History of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1630-1877. With a genealogical register, Part 6

Author: Paige, Lucius R. (Lucius Robinson), 1802-1896
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Boston : H. O. Houghton and company; New York, Hurd and Houghton
Number of Pages: 778

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > History of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1630-1877. With a genealogical register > Part 6

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Stoughton, and Hollis Halls are sup- posed to stand. This grant to the Pro- fessor, made May 11, 1638, is defined on the record to be " to the Town's use for- ever, for a publie school or college; and to the use of Mr. Nathaniel Eaton as long as he shall be employed in that work; so that at his death, or ceasing from that work, he or his shall be allowed according to the charges he hath been at, in building or feneing."

CIVIL HISTORY.

" Saugust, Salem, Ipswich, and Neweberry, to be another regi- ment, whereof John Endecot Esq". shall be colonel, and John Winthrope, junior, leiftenant colonel :

" And the Governor for the time being shall be chief gen- eral." 1

" March 9, 1636-7. " For Newetowne, Mr. George Cooke chosen captain ; Mr. Willi: Spencer, leiftenant ; Mr. Sam: Shep- ard, ensign." 2

Nov. 15, 1637. " The College is ordered to be at Newetowne." 3

Nov. 20, 1637. " For the College, the Governor, Mr. Win- thrope, the Deputy, Mr. Dudley, the Treasurer, Mr. Bellingham, Mr. Humfrey, Mr. Herlakenden, Mr. Staughton, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Damport, Mr. Wells, Mr. Sheopard, and Mr. Peters, these or the greater part of them, whereof Mr. Win- thrope, Mr. Dudley, or Mr. Bellingham, to be alway one, to take order for a College at Newetowne.

" Edward Michelson, being appointed marshall of the Court, is appointed to have for any execution 12d. in the pound for the first ten pounds, and 6d. in the pound to 40l., and after, 3d. in the pound to a hundred pounds, and 1d. in the pound for all above 100l., to be paid out of the estate which the execution is served upon. For every attachment of goods or persons the marshall is to have 28. 6d .; and if he goeth any way, he is to have 12d. a mile beside. And the marshall is to have 2s. 6d. for every commitment in Court, and 107. stipend for this year to come." 4

May 2, 1638. " It is ordered, That Newetowne shall hencefor- ward be called Cambridge." 5

Dec. 4, 1638. " The town of Cambridge was fined 10s. for want of a watch-house, pound, and stocks ; and time was given them till the next Court." 6

1 Mass. Coll. Rec., i. 186, 187.

2 Ibid., i. 190.

3 Ibid., i. 208. In his Wonder-Work- ing Providence, Johnson says concerning the College : " To make the whole world understand that spiritual learning was the thing they chiefly desired, to sanetify the other and make the whole lump holy, and that learning being set upon its right ob- ject, might not contend for error instead of truth, they chose this place, being then under the orthodox and soul-flourishing ministry of Mr. Thomas Shepheard, of whom it may be said, without any wrong to others, the Lord by his ministry hath

saved many hundred souls." Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., xvii. 27, 28.

4 Mass. Col. Rec., i. 217. Mr. Mitehel- son held this office, equivalent to that of High Sheriff, until 1681, when he died and was suceceded by his son-in-law, John Green.

5 Ibid., i. 228. This name is supposed to liave been selected, because a place of the same name is the seat of a univer- sity in England, where several of the Magistrates and Elders had been edu- cated.

6 Ibid., i. 247.

HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.

March 13, 1638-9. " It is ordered, That the College agreed upon formerly to be built at Cambridge shall be called Harvard College."

Under date of March, 1639, Winthrop says, " a printing-house was begun at Cambridge by one Daye, at the charge of Mr. Glover, who died on sea hitherward. The first thing which was printed was the freeman's oath ; the next was an almanac made for New England by Mr. William Peirce, mariner ; the next was the Psalms newly turned into metre." 2 Many years ago, the late Thaddeus William Harris, M. D., then Librarian of Harvard College, gave me a copy of an ancient document pre- served in the archives of that institution, which manifestly re- lates to this affair, thoughi, perhaps for prudential reasons, no mention is made in it concerning printing. It is a bond in the usual form, given by Stephen Day 3 of Cambridge, county of Cambridge, locksmith 4 to Josse Glover,5 clerk, in the penal sum of one hundred pounds, and dated June 7, 1638. The condition is thus stated : " The condition of this obligation is such, that, whereas the above named Josse Glover hath undertaken and promised to bear the charges of and for the transportation of the above bounden Stephen Day and Rebecca his wife, and of Mat- thew 6 and Stephen Day, their children, and of William Bord- man,7 and three menservants, which are to be transported with him the said Stephen to New England in America, in the ship called the John of London ; and whereas the transportation of all the said parties will cost the sum of forty and four pounds, which is to be disbursed by the said Joos Glover ; and whereas the said Joos Glover hath delivered to the said Stephen Day kettles and other iron tools to the value of seven pounds, botlı which sums amount to the sum of fifty and one pounds; If,

