USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts > Part 60
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He was a member of the Legislature in 1837, and was State senator in 1842 and 1843. In 1840 he edited the Lowell Advertiser. In 1853, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and two years later was made a Judge of the Superior Court for Suffolk County. In 1874, he was elected to the lower house of Congress. He was a man of great intellectual ability and of a kind heart.
He died in 1891, aged seventy-six years and seven months.
CHAPTER XI.
SLAVES, WITCHES.
WARNING OUT. SMALL POX. FIRST SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. THE SOCIAL LIBRARY. THE ADAMS LIBRARY. THE NORTH CHELMSFORD LIBRARY. THE MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. PRINTING. THE VILLAGE CLOCK. WATERING TROUGHS. MATCHES. WATER DISTRICTS. TOWN FARM. TRAINING SCHOOL.
NEGRO SLAVES.
S LAVERY, which had existed from the early days in Massa- chusetts, was legal after 1641, but practically ceased, before the Revolution. The State never explicitly abolished it, though the slave trade was prohibited in 1788, and, on account of the declara- tion of human rights in the Constitution of 1780, a number of slaves were declared free.
In 1754, there were reported 8 negro slaves over 16 years old in Chelmsford. The number in Middlesex County was 361. In Boston, 989. In 1764-5, the number in Chelmsford was 11- 7 male negroes and mulattoes, and 4 females.
Between 1745 and 1767, the baptisms of 11 negroes are recorded in the church records. In 1772, 1 negro marriage, and 1 in 1782, are recorded in the Town records. 36 deaths of negroes are recorded between 1747 and 1830 in the church records.
Rev. Evenezer Bridge owned a negro woman named Venus. Dr. Nehemiah Abbott owned a negro man named Cato, and a negro woman named Zube.
Phillis and Dinah belonged to Joseph Moors.
Colonel Stoddard, Benjamin Walker, Timothy Clark, William Campbell, Widow Elizabeth Fletcher, Benjamin Byam, Joseph Pierce, Samuel Adams, Gershom Procter, Deacon Ephraim Spaulding, Widow Rebecca Parker, Capt. John Butterfield, Eleazer Richardson, Capt. Jonathan Richardson, Josiah Fletcher, Ephraim Blood and Henry Spaulding owned slaves. At the end of lists of births, marriages and deaths in the printed Vital Records of Chelmsford will be found the names of negroes in this Town.
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WITCHES.
The witch of Endor is everywhere known to Bible readers. Many learned men have claimed that she was simply an imposter. The command of Exodus, xxii, 18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," was enforced from the time of the Inquisition. Rees's Cyclopædia gives a curious argument for the reality of witchcraft. All living things emit effluvia. Of all parts of the human body, the eye is the quickest, and exhales fine humors. The eye has always been esteemed the chief seat or organ of witchcraft. To have an evil eye is to be a witch. Old bilious persons are those most frequently supposed to have the faculty, the nervous juice in them being depraved, and irritated by a vicious habitude of body, and so rendered more penetrating and malignant. And young persons, chiefly children and girls, are most affected by it; because their pores are patent, their juices incoherent and their fibres delicate and susceptible. The faculty is only exercised when the person is displeased, provoked or irritated, it requiring some extraordinary stress or emotion of mind to dart a proper quantity of the effluvia, with a sufficient impetus, to produce the effect at a distance. Examples of the effect of the power of the eye, are the mouse circling about a snake, the partridge standing confounded before the setter. Few persons but have felt the effect of an angry, a fierce, a commanding, a disdainful, a lascivious, an entreating eye.
Pope Innocent VIII, 1484, instituted severe measures against witches, and many were executed. From the beginning of the 13th Century many executions took place in England.
In the time of Henry VIII, witchcraft and sorcery were adjudged to be felony without benefit of clergy. In 1558, Bishop Jewel, preaching before Queen Elizabeth, said: "It may please your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers, within these last four years, are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed." In France and Scotland there were great outbursts of witchcraft.
The Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641 described a witch as one that "hath or consulteth with a familiar spirit." Cotton Mather cites this from Weier's De Praestigiis Daemonum: "A witch is a person that having the free use of reason doth knowingly and willingly seek and obtain of the devil or any other god, besides the true God Jehovah, an ability to do or know strange things which he cannot by his own abilities arrive unto."
In Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia, there were cases of witchcraft. Most people in the 17th Century believed there was such a hideous crime as witchcraft. In Massa- chusetts there were only three or four cases in the first sixty years after the settlement.
