History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 24

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 24

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103

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

in this narrative as lying at the foundation of our present legislative representative system.

" Whereas, complaint was made that the ffreemen were put to many inconveniences and great expense hy their continuall attendance at the Courts, It is therefore enacted hy the Court for the ease of the severall colonies and Townes within the Government, That every Towne shall make choyce of two of their ffreemen, and the Towne of Plymouth of foure to he Com- mittee or Deputies, to joyne with the Bench to enact and make all such lawes and ordnances as shall be judged to be good and wholesome for the whole. Provided that the lawes they doe enact shal he ffounded on Court, to be considered upon untill the next Court, and then to he confirmed if they shal be ap- proved of (except the case require present confirmacon). And if any act shal he confirmed by the Bench and Committees, which, npon further deliberacon, shall prove prejudicial to the whole, That the ffreemen at the next elecon Court after meeting together, may repeale the same and enact any other usefull for the whole; and that every Township shall beare their Committees charges; and that such as are not ffreemen, bnt have taken the Oath of fidelitie, and are masters of famylies and Inhabitants of the said Townes, as they are to heare their part in the charges of their Committecs, so to have a vote in the choyce of them, provided they choose them only of the freemen of the said Towne whereof they are; but if any such Committees shall be insufficient or troublesome, that then the Bench and the other Committees may dismisse them, and the Towne to choose other ffreemen in their place."

It must be remembered that at the time of the passage of this law. in 1638, Scituate (Satuit), which included South Scituate and Hanover, and Duxbury (Namassakeset), which included Pembroke and Han- son, had been incorporated, the one in 1636 and the other in 1637, and that settlements had been made in Taunton (Cohannet), which comprised Norton, Dighton, Raynham, Easton, Mansfield, and Berkley ; in Sandwich (Shawme), in Yarmouth (Mattakeest), which included Dennis, and in Barnstable (Cumma- quid). All these towns and districts or wards were represented in the first new General Court, which met on the 4th day of June, 1639. In that year the deputies or representatives were :

William Paddy, Manassah Kempton, John Cook, Jr., John Dunham, Jonathan Brewster, Edmund Chandler, Anthony Annable, Edward Foster, Richard Bnrne, John Vincent, John Gilbert, Henry Andrews,

For Plymonth.

For Duxbury.

For Scituate.

For Sandwich (settlement).

For Cohannet (settlement).

Thomas Payne, __ Philip Tabor, Joseph Hull,

For Yarmouth (settlement).

For Barnstable (settlement).

Thomas Dimmack,

The court was enlarged from time to time, as new towns were incorporated. Marshfield (Missauca-

tucket) was incorporated in 1640; Bridgewater (Nuckatateest ), comprising Brockton, West and East Bridgewater, Rockland, and South Abington, and part of Halifax, in 1656; Middleboro' (Nemasket), which included Lakeville, in 1660; Rehoboth (Seekonk and Wannamoiset), comprising Seekonk and Pawtucket, in 1645; Dartmouth (Accushena), comprising New Bedford, Westport, and Fairhaven, in 1664; Swansea (Pokanoket and Sawams), comprising Somerset, War- ren, and Barrington, in 1667 ; Bristol (Kekimuet), in 1681; Little Compton (Saconet), in 1682; Feetown (Assonet), in 1683; Easthamn (Nauset), which in- cluded Welfleet and Orleans, in 1646; Falmouth (Suckinassett), in 1686; Yarmouth, already repre- sented, in 1639; Rochester (Seipican), which in- cluded Marion, Mattapoisett, and a part of Wareham, in 1686. These were all the towns in the Old Colony incorporated before the union with Massachusetts, in 1692, and before that date they were all represented by their deputies in the General Court. The follow- ing list will show to whom the town of Plymouth delegated the power to act in their behalf in the cn- actment of laws during the existence of New Plymouth as a separate colony :

1639. William Paddy.

Manassah Kempton. John Cooke, Jr.

John Dunham.

1651. John Howland. Manassah Kempton. Thomas South worth.

Thomas Clark.

1640. The same.

1641. John Atwood.

William Paddy.

John Dunham.

Thomas Southworth.

1653. John Howland.

Thomas Southworth.

1644. The same.

1645. William Paddy.

John Cooke. Manassah Kempton. John Dunham.

1646. John Howland. John Cooke.

Manasseh Kempton. John Dunham.

