USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > History of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
The practical necessity for highways was responsible for a great deal of activity in this direction, long before Muddy River became the town of Brookline. It would not be profit- able to recite all this in detail, beyond explaining that the Boston town meeting often gave most explicit directions for the arrangement of ways, probably on the recommendation of Muddy River residents. The disposition to care for every- one's interests was apparent in the meeting of March 14, 1700, when, 'Upon the petition of Joseph Buckminster of muddi- river, for a committee to be chosen by the Town, to lay out a high way to his land, he having no highway thereto, by virtue of a Town order, That all proprietors of lots of land within the
82
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
town & precincts thereof wch have no highway layd out to their lands shall have a highway layd out thereto by a com- mittee chosen and authorized by the sd Town for yt purpose,' such a committee was duly appointed to make a report. Every- one was to be entitled to a convenient way to market. .
TO JOIN THE TOWN
Brookline was early conscious of a kind of natural sectional- ism, such as arises from the development of subordinate centers of population within a community. Each chance clustering of homes was at once a part of the town and apart from it. This was a subdivision manifest in the debates over the location of schools, and now again in the arrangement of highways.
Thus at March meeting in 1714, it was 'Voted That it is thought Necessary that the South westerly End of the Town have a Way laid out for them by the sd Town.' On Decem- ber 10, 1716, 'the town granted that the North end Inhabi- tants of sd Town of Brookline should have a more conven- ient way or road to the meeting house than at present they enjoy.'
Easy intercourse throughout the village was a matter of public concern, so it was voted in 1717 'that the New way laid out between Isaac childs & Thos. Woodwards [the present Clyde Street] be repaired & made feizable at the Town's cost.' Of still larger importance was the accessibility of Erosamon Drew's saw mill, which stood approximately where the present Newton Street crosses the Newton line. It was the objective of a number of roads, and the subject of frequent mention in the arrangement of new ones.
Rights of way were appropriated, of course, and the matter of compensation was left in the hands of the town meeting. On May II, 1719, the 'inhabitants Generally assembled' to decide on the exact route by which the residents of the north end were to enjoy their more convenient means of getting to meeting. They chose a way to 'run from watertown Road across the Land of mr Thomas Cotton and so across the Land belonging to the children of Caleb Gardner late of Brooklyn into Sherbourn Road near to the Lower end of the new stone wall by an old white oak tree.' This was the New Lane which
83
PROBLEMS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT
later became Cypress Street. At March meeting in 1720 com- pensation of £20 was voted to Thomas Cotton on account of this road, but it was 'Voted not to allow to mr. Jon. Winchester forty pounds for ye way acros the land belonging to ye Heirs of Caleb Gardner,' which he appears meanwhile to have pur- chased. This seems to have annoyed Mr. Winchester consid- erably, and he evidently pressed his claim at the adjournment of the March meeting on May 8, for there he was told to seek compensation at law if he thought he could get it.
More than one Winchester was difficult to get along with in the matter of roads. On May 13, 1723, a complaint was made to the town meeting that Josiah Winchester had put gates across a highway in the town. A committee was accordingly chosen to talk the matter over with him, and if they failed to persuade him, then to proceed according to law.
Responsibility for the maintenance of highways rested upon men annually elected for that purpose. Peter Aspinwall is the first surveyor of highways whose name appears upon the records; he was chosen for 1652. As the town expanded, and its network of roads, two surveyors were named, and then three, with the area divided into districts for easier adminis- tration. By 1816 the burden had become so great that a rearrangement was undertaken, which resulted in the estab- lishment of four north districts, three middle districts, and two south districts.
The surveyors in charge were delegated not only to oversee the repair of the ways, but to look after the collection of road taxes, either paid in money or 'worked out.' In 1785 Joshua Boylston was slow in getting about his duties in this respect, and the town meeting took him to task for neglecting 'to warn and give the Inhabitants in that District opertunity to work out their Respecting Sums Set in the List committed unto him.' He was given two months in which to put the business in order.
