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 15
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The most remarkable occurrence in the colony in the year 1655 was the trial and condemnation of Mrs. Ann-Hibbins of Boston for witchcraft. Her husband, who died July 23, 1654, was an agent for the colony in England, several years one of the assistants, and a merchant of note in the town ; but losses in the latter part of his life had reduced his estate, and in- creased the natural crabbedness of his wife's temper, which made her turbulent and quarrelsome, and brought her under church censures, and at length rendered her so odious to her neighbours as to cause some of them to acuse her of witch- craft. The jury brought her in guilty, but the magistrates refused to accept the verdict; so the cause came to the gene- ral court, where the popular clamour prevailed against her, and the miserable old lady was condemned and executed in June 1656. Search was made upon her body for tetts, and in her chests and boxes for puppets or images, but there is no record of any thing of that sort being found. Mr. Beach, a minister in Jamaica, in a letter to Dr. Increase Mather, says, 'You may remember what I have sometimes told you your
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famous Mr. Norton once said at his own table, before Mr. Wil- son the pastor, elder Penn and myself and wife, and others, who had the honour to be his guests :- That one of your magistrates' wives, as I remember, was hanged for a witch only for having more wit than her neighbours. . It was his very expression ; she having, as he explained it, unhappily guessed that two of her persecutors, whom she saw talking in the street, were talking of her, which proving true, cost her her life, notwithstanding all he could do to the contrary, as he himself told us.'
This was the third instance of execution for witchcraft in New England. The first occurred in Connecticut : the second was the case of Margaret Jones of Charlestown, who was exe- cuted at Boston in June 1648. She was charged with posses- sing a malignant touch, which immediately infected with some violent ail, whoever came in contact with her. Had she lived in our day, she would only have been sent to Rainsford's island.
It is not strange that her husband should have been a sus- picious character. After witnessing her tragical end, he very naturally desired to leave the scene of distress, and sought passage in a vessel bound to Barbadoes, which was for some cause denied him. The vessel lay in the river between Bos- ton and Charlestown, and ' on a sudden she was seen to roll from side to side as if she would turn over.' She was of 300 tons, in light ballast, and had eighty horses on board. Poor Mr. Jones was accused as the probable cause of this accident, and warrant issued for his apprehension. The constable, as he crossed the ferry, had the prudence to present the war- rant in view of the ship ; and the same instant she began to stop her motion and to swim upright, and as soon as Jones was safe lodged in prison, she never moved in that kind any more : so says ' history.'
We have the authority of Hutchinson to say, that about this time the scrupulosity of the good people of the colony was at its height. Soon after Mr. Winthrop's death, Mr. En- dicott the most rigid of any of the magistrates, being gover- nour, he joined with the other assistants in an association against the wearing of long hair, as a thing uncivil and un- manly, fit only for Russians and barbarous Indians. They had a law too against long boots, on account of the waste of leather, and a law against dancing on ordinary occasions. Some good men finding that laws were rather ineffectual used the severer lash of ridicule. The Simple Cobler of AAggawam thus lectures our extravagant grandsires and grandames :
' Methinks it should break the hearts of English men to see so many goodly English women imprisoned in French ca- ges, peering out of their hood-holes for some men of mercy to
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help them with a little wit, and nobody relieves them. We have about five or six of them in our colony : if I see any of them accidentally, I cannot cleanse my phansie of them for a month after.
' It is a more common than convenient saying. that nine taylors make a man : it were well if nineteen could make a woman to her mind : if taylors were men indeed, well fur- nished but with meer moral principles, they would disdain to be led about like apes, by such mymick marmosets. It is a most unworthy thing, for men that have bones in them, to spend their lives in making fiddle-cases for futulous womens phansies ; which are the very pettitoes of infirmity, the giblets of perquisquilian toyes. I am so charitable to think, that most of that mystery would work the cheerfuller while they live, if they might be well discharged of the tyring slavery of mis-tyring women : it is no little labour to be continually putting up English women into out-landish caskes ; who if they be not shifted anew, once in a few months, growe too sowre for their husbands.
