USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 15
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 15
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Governor Johnson hastened fitting out the sloops "Henry" and "Sea Nymph," each with eight guns and a crew of seventy men in pursuit of the pirate. Instead they captured Steve Bonnet and his big vessel the "Royal James." Captain Bonnet was another cutthroat and good- riddance, but Colonel Rhett, in charge of the expedition from Charleston, was greatly surprised to find he had not Blackbeard in his clutches. Bon- net made his escape and hid on Sullivan's Island, but was recaptured and again taken to Charleston. The expedition continued its search for Black- beard but was again surprised when it captured Richard Worley's crew on the "Eagle." Worley, another buccaneer, had been killed in the fighting. The "Eagle" was a ship that had been carrying inden- tured servants from England to Virginia, and had been captured by Worley. When the hatches were lifted thirty-six women were found in the hold.
The Charleston expedition did not overtake Blackbeard, but two small ships from Virginia, the frigates "Lime" and "Pearl," had a desperate encounter with him, under command of Lieutenant Maynard. The latter gave the desperate pirate his death blow but not until Teach had received twenty sword cuts and many pistol wounds.
The pirates made the Bahama Islands the base of their marauding expeditions and the scene of their debaucheries, to a large extent. In 1718, when Captain Woodes Rogers, R. N., the rescuer of Alexander Selkirk from Juan Fernandez, was appointed governor, piracy was suppressed, by his vigorous scouring of the seas. He caused no fewer than eight of the chief offenders to be hanged in one day.
There are places in Plymouth County, also on Cape Cod and on the Massachusetts islands where, tradition says, the pirates buried their treasures. Not many years ago a company was formed for the purpose of making excavations, following the directions which someone claimed had been discovered among the valuable papers of a person long since gone to his reward. Considerable stock was sold to those willing to try anything once but no digging was ever done and the buried treasure remains as before.
In the spring of 1718 the "Widah," a pirate ship carrying twenty- three guns and manned by one hundred and thirty men, was forced ashore and the whole crew, except one Englishman and an Indian, were drowned. This piratical craft, captained by Samuel Bellamy, took seven vessels in the vicinity of Cape Cod, and transferred seven of the
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pirates to one of the prize ships. The pirates celebrated their victory by getting drunk and, while they slept, the captain of the captured vessel ran her ashore on the back of the Cape and the seven pirates were secured. Six of them, upon trial before a special court of admiralty, were found guilty and executed in Boston, November 15.
Some of the ships which have gone down into Davy Jones' locker off the sandy shores of Cape Cod have carried with them pirates and plunder. The story of such a ship and such a crew is included in "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," as follows:
No shipwreck is more remarkable than that of the noted pirate Bellamy, men- tioned by Governor Hutchinson, in his history. In the year 1717, his ship, with his whole fleet, were cast on the shore of what is now Wellfleet, being led near the shore by the captain of a scow, which was made a prize the day before, who had the promise of the scow as a present, if he would pilot the fleet in Cape Cod har- bor; the captain, suspecting the pirate would not keep his promise, and that, in- stead of clearing his ship, as was his pretense, his intention might be to plunder the inhabitants of Provincetown.
The night being dark, a lantern was hung in the shrouds of the scow, the captain of which, instead of piloting where he was ordered, approached so near the land, that the pirates' large ship, which followed him, struck on the outer bar; the scow, being less laden, struck much nearer the shore. The fleet was put in con- fusion; a violent storm arose; and the whole fleet was shipwrecked on the shore. It is said that all in the large ship perished in the waters except two. Many of the smaller vessels got safe on shore. Those that were executed, were the pirates put on board a prize schooner before the storm, as it is said. After the storm, more than a hundred dead bodies lay along the shore. At times, to this day, there are King William and Queen Mary's coppers picked up, and pieces of silver, called cob-money. The violence of the seas moves the sands upon the outer bar; so that at times the iron caboose of the ship, at low ebbs, has been seen .- Vol. III, p. 120, "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society."
