USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hingham > History of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 24
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 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
To the Honored Gov. & Council convened in Boston, March 10, 1675, John Tower Senior of Hingham is bold to inform your Honors that he hath at his own proper charge fortified his house & to begg your ffavor that his four sonns & one or two persons more that he may hire at his own cost may be allowed to him for garrisoning his house; and may not be called off by the Comittee of the Town for to come into any other garrison, my sonns having deserted their own dwellings and brought their goods into my fortification. I shall thankfully acknowledge your Honors ffavor herein & be thereby further obliged to pray for a blessing on your Counsels. Your humble Servant
J. TOWER, SENIOR.
Ibrook Tower, one of his sons, probably lived near his father, and together with John Jr., Jeremiah, and Benjamin, constituted the " four sonns" of which his garrison was to mainly consist. John Tower was not only a brave man, but a diplomatic one also, and is said to have possessed no little influence with the red men. There is a tradition that even during the war, and while lurking in the vicinity, the Indians permitted him to get water from the river without molestation.
Edward Wilder, Jr., ancestor of all the Hingham Wilders and husband of Elizabeth Eames, owned at one time all the land between Tower's and Wilder's bridges and resided between High and Friend streets, on Main. He was a soldier in the war against Philip. With him lived his son Jabez and in the immediate vicinity several more of his children, including Ephraim and John. The region about the meeting-house at South Hingham was occu- pied largely at this time by the Jacobs, a wealthy and influential family. Foremost among them was Capt. John Jacob, a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, probably one of its officers and perhaps at one time its commander, and an able
232
History of Hingham.
and trusted officer in the war against Philip. Captain Jacob succeeded to the command of Captain Johnson's company after that officer's death, and directed the defences at Medfield when that town was attacked and partially destroyed Feb. 21, 1676. On this occasion there were with him Lieutenant Oakes and twenty troopers, besides his own foot company of about eighty men. The only Hingham name upon the roll at this time of which there is reasonable certainty, besides his own, is that of Nathaniel Beal. With Captain Wadsworth, Captain Jacob was engaged during the winter in guarding the frontiers from Milton to the Plymouth colony bounds, - Weymouth, Hingham, and Hull, being specially assigned to the latter. The service was an important and arduous one, and these towns were fortunate in having so able an officer assigned to their protection ; it may well be that to this is to be ascribed the small loss sustained from attack by any of them during the two eventful years. He was among the moneyed men of the town, his estate being appraised at £1298. He owned a saw- mill and a fulling mill, besides much land and considerable per- sonal property. He too was a son-in-law of Captain Eames, having married his daughter Marjery. Their son John, a young man of twenty-two years and who had served in the war, was perhaps the only inhabitant of Hingham ever killed in the course of military hostilities upon her own soil. Preceding the descent upon the southern part of the town, to be hereafter spoken of, he was slain near his father's house April 19, 1676. Joseph, a brother of Captain Jacob, was also a resident of this part of the town, and Samuel Bacon, who married Mary Jacob, and Peter Bacon were near neighbors. At Liberty Plain, Humphrey Johnson, who had been turned out of Scituate, set up the house which he removed from that town, but only on condition that he should remove it out of Hingham on short warning, as he was a troublesome man. Later he was admonished to accept a fence line quietly. He, however, in part atoned for his short-comings by serving his country in the conflict then going on. His son Benjamin, a black- smith and afterwards proprietor of Pine Tree Tavern, doubtless resided with his father at this time. Other residents of Liberty Plain were James Whiton, whose house was burned by the Indians, and his son James who lived near by, and William Hiliard. On Scotland Street a Scotchman, Robert Dunbar by name, made his home, and from him have descended the Dunbars of the present time. Nathaniel Chubbuck, also one of those whose houses were destroyed on the 20th of April, lived not far away, and probably near or upon Accord Pond.
On the 25th of February, 1675, it was ordered, on request of Capt. John Jacob, " that his house standing in the pass between this colony and Plymouth be forthwith garrisoned, and such as are his nearest neighbors are to joyne therein." This was the last of the defences of the town of which we have any knowledge,
233
Military History.
although it is more than probable that there were other garrison houses in the small hamlets, like that " over the river " or the one in the vicinity of Weir River. The " pass " where Captain Jacob's garrison house was situated is somewhat uncertain. It may have meant simply the street leading toward Plymouth Colony, or possibly the Indian trail near Accord Pond was so denominated.