1 Mass. Col. Rec., i. 253. So called in hon- appointment. I think that Marmaduke or of Rev. John Harvard, who endowed Johnson, who came to assist in printing the Indian Bible, was the first thoroughly instructed printer in New England. the college with half of his estate together with the whole of his library.

2 Savages' Winthrop, i. 289.

8 He wrote his name Daye.

4 Although Daye was recognized by the General Court, Dec. 10, 1641, as "the first that set upon printing," he was a loeksmith, and not a printer, by trade. Perhaps his son Matthew had already received some instruction as a printer. It is not probable that his successor,

5 The true name of Mr. Glover was Jose.

6 Matthew Daye was a printer, and the first known Steward of Harvard College. He died 10th May, 1649.

7 William Boardman was son of Ste- phen Daye's wife by a former husband, and was both Steward of the College and the progenitor of at least four stewards. Samuel Green, had much knowledge of He died 25th Marelı, 1685, aged 71. the printer's mystery, at the time of his

CIVIL HISTORY.

therefore, the said Stephen Day do and shall with all speed 1 ship himself and his said wife and children and servants, and the said William Bordman in the same ship, and cause him and themselves to be transported in the said ship to New Eng- land aforesaid, with as much speed as wind and weather will per- init ; and also if the said Stephen Day, his executors, adminis- trators or assigns do truly pay or cause to be paid to the said Josse Glover his executors or assigns the sum of [fifty] and one pounds, of lawful [money of] England within twenty and four months next after the arrival of the said Stephen Day the father in New England aforesaid, or within thirty days next after the decease of the said Stephen Day the father, which of the said times shall first and next happen to come or be after the date above written ; and also if the said Stephen Day the father and his servants and every of them do and shall from time to time labor and work with and for the said Josse Glover and his assigns in the trade which the said Stephen the father now useth in New England aforesaid, at such rates and prices as is usually paid and allowed for the like work in the country there ; and also if the said Stephen the father, his executors or adminis- trators, do and shall, with the said sum of fifty and one pounds, pay and allow unto the said Joos Glover, his executors or as- signs, for the loan, adventure and forbearance of the same sum, such recompense, damage and consideration as two indifferent men in New England aforesaid, to be chosen for that purpose, shall think fit, set down, and appoint; and lastly, if the said Joos Glover, his executors and assigns shall and may from time to time detain and take to his and their own uses, towards the payment of the said sum of money, and allowances aforesaid, all such part and so much of the wages and earnings which shall be earned by the works and labors aforesaid, (not exceeding the principal sum aforesaid) as the said Joos, his executors or as- signes shall think fit; that then this obligation to be void, or else it to stand in force and virtue."

1 He appears to have arrived in New Bible was printed ; after about the year England with the printing-press, about 1700, very little if any work of this kind was performed here (except by Samuel Hall in 1775-76), until 1800, when a print- ing press was established by William Hil- liard. - Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vii. 19. four months after the date of this bond. In a letter, dated at Salem, Oet. 10, 1638, Hugh Peter says : " We have a printery here, and think to go to work with some special things."- Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., xxxvi. 99.

The business of printing was conducted exelusively at Cambridge for nearly half a century, during which time the Indian

During the present century, the print- ers of Cambridge have constantly held a very high comparative rank, for both the quantity and the quality of their work.

CHAPTER VI.

CIVIL HISTORY.

