USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume I > Part 18
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When but twenty-five he mapped out for himself a course of self- denial; and a year later, when by the death of his second wife's father, he had inherited wealth and feared its temptations, he drew up twelve resolutions which, in view of his later life, meant far more than such pledges usually mean, for he seems always to have had them in mind, and patterned his actions according to these pre-determinations. They are too long for quotation but their character may be judged from the first three: I. I doe resolve to give myselfe, my life, my witt, my healthe, my wealthe to the service of my God & Savior, . .. 2. I will live where he appoints me. 3. I will faithfully endeavour to discharge that callinge wch he shall appoint me unto." The others were of like kind covering his stewardship of the wealth that had come to him, his personal and relig- ious life, the setting of a proper example in education, private and public
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worship, fleeing "Idleness, & much worldly business." And the last, enlightening when one realizes how remarkable was his wife Margaret who later joined him in Boston, "12. I will often praye & conferre pri- vately with my wife."
It was this wife to whom Winthrop would write as he was about to leave her behind for a year while he went on his precarious mission to a strange land : "If now the Lord be thy God, thou must show it by trust- ing in him, and resigning thyself quietly to his good pleasure. If now Christ be now thy Husband, thou must know what sure and sweet inter- course is between him and thy soul, when it shall be no hard thing for thee to part with an earthly, mortal, infirm husband for His sake." Con- trast this with a phrase in another letter of that same year, "Thou must be my valentine"; and with that series of love letters written when the expedition was delayed by bad weather at Cowes and the Isle of Wight.
Stern Puritan and lover, thorough business man and devoted philan- thropist, educated, wealthy, one of the gentry but ready to give up all the ease of such a position to seek religious liberty where all the benefits of civilization were lacking, Winthrop was not only the mouthpiece of the Puritans, but an exemplar of what was best and strongest in their purposes and faith. Few might have been chosen to lead the hegira who was more representative of the Puritans, or better fitted to mould and control the new Commonwealth which they were to establish by the waters of Massachusetts Bay. Between 1630 and his death in 1649, Winthrop was twelve times chosen Governor, but it must not be thought that this was an arbitrary, autocratic office, a sort of dictatorship. What rule he exerted consisted rather of a master spirit among intimate friends all animated by a devotion to a like purpose. There are records of dif- ferences and debates ; Winthrop was ousted from office at times although always returned. If he ruled the colony it was by right of character rather than by official powers.
Education in the New Settlement-Of the many notable events dur- ing his reign in Boston, few of the larger need retelling. Those of local interest both then and now cannot be too often mentioned; lest we forget how much we owe to Boston's "first citizen." Winthrop's resolutions when twenty-five, contain in the seventh, "I will have a speciall care for the good education of my children." When it is realized that from 1630 to 1647 it is estimated that nearly one hundred university men came to the Massachusetts Colony, and that within the first nine years there were twenty-five or more of these located within five miles of Boston, it is easy to understand why a college was founded at Newtowne (Cambridge) before the pioneers had provided properly for their own habitations. Harvard dates from 1636, and was founded primarily for the training of
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ministers to the Indians and the whites. Harvard cannot, geographically, be called one of Boston's institutions, but it assuredly was, at that day, not only Bostonian in spirit and deed, but a very real factor in the crea- tion of the "Boston as a state of mind."
Education as related to the child, although the collegians were hardly more than that, was a matter of home training instead of a public affair as at present. The beginnings of a free school system date as far back as 1633 when Philemon Pormont is written of as "schoolmaster for the teaching and nurturing of children with us." There is also a record of three years later of subscriptions "towards the maintenance of a free school-master." The Boston Latin School is the direct descendant of the school thus provided for.
Quite as interesting are the provisions made in 1633 which preserved to posterity the Common. In that year, fifty of Blackstone's acres were set aside for the common use of the townsfolk, and in 1640 it was voted that "there be no land granted either for house plot or garden to any per- son" out of the space which is now the most important of the city's parks. Incidentally, it was a very profitable investment which Winthrop and his followers made when they purchased from Blackstone the land on which Boston was built, for £30 or about $150.