This, then, was the Hingham of 1675, and these, with perhaps a few more whose names the kindly and gentle hand of time has shadowed into the great oblivion, were the heads of families in this olden time, - a little town consisting of perhaps one hundred and twenty homes, divided among several small villages and a few nearly isolated settlements ; a half-dozen or so streets, of which Town, or North, Fort Hill Street, South, Bachelor's Row, a part of Leavitt, what is now School, and the part of Main from Bachelor's Row proper to the extreme southern boundary, were the principal. These streets, however, were mere grassy lanes, almost unimproved, whose deep-cut ruts were strangers to any other vehicles than the heavy, lumbering teams which served as farm wagons two centuries ago. Here and there it is probable that necessity or the public spirit of an individual, or perhaps the combination of several, had resulted in trifling attempts at road making, and in some of the swampy sections bits of corduroy were constructed. One such, at least, was upon the low approaches to the brook at Broad Bridge, and some of its remains were found several years since, and even yet lie in the bottom of its bed. Road surveyors and superintend- ents and working out of taxes, and even taxes themselves, were for the most part blessings of a later period. There were no sidewalks either, and along the little side paths leading from house to house and farm to farm, the blue violet blossomed in the early days of May as now, and the white violet scented the air with its delicate fragrance, while the wild rose and the golden rod in their season made the ways bright with their beauty. The chipmunk, his cheeks filled with the yellow Indian maize stolen from the adjoin- ing field, sat saucily upon the fresh-cut stump and chipped at the passer, while the golden-winged woodpecker tapped for insects in the tree overhead, the kingfisher flashed his steel-blue breast across the waters of the bay and uttered his shrill cry, and the robin and the cat-bird danced along with their familiar friendliness be- fore the settlers' feet. On either hand, and nestling near together for mutual protection, were the low log or hewn-board thatch- roofed homes of the people, in most of which glazed windows were unknown, the light entering through oiled-paper panes and the opened door. Heavy board shutters added something to the warmth and much to the safety of the interior after dark. The rooms were few in number, unplastered and not always sheathed inside, while a single chimney, with a great open fireplace and a crane, served as oven and furnace alike. Here and there, how-
234
History of Hingham.
ever, more pretentious, and in one or two cases perhaps, even stately edifices had been erected. Some of these had a second story, overhanging slightly the first, and this added greatly to the power of resisting an attack. A few had glass windows, and here and there a little shop protruded from one end. Besides these the three forts, the garrison houses, and the meeting-house gave a certain diversity and rough picturesqueness to the landscape. Fine tracts of wood covered a large part of the territory, but nu- merous planting fields had been granted from time to time, and the axe of the settler during forty years had made no inconsider- able mark, and the clearings had been industriously cultivated from Otis, or Weary-all-Hill, to World's End. The soil was new and fairly good, and prosperity had lightened the lot of not a few, so that while certainly far from rich as wealth is measured in these days, the appraisal of some estates indicates the accumula- tion of the means of considerable comfort and influence. The people were for the most part sturdy, industrious, English farmers with a fair proportion of carpenters, blacksmiths, and coopers, more, probably, than the necessary number of inn-keepers with their free sale of strong-water and malt, a few mariners, several mill owners and millers, two or three brewers, not a larger number of shop-keepers, a tailor, a tanner perhaps, one or two " gentle- men," a schoolmaster, and last, and on many accounts most im- portant of all, the parson. As already said, the inhabitants were for the most part English, but a large proportion of the younger generation was native born, and there was also a small sprinkling of Scotch. In addition there remained a few Indians, whose wig- wams were pitched outside the settlement, besides a small number employed as servants in the houses of several of the whites ; and in the same capacity a negro might here and there have been found. From a people mainly composed at first of the British middle-class, impelled to emigrate and settle rather from an am- bition to improve their worldly lot than from any deep-seated dis- satisfaction, either with the government or institutions of home, or even from especially intense religious aspirations, there had developed a sober, industrious, earnest, self-sustaining community, whose energy was already laying the foundations for the com- merce with the West Indies which afterwards became extensive, and for the varied manufactures which for so many years gave employment to our people. A few small shallops too were owned here, and some of the inhabitants. had an interest in one or two vessels of larger size; but fishing, which subsequently became a great industry, had scarcely begun at this period. The real business of the settlement as yet was farming. The families of the day were not small, and year by year added to their propor- tions ; Rev. Peter Hobart himself was father to no less than eighteen children while others were hardly less numerous. Men and women alike were commonly dressed in homespun, and un-
235
Military History.
