USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medfield > History of the town of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1650-1886 : with genealogies of the families that held real estate or made any considerable stay in the town during the first two centuries > Part 12
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Voted, That the Meeting House Doors shall be sett open att Eight of the Clock in the morning. ... Desired the Select men to strenthen the meeting house with proper assistance before the Ordination.
ANTI-PEDOBAPTISTS.
One article in the town-meeting warrant was "to see if the town will exempt the Anti-pedobaptists from paying ministerial taxes agreable to the late law." Voted to ex- empt Ebenczer Mason, Ezekiel Adams, Joshua Morse,
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HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
Simon Plimpton, John Pepalow, John Cutler, Widow Kezia Plimpton, James Morse, James Ellis, Jr., Benjamin Hewes, Nathan Plimpton, and Joseph Plimpton.
1771. Selectmen, Oliver Ellis, Jonathan Allen, Bara- chias Mason, Adam Peters, and Ephraim Chenery, Jr.
Samuel Morse, Representative.
An article was inserted in the town-meeting warrant "to see whether the Town of Medfield will pettision the General Court att their next sitting that the Inhabitance of Said Town may Enjoy the same privillidge that the Inhabitance of the Town of Boston do Enjoy Respecting the settling and maintaining of ministers and Building and Repairing of meeting Houses." Passed in the negative.
Leave was given to the Anti-pedobaptists to meet in the Centre School-house during the town's pleasure, they not interfering with the schools.
1772. Selectmen, Oliver Ellis, Barachias Mason, John- athan Allen, Adam Peters, and Ephraim Chenery, Jr.
Samuel Morse, Representative.
An article was put in the warrant "to see whether the Town are of the mind to petition the General Court that the Laws of this Province about choosing, ordaining, settling, and supporting ministers, building and repairing meeting houses, etc., may be repealed, so that every one may have freedom and liberty to act for themselves without having a minister, his support, etc., imposed upon them by other per- sons." The article was dismissed.
Voted, To choose a committee of Five men to Hear the Reasons of those persons that Refuse to pay their ministerial Rate.
FIRST BAPTIST MEETING-HOUSE.
June 19, a piece of land was bought on which to build a Baptist meeting-house. It was probably commenced dur- ing the summer or fall. The original building was thirty- one feet square : the entrance was at the westerly end, the pulpit opposite, with galleries on three sides. Under the
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MEDFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
galleries were the pews, enclosures some six or eight feet square ; and through the centre of the house were the " body seats," or benches. This building still stands on the spot where first erected.
1773. Selectmen, Daniel Perry, John Fisher, Jr., Jona- than Allen, Adam Peters, and Ephraim Chenery, Jr.
Moses Bullen, Representative.
A letter having been received from the town of Boston containing a statement of the rights of the colonies, and of this province in particular, also a list of infringements on those rights, a committee was chosen "to draw up some- thing proper to lay before the town." The town voted "as the clear Sence of this Town that the rights stated as afore- said are in substance the just rights of the Collonies and of this province; and that the Infringements there Innumer- ated are Real and heavy Grievances which we have long and Justly complained of, and if continued will totaly De- stroy the Libertys of the Province and the continent of America."
Voted, That this Town do acknowledge the vigelance and care which the Town of Boston have discovered of the Rights and Liberties of the province, and Shall be allways Ready to Joyn with the metropoles or any other Towns in any Constitutional measures for recovering, secur- ing, and defending our Invaluable Rights and privilidges both civel and religious.
Voted, That the Representative of this town be and hereby is Instructed to use his best endeavours in the General assembly to have the full Exercise of our Just and Invaluable rights and Liberties Re- stored, secured, and Established on a Just and constitutional Founda- tion ; also that he use his utmost influence to have a final Period put to that most cruel, Inhuman and unchristian practice the Slave Trade.
Voted, That our Town Clerk be and hereby is directed to transmitt an attested copie of these votes to the Committee of Correspondence att Boston.
The following reply from that committee has been discov- ered among some old papers : -
Gentlemen: Your clerk has transmitted to us the proceedings of the town of Medfield by which it appears that you are inspired with the same spirit and sentiments which actuate many other towns who have
.
