USA > Massachusetts > History of the Military company of the Massachusetts, now called the Ancient and honorable artillery company of Massachusetts. 1637-1888, Vol. I > Part 28
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Nov. 27, 1676, a great fire occurred in Boston, "at the North end of the town," which consumed forty-six dwelling-houses, besides a meeting-house and other buildings. Among the former was that of Thomas Joy (1658). In an attempt to widen the streets after the fire, there were differences between Thomas Joy (1658) and the selectmen, which were settled by referees, Aug. 1, 1677.
At the time of the church troubles in Boston in 1646, several members of the Artillery Company were prominent, especially Thomas Fowle (1639) and David Yale (1640). The trouble got into the courts; the petitioners for a larger liberty were convicted, fined, or imprisoned. Mr. Drake, in his History of Boston, p. 297, in explaining this contention, says, "Thomas Joy [1658], a young carpenter, for some kind offices to the prisoners, and inquiring of the marshal when he went to search Mr. Dand's study, if his warrant were in the King's name, 'was laid hold on, and kept in irons four or five days,' which was sufficient to extort a confession of wrong on his part, as it allowed him to return to the care of his family, 'upon reasonable bail.' Thus, arbitrary power shows its strength and importance, when those in the more humble walks of life are accidentally or otherwise thrown within its insolent grasp."
Thomas Joy (1658) was admitted to be a freeman in 1665, and died Oct. 21, 1678. His son, Samuel, joined the Artillery Company in 1665.
Hudson Leverett (1658), the only son of Gov. John (1639) and Hannah (Hudson) Leverett who grew to manhood, was born in Boston, May 3, 1640. He was never admitted to be a freeman, nor did he attain any distinction in the church, which in his time was the first step to all preference. He married (1) Sarah, daughter of Bezaleel Peyton, who died June 7, 1679, and (2) about 1692, Elizabeth Myham, a widow, who survived him, and died Dec. 16, 1714. Though the son of a past commander of the Artillery Company, he never held any office in the organization except that of clerk, in
Thomas Joy (1658). AUTHORITIES: Boston Records; Savage's Gen. Dict .; Savage's Edition of Winthrop's Hist. of New Eng.
Hudson Leverett (1658). AUTHORITIES: Sav- age's Edition of Winthrop's Hist. of New Eng .; New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1850.
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1662-3. Hutchinson, I., 323, says, he " did not support the reputation of his father." He was crier of the court at quarter-sessions in June, 1687.
He died in the summer of 1694. The will of Hudson Leverett (1658) is on file in the probate office of Suffolk County, No. 1986, but is not recorded ; it is dated Oct. 10, 1692. His son, John, was the eighth president of Harvard College, and joined the Artillery Company in 1704.
Simon Lynde (1658), of Boston in 1650, was born in London, England, in June, 1624. He was bred to trade in Holland, and after coming to Boston and residing here several years,- 1650 to 1670,-he returned to London and was engaged in business. He married, in Boston, Feb. 22, 1653, Hannah Newgate. In Boston Town Records, April 27, 1655, he first appears as being in arrears to the town forty shillings, for four years' rent. He was a constable in 1659. He was clerk of the Artillery Company in 1661, first sergeant in 1669, and was a soldier in King Philip's War. In 1672, he was interested as a land speculator in planting a colony near Stonington, Conn. He died Nov. 22, 1687.
