USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Franklin > History of the town of Franklin, Mass., from its settlement to the completion of its first century > Part 4
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
to give attention to the arguments of the Westerners. The result reported by the joint committee, February 21, is a unanimous conclusion that " said inhabitants be Set off as a Separate township by themselves," and the process is begun.
In the further arrangements it is suggestive of the thrift of the whole town that there are but five paupers, two only of whom fall to the new town. It is agreed that the fire- arms, important assets now in 1777, be divided by the rela- tive pool and estate, and the powder, ball, flints, and other stores of that kind, according to the number of training-band and alarum list. The men raised for the Continental army are to be proportionally paid for and accredited to the town's quota. The salt allowed by the General Court is divided, and all other properties adjusted. After lengthy discussion and some scruples, whose phraseology suggests the sharp watch of Jabez Fisher, the precinct accepts the terms of the town and elects a committee to present their petition to the General Court. Among the acts of 1778 appears the charter of incorporation, dated in the House of Representatives, Feb- ruary 27, and in the council March 2.
The petition which sets forth the arguments of our fathers for a separate civil existence, and the act by which such an existence was established, are of interest enough to be here inserted.
To the Honorable Council &. House of Representatives of the State of Massachusetts Buy in General Court Assembled :
The petition of the subscribers in behalf of the inhabitants of the West Precinct in Wrentham Humbly sheweth : --
That the Township of Wrentham is Considerably Large and the inhabitants with their Lands & improvements are situated very much in two Divissions and but thinly settled Between the two Precincts, the Lands admitting of but few settlements. That the Publick Business of the Town Neces- sary to be Transacted is very Considerable and has Long been Complained of as a Burden by those who are obliged to take a part, by means of Travil & Fatigue together with the Disa- pointments that often take place, That your Petitioners appre- hend themselves sufficient in Number and Ability for a Town,
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
and that in many Respects y" advantages to them would be much greater than to remain in their present situation. That they have lately obtained a vote of the Town Expressing their willingness that your petitioners should be incorporated into a Town by the following Bound, viz Begining at Charles river where Medfield line comes to said river thence running south seventeen Degrees and an half west untill it comes to one rod east of the Dwelling House of M' William Man thence a strait line to the easterly Corner of M" Asa Whitings Barn, thence a strait line to sixty rod, Due south of the old Cellar where the Dwelling House of Eben" Healey formally stood a Dne west Course by the Needle to Bellingham line said Bel- lingham line to be ye West Bounds and Charles river to be the Northerly Bounds your pet's Therefore Humbly pray That your Honors wou'd be pleased to incorporate them into a Town by ye above Discribed Bound, With the same powers & Privi- leges that are allowed to other Towns within this state.
And your petrs as in Duty Bound shall pray SAMEL LETHBRIDG, JOSEPH HAWES JOSEPH WHITING JR
Comtee
State of Massachusetts - In the year of our LORD 1778.
Bay
AN ACT incorporating the Westerly Part of the Town of WRENTHAM in the County of SUFFOLK into a Town by the name of FRANKLIN.
WHEREAS the Inhabitants of the Westerly part of the Town of Wrentham in the County of Suffolk have Represented to this Court the Difficulties they Labour under in their present situation and pprehending themselves of sufficient Numbers & Ability request that they may be incorporated into a sepe- rate Town.
Be it Therefore Enacted By the Council & House of Repre- sentatives in General Court Assembled & by the Authority of the same That the Westerly part of said Town of Wrentham seperated by a line as follows, viz Begining at Charles river where Medfield line comes to said river, thence running south seventeen degrees and an half west untill it comes to one rod East of y" Dwelling House of William Man thence a strait line to the eastwardly corner of Asa Whiting' barn, thence a strait line to sixty rods due south of the old celler where the Dwell- ing House of Ebenezer Healy formerly stood thence a Due
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
West Course by the Needle to Bellingham line, said Belling- ham line to be the West Bounds and Charles river the North- erly Bounds, Be and hereby is incorporated into Distinet and seperate Town by the name of Franklin and invested with all the powers Privileges and immunities that Towns in this state do or may enjoy.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid. That the inhabitants of said Town of Franklin shall pay their proportion of all state county and Town Charges already granted to be raised in the Town of Wrentham and also their proportion of the pay of the Representative for the present Year and the said Towns of Wrentham and Town of Franklin shall severally be held punctually to stand by & perform to each other the Terms & proposals Contained and Expressed in a vote of the Town of Wrentham passed at Publick Town Meeting the sixteenth Day of February 1778 according to ye plain and obvious meaning thereof, and
Be it also Enacted by ye Authority aforesaid. That Jabez Fisher, Esq' Be & he hereby is authorized & required to issue his warrant to one of the principal inhabitants of said Town of Franklin, authorizing & requiring him to Notifie and warn the Freeholders & other inhabitants of said Town to meet together at such time and place as shall be expressed in said warrant. To choose such officers as Towns are authorized by Law to Choose and Transact other such Lawfull matters as shall be expressed in said warrant.
