History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 4

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

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"In witness whereof, we have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cape Cod, the 11th day of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, anno Domini 1620."

This compact was signed in the following order. We adopt the idea of Mr. Prince, in his New England Chronology, Vol. I, p. 85, Ed. 1736, in giving the number of each family; also, in placing the * to each who brought his wife, and italicizing every one who died before the first of April, 1621:

---

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

1. Mr. John Carver," 8; 2. Mr. William Bradford,# 2; 3. Mr. Ed- ward Winslow,# 5; 4. Mr. William Brewster,# 6; 5. Mr. Isaac Aller- ton," 6; 6. Capt. Miles Standish," 2; 7. John Alden. 1; 8. Mr. Samuel Fuller, 2; 9. Mr. Christopher Martin,# 4: 10. Mr. William Mullens," 5; 11. Mr. William White," 5; 12. Mr. Richard Warren, 1; 13. John How- land; 14. Mr. Stephen Hopkins,# 8; 15. Edward Tilley,# 4; 16. John Tilley,# 3; 17. Francis Cooke, 2; 18. Thomas Rogers, 2; 19. Thomas Tinker,# 3; 20. John Ridgdale, 2; 21. Edward Fuller,# 3; 22. John Tur- ner, 3; 23. Francis Eaton,# 3; 24. James Chilton,# 3; 25. John Crackston, 2; 26. John Billington," 4; 27. Moses Fletcher, 1; 28. John Goodman, 1; 29. Degory Priest, 1; 30. Thomas Williams, 1; 31. Gilbert Winslow. 1; 32. Edmund Margeson, 1; 33. Peter Brown. 1; 34. Richard Butteridge, ]; 35. George Soule; 36. Richard Clarke, 1: 37. Richard Gardiner. 1; 38. John Allerton, 1: 39. Thomas English, 1; 40. Edward Dotey; 41. Edward Leister.

The same day John Carver was chosen governor for one year, and government was thus regularly established. The legislative and judicial power was in the whole body, and the governer became the executive.

On the 15th of November sixteen men, well armed, went on shore to explore while the shallop was being repaired; Captain Miles Standish was leader. They found Indians, who fled at their approach. They set sentinels and remained on the Cape over night-supposed from the description to be near Stout's creek. They traveled south from Dyer's swamp to the pond, in Truro. From the Great Hollow they went south to the hill which terminates in Hopkins's cliff, north side of Pamet river in Truro.

On the 27th of November, the shallop being ready, twenty-four men went forth to explore; Captain Jones, of the Mayflower, and a few sea- men joined the party, making thirty-four in all. They landed at Old Tom's hill, went up the Pamet river, and after three days returned to the ship, carrying corn from the storehouses of the natives.

December sixth another company set sail to explore the Cape, for much anxiety was manifested as to where they should abide. They first landed at Billingsgate point; the next day a portion went by boat and others on shore southward through Eastham. They sailed along the north coast of Cape Cod until Saturday evening, December ninth, when they found a safe harbor under the lee of a small island, called Clark's island from the master's mate, who was the first to land, in Plymouth harbor. Sunday was duly observed with praise and thanks- giving, and on Monday the 11th the harbor was sounded, the land explored, and was deemed the best place for a habitation, and one which the season and their present necessities should make them glad to accept. That day they returned to the ship in Cape Cod harbor with the report of their explorations.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

The question touching the place of settlement had been a vital one, and some even yet thought it best to explore northward from Plymouth before deciding; but upon the return of the second party from Plymouth it was decided to fix their abode there; December 15th the ship sailed for this haven, which, owing to head winds, was not entered till the 16th. Here a history of Barnstable county must necessarily sever connection with them, only so far as their visits and the settlement of a portion of them pertains to the Cape.

In the month of July, 1621, John Billington, a boy from the Ply- mouth colony, was lost, for whom the governor caused inquiry to be made among the Indians. He was found at Nauset (Eastham), where he had been carried and kindly sheltered by the natives, who found him wandering in the woods of Sandwich. A boat was dispatched to bring the boy, but was compelled to anchor over night at Cummaquid (Barnstable harbor). Here, Iyanough, the sachem of this part of the Cape, displayed a friendship that could well be denominated a reproof for the acts of Hunt and others who had so unceremoniously taken unbecoming liberties among the tribes of the Cape. He assisted in the recovery of the boy, and promised his friendly adhesion to the colony.