The levy for highways in 1718 was twenty pounds; for some years after the middle of the century, eighty pounds was a common sum. In 1751, when the inflation was on, wages were fixed at twenty shillings for a man and the same amount for a team - old tenor. Forty years later, the rate was three
84
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
shillings for each. The standard day was eight hours, and the surveyors were warned to look out for loafers, and 'not to give credit to any persons for any more time than they work.'
As we enter the fourth decade of the twentieth century, we are accustomed to towns where through traffic is hampered because merchants believe that if all travelers are compelled to drive through the heart of the village, some measure of extra trade may result. This, it appears, is not peculiar to motoring days and tourist ways. The inhabitants of Brook- line, on January 26, 1792, 'Voted that William Aspinwall Esq'r and the Selectmen be a Committee to Petition to the General Court in behalf of the Town against Building a Bridge from West Boston to Cambridge across Charles River.' There were to be no short cuts to divert traffic from Brookline.
CARING FOR THE POOR
Still another duty which fell upon the new community was that of caring for its own indigent citizens. Certain votes of the town on this account seem strangely harsh, yet they are not without counterparts even today, and their derivation from the English poor law is apparent enough. In old England, responsibility for the poor fell upon the parish, and there were, strangely enough, parishes so lost to a sense of honor that when they detected a family on the verge of becoming public charges, they would sometimes provide the unfortunates with a little gift of money and assist them in moving over the line into an- other parish. The English law books reveal plenty of litigation as the result of such attempts to shift responsibility.
Consequently, whenever a new family came to the commu- nity, there was immediate general interest in their financial standing and capacities for independence. If there seemed likelihood of their becoming public charges, the constable was directed to warn them either to provide a bond against costs which the town might possibly incur in their support, or to remove themselves within a given number of days.
. Thus, on January 16, 1777,
Stephen Knight & Family Viz Mary his wife Mary & Eliza- beth his Daughters, warned to depart this Town to ye Town they last resided in Viz Sudbury.
85
PROBLEMS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT
And likewise Susanna Amsdel with Jason her Child warned to depart this Town to ye Town she last resided in Viz Framingham.
In August of the same year, Ruth Wood was warned to depart or 'give Security to save the Town from all Charges that may arise by her residence.'
It is hard to discover the grounds of the town's concern in some instances, as where a family with several servants was among those warned to depart. They would seem to have been financially able, but there may have been attendant circum- stances to justify a doubt. Or perhaps they were unwelcome for some other reason. Some communities regularly warned all newcomers as a kind of precautionary measure.
The town, however, did not shirk responsibility for its own needy citizens, though it certainly sought to maintain them at minimum expense. The customary method, until the town became large enough to require an alms house, was to board the unfortunates out among the citizens, in whose families they presumably made themselves as useful as their capabilities permitted.
March meeting in 1718 'Voted that Thomas Woodward sen'r have ten shilling paid him by the Town for entertaining Kathn. Horton.' In 1736 the town voted to 'do nothing to wards maintaining of John Ellis because it was thought more proper for His relations to take cair of him at present.' But there is something ambiguous - a little hard to understand, at any rate - in a direction that 'the Select Men be impowerd to gitt the money reimbursed where they can find the same, that the Town paid for the Indian womans sickness.'
Bills for medical attendance upon the poor seem to have been generally approved with little argument, and it is appar- ent that they were fixed on a moderate scale. They must have been, to pass a town meeting that directed the selectmen to provide for the poor in 'the Cheapest and best manner they can'; and at another time 'Voted That the whole or part of the Poor in Said Town [that] go to any Person or Persons that will Keep them Cheepest.'
Yet, even in this seeming spirit of parsimony, there was a
86
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
strong sense of fairness - at least toward the self-sufficient citizens. Hence, in 1778,
On the Question whether the Town will make Allowance to those who kept and boarded the Poor the year past, on Ac- count of the high prices of Provisions
Voted in the affirmative
Voted to allow Mr. Elisha Gardner ten shillings @ Weed [sic] for boarding Elizabeth Chamberlain instead of the Price agreed for till the year is compleated
Voted to allow Mr. Elhanan Winchester Six shilings @ Week for Mary Bowen's Board, instead of the price agreed for, till her year is compleated
Voted that the Thanks of the Town be given to Mr. John Heath for consenting to board Mrs. Sarah Williams at the price agreed.