Early Literature-It would be pleasing to write of the intellectual vigor shown by our forefathers as reflected in the literature, art and cul- ture of their day. But culture was synonymous with weakness, art, had there been any, would have been frowned down as akin to idolatry, and of books there were but few and these related to religion mainly. A printing press had been left with a Reverend Mr. Glover in 1638. He died on the journey over, and the press was set up in Cambridge by Stephen Daye, although owned by Glover's widow. Dunster, the first president of Harvard, married the lady in question, and the press was controlled by the college. It was not until Boston was forty-four years old that a printing press was set up in the town by John Foster, a Dor- chester boy and a graduate of Harvard. Increase Mather seems to have provided the most of the copy for this press during Foster's short life- he died in 1681.
It would be a vast stretching of the term to call what was turned out by the press of the Puritan state, literature. It was printed matter, to be sure, and served a purpose in a settlement where men were too busy gaining a livelihood, and maintaining a form of religious government which could hardly stand the pressure of education. Books were not the prized possession of the average citizen, as was true when the Puritan theocracy began to wane in power. Character was considered of more import than letters. Books could be imported, but not as a rule, since
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they were apt to reflect the religious life and church which the pioneers had fled to avoid. John Harvard, it is true, left as the foundation of the Harvard Library, 320 volumes. Winthrop contributed forty books to this same collection. What they were like may be judged from the message Edward Everett sent his friend, the author of the "Life of John Win- throp," when Everett gave him a list of the books as found in the ar- chives of the college. He congratulated the author that the honored magistrate had not transmitted the books to his descendant.
Justin Winsor sums up the situation in his history :
According to the best information to be obtained, it appears that during the fifty years which passed from the setting up of the first press in New England to the close of the Colonial Period, there was issued in Boston and in Cambridge something over three hundred separate publications. Of these nearly two-thirds were expositions of religious belief, or writings in defence of dogmas, or aids to worship,-and all in the English tongue. If we add a score or more of tracts, or books of similar import, but printed in the Indian language, we materially strengthen the proportion of theology and religion. It cannot be unnoticed that of the remainder much the larger part was a growth of the same soil. Thus the fifty-two almanacs, the thirty and more publications of laws and official documents, and the expositions of college activity, all indicated how much dogma and exhortation ruled the day. During these same years there were perhaps a score of issues that may be classed as history, or materials for the history, of the Colony; and these were not without something of the same flavor. Of all this rather surprising fecundity for an infant settlement, there is perhaps not a single native production that can be held to be a memorable addition to the world's store of literature; and of such as were borrowed, an edition of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," printed in 1681, is the only one of those books usually accounted famous. The censors suppressed another when they denied their imprimatur, in 1667, to a reprint of Thomas a Kempis's "Imitation of Christ."
Mr. Winsor later gave as his opinion that the only literature of the Colonial Period to "be contemplated with much satisfaction, is that which chronicles the history of its people and tells the story of the 'Em- pire in their brains' as Lowell phrases it." The "Journal" of Winthrop began on his embarkation and continued to his death, "the work of a grave, self-respecting gentleman, always moderate in expression, some times elevated, and not wholly free from incredible things vouched for by divers Godly persons," affords "as noble a record of the beginnings of a people as any State can boast." The early fathers were as highly edu- cated as any of that day, but their attention was centered on the creation of an empire, of a new state unlike any that existed, and were not inter- ested in telling much about anything that concerned themselves, their feelings or their thoughts, except as they had to do with the common- wealth. The Boston Puritans seem strangely inarticulate on most sub- jects except their religious state, but it is always to be recalled that they. left their imprint on a people, that they moulded a country, determined
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the character of a town, however little they affected education, letters and what we call culture.
