History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 71

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 71

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

As lieutenant-commandant, Thomas Terry was commissioned June 4, 1686, and he was succeeded in that office by Job Winslow a few years later, and by Josiah Winslow in or about the year 1702.

The names of captains of the first company, with dates of commissions, etc., were as follows :

Josiah Winslow, com. Feb. 1715; disch. about 1725.

Thomas Terry, com. about 1725; pro. to maj. Ebenezer Hathaway, com. 173 -; pro. to lient .- col.

Samuel Tisdale, com. 174 -; dischi.

Abiel Terry, com. 175 -; pro. to maj. James Winslow, com. June 4, 1762; pro. to lieut .- col. July, 1771.

· George Chase, com. July, 1771; dismissed Sept. 19, 1775. Benjamin Read, com. 1776; disch. 1781. Benjamin Weaver, com. July 1, 1781; pro. to lieut .- col. July 10, 1788. Benjamin Porter, com. July 18, 1788; disch. 1792. Charles Strange, com. June 28, 1792; disch. 1799. John Wilkinson, com. May 27, 1799 ; disch. 1801. Job Pierce, Jr., com. Aug. 21, 1801 ; died Sept. 22, 1805. Joseph E. Read, com. Aug. 16, 1806 ; pro. to maj. June 2, 1807. Melrose Barnolz, com. Aug. 5, 1807 ; disch. March 8, 1811. Joseph Weaver, com. June 24, 1811 ; pro. to maj. April 14, 1812. Lynde Hathaway, com. June 29, 1812 ; pro. to maj. Aug. 10, 1818. Henry Porter, com. Sept. 4, 1818 ; disch. March 1, 1822. Malichi Howland, com. April 13, 1822; disch. March 1, 1827.

Ephraim Winslow, Jr., com. April 23, 1827; pro. to lieut .- col. March 8, 1828.

Seth lowland, com. May 16, 1828; disch. 1831.

Noah H. Evans, com. May 27, 1831; disch. Sept. 7, 1836.

Second Company of Infantry.

Ambrose Barnolz, com. 17 -; disch. 17 -.

George Brightman, com. 175 -; disch.

Jail Hathaway, com. July, 1771 ; dis. Sept. 19, 1775.

Thomas Durfee, com. July 5, 1776 ; disch. 177 -.

- Brightman, com. 177 -; disch. 178 -.

Joseph Read (3d), com. July 1, 1781 ; disch. 178 -.

Luther Winslow, com. June 8, 1789; disch. 1793.

Ichabod Read, com. Oct. 2, 1793 ; died Dec. 5, 1796. Benjamin Broyton, com. May 2, 1797; pro. to maj. Sept. 19, 1803.

Third Company of Infantry.

John Bounswill, com. 1751 ; disch. Elisha Parker, com. 17 -: dis. Sept. 19, 1775.

Joseph Hoston, com. 177 -; disch. 178 -. Perigreen White, com. July 1, 1781 ; disch.

Noah Crapo, com. April 21, 1797 ; disch. August, 1798.

Abraham Morton, com. May 21, 1798; cash. 1805. James Ashley, com. Oct. 14, 1805; disch. April 13, 1811. Simeon Ashley, com. Feb. 4, 1812 ; pro. to col. Aug. 10, 1818. Ephraim Gurney, com. Sept. 22, 1818; disch. April 15, 1822. Daniel Edson, com. May 25, 1822; disch. 1830.

Malichi White, com. May 4, 1830; disch. April 15, 1835.

Robert W. Cottle, com. June 20, 1835 ; disch. April 24, 1840.

Cavalry Company.

(Raised at large in the several towns within the Second Regiment.) Abiel Terry, Jr., capt., com. 1771 ; disch. Sept. 19, 1775.

First Light Infantry Company.

Rufus Bacon, com. capt. June 13, 1818; disch. 1824. John II. Peirce, com. capt. May 4, 1824; disch. 1825. Sylvanus S. Payne, com. capt. Aug. 18, 1825 ; disch. March 1, 1827. Herman Lyndsay, com. capt. July 21, 1827; disch. May 30, 1831.

