USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Orleans > History of Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans, Barnstable Co., Mass from 1644-1844 > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Eastham > History of Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans, Barnstable Co., Mass from 1644-1844 > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Wellfleet > History of Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans, Barnstable Co., Mass from 1644-1844 > Part 5
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The census was taken, and there was found to be one hun- dred and one voters, or freemen, in the town, and in all, nine hundred souls.
1685. Agreed to pay ten shillings for every head of a wolf, and half that sum for young ones, which any Indian should kill; and in 1686, the town offered as a bounty twen- ty shillings for every head of a wolf which should be killed either by white men or Indians, ten in silver and ten in corn.
At this time these wild beasts were numerous here, and did much damage in destroying cattle and sheep.
This town was required to send three grand-jurymen to the Court. ·
1690. The war with the Indians and French in Canada required the aid of all the towns of the governments of Ply- mouth, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and this town raised £187, 19s. as their proportionable part. Jonathan Sparrow was chosen and commissioned as captain of the military com- pany; Joseph Snow, lieutenant; and Jonathan Bangs, ensign.
The difficulties with the Indians, and the war with them still continuing, the town voted by order of the Court, to raise by a tax, on the polls and estates of the inhabitants, £46 towards defraying the expenses.
FROM THE UNION OF THE OLD COLONY WITH MAS- SACHUSETTS, IN 1691, TO THE SEPARATION OF WELLFLEET, IN 1763.
Pursuant to an order of the General Court, the town ex- pressed their unanimous opinion that a new patent should be petitioned for to their majesties the King and Queen of Eng- land, and agreed to pay their proportion of the money aris- ing from the expenses of obtaining it.
This was an eventful period of the old colony government.
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The people of the colony were extremely desirous to have their government continued as they had enjoyed it from the first; but if this privilege could not be continued to them by their majesties, they preferred to be connected with Massa- chusetts, rather than with New York. The agents appoint- ed by the colonial government to apply to the English gov- ernment for a new charter, were Sir Henry Ashurst, Rev. Increase Mather of Boston, and Rev. Ichabod Wiswall of Duxbury. In 1691, the General Court voted thanks to these gentlemen for their faithful services, and to Sir Henry Ashurst fifty guineas, and to Messrs. Mather and Wiswall twenty-five guineas each. This colony was included in the new charter of Massachusetts, and they became one gov- ernment. It was signed October 7th, 1691. Thomas Hinckley of Barnstable was re-elected governor, and Wil- liam Bradford deputy governor, by the last Court which was holden in Plymouth, in June, 1691. Taxes were again levied on the towns to pay the expenses of the war, and Eastham was required to pay £46, one half in money and the other in corn at two shillings a bushel. A company of sixty men was ordered to be raised, and four was the portion of Eastham. The selectmen were ordered to make a valua- tion of the estates in the town, according to certain prices. Joseph Snow and Thomas Smith were a committee to take care of the town's commons, to prevent timber and wood from being cut and sold to persons out of the place. The town mortgaged to John Freeman two islands at Billingsgate, as his security for paying £76, as their proportion of the ex- penses of obtaining the new charter from England. The town ordered a watch to be kept, of so many persons as the selectmen think necessary, each night .*
1692. On the authority of a warrant sent to the town of Eastham, directed to the constable, from the new governor, Sir William Phipps, two representatives were chosen to serve the town in the General Court to be held in Boston, and Captain Sparrow and Ensign Bangs were chosen. Sir Wil- liam Phipps arrived at. Boston, with the new charter, the
* Eastham records.
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14th of May this year. He issued his warrants for a Gen- eral Assembly, which met the 8th of June.
Although a party was formed who opposed this charter, yet a majority of the Court wisely and thankfully accepted it; and appointed a day of public thanksgiving to God, who had granted a safe arrival to his excellency the Governor and the Rev. Increase Mather, who had industriously served the people, and brought over with them a settlement of govern- ment, in which their majesties had graciously given distin- guished marks of their royal favor and goodness,
In 1693, the mackerel and other fisheries were regulated by law, and no stranger was allowed to take them without leave.
The town voted to raise £6, 58. for ammunition; also £13, 11s. for the support of the war.
