USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1630 to 1855 > Part 33
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" Feb. 25, 1684 : At a general meeting of the inhabitants, John Whit- more granted a piece of land for the use of the town, for the setting up of a pound ; which land lies on the south-east of John Whitmore's land, lying near John Bradshaw's house, and is bounded south on John Bradshaw, and east upon the country road. At the same meeting, the inhabitants agreed to set up a pound on the land aforesaid."
April 26, 1684: "Thomas Willis was chosen to keep the
347
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
town's pound ; and said pound-keeper shall have, for pound- ing, twopence per head for horses and also neat cattle ; one penny for each hog; and, for sheep, after the rate of six- pence per score."
This answered all purposes until May 15, 1758, when the town voted to " build a new pound with stone." This was built accordingly, and placed on the west side of the " Wo- burn road," six or eight rods north of Jonathan Brooks's house, in West Medford. The walls of this pound were very high and strong, and bad boys thought they had a right to throw stones at the cattle there confined.
March 6, 1809 : Mr. Isaac Brooks and others petitioned the town to have the pound removed. This petition was granted thus : "Voted to have the pound removed to the town's land near Gravelly Bridge, so called ; and said pound to be built of wood or stone, at the discretion of the com- mittee." There the pound remained only for a short time, when it was removed to Cross Street.
There were other pounds in town, and some of them remained until a recent date, and were in use. One was located in Back Street, afterwards named Union Street ; and still another, on the old Woburn road, on land of the late Jonathan Brooks. We have often seen cattle placed in pound for safe-keeping ; and sometimes, as we more than suspected, to gratify a feeling not altogether neighborly.
There is now but one pound in town, and that is seldom used. As the population increased, more attention was given to the care of estates, and cattle were not allowed to run at large as in former times.
LOCAL DISEASES.
That our Medford ancestors should have subjected them- selves to the attack of some new diseases, or rather of old diseases in modified forms, is most probable. An early historian says of this region, " Men and women keep their complexions, but lose their teeth. The falling-off of their hair is occasioned by the coldness of the climate." He enumerates the diseases prevalent here in 1688 : "Colds, fever and ague, pleurisies, dropsy, palsy, sciatica, cancers, worms." Consumption is not mentioned. We apprehend that the health of our fathers was unusually good. There is scarcely mention of any epidemic. A new climate, poor
348
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
food, scanty clothing, necessary exposure, hard work, un- skilful physicians, may, in some cases, have caused deso- lating disease to do its rapid work of death; but, as a gen- eral fact, health prevailed through the first fifty years.
1764: With reference to the prevalence of the small- pox in Medford, we find the following vote : " That a fence and gate be erected across the main country road, and a smokehouse also be erected near Medford great bridge, and another smokehouse at the West End, and guards be kept."
In 1755, a smokehouse was opened for the purification of those persons who had been exposed to the contagion of smallpox. It stood on the west side of Main Street, about forty rods south of Colonel Royal's house. Vis- itors from Charlestown were unceremoniously stopped and smoked.
1775 : During this and some following years, there was fatal sickness in Medford from dysentery. Out of fifty-six deaths in 1775, twenty-three were children. In 1776, there were thirty-three deaths ; in 1777, nineteen; in 1778, thirty-seven ; and in 1779, thirteen. No reason is given for these differences in numbers. Out of the thirty-seven deaths of 1778, eighteen were by dysentery, and twenty were children. Whooping-cough has, at certain times, been peculiarly destructive. Throat distemper, so called, is often named among prevalent causes of death. In 1795 ten children and three adults died of it between the 20th of August and the Ist of November. Apoplexy seems to have destroyed very few lives. During the first fifteen years of Dr. Osgood's ministry, only one case occurred.
Oct. 15, 1778 : The town voted to procure a house for those patients who had the smallpox. No disease ap- peared to excite so quick and sharp an alarm as this. The early modes of treatment gave ample warrant for any fears. In 1792 the town voted that Mr. Josiah Symmes's house is the only one authorized as a hospital for inoculation.
The town has been visited by no epidemics of special severity since the time of these early records, and the sta- tistics of mortality of the State show that Medford ranks as one of the healthiest towns of the Commonwealth. Under the supervision of our Board of Health, all cases of contagious disease are carefully isolated, and every pre- caution is taken to keep them within the narrowest limits.
349
HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
CHAPTER XVI.
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.