For many years after this shipwreck, a man, of a very singular and frightful aspect, used, every spring and autumn, to be seen traveling on the Cape, who was supposed to have been one of Bellamy's crew. The presumption is that he went to some place where money had been secreted by the pirates to get such a supply as his exigencies required. When he died, many pieces of gold were found in a girdle, which he constantly wore. Aged people relate that this man frequently spent the night in private houses, and that, whenever the Bible or any religious book was read, or any family devotions performed, he invariably left the room. This is not improbable. It is also stated that, during the night, it would seem as if he had in his chamber a legion from the lower world; for much conversation was often overheard which was boisterous, profane, blasphemous, and quarrelsome in the extreme. This is the representation. The probability is, that his sleep was disturbed by a recollection of the murderous scenes in which he had been engaged, and that he, involuntarily, vented such exclamations as, with the aid of an imagi- nation awake to wonders from the invisible regions, gave rise, in those days, to the current opinion that his bed chamber was the resort of infernals .- Alden's "Collec- tion of Epitaphs," Vol. IV.
CHAPTER XXXVIII CUSTOMS IN "THE GOOD OLD DAYS"
Observance of Christmas One of the Things Forbidden by the Pilgrims -Necessity Made Farmers Out of Them-Methods of Killing or Dis- couraging Crows and Certain Animals-Ordination Services and Ser- mons Against Woman's Garb-May Training and Other Customs- Coming of the Tin Peddler and Other Yankee Traders-"Good Old Days" A Myth.
Readers who care to tune in on the yesterdays of America will always find a description of the Colonial customs and a record of the occurrences not only interesting but unique. Around the threshold of freedom were enacted dramas such as took place no where else in the world. The "First comers" were practically all of common ances- try, very fond of carrying on some of the traditions of the British Isles and with definite ideas concerning such customs as they intended to disregard or forbid, including some which made them Separatists and inspired their emigration to the New World. The knowledge which they possessed of husbandry was not adapted to the untamed wilder- ness. Their new neighbors, the Indians, taught them the system of cultivation adapted to life in the forest.
The arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth was just in time to begin the building of homes at Christmas and that day was one in which the men of the "Mayflower" company were busily engaged. According to the English custom religious and social rites were observed with great joy, but this was one of the things which the Pilgrims intended to break away from. It wasn't done in Plymouth. It wasn't done in the Massachusetts Colony later, when the Puritans arrived and made laws to have it definitely understood that, from the Puritanical point of view Christmas was "a superstitious festival."
Christmas Observance Considered Idolatrous-The old Blue Law in relation to Christmas read substantially as follows: "On account of frequent burglaries on Christmas Day, which is a superstitious festival introduced from the Old Country, it is hereby enacted that for the fu- ture any Bostonian caught celebrating Christmas in any way will be fined five shillings for each and every offense."
The house in which Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston was visited by burglars on Christmas Day in 1758 and other trouble was caused. It was claimed that Boston people in those days largely cele- Plym-50
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brated Christmas by going to the Common and getting tipsy, much the same as has been the popular way of observing New Year's in New York and some other cities.
The real reason why the Puritans and possibly the Pilgrims were so averse to observance of Christmas was because they regarded any kind of observance of that festival as papistical and idolatrous. Thanksgiving was honored by both religious and social rites but "the season wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated," according to Shakespeare, found no favor in the eyes of our forefathers. Cotton Mather referred to "Christmas revels" and "Shroves-Tuesday vanities," in the many out- bursts of denunciation for which he was famous.
Land Hunger Was Not Love of Agriculture-It has been said that land hunger, sharpened by the land-holding customs of feudalism, brought the greatest number of people from England to the New World. The Jamestown folk preceded the Pilgrims by thirteen years. There were many others coming in another thirteen years. It was possible to be independent in America in one sense of the word, but it meant starting a new life in a wild country, with conditions hard. They must fight or die. They must subdue the forest and its wild life and the red men who were as much at home in it as the wild beasts. The agri- cultural tools which were brought were pitifully inadequate, even had the Englishmen possessed any desire to become farmers. It was quite different than when the Germans and Scandinavians took up the western lands. They needed to make no adjustments to the rigorous climate, as they were accustomed to that of the rugged northland, and they understood and delighted in husbandry.