1695. A committee was now chosen to build a steeple on the meeting-house and purchase a bell, at the expense of the town. This was the first church bell used in the county, and the last in Eastham. ,
'The town agreed that the order which was passed in 1675, for the destruction of crows and black-birds, should be con- tinued, and that, in addition, every unmarried man in the township should kill six black-birds or three crows while he remains single ;- as a penalty for not doing it, should not be married till he obeyed this order.
It was ordered and appointed that Jobn Doane, senior, get a pair of stocks and whipping-post made for the use of the town.
It was agreed that if John Doane, senior, and his heirs would fence from the bay at Nauset to the corner of the cliff at the northern end of the valley commonly called the Far- ther Plumb Valley, and maintain the fence for twenty-one years, that he or they should have all the upland contained within said fence during that time. Capt. Samuel Freeman and 'Thomas Paine were appointed as the town's agents to confirm this agreement with Mr. Doane.
1696. It was ordered and voted by the town, that for the time to come, when any of the common lands are sold or 8
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given by the town to any person, men shall be annually chos- en to have a negative vote in the disposal of them, and if they approve of the same, they shall lay them out and bound them.
The Court of quarter sessions issued their warrant to the town of Eastham, requiring the selectmen to make a tax of £19, 5s. to defray their portion of the charges for building a bridge near Plymouth; but, considering it to be contrary to the laws of the province for the justices of the quarter ses- sions to require money to be raised to defray charges for this purpose out of the county, refused, and agreed to hold the selectmen harmless for not obeying this order.
1700. Difficulties arose respecting the scarcity of money, about which the town held many meetings, and petitioned the General Court to abate their taxes in part, which was grant- ed.
The town school was continued. . The town agreed to pay the schoolmaster ten pence per week for every child; and that the north part of the town might have a school, if they would pay the teacher to learn their children to read the En- glish bible.
James Rogers and Nathaniel Freeman were accepted as townsmen. ,
£180 was raised to repair and enlarge the meeting-house. The meeting-house was enlarged fifteen feet, so as to make it square, and sufficiently large to seat all the inhabitants.
The town sent a petition to his excellency the Governor, to procure a protection to secure them from sending so many of their men into his majesty's service out of the town. The town"clerk was deputed to present the petition. .
1703 and 1704. To this time much of the upland and salt meadows remained in commons, having never been divid- ed. `Many town meetings were held, and committees were chosen to make a division of the greater portion of these lands among the proprietors. It was agreed that a large pro- portion of upland and hay ground belonging to the town of Eastham, should be divided to the true proprietors, their heirs and assigns, to have and to hold forever; and that a
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committee of twelve men be chosen to determine the rights of proprietors, and to divide and set off the common lands and meadows to them; and that the town oblige themselves to a- bide by their doings; and that the expense of the division shall be paid by each one of the proprietors.
1705. In town meeting the following preamble and votes were passed:
'Whereas there is much disorder and inconvenience.in the town of Eastham, in not orderly attending town meetings; also by persons disorderly and tumultuously speaking in said meetings; also by disorderly departing without leave; it is therefore ordered by this town, that whenever there shall be a town meeting, duly warned, every person qualified to vote in said meeting, and living within seven miles of the meeting- house, who shall not attend at the time appointed, or at the time the meeting is called to order, shall be fined six pence for every such default; or shall depart, without leave of the moderator,. before the meeting closes, or speaks without lib- erty, shall be fined the same.'
It was further directed, that some person be appointed to assist the moderator in preserving order.
The above fines were to be added by the assessors to the rates of such offending persons, and be used to defray town charges.
These orders and by-laws being voted by the town of Eastham, and sent up to the Court of quarter sessions at Barnstable, for approbation, as the law directs, were allowed by the justices in session.
Attest: WILLIAM BASSETT, Clerk.
The town appointed three men, Samuel Knowles, Joseph- Doane and Samuel. Mayo, senior, to settle the line between Eastham and Harwich. They made their report to the town that they had agreed with the town and proprietors of Harwich, that the jurisdiction of the town should forever re- main as formerly, but all the land lying between the bounds of said towns should forever be improved in common between the towns of Eastham and Harwich; and that, as a consider-
* Eastham records.
