USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > History of the town of Weston, Massachusetts, 1630-1890 > Part 6
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57
THRIFTY FINANCE OF YE FATHERS
being entered here. Judging from his statement of his condition for want of his salary, unpaid for years back, it would appear that the settlers or the grantors were deficient in religious zeal, or perhaps the distance which separated them rendered them somewhat careless in their treatment of him. The letter, how- ever, speaks for itself :-
NARRAGANSETT, No. 2: Decr. 30th, 1737 (?).
Mr. BROWN,
When I was down last I desired Mr. Cooke to acquaint the Committee of my request, which was that there might be a Proprietors' meeting called as soon as possible, and see whether they would make my sallary good, according to contract, that I might know what to depend upon. Sir, you can't but know that since my settlement, everything of the necces- saries of life is almost if not quite doubled and I can't possibly live unless I have my sallary: and have it paid when it is due to me, but instead of that I am greatly injured and abused either by the Committee or the Clerk or Proprietors or all of them. Dear, how do you and the rest of the Committee think I can live without my just dues from the Pro- prietors, when by reason of the war I have not been able to raise my provisions but must buy all, this present year, but pay which way without money? I have not received all of my fourth year's salary yet by considerable, and not one penny of the fifth, and you know how far the sixth year is advanced. This is in my opinion, and I think must in all honest people be looked upon wrong and oppressive, the wise man tells us the ringing of the nose brings forth blood, and opression will make a wise man mad. If there is not a meeting called immediately and I am paid of what is my due, and I have my full sallary I must be obliged to take some other measures. Pray don't oblige me to it, by the Committee neglecting their duty. Let a meeting be called directly and you will oblige your sincere and abused friend and servant.
ELISHA MARSH.
In 1738 appears the following bill for building the meeting-house at Township No. 2, now Westminster :-
58
HISTORY OF WESTON
Dr. THE PROPRIETORS FOR BUILDING THE MEETING HOUSE. 1738.
1738.
To Building the House £365:0:0
July 5. By Cash . £54:0:0
" Sundry Articles Do 1:10:0
Sept. 8. By Cash 50:0:0
Dec. 20.
66
30:0:0
£366:10:0
1739
June 6. 66 45:0:0
Oct. 31.
15:0:0
Nov. 9. 66 66
15:0:0
By Paid John Wood Glazier
by Mr. Joseph Lynd
6:0:0
1740
May 17. By Cash
35:0:0
July 2.
30:0:0
Sept. 24.
60:0:0
1741
June 10.
26:10:0
£366:10:0
It is to be hoped this is only a copy, although it has all the character of an original bill. It is not, however, receipted, which perhaps was not necessary. In 1744 appears the following account of the Proprietors' Standing Committee, by which we see they began to pay up some part of poor Mr. Marsh's salary :-
The Standing Committee for the Proprietors of the Narraganset Township No. 2 who were appointed to inspect their Treasurer's accounts (viz. Mr. Daniel Cook), and to lay them before the Proprietors, as also to call to account such as had before neglected to account with the former Committee, do now report thereon, as followeth, viz., that the Balance of the former acct. due the Proprietors September
17th 1744 was the sum of £359:13:10 and that upon Sept. 19, 1744 the proprietors at their General Meeting granted a Tax of one pound, new Tenor to be laid upon each rate, which amounts to the sum of-in old Tenor- 472:0:0 also on said day granted the Revd. Mr. Marsh his second year's sallery, viz., forty-five pounds, Current money: which in old Tenor amounts to. 180:0:0
Also on said day they granted the Revd. Mr. Marsh his third year's sallary, viz., £45: Current money, which in old Tenor amounts to 180:0:0
Total
£1191:13:10
I
Cr.
59
THRIFTY FINANCE OF YE FATHERS
Mr. Benjamin Brown, of Weston, seems to have been the prin- cipal manager of the township. His bills and accounts run from 1736 to 1750, when he makes a general settlement with Mr. Cook, the treasurer of the proprietors. There exists a map of this township, with a list of all the grantees. Should it be found, it will appear in an appendix.
