USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > History of the town of Plymouth, from its first settlement in 1620, to the present time : with a concise history of the aborigines of New England, and their wars with the English, &c. > Part 12
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between governor Bradford and Mrs. Southworth, and their mar- riage was prevented by her parents on account of the inferior circumstances or rank of Mr. Bradford. Being now a widow- er, he by letters to England made overtures of marriage to Mrs. Southworth, who was then a widow. The proposal was accepted, and with a generous resolution she embarked in the ship Ann, in 1623, to meet her intended partner, who, she well knew, could not leave his responsible station in the infant set- tlement. Her two sons, Thomas and Constant Southworth, came over with her. This lady was well educated and brought considerable property into the country. She died in 1070, aged 80 years, and was honorably interred on the 29th March, at New Plymouth. It is said in the old colony records, 'She was a godly matron, and much loved while she lived, and lamented, though aged, when she died.' Mrs. Bradford was highly eulo- gized by Elder Faunce, for her exertions in promoting the liter- ary improvement and the deportment of the rising generation, according to accounts he had received from some of her contem- poraries. Governor Bradford was without doubt interred on our burial hill, but the antiquarian, who visits the place, must be im- pressed with melancholy regret, that the remains of one so emi- nently meritorious as was this excellent man, should be suffered to moulder in the dust without a monumental stone to designate the spot. There is at each of the graves of the two sons, an or- dinary stone, but the grave of the illustrious sire is level with the earth, and known only by tradition. Even at this remote period, it would be honorable and a blessing to posterity, could a suitable
monument be erected, that future inquiring antiquarians might know where to resort to lean over the remains and meditate on the virtues and glorious deeds, of one of the principal founders of our nation. Greatly should we rejoice to see the venerated name, which has, for two centuries, been veiled in temporary oblivion, brought forth to immortal memory by a grateful pos- terity. We have little doubt but this desirable object might be effected, were a subscription to be put in circulation for that purpose. The family bible of governor Bradford is still in ex- istence. It is in the possession of Mr. Asa Waters, of Stough- ton, who exhibited it in this town, in October, 1831. The bible was printed in the year 1592, and contains a written list of the names of the family of Elisha Bradford, who was the grand-son of Governor William Bradford. That this ancient and honor- able family may be traced in all its branches to the present gen- eration, the following genealogical detail is here recorded. Governor Bradford married, for his first wife, Dorothy May, by whom he had one son, whose name was John, but there is no
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account that he was ever married, or with certainty when he died. There is a tradition that he was lost at sea, on his passage to England. The maiden name of the governor's second wife, Mrs. Southworth, was Alice Carpenter, by whom he had three chil- dren, William, Mercy, and Joseph. Mercy married Benjamin Vermage, mentioned in the appendix to governor Winthrop's History, vol. ii. p. 372. William Bradford, son of the govern- or, obtained high distinction in the colony, being elected an assistant soon after the decease of his father, and chief military commander. He had the title of major, and was an active offi- cer in Philip's war. He married for his first wife Alice Rich- ards, who died in 1671, aged 44, by whom he had four sons, John, William, Thomas, and Samuel. Thomas moved to Con- necticut, Samuel settled at Duxbury, from whom the Bradfords in that place descended. William Bradford's second wife was the widow Wiswell, by whom he had one son, Joseph, who moved to Connecticut. His third wife was Mrs. Mary Holmes, widow of the Rev. John Holmes, the second minister of Duxbury, by whom he had four sons, Israel, Ephraim, David, and Hezekiah. She died in 1704. When the colonial Government terminated in 1692, Major Bradford was deputy governor, and afterwards was chosen counsellor of Massachusetts. He died February 20th, 1703, aged 79 years. In his will dated Jan. 29th, 1703, he provides for nine sons and six daughters, by which it appears that he had fifteen children, a noble bequest to the new territory. The late aged Ebenezer Cobb,* of Kingston, remembered the funeral of deputy governor Bradford. The public road being obstructed by a deep snow, the corpse was brought from the family residence near Jones's river along the sea-shore, it being the express desire of the deceased to be buried near the body of his father. His tombstone indicates the spot where the gov- ernor was probably interred: the father lying on the east side of the son, while the other son Joseph, lies in another row northerly. John, the eldest son of the deputy governor, is fre- quently mentioned in the Plymouth records as selectman and on various committees; and in 1692, he was deputy, or repre- sentative from Plymouth to the general court. The governor's son Joseph, lived near Jones's river, had a son named Elisha,
* Mr. Ebenezer Cobb was a native of Plymouth, but for many years a resident of Kingston, where he died December 8, 1801, aged 107 years, eight months, and six days. He was remarkable for facetious- ness of disposition, and for a retentive memory. He well remem- bered that, when a boy, he had a personal knowledge of Peregrine White.