WE trust, that, for the honor of Medford, records under this head will not be found numerous. We must tell the whole truth, let honor or infamy be the consequence ; and we regret to learn that our plantation was so soon the scene of a mortal strife. In the Colony records, we thus read, Sept. 28, 1630 : "A jury of fifteen were impanelled, concerning the death of Austen Bratcher " (Bradshaw). "Austen Bratcher, dying lately at Mr. Cradock's planta- tion, was viewed before his burial by divers persons. The jury's verdict : We find that the strokes given by Walter Palmer were occasionally the means of the death of Aus- ten Bratcher ; and so to be manslaughter." Palmer was bound over to be tried at Boston for this death; and, on the 9th of November, the jury bring in a verdict of "Not guilty."
At a court held at Watertown, March 8, 1631, " Ordered that Thomas Fox, servant of Mr. Cradock, shall be whipped for uttering malicious and scandalous speeches, whereby he sought to traduce the court, as if they had taken some bribe in the business concerning Walter Palmer." This Thomas Fox was fined four times, and seems to have been possessed by the very demon of mischief.
June 14, 1631: "At this court, one Philip Radcliff, a servant of Mr. Cradock, being convict, ore tenus, of most foul, scandalous invectives against our churches and gov- ernment, was censured to be whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the plantation, - which was presently exe- cuted." This sentence, so worthy of Draco, convinces us that some of the early judges in the Colony were men who had baptized their passions with the name of holiness, and then felt that they had a right to murder humanity in the name of God.
June 5, 1638 : "John Smyth, of Meadford, for swearing, being penitent, was set in the bilboes."
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Oct. 4, 1638 : " Henry Collins is fined five shillings for not appearing when he was called to serve upon the grand jury.' "
Sept. 3, 1639: "Nicholas Davison (Mr. Cradock's agent), for swearing an oath, was ordered to pay one pound, which he consented unto."
Nov. 14, 1644: The General Court order that all Baptists shall be banished, if they defend their doctrine.
Nov. 4, 1646 : The General Court decree that "the blas- phemer shall be put to death."
May 26, 1647 : Roman-Catholic priests and Jesuits are forbidden to enter this jurisdiction. They shall be ban- ished on their first visit ; and, on their second, they shall be put to death.
" Edward Gould, for his miscarriage, is fined one pound."
There was a singular persecution of the Baptists in the early times among us. They were not sufficiently numer- ous to be formed into an organized society ; and yet they were so skilful in defending their creed, and so blameless in their daily walk, that they became very irritating to the covenant Puritans ; and some wished they should be cropped ! In April, 1667, a great dispute was held at Boston between them and the Calvinists. Who were the champions in this gladiatorial encounter, we do not know, nor where victory perched ; but we have proof of blind, unchristian persecution, which stands a blot on the page of history. At the "Ten Hills, in Mistick," lived a ser- vant of John Winthrop, jun., who professed the Baptist faith. Mary Gould, his wife, who was with him in his creed, writes to John Winthrop, jun., March 23, 1669, con- cerning her husband's imprisonment in Boston on account of his peculiar faith. Whether what was done at "Ten Hills " was approved at Medford, we do not know; but these facts tell volumes concerning the ideas, principles, and practices of some of the Puritan Pilgrims of New England.
Indians convicted of crime, or taken prisoners in war, were sold by our fathers as slaves !
June 14, 1642 : " If parents or masters neglect training up their children in learning, and labor, and other em- ployments which may be profitable to the Commonwealth, they shall be sufficiently punished by fines for the neglect thereof."
Nov. 4, 1646 : The General Court order : -
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
" If a man have a rebellious son, of sufficient age and understand- ing, - viz., sixteen, - which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and mother, being his natural parents, lay hold on him, and bring him to the magistrates assembled in court, and testify unto them, by sufficient evidence, that this their son is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey their voice and chastisement, but lives in sundry notorious crimes. Such a son shall be put to death."
1672 : Our ancestors had the gag and ducking-stool for female scolds. Such persons were "to be gagged, or set in a ducking-stool, and dipped over head and ears three times, in some convenient place of fresh or salt water, as the court judge meet."
"Down in the deep the stool descends : But here, at first, we miss our ends. She mounts again, and rages more Than ever vixen did before.
So throwing water on the fire Will make it but burn up the higher. If so, my friend, pray let her take A second turn into the lake ; And, rather than your patience lose, Thrice and again repeat the dose."