Second Light Infantry Company.

Ebenezer W. Peirce, capt., com. June 29, 1850 ; disch. May 12, 1851. Augustus C. Barrows, capt., com. June 14, 1851 ; disch. April 5, 1854. John W. Marble, capt., com. April 29, 1854 : disch. March 20, 1855. Silas P. Richmond, capt., com. May 8, 1855; pro. July 24, 1856. James R. Mathewson, capt., com. March 4, 1857; dischi. 1860. John M. Marble, capt., com. 1860; disch. 1862.

Third Light Infantry Company.

William F. Wood, capt., com. Nov. 22, 1851 ; disch. 185 -. Marcus M. Rounsevill, com. March 19, 185 -; disch. Feb. 1854. William A. Ilofford, com. March 11, 1854 ; disch. March 18, 1856. Tracy Allen, com. May, 1856; disch. July, 1857.

At the commencement of the war of the American Revolution the three companies into which the local militia of Freetown were then divided, together with a part of a company of cavalry to which some be- longed, composed a part of the Second Regiment of infantry, of which Thomas Gilbert, of Freetown, was colonel, James Winslow, of Freetown, lieutenant- colonel, and Benjamin Grinnell, of Freetown, adju- tant. The commissioned officers of the companies were as follows :

First Company .- George Chase, captain ; Benjamin Tompkins and George Winslow, lieutenants.

Second Company .- Jail Hathaway, captain; Stephen Borden and Am- brose Barnolz, Jr., lientenants.

Third Company .- Elisha Parker, captain ; Abraham Ashley and Na- thaniel Mortou, lieutenants.

Cavalry Company .- Abiel Terry, Jr., captain ; John Evans, cornet.

The battalion of loyalists that Col. Gilbert claimed to have raised to fight for the king and Parliament, and to arm and equip which he applied to Governor

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FREETOWN.

Gage, and received a generous supply of the munitions of war, was doubtless that part of these four com- panies that could be induced to take the king's arms and train in his name, as a considerable proportion doubtless did, and were thus for several days engaged in drilling and perfecting themselves to fight against the "Sons of Liberty," and by force of arms to rivet the chains of bondage upon their own countrymen, including their nearest neighbors, uphold a foreign monarchical, despotic, and singularly arbitrary power.

The four captains gave most unmistakable evidence that their sympathies were strongly on the side of the king, as did also Lieuts. Tompkins and Ashley and Cornet John Evans. But Lieuts. Borden, Barnolz, and Morton, if not all " liberty" men at the start, soon became so, and gave their undivided efforts and influence to the cause of their distressed and bleeding country.

Ambrose Cleveland, of Freetown, when in arrest at Providence, R. I. (Oct. 31, 1775), signed a written confession and recantation, in which he set forth that "he acknowledges his wrongs in signing Brigadier Ruggles' association uuder Col. Gilbert, and training under said Gilbert for two days, and going to Boston and working at the king's works, and likewise of my saying I could pilot the fleet as far as Bower's (now Somerset village), all which I am heartily sorry for, and for the future am determined to stand for the rights and liberties of my country."

In an intercepted letter of Col. Gilbert to Gen. Ruggles, dated April 5, 1775, he said concerning the British man-of-war that came to the assistance of the Tories, " My son took a long-boat and went to the man-of-war, and brought back a letter from Capt. Wallis to the admiral, which I sent to your care. I hear from Capt. Wallis that he fears to venture up the river with the ship, fearing there is not sufficient depth of water. A vessel of less force might answer the purpose.

"Last Monday the rebels mustered from Middle- borough and Berkley, Swansea and Dighton, and made up a hundred and forty in arms, marched by my house, where were twenty-five men with king's arms well loaded. I went out before my door and told them that they were a poor set of deluded rebels. So they marched off without tearing down my house or killing me, as the day before they swore they would."