10
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who had several children. He died July 10th, 1715, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and was buried at the Burial-hill at Plymouth. Major John Bradford, son of Major William, mar- ried Mercy Warren, daughter of Joseph Warren. Their chil- dren were John, Alice, Abigail, Mercy, Samuel, Priscilla, and William. He died December 8th, 1736, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Mercy, his widow, died 1747, in her ninety- fourth year. Lieut. Samuel Bradford, son of the aforesaid Major John Bradford, married Sarah Gray, daughter of Edward Gray, of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and grand-daughter of Edward Gray of Plymouth. Their issue were John, Gideon, William, who died young, Mary, Sarah, William, Mercy, who died young, Abigail, Phebe, and Samuel. The aforesaid Lieut. Samuel Bradford, lived and died in Plympton, 1740, aged fifty-six years. His widow married William Hunt, of Martha's Vineyard, and died in 1770. The Hon. William Bradford, late of Bristol, Rhode Island, was a son of the above Samuel Bradford. He was born at Plympton, Nov. 4th, 1729, and died in July, 1808. He was deputy governor of Rhode Island, speaker of the house of representatives, and a member of congress. His residence was near the celebrated Mount Hope, and the story of King Philip, the aboriginal proprietor, was familar to his mind. His descendants are numerous. Gideon Bradford, son of the above Lieut. Samuel Bradford, married Jane Paddock, and had issue, Levi, Joseph, Sarah, Samuel, Gideon, Calvin, and Jenney. He died in Plympton, 1793, in his seventy-fifth year. Levi, son of the above Gideon, married Elizabeth Lewis. Their chil- dren were Lewis, Joseph, Levi, Daniel, Ezra, Elizabeth, and Sarah. He died in Homer, N. Y. 1812, aged seventy-nine years.
Colonel Gamaliel Bradford descended from the first Samuel. He lived at Duxbury, and commanded a regiment of continen- tal troops during the revolutionary war. His son Gamaliel, entered the American army when a youth, and was an officer at the close of the war. He possessed a patriotic spirit and a noble mind, and was distinguished in various pursuits in private life. Another son of Gamaliel is the present Alden Bradford, for several years secretary of our commonwealth, and the au- thor of a valuable history of Massachusetts, and the president of the Pilgrim Society.
The first notice of horses on record is in 1644, when a mare, belonging to the estate of Stephen Hopkins, was appraised at £6 sterling. In 1647, in the inventory of Thomas Bliss, a colt was appraised at £4 sterling. In Joseph Holliway's inventory, the same year, one mare and a year old colt were appraised at
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£14. In June, 1657, the colony court passed an act that every free-holder who kept three mares, and would keep one horse for military service, should be freed from all military service, train- ing and watching. While destitute of horses it was not uncom- mon for people to ride on bulls; and there is a tradition, that when John Alden went to Cape Cod to be married to Priscilla Mullens, he covered his bull with a handsome piece of broad- cloth, and rode on his back. On his return, he seated his bride on the bull, and led the uncouth animal by a rope fixed in the nose ring. This sample of primitive gallantry would ill com- pare with that of Abraham's servant, when, by proxy, he gal- lanted Rebekah on her journey, with a splendid metinue of damsels and servants seated on camels, Isaac going out to meet her. (Gen. ch. 24.) Had the servant employed bulls, instead of camels, it may be doubted whether Rebekah would have been quite so prompt in accepting his proposals. As soon as the question was put, Rebekah said " I will go."
In 1665 the colony court made a present of a horse to King Philip. It would gratify curiosity to know in what manner King Philip, and the natives, in general, were affected by the first sight of horses and cows; their minds must have been overwhelmed with astonishment to see men riding on horses and bulls.