Of course Sarah Williams may have been a light eater, or John Heath may have had an exceptionally economical wife, but it is much more likely that he was simply a man whose sense of honor dictated that he carry out an unprofitable agree- ment as readily as one that promised him generous returns.
With all this restriction of expenditure for the needy, it would not be fair to convict the inhabitants of eighteenth-cen- tury Brookline of a lack of humane generosity. On May 31, 1787, the town resolved to take up a collection 'for the Suffer- ers by the late fire in Boston' and the selectmen were directed to receive contributions and disburse them as seemed best.
TOWN OFFICERS
A very fair picture of the character of life and the problems of administration in the community may be gained from a comprehensive view of the officers usually elected each year, and their duties. The March meeting of 1776 may be taken as typical of the town when its government had become a little more complex than it was at the beginning of the century.
The first business of the meeting was, of course, to choose its moderator. Then a town clerk was elected and sworn. This year there were five selectmen; more commonly there were but three. Sometimes the constable was elected; sometimes he made a proposal to the town to serve the town for a fixed
87
PROBLEMS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT
sum, or for a percentage of the sums gathered by him as tax col- lector. In 1776 Elhanan Winchester's offer to do the job for fifteen pounds was accepted.
There were surveyors of highways chosen for the various districts. The town also required a clerk of the market, a sur- veyor of boards, two fence-viewers, a surveyor of wood, two field drivers, a sealer of leather, a town treasurer, and two hogreaves. And a committee was named to examine the accounts of the town and school treasurers.I
THE LARGER SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT
It was part of the town's obligation also, as has appeared, to participate in the provincial or state government, yet it was no unusual thing for the voters to decide not to send a representative, on account of the expense involved. Some- times the responsibility was evaded by petitioning the General Court to be relieved of it. A variation of this is seen in the record of May 13, 1762, when it was 'Voted Not to send a Representative the Ensuing Year (by Reason not Oblig'd to send by Law).' On occasion a fine was assessed on the town for shirking this governmental duty, as appears from the entry dated August 8, 1785 in the words:
Voted, that the abatement of the Fine which the Town was Fineed for not sending a Representative the Year 1783, be applied for the above purpose [to paint the lower part of the steeple and the window frames of the meeting house], and paying for the Bell wheel.
Yet the cost of sending a representative does not seem large. John Winchester was granted nine pounds for his services in that capacity in 1709, and eight pounds in 1710. And in 1741 the town effected a saving by resolving that 'our Represen- tative be paid in Land Bank or Manufactury Money for serving the town as Representative this year.'
Another matter that went beyond the confines of the village was that of public defense, to which every town was expected to make its fair contribution. As early as 1712, it was 'Voted
I An account in detail of the duties of town officers may be found in Town Govern- ment in Massachusetts, 1620-1930, by John Fairfield Sly; Cambridge, Harvard Uni- versity Press, 1930.
88
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
that the Six pounds in the Treasurers hands be for the pro- curing Ammunition for the Town's Use as the Law Directs and requires.' In 1740, the sum of eighty pounds was appro- priated 'to defray the Schools Charges and purches a Town stock of ammonishon.' In 1744, it was twenty pounds 'for A Town stock of Ammunishon.'
There are three spellings, thus far, though the meaning is clear enough every time. Still ingenuity is not exhausted. It is barely possible that the town clerk in 1784 did not dare attempt the word at all, for he recorded the vote 'that the Towns Stock of Powder be Sold.'
Even apart from war activities, however, it was thought well to keep the local company presentable. Hence the tax levied in 1799 included a sum to provide drums and fifes for the company, as well as coats and hats for such of its members as were not able to buy their own; and a similar vote is noted in 1809.
In addition to such relations with the general government, there were necessary negotiations with neighboring communi- ties, usually entrusted to the selectmen, or to a specially chosen committee. Some co-operation was obviously necessary in the laying out of highways. Every few years a perambulation of the boundaries was in order - an interesting process, in which committees from the adjoining towns met and checked over together the trees and stones and rivulets which had been agreed upon by their predecessors as marking their mutual limits.