He that makes coats for the moon Had need take measure every noon ;
and he that makes for women as often, to keep them from lunacy.
' It is known more than enough, that I am neither nigard,nor cinick, to the due bravery of the true gentry : if any man mislikes a bullymong drossock more than I, let him take her for his labour : I honour the woman that can honour herself with her attire : a good text always deserves a fair margent ; I am not much offended, if I see a trimme far trimmer than she that wears it : in a word, whatever christianity or civili- ty will allow, I can afford with London measure : but when I hear a nugiperous gentledame inquire what dress the queen is in this week : what the nudiustertian fashion of the court ; with egge to be in it in all haste, whatever it be ; I look at her as the very gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a cypher, the epitome of nothing, fitter to be kickt, if she were of a kickable substance, than either honoured or humoured.'
He is very serious on the subject of dressing the head. ' Knew I how to bring it in, I would speak a word to long hair whereof I will say no more but this : if those who are termed rattle-heads and Impuritans would take up a resolution to be- gin in moderation of hair, to the just reproach of those that are called Puritans and round-heads, I would honour their man- liness as much as the others' godliness, so long as I knew what man or honour meant. If neither can find a barber's shop, let them turn in to Psalms, Jeremiah and Corinthians, where they may obtain certain directions. If it be thought
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no wisdom in men to distinguish themselves in the field by scis- sors, let them remember, he is ill kept that is kept by his own sin : a short promise is a far safer guard than a long lock. Though it be not the mark of the beast, it may be the mark of a beast prepared to slaughter : I am sure, men used not to wear such manes : I am also sure, soldiers used to wear other marklets or notadoes in time of battle.'
There must have been something more agreeable than a universal gloom in the society, where a man could be found, and he a minister and solitary widower, whose thoughts could run in such a train. We have been too long taught to believe that in the first generation, every thing bore marks of a pover- ty, which though voluntary was real : that austerity of man- ners did well enough agree with the horrours of a wilderness, and that content extended only to the supply of the first wants, and to a cabin, which the waste of fuel rendered inhabitable. Those who heard the late Dr. Bentley's Antiquarian dis- course will recollect how happily he combated that opinion, by introducing his hearers into the mansions of some of the early settlers, and displaying the articles found in the invento- ries of their estates. His researches were made in Essex : our own Probate records exhibit similar facts. We find in the prin- cipal houses a great hall ornamented with pictures and a great lantern, and a velvet cushion in the window seat, which looks into the garden. On either side is a 'great parlour, a little par- lour, or study. These are furnished with great looking glass- es, turkey carpets, window curtains and valance, pictures and a map, a brass clock, red leather-back chairs and a great pair of brass andirons. The chambers are well supplied with feather beds, warming pans, and every other article that would now be thought necessary for comfort or display. The pantry is well filled with substantial fare and dainties, prunes, marmalade and madeira wine. Silver tankards, wine cups, and other articles of plate, are not uncommon : the kitchen is completely stocked with pewter, copper, and iron utensils. Very many families employed servants, and in one we see a Scotch boy valued among the property and invoiced at £14. The wardrobe of Mrs. Hudson exhibited as many articles of finery as usually deck a modern toilet.
. "These legal records furnish the best of testimony concern- ing the extent of individual wealth, and the manners of the times. Such things existed in other places as much perhaps as in Boston, but a knowledge of them is not on that account less necessary to those, who would be familiar with the distin- guishing traits of our ancestors.