Samuel Maverick (1658), of Boston, was found here on Noddles Island, in 1630, by the Massachusetts Company. There is no record of the time of his arrival. By his deposition, made Dec. 9, 1665, we learn that he was born in 1602. He had fortified his island home with four small pieces of artillery prior to Mr. Winthrop's visit, in 1630. He became a freeman Oct. 2, 1632. In 1635, being too much given to hospitality, he was required to change his residence and move to the peninsula; but the order was not strictly enforced. The same year he went to Virginia to buy corn, and arrived home with two vessels well laden, Aug. 3, 1636. In July, 1637, Samuel Maverick (1658) entertained Lord Ley and Mr. Vane. Mr. Josselyn says that, July 10, 1638, he went on shore upon Noddles Island to Mr. Samuel Maverick (1658), who was "the only hospitable man in all the country ; giving entertainment to all comers, gratis." In 1641, he was prosecuted for receiving into his house persons who had escaped from prison in Boston ; but in 1645 he made a loan to the town, that the fort on Castle Island might be rebuilt. He was again prosecuted in 1646, and fined fifty pounds for signing a petition of "a seditious character" to the General Court. In 1664, he was appointed by the King a commissioner, to perfect peace in the colonies. His name occurs repeatedly in the Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, but it does not appear that Mr. Maverick (1658) ever held any position in the colonial militia.
Henry Messinger (1658), of Boston, was a joiner, and was admitted to be a free- man in 1665. He received a grant of land, Jan. 27, 1640, at Muddy River. The Book
Simon Lynde (1658). AUTHORITIES: New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1866; Savage's Gen. Dict. Samuel Maverick (1658). AUTHORITIES : Sumner's Hist. of East Boston; Savage's Gen. Dict .; New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1854; Savage's Edition of Winthrop's Hist. of New Eng .; Eliot's Biog. Dict.
" [April 1, 1633.] Noddles Island is granted to Mr. Samuel Maverick, to enjoy to him and his heirs forever, yielding and paying yearly at the general court to the governour for the time being, either a fat wether, a fat hog, or £10 in money, and shall give leave to Boston and charlestown to fetch wood
continually, as their need require, from the southern part of the said island." - Records of Mass. Bay, Vol. I., p. 104.
Winnisimmet Ferry, both to Charlestown and Boston, was also granted to him forever.
Mr. Whitman (1810) gives this name as James Maverick. In the oldest copy of the roll, 16So, it is plainly written, " Mr Samll Maverick." The tran- script of 1745 gives the name as James Maverick, which led Mr. Whitman (1810) into an error.
Henry Messinger (1658). AUTHORITIES : New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1862; Savage's Gen. Dict.
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of Possessions locates Henry Messinger's (1658) house and garden. His lot was that on which now stands the building of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and in part that of the Boston Museum. His will of March 15, 1678, gave the estate to his wife, who at her death gave it to their two sons. The father died previous to April 30, 1681, when his estate was appraised. His son, Simeon, joined the Artillery Company in 1675.
Richard Price (1658), of Boston, married, Aug. 18, 1659, Elizabeth Cromwell, only daughter of Thomas, whom Mr. Savage calls " the prosperous privateersman," and the Memorial History of Boston designates as " the reformed freebooter." His name, with that of Simon Lynde (1658) and twenty-four others, is attached to a petition to the court, October, 1666, in favor of acknowledging the King's authority. He was a free- man, with prefix of respect, in 1664.
Nathaniel Reynolds (1658), of Boston, was a son of Robert, of Watertown and Boston, to whom Capt. Robert Keayne (1637) thus refers in his will : " Item, I give unto our Brother Renolds, shoemaker, senior, Twenty shillings as a token of my respects to him if he be living two yeares after my decease, not forgetting a word that he spake publiquely & seasonably in the time of my distresse & other mens vehement opposition against me."
He married, (1) Nov. 30, 1657, Sarah Dwight, of Dedham. She died July 8, 1663, and he married, (2) before Feb. 21, 1666, Priscilla Brackett, of Boston. He was admitted a freeman in 1665, and was in command of the garrison at Chelmsford in 1675-6. On Feb. 25 of that year, the inhabitants of that town petitioned the court to allow him to remain for their protection. He was interested in the organization of the town of Bristol, R. I., where he lived for a short time, but later returned to Boston.
May 12, 1675, the General Court confirmed Nathaniel Reynolds (1658) as lieu- tenant of the foot company of Capt. William Hudson (1640).