Trouble with the Quakers. This year was rendered memor- able by an unhappy commotion and personal collision with a new sect of religionists, styled Quakers. This controversy would seem to have been engendered by a spirit of fanaticism, approaching to frenzy, on one part, and of pious zeal, allied to bigotry, on the other. Our puritan fathers, having experienced the bitterness of intolerance and persecution from tyrants, were willing that a measure of the same spirit should be construed into the rights of conscience, and become a duty when exer- cised by themselves. That confiding temper in the purity of their own sentiments, and religious ardor for the glory of God, could not brook the smallest deviation from the course, which they deemed strictly orthodox; and their jealous apprehensions of heresy led them, on some occasions, to acts inconsistent with their professed principles of Christian liberty and charity. But palliating circumstances in the case must not be overlooked. In their religious and local concerns, the puritans, about this period, were reduced to a deplorable condition. Not a few of their society had manifested a coolness and indifference to the stated preaching of the gospel by qualified clergymen, pre- ferring to exercise their own personal gifts. An alarming de- fect of reverence and support of ministers was spreading through other towns in the colony, and schisms in churches were not
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unfrequent. No less than five distinguished ministers in the colony were obliged to separate from their societies for the want of support, and two others died, and all their places remained unsupplied about the same time. Three other parishes were also destitute. It was at this critical juncture that the vexatious intrusion of the quakers occurred, to their great annoyance. Not only were their tenets at first deemed exceedingly obnoxious, and even blasphemous, but the demeanor of some individuals of the sect was audacious and provoking beyond endurance .- ' When the quakers appeared in New England,' says Hon. Mr. Baylies, 'it was during their first effervesence; the materials were still fermenting, and had not as yet worked off the scum and the dregs, which all new religious sects are sure to bring up.'
It was ordered by the court, that in case any shall bring in any quaker, ranter, or other notorious heretic, either by land or water, into any part of this government, he shall forthwith, upon order of any one magistrate, return them to the place from whence they came, or clear the government of them, on the penalty of paying a fine of 20s, for every week that they shall stay in the government, after warning. A more severe law was afterwards passed. 'It is therefore enacted by the court and authority thereof, that no quaker, or person commonly so called be entertained by any person or persons within this gov- ernment, under penalty of £5 for every such default or be whipt.'
On the 6th of October, 1657, Humphrey Norton, claiming to be a prophet, was summoned to appear at the court, and on ex- amination found guilty (according to the court record) of divers horrid errors. He was sentenced speedily to depart the gov- ernment, and the under-marshal was required to take him into custody, and to conduct him to Assonet, near Rhode Island. ' The spirit of Norton was not subdued, and he returned again into the Plymouth jurisdiction, accompanied by one John Rouse. These quakers appeared at the court in June, 1658, and were apprehended and committed to prison. When they were ex- amined before the court, Norton said sundry times to the gover- nor, 'Prince, thou lyest; Thomas, thou art a malicious man.' The conduct of Rouse was equally turbulent. They were re- manded, but in a short time were again brought before the court. Norton again abused the governor with much foul language, saying, ' Thy clamorous tongue I regard no more than the dust under my feet; and thou art like a scolding woman, and thou pratest and deridest me,' &c.
Norton and Rouse were severally required, that, as they pro-
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fessed themselves to be subjects to the state of England, they should take an oath of fidelity to be true to that state, which they refused to do, saying they would take no oath at all. On this refusal they were sentenced to a whipping. This punish- ment was inflicted, for which the under-marshal required a fee. They refused to pay, and were again committed to prison, where they remained until they compromised with the marshal, and left the jurisdiction .*
Norton afterwards addressed the governor by letter in such language as, ' Thomas Prince, thou hast bent thy heart to work wickedness, and with thy tongue hast set forth deceit; thou imaginest mischief upon thy bed, and hatchest thy hatred in thy secret chamber; the strength of darkness is over thee, and a malicious mouth hast thou opened against God and his anointed, and with thy tongue and lips hast thou uttered perverse things; thou hast slandered the innocent, by railing, lying, and false ac- cusations, and with thy barbarous heart hast thou caused their blood to be shed,' &c. &c .- ' John Alden is to thee like unto a pack-horse, where upon thou layest thy beastly bag; cursed are all they that have a hand therein; the cry of vengeance will pursue thee day and night.' After continuing in this strain at great length he closes thus, ' The anguish and pain that will enter thy veins will be like gnawing worms lodging betwixt thy heart and liver. When these things come upon thee, and thy back is bowed down with pain, in that day and hour thou shalt know to thy grief that prophets of the Lord God we are, and the God of vengeance is our God.' Norton addressed a letter to John Alden, one of the assistants and a member of the court, couched in language equally abusive as the above.