doubtedly the style of their garments was that so often seen in the pictures of the period. Can we not, for the moment, people our streets with them once more ? - the men in their tall-crowned, broad-brimmed hats, the short coat close-belted, with broad buckle in front, the knee breeches, long stockings and buckled shoes varied by the better protection of long boots worn by others, especially in winter, and in this latter season the long cape hanging gracefully from the shoulders; the women in their be- coming hoods, faced it may be with fur, the straight, rather short skirts, and the long enveloping cloaks, with gloves or mittens in cold weather.
The costumes were picturesque if the materials were not of the finest, but we have no reason to suppose an utter absence of more elegant fabrics when occasion demanded, and not a few are the traditions of silks which would stand alone, carefully treas- ured as their chief pride by our great-great-grandmothers, while doubtless velvet coats and knee-breeches, with famous paste or silver buckles, and perhaps even a bit of gold lace, about this time forbidden by the General Court to all but certain excepted classes, found proud and dignified wearers on days of importance among the town fathers and military commanders. We read, too, of the bequest of swords in some of the wills of the period, and it is not unlikely that they were at least occasionally worn by the grandees of the town, as well as by the trainband officers, on ceremonious occasions. Nor must it be forgotten that from necessity, as well as by mandate of law, the musket had become so constant a companion that, though strictly not an article of dress, it may at least be considered as a part of the costume of the men ; it was upon their shoulders in the street, it rested against the nearest tree when the farmer toiled, it went with him to meeting on the Sabbath, and leaned, ready loaded, in the corner at the house when he was at home.
The heavy cloud which had so long threatened Plymouth, and which finally burst upon Swansea in June, was extending over Massachusetts also. The border towns were immediately upon the defensive. Hingham, with her boundary upon that of the Plymouth Colony, and peculiarly bound to it by neighborhood, by frequent marriages between her families and those of the Pilgrim settlements, and by the removal of some of their people to live among hers, may well have benefited by the kindly influ- ences of the sister colony, and imbibed a liberalism and imagi- nation not common among the Puritans. At all events, no persecution for conscience' sake mars the records of the old town, which a little later loyally followed for more than half a century the teachings of Dr. Gay, with his broad and embracing Chris- tianity. Now, with sympathy for her friends and apprehension for herself, the town quietly, soberly, grimly prepared for the contest, and awaited the call for duty.
236
History of Hingham.
Under Captain Hobart's direction the three forts were erected, the garrison houses provisioned, and the careful watch and strict discipline maintained. The summer slipped away, the people pursuing their usual vocations. The drum-beat at sunrise relieved the weary sentinel, called to life the sleeping town, and put in motion the industries of the field, the shop, and the home. And while the men labored at their various vocations, the women were equally industrious ; for not only were the children and the homes and the dairies to be cared for, but the very clothes must be woven and made in the kitchen of every house. Probably the mill, the inns, and the malt-houses were favorite places of gathering for the men during their leisure moments, while Mrs. Hobart's shop formed the ladies' exchange of the period, and many a confidence and bit of gossip were here whispered, only to reach the goodman's ears a few hours later.
On the Sabbath-day all attended meeting, and after the ser- vices - probably several hours long - lingered around the porch to exchange greetings and make inquiries about friends and relations too scattered to visit during the week.
An occasional sail whitened the placid bosom of the little cir- cular harbor, whose outlet was nearly hidden by the three islands with their dark cedar foliage. Grand old trees here mirrored themselves, and again in the waters of the inner bay and the beautiful pond, which belonged to Plymouth and Massachusetts alike, while fields of maize ripened and yellowed on the hillsides.
