USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 54
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 54
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To Indian Corn by estimation 100 Bushells,
15 0
0
To Debts due the Estate,
159
7 0
To cash now in honse,
27
7 0
To 2 Scyths, 3 axes, a beetle and wedges,
0 18 0
To corne house and stable,
11
0 0
To 60 lb of yarn,
5 0 0
To an Indian man's time 2 years,
3 0 0
To an Indian boy's time 2 years,
5
0 0
1290 0 0
JOSEPH PENNIMAN, NATHANIEL WALES, BENJAMIN SAVELL.
March 31, 1798.
0 0
To 50 acres of Swamp near Moors Farm,
568
MISCELLANEOUS.
grass seed to sow the land with. This condition of matters made salt meadows for the time being, quite valuable, as one acre of salt meadow was worth two of upland, and upon this basis the division of land was made.
The dwellings of the earlier settlers were constructed of logs and called block or log houses. The better class of them had their chinks filled up with mud to protect them from the cold, chilly blasts of winter. A chimney was erected from the centre of the building, through the roof. The enclosed top of the structure was thatched, and so important did the Colonists con- sider the preservation of this material for the protection of these log houses from the inclemency of the weather, that every town was ordered to construct a house in which to secure the long, beach grass for this purpose.1 In these rudely-constructed log cabins some of the first town meetings were held, by a few neighbors assembling together for the transaction of town busi- ness. They were a sort of travelling institutions,-sometimes being held at Mr. Saunder's and at other times at Col. Quincy's, Mr. Brackett's, etc., or in neighborhoods where the principal business of that meeting was to be acted upon.
Their culinary utensils were few and simple; pewter dishes and plates, and a limited number of pots and kettles, were all they had. No knives or forks,-fingers and napkins were the popular etiquette of the table in the management of their hum- ble repasts. Knives and forks were not much known in Eng- land before 1650, and did not come into common use in the Colonies until a much later period, as we are not able to find them enumerated in the earlier inventories of estates of the first settlers of the town. The morning and evening meals, for over
2. " The inhabitants of a towne within this jurisdiction, at their first setting down, did gennerally agree to sett apart a certaine parcell of land to the value of about 20 acres, lying betwixt the salt marsh and the lowe water mark, for the use of the whole town, to be improved ffor thatching howses, the want whereof is very prejudicial to the towne, since which time this honnored Generall Court, by an order of theirs, have made all lands to low water marks to belong to the proprietors of the land adjoyning thereunto. The aforesaid inhabitants, not being able to resolve themselves, humbly desire the resolutions of the honnored Generall Courte, Whether the order of Court make voyd the proceeding towne order."-Mass. Records, Vol. III, p. 181.
569
MISCELLANEOUS.
a century, were hasty pudding, milk and hominy, broth or por- ridge, as it was called, flavored by salt pork being boiled in it. Meat was rarely nsed, as their oxen were preserved for dranght, cows for their milk and butter, and sheep for their wool to clothe themselves; also, to make their flock beds. Those who could spare time from their farm labor could procure wild fowl and fish near the shores, and a few wild turkeys by hunting them in the woods. Their substitute for tea and coffee, was home made beer. The malt for making their beer was procured at Mr. Joseph Adams' malt house, or at Mr. Bass'. After their orchards of apple trees were established, the social mug of old cider became a favorite beverage. Why tea and coffee were so long deferred from coming into the Provinces, we are not able to state, unless it was the high prices asked for these articles of Inxury. Tea was very rarely used in England before 1657, and was sold from six to ten pounds per pound. Pepys, the noted connoisseur and great lover of good cheer, does not record his first cup of tea until Sept. 25th, 1660. Coffee was not brought into England until 1641. The first coffee house was opened by a Jew in Oxford, in 1650. A Greek opened the first house of this nature in London, on Lombard street, in 1652. It was about a century after this period, before tea began to be commonly used in the Provinces, and it was over a century before coffee was familiarly known, or in common use by our ancestors.
Subsequently, baked beans, the New Englander's favorite dish for Sunday meals came into nse, and on Saturdays, minced cod- fish and potatoes, and rye and Indian bread, was the fashionable meal, not on Friday, as that would be popish, and whoever used it on that day would be eternally damned, and all the prayers of Cotton Mather and his saintly elders could not have saved him from perdition.