It was necessity which made farmers out of the early Americans; nothing else. It was after the Revolution that men in America thought seriously about better farming.
As the tendency grew for men to associate themselves together for mutual aid, and as the activities of the people became more complex, it was necessary for the State to have certain boards and commissions to supervise and regulate many activities. This led to the formation of the State Board of Agriculture, which for three-quarters of a century has played an important part in the development of the agricultural re- sources of the Commonwealth. The first farmers' organization to be organized in the country, which is still in existence, is the Farmers' Club of Halifax.
The appointment of Henry Colman as commissioner of the Massa- chusetts Department of Agriculture in 1836, was the step taken to estab- lish the importance of science as especially applicable to agriculture, and awaken an examination of the subject which produced the Central
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Board of Agriculture March 20, 1851, with Hon. Marshall P. Wilder as president. He was president of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul- ture, later president of the National Horticultural Society and the Na- tional Agricultural Society. He spent much time and money to bring about the establishment of the Massachusetts Agricultural College.
Peregrine White, the first English child born in New England, planted apple trees in Marshfield. He also planted an orchard on Bos- ton Common. He was one of the Pilgrims who promoted Pomological possibilities and started the great fruit industry in the Plymouth Colony and in Massachusetts. Less than fifty years ago one of the apple trees in Marshfield planted by Peregrine White was still bearing good fruit, in spite of its great age. Governor Winthrop planted a Pippin tree on one of the islands in Boston Harbor. Governor Endicott planted a pear tree in Salem which lived in spite of the witches and still bears fruit in pears.
The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture was organized in 1792 and among its one hundred and forty-seven original members were John Hancock who as governor, approved the act of incorporation ; John Adams, Samuel Adams, Fisher Ames, George Cabot, John Brooks, Elbridge Gerry, William Heath, Benjamin Lincoln, Samuel Phillips, James Sullivan, and other eminent Massachusetts men, prominent in so many ways. The contributors to its original fund raised "to be distri- buted in premiums for the encouragement of useful discoveries and im- provement" were largely descendants of the first comers to Plymouth or Boston.
Dr. Gilbert, commissioner of agriculture of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, made an address at the fiftieth anniversary of the Massa- chusetts Agricultural College at Amherst a few years ago. His closing paragraph of a most enlightening and able address, some facts from which have been mentioned in this chapter, follows :
"I believe that the future prosperity of Massachusetts will depend in no small measure upon the opportunities which are given this college for service. Massachusetts is and always will be primarily an indus- trial State. But the success of its industry will depend in considerable degree upon its ability to grow food nearby and to feed the workers in its factories at minimum cost. This college is destined to play an im- portant part in this program. Young men must be trained in ever- increasing numbers to become agricultural leaders and commercial farmers. Of all the activities which Massachusetts encourages and ac- tively supports, I believe as time goes on, it will be ever increasingly demonstrated that the Massachusetts Agricultural College is one of its best investments."
One of the most recent advances of the college is the development of
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the extension activities. There are 20,000 boys and girls carrying on organized agricultural projects, and it is estimated 100,000 doing ag- ricultural work of some sort.
Bounties Offered for Extermination of Crows and Animals-In Colo- nial days bounties were paid to those who killed crows, blackbirds, foxes, wolves and wildcats. In many towns every male inhabitant was re- quired to kill a certain number of blackbirds each year or be fined for his lack of good citizenship. The attempt of 1927 to have an act passed by the General Court to pay bounties on all crows killed in the Common- wealth shows that three hundred years has not been long enough to exterminate that bird, greatly revered by the Indians.