NOTWITHSTANDING Mr. Shepard and his associates here "found sufficient for themselves and their company," and appear by the Records to have enjoyed temporal prosperity, as indicated in the foregoing chapter, they were not fully satisfied, but seriously contemplated a removal to Connecticut. To such removal they were advised and encouraged by Mr. Hooker, whose eldest daugh- ter had become the second wife of Mr. Shepard in 1637. How far Mr. Hooker may have been influenced by family considera- tions, or how far by that spirit of emulation, or perhaps of jeal- ousy, which naturally enough existed between the rival colonies, - or whether his advice was altogether disinterested, - does not distinctly appear ; but that he gave such advice, even with urgency, his own letters to Mr. Shepard afford conclusive evi- dence. Very probably Gov. Winthrop intended that Mr. Hooker should make a personal application of his general remarks con- tained in a letter addressed to him as early as 1638: " If you could show us the men that reproached you, we should teach them better manners than to speak evil of this good land God hath brought us to, and to discourage the hearts of their breth- ren ; only you may bear a little with the more moderate of them, in regard that one of yours opened the door to all that have fol- lowed, and for that they may conceive it as lawful for them to discourage some with us from forsaking us to go to you, as for yours to plott by encouragements &c., to draw Mr. Shephard and his whole church from us. Sic fama est."1 Two years later, Mr. Hooker wrote an earnest letter to Mr. Shepard, which was long preserved in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but which is now in the Massachusetts Archives : -

" DEAR SON, Since the first intimation I had from my cousin Sam: when you was here with us, touching the number and 1 Life and Letters of John Winthrop, Esq., vol. ii., p. 421.

CIVIL HISTORY.

nature of your debts, I conceived and concluded the consequents to be marvellous desperate in the view of reason, in truth una- voidable and yet unsupportable, and as were likely to ruinate the whole: for why should any send commodities, much less come themselves to the place, when there is no justice amongst men to pay what they take, or the place is so forlorn and helpless that men cannot support themselves in a way of justice ; and ergo there is neither sending nor coming, unless they will make them- selves and substance a prey.

" And hence to weary a man's self to wrestle out an incon- ' venience, when it is beyond all possibilities which are laid before a man in a rational course, is altogether bootless and fruitless, and is to increase a man's misery, not to ease it. Such be the mazes of mischievous hazards, that our sinful departures from the right and righteous ways of God bring upon us, that as birds taken in an evil net, the more they stir, the faster they are tied. If there was any sufficiency to make satisfaction in time, then respite might send and procure relief ; but when that is awant- ing, delay is to make many deaths of one, and to make them all more deadly. The first and safest way for peace and comfort is to quit a man's hand of the sin, and so of the sting of the plague. Happy is he that hath none of the guilt in the commission of evils sticking to him. But he that is faulty, it will be his hap- piness to recover himself by repentance, both sudden and season - ably serious ; and when that is done, in such hopeless occasions, it is good to sit down under the wisdom of some word: That which is crooked nobody can make strait, and that which is awanting none can supply : 1 Eccl. 15; and then seek a way in heaven for escape, when there is no way on earth that appears.

" You say that which I long since supposed ; the magistrates are at their wits end, and I do not marvel at it. But is there, then, nothing to be done, but to sink in our sorrows ? I confess here to apply, and that upon the sudden, is wholly beyond all my skill. Yet I must needs say something, if it be but to breathe out our thoughts, and so our sorrows. I say ours, be- cause the evil will reach us really more than by bare sympathis- ing. Taking my former ground for granted, that the weakness of the body is such that it is not able to bear the disease longer, but is like to grow worse and more unfit for cure, which I sup- pose is the case in hand, then I cannot see but of necessity this course must be taken : -

[1.] " The debtors must freely and fully tender themselves

HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.

and all they have into the hands, and be at the mercy and devo- tion of the creditors. And this must be done nakedly and really. It is too much that men have rashly and unjustly taken more than they were able to repay and satisfy : ergo they must not add falseness and dissimulation when they come to pay, and so not only break their estate but their consciences finally. I am afraid there be old arrearages of this nature that lie yet in the deck.

" 2. The Churches and the Commonwealth, by joint consent and serious consideration, must make a privy search what have been the courses and sinful carriages which have brought in and increased this epidemical evil ; pride and idleness, excess in ap- parel, building, diet, unsuitable to our beginnings or abilities ; what toleration and connivance at extortion, and injustice, and oppression ; the tradesman willing the workman may take what he will for his work, that he may ask what he will for his com- modity.

"3. When they have humbled themselves unfeignedly before the Lord, then set up a real reformation, not out of politick re- spects, attending our own devices, but out of plainness, looking at the rule and following that, leave the rest to the Lord, who will ever go with those who go his own way.

