History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 32

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 32

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" THOMAS MAYHEW. " JAMES WARREN.

" ELKANAH WATSON.

" PLYMOUTH, Jan. 16, 1766."

In response to the above, the following reply was received from the selectmen of Boston :

" BOSTON, March 10, 1766. "The inhabitants of the town of Boston, legally assembled in Faneuil Hall, have received with singular pleasure your re- spectful address of the 16th of January last. The warm senti- ments of public virtue which you therein express is a sufficient evidence that the most ancient town in New England, to whose predecessors this province in a particular manner is so greatly indebted for their necessary aid in its original settlement, still retain the truly noble spirit of our renowned ancestors. When we recollect the ardent love of religion and liberty which in- spired the breasts of those worthies, which induced them, at a time when tyranny had laid its oppressive hand on church and state in their native country, to forsake their fair possessions and seek a retreat in this distant part of the earth; when we reflect upon their early care to lay a solid foundation for learn- ing, even in a wilderness, as the surest if not the only means of preserving and cherishing the principles of liberty and virtue, and transmitting them to us their posterity, our mind is filled with deep veneration, and we bless and revere their memory. When we consider the immense cost and pains they were at in subduing, cultivating, and settling this land with the utmost peril of their lives, and the surprising increase of dominion, strength, and riches which have accrued to Great Britain by their expense and labor, we confess we feel an honest indigna- tion to think there ever should have been any among her sons 80 ungrateful as well as unjust and cruel as to seek their ruin. Instances of this too frequently occur in the past history of our country. The names of Randolph, Andros, and others are handed down to us with infamy ; and the times in which we live, even these very times, may furnish some future historian with a catalogue of those who look upon our rising greatness with an envious eye, and while we and our sister colonies have been exerting our growing strength in the most substantial service to the muother-country, by art and intrigue have wick- edly attempted to seduce her into measures to enslave us. If, then, gentlemen, the inhabitants of this metropolis have dis- covered an invariable attachment to the principles of liberty when it has been invaded ; if they have made the inost vigorous exertions for our country when she has been threatened with the loss of everything that is dear; if they have used their ut- most endeavors that she may be relieved from those difficulties with which she is at this time embarrassed ; if they have taken the warrantable and legal measures to prevent that inisfortune, of all others the most to be dreaded, the execution of the Stamp Act, and, as a necessary means of preventing it, have made any spirited application for opening the custom-houses and courts of justice ; if, at the same time, they have borne their testimony against outrageous tumults and illegal proceedings, and given any examples of the love of peace and good order,-next to the consciousness of having done their duty is the satisfaction of

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

meeting with the approbation of any of their fellow-country- men. That the spirit of our venerable forefathers may revive and be diffused through every community in this land; that liberty, both eivil and religious, the grand object in view, may still be felt, enjoyed, and vindicated by the present generation, and the fair inheritance transmitted to our latest posterity, is the fervent wish of this metropolis.

"SAMUEL ADAMS. " JOHN RUDDOCK. "JOHN HANCOCK."

The Stamp Act was repealed on the 16th of Janu- ary, 1766, and the threatening cloud was dissipated for a time, to appear again after the lapse of a few years, with more serious and lasting consequences.

In 1768 the first light-house was built on the Gurnet at an expense of ten huudred and sixty-eight pounds. In the House of Representatives it was ordered, June 14th in that year, "that Col. Warren and Capt. Thomas, with such as the Hon. Board shall join, be a Committee to agree with a meet person to take the care of the light-house on the Gurnet, near Plymouth harbor, now nearly finished, to report at the next session of this Court, and that said Committee be in- structed to prepare a proper advertisement, to be lodged at the impost office, setting forth that a light- house is there erected, and the course to steer with safety on sight thereof at sea." Gamaliel Bradford was joined by the Board, and John Thomas was ap- pointed the first keeper, at a salary of sixty pounds.