There was a time when owners of large estates were required to keep a "sufficient mastive dog for the better fraying away wolves from the towns." Owners of smaller real estate possessions were let off if they kept "a hound or beagle." Wild animals destroyed by dogs might be exhibited before the proper town officials and bounties collected, the same as if the animals had been shot. There is a record how John Pierce of Rehoboth "brought a wildcat's head before the town and his ears were cut off by the constable before two selectmen." The bounty on wildcats in that town was five shillings. Other towns paid a similar amount but Rochester required the entire carcass of the wildcat. This must be taken "to one of the selectmen with both ears on, to be cut off."
Early in the nineteenth cenury the town of Wareham paid a bounty of "three shillings for old ones, and one shilling for young ones pup- pied this year," speaking in terms of foxes' heads.
There were never a sufficient number of rattlesnakes in Plymouth Colony to cause bounties to be paid for their killing, but in Dedham one sixpence was the bounty, requiring as proof of the killing "an inch and a halfe of the end of a rattle snake's tail with the rattle." Each year of the present generation a few rattlesnakes are killed in the Blue Hills of Milton, where there are abundant rocks for a cover for them, but it needs no bounty to spur on one who comes in contact with one to kill the reptile.
There appeared in the "Old Farmer's Almanac" in 1804, advice "To prevent crows pulling up Indian Corn," as follows:
A farmer has communicated to the editor a sure method to prevent crows visiting corn fields, which he has practiced for some years, and has ever been at- tended with the desired effect. As those mischievous birds have been very trou- blesome for some years past to many farmers, the following method is thought worthy the public attention.
Take three or four old shoes, that are worn out, and fill the toes of them with sulphur, or the roll of brimstone broken small, make a fire with chips, or any small
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dry wood in or near the middle of your corn field on a flat rock, or on the bare mould (a rock being preferable), after planting your corn field, then lay the toes of the shoes on the fire and let them continue until the leather be burnt through, and the brimstone has taken fire; then after sticking down poles of ten or twelve feet in length at each corner of your field, and inclining them towards the centre, make a string fast to the heel quarters of each shoe, and tie it fast to the top ends of the poles, letting the strings extend half way down, and then swinging, not to interfere with the poles; and no crows will alight on your field that season.
Putting the Rum in Decorum-One of the social events in the old days was that on which the minister received his ordination. This did not occur very often as most of the ministers, once settled, remained in the town for a generation or more and many others were settled for life. In some cases it was understood that if the minister did practically all the work of improving the ministerial lands, such as fencing the meadow, his heirs were to have the fence rails after his decease, as was the case in Wareham with Rev. Noble Everett.
At the ordination of a minister the whole town turned out. It was a great day at the tavern and the town took on the dignity and unusual bustle common in these days when a convention is taking place. Idlers gathered around the whipping post and the stocks and recalled the scenes which they had witnessed on "fifth day lecture occasions" and others, and good-naturedly joked with some of the victims concerning their "day in the stocks." Then the fifers and drummers broke the period of social intercourse around these "social centres," and all feil in line and marched into the meeting-house for the solemn service which was practically a life sentence for the clergyman who was about to "come into their midst." The day's events cost more than he would receive in a year's salary and, in one parish, some of the items entered in the town book as necessities were: twenty-five gallons wine, two gallons brandy, four gallons rum, six barrels cider, loaf sugar, lime juice and pipes to the amount of one pound and twelve shillings. The town also assumed the care of thirty-two horses four days and there were 433 dinners and 178 suppers and breakfasts, but whether these en- riched the tavern keeper or how they were supplied the book did not record.
So far as the salary was concerned, it may have been similar to that furnished Rev. Edward Pell by a Cape Cod town: one hundred and thirty-five bushels of corn, fifteen bushels of rye, ten bushels of wheat and thirty-six cords of firewood. This same Parson Pell was evidently sincere in the belief which was preached from the colonial pulpits that, on Resurrection Day, the dead came out of their graves clothed with the same mortal body which they had before death, as when he died in 1752, after ministering to his Cape Cod flock only five years, he
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requested his friends to see that his body was buried in the old grave- yard. There was a new graveyard, well shaded with pine trees and he feared his body "might be overlooked in the resurrection."
