History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 137

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 137

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sembly ; large salaries affixed to the Lieutenant-Governor, the judges of the admiralty, etc .; the amazing stretch of the power of the Courts of Vice-Admiralty, in a great measure depriving the people in the colonies of the right of trial by jury, and such like innovations, which are intolerable grievances, tending wholly to deprive us of our charter rights and privileges, pull down the constitution, and reduce us to a state of abject slavery."

Another resolve against fixed salaries for the judges of the courts of common law follows, and another showing the tendency of these measures thus de- nounced to produce absolute government. The last one acknowledges the care and vigilance of Boston, and assures them

" That, as this town hopes never to be wanting in their duty and loyalty to their King, so they are ever ready to do every- thing in their power in a constitutional way to assist in carry- ing into execution such measures as may be adopted to remove those difficulties we feel and to prevent those we have reason to fear.

" In the name of the Committee.

" DAVID MAN."

These resolves were unanimously adopted by the town. The following year a committee of corres- pondence was chosen, viz., Samuel Lethbridge, Jabez Fisher, Dr. Ebenezer Daggett, Mr. Lemuel Kollock, Capt. John Smith, Joseph Woodward, and David Man. A committee was also chosen to attend a con- vention of the county at the house of Mr. Woodward, innholder, in Dedham, " to deliberate and determine on such matters as the distressed circumstances of the province require," and on Sept. 30, 1774, the town voted that a provincial congress was necessary. It also voted to purchase two pieces of cannon.

Jabez Fisher was chosen delegate to a convention at Concord Oct. 2, 1774. Previous to this, viz., Sept. 15, 1774, Mr. Fisher had been chosen to repre- sent the town in a General Court at Salem. But in the mean time Governor Gage, becoming alarmed at the tone of the resolves and votes passed in town- meetings and county conventions, issued his procla- mation on the 28th day of September dispensing with the attendance of members and putting off the session until some more distant day.

" Resolved, That it is the opinion of this town that the act of the British Parliament in assuming the power for the legislation of the colonies in all cases whatsoever, and in consequence of that act have carried into execution that assumed power, in lay- ing duties on divers articles in the colonies for the express pur- The instructions given to Mr. Fisher, the delegate to the Provincial Congress at Concord, were drafted by Ebenezer Daggett and Lemuel Kollock. They al- lude to the fact that he is chosen at a time when the province is in consternation and confusion, briefly ad- vert to the causes thereof, and instruct him to make the charter of the province the rule of his conduct, re- fusing to acknowledge any mutilations or alterations of the charter as valid ; and that he should acknowl- edge those counselors who were elected by the Gen- pose of raising a revenue without their consent, either by them- selves or their representative, whereby the right which every Inan has to his own property is wholly taken away and destroyed ; and what is still more alarming is to see the amazing inroads which have been made, and still are making, on our charter rights and privileges by placing a Board of Commissioners among us under so large a commission, with a train of depend- ents to sap the foundation of our industry; our coasts sur- rounded with fleets; standing armies placed in free cities in time of peace without the consent of the inhabitants, whereby the streets of the metropolis of this province have been stained by the blood of its innocent inhabitants ; the Governor of the province made independent of the grants of the General As- . cral Court as the only constitutional council of this

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WRENTHAM.

province, and if the congress should consequently be dissolved, then to join with members from this and other towns in a General Provincial Congress.

Capt. Peres Cushing and Mr. Joseph Spear were appointed chief gunners of the two field-pieces, and directed to see that each piece is fixed and kept with a carriage and utensils fit for action as soon as may be. It was voted also to increase the town's stock of ammunition. The constables were ordered to pay all province taxes in their hands or to be collected by them to Henry Gardner, of Stow, instead of Harrison Gray, the royal treasurer, and it was voted that the town would indemnify them against any consequences of such payment. This was decidedly a revolutionary step. The attitude of the town was unmistakable. No wonder they got their guns ready for immediate use and laid in more powder and ball. If King George had prevailed in the war against the colonies, our patriotic predecessors might have been hung for treason. In September, 1776, these guns were at Boston.

In January, 1775, the town proceeded to create a military establishment, providing for the enlistment of minute-men, and proposed to send beef, pork, grain, and other provisions for the poor of Boston.

The committee of correspondence chosen March 4, 1776, were Samuel Fisher, Dr. Ebenezer Daggett, Deacon Theodore Man, Mr. Joseph Fairbanks, Mr. John Craig, Mr. Daniel Holbrook, Mr. Hezekiah Fisher, Mr. Joseph Hawes, Capt. Asa Fairbanks, Capt. Peres Cushing, and Mr. Joseph Whiting, Jr.