1647. John Howland. John Dunham. William Paddy. John Hurst.

1648. John Howland. John Dunham. William Paddy. Manassah Kempton.

1649. John Howland. John Dunham. William Paddy. Manassah Kempton.

1650. John Howland. John Dunham. Manassah Kempton.

1654. John Howland. Thomas Southworth.

John Cooke.

John Winslow.

1655. John Howland. John Dunham. John Cooke. Thomas Clark.

1656. William Bradford. Robert Finney. Ephraim Morton.

1658. Robert Finney. John Howland. NathI. Warren.

1659. Robert Finney. Nathl. Warren. John Dunham. Ephraim Morton.

1660. John Dunham. Robert Finney. Ephraim Morton. Manassah Kempton.

1661. John Dunham.

Ephraim Morton.

1652. John Howland.

John Wilson.

John Jenney. John Howland.

1642. John Doane. John Cooke.

John Dunham. John Cooke.

1643. The same.

104

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

1661. John Howland.

1671. Ephraim Morton. Robert Finney.

Nathl. Warren.

1662. John Dunham.

1672. The same.

Ephraim Morton. Robert Finney.

1673. Ephraim Morton.

Samuel Crow.

John Morton.

1674. Ephraim Morton. William Clark.

1663. Robert Finney.

Ephraim Morton.

1675. Ephraim Morton. William Harlow.

Nathl. Warren.

1676. Ephraim Morton. Edward Gray.

1664. Robert Finney. Ephraim Morton. John Dunham.

1677. Edward Gray.

Joseph Howland.

Nathl. Warren.

1678. Ephraim Morton.

1665. Ephraim Morton. Nathl. Warren.

Joseph Howland.

1666. Ephraim Morton.

John llowland.

1680. Ephraim Morton. William Clark.

1668. Ephraim Morton. Samuel Dunham.

1681. Ephraim Morton. Joseph Warren,

1669. Ephraim Morton.

1682. The same.

Robert Finney.

1683. The same.

1670. Ephraim Morton. John Howland.

1684. The same.

1685. The same.

1686. The same.

In 1649 a law was passed by the General Court limiting the number of Plymouth delegates to two, but on the next annual election-day it was repealed by the freemen. This law was afterwards re-enacted; and after 1664, as is shown in the printed list, Plymouth had but two representatives. The pro- vision in the law of 1638, establishing the new court, that a law should be propounded at one court and considered at the next, is one which, if readopted in our own time, would relicve the people of Massachu- setts from the burden of ill-considered legislation, and place our statutes on a more firm and stable founda- tion. An accidental majority in one year or another, for or against social reforms, or enactments of expedi- ency, incumber our statute-book with laws and re- peals, which, upon mature deliberation, would be either summarily rejected, or, if enacted, would take their place in the code with some prospect of having a permanent resting-place.

The precise time when Plymouth became a town it is impossible to determine. Other towns in the Old Colony had their acts of incorporation, and can fix the day when they came into life as a separate munic- ipality. The dividing line between the colony of New Plymouth and the town, in which the government of the colony was scated, is nowhere drawn. Other towns, like Duxbury and Scituate, possessed after their incorporation no more of the essential clements of a distinct community than Plymouth, and were really only separated from the central power by dis- tance and space. But their incorporation gave them a starting-point and a birthday, from which they can

count their agc. For twelve years after the landing Plymouth constituted the colony, and the government of the colony was the government of the town; and even after that the earlier officers chosen by towns were but parts of the general government, with local constituents and local duties. While, therefore, it may be proper to date the birth of the town at the first settlement, it will be necessary to go forward a number of years to discover any trace of a life and power distinct from that of the colony itself. In the records of 1626 Plymouth is called a plantation ; in a deed dated 1631, from John to Edward Winslow, the town of Plymouth is referred to; in a law of 1632 the society of New Plymouth is spoken of, and in the same year the town of Plymouth. From that time forth the town of Plymouth is constantly re- ferred to, but not necessarily as showing it to be a separate municipality. Perhaps as definite a time as any for the recognition of the town by the government would be the year 1633, in which the office of constable was established. It was then provided that constables should be chosen, and Joshua Pratt was chosen for Plymouth, Christopher Wadsworth for the ward of Duxbury, and Anthony Annable for the ward of Seituate. But even these were chosen by the whole body of freemen, and the name Plymouth may have been intended, like that of Scituate and Duxbury, not then incorporated, to apply only to a district, which must have some designation. The constable was required to take the oath, and until 1638 the constable of Plymouth acted as the messenger of the court. That officer was required also to act as keeper of the jail, to execute punishment, to give warning of such marriages as were approved by authority, to seal weights and measures, and measure out land when ordered by the Governor. In 1634 persons were chosen to lay out highways, in 1643 raters of taxes were chosen, and in 1658 overseers of the poor.