At the ordination services there was reading from the Psalms, some- times selections from Thomas Allen's "Invitation to Thirsty Sinners," one long prayer, singing of a psalm, following the lead of the oldest deacon, who first read each line aloud in the most solemn manner, another long prayer and then the most impressive ceremony of all, the laying on of hands by the elders of the church. The ordination sermon followed, a charge by a visiting minister, offering of the right hand of fellowship and the concluding prayer and blessing.
All the dignitaries of the colony were on hand and so large was the crowd that the boys usually twined themselves about the supports of the roof, in lieu of other decorations. Everyone was seated according to his social standing, "His Majesty' Commissioners of ye Customs on a high seat by ye pulpit stairs." The governor was on hand dressed in a black coat, bordered with gold lace, and wearing puff breeches, with gold buckles at the knees, and white stockings, making frequent use of a snuff box, always with great dignity but not always in silence.
In a diary kept by Rev. Thomas Smith of Falmouth appears this significant entry, concerning an ordination which he attended: "January 16, 1675, Mr Foxcroft was ordained at New Gloucester. We had a pleasant journey home. Mr Longfellow was alert and kept us all merry. A jolly ordination. We lost sight of decorum." Evidently it was a party which put the rum in decorum.
Evidently style in women's apparel has been a favorite topic for sermons from the time of the garb of Eve to the present day. There is no doubt about it in this country. Early Colonial ministers paid their respects to the Colonial dames and thundered their warnings with many a wise shake of the head and crooked finger in the air. The ministers did not agree any more than they do today but their counsel was taken more seriously withal, and caused many heartaches and cringes of conscience between Sundays. Roger Williams at Salem preached in favor of women wearing veils in the meeting-house. Rev. John Cotton in Boston said wearing of veils was a shame, because married women had no pretense to wear them as virgins, and "no woman should choose to wear them, by the example of Tamar, the harlot."
Men were criticized for wearing long hair or periwigs. Rev. George Weekes preached at Harwich in which he said: "To see the greater part of Men in some congregations wearing Perriwigs is a matter of deep lamentation. For either all these men had a necessity to cut off their Hair, or else not. If they had a necessity to cut off their Hair,
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then we have reason to take up a lamentation over the sin of our first Parents which hath occasioned so many Persons in one Congregation, to be sickly, weakly, crazy Persons. Oh! Adam, what hath thou done?"
The same parson paid his respects to the style for women about 1740 when he said: "The Sin of our first Parents hath occasioned a necessity for our wearing of Cloths whilst we live in this world. We should take heed, that we become not guilty of breaking the sixth Com- mand by following such fashions as have a tendency to destroy our Health. We should take heed, lest we provoke God to anger against as by following such fashions as are contrary to the seventh Command- ment. And therefore it is, that I have been and am still of the mind, that Women by wearing their Hoops, and laying their Breasts bare, become guilty of breaking the seventh Commandment."
Much have been said in recent years about clergymen speaking from the pulpit upon all sorts of topics, instead of confining their teachings and advice to sacred things, "as was the custom in the good old days." The ministers in the Plymouth Colony were just as disposed to talk by the hour upon secular topics as the most up-to-date and meddlesome minister of our own time and go far beyond anything which a clergy- man of the present day might say without being asked to resign, sum- marily dismissed or thrashed by some unjustly outraged member of the congregation. The clergyman of long ago gave instruction to his congregation as a matter of course, how they should vote. As those who were not church members could not vote, according to law, and those who were church members were almost invariably regularly in the meeting-houses and the words of the clergy generally accepted as of divine origin, something of the influence of the clergy can easily be imagined. The election sermon was one of the events of the year.
Then, in addition to the Sunday sermons, two or three hours in length, there was the Thursday lecture. These were never missed by able-bodied people of the town as it was at the Thursday lectures that all the gossip of the community was heard, offenders were "bawled out" before the congregation, placed in the stocks or on the pillory, and publicly whipped. If one stayed away from a Thursday lecture at the meeting-house he lost touch with all that was going on and missed all the entertainment in the town.
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