At the first alarm Wrentham was ready to send men to the battle-field. Her patriotism was not con- fined to words. Witness the muster-rolls which pro- claim this fact :

" A Muster Roll of the Minute Company in the Colony ser- vice which marched from Wrentham in the alarm on the 19th of April last past under the command of Capt. Oliver Pond." Oliver Pond, capt.

Wigglesworth Messinger, 1st lieut.

Hezekiah Ware, 2d lieut.

Noah Pratt, sergt.

Elias Bacon, sergt.

David Ray, sergt.

Nathan Blake, sergt.

Nathan Hancock, corp.

Beriah Brastow, corp.

Aquilla Robbins, corp. David Everett, private. Jeremiah Hartshorn, private. Theodore Kingsbury, private. Ebenezer Kollock, private. George Mann, private.

Benjamin Mclane, private. James Newhall, private. John Porter, private.

Joseph Adams, private. John Blake, private. William Wetherbee, private.

James Blake, private. Isaac Clewley, private. Benjamin Day, private.

John Druce, private. Asa Day, private.

Jonathan Everett, private. Jonathan Felt, private. Joseph Field, private. Samuel Frost, private. John Fisher, private.

Timothy Hancock, private. Benjamin Rockwood, private. Jacob Mann, private.

Peter Robeshaw, private.

Joseph Raysey, private. Benjamin Ray, private.

Abijah Pond, private.

Oliver Rouse, Jr., private.

Hezekiah Hall, drummer.

Christopher Burlingame, fifer.

" Alarm 19 April 1775. In council Feb. 23, 1776 read and allowed and ordered that a warrant be drawn on the Treasurer for £33. 3. 8. 1 in full of the within Roll.

"PEREZ MORTON, Sec'y."

Also a muster-roll of the company in the colony which marched from Wrentham on the alarm on the 19th of April 1775 under the command of Capt. Benjamin Hawes,1 in Col. John Smith's Regiment.

Benjamin Hawes, capt.

Timothy Guild, 2d lieut.

Jason Richardson, soldier. Ephraim Knowlton, soldier.

David Man, soldier.

Abijah Blake, sergt. Daniel Guild, sergt. John Kingsbury, soldier.

Jacob Daggett, soldier.

Samuel Brastow, soldier.

Oliver Harris, soldier. Samuel Wood, soldier.

Daniel Holbrook, soldier.

James Holbrook, Jr., soldier.

Jeremiah Cobb, soldier.

Elijah Farrington, corp.

Jason Blake, drum. Daniel Cobb, fifer.

Stephen Blake, soldier. Benjamin Pond, soldier.

Jacob Blake, soldier.

John Needham, soldier.

John Hawes, soldier.

Oliver Ware, soldier.

Samuel Pettee, soldier.

Moses Craig, soldier.

Stephen Pettee, soldier.

" SUFFOLK 88.

"WRENTHAM December ye Sth 1775.

" Capt. Benjamin Hawes came before me and made solemn oath to the truth of the above-written muster-roll according to his best skill, knowledge, and judgment. Sworn before me EBENEZER FISHER,

" Just of Peace. " A true copy compared and examined by " EPHM STARKWEATHER } } Com's. " EDWD RAWSON " JAS TURNER

1 Daniel Hawes, who was an early comer to Wrentham, had a son Benjamin, born March 14, 1695-96. He married Abigail Fisher, Dec. 9, 1724. One of their sons was Benjamin, who was born June 11, 1731, and was therefore about forty-four years of age when he commanded the company whose names are enrolled above. He was conspicuous in the controversy with the Rev. David Avery hereinafter related. Until within a few years a portion of the land originally laid out to the ances- tor by the proprietors of lands in Wrenthan was in the posses- sion of his descendants.

Capt. Lemuel Kollock, who also commanded a company of minute-men in April, 1775, was a conspicuous and influential citizen, and his name often appears in connection with the patriotic measures discussed in the town-meetings. His death was occasioned by a fall from his horse on the 14th day of July, 1795, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.

Capt. Samuel Cowell, the son of Joseph, was born in 1737. He commanded a company of minute-men at the time of the alarm in April, 1775, and probably at other times was com- manding officer of men who were destined for the continental army, as was Capt. Samuel Fisher.

Capt. David Holbrook, of the northerly part of the town, had command of a company at the time of the alarm in April, 1775.

Deodat Tisdale, private. Daniel Ware, private. - Ware, private.