On the 13th of September, 1621, nine sachems subscribed an instru- ment of submission to King James, and among them several of the known Cape sacheins; and for years before Barnstable county was settled constant intercourse was kept up with the Cape by the Ply- mouth colony. It became a necessity to often visit the Indian gran- aries in times of dearth. In this intercourse with the tribes of the Cape more or less jealousies and bickerings arose, in which, perhaps, the whites were as much at fault as their Indian neighbors. One instance: In March, 1623, Captain Standish entered Scusset harbor for corn, and conceived the idea that a native of Pamet intended to kill him, but he thwarted any plot, if one had been planned, by a faithful watch. About this time a plot against the colony was sus- pected, which was really an outgrowth of Captain Standish's former suspicion, and resulted in the slaughter by the English of four prom- inent sachems, the head of one of whom was borne to Plymouth and set up on a pole over the fort. The news of such unwonted massacre spread among the natives of the Cape, causing them to feel that no confidence could be placed in those they had befriended, and that any and every one was liable at any moment to become a victim of false accusation, to swell the list of those who had fallen by such a spirit of extermination. Several of the Cape tribes left their abodes, took to the woods and swamps, contracted diseases, and many of the most friendly sachems, including the venerable Iyanongh, miserably died. As soon as the transaction mentioned in this paragraph was communi-

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

cated to Rev. Mr. Robinson, the leader and founder of the Ply- mouth church, at Leyden, he wrote to the governor at Plymouth, beg- ging them "to consider the disposition of their captain, who was a man of warm temper;" also "he trusted the Lord had sent him among them for good, but feared he was wanting in that tenderness of the life of man, made after God's image, which was meet; and it would have been better if they had converted some before they had killed any."

The Cape was important to Plymouth, as touching ground for trading vessels and additional pilgrims. In December, 1626, a ship bound for Virginia was compelled to put in at the nearest point, and ran into Monomoyick (Chatham) bay; here the vessel was wrecked, and the beach was called thenceforward Old Ship. The Indians con- veyed the intelligence of the disaster to Plymouth, in the meantime caring for the unfortunates, and the governor hastened to dispatch a boat with supplies, which were landed at the south side of the bay, at Namskaket creek, whence it was not much over two miles across the Cape to where the ship lay. The Indians carried the supplies across to the sufferers, and the goods from the broken-up vessel were subse- quently transported to Namskaket and the crew conducted to Plymouth.

In 1627 the ,colonists established a trading house at Manomet (Bourne), on the south side of Monument river, to facilitate their intercourse with the Narragansett country, New Amsterdam, and the shores of Long Island sound. The trading post was not far from Monument Bridge-the Indian Manomet being corrupted to Monu- ment. By transporting their goods up the creek from Scusset harbor and transferring them a short distance by land they reached the boata- ble waters the other side of the Cape. Governor Bradford says: "For our greater convenience of trade, to discharge our engagements, and to maintain ourselves, we have built a small pinnace, at Manomet, a place on the sea, twenty miles to the south, to which, by another creek on this side, we transport our goods by water within four or five miles, and then carry them over land to the vessel; thereby avoiding the compassing of Cape Cod, with those dangerous shoals, and make our voyage to the southward with far less time and hazard. For the safety of our vessel and goods we there also built a house and keep some servants, who plant corn, raise swine, and are always ready to go out with the bark-which takes good effect and turns to advantage." This proved, as the governor said, an advantage. The first communi- cation between the Plymouth colony and the Dutch at Fort Amster- dam was through this channel. De Razier, the noted merchant, arrived at Manomet in September, 1627, with a ship load of sugar, linen and stuffs; and Governor Bradford sent a boat to Scusset harbor

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

to convey him to Plymouth. As this trading post was temporary, we do not date the settlement of Sandwich at this time.

Still, with additions to their numbers, the sickness and exposures, famine stared the Plymouth colony in the face often, and many instances of calm resignation are recorded in its early annals. One who came to the governor's house with his tales of suffering, " found his lordship's last batch in the oven." A good man who asked a neighbor to partake of a dish of clams, after dinner returned "thanks to God, who had given them to suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sands."