The observance of Christmas by our ancestors was considered a crime, and the penalty for keeping it, was the same as the penalty for playing at dice or cards, and the now popular amuse- ment of dancing was frowned upon as tending to licentiousness and immoral conduct.
The General Court, always desiring to have a fatherly eare over her subjects, concluded that a few sumptuary laws were
78
570
MISCELLANEOUS.
required for the welfare of our good fathers and mothers, and that there should be no mistake or misunderstanding about the matter, they enacted a law to regulate their costume,1 and also to regulate their diet, by forbidding the use of cake or buns,
1. " The Court taking into consideration the greate, superfinous and nunec- essary expence occasioned by reason of some newe and immodest fashion, as also the ordinary weareing of silver, golde, and silke laces, girdles, hatbands, &c., hath therefore ordered that noe person, either man or woman, shall here- after make or buye any apparell, either woolen silk or lynnen, with any lace on it, silver, golde, silk or thread, under the penalty of forfeiture of such clothes.
" Also, that noe person, either man or woman, shall make or buy any slashed cloathes, other than one slashe in each sleeve, and another in the backe, also, all cutt works, imbroidered or needle worke capps, bands, and rayles, are for- bidden hereafter to be made and worne, under the aforesaid penalty, also, all golde or silver girdles, hattbands, belts, ruffs, beaver hatts, are prohibited to be bought and worn hereafter, under the aforesaid penalty.
"Moreover, it is agreed, if any man shall judge the wearing of any the fore- named particulars, newe fashions, or longe hair, or anything of the like nature, to be uncomely or prejudicial} to the common good, and the party offending reform not the same upon notice given him, that then the nexte Assistant, being informed thereof, shall have power to binde the party soe offending to answer it att the nexte Court."
The tailor was the fashionable dress maker of this period, as the ornamenting and trimming of ladies' dresses with gold and silver lace, had to be executed under his charge.
" Whereas there is much complaint of the excessive wearing of lace and other superfluities tending to little use or benefit, but to the nonrishing of pride and exhausting of men's estates, It is ordered, that no taylor, or any other person whatsoever, shall hereafter sit any lace or points upon any garments, either linnen, woollen, or any other wearing clothes whatsoever, and that no person hereafter shalbee imployed in making of any manner of lace, but such as they shall sell to such persons as shall and will transport the same out of this juris- dietion, who in such case, shall have liberty to buy the same. And that here- after no garment shalbee made with short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arme may bee discovered in the wearing thereof; and such as have garments already made with short sleeves shall not hearafter wear the same, unless they cover their armes to the wrist with linnen, or otherwise; and that hereafter no person whatsoever shall make any garments for women, or any of their sex, with sleeves more than half an ell wide in the widest place thereof, and so pro- portionable for bigger or smaller persons."
The stringency of these sumptuary laws created a broil between the Court and Church. The elders complained that some of their members had been too summarily dealt with for not observing the statute, and that the Court had exceeded its jurisdiction in enforcing its penalty on church members, believing that a little whitewashing was more appropriate for their saintly members than the penalty of the law. The Court not to be put down, after paying due deffer-
571
MISCELLANEOUS.
excepting at burials, marriages or such like occasions; the wear- ing of all ornaments, gold, silver, or silk lace was forbidden, as well as hat bands, ruffs, also embroidery or needle work, and the wearing of long hair was an abomination in the sight of God. This enactment was not very acceptable to the dry goods mer- chant or the fashionable dress maker of that day.
ence to the church, answered them by saying that all persons of whatever quality or condition, should and would be punished for the non-observance of the statute.
" And whereas some have beene grieved that such excesses were presented to the Court, which concerned the members of the churche, before the parties. had been dealt with at hoame, intimating thereby that the churches would, upon notice of those abuses in apparell have taken such course as would have reformed their members, and so have prevented the trouble of the Court.