And be it further enacted That the inhabitants living within ye Bounds aforesaid who in the Late Tax in the Town of wrentham were rated one half part so much for their Estates and Faculties as for one single Poll shall be taken and Holden to be Qualified and be allowed to Vote in their first Meeting for the Choice of officers and such other meetings as may be Called in said Town of Franklin untill a valuation of Estates shall be made by Assessors there.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Feby. 27, 1778. This Bill having been read
three several times passed to be
engrossed. Sent up for Concurrence, J. WARREN SYKE. IN COUNCIL, March 2d, 1778. This Bill having had two several Readings, passed a Concurrence, to be engrossed. JNO. AVERY, Dpy. Secy.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
In the original draft of the charter, as preserved in the State archives, the name of this town is written throughout Exeter. In some of the readings during its passage, that name was erased, and overwritten Franklin. In all the votes of this precinct and of Wrentham, I find no name suggested for the new town. They probably left its christening to the honored General Court. But why the name of Exeter was first inserted in the act, and why afterwards changed to Franklin, is a conundrum for the curious. I venture to sug- gest, however, that if the committee in charge of the petition were asked for a name of the new township, or if they were dissatisfied with the proposed Exeter, there was none of them more likely to suggest a change than its chairman, Jabez Fisher - an ardent patriot of liberty, and a prominent man in state councils ; and the reasons for preferring the name of Franklin to that of Exeter are not less apparent.
It will be remembered that Benjamin Franklin, with two others, had been sent to France immediately upon the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to negotiate a treaty of recognition and alliance. But the French government cau- tiously dallied with him until the close of 1777. But the news of the capture of Burgoyne removed their hesitancies, and on the 6th of January Louis XVI entered into a treaty of amity and commerce with the colonies. The news came rapidly to this country, and it was a graceful tribute to the successful diplomatist, Franklin, that the town, just at that date applying for incorporation, should bear his name.
Though we may be among the smallest of the twenty-nine Franklins in our tribes of Columbia, besides the nineteen Franklinvilles, Franklintons, etc., yet we are the first-born heir of this large family, and oldest to the honors of the distinguished name. We may well commemorate our birth- day with centennial rejoicings.
The ambassador to St. Cloud, as soon as his weighty duties permitted, showed that he himself understood and ap- preciated the compliment. For he requested Dr. Price, of
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
London, to make choice of proper books for a library for Franklin, as his acknowledgment to his namesake in Massa- chusetts .* That library contained, according to the earliest catalogue extant, 116 volumes, many of them folios, and of which the most secular and frivolous was the life of Baron Trenk. It has become the basis of a public library of 3,000 volumes.
And Dr. Franklin had no occasion to be ashamed of either the intelligence or the patriotism of his namesake town ; for its prompt and unanimous participation in all the trying times of the War of Independence fully assured him of both. The responses of this town were prompt and hearty to every move- ment in defense of the liberties of the colonies - even from the time of the-salary debate with Governor Burnet in 1728 unto the acknowledgment of their independence in 1783. Whether the calls were for troops or for money, for opinions upon poli- cies or protests against royal aggressions, the town always answered, and in no lukewarm words or ambiguous actions. Indeed, some of the papers reported by special committees and adopted by this town are worthy of careful study in this day of wordy ambiguities, as models of patriotic and broad political sense not surpassed even by the wise colonial proclamations. And this is not surprising when the wisest and best men of the town were chosen as the Committee of Correspondence, Representatives to the General Court, and delegates to District Conventions.
