judgment), till within two or three years: when preparative meetings have been driven by the smallness of numbers attending, to avail themselves of the yearly meeting's permission to hold joint sessions.

The original "hopper-roof" meeting house on the hill-side knoll, which as a shelter for Friends in their often silent worship had stood for fifty years. was now in the year 1771 believed to have had its day.

M.GilMOUR N.Y.

FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, WEST FALMOUTH, BUILT 1842.

A new edifice, larger and more convenient, began to be built, facing the new public road below ; and by the year 1775 the house appears to have been completed. An addition to it was made in the year 1794. This second meeting house stood for nearly seventy years, or until 1841, when it was decided to replace it by a new edifice.

The present, or third meeting house, under a contract made with Moses Swift, was built on the site of the second. The builder receiv- ing the material of the former house to dispose of as his own, Zeno Kelly of South Yarmouth, persuaded that Moses Swift had an unfa- vorable bargain on his hands, endeavored to relieve him by buying the frame of the second meeting house; which he transported on a

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

vessel to South Yarmouth, where it lay under temporary cover on a wharf by Bass river for about a year, when it was utilized by being erected as the frame-work of David Kelley's present barn. There the heavy oak beams are still to be seen, staunch and sound, attesting the solid growth of the West Falmouth oaks of 1771. In 1842 the build- ing committee acknowledge the receipt of $202,-contributed for the new meeting house, and in the Seventh month of that year report that it is finished. Still well preserved, it bids fair to be longer-lived than either of its predecessors ; but whether longer-lived than the meeting itself, will depend on the life of the people in the principles for which it was built.

Sandwich quarterly meeting began to hold its mid-summer session at Falmouth in 1779, where it continued to be held annually till 1792. when it was transferred to Nantucket and held there up to 1850. Thence it was returned to Falmouth, where it is still held every Seventh month by representatives and visitors from the Friends included in Barnstable, Bristol and Plymouth counties ;- an occurrence still of interest, and formerly regarded in the neighborhood as an an- nual event of remarkable account.

Here as elsewhere Friends found it difficult, while their children were mingling indiscriminately with others in the public or district school, to train them according to the principles and testimonies which Friends had received to hold. At length, in 1831, the Friends in West Falmouth built by subscription a school house on the east side of the road opposite the northern portion of the burial-ground. The first school therein was held in the winter of 1831-2, the building not yet being plastered. Asa Wing, of Sandwich, is said to have been em- ployed as the first teacher, and his name is held in honored memory by pupils who still survive him. It was regarded as a fine school, and it gave general satisfaction in the neighborhood. The prosperity of the schools held in that building at length waned with the decreas- ing interest of Friends in its original purpose; and especially while for several years the teachers employed also in the district school of the neighborhood were usually members of the society. At length the Friends' school house was removed by Edward G. Dillingham", and made the body of the Lindley M. Wing house, where it now stands.

The real history of the Friends' meeting in Falmouth, adequately portrayed, would be biographical,-chiefly in the bringing to light of those obscure and hidden lives that appear but little in the records,

*Edward G. Dillingham removed from West Falmouth to Acushnet in 1855. His gift in the ministry being acknowledged by the society, he is still often seen and wel- comed in his native place ministering the word-likewise in Sandwich-and Yarmouth. As his frequent companion, the late Josiah Holmes, jr., of New Bedford, has long had familiar place in these meetings, and at funerals of members.

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

and less in the chief seats. The influence of some of these in their silent spheres, has been of the deepest and most far-reaching. As re- gards the prominent and well-remembered names, we forbear to be- gin the mention of them, knowing there is not room to do equal jus- tice to all.

If, however, we may allude to the use made of members in public life,-James T. Dillingham was chosen in 1857 to serve as representa- tive in the Massachusetts legislature, being the first of the three mem- bers of the Friends' Society in Falmouth who (since Isaac Robinson -- probably the junior-and a Friend, who was deputy in 1691) have been elected to the general court. He served a few months, when he moved to Wisconsin, pursued a successful business career, and died in 1889. James E. Gifford served in the legislature in the years 1880 and 1881. By his efforts an act was passed in 1880 having the effect of giving to widows of intestate husbands leaving no children, real es- tate that may be left, up to $5,000 in value ;- an act highly commended by enlightened judges as in the direction of needed reform toward justice for women. Thus the Friends' principle of co-ordinating rather than subordinating woman in her church relations, having shown its tendency in public legislation, was learned in West Fal- mouth to some purpose. Meltiah Gifford (the younger) served in the legislature as representative in 1884, but died in the same year, much lamented in appreciation of his extended public usefulness in the town and especially in the services of the Society. He and James E. Gifford (the latter, for several years past, moderator of the town meet- ings) appear thus far the last of a series of selectmen in Falmouth who professed with Friends. Until recently it was the policy of managers in the town's affairs to have usually one Friend among the selectmen. In that office we recognize also the names of Thomas Bowerman, Richard Landers, Stephen Bowerman, Paul Swift, Prince Gifford, Wil- liam Gifford, Daniel Swift, Barnabas Bowerman (who served twelve years), and Prince G. Moore (whoserved fourteen years), long respected not only as a veteran in the town's government, but as an example of uprightness and good judgment.