" This Court hath, therefore, thought fitt, (in the great confidence it hath of the care and faithfulness of the churches, ) to stay all proceedings upon the said presentment, in expectation that the officers and members of all the churches, haveing now eleare knowledge, both of the said disorder in apparrell, and the resolution of the Court to attain a generall reformation, will speedily and effectually proceed against all offenders in this kind, and that they will also (from observation of our proneness to follow new fashions, and to fall to excessive costliness in attire ) keepe the more striet watch over all sorts for time to come, and this Court doth hearby intimate to all whom it may concerne, (of what quality or estate soever they may bee) that all such persons as, after all these admonitions and forbearances, shall obstinately persist in their excesse in this kind, shall be looked at as contemners of authority, and regard- less of the publieke weale, and must expect to bee proceeded against by the strietest course of justice, as their offenses shall deserve."
DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
John Adams was born in Braintree, Oct. 19th, 1735, in the most northerly of the two old mansions on Franklin street, owned by his father, and now in possession of his descendants, and graduated at Harvard College in 1755. On leaving college, he taught school in Worcester, where he also studied law in the office of Col. James Putnam. He began the practice of his pro- fession in Braintree about the year 1758, at the age of twenty- three years. The first writ issued by Mr. Adams was on an
action of trespass for a rescue. This gave him considerable uneasiness, as he was apprehensive that it was defective,1 which it proved to be, as it was abated. He soon after removed to Boston, where he became eminent in his profession, and was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; he was chosen one of the delegates to the first Continental Congress in 1774.
Mr. Adams was married to Abigail Smith, daughter of the Rev. William Smith, of Weymouth. By this marriage he be- came allied to a numerous and highly-respectable family con- nection, which greatly assisted him in his professional business.
1. "Monday, Dec. 18, 1758. I this evening delivered to Mr. Field a declara- tion in trespass for a rescue. I was obliged to finish it without sufficient exam- ination. If it should escape an abatement, it is quite undigested and unclerk- like. I am ashamed of it, and concerned for it. If my first writ should be abated, if I should throw a large bill of costs on my first client, my character and business will suffer greatly ; it will be said I do not understand my business. No one will trust his interest in my hands. I never saw a writ on that law of the province. I was perplexed, and am very anxious about it. Now I feel the disadvantages of Putnam's insociability and neglect of me. Had he given me, now and then, a few hints concerning practice, I should be able to judge better at this hour than I can now. I have reason to complain of him, but it is my destiny to dig treasures with my own fingers; nobody will lend me or sell me a pickaxe. How this first undertaking will terminate, I know not. I hope the dispute will be settled between them, or submitted, and so my writ never come to an examination; but, if it should, I must take the consequences; I must assume a resolution to bear without fretting."
573
DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
In 1778, Congress selected him as one of the Commissioners to France; Feb. 13th, he sailed in the frigate Boston, with his son John Q. Adams, then ten years of age, and arrived at Bor- deaux, France, April 8th. Owing to some misdemeanors of Mr. Silas Dean, the commissioners were placed in an embarrassed position ; so much so, that Mr. Adams concluded to take no part with them, and returned home after an absence of seven- teen months.
On his arrival home he was selected by the town of Braintree as delegate to attend a convention for the formation of a State Government, where he took an active and important part; but he was soon called away from the convention to attend to the duty of a commissioner to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain, and for some years he was the American Ambassador to the Court of St. James.
Mr. Adams was chosen Vice-President of the United States in 1789, and at the expiration of Washington's term of office, as President of the United States, Mr. Adams was chosen to suc- ceed him in this high and important position. After his term of office expired he retired to his residence in Quincy. In 1820, he was selected by the citizens of his native town, as a delegate to the State Convention that assembled to amend the State Con- stitution. The remaining portion of his long life was spent in literary labors, and holding correspondence with the most emi- nent statesmen of that period. He, with his co-patriot, Thomas Jefferson, expired on their country's birthday, the 4th of July, 1826. Mr. Adams' age at the time of his death was ninety-one years.
Jedidiah Adams was born in Braintree, Jan. 21st, 1711, and graduated at Harvard College in 1733. On graduating he stud- ied theology, and after preaching as a candidate, he finally set- tled in Stoughton, Feb. 19th, 1746, and the same year married Mary Marsh, of Braintree. He was the seventh son of Capt. Peter Adams, and died in 1799, aged about eighty-nine.