The sharp stroke of the axe, the occasional report of a musket, the voice of the plowman talking to his cattle, the grinding of the mill wheels, the music of the anvil, the merry splash of the bounding stream, the whir of the partridge, the not distant howl of the wolf, the stamp of the startled deer, the crackling of dry boughs beneath the foot of an Indian, whose swarthy form flitted silently and ominously along the trail to the sister colony, - these were the every-day sights and sounds of the summer of 1675.
The weeks following the attack on Swansea had seen the up- rising of tribe after tribe, allies of Philip, the destruction of town after town in various parts of the colony, and the ambuscade and defeat of various bodies of troops under brave and able officers. United action on the part of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Con- necticut became necessary. Governor Winslow was appointed commander-in-chief, and additional companies were raised by the three colonies. Among these was one commanded by Captain Johnson, of Roxbury, already a distinguished officer, who had led a company of Praying Indians in the. earlier days of the con- flict. He was known as the brave Captain Johnson, and in his command it was the good fortune of a part of the men from our town to serve. The following quaint report marks Hing- ham's entry into the struggle, and indicates also the names of those who served her in the field : -
237
Military History.
TO THE HONORD COUNSELL NOW SITTING IN BOSTON :
In persuance of an order from the Hon. Major Thomas Clarke bearing date of the 29 of ye 9 m 1675, we have accordingly by the constables given notice to our souldiers impressed for the countrys service to appear as expressed in the sayd order and find those that appear completely fur- nished for the service. Others we are informed [are] to be at Boston making provision for the sayd service. So as we [be able] they will be completely furnished according to sayd order.
The names of these souldiers are as follows, Benj" Bates, John Jacob, John Langlee, Edward Wilder, Thomas Thaxter, Ebenezer Lane, Sam- merwell Lincoln Jun', Ephraim Lane, John Lazell, John Bull, William Woodcock, William Hersey Jun', Francis Gardner, Nathaniel Beal Jun", Nathaniel Nicols, Humphrey Johnson.
JOSHUA HOBART, Captain. JOHN SMITH, Sergt.
HINGHAM, Dec. 1, 1675.
Upon inquiry 4 of the above souldiers are found to want coats which we hope will be taken at Boston to supply. J. H.
William Woodcock was missing when the time came to march, but he subsequently appeared and served.
In addition to the above, the New England Historical and Genealogical Register gives the names of the following as in service from Hingham : Henry Chamberlin, William Chamberlin, Joseph Benson, Christ. Wheaton, Isaac Prince, Isaac Cole, Sam- uel Nicholson, John Dunbarr, Paul Gilford, Richard Francis, John Chamberlin, and Dr. John Cutler. Dr. Cutler, known as "the Dutchman," was one of the surgeons attached to the Massachu- setts regiment under Major Appleton at the great battle with the Narragansetts. In his professional capacity, the care of John Langlee and John Faxton, wounded fellow-townsmen, fell doubt- less to him. A note also says that Josiah the Sagamore went to fight against the Mohawks. A report of Capt. John Holbrooke, of Weymouth, shows that he had upon his rolls six men and four horses, and two men from Hingham, but that among the "de- fects" were Jno. Feres and Arthur Sherman from our town. From the town records we get the names of many individuals paid for arms and coats lost in the war. Among them are Samuel Stodder, a sergeant, James Whiton, Andrew Lane, Ephraim Wil- der, and Simon Brown. By the same authority we learn that Nathaniel Baker helped fill the town's quota. The following petition from the State archives adds two soldiers to our list: -
To the much hond Governeur and the rest of ye Honrd Magestrates now sitting in Councill, the petition of James Bate of Hingham, Humbly sheweth, that whereas your petitioner having now for the space of more than two months had two sons prest into the service against the Indians whereby many inconveniencyes and great Damages have been sustained by us for want of my Eldest Son who hath house and land and cattle of his own adjoining to mine being a mile from the Town and therefore nobody to look after them in his absence, and whereas there are many in
238
History of Hingham.
our Town that have many sons that were never yet in this Service who have also declared their willingness to take their Turns and seing God hath been pleased hitherto to spare their Lives, If he should now take them away before I doe again see them (upon several considerations) I know not how I should beare it. My humble request therefore to your Honours is that you would be pleased to consider our Condition and grant them a Release from their Long service. So shall you as he is in duty bound for your Honours prosperity pray and remain yours to serve in what he is able.