The business of the most importance in the town at this period was the erection of the first Town House. A proposal had been made in 1649, 'that those that shall undertake to
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build a house for the courts to be kept in, shall have the in- come of any rents that might arise, forever.' In Capt. Keayne's will the subject was renewed and urged with much earn- estness : he calculated the expenses and bequeathed a sum which he thought would nearly defray the whole. In 1657 a model was presented ; in 1659 the town house is mentioned, and at the meeting that year, which we suppose to have been held in that house, a rule of proceeding was adopted that ' there shall be a moderator chosen annually to regulate pub- lick meetings and for this present year Wm. Davis [apothe- cary] is chosen.' Thomas Joy appears to have been the car- penter that built the town house, and a final settlement was made with him in January 1661, when he received £680 "whereby all contracts with him were performed.' This was double the amount of Capt. Keayne's calculation. Whether any individuals bore part of the expense, does not appear : but in 1664 the town hired some part of the premises for a watch-house.
CHAPTER XXV.
" A lowering storm, from envy brewing, Shall at a distance menace ruin ; While slander, malice and detraction A bost of fiends shall bring in action."
THE Massachusetts colony originated in the commencement of the reign of King Charles I. The true intent of their patent or charter was, that the government of the colony should be under a corporation in England. The great change which the company made, by transferring the government into New Eng- land, produced a clamour against them, and a quo warranto was issued and prosecuted, and judgment obtained against the patentees in 1638. But the troubles which were increas- ing in the kingdom, and other circumstances, prevented the execution, and no further demand was made during the life of the king. After various vain expedients to retain his authority, Charles was brought to a trial, condemned and be- headed on the 30th of January 1649. The parliament of Scot- land took no part in this transaction, and formally protested against it. On his death they proclaimed his son Charles II. their sovereign. Against him Oliver Cromwell maintained the field, and destroyed the royal army at Worcester in Septem- ber 1651. England was now a sort of republick, and continu- ed so till April 1653, when Cromwell assumed the power and
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became lord protector of the three kingdoms. He maintained his place till 1658, when he fell into disease and died, leaving the protectorate to his son Richard, who being utterly unfit for that hazardous situation resigned his office in April 1659. General Monk, taking advantage of the crisis, determined to make an effort to restore the exiled monarch, which was suc- cessful, and Charles II. was proclaimed in London, May 29, 1660.
The news of this fact arrived in July, but the government did not think proper to proclaim the king here at that time. In November, official information was received from Mr. Lev- erett, the colony's agent, that petitions and complaints were preferred against the colony to the king and to the parliament. Thereupon the governour and assistants met and prepared a very loyal address, which was very graciously received and answered in February, 1661. There was, notwithstanding, no small degree of fear, lest the revolution ir. England should pro- duce as great a change in the form of their government, both in church and state. A sort of prudential committee was ap- pointed, to consider what measures the state of things requir- ed to be taken, which produced a declaration of rights and duties, which was adopted by the court .* The king was proclaimed and acknowledged in August, but this submission did not cause all their difficulties to subside. Further com- plaints were made, and an order was received from the king, that some persons should be sent over to make answer. Mr. Bradstreet, one of the assistants, and Mr. John Norton, teach- er of the first church, were sent, and were well received. They made but a short stay,and returned with a letter from the king. It offered to confirm and renew the charter and other privileges, which all thought very favourable ; but then it required among other things, that all, who desired it, should have liberty to use the book of common prayer, and perform their devotions according to the service established in Eng- land ; and that all freeholders of competent estates, though of different persuasions concerning church government, should be electors, and be eligible to all offices for which their wisdom, virtue and integrity qualified them. The old law of 1631 had been enforced by authority in 1660, making church members the only freemen ; and these requirements entered the sanctum sanctorum of our fathers' prejudices, and were admitted with reluctance. The agents met with a very unkind reception on their return. Mr. Norton died soon after (April 5, 1663) of an apoplectick fit : his friends attributed his death to the treatment
* See Hutch. vol. 1. app. No. 13.
