USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 13
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Besides the fees which these measures squeezed from the people, and of which a large share flowed into his pocket, Randolph, under the protection of his master, endeavored to steal a portion of Boston Common, all of Nahant, seven hundred acres near Spy Pond, and sundry other tracts of vacant land held in common by the inhabitants of the towns in which they were situated.
This universal spoliation and confiscation pro- voked remonstrance and petition for relief, which Sir Edmund met and forestalled by the exercise of despotic authority. The people were forbidden to assemble in town-meeting to deliberate upon their grievances. They were imprisoned without trial, denied the right of habeas corpus, thwarted in their attempt to reach the throne by direct petition. Rev. Increase Mather,1 who had been entreated by some of the leading men in the colony to go to England, and to beg from the clemency of King James some relaxation of these abuses, was com- pelled to make his escape like a culprit, in the night and in disguise. In a word, the tyranny which in 1775 finally severed the political con- nection of the colony with the crown of England was not half so insupportable as that under which Massachusetts now groaned.
1 Among other petitions, Mather presented one from Cam- bridge praying for relief from Randolph.
Relief came in an unlooked-for manner. The king's innovations upon religion and the constitu- tion had finally borne their legitimate fruit in rebellion. Early in the spring of 1689 news was received at Boston of the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torhay. Sir Edmund immediately imprisoned the person who brought it; but this was only applying the match to the train.
On Thursday, the 18th of April, a day forever memorable in the annals of the colony, the people of Boston gave the signal of revolt. The whole population at once rose in arms, and before the sun went down were in full possession of the gov- ernment. The fort, in which Sir Edmund took refuge on the first alarm, was compelled to yield to a strong body of insurgents led by Captain John Nelson, an Episcopalian patriot. Governor, coun- cillors, forts, and garrisons, besides a frigate of the royal navy, which lay before the town, were all captured without bloodshed. Sir Edmund was detained a prisoner. Randolph and some of the more obnoxious were shut up in Boston jail. Simultaneously with these proceedings a Council of Safety, of which Bradstreet was president and Add- ington secretary, was provisionally formed. The representatives of fifty-four towns met at Boston on the 22d of May. Forty of the fifty-four favored re-assuming the old charter, but this being opposed by the venerable Bradstreet and many of the old magistrates, it was agreed to resume only the gov- ernment chosen in 1686, under the charter, until further orders were received from England. On the 26th of May news of the coronation of William and Mary reached Boston, thus allaying the fears which still possessed the minds of those who had been active in precipitating the revolution, -and that too before they had certain intelligence how the event was to be decided in England.
- The suddenness of the outbreak gave little op- portunity for the inland towns to participate in overthrowing the government except by a display of overwhelming force. Communication with the capital was restricted to a single road over the Neck and to the ferry at Charlestown. The train- bands of the towns contiguous to Boston marched in season to take part in the events of the 18th, but those north of Mystic River were unable to cross the Charles after having assembled to the number of a thousand men at Charlestown. Many, however, came into Boston on the following day. The exasperation against Sir Edmund was such that fears were entertained for his safety. The coun-
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
try people, finding nothing on which to vent their rage, or their disappointment at seeing the revolution accomplished without their aid, returned home after committing some excesses.
King William subsequently ordered Sir Edmund Andros, Randolph, and others to be sent to Eng- land. It was soon evident that his majesty was unfavorable to the old charter; permission was, however, granted to continue the government under it until a new one could be digested and prepared. Through the mismanagement of the colony agents in England Sir Edmund and Randolph escaped being called to account for their misdeeds.
The confusion which followed the events we have related, and particularly the ill-advised with- drawal of garrisons along the eastern seaboard, gave the Indians an advantage which they hastened to improve by a repetition of the burning, butchery, and wholesale destruction which attended their in- roads. War had broken out with France, and a new element was now introduced into Indian warfare.
French officers and priests accompanied and di- rected the savages under the authority of the gov- ernor-general of Canada. French muskets, hatchets, powder, and bullets furnished the means for ex- tingnishing the border settlements of the English in blood. The massacre at Cocheco and capitula- tion of Pemaquid soon followed.