John Quincy Adams was born in the North Precinct of Brain- tree, July 11th, 1767, in the most southerly of the two old
574
DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
mansions now standing on Franklin street. He was named for John Quincy, the person from whom the town of Quincy derived its name after its separation from Braintree.
In March, 1786, Mr. Adams entered the junior class of Har- vard College and graduated in 1787; he received the high com- pliment of having his graduation oration published. Mr. Adams after leaving college, began his law studies at Newburyport, in the office of the late Chief Justice, Theophilus Parsons, where he remained three years. On leaving Newburyport, he opened an office in Boston, where he obtained a successful business and a high rank in the profession. He remained in Boston 'until higher and more important duties called him into the field of diplomacy, for which his previous education had so well fitted him. In 1794, the United States Senate unanimonsly confirmed his nomination as Minister to the Netherlands, for which place he embarked in September, the same year, and took up his resi- dence at Hague. In 1796, he received, while there, an appoint- ment from the Secretary of State, as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Portugal, with instructions not to leave Hague until further orders; he did not receive these instructions until his successor, Mr. Murray, arrived, when he left for England. On his arrival at London, he found his appointment to the Court of Portugal superceded by another to the Court of Berlin. While being delayed in reference to this appointment, Mr. Adams was married on the 26th of July, 1797, to Louisa Catherine Johnson, daughter of Joshua Johnson, the American Consul at London. He went to Berlin, and in July, 1798, received his credentials, and resided there until 1801, when he returned home and re- sumed his profession of law in Boston.
The antipathy of the Federal party, which had been brought about by Hamilton and his friends, in opposition to Mr. Adams' father, appears to have subsided, as they united on Mr. Adams and elected him to the State Senate.
In November he was nominated as a candidate for Represen- tative to Congress, but was defeated by Mr. William Eustis, he having received fifty-nine votes more. The papers of that day attributed his defeat to the cause that it was a rainy day, but Mr. Adams supposed it was owing more to the apathy of the
575
DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
leaders of the Federal party, and made the following remarks on the occasion of his non-success. "This is among the thousand proofs, how large a portion of Federalism is a mere fair weather principle, too weak to overcome a shower of rain. It shows the degree of dependenee that can be placed on such friends. As a party, their adversaries are more sure and more earnest."
In 1803, Mr. Adams, after three ballotings, was chosen to the Senate of the United States; in the fall of the same year he took up his residence in Washington.
During his senatorial term, he became obnoxious to the Fed- eral party for the course he pursued in supporting many import- ant measures of Jefferson's administration in direct opposition to his own party. This so incensed the Federal party, that at the expiration of his term in 1809, they elected James Lloyd in his place.
In 1805, the corporation of Harvard College chose Mr. Adams. as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, which position he accepted. In 1809, President Madison appointed him Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Petersburg. After his confirmation, the Federal party took this opportunity to state through the press, that this appointment was a reward for Mr. Adams' apostacy in joining the administration party. Mr. Adams ably defended himself against this severe animadversion. After having been appointed one of the commissioners to treat for peace with Great Britain, he left St. Petersburg, April 28th, 1814, and proceeded to Ghent, where he met the other commissioners and with them signed the treaty of peace Dec. 24th, 1814.
Peace being amicably settled between the two countries, Mr. Adams, in 1817, embarked in the packet ship Washington for the United States, where he arrived the 7th of August. Soon after his arrival he was appointed by President Monroe, Secre- tary of the State, and he ably fulfilled the duties of this office through both terms of Mr. Monroe's administration.
On the expiration of President Monroe's term of office, Mr. John Quincy Adams was chosen by the House of Representa- tives, President of the United States. After the expiration of his term in 1829, he retired to his home.
In 1831, he was chosen National Representative, and the
576
DISTINGUISHIED INDIVIDUALS.
greater part of his useful life was spent in the halls of Congress, even to the day of his death. On the 21st of February, 1848, he entered the Representative Hall as well as usual, and after the session had begun its duties, he arose paper in hand to address the speaker, and was taken with a shock of paralysis, and fell into the arms of an associate member. While falling he uttered these, his last words, "This is the last of earth, I am content." He was taken to the Speaker's private apartments in the Capitol, where he remained insensible until the evening of the 23d of February, when his noble spirit departed this earth, at the age of eighty years and seven months.
