History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 51

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

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Joseph W. Tallman, son of Stephen B. Tallman of Cotuit, was born in 1848. His trade is mason work, in which he has done a con- tract business for the last twelve years. He was at sea for a time when a boy. His wife was Ellen C. Howland, of Sandwich. Their three sons are: Harry L., Ariel H., and Joseph W .. jr.

Stephen B. Tallman, a mason of Cotuit, born March 20, 1827, is a son of Jonathan Bush Tallman, born 178S, and his wife, Hannah Weaver, who lived to the age of 101 years and eleven months. His grand-parents were Samuel and Sarah (Bush) Tallman of Newport, who were married May 9, 1786. Mr. Tallman's wife. Mary B., is a daughter of Joseph Cammett, a carpenter, who was a guard on the coastin the war of 1814. His father Peter, was a son of Peter Cammett, whose father Peter Cammett came from England when a child. in care of a Truro captain, who also brought at the same time a little girl named Peggy Hunniwell, whom Peter subsequently married.

Herbert S. Taylor, born in 1865, is a son of George A. Taylor. of Chatham, grandson of George and great-grandson of George Taylor. He came to Barnstable in 1883, as partner in a meat business, with Prentice H. Davis. Three years later he took the entire business which he still successfully carries on. His wife, Mercie B., is a daugh- ter of Captain Lewis B. Doane, of Harwich.

Robert M. Waitt, son of Samnel and Persis (Hallett) Waitt, was born in 1824. His mother was one of twelve daughters of Benjamin Hallett and a sister of Hon. Benjamin F. Hallett. Captain Waitt went to sea at ten years of age as cook, following the sea seventeen

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

years, most of the time in coast trade, the last six years being master. He was an inspector in the Boston custom house eight years prior to 1861. He then did, with a short interval, a restaurant business in Boston until 1SSS. His wife, Ellen, is a daughter of Capt. Matthias Hinckley, a descendant from Governor Hinckley. Their only living child is Arthur M. Waitt. a graduate from the Boston Institute of Technology, and an official in the car department of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Captain Waitt's residence is one of the oldest houses in Barnstable village. It was built in 1717 by one of two sisters named Doane, who came from down the Cape.

Joseph Whittemore, son of Hiram and grandson of Edward Lloyd Whittemore. was born in South Dennis in 1819. He has carried on a paint shop since 1849, in Barnstable. His wife, Betsey, is a daughter of Freeman Phillips of Dennis, and granddaughter of Benjamin Phil- lips of Harwich. Their children were: Joseph (deceased), Annah (Mrs. Alfred Kelley of Yarmouth), Alice (Mrs. Andrew Newcomb of Brewster), Louisa, Maria (deceased), Sarah (Mrs. Moses C. Water- house), Joseph F. of East Wareham; Hiram, a contractor at Middle- boro, and Bessie M.

١٥ صبرا الفي .

CHAPTER XVII. TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

BY HON. CHARLES F. SWIFT.

Location and Characteristics .- Settlement .- The Grantees and Early Settlers .- Early Events and Customs .- The Revolutionary Period .- Division of the Town .- War of 1812 .- Subsequent Events .- Taverns and Hotels .- Churches .- Schools .- Civil Lists. -The Villages, their Industries and Institutions .- Biographical Sketches.

T HE present town of Yarmouth is situated about midway of the peninsula of Cape Cod, having Barnstable for her westerly neighbor, and Dennis on the east. Cape Cod bay washes the north and the Vineyard sound the south shores of the township. The four principal villages are near the borders of the sea or river, and the intervening region of four or five miles is densely covered with oak, pine, birch, cedar and other woods. There are a large number of fresh ponds scattered throughout the town, giving an agreeable di- versity to the landscape. Fifteen of the larger, with areas varying from ten to ninety-four acres, have an aggregate area of 564 acres. Long pond, near South Yarmouth, of ninety-four acres, and one south of it of twenty, have no outlet. Dennis pond, of fifty acres; Taylor's, of thirty-nine; Flax, of twenty; and one of eleven acres, form another group with no outlet. Mill pond, of eighty-one acres. is drained by Hamblin brook. Parker's river drains Flashes pond, of sixty-five acres, and Swan pond, of seventy. Thornton brook rises in a pond of fifty acres, and near South Yarmouth is a group of three small ponds with no visible outlet. Large tracts of salt meadow skirt the northern shore of the town. The soil is generally light, although, in Yarmouth Port, especially, there is a considerable region of land well adapted to gardens and orchards. The streets of that village are lined with large and heavy elms, planted some forty-five years ago, making a boule- vard of a mile and a half of attractive shade for promenade and rid- ing. Germans hill is the highest eminence in the town. Bass river, a stream some five miles in length, separates the town from Dennis to that extent; and Chase's Garden river, on the north side, is also the boundary for a short distance. White's brook, on the north, empties into Cape Cod bay; and Baxter's river, on the south, into Vineyard sound.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