The year 1769 was made memorable by the forma- tion of the Old Colony Club, under whose auspices that long line of celebrations was inaugurated which has made the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims a hallowed day in the land. The founders of the club were Isaac Lothrop, Pelham Winslow, Thomas Lothrop, Elkanah Cushman, John Thomas, Edward Winslow, Jr., and John Watson, to whom were added soon after the organization, George Wat- son, James Warren, James Hovey, Thomas Mayhew, William Watson, Gideon White, Elkanah Watson, Thomas Davis, Nathaniel Lothrop, John Russell, Ed- ward Clarke, Alexander Scammell, Peleg Wadsworth, and Thomas Southworth Howland. All these gentle- men are intimately associated with the history of Plym- outh during their time. They were of mixed political faith, and represented various degrees of loyalty to the crown. Isaac and Thomas Lothrop, Elkanah Cushman, John Watson, James Warren, James Hovey, Thomas Mayhew, Elkanah Watson, Thomas Davis, Nathaniel Lothrop, John Russell, Alexander Scammell, and Peleg Wadsworth were afterwards pronounced in their advocacy of war. Pelham Wins- low, son of Gen. John Winslow, an attorney-at-law, John Thomas, Edward Winslow, Jr., Gideon White, and Thomas S. Howland adhered with more or less

firmness to the crown, and the first three became ex- patriated loyalists. The records of the club indicate that a difference of opinion on the questions of the day, which were constantly assuming greater import- ance, was the rock on which it finally split, and which led to its dissolution. While we of to-day are in- debted to the club as the founder of the celebration of the anniversary of the landing, the embarrassment which surrounds the discovery that the wrong day has been celebrated must be charged to their account. The day fixed on by the club in 1769 for an observance was the 22d of December. Because seventeen years before, at the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, eleven days had been dropped to make the necessary correction, the club thought it necessary to drop eleven days also, and it thus converted the 11th of December, the day of the landing in 1620, into the 22d. It is true that in 1752 the difference between the old and new styles had become eleven days, but the simple question was, What was the difference at the time of the landing ? a question to which the answer was ten. It is now settled beyond dispute that since the adop- tion of the new style the 21st of December is the true anniversary.

CHAPTER VI.

LOYALISTS-REVOLUTION-SOLDIERS-EMBARGO- WAR OF 1812.

THE course taken by the town with reference to the Stamp Act indicated plainly enough the spirit of its people and the course they would be likely to pur- sue under the pressure of heavier burdens. That obnoxious act was repealed, but new taxes were laid on glass, paper, lead, and other articles in everyday use, which once more decpened the gloom which had appeared to be gradually dissipating. Lord North succeeded the Duke of Grafton as prime minister, a man sufficiently fitted for the performance of ordinary official duties in peaceful times, but wanting in the grasp of mind necessary to comprehcud the extraordi- nary difficulties and complications surrounding him, and possessed of that easy and pliable disposition which yielded to the stronger will of the blind and obstinate royal master under whom he served. A proposition was received from the selectmen of Bos- ton to cease the importation of foreign goods, and the town chose a committee, consisting of James Warren, John Torrey, Isaac Lothrop, Thomas May- hew, and Elkanalı Watson, to consider the subject.

in P

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

The following report of the committee was unani- mously adopted by the town, March 26, 1770:

"Every man not destitute of the principle of freedom and independence, and that has sensibility enough to feel the least glow of patriotism, must at this time be strongly impressed with a sense of the misfortunes of their country in general and of the town of Boston in particular, where a military force has for some time heen stationed, to aid and support the execution of laws designed to snbvert the liberties of English subjects in America, and more effectnally to answer the purpose to begin by suppressing that spirit of freedom which has at all times distinguished that town in a manner that will not only secure them the applause of the present age, in spite of the malice of placemen and pensioners and all their adherents, but transmit their character and conduct down to posterity in the faithful pages of impartial history in the most illustrious rein, there to stand a monnment of admiration to posterity of their unpar- alleled firmness and disinterestedness in the cause of this coun- try, when the names of their enemies, however dignified now hy titles of distinction, shall he rescned from oblivion to per- petnate their infamy, and their posterity, notwithstanding the excessive emoluments they now enjoy at the expense of family and every tender feeling, shall be nndistinguished and neglected. Affected with these sentiments, and influenced by the principle of gratitude and justice to the merits of their brethren of the town of Boston in general and the respectable inhabitants there in partienlar, and willing to contribute all in their power to support them in their laudahle purpose of resisting tyranny and oppression and establish their rights for themselves and their conntry, which they are entitled to as men and English- men, the Inhabitants of Plymonth

" Resolve that their thanks be sent to the inhabitants of Boston, and that they will assist them in their resistance; en- conrage non-importation, and hold in detestation those who continne to import; and enconrage frngality, industry, and mannfactures in the conntry, and discourage the use of super- fluities, and particularly that of tea; and, further, that a Com- mittee be chosen to discover and report on such cases in the town as may he in violation of this Resolve."

