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 8
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Capt. Johnson (1637) died at Woburn on the 23d of April, 1672, leaving a widow, Susanna, five sons, and two daughters. His estate was large and valuable, including lands at Herne Hill and other places in England, which he bequeathed to several of his grand- children. William Johnson, his third son, succeeded him as a representative to the General Court, and was an assistant in 1684, and when Sir Edmund Andros arrived.
Of the twenty-four men who signed the original roll of the Artillery Company prior to June 1, 1638, and who are entitled to a permanent place in its history, several had served in the war of the Netherlands, and all but three held military commissions under the government of Massachusetts Bay. That the Artillery Company was a Massachusetts Bay, and not merely a Boston, organization, is shown not only by its name but by the residences of its original members, of whom ten belonged in Boston, three in Dor- chester, three in Lynn, three in Roxbury, two in Watertown, two in Charlestown, and one in Cambridge.
Four of the twenty-four held the office of assistant; three were speakers of the House of Deputies ; seventeen were members of the General Court ; sixteen were select- men; two were major-generals ; one was a colonel; one, major ; eight, captains ; four,
To: wmthop.
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lieutenants ; three, ensigns ; two, sergeants (either before or during their membership in the Company), and three are unknown as to military positions.
Gov. John Winthrop, the founder of Massachusetts, to whom the Military Company of the Massachusetts was indebted for its charter, merits recognition in this volume. He was the peer of other leading colonists in character, while he was their superior in social position, in mental endowments, in education, and in administrative ability. The military veterans, invited by him to emigrate to the New World, always received his protection ; and he gave to some of them, and their associates, the charter of the Artillery Company against the protests of some of his Council, who feared that, like the Præ- torian Band among the Romans, an organization of military men might easily, in time, overthrow the civil government.
His Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settlement of Massachu- setts and the other New England Colonies, from the year 1630 to 1644, is invaluable. It contains much relative to the founders of the Artillery Company, and the public affairs of the time in which they were participants.
1638-9. The "Military Company of the Massachusetts," as the Artillery Company was first called, was organized at Boston on the first Monday in June, 1638. In the afternoon, between the hours of three and four, there was a great earthquake,' the precursor of many rain-storms on election days. The officers elected on that day, in accordance with the second article of the charter, were all charter members: Robert Keayne (1637), captain ; Daniel Howe (1637), lieutenant, and Joseph Weld (1637), ensign. There were two sergeants, - John Oliver (1637) and Joshua Hewes (1637). The clerk was John Johnson (1638), and the drummer, Arthur Perry (1638).
The captain in those days, as his "duties " were laid down in the Book of Disci- pline, was expected " to be a good posture man himself, that when he sees any of his souldiers handling their arms in an indecent and slovenly manner, he may the better reprove them for the same. And although many Captains regardeth them not, but leaveth them to be instructed by the inferiour officers ; yet it is a great deal of honour to him, when his souldiers shall be taught by himself. they more cheerfully and confi- dently marching along with him, when as they perceive that he is thoroughly knowing in all things belonging to his charge. His place of marching with his company, is some six foot before the first division of muskettiers ; but if his company be drawn up, he is either upon a stand, or upon the march, to be on the head of the Pikes, six foot before the Ensign."
" He that is a Lieutenant to a Company," said the Book of Discipline, "ought to be a good and able souldier and well to understand the duty of a captain, assuming no
1 " (4). 1] [i. e., June 1, 1638]. Between three and four in the afternoon, being clear, warm weather, the wind westerly, there was a great earth- quake. It came with a noise like a continued thunder or the rattling of coaches in London, but was presently gone. .. . It shook the ships, which rode in the harbor, and all the islands. The noise and the shakings continued about four minutes." - Winthrop's Journal, Vol. I., p. 265.
" 1638. The Ist of the 4th month, about noon, was a very great and general earthquake. The vessels upon the river, and the goods that were in the said ships, moved much. Many upon the land could scarcely stand upright." - John Hull's Diary of Public Occurrences.
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authority unto himself, but in the absence of his captain he is to see all such orders executed. He is to instruct the souldiers in the use of their arms and sometime for their ease, he may command every File-leader to draw forth his File, and to show them their postures. By which means he shall do such good service to his captain, that when he shall exercise them himself, he may find them more apter and readier to fulfil his commands ; at which time the Lieutenants ought to be in the Reer, and to see all things there truly executed according to the captains orders."