" Has premisses : I cannot see in reason but if you can sell, and the Lord afford any comfortable chapman, but you should remove. For why should a man stay until the house fall on his head ? and why continue his being there where in reason he shall destroy his substance ? For were men merchants, how can they hold it, when men either want money to buy withal, or else want honesty, and will not pay ? The more honest and able any per sons or plantations be, their rates will increase, stocks grow low, and their increase little or nothing. And if remove, why not to Mattabeseck ?1 For may be either the gentlemen 2 will not come, and that's most likely ; or if they do, they will not come

1 Now Middletown, Connecticut.

2 The reference here is not to the " gen- tlemen " in Cambridge with Mr. Shepard, but to certain others in England, for whom Mr. Fenwick, the proprietor of Mattabesiek, desired to provide, as appears by another letter from Hooker to Shep- ard, without date : "Touching your business at Matabesiek, this is the eom- pass of it : Mr. Fenwick is willing that you and your company should come thither upon these terms ; Provided that you will reserve three double lots for three of

the gentlemen, if they come ; that is, those three lots must carry a double pro- portion to that which yours take. If they take twenty aeres of meadow, you must reserve forty for them; if thirty, three score for them. This is all we could obtain, because he stays one year longer in expectation of his company, at the least some of them; and the like hatlı been done in Quinipiaek, and hath been usual in such beginnings. Therefore, we were silent in such a grant, for the while."

CIVIL HISTORY.

all ; or if all, is it not probable but they may be entreated to abate one of the lots ? or, if not abate, if they take double lots, they must bear double rates ; and I see not but all plantations find this a main wound ; they want men of abilities and parts to manage their affairs, and men of estate, to bear charges. I will tell thee mine whole heart ; considering, as I conceive, your com- pany must break, and considering things ut supra, if you can sell you should remove. If I were in your places, I should let those that must and will transport themselves as they see fit, in a way of providence and prudence. I would reserve a special company, but not many, and I would remove hithier. For I do verily think, either the gentlemen will not come, or if they do, they may be over-intreated not to prejudice the plantation by taking too much. And yet if I had but a convenient spare number, I do believe that would not prove prejudicial to any comfortable subsistence : for able men are most fit to carry on occasions by their persons and estates with most success. These are all my thoughts ; but they are inter nos ; use them as you see meet.

"I know, to begin plantations is a hard work ; and I think I have seen as much difficulty, and came to such a business with as much disadvantage as almost men could do, and therefore, I would not press men against their spirits : when persons do not choose a work, they will be ready to quarrel with the hardness of it. This only is to me beyond exception. If you do remove, considering the correspondence you have here of hearts, and hands, and helps, you shall never remove to any place with the like advantage. The pillar of fire and cloud go before you, and the Father of. mercies be the God of all the changes that pass over your heads.

"News with us here is not much, since the death of my brother Stone's wife and James Homstead ; the former smoaked out her days in the darkness of melancholy ; the other died of a bloody flux, and slept sweetly in the Lord, having carried him- self graciously in his sickness.

" I have of late liad intelligence from Plymouth. Mr. Chancy and the Church are to part ; he to provide for himself, and they for themselves.

" At a day of fast, when a full conclusion of the business should have been made, lie openly professed he did as verily be- lieve the truth of his opinions as that there was a God in heaven, and that he was settled in it as the earth was upon the centre. If ever such confidence find good success, I iniss of my mark.

" Since then he hath sent to Mr. Prydden to come to them,

HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.

being invited by some of the Brethren by private letters : I gave warning to Mr. Prydden to bethink himself what he did; and I know he is sensible and watchful. I profess, how it is possible to keep peace with a man so adventurous and so pertinacious, who will vent what he list and maintain what he vents, its be- yond all the skill I have to conceive. Mr. Umphrey, I hear, in- vites him to Providence, and that coast is most meet for his opinion and practice. The Lord says he will teach the humble his way ; but where are those men ? The Lord make us such, that he may shew us such mercy.

" Totus tuus,

T. HOOKER. "Nov. 2th. 1640.

" I writ another letter, because happily 1 some of the bretliren would be ready to desire the sight of what is writ ; that you may shew ; this you / shew or conceal, as you see meet.

" Sunt mutua preces in perpetuum.