. The original township of Yarmouth comprised, besides its present limits, a region of about a mile in extent from east to west, of what is now a portion of the town of Barnstable: but at a court held in Var- mouth, June 17, 1641, by virtue of an order of the general court, the line between the two towns was established substantially as it now exists. The easterly boundaries of the township were somewhat in- definite, but embraced the whole of the present town of Dennis, and the town also exercised a sort of shadowy jurisdiction over the region now known as Chatham; which, in the language of the old records, was described as "within the liberties of Yarmouth;" the western part of Brewster-then known as Satucket-was at an early period a "Constablerick " of Yarmouth-which probably meant that the town was responsible for the preservation of good order and lawful con- duct on the part of the inhabitants of the region. In 1694 those two communities were included in the town of Eastham, and Yarmouth thenceforward included the region now comprised in the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis.

The region in the vicinity of the habitations of the first comers was known by the Indian names of Mattacheese, Mattacheeset, Hock- anom and Nobscusset, Mattacheese signified old lands, or planting lands, and the terminal t, was applied to places by the water, making Mattacheeset mean, old lands by the borders of the water. This gen- eral term described the region now the eastern part of Barnstable and the western portion of Yarmouth. From near White's brook to Den- nis, was known as Hockanom: beyond which, to Brewster, the region was called Nobscusset. The Pawkunnawkuts occupied the vicinity of South Yarmouth and South Dennis, on both sides of Bass river.

But little is known of the region before its settlement by the Eng- lish. Captain John Smith, as is shown by the map describing his voyages, visited Barnstable harbor and skirted this coast. The Ply- mouth colonists sent frequent expeditions here but the earliest occu- pation of the town which is a matter of record, was in August, 1638, when the colony court granted leave to Stephen Hopkins " to erect a house at Mattacheese, and cut hay to winter his cattle, provided it be not to withdraw him from the town of Plymouth." In September of the same year. permission was granted to Gabriel Whelden and Greg- ory Armstrong to locate here, "with the consent of the committees of the place," which seems to imply some previous organization, at least, for a settlement. Hopkins was one of the Mayflower's company. He afterward conveyed his house to Andrew Hallet, jr., and the locality of his domicile is thus quite accurately defined. This was the first house in town built by an Englishman, the location of which is known. It is in a field now owned by Captain Charles Basset, about seventy-five yards northeasterly of the house of Thomas Thacher.

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. A depression on the side of the hill clearly indicates the locality of the site.

The permanent and authorized settlement of the town commenced early in 1639. The grantees of the court were, Anthony Thacher, John Crow and Thomas Howes, who had surveyed the lands, prepara- tory to occupation. They, with John Coite, "to be inquired of," Madrick Matthews, Philip Tabor, William Palmer, Samuel Rider, William Lumpkin and Thomas Hatch were proposed January 7, 1639, "to take up their freedom at Yarmouth." The same page records the following "persons there excepted against: Old Worden (dead), Bur- nell, Wright, Wat Deville." In March following, Nicholas Simpkins, Hugh Tilley, Giles Hopkins and Joshua Barnes are mentioned in the court records as of Yarmouth. Andrew Hallet was here in March, and there was some complaint that he had " assumed to himself " too large a proportion of the best lands, but his claim was subsequently confirmed by the court. Between the time of the first settlement and the close of the following year the pioneers were joined by Thomas Starr, Robert Dennis, Edward Sturgis, James Matthews, William Nick- erson, Samuel Ryder, Yelverton Crow, Philip Tabor, William Palmer, and Thomas Payne. William Chase was chosen constable, and Thomas Payne and Philip Tabor deputies to the court, the first repre- sentative assembly in the colony, which met June 4, 1639. William Clark took the oath of allegiance and fidelity in September, and was constable for the town.