" An Ensign," said the Book of Discipline, "in the absence of his Captain and Lieutenant, is Commander-in-Chief of the company and ought to march upon the head of the same, leading them with a Half-pike. His Captain and Lieutenant being present, and upon a stand, his colours ought to rest upon his side, being held by his right or left hand, and unfurled ; upon the march his colours ought to be shouldered, taking up the corner end of them in his right hand, and to let them be half-flying; the Pikes and muskets all conforming unto the same posture. Marching through a city, for the more grace, his colours may be wholly flying, being advanced and held up by his right hand, or resting upon his right side. He ought to be a proper man, grave, valiant and discreet and to be well skilled in the Postures of the Pikes; in this respect he leads them, and they expect from him to be taught the Postures thereof. He ought to be well skilled in all the lofty Figures of displaying of the colours above the head, and to make use of them according to discretion and command ; which is not only a healthful exercise to his body, but also most becoming to him, or any other Gentleman or commander what- soever, that shall sometimes make use of the same; although condemned through sloth and ignorance by others, who will not take the pains to learn it."
"A Clerk of a company," said the Book of Discipline, "ought to be very just and honest ; his chiefest duty is to keep the Muster-Roll, and to have it ready upon all occasions for the entering of his men upon the Muster-Roll and Pay-bill. He is many times intrusted to receive the service money of the company and pay such monies unto the souldiers as shall be ordered him from his Captain to pay."
The Book of Discipline also laid down the duties of a barber-surgeon, although it does not appear that the Artillery Company ever had one. It says, " In every com- pany there ought to be a Barber for the trimming of the souldiers' hair and beards, who ought likewise to have some skill in chirugery, that when the souldiers are upon the guards, when imminent danger may be, they may then be at hand, to be ready in the absence of the chyrugion of the regiment to bind up and dress the hurt and wounded men."
The drummer, Arthur Perry (1638), was an important personage in the town as well as in the Company. There were no newspapers then ; indeed, the first printing-press in Massachusetts was not brought from England and set up at Cambridge until the following year ; and the drum-beat summoned the faithful to church and to the weekly lectures, besides summoning the military to their colors for drill and parade. The " ear-piercing fife," noted by Shakespeare, was banished from the English army after his time, and was not restored until 1747, having been neglected for more than a century in England and in the Ameri- can colonies. When the Artillery Company paraded, the color was displayed early in the morning from the vicinity of the market, after which the drummer, accompanied by a sergeant, beat "to the colors" along the water side to Winnisimmet Ferry, and then back along what is now Hanover Street to what is now Tremont Street, then a cart-path leading along the edge of the commons where cows were pastured.
MEETING-HOUSE OF THE FIRST CHURCH, 1713-1808.
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As the members of the Company assembled, there was, doubtless, a lack of uni- formity in their costume, but a similarity in arms and equipments. The orders sent to England, and the inventories of the deceased, show that the head-covering of men-at- arms, at that period of New England's history, was a steel morion or helmet, without a visor, but with check pieces and a long scarlet plume ; and a cuirass and back-plate worn over a buff coat, - not a garment of buff-colored cloth, as later writers have conjectured, but a coat with long skirts, made of thick, well-tanned leather, -as impervious to an Indian arrow as were the morion and cuirass. Long cavalry boots were much worn by foot-soldiers, who often had to march through prickly vines and briers.
The muskets, which were large and heavy, were fired by match rope, which had been soaked in a solution of saltpetre, so that it burned slowly. The equipments were ponder- ous, consisting of " fourquettes," or forked rests, upon which the muskets were rested when discharged ; 1 " bandoleers," or cases, each holding one charge of powder, hanging from a broad shoulder-belt ; priming horns ; match cases ; ball pouches, and short swords. The captain carried a "leading-staff," which is now the badge of the commander of the British company, the lieutenant carried a half-pike, and the ensign bore the stand- ard. There was no adjutant, and the sergeants carried halberds, which were then the distinctive weapon of that grade. The arms now called espontons, or spontoons, were then unknown.