That a large proportion of the local militia in the First Company, and considerable numbers of the Sec- ond and Third Companies, as also of the cavalry com- pany, took up arms for the king at the commence- ment of the war of the American Revolution seems quite conclusively proved by an address of the Free- town Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety to the Massachusetts Legislature in session at Boston, March 22, 1780, in which said committee, as also the selectmen of Freetown, concerning the votes of said town, declared that "great numbers, we have

reason to believe, held a criminal correspondence with the enemy when they occupied the island of Rhode Island.

" A great number took the king's arms by the in- stigation of Col. Gilbert, and never acted but against us.

" Many have refused to turn out at alarms when the enemy invaded our town and committed depre- dations.

"Our exertions against the enemy has been em- barrassed by the conduct of our inhabitants.

"If the king of Great Britain should forbear hos- tilities and recall his troops from our land we should not have presumed thus to trouble your Honors with complaint.

" We should have rested under their insults, al- though we have used our utmost efforts, and spent our thousands for the defense of our beloved country.

" What have we to hope or expect if Great Britain should continue the war, and the king's troops re- possess Rhode Island ? We should be between two fires.

" Our fears are multiplied in case such dissatisfied persons should take the lead in town affairs."

A newspaper called the Essex Gazette, published in Salem, April 18, 1775, the day before the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, contained the following communication :

" BOSTON, Monday, April 17th.

" A letter from Taunton dated last Friday, mentions that on the Mon- day before parties of Minute Men, etc., from every town in that county, with arms and ammunition, met at Freetown early that morning in order to take Col. Gilbert, but he had fled on board the man-of-war at Newport.

"They then divided into parties and took twenty-nine Tories who had signed enlistments and received arms in the colonel's company to join the king's troops. They also took thirty-five muskels, two case bottles of powder, and a basket of bullets, all which they brought to Taunton the same afternoon, where the prisoners were separately examined, eighteen of whom made such humble acknowledgments of their past bad conduct and solemn promises to behave better for the future they were dismissed, but the other eleven being obstinate and insulting, a party were ordered to carry them to Simsbury Mines, but they were sufficiently humbled before they had got fourteen miles on their way thither, upon which they were brought back the next day, and after signing proper articles to behave better for the future, were escorted to Freetown.

" There were upwards of two thousand men embodied there last Mon- day."

But this successful expedition did not rid the town of active Tories, as the following from the public records of the town serves to show :

" At a legal town-meeting held at ye public meeting-house house in Freetown on ye 31st day of May, 1777, ye following Tories were voted for trial, viz .: George Brightman, William Winslow, Luther Winslow, John Winslow, Jail Hathaway, Solomon Terry, Abiel Terry, Abiel Terry, Jr., William Hathaway, Silas Hathaway (2d), Silas Terry, Eben- ezer Terry, Benjamin Tompkins, Ralph Paine, Job Paine, Job Paine (2d), George Chase, George Chase, Jr., Bradford Gilbert, Ephraim Win- slow, Ammi Chase, Horah Durfee, Jonathan Dodson, Job Terry, Silas Sherman, Benjamin Cleveland, Abraham Ashley, John Briggs.

"Then Maj. Joshua Hathaway was chosen agent in behalf of ye said town."

The lenity exercised towards the Tories by the Whigs, instead of making the former more tractable, only served to encourage them to seize upon, as they

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IIISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

did, every opportunity that presented itself to make trouble for those who had spared them when in their power, thus ever and always returning evil for good, and showing neither kindness, tenderness, or mercy to those from whom they owed much of all, and to whose clemency alone they owed their power to do hurt.