Before leaving the period of the earliest history of Weston, it will be interesting to give a tax rate previous to the incorporation of the town,-that of 1708,-by which we shall notice who were the inhabitants at that early period and the then rate of taxation. The province tax for the west precinct of Watertown, by assess- ment made September 17, 1708, by Benjamin Gearfield, Palsgrave Wellington, and John Warren, assessors, was £101 12s. of which sum £80 15s. 6d. was collected. It will be noticed that on all very old tax rates, or invoices, as they were called, there is a column set apart and styled "Faculty." This denotes that any person in the town having a "knack" at anything, or a faculty of trade wherewith he earned his livelihood, was supposed to be taxed thereon, probably very much in the sense of our present license. But, as it will be noticed that all under this head, even Captain Jones and Squire Fullam, confessed to no "Faculty," it is to be presumed that it was not insisted upon by the assessors. In all the rates that have been examined none have been found where a person has confessed to possessing any faculty for any- thing, and yet these old settlers had certainly one great faculty,- that, at least, of getting on in the world with a multitude of cir- cumstances of those early times which, to say the least, would be considered difficult to surpass in the present day. The habit of passing over or ignoring the disagreeable questions which asses- sors are apt to indulge in has been successfully handed down to our own day, with more or less success. Assessors of those early times were probably as disagreeable companions in the spring of the year as are those of the present epoch.
60
HISTORY OF WESTON
The Provincial Tax Rates or Assessment made September 17, 1708, for the West Precinct.
Heads.
Yearly
Income.
Multiplied
by six.
Quick
Stock.
Trade or
Faculty.
h.
£
S.
£
8.
£
S.
£
8.
£
8.
d.
1
1
00
6
00
7
00
00
00
Charles Chadwick.
-
19
7
1
2
-
-
7
14
-
-
Joseph Waight.
1
4
6
1
1
10
9
-
-
-
Jacob Pierce.
1
-
4
-
5
10
33
16
4
Thomas Waight.
1
16
2
1
-
10
3
7
10
1
William Fisk.
17
5
1
7
42
18
14
-
Lt. John Bruer.
2
14
9
-
-
-
13
12
Jonathan Bullard.
1
7
9
1
4
24
13
-
Jonathan Bullard Jr.
1
17
4
1
2
10
15
3
18
Joseph Bullard.
1
4
-
1
1
10
9
8
10
Joseph Lovewell.
1
3
0
1
2
12
5
--
Francis Pierce.
1
2
7
-
-
-
-
-
-
12
3
1
4
24
13
16
-
James Stimpson.
1
17
11
1
2
-
12
5
8
Samuel Souverans.
1
2
10
1
3
10
21
-
-
-
Geo. Robinson.
1
13
11
1
-
-
-
5
10
Geo. Robinson Jr.
-
14
-
-
-
-
-
John Jones.
11
6
1
3
10
21
10
10
Daniel Easterbrook.
1
13
3
1
1
-
6
-
-
Caleb Grant.
1
1
4
1
10
9
-
-
-
-
6
8
1
2
10
15
10 7
18
Jonathan Biglo.
1
2
7
1
3
18
8
18
-
John Mixor.
1
10
-
1
3
10
21
12
10
John Sawin.
1
14
9
1
1
6
7
6
Ebenezer Allen.
-
19
7 7
-
-
-
-
-
-
13
4
1
-
--
-
3
10
Thomas Woolson Jr.
12
7
1
1
10
9
10
10
-
Corp. J. Warren.
1
4
1
1
2
10
15
2
-
-
Ben: Harrington.
1
2
7
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
10
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
James Bassford. Capt. Jones.
1
17
4
1
5
10
33
17
16
Capt. F. Fullam.
2
7
6
4
10
27
17
14
4
Thomas Woolson.
1
15
11
4
-
24
13
12
-
Corp. B. Harrington.
1
7
9
-
3
10
21
9
16
Jos: Livermore.
1
2
8
1
10
-
60
16
4
Lt. J. Livermore. Jos: Woolson. Ebenr Hunt.
1
6
8
1
3
18
24
9
2
Wm. Whiting.
1
14
6
1
-
-
9
-
Wm. Whiting.
16
8
1
-
-
-
-
-
11
6
1
1
6
5
1
-
18
2
2
4
10
27
20
12
Daniel Warren.
2
15
2
1
3
10
21
-
10
18
-
- Joshua Biglo.
1
13
8
-
1
-
-
-
-
John Waight.
-
16
8
1
12
-
-
-
4
-
-
-
-
2
-
-
Joseph Pierce.
- Samuel Lov.
1
8
6
1
1
10
9
-
-
-
-
12
1
10
Daniel Modup.
9
Richard Parks.
-
-
10
-
1
4
-
24
12
18
-
3
9
3
-
-
24
-
12
2
-
-
13
4
1
4
2
Saml. Whiting.