JAMES BATE.
These sons were probably Joseph and Benjamin. Besides these, Cushing tells us in his diary that on October 28, 1675, his son Theophilus was pressed for a soldier, and marched to Men- don, and that on December 11 he returned home.
In 1725 seven townships were granted to the officers and soldiers living, and the heirs of those deceased, who were in the war of 1675 ; one of these townships was Bedford, and among the grantees were a number from Hingham. Besides including part of the names already given as in the service during this eventful period, we find those of Joseph Thorn and Samuel Gill, then still living. Cornelius Cantlebury's heirs, John Arnold's heirs, and Israel Vickery for his father. In this connection it may be interesting to add that on June 6, 1733, a meeting of the proprietors of Bedford was held on Boston Common, and that Col. Samuel Thaxter presided, and that subsequently he, with others, was appointed on a committee to lay out the town. Including Capt. John Jacob, we are thus enabled to furnish the names of some forty-five men who served from Hingham in the war against the great Indian warrior. Besides these there were the six or eight in Captain Holbrooke's company, and doubtless very many others whose names the imperfect lists have failed to preserve to us. Indeed, if the tradition that Captain Hobart commanded a company in active service is well founded, the probability is very strong that it was largely, if not entirely, composed of Hingham men.
The day after the draft for Captain Johnson's company was observed as a " solemn day of prayer and humiliation, to suppli- cate the Lord's pardoning mercy and compassion towards his poor people, and for success in the endeavors for repelling the rage of the enemy."
On the 20th of December, after a night spent in the open air without covering, and a toilsome march through deep snow, the combined troops of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecti- cut arrived before the great fort of the Narragansetts, near Po- casset, in Rhode Island. At about one o'clock the little army moved to the attack, the advance led by Captain Johnson, who was killed at the first fire, as was Captain Davenport, who fol- lowed him. Before gaining the final victory, six captains were
239
Military History.
lost, and over one hundred and ninety of the English were killed or wounded, of whom over one hundred belonged to Massachu- setts, out of a total of about five hundred and forty.
In the " great Narragansett fight" the men of Hingham, under their unfortunate captain, led the way. We must regret having but little record of their individual experiences. We know, how- ever, that the retreat from the Narragansett country was one series of hardship and suffering, and that besides the death of many of the wounded on the way, that the unharmed nearly per- ished from exposure and hunger ; so that when General Winslow reached his headquarters four hundred of his little army, besides the wounded, were unfit for duty. On the 24th of February, Weymouth was attacked and seven houses destroyed, and by March the Indians had become so aggressive that Massachusetts ordered garrisons to be established in each town, and a select number of minute-men were to spread the alarm upon the first approach of the savages.
That the three forts, and perhaps all of the garrison houses were occupied permanently at this time there can be little doubt. Lieutenant Smith, as has been said, is known to have commanded a fort, - more than probably that near his residence upon the Lower Plain ; while Captain Hobart, though exercising general supervision of all the defences, took immediate personal charge of the one in the cemetery, directing, we may presume, the gar- rison of the fortification at Fort Hill to obey the orders of Ensign John Thaxter, then the third officer of the company.
The Town Records have the following : -
" At a meeting of the freemen of Hingham on the 18th day of October, 1675, on complaint made against Joseph the Indian and his family, who were in the town contrary to the views of most of the inhabitants, and on suspicion that he will run away to the enemy to our prejudice, therefore the freemen at the said Town meeting passed a clear vote that the con- stable forthwith seize the said Indian and his family, and carry them up to Boston to be disposed of by the Governor and Council as they shall see cause."
October 13, 1675, Hingham was ordered to pay £30 toward carrying on the war. Besides this tax, the selectmen's records show many allowances for arms lost, for money allowed the soldiers, and sums voted for transporting them to Boston, and various other military purposes, including an allowance for "liek- ars " for the committee having some duty connected with the war.
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.