Calling the roll, by the senior sergeant, is a ceremony which has not been much changed during the past two hundred and fifty years. We read in "Henry VI." how Justice Shallow called the roll of Falstaff's command : "Thomas Wart?" "Here, sir." " Francis Feeble?" "Here, sir." In one of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, a sergeant called the roll : "Willis Hamerton, pewterer?" "Here." "George Greengoode, poul- terer?" "Here."
The roll having been called, prayer was offered, and the Company then marched to the meeting-house of the First Church, which in 1638-40 stood on State Street, near (now) Congress Street -"its roof was thatched, its walls were mud." Subsequently, until 1808, the First Church worshipped in a meeting-house on the site of the late Joy Building. This was a barn-like edifice of wood, its massive timbers visible within. The pulpit was a towering structure, surmounted by a sounding-board, and immediately in front of the pulpit, facing the congregation, was a pew for the deacons.
The clergyman, Rev. John Wilson, the first pastor of the colony, was a brother-in- law of Capt. Robert Keayne (1637). There is a tradition that Rev. Mr. Wilson preached the Artillery sermon of 1638. If the tradition be true, he wore a black gown with white cambric bands, and a bag wig. He opened the services with an invocation, followed by a selection from the Scriptures, and then announced the number of a versified psalm. This was read, one line at a time, by a deacon, and each line was successively sung by the congregation, in lugubrious and discordant tones. Mr. Wilson then offered prayer, - probably a long one, - all the people standing. Next, he turned the hour-glass, which was on a stand at the side of the pulpit cushion, and, having announced his text, pro- ceeded to read his discourse.
After the religious services, it is probable that the Artillery Company, following the example of the mother organization, marched to the Three Mariners, kept by mine
1 Gustavus Adolphus was the inventor of car-
tridge boxes, and he also had the weight of muskets
so reduced that the " fourquettes," or rests, could be dispensed with.
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[1638-9
host Samuel Cole (1637), or to the Blue Anchor Tavern, which was near the site of the present Globe office, and enjoyed a good dinner. Unfortunately, no account of one of these early Company dinners has been preserved ; but it is known that the market of Boston was at that time well supplied with bear-meat, venison, birds, fish, etc.
Boston was, in the early days of the Company, the principal seaport town in North America, untrammelled as yet by a custom-house, and the flags of the maritime nations waved at her wharves. She exported lumber, dried codfish, salted mackerel, beef, pork, tallow, tar, and turpentine to the West Indies, receiving in return rum, sugar, and molasses. She sent dried codfish, pipe-staves, and beeswax to Portugal and Madeira, receiving therefrom choice wines ; fish and oil were shipped to the Carolinas, and tar, pitch, and turpentine returned ; she exported to the mother country dried codfish, tar, turpentine, lumber, spars, whale oil and bone, deerskins, furs, etc., receiving in return Holland gin, strong beer, and merchandise of every description.
When the dinner was over, Capt. Keayne (1637), and his immediate successors, probably followed the example of the captains of the train-bands, when on parade, and marched at the head of his command down the main street, now called State Street, but which then was not known as King Street. It was the principal thoroughfare of the town, and was paved with cobble-stones, which sloped down from the houses on either side to a gutter in the middle of the highway, but without sidewalks.
Some of the houses were of brick, with tile or slate-covered roofs, but the larger por- tion of the houses in the town were of unpainted wood, with huge chimneys in the middle, small windows, and shingled roofs. At the head of the street was the market- place, and facing it, on the opposite side of the highway leading from Charlestown Ferry to Roxbury, was the meeting-house of the First Church, occupying the site of the present Brazier Building, with the whipping-post and stocks. Also opposite to the church were the tailor's shop and dwelling of Capt. Robert Keayne (1637). The way thence to the training-field, or Common, was through Prison Lane, now Court Street, and then along a cart-path, now Tremont Street.