April 27, 1691, the town of Boston granted liberty to Josiah Franklin to erect a building eight feet square, upon the land belonging to Lieut. Nathaniel Reynolds (1658), near the South Meeting-House.
He held town office, was constable in 1655, sealer of leather, or inspector of the transportation of hides, from 1663 to 1692. He is in the Boston tax list of 1695, but was then a resident of Bristol, R. I.
Joseph Rock (1658), of Boston in 1652, married (1) Elizabeth, daughter of John Coggan (1638), which brought him a good estate. He married (2) Mary, daughter of Rev. John Wilson, of Boston. He became a freeman in 1652, and was one of the founders of the Third, or Old South, Church. He was elected constable of Boston, March 14, 1653, and on the 4th of April was fined twenty shillings for not accepting the office. On the 18th of the latter month, he was re-elected, and again was fined twenty shillings for refusing to accept. In 1654, he served as clerk of the market, and in 1655 was a constable. His will of Jan. 18, 1683, was proved on the 3d of January next following.
Nathaniel Reynolds (1658). AUTHORITIES : New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1855, 1888; Sav- age's Gen. Dict .; Shurtleff's Topog. Des. of Boston.
Joseph Rock (1658). AUTHORITIES: Hill's Hist. of Old South Church; Savage's Gen .. Dict .; Boston Records.
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John Sunderland (1658), of Boston, was a parchment maker ; became a member of the First Church, April 9, 1643, and a freeman May 10 following. He was unfor- tunate in business, and, in 1672, made a conveyance of his goods to John Vial, in trust, for his wife and children. He removed to Eastham, and there died, Dec. 26, 1703, aged eighty-five years. His will provided for his widow and children.
Richard Woodcock (1658), of Boston, is called in the Records of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. IV., Part 2, "armorer" in 1661. He was then paid four pounds and nine shillings for the repairing of the country's arms. He died Nov. 12, 1662.
Rev. John Mayo, of Boston, preached the annual Artillery sermon in 1658. He came to America in 1638, was admitted a freeman March 3, 1640, and was ordained to the gospel ministry, as colleague with Rev. John Lothrop, at Barnstable, April 15, 1640. He removed to Eastham in 1646, where he preached until Nov. 9, 1655, when he was installed as pastor of the Second, or North, Church in Boston. He held this relation until 1672, when physical infirmities obliged him to resign, and in 1673 he removed from Boston to Barnstable, to reside with his daughter. There, at Yarmouthport, he spent the remainder of his days in peace and quiet, dying in May, 1676.
1 1659-60 The officers elected were: Thomas Savage (1637), captain ; William Davis (1643), lieutenant ; Richard Sprague (1638), ensign. Robert Turner ( 1640) was first sergeant ; John Biggs (1641), second sergeant ; William Cotton (1650), clerk ; Thomas Scottow, drummer, and John Audlin (1638), armorer.
The colony was convulsed this year by the Quakers. A law was passed making it a capital offence for a Quaker to return into any colony after being banished from it, a threat that never before had failed of its desired effect. The first six Quakers who were banished after its enactment departed and never returned, but Marmaduke Stevenson, having heard of it in Barbadoes, came to Rhode Island, and with his friend, William Robinson, announced that he was commanded to come to Boston and lay down his life.
Capt. Edward Hutchinson (1638) and Capt. Thomas Clarke (1638), members of the General Court, entered their dissent against the law. They were not censured or troubled. The person most conspicuous in doing humane acts toward the persecuted Quakers was a member of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Nicholas Upshall (1637). He fed and sheltered them at the hospitable Red Lion Tavern. He had com- passion on them when imprisoned, and shared their imprisonment. He was fined, - banished ; having returned to his home, was imprisoned for two years. When Robinson and Stevenson were hanged on Boston Common, it was this same Upshall (1637) "who caused pales to be brought to fence the place, into which they were cast, that so their bodies might not be preyed upon by the bruit creation."