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HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
already met to consult the common safety. All seem to agree as to state of rights and infringements : and our enemies are now convinced that what they have taunting called an expiring faction, complaining of they know not what, is the general voice of a sensible people, justly resenting their intolerable grievances, indignities, and oppressions, who, when once roused, will have it in their power, under God, to do them- selves justice.
A lot of land at Centre Meadow was sold, and the pro- ceeds put into the school fund.
Voted that the town "buy a decent Broad Cloath burying Cloath"; also, "to Repair the powder House and fix a wier to preserve the House from Lightning." An old diary states that the powder-house was struck by lightning in 1773.
Near the end of the year, another letter was received from the Committee of Correspondence, to which the town voted the following reply :-
We esteem the free and full enjoyment of the priviledges of English- men as the birthright of every American, nor do we know any reason why the distance of three thousand miles from the island of Great Brit- ain should curtail or abridge them, especially when by charter grant they are solemnly ensured to us as though we were born within the realm of England. The right to dispose of their own propriety either by their own persons or by their representatives we hold to be the grand basis of English Liberty. For these reasons we hold it a fundamental principle not tamely to be yielded up to any man or body of men on earth, that the rights of taxation in the British colonies in America is visted solely in the Houses of Assembly of the respective provinces, who are made up of men vested with authority by the free vote and suffrage of the persons on whom the tax is to be laid. It is with grief we behold this fundamental principle, this charter grant, become a matter of dis- pute and contention.
We have been alarmed with the measures for several years past adopted and pursued by the British administration under various forms evidently repugnant to and subversive of the fundamental principles of our happy Constitution, particularly in laying taxes or imposing duties upon articles of importation for the sole purpose of raising a revenue upon America. We feel with our brethren a fresh alarm upon the commission granted the East India Company to export their teas to America in such quantities as the lords of trade shall think proper, subject to a duty payable here, which carries in it an evident design (couched under plausible and subtile pretences) to enforce and establish
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MEDFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
the said revenue act and the unconstitutional measures of the British administration.
We heartily agree with our brethren of the town of Boston in their opinion of the baneful and pernicious tendency of this measure, which was evidently planned to ease the minds of the India Company and prevent their further petitions for the repeal of the act imposing a duty on tea, not for the benefit of the colonies, yea, designed the more artfully to fasten the chains of slavery upon a burdened and distressed people. We highly approve the vigilance, care, and fortitude of our brethren who have so bravely exerted themselves in the great cause of liberty, and are ready to unite our endeavor with theirs as members of the body politic in all constitutional methods to preserve, defend, or recover our just rights. We will never be behind our brethren in the most painful, laborious, or expensive trouble in so just a cause as the preservation and security of the priviledges we inherit as the purchase of our fathers' blood and treasure. United we stand, divided we fall.
In the present matter of uneasiness, we are highly satisfied and pleased with the spirited, patriotic, and disinterested conduct of some of the principal undertakers of teas in the town of Boston and Charlestown, and could heartily wish a similar agreement might be formed and inviola- bly maintained by all the undertakers of teas throughout the several gov- ernments on the continent, and that the consumers as the undertakers of this article would unite as one man to refrain the use of it so long as it is subject to parliamentary duty. This must be allowed on all hands to be a justifiable and at the same time the easiest and safest way of shak- ing off the burden of oppression and the chain of slavery. To contribute our part to this glorious cause, we do therefore resolve that we will not purchase, or use, or suffer to be used in our families, any tea that we know to be subject to a duty, at least till such time as the minds of our brethren in other towns can be known.
We have no disposition to complain when we are not burdened, nor do we desire to fault the measures of administration when they are not evidently repugnant to the rights of mankind and the liberties of Eng- lish subjects in particular. We have a firm affection for the illustrious house of Hanover, and heartily wish that his present Majesty might long reign over a free and happy people, and that that dignity of the British crown and sceptre may descend in peace and sit easy on the heads of his royal descendants for ages and generations yet to come. As the highest evidence of this, we must say we cordially acquiesce in Revolution principles, and are determined upon these principles to the utmost of our power to defend and maintain the invaluable liberties to which we are thereby entitled, against all usurpation and encroachment, as we suppose every friend to the present royal family must do, if he will act in consistence with those principles upon which the happy revolution took place.
