USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of Boston, the metropolis of Massachusetts, from its origin to the present period; with some account of the environs > Part 10
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Towards the close of the year 1639, the congregation medi- tated the rebuilding of their house of worship. The old one which was erected in 1632, not only having become decayed, but being also too small to accommodate the people, there was no question about the necessity of a new house, but a wide and warm difference of opinion respecting where it should stand. Some of the brethren were for placing it on what was then called the green, which was Gov. Winthrop's first lot, and he had yielded it to the church. There is rea- son to suppose this was the lot which the Old South church now owns, at the corner of Milk and Washington streets. Others, particularly the tradesmen, were inclined to build it still nearer the market than where the old one stood, lest in time it should divert the chief trade from thence. The church referred it to the judgment and determination of a committee of five, who agreed that it ought to be placed near the mar- ket, but still for peace sake they proposed it should be decid- ed by lot. When the church met, the matter was debated with some earnestness, and at last Mr. Cotton thought proper to express his opinion. He made it clear that it would be injurious to remove to the green, as many persons had pur- chased and settled round the market in the expectation of being accommodated in their proximity to the place of wor- ship, whereas it would be no damage to the most to have it by the market-place. It was finally determined with a good degree of harmony to erect the new church on the plat which is now covered by the block of buildings in Cornhill-square .*
* We find no records of the dimensions of this house : that it had a gallery is certain, and that it was furnished with a bell is probable from these records on the town books: 1643. March 27. Sgt. Johnson and Walter Merry are requested to take ve oversight of the boyes in ye galleryes and in case of unruly disorders to acquaint the magistrates there- with.
1649. June 26. 'Richard Taylor is appointed to ring the bell at nine of the clock at night, and at half past four in the morning, at four pounds per annum.' This may be considered the origin of our nine o'clock bell.
Ilingham meeting-house, which is said to have been built on the same model, has a bel- fry in the centre of the roof.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The contractors for the work calculated that it would cost £600. They took the old house for half that sum, and the balance was to be supplied by voluntary contributions of the people. The building however cost about £1000, yet the ex- pense was defrayed without any murmurs or assessment, by weekly collections. 'In some other churches,' says the Gov- ernour, ' which did it by way of rates there was much diffi- culty and compulsion by law to raise a far less sum.' It is pleasing to see in this incident how early the people of Bos- ton adopted the practice of supporting religion without re- course to law. Mr. Cotton had before this time advanced the doctrine, that when magistrates are obliged to provide for the maintenance of ministers, the churches are in a declining condition ; and proved in a sermon that the preachers of the gospel should be supported not by lands, revenues and tithes, which are the occasion of pride, contention and sloth, but by the voluntary contributions of their hearers. Their manner of taking these contributions was different from ours at the present day. Instead of the deacons passing the box to every one, and subjecting all to the tax of a groat or the mortifica- tion of a nod, ' the Governour and all the rest' went down and put their mites into the box at the deacons' seat.
The religious society was now in a prosperous state. That disaffection which all, save five or six of the members, had for- merly manifested towards the pastor and Mr. Winthrop had happily subsided, and all was tranquillity and love. A while since, these gentlemen were treated with slight as men under a covenant of works and as the greatest enemies of the truth. But under these suspicions and cool treatment, they had be- haved with great meekness, never complaining of unkind usage. Though often and strongly solicited to withdraw themselves from the communion, they had withstood the solicitation until now the odium which was upon them had gradually worn away, and they found themselves in possession of the wonted confidence and affection of their friends. The Governour in particular had a proof of the returning love of the brethren when suffering a heavy loss through the delinquency of one Luxford, his bailiff, to whom he trusted the management of his farm, and who incurred a debt of £2300 without his know- ledge. The whole country indeed sympathized with him; the Court gave his wife 3000 acres of land and some of the towns sent in liberally. The whole however did not amount to £500 whereof near half came from Boston.
Many of the poor to whom lots were assigned in Mt. Wolas- ton, finding it inconvenient to improve their lands there while they resided in Boston, petitioned the town for leave to form a church at the mount, which was eventually allowed on cer-
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
tain conditions. So on Monday the 16th of September, 1639, they gathered a church in the usual manner, and chose Mr. William Thomson, a pious and learned minister, who was or- dained their pastor on the 24th of the same month. Mr. Hen- ry Flint was chosen teacher. . The church was the twenti- eth formed in the colony. This was a principal step towards the final separation, and the erection of a town in that place.