Charles Adams, fourth child and second son of President John Adams, graduated at Harvard College in 1789, and engaged in the profession of law in New York, where he died in 1800.
Thomas Boylston Adams, fifth child and third son of Presi- dent Adams, was born Sept. 15th, 1772, and graduated at Har- vard College in 1790. He engaged in the practice of law in this town, and was appointed Chief Justice of the Southern Cir- cuit of the Court of Common Pleas. He died in 1832.
George Washington Adams, son of John Q. Adams, graduated at Harvard University in 1821. He chose the profession of law, and began practice in Boston. In 1825, he delivered a Fourth of July oration before the citizens of Quincy, which was published. He was chosen in 1826, Representative to the State Legislature from Boston. Mr. Adams died in 1829.
John Adams, second son of John Q. Adams, died Oct. 23d, 1834.
Charles Franeis Adams, third son of John Q. Adams, was born in Boston in 1807, and a large part of his youthful edneation was obtained abroad, while his father was Minister to Foreign Courts. He graduated at Harvard University in 1825; after graduating he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1828.
Mr. Adams represented the city of Boston five years in the
577
DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
State Legislature, three years in the Senate, and two in the House ; he also was editor of the " Boston Whig." In 1848 he was a candidate for Vice President on a ticket with Martin Van Buren.
In 1858 Mr. Adams was elected to represent the third Massa- chusetts Congressional District in Congress. In 1860 he was again re-elected. Mr. Adams did not serve out this term, as he was appointed by President Lincoln, Minister to England, where he sustained the high reputation his grandfather and father had established as a diplomatist. Mr. Adams remained at the Court of St. James until succeeded by Reverdy Johnson, in 1868.
Under the treaty with Great Britain signed May 8th, 1871, which treaty stipulates that a board of arbitrators shall be appointed by the respective governments to meet at Geneva, Switzerland, to settle the Alabama Claims, Mr. Adams was appointed by the United States, to serve on this commission.
Mr. Adams has been quite extensively engaged in the field of literature, having edited the Revolutionary correspondence of his grandfather and grandmother which was published in 1841; he has had published ten volumes of the works of Mr. John Adams, of which he was editor. These were published in 1856. He has recently edited and published twelve volumes of [the works of John Q. Adams. In 1864, Harvard College con- ferred the honorary degree of LL. D. upon him.
Ebenezer Brackett, son of James Brackett, was born May 7th, . 1773, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1789, studied med- icine and commenced practice in Quincy. He wrote a poem in commemoration of Goffe, Whalley and Dixwell, to which an abstract of their history was attached; this poem and history was published in 1793. Dr. Brackett died May 9th, 1794, aged twenty-one years. He was a young man of great promise.
Ebenezer Crosby was born in the North Precinct of Braintree, and graduated at Harvard College in 1777, and at Yale in 1782. He was Professor of Obstetrics in Columbia College, New York. Mr. Crosby died in 1788. In the earlier period of the Revolu-
74
578
DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
tionary War he was appointed Surgeon to Washington's Guards, where he continued till near the close of the war.
The subject of this sketch, the Hon. Benjamin Vinton French, was the eldest son of Moses and Eunice V. French, born in Braintree, July 29th, 1791, married Caroline French, his cousin, Sept. 22d, 1817. Mrs. French after being united in marriage twenty-six years, died Sept. 4th, 1843, aged forty-five. His second wife was Harriet Alice Seger, cousin to Dewitt Clinton, and daughter of William Seger, a native of London, England, and resident of the city of New York. Their marriage occurred Oct. 12th, 1848. In early life, or at the age of twenty-one years, Mr. French began the business of a grocer in Boston. By active diligence, integrity and amiability towards his customers, he amassed a fair competency. As early as 1818, agricultural pursuits attracted his attention, and at this time he began farm- ing in Braintree. His agricultural labors having proved suc- cessful, he made by purchase another addition to his farm in contemplation of making Braintree his permanent place of resi- dence. At the relinquishment of his business in 1836, he came to Braintree and there devoted his time exclusively to his farm of two hundred acres. At the latter part of his life, he became financially embarrassed, but on investigation his estate turned out better than was anticipated.
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