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HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
While we profess ourselves advocates for rational constitutional lib- erty, we do not mean to patronize Libertinism and licentiousness. We are sensible of the necessity of government for the security of life, liberty, and property, and mean to vindicate and submit to all lawful and constitutional authority. We wish the blessing of law and govern- ment, and yet of rational liberty, as extensive as the subjects to enjoy them ; and therefore cannot but think it incumbent upon us to bear testi- mony against that iniquitous practice of enslaving the Africans. It appears at first view greatly absurd for us to plead for liberty and yet patronize the most cruel servitude and bondage. The poor Africans, when taken from all that is dear to them in their native soil, have not the least shadow of liberty remaining. They have nothing that they can claim as their own ; their time is entirely devoted to the service of their absolute lords, their bodies are at their disposal to be bartered and sold from man to man as the senseless beasts; their children, if any they have, are born in an estate of abject servitude, than which nothing can be more repugnant to liberty, for which we so universally contend. We wish to maintain constitutional liberty ourselves, and cannot endure the thoughts of its being withheld from the same flesh and blood for no other reason that we can conceive of but because the God of nature has been pleased to tinge their skins with a different color from our own. If we look for liberty ourselves, we conceive we ought not to continue to enslave others, but immediately to set about some effectual method to prevent it in the future. Our earnest wish is that the things which belong to the nation's peace may in no one instance be hid from our eyes. We remain united with our brethren in one common cause.
The committee to prepare this reply was chosen Decem- ber 14. Two days afterward, the destruction of tea in Bos- ton Harbor occurred.
1774. Selectmen, Daniel Perry, John Fisher, Jr., Rob- ert Hinsdale, Jacob Clark, and Joseph Clark. Enoch Adams was chosen town clerk. He served two years. £10 granted for schools, £25 for the poor.
Moses Bullen was chosen Representative to the General Court at Salem, with the following instructions : -
We, your constituents, require and commend you to act nothing in a legislative capacity as our representative in conjunction with any other council than that appointed by the charter granted by King William and Queen Mary to the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay, and chosen by the representatives of said inhabitants. Also you are hereby directed not to submit or yield obedience to any acts of the British Parliament,
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MEDFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
or ministerial instructions that infringe upon and dispossess us of our natural and charter rights, civil or religious.
Simon Plimpton, Eliakim Morse, Seth Clark, Daniel Perry, and Moses Bullen were chosen a "committee of corre- spondence " for the town, with reference to the troubles with the British Government. Two or more of this committee were to serve as delegates to the Provincial Congress at Concord in October. At this period, town-meetings were held by adjournments from week to week.
The town voted to double its stock of ammunition, and granted £17 for the purpose.
November 21, the town passed a vote of compliance with the agreement and resolves adopted by the Continental Con- gress which met at Philadelphia in October, also voted that the resolutions be entered on the Medfield records. Enoch Adams, town clerk, recorded, in neat and legible style, the fourteen resolutions in full, with the names of the men who composed that remarkable Congress. One hundred and fifty-three Medfield men signed their names as personally complying with and indorsing the resolutions. The list embraces, with scarcely an exception, the entire voting pop- ulation : there were evidently no Tories in this town.
The eleventh resolve called for the appointment by every town of a committee to observe the conduct of persons toward the measures of Congress, and to publish the names of all such as were found hostile to the interests of Ameri- can liberty. The committee for Medfield consisted of seven,-Samuel Morse, Joseph Clark, Joseph Morse, Enoch Adams, Nathan Harding, Benjamin Boyden, and Sabin Mann.
Voted, That it is the mind of this Town that the conduct of the Late Province Treasurer, Harrison Gray, Esq., hath been such that it is not Expedient for the Assessors and Constables of this town to conform to his warrants, and that the Town will Indemnify them for all cost and Damages that may arise to them from there non-compliance to his said warrants.
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HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
MINUTE-MEN.