The new members recruited in 1659-60 were : Hugh Drury, Richard Waldron.
John Sunderland (1658). AUTHORITIES : Savage's Gen. Dict .; Boston Records.
Rev. John Mayo. AUTHORITIES: Hist. of the
Second Church, by Chandler Robbins; Sprague's Annals of American Pulpit.
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Hugh Drury (1659), of Boston in 1640, was a carpenter. He was a member of the First Church ; became a freeman in 1654, and was chosen a surveyor of highways the same year. He was elected constable of Boston in 1655 and 1656; was appointed to survey the mill bridge in 1659. He was commissioned lieutenant in Capt. Hench- man's fifth militia company in Boston, May 16, 1675, and was elected second sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1664. He resided in Sudbury for a short time, - 1641 to 1645, - but returned to Boston. On the corner of what is now Batterymarch Street and Liberty Square, once stood a well-known ordinary, which in 1673 was known as the "Blue Bell," and as early as 1674 was jointly tenanted by Deacon Henry Allen (1658) and Hugh Drury (1659). In 1692, it was called the " Castle Tavern," of which at his decease Hugh Drury (1659) owned a half.
He married (1) Lydia Rice, who died April 5, 1675, and (2) Mary, widow of Edward Fletcher (1643). He died in July, 1689, and was buried with his wife, Lydia, in the King's Chapel Burial-Ground.
Richard Waldron (1659), of Dover in 1635, was born at Alcester, Warwick County, England, in 1615. He was a man of unusual ability and great influence. He was representative in 1654, 1657, 1661, and very often after for several years, being speaker from 1666 to 1669 inclusive, 1673, 1674 to 1676, and last in 1679. He was active in military matters ; became a captain quite early, and served as major in the Indian war of 1675-6 ; a counsellor under the new form of government of New Hampshire in 1680 ; the same year was made commander-in-chief of the militia of the province, and on the death of President Cutt, in 1681, was at the head of the province until the arrival of a royal Governor, Cranfield, in October, 1682. He was killed by the Indians, June 27, 1689, under circumstances of the most inhuman cruelty. He was a brave man, venerable in years and public service, who had sustained with honor the highest offices in the province, and long been one of its strongest pillars.
Rev. John Norton, who preached the Artillery election sermon in 1659, also deliv- ered the election sermon before the Company in 1644.
On the death of Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, in December, 1652, Rev. John Norton received a call to succeed him, which, being accepted in 1653, he was installed July 23, 1656. He occupied the pulpit of the First Church until his decease, April 5, 1663. His wife, a daughter of John Fernsley, of Suffolk, England, joined those who seceded from the First Church on the ordination of Rev. John Davenport, of New Haven, as the successor of her husband, and founded the Third, or Old South, Church. On the Ist of April, 1669, she gave by deed the land on which the Old South meeting- house stands, corner of Washington and Milk streets, and in 1677 she gave the remainder of her land, and the house in which she resided.
Hugh Drury (1659). AUTHORITIES: Hud- son's Hist. of Sudbury; Boston Records; Savage's Gen. Dict .; New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1877.
Richard Waldron (1659). AUTHORITIES : New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1855; Savage's Gen.
Dict .; Sketches of Hist. ot New tHampshire, by John M. Whiton.
Rev. John Norton. AUTHORITIES : Mather's Magnalia; Maclure's Life of Norton; Young's Chron .; New Eng. Memorial; Emerson's Ilist. of First Church in Boston,
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The officers elected were : Daniel Denison (1660), captain ; William 1 660- I . Hudson (1640), lieutenant ; Thomas Lake (1653), ensign. John Webb (1655) was first sergeant ; Thomas Clarke (1644), second sergeant , William Cotton (1650), clerk; Thomas Scottow, drummer, and John Audlin (1638), armorer.