Massachusetts acted with her customary vigor. She determined to carry the war into the enemy's country. In April, 1690, an expedition was de- spatched under Sir William Phips to reduce the French post at Port Royal, in Acadia. This was successfully accomplished. It was then determined to attack the French stronghold, Quebec. A land and naval force was made ready, which sailed from Nantasket on the 9th of August. Early in October, the fleet having anchored below Quebec, Sir Wil- liam Phips, commander-in-chief of the expedition, summoned Count Frontenac to surrender the city and its defences. Frontenac's answer was a scorn- ful defiance. Sir William then landed a force at Beauport which attempted to reach the city. They were feebly commanded, were not supported by the squadron, and were nnsuccessful. The fleet then bombarded the city with little effect, while the fire from the batteries and the château did great dam- age. Perceiving the uselessness of continuing the siege, Phips re-embarked his troops, and returned to Boston shorn of the laurels he had won at Port Royal. His fleet suffered greatly during the home- ward voyage from the effects of a tempest, which
wrecked some of the vessels, drove the rest from their course, and added to the misery and chagrin of the defeated soldiers and sailors.
The dejection which followed the news of this humiliating reverse was extreme. Success and not defeat had been expected. The treasure of opulent Quebec had been connted on to defray the charge of the expedition. But the spoil of her palaces, cathedrals, and convents, the ransom of high civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries, the dismantling of her frowning citadel, were not destined to gild the triumph of Sir William Phips. Many of his men died of camp fever after their arrival at Boston. There was no money in the treasury to pay soldiers or sailors, and they were on the verge of mutiny. In this dilemma the government, for the first time since the settlement of the country, issued paper money, which was to be received for all public and private dues. The notes, however, did not com- mand their par value, but were subject to an im- mediate depreciation of fron thirty to forty per centum. The soldiers obtained only twelve to fourteen shillings in the pound ; but the specula- tors who bought the notes, which were receivable for taxes, reaped a handsome profit by the trans- action.
In this way was a system of irredeemable paper currency first adopted by Massachusetts. She con- tinued the experiment in 1711, 1714, and in 1716, by further and increased issues, in order to meet the expenses of the Indian wars. Lands were pledged as security. Hutchinson states that in the same or greater proportion as bills of credit were issued gold and silver were sent out of the country, until they wholly disappeared from circu- lation. The inevitable result was the steady de- preciation of the paper money, notwithstanding it was receivable for public and private debts. Gold and silver continued to be the only true measures of value. In 1749 a five-shilling bill, issued in 1690, was worth eight pence in lawful money. By this time, too, an ounce of silver was worth fifty shillings of paper currency. Having carried the experiment to its logical and legitimate end, hav- ing reaped a plentiful harvest of confusion and dis- tress, Massachusetts in 1749 abolished her bills of credit.
While Sir William Phips was making his at- tempt on Quebec the Eastern tribes remained quiet, but with intelligence of his disaster they became troublesome again. In the spring they violated their promises of peace, made in the previous au-
95
TRANSITION FROM THE COLONY TO THE PROVINCE.
tumu, and, instigated by the French, whom they now believed were able to drive the English into the sea, dug up the hatchet and renewed the war with tenfold greater rage than ever before. Wells, Berwick, Exeter, and Cape Neddock were all as- saulted. Rowley and Haverhill suffered some loss; but the greatest blow fell at York, Maine, where about fifty of the inhabitants were killed on the spot, and a hundred carried away captive. The venerable and beloved pastor was shot dead at his own door, in the act of escaping. After perpe- trating these atrocities the savages set fire to the town.