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ation, this town should pay to the proprietors of Harwich £2, 10s. annually. This report was accepted, and the selectmen were ordered to pay out of the treasury this sum."
The old purchasers, by their heirs, had so increased, that in 1703 there were two hundred and forty proprietors of the township; and to them, at this time, a large part of the com- mon lands were set off and divided, generally in the follow- ing manner, viz.
Granted by the town of Eastbam, at a town meeting on the twenty-sixth day of July, 1703, to Eldad Atwood, (and the other proprietors of Eastham,) to his beirs, executors, administrators and assigns, to have and to hold forever, all the meadow or hay ground lying round the neck of upland contained and comprehended within the boundaries hereafter specified, which was not comprehended in the first grant to the old proprietors, &c., and after giving the courses and boundaries, &c. This grant was approved by the major part of the men appointed to have a negative in disposing of land of the town of Eastham.
The principal business of this town has ever been agricul- ture and the fisheries, while some have engaged in foreign voyages. For the former pursuit the soil in the middle and south parts of the town was well adapted, especially for corn and rye. Some of the land had been cleared and long im- proved by the natives.
A law of the Colony required all fishermen to report to the town clerk, under oath, the quantity of fish and oil which they obtained by each voyage they made; and that all per- sons who should find on the sea shore any wrecked vessel, or parts of such, or any other property, to report said prop- erty to the town, that the lawful owners, if known, might have it.
The town gave permission to Nicholas Paine to build a windmill on a hill near his house, which was near to the house of Deacon Ebenezer Paine.
* How large this intervening tract of land was, is not determined; but it was that on which the Portmunaachet Indians lived, one half of which Harwich after- wards sold to Eastham.
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1709. The town was presented by the Court for not hav- ing a schoolmaster, and Joseph Doane, Esq., was appointed to answer this complaint, to the general sessions of the peace at Barnstable; and it was ordered that the selectmen take special care to obtain a schoolmaster for the town of East- bam.
1710. In town meeting it was ordered, that there should be ten acres of ordinary land laid out, and so proportionably as the lands should be better or worse, to accommodate the minister at Pochet, when there should be occasion for one to settle there, and the like quantity at Billingsgate; and that there be ten acres of woodland laid out and annexed to each lot; which lots of land respectively are granted to and shall be reserved for and set apart for the benefit of the ministry, and entailed for that use forever. The town agreed to raise Mr. Treat's salary £20, making it £70 in silver money.
1711. The town laid out, for all the widows in Eastham four acres of land to each.
1712. This year the town chose Joseph Doane, Esq., as their agent, to join with Jonathan Bangs, Esq., who bad been chosen by the town of Harwich to determine and settle a line between the said towns, running through the tract of land which was reserved for the Indians.
Voted to raise £136 to pay the salary of the representa- tive at the General Court, the schoolmaster, and all other town and ministerial charges.
1713. Agreed with Mr. Peter Barnes to keep the town school.
This year it was agreed by the town to repair the meeting- house, and choice was made of Capt. Samuel Freeman and Mr. Samuel Mayo, to procure the materials and employ work- men for this purpose.
Joseph Doane, Esq., Mr. Samuel Mayo and Mr. Isaac Pepper, were appointed a committee to adopt some better plan for settling and regulating the school, for the time to come, and make returns to the town; upon which they re- ported, that it was their opinion that the most proper way to
" Eastham records.
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settle the school for the general benefit of the town is, that the town be divided into two parts, southerly and northerly, and that the school be kept for one full year in the portherly part of the town, and then for one year in the southerly part, and so on from time to time; that the schoolmaster should be supported by the whole town, and that each part of the town should take care to settle the teacher in proper and convenient places for the general benefit of the said part of the town; and that the Town cove should be the dividing line between the northern and southern ends of the town; and those of one end shall not send their children to the oth- er. This report of the school committee was accepted by the town of Eastham.
1714. The Indians living on the borders of Eastham and Harwich entered a compaint to the General Court, against this town, for trespassing on their lands and rights; whereup- on, the selectinen received an order of notice from said Court, that they be heard thereon, on the first Friday of the next session of the Court. A town meeting was called, and after due consideration of the premises, John Paine was nom- inated and chosen as their agent in behalf of the town and se- lectmen, to appear at the Court in their defence of this com- plaint. They paid their agent for his services four shillings a day for all the time he spent in this business, over and a- bove what was allowed him for services as a representative, allowing him three days for going and the same for returning.