- Richd. Robbins.
-
-
-
-
2
3
18
3
1
Daniel Modup Jr.
-
1
8
-
-
4
-
24
9
5
3
Nathl. Brown.
THRIFTY FINANCE OF YE FATHERS
61
Heads.
Yearly
Income.
Multiplied
by six.
Quick
Stock.
Trade or
Faculty.
h.
£
3.
£
S.
£
S.
£
S.
£
co
d.
2
3
-
-
12
8
J. Allen Senr.
2
2
6
1
4
-
-
12
8
-
Joseph Allen.
1
16
10
1
2
-
-
7
18
Simon Tozer.
1
4
9
1
1
-
6
4
10
Joseph Doan.
-
17
9
1
3
10
21
12
8
Abel Allen.
1
14
8
1
3
-
-
10
18
Saml. Jones.
1
11
5
1
3
10
21
12
16
Corp. B. Allen.
1
14
9
1
2
10
15
12
16
Nathl. Jones.
1
10
6
Michael Falghaw.
13
2
1
1
1
-
-
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
1
4
-
24
11
14
James Jones.
1
16
4
1
1
10
9
3
10
Benj: Bullard.
-
19
3
1
1
10
9
5
-
-
19
8
1
4
24
12
18
Thomas Flagg.
1
17
4
1
1
6
3
10
Joseph Whiting.
-
17
1
3
18
10
10
Jonathan Stimpson.
1
11
1
1
1
6
5
8
Saml. Robbins.
-
18
5
1
5
30
14
18
En: Josiah Jones.
Q
3
3
1
2
12
5
8
John Smith.
1
2
10
1
3
18
11
10
Thomas Spring.
1
11
9
1
4
24
12
8
John Parkhurst.
1
16
10
1
3
18
11
14
Nathl. Coolidge.
1
11
11
L
2
12
6
18
Richd. Norcross.
1
4
1
2
3
18
10
18
John Wellington.
1
11
5
1
1
10
9
9
8
Benj: Brown.
1
3
7
1
1
10
9
7
10
Thomas Garfield.
1
2
2
1
3
-
18
12
8
Benoni Gearfield.
1
12
3
1
2
10
15
9
8
Benj: Gearfield.
1
8
1
3
10
21
-
12
16
John Warren Jr.
1
14
5
To Benjamin Brown, Constable of Watertown, this is your part of the Province Tax, for you to collect and pay, according to your Directions in the Treasurer's Warrant and amounting to the Sum of £101 12s.
BENJ: GEARFIELD,
Assessors
PALSGRAVE WELLINGTON,
for
JOHN WARREN,
Watertown.
-
-
3
-
Isaac Modup.
-
12
3
1
1
-
6
5
-
-
Saml. Philipps.
10
1
James Biglo.
10
Daniel Liensmouth.
-
18
24
12
18
-
-
-
-
1
-
-
1
62
HISTORY OF WESTON
The country hereabouts must have been infested at an early period with noxious animals, among these squirrels and blackbirds, probably to the great injury of the crops. A record exists cover- ing several years, beginning in 1731 (but probably earlier records existed), where bounties were paid by the town for the killing of all such animals. In 1731 £7 19s. 4d. was paid; another year, £14 4s. 8d .; and again £11 11s. 10d. The statutes provided that towns might pay a bounty for the killing of wolves, crows, squir- rels, and other wild animals, and all birds that were destructive of crops. The bounty for killing crows in the months of April, May, and June varied in different years. Twenty-five cents was paid for old crows, and half that for young ones, and half a cent for red-winged blackbirds. Swine and cattle were allowed to go at large in this and most towns of this State from a very early period and down to our own day. The nuisance was not abated here until late in the '40's. The law regulating the going at large of swine was never enforced in Weston, so far as the records show. The law stated that they should be properly yoked and ringed, and further set forth "that no yoke shall be accounted sufficient which is not the full depth of the swine's neck above the neck, and half as much below the neck: and the sole or bottom of the yoke to be three times so long as the breadth or thickness of the swine's neck." The standing complaint in Weston regard- ing animals going at large was the damage done by horses, which in early days got their principal feed in the roads and in the gardens of the inhabitants.
Following is one of the old accounts of the town relating to aforesaid bounties :-
THE OLD FLAGG TAVERN, CENTRAL AVENUE.