Primitive Boston-It may not be amiss to turn aside and try to get a picture of the primitive conditions under which the Puritans founded Boston ; to recall some of the privations of the first years, and the limited plenty of later ones. The Boston peninsula, or "almost island" as it is better described, was an attractive place for the bachelor Blackstone to live, but had its disadvantages as the site of a town. For one thing, houses had to be built from materials found on or near the place where they were located. The plentitude of timber was lacking on Shawmut, whether removed by the Indians, or naturally. The logs for the huts had to be brought over the river or bays, although there was mud enough and moss to chink the cracks. Stones for the great fireplace were plenti- ful, but the fuel was somewhat lacking. Imagine the amounts required to heat the huts and cook the food of the inmates. Glass had to be im- ported, but was not in any quantity for many years ; small openings with heavy wooden shutters, both on the inside and the out, sufficed for light, ventilation and safety. Furnishings were, for the most part, hand wrought; he who could fashion a chair or a table, a wooden bowl or wooden spoon, was an important man. One citizen hollowed out a log for a bath tub, but the wooden bowl was the dependence for the bath; as well as for a multitude of other uses. Even in the mother country, many of the common necessities of later years had not come into use. The fork was just becoming known, but was shaped like a large needle, the advantage of tines being realized later. The fingers were still serving as forks, and the meat was cut by the clasp-knives of the men before being brought to the table. Bread was sliced and buttered, when butter was to be had, before being placed before the diners. Many of the foods now plentiful were unknown. The tea which the Boston Mohawks threw overboard in 1773, was one of the luxuries of life ; tea, coffee and choc- olate being practically unused until 1750.
Indian corn, or maize, was the first dependence of the colonists, but seeds were among the first things brought to this country, they being one of the smaller things which could be tucked away in a vessel already over- loaded with passengers and the food necessary to their long journey over the ocean. The pioneers knew little how to farm in the new country with its different soil and climate. Hence many failures came to the plantings of their own seeds, and even to the sowings of maize, possibly because, as insists one writer, "The Puritans depended too much on God to grow their fruits, and paid too little attention to what the Indians told them." There were many berries, beans, pumpkins, roots and other articles of food already growing along the bay, game and fish were plenti-
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ful in the neighboring regions. Roger Williams wrote of his people, but it may well be applied to all :
Coarse bread and water is most their fare, Sometimes God gives them fish or flesh, Yet they are content without ; And what comes in, they part to friends And strangers round about.
Ships came in increasing numbers and brought some of the neces- sities of life including tools for agriculture-it is strange to think of Boston as a farming community, but such it was-fishing tackle of many sorts, and seeds and scions. There is a pear tree in Danvers which is as old as Boston, and was transplanted from it, the scion for which was imported from England. Winthrop brought over 240 cows and 60 horses, many of which failed to survive for long. But the ships were small and space lacking, not even a sufficient variety of food was carried to prevent scurvy, and many of the first comers died the first few months, not because of the hardships in the colony, but the conditions under which they had traveled.
The Primacy of Boston-We often get large ideas of the early colony, forgetting that there were only about 300 in the Endicott settlements prior to Winthrop's arrival, and about a like number over the bay at Plymouth, although it was nine years old. Winthrop brought only be- tween 700 and 800, with probably 200 following closely. Figure it as one will, there were only about 2,000 people around the bay when Boston was started, and these were scattered, even then, over a wide territory, for the pioneers were pioneers in truth and quickly left the safety and fellow- ship of the port in which they had landed and carved in the "Wilder- ness" homes for themselves, sometimes alone, but usually in groups. Two thousand folk in all eastern New England meant isolation and hard- ship for many.
Conditions in Boston changed more quickly than in any other of the settlements because it became, almost from the first, the principal town and the entry port to the colony. Ships followed each other in quick succession and within two decades there were ten times the number of inhabitants of the Bay country as had been there when Winthrop came. Boston as the entry port received the most of these, although compara- tively few stayed. The town benefited greatly by the importations which arrived in the later vessels, either as possessions of the immigrants or in exchange for the salt fish, furs and timber which made up the first exports of the town. Boston early became the wealthy capital of the Commonwealth, the seat of the principal men, the commercial center; within the short decades of Winthrop's life in it.