As early as Dec. 10, 1636, measures had been adopted to- wards accomplishing the separation. 'The Governour (Vane) Dep. Gov. (Winthrop) Messrs. Oliver, Keayne, John Newgate, Colburn, Coggeshall and Brenton, are chosen to consider of the Mt. Wolaston business; how they may be a town and church there with the consent of this town's inhabitants.' On Jan. 17th 1640, the consent of Boston was voted in the fol- lowing terins. 'It was agreed with our neighbours and breth- ren of the Mount, namely, William Cheeseborough, Alexander Winchester, Richard Wright, James Penniman, Stephen Kins- ley and Martin Saunders, in the name of the rest there, for whom they undertake, that they should give to this town of Boston towards the maintenance [of the ministers] thereof 4s. an acre for every two acres of the seven acres formerly granted to divers y" of Boston, upon expectation they should have con- tinued with us : and 3s. an acre for every acre that hath been or shall be granted to any others who are not inhabitants of Bos- ton. And that in consideration hereof and after that the said portions of money shall be paid to this town's treasury of Bos- ton, all the said land shall be free from any town rates or charges to Boston, and also from all country charges when the Mount shall be rated by the court and not assessed with the town of Boston ; and upon these terms if the court shall think fit to grant them to be a town of themselves they shall have free liberty to accept thereof .*
Feb. 13, 1640, at a General Court the petition of the inhab- itants of Mt. Wolaston was voted and granted them to be a town according to the agreement with Boston : provided if they fulfil not the covenant, it shall be in the power of Boston to recover their due by action against the said inhabitants, or any of them, and the town is to be called Braintree.
In February 1792, the people of the first parish in Brain- trce petitioned to be made a distinct town, and were incorpo- rated by the name of Quincy. This name was adopted in honour of one of the carliest and most considerable proprie- tors at the Mount. December 14, 1635, a committee of five persons were appointed to go to Mt. W. and bound out lots for Mr. Edmund Quincy and Mr. Coddington, 'what may be
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* See town records June 26, 1649. Also Appendix No. III. Winthrop, Sept. 1636.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
sufficient for them :' in 1636, March 14, the bounds are re- corded. Mr. Coddington appears to have given his to Brain- tree for the support of schools ; the lot assigned to Mr. Quincy remains in the possession of one of his descendants, the pre- sent mayor of the city.
Mr. Quincy was descended from that Sieur de Quincy who was one of the English barons that made that noble stand, in the year 1215, which obliged King John to grant the Magna Charta. He with his wife joined the church in Boston, Nov. 1633: within a short time five servants belonging to his fami- ly also became members. He was a representative in 1634, and died here, aged about thirty-three. His son Edmund who was born in 1628, settled in Braintree and was a gentle- man of distinction among the fathers of that town : he died Jan. 7, 1698, leaving a son Edmund, who was born and resid- ed at Braintree, and was a bright ornament and eminent ben- efactor of that town and of his country .*
Hubbard pronounces the ten years which were now (1640) closing, the golden age of New-England, when vice was crush- ed as well by the civil as sacred sword, especially oppression and extortion in prices and wages. A remarkable instance was given in one F. P. who for asking an excessive price for a pair of stocks which he was hired to frame, had the honour to sit an hour in them first himself.t Women were not ex- empt from publick notice. One for reproaching the mag- istrates was condemned to be whipped, and bore her pun- ishment with a masculine spirit, glorying in her suffering. She was a woman of abilities far before Mrs. Hutchinson, but she was poor and had little acquaintance. The free ex- pression of her thoughts brought her again into difficulties for speaking against the elders, and she was obliged to stand half an hour with her tongue in a cleft stick. Church discipline reached to still nicer points : one brother 'having purloined out of buckskin leather brought unto him, so much thereof as would make three men's gloves, to the scandal of sundry without as well as of his brethren, and also having been by some of the brethren dealt with for it, did often deny and for- swear the same, and was therefore cast out of the church.'