The training-field, or Common, was originally granted to William Blackstone by the General Court, on the Ist of April, 1633, " to enjoy forever." The next year Blackstone sold the land to the town of Boston, retaining the orchard of six acres, on a part of which his house was built. " After which purchase," says a deposition, taken years afterwards before Gov. Bradstreet, "the town laid out a place for a training-field, which ever since and now is used for that purpose and for the feeding of cattle." In 1638, an effort was made to get possession of this land through the General Court, and a committee was appointed to supply men " that want land, and have deserved it." This was in March, and in September following a committee was appointed to take the names of all who demanded land of them; this to apply only to the first planters. The order of the Court of Assistants in regard to land was made on the 19th of May, 1629, and under the following clause the Common would have been lost to us but for Gov. Winthrop : -
" And if within ten days after their arrival, and demand made by any particular adventurer, in the common stock, or his servant for him, the same be not so allotted, then each man, being an adventurer, is hereby permitted free liberty to build in any place where himself shall think most convenient, provided that if the platt of ground whereon the town is intended to be built, be set out, that it be publicly known to be intended for that purpose, that then no man shall presume to build his house anywhere else, with the right to fence in half an acre for every £50. adventured in the common
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stock, unless a greater or less proportion had been previously determined on by the Governor and Council." Under the above clause, some of " the then inhabitants, of the inferior sort," thought to get possession of the Common.
When the first seven men were chosen, Dec. 11, 1634, Gov. Winthrop tells us in his Journal that they chose by papers, i. e., by ballot ; or, in plain English, secretly. This is the first use of the ballot mentioned in the records of the town meetings. It was intended to be done secretly, and but for Gov. Winthrop's refusal to serve upon such an election as was carried by a voice of two, we now, instead of our Common and Beacon Hill, would probably have had another Fort Hill, as it was before it was levelled. The question was finally settled " Att a Meeting this day [March 30, 1640], of Mr. John Winthrop, Gov- ernor, Capt. Edward Gibbon [1637], Mr. William Colbron, Mr. William Ting [1638], Mr. John Cogan [1638], and Jacob Elyott." "Also agreed upon that henceforth there shallbe noe land granted eyther for houseplott or garden to any person out of the open ground or Comon Feild which is left between the Centry Hill and Mr. Colbron's end ; Except 3 or 4 Lotts to make up the streete from bro. Robte Walkers to the Round Marsh."
If the traditions handed down from generation to generation have been correctly transmitted, then the Company has invariably followed one custom. It chose its officers for the ensuing year by ballot. The Governor was then escorted to the Common, when the retiring commander directed several evolutions, and then took his leave of his officers and men. The old officers, one by one, surrendered their badges to the Governor, who bestowed them upon the new officers, and, afterwards, the new captain received the halberds of the retiring sergeants, which he immediately gave to their successors.
The Governor was then escorted to his residence, and the newly-elected officers treated the Company to punch, made of old West India and New England rum, Havana sugar, and "lemons or limes for souring."
Fifty-seven new members were recruited in the year 1638-9 (each of whom was vouched for by two members) ; their names were as follows : James Astwood, Humfrey Atherton, John Audlin, William Ballard, Edward Bendall, Walter Blackborne, Nehemiah Bourne, James Browne, Thomas Cheeseholm, Thomas Clarke, John Coggan, George Cooke, William Cutter, Nathaniel Duncan, Philip Eliot, - Femys, William French, John Gore, Samuel Green, Stephen Greensmith, Samuel Hall, John Harrison, Thomas . Hawkins, Valentine Hill, John Hull, Edward Hutchinson, James Johnson, John Johnson, Benjamin Keayne, Eleazer Lusher, Thomas Makepeace, John Moore, Edward Mitchel- son, Abraham Morrill, Isaac Morrill, David Offley, Abraham Palmer, William Parke, Richard Parker, William Perkins, Arthur Perry, Robert Saltonstall, Robert Saunders, Robert Scott, Ralph Sprague, Richard Sprague, John Stowe, Thomas Stowe, Thomas Strawbridge, William Tyng, Hezekiah Usher, Richard Waite, Richard Walker, John Whittingham, William Wilcox, John Winchester, and Edward Winship.
James Astwood (1638), of Roxbury, arrived, with his wife, Sarah, from England in May, 1638, and was admitted to be a freeman May 22, 1639. In the earliest list of the
James Astwood (1638). AUTHORITIES : New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1853 (will), 1854 (in- ventory), 1855 (settlement of estate); Ilist. of Second Church of Boston, hy Chandler Robbins; Drake's Hist. oI Roxbury; Drake's Gen. Dict.
" James Astwood he arrived at N. E. in the yeare 1638, the 3d month he brought a young child wch was buryed here. . .. He was dismissed to ye new Ch at Boston." - Roxbury Church Records, by Rev. John Eliot.