It is now well known that Boston, as the metropolis of New England, and especially restive under its so close contact with the officers of the British crown, vigilantly watched their every movement, and informed the committees of correspond- ence of each town in its vicinity. The towns replied vigo- rously to these Boston letters. Thus the pulsations of liberty beat isochronously in all patriotic hearts, and a unified pur- pose gathered into strength in every arm. That sympathy of intelligence and feeling was the spirit of ultimate victory ; for
* See Addenda for more extended notice of the Franklin Library.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
the resisting Bostonians knew whom they had behind them, hid away in the little hamlets and on the scattered farms to the north, west and south of the Bay. When, therefore, they sounded the alarm on the attempted seizure of the stores at Concord, in a few hours twenty thousand armed men from the country towns hurried to Boston and barricaded it from Dor- chester to Chelsea, as if they would force Governor Gage and his soldiers into the sea. In all these movements, Franklin was never a whit behind. It had more than one man in it like Jabez Fisher, whose fervor kindled and whose wisdom di- rected its action perpetually. But Fisher's hand is especially traceable in the reports and resolves of the town during the . revolutionary period.
The Stamp Act of 1765 called forth a very earnest protest from the town. But the letter from Boston in 1772, on the Governor's assumption that the colonial charter should be in- terpreted or revoked even, at the pleasure of the King, and on the order of Parliament that the salaries of the Governor, Judges, &c., should be taken directly from the American rev- enues, instead of paid by grant of the General Court as afore- time, awakened a deep and wide alarm, and drew out vigorous responses from all the towns. Boston denounced the assump- tion as an infraction of its charter, and the parliamentary order as a direct and long step towards despotism. The let- ter to the towns-after a recital of the facts - closes thus : " Let us consider, brethren, we are struggling for our best rights and inheritance, which being infringed renders all blessings precarious in their enjoyment, and consequently tri- fling in their value. Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves on the ruin of this country. Let us convince every invader of our freedom that we will be as free as the Consti- tution our Fathers recognized will justify." Of this appeal, and the historical statements accompanying, over six hundred copies were printed and sent to the towns. The copy sent to Franklin drew out a long and vigorous statement of our fathers' theory of their rights.
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
Their paper deserves a place in this history of their times, as showing their clear appreciation of the situation. It was adopted in a public town meeting, 11th January, 1773 : -
1. Resolved that the British Constitution is grounded on the eternal law of Nature, a Constitution whose foundation and center is liberty, which sends liberty to any subject that is or may happen to be within any part of its ample circum- ference.
2. That every part of the British dominions hath a right freely to enjoy all the benefits and privileges of this happy Constitution, and that no power of Legislation or Governors on Earth can justly abridge or deprive any part of the British dominions from their liberties, without doing violence to his happy Constitution and its true principles.
3. That every part of the British dominions in which acts of the British Parliament are exercised contrary to the true principles of the Constitution have always and ought to have a right to petition and remonstrate, or join in petitioning and remonstrating to the King, Lords and Commons of Great Britain, that all such acts of Parliament may speedily be re- moved, abrogated and repealed.
4. That the Province of Massachusetts Bay have a right, not only by nature and the laws of England, but by social compact, to enjoy all the rights, liberties and immunities of natural and freeborn subjects of Great Britain to all intents and purposes whatever ; and that acts of the British Parlia- ment imposing rates and duties of the inhabitants of this Province, while they are unrepresented in the Parliament of Great Britain, are violations of those rights and ought to be contended for with firmness.
Resolved, That it is the opinion of this town that the act of the British Parliament in assuming the power of Legislation for the Colonies in all cases whatsoever, and in consequence of that act have carried into execution that assumed power in laying duties on divers articles in the Colonics for the ex- press purpose of raising a revenue without their consent, either by themselves or their Representatives, whereby the right which any man has to his own property is wholly taken away and destroyed ; and what is more alarming still is, to see the amazing inroads which have been made and still are making in our charter rights and privileges by placing a Board of Commissioners amongst us under so large a com-
.