* Hancock's century sermon, 1739, rep. 1811, and sermon on death of Hon. Edmund Quin- cy, 1738. Eliot's Biog. Dict.
t See Hubbard, 243, 276. Emerson's . Hist. Sketch, 60-67. Winthrop's Jo. Dec. 1638. Sept. and Nov. 1659. Feb. 1640. Shaw, 239. Mass. H. C. 1. x. 2.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
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CHAPTER XVII.
Let discipline employ her wholesome arts ; Let magistrates alert perform their parts, Let active laws apply the needful curb, To guard the peace that riot would disturb .- Cowper.
FROM the time of a permanent establishment of a house of deputies or representatives in 1634, to the court of election in 1639, Boston had the privilege of sending three members. At that court, May 22, in consequence of the increase of the number of deputies with the increase of the number of towns, it was determined for the convenience both of the country and the court, to reduce all towns to two deputies. The expenses were at that time paid out of the public treasury. This alter- ation excited some suspicions. Many were jealous that it was a plan of the assistants and magistrates to keep the num-, ber of deputies on a nearer equality with their own; and the people in some towns were highly displeased with their re- presentatives for consenting to the measure. A motion was made in the next session to return to the former rule ; but after long debate, the order was confirmed, and the reasons for it, and answers to the objections against it, were recorded, and sent to such towns as were dissatisfied. From that period until 1680, Boston sent only two deputies.
An incident occurred in Boston, hardly worthy of notice, which gave rise to a change also in regard to the Assistants. A thoughtless pig strayed from its owner, one good Mrs. Sherman; and, her husband not being at home to look after the creature, it wandered through the town, breaking into every body's corn as its hunger dictated. About the same time a stray pig was brought to Capt. Keayne, who had it cried a number of days, and many people came to see it, but no one would claim the property. He kept it in his yard for nearly a year with a pig of his own. At the proper season the captain had the latter killed. This was no sooner done than forward came Mrs. Sherman, and claimed the dead pig for hers, because she found that the living one had other marks : she went so far as to accuse the captain of wilfully killing her pig. The matter made so much noise that the church investigated it and were satisfied of his innocence.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The woman however was instigated to bring the cause before an inferior court at Boston : there again Capt. Keayne was cleared, and the jury gave him £3 for his costs, and in an action brought by him against her and her instigator for defamation, he recovered £20 damages from each.
This result so vexed Story, a London merchant, who was the woman's adviser, that he searched town and country to find matter against Capt. Keayne about this stray pig. At last he prevailed with one of the captain's witnesses to go into Salem court and confess that he had forsworn himself. Upon this he petitioned the General Court, in June 1642, to have the cause heard again, which the court granted and spent the best part of seven days in examining witnesses and debating the case. Yet when the question was put to vote, no decision could be obtained; for no sentence of law could pass without the consent of the majority, both of the deputies and of the magistrates, and here were thirty deputies and nine magistrates, of whom two of the magistrates and fifteen of the deputies were for the plaintiff, and seven of the magistrates and eight of the deputies for the defendant, and seven deputies standing neutral. There had been great expectation in the country that the case would terminate unfavourably to Capt. Keayne. It happening otherwise, many took occasion to speak disrespectfully of the court, especially of the magistrates, and to attribute the hindrance of the course of justice to their ex- ercise of a negative voice upon the doings of the deputies. Some were of a mind that this power of a negative should be taken from the assistants. Nothing was effected at this time, but occasions of altercation becoming more frequent, and the deputies being dissatisfied that their votes should lose their effect, by the non-concurrence of the magistrates who were so much fewer in number, a formal attempt was made in 1644, to diminish or destroy the power of the latter. . Mr. Winthrop and the assistants maintained their right with so much firmness, that the effort was unavailing ; and it was therefore moved by the deputies, that the two houses might sit apart, and from that time votes were sent in a parliamen- tary way from one house to the other, and the consent of both was necessary to an act of court. Provision was made for some cases in which, if the two houses differed, it was agreed that the major vote of the whole should be decisive. This was the origin of our present Senatc.