The list of preachers recorded as ministers in the Friends' meeting in Falmouth could not be traced back by the present writer farther than the year 1815,-though doubtless unrecorded ministers, or speakers in the meeting, have exercised their gifts from an early period. The names found, with dates of acknowledgment by the meeting, are as follows: Browning Swift, 1816; Susan Swift, 1818; Joshua Swift, 1827; William Gifford, 1827; John R. Davis, 1804 (he came from New Bedford monthly meeting); Huldah Gifford, 1829; Newell Hoxie (originally of Sandwich) 1846; Elizabeth Gifford, 1849;

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Mary Hoag, 1851; Elizabeth G. Dillingham, 1851; Lois B. Gifford, 1867; Charity G. Dillingham (now Chace), 1867: Daniel Swift, 1870.

The clerks of Sandwich monthly meeting who were residents of Falmouth, are named as follows: Benjamin Swift, serving in the years 1745-47; Daniel Bowman, 1796-98 and 1810-11; Prince Gifford, 179S- 1801; William Gifford, 1811-14 and 1817-23; Prince Gifford, jr., 1814- 17; Daniel Swift, 1823-31: Stephen Dillingham, 1831-35; Newell Hoxie, 1835-49; Arnold Gifford, 1861-72: Meltiah Gifford, 1872-84; James E. Gifford, 1884 to the present time.

The only clerks of the women's monthly meeting, from Falmouth. since 1849, have been: Hepza Swift, 1849-'50 and 1852-1854; and Huldah Gifford, 1869-1876.

In the autumn of 18SS, while on a visit from Worcester to his na- tive place, Daniel Wheeler Swift, one of the sons of the late Daniel Swift of beloved memory, took very practical interest in improving the condition of the burial ground about the meeting house. By a subscription of three hundred dollars he set about starting a fund of one thousand dollars, the annual income of which is to be applied to keeping the grave yard in a neat condition. Considerably more than the one thousand dollars asked for was contributed by residents of the neighborhood-some of them not members of the meeting-and by several residing in different parts of the country, who have remem- bered with affection the scenes of their youth and the graves of their departed. The excess contributed has been applied to the leveling and renovating of the entire surface of the ground, removing most of the rough boulders used as head-stones, and distinguishing the graves by neater marks. The present year will probably complete this part of the work.

JOHN H. DILLINGHAM .- The publishers feel justified in giving place in this history of the West Falmouth Society, to some account of one of its sons, whose annual sojourn and interest in his native homestead and meeting still identifies him with the neighbor- hood.

John Hoag Dillingham, the son of Abram Dillingham# of West Falmouth and Lydia Beede Dillingham (daughter of John Hoag of

*Descent in the Dillingham name, which comes from Old English words dealing and ham (for hamlet or village) and was applied to a market-town in Cambridge county, Eng., is thus traced: Edward Dillingham, an original settler of Sandwich, had children Henry, John (who moved to Yarmouth, or Harwich), and Oseah (who married Stephen Wing, son of John who moved to Yarmouth). Henry had a son Edward, one of whose eight children Edward, jr., had six. One of these, Ignatius, who married Deborah Gif- ford, had eight children, the youngest of whom, Joseph, married Esther Rogers of Marsfield, whose children were Stephen, Reuben, Deborah, Mary, Elizabeth, Abram, and Edward G. Abram, the father of John, died 7th mo., 7, 1879. It is believed all the above were members of the Society of Friends, and apparently Ignatius' father Ed- ward moved from Sandwich to Falmouth.

John Ho Dillingham.

PRINT.

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Centre Sandwich, N. H.) was born 6th mo., 1st, 1839. Of his three brothers, all younger, two died in childhood, and Moses B. next younger, died at home, aged 22, while a student of Exeter Academy, where he had nearly fitted for college. Life on a small farm, varied by three months' attendance of the district school in winter and three in summer, brought John to the age of 12, when he commenced daily walks to Lawrence Academy in the village, four miles from home, continuing at this school in the spring and fall terms till the age of 19, when by the encouragement and training of his teacher, the Prin- cipal, George E. Clarke, he entered Harvard College in Cambridge, from which he graduated in 1862. He had taught school one winter, when at the age of 16, at Shumet Pond, and the next two winters in West Falmouth, and the next at South Pocasset,-the two latter winters having leave of absence from college for the purpose. In the autumn after graduating he accepted an offer to teach in the boarding-school for boys conducted by Charles A. Miles at Brattleboro, Vt., and con- tinued there 23 years. In the summer of 1865 he accepted the posi- tion of tutor in Latin and Greek, also of Librarian, in Haverford Col- lege, Pennsylvania. The superintendent retiring near the middle of the year, the new tutor was induced to accept the care of the students in the household-all boarding in the college. This charge continued for ten years. His department of instruction was early changed to a professorship in " Moral and Political Science." In 1871 he was mar- ried to Mary Pim, of Caln, in Chester county valley. In 1875 he left the college-building with his family for another house on the premi- ses, continuing only in duties of instruction, until, in 1878 he accepted the place of Principal in the Friends' School for Boys in Philadelphia, a name under which he still serves as senior teacher in the same in- stitution. In 1886, the school having been removed to its new build- ing at 140 N. 16th street, and also the Friends' library to a new build- ing on the same ground, the service of Librarian and Custodian of Friends' records was added to his school duties. His interest in the truths of the gospel as committed to the Society of Friends is in part represented by service as overseer since 1874, as clerk of the monthly meeting 1SS2-86, as elder from 1883 till 11th mo., 1889, when he was acknowledged as a minister. His children are four daughters, Anne Pim, Lydia Beede, Mary Edge, and Edith Comfort Dillingham. His interest in his native town, the place of his family's residence in the summer with his surviving mother, continues not only unabated but heightened.