The stocks stood in the centre of a village. The offender had both hands and both feet entrapped between two boards; sometimes only one foot and one hand.
The whipping-post stood near the meeting - house, and was often used : even women suffered the indig- nity.
Conspicuous in the meeting - house was the stool of repentance, on which moral culprits sat during divine service and on lecture-days. Some- Stocks and Pillory. times they wore a paper cap, on which was written their sin. Wearing a halter round the neck was another form of punishment. The pillory was often used, and the offender was saluted by the boys with rotten eggs.
Military offenders were obliged to ride the wooden horse, or sit in the bilboes. Branding on the forehead, the cage,
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
and the gallows, were each resorted to, according to the degrees of crime.
The Christian sentiments of the heart are outraged by the shameless exhibitions and cruelties sometimes wit- nessed on "lecture-day." What a transition, -from the altar of God to the public whipping-post, to see women whipped upon the bare back !
The custom of whipping did not cease in Medford till 1790 !
SLAVERY.
Our fathers held slaves in Medford. They were treated, generally, much after the manner of children. Africans were brought to this colony, and sold among us, for the first time, Feb. 26, 1638. In 1637 Capt. William Pierce was employed to carry Pequot captives, and sell them in the West Indies! On his return from Tortugas, "he brought home a cargo of cotton, tobacco, salt, and ne- groes" ! Slavery was thus introduced as early as 1638; but, in 1645 the General Court passed this noble, this truly Christian, order : -
" The General Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity to bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, as also to prescribe such timely redress for what is past, and such a law for the future, as may sufficiently deter all others be- longing to us to have to do in such vile and most odious courses, justly abhorred of all good and just men, do order, that the negro interpreter, with others unlawfully taken, be, by the first opportunity (at the charge of the country for the present), sent to his native coun- try of Guinea, and a letter with him of the indignation of the court thereabouts, and justice thereof, desiring our honored governor would please put this order into execution."
Slaves took the name of their first master. May 29, 1644: "John Gore is granted leave to set his servant, Thomas Reeves, free."
Respecting taxes on black servants, we have the subse- quent items : Each of them, in 1694, was assessed twelve pence ; from 1700 to 1719, as personal estate; 1727, each male fifteen pounds, and each female ten pounds ; from 1731 to 1775, as personal property. In 1701, the inhabit- ants of Boston gave the following magnanimous direction : " The representatives are desired to promote the encour- aging the bringing of white servants, and to put a period to negroes being slaves."
Colonel Royal (Dec. 7, 1737) petitions the General
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Court, that, having lately arrived from Antigua, he has: with him several slaves for his own use, and not to sell, and therefore prays that the duty on them be remitted .. The duty was four pounds a head. This petition was laid on the table, and rests there yet. In 1781 a final blow was given to slavery in Massachusetts; and in this the inhabitants of Medford unanimously rejoiced. To show how anxious our fathers were to prevent all abuse of an existing custom, the town passed the following vote, Aug. 4, 1718 : "Voted that every inhabitant of this town (Med- ford) shall, when they buy any servant, male or female, be obliged to acquaint and inform the selectmen of said town, for their approbation." It was a settled law with our fathers, that "no man shall hire any slave for a servant. for less time than one year, unless he be a settled house- keep."
Men sold their labor for a certain number of years, or to pay the expenses of immigration ; and, in such cases, were sometimes called slaves. Referring to such cases,, we find the following : " Ordered that no servant shall be. set free, or have any lot, until he has served out the time. covenanted."
April 1, 1634, the General Court passed an order, "that if any boy (that hath been whipped for running away from his master) be taken in any other plantation, not having a note from his master to testify his business there, it shall be lawful for the constable of said plantation to whip him,, and send him home." One hundred years after this time,, our Medford ancestors found themselves willing to pass, the following : -
Sept. 17, 1734: "Voted that all negro, Indian, and mulatto servants, that are found abroad without leave, and not in their masters' busi -. ness, shall be taken up and whipped, ten stripes on their naked body, by any freeholder of the town, and be carried to their respective mas -. ters; and said master shall be obliged to pay the sum of 2s. 6d. in. money to said person that shall so do."
This vote, we presume, must have been imported from Jamaica. Did our progenitors so learn Christ ?
1680: "There are as many (one hundred and twenty) Scots brought hither and sold for servants in time of the war with England, and most now married and living here, and about half so many Irish brought hither at several times as servants."