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he experienced : the Quakers pronounced it a judgment of God upon him, for the part he had taken in their persecution .*
The years 1664 and 1665 afforded the people greater occa- sion for fears, than they had met with, at any time before. Their compliance with the requisitions of the king's letter were so slow, that his Majesty determined to send over several gen- tlemen of distinction, with a commission to hear and determine all matters of complaint, and to settle the peace and security of the country, according to their discretion. With such pow- ers, four commissioners arrived in July, 1664. They were Col. Richard Nichols, Geo. Cartwright, esq. Sir Robt. Carr, and Sam'l. Maverick, esq : the latter an implacable enemy to the colony, ever after an unsuccessful petition was preferred by him and others for certain privileges in 1646. They had va- rious charges to advance and many demands to make of the government here: numerous interviews took place, and differ- ences in opinions about mutual rights were unavoidable. Nothing definitive was effected by their labour ; the commis- sioners had to deal with men, who were their equals in knowl- edge, and their superiors in every other qualification. Some light is thrown upon the characters of both by the following story.
' The commissioners with other gentlemen meeting some- times at a publick house in Boston, called the Ship tavern (it was at the corner of Clark and Ann streets, then kept by John Vyal, vintner,) one of the constables, named Arthur Mason, expected to find them there upon a Saturday evening, which would have been a breach of law ; but before he came, they had adjourned to Mr. Kellond's, a merchant, who lived opposite to the tavern. Another constable, who had been at the tavern before, had been beaten by them. Mason, who had more courage and zeal, went into the company with his staff and told them he was glad to see them there, for if he had found them on the other side the street he would have carried them all away ; and added that he wondered they should be so uncivil as to beat a constable and abuse authori- ty. Sir Robert Carr said, it was he that beat him, and that he would do it again. Mason replied, that he thought his Majes- ty's commissioners would not have beaten his Majesty's offi- cers, and that it was well for them that he was not the con- stable who found them there, for he would have carried them before authority. Sir Robert asked, if he dare meddle with the king's commissioners ? Yes, says Mason, and if the king himself had been there, I would have carried him ariay. Upon which, Maverick cried out, Treason ! Mason, thou shalt be
* Mr. Norton left 10 pounds by will to the poor of Boston.
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hunged within a twelvemonth ! Sir Robert Carr spake to Sir Thomas Temple and some others of the company, to take notice of what passed ; and the next day Maverick sent a note to Mr. Bellingham, the governour, charging Mason with high treason for the words spoken, and requiring the gover- nour to secure him. The governour appointed a time for Ma- verick to come to his house, and to oblige himself to prosecute the constable at the next court of assistants; but Maverick, instead of appearing, thought proper only to send another note, promising to appear against the constable, and charge him home, and therefore required his person should be secured. The governour thought it advisable to cause Mason to recog- nize, as principal, in five hundred pounds, with two sufficient sureties in two hundred and fifty each, for his appearance ; but the day before the court, Maverick sent another note to the governour, desiring to withdraw his charge, being " satis- fied that although the words were rash and inconsiderate, yet there was no premeditated design in Mason to offer any inju- ry to the king or his government." The governour returned for answer, " the affair was of too high a nature for him to interpose in, Mason being bound over to answer." Upon his appearance a bill was laid before the grand jury, wherein he was charged with maliciously and treasonably uttering the treasonable words mentioned. According to liberty taken by grand juries at that day, they only found " that the words charged were spoken ;" and Mason being brought upon trial, and the words fully proved, the court of assistants suspen- ded judgment, and referred the cause to the next general court, where it was resolved, that although the words were rash, insolent, and highly offensive, yet, as his accusers and witnesses all cleared him from any overt act, or evil intended against the king, the court did not see cause to adjudge him a capital offender, but sentenced him to be admonished in sol- emn manner by the governour.'
Sir Robert Carr was in his turn summoned by Mr. Leverett to appear at his house, with his man James Deane, and answer to a complaint exhibited against them for 'royatous and abu- sive carriage to one of his Majesty's officers, Richard Bennet, one of the constables of the town, that the honour and author- ity of H. M. or his officers, may be preserved, with the great- est respect to yourself the case will admit of.' We find no record of the result.