.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
mission with a train of attendants to sap the foundation of our industry - our Coasts surrounded with fleets - standing armies placed in free eities in time of peace without the con- sent of the inhabitants, whereby the streets of the Metropolis of this Province have been stained with the blood of its inno- cent inhabitants ; the Governor of this Province made inde- pendent of the grants of the General Assembly ; large sala- ries affixed to the Lieutenant-Governor, the Judges of the Admiralty, etc. ; the amazing stretch of the power of the courts of Vice, admitting in a great measure depriving the people in the Cols. of their right to trial by Jury and such like innovations, which are intolerable grievances, tending wholly to deprive us of our Charter rights and privileges, pull down the Constitution and reduce us to a state of abject slavery.
Resolved, That it is the opinion of this town that the pre- vailing report, which they have reason to apprehend is well- grounded, that further inroads are contemplating on their rights and liberties by affixing stipends to the offices of the Judges of the Superior Courts of Judicature, etc., whereby they are to be made wholly independent of the grants of the General Assembly for their support, is such a large stride towards despotism as fills us with fresh and more alarming fears of further invasions of our rights and privileges being trampled upon, viz : By making the Judges thus dependent upon the Crown for their place and support will have a ten- dency to bribe the present respectable gentlemen to become tools to a despotic administration, and if that should fail, it. will be easy to supply their seats with those calculated for such a purpose. 2d, Thus calculated, nothing will be waut- ing but an absolute Government which may be over the Prov- ince qualified with new acts of Parliament adapted to their purpose which would exclude every individual in this Prov- ince from asserting and supporting his rights, and turn the sacred stream of justice into but little short of an unwar- ranted inquisition.
Resolved, That this town ever acknowledge the care and vigilance which the town of Boston have discovered in stating the rights of the Colonies in so just a manner, and in point- ing out the many infringements and violations of those rights this Province labors under, at the same time assuring them that as this town hopes never to be wanting in their duty and loyalty to their King, so they are ever ready to do everything
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
in their power in a constitutional way to assist in carrying into execution such measures as may be adapted to remove those difficulties we feel, and to prevent those we have reason to fear.
In the name of the Committee,
DAVID MAN.
The committee were David Man, Capt. John Smith, Jabez Fisher, Lemuel Kollock, Thomas Man.
This was the key-note of every resolve passed by the town in its thirty-one town meetings held in the five years between January, 1773-the beginning of Governor Hutchinson's as- sumptions-and February 16, 1778 - the last meeting held before the separation of Franklin from Wrentham. This trumpet certainly gave no uncertain sound of the coming conflict with royal dictation.
The town, also, had a way in those days of instructing their representatives to the General Court how to act on measures which touched their vital interests. These papers expressed the sentiments of the citizens, and became, there- fore, valuable indices of the popular convictions. Amongst the most expressive of these papers, and certainly very sug- gestive of the ripeness for independence of this part of the colony, are the instructions adopted in the town meeting of June 5, 1776. They have a ring of liberty whose echoes ought to thrill in the ears of the supple and molluscous men of these hesitating times. They are addressed " to Mr. Benjamin Guild, Mr. Joseph Hawes, and Doct. Ebenezer Dag- gett, chosen to represent the town of Wrentham in the General Assembly, the ensuing year :-
Gentlemen, We, your constituents, in full town meeting, June 5, 1776, give you the following instructions : -
Whereas, Tyranny and oppression, a little more than one century and a half ago, obliged our forefathers to quit their peaceful habitations, and seek an asylum in this distant land, amidst an howling wilderness, surrounded with savage ene- mies, destitute almost of every convenience of life was their unhappy situation ; but such was their zeal for the common rights of mankind, that they (under the smile of Divine