. Nehemiah Hobart was the schoolmaster. The town a- greed to pay him £10, over and above his salary as school- master, 'for assisting the Rev. Samuel Treat in preaching as there may be need.'
1715. By-laws and orders were passed by the town, which were presented to the Court of General Sessions bolden at Barnstable, to prevent cattle and horses from running at large on the town's commons. These were approved and confirmed. WILLIAM BASSETT, Clerk of the Court.
Rev. Samuel Treat died this year, March 18th, aged 69, having labored in word and doctrine, with great faithfulness, forty-four years.
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An agreement was now made with Mr. Hobart to supply the pulpit, and perform other ministerial duties for £1 a week until a candidate could be obtained. Joseph Doane, Esq., was, chosen to seek for a minister, and his expenses were paid. A Mr. Lord was obtained, but preached only a few Sabbath's, and was afterwards settled. in Chatham.
1718. The question about building a new meeting-house and its location, was now agitated. £600 was voted for this object. The old house stood near the old burying-place. This place did not appear to be the most central for the whole town, and it was proposed to erect the . new house in some other place.
A spot a little south of Jeremiah's gutter was proposed, but the vote being put to the meeting by the moderator, it passed in the negative.
At a meeting held February 24th, it was proposed to build two meeting-houses, one of them to be placed in the south part of the town, and the other in the north or middle part; and if the town could not lovingly agree where the dividing line should be between the two parishes, the town should make choice of a committee, out of the neighboring towns, to de- termine that matter; and that Mr. Osborn, to whom they had given a call to settle with them in the gospel ministry, should have the liberty to settle in which end of the town he should see cause.
It was voted by a major part of the town, that they are willing that a meeting-house should be built where the town pound now stands ;* but. this was not done, and the town was divided into two parishes.
Joseph Doane, Esq., Capt. Samuel Freeman, Mr. John Knowles and Nathaniel Freeman, Esq., were a committee to treat with Mr. Samuel Osborn, relating to his settlement in the ministry, and the agreement touching his salary being unanimously concluded, he was ordained Sept. 18th, 1718.
The year after Mr. Osborn's ordination, he removed to the south part of the town, and took charge of that branch of the church, which was now organized. He was a native of Ireland, and graduated at the University of Dublin.
* Where Mr. Jabez Sparrow now lives.
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It is said that he was a man of wisdom and virtue .. He contributed much to the prosperity of the people, by intro- ducing new improvements in agriculture, and by his example of industry and economy. He taught them the use of peat for fuel. After continuing with them about twenty years, diffi- culties arose between him and a part of his church, on ac- count of the laxity of his religious sentiments, and he was dismissed by an ecclesiastical council of ten ministers and churches which was convened at Eastham, June 27th, 1738, at the desire of Joseph Doane and Nathaniel Freeman, with others, in the name of the major part of the south church. After earnest supplication to God for wisdom and direction, they were led into the public meeting-house, by the pastor of the church, and there heard those doctrinal points od ac- count of which the brethren were aggrieved, After a full hearing the council came to the following result:
I. It appears to the council that the Rev. Mr. Osborn hath in his preaching to this people said, that what Christ did and suffered doth nothing abate or diminish our obligation to obey the law of God, and that Christ's sufferings and obedience were for himself: both parts of which, we think, contain dangerous error.
And we say, that what Christ did and suffered, doth wholly take a- way our own obligation to obey the law as a covenant of works, so that the law still under the gospel dispensation remains not as a law of justification, (which seems to us to be intimated in the proposition,) but as a perfect scriptural, an unerring rule of righteousness and holi- ness. And to assert that the sufferings of Christ were to render him capable of sympathizing with and being a pattern of patience to his suffering saints, mentioning no other design or end thereof, is an un- safe and dangerous doctrine, subversive of one great and main end of those sufferings, viz. the satisfaction of the justice of God.