Massachusetts had not officially proclaimed either Cromwell or his son as Lord High Protector, and was tardy in acknowledging allegiance to Charles II. Learning, however, that the Quakers in England were making complaints against the colonial government, the General Court adopted a loyal address, in which they represented "New England kneeling with the rest of your subjects, before your Majesty as her restored king." A brief but gracious answer was returned, followed by an order for the arrest of Gens. Goffe and Whalley, the fugitive regicides, who had come to Boston.
The regicides, Lieut .- Gen. Edward Whalley and Major-Gen. William Goffe, sat as judges at the trial of King Charles I. They served under Cromwell during the civil war and after it, being, Savage says, relatives of the Great Protector. On the Restora- tion, they fled from England, and arrived at Boston July 27, 1660. They were courteously received by the Governor, magistrates, and principal men.
The regicides, in February, 1661, proceeded to New Haven, Conn., lived there in concealment, and in October, 1664, took up permanent residence at Hadley, with Rev. John Russell. Goffe died about 1679, and Whalley a year or two previously.
The new members recruited in 1660-I were : Matthew Barnard, Daniel Denison, John Hull, Zechariah Phillips, and Daniel Turell.
Matthew Barnard (1660), of Boston, a carpenter, was born in England. His father, Bartholomew, of Boston, who, with his family, came to America in 1651, was also a carpenter. Matthew (1660) was admitted a freeman in 1673; is called sergeant in Boston Records, Feb. 29, 1671-2 ; was first sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1664, and a lieutenant in the military company under command of Capt. John Richards (1644), May 12, 1675.
He died May 9, 1679, aged fifty-four years, and was buried on Copp's Hill.
His brother, Richard, joined the Artillery Company in 1662; his son John in 1677; his son Thomas in 1681.
Daniel Denison (1660), son of William, of Roxbury, was born in England in 1612, being about nineteen years of age when he came to America. He passed the first year after his arrival in Roxbury with his parents, but removed the following year, 1633, to Cambridge, his name being on the list of first settlers and church-members He there married Patience, daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley. He took the oath of a freeman April 1, 1634, and in 1635 moved to Ipswich, Mass. He was there chosen deputy in 1635, 1636, and 1637, and also from 1640 to 1652 inclusive. The honor of the speakership was conferred upon him during the sessions of 1649, and again in the years 1651 and 1652. He held other local offices between 1636 and 1643, and in the latter year the
Matthew Barnard (1660). AUTHORITIES : Records of Mass. Bay; Savage's Gen. Dict .; Copp's Hill Burial-Ground, by Bridgman; New Eng. Ilist. and Gen. Reg., 1848.
Daniel Denison (1660). AUTHORITIES : New
Eng. Ilist. and Gen. Reg., 1851, 1854, 1869; Sav- age's Edition of Winthrop's Ilist. of New Eng .; Eliot's Biog. Dict .; Records of Mass. Bay; Denison Memorial, Ipswich, 1882.
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town presented him with two hundred acres of land. He held the office of assistant from 1654 until his decease. In 1637, he was a member of the memorable court which judged Mrs. Hutchinson and her antinomian sympathizers. He was captain of the first volunteer train-band of Ipswich, 1636; and, in 1643, as it was reported that a conspiracy existed among the native tribes against the whites, Capt. Denison (1660), with five others, was ordered to " put the country into a posture of war." Enlistments were made in Ipswich and the adjoining towns ; a military company was incorporated, and the town agreed to pay Major Denison (1660) twenty-four pounds seven shillings annually, to be their military leader.
Mr. Johnson (1637), in his Wonder-Working Providence, thus speaks of him : " Their [Essex and Norfolk Regiments'] first Major who now commandeth this regi- ment is the proper and valiant Major Daniel Denison [1660]; a good soldier, and of a quick capacity, not inferior to any other of these chief officers ; his own company are well instructed in feats and warlike activity."