The legislation by the colony court relative to the town, the first year of its existence, forbade any one here purchasing two house lots or more and laying them together and maintaining but one house upon them. This was intended to make the settlements compact, as a matter of safety and precaution. Yarmouth men were granted lib- erty to " keep their swine unwringed," "they keeping them with a herdsman until complaint be made of some hurt they have done." It was ordered that " a pair of stocks and a pound be erected, and that a constable see it done, and have a warrant to distrain such as shall refuse to pay what shall be assessed to the charge thereof." William Palmer was authorized to exercise the inhabitants in the use of arms.

The first mention of Yarmouth as the name of the town is found in the grant by the colony court to Messrs. Thacher, Crow and Howes. Of the first settlers some were Eastern county men, some were from the midland counties, some from Wales, and others from the south of England. Yarmouth, the principal seaport on the eastern coast of England, was the place of embarkation and debarkation between that country and Holland, and was naturally associated in their minds with experiences in the mother country; hence, perhaps, the name of this town.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

" Yarmouth," says Mr. Freeman, " was peculiarly fortunate in its incipiency in being under the direction not only of highly respect- able and energetic men, but of such as probably in general coalesced better with the leaders at Plymouth than did the majority of those, also highly respectable, who laid the foundation of Sandwich."

Anthony Thacher, it is believed, was born in Somersetshire county, England, about 1589. In 1610 we hear of him at Leyden, where he remained with Robinson and his associates about twenty years. But though imbued with the Pilgrim spirit, he found it con- sistent with his principles to serve as curate to his brother. Peter, who was rector of the church of the parish of St. Edmunds, at Salisbury, county of Wiltz. April 6, 1635, he sailed in the ship James from Southampton, together with Thomas, son of his brother Peter, a youth of fifteen years, arriving in Newbury, Mass., in June. In a voyage from Ipswich to Marblehead, undertaken in August, 1635, a terrific storm arose and their vessel was driven on the rocks on an island now bearing the name of Thacher, where his four children, his cousin, Rev. John Avery and his six children were drowned, Mr. Thacher and his wife being the only survivors of a company of twenty-three. After a short residence in Marblehead, Mr. Thacher obtained, in company with his associates before named, a grant of the region then known as Mattacheese, surveyed the lands, and early in 1639 commenced the settlement of the town. His homestead was located on the land about three hundred yards northeasterly of the dwelling house of the late James G. Hallet. Mr. Thacher married for a second wife Elizabeth Jones, six weeks previous to sailing for America. His surviving children were: John, born in Marblehead in March, 1639; Judah, born in Yarmouth, who died November 4, 1676; and Bethea, who married Jabez Howland, of Barnstable, and removed to Rhode Island. Colonel John, above named, was a more distinguished man than his father, so far as eminent public position and service is concerned. He was assistant to the governor in 1691, and from 1692 to 1717, inclusive, a counsellor in the province of Massachusetts Bay. A number of other eminent men have been found among the de- scendants of Anthony Thacher; among them Peter Thacher, judge of court of common pleas, 1729; John Thacher, also judge of court of common pleas, 1736; David Thacher, representative twenty-seven years, senator two years, delegate for framing state constitution, and also delegate to ratify the national constitution, and judge of court of common pleas.

Mr. Andrew Hallet was among the earliest of the first comers, but did not make his permanent residence here until 1641. He was styled a "school master " in Lychford's " Plain Dealing." In 1839 he bought of Dr. William Starr, for ten pounds, seventeen acres of land

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and twelve acres of meadow, with the frame of a house to be made by William Chase, the house " to be made and set with a chimney, and to be thatched, studded and latched (daubing excepted)," which Mr. Chase had agreed to do for the sum of five pounds. This house lot was in the northwest part of Yarmouth and the northeast part of Barnstable. on the county road; the house was probably within the limits of Yarmouth. In 1643 Mr. Hallet presented to the poor of the town a cow. which was accepted by the court for the purpose indi- cated-a gift at that time munificent, as cattle were valued. and evi- dently appreciated by the recipients. Mr. Hallet is described in the records as a " gentleman," a term which then carried with it high social consideration. His children were: Andrew. Samuel, Hannah, Josias, and Joseph. He died about the year 1647.

Andrew Hallet, jr., came over in 1636, nominally as a " servant " of Richard Wade-a title assumed for convenience-and was first in Lynn, and subsequently in Sandwich. He sold his house in that town in 1640 and in 1642 bought the Giles Hopkins house, the first built in town. He afterward built a house on the knoll. a few feet northerly of the present residence of Captain Charles Basset. He purchased eighteen acres to the eastward of his house lot, of Nicholas Simpkins, and the farm of Robert Dennis on the southwest. By subsequent purchases he became the proprietor of some three hundred acres of the best tillage and pasture land in town, owning from Barnstable line to nearly a quarter of a mile easterly on both sides of Hallet street, named for his family, He died in 1684. aged seventy-six. his wife Anne. daughter of An- thony Besse of Sandwich. surviving him.