Judge Sewall, of Massachusetts, June 22, 1716, says,
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
"I essayed to prevent negroes and Indians being rated with horses and cattle, but could not succeed."
No cargoes of slaves were brought into Medford; but how many cargoes of Medford rum went to Africa and the West Indies, and were returned in slaves to Carolina or Rhode Island, we cannot say. The gentlemen of Medford have always disclaimed any participation in the slave- trade.
The following extract from a letter, dated Boston, 14th January, 1759, may show what was done at that time. It is as follows : -
" Captain William Ellery. Sir, - The 'Snow Cæsar' is fully loaded and equipped for sea. My orders are to you, that you em- brace the first favorable opportunity of wind and weather, and proceed to the coast of Africa; touching first, if you think proper, at Senegal, where, if you find encouragement, you may part with such part of your cargo as you can sell to your liking, and then proceed down the coast to such ports or places as you judge best to dispose of your cargo to advantage, so as to purchase a cargo of two hundred slaves, with which you are to proceed to South Carolina, unless a peace should happen, or a good opportunity of coming off with a man-of- war, or some vessel of force, for the West Indies. In that case, I would recommend the Island of St. Christopher's being handy to St. Eustatia's, for the sale of your slaves. Buy no girls, and few women ; but buy prime boys and young men. As you have had often the care of slaves, so I think it needless to say much upon that head in regard to keeping them well secured and a constant watch over them.
"Your cargo is good, and well assorted. Your rum, I make no doubt, will hold out more than it was taken in for; having proved some to hold out more than the gauge. As you have guns and men, I doubt not you'll make a good use of them if required. Bring some cof the slaves this way, if not too late.
"I am, with wishing you health, success, and happiness, your assured friend and owner,
One article of the outward cargo stands on the account thus : "Eighty-two barrels, six hogsheads, and six tierces of New-England rum ; thirty-three barrels best Jamaica spirits ; thirty-three barrels of Barbadoes rum ; twenty- five pair pistols; two casks musket ball; one chest of hand-arms ; twenty-five cutlasses."
The return cargo is recorded thus: "In the hole, on board of the 'Snow Cæsar,' one hundred and fifty-three adult slaves, and two children."
The following is a fair specimen of the captain's run- ning-account, in his purchase of slaves, while on the coast of Africa, copied by us from the original manuscript : -
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
DR.
The natives of Annamboe.
. Per contra, CR.
1770.
gals.
1770.
gals.
April 22.
To I hogshead of rum
IIO
May
I.
rum
2. I hogshead rum
I hogshead rum
108
5 OZ. 2.
5. cash in gold 2 OZ.
5. 2 doz. of snuff . I OZ.
- - 3 OZ. o.
5. I old man for a Lingis- ter .
· 3 oz. o.
How will the above read in the capital of Liberia two hundred years hence ?
In 1754, there were in Medford twenty-seven male and seven female slaves, and fifteen free blacks ; total, forty- nine. In 1764, there were forty-nine free blacks. When the law freed all the slaves, many in Medford chose to remain with their masters ; and they were faithful unto death.
LIST OF SLAVES, AND THEIR OWNERS' NAMES.
Worcester
owned by Rev. E. Turell. 66
Pompey
66 Dr. Simon Tufts.
Rose
Capt. Thomas Brooks.
Pomp.
Peter
London
Simon Bradshaw.
Selby .
Deacon Benjamin Willis.
Prince
66
66 Benjamin Hall.
Flora Richard
Widow Brooks. 66 Stephen Hall.
Dinah
Hugh Floyd. 66 Capt. Kent.
Cæsar
66 Mr. Brown.
Scipio
66
Mr. Pool.
Peter .
Squire Hall. 66 Stephen Greenleaf.
Cuffee
Isaac .
Joseph Tufts.
Aaron
Chloe .
66
66
Negro girl
Negro woman .
Joseph, Plato, Phebe, Peter,
Abraham, Cooper, Stephy, George, Hagar, Mira, Nancy,
Betsey .
May I.
I prime woman-slave
1 30
2. I boy-slave, 4 ft. 1 in.
105
60
7. I boy-slave, 4 ft. 3 in.
66
5. I prime man-slave . . 5 OZ. 2.
66 Isaac Royal.
We are indebted to a friend for the following :-
" It may be interesting here to mention a circumstance illustrative
130
105
7.
5. cash in gold
Punch
Capt. Francis Whitmore.