Their first election of executive officers under their first charter was in 1630, at which time the total population of the colony did not exceed three hundred. There was no scramble for office, and in 1631 it was found necessary to enact that "if, now, or hereafter any person chosen to the office of governor refuse, he shall be fined twenty pounds; and that if a councillor, or magistrate, chosen refuse, he shall be fined ten pounds; and in case this be not paid on demand, it shall be levied out of said person's goods or chattels." We must except this one peculiarity from the many sterling principles implanted in our government customs, but not censure our Puritan ancestors for the departure taken by the present-day politicians in their unjust scramble for office.

Governor Bradford thus describes a great storm, in the annals of the colony:

August 15, 1635 .- " A mighty storm of wind and rain as none living in these parts, either English or Indians, ever saw. It began in the morning a little before day, and came with great violence, causing the sea to swell above twenty feet right up, and made many in- habitants climb into the trees. It took off the roof of a house belong- ing to the plantation at Manomet, and put it in another place. Had the storm continued without shifting of the wind, it would have drowned some parts of the country. It blew down many thousands of trees, turning up the stronger by the roots, breaking the higher pines in the middle, and winding small oaks and walnuts of good size as withes. It began southeast, and parted towards the south and east, and veered sundry ways. The wrecks of it will remain a hun- dred years. The moon suffered a great eclipse the second night after it." The destruction on the Cape was even greater than on the main land.

Since the simple compact of 1620 no constitution or other instru- ment for the government of the colony had been made. The code of Moses seemed to be paramount to any code of England. The power of the church was superior. As trade expanded it was evident that civil authority, and not church censure, must extend its strong power

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

over the colony to check the often recurring conflictions of trade and growing selfishness of man's nature; therefore on the 15th of November, 1636, the court of associates first set forth the following declaration of rights-the first real one of the New World:

"We, the Associates of New Plymouth, coming hither as free-born subjects of the state of England, and endowed with all and singular the privileges belonging to such, being assembled, do ordain that no act, imposition, law, or ordinance, be made or imposed on us, at the present or to come, but shall be made or imposed by consent of the body of Associates, or their representatives, legally assembled,- which is according to the liberties of the state of England."

Thus was established our present form of representation; and as all rights of parliament to legislate for them were renounced, they proceeded to provide for the emergency. It was enacted: "That on the first Tuesday in June, annually, an election shall be held for the choice of Governor, and assistants, to rule and govern the plantation."

The franchise was confined to those admitted as freemen, to whom a stringent oath was prescribed. And they must be "Orthodox in the fundamentals of religion " and "possessed of a ratable estate of twenty pounds." The votes were to be given by person or by proxy at Plymouth, and no person was to live, or inhabit, within the govern- ment of New Plymouth "without the leave and liking of the Gov- ernor and Assistants." A constable was to be elected who had power to serve " according to that measure of wisdom, understanding, and discretion as God has given you," and had power to arrest, without precept, "all suspicious persons." Capital offenses were treason, murder, diabolical converse, arson and rape.

At this date (1636) the only towns settled were Plymouth, Duxbury and Scituate. The Cape was still the home of the same Indian tribes who had been ruled, ostensibly, by the colony, and had maintained a very friendly trade and seeming allegiance. But the year 1637 was to see the first settlement by the whites upon the Cape.

April 3, 1637, a settlement was commenced at Sandwich, although the plantation was not recognized as a town until two years later. These persons were chiefly from Lynn (Saugus), with a few from Duxbury and Plymouth. The permit, or grant, must be given by the general court, and the record was made that they "shall have liberty to view a place to sit down, and have sufficient lands for three-score families, upon the conditions propounded to them by the Governor and Mr. Winslow." These freemen had undergone the most rigid oaths and examinations to obtain this permission, and very early Mr. John Alden and Captain Miles Standish were sent to "set forth the bounds of the lands granted there." They were to see that the qual- ifications of "housekeeping" were strictly conformed to; and singu-

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

larly enough it was found that Joseph Winsor and Anthony Besse, at Sandwich, were disorderly keeping house-alone-and were pre- sented to the court. While the growing settlements of the Cape were under Plymouth government we find no flagrant transgressions of their stringent laws --- the whole code-from that forbidding, by heavy punishment, "the inveigling of men's daughter, etc .. " down to that of "allowing no swine to go at large without ringing them."