A feeling arose, and became common, that the towns of Massachusetts shared interests in many respects opposed to those of Boston, which as time went on seemed to occupy too dominant a position. As early as November 16, 1726, the town voted by a large majority in favor of dividing the County of Suffolk. In 1733,
voted Whither it be the mind of the Town to Joyn with the Country Towns of this County to be made into A seperate County from Boston it passed in the Affirmative.
This was reiterated in 1738.
However, when a proposal was put forward in 1791 for
89
PROBLEMS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT
dividing Suffolk County into a number of small counties, it was vigorously disapproved in Brookline, as tending to the multiplication of public offices, the inefficiency of government, and increase of administrative expense. The town advocated that if any division were arranged at all, it should simply sep- arate Boston from the country towns.
Plans for the division went ahead, however, and gave rise to a complicated situation in 1793, when the town of Brookline petitioned the General Court for relief. The neighboring towns had at first agreed to be made parts of the new County of Norfolk, but a number of them subsequently thought better of this, and decided to stick to Boston and the County of Suffolk. By the first plan Brookline, if it had declined to go with the other country towns, would have been isolated from the rest of Suffolk by the intervention of Roxbury. After the change in plans Brookline, if it adhered to the new County of Norfolk, would be entirely cut off from the shire town of that county. In consequence, Brookline too asked to change its allegiance, and to be reunited to the County of Suffolk; but it does not ap- pear that the General Court ever acted upon the petition.
ODDS AND ENDS OF GOVERNMENT
There still remain a few miscellaneous aspects of town ad- ministration which, though they are not of large significance, ought not to be passed over without mention. The provision of a burying ground was a matter which had early to be at- tended to, although inhabitants of Muddy River had been in the main attached to the church at Roxbury, and many of them were buried there. On April 30, 1717, Erosamon Drew, John Druce, Josiah Winchester, Sr., Benjamin White, Jr., Caleb Gardner, Samuel Clark, Sr., and William Sharp were directed to attend to procuring land for a cemetery; and on Novem- ber 21 they reported that they had bought a half acre from Samuel Clark, Jr., for eight pounds, agreeing that he should be privileged to mow the hay in exchange for maintaining the front fence. This was the site of the present Walnut Street Cemetery.
When a citizen desired to erect a tomb for his family's use, it was customary for him first to obtain the permission of the
90
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
town meeting. Every employment of common property was thus hedged about by the closest supervision. At March meet- ing of 1718, just after the new cemetery had been purchased, it was even 'Voted Thomas Lee Grave Digger.'
While the town was still identical with the parish, and the body of voters nearly identical with the church, it was not strange that the town meeting in 1713, when the first efforts were being made to locate a burying place, 'Voted That Mr Samuel Sewal & Mr Peter Boylston should Procure a Pall or Burying-Cloth to Cover the Corps, at the Towns Cost,' and provided an extra appropriation of six pounds to defray the expense. This was probably used with care, for the next men- tion of the subject is in 1762, when it was 'Voted To get a Black Velvet Pall.'
There are frequent votes, also, on the erection and main- tenance of the pound on Pound Lane, where the proper town officers detained animals that were taken running at large. The road where the pound stood was called Pound Lane, a name later changed to Reservoir Road. From year to year it was customary for the town meeting to determine whether cattle and hogs should be allowed to run at large, or must be penned. And in the records of the town, one may discern, by reading these entries alone, its gradual change from a frontier community to an urban one. On every frontier, stock raising is general and opinion dictates that the man who wants a garden must fence it for his own protection. Then, as the frontier goes on, and the land behind it is devoted more and more to the raising of crops, sentiment changes, and the man who would engage in the now secondary business of stock raising does so at his peril, and under the duty of protecting his neighbors' grain and gardens.
One of the first acts of the new town was to determine, in 1710, 'That there be a Post Erected to putt Publishments on &c By Ens Whites corner' - in other words, a public bulletin board, near the site of the present fire station in Village Square. More ominous, and by its delay significant of the character of the community, was the vote of June 4, 1772, 'To Provide Stocks for Said Town.' Evidently by that time a citizen or two had been found who seemed to require the discipline which this implied.