Nor do the records of the town throw much light on the question of the date of its birth. The first entries bear no legible date, and only define the ear- marks of the cattle belonging to the inhabitants. The first dated entry is that of the last day of March, 1637, the seventh day in that year under the old style, at which time it was " concluded that Nicholas Snow should repair the herring wier and divide the herrings." The next entry is as follows :

" At a meeting of the townsmen of New Plymouth, held at the Governor's house July 16, 1638, all the inhabitants from Jones River to the Eel River being thereto (warned) to consider of the disposition of the stock given by Mr. James Sherley, of London, mer- chant, to the people of Plymouth, who had plainly

John Howland.

1679. Ephraim Morton. Edward Gray.

1667. The same.

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AUTOGRAPHS OF GOVERNORS, DEPUTY GOVERNORS, AND SECRETARYS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

105

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

declared by several letters in his owu handwriting that his intent therein was wholly to the poor of the town of Plymouth." it was decided that for the purposes under consideration the town should be considered as extending " from the land of William Pontus and John Dunham on the south to the out- side of New Street on the north." The lands of Pontus and Dunham were in the neighborhood of the farm of Thomas O. Jackson, and New Street was that which is now North. This decision was not intended to define any permanent boundaries, or even to show the extent of the town at the time the declaration was made. It was simply putting a strict construction on the gift, and limiting its beneficiaries to those who lived within the boundaries, which in- cluded the population of the settlement at the time the gift was made. It is certain that the munici- pality was in being at the time of the first entry in its records in 1637, and it is fair to conclude that about 1636. at the time of or before the incorporation of Scituate. the government of the colony recognized it as possessing all the powers and functions of a town.

Its boundaries remained, however, to be adjusted by law, and on the second day of November, 1640, at a Court of Assistants held on that day, it was ordered, " Whereas, by the act of the General Court, held the third of March, in the sixteenth year of his said Majestie's now reign (1640), the Governor & Assistants were authorized to set the bounds of the several townships, it is enacted and concluded by the Court that the bounds of Plymouth township shall extend southwards to the bounds of Sandwich town- ship and northward to the little brook falling into Black Water from the commons left to Duxbury and the neighborhood thereabouts, and westward eight miles up into the lands from any part of the bay or sea ; always provided that the bounds shall extend so far up into the wood-lands as to include the South Meadows toward Agawam, lately discovered, and the convenient uplands thereabouts." These limits, which included Kingston, Plympton, Carver, and a part of Halifax, and Agawam a part of Wareham, remained untouched until the incorporation of the town of Kingston, in 1726. Halifax was incor- porated in 1734, and in 1830 a part of Plympton was annexed to it. Plympton was incorporated in 1707, and in 1790 Carver was set off from Plympton and incorporated.

between Connecticut and the Pequot tribe, in which Plymouth furnished fifty-six men, had broken out in 1637 and been successfully waged ; the code of laws necessary for the peaceful administration of the gov- ernment had been gradually perfected ; additional town officers were provided for by law, surveyors of highways, overseers of the poor, and other minor officers ; and through hardship and toil, through suf- fering and want, through sickness and death, the set- tlers of New England had successfully laid the foun- dations of a new empire. Deaths, it is true, had occurred, but though the occasion of repeated sorrow, they brought no shadow of discouragement. Since the first season Mary, the wife of Isaac Allerton, had died iu 1621/2; Mary, the wife of Elder Brewster, in 1627 ; Richard Warren and John Crackston, Jr., in 1628; John Billington in 1630; Samuel Fuller, Francis Eaton, and Peter Brown in 1632 ; and Eliz- abeth, the wife of Stephen Hopkins, in 1640. On the 16th of April, 1643, occurred the death of Elder Brewster, inflicting a loss to the colony next to that occasioned by the death of John Carver, in 1620/1. Mr. Brewster has been already referred to in the early part of this narrative as the leader and chief of the Pilgrims. He had performned his work, and at the end of his mission, laboriously and faithfully accom- plished, after he had seen others enter into his labors with a zeal which assured him they had not been bestowed iu vain, in a ripe old age he went to his grave. He was at times a resident in Duxbury, and it has been generally claimed that he died in that town and was there buried. The evidence, however, is strong that he died in Plymouth, and that he was buried either on Burial Hill or in some unknowu spot in Plymouth used temporarily for burials after the abandonment of Cole's Hill. On page 115 of the printed volume of deeds of the Old Colony Records the following entry may be found : " Whereas, William Brewster, late of Plymouth, gentleman, deceased, left only two sons surviving,-Jonathan, the oldest, and Love, the younger ; whereas the said William died intestate, for aught can to this day appear, the said Jonathan and Love, his sons, when they returned from the burial of their father to the house of Mr. William Bradford, of Plymouth, in the presence of Mr. Ralph Partridge, pastor of Duxbury, Mr. John Raynor, teacher of the church at Plymouth, and Edward Buckley, pastor of the church at Marshfield," made a certain agreement which follows in the records. This extract, it will be observed, alludes to Mr. Brewster as late of Plymouth, and of Mr. Wil- liam Bradford, of Plymouth. Though not conclusive,