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
There was no body of law in Massachusetts until 1641. The magistrates, in dispensing justice, used their understanding of right and wrong. In the year just named, "The Body of Liberties" was adopted, and was the beginning of Massachusetts statutory law. Equal justice to all; inviolability of person and property, except by law; humane treatment of brutes; no second trial for the same offence; cruel punishments forbidden; public records open for inspection; Church regulations enforced by civil courts; Scriptures to overrule custom or prescription; no slavery, except in case of lawful captives, or those who willingly sell themselves; were some of its provisions. Yet slavery con- tinued until 1780. A man or woman who was a witch was to be put to death, and there was the same penalty for invasion or rebellion. There were twelve capital crimes.
At Charlestown, a woman was hanged as a witch in 1648. Others suffered in 1656 and 1688. In 1692, when the great out- break occurred in Salem, a general despondency had fallen upon the people, resulting from four consecutive small-pox epidemics, the loss of the old charter, a temporary increase in crime, financial depression, and a general dread of another Indian war. It was an apt moment for the spread of superstitious fear.
There were sporadic cases in this vicinity.
Mary Toothaker of Billerica was charged with wickedly, feloniously, and maliciously making a covenant with the devil, confirming it by making a mark on a piece of birch rind, that the devil brought to her; which shows the strange credulity of the time. Others were suspected in neighboring towns.
Thomas Baly testified to hearing "a hideous noyse of strange creatures" when "ridinge between Groton Mil and Chensford," and was much affrighted, fearing they might be some evil spirits. John Willard, supposed to have been a witch, said they were locusts.
Several women in Chelmsford were suspected of being witches. In 1760, Ebenezer Bridge, in his diary, says: Oliver Adams's wife charged Widow Byham with being a witch. Jarvis Mansfield told the writer that one of his ancestors married a witch. She was suspected, and the family kept her in doors most of the time for fear she would be accused and taken.
The delusion caused the death of twenty-five or thirty persons in Massachusetts, one being crushed to death, that is, pressed to death by heavy weights placed upon him. In some cases their own families paid the expenses of the accused while in prison.
In 1710, numerous petitions were presented by sons, husbands and others, for money expended at the time of imprisonment and execution of their relations, and for the removal of the attainder.
In some cases, from £10 to £20 was paid that the record of condemnation might be expunged.
Cotton Mather, colonial divine and author, eldest son of Increase Mather, was born in Boston, February 12, 1663. He
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graduated at Harvard when fifteen years old, and studied medicine. He married Maria, daughter of John Cotton. Overcoming a propensity to stammering, he became assistant minister to his father at the age of seventeen. He was a great scholar and a conservative leader among the Puritans. He took great interest in witchcraft, and published books on the subject. He was overworked and perhaps unbalanced by the attacks upon his activity in the witchcraft crisis. His father was president of Harvard, and he was greatly disappointed when he was not appointed to that position. He died February 13, 1728. He had extraordinary learning. His Magnalia Christi Americana was first printed in 1702. He never gave up his belief in witchcraft. He believed America was originally peopled with "a crew of witches transported hither by the Devil," who would allow the present victims to read Quaker books, the Common Prayer, and popish books, but not the Bible. When the children of John Goodwin became curiously affected in 1688, he, with three other Boston ministers, held a day of fasting and prayer. He took the eldest daughter to his house in order to inspect the spiritual and physiological phenomena of witchcraft, and his experiments are wonderful instances of curiosity and credulity. He discovered that the devils were familiar with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, but seemed less skilled in the Indian languages. He was sufficiently egotistic to regard the assaults of the infernal enemy as directed particularly against his own efforts to bring the souls of men unto heaven. After the excitement had subsided, he admitted "there had been a going too far in that affair."
He was made a member of the Royal Society of London.
The Legislature of Massachusetts appointed a day of fasting and supplication "that God would pardon all the errors of his servants and people in a late tragedy raised among them by Satan and his instruments." Judge Sewall, who had presided at many trials in Salem, stood up in the meeting house and implored the prayers of the people that the judgments of an avenging God might not be visited on the country, his family and himself.
There was in Chelmsford one notable instance of accusation of witchcraft. Probably it may be safe to assume that the person referred to by Cotton Mather (see page 69), was Martha Sparks. How much Cotton Mather really knew of the case, it is impossible to say.