In obedience to this resolve a committee was ehosen, consisting of Thomas Mayhew, Ichabod Shaw, Thomas Lothrop, Ephraim Cobb, James War- ren, Thomas Jackson, and John Torrey.

On the 13th of November, 1772, a petition was sent to the selectmen, signed by one hundred citizens of the town, asking them to call a meeting to consider the further and continued violation of popular rights. At this meeting a committee chosen in the fore- noon, consisting of James Warren, Thomas Mayhew, Thomas Lothrop, John Torrey, William Watson, and Nathaniel Torrey, reported in the afternoon substan- tially as follows :

1st. That the people in the province are entitled to all the rights that the people of Great Britain can claim by nature and the Constitution.

2d. That these rights have been violated.

3d. That the support of the Supreme Court judges in any other manner than by the free grants of the people is an infraction of our rights and, in connec-

tion with the independence of the Governor, tends to the destroyment of free government.

4th. That our representatives be instructed to use every effort to restore the popular support of the courts of justice, and that the thanks of the town be again returned to the town of Boston for its efforts in support of the principles of freedom.

At the same meeting a Committee of Correspond- ence was chosen to communicate with similar com- mittees in other towns, and take such action in defense of the liberties of the people as they might deem expedient. This committee consisted of James War- ren, John Torrey, Stephen Sampson, Samuel Cole, Ephraim Cobb, William Thomas, Thomas Jackson, Elkanah Watson, William Watson, Thomas Lothrop, Isaae Lothrop, Nathaniel Torrey, and Thomas May- hew. It has been claimed, on evidence too strong to deny, that this famous committee, with its branehes extending into every town in the province, which did so much to encourage, develop, and organize the spirit of resistance to British tyranny, was first sug- gested by James Warren, and had its origin in Plymouth. The claim has been denied; but, whether true or false, the ingenuity which devised it and the energy with which its establishment was projected were in harmony with the fertility of resouree and extraordinary executive power which Mr. Warren exhibited, at first in the limited field of his own town, and afterwards in connection with Adams and Hancock in the more comprehensive labors of the Provincial Congress. A friend of James Otis, who was for a time an inmate of his house, the husband of his sister, Mercy, and with only one year's dif- ference in age, his mind certainly furnished as congenial soil as could be found for the propagation of the seeds of patriotic resistance to the infringe- ment of personal rights. And Mr. Warren found able coadjutors among the gentlemen whose names have been quoted in connection with the above votes and reports. The Watsons, Lothrops, Jacksons, May- hews, Thomases, and Torreys were all as active as Mr. Warren in giving a patriotic tone and spirit to the voice of their town, and were only less useful as the sphere of their operations was less comprehen- sive. But the feeling in the town was far from being unanimous against what were called eneroachments of royal power. There were many, among the most active and educated and opulent citizens, who be- lieved that these encroachments were only justifiable efforts to suppress illegal and unwarrantable demon- strations, and while they suffered themselves from the chastisement, it was their venerated mother who inflicted it, and they loved her still. Edward Wins-

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

low, together with his son, Edward, held the offices of clerk of the court, register of probate, and col- lector of the port, and the latter was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1765. Both left Plymouth after the British army evacuated Boston, the one in 1776, the other in 1778, the father going to Halifax, where he died in 1784, and the son to New Bruns- wick, where he became chief justice of the province, and died in 1815, leaving a family, which has always occupied positions of high civil and social rank. Thomas Foster, also a graduate of Harvard in 1745, was repeatedly honored by a seat in the Assembly and other positions of trust in the gift of his native town. He also removed to Halifax in 1776, returning, how- ever, in 1777, and dying that year, in Plymouth, of smallpox. Pelham Winslow, son of Gen. John Winslow, a graduate of Harvard in 1753, was an attorney-at-law and a man of culture. He also left Plymouth in 1776, and, while with the British army on Long Island, soon after died. John Thomas, a kinsman of Gen. John Thomas, one of the founders of the Old Colony Club, and the owner of the building in Market Street once called Old Colony Hall, in which the club was organized and held its meetings, left his family and possessions and retired to Liver- pool, Nova Scotia, where the remainder of his days was spent. Gideon White, a young man of twenty- three, visiting friends among the British officers in Boston, engaged with them as a volunteer at the battle of Bunker Hill, and on his return was sent by his father to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, to escape the pun- ishment he feared at the hands of the Committee of Correspondence. In January, 1777, he was taken prisoner at Liverpool by Capt. Simeon Sampson, then cruising in command of a Massachusetts armed vessel, and brought back to his home. After a short im- prisonment he was conditionally released on the fol- lowing bond, now in the possession of the author, his grandson :