Nice
66
Henry Gardner.
Mr. Boylston.
Dr. Brooks.
April 22. By I woman-slave .
IIO
·
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
of the general feeling of the town in those days with regard to slavery. In the spring of 1798 or 1799, a foreigner named Andriesse, origin- ally from Holland, who had served many years at the Cape of Good Hope and in Batavia as a commodore in the Dutch navy, moved into the town from Boston, where he had lost, it was said, by unlucky speculations and the tricks of swindlers, a large part of the property which he had brought to this country from the East Indies. His family consisted of a wife and four children, with from fifteen to twenty Malay slaves. He lived only a month or two after his arrival in the town ; and his widow, immediately after his decease, sent back to their own country the greater part of the Malays, retaining only three or four of them for domestic service. Among these was a youth named Cæsar, who was master of the tailor's trade, and made all the clothes of the family, three of the children being boys. He worked not only for his mistress, but was permitted by her to do jobs in other families ; and, being quick and docile, he became a general favorite. But, in the summer of 1805, Mrs. Andriesse was induced to return to Batavia, having received the offer of a free passage for her- self and family in one of Mr. David Sears's vessels, and having ascer- tained, that, if she returned, her boys might be educated there at the expense of the Dutch government, and she herself would be entitled to a pension. All her servants returned with her, except Cæsar. He was sold to a son of old Capt. Ingraham, of this town, who resided at the South, and owned a plantation there. Whether his mistress thus disposed of him for her own advantage, or because he was un- willing to return to his own country, cannot now be ascertained. In process of time, four or five years afterwards, Mr. Ingraham came on from the South to visit his aged father, bringing with him his ' boy ' Cæsar, who left behind a wife and two children. Cæsar renewed acquaintance with his former friends, and expressed a decided prefer- ence for the freedom of the North over all the blessings which he had enjoyed at the South. They were not slow to inform him that he might be a free man if he chose; and he accordingly attempted to escape from his master. But, not having laid his plan with sufficient skill, he was overtaken in the upper part of the town, on his way to Woburn, and closely buckled into a chaise by Mr. Ingraham, who in- tended to drive into Boston with him, and lodge him on board the vessel which was to convey both of them home. Cæsar, however, had a trusty friend in Mr. Nathan Wait, the blacksmith, who had promised in no extremity to desert him; and as the chaise reached Medford Bridge, upon the edge of which stood Mr. Wait's smithy, he roared so lustily that Mr. Wait sprang out of his shop, hot from the anvil, and, standing before the horse, sternly forbade the driver from carrying a free man into slavery. Being ordered to mind his own business, he indignantly shook his fist at Mr. Ingraham, and retorted, that he would hear from him again in a manner less acceptable. A gen- eral commotion then ensued among Cæsar's friends, and they included
many of the most respectable citizens in the whole town.
Apprehen-
sions were entertained that he would be secreted, and that his pursu- ers might be subjected to a long, and perhaps fruitless, search. In those days, one daily coach maintained the chief intercourse between Boston and Medford. Accordingly, on the evening of this memora- ble day, Mr. Ingraham was one of the passengers who happened to be returning to Medford. His unguarded whisper to his next neigh-
1
L. Maria Child.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
bor, ' I have him safe now on shipboard,' chanced to be overheard by some ladies, who speeded the intelligence to Cæsar's friends. Their course then became clear. Mr. Wait instantly obtained from the Governor of the State the requisite authority and officers, proceeded to the vessel, and brought off Cæsar in triumph. Great pains were taken by Mr. Ingraham to ascertain the names of the eavesdropping ladies who had betrayed his counsel ; but Mr. Wyman, the long-ap- proved Medford stage-driver, was visited on the occasion by a con- venient shortness of memory, which wholly disqualified him from recollecting who were his female passengers that evening; 'women,' as he afterwards added when telling the story, 'never liking to be dragged into court.' Redress by law was vainly attempted by the master. The case was tried, first at Cambridge, in the Court of Com- mon Pleas, and then by appeal, at Concord ; large numbers of wit- nesses being summoned from Medford. Cæsar worked at his trade in Medford several years with great approbation, and afterwards removed to Woburn, where he married again, and was called Mr. Anderson. He died in middle age."
It is believed that Medford was the first town in the United States that rescued a fugitive slave. Since that event occurred, the change in public sentiment has been wonderful. The Nathan Waits have multiplied on every hand.
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