In England the agents of Massachusetts and Plymouth, at the head of whom was the elder Mather, failed to obtain under the name of a new charter the privileges of the old. The new instru- ment reserved the appointment of governor and lieutenant-governor to the crown. To his objec- tions Mather received the curt answer that the agents of New England were not plenipotentiaries of a sovereigu state ; and if they were not satisfied, his majesty could and would settle the government there without them. Finding such to be the tem- per of the king, there was no choice but to submit. The new charter iucluded Plymouth, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia 1 under one government. The exertions of Mather procured for Sir William Phips the appointment of royal governor, and he arrived in Boston May 14, 1692, bringing with him the charter. With his arrival the assump- tions, the usurpations, which had followed the transfer of the old charter to New England, were remanded to the history of the past. Massachu- setts was now a province of the crown. Her long conflict with the sovereign was at an end, nor did the elevation of William change the character of the struggle, since he, who was so much more of a king than the Stuarts, had fully determined to reign, not only in Old England, but in New ; to abate no jot or tittle of the prerogative of the crown, but to repel the pretension, so vitally antagonistic to the kingly idea, that a colony might govern itself.
The governor, under the new charter, had the sole appointment of all military officers, and, with the consent of the council, of the judicial. He could also annul the election of such civil officers as were elective. No money could be paid out of the treasury except npon his warrant, duly approved by his council. He had also authority to assemble,
1 The Elizabeth, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard islands were also included.
adjourn, or prorogue the General Court, and no act of government was valid without his consent. In fact, his power was vastly superior to that of the old charter governors.
The assistants under the old charter were re- placed by twenty-eight councillors, to be annually chosen by the General Court. The representatives, who were formerly chosen by the freemen only, were now to be elected by all freeholders who had forty shillings a year, and all other inhabitants who were worth forty pounds sterling. The house elected its speaker, subject to the governor's ap- proval. If he did not approve, a new choice was necessary. The new charter granted liberty of conscience to all except Papists.
Massachusetts was now to meet another trial. Her immense seacoast, stretching from Buzzard's Bay to the St. Lawrence, was infested with French privateers. Her eastern and western frontiers were continually harassed by French and Indians. Her treasury was empty, and she had reason to fear that Frontenac would take signal vengeance for the insult offered him at Quebec. A large party, too, were dissatisfied with the new order of things. Indeed, the outlook was far from promising, when a deplorable calamity came to overwhelm an already afflicted people with unspeakable horror and dis- may.
The history of the witchcraft illusion of 1692 more properly belongs to the annals of the neigh- boring County of Essex, in which it originated, and in which its fatal course was run. 'There had been cases in the colonies of Massachusetts and Con- necticut, from time to time, and the death penalty had been inflicted upon several suspected persons, chiefly women, since the execution of Margaret Jones. But these cases occurred at long intervals, and did not cause the general wide-spread panic which the outbreak at Salem carried to every hearth-stone in the land.
Between the Ist of June and Ist of October, 1692, nineteen persons had been hanged and one pressed to death. The prisons were crowded witlı accused persons, some of whom died while waiting trial; the deepest gloom and distrust pervaded the entire community. After these executions a few courageous spirits attacked the frightful infatua- tion with success. Thomas Brattle of Cambridge wrote against it. By January a marked change for the better took place in public opinion. Magis- trates and people seemed to have, in some degree, recovered their presence of mind. Of twenty-six
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
indictments tried by the Supreme Court at Salem, only three were followed by a verdict of guilty. Spectre evidence was exeluded ; reflection took the place of precipitation ; reason and common-sense began to reassert their sway. Yielding to the dic- tates of humanity, Governor Phips reprieved the three condemned persons and ordered the discharge of all others held for trial. Such a jail delivery had never been seen in New England before.
In Middlesex several persons had been accused and imprisoned. When the bloody assize trans- ferred its sittings from Salem to Charlestown, all these poor prisoners were acquitted. Here, too, the judges learned that the executive clemency had res- eued those who were awaiting the death sentence at their hands. It is painful to record, in this con- nection, that Stoughton, the chief justice, left the bench in anger when the action of the governor was made known in court. Others of the judges were dissatisfied; but no juries could now be empanelled to condemn for witchcraft ; the people were appalled at the thought of so much innocent blood already shed, and judges and ministers, who had given their high sanction to the delirium, one by one abandoned the wretched superstition which had cast its spell over their judgment and their humanity. Of all the tragedies enacted in New England this was the heaviest. It is the most dif- ficult to explain. Even at this distance of time we approach the subject with feelings of horror and amazement, heightened, if possible, by the re- flection that we can neither comprehend the origin nor development of this monstrous psychological phenomenon, nor appreciate at its true value the death-like terror it inspired in all ranks of so- ciety.