91
PROBLEMS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT
All public functions were elaborately prescribed by the town meeting. A perfect example is in the memorial service for George Washington, held February 22, 1800. The select- men were made a committee to confer with the Reverend John Pierce and arrange for him to lead the meeting in prayer and deliver an appropriate discourse. They were also to provide 'a suitable Cloth to put the Pulpit in mourning.' Another com- mittee was enjoined to choose appropriate anthems, psalms, or hymns for the occasion. The militia was asked to attend in uniform. And the order of the procession was carefully detailed.
The occasion was marked by the greatest gravity and the sincerest of mourning. Here were people who had seen Wash- ington and walked with him, fought in the ranks which he inspirited - people who knew that with his death the nation had come to a new epoch. And Brookline, the 'Poor Little Town' of 1714, draped the pulpit in the best black broadcloth and did such homage as it might.
CHAPTER VI THE GREAT FAMILIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
TO SETTLE upon a standard of greatness among the families of such a community as eighteenth-century Brookline is a vir- tually impossible task. In 1740 there were 55 dwellings and 34 family names represented in the town; in 1796, 57 dwellings and 43 different surnames, with a population of about 600.
Under the circumstances of town government nearly every male inhabitant shared some public responsibilities. To do so was an obligation, for which honor rather than money was the reward. Payments for official services were extremely small, but the duty to the community was freely acknowledged, and many a man paid the fine assessed by the town meeting when, for reasons of his own convenience, he declined an office to which he had been elected.
There was, thus, a general participation in public affairs. Perhaps a score of families bore the brunt of administrative duties. It would be monotonous to record of the Devotions or the Goddards or the Winchesters, or indeed of any of the truly first families of Brookline, the details of their co-operation in the town government, or to enumerate their public offices from year to year, or from generation to generation.
This chapter is not an attempt to report meticulously upon those matters which only the town records can present in full. Nor is it an effort in the direction of a historical geography of ancient dwellings, such as Miss Woods has done so well.1 It is, rather, an account of eminent family names and distin- guished services.
Perhaps one could say that without the score of families about whom something is told here, eighteenth-century Brook- line could not have borne the courageous, and even heroic part it did. Or one might turn to the comment made by John
I Historical Sketches of Brookline, Mass., by Harriet F. Woods; Boston, Published for the Author, by Robert S. Davis and Company, 1874.
93
GREAT FAMILIES
Adams, when he was Vice-President, on the matter of family pride. If it were excusable at all, he said he should 'think a descent from a line of virtuous, independent New England farmers for one hundred and sixty years was a better founda- tion for it than a descent from regular noble scoundrels ever since the flood.'
Certainly the families who were the strength of Brookline between 1700 and 1800 were of such stock. Their distinction rested upon their inherent worth and not upon their inherited wealth. They mattered because they were capable people who faced successive unfamiliar tasks and mastered them. They were guided by tradition, but unfettered by it. To know them would be to know a cross-section of the fine, substantial stock that formed the very background of revolutionary New England.
THE SEWALL FAMILY
The Sewalls were, in one sense, the family most intimately connected with Brookline, for the town's name is presumed to have been taken from the estate which Judge Samuel Sewall, of witchcraft fame, called 'Brooklin.' The judge married Hannah Hull, daughter of John Hull and Judith Quincy. This John Hull, designer of the pine tree shilling, and Master of the Mint in Boston, was the son of Robert Hull, an original grantee in Muddy River.
Through his wife, Judge Sewall came into possession of the Hull property, amounting to some three hundred acres. It does not appear that he ever lived on the estate, and indeed there was evidently not a habitable house on the property, for the judge negotiated with John Devotion for the purchase of an adjoining tract of land with buildings, and failing in this erected a house for his son, Samuel, Jr., in 1703. The farm included the area between the Charles River and Muddy River, where was the site of the. 'fort on Sewall's Point' which helped to pro- tect Brookline during the Revolution.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.