Even before the close of the Revolutionary war these Tories, who had been so signally defcated when and wherever they submitted their cause to the arbitration of the cartridge-box, suddenly changed their tactics, and by a united and well-directed effort, being joined as they were by the " baser sort" of all parties, com- pletely carried their points at the ballot-box in Free- town, allowing, as they did, persons in their village to vote that they might thus swell the number of their boasted majority ; and the legislative power of the State had to be appealed to, and did exercise its au- thority to bring order out of such anarchy and con- fusion as resulted from that disorganizing and dis- graceful act of the Tories, thoroughly determined either to rule or ruin. Nor did the indignities suffered at the hands of the Tories cease at what was gener- ally considered the successful termination of the Revolutionary war, for the " Shay's rebellion" of 1786 found them again in the field, and this town, that in 1775 in the person of Col. Thomas Gilbert furnished the most prominent and troublesome Tory in the county, only eleven years later furnished the county leader of rebels in arms against the new government, and it is a noteworthy fact that when the "Shay's men" with arms appeared to stop the session of the County Court, being held at Taunton, a prominent leader was dressed in a full British uniform, and new muskets of British manufacture were plentifully supplied gratis to all who would volunteer to use the same to aid the motley crowd of anarchists there drawn up in battle array under the command of David Valentine, of Freetown.

Shay's Rebellion .- As in the war of the American Revolution, so also in the outbreak usually known as "Shay's Rebellion, the local militia remained divided into three companies, that also continued to constitute a part of the Second Regiment. Those officers resid- ing in Freetown, who were all commissioned July 1, 1781, being as follows :

FIELD OFFICERS.

Joseph Durfee, lieutenant-colonel.

COMPANY OFFICERS. First Company.

Benjamin Weaver, captain. Nathan Dean, lieutenant. Samuel Hathaway, second lieutenant.

Second Company.

Joseph Read, third captain. Benjamin Durfee, lieutenant. William Elsbree, second lieutenant.

Third Company.

Peregrine White, captain. Peter Crapo, lieutenant. Samuel Burden, second lieutenant.

In Massachusetts, the State which had been fore- most in the war for independence against Great Britain, occurred the first instance of armed and or- ganized rebellion against the situation and conduct of public affairs consequent upon the changed char- acter of the government and its administrators. This spirit of lawlessness was not entirely confined to Mas- sachusetts, as in the neighboring State of New Hamp- shire a reckless and desperate body of malcontents en- tered the legislative chamber at Exeter, overpowered and made prisoners of the General Assembly of that State; but the citizens arose, and by energetic and well-directed efforts the dastardly movement, with its aiders and abettors, was crushed.

Not so, however, in Massachusetts, where the re- bellion secured to itself a much longer lease of life. The mob spirit grew more and more rampant, Bristol, Hampshire, Middlesex, and Worcester Counties at- taining to the unenviable reputation of being the chief centres of lawless violence throughout New England. Few towns in Bristol County could muster an entire company of its local militia to sustain the government, and in Freetown that in the person of David Valentine furnished the county leader of the "Shay's men." The mobocrats probably bore a still larger proportion to the whole number of the inhab- itants than the Tories had done at the commence- ment of the war of American Revolution.

In Rehoboth, then also embracing what afterward became Seekonk and Pawtucket, the malcontents showed by their votes a large majority at the polls, and took possession of the town's stock of powder, bullets, and munitions of war.

But in. Frectown, the county headquarters of that re- bellion, the town's stock, by the unyielding constancy of Benjamin Weaver, then captain of the First Com- pany in the local militia, was saved from capture by the rebels, and used only for lawful purposes, and so plentiful was the supply that he obtained with which to kill the "Shay's men," that of what was not then expended his son, Maj. Joseph Weaver, filled the cartridge-boxes of the same company under his com- mand at the beginning of those difficulties that ripened into the war of 1812, and Freetown's con- tribution to the force sent to Virginia at the first call in April, 1861, in the brigade commanded by Benja- min Weaver's grandson, Gen. E. W. Peirce, carried in its cartridge-boxes some of the bullets moulded in Freetown with which to que'l the rebellion of 1786. Benjamin Weaver's loyalty, courage, and good con- duct secured to him a speedy promotion to the office of lieutenant-colonel.

Ecclesiastical .- Probably the first or earliest rec- ord still preserved of an effort on the part of the in- habitants of Freetown to provide for the public wor- ship of God was that of a legal meeting which appears upon the thirty-fifth page of the first book of the pub- lic records of said town, and in the words follow- ing :

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FREETOWN.