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The Famine of the First Year-Dudley, the deputy-governor, writing to the Countess of Lincoln, in 1631, said of the Salem settlement: "We found the colony in a sad and unexpected condition, above eighty of them being dead the winter before and many of those alive weak and sick; all the corn and bread amongst them all hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight." No wonder Dudley also wrote: "Salem, where we landed, pleased us not."
The place in which they were pleased treated the Winthrop group rather sadly, the succeeding winter taking toll of them to the extent of two hundred. The tale is told, of the Governor's wife having put the last loaves of bread for which there was grain into the oven when the "Lion" appeared off Nantucket with supplies for the colony. Richard Clapp reported that at this time it was not an unusual thing to drink only water and eat hominy without butter or milk as the principal meal, and he added that meat was almost unknown. An eye-witness, Edward Johnson, wrote that "the women once a day, as the tide gave way, re- sorted to the mussel and clam banks, where they daily gathered their fam- ily's food. Quoth one, 'My husband hath traveled as far as Plym- outh (which is near forty miles) and hath with great toil brought home a little corn with him, and before that is spent the Lord will surely pro- vide.' Quoth another, 'Our last peck of meal is now in the oven at home baking, and many of my neighbors have spent all, and we owe one loaf of the little we have.' Then spake another, 'My husband hath ventured amongst the Indians again for corn and got none. Also our governor has distributed his plentifully. A day or two more will put an end to this store and all the rest."
The question of enough to eat seldom troubled Boston after the first year. The famine described was ended by the arrival of the good ship "Lion" which Winthrop had sent back for supplies the previous summer. The cargo which probably saved the town, cost but £200, but it was sufficient. Without it the settlement might not have starved, but it is doubtful whether the survivors would have had the courage to remain in so hard a land.
The "Comforts" of Life-The emigrating Puritans came well clothed, if the allowances insisted on by the company were brought. The articles of dress allowed to each man makes quite a list: "Four pairs of shoes, three pairs of stockings, a pair of Norwich garters, four shirts, a suit of doublet and hose of leather, lined with oilskin leather, a suit of Hampshire kerseys, four bands and three plain falling bands, a waistcoat of green cotton bound with red tape, a leathern girdle, a Monmouth cap, a black hat lined in the brow with leather, five red knit caps, two dozen hooks and eyes, and small hooks and eyes for mandilions, two pairs of gloves and
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handkerchiefs." William Wood, in his "New England's Prospect" ad- vised the bringing over of "a goode store of aparrell," his list being alto- gether too formidable to be quoted. Later ships brought food, furnish- ings for the house and instruments needed in the industries. It was not so many years before incoming vessels were loaded with supplies rather than with people.
Many, perhaps the most of the first comers were well off financially and could afford to import not only the necessities of life but some of its luxuries. Governor Winthrop frowned upon show and waste, practicing, even in his official position, a severe economy. But this did not prevent others from outfitting themselves and their homes with everything they could import. Servants were brought from the old country, and when the fear of the Indian passed, the aborigine was impressed into service. There is reason to believe that our ancestors were somewhat inclined to measure the social position by the number of servants kept, the furniture and furnishings which adorned their houses and the clothes they wore. The well to do must have as many canopy beds as there was space to place. Where the poor used pine knots for lights, the better off must have their candles set in all manner of metal candle-sticks. Winthrop · had "two fats of goods" sent him in 1632. While we do not know what they contained, it is fair to judge from some of his letters to Margaret his wife, before she joined him, that some of the things were the large varieties of luxurious (?) household articles he enumerated. E. Howes, in 1633, sent the Governor a case containing "an Irish skeyne, or knife, two or three delicate tools, and a fork."