From this time to 1643 the affairs of both Plym- outh and the colony went on smoothly, encountering little to disturb their monotony or obstruct their progress. At that date Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven had become colonies ; the war | as Mr. Bradford had a house in Kingston as well as

106

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Plymouth, and as Kingston was at that time a part of Plymouth, the author, who has at some time en- tertained a different opinion, now believes it points strongly to his death and burial in Plymouth. Nor does this evidence stand alone. There are three in- ventories of the estate of Mr. Brewster,-one of his personal property at his house in Plymouth, one of his books, and one of his personal property at his house in Duxbury,-which throw some light on the question. That part of his Plymouth inventory which includes his wardrobe is as follows :

4 paire of stockings.

1 paire of shoes.

3 wascoats and a paire of 2 paire of shoes. drawers.

2 Sherts.

26 handkerchiefs.

1 fine handkerchief.

3 handkerchers.

1 wrought capp.

1 blew cloth suite.

1 old suite turned.

1 black coate.

Old cloaths.

1 black cloth suite.

1 ruffe rift out.

1 paire of greene drawers.

1 paire of leather drawers.

1 list wascoate.

1 paire of garters.

1 trusse.

1 knife.

1 black coate.

1 pistoll.

1 black stuff suite.

1 combe.

2 brushes.

1 dublett.

1 paire of black silk stockings.

A dagger and knife.

1 black hat.

1 rapier.

1 old hat.

Tobaccoe & some pipes.

2 paire of gloves. A tobacco box & tongs.

That part of his Duxbury inventory which in- cludes his wardrobe is as follows :

1 sword.

A trusse.

1 sword.

1 violet color cloth coate.

White capp.

1 costlett.

These extracts from the inventories seem to be con- clusive that he must have been living in Plymouth at the time of his death. The two inventories from which they are taken include furniture and other per- sonal property valued at £107 8d. The third inven- tory contains a list of two hundred and sixty Latin and one hundred and fifteen English books, valued at £42 19s. 11d. These inventories are interesting not only as evidence touching the place of his death and burial, but also for the testimony tliey bear to the social and intellectual status of the Pilgrims. It is true that the office Brewster held of teaching elder might have demanded for the faithful performance of his duties a library exceptional in its character, but it cannot be supposed that such an official would have indulged in the luxury of a wardrobe beyond the means of the majority of his companions, or have

set an example of worldliness which they were too poor to follow. Indeed, there is nothing more strik- ing in the inventories of the Pilgrims than the con- tradiction they set up of the unauthorized statement, having its origin in an evident desire to magnify the intensity of their religious character by belittling them as men, that they were a band of poor, uneducated, uncultured yeomen, unfamiliar with the graces and pleasures of enlightened society, living only in the realm of religious enthusiasm, and eager to keep themselves unspotted from the world. The Massa- chusetts Colony, on the other hand, to make the con- trast strong, has been represented as wealthy and en- terprising and educated, giving, as has been said, the first impulse to civilization in the western world. Without the reinforcement of that colony, it is said, the efforts at colonization made by the Pilgrims would have failed, and the cloud of darkness, which by their coming had been for a time withdrawn, would have again settled down on the land.