II. It hath been said and doth appear to this council that the Rev. Mr. Osborn hath, both in public and private, asserted that there are no promises in the Bible but what are conditional, which we think, also, to be an error, and do say that there are promises which are ab- solute and without any conditions-such as the promise of a new heart, and that he will write his law in our hearts.
III. As to the third article, that redemption is conditional and not absolute, voted by this council that this charge, in the sum of it, is suf- ficiently proved ; but yet inasmuch as Mr. Osborn has retracted the conditionality of it, we, therefore, don't leave it as a charge upon him.
IV. It hath been alleged, and doth appear to us, that Mr. Osborn
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hath declared, that obedience is a considerable cause of a person's jus- tification, which we think contains very dangerous error, and upon which we say, that our best works, which are our obedience, have need to be justified, neither are they good till they be justified, and therefore cannot justify us till we have the holy law of God.
VI. It hath been alleged that Mr. Osborn did assert that the Rev. Peter Clark's book on Jeremiah, 31st chap. 18th verse, from which text the doctrine was that the efficacious grace of God is necessary to conversion, was wrong and erroneous, we find that now Mr. Osborn declares that the influence of God's spirit is necessary to conversion, by which, he says, he understands the same with efficacious grace of God mentioned in the above book.
VII. We say it appears to us by sufficient evidence, that Mr. Os- born hath, from time to time, frequently used strange, obscene, errone- ous and unguarded expressions, too numerous to be mentioned here, concerning God and his moral perfections, as also concerning Elec- tion, Redemption, and other great tenets of our holy faith, which ex- pressions we judge to be contrary to that plainness, simplicity and soundness of speech which a gospel minister ought to use ; and, upon the whole, it is our judgment and advice, that the Rev. Mr. Osborn cease and forbear the exercise of his ministry, and be suspended there- from until the twenty-fifth of October next, to which this council shall be adjourned.
Whether this council met at the time to which they ad- journed, for the further consideration of this matter, is not known. It is believed, however, that Mr. Osborn was nev- er afterwards reinstated in the ministry. Whatever good qualities he possessed, they did not avail him with his people to continue him as their minister, nor with his brethren'in the ministry. He had embraced the faith of Arminius, while they retained the faith of Calvin, and in consequence thought proper to dismiss him. From Eastham he removed to Bos- ton, where he opened a private grammar school, which he continued a number of years, and died between ninety and a hundred years old.
Richard Knowles was allowed £2, 10s. for bringing Mr. Osborn's family and goods from Plymouth, where he had re- sided after he came over from Ireland.
The town agreed to send for three judicious men from the neighboring towns to determine where the division line should be between the parishes, and that their decision should be binding on all the inhabitants. 9
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Mr. Joseph Lothrop and Mr. John Baker of Barnstable, and Mr. Elisha Hall of Yarmouth, were chosen.
The town voted to raise by a tax on the polls and estates of the inhabitants of the middle and south parts of the town, £600 to build two new meeting-houses.
Town meetings were held in reference to the division of the parishes, and to take measures for the erection of these houses, and also dwelling-houses for the ministers in each part; which was acquiesced in by the whole town except Bil- lingsgate.
The middle part took measures to obtain a candidate for settlement with them; and Mr. Isaac Pepper was appointed to seek for some suitable person, who should be orthodox and of good conversation. Mr. Benjamin Webb of Brain- tree, was obtained, and after preaching to them a number of Sabbaths, received a unanimous call to settle with them in the ministry, to which he gave his answer in the affirmative, and was ordained 1720.
The town voted to give Mr. Webb the same salary that was paid to Mr. Osborn, which was £90, for his support and encouragement in the work of the ministry, with all the min- isterial lands and meadows in the middle part of the town and lying south of Blackfish creek. Also a house, which should be his own property and estate. This was situated near the meeting-house, agreeable to his choice.
'Mr. Webb was born in Braintree, in 1695, and graduated at Harvard College, in 1715. That he was a pious, learned, laborious and faithful minister of the gospel, and that he was holy and unblameable in all the ways of life, is the universal voice of tradition.
Mr. Crocker, who was the pastor of the south church in Eastham, a man of piety and virtue, and a good judge of moral and religious worth, it is said, pronounced him to be the best man and the best minister he ever knew.
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