As early as August, 1638, liberty was given Mr. Stephen Hopkins to erect a house at Mattacheese and cut hay there to winter his cattle -provided it do not withdraw him from Plymouth. Again permission granted, September third, to Gabriel Weldon and Gregory Armstrong to go and dwell at Yarmouth; and then it is said, " the people of Lynn having established a settlement at Sandwich, an attempt was made from the same quarter to establish another at Yarmouth." First in the work was Rev. Stephen Batchelor, aged 76 years, who trav- eled the distance from Lynn to the east part of Barnstable on foot. The records show that this attempt failed from the difficulties that attended it, and the next year other parties had the honor of first erecting their cabins in the wilderness of the present Barnstable and Yarmouth.

The Indian Mattacheese extended quite a distance within the present limits of Barnstable, and among the many settlers of the sum- mer of 1639 the territory of Barnstable. Yarmouth and Dennis became settled. The northeastern part was called Hockanom, yet another part of the ancient settlement was called Sesuet- since East Dennis. The names of these grantees of Mattacheese are found in the chapters of Barnstable and Yarmouth.

In this year, 1639, so many had migrated to the towns of Barnsta- ble, Yarmouth and Sandwich, that they were invested with the rights of towns and were each entitled to two delegates to an assembly for legislation. In October of the same year the authorities at Plymouth ordered a pound to be erected at Yarmouth, and established there a pair of stocks. The stocks of that day, in which the petty offenders were compelled to sit, were one of the mediums through which the Plymouth court would impress a notion of its dignity upon any who disregarded its authority.

In 1641 the active ministers of Barnstable, Sandwich and Yarmouth were John Laythorpe [Lothrop], John Mayo, William Leverich, John Miller and Marmaduke Matthews. These each bore the title of Mister, that insignia of Puritan importance which at that time was only applied to the learned and the wealthy.

The first assessment for the expenses of the general court was levied in June, 1641, upon the eight towns then constituting the col- ony. To produce £25, Plymouth was assessed £5, Duxbury £3, 10,

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Scituate £4, Sandwich £3, Yarmouth, Barnstable and Taunton each £2, 10, and Marshfield £2.

In 1644 the project of removing the Plymouth government to Nauset on the Cape was again agitated, and Governor Bradford and others were sent to locate a site. They purchased lands of the sachems of Nauset and Monomoyick, and permission was given to the Ply- mouth church for a new location. A part of the church only removed, and in April the new settlement was commenced at Nauset. Secre- tary Morton said of it, " divers of the considerablest of the church and town removed." The prominent men who removed are noticed in the history of Eastham.

In 1646 the Cape furnished two of the governor's assistants-Mr. Thomas Prince of Nauset and Edmund Freeman of Sandwich-and the towns were ordered by the general court to have a clerk to keep a register of births, marriages and burials.

In 1647 progress was made in extending the Nauset and other set- tlements, both on the territory between Eastham and Dennis, and toward Provincetown. Prior to the settlement at Nauset, three years before, all of the territory below Dennis was occupied by Indians; but during the year 1653 Brewster was settled. It would also seem that the Cape had at least one mill at Sandwich, and that the miller was presented, in 1648, for not having a toll-dish sealed "according to order."

In 1651 quite a number of the best citizens of Sandwich, " for not frequenting the public worship of God," were presented, and in 1652 Ralph Allen, sr., and Richard Kerby of Sandwich were presented "for speaking deridingly against God's word and ordinances." It would seem by the fining of the citizens that already the Cape people had commenced a move in the right direction, and would be worship- ping God properly by not heeding such rules and tenets as had been made by the rulers.