William Green, soldier.

John Everett, sergt.

Ebenezer Field, soldier.

Henry Holbrook, soldier. Jacob Holbrook, soldier. Samuel Richardson, Jr.,

soldier. David Holbrook, soldier. Samuel Baker, soldier.

Turil Gilmore, soldier. Nathan Kingsbury, soldier.

652

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

" In council Feby ye 16th 1776 read and allowed and there- upon ordered that a warrant be drawn on the Treasr for £29 4. 6. in full discharge of the within roll.

" PEREZ MORTON, " D. Sec'y."

" Also a muster-roll of the company, in the colony service, which marched from Wrentham on the alarm on the 19th of April, 1775, under the command of Capt. Lemuel Kollock, in Col. John Smith's Regiment.

Lemuel Kollock, Capt. Joseph Hewes, Jr., Privit.

Joseph Everett, 1 Left.

Benjamin Shepard,

Swift Paysen, 2 do.

Joseph Cook,

John Whiting, Sergt.

John Bates, 60

William Puffer,

Nicholas Barton,

Jesse Everett,

John Dale,

Timothy Pond,

Ralph Freeman,

Joseph Warc, Privit.

Sam1 Bolkom, 66

Ebenezer Gilbert,

Ephraim Hunt,

Jeremiah Day, 66

James Blake,

Ichabod Turner,

Jeremiah Pond,

Daniel Mumm,

Jonathan Shepard,

Stephen Harding,

Benjamin Guild, 2d,

Aaron Hall,

Ebenezer Fisher, Jr.,

Daniel Messinger,

Joseph Hancock,

L. W. Messinger,

Elisha Turner,

Isaac Richardson,

David Ware,

Isaac Fisher,

Ebenezer Allen,

Daniel Gould, 66

Nathan Moss, 66

Obediah Man,

Jesse Ballou,

Ebenezer Blake, 66

" Sworn to and examined & compared with the original, and £24 7. 11 allowed for pay in full."

There were also companies commanded by Capts. John Boyd, Asa Fairbanks, and Elijah Pond respec- tively, that marched from Wrentham on the 19th day of April, 1775, in the colony service. Capt. Thomas Bacon commanded a company that marched from Wrentham April 30, 1775. Capt. Samuel Cowell also had command of a company about the same time- It also appears from the military rolls at the State, House, that a number of men of the company called the North Company, in the West Precinct, enlisted into the Continental army in 1778. Also a company under the command of Capt. Samuel Fisher, composed largely of Wrentham men, enlisted for three years or during the war.

Capt. Oliver Pond, of Wrentham, enlisted in the eight-months' service in the Continental army, in Col. Joseph Read's regiment, April 27, 1775. He was first captain in this, the Sixth, Massachusetts. After- wards the regiment was called the Thirteenth Massa- chusetts Regiment. Upon the expiration of the time -eight months-he again enlisted for one year. He went with the army from the neighborhood of Boston to New York, and then to the " Jerseys," and partici- pated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton and other contests of the campaign.

In 1777, in consequence, it is understood, of some

acts or of some proposed acts of the Continental Congress in regard to the army and its officers which were displeasing to him, he resigned his office of cap- tain and left the army.

But when Shay's rebellion broke out he took com- mand of the military company which marched from Wrentham and vicinity to Springfield, where the rebels, refusing to lay down their arms, and having been fired upon, fell into confusion and soon dispersed. The roll of that company was almost the only paper of Capt. Pond's that escaped the fire, when the house in which he was residing was burned.

He was often honored by his fellow-townsmen by appointment to places of trust and responsibility. A soldier of the Revolution, who had known him well, summed up his opinion of the hero in these two lines of his epitaph,-

"None more wise, more fit for duty, None more faithful to his trust." 1

Upon the 5th day of June, 1776, among other in structions given to their representatives in General Court, the inhabitants in open town-meeting adopted the following: "We, your constituents therefore think that to be subject or dependent on the crown of Great Britain would not only be impracticable but unsafe to the State. The inhabitants of this town therefore, in full town-meeting, unanimously instruct and direct you to give your vote that if the Honorable American Congress, in whom we place the highest confidence under God, should think it necessary for the safety of the united colonies to declare them inde- pendent on Great Britain, that we, your constituents, with our lives and fortunes, will most cheerfully sup- port them in the measure."