Mrs. Sherman's pig might have been forgotten in the great- er interest excited by the difficulties it produced. But she possessed perseverance superior to that of Amy Dardin, in more modern times, and at length the captain yielded to the
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
advice of friends, and relinquished the living pig to the wo- man, for the sake of the publick peace .*
The Boston church enjoying harmony within itself could not forget its members, who had left their places in the Anti- nomian controversy. In March 1640, they sent a deputation of three gentlemen to Rhode Island, with letters to Mr. Cod- dington and the rest, to inquire into their opinions on certain points of doctrine formerly maintained by them, and also to demand that they should give an account of themselves to this church, for their unwarrantable practice of communing with excommunicated persons. When the messengers arrived, they found that these people had formed a church among themselves, and had the independence to refuse to hear the messengers as such, or to receive the Boston letters. When the result of the mission was submitted to the church, the el- ders and most of the church were disposed to pass a vote of exclusion against them, 'but all not being agreed, it was de- ferred.' Mr. Emerson observes, the mission was worse than useless : it served to foment a party spirit at home, and to ex- asperate the minds of those for whose benefit the measure was intended.
In the year 1640, Mr. Dudley was chosen" governour, and Mr. Bellingham, deputy-governour, Mr. Winthrop, the former governour, being elected an assistant. The election in 1641, notwithstanding the number of votes was great, was determin- ed in favour of Mr. Bellingham for governour (Mr. Winthrop being his competitor) by a majority of six votes only. ' Mr. Endicott was chosen deputy-governour. It was disputed whether they fairly had the majority, because the votes of some persons were refused, who it was thought had a right to vote. Mr. Winthrop was silent, though he believed himself injured.
The revolutions which were now taking place in England excited the attention of the colonial government, and it was determined to send three agents thither, to congratulate the parliament on their successes, and to be ready to improve any opportunity which might offer for the advantage of the colony. The men selected for this purpose were Rev. Messrs. Weld and Peters, and Mr. William Hibbins. The two for- mer never returned to America. Mr. Hibbins was a princi- pal merchant in the colony, and was the first town treasurer of Boston whose name appears on record.t
* Hutch. Hist. ch. 1. Winthrop, June 1642. March 1644. Town records, Sept. 17, 1638. Mr. Winthrop's account would lead us to infer that Capt. Keayne repaid the 3/. costs, which was all that he received of the woman ; the pig was worth forty shillings.
į Town records, April 27, 1610. Mass. II. C. 1. x. SO.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
In the years 1642 and 1643, Mr. Winthrop was chosen governour and Mr. Endicott, deputy. In the latter year, the colony of Massachusetts was divided into four counties, Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk.
Essex contained
Middlesex.
Suffolk.
Norfolk.
Salem
Charlestown
Boston
Salisbury
Lynn
Cambridge
Roxbury
Ilaverhill
Enon (Wenham)
Watertown
Dorchester
Hampton
Ipswich
Sudbury
Dedham
Exeter
Rowley
1
Concord
Braintree
Dover
Newbury
Woburn
Weymouth
Strawberry-Bank
Gloucester
Medford
Hingham
(Portsmouth)
Ohochickawick
Lynn Village
Nantasket (Hull)
The four last towns are now in New-Hampshire.
At the election in 1644, Messrs. Winthrop and Endicott ex- changed places ; the latter being chosen for governour, and the former for deputy. 'This success of Mr. Endicott was pecu- liarly gratifying to ' those of Essex.' Salem had become a very flourishing place, and it was a favourite object with Mr. Endicott to have that town considered the capital of the state. The Essex deputies had introduced a measure at the court previous, by which the deputies of the several counties were directed to meet in the recess and prepare such business as it might be necessary to transact. Under this order they came prepared, and introduced two bills, the object of which was to aggrandize their own section of the country by drawing 1. the seat of government thither : 2. the courts : and 3. a good part of the country stock. They also proposed, 4thly, that four of their neighbourhood should be joined in commission with the magistrates. "They had made so strong a party among the deputies of the smaller towns, (being most of them mean men, and such as had small understanding in affairs of state) that they easily carried all their points among the depu- ties. But when the two bills came up to the magistrates, they discerning the plot and finding them hurtful to the com- monwealth, refused to pass them. A committee from each house was appointed to consider the reasons of both sides, and then the opinion of the upper house prevailed :' 'Boston be- ing such a convenient mart for business, and other circumstan- ces concurring to increase its population, obtained the prefer- ence,' and thereafter 'all hopes were renounced that Salem would become the capital of New-England .*
We shall find the authorities here acquiescing under every change of government which occurred during the civil wars
* Winthrop, June 5, 1644. Mass. Hist. Coll. 1. vi. 232-234. Eliot. Biog. Dict. 195.