The most convenient road from Sandwich to Plymouth was laid out in 1652, by order of the court to Mr. Prince and Captain Standish to empanel a jury. This was done, and the highway began "at Sandwich, leaving Goodman Black's house on the right hand, running across the swamp, over the river, and so on, in a nor-north-west line falling upon Eel River." April 1, 1653, delegates were sent from Barnstable, Eastham, Yarmouth and Sandwich to meet the court "to conclude on military affairs." Sandwich furnished six men, Yarmouth six, Barnstable six and Eastham three, for military purposes. In 1653 the first coined money of the New World was put into circu- lation, and the historical pine-tree shilling was the veritable money mentioned; it was coined by Massachusetts and was in circulation on the Cape.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

These four towns, frequently mentioned, and being then the only Cape towns incorporated, remained under the Plymouth government until 1635, when that colony was divided into three counties-Ply- mouth, Bristol and Barnstable. The growth in settlement was rapid, as the Cape possessed its own local and peculiar advantages. Thus the white man's presence, the white man's enterprise and the social life which they implied gradually but surely took their permanent place on the Cape, and the elimination of the red man as a factor in human affairs here was rapidly accomplished.

CHAPTER IV.

CHARTERS, GRANTS AND INDIAN DEEDS.

Spanish Claims .- Cabot's Discoveries .- Plymouth Company .- Council of Plymouth. - The Pilgrims .-- Patent of 1629-30 .- Settlement of the Cape Towns and Purchases from the Indians .- Charter of 1691.

B Y virtue of the discovery by Columbus, followed by a grant from the pope and a general treaty with Portugal, Spain made a claim to the whole continent of America, excepting Brazil, which was granted to Portugal in the treaty. This assumption excited the cupidity and curiosity of other European powers, and expeditions of discovery were at once fitted out by France and England. John Cabot, in 1496, set sail from Bristol, England, with full authority to take pos- session, in the name of the king, of all lands and islands he might discover. He sailed to the present coast of New England, and under the doctrine that newly discovered countries belong to the discov- erers, England put forward a claim to extensive regions of North America, a portion of which they subsequently settled: but the colon- ization necessary to complete the title by discovery was delayed, and eight years elapsed before the English made attempts to settle these lands to which they had such a questionable right.

The first charter of Virginia, in 1606, contemplated the planting of two colonies. The persons mentioned in the charter of the second or northern colony were: Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker and George Popham, while others not mentioned were active in the company. In 1607 futile attempts were made by this Plymouth Company-the name given to the one for the settlement of northern Virginia-to plant a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec river.

The French also put forward a claim to certain portions of the New England territory, and under a patent which France had granted to De Monts, they made a settlement at Port Royal; but Argall, for the English, burned it in 1613. Among these attempts to settle, under the patents of royalty, it was seemingly destined that a feeble band of . persecuted religionists, providentally thrown upon its shores, should make the first permanent settlement within the limits of the new province.

CHARTERS, GRANTS AND INDIAN DEEDS. 33

The Virginia company having renewed their charter, in 1619-the first having been forfeited by the attainder of Sir Walter Raleigh-a company was formed at London which applied for a similar grant of the northern part of the so-called Virginia. This company, well known in law and in history as the Council of Plymouth, was com- posed of forty men, who had combined and engaged to invest money in this new enterprise. After nearly two years' solicitation this com- pany succeeded, November 3, 1620, in obtaining a charter from King James I., which put that part of North America between the 40th and 4Sth degrees of north latitude, except " all places actually possessed by any other Christian prince or people," into their absolute control.

This company was composed of the Duke of Lenox, Marquis of Buckingham, Marquis of Hamilton, Earl of Arundel, Earl of War- wick, Sir Fernando Gorges and thirty-four merchants, incorporated as " The Council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England, in America." This company, although formed prior to the departure of the Mayflower, did not receive from the crown the promised charter until about one week before that vessel had dropped anchor in Cape Cod harbor. The occupants of the Mayflower, finding themselves out of the jurisdiction of the Virginia company, under whose permission they had expected to form their settlement, they entered into the agreement in the cabin, as described in the previous chapter. The Mayflower returned to England in the spring of 1621, and the Council of Plymouth then learned that the pilgrims had formed a settlement upon territory included within their charter. The council were quite ready to take them under their protection, and the colonists were de- sirous of receiving it, if a grant of territory could be procured. When the Mayflower sailed from the Old World, many who came obtained aid from Thomas Weston and others, called Merchant Adventurers. This aid was to each man, or boy of sixteen, £10 for transportation and outfit, which sum entitled the Adventurers to one-half interest or share in all the lands, profits and labors of the person so aided for the term of seven years.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 4

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