" Know all men hy these prosents, that we, Gideen Whito, Jr., as principal, and George Watson and Isaac Le Baren as surc- ties, are helden and de stand firmly heund and obliged unto Thomas Mayhew, chairman of the Committee of Correspond- ence fer tho town of Plymouth, in the full and just sum ef two hundred pounds, te he paid te the said Themas Mayhew or to his successer in said ethice, for the use of the State of Massa- chusetts Bay, te which payment well and truly to be made we hind ourselves as aferesaid, eur heirs, oxocuters, and adminis- trators, firmly by these presents. Sealed with our seals. Datod at Plymouth aferesaid, the 27th of January, 1777.

" The condition of the above writton ehligation is such, that whereas, the aheve named Gidoen Whito has resided in the Prevince of Nova Scotia for seme considorablo timo, and was taken hy Capt. Sampson. If, thorcfore, tho said Gideon Whito shall frem the dato horeof confino himself within the limits of his father's houso and garden, and not depart therefrom

without liherty first had from lawful authority (except on the Sabhath to attend public worship, and shall he forthcoming when called fer hy said authority), thon the ahove written oh- ligation shall he void, otherwise to remain in full ferce and virtue.

"Signed, sealed, and "GIDEON WHITE, Jr.

delivered in presence of us. " GEORGE WATSON.

" CONSIDER HOWLAND.

" ISAAC LE BARON.

" THOMAS MAYHEW, JR."

Mr. White was finally unconditionally released, and purchasing a commission as captain in the British army, served in that capacity during the war, and finally settled in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. His son, Nathaniel, graduated at Harvard in 1812, leaving Cambridge before commencement, on account of hos- tilities which had recently broken out with Great Britain. On Commencement Day his part in the exercises was announced by the president as " Oratio in lingua latina a White omittita propter bellum."

But besides those whose names have been men- tioned above, there were many silent sympathizers with the royal cause. They neither saw sufficient reason for breaking the tics which had so long bound them, nor believed that the efforts to sever them would be successful. Persons suspected by the com- mittee of disloyalty to the patriot cause, were sum- moned by them to take the oath of fidelity. The following document is a copy of one of two in the author's possession, including, however, the names contained in both, which not only indicates the method of procedure, but the class of persons under suspicion :

" To Thomas Mayhew, one of the Justices of the Peace in the County of Plymouth :

"I, the subscriher, clerk of the Committee of correspondence, inspection, and safety for the town of Plymouth, truly represent to you, as a Justice of the Peace in the county aforesaid, that there is, in the opinion of said Committee, sufficient reason to suspect that the following persons, viz., Edward Winslow and George Watson, Esquircs, Capt. Gideen White, John Watson, Benjamin Churchill, Capt. Themas Davis, Capt. Barnahas Hedge, Isaac Le Baron, Samuel Hunt, Ichabod Shaw, John Kempten, John Kempton, Jr., Zaccheus Kempton, Benjamin Rider, William Le Baren, Enooh Randall, William Cuffee, Jorry Connel, Richard Durfey, Lemnel Cobb, and James Dotey, Jr., are inimical te the United States, and you aro requested upen this representation te preceed immodiately against the ahove namod persens, agrceahly te an act of said State passed the present session of tho Genoral Court, entitled an Aot for prescribing and establishing an oath of fidolity and allegiance. " Per erder of the Committoe ef Correspondence.

" ANDREW CRESWELL, Clerk. " PLYMOUTH, 11 of February, 1778."