Edward Sturgis was a man of wealth and social prominence. He was in Charlestown in 1634, and constable in Yarmouth in 1641. He kept an ordinary and sold large quantities of liquors, which our fathers consumed. His residence was northerly of the old burying ground. He died in Sandwich in 1695. Among his descendants are the late President Quincy of Harvard College, John Quincy Adams, and other distinguished personages.

Mr. Edmund Hawes came to this country in the James in April, 1635. He registered as a " cutler." He resided some time in Dux- bury, and came to Yarmouth in 1645. His residence was on the lot in the rear of the store of J. Knowles & Co. He survived nearly all the first settlers, dying in 1693. at the age of about eighty years.

William Chase was a member of the company of Rev. Mr. Bachilor, who,in 1638, made the first attempt to settle in what was afterward a part of Barnstable. He was appointed the first constable in town, but was deposed at the end of six months, not being in sympathy with the people of the town. In 1640 he was censured by the court, for his language against the minister, and ordered to depart the colony in six

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

months, but the order was not enforced. His numerous descendants in this section are derived from John, second son of William, jr .. who came with his father from England.

John Gorham came to this town from Marshfield in 1652, and pur- chased the house of Andrew Hallet, sr. He was a native of Benefield, Northamptonshire, where he was born in 1621. With Mr. Hallet's house he bought a part of his farm in Yarmouth and Barnstable, the grist mill at Stoney Cove, and carried on a tannery on the borders of the pond, below the residence of Patrick Keveney. He commanded the military company in town. In June, 1675, Captain Gorham and twenty-five men from Yarmouth " took up their first march for Mount Hope," and saw considerable service. In October he was appointed captain of the second company of Plymouth colony forces, was engaged in the sanguinary fight in the Swamp fort, December 19th, and died at Swansey, from fever contracted in consequence of exposure during that campaign, February 5, 1676, at the age of fifty-five years. He left a family of eleven children, from whom have descended the fami- lies in this and the neighboring towns. The Gorhams have been prominent in public affairs in both Yarmouth and Barnstable.

William Nickerson came from Norwich, England, to Watertown, in 1637, and was in Yarmouth as early as 1641, when with others he was fined for "disrespect for religion," which meant, for Rev. Mr. Matthews. But there seems no good ground for doubting the recti- tude of his conduct or his respectable character. He removed to Chatham in 1665 and settled that town.

James Matthews was in Charlestown in 1634, and probably re- moved to Yarmouth with the first comers, in 1639. The family was doubtless from Tewksbury, in Gloucestershire. Mr. Matthews settled near the westerly borders of Follen's pond. His male children were: Samuel, Benjamin, and probably Thomas, William and John. He died January 29, 1685.

There were two Richard Taylors early in town, both of whom were enrolled among those able to bear arms in 1643, and both had wives named Ruth. To distinguish them, one was called Richard Taylor, tailor from his occupation, and the other Richard Rock, from the circumstance that his house was built beside a great rock. The first Richard, in the year 1646, had a difficulty with Gabriel Whelden, who objected to his marriage with Whelden's daughter Ruth, and the court took cognizance of the matter. This new style of courting suc- ceeded and Whelden's consent was followed by the marriage. The Taylors of Chatham are descended from this Richard. The Taylors of Yarmouth are from "Richard Rock," who married Ruth Burgess. He was constable in 1656 and 1668, surveyor of highway in 1657, ex- cise officer in 1664, and on the grand jury in 1685.

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TOWN OF YARMOUTH.

William Hedge was a freeman at Lynn in May. 1634; removed to Sandwich, and from thence to Yarmouth, where he was settled as early as 1643. He is favorably mentioned by a soldier in the Pequot war, who served with him, as a gentleman, of Northamptonshire, England. He was several times captain of the military company in this town, a member of the grand inquest, and of the council of war. He lived near the old church in this town, now the post office. He died in 1670, leaving five children: Abraham, Elisha, William, John and Lemuel. The family is not numerous in Yarmouth. but is well represented in Dennis.

Emanuel White was in Yarmouth in 1641. He was involved in the ministerial quarrel of the time, and in 1646, was fined by the court for villifying Rev. John Miller, a short and summary process to which our fathers usually resorted, to silence opposition to the established religious order of things. The Whites of this town are not his de- scendants, but of Jonathan, who came here later.