Martha was born at Braintree, Sept. 16, 1656, the daughter of Thomas Barrett, son of Thomas. Her father moved to Chelms- ford, sometime prior to March, 1660. The two Thomases bought a house and fifty-two acres of land on the south side of Robin's Hill, April 10, 1663. These deaths are recorded: Thomas Barrett, Sr., Oct. 6, 1668. Margreatt, wife of Thomas Barrett, July 8, 1681. Thomas Barrett, Dec. 8, 1702. Fransis, wife of Thomas Barit, May 27, 1694. These were her grand-parents and parents.
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
On July 10, 1676, Martha was married to Henry Sparks of Exeter, N. H. In February of that year he is credited to Chelmsford in the return of a Middlesex Regiment of Militia. He was granted land in Chelmsford. The births of two of their children, Abiell, a daughter, in 1686, and Deliverance, a son, March 8, 1690, are recorded in Chelmsford, as is the death of another son, not named in the record, July 6, 1683.
Henry Sparks died July 16, 1694, and Martha died Feb. 28, 1697. She was confined in Boston Gaol, October 28, 1691, on suspicion of witchcraft. November 1, 1692, her father petitioned the Governor and Council for her release, and on December 6 gave a recognisance for her appearance in Court, and two days afterwards she was set free, no doubt owing to the influential interposition of the Rev. Mr. Clarke, then minister of Chelmsford; that is, assuming this to be the case mentioned by Mather. The case was probably never called in Court. At that time, after the dissolution of the first charter, the Court of Assistants was super- seded by the Superior Court of Judicature, and there is no record of such a case being tried by either of these Courts. The Records of the Middlesex County Court for the period when this case might have been called in that Court were burned some time since in a fire in Concord, where they were then kept, but no papers relating to the case are to be found in the Court files of 1692 and 1693.
In the early part of 1693, Governor Phips, being about to leave the country, pardoned all the condemned, and the jails were delivered.
In Europe, executions for witchcraft were occasional until nearly the end of the eighteenth century.
These are the documents relating to the case of Martha Sparks:
PETITION OF THOMAS BARRETT.
To his Excy. Sr. William Phips, Knt. Capn Genll. and Governor. in Cheife of their Majties Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England and to the Honed. Council thereof.
The Humble Petition of Thomas Barrett of Chelmsford in New England, in behalf of his Daughter Martha Sparkes, wife of Henry Sparkes who is now a Souldier in their Majties Service att the Easterne Parts, and soe hath beene for a Considerable Time, Humbly Showeth
That yor Petitionrs Daughter hath Layne in Prison in Boston for the Space of Twelve months and Five days, being Committed by Thomas Danforth, Esq the Late Depty Governor. upon suspicion of Witchcraft, Since which noe Evidence hath appeared against her in any Such matter, neither hath any Given bond to prosecute her nor doth any one att this day accuse her of any such thing as yor Petitionr knows of. That Yor Petitionr hath
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ever since kept two of her children-the one of 5 years ye other of 2 years old, wch hath been a considerable Trouble and charge to him in his poore & meane Condition; besides yor Petitionr hath a Lame antient & sick wife, who for these 5 yeares & upwards past hath beene soe afflicted: as that shee is altogether rendred uncapable of affording her self any help, wch much augments his Trouble.
Yor Poore Petitionr Earnestly and humbly Intreates Yor E'cy & honrs. to take his distressed condition into yor consideracon, And that you will please to order ye releasemt. of his Daughtr. from her confinemt. Whereby shee may returne home to her poore children to look after them, haveing nothing to pay the charge of her Confinemt.
And yor Petitionr as in duty bound shall ever pray, Nov. 1, 1692. &c.
[Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 135, p. 62, doc. 64.]
THOMAS BARRETT'S RECOGNIZANCE FOR MARTHA SPARKS' APPEARANCE AT MIDDLESEX COURT.