CHAPTER XI. BENCH AND BAR.

BY E. S. WHITTEMORE, ESQ.

The Judiciary of the County .- First Courts .- Formation of the Province of Massachu- setts Bay .- Revision of the Judiciary .- Courts of the Revolutionary Period .- Early Magistrates .- Judges of the Court of Common Pleas .- Court of County Commis- sioners .- Probate Courts .- Trial Justices .- The Bar of Barnstable County .- Law- yers, Past and Present .- Law Library Association .- District Courts.

T HE history of the Old Colony, as to its judiciary systems, is divided into four periods: that immediately after the coming of

the Pilgrims and Puritans at Plymouth, to 1692, when the colo- nies were united; from this time to the revolutionary period; during this time to its termination, October 19, 1781; and from the surrender of Cornwallis to the present time, which is mostly within the memory of men now living.

As early as 1639, the general court of the Plymouth colony at- tempted to form a judicial system, but much of it was vague and indefinite in its jurisdiction; the people were obliged to use such ma- terials as they had. The earliest attempt of the court to form an infant judiciary, was to nominate and appoint three men from as many towns in the county, to hear and determine suits and controversies between parties within the townships, whose jurisdiction was not to exceed three pounds. The general court enacted, in the year 1666, that there should be three courts in each year in the county, for the trial of causes by jury, and it was further enacted that no courts of assistants, except the governor, on special occasion see fit to summon such court, and at such court the governor and three of the magistrates at least, must be present at trials. It was also enacted where the amount in contro- versy was less than forty shillings, it should be tried by a court of selectmen, from the decision of which court an appeal might be taken to the next court of his majesty at Plymouth, provided the appellant furnish security to prosecute such appeal.

Soon after the settlement at Plymouth, the governor and his assist- ants were constituted a judicial body, and supreme in jurisdiction, and it was substantially a court of appeal, from inferior courts.

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BENCH AND BAR.

In 1685, it became a law in this colony to establish in the three counties of Bristol, Plymouth, and Barnstable, two courts in each county, which should be presided over by three magistrates, residing in their several counties, a majority of whom constituted the requisite number to make a legal decision. Such county courts had the power vested in them to hear, try and determine according to law, all matters, actions, cases and complaints, both civil and criminal, not extending to life, limb or banishment, or matters of divorce.

The same year (1685) the general court passed a law, that Barnsta- ble, Sandwich, Yarmouth and Eastham. the villages of Sippican, Succonesset and Monomoy, should be a county, Barnstable the county town, and said county be called the county of Barnstable, in which should be held two county courts annually at the county town, giving them power to settle and dispose. according to law, the estate of any person dying intestate within the county, to grant letters of adminis- tration, and take probate of wills: to make orders about county prisons, highways and bridges, and as occasion should demand, order rates to be made in the several towns to defray county charges.

The general court adopted the common law of England, that a magistrate or any court should have power to determine all such mat- ters of equity in cases or actions that had been under their cognizance as could not be reached by the common law; such as the forfeiture of an obligation, breach of covenants without great damage, or the like matters of apparent equity. But all judgments acknowledged before any two magistrates and the clerk of the court should be good and sufficient in law.

It became a law in 1662, that every town in this colony should choose three or five discreet men annually, who should in June be presented to the general court at Plymouth for appearance, who, after being duly sworn before a magistrate, should have power to hear, try and determine all actions of debt, trespass or damage, and other causes, not exceeding forty shillings in its jurisdiction. This was the court of selectmen, which had four annual sessions. The record dimly shadows the fact that as early as 1640-2 there was established a "Select Court," whose limit of jurisdiction was twenty shillings.

By virtue of the charter of William and Mary, granted in 1691-2, among other rights were, that Massachusetts bay, the colony of New Plymouth, the province of Maine and Nova Scotia were united and made one province, called the province of the Massachusetts bay, which union marked a new order of things in these provinces. This period inaugurated, among other things, a revision of the judiciary, making, changing and revising much of it.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 22

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York : Blake Number of Pages: 1292

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292