John Joyce removed from Lynn to Sandwich in 1637, and thence to Yarmouth in 1643. He was a man of wealth, residing in the vil- lage of Hockanom. He died in 1666. The family name became ex- tinct in 1755 by the death of Jeremiah, his great-grandson.

Richard Berry was of Barnstable in 1643, removed to Boston in 1647, and thence to Yarmouth, where he resided in 1649. He lived near the mouth of Bass river, and came under the discipline of the authorities on several occasions. He had eleven children, who were, as far as known, of exemplary character, and his sons, John and Sam- uel, from whom those of the name in this town were derived, were useful citizens.

It has sometimes been assumed, without sufficient evidence, that Yelverton Crow was a brother of John, one of the grantees of the town. He was one on the list of those able to bear arms in 1643, was a grand juryman in 1656, deputy and selectman later, and died in 1683. He lived at "South Sea," near Lewis's bay and had a son, Thomas, who had numerous descendants.

Robert Dennis was in Yarmouth in 1641. In 1645 he was a mem- ber of the grand inquest. In 1648 he was appointed on the commit- tee of the town to dispose of the common lands; in 1658 was one of the committee to settle with the sachem Yanno; was afterward excise officer, and committee on the part of the town for oil claimed by the colony. He died in 1669, leaving one daughter, but no male heirs. Dennis pond, adjoining which he owned lands, is named for him.

Besides these men others were here as temporary residents, among them John and Joshua Barnes, Richard Pritchard, Daniel and Job Cole, William Clark, Giles Hopkins, Thomas Hatch, Rev. Samuel Arnold, Thomas Boardman, William Palmer, Richard Hoar, Thomas Payne and John Gray.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

When the scattered communities which composed the Plymouth colony took upon themselves a quasi legislative form of government, Yarmouth, with the others, joined the association and sent her depu- ties to the colonial legislature. From that circumstance her incorpor- ation-for she never had any other-is usually dated as September 3, 1639, when she became one of the represented towns in the colony court.

Expeditions against the Indians were sent out by the colony court in 1642 and again in 1645. the dreaded Narragansetts causing much uneasiness by their unfriendly attitude. The first year Yarmouth furnished two soldiers, and of the second expedition she furnished five. They were absent fourteen days and saw but little service. This "war" cost Yarmouth 57. 2s., 6d. How much of a community the town had become may be gathered from the lists of those capable of bearing arms and the freemen in 1643.

The fifty-two bearing arms were: Anthony Berry, Thomas Bore- man, James Bursell, John Burstall, William Chase, sr., William Chase, jr., Daniel Cole, Job Cole, John Crow, Yelverton Crow, Robert Davis, Robert Dennis, John Derby. William Edge [Hedge?], Roger Else [Ellis?], Thomas Falland, Thomas Flawne, William Grause, John Gray, Benjamin Hammon, Andrew Hallet, sr., Andrew Hallet, jr., Hugh Tilley, William Twining, Henry Whelden, Samuel Williams, Samuel Hallet, Richard Hoar, Thomas Howes, Tristram Hull, John Joyce, William Lumpkin, James Matthews, Mr. Martin Matthews, William Nicorson, Hugh Norman, William Norcutt. William Palmer, Thomas Payne, William Pearse, Richard Pritchett. Samuel Ryder, Richard Sears, Thomas Starr, Edward Sturgis. Nicholas Simpkins, Richard Taylor, Richard Templar, Anthony Thacher, Nicholas Wadibone, Emanuel White, Peter Worden. The sixteen Freemen of the town were: Thomas Payne, Philip Tabor, Mr. Anthony Thacher, Mr. John Crow, William Palmer, William Nicholson, Mr. Marmaduke Matthews, Thomas Falland, Richard Hore, Emanuel White, James Matthews, Richard Prichard, Edmund Hawes, Daniell Cole. Job Cole, Thomas Howes.

From the beginning of the settlement there had been a great deal of bitter feeling in relation to the division of the lands. The three grantees were directed to make " an equal division of the lands " "to each man according to his estate and quality." To perform this duty satisfactorily was manifestly impossible, because, although his estate might be estimated, it would be difficult to say what one's quality was in a new place and among new men. Another committee was appointed from among the townsmen, but they did not succeed in allaying the discontent. Then Captain Standish was joined to the former committees, and they succeeded no better. The difficulties

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 51

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