We should look in vain in any history of the war of the Revolution for a more decided manifestation of spirit. It was, indeed, the spirit of the times. Every man who voted for these instructions was a traitor to his king; a rebel against the government to which he owed allegiance. But alarming as was the pros- pect, fearful as might be the consequences, our pa- triotic fathers did not hesitate to assume this attitude. We know not the history of the struggle until we ex- amine the recorded acts and opinions of the little revo- lutionary towns whose spirit sustained the courage of Assemblies and Congresses. This vote, it will be ob- served, was passed one month before Congress declared

1 Ephraim Pond, the ancestor of Capt. Oliver, was one of the members of the first church in 1692. He married Deborah Hawes in 1685. His son, Ephraim, born in 1686, had a son, Ephraim, who married, in 1736, Michal Man, the daughter of William Man, and a granddaughter of the Rev. Samuel Man. Their second son, born July 29, 1737, was Oliver Pond.

653

WRENTHAM.

independence of Great Britain. His majesty's name was omitted for the first time in the warrants in 1775, | and the freeholders were summoned in the name of the government and people of the Massachusetts Bay for the first time May 6, 1776.

The town voted that the soldiers who enlisted for three years should receive forty shillings per month from the town; and in obedience to an act of the General Court the selectmen fixed a tariff for articles commonly sold.

In May, 1777, the instructions to Benjamin Guild, 1 the representative, contain the following: "New | upon the arrival of Rochambeau and De Grasse, and

scenes of horror and devastation present themselves, while the fleets and armies of the tyrant of Great Britain are on our coasts, and around our dwellings we are disturbed by internal enemies," and they direct him to give his vote for a constitution and frame of government. And a committee was chosen to inform the government against loyalists, and another to hire men to complete this town's quota. It was also voted that the families of those who have gone to the war be provided for.

On the 20th of May of the same year the in- habitants gave their votes in favor of the first consti- tution and frame of popular government in Massachu- setts. But the people of the colony rejected it. At the same time provision was again made for the fami- lies of non-commissioned officers and soldiers who had gone to the war.

In 1779, a committee against monopoly and fore- stalling was chosen, and ninety-two votes were cast for a constitutional convention,-none against it. The town, notwithstanding the straits to which it was re- duced, did not forget the men who had gone to the battle-fields, as appears by the frequent votes passed in aid of their families. An instance occurred this year in a vote of twenty pounds to the heirs of John Druce " as a bounty for his enlisting into the Conti- nental army." They also still resolved to maintain the war by hiring and paying men to enlist into the ser- vice, and exempted them from taxation.

In September, 1780, a committee was chosen to procure beef for the army, and in January of the fol- lowing year the sum of one hundred and twenty thou- sand pounds was granted to hire the men called for to serve in the Continental army for three years and to

pay for beef for the army The General Court hav- ing required Wrentham to furnish a certain number of shirts, hose, and blankets, the selectmen inform the assessors that the sum of four hundred and sixteen pounds in silver is necessary for this purpose, and as there is no money in the treasury they are requested to assess the sum upon the inhabitants in silver money.

This was about the time when, notwithstanding successes at the South, the country seemed to be on the brink of ruin. Although aid seemed at hand although some temporary relief had been obtained, yet no sufficient and reliable means of supplying the wants of the army had been provided. The enemy was in possession of a large part of the country ; the Americans, whose campaigns were to be extensive, had scarcely an army and were wholly without money. Their bills of credit were worthless, not being a legal tender, or taken even for taxes. Borrowing of France, Spain, and Holland was attempted. Franklin obtained a gift of six millions of livres from Louis XVI., who also guaranteed a loan of ten millions made by Hol- land to the United States. This success, added to the

In 1778, the town voted to accept the articles of confederation. A report of the committee to hire sol- diers for the war stated that a seventh part of the | labors of Robert Morris, the new treasurer, who male inhabitants were enlisted in the war as soldiers, | brought not only zeal and great ability but his own private fortune to the rescue, brought confidence to the public, and economy took the place of waste. and the sum of eighteen hundred pounds was voted to defray the expenses of raising the town's quota of the Continental army.

Upon the conclusion of the war the town instructed the representative " to use his influence to persuade the General Court to call on Congress to redeem the outstanding bills of credit now in the hands of treas- urers and individuals in this State; and that the delegates in Congress be directed to obtain without delay a liquidation of all Continental accounts, that this State may speedily know their due proportion of the public expense, so that a just average may be made through the United States as soon as may be of the public debt.

The town, in 1776, being threatened with a visita- tion of the smallpox, Josiah Blake's house was ordered to be used for a hospital. And the next year Dr. Daggett was authorized "to carry on in- oculation of the small pox at that house on certain conditions."