Nothing can be further from the truth. In 1633 a law was passed by the Old Colony court providing " that the wills and testaments of them that die be proved orderly before the Governor and Council within one month after the decease of the testator, and that a full inventory duly valued be presented with the same before letters of administration be granted to any of all the goods and chattles of the said persons. Also, if in case any man die without will, his goods be by his wife or other nearest to him inventoried and duly valued and presented to the Governor and Council within one month after the decease of the same person so dying. And if it be a single person without kindred here resident, that then the Governor appoint some to take a just inven- tory of the same, and to present the same upon oath to be true and just as in other the cases before men- tioned." In 1639, six years afterwards, certainly not leading the way in this feature of registration, the Massachusetts court ordered " that there be records kept of all wills, administrations, and inventories." From 1639 to 1650 the recorded inventories in the Plymouth Colony, with a population of from three to five hundred, numbered thirty-four, while those in the Massachusetts Colony numbered only forty-five, with a population five or six times as large. Of the smaller proportionate number in Massachusetts there were a few including larger values than any in tlic Plymouth Colony ; while the latter, more numerous in proportion to the population, were more equal in their size, indicating a community of more social equality, and a more homogeneous character. And the same comparison might be drawn between the intellectual

1 old gowne.

2 gerdles.

2 paire of thin stockings.

1 knit capp.

1 laced capp.

1 quilted capp.

2 old capps.

1 ruffe band.

6 bands.

1 red cap.

1 black suite & cloake.

1 paire of stockings.

1 black gowne.

Tobaccoe case.

107

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

condition of the two colonies. While the fact that in Massachusetts public schools were introduced at an early period has been claimed by some as conclusive evidence of a regard for education higher than that of the Old Colony, which seemed tardy in the move- ment, the fair inference to be drawn from it, in view of all the circumstances, is, that Massachusetts, with a large portion of her population made up of adven- turers and laborers, unable to educate their own chil- dren, who were then growing up in ignorance and idleness, established her schools in self-defense ; while in the colony of Plymouth most of the heads of fami- lies were not only fully competent to teach their own sons and daughters. but found it no severe hardship to give their time to the training of the few whose parents had either dicd or were needy. Under such auspices Thomas Cushman was educated, who suc- ceeded William Brewster as elder of the church ; William Bradford, the son of the Governor, who be- came Deputy Governor; Nathaniel Morton, who be- came the secretary and historian of the colony; and Josiah Winslow, who became not only the colonial Governor, but afterwards the commander of the forces of the United Colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven in King Philip's war. It may be considered as certain that fathers who were able to educate such men and prepare them for the duties and responsibilities of a noble life, could not have been wanting in either the material or mental qualities which are the necessary ingredients of an enlightened and cultivated community.

It is quite time that the long-accepted idea that the Pilgrims were a set of narrow, bigoted, unworldly, religious zealots was exploded. If narrowness and bigotry and unworldliness ever characterized them, they were eliminated from their natures by their life in Holland, and there they became what they ever afterwards were, shrewd, practical, far-seeing business men. A religious spirit, it is true, remained as the foundation of their character, but they had built on it a structure as marked as the foundation itself. No mere enthusiasts in the cause of religion could have done their work. The zeal of such men would have been like a foundation on which nothing is ever reared, or like a root which never shoots above the ground. To make the thorough man, the foundation must support an edifice of character, which would topple to the ground without it,-the root must grow into the tree through whose branches it sends its sap. Such an edifice and such a tree was the character of the Pilgrim. Every step he took in the work he had to do was like the growth of the branch and leaf and flower in the air and sunlight of the outer world,

but yet sustained and supported by the religious in- fluences from within. Without his religious nature he would have faltercd and fallen beneath his load ; without his worldly knowledge his religion would have been in vain.

CHAPTER IV.

UNITED COLONIES-TOWN OFFICERS-DEATH OF BRADFORD-QUAKERS-RECORDS.

IN 1642/3 the third important step was taken- counting the landing at Plymouth the first and the settlements in the other colonies the second-towards establishing on a firm basis and crystallizing into a per- manent shape the colonization of New England. In the language of Bradford, " By reason of the plottings of the Narigansets, ever since the Pequot war, the Indians were drawn into a general conspiracy against the English in all parts, as was in part discovered the year before, and now made more plain and cvident by many discoveries and free confessions of sundry In- dians (upon several occasions) from divers places con- curring in one, with such other concurring circum- stances as gave them sufficiently to understand the truth thercof and to think of means how to prevent the same and secure themselves." A combination be- tween the four colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven was proposed, and on the 7th of March, 1642/3, Edward Winslow and William Collier were elected to treat on the subject with the colony of Massachusetts Bay. After due consideration, on the 6th of June, the same gentle- men were authorized to subscribe, on the part of the colony, the following articles, the adoption of which not only formed an era in the colonial life, but fur- nished the type of that larger confederacy or union of States under which we live :

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 24

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706