" All here salute you and yours." 2

The Town Records give no intimation of this financial distress. But from other sources we learn that in the year 1640, not only Cambridge but the whole Colony was in imminent danger of bankruptcy. Hutchinson says that, in this year, " the importa- tion of settlers now ceased. The motive to transportation to America was over, by the change in the affairs of England. - This sudden stop had a surprising effect upon the price of cattle. They had lost the greatest part of what was intended for the first supply, in the passage from Europe. As the inhabitants multiplied, the demand for the cattle increased, and the price of a milch cow had kept from 25 to 30, but fell at once this year to 5 or 6l. A farmer, who could spare but one cow in a year out of his stock, used to clothe his family with the price of it, at the expense of the new comers; when this failed they were put to difficulties. Although they judged they had 12,000 neat cattle, yet they had but about 3,000 sheep in the Colony." 3 Winthrop says, " This year there came over great store of provisions, both out of England and Ireland, and but few passengers (and those brought very little money), which was occasioned by the store of money and quick markets which the merchants found here the two or three years before, so as now all our money was drained

1 Haply.

2 A part of Mr. Hooker's letter was published in Albro's Life of Thomas Shepard, 1847 ; but his copy contained

several mistakes which are here corrected, and the missing portions are inserted.

8 Hist. Mass., i. 93.

CIVIL HISTORY.

from us, and cattle and all commodities grew very cheap, which enforced us at the next General Court, in the eighth month, to make an order, that corn should pass in payments of new debts ; Indian, at 4s. the bushel ; rye, at 58., and wheat, at 6s. ; and that upon all executions for former debts, the creditor might take what goods he pleased (or, if he had no goods, then his lands), to be appraised by three men, one chosen by the creditor, one by the debtor, and the third by the Marshall." 1

To this state of things Mr. Hooker probably referred when he renewed his efforts, in the letter already quoted, to persuade Mr. Shepard and his congregation to remove. But why they should remove to Connecticut rather than to some other part of Massa- chusetts does not very plainly appear. There were large tracts of unappropriated lands here. There is no evidence that Mr. Shepard or his people had any jealousy, such as some have sup- posed to operate on their predecessors. On the contrary, Mr. Shepard was a prominent member of the religious party which had recently triumphed in the Antinomian controversy, and his own congregation had been preserved from all taint of the great heresy. Concerning the " Antinomian and Famalistic opinions " which then distracted the churches, Cotton Mather says, "a synod 2 assembled at Cambridge, whereof Mr. Shepard was no small part, most happily crushed them all. The vigilancy of Mr. Shepard was blessed, not only for the preservation of his own congregation from the rot of these opinions, but also for the de- liverance of all the flocks which our Lord had in the wilderness. And it was with a respect unto this vigilancy, and the enlighten- ing and powerful ministry of Mr. Shepard, that, when the foun- dation of a college was to be laid, Cambridge rather than any other place was pitched upon to be the seat of that happy semi- · nary : out of which there proceeded many notable preachers, who were made such by their sitting under Mr. Shepard's ministry." 3 Possibly, however, this " vigilancy " of Mr. Shepard, and this faithfulness of his congregation, throughout one of the most vio- lent conflicts of religious opinion ever known in this country, may have stimulated the subsequent desire to remove beyond the limits of Massachusetts. This seems to be indicated in the fifth

1 Savage's Winthrop, ii. 7.

2 This Synod met at Cambridge, Aug. 30, 1637, and " began with prayer made by Mr. Shepard." Mr. Bulkeley of Con- eord, and Mr. Hooker, of Hartford, were the Moderators. Having condemned

"about eighty opinions, some blasphe- mous, others erroneous, and all unsafe, - the assembly brake up," Sept. 22, 1637. - Savage's Winthrop, i. 237-240.

8 Magnalia, B. III., ch. v., § 12.

HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.

" Reason for removing," entered by Mr. Shepard on the fly-leaf of one of liis manuscript books, namely : -

" Reas. for removing.

"1. You say some brethren cannot live comfortably with so little.

"2. We put all the rest upon a temptation. Lots being but little, and estates will increase or live in beggary. For to lay land out far off is intolerable to men ; near by, you kill your cat- tle.

" 3. Because if another minister come, he will not have room for his company. - Religion. -

" 4. Because now if ever is the most fit season ; for if gate be opened, many will come in among us, and fill all places, and no room in time to come ; at least, not such good room as now. And now you may best sell.

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History of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1630-1877. With a genealogical register, Part 6

Author: Paige, Lucius R. (Lucius Robinson), 1802-1896 Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Boston : H. O. Houghton and company; New York, Hurd and Houghton Number of Pages: 778

Author: Paige, Lucius R. (Lucius Robinson), 1802-1896
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Boston : H. O. Houghton and company; New York, Hurd and Houghton
Number of Pages: 778