The Abenakis and their allies were still trouble- some, but having met with reverses sued for peace in 1693. A strong fortress had been built, at Pemaquid, in the heart of the enemy's country, by Sir William Phips, designed to keep these Indians in subjeetion. The truce lasted, however, only a twelvemonth, at the end of which Madockawando led a band of warriors to the Piscataqua, who fell upon Durham, then called Oyster River. After committing great slaughter here a detachment, under the Abenaki chief, Taxous, crossed the Mer- rimack, and on the 27th of July, 1694, swooped down upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of Groton in broad day. In this foray the Indians killed twenty-two and captured thirteen persons. Al- though the surprise was complete, a gallant defence
was made at Lakin's garrison. Two nephews of Taxous were shot down at his side, and his own garments riddled with bullets. The governor im- mediately issued a proclamation, which was circu- lated among the Eastern Indians, demanding the speedy return of all English captives. His threat- ening language was defiantly retorted by those Indians, and he was told, " That which thon say- est to us, the same will we say to thee."
In consequence of charges of maladministra- tion, Phips had been recalled. He died in England February, 1694- 95, when Stoughton, the deputy, became acting governor, filling the office until the arrival of the Earl of Bellomont in May, 1699. During his administration Middlesex was twice invaded. The comparative quiet of the early months of 1695 was broken again in Angust by a sudden descent upon Billerica, in which fifteen persons were killed or taken prisoners. At this time, too, rumors of a powerful armament, pre- paring in France for an attack on Boston, spread consternation throughout the colony.
Lancaster had suffered in 1692, and again in 1695. In September, 1697, the savage foemen again entered the devoted town. Believing the garrison had been warned, they did not venture to attack it; but sneceeded in killing twenty-one, wounding two, and capturing six of the inhabi- tants. Rev. John Whiting, the pastor, fell bravely fighting against overwhelming odds.
The Peace of Ryswick was proclaimed at Boston December 10, 1697. War, however, continued with the Indians a short time longer. In July a war-party took three or four prisoners at Hatfield, but the French no longer daring to afford open assistance to their old allies, peace was again con- cluded with them, and the colony was allowed a little breathing-time in which to prepare for fu- ture conflicts. The year of peace is also mnemo- rable for the death of Governor Bradstreet, whose early association with Middlesex has been duly noticed.
In 1685 a London bookseller named John Dun- ton visited New England. His account of what he saw, or rather what he did, has been published in his Life and Errors. Dunton was a milksop whose weak head was turned by every pretty woman he met. Much of his letters from New England is occupied by the subject uppermost in his mind, and the little he records in connection with his rambles to Charlestown, Medford, Cambridge, etc., is not worth transcribing. The relation of a visit
97
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR TO THE FALL OF LOUISBURG.
to Natick, on a lecture-day, in order to gratify his curiosity respecting Eliot's converted Indians, is entertaining, but too lengthy for our purpose. He tells us that Medford was a small village, Cambridge opulent, handsome, outdoing Boston itself; and
that Harvard had then " turned out " one hundred and twenty-two ministers of the Gospel, one third of whom had sought employment and a home in England.
XII.
FROM THE BEGINNING OF QUEEN ANNE'S WAR TO THE FALL OF LOUISBURG.
NOTWITHSTANDING its frequent mutilation at the hands of the savages, Middlesex continued to increase in wealth and in population. The towns devastated in Philip's War were, one by one, re- built and reoccupied by their inhabitants. New ones were being formed. In 1683 Stow was in- corporated. In 1673 Cambridge Village was con- stituted a precinct empowered to elect a constable and three selectmen to order its prudential affairs ; but it still remained, in other respects, part of Cambridge. Dissatisfied with this settlement of a long controversy, the village, in 1678, petitioned for incorporation as a town. Its prayer was not granted until January, 1687, when an order of Andros' council consummated the separation. In 1691 Cambridge Village received the name of Newtown, thus reassuming and perpetuating its ancient designation.