Puritan Luxuries-Food, as has been indicated, became plentiful after the first season, and the tables of the Bostonians were heavy with good things to eat. Many of these came from abroad, but the gardens in and near the town produced quite a variety of edibles. Wood, writing in 1664, remarks, "and whatsoever grows well in England grows as well there, many things being better and larger." There were many native fruits, berries and vegetables which added greatly to the variety. With the woods full of game, and the rivers and bay alive with fish, these added to the cattle, pigs and poultry brought over thrust the question of starva- tion forever in the back-ground. Drinking was freely indulged in, al- though the Governor frowned upon the consumption of strong liquors. Tobacco was under the displeasure of the magistrates, but nevertheless was widely used, even by the women. We read much of the harshness of the Puritan rule, and there can be no denial of its severity ; but many of the laws which were so strict, were the products of later years, of the period when Puritanism was fighting to retain the control of the colony it had founded for its own particular use. The early years were years of
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reaction from the repression of England; the tendency in Boston was to expand and be comfortable. Later, when immigration almost ceased, when more left the colony than came into it, and when those who did enter the settlements were not of Puritan faith, then came the changes in polity and practice which is now labeled Puritan.
There are many other aspects to the picture of the natal days of Boston. The company which founded it was a business, as well as a religious concern, and did many things to foster industries, and provide the wealth needed for the continuance of the colony. Carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers, thatchers, shoemakers, were brought over in the first ships, and from the first their tariff of prices established, although these restrictions were removed almost at once. In the rules established from 1630 to 1640, there is mention of nearly every sort of skilled worker known at that day. A corn-mill, wind driven, was moved to Beacon Hill in 1632 ; saw mills were erected in the neighboring regions. The pioneers tried to spin and make their own textiles. When in 1640, "Foreign com- modities grew scarce" wrote Governor Winthrop, and their own "of no price," he secured seed for growing hemp and flax, urged the community sowing of it, and offered a bounty of "three pence on each shilling's worth of linen, woolen and cotton cloth." Later it was ordered by the General Court that all persons not otherwise employed, particularly women, boys and girls, should spin for thirty weeks each year at least three pounds of linen, cotton and wool.
The Rise of Industries-A shoemaker and a tanner arrived with the first two ships at Plymouth. Thomas Beard, who came in 1628, brought a supply of English hides and leather. The pious author of "New Eng- land's First Fruites," reports, "And great and small cattel being now frequently killed for food; their skins will afford leather for boots and shoes and other uses." Copp's Hill in Boston takes its name from a shoe- maker. "The bootmakers of Boston in 1646 complained to the General Court of 'much bad work produced by their craft' and petitioned for per- mission to join themselve in one large company so that 'all boots might alike be made well.'" Rather modern this; perhaps this attitude of the Boston shoemakers hints of the supremacy that was to be New England in many lines of manufacture-pride in good work and the desire to unite for the production of better work.
Ship-building soon proved to be one of the most important industries of Puritan Boston. Winthrop had the "Blessing of the Bay" a year after his arrival. The little vessel made its first trip to Long Island. Many other boats were constructed during Winthrop's time. In 1640 there is a record of "Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Tinge and Captaine Gibbones are appoynted to vue the land adjoyning Mr. Bworne's howse for a place
BOSTON COMMON, 1848
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for the building the shipp." The Bourne craft was 160 tons burden, the largest built in Boston up to that time. Winthrop said: "The work was hard to accomplish for want of money, 'c., but our shipwrights were con- tent to take such pay as the country could make." Rope making went in the train of ship-building. John Harrison seems to have acquired a monopoly of this business that lasted until 1663.
The principal industries in Boston, then, were agriculture, commerce and manufacturing. The townsfolk were proving amply able not only to take care of themselves, but were exporting much. The people had enough, and more, to wear and to eat. In many other lines they were lacking. Books, as we have seen, were neither plentiful, nor does their partial absence seem to matter. There were numerous ministers in the town, but few of other professions, partially, no doubt, because the edu- cated man practiced somewhat of all professions. We know of one law- yer, probably the only one, in Winthrop's Boston. Thomas Lechford came to the town in 1637. For going to a jury and pleading with them out of court he was "debarred from pleading any man's cause thereafter unless his own, and admonished not to presume to meddle beyond what he shall be called to by the Court." He tried by many ways to make a living, and when he found this impossible departed in 1640. Thus passed the only Boston lawyer of early days.
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