At a town-meeting, December 26,-
Voted, That the present exigency of the times are such that we think it expedient forth with to adhear to the Resolve of Provincial Congress held at Cambridge Oct. 26, 1774, (viz.) that { Part of the militia be In- listed and held att the shortest notice to march in Defence of the Prov- ince. We think that one shilling and sixpence is sufficient Reward per day or ninepence per half day for the months of March, April, and May, they not exceeding three half days' Duty in a week,- the time when and how they shall be Intitled to their Pay as follows; (viz.) that they Enter the service the first of March (if the Inclemency of the weather doth not prevent) and continue therein untill the Last of May, when if necessary further Incouragement shall be granted to them adequate to their service, Provided (and not otherwise) that the men be Incorporated into a Company (or half Company) and equipt agreeable to the Resolve and Recommendation of Provincial Congress at Cam- bridge. And that every man so Inlisted directly pass a review before a Committee chosen by the town for that purpose, in whose power it shall be to say whether the men be able and Equipt agreeable to the above Congress, and that the Committee aforesaid together with the Commanding officer of the Company shall make out and Transmitt a true list of each man's Name so Inlisted and Excepted to the selectmen of the Town, and that the first Officer of the Company shall by giving from under his hand, or on oath to the selectmen, a particular account of each man's service Obtain from them an order on this town to Draw each man's wages once every three months after the Date of the Com- pany's Incorporation, so long as they continue to do Duty within the Town upon proper Encouragement as above (Except they be Recom- penced from the Province).
Voted, That the number of minute-men should not exceed twenty-five.
£33 15s. granted for their "encouragement."
AID FOR BOSTON.
While the citizens of Boston were suffering from the operation of the Port Bill, .many towns in this and other States sent contributions of money and supplies. The con- tribution from Medfield was 132 lbs. of pork, 402 lbs. of cheese, and 22 cartloads of wood.
1775. Selectmen, Moses Bullen, Noah Allen, Robert Hinsdale, Jacob Clark, and Samuel Ellis, Jr.
The selectmen were directed to collect the military imple-
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MEDFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
ments belonging to the town or company and return them to Colonel Ephraim Wheelock.
THE LEXINGTON ALARM.
The rolls at the State House show that the company of minute-men marched from Medfield April 19, and were in service twelve days. The following is the roll : -
Captain Sabin Mann. Sergeant James Tisdale.
Sergeant Joseph Morse. Corporal Phillips Blake.
John Baxter. Benjamin Boyden.
Drummer Job Wight.
Francis Cole.
Joseph Perry.
Silas Plimpton.
Eleazer Ellis, Jr.
David Plimpton.
Silas Allen.
Abner Mason.
Asa Cheney.
David Clark.
Holland Wood.
Eliphalet Fisher.
Moses Hewes.
Joseph Plimpton.
John Fuller.
Silas Bullard.
Rufus Mann.
Ezekiel Plimpton.
John Foley.
John Fisher, 3d. John Gridley.
Jesse Pratt.
Besides these, Captain Ephraim Chenery's company, fifty- four officers and men, started for the scene of action. They doubtless soon returned, as the records do not show that they were any time in service. In all, eighty-two men marched from this town on that occasion.
Daniel Perry was chosen delegate to the Provincial Con- gress to be held at the meeting-house in Watertown, May 31.
When the Bunker Hill alarm came, Captain Chenery started with his company : he did not arrive, however, in time to take part in the battle, but with his men served awhile in the siege of Boston. December 10, he was com- missioned as captain in a company raised as a re-enforce- ment to the American army.
One soldier at least from Medfield, James Tisdale, was among those sent by General Washington against Quebec by way of the Kennebec River and the wilderness of Maine and Canada. Tisdale had the rank of captain, was severely
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HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
wounded in the attack on Quebec, and taken prisoner by the British. He was kindly treated, however, and came home on parole, where he remained nearly a year before he was ex- changed. He rejoined the Continental Army at Saratoga. .
1776. Selectmen, John Baxter, Simon Plimpton, Sam uel Morse, John Fisher, and Joseph Clark. John Baxter, Jr., was chosen town clerk. He served at different times four- teen years.
Voted, That such officers and soldiers as were in the Continental Army on the first of last September be exempt from poll and highway taxes.
Spades, shovels, pickaxes, narrow axes, and a drum and fife were purchased for the use of the town.
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE REPRESENTATIVES.
Daniel Perry was Representative to the General Court at Watertown, and the following instructions were given him :-
Mr. Daniel Perry : The town placing confidence in your skill and veracity have chosen you to represent them at the Great and General Court the ensuing year, and advise you to use your influence in regard to the several particulars following : -
I. Whereas the King, Lords, and Commons of Great Britain in Par- liament assembled have declared their right to bind us in all cases what- soever, and their proceedure with the colonies being agreeable to said declaration so that we cannot have any dependence as heretofore on them, we therefore, if the Congress declare the colonies independent of Great Britain, will support said declaration with our lives and fortunes.