Recognizance of Martha Sparks:
"Memorandum
That on the Sixth day of Decembr. 1692 in the ffowerth year of the Reign of our Souerain Lord & Lady William & Mary by the grace of God of England &c; King & Queen Defenders of ye ffaith; Personally Appeared before us James Russell & Samuell Heyman Esqs of their Maiesties Councill & Province of the Massachusets Bay in New England, & Justices of peace within ye Same; Thomas Barrat of Chelms- ford in ye County of Middlesex; Mason & Acknowledged himself to be indebted unto our Sd: Lord &. Lady the King & Queen and the survivors of them, their Heires & Successors, in the Some of Two hundred pounds to be leavied on his Goods or Chattells Lands or Tennements for ye use of our said Lord &. Lady ye King &. Queen or Surviver of them if default be made in the performance of the Condition under- written, viz
The Condition of the above Recognisance is Such yt wheare as Martha Sparks of Chelmsford in the County of Middlesex was committed to Boston Goall being accused & suspected of per- petrating or committing divers Acts of Wichcraft; If therefore ye aforesd. Martha Sparks Shall make her personall Appearance before the Justices of our sd. Lord & Lady the King & Queen; at the next Court of Assizes Oyer & Terminer & Generall Goall delivery to be holden for, or within ye County of Middlesex Abouesd. to Answer what Shall be Obiected against her in their Maities. behalfe refering to Witchcraft and to do &. Receiue yt.
1
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
which by said Court Shall be then and there Inioined her, and not depart without Licence then the abouesaid Recognizance to be void or Elce to abide in ffull fforce &. virtue.
Capt. & Recognit die & dict. Coram.
Ja : Russell Samuell Hayman"
[Suffolk Clerk of Courts-Early Files-No. 2696.]
ITEMS FROM THE ACCOUNT OF JOHN ARNOLD, THE GAOL KEEPER AT BOSTON.
1692 The Country is Dr.
March 9 To Chaines for Sarah Good & Sarah Osbourn £ -: 14 :-
May 23 To Shackles for 10 prisoners £ 2 :-:- £ -: 7 :-
29 To 1 pr. of Irons for Mary Cox
To Sarah Good of Salem Villedge from the 7th of March to ditto 1st June 12 weeks at 2/6 .. £ 1:10 :- To Rebecca Nurse of same place from 12th April 7 weeks and one day at 2s. 6d. . . £ -: 17 :- To the Keeping of Sarah Osbourn from the 7th of March to the 10th of May, when she died, being 9 weeks & 2 days £ 1:3 :-
To Keeping
Martha Sparks from the 28th of October 1691 to the 8th of Decembr. 1692- 58 weeks. . ... at 2/6 pr w. ...... £ 7:5:1 To 20 cord of Wood expended on Sundry prsons committed for witchcraft in the Winter of 1692 £ 8 :-:-
To Bedding, Blankets & Clothes for sundry poore Prisonrs. committed for Witchcraft by order of the Governmt. £16 :-:-
To Turning the Key . £ -: 5 :-
John Arnold
[Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 135. Document 24, and Vol. 40, pp. 612-626.]
(Arnold's salary was £20 a year.)
INHABITANCY AND WARNING OUT.
The Town government in Massachusetts was based upon English law and custom. The early settlers believed that a corporation, established by free consent, and embodying their place of residence, belonged to them, and that no man had a right to come in and be one of them without their consent. New inhabitants in a Town could become such only by vote of the freemen of that place, or the selectmen. "All strangers of what quality soever, above the age of sixteen years, arriving .. ..
V
No. 34
THREE OLD WATCHES. FOR DESCRIPTION SEE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
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in this Jurisdiction, shall immediately be brought before the Governor ...... to give an account of their ...... business in this country." (Law of 1651.) No stranger was allowed to be entertained, except friends from other parts of this country, for more than three weeks. In 1722, Chelmsford imposed a fine for keeping strangers in Town more than 30 days. Inhabitancy, or the right to live in a Town, did not always give the right to vote, nor did the owning of property. In 1631, the Colony restricted the right to vote to inhabitants in full communion with the church, which meant a minority of the male population. Any person not excepted against within three months was reputed an inhabitant. Towns were responsible for the proper conduct of their inhabitants, and for the support of such as became incapable of their own support, and they felt they had the right to exclude those for whom they did not wish to become responsible. Thus arose the liability for property destroyed by riots, and the expres- sion, "the freedom of the city," or the right to dwell therein, and the right to take the estate of any inhabitant in execution on a judgment against the Town. The right to exclude from inhabit- ancy was sometimes used to keep out persons whose religious or political opinions were objectionable. This right of exclusion was generally used with discrimination, but in some Towns practically all newcomers, regardless of their character or standing, were warned to depart, thus avoiding any possibility of liability on the Town's part, though, in many cases, it was not expected that they would depart. The right of inhabitancy generally included the right of owning land in the Town, and of commonage, and also carried riparian rights. "Every Inhabitant who is an House holder, shall have free Fishing and Fowling in any great Ponds, Coves and Rivers, so far as the Sea Ebbes and Flows within the precincts of the Town where they dwell, unless the Freemen of the same Town or the General Court have otherwise appropriated them;" &c. [1641, 7.]