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Providence), surmounted every difficulty, and in a little time were in the exercise of civil government under a char- ter of the crown of Great Britain : - but after some years had passed, and the colonies had become of some importance, new troubles began to arise. The same spirit which caused them to leave their native land still pursued them, joined by designing men among themselves -letters began to be wrote against the government, and the first charter soon after destroyed ; in this situation some years passed before another charter could be obtained, and although many of the gifts and priviliges of the first charter were abridged by the last, yet in that situation the government has been tolerably quiet until about the year 1763 ; since which the same spirit of op- pression has risen up ; letters by divers ill-minded persons have been wrote against the Government, (in consequence of which divers acts of the British Parliament made, muti- lating and destroying the charter, and wholly subservive of the constitution) ; fleets and armies have been sent to enforce them, and at length a civil war has commenced, and the sword is drawn in our land, and the whole united colonies involved in one common cause ; the repeated and humble petitions of the good people of these colonies have been wan- tonly rejected with disdain ; the Prince we once adored has now commissioned the instruments of his hostile oppression to lay waste our dwellings with fire and sword, to rob us of our property, and wantonly to stain the land with the blood of its innocent inhabitants ; he has entered into treaties with the most cruel nations to hire an army of foreign mercenaries to subjugate the colonies to his ernel and arbitrary purposes. In short, all hope of an accommodation is entirely at an end, a reconciliation as dangerous as it is absurd ; a recollection of past injuries will naturally keep alive and kindle the flames of jealousy. We, your constituents, therefore think that to be subject or dependent on the crown of Great Britain would not only be impracticable, but unsafe to the state ; the in- habitants of this town, therefore, in full town meeting, Unani- mously instruct and direct you (i. e. the representatives) to give your vote that, if the Honorable American Congress (in whom we place the highest confidence under God,) should think it necessary for the safety of the United Colonies to declare them independent of Great Britain, that we your constituents with our lives and fortunes will most cheerfully support them in the measure.
4
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN.
The record of this arousing utterance, less than a month before the famous 4th of July, 1776, very modestly says : " The above report, after being several times distinctly read and considered by the town, was unanimously voted in the affirmative without even one dissentient."
But these votes, unlike the resolves of many later conven- tions, meant all they avowed of work, self-denial, blood - for the records of the town show that carefully deliberated and resolutely formed determinations lay behind them. The men of that time had put their hands to the plow with no intention of looking back until their furrows had uprooted every trans- plant of a foreign monarchy in this land of freedom. Accord- ingly, on the first open aggression of the coming collision, when Governor Gage encamped his troops on Boston Common, the town voted, Sept. 15, 1774, to buy two pieces of cannon, " of the size & Bigness most proper & beneficial for the town ;" and at an adjournment, two weeks later, it appointed Mr. Joseph Spur and Capt. Perez Cushing chief gunners, and ordered each to see that his piece was " fit for action as soon as may be." Affairs were rapidly coming to some crisis. Governor Gage had suspended the meeting of the General Court, which he had called at Salem for October 5. But ninety members met, and with John Hancock as President, adjourned to Cambridge. Here they formed a plan for the defense of the Colony, and directed a general enlistment of 12,000 men to be ready at a minute's notice for action. Hence the two cannon for self- protection, the minute-men enlisted by town vote, the commis- sion of Jabez Fisher as delegate to a Provincial Congress at Concord on the second Tuesday of October, and the " increase of the town stock to such a degree with powder, Ball & shot as the gunners & Captains of each parish shall think pro- per." The town also adopted the advice of the Provincial Congress, and at a special meeting November 22, ordered the constables not to pay any town moneys to Harrison Gray, the royalist treasurer, but to Henry Gardner of Stow, for the use of the Province, " and the town will stand in the way of any harm to them."
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
At the meeting of Jan. 4, 1775, a Committee of Inspection of fifteen were ordered to see to the execution of the advice of the Continental and Provincial Congresses, and another of seven to secure two companies of minute-men to the number of one-fourth of the training band lists. These committees were : 1st, Elisha Ware, Jeremiah Day. John Whiting, Doct. Ebenezer Daggett, Lieut. Joseph Everett, Lieut. Samuel Fisher, Lieut. Joseph Fairbanks, John Hall, Esq., Samuel Cowell, Joseph Whiting, Jr., Doct. John Metcalf, Samuel Lethbridge, Joseph Woodward, Capt. Perez Cushing, and Dea. Jabez Fisher ; 2d., Benjamin Hawes, Dea. Jabez Fisher, Joseph Wood- ward, Dea. Thomas Man, Asa Whiting, Lieut. Samuel Fisher, and Lemuel Kollock.
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