If the primitive government of Plymouth rendered itself cen- surable for the rigor of its laws, and the cruelty of the punish- ments inflicted on the quakers, their posterity have the consol- ing reflection, that among the honorable society of quakers at the present day, no one can be found that would give counten- ance to such outrageous conduct as that of Norton and Rouse; so on the other hand, may we safely vouch, that none among the descendants of the puritan fathers will pretend to find a jus- tification of the harsh measures prosecuted against them. Most happy is the day, when these opposing sects are harmoniously united in christian charity, and brotherly love; the quakers distinguished for benevolence, purity of morals, and peaceful demeanor, their friends for erudition, liberality of sentiment,
* In our times we should think public whipping to be a sufficient punishment, without obliging the culprit to pay the whipper's fee. 10 *
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christian knowledge and philanthropy. But the reader has not yet learnt the whole history of the quaker controversy.
Several other disfranchising laws were passed by the Ply- mouth general court against these people. On the 8th of May, 1659, five men and one woman were sentenced, according to a previous order of court, to banishment, to depart out of the jurisdiction by the 8th day of June, on pain of death; delaying, they were to be imprisoned, tried, and if found guilty of the breach of this law, were to be put to death. The following judicious observations are cited from Hon. F. Baylies, vol. ii. p. 38. 'The quakers who first appeared in the colony of Ply- mouth were not inhabitants, but came from abroad. Although they professed the principles of peace and benevolence, yet they waged a furious war against a religion which was much endeared to the people whom they were endeavoring to pros- elyte; for which that people had suffered much, and were im- pressed with a strong conviction of its truth.'
Their laws, their government, their forms of worship, all which they had been taught to venerate, and accustomed to love, were denounced in no very civil terms by strangers. Their magistrates and ministers were reviled in terms of inso- lent abuse; it is not surprising, therefore, that they should have attempted to check (what appeared to them to be) blasphemy and impiety. Although these new expounders of scripture styled themselves ' the prophets of God,' yet it was not an unnatural or strange belief, in that day, that they should have been re- garded as men ' possessed with demons.' 'To check their dis- orders, banishment was deemed the mildest punishment. Nor- ton was sent beyond the settlements, but on the next year he re- turned, in defiance of the government. It is not unlikely that the deportment of governor Prince to Norton was domineering and arrogant, for he detested schismatics, and hated those who despised and derided ' human learning.' Yet one far more in- dulgent than the governor, in the same station, must have been possessed of uncommon self-command, if he could have tolerated personal insults, and tamely have suffered himself to have been called a ' liar' and ' a malicious man,' while in the very exer- cise of his high authority on the judgment seat, and presiding in the court. Even in these times, under the system of tolera- tion, and with a mitigated penal code, 'contempt of court ' is deemed a high offence, and is punished accordingly. Still it is best that the hand of power should fall gently on all those who pretend (even if it be nothing but pretence,) to act under the impulse of religious feeling. The errors of honest and sincere zealots are to be excused, not punished, unless the order and
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peace of society are disturbed to such a degree, that the re- straint of the offender becomes an act of necessity.'
During this high excitement in the colony, and the still greater in that of Massachusetts, Mr. Cudworth, Mr. Allerton, and some others, appeared in opposition to the measures pursued against the quakers, in consequence of which they became so unpopu- lar that they were left out of their offices of magistrate .* At length, the court were disposed to try the effect of a more con- ciliatory treatment. For the purpose of bringing the quakers to a sense of their mistakes, the laws were so far relaxed as to permit certain persons to attend their meetings, ' to endeavor to reduce them from the error of their ways; ' this permission was given to Isaac Robinson, the son of the celebrated Leyden pastor, and three others. 'But,' says Mr. Baylies, ' the gov- ernment were not aware of their danger. The fanaticism of a new sect is always an overmatch for that which has been cooled and tempered by time.' Isaac Robinson, an excellent and sen- sible man, who had received the permission of the court to at- tend these meetings, instead of convincing the quakers of their errors, became self-convicted, and embraced many of their doc- trines, and consequently rendered himself so obnoxious, that he was dismissed from civil employment, and exposed to much cen- sure and some indignity.