The town at last agreed, in 1778, that the inhab- itants of the West Precinct might be set off into a separate township, according to certain metes and bounds. The General Court passed an act in ac- cordanoe with the desire of the petitioners, incor- porating the inhabitants of the West Precinct into a township by the name of Franklin, with boundaries which differed but little if any from the bounds of

654

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the precinct. This was on the 2d day of March, 1778.

Foxborough having been incorporated June 10, 1778, from parts of Wrentham, Walpole, Stoughton, and Sharon, a report was made of the amounts due to several persons within the limits of the new town- ship, being the sums which they had paid towards building the meeting-house. The whole sum was £26 0s. 10d. 3qr.

In 1779 the salary voted the Rev. Mr. Bean was one thousand pounds. The year previous his salary was one hundred and thirty pounds. This shows how rapidly and alarmingly the currency had depreciated. To illustrate this, I will add that the assessors were directed in assessing the one thousand pounds for Mr. Bean to make a separate column of what each per- son's proportion would be in a tax of £66 13s. 4d., and that any person might pay his proportion of said sum as follows, viz .: Indian corn at three shillings per bushel, good ground malt at five shillings per bushel, rye at four shillings, clear salt pork at five pence per pound, good mutton at two pence two farthings per pound, tried tallow at sixpence per pound, good wool at one shilling four pence per pound, | good flax at eight pence per pound, and other ne- cessary articles as they were commonly sold before the year 1775. The inference is that the one thousand pounds in the currency of that day was equal to only £66 13s. 4d.1

It was in the same year (1779) voted " that Mr. Bean use Doct. Watts' hymns as well as psalms in singing in public assembly in this town."

Having in May, 1780, voted against the new con- stitution, the inhabitants granted fifty thousand pounds to defray town charges, and, upon the 4th of September, cast their first votes for a Governor and other State officers. Fifty-seven votes were given, all for John Hancock. The representative was instructed to vote for the repeal of the excise act, " because it obliges every individual who consumes rum and other spirituous liquors to pay duties on the same; the most wealthy, who purchase large quantities, are not subject to pay any duties on the same, as the act now stands."

The voters expressed their disapprobation of the act of the Continental Congress called the Commu- tation Act (granting half-pay for life to all officers who should serve until the end of the war); they also disapproved of the Society of the Cincinnati.

For some years the subject of a new county had

been agitated, and Wrentham was quite urgent upon the matter, sending delegates to conventions holden to consider that subject, and instructing the repre- sentatives in General Court to endeavor to accom- plish it. Boston was the shire town, and all county and court business must be done there at very great inconvenience. But the new county was not estab- lished by the General Court until 1793.

On the 2d day of August, 1784, the town voted to join with the church in giving Mr. Adoniram Judson a call to settle in the ministerial office as a colleague with the Rev. Joseph Bean. There were one hundred and five votes in his favor and eighty- four against him. Mr. Judson declined the call, and a committee was chosen for the purpose of hiring preaching. Mr. Bean died Dec. 12, 1784. The kind offers of several clergymen, who had tendered each a day's preaching for the late Mr. Bean's family, were accepted.

Mr. Bean's publications were a century sermon, preached Oct. 26, 1773, one hundred years after the town was incorporated, and printed by request in 1774; and a sermon preached before the congrega- tion of the First Church and Parish of Wrentham " On a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer," A.D. 1775. Published in 1837.

Of Mr. Bean's ancestry but little is known. It seems that he was established in business in Cam- bridge, Mass., and was converted under the preaching of Whitefield and Tennent. He left his business and entered college and was graduated, at the age of thirty years, in 1748. He was ordained Dec. 5, 1750, and married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Henry Mes- singer, his predecessor in the ministry in Wrentham. The epitaph on his gravestone is as follows :

" Near half an age with every good man's praise Among his flock ye shepherd passed his days; The friend ye comfort of ye sick and poor, Want never knocked unheeded at his door. Oft when his duty call'd, disease & pain Strove to confine him; but they strove in vain, All mourn his death; his virtues long they tri'd ; They knew not how they lov'd him till he dy'd."

In October, 1785, the town voted to join the church in the call and settlement of the Rev. David Avery to the work of the ministry in this place by one hun- dred and fifty-one votes to one against it. A com- mittee having been chosen "to fix his settlement," reported that two hundred pounds be given to Mr. Avery ; and one hundred pounds per annum as his salary. This report was adopted by the town.2

2 " The Rev. David Avery was born April 5, 1746, in Franklin, Connecticut. His father's name was John. He was converted by

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 137

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534