£
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
in England. The parliament prevailing this year, the Gene- ral Court passed an order which contains the following article ; ' what person soever shall by word, writing or action, endea- vour to disturb our peace directly or indirectly, by drawing a party under pretence that he is for the King of England, and such as join with him against the parliament, shall be account- ed as an offender of a high nature against this commonwealth, and to be proceeded against either capitally or otherwise ac- cording to the quality and degree of his offence.' A provision was annexed that this order should not be extended against any that came hither merely for purposes of trade. Very soon after the passing of this order, a London ship of 24 guns, Capt. Stagg, arrived at Boston with a cargo of wine from Teneriffe. A Bristol ship of 100 tons, laden with fish, lay in the harbour at the same time. Captain Stagg said nothing of having any commission, but as soon as he had landed the principal part of his wine, he suddenly weighed anchor and sailed round to Charlestown, placed his ship between that town and the Bris- tol ship, and moored himself abreast of her. He then order- ed the master of the Bristol ship aboard, showed him a com- mission, turned up a half-hour glass, and demanded that he should surrender by the time the glass was out. The Bristol captain returned to his own vessel and stated the case to his men ; two or three of them were for fighting, and would rather have blown up the ship than have yielded, but the greater part thought best to secure their property and wages, which Capt. S. promised them, as well as their lives, and the ship was therefore surrendered.
In this half hour's time a great many people were gathered upon the Windmill hill (Copp's hill) to see the issue, and as was very natural, some who had an interest in the prize ship (especially a Bristol merchant, a very bold malignant, in the phrase of the times) began to collect a mob and raise a tumult. But some of the inhabitants, apprehensive of serious consequen- ces, seized the said merchant and some others that were stran- gers and brought them before the deputy, Mr. Winthrop, who put them under guard in a room at a publick house. Others who belonged to town he committed to prison, and sent the consta- ble to require the people to disperse. Capt. Stagg was im- mediately called to account, and produced his commission from the parliament, which was found to give him sufficient authority to make prize of all Bristol vessels in any port or creek.
Great excitement was produced by this occurrence. Some of the ministers partook of the common feeling, and in their sermons inveighed against the captain, and exhorted the mag- istrates and all concerned to maintain the people's liberties, which they said were violated by this act. Many were of
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
opinion that Capt. Stagg should be compelled to restore the ship ; but the majority of the magistrates were of a different opinion, on the ground that it would seem like an opposition to parliament. For this and other reasons of state, the cap- tain was suffered to enjoy his prize. The merchants who were interested in the property on board the Bristol vessel petitioned to try their right by an action at law, which was granted: but when the governour and six other magistrates (for the governour did not send for such as dwelt far off) and the jury were assembled, the merchants were persuaded not to insist on the case being submitted to the jury, but to refer the decision of the whole matter to the court of admiralty, before which the case must necessarily come. Thus an affair, which in its outset threatened to produce no small trouble, end- ed peaceably.
There was a speck of liberty discernible in the part which the Boston people took in this affair. An occasion of a differ- ent kind occurred in 1646, in which they manifested their love of freedom more conspicuously. There had been an assem- bly of the ministers and elders in 1643, for the purpose of discountenancing an attempt at Newbury to establish some things in the presbyterian way. It probably was a voluntary meeting, and Mr. Cotton of Boston acted as one of the mode- rators. In 1646, a synod was called by the General Court, to discuss, dispute and clear up such questions of church gov- ernment and discipline as they shall think needful and meet, and to continue so doing till the major part of them should be agreed upon one form of government and discipline, which they judge agrecable to the holy scriptures, to be presented to the court for their approbation. It was of course intended that what this synod should decree, and the court approve, should become the law of the land and binding on the churches. Some of the deputies saw this and opposed the proposition. It was demonstrated that no new powers were assumed; but out of regard to the scruples of some members, it was agreed that the synod should be convoked by a vote recommending it to the several churches to send delegates, and not by a pos- itive order.
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