In 1660, the alarm not having entirely subsided, the court of Plymouth were induced to pass additional laws to stem the tor- rent of quakerism. All persons were now authorized to appre- hend such quakers, and to deliver them to the constables, that they might be carried before the governor or some magistrate. And to prevent their speedy passage from place to place, to ' poison the inhabitants with their cursed tenets,' all persons were prohibited from supplying them with horses, on pain of forfeiture, and their own horses were also made liable to forfeit- ure.
It was also enacted, that any one who shall bring in any qua- ker or ranter, by land or water, into this government, viz., by being a guide to them or any otherwise, shall be fined, to the use of the government, the sum of £10 for every default. ' If the quakers or such like vagabonds, shall come into any town of this government, the marshal or constable shall apprehend him
* Captain Cudworth was tried for being a manifest opposer of the laws of the government, and sentenced accordingly, to be disfran- chised of the freedom of the commonwealth, and deprived of his military command ; to which he submitted with dignified magnanim- ity.
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or them, and upon examination so appearing, he shall whip them, or cause them to be whipped with rods, so it exceed not fifteen stripes. It was also enacted that all persons permitting the quakers to hold meetings in their houses, on conviction before the general court, should be publicly whipped, or pay £5.'
But I am exceeding my intended limits on this theme; and however interesting may be the sequel, I shall only add that 'in a few years there appeared a revolution in the popular feeling, and Mr. Cudworth, Mr. Brown, and Isaac Robinson were restor- ed to favor,' under the administration of Governor Josiah Wins- low.
The tragedy at Boston produced a deep sympathy for the suf- ferers, and when it was seen that the quakers could die for their faith, the people could not resist the belief that they were sin- cere.
" The book of the General Laws and liberties of the inhabi- tants of the jurisdiction of New Plymouth, out of the records of the General Court, was lately revised and established and dis- posed into alphabetical order, and published by the authority of the General Court held at New Plymouth the 29th day of Sep- tember Anno Domini 1658." It was enacted 1658, that all op- posers of the laws of the colony, or who shall speak contemptu- ously of the laws, or of the true worship of God, or such as are judged by the court grossly scandalous, as liars, drunkards, &c., shall lose the freedom of this corporation.
It was, in the same year, enacted, ' that as in many towns the number of freemen was less than the number of inhabitants,
* In July, 1656, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, both of the denom- ination of quakers, arrived at Boston from Barbadoes, and about a month afterwards eight more came into that colony from Rhode Island.
The first quakers who appeared in New England, arrived in July. The general court of Massachusetts considered them alike hostile to civil and to ecclesiastical order, and passed sentence of banishment on twelve persons of that sect, the whole number then in the colony. The most sanguinary laws were passed against the sect by the Mas- sachusetts general court, which may be found in Hutchinson, Hub- bard, and Hazard. In 1659, two men and one woman were tried before the general court of Massachusetts, and sentenced to die. The two men were executed, and the woman, Mary Dyer, was re- prieved, on condition of her departure from the jurisdiction in forty- eight hours : and if she returned, to suffer the sentence. She was carried, however, to the gallows ; and stood with a rope about her neck until the others were executed. This infatuated woman re- turned, and was executed in 1660. Many of these deluded people actually courted persecution.
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and as all had an equal right to vote, it may come to pass that very unfit and unworthy persons may be chosen that cannot an- swer the court's trust in such a place; that as all such as ma- gistrates and deputies, are to act in making of laws, and being assembled, the court in the first place take notice of their mem- bers, and if they find any unfit for such a trust, that they and the reason thereof be returned to the town from whence they were sent, that they make such choice of more fit and able persons to send in their stead as the time will permit.' This assumed right of expulsion of members would at the present day be deemed arbitrary, and meet the most decided opposition.
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