Many of these gentlemen, whether justly suspected or otherwise, afterwards rendered valuable service. Samuel Hunt, Benjamin Rider, Enoch Randall, and James Dotey, Jr., served in the army. George Wat- son, with his prudence, sagacity, and wisdom, was al-

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

ways a counselor to whom, in the darkest days, the town looked for the safest advice. Thomas Davis, during the suffering of 1774, made a gift of fifteen pounds to the poor, and in both of the general sub- scriptions organized by the town, in 1780 and 1781, to hire recruits to fill the town's quota, he was the largest contributor. But it is not necessary to follow the successive steps taken by the town in its approach to the great struggle which impended. Meetings were constantly held at the suggestion of the Com- mittee of Correspondence, instructions to representa- tives were from time to time given, active efforts were made to suppress the sale of tea, committees were chosen to uphold the hands of the inhabitants of Boston and to collect subscriptions for their suffering poor, until at last the skirmish at Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, was followed by the meeting of the Continental Congress on the 10th of May, and a call was made for men. In responding to this and succeeding calls Plymouth was never backward. Every effort, both municipal and personal, was made to fill each quota as fast as assigned. At one time a bounty of twenty bushels of corn, or their equiva- lent in money, was voted to three-months' men; at another, forty shillings per month, in addition to army pay, to six-months' men; again, twenty shill- ings per month to three months' men ; one hundred dollars bonus and twenty shillings per month, to eight-months' men ; one hundred and twenty pounds to each recruit for the war, and on two occasions, in 1780 and 1781, the town was divided into classes, each of which, by a forced subscription, was required to furnish one recruit for the Continental army. In 1780 twenty-seven men were needed, and the sub- scribers were divided into twenty-seven classes, each class subscribing sixteen pounds as a bounty for one enlisted soldier. In 1781 twelve men were needed, and each of twelve classes subscribed twenty-three pounds. Nor was this all. At one time forty-five hundred pounds were voted to buy clothing for the army, and the same amount for the support of sol- diers' families. These amounts probably represent a depreciated currency, but appropriations of money, similar in their character, were constantly made, in- volving the town in a debt which, at the end of the war, proved a serious burden.

At the time of the battle of Lexington a company of British troops, called the " Queen's Guards," was stationed at Marshfield, but withdrawn the day after that memorable event had demonstrated the willing- ness of the defenders of liberty to fight. On the very day of their withdrawal, April 20, 1775, a de- tachment of Plymouth militia, under command of

Col. Theophilus Cotton, of Plymouth, marched to Marshfield, and, had not the skirmishes at Concord and Lexington occurred the day before, it is probable that Marshfield would have been the scene of the first bloodshed in the Revolution. The detachment con- sisted of the two following companies :

Theophilus Cotton, col. John Morton.

Jesse Harlow, capt. Nath' Torrey.

Thomas Morton, lieut. John Bacon.

John Torrey, ensign.

Joshua Totman.

Peter Kimball, sergt.

Isaac Bartlett.

Zadock Churchill, sergt.

Branch Churchill.

Philip Leonard, sergt.

Josiah Bartlett.

Amaziah Harlow, sergt.

Lazarus Harlow.

Thomas Hackman, corp.

Jabez Harlow.

Ezra Harlow, corp.

Abner Bartlett, drummer.

Eleazer Morton.

Benjamin Hoye, fifer.

Lemuel Leach,

Bradford Barnes.

Sylvester Morton.

Barzillai Stetson.

Ebenezer Harlow.

Edward Doten.

Thomas Clark.

Samuel Rogers.

Caleb Morton.

Lemuel Bradford. William Finney.

Samuel Sherman. Joshua Black.

Elijah Sherman.

John Paty.

Nath1 Morton.

John Philips.

William Howard.

David Morton.

Samuel Churchill.

Lemuel Barnes.

Elkanah Churchill.

Crosby Luce.

Lemuel Morton.

Bartlett Holmes.

Malachi Bartlett.

-Caleb Holmes.

Nath' Curtis.

Benjamin Jennings.

- John Cotton.

Francis Cobb.

John Washburn.

Ezra Finney.

James Cushman.

Ansel Faunce.

Abijah Keyes.

Abraham Hammatt, capt.

Samuel Bartlett, Jr.

Thomas Mayhew, lieut.

James Murdock.

Nath1 Lewis, ensign.

William Allerton.

George Dunham, sergt.

Richard Drew, Jr.

. William Curtis, sergt.

William Morton.

Benjamin Warren, sergt.

Isaac Atwood.

Timothy Goodwin, sergt.

Silas Morton.

William Holmes.

Richard Bagnall, corp.

Thomas Faunce.

James Savory, corp.

Wait Atwood.

John May, corp.

Nath1 Thomas.

William Green, drummer.

John Thomas.

Josiah Cotton.

George Dunham (3d).

Samuel Bacon.

Stephen Drew.

Robert Dunham.

David Burbank.

Josiah Dunham.

Zenas Macomber.

David Allen.

Levi Shurtleff.

Robert Treat.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 32

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