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HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND
inhabitants of Roxbury, James Astwood (1638) is recorded as possessing twenty-eight acres of land. His barn, house, and four acres of land, were west of Stony Brook and south of Heath Street, and between the estates of Capt. Isaac Johnson (1645) and Philip Eliot (1638). In 1647-8, James Astwood (1638) removed to Boston, and, in 1650, became one of the founders of the second, or Old North, church. On its records, his name is given as Ashwood. He bought, in 1646, of Robert Parker, a lot indicated in the (printed) Book of Possessions, in Boston, as "H. 28," and March 1, 1651, was granted liberty by the selectmen "to wharf before his property to low-water mark." March 8, of the same year, he was elected constable. His will was made in September, 1653, and was probated Oct. 13 next following.
Humfrey Atherton (1638) was born in Preston, England, where he married Mary Wales, and came to America with the second emigration, 1635, in the "James," from Bristol, with his wife and their three children. He was admitted a freeman May 2, 1638, and signed the covenant of the Dorchester church. He was a selectman in Dorchester for thirteen years, between 1638 and 1660; represented the town nine years in the General Court ; was chosen an assistant in 1654, - and annually thereafter until his death, -and speaker of the House of Deputies in 1653. He early showed a taste for military affairs. He was captain of the Dorchester train-band at its organization in 1644, and became commander of the Suffolk Regiment in 1649, by the promotion of Major Gibbons (1637) to be major-general of New England militia. Sergt .- Major Atherton (1638) continued in that position until he succeeded Gen. Daniel Denison (1660), in 1661, as major-general. The latter position he held at the time of his death, which occurred Sept. 17, 1661.
Uniting with the Artillery Company in 1638, he became senior sergeant in 1642, ensign in 1645, lieutenant in 1646, and captain in 1650 and 1658.
In 1643, he was sent with Edward Tomlins (1637), of Lynn, by the General Court, to treat with the Narraganset Indians, "and questioned them on the ten command- ments." In 1644, he returned to the same district, with Capts. Johnson (1637) and Cooke (1638), to arrest and try Samuel Gorton for heresy. He seems to have had great skill in his treatment of the Indians, with whom his public duties brought him in frequent contact. He manifested much humanity and sympathy for their ignorance and degraded condition, but exercised great energy and decision of character when necessary. John- son says : "Although he be slow of speech, yet he is downright for the business - one® of a cheer-spirit and entire for the country." He is also said to have been "a man of courage and presence of mind, for when he was sent with twenty men to Pessacus, an Indian sachem, to demand the arrears to the colony of three hundred fathom of wampum, Pessacus put him off for some time with dilatory answers, not suffering him to come into his presence. He finally led his men to the door of the wigwam, entered himself, with pistol in hand, leaving his men without, and, seizing Pessacus by the hair of his head, drew him from the midst of a great number of his attendants, threatening,
Humfrey Atherton (1638). AUTHORITIES: New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1848, 1878, 1881; Savage's Winthrop; Hist. of Dorchester, by Antiq. and Hist. Soc .; Savage's Gen. Dict .; Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence of Zion's Saviour.
" [1661] Sept. 16, being a training day for horse and foot, Major-Gen. Atherton riding home, his
horse threw him. He was taken up speechless and senseless, and so continued from six o'clock till one o'clock in the morning, and died . . . Sept. 20. His corpse attended to the grave with ten foot-com- panies, and the country troop from Boston to Dorchester." -- Diary of John Hull (1660).
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if any of them interfered, he would despatch them. Pessacus paid what was demanded, and the English returned in safety."
He named his children singularly, viz. : Jonathan, Rest, Increase, Thankful, Hope, Consider, Watching, and Patience.
The death of Major-Gen. Humfrey Atherton was a serious loss. His energy of character and firmness in all cases when great decision was required made him a strong pillar in the youthful settlement. There is no doubt his death occurred on the 17th of September, 1661, instead of the 16th, as inscribed on his monument - probably soon after twelve o'clock at night of the 16th. Blake says, " He was killed by a fall from his horse at ye So. end of Boston as he was coming homewards (I think in ye evening), his Horse either Running over or starting at a Cow that lay down in ye way."
His epitaph, on the gravestone in Dorchester, is worthy of being preserved, viz. :-
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