2. That a repeal may be made of the paragraph mentioned in the Test act and covenant relating to the laws that may hereafter be made for the regulation of the militia thereof, and that there may be an appeal admitted for offenders provided in said law as in other cases.
3. That the laws of this colony made and provided for the settling and supporting ministers and building meeting-houses may be repealed, so that the gospel may be the only rule submitted to in the above cases.
4. That no African or other person be held in slavery during life.
5. That every town pay its own representatives to the General Court.
6. That every prudent measure may be taken to keep up and support public faith, as expressed in our paper currency.
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MEDFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
SMALL-POX HOSPITAL.
At a meeting in June, the town "Granted Liberty for a Number of Persons to Innoculate For the Small Pox, Pro- vided said Persons att their One expence do provide a sut- able House Remote from traveling or Other dwelling houses as the Law in such cases Directs." A committee was chosen "to inspect such houses and persons where they think the small-pox to be " ; also, to prepare regulations for the inoculating hospital. The following were adopted : -
1. Every person who may receive the infection of the small-pox by inoculation shall repair to the hospital as soon as the physician attend- ing him shall judge it expedient for the safety of all such as may be liable to receive it.
2. No person who may have the distemper shall leave the hospital until he or she has first obtained a certificate in writing from the attend- ing physician, setting forth that such person is so cleansed and freed from infection as not to endanger others who have not had the dis- temper.
3. That the town choose a committee, consisting of persons who have had the small-pox, who shall have the inspection of the hospital, and see from time to time that proper care is taken by physicians and nurses of the subjects of the distemper; and that, if they find any neg- lect or mal-conduct, that they report the same to the selectmen of the town, who shall take such measures thereupon as in their discretion they may see meet, and also to see to it that due care is taken by the physi- cians or nurses who may attend said hospital that they on their part expose no person to the infection in their passing and repassing from said hospital.
Lastly, that the selectmen for the time being be directed to procure such further measures for the benefit of said hospital and the common safety, under direction of the law as to them from time to time may seem expedient.
The committee of inspection consisted of Francis Cole, Sabin Mann, and John Thebault.
The General Court having ordered a quota of men from Medfield for the Continental Army, the town offered a bounty of £6 6s. 8d. in addition to that offered by the Gen- eral Court. The number of men was twenty-six : each man was to provide his arms and accoutrements. Voted to borrow £150 to pay the bounties.
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HISTORY OF MEDFIELD.
Voted "to give the last grant to pay the men listed to Goe to Cannady"; also, £6, "the money that the Great Gun was sold for," toward paying the bounties of the I'm- ada soldiers. The unfortunate expedition against Quebec under Montgomery and Arnold is here referred to.
£3 granted for schools. During the war, very little was raised for schools, aside from the income of the school fund.
Voted, That the Town are of the mind that the present House of Assembly with the Councel of this State Consult and agree upon such a Constitution and form of Sivel Government and that only for the safety and good of the State, and when they have so Don Lay the same Before Each town in this State for their Inspection and Perusall that their minds may be known whether they approve or Dissalow of the whole or any part of it.
FORMATION OF A BAPTIST CHURCH.
August 18, a Baptist church was formed with the follow- ing members : -
Ebenezer Mason.
Abigail Morse.
Bathsheba Morse.
Dorothy Mason.
Susannah Reed.
Kezia Morse.
Asa Mason.
Benjamin Boyden.
Mary Edwards.
Beriah Mason. Elizabeth Baker.
Lydia Lovell.
Hannah Mason.
Edward Coffoa.
Mary Harding.
Priscilla Mason.
Kezia Plimpton.
Abner Bullard.
Ezekiel Adams.
Mary Ellis.
John Bassett.
James Morse.
Kezia Cutler.
Grace (a slave).
Maria Morse.
Olive Cheney.
John Thebault.
Taphath Chenery.
Rev. Thomas Gair was settled as pastor.
The population of Medfield in 1776, as shown by the Colonial Census, was 775.
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