"At a town meeting in freetown, on the tenth day of June, in the year 1699, legally warned by the Selectmen, to be at the house of John hathway, in freetown, in order to consider of a convenient place to set a meeting house where it may be most convenient to join with some of our neighbors in tanton.

" And in case they will join with us, we have voled that the meeting house shall be set on James Cudworth's land, on the southward side of the brook called abut's cwarter, and at the foasd meeting James Cud- worth and Josiah Winslow were chosen to Ireat tanton men, and to bring thayr ansor to us with all speed whether thay will join with us or not."

That town-meeting was held in a house, then a tavern, that stood on the spot of the former residence of Benjamin Hambly, late of Freetown, deceased. The neighbors in Taunton doubtless lived in that section of said town set off in 1735, incorporated as a new town, and called Berkley. The spot proposed on which to erect a meeting-house is at the foot of the hill, a little northerly of the former residence of the late Philip J. Tripp. From the fact that nothing more appears to have been done about it leads to the conclu- sion that the people of Taunton were unwilling to join with those of Freetown in the labor and expense of erecting a meeting-house at the spot proposed. Tradi- tion or records furnish nothing further until the first Monday in February, 1702, when, in open town-meet- ing, Robert Durfee was chosen as the town's agent to obtain a man to dispense the gospel and instruet chil- dren in reading and writing; and further, that no meeting-house be built at the town's charge until such man had been procured. Two years later, Wil- liam Way accepted these trusts, and was by the town engaged to serve them as a gospel minister and school- master. Mr. Way proposed to receive for his minis- trations in the gospel whatever the inhabitants in gratuity or free will chose to confer upon him. Two years more passed, and the town found itself in- dicted by the grand jury on a charge of not being supplied with a minister according to law, and Lieut. Job Winslow, one of the selectmen, elected as the town's agent to answer in behalf of the town at the next session of the County Court. Lieut. Job Wins- low was also chosen the town's agent to confer with 'Mr. Samuel Danforth, minister at Taunton, in order to have William Way, of Freetown, approbated as a minister, qualified according to law.

Failing in all these efforts, the town on the 21st day of January, 1707, voted to dismiss William Way from longer serving the town as a minister and school- master. Then from the Court of General Sessions came a precept directing the town to provide itself with an able, learned orthodox minister, pursuant to which the town on the 21st day of March, 1707, by a vote of more than two-thirds present and voting, de- cided to be supplied by the Bishop of London with a minister according to the Church of England, estab- lished by the law of the English nation. Three years later the town voted to build a meeting-house thirty- six feet long, twenty-six feet wide, and eighteen feet Mr. Joseph Avery, Freetown's second minister, in or about the year 1720, was united in marriage with between joints, and elected three Congregational min- isters, viz., Samuel Danforth, John Sparhawk, and : Miss Sarah Newman, of Rehoboth. She was born

Richard Billings, a committee to determine where the meeting-house should be set, which committee in writing, bearing date March 7, 1710, recommended that the proposed house should stand upon a lot of land that Samuel Lynde, of Boston, had promised to give to the town on which to erect a meeting-house and a school-house, and to be used also for the pur- poses of a burial-ground and training-field. The town the same year voted to raise the sum of thirty pounds with which to build the meeting-house, and voted thanks to the General Court for twenty-five pounds voted to the town, and expressed the desire that it be paid to Mr. Joseph Avery for his services as minister that year. Oct. 10, 1710, John Hathaway and twenty-three others of Freetown petitioned the General Court to grant aid to Mr. Avery for his en- couragement to preach still among them, and that the court would be pleased to give as much as it had done the last year. March 17, 1711, the General Court passed the following resolution :

" Resolved, That there be allowed and paid out of the public treasury to Mr. Joseph Avery, after the rate of twenty pounds per annum, for each Sabbath he hath or shall preach at Frectown, from the time he was last paid to the session of the court in May next."