Here General Washington, when President, passed a night on his way to Boston. Here, too, President John Adams stopped. This tavern was for many years the principal stopping-place for the New York mail-coaches. It was destroyed by fire November 6, 1902.
THE OLD MARSHALL HOUSE, CHURCH STREET.
Confiscated by the government after the War of the Revolution, and later bought by Colonel Thomas Marshall, great-uncle of General James F. B. Marshall, who, after service in the Revolutionary War, came here to live. It was later owned by William M. Roberts, who in 1867 sold it to General Charles J. Paine. In 1882 it was moved from its former location on Highland Street to its present site on Church Street by Charles H. Fiske, who now owns and occupies it.
THRIFTY FINANCE OF YE FATHERS
63
Payment made in 1742 Old and Young £11: 11: 10.
Squirrels.
Old Black Birds.
Young Black Birds.
Other Animals.
Jonas Cutter
8
2
Enoch Garfield
7/3
5
-
Timothy Brown
5/3
1
4/3
John Gore
2
3
-
Joseph Brown
4
3/3
Thomas Cory
13
6
-
James Brown
9/12
2/8
7
John Jackson
3
I
-
3 young greys
Jonathan Corey
6
9
2/4
Benjamin Corey
1/5
4
-
D. Fletcher
38/7
10
1
10 young squirrels
J. Hoadley
43/42
1/4
-
-
Joseph Brooks
15
5
4
Elisha Cutter
5/48
5
-
J. Wellington
4
16/6
E. Corey
1
-
Jonas Cutter
6/15
-
4
1 Jay
J. Brooks
8/14
6/13
-
Timothy Brown
32
13
3
Benjamin Monroe
42
10
8
Joseph Brooks
55
34
18
The military company of Weston was in active duty in 1710. In the diary of the clerk of the company at that time he makes charges on the several training-days of two shillings for the drum- mers' dinners, and enters the following fines of the rank and file for non-attendance at drills and training-days, viz .:-
July 12, 1710. Received of Thomas Flagg a fine of 3s. July 15, 1710. Received of Joseph Whitney a fine of 3s.
August 9, 1710. Received of Isaac Modob a fine of 10s.
August 9, 1710. Received of Saml. Severance a fine of 5s.
August 9, 1710. Received of Thomas Flagg a fine of 5s.
October 16, 1710. Received of James Jones a fine of 5s.
October 16, 1710. Received of Benj: Bullard a fine of 5s.
-
5
1
B. Munnimont
B. Monroe
20/4
5
-
1 Grey Squirrel 4
These accounts run from 1710 to 1718, when he resigns and passes all funds in his possession into the hands of Captain Fullam. In the same book is a charge for making town rates for the year 1707,-six days' labor, twelve shillings. This assessor should have lived in our days, and charged one hundred dollars.
644
HISTORY OF WESTON
His duties were more arduous, probably, considering the times in which he lived, much more so than at the present time, at least judging from the labors of the committee chosen in town meeting to collect the minister's salary. This committee un- doubtedly found it very hard work, for we find on Amos Lam- son's ledger sundry charges to this committee for rum, brandy, crackers, and cheese, which attest the difficulty they labored under in performing their task.
As has been stated in a previous chapter, great precautions were taken by the town officials, from a very early date, that no persons should be allowed to remain within the town limits who were likely to become a town charge. All persons har- boring such persons were liable to a fine, besides which they became responsible for the costs attending their future care. Heads of families were obliged to give notice to the Selectmen of all these unfortunates in their employ, giving their place of birth and the period of their stay. Our records are full under this head from 1756 to the period of the Revolution. And even in our own day great precautions are still taken that strangers from other towns shall not come on the town for support. The following were warned and cautioned out of town :--
1756. Bathsheba Moulton, Jonathan Knight, Christopher Capen, and Mary Priest.
1757. Jonas Bowman, Mary Chubb, Silence Chubb, and Samuel Good- ing and wife, from Waltham.
1771. Nathaniel and Lois Parkhurst, wife and daughter, from Waltham. Jacob Bull, wife and six children, from Cambridge.
Susannah Gage and daughter from Lincoln. Lucy Jones from Worcester. Percival Clark, Abijah Hurd and M. Willard from Newton. Jedediah White, wife and six children, from Watertown. Reuben Shed from Billerica.
Jeremiah Goodnow, wife and four children, from Marlboro.
And so on. The record book of these warnings is quite full. It is said that such poor folk were sent out from certain towns to other localities to be rid of them, and in the hope that they might gain a foothold somewhere.