The Earl of Bellomont left Boston in May, 1700, for New York, the government of which was also included in his commission. He soon after died there. His fourteen months' service in Massachu- setts was generally acceptable. He was the first nobleman who had occupied the chair of governor, and he was able to maintain the distinction derived from exalted rank, by his affable manners, his con- ciliatory disposition, and his generally conservative views. He managed the susceptibilities of the old-charter irreconcilables with great tact, and lie exhibited becoming respect for the religious tradi- tions and observances of the people he was sent to govern. Under his administration the bands of corsairs so long infesting our coasts were broken up. Kidd, the most notorious and audacious among them, was taken in the streets of Boston, sent to England, and executed.
The earl was succeeded by Joseph Dudley, for- merly president during the interim occasioned by vacating the old charter, who had been impris- oned at Boston when the revolution of 1689 broke out. Before Dudley's arrival from England Gov- ernor Stoughton died. Intelligence of the break- ing out of the war of the Spanish Succession also reached New England while the new governor was on his way. King James had died in exile, and now his successor to the crown of England, at the command of a more dread sovereign, laid down the sceptre he had wrested from his father- in-law's feeble hands. Anne of Denmark ascended the throne. War with France meant war with the Indians. The note of preparation and alarm which heralded what was popularly known as Queen Anne's War was hurriedly sounded. This, like King William's War, lasted just ten years.
The tribes of the Saco, Androscoggiu, Kenne- beck, and Penobscot, armed, equipped, and led by Canadian officers, began desolating the few remain- ing settlements in Maine, in August, 1703. The western frontier of the province was also assailed. In February, 1703 - 04, Deerfield was attacked by a strong body of French and Indians commanded by De Rouville. The town was destroyed, with the loss of forty of its inhabitants killed and a hundred taken captive.
The year 1704 was prolific of events. This year Church, the Plymouth captain, made his expedition to Acadia in the hope of dealing a crushing blow to the enemy in that quarter, and thus to divert them from attacking our own frontier. The expe- dition promised much but accomplished little, not from any want of courage or disposition on the part of the commander, but it found no consid-
98
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
erable forces of the enemy to engage. Church re- turned home with little addition to the renown gained in Philip's War. In April the first news- paper in America made its appearance, at Boston. This year, too, William Hubbard, the historian, died. He died poor, and even the place of his burial is unknown.
Returning to our narrative of the war, a vigor- ous attack was made upon Lancaster, on the last day of July, which was stubbornly resisted. Cap- tain John Tyng of Dunstable, reinforced by Captain How of Marlborough, fought with great gallantry ; but the superior numbers of the enemy compelled our soldiers to take refuge in the garrisons, thus leaving the town, in a measure, unprotected. The meeting-house and six dwellings were fired and destroyed, after which the enemy retreated. Sev- eral of the inhabitants of the frontier towns of Middlesex were killed during this incursion.
The year 1705 has fewer occurrences to chroni- cle; but in the spring of 1706 Colonel Peter Schuyler of Albany warned the Massachusetts an- thorities that a formidable force of the enemy had marched from Canada for New England. They appeared at Dunstable on the 3d of July. The soldiers of Weld's garrison having neglected their guard, the savages gained an entrance unopposed, but were finally driven out, after a furious melee in which half the soldiers of the garrison fell. The Indians then proceeded to Galusha's garrison, which they captured and burnt. Chelmsford, Groton, and Sudbury were all alarmed. During this foray a small party of the enemy came to Reading, where they killed a woman and three children. At Gro- ton two soldiers were killed and one taken prisoner while on their way to meeting. Groton and Marl- borough were also harassed the next year by prowl- ing bands who killed one inhabitant in each place.
The war continued to draw heavily upon the resources of Massachusetts, with few successes to compensate for the perpetual alarm in which her remote settlements were kept. Early in October, 1710, our forces under General Nicholson . recov- ered Port Royal. In July a predatory party of warriors shot the post-rider while on his way from Marlborough to Hadley. They then as- sailed Chelmsford. While prowling in the neigh- borhood the savages mortally wounded the brave Major Tyng, who had been one of the first to receive the bounty offered by the province, in this war, for scalps.
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