Mr. Joseph Avery, the second person who attempted to perform the duties of a gospel minister at Free- town, was the fourth and youngest child of Lieut. William Avery and wife, Elizabeth White. Elizabeth was the second wife of Lieut. William Avery, who had had four children by a former wife; and Joseph Avery, born in Dedham, April 9, 1687, though his mother's fourth child, was the eighth child on his father's side. Lieut. William Avery, the parent, re- ceived a commission in the train-band at Dedham, from which his title was derived, and bearing date of Oct. 15, 1673. Lieut. Avery also held the offices of town clerk and selectman of Dedham. Mr. Joseph Avery, at the age of nineteen years, graduated at Harvard College in 1706. His brother, John Avery, aged twenty-one years, graduated at the same time and place, and was settled in the gospel ministry in the town of Truro, on Cape Cod. Soon after leaving college Joseph Avery was for a time employed to teach a school in Rehoboth. Added to the offices civil and military held by William Avery and already enumerated, he also held the position of deacon of the church, which circumstance throws more light upon the causes operating to bring about the result of his having two sons that became ministers or clergymen than all other known causes combined, the religious element in the character of the father thus largely cropping out in his sons, who, if not foreordained be- fore the world was by the God of the Bible to be am- bassadors for the cause of Christ, doubtless were by the God of nature before either of these sons were born.

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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Nov. 20, 1700, and consequently was about thirteen years younger than her husband. She was a daugh- ter of Deacon Samuel Newman, Jr., granddaughter of Samuel Newman, Sr., and wife, Bathsheba Chick- Robert Durfee, Constant Church, Benjamin Chase, Jr., Walter Chase, and Jacob Hathaway entered their protest against this vote. ering, and great-granddaughter of Rev. Samuel New- man, one of the first settlers, and the first minister of Rehoboth. Mr. Joseph Avery remained in Freetown June 2, 1713, the town made choice of " Jonathan Dodson to be minister of the gospel for this town untill there is a supply from England, according to a former vote of the town." but a short time, as on the 28th day of October, 1714, he was ordained pastor of the Church of Christ in Norton, and thus became the earliest settled minister in that town ; and when we are informed that the June 19, 1714, the meeting-house that in 1710 it was agreed to build being completed, was by the building committee delivered to the selectmen for the use of the town. people of Norton voted upon their own responsibility to pay him a salary of fifty pounds per year, no fur- ther reasons need be assigned why he left Freetown with its proposals to pay him thirty pounds per year, Sept. 22, 1715, Josiah Winslow, Thomas Terry, and beg, if they could, a yearly appropriation of , Jonathan Dodson, and Joseph Read were chosen a committee to seat the meeting-house at the town's charge.

twenty pounds more from the General Court. To have remained in the field of his labor at Freetown may seem more pious, but his change to the vineyard of the Lord at Norton was decidedly more practical.

At a town-meeting holden in Freetown, July 5, 1711,

" voted Recompense Wadsworth to be our gospel minister, according to the tenor of our warrant.

" Voted that Recompense Wadsworth should have after the rate of 20 pounds per year so long as he shall dispense the word of God amongst us. "Voted Mr. Joseph blackman to treat Mr. Wadsworth in the town's behalf, according to the above written vote."

Against this action of the town John Read, Jr., made a public protest, characterizing the vote as "rash and heady," in that the town had no knowl- edge of the man's " conversion" or "qualification," to what town or government he belonged, that the voting of twenty pounds was contrary to gospel rule, and that the town had already voted to be supplied by the Bishop of London. And this strife was finally ended by a report from Mr. Blackman that Mr. Wads- worth had refused to serve the town as minister. Recompense Wadsworth was born March 19, 1688. In 1713 he was appointed master of the North Free Grammar School, at Boston. He was a son of Thomas Wadsworth, a gunsmith, who for a time re- sided in Boston, and removed from thence to New- port, R. I. Aug. 8, 1712, the town voted

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 71

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818