1
65
THRIFTY FINANCE OF YE FATHERS
Here is another item from the old records which may prove interesting; namely, a table showing date of the erection of some of the early houses in Weston. It is taken from the Natick Historical Records by Horace Mann, Esq., and concerns the houses of :-
Nemiah Williams, 1749
Thaddeus Spring, 1760
Adam Betty, 1757
Jonathan Spring, 1764
Danl. Parks, 1750
Tho: and Epm. Peirce, 1766
William Keny, 1754
Danl. Wyman, 1740
William Tenny (?), 1750
Saml. Severence, 1741
Timothy Bemis, 1765
Josiah Coolidge, 1758 (this is the Schwartz house)
Joseph Underwood, 1748 (later of Nicholas Boylston)
Josiah Smith, 1757
Saml. Child, 1749
James Livermore, 1750
John and Saml. Train, 1738
Joshua Train, 1740
Saml. Livermore, 1757 (this is the Albert Hobbs house)
William Train, 1747
Abraham Gale, 1751
James Stimpson, 1756
Abraham Jones, 1765
Samuel Stimpson, 1761
Isaac Jones, 1752
Saml. Jenison, 1754
(Golden Ball Tavern)
Nathan Fiske, 1760
William Upham, 1760
The old house which stood where now is located the Richardson farm-house was erected by John Lamson, who came from Reading to Weston in the early years of the eighteenth century. It was probably one of the oldest houses near the centre of the town. The barn, built probably at the same time as the house, was in perfect preservation when taken down by Mr. Cutter, and the oak timbers of it were used in the new house now occupied by Mr. Richardson.
As the custom existed for so many years throughout our country of binding out to apprenticeship (for the purpose of learning a trade) boys averaging the age of twelve or fourteen, usually until they reached the age of twenty-one, it will not be amiss to give here the indenture made between Benjamin Brown, Jr., and Isaac Hobbs, of Weston, in 1762. It is perhaps useless to add in this our day of progress that the boys of this early period started out to make their way well equipped in the knowl- edge of some trade which rendered them independent in a great
66
HISTORY OF WESTON
measure of the vicissitudes of life. It is a question whether higher education has in every respect placed the rising generation in as favorable a position (taking our young people as a whole) to win their pathway upward and prevail.
This Indenture Witnesseth that I Benjamin Brown Jr. of Lincoln in the County of Middlesex, a minor, Hath put himself, and by these presents doth voluntarily, and of his own free will and accord, and with the con- sent of his father Benjamin Brown aforesaid, put and bind himself Ap- prentice to. Isaac Hobbs and Mary his wife of Weston in the County aforesaid, to learn tanning and curreing Art, Trade or Mystery, and with the said Isaac & Mary Hobbs after the Manner of an Apprentice, to serve from the 16th day of January A.D. 1762 for and during the term of five years and two months, to be complete and ended: During all which term the said Apprentice the said Isaac Hobbs faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep, his lawful commands gladly everywhere obey; he shall do no damage to the said Isaac Hobbs nor see it to be done of others, without letting or giving Notice thereof to the said Isaac Hobbs, he shall not waste the said Isaac Hobbs' goods, nor lend them unlawfully to any: he shall not commit Fornication, nor contract matrimony within the said term: At Cards, Dice, or any other unlawful game he shall not play, whereby his said master may have damage, with his own goods nor the goods of others: he shall not absent himself by day or by night from his said master's service without his leave; nor haunt alehouses, Taverns, or Play houses, but in all things behave himself as a faithful Apprentice ought to do towards his said master and mistress during the said term of five years and two months. And the said Isaac Hobbs doth hereby covenant and promise to teach and instruct, or cause to be taught
and instructed in the Art, Trade, or calling of tanning and curreing by the best ways or means he may or can be taught, (if the said Appren- tice be capable to learn) finding unto the said Apprentice suitable meat, drink, washing and lodging (and also to be well instructed in reading, writing and cyphering, during the said term): And at the expiration there- of to give unto the said Apprentice two good suits of apparrel for all parts of his body, one for Lord's days the other for common use-suitable for such an apprentice. In Testimony whereof the parties to these pres- ents have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals the 16th day of January in the 2d year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, George the 3d King of Great Britain, A.D. 1762.
VI.
WESTON IN THE REVOLUTION.
1763-1775.