In 1644, he became the first sergeant-major of the Essex Regiment, and, in 1653, sergeant-major-general, as successor to Gen. Sedgwick (1637).
In 1646, Major Denison (1660) was selected by the General Court, with Deputy- Gov. Dudley and Hawthorne, with full powers to settle with D'Aulnay, a French Governor in Acadia. In 1647, he was appointed one of the justices of the inferior court, sitting at Ipswich. In May, 1658, he was selected by the General Court to codify the laws of the colony, " to diligently peruse, examine, compare," retaining the plain and good, and rejecting the obscure and contradictory. In a few months, the work was done and the laws were printed in one volume. As a compensation for " transcribing the lawes " the court granted him a quarter part of Block Island. In 1657, he was appointed to confer with the dissatisfied people of Maine, which resulted in the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts being extended over Kittery, York, etc. Major Denison (1660) was one of the commissioners of Massachusetts at the Congress of the Confederated New England Colonies. He was outspoken in regard to the Quakers in 1657, and was opposed to the war against the Narragansets. The command of an expedition against the Indians he declined. During King Philip's War, in 1675, Major Denison (1660) was commander- in-chief of the Massachusetts forces. Being prevented by illness from taking the field, the active command devolved on Major Thomas Savage (1637). Oct. 10, 1677, the General Court granted to Gen. Denison (1660) an island of six or seven acres, opposite the middle of his farm, for his distinguished services. In 1660, he was captain of the Artil- lery Company.
Notwithstanding his life was so busy with public matters, he found time to write and publish, " Irenicon, or Salve for New England's Sore."
Gen. Denison (1660) died Sept. 20, 1682. Mr. Randolph, in 1673, enumerates him as "among the most popular and well-principled men." His pastor selected as the text for his funeral sermon, " For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator." (Isaiah iii. 1-3.)
He was buried in High Street burying-ground, Ipswich, Mass. A heavy slab of red stone, the inscriptions of which are nearly obliterated, marks his grave.
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John Hull (1660), of Boston, was the son of Robert Hull, a blacksmith, who was a brother of Capt. John Hull (1638). He was born Dec. 18, 1624, at Market Har- borough, Leicester County, England, and came to America in the ship "George," with his parents, from Bristol, England, arriving Nov. 7, 1635. "He was," says Mather, " the son of a poor woman, but dutiful to and tender of his mother, which Mr. Wilson, his minister, observing, pronounced that God would bless him, and although he was then poor, yet he should raise a large estate." In his diaries, he left accounts which are of interest, as showing the inner life of a Puritan merchant interested in the military. He was admitted a freeman May 2, 1649, and in his twenty-third year (11th 3ª mo, 1647) married Judith, daughter of Edmund Quincy.
Massachusetts was the only colony that attempted to coin money. The General Court authorized John Hull (1660), "a silversmith," and Robert Sanderson, of Boston, for "melting, refyning and cojning of silver." Three denominations were coined, shilling, sixpence, and threepence. The first coinage (1652) had only the initials of New England on one side and Roman numerals, XII., VI., or III., expressive of value, on the other. The coinage for thirty years bore the date " 1652." Very soon, however, the court ordered that all pieces of money should have on one side, " Massachusetts," and a pine-tree in the centre, and " New England," with the date on the other. Mr. Hull (1660) was allowed to take as his pay fifteen pence out of every twenty shillings. The court soon discovered that Mr. Hull (1660) had a very advantageous contract, and sought to be released, but Mr. Hull (1660) declined so to do. The mint-master amassed a large fortune by the profits of his contract. Hannah, his only child who grew up, married, Feb. 14, 1658, Samuel Sewall (1679), afterward chief-justice of the province. Mr. Whitman (1810) repeats the tradition, that when dressed for the wedding and in presence of the guests, her father placed her in his large scales, and piled on the silver shillings in the other until the scales balanced. It is said that thus Judge Sewall (1679) received, with the bride, thirty thousand pounds in New England shillings.
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