The basis of land titles in New England was a grant from the English Crown, i. e., the King. Purchases of land from Indians without license from the Colony were void. Whatever land the Indians had possessed and improved, they held by right. Lands or houses could not be sold or let to strangers without the consent of the Town. This was also necessary for the exchange of land between inhabitants.
The General Court, in its early sessions, gave much time to making grants of land, establishing bounds of Towns and estates, and making highways and bridges. The first Town meetings did the same.
Most of the early bounds are now impossible to locate. For example: in Chelmsford, in 1670, "a parsill of land" was granted to henry Bowtell-bounded on the north by a hole in the ground, east by a white oak tree, south by the brook, west by the highway
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
leading to the merrimack. Other bounds were as uncertain, such as a stump in a swamp, or a marked pine, or a heap of stones, which, of course, were not many years in disappearing.
In 1656, an order was passed by the Town that no person should own land until he had been approved and admitted as an inhabitant by a majority vote at a public Town meeting.
Only such persons as could contribute to the prosperity of the Town or the well-being of the inhabitants were desired. Trades were among the recommendations of the newcomers.
About 1655, Henry Farwell came from Concord. He died in 1670, and in his will he styles himself a tailor.
In 1656, William How, a weaver, was admitted an inhabitant and granted 30 acres of land on condition that he follow his trade, and perform the Town's work. In the same year, Samuel Adams was admitted and given a grant of land provided he set up a saw- mill and supply the Town with boards at three shillings a hundred, or saw one log for the providing and bringing of another. He was also given other land in consideration of his putting up a corn-mill, and the Town passed an order "that no other corn-mill shall be erected for this town, provided the said Adams keep a sufficient mill and miller."
In 1663, the Town granted to John Stevens a ten acre lot of upland, he to pay fifty shillings "by the next Meckletide." (Michaelmas.) Another expression used in the records is "on Monday come se'n night."
"1 March 1670 Petter Dell is granted a house lott answerable to what other young men have had vp on condition that hee Buld a dweling house vp on the same and there to live and to pay all publike Dewes to Chelmsford."
In a deed of 1671, Steven perce is styled a tailor.
"The 5 Dy of 12 mo 1677 was given to Jacob Warren tew Acers of land lying Ajoyning to richard hildreth land on the south sid of the bridge for him to buld a house on for his subsistance."
"The 5 Day of 12. 1677 was granted and given to Petter Dell three Acers of land neare to the land of Thomas Cory for a house lott and hee is to buld and inhabitt on the same or [ ] forfitt the same to the towne."
"The Day Above att a genorall metting was given to Thomas Adams tow Acers of land near Thomas Parkers land on Robins hill for the said Adams to buld a Dweling house on the same or else this gifte to be of no force."
"26, 12, 1677 was granted ...... to Thomas Parker sixe Acers of land on Condition that hee com and folow his trade of Shoo- making in this towne."
"The Day Above was given to Will good Foure Acers of land Aioyning to David freshold now John barks lott for to buld a house on it to folow his trade."
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"The Day Above was given to henry sparks an Acer and halfe of land Aioyning to his former lott for him to buld a house · on near the springe."
"1681. 7 the 12 mo. Josiah Sawyer at his request was admitted an Inhabitant in this Towne."
"1682, 5 day of Febuwary. John Louell a tanner, was admitted an inhabitant in this towne ...... the towne granted him liberty on the Common for barke as is Convenient for his trade."
Feb. 2, 1685. "Mr. Jerathmell Bowers by a unanimous voat was admitted an inhabitant of this town."
1693. Jeams Dvtton was granted 3 acres to build a house and shop in order to following his trade.
1698-"Voted that Zacrah Richardson of woborn shold have 3 or 4 acers of land on condition he come and dwell in our town and follow the trade of ablack Smith."
In 1659, an order was passed by the General Court providing that, in cases in which the Town was not willing that certain persons should remain, notice should be given them, and if they still remained, the selectmen should petition the next County Court and prosecute the same to effect.
The Articles of Confederation of the Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut Colonies in 1672 recognized the right of Towns to warn strangers to depart to the place of former abode. Three years later the danger from the Indians obliged many to forsake their homes for other places. They did not thus become "reputed inhabitants thereof," but, if necessary, were to be so employed or disposed of that public charge might be avoided.
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