The commissioners drew up a report, in which they speak of Boston as ' the chief town in the colony, seated upon a penin- sula, in the bottom of a bay, which is a good harbour and full of fish. It was fortified this year, 1665, with two block houses -Their houses are generally wooden, their streets crooked with little decency and no uniformity ; and there, neither
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months, days, seasons of the year, churches nor inns are known by their English names .- One of the king's loyal sub- jects was derided for being so civil as to accompany a com- missioner from the town where he lived to Boston, and others in Boston derided those of Rhode Island, for having yielded so much to the commissioners.
' At our first coming over, many untruths were raised and sent into the colonies-Major Hawthorne made a seditious speech at the head of his company, and the late governour* another at their meeting house in Boston ; but neither of them were so much as questioned for it by any of the magistrates.'
The town had for several years given instructions to their deputies in the general court. The first on record are those for the year 1665, and are not without interest, as exhibiting the first publick act of Boston in support of 'just privileges.
May 4. 1665. Instructions for the deputies, it is agreed to present these ensuing :
First, that there may be an amicable compliance with his Majesty's hon. commissioners according as duty to God and allegiance to H. M. obligeth, without any receding from our just privileges according to the patent.
2dly. Inasmuch as the number of freemen in this town of B. (consisting of row distinct churches,) is very large, that either the number of deputies their representatives may be enlarged, according to proportion of freemen, or that there may be [?] show deputies.
3dly. . That whereas there be divers offices, as sealers of leather, &c. who after election by law ogt. to be sworn to the execution thereof, who yet refuse the same, that there may be some penalty inflicted upon the refuser of the same, that so the work may not be frustrated.
4thly. That whereas the standard for weights in towns exceeds not four pounds, that it may be enlarged to 561b. weight, whereby fraud may be prevented in greater drafts.
5thly. That whereas for the future there may be more use of bricks than formerly, for prevention of damage ; that the law relating to tiles may be enlarged to bricks, as to clay they are made of, and that there may be a size appointed for their dimension, and that their moulds may be shod, &c.'
The representations of the commissioners produced another letter from the king, dated April 10, 1666, and requiring that five persons, of whom Gov. Bellingham and Major Harthorne
* Gov. Endicot died March 23, 1665. He had made Boston his place of residence for some time. His will is dated here May 2, 1659, and speaks of the house he lived in, which was on the lot now occupied by Gardiner Greene, esq. He left four pounds to the poor of Boston.
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were to be two, should be sent over to answer for the conduct of the colony. The court excused themselves with much - sagacity from a compliance with this demand. An increase of troubles at home directed the king and council's attention from the colonies, and the people here had a respite on these matters till 1675.
CHAPTER XXVI.
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry. Romeo and Juliet.
SOME few of the first settlers in New England were persons inclined to the sentiments of the Baptists, and the rulers of the colony had used every effort to check the spread of their opin- ions. Some they fined : some they whipped : some they im- prisoned : some they banished : and some were subjec- ted year after year to ecclesiastical discipline, and delivered up to Satan for not hearing the church.
But now, the king's commissioners, having declared that they would have liberty given to all sorts and sects of men, the baptists in and near Boston took advantage of their pres- ence and formed a society, which was the origin of the First Baptist church .* The first record on their books gives the following account of this transaction :
' The 28th of the 3d Month, in 1665, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the Church of Christ, commonly(though falsely) called Anabaptists, were gathered together and entered into fellowship and communion with each other; engaging to walk together in all the appointments of their Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, as far as he should be pleased to make known his mind and will unto them by his word and spirit ; and then, were baptized Thomas Gould, Thomas Osborne, Edward Drinker, John George-and joined with Richard Goodall, William Turner, Robert Lambert, Mary Goodall, Mary Newell, who had walked in that order in Old-England -- and to whom God hath joined since, Isaac Hull, John Far- num, Jacob Barney, John Russell, jun. John Johnson, George Farlow, Benjamin Sweetser, Mrs. Sweetser, all before Ellis Callender who was received Nov. 9, 1669.'
* This was the first church of the denomination in Massachusetts proper : there had been one in Rehoboth, which was then in Plymouth colony, since 1663.
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