The contest of the colonies with the English Parliament may be said to have begun soon after the peace of 1763, at which period the Indians were generally subdued. We have seen that the French and Indian Wars preceding this date had been excellent training-schools for our inhabitants. The ability of the colonies to defend themselves had been demonstrated,-and that, for the greater part, at their own expense, as whatever recompense they received from the British crown was rarely in money, but mostly in land grants, the Massachusetts troops being allotted lands in the remote sections of the State, then a wilderness.
One thing had been thoroughly shown in these wars, and that was the incompetency of the British generals sent over to com- mand the troops in the subtle warfare of the Indian tribes. The American system of "bushwhacking" (a word that has become historical since the War of the Rebellion), at which the colonists had become adepts in their Indian experiences, was incompre- hensible to these foreign soldiers. Our colonists soon discovered that their own officers were better able to conduct military opera- tions and lead them to victory than the titled aristocrats of England. From all this it was but a step for them to discover their ability to maintain their independence of all foreign control. The wars that England had been called upon to sustain on the Continent for a quarter of a century had impoverished its treas- ury, and Parliament undertook to tax the colonies, and thereby in a short space of time succeeded in utterly alienating the people from the mother country.
The Stamp Act of the year 1765 may be regarded as the begin- ning of our Revolution. Whatever previous Acts had been attempted in the way of taxation had not materially touched
68
HISTORY OF WESTON
the distant sections away from tide-water. The effect of the Stamp Act upon the agricultural population was necessarily in- significant, and the country towns were slow in responding to the stirring appeals of Samuel Adams and James Otis. A great gloom had settled over Massachusetts. The courts were closed and business was at a standstill. There is no record by which we can judge of the effect of the Stamp Act on Weston. Perhaps its influence may have been modified by the fact that a similar Act had been passed by the province of Massachusetts in the January session of the General Court in 1755, and possibly the English Act may not have had the influence with the people of the country towns it otherwise would have had but for this pre- vious tax. This Act of Massachusetts of 1755 may be found in Volume XIV. of the State Register of that year, together with a description of the stamps used at that period. To give an idea of the magnitude and importance of the Act of 1765: blank bail-bonds had been sold before the Act for £15 the ream; stamped bonds cost £100; a ream of insurance bonds or policies that for- merly cost £20 were under the Act to cost £190. The effect of this law was to cause the settlement of lawsuits and disputes by arbitration rather than through the medium of the courts.
The only mention in the Weston town records of the Boston riots, which grew out of the Stamp Act, is found in the account of the November meeting of that year, when the town voted that Samuel Phillips Savage, Elisha Jones, and Captain John Brown should be a committee to draw up instructions to their representa- tive Abraham Bigelow in relation to these riots, and the com- mittee reported as follows :-
The Town directs you to give your vote in the General Assembly to make full compensation to the late sufferers in the Town of Boston, by the rioters on the 27 day of August 1765, that they be paid out of the public Treasury: and that you also do your best endeavour that the same be replaced in the Treasury by action against the said rioters.
The custom prevailed before the Revolution, and during a period somewhat later, for the inhabitants in town meeting, through- out New England, to draw up instructions for their representatives to follow at the General Court, regulating their action and their
69
WESTON IN THE REVOLUTION
votes on particular subjects of general interest. These instruc- tions were always obeyed, and it was not infrequently that the representatives were called upon to explain their action in certain cases before a town meeting. Such action on the part of towns has now become obsolete, and, in fact, would be universally resented to-day on the part of public servants. The town meet- ings are of purely New England origin, at least so far as this continent is concerned, and they have had more to do with the foundation of our institutions and government, both State and Federal, than has been sufficiently considered or credited to them .* With us here they were the outgrowth of the church assemblies and conferences. Our earliest records are those of the precincts, presided over by elders and governed by church regulations. No man could vote in precinct or town affairs, or be made a freeman, unless a member of the church in good standing. Town meetings originated here, at our own doors. They are the best examples of pure democracy that are left to us throughout New England. Nor do they vary essentially from what they were a century ago. All tax-payers had an equal voice in matters pertaining to public affairs. They voted their own taxes and all money for public purposes, and kept a keen eye on appropria- tions and expenditures. They held all town officers to a strict accountability in the performance of their respective duties. Massachusetts has never lost her attachment to this system of self-government, and it would be well if all the people could act upon its principles to-day as strictly as was formerly the case. The large increase in population has interfered in too many cases with the direct action of the people at large in public affairs. Political machinery has now intervened between the people and their purposes and responsibilities. The power once emanating
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